Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Systematic review of the literature on the effectiveness of product reformulation measures to reduce the sugar content of food and drink on the population's sugar consumption and health: a study protocol

Introduction Obesity, type 2 diabetes and dental caries are all major public health problems in the UK, with significant costs to the healthcare service. We aim to conduct a systematic review to summarise the evidence on the effectiveness of product reformulation measures to reduce the sugar content of food and drink on the population's sugar consumption and health. Methods and analysis Electronic database will be systematically searched using a combination of terms, tailored to optimise sensitivity, specificity, and the syntax and functionality of each database. The databases searched will include the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE (Ovid) and Scopus. The bibliographies of those papers that match inclusion criteria will be searched by hand to identify any further, relevant references, which will be subject to the same screening and selection process. The database search results will be supplemented by hand searches. In addition to the peer-reviewed literature, a number of grey literature searches will be undertaken using the broad search terms ‘sugar’ and ‘food’ or ‘drink’ and ‘reduction’, these searches will include key government and organisation websites as well as general searches in Google. The selection of the studies, data collection and quality appraisal will be performed independently by 2 reviewers. Data will be initially analysed through a narrative synthesis method. If a subset of data we analyse appears comparable, we will investigate the possibility of performing a meta-analysis. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval will not be required as this is a protocol for a systematic review. The findings will be disseminated widely through conference presentations and published in a peer-reviewed journal. PROSPERO registration number CRD42016034022.
Proposal for an All-Spin Artificial Neural Network: Emulating Neural and Synaptic Functionalities Through Domain Wall Motion in Ferromagnets

Non-Boolean computing based on emerging postCMOS technologies can potentially pave the way for low-power neural computing platforms. However, existing work on such emerging neuromorphic architectures have either focused on solely mimicking the neuron, or the synapse functionality. While memristive devices have been proposed to emulate biological synapses, spintronic devices have proved to be efficient at performing the thresholding operation of the neuron at ultra-low currents. In this work, we propose an All-Spin Artificial Neural Network where a single spintronic device acts as the basic building block of the system. The device offers a direct mapping to synapse and neuron functionalities in the brain while inter-layer network communication is accomplished via CMOS transistors. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a neural architecture where a single nanoelectronic device is able to mimic both neurons and synapses. The ultra-low voltage operation of low resistance magneto-metallic neurons enables the low-voltage operation of the array of spintronic synapses, thereby leading to ultra-low power neural architectures. Device-level simulations, calibrated to experimental results, was used to drive the circuit and system level simulations of the neural network for a standard pattern recognition problem. Simulation studies indicate energy savings by ~400× in comparison to a corresponding digital/ analog CMOS neuron implementation.
Modulation of aggressive behaviour by fighting experience: mechanisms and contest outcomes

Experience in aggressive contests often affects behaviour during, and the outcome of, later contests. This review discusses evidence for, variations in, and consequences of such effects. Generally, prior winning experiences increase, and prior losing experiences decrease, the probability of winning in later contests, reflecting modifications of expected fighting ability. We examine differences in the methodologies used to study experience effects, and the relative importance and persistence of winning and losing experiences within and across taxa. We review the voluminous, but somewhat disconnected, literature on the neuroendocrine mechanisms that mediate experience effects. Most studies focus on only one of a number of possible mechanisms without providing a comprehensive view of how these mechanisms are integrated into overt behaviour. More carefully controlled work on the mechanisms underlying experience effects is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn.
Design and analysis of completely restrained cable manipulators with 3 Degrees of Freedom

This paper investigates the design, workspace, and analysis of completely restrained cable manipulators (CRCM) with 3 Degrees of Freedom (DOF). The design of the drive transmission system and integrated CRCM system is developed. According to the equivalent circuit of the servo mechanism, the dynamic formulation of the electromechanical coupling system for CRCM is studied. The workspace of the CRCM is also discussed. Finally, the results are demonstrated through simulation on a 3-DOF CRCM.
A Filter-Based Algorithm for Optimizing Top-k Queries in Wireless Sensor Networks

Owed to the serious restriction of energy and bandwidth on wireless sensor nodes, how to utilize the limited resource to implement top-k queries efficiently in wireless sensor network (short for WSN), is becoming one of the hotspots in relevant fields. This manuscript proposes an optimal algorithm based on filter for top-k queries in WSN. First of all, the distributed top-k queries are realized through clustered approaches, which scatter the aggregative results of sorting data in to each node in the network. In order to save the energy of nodes, filter is set at the available value distribution interval of each node to prevent some data belonged to the interval from being sent. Meanwhile, according to the history, ARMA(Auto-Regressive and Moving Average Model) model is adopted by the cluster head to predict the available interval for each node in the cluster. Consequently, not only nodes' energy, but also the efficiency of queries is optimized. Simulation results of our experiment witness the satisfactory efficiency, lower energy cost, and longer network life cycle, owing to the algorithm propounded by this manuscript.
The Yang-Mills stratification for surfaces revisited

