Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modelling implementation of E-Commerce Strategy

This paper describes a detailed case study of the implementation of and e-Commerce solution using GIS in Tesco, a major retail business organization in the UK. The study showed that whilst the strategy formulated was able to frame the implementation process, the reality of the implementation itself was highly complex and iterative. The decisions made and processes used highlighted the impact of various levels of users and management and reflected the nature of the various stakeholders involved. Their impact was to recontextualise rather than change strategy. They adopted and adapted the policy for their needs and use. This invariably makes the implementation more complex, less able to be rationalized and more uncertain. The paper suggest that more case studies of this nature are needs to enable better modeling of and planning for e-Commerce strategy implementation.
New African Choices? The Politics of Chinese Engagement

The role of China in Africa must be understood in the context of competing and intensified global energy politics, in which the US, India and China are among the key players vying for security of supply. Contrary to popular representation, China's role in Africa is much more than this however, opening up new choices for African development for the first time since the neo-liberal turn of the 1980s. As such it is important to start by disaggregating ‘China’ and ‘Africa’ since neither represents a coherent and uniform set of motivations and opportunities. This points to the need for, at minimum, a comparative case study approach which highlights the different agendas operating in different African states. It also requires taking a longue durée perspective since China-Africa relations are long standing and recent intervention builds on cold war solidarities, in polemic at least. It also forces us to consider Chinese involvement in Africa as ambivalent, but contextual. Here we look at the political dimensions of this engagement and set out a research agenda that focuses on class and racial dynamics, state restructuring, party politics, civil society responses and aid effectiveness.
Compact folded monopole antenna with LC-loadings

An LC-loaded folded monopole antenna including two meander-line inductors and an interdigitated capacitor was designed for a miniaturization of antenna. The operating frequency of the antenna was essentially determined by the resonant characteristics of the uniquely arranged distributed inductors and capacitor, not by the length of the radiator, so that the size of the antenna can be designed to be very small. The radiator length of the designed antenna is 0.077 λ0. It was also found that the effect of the size of the ground plane on the antenna performance such as resonant frequency and bandwidth is minimal.
Wage formation in historical perspective: the French experience

Translator's note: In this article Robert Boyer introduces the notion 'regulation' as a key concept in analyses of the labour market. The term refers to the balance of social, institutional and economic forces which characterise at a particular time the economic system as a whole or particular parts of it. I considered translating 'regulation' as 'order', 'regime', 'system' or formation' ; but these terms are either too static or already bear inappropriate connotations. It was therefore decided to retain the French expression in the English text.
Broadcasting under Highway Environment in VANETs Using Genetic Algorithm

Broadcasting is a part of the communication spectrum supported by VANETs through which information is disseminated to all the vehicles in the network. The dissemination process requires multiple retransmissions to achieve network coverage in a multi-hop environment. However, unsupervised retransmissions cause broadcasting storm, whereas on the other hand network coverage is cannot be achieved without retransmissions. In order to achieve network coverage without creating broadcast storm, the work in [1] proposed the modified Genetic Algorithm based on the analytic fitness function in static highway scenario. In this paper, we use the same approach of the modified GA in a dynamic highway environment. The paper introduces vehicular movement in the model under study by proposing the vehicle speed between 60 and 100 km/h. The result shows minor differences in the number of of retransmissions as well as propagation time for both static and dynamic highway scenario. This is due to the fact that the distance covered by the vehicles movement during the time period required to achieve network coverage is too small.
National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRs) as common grounds: towards a holistic science approach to research, education, and outreach with religious communities to enhance climate and environmental literacy at Waquoit Bay, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA

The protection and management of coastal zones will face new challenges in the age of global climate change and other exacerbating environmental issues. Addressing these challenges will require input and effort from a broad range of communities and may include reaching beyond traditional participants in coastal management, such as scientists and policy-makers, to involve the commitments and networks of religious communities. Once seen to be at odds, scientific and religious communities are now finding common ground addressing a broad range of environmental concerns, in particular through sharing a key value of environmental stewardship. Are there particular types of environmental programs, languages, or outreach strategies that best suit religious audiences? What can scientific communities learn from religious communities in their turn? The climate as common ground project, based at the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, sought to address these questions. The project involved listening to the needs of the various religious communities in the Upper Cape area through conversations, interviews, events, and other venues, then implementing activities suggested by those conversations. We hope that sharing this participatory process and its results, including a holistic science approach to stewardship-oriented institutional cultures, will be useful for others seeking dialogue on environmental issues among scientific and religious communities.
Further on the Nature of the Australian Business Cycle

