Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Beneficial Health Effects of Fennel Seeds ( Shamar ) on Male Rats Feeding High Fat-Diet

Fennel has been known since antiquity as a medicinal and aromatic herb, it commonly used in household remedy for various medicinal purposes. The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of beneficial health effects of fennel seeds on feeding rats with high fat-diet. Histopathological changes of aorta, heart and liver were examined. Thirty five male albino rats of Sprague-Dawley strain weighing 200±5g were used. Animals were divided into five groups of seven rats each: group (1) fed on the basal diet and kept as a negative control group; group (2) fed on high fat–diet and kept as positive control group; groups (3), (4) and (5) fed on high fat diets supplemented with three different levels of fennel seeds (5, 10 and 15%, respectively. The present results revealed that rats fed on high fat-diet only (positive control group) had significant (at p<0.05) increase in serum TL, TG, TC, LDL-C, VLDL-C, AST, ALT, ALP and MDA concentrations, and significant decrease in serum HDL-C level as well as significant decrease in HDL-C/LDL-C ratio value and serum activity of CAT, GPX and SOD enzymes as compared to rats fed on basal diet only (negative control group). High fat-diet supplemented with the three different levels of fennel seeds significantly improved serum levels of TL, TG, TC, LDL-C, VLDL-C, AST, ALT, ALP and MDA, and significant raise in serum HDL-C level, values of HDL-C/LDL-C ratio and improve activities of CAT, GPX and SOD enzymes compared to the positive control group. Histopathological investigation showed vaculations of tunica media and narrowing in the lumen of aorta sections and congestion of cardiac blood vessel as well as fatty change of hepatocytes in positive control rats. Vaculations of tunica media in aorta sections and fatty changes of hepatocytes were showed in rats fed high fat-diet supplemented with 5% of fennel seeds. Slight thickening in the wall of aorta sections was showed in rats treated with 10% fennel seeds, whereas, other sections showed apparent normal histological structure. Its liver sections had small vacuoles in the cytoplasm hepatocytes. Liver sections of treated rats with 15% fennel seeds showed small vacuoles in the cytoplasm of some hepatocytes and other sections revealed apparent normal hepatocytes. There were no histological changes in heart sections of all treated rats with fennel seeds and in aorta of rats treated with 15% fennel seeds. In conclusion, the present study revealed that fennel seeds improve dyslipidaemia by improving lipid profile, cholesterol Correspondence to: Dr. AMR A. REZQ, The Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Home Economics, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt and low density lipoprotein cholesterol, and decrease the risk of chronic heart diseases by increasing level of HDL-C as well as enhancing activities of antioxidant enzymes.
Brand equity in the industrial purchase decision

High brand equity is a great asset for companies that operate their business in a free and competitive market. Brand equity can arise from both product-related and non-product related attributes and may be viewed from many different perspectives. This study examines which different attributes that contribute to enhance brand equity from customers point of view at the Swedish market for agricultural machinery. The study have been developed using a comprehensive literature search in order to investigate the field regarding brand equity and brand image. The literature review results in one product specific and one non-product specific approach in order to examine factors that contribute to enhanced brand equity. This takes the form as one survey-based approach regarding the non-product related attributes which is examined by interpreting the extra value added by different attributes. A telephone interview was conducted and just over 120 respondents who operate a farm in the south part of Sweden answered the survey. The product related attributes, where the brand as such is included as one attribute are examined through a Hedonic pricing model. The hedonic pricing model is estimated for different soil cultivators due to fewer objective differences between different brands compared to for example planters. Results from the survey based part show factors that customers perceive as contributing to enhanced brand image, respectively factors that not will affect the overall impression of a manufacturer. For example it is shown that the perception of an innovative company enhances the overall impression respectively financing alternatives in connection with the purchase offered by the manufacturer or dealer will not enhance the overall impression. From the hedonic pricing model it is possible to examine to what extent some different product related attributes affect the sales price. For example, an increase in tractor requirement by one horse power results in a price increase of 650 SEK. In addition it is revealed that a soil cultivator manufactured by Vaderstad-Verken is characterized by a higher price compared to some other brands.
AN EFFICIENT RANKING-MATCHED CACHING STRATEGY FOR INFORMATION CENTRIC NETWORKING

