Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anti-oxidative, acetylcholinesterase and pancreatic lipase inhibitory activities of compounds from Dasiphora fruticosa, Myricaria alopecuroides and Sedum hybridum

Total of 35 phenolics and flavonols were isolated from flowers and leaves of Dasiphora fruticosa Rydb. , from branches of Myricaria alopecuroides Schrenk. and from the herb of Sedum hybridum L. The isolated compounds were identified on the basis of spectral data and tested for their anti-oxidative, acetylcholinesterase and pancreatic lipase inhibitory activities.Quercetin glycosides, gallic acid, (-)EGCG and gossypetin-8-O-xylopyranoside tellimagrandin II exhibited strong anti-oxidative activity by the DPPH scavenging method. The acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity of quercetin glycosides and (-)EGCG was higher than those of other compounds. Whereas, tellimagrandin II, (-)EGCG and gallic acid derivatives exhibited the most potent inhibitory activity against the pancreatic lipase enzyme among the isolated compounds. Only (-)EGCG showed a prominent activity against all assayed experiments. It was concluded that these plants could be studied further for their potential as anti-oxidative, anti-aging and lipid lowering active products.
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT AND INSTITUTIONAL ADEQUACY: NEW GRANGER CAUSALITY EVIDENCE FROM AFRICAN COUNTRIES

The strategic importance of foreign direct investment in the contemporary economies has been tremendous. While various countries (developed and developing economies) have benefitted from the direct and spillover effects of FDI, which range from improved technology and knowledge diffusion through to individual and corporate capability enhancement, FDI outflow remains largely channelled to the developed countries, and the rapidly developing countries in Asia and South America. Evidence suggests that the development-enhancing effects of FDI are felt more highly in the developing economies, such as economies in Africa. However, FDI inflow to the developing economies has been very low. Using data generated from the African Development Indicators (ADI) between 1980 and 2008 in econometric estimations, this paper finds that government policies (especially fiscal and monetary policies) play significant roles in facilitating FDI inflow to the African countries studied. The study thereby suggests an improved regulatory framework to make Africa more attractive to inflow of FDI.
Numerical simulations in the development of the French radioactive waste vitrification processes using induction furnace

For many years, the CEA (Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives) Marcoule France has developed various processes dedicated to radioactive waste confinement, especially vitrification processes for HLLW. For 15 years now, the numerical simulation has become an important tool for research and developement projects held in the CEA-AREVA Joint Vitrification Laboratory (LCV). Induction heating, fluid mechanics and thermal simulations take part of all new R&D projects. The apports of such simulations are, first, the enhancement of the working knowledge of existing process. Those data are very useful to define optimisation choices, for example upgrades made on the hot metallic melter used since the 90s at LaHague facility. Second, the simulations are, of course, also used at the conception stage of new processes as a tool allowing wide ranges parametric tests. This has been extensively used in the design of the cold crucible inductive melter (CCIM) commissioned in 2010 at La Hague plant. Finally, it is a powerful and relatively cheap tool for prospective studies for processes of the future. Whatever the purpose, the potential benefits are gains on the reliability, the output capacity and the life time.
A Bayesian decision model for drought management in rainfed wheat farms of North East Iran

Drought is a feature of climate that can occur in virtually all climates. Therefore, it is an inevitable global but site-specific phenomenon which requires tools to predict and strategies and options to cope with it. In this research, the ability and effectiveness of the Bayesian Decision Networks (BDNs) approach in decision-making and evaluating drought management options for rainfed wheat production in the eastern region of Golestan Province, Iran are demonstrated. The results revealed that during drought conditions, the Koohdasht cultivar had higher yield than other cultivars of wheat. Two management scenarios have been specified for the forecasted period on the basis of wheat cultivars adopted in the region. The results of scenario analysis with a BDN model indicate that the probability of low, medium and high yield levels in scenario 2 (Koohdasht 70%, Zagros 20% and the other cultivars 10%) has a better status compared with scenario 1 (current condition). The paired t- test indicates that there is a significant difference between the two scenarios for wheat yield in low and medium states (P<0.05). Adopting appropriate cultivars in the region with favourable yield and adaptability to drought conditions proved to be an effective management action. The BDN approach implemented in this research serves as a valuable tool to represent the system as a whole, to integrate outputs from models and expert judgment, to evaluate the outcomes necessary for decision-making and to communicate uncertainty of the parameters in the model.
Harmonic Mean of Squared Product Distance : Criterion to Design Codes for Independent Fading Channels