Sam Strong and Siew Ping Tan (1991) found Australian output variation was well characterized by a stochastic trend implying output shocks have a permanent effect on the level of activity. This paper finds that, in Australia, the stochastic trend alternative is statistically dominated when the data are allowed to be characterized by a probabilistic segmented trend specification. This finding implies shocks will only have a permanent effect on output when the series' growth path switches from one growth regime into another as a result of the shock. Copyright 1994 by The Economic Society of Australia.
Management of Dystocia Cases in the Cattle : A Review

Dystocia is the inability of the dam to deliver its young through its own effort and is the major cause of calf loss in cattle herds which induce a large economic impact on farmers. Causes of dystocia can be maternal or fetal in origin and its incidence is high in beef cattle than dairy cattle and primipara than multipara cattle and in male than female calves. Cases of dystocia should be attended without any delay. From its signs, the obstetrician can identify the exact point at which normal birth ceases and dystocia occurs. The history of a case should be taken and a general clinical assessment and examination should be carried out. It is important to evaluate vital signs of the unborn calf because they influence the prognosis and the choice of the obstetric treatment and /or equipment used. The specific examination should be undertaken only after the animal has been properly restrained and the obstetrician should have the help of assistants and he/she diagnose and treat the case either by mutation, forced extraction, fetotomy and/ or by caesarean section. In practice, economic considerations have to be taken into account to ensure that the cost of the proposed treatment. After correction of different dystocia cases by different obstetrical operations, obstetricians ensure the well being of mother and young one after delivery. Like other diseases and disorders, veterinarians are in the unique position to prevent the incidence of dystocia.
Optimization of leukocyte concentration in platelet-rich plasma for the treatment of tendinopathy.

BACKGROUND Numerous methods are available for platelet-rich plasma (PRP) generation, but evidence defining the optimum composition is lacking. We hypothesized that leukocyte-reduced PRP would result in lower inflammatory cytokine expression compared with concentrated-leukocyte PRP and that maintaining the platelet:white blood cell (WBC) ratio would compensate for the effect of increased WBC concentration. METHODS Blood and flexor digitorum superficialis tendons were collected from young adult horses. Three PRP groups were generated with the same platelet concentration but different WBC concentrations: intermediate-concentration standard PRP, leukocyte-reduced PRP, and concentrated-leukocyte PRP. An additional high-concentration PRP group was generated with the same WBC concentration as the concentrated-leukocyte PRP group and the same platelet:WBC ratio as the standard PRP group. The PRP groups were used as media for flexor digitorum superficialis tendon explants in culture for seventy-two hours with 10% plasma in Dulbecco modified Eagle medium (DMEM) serving as control. Tendon gene expression for collagen types I (COL1A1) and III (COL3A1), cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-13), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) was performed. RESULTS The desired PRP groups were successfully generated. The expression of COMP, the COL1A1:COL3A1 ratio, and the expression of MMP-13 in flexor digitorum superficialis tendon explants was not different between PRP groups. The expression of COMP (p = 0.0027) and the COL1A1:COL3A1 ratio (p < 0.0001) were increased in the PRP groups as compared with the control group, and the expression of MMP-13 was decreased in the PRP groups as compared with the control group (p < 0.0001). The expression of IL-1β was lowest in leukocyte-reduced PRP and highest in concentrated-leukocyte PRP (p = 0.0001). The leukocyte-reduced PRP group and the control group had the lowest TNF-α expression, whereas the high-concentration PRP and concentrated-leukocyte PRP groups had the highest expression (p = 0.0224). CONCLUSIONS A high absolute WBC concentration in PRP contributes to the expression of inflammatory cytokines in flexor digitorum superficialis tendon explants, and maintenance of the platelet:WBC ratio is not able to counteract this effect. CLINICAL RELEVANCE The optimum composition of PRP for the treatment of tendinopathy has not been directly investigated. Persistent inflammation results in inferior repair with scar tissue. The present study indicates that in an animal model, WBC in PRP contributes to inflammatory cytokine production. Therefore, leukocyte-reduced PRP may be the optimum preparation to stimulate superior healing without scar tissue formation.
An Assessment of Students' Perceptions Toward Factors Influencing Supervised Agricultural Experience Participation

The purpose of this study was to investigate student perceptions toward factors influencing Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) participation. This descriptive study was conducted in 120 randomly selected agricultural education programs throughout four purposively selected states representative of the National FFA regions. Within each state the programs randomly selected to participate were from FFA divisions characterized as having urban city–centers with outlying rural/suburban areas. Students in the programs completed a questionnaire assessing perceptions toward factors influencing SAE participation. According to findings of this study, each state had three prominent types of school SAE resources perceived available for student use. Almost all students with a SAE project believed their teacher encouraged every student to have a SAE, and most received SAE help from a teacher monthly. Factors such as agricultural education courses, parental and teacher support and encouragement, resources (money and facilities), and opportunities for awards and recognition did not seem to influence student SAE participation. Students did believe skill development from SAE participation would be beneficial to their future. Contrary to previous research, involvement in community and school activities did not seem to decrease student SAE participation.
Farmers' adoption of new plant varieties under variety property right protection: Evidence from rural China