The host-based communication model of current Internet infrastructure is proved to be inefficient in content distribution because of a lot of bandwidth waste. In this context, Information Centric Networking (ICN) emerges as a promising future architecture that aims to distribute content efficiently over the network. The key to efficient content distribution in ICN is in-network caching, which is an effective way of eliminating redundant network traffic. Cache decision at each router is a very important factor which governs caching performance. In this paper, we propose a content Popularity Ranking and node Importance Ranking Matched (PRIRM) caching strategy for ICN, which is targeted at reducing cache redundancy and improving content diversity. Content popularity represents the user preference while node importance determines the important degree in the network. By disseminating content on the delivery path based on the popularity ranking of the content and the importance ranking of the node, content with different rankings can be distributed in the network hierarchically. The sensitivity of PRIRM strategy against different parameters, such as content number, popularity distribution and network topologies, is thoroughly studied. The simulation results show that PRIRM strategy can result in a significant decrease of average hop count, compared with three benchmark caching strategies, i.e., leave copy everything strategy, a centrality-based strategy and a path-capacity-based strategy.
Effect of Environmental Factors on Perception of Image Attributes

Experiments were conducted to measure perceptual changes in sharpness and contrast due to two environmental factors: viewing distance and ambient illumination. A field study was completed in two retail stores in which television customers were polled about image quality at long and short viewing distances. The study identified sharpness, brightness, and contrast as the perceptual attributes most influenced by changes in viewing distance. Subsequently, a viewing experiment was conducted in the laboratory in which the sizes of just noticeable differences (JNDs) of sharpness, black level, and white level were measured at different viewing distances and ambient illumination levels. The experiment used a two up, one down staircase method with a reference to detect thresholds. It was found that sensitivity to sharpness decreased with longer viewing distance and was unaffected by ambient illumination, and sensitivity to black level decreased with either increased distance or increased illumination. Sensitivity to white level was not significantly affected by either factor. These results may be used to select display settings or design parameters to suit different viewing situations.
Ultrastructural Description of the Life Cycle of Nosema diphterostomi sp. n., a Microsporidia Hyperparasite of Diphterostomum brusinae (Digenea: Zoogonidae), Intestinal Parasite of Diplodus annularis (Pisces: Teleostei)

The life cycle of a new microsporidium, Nosema diphterostomi sp. n. is described. This parasite infects the epithelial gut and connective tissue of a trematode Diphterostomum brusinae (Digenea: Zoogonidae), intestinal parasite of Diplodus annularis (Pisces: Teleostei). All development stages are in close contact with the host cell cytoplasm and have paired nuclei (diplokaryon). Matures spores measure about 2.1 × 1.4 μm. They possess a polar lament with 6-7 coils, a posterior vacuole and a polaroplast made up of an outer part of dense and closely spaced lamellae encircling an inner part of widely spaced lamellae. All morphological and ultrastructural features indicate that the described microsporidium belongs to the genus Nosema. In comparison with the other Nosema of trematodes, this parasite is a new species. We propose the name Nosema diphterostomi sp. n. according to the generic name of its host.
Middle to Late Ordovician (Darriwilian-Sandbian) Conodonts from the Dawangou Section, Kalpin Area of the Tarim Basin, Northwestern China

