Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors affecting farm growth intentions of family farms in mountain regions: Empirical evidence for Central Switzerland

Highlights Abstract Family farms in mountain regions are undergoing a progressive structural change and an ongoing shift in the allocation of production factors land, capital and labor. In Switzerland, various policy measures influence the re-allocation of these production factors. To understand the effectiveness of these schemes and to assess future farm structural change, it is useful to analyze the underlying drivers which support and hinder the emergence of individual farm growth strategies. We study the family farms’ growth intentions using a logistic regression model based on a combination of census and survey data on family characteristics from two mountain case study regions in Central Switzerland. Factors supporting farm growth intentions are the relative change in farm size in recent years, farm related sunk costs, farm diversification and farm size. We found no support for the hypothesis that farm growth intention is also influenced by the perceived personal situation represented by indicators for the perceived workload, psychological stress and financial problems. In addition, off-farm labor did not pre-vent farmers from stating growth intentions. Our empirical findings suggest that (i) the most important factors which support farm growth intentions correspond with factors driving observed patterns of structural change; (ii) limited availability of family labor may result in a new critical threshold for farm growth strategies; (iii) aims and non-pecuniary preferences of farmers will impede a rapid structural change in the near future.
26 June 2006

Cuc Phuong National Park (CPNP) is Vietnam’s first national park, which has become a model for national parks and protected systems in Vietnam since its establishment in 1962. In spite of its importance to tourism, no systematic analysis has been undertaken thus far to understand the perceptions of its residents toward tourism in their area. Guided by the Social Exchange Theory, this study investigated Cuc Phuong National Park (CPNP) residents’ perceptions of tourism impacts and their support for tourism development in their areas. Additionally, the study also explored how demographic factors (age, gender, ethnicity, place of birth, marital status and level of education, household monthly income, job status and length of residency) explain residents’ perceptions and their support. It was found that residents in general have positive perceptions towards the impacts brought by tourism in CPNP especially with regards to its social-cultural and environmental impacts and they strongly supported tourism development. However, these perceptions differ according to residents’ socio-demographic characteristics. The study also revealed that residents’ age and gender and their perceptions of tourism impacts could be predictors for their support for tourism development in CPNP. Based on these findings, the concluding part discusses the study’s implications and provides suggestions for the future. © 2011 International University College. All rights reserved
Control predictivo-cooperativo para operar una red de bombas centrífugas en un sistema serial de poliductos Predictive-cooperative control for the operation of a centrifugal pump network in a serial multiproduct pipeline system

Pipeline systems provide a connection between ports, oil fields, refineries and consumer markets. Refined products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, kerosene, etc., are transported through the same pipeline. This way, additional costs of several pipelines dedicated to specific products are avoided. This transportation mode presents the problem of contamination or mixture of products, which increase operating costs. In this sense, this research presents the problem of modeling and simulating pipelines used for transporting different kinds of fluids. Such problem is solved taking into account the pressure, speed of the medium and the fluid density. A mathematical model to predict the amount of contamination between products is considered and presents the case of several connected pipe sections using a centrifugal pump algebraic model. Based on the above, a predictive control strategy, considering the optimization with neighboring sub-processes, in order to coordinate local controls on pumping stations and to achieve an overall efficiency in pollution levels is designed. Finally, the obtained results confirm the efficiency of the predictivecooperative control strategy applied to a network of centrifugal pumps in a serial pipeline system.
A Galerkin Algorithm for Multidimensional Plasma Simulation Codes

A Galerkin finite element differencing scheme has been developed for a computer simulation of plasmas. The new difference equations identically satisfy an equation of continuity. Thus, the usual current correction procedure, involving inversion of Poisson's equation, is unnecessary. The algorithm is free of many numerical Cherenkov instabilities. This differencing scheme has been implemented in CCUBE, an already existing relativistic, electromagnetic, two-dimensional PIC code in arbitrary separable, orthogonal coordinates. The separability constraint is eliminated by the new algorithm. The new version of CCUBE exhibits good stability and accuracy with reduced computer memory and time requirements. Details of the algorithm and its implementation are presented.
University of Birmingham Perceived softness of composite objects

What is the apparent softness of a grasped object composed of two compliant materials? Experimental data indicates that perceived softness of a composite object depends on how the object is grasped and how it is oriented. If the object is grasped with a precision grip using index and thumb, turning around the object leads to a consistent change in overall perceived softness. Namely, the composite object seems softer when the index is in contact with the more compliant material than when it is in contact with the stiffer material. Importantly, such a difference in perceived softness due to object orientation is not present when the precision grip is obtained by opposing index and middle fingers to the thumb.
ESUCA: a pipeline for genome-wide identification of upstream open reading frames with evolutionarily 1 conserved sequences and determination of the taxonomic range of their conservation

