Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Openness and Efficiency of India and China Relative to the World Economy : A Comparative Study

This paper adopts a dynamic approach to investigate the impact of openness on efficiency improvement of the world economy and compares the linkages between openness and performance in India and China. Based on a panel of data set of 126 countries over the period 1970-98, the world production frontier is established using stochastic frontier techniques. The economic efficiency of an economy relative to the world production frontier is identified and its determinants are examined. The results indicate that international trade, foreign direct investment (FDI) and its interaction with labour quality improvement play a significant role in improving efficiency, respectively, although the trade growth in our test is not as robust as FDI. Contrary to the conventional perception, India performed better than China in raising productivity until the mid-1990s. However, China has experienced a higher degree of openness and therefore a faster rate of catching-up with the world's best practice.
Analysis of fiber-optic strain-monitoring data from a prestressed concrete bridge

© 2017, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). All rights reserved. This paper presents data from fiber-optic strain monitoring of the Nine Wells Bridge, which is a three-span, pretensioned, prestressed concrete beam-and-slab bridge located in Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. The original deployment at the site and the challenges associated with collecting distributed strain data using the Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry (BOTDR) technique are described. In particular, construction and deployment issues of fiber robustness and temperature effects are highlighted. The challenges of interpreting the collected data as well as the potential value of information that may be obtained are discussed. Challenges involved with relating measurements to the expected levels of prestress, including the effects due to debonding, creep, and shrinkage, are discussed and analyzed. This paper provides an opportunity to study whether two commonly used models for creep and shrinkage, adequately model data collected in field conditions.
Contradictory results in pollen viability determination of Valeriana scandens L.

Methods for estimating pollen viability may offer contradictory inferences. Based on this, we investigated the pollen viability from the perfect flowers of Valeriana scandens based on three methods: (1) Alexander stain, (2) FDA – fluorescein diacetate and (3) in vitro pollen germination. As results, V. scandens pollen viability was 95% with Alexander, 47% with FDA reaction and 30% with pollen germination. Analysis of variance indicated that the three techniques offer distinct inferences and it was not possible to estimate pollen germination performing Alexander or FDA reaction. A complementary test with propionic-carmine was performed and showed 98% of pollen stainability. Considering that in vitro pollen germination is the quantitative method that presents the highest correlation with seed set, Alexander and carmine tests overestimated the pollen viability in V. scandens . We conclude that
EFFORT , OPTIMISM AND SALES PERFORMANCE : RETHINKING THE ROLE OF MANAGER

Understanding the factors influencing salesperson performance has been the object of sustained research interest for a long time (e.g., (Churchill Jr., Ford, Hartley, & Walker Jr., 1985; Stan, Evans, Arnold, & McAmis, 2012; Verbeke, Dietz, & Verwaal, 2011; Wachner, Plouffe, & Grégoire, 2009). Much sales force success depends on how well salespeople balance accessible external and internal resources (e.g., Arndt & Harkins, 2013; Stan et al., 2012). To illustrate, a salesperson integrates personal and organizational resources (Plouffe & Barclay, 2007) and coordinates interfirm activities to meet the differing behavioral expectations of diverse role partners, i.e., clients and firms (e.g., Lewin & Sager, 2009; Schmitz & Ganesan, 2014; Singh, Marinova, & Brown, 2012). In the same vein, salespeople engage in “exploratory navigation” (Plouffe, Sridharan, & Barclay, 2010) and work through the “white spaces” (Maletz & Nohria, 2001) of organizations to discover resources and contribute to the firm’s ability to provide value added solutions. Similarly, based upon conservation of resource theory, (Mallin & Mayo, 2006) document how “net resource loss” influences the attributions that account for sales setbacks. Congruence between salespeople and sales managers plays a significant role in reducing role conflict and ambiguity, thereby exerting a positive influence on salesperson performance (e.g., Ahearne, Haumann, Kraus, & Wieseke, 2013; Hamwi, Rutherford, & Boles, 2011; Kemp, Borders, & Ricks, 2013; Mullins & Syam, 2014; Shannahan, Bush, & Shannahan, 2013). At the same time, internal resources such as knowledge, skills, and motivation, each in a distinct way, also influence sales performance. Among the variety of internal resources, two of the most vital are effort and optimism, which are the focus of this research. Extensive studies have shown effort (e.g., Jaramillo & Mulki, 2008) and optimism (e.g., Stajkovic, Lee, Greenwald, & Raffiee, 2015) to be associated with superior sales performance.
Modeling the Rheological Characteristics of Flexible High-Yield Pulp-Fibre-Reinforced Bio-Based Nylon 11 Bio-Composite

