Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Empirical Study on the Utility Analysis Model for E-financial Innovation Diffusion

The importance of e-finance in modern economies has grown considerably these years. The disciplinarian existing in the dynamic diffusion process has been found via the study result from many e-financial innovation diffusion processes in the markets of many countries. This paper combined the utility analysis and the series growing coefficient calculation with the basic model for e-financial innovation diffusion utilizing the Verhulst model as its benchmark so as to more accurately determine the point of saturation and more better forecast the diffusion process. In addition, the empirical studies have been done both for Taiwan credit card market and China mainland bank card market. The result will provide the theoretic reference for the strategy making of financial institutions and the regulation making of the supervisor.
The Musculature of Coleoid Cephalopod Arms and Tentacles

The regeneration of coleoid cephalopod arms and tentacles is a common occurrence, recognized since Aristotle. The complexity of the arrangement of the muscle and connective tissues of these appendages make them of great interest for research on regeneration. They lack rigid skeletal elements and consist of a three-dimensional array of muscle fibers, relying on a type of skeletal support system called a muscular hydrostat. Support and movement in the arms and tentacles depends on the fact that muscle tissue resists volume change. The basic principle of function is straightforward; because the volume of the appendage is essentially constant, a decrease in one dimension must result in an increase in another dimension. Since the muscle fibers are arranged in three mutually perpendicular directions, all three dimensions can be actively controlled and thus a remarkable diversity of movements and deformations can be produced. In the arms and tentacles of coleoids, three main muscle orientations are observed: (1) transverse muscle fibers arranged in planes perpendicular to the longitudinal axis; (2) longitudinal muscle fibers typically arranged in bundles parallel to the longitudinal axis; and (3) helical or obliquely arranged layers of muscle fibers, arranged in both right- and left-handed helixes. By selective activation of these muscle groups, elongation, shortening, bending, torsion and stiffening of the appendage can be produced. The predominant muscle fiber type is obliquely striated. Cross-striated fibers are found only in the transverse muscle mass of the prey capture tentacles of squid and cuttlefish. These fibers have unusually short myofilaments and sarcomeres, generating the high shortening velocity required for rapid elongation of the tentacles. It is likely that coleoid cephalopods use ultrastructural modifications rather than tissue-specific myosin isoforms to tune contraction velocities.
Contract-Based Mocking for Services-Oriented Development

Unit testing of software components requires that a component is tested in isolation. However, many components require the services of other components to provide their functionality. In order to decouple the component being tested from its dependencies, one commonly uses mock objects. Mocking frameworks which are currently used in industry use dynamic mock object generation with the mocking behaviour specified where the mocking is required, e.g. within unit tests. There is no guarantee that the mocking behaviour is consistent with the behaviour required from the component being mocked. Furthermore, these mock objects are not reused across unit tests and other areas where mocking is required. We consider an alternative approach to mocking where the mock object is specified against the contract being mocked and reused across unit tests and other code where mocking is required. These mock objects are tested against the component contracts for the components they are mocking. Furthermore, using dependency injection one is able to reuse the functional tests across unit tests (injecting mock objects for the dependencies) and integration tests (injecting actual components for the dependencies). Even though this approach does require more code to be developed for specifying mocking behaviour, this is offset by the mock object being reused across unit tests for components with the same dependency as well as across integration tests.
Human Face Detection Method Based on Skin Color Model

Face detection is the first step of face recognition, and is a very active research topic in the filed of computer vision and pattern recognition. A skin color model based face detection method for chromatic images is proposed in this paper. The H-CgCr skin color model is established by taking advantage of the color pixels clustering distribution in the HSV and YCgCr color space. The noises are eliminated based on skin color segmentation, and the face candidate region is judged according to knowledge-based, finally, the position of the face area is marked by the box. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is feasible and effective.
Population Differentiation and Genetic Variation in Performance on Eight Hosts in the Pea Aphid Complex

