Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Competitive advantage through anticipation, innovation and relationships

While service quality has proved an essential ingredient in convincing customers to choose one organisation over another, many organisations have realised that maintaining excellence on a consistent basis is imperative if they are to gain customer loyalty. This long‐term perspective has created a strong shift in orienting service strategy towards a service promise. Moreover, in the present competitive setting, if one were to understand the lifetime value of a customer, creating and maintaining long‐term relationships with the customer and other stakeholders is paramount to an organisation’s market leadership. Relentless advances in technology have rendered products and services with ever shorter life cycles and, hence, diminished customer appeal. This paper argues that firms are required not only to improve, but to innovate products and services and anticipate customer needs on a continuous basis. It is highlighted here that, in order to maintain a long‐term relationship with the customer, firms need to demonstrate their ability to think for the customer, and to conceive and implement new ways to serve them better. Moreover, in order to develop and maintain customer relationships, an organisation needs the assistance and partnership of their respective stakeholders; for example, employees, suppliers and distributors.
Influence of different volumes and types of detached macrophytes on fish community structure in surf zones of sandy beaches

Detached macrophytes (seagrass and macroalgae) are transported from more offshore areas and accumulate in substantial volumes in surf zones, where they are commonly called wrack. Fishes were sampled using seine nets in 4 volume categories of detached macrophytes (bare sand, low, medium and high volumes) in the surf zone at 2 sandy beaches in southwestern Australia to determine how increasing volumes of surf-zone wrack influences fish community and size composi- tion. Species composition and densities of fish, which were dominated by juveniles, differed between areas where wrack was present or absent, and also among volumes of wrack in the surf zone. Total fish abundance and biomass increased as the volume of wrack increased. Cnidoglanis macro- cephalus and Pelsartia humeralis were the dominant species and were most abundant in medium and high wrack volumes. Fish gut contents were analysed for C. macrocephalus and P. humeralis, and verified that Allorchestes compressa is a major prey item for juveniles of these species. A series of habitat preference trials conducted in outdoor aquaria tested whether juvenile C. macrocephalus and P. humeralis showed a preference for different types of detached macrophytes as a habitat, i.e. sea- grass, brown algae, or a mixture of both macrophyte types. Non-parametric goodness-of-fit binomial tests for differences in the number of fish between each habitat type showed no clear pattern in habi- tat preference for either species of fish. Field and laboratory results suggest that the amount, rather than type, of detached macrophytes is more important in providing a habitat for juvenile C. macro- cephalus and P. humeralis.
Inheritance study and stable sources of maydis leaf blight (Cochliobolus heterostrophus) resistance in tropical maize germplasm

Maydis leaf blight (MLB), a serious foliar fungal disease of maize, may cause up to 40% losses in yield. The present studies were undertaken to identify the stable sources of MLB resistance, its inheritance study, and testing of MLB resistance linked markers from diverse background in the Indian adapted tropical maize genotypes. A set of 112 inbred lines were screened under artificially created epiphytotics conditions at three hotspot locations. Analysis across multi-locations revealed significant effects of genotypes and environments, and non-significant effects due to genotypes × environment interaction on disease incidence. A total of 25 inbred lines with stable resistance were identified across multi-locations. Inheritance of resistance was studied in six F1s and two F2s of resistant and susceptible parents. The null hypothesis of segregation of resistance and susceptible for mono and digenic ratios in two F2 populations was rejected by Chi-square test. The non-significant differences among the reciprocal crosses depicted the complete control of nuclear genome for MLB resistance. Partial dominance in F1s and normal distribution pattern in F2s of resistant and susceptible parents suggested polygenic nature of MLB resistance. Correlation studies in F2 populations exhibited significant negative correlation between disease score and days to flowering. Five simple sequence repeats (SSRs) markers, found associated to MLB resistance in different studies were unable to differentiate amongst MLB resistance and susceptible parents in our study. This emphasizes the need of fine mapping for MLB resistance in Indian germplasm. The identified stable sources of resistance and information on inheritance study can be used further in strengthening of resistance breeding against MLB.
Temperature and precipitation effects on agrarian economy in late imperial China

