Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Common ground? : Motivations for participation in a community-supported agriculture scheme

Abstract Direct marketing strategies of different kinds are often central to so-called “alternative food networks”, which tend to be underpinned by a central principle of somehow “reconnecting” food producers and consumers. This paper uses a case study of a community-supported agriculture project in Scotland to examine the motivations behind producers' and consumers' participation in such schemes. It shows the range of motivations and philosophies that consumers bring to the scheme and reflects on how these work with the more limited stated aims of the scheme organisers. It argues that communication within direct marketing schemes can be important for two reasons. First effective communication between producers and consumers can underpin the kind of understanding that leads to long-term commitment and tolerance amongst consumers. Second, communication between consumers can spur them to consider their wider behaviour and practices, perhaps leading to more radical changes to production–consumption relations.
The Greek Current Account Deficit: Is it Sustainable after All?

The large Greek current account deficit figures reported during the past few years have become the source of increasing concern regarding its sustainability. Bearing in mind the variety of techniques employed and the views expressed as regards the analysis and the assessment of the size of the current account deficit, this paper resorts to using neural network architectures to demonstrate that, despite its size, the current account deficit of Greece can be considered sustainable. This conclusion, however, is not meant to neglect the structural weaknesses that lead to such a deficit. In fact, even in the absence of any financing requirements these high deficit figures point to serious competitiveness losses with everything that these may entail for the future performance of the Greek economy.
Corporate Governance: Actual and Aspirations, and Ethical Commitments-A field study-on Private Northern Jordanian Universities (The higher education sector – Jordan)

The study aims to investigate the reality of governance, and to which degree is the concept actually applied in the Jordanian Private Universities. To achieve the objective of the study, a questionnaire was developed for data collection which consisted of four sections, and was distributed to all members of the sample, which amounted to (250) individuals representing five private universities . The data was analyzed using (SPSS) based on the average, standard deviations regression analyses and correlation coefficient of T and F. The study major results are the following: There is a positive medium degree of satisfaction for Governance application in the private universities, and participation of decision making was low. The study came up with the following recommendations: work on activating the reality of governance, related concepts, as well as working to maintain spirit of justice, equality and value of the accountability, transparency, participation, and development of the constructive spirit of citizenship committed to ethics, motivate and encourage college faculties to respond to and interact with such type of studies. Keywords: Governance, University governance, Business Ethics, Social Responsibility, Stake holder, Transparences.
Overexpression of the S100A2 protein as a prognostic marker for patients with stage II and III colorectal cancer

We aimed to identify a novel prognostic biomarker related to recurrence in stage II and III colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Stage II and III CRC tissue mRNA expression was profiled using an Affymetrix Gene Chip, and copy number profiles of 125 patients were generated using an Affymetrix 250K Sty array. Genes showing both upregulated expression and copy number gains in cases involving recurrence were extracted as candidate biomarkers. The protein expression of the candidate gene was assessed using immunohistochemical staining of tissue from 161 patients. The relationship between protein expression and clinicopathological features was also examined. We identified 9 candidate genes related to recurrence of stage II and III CRC, whose mRNA expression was significantly higher in CRC than in normal tissue. Of these proteins, the S100 calcium-binding protein A2 (S100A2) has been observed in several human cancers. S100A2 protein overexpression in CRC cells was associated with significantly worse overall survival and relapse-free survival, indicating that S100A2 is an independent risk factor for stage II and III CRC recurrence. S100A2 overexpression in cancer cells could be a biomarker of poor prognosis in stage II and III CRC recurrence and a target for treatment of this disease.
Fluorescence shell: A novel view of sclereid morphology with the Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope

Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM) was used to observe sclereids from stems of Avicennia germinans and from fruits of two species of pear (Pyrus calleryana “Bradford” and P. communis “Red Bartlett”). The images obtained from thick (25 to 100 μm) free‐hand sections were, in certain respects, far superior to those obtained by other, more invasive and time‐consuming microscopic techniques upon which previous reports of sclereid morphology were based. The cell wall surfaces, including the “internal” surfaces of the branched pit canals and cell lumens, were much accentuated with the techniques we describe, resulting in a “fluorescence shell” image, meaning the cell wall did not stain all the way through but instead only at the inner and outer wall surfaces, including the edges of ramiform pits. By controlling the time of staining with 1% aqueous Safranin O, or by changing the number of optical sections used in extended focus images, it was possible to get either a conventional view of the cell wall structure or a unique, three‐dimensional view of the elaborate cell interconnections. Similar fluorescence shell images of sclereids were also obtained using a periodic‐Schiff (PAS) staining system, but the stain was not as specific to sclereid cell walls as was the Safranin O stain. Particularly with the use of a narrow range band pass emission filter of 505–530 nm, the Safranin O staining may be more specific to lignin than reported in the literature. Microsc. Res. Tech. 63:282–288, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Sustainable Value Creation through E-waste Management: The Role of Marketing–Retailers–Operations Interface

