Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring Competitive Intelligence Practices of French Local Public Agricultural Organisations

Modern agriculture has increased the need for information when making strategic decisions for farmers since they must be more entrepreneurial to survive. This paper investigates the levels of Competitive Intelligence practices in a French Regional Chamber of Agriculture and its four Departmental Chambers of Agriculture to examine the ability of these public organisations to keep fulfilling one of their missions which is to provide the necessary information and knowledge to farmers. Thus, this study proposes a behavioural and operational typology of Competitive Intelligence practice. Both types of organisations demonstrate that they are not well adapted to support the entrepreneurial farmers on this issue. The findings of this study and the diagnosis of the Competitive Intelligence practices applied to the typology could be of help to increase their and other public agricultural structures performance levels. Furthermore, the platform has the potential to inspire the public sector through subsequent adaptations.
Information Diffusion in a Cobweb World

Based on an assumption of one-way learning, Granato and Wong (2004) consider a framework with two groups of agents, Group L and Group H, where Group L is less "attentive" and uses the expectations of the more or highly "attentive" Group H to update their forecasts. The paper shows the "boomerang effect," which is defined as a situation where the inaccurate forecasts of a less attentive group confound a more attentive group's forecasts. This extended paper relaxes the one-way learning assumption and investigates the case that both groups are learning from each other, i.e., dual learning. Simulations suggest that a boomerang effect still exists. Surprisingly, although the highly attentive group has a full set of information to make forecasts, they still learn from Group L. The reason is that Group H adjusts their forecasts because there is available information in Group L's forecast measurement error. INTRODUCTION This paper follows an adaptive learning model in Granato and Wong (2004) where we assess a dynamic information diffusion process among different groups of agents (in a self-referential model). We build our framework within a general cobweb-type expectation model while it is widely applicable and popular among macroeconomic studies (see Ezekiel, 1938; Muth, 1961; Arifovic, 1994; Brock and Hommes, 1997; Evans and Honkapohja, 2001; and Branch, 2002). Lucas (1973), in particular, models inflation expectations with a cobweb model. In the paper of Granato and Wong (2004), we examine the "boomerang effect," which is defined as a situation where the inaccurate forecasts of a less attentive group confound a more attentive group's forecasts. We consider a framework with two groups of agents. Both groups use least squares learning to make their forecasts. However, Group L is less "attentive" and uses the expectations of the more or highly "attentive" Group H to update their forecasts. We conclude that the inaccuracy of Group L's forecast has a boomerang effect: the inaccurate forecasts of Group L now confound Group
IRVE-II Post-Flight Trajectory Reconstruction

NASA s Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE) II successfully demonstrated an inflatable aerodynamic decelerator after being launched aboard a sounding rocket from Wallops Flight Facility (WFF). Preliminary day of flight data compared well with pre-flight Monte Carlo analysis, and a more complete trajectory reconstruction performed with an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) approach followed. The reconstructed trajectory and comparisons to an attitude solution provided by NASA Sounding Rocket Operations Contract (NSROC) personnel at WFF are presented. Additional comparisons are made between the reconstructed trajectory and pre and post-flight Monte Carlo trajectory predictions. Alternative observations of the trajectory are summarized which leverage flight accelerometer measurements, the pre-flight aerodynamic database, and on-board flight video. Finally, analysis of the payload separation and aeroshell deployment events are presented. The flight trajectory is reconstructed to fidelity sufficient to assess overall project objectives related to flight dynamics and overall, IRVE-II flight dynamics are in line with expectations
Morphological Integration and Developmental Modularity

Biological systems, from molecular complexes to whole organisms and ecological interactions, tend to have a modular organization. Modules are sets of traits that are internally integrated by interactions among traits, but are relatively independent from other modules. The interactions within modules rely on different mechanisms, depending on the context of a study. For morphological traits, modularity occurs in developmental, genetic, functional, and evolutionary contexts. A range of methods for quantifying integration and modularity in morphological data is available, and a number of comparative and experimental designs can be used to compare the different contexts. How development produces covariation between traits can have substantial implications for understanding genetic variation and the potential for evolutionary change, but research in this area has only begun and many questions remain unanswered.
Variable protostellar mass accretion rates in cloud cores