Forty-four conodont species are documented from the Dawangou section in the Tarim Basin, which spans the Darriwilian to Sandbian interval and is the global auxiliary stratotype for the base of the Upper Ordovician. Five conodont zones are recognized in this section, including the Yangtzeplacognathus crassus, Histiodella holodentata and H. kristinae zones in the upper part of the Dawangou Formation, the Pygodus anserinus Zone from the upper part of the Saergan Formation to the lower part of the Kanling Formation, and the Baltoniodus alobatus Zone in the upper part of the Kanling Formation. Presence of the P. serra Zone is based on occurrences of this species on shale bedding planes in the lower and middle Saergan Formation, but could not be confirmed in acid-leached samples studied from this interval. The Middle/Upper Ordovician boundary occurs within graptolitic black shale of the upper Saergan Formation. Although the boundary interval was intensively sampled, conodonts were very rare, probably due to stagnant or stratified basinal environments. This documentation of the conodont faunas and biostratigraphy of the Dawangou section is considered preliminary and more detailed conodont studies are required, but the remoteness of the site hinders the further extensive sample collection needed for this purpose.
Multi-phase outflows as probes of AGN accretion history

Powerful outflows with a broad range of properties (such as velocity, ionization, radial scale and mass loss rate) represent a key feature of active galactic nuclei (AGN), even more so since they have been simultaneously revealed also in individual objects. Here we revisit in a simple analytical framework the recent remarkable cases of two ultraluminous infrared quasars, IRAS F11119+3257 and Mrk 231, which allow us to investigate the physical connection between multi-phase AGN outflows across the ladder of distance from the central supermassive black hole (SMBH). We argue that any major deviations from the standard outflow propagation models might encode unique information on the past SMBH accretion history, and briefly discuss how this could help address some controversial aspects of the current picture of AGN feedback.
THE EFFECT OF INLET ASPECT RATIO ( RIA ) TO THE THREE DIMENSIONAL MIXING CHARACTERISTICS IN TANGENTIAL

The degree of mixing is one of the main indicators of the combustion performance in a combustion chamber. The higher the degree of mixing, the more intensive the contact/reaction between the air and the fuel, so that the combustion performance is getting better. The degree of mixing in a combustion chamber is indicated quantitatively by several variables such as the velocity profiles, the flow structure and the turbulence intensity. The degree of mixing in a combustion chamber is influenced by the factors of geometries and operating conditions. This study is aimed to determine the effect of the inlet aspect ratio (RIA) to the mixing characteristics in a tangential burner. The investigation methodology used in this study is based on the numerical simulation with the Ansys-Fluent simulation code as a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) engine. The fluid flow modelings are performed with the standard k- turbulent model. From the simulations that at mesh interval size smaller than 7 % of the chamber diameter, the standard k- model is able to match satisfactorily the tendency of the experimental velocity profiles available in the literature. The simulation results also show that the inlet aspect ratio has a significant influence to the mixing characteristics in the tangential burner. Within the RIA value that is tested, the best mixing characteristic is found on the burner with the RIA value of 10. The formation of the tornado tail flow structure is determined by the inlet aspect ratio, the total mass flow rate and the swirl number.
TrickleTree: A Gossiping Approach To Fast And Collision Free Staggered Scheduling

In recent years, data gathering has received signif- icant attention as an application of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Staggered data tree based protocols have been shown to be successful in reducing energy consumption in data gathering scenarios. An important part of staggered protocols is the process of schedule construction. In order to minimize energy consumption, this process must be fast. In this paper, we present TrickleTree, a fast distributed protocol for establishing staggered and collision free communication schedule. TrickleTree has three functions: to establish routes, i.e., construct a data gathering tree, to establish a staggered communication schedule, i.e, assign time slots to links, and to disseminate the maximal tree depth in the network. To minimize network setup time, TrickleTree combines neighborhood discovery and schedule construction into one step. To ensure that good neighbors are discovered before a node joins the network, TrickleTree uses a rating mechanism. Collisions during node association are reduced by using association slots. To increase the message delivery rate with small message overhead, TrickleTree uses adaptive gossiping. We provide a formal analysis of the protocol properties i.e., collision free scheduling and termination. The behavior of the proposed approach is evaluated in simulation. The results show up to 90% in a reduction in schedule setup time and a 50% reduction of duty cycle compared to a flooding approach. Index Terms—Wireless sensor networks, staggered schedule, schedule construction, fast association, collisions reduction, asso- ciation ranking
Proposing a new measure of distance in the gravity setting: evidence from Latin America

