Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Greenhouse gas emissions of realistic dietary choices in Denmark: the carbon footprint and nutritional value of dairy products

Background Dairy products are important in a healthy diet due to their high nutritional value; they are, however, associated with relatively large greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) per kg product. When discussing the need to reduce the GHGE caused by the food system, it is crucial to consider the nutritional value of alternative food choices. Objective The objective of this study was to elucidate the role of dairy products in overall nutrition and to clarify the effects of dietary choices on GHGE, and to combine nutritional value and GHGE data. Methods We created eight dietary scenarios with different quantity of dairy products using data from the Danish National Dietary Survey (1995–2006). Nutrient composition and GHGE data for 71 highly consumed foods were used to estimate GHGE and nutritional status for each dietary scenario. An index was used to estimate nutrient density in relation to nutritional recommendation and climate impact for solid food items; high index values were those with the highest nutrient density scores in relation to the GHGE. Results The high-dairy scenario resulted in 27% higher protein, 13% higher vitamin D; 55% higher calcium; 48% higher riboflavin; and 18% higher selenium than the non-dairy scenario. There was a significant correlation between changes in calcium and changes in vitamin D, selenium, and riboflavin content (P=0.0001) throughout all of the diets. The estimated GHGE for the dietary scenario with average-dairy consumption was 4,631 g CO2e/day. Conclusions When optimizing a diet with regard to sustainability, it is crucial to account for the nutritional value and not solely focus on impact per kg product. Excluding dairy products from the diet does not necessarily mitigate climate change but in contrast may have nutritional consequences.
Design and Implementation of Post-WIMP Distributed User Interfaces with ZOIL

“Interactive spaces” are physical environments or rooms for collaborative work that are augmented with ubiquitous computing technology. Their purpose is to enable a computer-supported collaboration between multiple users that is based on a seamless use of different devices for natural “post-WIMP” interaction (e.g., multitouch walls, interactive tabletops, tablet PCs, or digital pen and paper). However, to this day, there are no well-established guidelines or toolkits for designing and implementing such distributed user interfaces (DUIs). Therefore, this article introduces the Zoomable Object-Oriented Information Landscape (ZOIL), a novel design approach and software framework for post-WIMP DUIs in interactive spaces. In the following, the ZOIL design principles are first introduced and illustrated. They provide recommendations and examples of DUI interaction design for interactive spaces. Then the different software patterns and architectures that have been employed for implementing the open-source ZOIL software framework are described. This framework facilitates the implementation of ZOIL's design principles in practice. Lessons learned from ZOIL's implementation are shared, and the implementation is discussed and compared with related work and approaches. The results of an evaluation of ZOIL with designers and developers conclude the article.
The Identification of Industrial Clusters – Methodical Aspects in a Multidimensional Framework for Cluster Identification

We use a combination of measures of spatial concentration, qualitative input-output analysis and innovation interaction matrices to identify the horizontal and vertical dimension of industrial clusters in Saxony in 2005. We describe the spatial allocation of the industrial clusters and show possibilities of vertical interaction of clusters based on intermediate goods flows. With the help of region and sector-specific knowledge interaction matrices we are able to show that a sole focus on intermediate goods flows limits the identification of innovative actors in industrial clusters, as knowledge flows and intermediate goods flows do not show any major overlaps.
Molecular and Functional Characterization of Three Different Postzygotic Mutations in PIK3CA-Related Overgrowth Spectrum (PROS) Patients: Effects on PI3K/AKT/mTOR Signaling and Sensitivity to PIK3 Inhibitors

Background PIK3CA-related overgrowth spectrum (PROS) include a group of disorders that affect only the terminal portion of a limb, such as type I macrodactyly, and conditions like fibroadipose overgrowth (FAO), megalencephaly-capillary malformation (MCAP) syndrome, congenital lipomatous asymmetric overgrowth of the trunk, lymphatic, capillary, venous, and combined-type vascular malformations, epidermal nevi, skeletal and spinal anomalies (CLOVES) syndrome and Hemihyperplasia Multiple Lipomatosis (HHML). Heterozygous postzygotic PIK3CA mutations are frequently identified in these syndromes, while timing and tissue specificity of the mutational event are likely responsible for the extreme phenotypic variability observed. Methods We carried out a combination of Sanger sequencing and targeted deep sequencing of genes involved in the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway in three patients (1 MCAP and 2 FAO) to identify causative mutations, and performed immunoblot analyses to assay the phosphorylation status of AKT and P70S6K in affected dermal fibroblasts. In addition, we evaluated their ability to grow in the absence of serum and their response to the PI3K inhibitors wortmannin and LY294002 in vitro. Results and Conclusion Our data indicate that patients’ cells showed constitutive activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway. Of note, PI3K pharmacological blockade resulted in a significant reduction of the proliferation rate in culture, suggesting that inhibition of PI3K might prove beneficial in future therapies for PROS patients.
Analyzing How Cultural Norms Affect Learner Preferences in Organizational Learning Programs