Spherical hydrodynamic models with a polytropic equation of state (EoS) for forming protostars are revisited in order to investigate the so-called luminosity conundrum highlighted by observations. For a molecular cloud (MC) core with such an EoS with polytropic index $\gamma$ >1, the central mass accretion rate (MAR) decreases with increasing time as a protostar emerges, offering a sensible solution to this luminosity problem. As the MAR decreases, the protostellar luminosity also decreases, meaning that it is invalid to infer the star formation time from the currently observed luminosity using an isothermal model. Furthermore, observations of radial density profiles and the radio continua of numerous MC cores evolving towards protostars also suggest that polytropic dynamic spheres of $\gamma$ > 1 should be used in physical models.
Inflation and Inflation Uncertainty in Nigeria: A Test of the Friedman's Hypothesis

This paper examines the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty in Nigeria. It attempts to test whether the Friedman’s hypothesis – that a rise in the average rate of inflation leads to more uncertainty about future rate of inflation - holds for the country. The monthly inflation data spanning the period 1960:1 to 2014:07 was used. Inflation uncertainty was modeled as a time varying process using a GARCH framework. Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Heteroscedasticity (EGARCH) complemented by seasonal ARIMA (2, 0, 2) (0, 0, 1) was employed to model the inflation uncertainty. Given that inflation series display structural breaks, this was tested and found to be significant which was accounted for in the model. The EGARCH fitted our data better than the symmetric GARCH model. The bivariate Granger Causality test was performed on inflation and its uncertainty; it showed that inflation causes inflation uncertainty in Nigeria. The fitted EGARCH model found strong support for the Friedman’s
THE FIRST MODULE OF THE 3 GHZ SIDE COUPLED DRIFT TUBE LINAC (SCDTL): NUMERICAL STUDIES OF RF PROPERTIES AND COLD TESTS RESULTS

The 3 GHz linac section designed for the low energy (7 – 65 MeV) part of TOP (Therapy Oncological Protons) linac consists of eight modules of the structure SCDTL (Side Coupled Drift Tube Linac). The first module is designed to accelerate 7 MeV protons up to 13.4 MeV, and a prototype has been built. The non axysimmetric cavities required a full 3D modelling. Electromagnetic calculations carried out by using MAFIA code gave the the full mode spectrum. An accurate analysis of the RF properties of the structure based on an analytical model and numerical calculations was done in order to investigate in detail the first module performances and to get hints for the final design of next modules. This paper reports the results of this study and of some RF measurements on the first module.
THE ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS POPULATION IN X-RAY-SELECTED GALAXY GROUPS AT 0.5 < Z < 1.1

We use Chandra data to study the incidence and properties of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in 16 intermediate redshift (0.5 < z < 1.1) X-ray-selected galaxy groups in the Chandra Deep Field-South. We measure an AGN fraction of at , approximately a factor of two higher than the AGN fraction found for rich clusters at comparable redshift. This extends the trend found at low redshift for groups to have higher AGN fractions than clusters. Our estimate of the AGN fraction is also more than a factor of three higher than that of low redshift X-ray-selected groups. Using optical spectra from various surveys, we also constrain the properties of emission-line selected AGNs in these groups. In contrast to the large population of X-ray AGNs (N(LX, H > 1041 erg s−1) = 25), we find only four emission-line AGNs, three of which are also X-ray bright. Furthermore, most of the X-ray AGNs in our groups are optically dull (i.e., lack strong emission-lines), similar to those found in low redshift X-ray groups and clusters of galaxies. This contrasts with the AGN population found in low redshift optically selected groups which are dominated by emission-line AGNs. The differences between the optically and X-ray-selected AGNs populations in groups are consistent with a scenario where most AGNs in the densest environments are currently in a low accretion state.
Interactive comment on “ Soil nitrogen oxide fluxes from lowland forests converted smallholder rubber and oil palm plantations in Sumatra , Indonesia ” by Evelyn Hassler et al

and I think the authors should revise the sections describing the experimental design to better clarify the chronology of the measurements. From my reading of the text, it appears that there were 2 parts to this study; the first phase, where gas fluxes were compared among forest, jungle rubber, and small holder plantations. During the second phase, fluxes were compared among small holder and large holder plantations. It would be useful if the text could be edited to make this sampling design a bit clearer.
Avaliação comparativa da analgesia preemptiva do ibuprofeno e etoricoxibe em cirurgia de terceiros molares : um ensaio clínico randomizado, duplo-cego, placebo-controlado, cruzado

