Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Persuasive Advertising Consumers

Problem The problem that this thesis deals with is that the intense competition and increasing consumer power in the health industry calls for the operating companies to take consumers’ considerations into account when advertising their products. It is further suggested that consumers will be extra careful before buying health-related products due to their direct effect on their personal health. Thus, companies selling health-related products must gain an understanding of how consumers form their judgments of the advertisements for the same in order to be able to create persuasive and thus effective advertisements. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to understand consumers’ views of different persuasion strategies used for advertising health-related products and how these affect their willingness to purchase the advertised product. This will be done as a means to provide the concerned companies with a basis for how to create positively perceived, yet effective, advertisements. Method In order to fulfill the purpose of this thesis a qualitative study was conducted through the use of focus groups. During the focus groups the participants were, among other things, encouraged to discuss their views of three different advertisements for healthrelated products. Each advertisement represented one persuasion strategy used in the advertising of health-related products. The gathered data was interpreted and analyzed by comparing it with theories from previous research. Conclusions The study shows that consumers require extensive information and strong evidence behind the arguments provided in advertisements for health-related products. Advertisements that communicate consequences that correspond to consumers’ existing beliefs are likely to be positively perceived. Conversely, if the communicated consequences contradict consumers’ beliefs their responses are likely to be negative. Consumers that are more informed in regards to the products are more likely to critically judge the advertisements for the same. The likelihood that consumers’ attitudes will be reflected in their behavior increases along with the strength of their attitudes.
An Analysis of the Impact of Economic Growth, Political Instability and Exchange Rate on Tourism Growth in South Africa

Globally the tourism sector is one of the main economic sectors in attracting and generating foreign revenue. The sector accounts for seven percent of global foreign revenue as an export industry. In South Africa the low growth environment over the last decade has resulted in the need to find alternative economic sectors in support to traditional sectors such as mining and manufacturing, to drive higher levels of economic growth in the country. The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between tourism as the dependent variable, and economic growth, exchange rate changes and political stability, as independent variables. The study region selected is South Africa, which is classified as a developing country and is in many cases seen as the proxy for emerging economies. This study followed a quantitative research approach with time series data from 1996 to 2017. The relationships between the variables were analysed by means of the Johansen cointegration, Vector Error Correction and Granger causality econometric models. The results indicated that there are both long and short-run relationships between the variables. A number of policy recommendations that could potentially contribute to the extension of the role of tourism in development include improved political and currency stability in the country as well as the relaxation of visa requirements.
The grassland model intercomparison of the MACSUR (Modelling European Agriculture with Climate Change for Food Security) European knowledge hub

The grassland model intercomparison of the FACCE MACSUR knowledge hub involves nine modelling approaches. Grassland-specific approaches (AnnuGrow, PaSim, SPACSYS) are compared to the approaches mainly conceived to simulate crops (ARMOSA, EPIC, STICS) and biomes (BiomeBGC MuSo, CARAIB, LPJmL). The model intercomparison exercise is run over nine grassland sites across Europe and peri-Mediterranean regions where data were collected from at least five, up to 31 years, with focus on biomass production and carbon exchanges. The protocol for model intercomparison, derived from AgMIP Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project, includes sensitivity tests, as well as blind and calibrated simulations. A fuzzy-logic based indicator for model assessment was developed providing insights into agreement between simulations and observations, complexity of model structure and robustness of simulation results over a variety of conditions. Some results are anticipated and show the limitations of the modelling undertaken thus far with current parameterization to simulate grassland dry matter and C exchanges across the Euro-Mediterranean region. The study also suggests that the regional calibration can accommodate model discrepancies. However, areas in the model structures have been identified that require further improvements to reduce uncertainties and increase reliability of model results in impact studies.
Microfluidic fabrication of stable collagen microgels with aligned microstructure using flow-driven co-deposition and ionic gelation