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that affect farm acceptance of the new seeds. This paper develops a Bivariate Probit model with adjusted sample selection bias to analyze Chinese farmers' sequential decision-making process in their adoption of plant new varieties (new seeds) under the new Variety Property Right Protection System. Design/methodology/approach - Face-to-face interviews with farm households in 22 provinces were used to gather questionnaire information. A total of 341 surveys were collected and analyzed using a Bivariate Probit model adjusted for sample selection bias problems. Descriptive statistics for each selected variable used in the model are also presented. Findings - This study concluded that farm location, land size, farm perceived dealer reputation, and farmer-to-farmer word-of-mouth information were found to be important factors that affect farm adoption of new seeds. Originality/value - This study is based on first-hand survey information collected by the researchers. Thus, the results are original and were not published elsewhere.
Investment Decisions under Uncertainty: Application of Estimation Risk in the Hillier Approach

In a seminal paper in 1963, Frederick S. Hillier alerted the finance community to the importance of including probabilistic information in the process of investment decision-making [4]. The method proposed and demonstrated by Hillier introduced the use of additional information regarding the probability distributions governing three measures of investment merit: present worth; internal rate of return; and uniform annual cost. He showed that by assessing investment merit only on the basis of a measure of central tendency, crucial information regarding dispersion, hence risk, was ignored and investments were not evaluated accurately. By incorporating the amount of risk involved in terms of the probability distribution of the present worth, the internal rate of return, or uniform annual cost, a firm's management can make more sound decisions regarding risky investment proposals. Since this important paper was published, a virtual revolution has occurred in finance, particularly in the area of risk assessment. Indeed, under modern capital asset pricing theory, the dispersion in the probability distribution of future cash flows is an irrelevant statistic. Instead, as the theory goes, a project's systematic risk, as indexed by its “beta,” is the only relevant measure of risk. This disparity between modern capital asset pricing theory and the type of analysis that follows from the Hillier approach will be addressed in detail in Section III. We will show that under conditions in which dispersion is regarded as the relevant measure of risk, the Hillier approach provides a reasonable approximation of the dispersion arising from the multiperiod framework.
Posgram driven word prediction

Several word prediction algorithms have been described in literature for automatic sentence completion from a finite candidate words set. However, at the best of our knowledge, very little or no work has been done on reducing the cardinality of this set. To address this issue, we use posgrams to predict the part of speech of the missing word first. Candidate words are then restricted to the ones fulfilling the predicted part of speech. We show how this additional step can improve the processing speed and the accuracy of word predictors. Experimental results are provided for the Italian language.
Respiratory symptoms and peak flow associated with indoor and outdoor air pollutants in the southwest.

A symptom-stratified, geographic cluster sample of 117 middle class households was studied. Symptom daily diaries and peak flows were obtained for 211 subjects over a two-year period. Indoor sampling in a sample of houses was performed for O3, TSP, RSP, CO, temperature (T), and relative humidity (RH). Questionnaires determined type of stove and number of smokers In all households. Ambient pollutants (O3, TSP, CO, NO2), were monitored in or near the clusters, as were T and RH. Smoking in the household was significantly correlated with TSP and RSP. Indoor CO was significantly correlated with gas stove usage. Normal young adults under age 25 had daily peak flows (PEF) associated with outdoor O3 after adjusting for other factors). Asthmatics’ PEF was associated with smoking, gas stove use and outdoor NO2, and with outdoor O3 and temperature, after controlling for other factors. Indoor and outdoor factors affected asthmatic symptoms, after controlling for age, sex, smoking and other ambient environmental varia.
Delay-dependent stabilization for stochastic time-varying delay system with nonlinear disturbances

This paper studies the problem of control synthesis for a class of stochastic time-delay system with nonlinear disturbances. The time delay that appears in both the states and nonlinear disturbances is considered to be time-varying and has lower and upper bounds. The purpose of the addressed stochastic stabilization problem with nonlinear disturbances is to obtain the stability conditions for the open-loop system and design the memoryless state feedback controller for the closed-loop system. The stability criteria is derived using Itô's differential formula and the Lyapunov stability theory.
The nocturnal bottleneck and the evolution of activity patterns in mammals

