Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consommations émergentes : la fin d’une société de consommation ?

Cet ouvrage rassemble les meilleurs specialistes de la consommation pour essayer de comprendre les nouveaux dispositifs de captation du consommateur mis en place par le marketing, les marques ou la distribution et les consommateurs. Il nous fait decouvrir tour a tour les transformations de la proximite des echanges marchands et la diversification des strategies de la distribution qui lui sont liees, les ruses du capitalisme vis-a-vis de l’economie collaborative, les contraintes de la geopolitique sur le pouvoir d'achat des classes moyennes les plus demunies, les strategies de contournement, de resistance ou d'arbitrage des consommateurs. Le mouvement brownien qui caracterise la societe des consommateurs nous conduit a repenser le sens de l'emergence comme un systeme d'interactions sociales, un jeu entre des acteurs collectifs, nationaux et internationaux, dans lequel chacun essaye d'influencer l'autre et de capter son attention et ses ressources en fonction de diverses contraintes. Un regard pertinent de la part d’acteurs qui sont dans le monde academique tout en connaissant bien le monde des organisations marchandes.
Children with cerebral palsy after 6-month physiotherapy.

Cerebral palsy is a syndrome connected with immature brain damage. The aim of this study was to compare functional changes with use of 2 different methods GMFM anb Barthel Index in 15 children. The results after 6 months of rehabilitation treatment show improvements in both tests.
Developing in engineering students a critical analysis about sustainability in productive systems

PurposeThe Mechanical Engineering course at the University of Campinas is composed of different disciplines in the areas of materials, mechanical design, manufacturing (production and manufacturing), computational systems, thermal and fluids. In the manufacturing area, in particular, there is a discipline entitled Productive Systems whose main objective is to offer to the student a global vision about operations management. In the field of operations management, sustainability is gaining more and more importance; thus, it is important to develop in the students a critical sense about social and environmental aspects. Thus, this paper aims to present the main initiatives developed in the discipline to promote sustainability in engineering students.Design/methodology/approachSince 2015, the professors responsible for the Productive Systems discipline, assisted by post-graduate students and professors from other universities, have begun to redesign the discipline, including debates, lectures, projects and other initiatives to provide a critical view concerning the traditional concepts taught. The discipline has been performed three times with this new conception. The methodology to structure this research was literature review, documental analyses of the discipline records and meetings with professors that participated in the initiatives. An Action Research approach was performed by two professors and a graduate student. The authors of this paper also compared the results with those obtained by initiatives performed at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden). FindingsThis study allowed to reinforce some results from initiatives performed at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden); however, some differences were identified. For example, similar to the initiatives mentioned, the professors of University of Campinas had problems with didactic books, as they loosely integrate the basic operations management concepts with sustainable development fundamentals. On the other hand, debates related to social sustainability were considered positive from the point of view of the professors and students, differing from initiatives performed at Chalmers University of Technology.Research limitations/implicationsResults come from one field study (University of Campinas) when professors of the Mechanical Engineering course try to integrate operations management concepts and sustainable development. Different results may be observed by other higher education institutions.Practical implicationsThe authors of this paper believe that the diffusion of these initiatives can stimulate other professors and researchers in the field to broaden the academic debate about the insertion of sustainability into engineering courses.Originality/valueThere are few papers presenting didactic experiences and empirical results about the integration of operations management concepts and sustainable development. Results of this paper reinforce some good practices and they also present other ones, in a way that extend the debate about educational engineering.
1 It is REALLY a smaller ( and smaller ) world : Presence and small screens

This study moved Presence into the realm of the smaller video format—comparing Apple iPod with a standard television presentation. Ninety-six students were exposed to one of two presentations on either an iPod or on a 32-inch television. Students saw either a 10-minute fast-paced (multiple cut) action sequence or a 10-minute slow-paced (long cut) conversation sequence from a feature length motion picture. The 2 x 2 design looked at differences in immersion, spatial presence and social realism. While previous research suggests that larger format presentations should generally result in higher levels of presence, this study found that subjects viewing the iPod reported higher levels of immersion. Social realism had a significant interaction with content/pace, and there was no significant difference between iPod and the 32-inch television in spatial presence. The time to imagine is now. The mobile video industry is poised to boom. There are more mobile phones in the world than cinemas, televisions, and computers combined, and the proportion of those phones that are videoand net-enabled is growing rapidly (John Pace, 2006, pg 149).
Driving Affection Produced by Contrary Culture for Knowledge Sharing in Multi-Organizational Information Systems Integration

