Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sustainability as Megatrend

Is sustainability a megatrend? If so, what does it mean to be a megatrend, and how can macromarketing advance our understanding of sustainability as a megatrend? This article makes three contributions to research on sustainability as megatrend. First, if offers a set of elemental criteria to understand the concept of a megatrend. Megatrends are complex in nature, whose understanding requires the skills and perspectives of macromarketers. Second, this article articulates two schools of thought in Macromarketing scholarship, a Developmental School and a Critical School. The former operates from the premise that marketing systems are important parts of the solution to the human condition, while the latter operates from the premise that they are part of the problem. Each concludes that sustainability is the megatrend of our time, but for different reasons. Finally, this article offers directions for macromarketing scholars, who are uniquely positioned to explore sustainability as megatrend.
A robust feedback gains for linear systems with multiple delay components

In this paper, a selection of gains to make the systems robust to uncertainty in the delayed plant is proposed. In this work, we remove many assumptions that had been made for so many years in many works. Here the uncertainty can be assumed as natural as possible, i.e., the uncertainty can be treated without assumption of constant bound nor bound as function of the states. It is also shown that using this scheme we can also the state feedback gains can be synthesized. It shown from the numerical results that the method is effective.
Global spread of mobile antimicrobial drug resistance determinants in human and animal Escherichia coli and Salmonella strains causing community-acquired infections.

BACKGROUND Antimicrobial drugs used in human infection treatment and animal husbandry may select for drug-resistant bacterial pathogens, which are increasingly observed worldwide. We sought to examine the extent to which identical mobile drug resistance elements are shared across common pathogens isolated from human and animal sources. METHODS We compared the distribution of one class of mobile elements--integrons and gene cassettes--among uropathogenic Escherichia coli isolates, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium isolates from human diarrhea cases, and E. coli and Salmonella isolates from nonhuman sources in the United States. The sequences of the gene cassettes were also compared with those deposited in GenBank. RESULTS Class 1 integrons were detected in 68 (49%) of 139 uropathogenic E. coli isolates, 16 (72%) of 22 human and animal Salmonella isolates, and 120 (28%) of 436 nonhuman E. coli isolates. The most prevalent cassettes were those encoding aminoglycoside adenyltransferase A (aadA) and dihydrofolate reductase A (dfrA). Sequences of aadA1, dfrA12-orfF-aadA2, and dfrA17-aadA5 gene cassettes from 35 urinary tract infection E. coli isolates and of aadA2 and aadA12 gene cassettes from 7 Salmonella isolates were 100% identical to the corresponding cassette sequences from food animal E. coli isolates and those deposited in GenBank from a wide variety of bacteria isolated from animal hosts from distinct regions of the world. CONCLUSION Common community-acquired human drug-resistant infections are caused by bacterial strains that harbor mobile drug resistance determinants of identical sequences that are found in diverse bacterial species from varied animal sources worldwide.
Behavioral evidence of filling-in at the blind spot of the monkey