Offering organizational learning programs that engage employees within the culture may help them implement strategies learned within the organization. The current theoretical research scope was performed to bring a greater understanding of the effects of cultural norms upon learner preferences in organizational learning programs along with self-leadership strategies and general self-efficacy due to the possible effects of individual characteristics upon the overall organizational performance. Due to the intrinsic motivation and biological makeup of the individual, a learner style may be skewed simply because their perception of the cultural norms and effectiveness of the organizational learning program. Cultural norms may have an effect upon learner preference within organizational learning programs; however, the magnitude and direction affects learner preference may be dependent upon self-leadership strategies and the level general self-efficacy.
Information as a Measure of Variation

In many applications of information theory, information measures the reduction of uncertainty that results from the knowledge that an event has occurred. Even so, an item of information learned need not be the occurrence of an event but, rather, the change in probability distribution associated with an ensemble of events. This paper examines the basic account of information, which focuses on events, and reviews how it may be naturally generalized to probability distributions/measures. The resulting information measure is special case of the Rényi information divergence (also known as the Rényi entropy). This information measure, herein dubbed the variational information, meaningfully assigns a numerical bit-value to arbitrary state transitions of physical systems. The information topology of these state transitions is characterized canonically by a right and left continuity spectrum defined in terms of the KantorovichWasserstein metric. These continuity spectra provide a theoretical framework for characterizing the informational continuity of evolving systems and for rigorously assessing the degree to which such systems exhibit, or fail to exhibit, continuous change. 1 The Fundamental Intuition Ordinarily, information refers to the meaning or semantic content of a message. Getting a handle on the meaning of a message, however, has proven difficult mathematically. Thus, when mathematicians speak of information, they are concerned not so much with the meaning of a message as with the vehicle by which the message is transmitted from sender to receiver.
The Effect of High Glucocorticoid Administration and Food Restriction on Rodent Skeletal Muscle Mitochondrial Function and Protein Metabolism

Background Glucocorticoids levels are high in catabolic conditions but it is unclear how much of the catabolic effects are due to negative energy balance versus glucocorticoids and whether there are distinct effects on metabolism and functions of specific muscle proteins. Methodology/Principal Findings We determined whether 14 days of high dose methylprednisolone (MPred, 4 mg/kg/d) Vs food restriction (FR, food intake matched to MPred) in rats had different effects on muscle mitochondrial function and protein fractional synthesis rates (FSR). Lower weight loss (15%) occurred in FR than in MPred (30%) rats, while a 15% increase occurred saline-treated Controls. The per cent muscle loss was significantly greater for MPred than FR. Mitochondrial protein FSR in MPred rats was lower in soleus (51 and 43%, respectively) and plantaris (25 and 55%) than in FR, while similar decline in protein FSR of the mixed, sarcoplasmic, and myosin heavy chain occurred. Mitochondrial enzymatic activity and ATP production were unchanged in soleus while in plantaris cytochrome c oxidase activity was lower in FR than Control, and ATP production rate with pyruvate + malate in MPred plantaris was 28% lower in MPred. Branched-chain amino acid catabolic enzyme activities were higher in both FR and MPred rats indicating enhanced amino acid oxidation capacity. Conclusion/Significance MPred and FR had little impact on mitochondrial function but reduction in muscle protein synthesis occurred in MPred that could be explained on the basis of reduced food intake. A greater decline in proteolysis may explain lesser muscle loss in FR than in MPred rats.
Is the ex ante risk premi A new approach to testing conditiona asset pricing models *

This paper develops tests of inequality restrictions implied by conditional asset pricing models. The methodology is easy to impicment, requires little knowledge of the conditional Distribution of asset returns, and is valid under fairly weak assumptions. As an application. we test whether the e-x ante risk premium is always positive. We report reliable evidence that the P_Y ante risk preriiium is negative in some states of the worid; these states are related to periods of high expected inflatinn and especially to downward-sloping term structures.
Wireless Sensor Networks : a great opportunity for researchers in Developing Countries

