Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MANAGING SPORTS EXPERIENCES IN THE CONTEXT OF TOURISM

Participation in sports activities combined with unique sports resources can provide people with extraordinary experiences. It is especially true for tourism where sports activities are an important content of stay. The aim of this paper is to analyse how sports experiences could be planned and managed for the tourism purposes from the aspect of sports facility managers. In addition, the interrelations within the four realms of an experience were analysed and supported by proposed management models and examples. Results of the analysis indicate that it is possible for a facility to provide a full spectrum of experiences but only if it meets the standards of professional sports. Recommendations suggested by the paper provide new insight on organising the sports offer in the destination, and can be used by sports facility managers in order to better serve sports and sports tourism needs.
Time Spent Online as an Online Learning Behavior Variable in a Blended Learning Environment with an Ontology-Based Intelligent Tutoring System

This paper discusses a study conducted in a blended learning environment for an introductory computer programming course. The experimental environment is a type of flipped classroom model, in which students initially learn the basic concepts online and then learn traditional lecture in the subsequent class. During the design phase of a blended learning course, it is important to determine the time frame a teacher expects from students regarding spending time online. Therefore, the aim of this study of AC-ware supported education is to identify online learning time frames. After the students use AC-ware Tutor for four experimental weeks, we will investigate their weekly online learning behavior. The online learning behavior will be represented using the knowledge tracking variables complemented by additional stereotype tracking variables. By using K-means algorithm, we will highlight four groups of specific online learning behaviors. The performance of each student group will be described using weekly paper-based concept map posttests.
The Pursuit of Organizational Well-Being-an Exploratory Study in a Public Research Agency

 Abstract—The aim of this paper is to identify the key areas that contribute to organizational well-being in the Italian National Research Council (CNR), the major Public Research Agency in Italy. Through this study we want to contribute to the definition of this construct in specific contexts, such as research agencies and universities. 7 focus groups were carried out involving 61 employees with different professional roles and profiles. Using qualitative data analysis software NVivo9, we identified 6 key areas of organizational well-being in the CNR. The results of this study highlight the value not only of human resources management, but also of knowledge management, relationships, clarity of the Agency vision and employee future outlook, motivation and participation in decision making as important factors for organizational well-being of a research agency. We propose interventions for organizational health promotion, aimed at creating a learning organization and at activating knowledge management processes.
Obviā et Imperā ! A case for ‘ perspectival control ’ in directive clauses

The paper proposes a new type of control configuration: perspectival control. This involves control of a non-argument PRO that combines with a directive modal operator in the Mood domain. This PRO encodes the individual to whom the public commitments associated with the modal are anchored, and its presence can be detected in the syntax through a subject obviation effect. The empirical focus of the paper are Slovenian directive clauses (imperatives and subjunctives), but the analysis is shown to have implications for analyses of other languages as well as theories of directive clauses and the representation of discourse related information in the syntax.
Strategic planning of the tourism development in small cities and rural territories as a tool for the development of the regional economy

The paper covers the theory of the digital and the sharing economy. Since tourism industry is considered to be the one of the simplest and fastest industries to make profit, the paper argues that the realm of those “new economies” proposes new opportunities to develop sustainable tourism at rural territories and in towns. As far as the reality of the digital and the sharing economy lightens the process of capitalizing the natural, cultural, intellectual and human resources of any territory, we propose the approach to develop tourism industry at rural territories and towns as a tool to raise the level and quality of locals’ life. The objective of the paper is to research the existent apps promoting tourist and other services in the chosen Districts of the Northwestern Federal District of the Russian Federation, to propose a tool to integrate the tourism industry of those Districts into the digital and the sharing economy of the World, and to calculate whether the use of this tool is cost-effective.
Crowd Simulate in Panic Situations

This paper describes a model for simulating crowds in real time. We deal with the hierarchy of the crowd, groups and individuals. We present two different ways for controlling crowd behaviors: by defining behavior rules, to give intelligence to the agent. By providing an external control to guide crowd behaviors, this control is done by the user or by an autonomous agent called the guide. The main contribution of our approach is to combine these two ways of behaviors (autonomous, guide) in order to simulate the evacuation of a crowd in emergency situations. Many strategies of evacuation have been implemented and we will demonstrate that in most situations, the guided method decrease the average escape time in emergency situations.
On Advances in Cancer Suicide-genes Therapy

Chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery are still the main cancer treatments. However, they carry considerable toxicity that often causes other adverse symptoms. The gene therapy intends to eliminate the tumor without damaging the normal host tissue. The classical suicide gene therapy needed the conversion of non-toxic prodrug into toxic metabolite and the bioavailability of active drugs. The discovery of genes that encode cytotoxic proteins overcomes these needs. There are many patents which describe the direct action of these new genes, and their uses as antitumor treatments. Some of the drawbacks of the tumor gene therapy are the low efficiency of in vivo gene delivery and the low tumor specificity. Advances on this field suggest the use of a combined gene therapy and chemotherapy or radiotherapy to increase the effectiveness of the antitumor treatment.
Presence of the Potato Late Blight Resistance Gene RB Does Not Promote Adaptive Parasitism of Phytophthora infestans

The gene RB is derived from the wild potato species S. bulbocastanum and confers partial resistance to late blight, caused by the oomycete pathogen Phytophthora infestans. In order to investigate whether a single strain of P. infestans can adapt to overcome this partial resistance source, we subjected RB containing leaflets to multiple rounds of infection with P. infestans, with a culture isolated from a lesion used to infect the next leaflet (a passage). A parallel line of passages was done using susceptible leaflets as hosts. At the end of the experiment, P. infestans strains passaged through resistant or susceptible leaflets were compared for infection efficiency and lesion size. Variants of the P. infestans effector family IPI-O, some of which are recognized by the RB protein to elicit resistance, were cloned and sequenced to determine whether variation occurred during selection on the partially resistant host. Our results show that after 20 rounds of selection, no breakdown in RB resistance took place. In fact, the strain that was continually passaged through the partially resistant host produced smaller lesions on susceptible leaflets and had a lower infection frequency than the strain passaged through susceptible cultivar Katahdin. No changes within IPI-O coding regions were detected after selection on the hosts with RB. Our results indicate that individual strains of P. infestans are not capable of rapidly overcoming RB resistance even when it is the only host available.
A Capacitor Energy Fluctuation Suppressing Method for MMC-MTDC Systems with Droop Control

The dc-link voltage deviation in multi-terminal high voltage direct current (MTDC) systems caused by droop control under various transmission power significantly increases the fluctuation rang of capacitor voltages in modular multilevel converters (MMCs). The principles of floating capacitor energy fluctuation are analyzed in this paper and an improved control method, adaptively regulating inserted submodules to maintain the stability of the cascaded capacitor voltage, is presented. Simulation results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the control strategy.
Using psychometrics & psychological tools in coaching & development conversation

Coaches have an expanding range of psychological assessment tools from which they can draw to assist coachees build the self-awareness that is necessary to identify new career and life goals, and to enhance their performance at work. The burgeoning psychological testing industry has produced a myriad of measures enabling coaches to support coachees to better understand their behaviour, their preferences and their capabilities as they relate to work and life. Personality tests, aptitude tests, and questionnaires assessing values, interests, leadership and motivational needs represent some of the kinds of tests currently available on the market internationally. Many of these psychological tests have made a positive contribution to coaching and have been rigorously tested to ensure their reliability and validity (terms we will explore latter). There is however considerable variability in the level of research undertaken and the reliability and validity of these tools.
Title Isolation improvement using CMRC for MIMO antennas

In this paper, a compact microstrip resonant cell (CMRC) is proposed to improve isolation of antenna elements in the design of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas. The MIMO antenna used for studies consists of two symmetrical L-shaped planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) elements placed at a distance of 16.2 mm on a printed-circuit board (PCB). A singlelayer CMRC is etched on the PCB between the PIFA elements to improve isolation between them. Computer simulation is used to study and design the MIMO antenna. Results show that the CMRC can increase isolation between the two PIFA elements by 10 dB in the 2.4-GHz WLAN band. The envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) is about 0.0005 to 0.0035 over the frequency band.
More Rapidly Rotating PMS M Dwarfs with Light Curves Suggestive of Orbiting Clouds of Material