Abstract Phytophagous insects frequently use multiple host-plant species leading to the evolution of specialized host-adapted populations and sometimes eventually to speciation. Some insects are confronted with a large number of host-plant species, which may provide complex routes of gene flow between host-adapted populations. The pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) attacks a broad range of plants in the Fabaceae and it is known that populations on Trifolium pratense and Medicago sativa can be highly specialized at exploiting these species. To find out whether adaptation to a broad range of co-occurring hosts has occurred, we tested the performance of pea aphid clones collected from eight host-plant genera on all of these plants in a reciprocal transfer experiment. We provide evidence for pervasive host-plant specialization. The high performance of all aphid clones on Vicia faba suggests that this host plant could be a site of gene flow between different populations that could limit further host-associated divergence. The genetic variance in host-plant usage was partitioned into within- and among-population components, which represent different levels of host adaptation. Little evidence of within-population trade-offs in performance on different plant species was found.
Lessons Learned in Aligning Data and Model Evolution in Collaborative Information Systems

Today's enterprises have to align their information systems continuously with their dynamic business and IT environment. Collaborative information systems address this challenge by involving diverse users in managing the application's data as well as its conceptual model. In this sense, both the data and the model co-evolve. There are different approaches for aligning data and model evolution, wherein either the data is aligned to the model, or vice versa. In this work, we present a hybrid approach supporting both strategies and elaborate on our experiences of applying the approach in projects for over five years. Thereby, we discuss challenges and issues faced in those projects, and how we addressed them by redesigning and reimplementing the approach. We formulate those issues and respective solutions as lessons learned, which not only hold for the concrete system which was applied in those projects, but which should guide the design and implementation of all software systems supporting the co-evolution of data and model.
Using Convolutional Neural Networks to Analyze Function Properties from Images

We propose a system for determining properties of mathematical functions given an image of their graph representation. We demonstrate our approach for two-dimensional graphs (curves of single variable functions) and three-dimensional graphs (surfaces of two variable functions), studying the properties of convexity and symmetry. Our method uses a Convolutional Neural Network which classifies functions according to these properties, without using any hand-crafted features. We propose algorithms for randomly constructing functions with convexity or symmetry properties, and use the images generated by these algorithms to train our network. Our system achieves a high accuracy on this task, even for functions where humans find it difficult to determine the function's properties from its image.
Volunteers' knowledge activities at UK music festivals: a hermeneutic-phenomenological exploration of individuals' experiences

Purpose – This paper aims to explore how and why volunteers share knowledge and engage in other related knowledge activities. The paper offers an interpretation of participants’ multiple realities to enable a better understanding of managing volunteer knowledge, which ultimately underpins organisational performance and effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative, hermeneutic phenomenological study of volunteers (n = 28) at UK music festivals was conducted through in-depth interviews (n = 9), diaries (n = 11) or both (n = 8). This interpretivist approach adopted purposive sampling to recruit participants through (social) media. Findings – The findings illustrate how and why volunteers share knowledge that is attributed to a successful process of volunteering, which enables effective knowledge management and knowledge reproduction. Where volunteers’ motivations are satisfied, this leads to repeat volunteering. Knowledge enablers and the removal of barriers create conditions that are conducive.
Practice Guidelines for Central Venous Access: A Report by the American Society of Anesthesiologists Task Force on Central Venous Access

P RACTICE Guidelines are systematically developed recommendations that assist the practitioner and patient in making decisions about health care. These recommendations may be adopted, modified, or rejected according to clinical needs and constraints, and are not intended to replace local institutional policies. In addition, Practice Guidelines developed by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) are not intended as standards or absolute requirements, and their use cannot guarantee any specific outcome. Practice Guidelines are subject to revision as warranted by the evolution of medical knowledge, technology, and practice. They provide basic recommendations that are supported by a synthesis and analysis of the current literature, expert and practitioner opinion, open forum commentary, and clinical feasibility data.
Timing behavior during prolonged treatment with dl-amphetamine.