We advocate the use of wireless sensor networks in Developing Countries as we foresee they have a great role to play not only to expedite novel solutions that help mitigate development problems, but also to facilitate research activities in crucial scientific areas such as environmental monitoring, physics of complex systems and energy management. Thus we argue that there is a need for technology research and application development in the area of Wireless Sensor Networks for Development: WSN4D. Wireless Sensor Networks, ICT4D, science development, Africa, Developing Countries
The Bussgang algorithm for multichannel blind image restoration

This work derives the multichannel Bussgang restoration algorithm for blind image restoration problems. In its basic outline, the derived Bussgang restoration algorithm is based on iteratively filtering the measurements by means of a bank of FIR filters, and updating the filter-bank on the base of a nonlinear estimate of the original image. The filters are updated by solving a linear system (multichannel normal equations) whose coefficients' matrices depend on the cross-correlations between the measurements and a nonlinear estimate of the original image, this latter obtained using a Bayesian criterion. Experimental results pertaining to restoration of motion blurred text images and out-of-focus star field images are reported.
Optimizing the Carpool Service Problem with Genetic Algorithm in Service-Based Computing

Carpooling increases the occupancy rate of cars by decreasing the number of empty seats, thereby creating an effective solution to traffic congestion. This paper proposes an intelligent carpool system, BlueNet, which comprises two important modules. These modules are called the Mobile Client module and the Cloud Global Carpool Services module. By using smart handheld devices, users can submit carpool requests and obtain matches within the Mobile Client module via the Cloud Global Carpool Services module. The Cloud Global Carpool Services module generates acceptable matches via the Genetic-based Carpool Route and Matching algorithm. The proposed algorithm furthers the solution to the carpool service problem by dramatically reducing the time required to match a large number of users. In regard to the quality of the matches and processing time, the experimental results show that the proposed Genetic-based Carpool Route and Matching algorithm is able to find carpool route and matching results that are among the most optimal, and operates with significantly less computational complexity to require less services computing time.
An Effective Data Storage Security Scheme forCloud Computing

Cloud computing has been envisioned as the next generation information technology architecture for enterprises. Cloud Computing moves the data on the cloud storage servers maintained by service providers, which deprive the user of their control of the physical possession of data, even though they are the owners of the data. This unique feature however has raised many new security challenges which have not been well understood. In this paper we focus on cloud data storage security, which is an important aspect of Quality of service. We introduced an effective and flexible distribution verification mechanism to address data storage security in cloud computing. In this mechanism, we rely on token pre-computation to verify the correctness coded data rather than Pseudorandom Data. We present the system with design goals of Storage correctness and Fast Localization of Data Errors.
Code Rocket: Improving Detailed Design Support in Mainstream Software Development

In mainstream software development there can often be a gap which exists between the stages of performing the architectural design of a software system and implementing the detailed algorithms and processes required in the program code. Code Rocket is a code visualization and documentation system which has been developed to fill this gap. Code Rocket provides automated design and documentation support for software developers during detailed stages of code construction. It integrates seamlessly with existing development tools to provide extensive documentation with little or no effort on behalf of the software engineer. Code and documentation remain fully synchronized even when changes are implemented in the code. This paper describes Code Rocket, the rationale for its development, and the key features and benefits it delivers to different stakeholders on a software project.
Real-time hand gesture recognition in complex environments

As robots become more integrated into humans' everyday lives, it becomes essential for them to perceive and understand people's intentions and actions. People will want a more natural way to interact with robots, closer to the way humans do it among themselves. When humans communicate, they use a rich set of gestures and body language in addition to speech, which significantly enhances their ability to get thoughts, feelings, and intentions across. Hence, robots strongly need the ability to understand human gestures and to interpret body language. One of the most expressive components of body language are hand gestures, which is why they are so important at the interface between humans and robots. This thesis presents an extensible, vision-based communication system that is able to interpret 2D dynamic hand gestures. The system consists of three primary modules: hand segmentation, feature extraction, and gesture recognition. Hand segmentation uses both motion and skin-color detection to separate the hand from cluttered backgrounds. The feature extraction module gathers hand trajectory information and encapsulates it into a form that is used by the gesture recognizer. This last module identifies the gesture and translates it into a command that the robot can understand. Unlike other existing work, this hand gesture recognition system operates in realtime without the use of special hardware. Results demonstrate that the system is robust in realistic, complex environments. Moreover, this system does not require a priori training and allows the hand great flexibility of motion without the use of gloves or special markers. Thesis Supervisor: Rodney Brooks Title: Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Root Architecture and Plant Productivity