We revisit Atiyah and Bott's study of Morse theory for the Yang-Mills functional over a Riemann surface, and establish new formulas for the minimum codimension of a (non-semi-stable) stratum. These results yield the exact connectivity of the natural map (C_{min} E)//G(E) --> Map^E (M, BU(n)) from the homotopy orbits of the space of central Yang-Mills connections to the classifying space of the gauge group G(E). All of these results carry over to non-orientable surfaces via Ho and Liu's non-orientable Yang-Mills theory. A somewhat less detailed version of this paper (titled "On the Yang-Mills stratification for surfaces") will appear in the Proceedings of the AMS.
Voluntary Corporate Governance Disclosures by Post-Apartheid South African Corporations

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate as to whether post-Apartheid South African (SA) listed corporations voluntarily comply with and disclose recommended good corporate governance (CG) practices and, if so, the major factors that influence such voluntary CG disclosure behaviour. Design/methodology/approach - The paper constructs a broad voluntary CG disclosure index containing 50 CG provisions from the 2002 King Report using a sample of 169 SA listed corporations from 2002 to 2006. The authors also conduct regression analysis to identify the main drivers of voluntary CG disclosure. Findings - The results suggest that while compliance with, and disclosure of, good CG practices varies substantially among the sampled companies, CG standards have generally improved over the five-year period examined. The authors also find that block ownership is negatively associated with voluntary CG disclosure, while board size, audit firm size, cross-listing, the presence of a CG committee, government ownership and institutional ownership are positively related to voluntary CG disclosure. Practical implications - These findings have important implications for policy-makers and regulators. Evidence of improving CG standards implies that efforts by various stakeholders at improving CG standards in SA companies have had some positive impact on CG practices of SA firms. However, the substantial variation in the levels of compliance implies that enforcement may need to be strengthened further. Originality/value - There is a dearth of evidence on the level of compliance with the King Report. This study fills this gap by providing evidence for the first time on the level of compliance achieved, as well as contributing generally to the literature on compliance with codes of good governance and voluntary disclosure.
Multiple Conceptualizations of Small Business Web Use and Benefit

Small businesses play an important role in the U.S. economy and there is anecdotal evidence that use of the Web is beneficial to such businesses. There is, however, little systematic analysis of the conditions that lead to successful use of and thereby benefits from the Web for small businesses. Based on the innovation adoption, organizations, and information systems (IS) implementation literature, we identify a set of variables that are related to adoption, use, and benefits of information technology (IT), with particular emphasis on small businesses. These variables are reflective of an organization's contextual characteristics, its IT infrastructure, Web use, and Web benefits. Since the extant research does not suggest a single theoretical model for Web use and benefits in the context of small businesses, we adopt a modeling approach and explore the relationships between “context-IT-use-benefit” (CIUB) through three models—partial-mediator, reduced partial-mediator, and mediator. These models posit that the extent of Web use by small businesses and the associated benefits are driven by organizations’ contextual characteristics and their IT infrastructure. They differ in the endogeneity/exogeneity of the extent of IT sophistication, and in the direct/mediated effects of organizational context. We examine whether the relationships between variables identified in the literature hold within the context of these models using two samples of small businesses with national coverage, including various sizes, and representing several industry sectors. The results show that the evidence for patterns of relationships is similar across the two independent samples for two of these models. We highlight the relationships within the reduced partial-mediator and mediator models for which conclusive evidence are given by both samples. Implications for small business managers and providers of Web-based technologies are discussed.
A fully integrated multiband MIMO WLAN transceiver RFIC

A multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) transceiver RFIC compliant with IEEE 802.11a/b/g and Japan wireless LAN (WLAN) standards is presented. The transceiver has two complete radio paths integrated on the same chip. When two chips are used in tandem to form a four-path composite beam forming (CBF) system, 15 dB of link margin improvement is obtained. The transceiver was implemented in a 47-GHz SiGe technology with 29.1-mm/sup 2/ die size. It consumes 195 mA in RX mode and 240 mA in TX mode from a 2.75-V supply.
Metabolic Signatures of Lung Cancer in Sputum and Exhaled Breath Condensate Detected by 1H Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy: A Feasibility Study