A cirurgia de terceiros molares e um procedimento frequente em Odontologia relacionado a variados graus de dor pos-operatoria. Nesse contexto, drogas anti-inflamatorias nao-estereoidais tem sido comumente utilizadas em estudos que avaliaram a eficacia da analgesia preemptiva como uma estrategia para controle da dor. Portanto, o objetivo do presente estudo foi avaliar a eficacia da analgesia preemptiva e acao anti-inflamatoria do ibuprofeno e etoricoxibe em cirurgia de terceiros molares mandibulares comparado a um placebo. Foi realizado um ensaio clinico randomizado, duplo-cego, placebo-controlado cruzado com pacientes submetidos a cirurgia para remocao de terceiros molares mandibulares, com padroes similares de inclusao ossea e dificuldade cirurgica entre os lados direito e esquerdo, e que requeriam remocao ossea sob anestesia local. Dezoito pacientes elegiveis foram randomicamente alocados em tres grupos para receber 1 hora preoperatoriamente dose unica de ibuprofeno 400mg, etoricoxibe 120mg, ou placebo. Intensidade de dor, uso de medicacao analgesica de resgate, edema e maxima abertura bucal foram avaliados. A mediana (minimo - maximo) global dos escores de dor diferiu entre os grupos (p 0,05) e a media dos valores de maxima abertura bucal (p > 0,05). Em conclusao, ibuprofeno e etoricoxibe reduziram significantemente a intensidade de dor pos-operatoria e a necessidade do uso de medicacao de resgate comparado ao grupo placebo. Etoricoxibe mostrou melhor atividade analgesica preemptiva do que o ibuprofeno. Ambas as drogas nao exerceram efeito anti-inflamatorio significante capaz de reduzir edema e trismo em comparacao ao grupo placebo.
Integration of Solar Heating Into Heat Recovery Loops Using Constant and Variable Temperature Storage

Solar is a renewable energy that can be used to provide process heat to industrial sites. Solar is extremely variable and to use it reliably thermal storage is necessary. Heat recovery loops (HRL) are an indirect method for transferring heat from one process to another using an intermediate fluid (e.g. water, oil). With HRL’s thermal storage is also necessary to effectively meet the stop/start time dependent nature of the multiple source and sink streams. Combining solar heating with HRL’s makes sense as a means of reducing costs by sharing common storage infrastructure and pipe transport systems and by lowering nonrenewable hot utility demand. To maximise the value of solar in a HRL, the means of controlling the HRL needs to be considered. In this paper, the HRL example and design method of Walmsley et al. (2013) is employed to demonstrate the potential benefits of applying solar heating using the HRL variable temperature storage (VTS) approach and the conventional HRL constant temperature storage (CTS) approach. Results show the VTS approach is superior to the CTS approach for both the non-solar and solar integration cases. When the pinch is around the hot storage temperature the CST approach is constrained and the addition of solar heating to the HRL decreases hot utility at the expenses of increased cold utility. For the VTS approach the hot storage pinch shifts to a cold storage pinch and increased heat recovery is possible for the same exchanger area without solar. With solar the VTS approach can maintain the same heat recovery while also reducing hot utility still further due to the presence of solar, but only with additional area. When the pinch is located around the cold storage temperature, solar heating can be treated as an additional heat source and the benefits of CTS and VTS are comparable.
Sublethal effects of cadmium, manganese, lead, zinc and iron on the plasma electrolytes regulation of mice, Mus Musculus