Procedure Two white rats performed daily on DRL 17.5 seconds. Lever responses spaced at least 17.5 seconds apart were reinforced with 0.1 cubic centimeter of sweetened condensed milk. A 3-minute blackout period followed a fixed number of reinforcements, so that from two to five blackout periods occurred in each daily 1-hour session. Both animals were injected intraperitoneally with physiological saline 5 minutes
Reexamination of the coronal index of solar activity before the year 1965

[1] The coronal index (CI) of solar activity is the irradiance of the Sun as a star in the coronal green line (Fe XIV, 530.3 nm or 5303 A). It is derived from ground-based observations of the green corona made by the network of coronal stations (currently Kislovodsk, Lomnický Stit, Norikura, and Sacramento Peak). The CI was introduced by Rybanský (1975) to facilitate comparison of ground-based green line measurements with satellite-based extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray observations. The CI since 1965 is based on the Lomnický Stit photometric scale; the CI was extended to earlier years by Rybanský et al. (1994) based on cross-calibrations of Lomnický Stit data with measurements made at Pic du Midi and Arosa. The resultant 1939–1992 CI had the interesting property that its value at the peak of the 11-year cycle increased more or less monotonically from cycle 18 through cycle 22 even though the peak sunspot number of cycle 20 exhibited a significant local minimum between that of cycles 19 and 21. Rusin and Rybanský (2002) recently showed that the green line intensity and photospheric magnetic field strength were highly correlated from 1976 to 1999. Since the photospheric magnetic field strength is highly correlated with sunspot number, the lack of close correspondence between the sunspot number and the CI from 1939 to 2002 is puzzling. Here we show that the CI and sunspot number are highly correlated only after 1965, calling the previously-computed coronal index for earlier years (1939–1965) into question. We can use the correlation between the CI and sunspot number (also the 2800 MHz radio flux and the cosmic ray intensity) to recompute daily values of the CI for years before 1966. In fact, this method can be used to obtain CI values as far back as we have reliable sunspot observations (∼1850). The net result of this exercise is a CI that closely tracks the sunspot number at all times. We can use the sunspot-CI relationship (for 1966–2002) to identify which coronal stations can be used as a basis for the homogeneous coronal data set (HDS) before 1966. Thus we adopt the photometric scale of the following observatories for the indicated times: Norikura (1951–1954; the Norikura photometric scale was also used from 1939 to 1954); Pic du Midi (1955–1959); Kislovodsk (1960–1965). Finally, we revised the post-1965 HDS and made several small corrections and now include data from Kislovodsk, Norikura, and Sacramento Peak to fill gaps at Lomnický Stit.
Preparation and characterization of biodegradable composites based on Brazilian cassava starch, corn starch and green coconut fibers

Increasing search for new materials with high premium on eco-friendliness, new trend is emerging in materials development such as composites, which are well established for a wide variety of applications. With growing interest and importance of renewable bioresources has led to more stress on the use of locally available materials. This paper presents preliminary results on the preparation and characterization of composites based on Brazilian coconut fibers and starches of cassava and corn. The raw materials were characterized for their morphology, chemical composition, and thermal properties and X-ray diffraction studies. Coir fibers were also tested for their tensile properties showing increasing strength and Young's modulus with decreasing diameter, while the % elongation remaining constant. Lignin content of coir was found to be 35%. Structure and properties of composites containing 0, 5 10, 15% fibers in both the matrices and prepared by compression molding would be compared. For the 2 types of starch, there was an increase in the tensile strength by the increasing proportion of fiber. The effect of moisture in the composite stress affects the strength and percentage elongation. The water absorption was higher in the composites made from cassava starch.
A randomized parallel 3D convex hull algorithm for coarse grained multicomputers

