Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developing a successful information and communication technology industry: the role of venture capital, knowledge, and the government

Study of the factors that have lead to the development of a flourishing information and communication technology (ICT) industry is often based on the Silicon Valley development in the U.S. Given the globalization of the ICT industry, there is a need to understand the factors which contribute to the development of a successful ICT industry and to determine whether a generic model can be used to gain a better understanding of the forces that shape ICT development in other regions of the world. This study examines the phenomenal growth of the Israeli ICT industry in recent years, growth that is referred to as the “New Silicon Valley. ” A generic model for the development of ICT industry is presented. We use the model to compare the development of the Israeli ICT industry with that of Silicon Valley and with the current state of the Dutch ICT industry. The results indicate that the model holds for both (historical) review of the development of Silicon Valley and for the current state of the Dutch ICT industry. The implications of the findings are discussed.
Education and rural women: towards an alternative perspective

"To fellow educators who have assembled here from different countries to discuss the future role of education in achieving gender equality, I have two messages from millions of rural women of my country, and I believe, from many other parts of the world. The first is to recognise and support their collective struggle for human survival, including their own, against the destruction of their productive base, land, water, forests and other natural resources by types of development that are planned far away from them, by people and agencies they are not aware of, and through the use or misuse of knowledge power which has been kept away from them by a process of historical change that has increased their powerlessness, and deprivation. "
Retirement Wealth Decisions in Australia’s Superannuation System: Part 2, Conversion

This is the second in a series of three papers examining retirement wealth decisions in Australia's superannuation system. The work seeks to introduce a holistic approach to examining decision making across the key stages of retirement wealth provision, namely: accumulation; conversion; and, decumulation. The central idea considered in this study relates to the conversion of superannuation savings into retirement income. Using a sample of 365 Australians over the age of 45, we consider three areas, under the following sub-headings: attitudes to annuity market features and products (especially the perception of the public pension as an annuity); financial market factors (such as bequest motives and estate planning, and adverse selection and valuations resulting in the need for financial advice); and the influence of demographic characteristics and their respective impacts on conversion decisions.
Identification of a Second Collagen-Like Glycoprotein Produced by Bacillus anthracis and Demonstration of Associated Spore-Specific Sugars

ABSTRACT Certain carbohydrates (rhamnose, 3-O-methyl rhamnose, and galactosamine) have been demonstrated to be present in Bacillus anthracis spores but absent in vegetative cells. Others have demonstrated that these spore-specific sugars are constituents of the glycoprotein BclA. In the current work, spore extracts were separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. A second collagen-like glycoprotein, BclB, was identified in B. anthracis. The protein moiety of this glycoprotein was identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MS) and the carbohydrate components by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and tandem mass spectrometry. Spore-specific sugars were also demonstrated to be components of BclB.
THE PERFORMANCE OF STATISTICAL PATTERN RECOGNITIONMETHODS IN HIGH DIMENSIONAL

We report on an extensive simulation study comparing eight statistical classiication methods, focusing on problems where the number of observations is less than the number of variables. Using a wide range of artiicial and real data, two types of classiiers were contrasted; methods that classify using all variables, and methods that rst reduce the number of dimensions to two or three. The full feature space methods include linear, quadratic and regularized discriminant analysis, and the nearest neighbour method. The four dimensionality reducing classiiers are characterized by the transform they implement. The four transforms compared are the Fisher discriminant plane, the Fisher-Fukunaga-Koonz, the Fisher-radius, and the Fisher-variance transforms. The Fisher-Fukunaga and the Fisher-radius transform based classiiers have recently been proposed for two class classiication problems. We also present an extension to these transforms such that they can be applied to classiication problems with arbitrary numbers of classes. The simulations identiied reg-ularized discriminant analysis as the overall clearly most powerful classiier. The results show that in most cases, a reduction of the dimensionality to two or three dimensions prior to classiication decreases the probability of correctly allocating test observations.
Morphogenesis and regulation of Bergmann glial processes during Purkinje cell dendritic spine ensheathment and synaptogenesis

Astrocytes have an important role in synaptic formation and function but how astrocytic processes become associated with synaptic structures during development is not well understood. Here we analyzed the pattern of growth of the processes extending off the main Bergmann glial (BG) shafts during synaptogenesis in the cerebellum. We found that during this period, BG process outgrowth was correlated with increased ensheathment of dendritic spines. In addition, two‐photon time‐lapse imaging revealed that BG processes were highly dynamic, and processes became more stable as the period of spine ensheathment progressed. While process motility was dependent on actin polymerization, activity of cytoskeletal regulators Rac1 and RhoG did not play a role in glial process dynamics or density, but was critical for maintaining process length. We extended this finding to probe the relationship between process morphology and ensheathment, finding that shortened processes result in decreased coverage of the spine. Furthermore, we found that areas in which BG expressed dn‐Rac1, and therefore had a lower level of synaptic ensheathment, showed an overall increase in synapse number. These analyses reveal how BG processes grow to surround synaptic structures, elucidate the importance of BG process structure for proper development of synaptic ensheathment, and reveal a role for ensheathment in synapse formation. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Second QALB Shared Task on Automatic Text Correction for Arabic