Water and nutrient availability limit plant growth in a11 but a very few natural ecosystems. They limit yield in most agricultural ecosystems, and in the United States and other industrialized nations, intensive irrigation and fertilization have generated serious environmental problems. The acquisition of soil resources by plant root systems is therefore a subject of considerable interest in agriculture and ecology, as well as a complex and challenging problem in basic plant biology. Symbioses between roots and otlier organisms (notably mycorrhizas and N-fixing bacteria), modification of the rhizosphere through root exudates, and the uptake and transport characteristics of root axes are a11 important dimensions of this problem that are being actively researched by plant biologists. Another aspect of this problem that has received less attention, despite its probable importance, is root architecture. Recent methodological innovations present opportunities for improved under.standing of the functional importance of root architecture in the efficient acquisition of soil resources and plant adaptation to suboptimal soil conditions. The purpose of this Update is to briefly summarize conceptual issues and recent developments in the study of root architecture and to propose a framework for understanding its physiological basis.
A study on improving employees’ behaviour towards increasing students’ loyalty: The mediating role of need understanding, service quality, and intimacy among students in Kenya

Article history: Received: March 23, 2018 Received in revised format: June 1, 2018 Accepted: June 15, 2018 Available online: June 15, 2018 During the past few years, there have been various studies on the relationship between academic behavior, teaching and student retention but not much has been on administration staff and students. This study examined improving employees’ behavioural factors towards increasing students' loyalty. The paper explores the direct mediation and indirect mediation of employee behavioural factors leading to build student loyalty. More specifically the focus is on the constructs of service quality (SQLTY), need understanding (NEEDUND), intimacy (INTIMACY), and student loyalty (STLOY). This study depended on a positivist research paradigm. In this study, over 800 structured questionnaires were administered for research subjects. However, 743 were captured for the final analysis. The analytical tool used in this study is the ADANCO 2.0. 1 software and in terms of statistical processing, the PLS-SEM technique was utilized. The two main takeaways from the direct relationships are that INTIMACY is a strong predictor of STLOY, and NEEDUND is also a strong predictor of SQLTY. The indirect mediations of INTIMACY on SQLTY and STLOY, INTIMACY on NEEDUND and STLOY, and SQLTY on NEEDUND and INTIMACY were all not supported. The study, like any academic work, has limitations. Despite these limitations, this study offers theoretical as well as practical values for the research community and administrators of universities and higher education administrators as a whole. For administrators of the universities and the higher education, the study points out the critical needs for administrators to better understand students’ loyalty and behaviours of employees during the service encounter, which could lead to intimacy and eventually student loyalty. The present study is innovated by quantitatively examining how the above-mentioned behavioural factors of employees could lead to INTIMACY and STLOY.
Structuration of Refractory Metals Tantalum and Niobium Using Modified Equal Channel Angular Pressing Technique

In the present work, we use a modified Equal Channel Angular Pressing technique for structure and properties change of Tantalum and Niobium at room temperature. The main advantage of this modified technique is the possibility to produce relatively large samples with ultrafine-grained microstructure in all volume of the workpiece by reduced deformation load up to 25% via friction decrease, and also to prevent the punch fracture under high compression stress during pressing. The various microstructures and properties were produced in metals by using different von Mises strain levels up to ƐvM = 13.8. The changes in microstructure were studied by using SEM and TEM techniques. The change of mechanical properties was measured by using various tension and hardness testing setups. We can conclude that during processing the ultrafine-grained microstructure in as-cast Nb and Ta was formed. The uniaxial tensile strength, Vickers hardness, and plasticity of Nb and Ta significantly increased as compared to coarse-grained counterparts. We believe that the relatively large workpieces of pure bulk Ta and Nb metals with improved microstructure and exploitation properties are suitable materials for the modern industry.
SeSFJava: A Framework for Design and Testing of Concurrent Systems

Many elegant formalisms have been developed for specifying and reasoning about concurrent systems. However, these formalisms have not been widely used by developers and programmers of concurrent systems. One reason is that most formal methods involve techniques and tools not familiar to programmers, for example, a specification language very different from C, C++, or Java. SeSF is a framework for design, verification and testing of concurrent systems that attempts to address these concerns by keeping the theory close to the programmer’s world. SeSF considers layered compositionality. Here, a composite system consists of layers of component systems, and services define the allowed sequences of interactions between layers. SeSF uses conventional programming languages to define services. Specifically, SeSF is a markup language that can be integrated with any programming language. We integrated SeSF into Java, resulting in what we call SeSFJava. We developed a testing harness for SeSFJava, called SeSFJava Harness, in which (distributed) SeSFJava programs can be executed, and the execution is checked against its services and any other correctness assertion. A key capability of the SeSFJava Harness is that one can test the final implementation of a concurrent system, rather than just an abstract representation of it.