Successful information systems integration is based on knowledge sharing. Researchers have pointed out that culture is the source of knowledge sharing in single organization, while contrary culture among multi-organizations brings out barriers for knowledge sharing in information systems integration. Some factors of analyzing contrary culture are put forward, and knowledge accumulation model based on contrary culture is built up instead of empirical studies. With this model, conclusion is got that contrary culture among multi-organizations not only brings out barriers for knowledge sharing but also produces driving affection on it.
Design and implementation of a haptics-based virtual venepuncture simulation and training system

Venepuncture or venipuncture is drawing blood from vein for testing or blood transfusion purposes. It is one of the most routinely performed invasive procedures that medical students must learn. Haptic interaction in virtual reality environments may provide an advance tool for training these skills. We present a novel and low-cost approach for image-based virtual haptic venepuncture simulation. We use actual photos of patient arms to provide a quick implementation of different virtual arms with better visual immersion. The function-based model of virtual veins helps us to achieve fast collision detection, while the haptic model for the multi-layer soft tissue provides stable and realistic force feedback. The implemented system was validated by medical staff.
[Epidemiological profile of cocaine users on treatment in psychiatrics hospitals, Brazil].

OBJECTIVE To describe the epidemiological profile and patterns of cocaine use among hospitalized drug users. METHODS A cross-sectional study was carried out among drug users, aged 18 years or more, hospitalized in one out six selected psychiatric hospitals in the metropolitan area of Greater S o Paulo, whose clinical conditions allowed them to reliably answer to a standardized questionnaire and who agreed to participate. Six psychiatric hospitals who attended spontaneously referred public and private patients from all Greater S o Paulo were selected. Data collection was conducted using structured interviews, individually applied by a trained psychologist. Statistical analysis was performed using Student t-test and Chi-square test at p<0.05. RESULTS There was a predominance of crack use (38.4%) over intravenous drug use (1.6%). Addicts who smoked cocaine had lower education, most were unemployed and had previously lived on the streets, and used higher amounts of drugs. These addicts also had been previously incarcerated more often than addicts who used other routes for drug administration. CONCLUSIONS Drug use is a serious public health problem in Greater S o Paulo, and this is shown by the great amount of hospital admissions due to drug addiction. Crack users have lower socioeconomic status and more often engage in violence and crimes.
Hyper-heuristics: Learning To Combine Simple Heuristics In Bin-packing Problems

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) often appear to be a 'black box', neither offering worst-case bounds nor any guarantee of optimality when used to solve individual problems. They can also take much longer than non-evolutionary methods. We try to address these concerns by using an EA, in particular the learning classi£er system XCS, to learn a solution process rather than to solve individual problems. The process chooses one of various simple non-evolutionary heuristics to apply to each state of a problem, gradually transforming the problem from its initial state to a solved state. We test this on a large set of one-dimensional bin packing problems. For some of the problems, none of the heuristics used can £nd an optimal answer; however, the evolved solution process can £nd an optimal solution in over 78% of cases.
In Defense of the Lecture: Revisiting and Reassessing Its Place within Management Pedagogy

ABSTRACT Long the staple or go-to technique in management education, instruction via the lecture has fallen on hard times. Dismissed as professorially heavy-handed and lacking creativity, the lecture has yielded considerable ground to experiential, service, applied, and active learning techniques. In this essay, we question this shift away from the lecture toward the aforementioned trending instructional methods. In coming to the defense of the lecture, we explore the benefits afforded by the lecture for students and the professorate. Drawing on the maxim that what is old is new again, we contend that the lecture still deserves central billing in the management student experience. To do so not only enhances the occupational prestige of the faculty, but also enhances student learning and prepares students for career success in the professional management world. To close, we explore how the lecture format can best be preserved in management education and the modifications needed to realize its many benefits.
Extremal sequences of polynomial complexity

Abstract The joint spectral radius of a bounded set of d × d real matrices is defined to be the maximum possible exponential growth rate of products of matrices drawn from that set. For a fixed set of matrices, a sequence of matrices drawn from that set is called extremal if the associated sequence of partial products achieves this maximal rate of growth. An influential conjecture of J. Lagarias and Y. Wang asked whether every finite set of matrices admits an extremal sequence which is periodic. This is equivalent to the assertion that every finite set of matrices admits an extremal sequence with bounded subword complexity. Counterexamples were subsequently constructed which have the property that every extremal sequence has at least linear subword complexity. In this paper we extend this result to show that for each integer p ≥ 1, there exists a pair of square matrices of dimension 2p(2p+1 − 1) for which every extremal sequence has subword complexity at least 2−p2np.
Evaluation of the performance of national health systems in 2004-2011: An analysis of 173 countries