29 Background: Some upstream open reading frames (uORFs) in the 5 ′ leaders of eukaryotic mRNAs encode 30 evolutionarily conserved functional peptides, such as cis-acting regulatory peptides that control main ORF 31 (mORF) translation. To comprehensively identify uORFs with conserved peptide sequences (CPuORFs), we 32 previously developed the BAIUCAS pipeline, in which uORF sequences are compared between a certain species 33 and any others with available transcript sequence databases. However, further selection is needed to identify 34 CPuORFs encoding functional peptides. The purpose of this study is to develop a novel pipeline to efficiently 35 identify CPuORFs likely to encode functional peptides. 36 Results: Here, we present the ESUCA pipeline. In addition to the function of BAIUCAS, ESUCA has the 37 following new functions: 1) to identify CPuORFs likely to be conserved due to the functions of their encoded 38 small peptides, not due to encoding parts of the mORF-encoded proteins; 2) to systematically calculate K a / K s 39 ratios to assess whether uORF sequences are conserved at the nucleotide or amino acid level; 3) to determine the 40 taxonomic range of uORF sequence conservation. We applied ESUCA to five plant genomes and identified 88 41 novel CPuORF families. Using a transient expression assay, we examined the effects of eight CPuORFs 42 conserved in various taxonomic ranges on mORF translation. Three of seven CPuORFs conserved across diverse 43 eudicots showed sequence-dependent regulatory effects. 44 Conclusions: This study demonstrates that ESUCA can efficiently identify many CPuORFs conserved in 45 various taxonomic ranges by applying it to many species and is highly useful to select CPuORFs likely to encode 46 functional peptides. 47 48 49 50 51 52 53
Genetic Diversity of Indonesian Swamp Buffalo Based on Microsatellite Markers

Indonesia has high genetic resources of local swamp buffalo with good adaptation across regions. However, these animals decline in both population and genetic quality. This research was conducted to study the genetic diversity of Indonesian swamp buffalo. A total of 199 DNA samples (swamp buffalo) from seven provincial populations were used in this study. Genetics identification used three microsatellite markers (CSSM66, ILSTS61, and ILSTS17). Microsatellites were visualized by Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (PAGE) 10% with silver staining method. Microsatellite data were analyzed using GenAlEx 6.41, Cervus 3.0, and POPTREE2 software. The results showed that a total of 9 alleles were found from the three loci. ILSTS61 had a high PIC (Polymorphism Information Content) compared to the other loci. The high observed heterozygosity of ILSTS61 was found in swamp buffalo from Riau Province, while the Ho value of ILSTS17 ranged from 0.000 to 0.170. This study identified two clusters for Indonesian swamp buffalo, i.e., cluster I (Aceh, North Sumatra, and Riau) and cluster II (Banten, Central Java, West Nusa Tenggara, and South Sulawesi). The two major divergent directions are considered in Indonesia swamp buffaloes across the observed provinces.
University of Alberta The Relationship between Health Related Quality of Life and Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Surgery

Objectives: To review the studies those have assessed Quality Of Life (QOL) after Video Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS) and Thoracotomy for resection of lung cancer, and to determine the impact of post VATS complications on patients’ QOL Methods: For the review, we performed a systematic review, and included studies based on specific inclusion/exclusion criteria according. To determine the impact of surgical complications on patients’ QOL, we designed a prospective cohort study. Results: 5 observational studies were included in this final review; a qualitative as well as a meta-analysis were used to interpret the results. 44 patients were included in the cohort study, there were significant differences based on the complications grade in QOL of patients undergoing VATS lobectomy for lung cancer. Conclusion: In general patients undergoing VATS resection have a better QOL when compared to thoracotomy up to two years after surgery. Post-operative complications can determine patients’ QOL after surgery.
CJD review Lancet Infectious Diseases 1 Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: a systematic review of the global incidence, prevalence, infectivity and incubation

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ACCEPTED AUTHOR VERSION OF THE MANUSCRIPT: Microbial contamination of the air in livestock buildings as a threat to human and animal health – a review DOI: 10.2478/aoas-2020-0080