In a previous paper, using data from K2 Campaign 2, we identified 11 very low mass members of the ρ Oph and Upper Scorpius star-forming region as having periodic photometric variability and phased light curves showing multiple scallops or undulations. All of the stars with the “scallop-shell” light curve morphology are mid-to-late M dwarfs without evidence of active accretion and with photometric periods generally <1 day. Their phased light curves have too much structure to be attributed to non-axisymmetrically distributed photospheric spots and rotational modulation. We have now identified an additional eight probable members of the same star-forming region plus three stars in the Taurus star-forming region with this same light curve morphology and sharing the same period and spectral type range as the previous group. We describe the light curves of these new stars in detail and present their general physical characteristics. We also examine the properties of the overall set of stars in order to identify common features that might help elucidate the causes of their photometric variability.
Tunable Plasmonic Resonances Below Schottky Diode Band-gap Based on Elliptical Nanoantennas

Nanoantennas are suitable components for detection of optical radiation at energies below the bandgap energy of the semiconductor and higher than Schottky barrier of metal/semiconductor interface in photodetectors. Elliptical nanodisk antennas (ENAs) on a Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) substrate are studied to tune the optical response across the near-infrared band. The resonance wavelength, normal field enhancement, and bandwidth of plasmonic resonance are tailored by controlling the size and elliptical aspect ratio. The results are compared with circular nanodisk antennas (CNAs) and ring nanoparticle antennas (RNAs). Silver and gold metal types for nanoantennas are also studied for electric field enhancement, where the Drude model of metals are considered. The surfaces plasmon is proven by comparing with the perfect electric conductor of silver and gold nanoantennas. The obtained results prove that the designed nanoantennas can be used to enhance the operation of photodetectors and solar cells.
Level 1b error budget for MIPAS on ENVISAT

Abstract. The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) is a Fourier transform spectrometer measuring the radiance emitted from the atmosphere in limb geometry in the thermal infrared spectral region. It was operated onboard the ENVISAT satellite from 2002 to 2012. Calibrated and geolocated spectra, the so-called level 1b data, are the basis for the retrieval of atmospheric parameters. In this paper we present the error budget for the level 1b data of the most recent data version 8 in terms of radiometric, spectral, and line of sight accuracy. The major changes of version 8 compared to older versions are also described. The impact of the different error sources on the spectra is characterized in terms of spectral, vertical, and temporal correlation because these correlations have an impact on the quality of the retrieved quantities. The radiometric error is in the order of 1 % to 2.4 %, the spectral accuracy is better than 0.3 ppm, and the line of sight accuracy at the tangent point is around 400 m. All errors are well within the requirements, and the achieved accuracy allows atmospheric parameters to be retrieved from the measurements with high quality.
Genetic characterization of the Cuban water buffalo population using microsatellite DNA markers.

The water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is an economically important livestock species. This study presents a molecular characterization of the Cuban water buffalo population on the basis of 16 bovine-specifi c microsatellite markers. The mean number of alleles across the 16 loci was 5.44, and the largest number of alleles for a locus was nine for the ETH225 marker and fewest alleles were two for the TGLA126 marker. Observed average heterozygosity was 0.46 ± 0.23 and expected heterozygosity was 0.54 ± 0.19. The overall polymorphic information content (PIC) value for these markers was 0.495. The observed value of inbreeding coeffi cient (F IS ) was of 0.148 and three loci were with signifi cant reduction of heterozygosity (ETH3, HAUT24 and INRA032). Four loci were not in the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium with a signifi cant defi cit heterozygote (ETH3, CSRM60, HAUT24 and INRA032).
Fairness through transparency — The influence of price transparency on price fairness perceptions

The study examines and identifies factors that influence consumers’ perceptions of price fairness. In the formation and perception of price fairness judgments, price transparency plays an important role in customers’ judgment processes. Cognitive fairness judgments require a certain amount of information processing, so more information and transparency about prices should affect the outcome of fairness judgments. The more clear information consumers have about the vendor’s price, the higher their price fairness perceptions will be regarding the superiority of the offer. Price fairness in turn leads to more favorable evaluations of satisfaction perceptions and increases customers’ attitudinal loyalty toward repurchase and recommendation. Structural equation modeling of a survey of 1,459 passengers of a major European train company serves to test the relationships among the constructs and groups.
Demystifying the OCMJD Certification

Of all Java certifications currently available, OCMJD is the only one that effectively demands the candidates to demonstrate in practice their ability to solve problems of the real world using the Java language. This certification demands the candidates to show some level of proficiency in some topics that are not covered in other certifications, such as RMI/Sockets and Swing. This paper shows what candidates can expect when opting for this certification, the steps that have to be taken in order to become certified, the pitfalls hidden behind the requirements and a fictitious assignment partially solved.
Dimensions of Organizational Intelligence in Iranian Universities an Information Processing Perspective