In an effort to improve health service delivery and achieve better health outcomes, the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for improved efficiency of health care systems to better use the available funding. This study aims to examine the efficiency of national health systems using longitudinal country-level data. Data on health spending per capita, infant mortality rate (IMR), under 5 mortality rate (U5MR), and life expectancy (LE) were collected from or imputed for 173 countries from 2004 through 2011. Data envelopment analyses were used to evaluate the efficiency and regression models were constructed to examine the determinants of efficiency. The average efficiency of the national health system, when examined yearly, was 78.9%, indicating a potential saving of 21.1% of health spending per capita to achieve the same level of health status for children and the entire population, if all countries performed as well as their peers. Additionally, the efficiency of the national health system varied widely among countries. On average, Africa had the lowest efficiency of 67%, while West Pacific countries had the highest efficiency of 86%. National economic status, HIV/AIDS prevalence, health financing mechanisms and governance were found to be statistically associated with the efficiency of national health systems. Taking health financing as an example, a 1% point increase of social security expenses as a percentage of total health expenditure correlated to a 1.9% increase in national health system efficiency. The study underscores the need to enhance efficiency of national health systems to meet population health needs, and highlights the importance of health financing and governance in improving the efficiency of health systems, to ultimately improve health outcomes.
Weight parameters tuning for frontier-based cooperating robots exploration

In this paper, a frontier-based technique is used with two cooperating mobile robots to explore unknown environment. The aim is to decrease the exploration time. The proposed frontier-based exploration algorithm is based on a new bidding function in which we introduced a special parameter to decrease the overlap between the robots in addition to the utility and cost parameters. Tens of thousands experiments have been conducted to see the relative importance of the weight parameters used in this technique. As a result of these experiments, the weight values can be chosen to guarantee short exploration time. The proposed algorithm has been tested with a set of environments with different shapes and different numbers of obstacles. Finally, the results of our algorithm were compared with the results of one of known exploration algorithms available in the literature. The new technique led to promising results.
Hippocampal long-term depression is required for the consolidation of spatial memory

Although NMDA receptor (NMDAR)-dependent long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) of glutamatergic transmission are candidate mechanisms for long-term spatial memory, the precise contributions of LTP and LTD remain poorly understood. Here, we report that LTP and LTD in the hippocampal CA1 region of freely moving adult rats were prevented by NMDAR 2A (GluN2A) and 2B subunit (GluN2B) preferential antagonists, respectively. These results strongly suggest that NMDAR subtype preferential antagonists are appropriate tools to probe the roles of LTP and LTD in spatial memory. Using a Morris water maze task, the LTP-blocking GluN2A antagonist had no significant effect on any aspect of performance, whereas the LTD-blocking GluN2B antagonist impaired spatial memory consolidation. Moreover, similar spatial memory deficits were induced by inhibiting the expression of LTD with intrahippocampal infusion of a short peptide that specifically interferes with AMPA receptor endocytosis. Taken together, our findings support a functional requirement of hippocampal CA1 LTD in the consolidation of long-term spatial memory.
Proteomics Analysis Reveals Stable Multiprotein Complexes in Both Fission and Budding Yeasts Containing Myb-Related Cdc5p/Cef1p, Novel Pre-mRNA Splicing Factors, and snRNAs

ABSTRACT Schizosaccharomyces pombe Cdc5p and its Saccharomyces cerevisiae ortholog, Cef1p, are essential Myb-related proteins implicated in pre-mRNA splicing and contained within large multiprotein complexes. Here we describe the tandem affinity purification (TAP) of Cdc5p- and Cef1p-associated complexes. Using transmission electron microscopy, we show that the purified Cdc5p complex is a discrete structure. The components of the S. pombe Cdc5p/S. cerevisiae Cef1p complexes (termed Cwfs or Cwcs, respectively) were identified using direct analysis of large protein complex (DALPC) mass spectrometry (A. J. Link et al., Nat. Biotechnol. 17:676-682, 1999). At least 26 proteins were detected in the Cdc5p/Cef1p complexes. Comparison of the polypeptides identified by S. pombe Cdc5p purification with those identified by S. cerevisiae Cef1p purification indicates that these two yeast complexes are nearly identical in composition. The majority of S. pombe Cwf proteins and S. cerevisiae Cwc proteins are known pre-mRNA splicing factors including core Sm and U2 and U5 snRNP components. In addition, the complex contains the U2, U5, and U6 snRNAs. Previously uncharacterized proteins were also identified, and we provide evidence that several of these novel factors are involved in pre-mRNA splicing. Our data represent the first comprehensive analysis of CDC5-associated proteins in yeasts, describe a discrete highly conserved complex containing novel pre-mRNA splicing factors, and demonstrate the power of DALPC for identification of components in multiprotein complexes.
Issues in M-banking: Challenges and opportunities