O modelo de gravidade e uma ferramenta de trabalho que tem sido amplamente usada no comercio internacional. No entanto, uma questao empirica que surge com frequencia esta relacionada com a conceptualiza- cao e a medicao de um indice de distância economica. Na configuracao de gravidade padrao, o uso de proxies para os custos do comercio para quantificar e analisar a distância e um metodo comumente usado. Nos construimos o nosso indice usando Analise de factores Multiplos. Esta tecnica resume, em apenas um factor, informacoes relacionadas com as variaveis geograficas, culturais, politicas e ecocomicas que possam afetar o comercio internacional entre os paises. Estas estimativas indicam que os sinais dos fatores de carga na Analise de factores Multiplos sao intuitivamente plausivel, e exercicios de painel de dados dao resultados sensiveis robustos.
Unified model of interaction: use cases and scenarios engineering

Labo SI2M, Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Informatique et d’Analyse des Systemes (ENSIAS), Agdal, Rabat, Morocco Summary Scenarios and use cases have been used interchangeably in several works meaning partial descriptions. In this paper, we suggest a requirement engineering process that composes (merge) use cases/scenarios and yields a formal specification of the system in form of a high-level Petri net. Use cases and scenarios are acquired in form of diagrams as defined by the Unified Modeling Language (UML). These diagrams are composed and transformed into Petri net specifications and merged to obtain a global Petri net specification capturing the behavior of the entire system. From the global specification, a system prototype can be generated and embedded in a user interface builder environment for further refinement. Based on end user feedback, the use cases and the input scenarios may be iteratively refined. The result of the overall process is a specification consisting of a global Petri net, together with the generated and refined prototype. This paper discusses some activities of this process. The need of a unified model of interaction (UMI) is also discussed at the end of this paper.
Saving CT radiation dose using iterative reconstruction algorithms: effects of scan parameters on image quality, resolution, and CTDI vol

Poster: "ECR 2014 / C-0559 / Saving CT radiation dose using iterative reconstruction algorithms: effects of scan parameters on image quality, resolution, and CTDI vol " by: "V. Obmann1, T. Klink1, A. Stork2, G. Adam3, P. G. C. Begemann2; 1Berne/CH, 2Duesseldorf/DE, 3Hamburg/DE"
The Degree of Currency Substitution and Exchange Rate Pass-Through

This study investigates the effect of the degree of currency substitution on the exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) to import and domestic prices in Turkey, using monthly data between 1998 and 2013. The recursive interacted vector autoregressive (IVAR) specification of Towbin and Weber (2013) is employed, based on McCarthy’s (1999) distribution chain model. Currency substitution is treated as an interaction term in the IVAR specification. The empirical evidence suggests that high currency substitution increases the effect of ERPT to import and domestic prices.
Constraint-geführte Floorplan-Generierung von integrierten Analog-und Mixed-Signal-Schaltungen

Dieser Beitrag stellt ein neues constraint-geführtes Konzept zur Floorplan-Generierung (Floorplanning) für Analogund Mixed-Signal-Schaltungen vor. Unser Verfahren ermöglicht eine zeiteffiziente Constraint-Verifikation vor der eigentlichen Floorplan-Optimierung. Dabei wird mittels einer analytischen Vorgehensweise (Linear Programming) ein Anfangsfloorplan ermittelt, der ein globales Optimum hinsichtlich der Constrainteinhaltung darstellt. Nach dieser ausschließlichen Berücksichtigung der Constraints erfolgt in einem zweiten Schritt eine Einbeziehung der Optimierungsziele. Dies geschieht mittels eines modifizierten heuristischen Verfahrens (Simulated Annealing). Dieses nutzt dabei eine adaptive Constraint-Wichtung, was die Suche in dem durch die Constraints aufgespannten Lösungsraum optimiert. Die Anwendung des hier vorgestellten Verfahrens ist insbesondere dann sinnvoll, wenn zahlreiche verknüpfte und in sich widersprüchliche Constraints bei der Layouterstellung zu berücksichtigen sind.
Estimating Sensor Lifetime using an Event Based Control Strategy