We present a summary of QALB-2015, the second shared task on automatic text correction of Arabic texts. The shared task extends QALB-2014, which focused on correcting errors in Arabic texts produced by native speakers of Arabic. The competition this year, in addition to native data, includes texts produced by learners of Arabic as a foreign language. The report includes an overview of the QALB corpus, which is the dataset used for training and evaluation, an overview of participating systems, results of the competition and an analysis of the results and systems.
Variations and Determinants of Hospital Costs for Acute Stroke in China

Background The burden of stroke is high and increasing in China. We modelled variations in, and predictors of, the costs of hospital care for patients with acute stroke in China. Methods and Findings Baseline characteristics and hospital costs for 5,255 patients were collected using the prospective register-based ChinaQUEST study, conducted in 48 Level 3 and 14 Level 2 hospitals in China during 2006–2007. Ordinary least squares estimation was used to determine factors associated with hospital costs. Overall mean cost of hospitalisation was 11,216 Chinese Yuan Renminbi (CNY) (≈US$1,602) per patient, which equates to more than half the average annual wage in China. Variations in cost were largely attributable to stroke severity and length of hospital stay (LOS). Model forecasts showed that reducing LOS from the mean of 20 days for Level 3 and 18 days for Level 2 hospitals to a duration of 1 week, which is common among Western countries, afforded cost reductions of 49% and 19%, respectively. Other lesser determinants varied by hospital level: in Level 3 hospitals, health insurance and the occurrence of in-hospital complications were each associated with 10% and 18% increases in cost, respectively, whilst treatment in a teaching hospital was associated with approximately 39% decrease in cost on average. For Level 2 hospitals, stroke due to intracerebral haemorrhage was associated with a 19% greater cost than for ischaemic stroke. Conclusions Changes to hospital policies to standardise resource use and reduce the variation in LOS could attenuate costs and improve efficiencies for acute stroke management in China. The success of these strategies will be enhanced by broader policy initiatives currently underway to reform hospital reimbursement systems.
Polarized sorting of the copper transporter ATP7B in neurons mediated by recognition of a dileucine signal by AP-1

Recognition of dileucine signals by AP-1 mediates somatodendritic sorting of the copper transporter ATP7B and the SNARE VAMP4 in hippocampal neurons, establishing AP-1 as a global regulator of polarized sorting and contributing to the understanding of neuronal copper metabolism under physiological and pathological conditions.
The Power of Human Rights: The socialization of international human rights norms into domestic practices: introduction

Fifty years ago, on December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). At the time, the delegates clearly noted that the Declaration was not a binding treaty, but rather a statement of principles. Eleanor Roosevelt said that the Declaration “set up a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations,” and “might well become an international Magna Carta of all mankind” (Humphrey 1984). On the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration, it seems appropriate to evaluate the impact of these norms, now embodied in diverse international agreements and treaties. Have the principles articulated in the Declaration had any effect at all on the actual behavior of states towards their citizens? What are the conditions under which international human rights norms are internalized in domestic practices? In other words, what accounts for the variation in the degree to which human rights norms are implemented? And what can we learn from this case about why, how, and under what conditions international norms in general influence the actions of states? This book tries to tackle these questions. Our project relates to broader theoretical debates in the social sciences and law about the influence of ideas and norms on the behavior of individuals and states. Scholars of international relations are increasingly interested in studying norms and ideas, but few have yet demonstrated the actual impact that international norms can have on domestic politics. Using case studies that explore the linkages between international human rights norms and changing human rights practices, we develop and present a theory of the stages and mechanisms through which international norms can lead to changes in behavior.
Feature Denoising Using Joint Sparse Representation for In-Car Speech Recognition

We address reducing the mismatch between training and testing conditions for hands-free in-car speech recognition. It is well known that the distortions caused by background noise, channel effects, etc., are highly nonlinear in the log-spectral or cepstral domain. This letter introduces a joint sparse representation (JSR) to estimate the underlying clean feature vector from a noisy feature vector. Performing a joint dictionary learning by sharing the same representation coefficients, the proposed method intends to capture the complex relationships (or mapping functions) between clean and noisy speech. Speech recognition experiments on realistic in-car data demonstrate that the proposed method shows excellent recognition performance with a relative improvement of 39.4% compared with the “baseline” frontends.
World Bank adjustment lending and economic performance in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1980s: a comparison with other low income countries