The controlled biofabrication of stable, aligned collagen hydrogels within microfluidic devices is critically important to the design of more physiologically accurate, longer-cultured on-chip models of tissue and organs. To address this goal, collagen-alginate microgels were formed in a microfluidic channel by calcium crosslinking of a flowing collagen-alginate solution through a cross-channel chitosan membrane spanning a pore allowing ion diffusion but not convection. The gels formed within seconds as isolated islands in a single channel, and their growth was self-limiting. Total gel thickness was controlled by altering the concentration of calcium and collagen-alginate flow rate to reach an equilibrium of calcium diffusion and solution convection at the gel boundary, for a desired thickness of 30–200 μm. Additionally, less calcium and higher flow produced greater compression of the gel, with regions farther from the pore compressing more. An aligned, stable collagen network was demonstrated by collagen birefringence, circumferential texture orientation, and little change in gel dimensions with de-chelation of calcium from alginate by prolonged flow of EDTA in the channel. Resultant gels were most stable and only slightly asymmetric when formed from solutions containing 8 mg ml−1 collagen. Diffusion of 4 kDa and 70 kDa fluorescently-labeled dextran indicated size-dependent diffusion across the gel, and accessibility of the construct to appropriately-sized bioactive molecules. This work demonstrates the physicochemical parameter control of collagen gel formation in microfluidic devices, with utility toward on-chip models of dense extracellular matrix invasion, cancer growth and drug delivery to cells within dense extracellular matrix bodies.
A statistical study of the cross‐shock electric potential at low Mach number, quasi‐perpendicular bow shock crossings using Cluster data

[1] The cross-shock electrostatic potential at the front of collision-less shocks plays a key role in the distribution of energy at the shock front. Multipoint measurements such as those provided by the Cluster II mission provide an ideal framework for the study of the cross-shock potential because of their ability to distinguish between temporal and spacial variations at the shock front. We present a statistical study of the cross-shock potential calculated for around 50 crossings of the terrestrial bow shock. The statistical dependency of the normalized (with resect to upstream ion kinetic energy) cross-shock potential (ΦK) on the upstream Alfven Mach number is in good agreement with analytical results that predict decrease of Φk with increasing Mach number.
Prevalence and risk factors of domestic violence and its impacts on women’s mental health in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

Objective: To assess the prevalence of domestic violence, associated risk factors, and its impacts on women’s mental health in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), Pakistan. Methods: This is a sequential explanatory strategy that is a mixed-method research design was conducted at Department of Behavioral Sciences, Karakoram International University Gilgit from January 2017 to June 2018 on 160 married women. Quantitative data were collected using Karachi domestic violence screening scale and mental health inventory and qualitative data were collected through interview guides. Descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were applied to analyze quantitative data while qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Married women in GB reported higher levels of domestic violence (88.8%; psychological (69.4%), physical (37.5%) & sexual (21.2%). Abused women reported lower levels of mental health (t=3.19, p=0.00); psychological wellbeing (t=2.03, p=0.04), general positive affect (t=2.09, p=0.03), and life satisfaction (t=2.39, p=0.01) and higher levels of psychological distress (t=3.27, p=0.00), anxiety (t=3.06, p=0.00), depression (t=2.60, p=0.01), and loss of emotional/behavioral control (t=3.05, p=0.00) as compared to non-abused women. Risk factors behind domestic violence were identified as; poverty, the influence of in-laws, second marriage, stepchildren, forceful intimate relationships, husband’s irresponsibility, and addiction, and handicapped children. Conclusions: We found higher level of domestic violence, associated risk factors, and poor mental health of abused women in GB.
Life-history traits of Farlowella hahni ( Siluriformes , Loricariidae ) in streams of the Ivinhema River Basin , Upper Paraná Basin

Brazilian laws allow the catch of some species as ornamental fish; however, in the absence of biological information, such catch can threaten species conservation. Therefore, this study aimed to offer population and reproductive information about Farlowella hahni in streams of the Ivinhema River Basin, Upper Paraná Basin. To accomplish this, a total of 165 F. hahni individuals were analyzed, including 109 females and 48 males, resulting in an important sex ratio difference from 1:1 (χ2=19.97; p<0.001), indicating a predominance of females throughout the year. Females reach higher standard length than males. Males presented isometric Length-Weight Relationships, while females have positive allometric growth. Gonadosomatic index presented higher values from October through December. The mean fecundity was 100.3±36.4 of vitellogenic oocytes and was positively correlated with standard length (r=0.51; p=0.01). The data presented herein are the first for this species and suggest a need to carefully manage the F. hahni population, considering its low abundance and fecundity.
Effect of Ulva meal supplementation on disease resistance of Red sea bream

The effect of Ulva pertusa meal supplementation on disease resistance was monitored by means of some pathological indices in red sea bream Pagrus major fed on a 5% Ulva meal sup-plemented purified diet. The Ulva meal enhanced phagocytosis of the granulocytes against Pasreurella piscicida. In the fish immunized with formalin-killed P. piscicida, the blood lymphocyte number increased by feeding the Ulva meal, but the granulocyte number and agglutinin titer were not influenced. Complement activities such as spontaneous hemolytic activity (SH50) and bactericidal ac-tivity against Escherichia coli and P. piscicida tended to increase by the supplement. Although the effect on prevention from artificial infection by P. piscicida was erratic, the Ulva meal supplementation was suggested to enhance disease resistance of the fish without impairment of growth. The importance of feeding algae was discussed on the basis of disease resistance.
Crosstalk Aware Register Reallocation Method for Green Compilation