The aim of this work was to develop a mathematical model to investigate the rheological characteristics of viscoelastic pulp-fibre composite materials. The rheological properties of High-Yield Pulp (HYP) reinforced bio-based Nylon 11 (Polyamide 11) (PA11) composite (HYP/PA11) were investigated using a capillary rheometer. Novel predicted multiphase rheological-model-based polymer, fibre, and interphasial phases were developed. Rheological characteristics of the compo-site components influence the development of resultant microstructures; this in turn affects mechanical characteristics of a multiphase composite. The main rheological characteristics of polymer materials are viscosity and shear rate. Experimental and theoretical test results of HYP/PA11 show a steep decrease in apparent viscosity with increasing shear rate, and this melt-flow characteristic corresponds to shear-thinning behavior in HYP/PA11. The non-linear mathematical model to predict the rheological behavior of HYP/PA11 was validated experimentally at 200°C and 5000 S-1 shear rate. Finally, predicted and experimental viscosity results were compared and found to be in a strong agreement.
Survey of Holistic Crowd Analysis Models

The behavior analysis techniques used in computer vision, are mostly targeting individual's behavior. The study on crowd analysis is more focused on counting individuals and devising a management plan for load balancing for vehicles and pedestrians. The recent advancements in vision based techniques have allowed the study of collective behavior of the crowd for valuable information. It targets the application areas where crowds are dense making it impossible to segment individuals separately due to severe occlusion. Since object detection and identification techniques only works in low density crowds, therefore, holistic crowd analysis techniques are considered for this study. Holistic approach does not attempt to separate out the crowd and rather consider it as a single entity. It studies the behavior of the crowd, instead of the individual's behavior. Recently available techniques for holistic crowd analysis are considered for this study. The working of these techniques is described and a comparative analysis is given to highlight their strengths and weaknesses.
Framework for the Buckling Optimization of Variable-Angle Tow Composite Plates

Variable-angle tow describes fibers in a composite lamina that have been steered curvilinearly. In doing so, substantially enlarged freedom for stiffness tailoring of composite laminates is enabled. Variable-angle tow composite structures have been shown to have improved buckling and postbuckling load-carrying capability when compared to straight fiber composites. However, their structural analysis and optimal design is more computationally expensive due to the exponential increase in number of variables associated with spatially varying planar fiber orientations in addition to stacking sequence considerations. In this work, an efficient two-level optimization framework using lamination parameters as design variables has been enhanced and generalized to the design of variable-angle tow plates. New explicit stiffness matrices are found in terms of component material invariants and lamination parameters. The convex hull property of B-splines is exploited to ensure pointwise feasibility of lamination parameters. In addition, a set of new explicit closed-form expressions defines the feasible region of two in-plane and two out-of-plane lamination parameters, which are used for the design of orthotropic laminates. Finally, numerical examples of plates under compression loading with different boundary conditions and aspect ratios are investigated. Reliable optimal solutions demonstrate the robustness and computational efficiency of the proposed optimization methodology.
Comparative proteomics to investigate the in vitro antiproliferative effect of dietary polyphenols against K562 leukemia cells / Gıda kaynaklı polifenollerin K562 lösemi hücreleri üzerine in vitro çoğalmayı önleyici etkisinin karşılaştırmalı proteomik çalışmalarla incelenmesi

Abstract Objective: The lack of success with classical targeted therapies in cancer treatment has forced researchers to employ either combined therapies or agents that interfere with multiple pathways.In this study, a proteomic evaluation was performed to understand the in vitro antiproliferative effect of dietary compounds against leukemia cells in proteome level. Typical human cell models of leukemia (i.e., wild K562 cells and multi-drug resistant leukemia cells K562/R) were treated with rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) extracts rich in polyphenols and a comparative proteomic study was performed to identify up- or down-regulated proteins by in vitro antiproliferative effect of polyphenols. Methods: The protein fraction from the polyphenol-treated and control K562 and K562/R cells were separated through two dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2DE) and their proteomic profiles compared by image analysis. The proteins identified to be overexpressed or underexpressed in K562 and K562/R cells after the polyphenol treatment were identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF MS. Results: The results in this study were evaluated to understand the mode of action of these dietary constituents against leukemia cell proliferation. Dietary polyphenols extracted from rosemary bring about the up regulation or down regulation of different proteins on leukemia cells. These proteins are related to tumorigenesis, cancer proliferation and antioxidant activity. Conclusion: Our results revealed that the studied rosemary extract rich in polyphenols induced the down regulation of adenine phosphoribosyl transferase and annexin A1 in K562/R cell lines and tubulin alpha-1C chain in K562 cell lines. According to the expression proteomics results in this study, it could be concluded that the rosemary polyphenols shows in vitro antiproliferative activity in K562 and K562/R leukemia cell lines.
Key issues in video summarization and its application