We present a randomized parallel algorithm for constructing the 3D convex hull on a generic p-processor coarse grained multicomputer with arbitrary inter-connection network and n=p local memory per processor, where n p (cid:21) p 2+(cid:15) (for some arbitrarily small (cid:15) > 0). For any given set of n points in 3-space, the algorithm computes the 3D convex hull, with high probability, in O( nlogn p ) local computation time and O(1) communication phases with at most O( n p ) data sent/received by each processor. That is, with high probability, the algorithm computes the 3D convex hull of an arbitrary point setin time O( nlogn p + (cid:0)n;p), where (cid:0)n;p denotes the time complexity of one communication phase. In the terminology of the BSP model, our algo-rithm requires, with high probability, O(1) super-steps and a synchronization period (cid:2)( nlogn p ). In the LogP model, the execution time of our algo-rithm is asymptotically optimal for several architectures. (cid:3) This work
On the Outage Properties of Adaptive Network Coded Cooperation (ANCC) in Large Wireless Networks

Adaptive-network-coded-cooperation (ANCC) is an efficient user cooperation scheme proposed for large wireless networks comprising a host of terminals communicating with a common destination. By matching code graphs with instantaneous network graphs in a distributed and adaptive manner, the protocol enables network coding to be exploited in networks with unreliable channels and changing topologies. This paper analyzes the outage behavior of ANCC when the number of terminals trends to infinity. A threshold phenomenon is revealed which demonstrates that an arbitrarily small outage can be achieved with a sufficiently large network as long as the channel conditions are above a certain threshold. Comparison with the existing cooperation schemes shows that ANCC achieves a substantial gain of 30 dB over repetition, and falls only 1 dB short of space-time-coded-cooperation (but obviating the need for stringent inter-user synchronization)
Linking complex forest fuel structure and fire behaviour at fine scales.

Improvedfiremanagementofsavannasandopenwoodlandsrequiresbetterunderstandingofthefundamental connection between fuel heterogeneity, variation in fire behaviour and the influence of fire variation on vegetation feedbacks. In this study, we introduce a novel approach to predicting fire behaviour at the submetre scale, including measurements of forest understorey fuels using ground-based LIDAR (light detection and ranging) coupled with infrared thermographyforrecordingprecisefiretemperatures.Weusedensembleclassificationandregressiontreestoexaminethe relationships between fuel characteristics and fire temperature dynamics. Fire behaviour was best predicted by characterising fuelbed heterogeneity and continuity across multiple plots of similar fire intensity, where impacts from plot-to-plot variation in fuel, fire and weather did not overwhelm the effects of fuels. The individual plot-level results revealed the significance of specific fuel types (e.g. bare soil, pine leaf litter) as well as the spatial configuration of fire. Thiswasthefirstknownstudytolinktheimportanceoffuelbedcontinuityandtheheterogeneityassociatedwithfueltypes to fire behaviour at metre to submetre scales and provides the next step in understanding the complex responses of vegetation to fire behaviour. Additional keywords: fuel heterogeneity, IR imagery, LIDAR, longleaf pine, regression tree, savanna.
PERIPAPILLARY ATROPHY IN STARGARDT DISEASE

Objective: To demonstrate that Stargardt disease (STGD) can present with peripapillary atrophy. Methods: Retrospective case series. The medical records of 150 consecutive patients (300 eyes) were reviewed retrospectively from a STGD database from January 1999 to May 2007 at Columbia University’s Harkness Eye Institute. STGD patients demonstrating peripapillary atrophy were identified. Results: Three of 150 cases of STGD (2.0%) demonstrated peripapillary atrophy. Case 1 revealed peripapillary and central atrophy with heterozygous ABCA4 mutations P1380L and IVS40 + 5G>A. Case 2 demonstrated atrophic fleck lesions involving the peripapillary region and central atrophy with homozygous ABCA4 mutations P1380L and P1380L. Case 3 revealed bilateral central atrophy and pisciform fleck atrophy involving the peripapillary, macular, and peripheral regions with ABCA4 mutations P1380L and R2030Q. Overall, ABCA4 mutation P1380L was noted in 13 cases (8.7%), IVS40 + 5G>A in 6 cases (4.0%), and R2030Q in 1 case (0.7%). The remaining cases shared one common STGD mutation with Case 1, 2, and 3 (P1380L or IVS40 + 5G>A) and demonstrated classic STGD findings of central atrophy and varying presence of peripheral flecks without peripapillary lesions. Conclusion: STGD can present with peripapillary atrophy. This relatively uncommon phenotype may arise from specific combinations of STGD ABCA4 mutations rather than single mutations.
Alternative pathway complement activation induces proinflammatory activity in human proximal tubular epithelial cells.