The increased prevalence of mobile phones provides exciting opportunities for the growth of mobile banking (m-banking). This article reviews the emerging research literature on m-banking. It presents a classification framework for m-banking research based on 65 m-banking articles published between 2000 and mid-2010 in Information Systems (IS), technology innovation, management, and marketing journals, and major IS conferences. These articles are classified into five main categories: m-banking overview and conceptual issues, m-banking applications and cases, m-banking behavioural issues, infrastructures of mobile users and networks, and strategic, legal and ethical issues. It is expected that the comprehensive list of references and assessments presented in this article will provide a useful anatomy of young m-banking literature to anyone who is interested in m-banking and help stimulate further interest.
Self-Digitization Microfluidic Chip for Absolute Quantification of mRNA in Single Cells

Quantification of mRNA in single cells provides direct insight into how intercellular heterogeneity plays a role in disease progression and outcomes. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), the current gold standard for evaluating gene expression, is insufficient for providing absolute measurement of single-cell mRNA transcript abundance. Challenges include difficulties in handling small sample volumes and the high variability in measurements. Microfluidic digital PCR provides far better sensitivity for minute quantities of genetic material, but the typical format of this assay does not allow for counting of the absolute number of mRNA transcripts samples taken from single cells. Furthermore, a large fraction of the sample is often lost during sample handling in microfluidic digital PCR. Here, we report the absolute quantification of single-cell mRNA transcripts by digital, one-step reverse transcription PCR in a simple microfluidic array device called the self-digitization (SD) chip. By performing the reverse transcription step in digitized volumes, we find that the assay exhibits a linear signal across a wide range of total RNA concentrations and agrees well with standard curve qPCR. The SD chip is found to digitize a high percentage (86.7%) of the sample for single-cell experiments. Moreover, quantification of transferrin receptor mRNA in single cells agrees well with single-molecule fluorescence in situ hybridization experiments. The SD platform for absolute quantification of single-cell mRNA can be optimized for other genes and may be useful as an independent control method for the validation of mRNA quantification techniques.
License Plate Recognition (LPR) system for Indian Vehicle License Plate Extraction and Character Segmentation

License Plate Recognition (LPR) is a challenging area of research due to its importance to variety of commercial applications. LPR systems are widely implemented for automatic ticketing of vehicles at car parking area, tracking vehicles during traffic signal violations and related applications with huge saving of human energy and cost. The overall problem may be subdivided into three distinct key modules: (a) localization of license plate from vehicle image, (b) segmentation of the characters within the license plate and (c) recognition of segmented characters within the license plate. In this paper, we proposed a method of feature extraction[12] for an offline License Plate Recognition System based on global features to identify the license plates. Before extracting the features, preprocessing[11] of the captured image is necessary in order to isolate the license plate region from the car backround and to remove the noise present, using filter[2]. Sobel edge detection e technique [1][7] is used to determine the edges of the license plate whereas the features are extracted using Radon transform[10]. Features are saved and tested against already saved database and the availability of the vehicle is displayed as an output . In this work, 100 real time vehicle images are captured from a high resolution camera during different contrast of day. The images are stored in a centralized data server.A sample of 20 images are tested against the already saved database in order to check the authenticity of each vehicle. The performance of the system is measured at the time of recognition which is 95 % and at the time of matching i.e checking the existence of a particular vehicle is 90% in a time duration of 15 sec
A flexible implementation of a web-based election system for educational organizations

Web-based on-line voting and on-line election systems provide benefits of usability, manageability and security. A particular workflow in any phase of on-line election process can be modeled and implemented securely by employing basic security applications readily provided by well established cryptographic technologies. By analyzing data-flow between different phases in the workflow, secure processes can be implemented using Web, database and cryptographic techniques. The implementation has to deliver a system that provides performance properties mandatory of an on-line election system of authentication, democracy, anonymity, non-coercion, accuracy, reliability, veracity, verifiability, neutrality, and likability.