Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Influencing the Adoption of Mass Customization: The Impact of Base Category Consumption Frequency and Need Satisfaction

Mass customization has received considerable interest among researchers. However, although many authors have analyzed this concept from different angles, the question of which factors can be used to spot customers most likely to adopt a masscustomized product has not been answered to a satisfactory extent until now. This article explicitly deals with this question by focusing on factors related to the base category, which is defined as the group of all standardized products within the same product category as the mass-customized product under investigation. Specifically, this article investigates the influence of a customer’s base category consumption frequency and need satisfaction on the decision to adopt a mass-customized product within this base category. A set of competing hypotheses regarding these influences is developed and subsequently evaluated by a combination of partial least squares and latent class analysis. This is done by using a sample of 2,114 customers surveyed regarding their adoption of an individualized printed newspaper. The results generated are threefold: First, it is shown that there is a significant direct influence of base category consumption frequency and need satisfaction on the behavioral intention to adopt. The more frequently a subject consumes products out of the base category or the more satisfied his or her needs are due to this consumption, the higher the behavioral intention to adopt a mass-customized product within this base category. Second, the article provides an indication that base category consumption frequency has a significant moderating effect when investigating the behavioral intention to adopt in the context of the theory of reasoned action and the technology acceptance model. The more frequently a subject consumes products out of the base category, the more important will be the impact of perceived ease of use mediated by perceived usefulness. Finally, this article shows that different latent classes with respect to unobserved heterogeneity regarding the latent variables base category need satisfaction or dissatisfaction have significantly different adoption behaviors. Individuals who show a high level of need dissatisfaction are less interested in the ease of use of a mass-customized product than its usefulness (i.e., increase in need satisfaction). On the other hand, subjects who have a high degree of base category need satisfaction base their adoption decision mainly on the ease of use of the masscustomized product. These results are of managerial relevance regarding the prediction of market reactions and the understanding of the strategic use of product-line extensions based on mass-customized products. This work provides an
Overexpression of AhHDA1 Results in Retarded Growth of Hairy Roots and Altered Cell Metabolism in Arachis hypogaea

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea) is a crop plant with high economic value, but the epigenetic regulation of its growth and development has only rarely been studied. The peanut histone deacetylase 1 gene (AhHDA1) has been isolated and is known to be ABA- and drought-responsive. In this paper, we investigate the role of AhHDA1 in more detail, focussing on the effect of altered AhHDA1 expression in hairy roots at both the phenotypic and transcriptional levels. Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated transformation of A. hypogaea hairy roots was used to analyse how overexpression or RNA interference of AhHDA1 affects this tissue. In both types of transgenic hairy root, RNA sequencing was adopted to identify genes that were differentially expressed, and these genes were assigned to specific metabolic pathways. AhHDA1-overexpressing hairy roots were growth-retarded after 20 d in vitro cultivation, and superoxide anions and hydrogen peroxide accumulated to a greater extent than in control or RNAi groups. Overexpression of AhHDA1 is likely to accelerate flux through various secondary synthetic metabolic pathways in hairy roots, as well as reduce photosynthesis and oxidative phosphorylation. Genes encoding the critical enzymes caffeoyl-CoA O-methyltransferase (Araip.XGB85) and caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase (Araip.Z3XZX) in the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway, chalcone synthase (Araip.B8TJ0) and polyketide reductase (Araip.MKZ27) in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway, and hydroxyisoflavanone synthase (Araip.0P3RJ) and isoflavone 2'-hydroxylase (Araip.S5EJ7) in the isoflavonoid biosynthesis pathway were significantly upregulated by AhHDA1 overexpression, while their expression in AhHDA1-RNAi and control hairy roots remained at a lower level or was unchanged. Our results suggest that alteration of secondary metabolism activities is related to overexpression of AhHDA1, which is mainly reflected in phenylpropanoid, flavonoid and flavonoid biosynthesis. Future studies will focus on the function of AhHDA1 interacting proteins and their action on cell growth and stress responses.
Proposal : Identification of Software Failures in Complex Systems Using Low-Level Execution Data