Organizational Intelligence and Business Intelligence shape the organizational rules and resources. The information processing capability of the organization as a main factor of Organizational intelligence is influenced and guided by pre existing rules and resources. Structures act as information filtering mechanisms that process the information consistent with the current organizational schemas. Also, the people who control the resources strongly influence the information processing capability of the organizations and this capability is determined by top management who are a group of people steering the organization. This paper discusses the perceptions of organizational intelligence and its dimensions in Iranian Universities, taking into account several dimensions and components. As the main objective of this research is to outline the Dimensions and Components of Organizational Intelligence in Universities so an expert panel opinions was used and a conceptual model proposed. In order to assess the ability of the organization for the learning process and its intelligence coefficient, a conceptual model was proposed and tested. This model consists of eight Dimensions which must be monitored which are: structural, cultural, strategic, communicational, informational, functional, behavioral, and environmental dimensions. Each dimension consists of some components (36 components). So based on these dimensions and components, Organizational Intelligence profile of university can be calculated.
A Novel Approach for Generating Composite Sketches from Mugshot Photographs

Generation of sketch is being considered as a prominent research topic in image processing, the importance of which is increasing manifold. Converting an image from pixels to a sketch has a massive effect on several applications. Sometimes, the generated sketches may appear blurred and of degraded quality, then, the enhancement of sketch becomes a promising approach to increase each detail of the sketch. Measuring the quality of the generated sketch is important as the performance solely depends on image quality. In this paper, we develop a novel approach to generate the sketch for a corresponding input facial image by undergoing several stages. Here, Gaussian blur is used to blur the given image. Subsequently, enhancement of the sketch is done using Unsharp masking technique. We measure the quality of sketch before and after enhancement using quality assessment methods such as PSNR, MSE, NAE and it is compared against benchmarked quality measures. Experimental analysis is conducted using CUHK and PRIP-HDC datasets.
CAS2VEC: Network-Agnostic Cascade Prediction in Online Social Networks

Effectively predicting whether a given post or tweet is going to become viral in online social networks is of paramount importance for several applications, such as trend and break-out forecasting. While several attempts towards this end exist, most of the current approaches rely on features extracted from the underlying network structure over which the content spreads. Recent studies have shown, however, that prediction can be effectively performed with very little structural information about the network, or even with no structural information at all. In this study we propose a novel network-agnostic approach called cAs2vEC, that models information cascades as time series and discretizes them using time slices. For the actual prediction task we have adopted a technique from the natural language processing community. The particular choice of the technique is mainly inspired by an empirical observation on the strong similarity between the distribution of discretized values occurrence in cascades and words occurrence in natural language documents. Thus, thanks to such a technique for sentence classification using convolutional neural networks, CAS2VEC can predict whether a cascade is going to become viral or not. We have performed extensive experiments on two widely used real-world datasets for cascade prediction, that demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm against strong baselines.
Scalable RMA-based Communication Library Featuring Node-local NVMs

Remote Memory Access (RMA) is a useful communication interface to develop high-performance applications with complicated communication patterns. However, the data scales of such applications are still limited by the totally available main memory capacity. To accommodate extreme scale executions of those applications, we developed vGASNet, which is an RMA-based communication library that exploits the capacity of non-volatile memory (NVM) on each node. With vGASNet, NVM devices on nodes compose a large shared address space. Under this model, the key for good application performance is to reduce bandwidth bottlenecks. First, since NVM is much slower than DRAM, reducing the amounts of NVM accesses is important. For this purpose, vGASNet regards DRAM of each computation node as a cache of NVM. Next, one of bottleneck sources in RMA is caused by access contention. In order to mitigate its effects, vGASNet adopts cooperative cache mechanism, which make multiple caches of an object on several nodes. Our evaluation using vGASNet shows the above cache mechanism improves the scalability of RMA.
Selected Aspects of Design of High-Speed Permanent Magnet Brushless Machines

The actual trend in high speed electromechanical drives technology is to use permanent magnet (PM) brushless motors, solid rotor induction motors or switched reluctance motors. The highest efficiency and highest power density is achieved with PM brushless motors. The following issues, which are essential in electromagnetic, mechanical and thermal design of high speed PM brushless motors have been discussed: 1) main dimensions and sizing procedure, 2) mechanical requirements, 3) stator design guidelines including bad practices, 4) rotor design guidelines.