Abstract— A new performance criterion called harmonic mean of squared product distance (HMSPD) to design codes for an independent fading channel is proposed. HMSPD criterion is derived based on probability of error analysis using union bounding technique. It is applied to obtain the optimum pre-rotating matrices for a BPSK modulated transmission over a fast fading channel. The optimum 2× 2 pre-rotating matrix is derived and its BER performance is compared with that of the one designed based on the popular criterion of maximizing the minimum product distance of the constellation. The new criterion gives a slightly better performance than the earlier one and it is also analytically tractable for extending to higher dimensions. Simulations are carried out and they indicate improvement in performance.
THE IMPACT OF MICROBIAL MATS AND THEIR MICROENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS IN EARLY DECAY OF FISH

Abstract: This study provides experimental evidence confirming the significance of microbial mat presence in controlling the spatial and temporal development of chemical microenvironments which become established inside and outside decaying fish carcasses. Dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH profiles were monitored over 1,000 days with microelectrodes positioned inside and adjacent to carcasses. In the vicinity of fish, the DO varied from an oxygenated green upper layer to an anoxic bottom stratum and the pH was alkaline. Inside the fish, the DO and the pH were decoupled during the first week, in that anoxia remained constant and the pH decreased and became acidic. Once covered by the mat, the fish carcass turned oxic and pH returned to alkaline levels. This novel second phase occurred from day 90 to three years and would likely remain after this time. Based on the fish soft tissue quality at the end of the experiment, we discuss whether oxic-alkaline microenvironmental conditions could promote organic preservation and long-term mineralization.
The Effect of Civil War Violence on Aid Allocations in Uganda

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of studies using microlevel data to analyse the aid-conflict nexus at local level, however most of these studies focus on how conflict dynamics are influenced by aid allocations whereas there is relatively little analysis on how conflict affects subnational aid allocations. Estimating the effect of conflict on aid can be difficult given possible reverse causality, therefore this study exploits an exogenous driven shock in conflict intensity in Uganda to estimate the effect of aid allocations at subnational level. Using district level data for Uganda between 2002-2010, and information on both foreign aid commitments and disbursements, the results show that conflict is negatively related to aid allocations: Conflict-struck regions see both lower commitment and disbursement levels in the wake of conflict. Although the sudden outburst of violence in Uganda can help identifying the effect of conflict on aid allocations, one caveat of this approach is that it is hard to know to what extent the results generalise.
NEW LUNG ADENOCARCINOMA CLASSIFICATION IN DAILY PRACTICE

Although histologic criteria remain the foundation of this new classification, it is based on an integrated multidisciplinary platform and defines pathologic entities. One of the novelties is discontinuing the use of the term bronchioloalveolar adenocarcinoma (BAC). New entities are described: “Adenocarcinoma in situ “(AIS) and “Minimally invasive adenocarcinoma (MIA). These modifications of the classification have implications for surgeons with new surgical strategies in the future. For invasive adenocarcinomas, the proposition described here is to present a comprehensive histologic subtyping: individual tumors are then classified according to the predominant pattern and the percentages of the subtypes are also reported. The other part of the work is the establishment of a classification of non-small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLC) for small biopsies and cytology. Subclassification in small biopsies is more problematic. There is however universal agreement that most NSCLC can be classified on H&E stained slides alone without using any immunohistochemical stains and tumors that are readily classifiable on H&E-stained slides should not be stained with immunohistochemical markers because of the obligation for the pathologist to keep tissue for molecular testing. However, some NSCLC are too poorly differentiated to be accurately subclassified by standard H&E criteria. Some markers, especially when used in combination, are indeed useful and accurate in subclassifying poorly differentiated NSCLC. Strategic use of small biopsy and cytology samples is important in order to preserve as much tissues as possible for potential molecular studies. One way to attain this is for each institution to develop a multidisciplinary team that coordinates the optimal approach to obtaining and processing biopsy/cytology specimens to provide expeditious diagnostic and molecular results. In conclusion, the new lung adenocarcinoma classification will not only modify daily practice but will also improve the management of patient.
Limited Feedback for 3 D Massive MIMO under 3 DUMa and 3 D-UMi Scenarios

For three-dimensional (3D) massive MIMO utilizing the uniform rectangular array (URA) in the base station (BS), we propose a limited feedback transmission scheme in which the channel state information (CSI) feedback operations for horizontal domain and vertical domain are separate. Compared to the traditional feedback scheme, the scheme can reduce the feedback overhead, code word index search complexity, and storage requirement. Also, based on the zenith of departure angle (ZoD) distribution in 3D-Urban Macro Cell (3D-UMa) and 3D-Urban Micro Cell (3D-UMi) scenarios, we propose the angle quantization codebook for vertical domain, while the codebook of long term evolution-advanced (LTE-Advanced) is still adopted in horizontal domain to preserve compatibility with the LTE-Advanced. Based on the angle quantization codebook, the subsampled 3-bit DFT codebook is designed for vertical domain. The system-level simulation results reveal that, to compromise the feedback overhead and system performance, 2-bit codebook for 3D-UMa scenario and 3-bit codebook for 3D-UMi scenario can meet requirements in vertical domain. The feedback period for vertical domain can also be extended appropriately to reduce the feedback overhead.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Recent Work Title