Autonomous and robotics systems (ARSs) – systems that are designed to react independently and without human supervision to environmental stimuli – are complex and difficult to supervise but are an increasingly large portion of the systems currently being developed and in use. Quality assurance for these systems is complex, and the software for these systems contains many faults. My key insight is that typical program behavior is a basis for determining whether a program is operating within its normal parameters. To leverage this, I record summaries of program execution behavior using low-level monitoring to characterize each execution. By aggregating low-level execution data over many executions, I create a picture of typical program behavior; different behavior may indicate unintended behavior. My techniques use the data as input to machine learning algorithms which build models of expected behavior. These models analyze individual program executions to predict whether the given execution represents typical behavior. My core thesis is: Low-level execution signals, recorded over multiple executions of a robotics program or portion thereof, can be used to create machine learning models that, in turn, can be used to predict whether signals from previously-unseen executions represent usual or unusual behavior. The combination of low-level instrumentation and models can provide predictions with reasonable trade-offs between prediction accuracy, instrumentation intrusiveness, and calculation efficiency. To support this thesis I demonstrate the efficacy of these techniques to detect software failures on small programs and in simulation on the ARDUPILOT autonomous vehicle and on other ARSs based on the Robot Operating System (ROS). I observe that ARSs are well-suited to low-level monitoring because they are cyber-physical. Although in other situations such monitoring may create intolerable overhead, these distributed systems that interact with the real world have time or cycles that would otherwise be spent waiting for real world events. As such, ARSs are well-situated to absorb overhead that monitoring generates. However, ARSs often do have timing-sensitive components, for example, deadlines and timeouts that, if missed, cause the system to abort. To this end, I measure the extent to which ARSs can absorb artificially-inserted timing delays.
Organizational Commitment and Corporate Ethical Values: Exploring the Nexus between Employees' Psychological Contract and Firms' Ethical Behaviour in the Nigerian Insurance Industry

Commitment of employees to their organisations has been one of the central research themes in organisational study. Though, many predictors of organisational commitment abound in the literature, much is however not known on how ethical behaviour in the organisation affects employees’ commitment. Considering the nature of insurance services, and high potentials for ethical dilemma in the industry, this study contributes to organisational commitment literature by providing further understanding on the impact of corporate ethical values on organisational commitment in Nigeria. Underpinned by cognitive dissonance theory, the study proposes a significant relationship between the two constructs. While controlling for some demographic factors, corporate ethical values was hypothesized as a significant determinant of organisational commitment. With data from 415 managers, collected through Hunt’s et al (1989) Corporate Ethical Value and Hunt’s et al (1985) organisational commitment scales, the results of the multivariate analysis were presented, and discussed with managerial implications.
On weakly nonlinear modulation of waves on deep water

We propose a new approach for modeling weakly nonlinear waves, based on enhancing truncated amplitude equations with exact linear dispersion. Our example is based on the nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS) equation for deep-water waves. The enhanced NLS equation reproduces exactly the conditions for nonlinear four-wave resonance (the “figure 8” of Phillips) even for bandwidths greater than unity. Sideband instability for uniform Stokes waves is limited to finite bandwidths only, and agrees well with exact results of McLean; therefore, sideband instability cannot produce energy leakage to high-wave-number modes for the enhanced equation, as reported previously for the NLS equation. The new equation is extractable from the Zakharov integral equation, and can be regarded as an intermediate between the latter and the NLS equation. Being solvable numerically at no additional cost in comparison with the NLS equation, the new model is physically and numerically attractive for investigation of wave evolution.
A Case Study of the development of the UK’s Additive Manufacturing National Strategy 2014-2017

The importance of the role of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies in company, regional and national level manufacturing activities is becoming clearer as AM technologies mature and levels of adoption in a wide range of application areas increase. In response, many nations have developed national strategies (or ‘public technology strategies’) to help align public and private sector activities to address barriers to further development and adoption, and coordinate resources to address opportunities. This paper describes the process by which the UK developed its national strategy for AM. The operational details of the activities undertaken through four stages over the period 2014-2017 are explained and analysed. The aim of the paper is to share the details of how this strategy was developed – in a changing political and economic context – such that others involved in the development of similar strategies might learn from this experience.
Identification and network construction of zinc finger protein (ZFP) genes involved in the rice-Magnaporthe oryzae interaction.

Previous studies have shown that some rice ZFP genes from the WRKY, RIN C2H2 and LSD1 families are associated with defense against Magnaporthe oyzae (M ozae). However, it remains miluioi whether other ZFP families are involved in the rice-M oyzae interaction. Here, we reported the global characterization of rice ZFP genes involved in the rice-M oryzae interaction based on bioinfromatics analysis of important rice databases. By analyzing the data obtained from the microarray database, we found that 241 ZFP genes belonging to 27 thmiies were expression-responsive toM oyzae. Among these ZFP thmiies, a total of 23 ZFP families were newly identified to be involved into the rice-M oyzae interaction. The expression patterns of the ZFP genes with expression responsiveness to M oyzae in each thmily were similar, suggesting that each family might play similar roles in the rice-M oyzae interaction. The result of co- expression gene network analysis revealed that the M oIae-responsive ZFP genes were able to be co-expressed with those genes regulating some biological processes. These biological processes mainly included methylation modification, protein kinase activity, transcription activity, posttranscriptional modification and protein transfer. The result suggested that the regulated network of the rice-M oyzae interaction was well organized, although it was complicated. Moreover, we identified four ZFP genes that might play important roles for regulating blast disease resistance.
Competitiveness of U.S. Meats in Japan and South Korea: A Source Differentiated Market Study