As nanoscale processing becomes the mainstream in IC manufacturing, the crosstalk problem rises as a serious challenge, not only for energy-efficiency and performance but also for security requirements. In this paper, we propose a register reallocation algorithm called Nearby Access based Register Reallocation (NARR) to reduce the crosstalk between instruction buses. The method includes construction of the software Nearby Access Aware Interference Graph (NAIG), using data flow analysis at assembly level, and reallocation of the registers to the software. Experimental results show that the crosstalk could be dramatically minimized, especially for 4C crosstalk, with a reduction of 80.84% in average, and up to 99.99% at most.
Social Network Analysis Based Localization Technique with Clustered Closeness Centrality for 3D Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we proposed a new wireless localization technique based on the ideology of social network analysis (SNA), to study the different properties of networks as a graph. Centrality is a main concept in SNA, so we propose using closeness centrality (CC) as a measurement to denote the importance of the node inside the network due to its geo-location to others. The node with highest degree of CC is chosen as a cluster heads, then each cluster head can form its trilateration process to collect data from its cluster. The selection of closest cluster based on CC values, and the unknown node’s location can be estimated through the trilateration process. To form a perfect trilateration, the cluster head chooses three anchor nodes. The proposed algorithm provides high accuracy even in different network topologies like concave shape, O shape, and C shape as compared to existing received signal strength indicator (RSSI) techniques. Matlab simulation results based on practical radio propagation data sets showed a localization error of 0.32 m with standard deviation of 0.26 m.
Resource Management and Scheduling in Distributed Stream Processing Systems

Stream processing is an emerging paradigm to handle data streams upon arrival, powering latency-critical application such as fraud detection, algorithmic trading, and health surveillance. Though there are a variety of Distributed Stream Processing Systems (DSPSs) that facilitate the development of streaming applications, resource management and task scheduling is not automatically handled by the DSPS middleware and requires a laborious process to tune toward specific deployment targets. As the advent of cloud computing has supported renting resources on-demand, it is of great interest to review the research progress of hosting streaming systems in clouds under certain Service Level Agreements (SLA) and cost constraints. In this article, we introduce the hierarchical structure of streaming systems, define the scope of the resource management problem, and present a comprehensive taxonomy in this context covering critical research topics such as resource provisioning, operator parallelisation, and task scheduling. The literature is then reviewed following the taxonomy structure, facilitating a deeper understanding of the research landscape through classification and comparison of existing works. Finally, we discuss the open issues and future research directions toward realising an automatic, SLA-aware resource management framework.
Programming Assignment 3 : Attention-Based Neural Machine Translation

We would like a neural machine translation model to learn the rules of Pig-Latin implicitly, from (English, Pig-Latin) word pairs. Since the translation to Pig Latin involves moving characters around in a string, we will use character-level recurrent neural networks for our model. Because English and Pig-Latin are so similar in structure, the translation task is almost a copy task; the model must remember each character in the input, and recall the characters in a specific
The Smart Home: How Consumers Craft New Service Networks by Combining Heterogeneous Smart Domestic Products

Service research suggests homes are becoming increasingly connected as consumers automate and personalize new forms of service provision. Yet, large-scale empirical evidence on how and why consumers automate smart domestic products (SDPs) is lacking. To address this knowledge gap, we analyze 13,905 consumer-crafted, automated combinations of SDPs, totaling 1,144,094 installations, across 253 separate service providers on the web service IFTTT.com. An exploratory network analysis examines the topology of the network and an interpretive coding exercise reveals how consumers craft different styles of human-computer interaction to cocreate value. The results reveal that the SDP network is disassortative, is imbalanced, has a long-tailed degree distribution, and that popular services have high centrality across all product category combinations. We show that popular combinations of SDPs are primarily motivated by utilitarian value-seeking enacted through a preference for automated tasks outside of conscious attention, though more individualistic combinations are slightly more likely to be hedonistically inclined. We conclude by showing how these consumer-crafted forms of service provision within domestic environments reveal design redundancy and opportunities for service innovation.
Grid-Based Spatial Data Compression Scheme for Clustering in Artificial Intelligence