The ten meter diameter primary mirror of theW. M. Keck Telescope is a mosaic of thirty-six hexagonal mirrors. An active control system stabilizes the primary mirror. The active control system uses 168 measurements of the relative positions of adjacent mirror segments and 3 measurements of the primary mirror position in the telescope structure to control the 108 degrees of freedom needed to stabilize the figure and position of the primary mirror. The components of the active control system ate relative position sensors, electronics, computers, actuators that position the mirrors, and software. The software algorithms control the primary mirror, perform star image stacking, emulate the segments, store and fit calibration data, and locate hardware defects. We give an overview of the active control system, its functional requirements and test measurements. Fig. 1 The locations of the actuator and sensors from the concave side of the primary.
Proactively Defending Computing Infrastructures throughthe Implementation of Live Forensics and Capture inCorporate Network Security

The wide development of the mobile and virtualised technologies in the past decade has further destabilised the already fragile balance between the defenders and the attackers of computing infrastructures. Coupled with the fact that risk is not controlled by the defenders but by the attackers, it makes no sense to try and re-actively defend computing infrastructures. Apropos, in this new socially driven knowledge-based computing era that corporations are asked to operate in, there is a need to pro-actively defend computing infrastructures by attempting to control the source of the threats that they face. In this paper we discuss forensic readiness issues of such a system and we examine how we could ensure and assure evidential integrity and chain of custody of the near real time intelligence that the system would be collecting.
Green Theorems and Qualitative Properties of the Optical Flow

How can one compute qualitative properties of the optical flow, such as expansion or rotation, in a way which is robust and invariant to the position of the focus of expansion or the center of rotation? We suggest a particularly simple algorithm, well-suited to VLSI implementations, that exploits well-known relations between the integral and differential properties of vector fields and their linear behaviour near singularities.
Do initial reserves signal long-term IPO stock performance?

Abstract This research examines the long-run Initial Public Offerings (IPO) stock performance of a large Chinese sample, and in particular the relationship between initial reserves (capital reserves and revenue reserves immediately after the IPO) and long-run IPO stock performance. In general, Chinese IPOs do not underperform the market/industry benchmarks, but they significantly underperform their size-matched industry peers. More importantly, Chinese IPO firms tend to issue a large amount of bonus shares (also called as a ‘capitalization issue’, i.e. capitalization of the reserves) after the IPO. Consistent with bonus share signaling hypothesis, Chinese IPO firms exhibit increased operating/stock performance subsequent to bonus issues. Interestingly, the size of the initial reserves is positively associated with long-run IPO stock performance. This research adds another piece of empirical evidence to the literature whether IPOs underperform in the long run, by confirming that the choice of performance measures and benchmarks could affect the conclusion on the IPO long-run performance. Further, it discovers that size of initial reserves could signal superior IPO stock performance in the long run.
Two-Level Iteration Penalty Methods for the Navier-Stokes Equations with Friction Boundary Conditions

This paper presents two-level iteration penalty finite element methods to approximate the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations with friction boundary conditions. The basic idea is to solve the Navier-Stokes type variational inequality problem on a coarse mesh with mesh size in combining with solving a Stokes, Oseen, or linearized Navier-Stokes type variational inequality problem for Stokes, Oseen, or Newton iteration on a fine mesh with mesh size . The error estimate obtained in this paper shows that if , , and can be chosen appropriately, then these two-level iteration penalty methods are of the same convergence orders as the usual one-level iteration penalty method.
Reconstruction of Low Degree B-spline Surfaces with Arbitrary Topology Using Inverse Subdivision Scheme

Multivariate B-spline surfaces over triangular parametric domain have many interesting properties in the construction of smooth free-form surfaces. This paper introduces a novel approach to reconstruct triangular B-splines from a set of data points using inverse subdivision scheme. Our proposed method consists of two major steps. First, a control polyhedron of the triangular B-spline surface is created by applying the inverse subdivision scheme on an initial triangular mesh. Second, all control points of this B-spline surface, as well as knotclouds of its parametric domain are iteratively adjusted locally by a simple geometric fitting algorithm to increase the accuracy of the obtained B-spline. The reconstructed B-spline having the low degree along with arbitrary topology is interpolative to most of the given data points after some fitting steps without solving any linear system. Some concrete experimental examples are also provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Results show that this approach is simple, fast, flexible and can be successfully applied to a variety
Coordination of actuators for long heavy vehicle combinations using control allocation