Abstract In human subjects, the blind spot is perceptually filled-in by color and brightness from the surrounding visual field. The present behavioral study examined the occurrence of color filling-in at the blind spot in monkeys. First, the location of the blind spot was determined using a monocular saccade task. The blind spots were located on the horizontal meridian at approximately 15–17 deg from the fixation point in the temporal visual field. Then, filling-in at the blind spot was tested by determining if the monkey could discriminate between an annulus presented on the blind spot and a homogeneous disk in the normal visual field. In this task, the monkey was required to make a saccade to a homogeneous disk of the same color and size as an annulus presented simultaneously in the opposite field. Both stimuli were large enough to cover the blind spot and the inner circle of the annulus was confined inside the blind spot. All four monkeys tested performed this task correctly in over 80% of the trials. However, when one eye was covered and the annulus was presented on the blind spot of the uncovered eye, performance deteriorated significantly. To confirm that these results reflected filling-in, one monkey was trained to maintain fixation when two identical homogeneous disks appeared in opposite visual fields. When only one eye was uncovered, and the annulus was presented on the blind spot of the uncovered eye, the monkey maintained fixation in most of the trials. These results show that monkeys were unable to distinguish an annulus from a homogeneous disk when the annulus was presented on the blind spot. This indicates that color filling-in occurs at the blind spot in monkeys and opens possibility to physiological experiments to study the neural mechanisms of filling-in.
Dietary fibre intake and risk of cardiovascular disease: systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective To investigate dietary fibre intake and any potential dose-response association with coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease. Design Systematic review of available literature and dose-response meta-analysis of cohort studies using random effects models. Data sources The Cochrane Library, Medline, Medline in-process, Embase, CAB Abstracts, ISI Web of Science, BIOSIS, and hand searching. Eligibility criteria for studies Prospective studies reporting associations between fibre intake and coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease, with a minimum follow-up of three years and published in English between 1 January 1990 and 6 August 2013. Results 22 cohort study publications met inclusion criteria and reported total dietary fibre intake, fibre subtypes, or fibre from food sources and primary events of cardiovascular disease or coronary heart disease. Total dietary fibre intake was inversely associated with risk of cardiovascular disease (risk ratio 0.91 per 7 g/day (95% confidence intervals 0.88 to 0.94)) and coronary heart disease (0.91 (0.87 to 0.94)). There was evidence of some heterogeneity between pooled studies for cardiovascular disease (I2=45% (0% to 74%)) and coronary heart disease (I2=33% (0% to 66%)). Insoluble fibre and fibre from cereal and vegetable sources were inversely associated with risk of coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease. Fruit fibre intake was inversely associated with risk of cardiovascular disease. Conclusions Greater dietary fibre intake is associated with a lower risk of both cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease. Findings are aligned with general recommendations to increase fibre intake. The differing strengths of association by fibre type or source highlight the need for a better understanding of the mode of action of fibre components.
Critical Considerations for Teaching Students With Disabilities in Online Environments

T EA C H IN G E xc ep ti on al C hi ld re n , V ol . 46 , N o. 5 , pp . 79 –9 1. C op yr ig ht 2 01 4 T he A ut ho r( s) . D O I: 1 0. 11 77 /0 04 00 59 91 45 28 10 5 The purpose of this article is to provide teachers and their supporting team (e.g., parents) with an understanding of the implications of blended and virtual learning for students with disabilities. To support these students, it is important to have an understanding of the manner in which a significant majority of blended and virtual learning is delivered for today’s K–12 student. Many blended and online programs include resources and tools teachers can use to adapt and extend student learning. This article offers tips, strategies, and resources to the novice as well as a veteran teacher moving to instruct in the blended or virtual learning environment.
Central origin of the efferent neurons projecting to the eyes of Limulus polyphemus

Abstract Circadian rhythms affect the anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry of the visual cells in the eyes of the horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus). These rhythms are mediated by the activity of efferent neurons that project from the central nervous system to all of the eyes. In this study, the optic nerves of Limulus were backfilled with Neurobiotin revealing the location of efferent cell bodies and their projections through the central nervous system. We propose that this efferent system mediates the circadian changes in visual functions in Limulus. Whether these cells are the circadian pacemaker neurons is unknown. The cell bodies of the efferent neurons are ovoid and have a diameter of 40−80 μm. They lie within the cheliceral ganglion of the tritocerebrum, just posterior to the protocerebrum. This ganglion is on the lateral edge of the circumesophageal ring, near the middle of the dorsal-ventral axis of the ring. Each optic nerve contains axons from both ipsilateral and contralateral efferent cells, and some, possibly all, of them project bilaterally and to more than one type of optic nerve. The efferent axons form a tract that projects anteriorly from the cell bodies to the protocerebrum, and bifurcates just lateral to the protocerebral bridge. One branch crosses the midline and projects anteriorly to the optic tract and medulla on the side contralateral to the cell of origin; the other branch follows a symmetric pathway on the ipsilateral side. Small branches arising from the major efferent axons in the optic tract project through the ocellar ganglia to the median optic nerves. The efferent axons branch again in the medulla, and some of these branches innervate the ventral optic nerves. The major branches of the efferent axons continue through the lamina and enter the lateral optic nerve.
Code optimization techniques for embedded processors - methods, algorithms, and tools