The restricted source differentiated almost ideal demand system (RSDAIDS) is used to estimate the parameters of the Japanese and South Korean source differentiated meat demand models. Expenditure and own-price elasticities indicate that Japanese beef, Canadian and Danish pork, and Brazilian and Thai poultry have a competitive advantage in Japan. The BSE outbreak in Japan decreased the shares of Japanese and U.S. beef. Regarding South Korea, the results indicate that imported beef from the U.S. and Australia, Danish pork, and South Korean and Thai poultry have a competitive advantage. The U.S. BSE outbreak decreased the market shares of U.S. beef in the South Korean beef market.
CARBOXYLATION OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES FOR THE IMMOBILIZATION OF β-GALACTOSIDASE AND ITS EFFICACY IN GALACTO-OLIGOSACCHARIDES PRODUCTION

The present study investigated the carboxylation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by 1:3 nitric acid-sulfuric acid mixtures for immobilizing Aspergillus oryzae β-galactosidase. Carboxylated AgNPs retained 93% enzyme upon immobilization and the enzyme did not leach out appreciably from the modified nanosupport in the presence of 100 mmol L-1 NaCl. Atomic force micrograph revealed the binding of β-galactosidase on the modified AgNPs. The optimal pH for soluble and carboxylated AgNPs adsorbed β-galactosidase (IβG) was observed at pH 4.5 while the optimal operating temperature was broadened from 50 oC to 60 oC for IβG. Michaelis constant, Km was increased two and a half fold for IβG while Vmax decreases slightly as compared to soluble enzyme. β-galactosidase immobilized on surface functionalized AgNPs retained 70% biocatalytic activity even at 4% galactose concentration as compared to enzyme in solution. Our study showed that IβG produces greater amount of galacto-oligosaccharides at higher temperatures (50 oC and 60 oC) from 0.1 mol L-1 lactose solution at pH 4.5 as compared to previous reports.
Empirically Validated Simplicity Evaluation Model for Object Oriented Software

Software program developers need to go from beginning to ending and understand source code of the program and other software attributes. The software complexities and length of the program exceedingly affects many design level quality attributes, specifically Simplicity, Testability and software Maintainability. Incomplete design of any software generally leads to misunderstanding and ambiguities and therefore to gives faulty design and development results. This is mainly seeming and appears owing to the absence of it’s an appropriate observation, design and development control. However, high level design and program simplicity are very necessary and one of the vital attributes of the system development cycle. This research paper highlights the impact and significance of design level software simplicity in common and as a one of the most useful key factor or index of software quality assurance and testing. In this research work principally there are three major efforts are made. As a first contribution, a valuable relationship between software design quality factor simplicity and related object oriented design properties, this has been set up. In the second contribution, using design level corresponding metrics a simplicity evaluation model for object oriented software is developed. Subsequently, the developed simplicity model has been rationally authenticated by means of experimental data try-out.
Dissolution of Calcidiscus leptoporus coccoliths in copepod guts?- A morphological study

In a dissolution experiment using the calcifying algae Calcidiscus leptoporus the morphological changes of the coccoliths were followed by analysis using scanning electron microscopy. The decrease in coccolith calcite mass during this experiment was quantified. These data were used for the interpretation of coccolith morphologies within faecal pellets produced in separate feeding experiments with the calanoid copepods Calanus helgolandicus and Temora longicornis. Comparison of the observed coccolith morphologies from the coccolith dissolution experiments with the coccolith morphologies observed within the faecal pellets led us to conclude that coccolith dissolution during copepod gut passage is well below 8 weight percent.
Modelling the effects of public health education in the spread of hepatitis B disease

This paper presents a mathematical model that captures some essential dynamics of Hepatitis B transmission to study the impacts of public health educational campaign in preventing the disease. The educational induced reproduction number Re is compared with the basic reproduction number R0 to assess the possible benefits to be obtained from this control measure. Numerical results and sensitivity analysis are carried out to support the analytical results and determine the parameters influencing the dynamics of the disease. It is indicated that in the presence of public health education campaign, transmission of infection decreases when people are aware of the disease, implying that the number of acute and chronic infected individuals decrease as well. Mathematics Subject Classification: 34D20
Assessing the Crop Growing Period According to the Climate Change Forecasts for Marina Baixa (SE Spain)