Livestock buildings are often contaminated with bacterial and fungal microflora. Animals living in the buildings, especially their excreta and secretions and their feed, can be a source of microorganisms, including pathogens. Significant microbial contamination occurs in pig houses, poultry houses and cowsheds. The microbes most frequently isolated from the air of these buildings are bacteria of the genera Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Bacillus, and Clostridium and of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Among fungi, the most common are Aspergillus, Trichoderma, Penicillium, Cladosporium and Alternaria. Microbes present in livestock buildings often pose a hazard to workers, in whom they can cause infectious and allergic diseases, especially respiratory disease. Bacterial endotoxins may also pose a threat to humans and animals. For this reason it is important to carry out microbiological monitoring and preventive measures on livestock farms and to maintain appropriate environmental conditions. This will reduce microbiological contamination of livestock buildings and improve both workers’ health and animal welfare.
Band structure of MoS2, MoSe2, and a-MoTe2: Angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio calculations

In this work the complete valence-band structure of the molybdenum dichalcogenides MoS 2 , e2, and a-MoTe2 is presented and discussed in comparison. The valence bands have been studied using both angleresolved photoelectron spectroscopy ~ARPES! with synchrotron radiation, as well as ab initio band-structure calculations. The ARPES measurements have been carried out in the constant-final-state ~CFS! mode. The results of the calculations show in general very good agreement with the experimentally determined valenceband structures allowing for a clear identification of the observed features. The dispersion of the valence bands as a function of the perpendicular component kW' of the wave vector reveals a decreasing three-dimensional character from MoS 2 to a-MoTe2 which is attributed to an increasing interlayer distance in the three compounds. The effect of this kW' dispersion on the determination of the exact dispersion of the individual states as a function of kW i is discussed. By performing ARPES in the CFS mode the kW i component for off-normal emission spectra can be determined. The corresponding kW' value is obtained from the symmetry of the spectra along theGA, KH, andML lines, respectively.
ACCEPTED AUTHOR VERSION OF THE MANUSCRIPT: Assessment of parametric and non-parametric methods for prediction of quantitative traits with non-additive genetic architecture DOI: 10.2478/aoas-2020-0087

Whole genome evaluation of quantitative traits using suitable statistical methods enables researchers to predict genomic breeding values (GEBVs) more accurately. Recent studies suggested that the ability of methods in terms of predictive performance may depend on the genetic architecture of traits. Therefore, when choosing a statistical method, it is essential to consider the genetic architecture of the target traits. Herein, the performance of parametric methods i.e. GBLUP and BayesB and non-parametric methods i.e. Bagging GBLUP and Random Forest (RF) were compared for traits with different genetic architecture. Three scenarios of genetic architecture, including purely Additive (Add), purely Epistasis (Epis) and Additive-Dominance-Epistasis (ADE) were considered. To this end, an animal genome composed of five chromosomes, each chromosome harboring 1000 SNPs and four QTL was simulated. Predictive accuracies in the first generation of testing set under Additive genetic architectures for GBLUP, BayesB, Baging GBLUP and RF were 0.639, 0.731, 0.633 and 0.548, respectively, and were 0.278, 0.330, 0.275 and 0.444 under purely Epistatic genetic architectures. Corresponding values for the Additive-Dominance-Epistatic structure also were
The Impact of Examples on Creativity : Gender Differences in Fixation Effects 1

In the global business environment, the development of new products contributes significantly to the long-term success of a company and ensures its survival (Anderson, Dreu, & Nijstad, 2004; Anderson, Potočnik, & Zhou, 2014). Novel value propositions are particularly beneficial for companies if they clearly distinguish themselves from existing ones and constitute discontinuous innovations. Considering the technological dimension of innovation, such discontinuities are often achieved when firms are moving away from existing technological knowledge and established product technologies (Utterback, 1994). Thus, the degree of innovation of new products is linked to the ability of a company to develop products based on new technological paradigms and solution principles. The foundation for the development of such innovative products must already be laid during the idea generation phase (Cooper, 1988; Henard & Szymanski, 2001), because all subsequent steps will be based on the results of this period (Goel & Pirolli, 1992; Guindon, 1990; Purcell & Gero, 1996). In this phase of idea generation, creative processes play a particularly important role. The development of new products requires creative work from engineers, designers, and technologists. Therefore, creativity has been considered one of the key qualifications to meet the demands of a modern, constantly changing society (Thompson, 2003). Innovations in science, business and culture are hardly imaginable without creative people. While the potential to be creative exists within each person, there is substantial individual variability concerning the type and the amount of creative output that is generated. A significant subset of empirical studies on creativity focuses on identifying which variables have an impact on creativity and the creative design process. Examples that are provided during problem-solving, for instance, can influence creative idea production on the individual level. The people that provide these examples may consider them to be clues that assist problem solvers in achieving the desired objectives by suggesting the transfer of relations, heuristics or algorithms from the examples to the particular task at hand (Smith, Ward, & Schumacher, 1993). Examples are often used in professional environments that require problemsolving, such as architecture or engineering. In open situations, where new creations are required to fulfill a desire, examples may be given to illustrate useful approaches of the past or the pitfalls discovered in previous related work. It is obvious
Semantic Probabilistic Layers for Neuro-Symbolic Learning