The toxicological evaluations of cadmium, iron, manganese, lead and zinc were carried out against albino mice model, Mus musculus . On the basis of 96 hrLC50 value, cadmium (0.47 mM) was found to be the most toxic followed by zinc (2.40 mM), lead (2.42 mM), iron (4.25 mM) and manganese (5.70 mM) was least toxic. This study also evaluated the sublethal effects of cadmium, manganese, lead, zinc and iron in plasma samples utilising plasma electrolyte parameters as a biomarker using an albino mice model, M. musculus . Mice were subjected to sublethal concentrations of the selected heavy metals (1/10 th of 96 hrLC 50 ). Blood plasma was collected after 7, 14, 21 and 28 days in long term experiment. Sodium (Na + ), potassium (k + ), chloride (Cl - ) ions bicarbonates (HCO 3 - ), calcium (Ca 2+ ) and phosphates (P0 4 3- ). Studies on the effect of heavy metals on plasma electrolytes revealed that Pb caused elevated level of sodium (Na + ), while Cd induced significant (P < 0.05) increase in potassium (k + ) and chloride (Cl - ) ions in treated mice groups. In addition, bicarbonates (HCO 3 - ) and phosphates (P0 4 3- ) levels increasedsignificantly (P < 0.05) in treated mice exposed to Mn and Fe, respectively. The outcome of this study implied that heavy metals have toxic effects and plasma electrolyte is a useful tool for early detection and diagnosis of heavy metals pollution in the mammalian model. Key words: Electrolyte, blood plasma, heavy metals, Mus musculus
Analysing and improving Iphion collaborative IPTV

Disclaimer This document contains a student thesis (bachelor's or master's), as authored by a student at Eindhoven University of Technology. Student theses are made available in the TU/e repository upon obtaining the required degree. The grade received is not published on the document as presented in the repository. The required complexity or quality of research of student theses may vary by program, and the required minimum study period may vary in duration.
Evaluation of Ascorbic Acid in Combination of Ivermectin in Augmentation the Recovery from Juvenile Generalized Demodicosis in Dogs: A Randomized Clinical Trial

The clinical form of canine juvenile generalized demodicosis is usually related genetically with immune deficiency. In this regard, in the current study we have evaluated the impact of immunostimulant agent as ascorbic acid (AA) on the rapid recovery of dogs naturally affected by generalized demodicosis. To achieve this purpose, twenty- eight German Shepherd male dogs were used in this study and divided randomly into two groups, then received daily oral dose of ivermectin (IVR) 1% (0.5 mg kg-1) alone and IVR 1% in combination with AA (500 mg per animal, twice daily) for two months, respectively. Total mite numbers, egg counts, eosinophil counts and skin lesion score were used for assessment the treatment efficacy after 30, 60, 90, and 120 days subsequent to the initial treatment. Seventeen dogs (IVR (n = 8), and IVR + AA (n = 9)) completed the full length of experiment (4- months) as 11 dogs were withdrawn due to various causes. Out of 17 dogs completing the 4 months trial, two dogs treated with IVR + AA combination therapy achieved the parasitological cure. The results revealed rapid and marked reduction in the total mite numbers and eosinophil counts treated with combination therapy in comparison with those administrated ivermectin alone. These findings exhibited the potential anti-Demodex effect of ivermectin when administrated in combination with immunostimulant agent and highlight the impact of an inexpensive, available and immunomodulatory agent as ascorbic acid in treatment of canine juvenile generalized demodicosis.
Fast regularizing sequential subspace optimization in Banach spaces

We are concerned with fast computations of regularized solutions of linear operator equations in Banach spaces in case only noisy data are available. To this end we modify recently developed sequential subspace optimization methods in such a way that the therein employed Bregman projections onto hyperplanes are replaced by Bregman projections onto stripes whose width is in the order of the noise level.
Simulation of binary CO 2 /CH 4 mixture breakthrough profiles in MIL-53 (Al)