OBJECTIVES Lung cancer is one of the most lethal cancers. Currently, there are no biomarkers for early detection, monitoring treatment response, and detecting recurrent lung cancer. We undertook this study to determine if 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) of sputum and exhaled breath condensate (EBC), as a noninvasive tool, can identify metabolic biomarkers of lung cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sputum and EBC samples were collected from 20 patients, comprising patients with pathologically confirmed non-small cell lung cancer (n = 10) and patients with benign respiratory conditions (n = 10). Both sputum and EBC samples were collected from 18 patients; 2 patients provided EBC samples only. 1H MR spectra were obtained on a Bruker Avance 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. Sputum samples were further confirmed cytologically to distinguish between true sputum and saliva. RESULTS In the EBC samples, median concentrations of propionate, ethanol, acetate, and acetone were higher in lung cancer patients compared to the patients with benign conditions. Median concentration of methanol was lower in lung cancer patients (0.028 mM) than in patients with benign conditions (0.067 mM; P = 0.028). In the combined sputum and saliva and the cytologically confirmed sputum samples, median concentrations of N-acetyl sugars, glycoprotein, propionate, lysine, acetate, and formate were lower in the lung cancer patients than in patients with benign conditions. Glucose was found to be consistently absent in the combined sputum and saliva samples (88%) as well as in the cytologically confirmed sputum samples (86%) of lung cancer patients. CONCLUSION Absence of glucose in sputum and lower concentrations of methanol in EBC of lung cancer patients discerned by 1H MRS may serve as metabolic biomarkers of lung cancer for early detection, monitoring treatment response, and detecting recurrence.
Anorectal Transplantation in Human Cadavers: Mock Anorectal Allotransplantation

Background Anorectal transplantation is a method for patients who have lost their anorectal function or suffer from congenital anorectal dysfunction to recover this function, and this has been investigated in experimental animal models using pigs, dogs, and rats. In this study, we performed an examination of anorectal transplantation in human cadavers to investigate whether this procedure could be performed in patients. Methods A 77-year-old woman cadaver 1 was used as the donor and a 98-year-old woman cadaver 2 was used as the recipient. Initially, abdominoperineal excision of the anus and rectum (the Miles’ operation) was performed on the recipient. Next, an anorectal graft containing the pudendal nerve (PN), pudendal artery (PA), pudendal vein (PV), inferior mesenteric artery (IMA), and inferior mesenteric vein (IMV) was harvested from the donor. The donor graft was transplanted into the recipient by intestinal anastomosis and microneurovascular anastomoses orthotopically. Results The diameters of the PN (right/left), IMA, and IMV were 2.5 mm/2.5 mm, 2.0 mm, and 1.5 mm, respectively, in cadaver 1, and 2.0 mm/2.0 mm, 2.0 mm, and 2.0 mm, respectively, in cadaver 2. The length of the PN, PA, PV, IMA, and IMV in the graft was sufficient to allow proper anastomosis. Conclusion This preliminary study indicated that human anorectal transplantation was possible anatomically and technically. We anticipate our study will aid in the potential future application of this procedure to human patients.
Prediction of academic performance using discriminant analysis

In this paper, discriminant analysis is used as a means of analysing the effect of 30 variables upon the dependent variable Student success at the Faculty of Organization and Informatics, University of Zagreb. The data were collected by a questionnaire administered on two occasions: in the academic year 2006/07, among second-year students of the undergraduate study programme Information and Business Systems, and in the academic year 2008/09, among third- and fourth-year students of the undergraduate study programme Information Systems. This research is aimed at determining predictor variables for student success at the Faculty of Organization and Informatics. The number of students included in the first and second questionnaire administration was 110 and 113, respectively.
Stabilization, pole placement, and regular implementability

In this paper, we study control by interconnection of linear differential systems. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for. regular implementability of a given linear differential system. We formulate the problems of stabilization and pole placement as problems of finding a suitable, regularly implementable sub-behavior of the manifest plant behavior. The problem formulations and their resolutions are completely representation free, and specified only in terms of the system dynamics. Control is viewed as regular interconnection. A controller is a system that constrains the plant behavior through a distinguished set of variables, namely, the control variables. The issue of implementation of a controller in the feedback configuration and its relation to regularity of interconnection is addressed. Freedom of disturbances in a plant and regular interconnection with a controller also turn out to be inter-related.
BosR Functions as a Repressor of the ospAB Operon in Borrelia burgdorferi

The Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, must abundantly produce outer surface lipoprotein A (OspA) in the tick vector but downregulate OspA in mammals in order to evade the immune system and maintain its natural enzootic cycle. Here, we show that BosR binds two regulatory elements of the ospAB operon and that increasing BosR expression leads to downregulation of OspA. Both regulatory sequences, cisI and cisII, showed strong BosR-binding and cisII bound much tighter than cisI. A promoterless bosR gene fused with an inducible promoter was introduced into an rpoS mutant and a wild-type strain to assess RpoS-independent and -dependent downregulation of OspA by BosR. With the induction of BosR expression, OspA expression was reduced more significantly in the RpoS-deficient than wild-type background, but not completely repressed. In the presence of constitutive expression of OspC, DbpA and DbpB, increasing BosR production resulted in complete repression of OspA in the RpoS mutant. Taken together, the study clearly demonstrated BosR serves as a repressor that binds both regulatory elements of the ospAB operon and shuts off expression.
Genetic Variation in Social Mammals: The Marmot Model

The social substructure and the distribution of genetic variation among colonies of yellow-bellied marmots, when analyzed as an evolutionary system, suggests that this substructure enhances the intercolony variance and retards the fixation of genetic variation. This result supports a traditional theory of gradual evolution rather than recent theories suggesting accelerated evolution in social mammals.
Does it Groove or does it Stumble - Automatic Classification of Alcoholic Intoxication using Prosodic Features

This paper studies how prosodic features can help in the automatic detection of alcoholic intoxication. We compute features that have recently been proposed to model speech rhythm such as the pair-wise variability index for consonantal and vocalic segments (PVI) and study their aptness for the task. Further, we use a large prosodic feature vector modelling the usual candidates – pitch, intensity, and duration – and apply it onto different units such as words, syllables and stressed syllables to create generalizations of the rhythm features mentioned. The results show that the prosodic features computed are suitable for detecting alcoholic intoxication and add complementary information to state-of-the-art features. The database is the intoxication database provided by the organizers of the 2011 Inter-speech Speaker State Challenge.
An Automatic Distribution of Sequential Code Fitting Irregular Data Accesses

In this report, we present a data-driven parallelization technique of sequential programs. The main originality of our approach is an absorption mechanism using a speci c wait/signal mechanism based on counters called structural clocks. This mechanism allows to perform unmatching send/receive instructions. Therefore, our parallelization technique can express not foreseeable communications involved by irregular control structures and irregular accesses. Tests performed on Cray T3D provide encouraging results. R esum e Dans ce rapport, nous pr esentons un technique de parall elisation de programmes s equentiels dirig ee par les donn ees. La principale originalit e de cette approche r eside dans un m ecanisme d'absorption utilisant un syst eme sp eci que de wait/signal bas e sur des compteurs appel es horloges structurelles. Ce m ecanisme permet d'utiliser des instructions send/receive non correspondantes. De ce fait, notre technique de parall elisation peut exprimer des communications non previsibles dues a des structures de contrôle et des acc es irr eguli ers. Des tests r ealis es sur un Cray T3D fournissent des r esultats encourageant.
Sketching with stop motion animation

Unlike product designers and architects, many current interaction designers have not had design training in its traditional sense, i.e., studio work, model building, and design critique sessions. Rather, they typically come from computer science, informatics, engineering, psychology, behavioral sciences, or anthropology. Others have joined from media studies, Web design, or advertising. Some are autodidacts. Needless to say, this diversity has brought with it the skills, practices, and perspectives that together shape what we today call interaction design. Yet the diversity has one distinct disadvantage. Unlike designers from the traditional disciplines where it is considered a core skill, many of these interaction designers have not been introduced to the prominence of sketching as a way of thinking and progressing in design work or received proper training in it. Quite to the contrary, sketching is still often considered ad hoc, unsys-tematic, or simply unscientific—not least in academic circles—and as such unacceptable as a basis for making design decisions and evolving serious work. As the field of interaction design is growing steadily in scope, importance , and recognition within aca-demia as well as industry, there is a need to further develop and professionalize what it means to be an interaction designer [1]. We argue that one of the most important skills of such a designer is the ability to use and feel confident in sketching as a tool for thinking [2]. In traditional design fields, sketching has long been recognized as a core professional skill [3]. Sketching is even considered, by some, to be the very essence of what design work is about [4]; some would say from the earliest stages of design work, the designer's thinking is " mediated by the sketches or visible notes that they make to familiarize themselves with the material they are manipulating " [5]. A rather insistent view is to think of sketching as a way to external-ize " images " already present in the mind of the designer, that the form, appearance, and character of arti-facts yet intangible are transferred from the designer's mind through the hand holding of the pen onto paper. Recent design theory, however , points to the role of sketching as a tool for thinking—the designer, when sketching, is reading and interpreting the sketch, explaining it, reinterpreting it, and eventually rephrasing it. Goldschmidt notes the interplay between different modes of seeing that is needed on the part of the designer in this …