The summarization of video content provides an effective way to speed up video browser and assist for video retrieval, this paper proposes a novel method for automatically summarizing multi-view video contents. Three kinds of content views such as semantic-face, video caption and visual features are presented in this paper. First, the human faces in video and images bear significant semantics, thus we can summarize video content by indexing and analyzing video faces, especially for video news. Second, video caption could be used to generate video summarization with high-level semantics since it implied lots of semantics inherently. Finally, the similar video shots could be integrated into concise representation through clustering and mining of visual features.
On the solvability of groups of central type

Let G be a finite group with center Z and irreducible complex character x so that x(l)2= [G: Z]. If the 2-Sylow subgroup of G/Z has order 16 or less then G is solvable. Introduction. Let G be a finite group with center Z. If G has an irreducible complex character X with X(1)2 = [G: Z], then G is called a group of central type [4]. It was conjectured in [8] that groups of central type are solvable and several authors have given partial results in this direction [2][4], [6], [9], and [12]. For example, in [4] it is proved that if G is a group of central type and if for any prime p, ptmI[G :Z] implies m < 2 then G is solvable. In [6], the integer 2 in this result was replaced by 4. Here we show that if 2m I [G: Z] implies m < 4 and G is of central type, then G is solvable. The proof employs the well-known characterizations of simple groups with small 2-Sylow subgroups and information on possible homomorphic images of groups of central type given in [6]. All unexplained notation and terminology is as in [7]. Lemma 1. Let G be a finite group having a nonabelian composition factor S appearing exactly n times. Then there exist a homomorphic image X of G and an integer m such that 1 < m < n and S X . XSm <X< Aut(S x . x Sm) where Si eS for all i = 1, 2,. m. Proof. Use induction on IGI. Let T be a minimal nontrivial normal subgroup of G. If G is simple then G = S and S < G < Aut(S). So we may assume tIl < T < G. We haveT = T1 x . x Tk where the Ti are isomorphic simple groups, i= 1, 2, . , k. Case 1. If Ti S for all i= 1, 2, . , k, then consider G =G/T. By the inductive hypothesis there exists a homomorphic image X of G and an integer m such that 1 < m < n and SI x . x Sm < X < Aut(SI x . xSm)I where S. S. This is the desired homomorphic image X of G. Case2. If T. Sforall i=1,2,. ,k,then TSI k.xS, k< n and S. c S. Since T A G, CG(T) A G and we have G/CG(T) < Aut(T). Since T is minimal normal, CG(T) n T = I1 } and thus Received by the editors July 31, 1974. AMS (MOS) subject classifications (1970). Primary 20C159 20D10; Secondary 20D059 20D45.
A two-way particle mapping for calculation of the shear modulus of a spherical inclusion composite with inhomogeneous interphase

Based on the Mori--Tanaka method and a replacement scheme, a pair of coupled first order differential equations which model the shear modulus of a particulate composite with inhomogeneous interphase are derived. However, the results derived are not exact since the Mori--Tanaka method is not exact for the shear problem. An improved model is therefore proposed which utilises the generalised self consistent scheme for a spherical inclusion that is surrounded by a hypothetical homogeneous interphase layer. To find the properties of this hypothetical interphase layer a mapping of a homogeneous particle onto a two phase composite is utilised. The results are then presented for a simple power law profile and are shown to be consistent with the conclusions of Shen and Li [Int. J. Solids and Struct. , 40, 2003, 1393--1409].
Playing catch-up: Investigating public and institutional policies for OER practices in Australia

This article explores some of the most well-known Open Educational Resource (OER) initiatives worldwide and then reports on OER developments in Australia. It also discusses a current research project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC), including its design and methods of data collection and analysis. Although the study reported here is ongoing, a survey of the tertiary sector to establish the current ‘state of play’ of OERs in Australia has been completed. The authors examine a preliminary analysis that focuses mostly on OER policies at governmental and institutional levels. The analysis shows that the OER movement remains relatively immature in Australia. Also, according to the survey’s participants, the government and educational institutions need to give much greater consideration to a regulatory framework in which the use of OER and Open Educational Practices (OEP) can be fostered and encouraged. Isolated OER activities exist, but there appears to be a great deal of catching up required if Australia is to have coordinated initiatives to foster innovation and a culture of more OEPs.
FOOD INTAKE RATES AND HABITAT SEGREGATION OF TUFTED DUCK AYTHYA FULIGULA AND SCAUP AYTHYA MARILA EXPLOITING ZEBRA MUSSELS DREISSENA POLYMORPHA