This study investigates how sustainable value can be created from end-of-life returns in the electrical and electronic industry (E-waste) by effective marketing–retailer–operations interface. By using a case study approach, this study demonstrates that the retailer is a vital linkage between marketing and operations interface in value creation. Retailers can help enhance the corporate image as well as address operational challenges in the E-waste collection network. Further, we find that sustainable value creation is best achieved when there are policies and processes and appropriate incentive system across the returns management process. Such a marketing–retailers–operations interface in E-waste management can be a firm’s competitive differentiator, creating economic and environmental value for society and subsequently improving firm profitability.
Nicaragua: el desafío pendiente de superación de la pobreza

This paper discusses why Nicaragua is today one of the poorest countries in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Lack of sustained economic growth is viewed as the main cause of poverty in the country. The effects of political conflicts on the breaks of the long term growth path are analized and it is warned about the risk of a new disruption in the economic development of the country due to the absence of a political consensus as a nation.
RFID tag antenna for passive strain sensing

The processing of backscattered signals coming from RFID tags has been demonstrated to be potentially useful to detect the physical state of the target object. It is here shown how to design a completely passive UHF RFID sensor for strain monitoring starting from a meander-line dipole whose shape factor and feed section are engineered to achieve the desired sensing resolution and range. This class of devices are potentially low-cost and may found interesting applications in the Structural Health Monitoring of damaged structures or in other adverse events.
The analyses of negative refraction in finite one-dimensional photonic crystals

We theoretically investigate negative refraction in finite one-dimensional photonic crystals and discuss the dependence of negative refraction on the crystal structure, the incident angle and the background medium systematically. We find that negative refraction phenomena exist in many structures if we choose the incident angle carefully. We also find that when the crystal structure and the background medium are well matched, the power transmittance of negative refraction can be greatly improved. There shows that large negative transverse shift exists even when the power transmittance is remarkably enhanced.
Markov Modelling of Immunological and Virological States in HIV‐1 Infected Patients

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the evolution of HIV infected patients and to bring out some significant factors associated with this pathology. The main criteria revealing the State of illness is viral load measurement (VL). However the CD4 lymphocytes also represent an important marker as these reflect the State of the immune reservoir. Many studies have been carried out in this field and different models have been proposed with a view to a better understanding of this disease. Multi State Markov models defined in terms of CD4 counts, or in terms of viral load, have proved to be very useful tools for modelling HIV disease progression. The model we have developed in this study is based on both the CD4 lymphocytes counts and VL. Markov models are characterized by transition intensities. In this paper we explored several structures in succession. First, we used a homogeneous continuous time Markov process with four states defined by crossed values of CD4 and VL in a given patient at a given time. Then, the effect of certain covariates on the infection process was introduced into the model via the transition intensity functions, as with a Cox regression model. Since the hypothesis of homogeneity may be unrealistic in certain cases, we also considered piecewise homogeneous Markov models. Finally, the effects of covariates and time were combined in a piecewise homogeneous model with a covariate. We applied these methods to data from 1313 HIV‐infected patients included in the NADIS cohort. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Study on the representation of fingertip slip using various vibrations and surface textures

Recently, haptic and remote technologies have progressed significantly with increase of calculation and communication performance of computers and network such as the Internet. These techniques enable to transmit and represent action and reaction forces to another site. And it also makes to possible integrate the tactile information with reaction force to realize further augmented reality technique. In this study, it is aims that the construction of integration method for tactile and force representation in remote control environment. In order to achieve the integration, prototype of tactile presentation systems to presents a slip feeling between the fingertip and virtual object has constructed. The effectiveness of prototype system and represent point on fingertip has been confirmed through the experiments with subject people.
The Effect of Unfolding Brackets on the Quality of Wealth Data in HRS