The present work aims to assess the likely effects of climate change on the length of growing period (LGP) of crops in Marina Baixa (SE, Spain). LGP can be assessed by a balance between preci- pitation and reference evapotranspiration. Less rainfall and an increased evapotranspiration, forecast by Global Climate Models (GCMs), are considered as a high risk for agriculture. This area is located in a semiarid climate region where water is a very limited resource. It is a typical example of areas where the agricultural sector has to compete for water with the tourism industry. In this context, by using observed and projected precipitation data set (model HadCM3, Scenario A2), calculating reference evapotranspiration (ETo), and applying the frequency analysis of a probability-type method, we estimated the growing period length in the observed period (1961-1990) and three 30-year future periods (2011-40, 2041-70 and 2071-99) in the study area. The results show a drop in annual precipitations (- 30%) and an increased ETo (+18%) towards the end of this century with respect to the observed period (mean annual rainfall: 356 mm; mean ETo: 1476 mm). The results also show a decrease in the number of decades (10 days) when precipitation exceeds half of the ETo, which means shorter growing periods as the 21st century advances. This expected reduction in growing period length towards the end of the present century will imply that many rainfed crops, like olives, almonds and cereals, will require a higher irrigation water supply to maintain suitable growth and performance levels. The results are an early warning to manage water resources in Marina Baixa in a sustainable way.
Human resource strategy in disassembly for remanufacturing

Studies on product disassembly for remanufacturing using strategic perspective have been overlooked in current studies. This research uses a strategic approach to examine how product, process and organisational design affect disassembly strategies among different remanufacturers. Three companies that consist of two automotive and one jet engine remanufacturers have been selected as subjects. A case study approach using qualitative data has been adopted to examine how remanufacturers design their disassembly strategies. Our analysis revealed that the two major factors influencing disassembly strategies are product complexity and the stability of supply of cores.
I'm Like You, Just Not In That Way: Tag Networks to Improve Collaborative Filtering

Collaborative filtering aims to predict a person’s preferences by examining the preferences of similar people. Many collaborative filtering algorithms rely on a coarse notion of similarity, which assumes that if two people are sufficiently simiar in a few specific areas, each is likely to make good recommendations for the other in most areas. Our trust in the opinions of others, though, is rarely absolute; we often tend to trust recommendations from certain people in certain areas. In this paper we develop an algorithm which reflects this notion. Rather than capturing taste information at the user level, we capture taste at the topic level by making use of tags: arbitrary words or phrases which are often used to group online content. Previous attempts to improve collaborative filtering using tag information have attempted to determine tag meanings, and as a result have depended upon complex semantic analyses. Our algorithm avoids these complications by focusing instead on the clusters which tags establish. Using tags in this way provides a significant improvement in the accuracy of recommendations without a commensurate loss in coverage. These tag clusters also give rise to networks which can be exploited to further improve recommendation results.
Stability analysis of a discrete ecological model

In this paper, we study the qualitative behavior of following discrete-time population model: ݔ ௡ାଵ ൌߙ൅ ߚݔ ௡ ൅ߛ ݔ ௡ଵ ௬ ೙ ,ݕ ௡ଵ ൌߜ൅ ߝݕ ௡ ൅ߞݕ ௡ଵ ௫ ೙ , where parameters ߙ,ߚ,ߛ,ߜ,ߝ,ߞ and initial conditions ݔ ଴,ݔ ଵ,ݕ ଴,ݕ ଵ are positive real numbers. More precisely, we investigate the existence and uniqueness of positive equilibrium point,boundedness character, persistence, local asymptotic stability, global behavior and rate of convergence of unique positive equilibrium point of this model. Some numerical examples are given to verify our theoretical results.
Relating colloidal particle interactions to gel structure using Brownian dynamics simulations and the Fuchs stability ratio

Brownian dynamics simulations of aggregation of hard-sphere dispersions at intermediate volume fractions (∼3–10 vol%) have been performed. A long-range activation energy for aggregation was incorporated. The bonds formed were irreversible and flexible. Cluster growth rate and fractal properties of the gel matrix could be related to particle interactions by using a Fuchs stability ratio WF. Although this approach is expected to apply only to the very early stages of gelation, WF was shown to be a useful parameter, especially for predicting gel matrix parameters like the fractal dimensionality Df (which is a measure of the compactness of the clusters in the intermediate or fractal length scale regime) and the correlation length ξ (which is a measure of the average gel pore size). The number of aggregates, Nagg, was found to be a convenient measure of the stage of aggregation for the range of volume fractions and interactions studied. For high values of WF, the value of Df was more generic (i.e., less depend.
Loughborough University Institutional Repository The effects of service quality of university sport facilities on students ' affective and behavioral outcomes

Supportive sport facilities in universities are necessary to encourage students to be actively involved in sport. The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ perceived and expected service quality of sport facilities in universities and test the relations to satisfaction and subsequent behavioral intention. Results from the study revealed that while satisfaction played as partial mediators in the relationships between tangibles/reliability and intention, satisfaction was a full mediator in the relationship between assurance/empathy and intention.