We study the problem of estimating the sensor lifetime fol- lowing an event based control strategy. The sensor is used to observe a continuous process and the measurement produced by the sensor is sent to a base station only if the observed parameter deviates from the model by a given threshold. Using this event based control strategy, we are able to show that the expect lifetime of the sensor grows quadratically with the size of the monitoring region, and is inversely pro- portional to the square of the diusion coecients of the process and measurement noises. Simulations are provided to verify the theory developed.
Performance Evaluation of Private Banking Sector and Its Strategic Management System : A Study on Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited ( IBBL )

The study on the private banking sector clearly portrays general banking activities on the basis of performance evaluation system and specific strategic management to bring forth gorgeous financial output and organizational success. It follows the alternative concept of banking using religious term which represents unique approach to credit and banking based on profit-oriented economy avoiding the name of interest in order to maximize profit. The study based on secondary analysis has formulated the idea of profit maximization with strategic governing procedure and manipulative technique to supersede the optimistic benefit in the competitive banking market.
Does the Composition of Public Expenditure Impact Economic Growth ? Evidence from Switzerland using a robust cointegration approach

Because heterogeneity between countries is substantial, the relevant literature proposes performing time-series analyses to examine the long-term effect of fiscal policies on output growth. Following this advice, I study the impact of the composition of public expenditure on growth using Swiss data. My findings provide strong evidence that government outlays for transport infrastructure, justice and general government are vital for output growth. Whereas the evidence for a growth effect of education is weak and therefore a reversed causation effect could be ascertained. This indicates that public education epitomises Baumol's cost disease. The evidence concerning the growth effect of social policies and health care is not clear-cut. Finally, this paper shows that only a few outlying observations can severely distort classical OLS estimators so that the usage of robust estimators is strongly recommended. JEL: C22, E62, H50.
The relationship between human resource practices and organizational performance in the Chinese construction enterprises

Construction comprises a multitude of knowledge-driven activities within and amongst participating organizations. Given the dynamic environment and multi-project operations, construction organizations need to develop well-structured human resource practices to manage employees as well as to learn, innovate and change creative directions which are vital for organizational continuous improvement. Chinese construction enterprises have gained experience in various types of projects within the competitive environment over the 30 years of economic transformation to a market-based, socialist economy. This paper develops a framework to investigate the effects of human resource practices and organisational learning on the performance of Chinese construction enterprises. It is postulated that organizational learning exerts a mediating effect on the relationship of human resource practices and performance. This paper proposes a mixed method approach in which the qualitative study will contribute to the understanding of the current human resource practices and the barriers (if any) in implementing organizational learning practices in the Chinese construction stateowned enterprises; the quantitative analysis will examine the mediating effect of organizational learning on the relationship between human resource practices and organizational performance.
Federalism, Party Competition and Budget Outcome: Empirical Findings on Regional Health Expenditure in Italy

In the last decade, Italy has experienced a considerable decentralization of functions to the regions. This transformation has been especially relevant for the National Health System that has de facto assumed a federal system design. The federal reform aimed at disciplining public health expenditure, which drains a substantial share of the budget of Italian regions and is among the main causes of the regional deficits. Political economic analysis, however, suggests that impact of federalism on public expenditure depends on central and local government strategies to win in the electoral competition. Results derived in this preliminary study indicate that political competition actually works as a tool of fiscal discipline; it shows a restraining effect on public health expenditure.