A characteristic feature of survey data on household wealth is the high incidence of missing data—roughly one in three respondents who report owning an asset are unable or unwilling to provide an estimate of the exact amount of their holding. A partial solution to that problem is to devise a series of questions that put the respondent’s holdings into a quantitative range (less than x, more than x, or what? ). These quantitative ranges are called unfolding brackets, and they represent a survey innovation that aims to improve the quality of wealth data by substituting range data for completely missing data. In this paper, we examine the effect of unfolding brackets on the quality of HRS wealth data. Special attention is given to the impact of unfolding bracket entry points on the distribution of asset holdings in HRS 1998. Although there is a small positive relationship between mean asset holdings and entry point, there are many cases where that relationship does not hold. In general, our conclusion is that entry point bias problems are not a major concern in the evaluation of quality in the 1998 HRS wealth data.
Design Improvements for Message Propagation in Malleable Social Networks

This study presents the formal problem definition and computational analysis of the network design improvements for idea and message propagation in both enterprise and consumer social networks (ESN and CSN, respectively). Message propagation in social networks is impacted by how messages are seeded in the network, and by propagation characteristics of the network topology itself. It has been recognized that the propagation properties of these networks can be actively influenced by network design interventions, such as the deliberate creation of new connections. We address the problem of finding cost‐effective message seeding, and identifying potential new network connections that allow improved propagation in social networks with cascade propagation. We use the hop‐constrained minimum spanning tree (HMST) model to find the seeds and possible new connections that result in networks with improved propagation properties. Moreover, we present new heuristic algorithms that substantially improve the solution quality for the HMST problem. Computational results posit that the design improvements proposed by the HMST approach can greatly improve cascade propagation performance of the networks at low cost.
A Parallel Algorithm for Error Correction in High-Throughput Short-Read Data on CUDA-Enabled Graphics Hardware

Emerging DNA sequencing technologies open up exciting new opportunities for genome sequencing by generating read data with a massive throughput. However, produced reads are significantly shorter and more error-prone compared to the traditional Sanger shotgun sequencing method. This poses challenges for de novo DNA fragment assembly algorithms in terms of both accuracy (to deal with short, error-prone reads) and scalability (to deal with very large input data sets). In this article, we present a scalable parallel algorithm for correcting sequencing errors in high-throughput short-read data so that error-free reads can be available before DNA fragment assembly, which is of high importance to many graph-based short-read assembly tools. The algorithm is based on spectral alignment and uses the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) programming model. To gain efficiency we are taking advantage of the CUDA texture memory using a space-efficient Bloom filter data structure for spectrum membership queries. We have tested the runtime and accuracy of our algorithm using real and simulated Illumina data for different read lengths, error rates, input sizes, and algorithmic parameters. Using a CUDA-enabled mass-produced GPU (available for less than US$400 at any local computer outlet), this results in speedups of 12-84 times for the parallelized error correction, and speedups of 3-63 times for both sequential preprocessing and parallelized error correction compared to the publicly available Euler-SR program. Our implementation is freely available for download from http://cuda-ec.sourceforge. net .
An overlooked indicator of disease activity in ulcerative colitis: Mean platelet volume

Many non-invasive tests have been studied for diagnosis and determining the activation degree of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Nevertheless, an ideal test has not been found yet. Mean platelet volume (MPV) is influenced by the inflammation. In a few study, decreased platelet volume have been reported in IBD. The aim of this study is to determine whether platelet volume would be useful in ulcerative colitis (UC) activity. Additionally we have analyzed overall accuracy of MPV in disease activity and compared with other inflammatory markers. A total of 61 UC patients (male/female : 41/20), and 27 healthy subjects (male/female : 18/9) were enrolled into the study. For all subjects following tests were performed; ESR, CRP, white blood cell count and mean platelet volume. A statistically significant decrease in MPV was noted in patients with UC (8.29 ± 1.02fL) compared with healthy controls (8.65 ± 0.79 fL). MPV of active UC (8.06 ± 1.19 fL) patients were significantly lower than that of inactive UC (8.45 ± 0.87 fL). Overall accuracy of MPV in determination of active UC was 71% (with sensitivity 67%, specificity 73%). A negative correlation was found between MPV and endoscopic activity index (r : -0.358 p : 0.005). In UC, MPV did not correlate with ESR, CRP and white blood cell. Our study showed that MPV reduced in UC, particularly in patients with active UC. Decreased MPV may be an indicator for increased disease activity in patients with UC.
Experimental Study on Energy Management Strategy for Fuel Cell Hybrid Tramway