Climate change has been statistically proven to substantially influence the economy of early modern Europe, particularly in the long term. However, a detailed analysis of climate change and the economy of historical China remains lacking, particularly from a large-scale and quantitative perspective. This study quantitatively analyzes the relationship between climate change and the economy in late imperial China (AD 1600–1840) at the national level. This study also compares the findings on the relationship between climate change and the economy in late imperial China with those in early modern Europe. Results of multivariate regression and Granger causality analyses indicate that (1) climate change induces economic fluctuations in late imperial China, particularly in the long term; (2) given that the economic center is located in South China during the study period, temperature has a greater influence on the economy than precipitation; (3) the population of China is statistically proven to primarily act as consumers in the long term; and (4) given the long-term role of the Chinese population, the economic vulnerability in late imperial China under climate change is further increased and is higher than that in early modern Europe, whose population mainly acts as producers in the long term. In conclusion, the late imperial Chinese society has a high economic vulnerability to climate change. These findings revisit Malthusian theory and ‘Great Divergence’ theory by including the perspective of economic vulnerability under climate change during the study period. The role of the population must be investigated further to address the socioeconomic vulnerabilities under climate change.
Volatile methyl siloxanes as potential hazardous air pollutants.

Due to the more and more common use of siloxanes in consumer products and various industries, there has been an increase of their concentration in biogases produced from sewage sludge and municipal waste and, consequently, in the soil, water, and air. This paper presents sources and mechanisms of siloxane migration to the environment, characterizes types and products of their transformations in the atmospheric air and during the combustion of biogas, assesses hazards posed to the atmospheric air, and presents the results of siloxane concentration measurements in biogases and the atmospheric air. It draws attention to the new problems that have emerged in toxicology and atmosphere protection, outlines directions for necessary research, proposes ways to reduce emissions of volatile methyl siloxanes (VMS), and suggests the introduction of relevant legis-
Regret: The Roles of Consistency-Fit and Counterfactual Salience

Four studies examined the role of a decision's consistency with the orientation of the decision-maker in determining regret. In accordance with our consistency-fit model of regret, the consistency of a decision in relation to decision-makers' goals (Experiments 1), mood states (Experiment 3), and personality orientations (Experiments 2 and 4) predicted regret levels such that consistent decisions were less regrettable than decisions that were inconsistent. In Experiment 1, consistent decisions were defined in relation to decision-makers' goals of changing their typical behavior. Results revealed that decisions that were consistent with the goals of changing their typical behavior were less regrettable. In addition, Experiments 2-4 found that the salience of counterfactuals augmented participants' feelings of regret, supporting the view that accessible alternatives to chosen courses of behavior can serve as affective cues. Implications of a consistency-fit view of regret for norm theory, self-regulation and affect as information were discussed.
Theory of Source-Drain Partitioning in MOSFET

The Ward-Dutton (WD) partitioning scheme [1] is used extensively to develop transient and high frequency advanced compact models in MOSFET analysis. Recently it has been shown that WD partitioning fails in the case of field dependent mobility [2] or laterally asymmetrical doping [3]. In this work we present a generalization of WD partitioning and discuss the implication of the failure of WD partitioning.
Mining User Profile Using Clustering FromSearch Engine Logs

Fundamental component of any personalization application is user profiling. The existing user profiling strategies are based on users interest (i.e. positive preferences). The main focus is on search engine personalization and to develop several concept-based user profiling methods. Concept-based user profiling methods deals with both positive and negative preferences. This user profiles can be integrated into the ranking algorithm of a search engine so that search result can be ranked according to individual users interest. The RSCF makes a search of data containing the item in the search results, the required data is been clicked by the user and this clicked data is given as the input and generates the rankers as the output. The negative preference increases the separation between the similar and dissimilar queries. This separation provides a clear threshold for agglomerative clustering algorithm and improves the overall quality.
Sentiment of a society and large-cap stock liquidity

The impact of sentiment in the sample of small and young companies due to higher transaction and information costs is a generally agreed notion. On the contrary, such impact is less likely in the sample of large-cap stock companies. However, this paper goes beyond this notion and shows that we can study the influence of sentiment even at the level of large-cap companies due to the following reasons. Firstly, the paper is unique by employment of social media Facebook data as a proxy for the sentiment of a society related to the individual corporation. Such data have a potential to provide deeper insights in a society's behavior. Secondly, the author proposes the volume of trade or liquidity as a variable which incorporates sentiment in a society better than stock returns. Empirical results confirm this prediction. Overall, the paper shows the existence of the negative link between sentiment in the society and volume of trade at the level of large-cap corporations.
Presenting a Mathematical Model for Joint Production and Purchasing in a Multi-Product Problem and Determining the Optimal Order Value under Practical Constraints