Savings in for example, cost, emissions and road space, are factors that suggest the use of long heavy vehicles (LHV). These benefits come with the drawbacks of decreased stability and maneuverability. An active motion control system using more actuators is one possibility to improve the performance. In this thesis, the coordination of motion actuators for LHV with several articulations joints is treated. The motion controller is based on a structure including control allocation, which is one approach to control an over-actuated system. The primary strength of the control allocation structure, is that only one system handles the motion control and the coordination of the actuators. Also, the desired motion request and actuator signals are separated. This gives the possibility to use the same control structure when the vehicle configuration is changed, only updating the settings in the control allocator. The design of the control allocator is based on vehicle modeling using both the Newton and the Lagrange formulation. These approaches are evaluated to see which is the most convenient model to use for the design of control allocation, since no similar investigations have been done for LHV before. The control structure is tested in a simulation environment and verified by three test scenarios. These are a split friction braking, a single lane change maneuver and a low speed 180 ◦ turn. Under the coordination of control allocation, all performance metrics for the test scenarios are improved when introducing more actuators. The conclusion drawn from the simulation is that, using control allocation together with more actuators, makes an LHV able to perform similar to a short heavy vehicle. The control allocation structure makes a change of actuator configuration an easy procedure and it also gives the possibility to use it for an arbitrary LHV. The proposed control allocation structure is recommended for motion control of LHV in the future.
Wi-Fi Sniffer Based Commuters Statistics Collection System For Reliable Bus Scheduling System

Traffic congestion issues have always been a concern for the fast growing metropolitans in which more than 90 percent of trips are made entirely by private means of transportation i.e. by car and motorcycle. As the country is actively engaged in infrastructure development especially in the transportation network to facilitate the movements of people and goods, a high demand for better public transportation is needed to reduce the issue of road congestion (percentage of GDI lost due to man hour lost in the traffic). Therefore, a cost effective Wi-Fi sniffing based bus commuters’ statistic collection system is designed and developed to study the feasibility of predicting the necessity of scheduling additional bus services when the detected number of Wi-Fi enabled devices exceeded the bus capacity. The developed system is subsequently deployed to the busiest university bus stop and the obtained result shows that variation of sniffed MAC address exhibit parallelism to the actual number of commuters waiting at the bus station as observed in the captured bus station video images. Result also shows that the MAC address based counting system can help to alert the bus management for better scheduling when the commuter at the particular bus stop is traveling to the same destination.
Morphology of Atmospheric Particles over Semi-Arid Region (Jaipur, Rajasthan) of India: Implications for Optical Properties

The regional dust morphology and spectral refractive indices (RIs; governed by hematite, Fe2O3 content at short wavelengths) are key elements for ascertaining direct radiative forcing of mineral dust aerosols. To provide morphological features of background mineral dust from a semi-arid zone in the vicinity of the Thar Desert, we carried out an expedition to the Jaipur city during late winter of 2012. Morphological analysis reveals the predominance of “Layered”, “Angular” and “Flattened” particles, while the frequency distribution of a total of 235 dust particles shows the aspect ratio, AR and circularity parameter, CIR (measures of particle’s non-sphericity) typically ~1.4 and ~0.8, respectively. Sensitivity analysis at 550 nm wavelength reveals the equivalent sphere model may underestimate Single Scattering Albedo, SSA for the dust with low (~1.1%) hematite by ~3.5%. Both underestimation (by ~5.6%) and overestimation (up to 9.1%) are probable in case of dust with high hematite content (~5.68%). In addition, the effect of AR on the dust scattering is significant in case of dust with high hematite content. More such regionally representative dust morphological data are required for better estimation of regional radiative forcing of mineral dust aerosols.
Some observations on CSR and Strategic Management

The notion of CSR and the notion of strategic management of companies are often thought to be contradictory. The former is associated with the aim of generation of profits while the latter idea is often associated with ensuring business earns a ‘social license to operate’. However, emerging literature and practice suggests that a process of integration of the theoretical concepts and practices of CSR with strategic management is occurring. This paper describes some of the evidence for this so-called ‘theoretical synthesis of economics and ethics’ (Windsor). The first part of the paper starts with a description of commonly-used definitions of CSR and highlights critical differences. It continues by describing how aspects of CSR and strategic management are in some ways becoming more integrated at the organisational, strategy-setting and business management level at some companies. The paper then describes how theoretical approaches to CSR have the potential to become absorbed (and to enleaven) pre-existing strategic management theory. It concludes by giving a warning of potential hazards of incomplete integration of the two theories and practices.