In this paper, a fuel cell/battery hybrid power scaled-system for a low floor light rail vehicle (LF-LRV) is built, which consists of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system, battery bank, DC/DC converters and energy management configuration. In order to avoid the transients and rapid changes of power demand, and achieve high efficiency without degrading the mechanism performance for an energy management system of hybrid tramway, an energy management strategy based on state machine method is proposed to coordinate multiple power sources. The proposed energy management strategy is evaluated with a scaled-down driving cycle of tramway from Turkey, and the results demonstrate the hybrid system capability to meet appropriate driving cycle.
Multi-robot dynamic virtual potential point hunting strategy based on FIS

A multi-robot dynamic virtual potential point hunting strategy based on fuzzy inference system is presented. Considering the kinematic constraints of wheeled robots, hunting robots forecast the movement trend according to the position information of the evaded motion. A dynamic bounding ring for predicting positions is built. The hunting robots achieve enclosed formation and contraction trends of encirclement through rounding up the uniform distribution of potential. The fuzzy inference system is used to control the actions of multi-robot. Finally, the experiment results show the proposed algorithms can achieve the hunting of multiple mobile robots effectively.
Academic Achievement and Professional Examination Performance.

Although licensing of chartered accountants (CAs) in Canada is governed by provincial law, the basic requirements are similar across the country: the equivalent of an undergraduate education in accounting, two years of experience, and a passing score on the Uniform Final Examination (UFE). The UFE, taken by candidates after completion of a bachelor's degree, is administered and scored annually by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA). The profession agrees that standards for the UFE and for other licensing requirements should remain high; still, the pass rate on the UFE, which has ranged as low as 29%, has worried a number of observers (Gibbins, 1986; Matusky, 1991; Meikle, 1986; Rosen, 1978, 1982). Recently, candidates aspiring to enter the field of chartered accountancy in Quebec have brought political arguments into the debate on the reasonableness of UFE pass rates (Matusky, 1990).
Smoking and the sudden infant death syndrome: results from 1993-5 case-control study for confidential inquiry into stillbirths and deaths in infancy

Abstract Objective: To investigate the effects of exposure to tobacco smoke and of parental consumption of alcohol and illegal drugs as risk factors for the sudden infant death syndrome after a national risk reduction campaign which included advice on prenatal and postnatal avoidance of tobacco smoke. Design: Two year population based case-control study. Parental interviews were conducted for each infant who died and four controls matched for age and date of interview. Setting: Three regions in England with a total population of 17 million people. Subjects: 195 babies who died and 780 matched controls. Results: More index than control mothers (62.6% v 25.1%) smoked during pregnancy (multivariate odds ratio = 2.10; 95% confidence interval 1.24 to 3.54). Paternal smoking had an additional independent effect when other factors were controlled for (2.50; 1.48 to 4.22). The risk of death rose with increasing postnatal exposure to tobacco smoke, which had an additive effect among those also exposed to maternal smoking during pregnancy (2.93; 1.56 to 5.48). The population attributable risk was over 61%, which implies that the numbers of deaths from the syndrome could be reduced by almost two third if parents did not smoke. Alcohol use was higher among index than control mothers but was strongly correlated with smoking and on multivariate analysis was not found to have any additional independent effect. Illegal drug use was more common among the index parents, and paternal use of illegal drugs remained significant in the multivariate model (4.68; 1.56 to 14.05). Conclusions: This study confirms the increased risk of the sudden infant death syndrome associated with maternal smoking during pregnancy and shows evidence that household exposure to tobacco smoke has an independent additive effect. Parental drug misuse has an additional small but significant effect. Key messages Exposure of babies to tobacco smoke from other members of the household before or after birth increases the risk of death: the greater the exposure the higher the risk Over 60% of such deaths may be attributable to the effects of exposure to tobacco smoke before and after birth
What Has Driven Chinese Monetary Policy Since 1990? Investigating the People's Bank's Policy Rule

Post-1990 Chinese monetary policy is modeled with an augmented McCallum-type rule that takes into account the People's Bank of China's emphasis on targeting the rate of money supply growth. People's Bank policy appears responsive to the gap between target and actual nominal GDP as well as to external pressures. Additional cointegration analysis yields estimates of the gap between estimated money demand and actual money supply that appear to track the inflationary trends evident over our sample period. Chinese inflation and monetary policy outcomes seem reasonably captured using a standard monetary approach, therefore, without the need to appeal to China-specific structural factors.