We design a predictive layer for structured-output prediction (SOP) that can be plugged into any neural network guaranteeing its predictions are consistent with a set of predefined symbolic constraints. Our Semantic Probabilistic Layer (SPL) can model intricate correlations, and hard constraints, over a structured output space all while being amenable to end-to-end learning via maximum likelihood. SPLs combine exact probabilistic inference with logical reasoning in a clean and modular way, learning complex distributions and restricting their support to solutions of the constraint. As such, they can faithfully, and efficiently, model complex SOP tasks beyond the reach of alternative neuro-symbolic approaches. We empirically demonstrate that SPLs outperform these competitors in terms of accuracy on challenging SOP tasks including hierarchical multi-label classification, pathfinding and preference learning, while retaining perfect constraint satisfaction.
A NEW ROBOTIC UNIT FOR ONBOARD AIRPLANES BOMB DISPOSAL

Abstract The paper presents an overview of commercial Ex-plosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) robots and a new system, specially conceived and designed for airplane security tasks. The guidelines for the design of this new EOD robot and the expected innovative performances and characteristics have been established in collabora-tion with the bomb squads of the airports of Genoa and Malpensa 2000, in Italy. A robotic system composed by a mobile platform equipped with a serial redundant dexterous arm and a suitable sensorial system is proposed. The paper shows the mechatronic mock up of the robotic unit, its design, main characteristics and the first results achieved in the virtual environment reconstructing the airplane work-space. Introduction The problem of security is becoming more and more important; bomb squads, always more, recover and have to handle and manage object of doubtful origin. Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) can be trig-gered in a variety of ways, including electronic trans-mitters and switches, tilt switches, thermal switches, and motion detectors (on internet, a mercury switch can be bought for only 8 €). IEDs usually contain a wide range of common explosive or incendiary materials in-cluding black powder, gasoline, TNT; a certain part is realized with more “professional” explosives as C4 or Semtex. The variety of initiation methods, explosives, and fabrication techniques creates a threat environ-ment, which is daunting. While there is great diversity amongst the threats, historical data do reveal similari-ties. To determine the operating requirements of a bomb disposal robot, it is necessary first to understand the nature of the threat. This includes knowing the
An $\alpha$-No-Regret Algorithm For Graphical Bilinear Bandits

We propose the first regret-based approach to the Graphical Bilinear Bandits problem, where $n$ agents in a graph play a stochastic bilinear bandit game with each of their neighbors. This setting reveals a combinatorial NP-hard problem that prevents the use of any existing regret-based algorithm in the (bi-)linear bandit literature. In this paper, we fill this gap and present the first regret-based algorithm for graphical bilinear bandits using the principle of optimism in the face of uncertainty. Theoretical analysis of this new method yields an upper bound of $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{T})$ on the $\alpha$-regret and evidences the impact of the graph structure on the rate of convergence. Finally, we show through various experiments the validity of our approach.
The Elements of Flexibility for Task-Performing Systems

What makes living systems flexible so that they can react quickly and adapt easily to changing environments? This question has not only engaged biologists for decades but is also of great interest to computer scientists and engineers who seek inspiration from nature to increase the flexibility of task-performing systems such as machine learning systems, robots, or manufacturing systems. In this paper, we give a broad overview of design features of living systems that are known to promote flexibility. We call these design features the “elements of flexibility”. Moreover, to facilitate interdisciplinary, bio-inspired research that brings the elements of flexibility to man-made task-performing systems, we introduce a general formalism for system flexibility optimization. The formalism is intended to (i) provide a common language to communicate ideas about system flexibility among researchers with different backgrounds, (ii) help to understand and compare existing research on system flexibility, e.g., in transfer learning or manufacturing flexibility, and (iii) provide a basis for a general theory of system flexibility optimization.
On the latency of multi-level polar coded modulations

A commonly assumed drawback of multi-level coding, compared to a bit-interleaved coded modulation, is its high latency: Indeed, the levels must be decoded sequentially. In this paper, we consider polar codes to code each level. We show that the decoding time complexity of the multi-level scheme, using successive-cancellation list decoding for each polar code, is only 1.5 times the one of a single polar code, regardless of the signal-to-noise ratio and the number of levels.