The authors investigated the factors that influenced the participation of sub - Saharan African countries and all low-income countries in World Bank adjustment lending. They estimated how the Bank's adjustment programs affected economic performance in both regions. They found that the marginal contribution of Bank-supported adjustment programs to export performance has been postive and significant in sub - Saharan Africa, given the potentially important links between export growth and economic growth. But adjustment programs have not significantly affected economic growth in sub - Saharan Africa and have had a deleterious effect on investment there. This strengthens theargument of those who call for more explicit consideration of the initial conditions of the sub - Saharan African economies in the design, emphasis, and schedule of their adjustment programs. For one thing, a redefined but more important role for governments is in order for reforming African economies. Fiscal and monetary retrenchment are still indispensable, but it is critical that there be more public investment in infrastructure, human capital, and agricultural technology - to generate a supply response. Moreover, efforts must be made to make policy reforms more credible to the private sector and to improve program implementation. Also, governance and political stability - politically sensitive issues - critically affect the adoption, implementation, sustainability, and credibility of adjustment programs.
Lightning as Atmospheric Electricity

Lightning is one of the most beautiful displays in nature yet it is the most deadly natural phenomenon known to man. Benjamin Franklin was the first to prove electricity in lightning in 1752, yet, we still remain in awe of lightning which flashes in its mystery. Early studies done to find that lightning is electricity paved the way for this article, to investigate the power behind the lightning, its source and the possibilities of harnessing lightning power. It has been estimated that lightning strikes somewhere on the surface of the Earth about 100 times every second. Despite its frequency of occurrence lightning electricity could not be transformed into a useful quality. In this paper first, the electrification of convective clouds are described in order to lay a foundation for discussion; secondly, the analysis so described enable theoretical models of the growth of lightning power plant to be projected. It is evident that lightning has enormous energy which is nothing but electricity, but the challenge with lightning is to suggest a storage device to slowly transform and distribute the lightning power storing the massive power block such that it can be extracted later. This paper describes the lightning phenomenon and different ideas whereby we will be able to harness the power of lightning. Understanding lightning helps us to learn about electricity. After all, lightning is a form of electricity
Macroeconomic Case for a Land Value Tax Reform in Ireland

The present study shows that LVT satisfies the set of main criteria for reforming existent system of property taxation in Ireland, including the following considerations of tax system efficiency: Improve macroeconomic stability and support economic growth with specific focus on higher value-added development activities and provision of quality housing, commercial property and infrastructure consistent with creation of sustainable high quality employment, skills acquisition and investment in human and productive physical capital; increase efficiency of resource allocation, as pertaining to development and property; reduce adverse impacts of property taxation on economic and social inequality, inclusive of addressing the issues of social exclusion support environmental sustainability of development and enhance social capital; simplify the tax system and make it more transparent and reduce incentives for corruption, operations of grey markets and tax evasion; introduce change gradually so as to avoid disruption of existent contractual arrangements and not cause dramatic shifts in economic expectations; allow and encourage coordination of tax policies with other reforms; achieve political feasibility without creating a single narrow interest constituency.
Fiber Tracking : Concepts and Applications

Standard clinical MR images, however anatomically detailed, generally do not allow the assessment of specific white matter (WM) fiber tracts. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and DTIbased fiber tracking (“tractography”) have enabled unprecedented, in vivo visualization of individual WM tracts and their relationships with cerebral pathology. While much of the work in this field remains experimental, DTI is currently making its way into the clinical realm. It is no longer necessary to have a team of physicists and image processing specialists on hand in order to obtain DTI with tractography in a clinical setting. As tractography makes further inroads into clinical practice, an understanding of basic principles and applications will become increasingly important to neuroimaging specialists. This presentation begins with a brief summary of the basic principles underlying tractography, followed by a review of practical clinical applications including potential pitfalls. Time and space limitations prohibit a review of normal WM fiber tract anatomy but several references to DTI-specific anatomical reviews are provided.
Effects of cranberry extracts on gene expression in THP‐1 cells