Production and economic order is one of the most important topics in problems of production and inventory control, and it has long been of interest to researchers. Economic and profitable production requires that a comprehensive and detailed plan is taken and implemented for all stages of production. In the manufacturing companies that are producing a group of products, it is possible that in some periods, customers' demands exceed the production rate. In such conditions, the companies can response to such demand by more production, purchase, or accepting shortage of backordering. In case of purchase, the products stock in the warehouse at the beginning of programing period. In this study, a model is presented to determine the optimal amount of production and purchase in a multi-product system and with the objective of optimizing the costs of inventory system under the limitations of warehouse space and budget. Also, the start production time and the optimal amount of the shortage are determined. The presented mathematical model is of nonlinear integer type. The metaheuristic algorithm was used to solve the models, and the method of design of the experiments has been used to configure the parameters of the proposed method. At the end, the proper performance of the proposed methods will be proved by some numerical examples and comparing with random search method.
An Effective Method for Borehole Imaging of Buried Tunnels

Detection and imaging of buried tunnels is a challenging problem which is relevant to both geophysical surveys and security monitoring. To comply with the need of exploring large portions of the underground, electromagnetic measurements carried out under a borehole configuration are usually exploited. Since this requires to drill holes in the soil wherein the transmitting and receiving antennas have to be positioned, low complexity of the involved apparatus is important. On the other hand, to effectively image the surveyed area, there is the need for adopting efficient and reliable imaging methods. To address these issues, in this paper we investigate the feasibility of the linear sampling method (LSM), as this inverse scattering method is capable to provide almost real-time results even when 3D images of very large domains are built, while not requiring approximations of the underlying physics. In particular, the results of the reported numerical analysis show that the LSM is capable of performing the required imaging task while using a quite simple measurement configuration consisting of two boreholes and a few number of multiview-multistatic acquisitions.
Inhibition as a determinant of activity and criticality in dynamical networks

A certain degree of inhibition is a common trait of dynamical networks in nature, ranging from neuronal and biochemical networks, to social and technological networks. We study here the role of inhibition in a representative dynamical network model, characterizing the dynamics of random threshold networks with both excitatory and inhibitory links. Varying the fraction of excitatory links has a strong effect on the network's population activity and its sensitivity to perturbation. The average degree $K$, known to have a strong effect on the dynamics when small, loses its influence on the dynamics as its value increases. Instead, the strength of inhibition is a determinant of dynamics and sensitivity here, allowing for criticality only in a specific corridor of inhibition. This criticality corridor requires that excitation dominates, while the balance region corresponds to maximum sensitivity to perturbation. We develop mean-field approximations of the population activity and sensitivity and find that the network dynamics is independent of degree distribution for high $K$. In a minimal model of an adaptive threshold network we demonstrate how the dynamics remains robust against changes in the topology. This adaptive model can be extended in order to generate networks with a controllable activity distribution and specific topologies.
Toward a General and Unified View of Educational Research and Educational Evaluation

This paper addresses an important problem that may really be a pseudoproblem perpetuated by a current artificial or even political need to isolate researchers, evaluators, and theorists and put them in conceptual-methodological boxes. In this paper, we argue that scholars of all kinds should focus on the nouns (i.e., research, evaluation, theory) versus the adjectives (i.e., quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods) used to qualify these nouns and core constructs. In a word, researchers, evaluators, measurement professionals, and theorists of all persuasions should strive to be neither qualitative nor quantitative, as that is like striving to be a single leg in a triangle. Following Hacking (1965), our view is that all forms of research methodology and evaluation methodology represent a “patchwork quilt” that is essentially “one fabric” with two connected but often unacknowledged sides to the quilt and that all methodology, analysis, and evaluations are essentially “qual-quantification” and “quant-qualification” and usually both at the same time. This general and unified or “one fabric” view of these debates and issues is discussed from a historical-philosophical perspective, and the need for a more general and inclusive evaluation and research epistemology is elucidated. Having outlined an epistemic framework and argument for a more comprehensive and complete view and model of evaluation and research that transcends a specific research paradigm, the paper concludes by outlining eight general key points that most (if not all) researchers and evaluators
Respiratory Pathways Used By Perchlorate¨CRespring Bacteria