We propose a grid-based spatial data compression scheme for fast spatial data processing of clustering in machine learning. Existing studies focused on optimizing clustering algorithms centering on spatial data processing; however, the storage utilization and service transfer time were not sufficiently considered. In this study, three spatial data are compressed in an 8-bit string to process more spatial data, thus enabling a faster machine learning time for not only location-based services but also grid-based clustering. In the experiment, we compared the storage rates of 16-byte spatial coordinates and multi-bit compressed coordinates. The experiment result demonstrated that the storage space utilization of compressed spatial data in 4KB blocks was improved by approximately 24 times.
How Fundamentals Drive Forecasts of Stock Returns : Uncovering the Role of Market Sentiment

We reveal a novel channel through which market sentiment influences how participants forecast stock returns: their optimism and pessimism affect how they interpret news about fundamentals. Although the rational expectations hypothesis and behavioral finance are irreconcilable on logical grounds, our findings thus highlight the relevance of the insights underpinning both of these milestone approaches. We also find that market sentiment influences stock returns highly irregularly, both in timing and magnitude, which supports recent theoretical approaches recognizing that economists as well as market participants face ambiguity about the correct model driving stock returns. JEL Classifications: G12; G14; G41; C58
Impact of seasonal changes on the vegetation composition of some selected areas in Lagos state, Nigeria

Rapid degradation of wetlands and habitat fragmentation are major threats to species diversity and ecological paradigm in Lagos state, Nigeria. Best to our knowledge, no empirical study has explored the effects of seasonal changes on covering three major cities in the statewithin the major cities in Lagos state. For this, we carried out a study covering the three major cities in Lagos: Badagry, Epe and Ikorodu. Permanent plots were randomly established for monthly data collection (quadrat method; size=10 x 10 m), that span across one-year period covering the wet and dry season). We observed two major vegetation types (secondary forest and mangrove) in the studied areas. Additionally, we documented 107 species belonging to 90 genera and 40 families. Species diversity analysis indicated higher diversity, abundance, species richness and evenness in Ikorodu and Epe during the wet has a greater while high species diversity was observed in Badagry during the dry season. The Dahomey gap phenomenon have greater implication on the Badagry vegetation while the coastal nature of Epe and Badagry negatively influenced their vegetation structure. Analyses inferred that species diversity pattern in the studied area seem to be determined by seasonal changes alongside anthropogenic activities and as a environmental factors (rainfall, geomorphology and geology). Further, our result suggests that Ikorodu could be regarded potential biodiversity hotspot area for conservation purposes because of its high floral composition and diversity. Therefore, improved management and conservation of the vegetation of the Ikorodu area is hereby recommended. The findings from this study will be useful in guiding the Physical Planning and Urban Development and Environment ministries in Lagos state for appropriate management and monitoring of developmental projects for sustainable development.
Results Characterization and Validation of the Knockdown Effect of the sox 2 Morpholino Strategy

The zebrafish epithalamus is part of the diencephalon and encompasses three major components: the pineal, the parapineal and the habenular nuclei. Using sox2 knockdown, we show here that this key transcriptional regulator has pleiotropic effects during the development of these structures. Sox2 negatively regulates pineal neurogenesis. Also, Sox2 is identified as the unknown factor responsible for pineal photoreceptor prepatterning and performs this function independently of the BMP signaling. The correct levels of sox2 are critical for the functionally important asymmetrical positioning of the parapineal organ and for the migration of parapineal cells as a coherent structure. Deviations from this strict control result in defects associated with abnormal habenular laterality, which we have documented and quantified in sox2 morphants. Citation: Pavlou S, Astell K, Kasioulis I, Gakovic M, Baldock R, et al. (2014) Pleiotropic Effects of Sox2 during the Development of the Zebrafish Epithalamus. PLoS ONE 9(1): e87546. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0087546 Editor: David R. Hyde, University of Notre Dame, United States of America Received August 22, 2013; Accepted December 26, 2013; Published January 31, 2014 Copyright: 2014 Pavlou et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: The work was supported by Medical Research Council–Human Genetics Unit core funding. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: pedro.coutinho@igmm.ed.ac.uk
On-target JAK 2 / STAT 3 inhibition slows disease progression in orthotopic xenografts of human glioblastoma brain tumor stem cells

Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada (O.S., H.A.L., Y.R., S.N., J.K., J.G.C., S.W.); Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada (M.B., J.K., J.G.C.); Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada (O.S., H.A.L., Y.R., S.N., S.W.); Clark Smith Brain Tumour Research Centre, Southern Alberta Cancer Research Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada (M.B., J.G.C, S.W.)