From the Publisher: The building blocks of today's embedded systems-on-a-chip are complex IP components and programmable processor cores. This means that more and more system functionality is implemented in software rather than in custom hardware. In turn, this indicates a growing need for high-level language compilers, capable of generating efficient code for embedded processors. However, traditional compiler technology hardly keeps pace with new developments in embedded processor architectures. Many existing compilers for DSPs and multimedia processors therefore produce code of insufficient quality with respect to performance and/or code size, and a large part of software for embedded systems is still being developed in assembly languages. As both embedded software as well as processor architectures are getting more and more complex, assembly programming clearly violates the demands for a short time-to-market and high dependability in embedded system design. The goal of this book is to provide new methods and techniques to software and compiler developers, that help to make the necessary step from assembly programming to the use of compilers also in embedded system design. Code Optimization Techniques for Embedded Processors discusses the state-of-the-art in the area of compilers for embedded processors. It presents a collection of new code optimization techniques, dedicated to DSP and multimedia processors. These include: compiler support for DSP address generation units, efficient mapping of data flow graphs to irregular architectures, exploitation of SIMD and conditional instructions, as well as function inlining under code size constraints. Comprehensive experimental evaluations are given for real-life processors, that indicate the code quality improvements which can be achieved as compared to earlier techniques. In addition, C compiler frontend issues are discussed from a practical viewpoint. Code Optimization Techniques for Embedded Processors is intended for researchers and engineers active in software development for embedded systems, and for compiler developers in academia and industry.
Molecular characterization of a Canadian human parechovirus (HPeV)‐3 isolate and its relationship to other HPeVs

A new member of the Parechovirus genus (HPeV‐3) has been recently isolated from a stool specimen of a young Japanese child with transient paralysis (isolate A308/99). Three additional HPeV‐3 Canadian cases associated with severe neonatal infections were subsequently described by our group. At this time, limited information is available on the molecular characterization of the HPeV‐3 genome. In this study, we report the complete genome sequence of a Canadian HPeV‐3 isolate (Can82853‐01) recovered in 2001 from the nasopharyngeal aspirate of a neonate with a sepsis‐like syndrome. The Can82853‐01 genome was 7,322 nucleotides (nt) in length and had 96.4%, 77.7%, and 77.5% nt identity with the A308/99 (HPeV‐3), HPeV‐1, and HPeV‐2 reference strains, respectively. Furthermore, the Can82853‐01 polyprotein had 98.2%, 86.9%, and 84.7% amino acids identity compared to the same viruses. Most differences between the polyproteins of HPeV‐3 isolates and those of HPeV‐1 and ‐2 were located in the VP0‐VP3‐VP1 capsid region whereas the non‐structural proteins were relatively conserved. The primary and predicted secondary structures of 5′UTR and 3′UTR of the HPeV‐3 isolates were also different than those of HPeV‐1 and ‐2 reference strains. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the relatedness between Can82853‐01 and A308/99 and their divergence from other picornaviruses. J. Med. Virol. 77:566–570, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, inc.
Exploiting Trust in Peer-to-Peer Systems