Anaerobic bioreactors have been developed to remove perchlorate from water, but backwashing and operational interruptions can expose biofilms to oxygen. While it is well known that oxygen is a preferential electron acceptor to perchlorate for perchlorate-respiring bacteria, little is known about the effect of oxygen exposure or redox potentials on perchlorate reduction. Four different dissolved oxygen scavengers were tested for their ability to quickly restore anaerobic conditions and allow perchlorate reduction by a facultative, perchlorate respiring bacterium Dechlorosoma sp. KJ. Of the four different oxygen scavengers tested (Oxyrase, L-Cysteine, Na2S and FeS), only Oxyrase was able to rapidly (<30 minutes) scavenge dissolved oxygen and allow cell growth. There was no cell growth after addition of Na2S and FeS, and L-Cysteine produced a long lag in cell growth. To investigate the effect of dissolved oxygen on perchlorate reduction, anaerobically grown cultures Dechlorosoma sp. KJ, were exposed to dissolved oxygen for various periods ranging from 1 to 32 hours. Perchlorate reduction and redox potential were then measured for cells returned to an anaerobic environment containing an oxygen scavenger. It was determined that cells exposed to dissolved oxygen for more than 12 hours were incapable of reducing perchlorate. Cells exposed to dissolved oxygen for less than 12 hours quickly reduced the redox potential to negative value (-337 mV, -333 mV, 315 mV and –127 mV) and were able to reduce perchlorate or chlorite. Our results suggest that aeration during backwashing of biofilm reactors, or exposure of perchlorate-degrading cell suspensions to dissolve oxygen for less than 12 hours, will not be detrimental to the ability of perchlorate-degrading bacteria to use perchlorate as an electron acceptor.
Rapid Manufacturing of Functional Engineering Components

This report details the work undertaken with the end goal of creating a machine capable of additive manufacturing of functional components using various materials. The research focuses on the manufacture of functional electro-mechanical components. This report includes a literature review additive manufacturing technologies and a summary of the research undertaken thus far. The work focused on enabling the RepRap machine to utilise multiple materials using the Robocasting and Fused Filament Fabrication processes. This resulted in the manufacture of several multiple material components. Note: This report is a summary of the MPhil to PhD transfer report submitted by Rhys Owen Jones in October 2010.
Could There be a Turing Test for Qualia

The paper examines the possibility of a Turing test designed to answer the question of whether a computational artefact is a genuine subject of conscious experience. Even given the severe epistemological difficulties surrounding the 'other minds problem' in philosophy, we nonetheless generally believe that other human beings are conscious. Hence Turing attempts to defend his original test (2T) in terms of operational parity with the evidence at our disposal in the case of attributing understanding and consciousness to other humans. Following this same line of reasoning, I argue that the conversation-based 2T is far too weak, and we must scale up to the full linguistic and robotic standards of the Total Turing Test (3T). Within this framework, I deploy Block's distinction between Phenomenal-consciousness and Access-consciousness to argue that passing the 3T could at most provide a sufficient condition for concluding that the robot enjoys the latter but not the former. However, I then propose a variation on the 3T, adopting Dennett's method of 'heterophenomenology', to rigorously probe the robot's purported 'inner' qualitative experiences. If the robot could pass such a prolonged and intensive Qualia 3T (Q3T), then the purely behavioural evidence would seem to attain genuine parity with the human case. Although success at the Q3T would not supply definitive proof that the robot was genuinely a subject of Phenomenal- consciousness, given that the external evidence is now equivalent with the human case, apparently the only grounds for denying qualia would be appeal to difference of internal structure, either physical-physiological or functional- computational. In turn, both of these avenues are briefly examined. 1 the
Rules rather than discretion : teacher hiring and rent extraction

Because of data limitations, there is little empirical research on how firms conduct hiring and the merits of different recruitment strategies. In this paper, I take advantage of a unique setting that allows me to compare the quality (value-added to student achievement) of the teachers hired in a discretionary proce3ss led by the teachers' union in Mexico with those hired on the basis of a screening rule. My results show that the teachers' union selects applicants of a considerably lower quality than those selected using a standardized test, despite the fact that the test has no power to predict teacher quality. I find evidence that the results are not explained by the self-selection of high-quality teachers to follow the test-based process. The combination of these results indicates that the teachers selected through the discretionary process are from the bottom of the distribution of applicant quality. My analysis also reveals that joint committees of state officials and union representatives allocate teachers hired in this way to schools in more "desirable" localities, but with similar pre-treatment trends in outcomes. Findings are consistent with standard models of rent extraction.