MIL-53 (Al) aluminum terephthalate, a commercial metal-organic framework, has been studied as a potential candidate for pressure swing adsorption separation of CO2/CH4 binary mixtures. Pure gas isotherms of CH4 and CO2 measured over 0-6MPa and at room temperature are fitted with the Dubinin-Astakhov (D-A) model. The D-A model parameters are used in the Doong-Yang Multicomponent adsorption model to predict the binary mixture isotherms. A one-dimensional multicomponent adsorption breakthrough model is then used to performa parametric study of the effect of adsorbent particle diameter, inlet pressures, feed flow rates, and feed compositions on the breakthrough performance. Commercial MIL-53 with a particle diameter of 20 µm renders high tortuous flow; therefore it is less effective for separation. More effective separation can be achieved if MIL-53 monoliths of diameters above 200 µm are used. Faster separation is possible by increasing the feed pressure or if the starting compositions are richer in CO2. More CH4 is produced per cycle at higher feed pressures, but the shortened time at higher pressures can result in the reduction of the CH4 purity.
Nanoscale investigation of longitudinal surface acoustic waves

Scanning tunneling microscopy of longitudinally polarized surface acoustic waves (SAWs) yields amplitude and phase images with nanometer resolution. The eccentricity of the surface oscillation calculated from the experimental data by the model of Chilla et al. is 88°±5° in good agreement with the macroscopic value for high velocity pseudo SAWs. Our study reveals that reliable amplitude and phase information can be deduced even from atomic scale features; however, the local surface geometry and tip shape need to be treated in more detail.
MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES OF STEVIA ( STEVIA REBAUDIANA BERTONI ) TO VARIOUS PRIMING TREATMENTS UNDER DROUGHT STRESS

Poor germination capacity of stevia is a major problem in its cultivation. Moreover, drought stress is one of the most major environmental constraints, which influences seed germination and early seedling growth of many crops. The aim of this research was to evaluate the impact of seed priming with salicylic acid (SA), zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) on some germination parameters and physiological attributes of stevia seedlings under drought stress induced by polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000 (0, – 3, – 6 and – 9 bars). The results revealed that germination traits (germination percentage, germination rate, mean germination time, germination value, seedling length, and seedling vigor index) and chlorophyll (Chl) content were negatively affected by drought stress. However, the reduction of germination parameters in seedlings exposed to drought stress in most cases was moderated by seed priming, which also increased the Chl content at all levels of drought stress as compared with the control. Drought stress also increased the proline accumulation and the enzymatic activity of catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) in all priming treatments, but these enhancements were significantly higher in primed seedlings than those in unprimed ones. Among all priming treatments, priming with SA + Fe + Zn was found to be more effective than other treatments to improve growth and physiological characteristics under normal and drought stress conditions. Thus, we suggest that seed priming with SA, Fe, Zn and particularly the integrated application of these three agents at a suitable concentration can promote the poor germination performance of stevia and improve the seedling growth by increasing the antioxidant capacity under drought conditions.
Multiresponse modeling of an unsaturated zone isotope tracer experiment at the Landscape Evolution Observatory

This paper explores the challenges of model parameterization and process representation when simulating multiple hydrologic responses from a highly controlled unsaturated flow and transport experiment with a physically-based model. The experiment, conducted at the Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO), involved alternate injections of water and deuterium- enriched water into an initially very dry hillslope. The multivariate observations included point measures of water content and tracer concentration in the soil, total storage within the hillslope, and integrated fluxes of water and solute through the 5 seepage face. The simulations were performed with a three-dimensional finite element model that solves the Richards and advection-dispersion equations. Integrated flow, integrated transport, distributed flow, and distributed transport responses were successively analyzed, with parameterization choices at each step supported by standard model performance metrics. In the first steps of our analysis, where seepage face flow, water storage, and average concentration at the seepage face were the target responses, an adequate match between measured and simulated variables was obtained using a simple parameterization 10 consistent with that from a prior flow-only experiment at LEO. When passing to the distributed responses, it was necessary to introduce heterogeneity to additional soil hydraulic parameters to obtain an adequate match for the point-scale flow response. Augmented heterogeneity also improved the match against point measures of tracer concentration, although model performance here was considerably poorer. This suggests that still greater complexity is needed in the model parameterization, or that there may be gaps in process representation for simulating solute transport phenomena in very dry soils. 15