Second generation peer-to-peer systems [5, 6] have shown a lot of promise with many desirable properties such as scalability, self-configuration, automatic load balancing etc. However the open nature of these systems also makes them vulnerable to Byzantine attacks. These systems are designed to be fault tolerant in the presence of a few malicious nodes. We however believe that even a handful of evil nodes could disrupt the system by exploiting certain weaknesses that we have identified. In these systems, a single maclicious node, can present multiple identities to the system. This allows them to emulate multiple nodes simultaneously and also allows them limited control of their placement in overlay networks[4, 7] that are integral to the system. We devised attacks based on these weaknesses to disrupt lookup and storage operations in the peer-to-peer storage systems, CFS[5] and PAST[6]. We show that it is possible to exploit these weaknesses to attack these systems and have evaluated the feasibility of these attacks.
Concepção de Infância e Literatura Infantil

Demonstramos a existencia da chamada "Literatura Infantil" nonivel da manifestacao textual. No processo de discursivizacao, o sujeito da enunciacao escolhe figuras "apropriadas" ao universo infantil, sendo que a estrutura profunda dos textos guarda os valores historicamente produzidos pela sociedade que transferimos de geracao a geracao.
A Bluetooth-Based Device-Free Motion Detector for a Remote Elder Care Support System

Remote elder care is important but it is difficult to keep a track of a patient's medication. We developed a remote elder care support system that enables users to synchronize handwriting, and photos in real-time on ordinal smartphones and tablet devices. However, it remained difficult for caregivers to remotely check the timeliness of the patient's dose. To solve this problem, we developed a motion detector based on the attenuation of Bluetooth signals, the 2.4 GHz band, by water. The advantage of our method is that it does not require the equipment of any devices to detect care receivers is unnecessary. We experimented the attenuation of Bluetooth signals by human body and concluded that Bluetooth can be used for a motion detector.
Pin design for part feeding

Industrial parts can be fed (oriented) using a sequence of fixed horizontal pins to topple the parts as they move past on a conveyor belt. We give an algorithm for designing a sequence of such pins for a given part. Given the n-sided convex polygonal projection of a part, its center of mass and frictional coefficients, our O(n2) algorithm computes the toppling graph, a new data structure that explicitly represents the mechanics of toppling, rolling, and jamming. We verify the toppling graph analysis with experiments. Our O(n3n) design algorithm uses the toppling graph to design a sequence of pin locations that will cause the part to emerge in a unique orientation or to determine that no such sequence exists.
Efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in relation to prior history of depression: randomised controlled trial

Background There appears to be consensus that patients with only one or two prior depressive episodes do not benefit from treatment with mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). Aims To investigate whether the effect of MBCT on residual depressive symptoms is contingent on the number of previous depressive episodes (trial number NTR1084). Method Currently non-depressed adults with residual depressive symptoms and a history of depression ($2 prior episodes: n = 71; $3 episodes: n = 59) were randomised to MBCT (n = 64) or a waiting list (control: n = 66) in an open-label, randomised controlled trial. The main outcome measured was the reduction in residual depressive symptoms (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, HRSD-17). Results Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was superior to the control condition across subgroups (β =–0.56, P<0.001). The interaction between treatment and subgroup was not significant (β = 0.45, P = 0.16). Conclusions Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy reduces residual depressive symptoms irrespective of the number of previous episodes of major depression.
First Order Geometric Distance (The Myth of Sampsonus)

There is a prevalent myth in Computer Vision that the gradient weighted algebraic distance, the so-called “Sampson Error,” is a first order approximation of the distance from a point to a curve or surface. In truth, however, it is the exact geometric distance to the first order approximation of the curve. The linguistic difference is subtle, but mathematically, the two statements are at odds. In this paper, we derive the actual first order approximation of the Mahalanobis distance to a curve, a special case of which is the geometric distance. Furthermore, we show that it too, like the Sampson error, is a weighted algebraic distance. The first order distance introduces an increase in computational effort (total “flops”), which is the inevitable cost of a better approximation; however, since it too is an explicit expression, it has the same computational complexity as the Sampson error. Numerical testing shows that the first order distance performs an order of magnitude better than the Sampson error in terms of relative error with respect to the geometric and Mahalanobis distances. Our results suggest that the first order distance is an exceptional candidate cost function for approximate maximum likelihood fitting.
Gastrointestinal effects of prebiotics