In 1942, Walls described the concept of a ‘nocturnal bottleneck’ in placental mammals, where these species could survive only by avoiding daytime activity during times in which dinosaurs were the dominant taxon. Walls based this concept of a longer episode of nocturnality in early eutherian mammals by comparing the visual systems of reptiles, birds and all three extant taxa of the mammalian lineage, namely the monotremes, marsupials (now included in the metatherians) and placentals (included in the eutherians). This review describes the status of what has become known as the nocturnal bottleneck hypothesis, giving an overview of the chronobiological patterns of activity. We review the ecological plausibility that the activity patterns of (early) eutherian mammals were restricted to the night, based on arguments relating to endothermia, energy balance, foraging and predation, taking into account recent palaeontological information. We also assess genes, relating to light detection (visual and non-visual systems) and the photolyase DNA protection system that were lost in the eutherian mammalian lineage. Our conclusion presently is that arguments in favour of the nocturnal bottleneck hypothesis in eutherians prevail.
Operators’ Perceptions of Energy Use and Actual Saving Opportunities for Tourism Accommodation

The last decade saw increased efforts by the tourism sector globally to understand and manage its energy requirements and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In recognition of the substantial amounts of energy consumed by the accommodation industry coupled with low levels of energy efficiency, this study explores current practices and opportunities for the New Zealand accommodation sector. An energy survey of 242 accommodation providers and analyses of 15 detailed energy audits are used to identify operators’ perceptions on energy use, implementation of energy savings measures, savings potentials and implementation costs. The results identify that there is a substantial gap between the positive perceptions held by operators and levels of implementation. Despite substantial theoretical knowledge on barriers to energy efficiency and conservation, there still seems to be a need to address the apparent gap through enabling policy frameworks and partnerships that go beyond the individual business. Good understanding and recognition of energy as a substantial cost factor in themselves seem to be insufficient motivators for action and will not lead to the necessary cuts in GHG emissions as demanded by global climate change mitigation goals.
L′ and M′ Photometry of Ultracool Dwarfs

We have compiled L′ (3.4–4.1 μm) and M′ (4.6–4.8 μm) photometry of 63 single and binary M, L, and T dwarfs obtained at the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope using the Mauna Kea Observatory filter set. This compilation includes new L′ measurements of eight L dwarfs and 13 T dwarfs and new M′ measurements of seven L dwarfs, five T dwarfs, and the M1 dwarf Gl 229A. These new data increase by factors of 0.6 and 1.6, respectively, the numbers of ultracool dwarfs (Teff ≲ 2400 K) for which L′ and M′ measurements have been reported. We compute Lbol, BCK, and Teff for 42 dwarfs whose flux-calibrated JHK spectra, L′ photometry, and trigonometric parallaxes are available, and we estimate these quantities for nine other dwarfs whose parallaxes and flux-calibrated spectra have been obtained. BCK is a well-behaved function of near-infrared spectral type with a dispersion of ∼0.1 mag for types M6–T5; it is significantly more scattered for types T5–T9. Teff declines steeply and monotonically for types M6–L7 and T4–T9, but it is nearly constant at ∼1450 K for types L7–T4 with assumed ages of ∼3 Gyr. This constant Teff is evidenced by nearly unchanging values of L′–M′ between types L6 and T3. It also supports recent models that attribute the changing near-infrared luminosities and spectral features across the L-T transition to the rapid migration, disruption, and/or thinning of condensate clouds over a narrow range of Teff. The L′ and M′ luminosities of early-T dwarfs do not exhibit the pronounced humps or inflections previously noted in the I through K bands, but insufficient data exist for types L6–T5 to assert that ML′ and MM′ are strictly monotonic within this range of types. We compare the observed K, L′, and M′ luminosities of L and T dwarfs in our sample with those predicted by precipitating-cloud and cloud-free models for varying surface gravities and sedimentation efficiencies. The models indicate that the L3–T4.5 dwarfs generally have higher gravities (log g = 5.0–5.5) than the T6–T9 dwarfs (log g = 4.5–5.0). The predicted M′ luminosities of late-T dwarfs are 1.5–2.5 times larger than those derived empirically for the late-T dwarfs in our sample. This discrepancy is attributed to absorption at 4.5–4.9 μm by CO, which is not expected under the condition of thermochemical equilibrium assumed in the models. Our photometry and bolometric calculations indicate that the L3 dwarf Kelu-1 and the T0 dwarf SDSS J042348.57-041403.5 are probable binary systems. We compute log (Lbol/L⊙) = -5.73 ± 0.05 and Teff = 600–750 K for the T9 dwarf 2MASSI J0415195-093506, which supplants Gl 570D as the least luminous and coolest brown dwarf presently known.