Abstract Cranberry contains high levels of nutrients and bioactive molecules that have health‐promoting properties. The purpose of the present studies was to determine if cranberry extracts (CEs) contain phytochemicals that exert anti‐inflammatory effects. The human monocytic cell line THP‐1 was treated with two CEs (CE and 90MX) and subsequently challenged with Lipopolysaccharides (LPS). Tumor necrosis factor α (TNF α) expression was decreased in the CE‐treated cells, indicative of an anti‐inflammatory effect. Gene expression microarrays identified several immune‐related genes that were responsive to CEs including interferon‐induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats 1 and 3 (IFIT 1 and 3), macrophage scavenger receptor 1 (MSR1) and colony‐stimulating factor 2 (CSF2). In addition, in the CE‐treated cells, metallothionein 1F and other metal‐responsive genes were induced. Taken together, this data indicates that CEs contain bioactive components that have anti‐inflammatory effects and may protect cells from oxidative damage.
A Case with Serrated Polyposis Syndrome Controlled by Multiple Applications of Endoscopic Mucosal Resection and Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection

Patient: Male, 66 Final Diagnosis: Serrated polyposis syndrome Symptoms: Positive fecal occult blood test Medication: — Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Gastroenterology and Hepatology Objective: Unusual setting of medical care Background: Serrated polyposis syndrome (SPS) is characterized by numerous hyperplastic polyps and sessile serrated adenoma/polyp (SSA/P) in the large intestine. SSA/P is known to transform into malignant lesions through the serrated pathway instead of the adenoma-carcinoma sequence. Early diagnosis with lower gastrointestinal endoscopy and early treatment are now considered to be essential. Case Report: We had an experience with a case of SPS to which endoscopic treatment was applied in multiple sessions. Endoscopic treatment was performed for 16 lesions in total, and the pathological findings were SSA/P for 15 and adenoma for the other lesion. We intend to continue performing endoscopic surveillance for any newly developing lesions. Conclusions: SPS has a potential for malignant transformation, and issues, such as long-term prognosis and optimal therapeutic strategies, await resolution. However, multiple endoscopic treatments are useful for cases with lesions that are controllable employing this modality.
A Comprehensive Study of Phishing Attacks

Now a days one of the highly used techniques to pursue online stealing of data and to do fraudulent transactions is phishing. Phishing is a form of online identity theft that aims to steal sensitive information such as online passwords and credit card information. It is affecting all the major sectors of industry day by day with a lot of misuse of user credentials. To stop phishing many detection and prevention techniques has been made with their own advantages and disadvantages respectively, but phishing has not been eradicated completely yet. In this paper , we have studied phishing and its types in detail and reviewed some of the phishing and anti phishing techniques. KeywordsPhishing, Anti-phishing, Malware, Web spoofing.
Economies of Scale in der Produktion versus Diseconomies im Transport: Zum Strukturwandel im Molkereisektor

In this article, we simulate structural change within the German dairy sector employing a sector-wide optimization model. As a result, we obtain cost minimizing structures of the dairy sector for various scenarios differentiated by time horizon and level of transportation cost. We demonstrate that the model is capable of explaining the current trend which is characterized by a decrease in the number of dairies while average capacity is increasing. However, this development is less pronounced if transportation cost rises relative to other costs.
Gamma Band Activity in the Reticular Activating System

This review considers recent evidence showing that cells in three regions of the reticular activating system (RAS) exhibit gamma band activity, and describes the mechanisms behind such manifestation. Specifically, we discuss how cells in the mesopontine pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN), intralaminar parafascicular nucleus (Pf), and pontine subcoeruleus nucleus dorsalis (SubCD) all fire in the beta/gamma band range when maximally activated, but no higher. The mechanisms behind this ceiling effect have been recently elucidated. We describe recent findings showing that every cell in the PPN have high-threshold, voltage-dependent P/Q-type calcium channels that are essential, while N-type calcium channels are permissive, to gamma band activity. Every cell in the Pf also showed that P/Q-type and N-type calcium channels are responsible for this activity. On the other hand, every SubCD cell exhibited sodium-dependent subthreshold oscillations. A novel mechanism for sleep–wake control based on well-known transmitter interactions, electrical coupling, and gamma band activity is described. The data presented here on inherent gamma band activity demonstrates the global nature of sleep–wake oscillation that is orchestrated by brainstem–thalamic mechanism, and questions the undue importance given to the hypothalamus for regulation of sleep–wakefulness. The discovery of gamma band activity in the RAS follows recent reports of such activity in other subcortical regions like the hippocampus and cerebellum. We hypothesize that, rather than participating in the temporal binding of sensory events as seen in the cortex, gamma band activity manifested in the RAS may help stabilize coherence related to arousal, providing a stable activation state during waking and paradoxical sleep. Most of our thoughts and actions are driven by pre-conscious processes. We speculate that continuous sensory input will induce gamma band activity in the RAS that could participate in the processes of pre-conscious awareness, and provide the essential stream of information for the formulation of many of our actions.