The defining effect of prebiotics is to stimulate selectively the growth of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli in the gut and, thereby, increase the body's natural resistance to invading pathogens. Prebiotic carbohydrates may also have additional, less specific, benefits because they are fermented in the large intestine. The prebiotic carbohydrates that have been evaluated in humans at the present time largely consist of fructans or galactans. There is consistent evidence from in vitro and in vivo studies that these are not digested by normal human enzymes, but are readily fermented by anaerobic bacteria in the large intestine. There are no reports of faecal recovery of measurable quantities of prebiotic carbohydrates. Through fermentation in the large intestine, prebiotic carbohydrates yield short-chain fatty acids, stimulate the growth of many bacterial species in addition to the selective effects on lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, they can also produce gas. Along with other fermented carbohydrates, prebiotics have mild laxative effects, although this has proved difficult to demonstrate in human studies because the magnitude of laxation is small. Potentially, the most important effect of prebiotic carbohydrates is to strengthen the body's resistance to invading pathogens and, thereby, prevent episodes of diarrhoea. At the present time, this effect has not been convincingly demonstrated in either adults or children, although there have been attempts to ameliorate the diarrhoea associated with antibiotics and travel, but without success. However, prebiotic carbohydrates clearly have significant and distinctive physiological effects in the human large intestine, and on the basis of this it is likely that they will ultimately be shown to be beneficial to health.
Differentiated cytoplasmic granule formation in quiescent and non-quiescent cells upon chronological aging

Stationary phase cultures represent a complicated cell population comprising at least two different cell types, quiescent (Q) and non-quiescent (NQ) cells. Q and NQ cells have different lifespans and cell physiologies. However, less is known about the organization of cytosolic protein structures in these two cell types. In this study, we examined Q and NQ cells for the formation of several stationary phase-prevalent granule structures including actin bodies, proteasome storage granules, stress granules, P-bodies, the compartment for unconventional protein secretion (CUPS), and Hsp42-associated stationary phase granules (Hsp42-SPGs). Most of these structures preferentially form in NQ cells, except for Hsp42-SPGs, which are enriched in Q cells. When nutrients are provided, NQ cells enter mitosis less efficiently than Q cells, likely due to the time requirement for reorganizing some granule structures. We observed that heat shock-induced misfolded proteins often colocalize to Hsp42-SPGs, and Q cells clear these protein aggregates more efficiently, suggesting that Hsp42-SPGs may play an important role in the stress resistance of Q cells. Finally, we show that the cell fate of NQ cells is largely irreversible even if they are allowed to reenter mitosis. Our results reveal that the formation of different granule structures may represent the early stage of cell type differentiation in yeast stationary phase cultures.
Spatial Oligopolistic Electricity Models with Cournot Generators and Regulated Transmission Prices

An oligopoly with spatially dispersed generators and consumers and with multi-period demand is modeled in this paper. The producers are assumed to behave in a Cournot manner with regulated transmission prices. A (generali zed) Nash equilibrium is sought. The story of the game is as follows. Each generator takes its rivals' output (generation, supply, and flows) and the prices for transmission services as fixed when it decides upon its output to maximize its profit; the tr ansmission firm takes the quantities of transmission services demanded by the generators as fixed when it determines the transmission prices according to certain regulatory rules. An equilibrium of the model is a set of generation output at which no generator will obtain more profit if it unilaterally modifies its output from this set, and a set of transmission prices satisfying certain regulatory requirements. A variational inequality approach is used for computing the equilibria of the model. Using the same approach, two variants of the model, respectively based on average-cost and marginal-cost pricing for transmission services, are also formulated. This model is applied to simulate a long-run electricity market where transmission prices are regulated.