The foraging skills of Tufted Duck Aythya fuligula and Scaup Aythya marila feeding on Zebra Mussels Dreissena polymorpha were studied in experiments under seminatural diving conditions with relevance to the IJssalmeer/Markermeer area (large lakes in the centre of The Netherlands, former Zuiderzee area), the major freshwater wintering site of both species in Europe. Daily consumption of mussels (based on fresh mass) was about two to three times the body mass of the birds because of the large water and shell content and consequently low nutritional value of mussels. Feeding costs (diving and processing food) were about 50% of daily energy expenses in winter, as revealed from doubly labelled water measurements. Food intake rates decreased with the degree of byssal thread attachment of mussels in Tufted Duck, while intake rates of Scaup were only affected when mussels grew in tightly attached clumps. Food intake rates were usually 15-25% lower in Tufted Duck than in the 25% heavier Scaup. Both species were able to swallow all mussels available in the population, though smaller mussels were slightly favoured. Scaup had higher food intake rates at low mussel densities than Tufted Duck, but intake rates seemed unaffected at densities higher than ca. 100 gFM m(-2), which is similar to giving-up densities observed in the field. Feeding activity consisted of short feeding bouts of a number of dives in quick succession to fill the esophagus with mussels, followed by longer resting pauses of 5-10 minutes to crush mussel shells in the gizzard and digest the flesh. The limited capacity to store food in the gut (less than 5% of the daily requirement) and long digestive pauses imply that diving ducks must spend a large fraction of the day on the feeding grounds. The differences in feeding skills between the two species correspond qualitatively with their spatial segregation in the IJsselmeer area when local differences in prey properties are taken into account.
Effect of system parameters on feature extraction sets for Arabic handwritten text recognition

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of different parameters on a Pattern Recognition System for Arabic Handwritten Text Recognition, and perform different experimental tests in order to obtain the optimum values for the process. In the first introductory section, source data material and the tools used in this work are introduced and explained. The thesis then focuses on the Feature Extraction Process, providing details about different strategies or methods that can be used on the process. In the experimental section, the most important test results are given and the variable parameters are individually analyzed. Finally, different combination schemes are implemented in order to prove the effectiveness of the Slanted Windows. The results provide some support for the correct selection of parameter values for future implementations of the system. However, the optimum parameter values should not be considered as absolute values, due to the fact that the aim is to guide the researchers for future implementations of the system.
Means Versus Ends in Opaque Institutional Fields: Trading Off Compliance and Achievement in Sustainability Standard Adoption

The long-standing discussion on decoupling has recently moved from adopters not implementing the agreed-upon policies to compliant adopters not achieving the goals intended by institutional entrepreneurs. This “means-ends decoupling” prevails especially in highly opaque fields, where practices, causality, and performance are hard to understand and chart. I conceptualize the conditions under which the adoption of institutions in relatively opaque fields leads to the achievement of the envisaged goals. Voluntary sustainability standards governing socioenvironmental issues illustrate these arguments. I argue that the lack of field transparency drives institutional entrepreneurs to create and maintain concrete and uniform rules, apply strong incentives, and disseminate “best practices” to ensure substantive adopter compliance. However, such rigid institutions are ill-equipped to deal with the causal complexity and practice multiplicity underlying opacity while they smother adopter agency. The ensuing tension .
Ethical Reflections of Interviewing Young Children:Opportunities and Challenges for PromotingChildren’s Inclusion and Participation

This qualitative research synthesis aims to describe and identify ethical opportunities and challenges in interviewing young children in early childhood education and to explore interviewing as a means to bring forward children’s experiences of participation and inclusion. These objectives have been studied through two different research cases in the Finnish early childhood education and care settings with active learning approach. The identified opportunities were supporting to show emotions, respecting diversity and special needs, enhancing the competence and agency of children, stimulating humor, playfulness and imagination, and generating meaningful encounters and feelings of empowerment. The challenges were building trust, identifying experiences from imaginary stories, listening attentively, responding to difficult life situations of children, and addressing power distribution. The paper highlights the possibilities for promoting children’s inclusion and participation through ethically considered interviewing and seeing research process as a chance to give them experiences about competence, involvement and becoming listened to by adults.
FINDING N-TH ROOTS IN NILPOTENT GROUPS AND APPLICATIONS IN CRYPTOLOGY

In this paper we discuss finding n-th roots in nilpotent groups and post some open questions. In the literature, the study of finding square root in finite fields has been of interest and because of the complexity of this problem, it has been used in public key cryptography. In this paper, we propose how to find the n-th root in nilpotent groups and propose a digital signature based on the semigroup law of 4-Engel groups.
Sample Size Calculation for Microarray Studies with Survival Endpoints

Oftentimes, we want to discover the genes whose expression levels are associated with a time-to-event endpoint, such as progression free survival or overall survival, through microarray studies. In this case, we need to adjust the false positivity in such discovery procedure for multiplicity of the genes using a multiple testing method. The most popular multiple testing methods used for gene discovery in microarray studies are to control the false discovery rate or the family wise error rate. In this paper, we review a FDR-control method to discover the genes associated with a time-to-event outcome and propose a sample size calculation method for microarray studies designed to discover genes whose expression levels are associated the chosen time-to-event outcome. These methods can be easily modified for other types of high throughput genome projects.