BACKGROUND Proximal tubular epithelial cells express a surface C3-convertase activity which induces C fixation and insertion of the C5b-9 membrane attack complex (MAC) into the cell plasma membrane. The physiopathological consequences of this phenomenon are unknown. METHODS The effect of C fixation on the production of inflammatory mediators by human proximal tubular epithelial cells in culture was explored. RESULTS Proximal tubular epithelial cells incubated with a sublytic amount of normal human serum as a source of C, but not with heat-inactivated human serum, showed a time-dependent calcium influx and a concomitant release of 14C-arachidonic acid (14C-AA). Eicosanoid synthesis following the arachidonic acid mobilization was studied as prostaglandin E2 release. Mg2+/EGTA, which did not prevent C activation by the C3-convertase, and p-bromodiphenacyl bromide a phospholipase A2-inhibitor, inhibited mobilization of 14C-AA. These results suggest the activation of an extracellular Ca(2+)-dependent, phospholipase A2. Complement fixation was associated with the synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 and TNF-alpha. Experiments with C6-deficient sera indicated that the release of 14C-AA and the production of cytokines were dependent on the insertion of the terminal components of complement in the plasma membrane. Indeed, the reconstitution of normal haemolytic activity of C6-deficient sera with purified C6 restored also the release of 14C-AA and the production of cytokines. CONCLUSIONS In vitro complement activation on the proximal tubular cell surface triggers the generation of proinflammatory mediators, which may potentially contribute to the pathogenesis of tubulointerstitial injury.
Natural Killer Cell Counts Are Not Different between Patients with Post-Lyme Disease Syndrome and Controls

ABSTRACT It has been reported that patients with “chronic Lyme disease” have a decreased number of natural killer cells, as defined by the CD57 marker. We performed immunophenotyping in 9 individuals with post-Lyme disease syndrome, 12 who recovered from Lyme disease, and 9 healthy volunteers. The number of natural killer cells was not significantly different between the groups.
Epidemiology and etiological diagnosis of infective keratitis in eastern region of Nepal.

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to determine the epidemiological characteristics and risk factors predisposing to corneal ulceration in patients presenting to Biratnagar Eye Hospital (Nepal). METHODS All patients presenting to Biratnagar Eye Hospital between January 1 and December 31, 2011 with corneal ulceration were retrospectively reviewed. Sociodemographic data and information pertaining to risk factors were recorded, all patients were examined and corneal scrapping and cultures were carried out. RESULTS Over one year period 1644 patients with corneal ulcer were evaluated, out of which 76.6% of patients were in the age range of 30 to 69 years and 65% of patients had presenting visual acuity less than 3/60. Ocular trauma was the most common cause of keratitis accounting for 60.3% of corneal ulcer and majority of the patients (40%) presented after 2 weeks of symptoms. Among corneal scraping positive cases 1150 (70%) showed fungus, 73 (4.4%) showed bacteria and 20 (1.2%) showed both bacterial and fungus. CONCLUSION Corneal ulcer continues to be one of the leading causes of preventable blindness in this region. Lack of awareness about gravity of this disease, financial constraints and geographic barriers remain the major reasons for delay in seeking proper medical help.