Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Evolution of the Supermarket Industry: From A&P to Wal-Mart

This paper examines the evolution of the supermarket industry, from the birth of the chain store concept in the early 1900s to the recent rise of the Wal-Mart supercenter. The central message is that the major themes relevant today (the importance of scale and standardization, technological innovation, the introduction of new formats, and the rapt attention of anti-trust authorities) appear throughout its hundred year history. The goal of this paper is to provide a coherent context for current merger policy and broaden our understanding of the processes shaping the economic geography of retail trade.
‘i’Babies: Infants’ and toddlers’ emergent language and literacy in a digital culture of iDevices

Children today are growing up in a digital world that is changing and advancing at an unprecedented rate. While some adults may struggle to keep up with new technological gadgets, we find our very young may be quite at ease with the use of digital technologies, even before learning to speak. This study builds on a foundation of family literacy studies that looks at the literacies children are exposed to within their home environments. Given the influx of technology in children’s home environments, it is important to understand children’s digital literacy developments from a family literacy perspective. Studying two very young children and their families interacting with these new devices provides a deep and detailed look into how digital technologies might be influencing young children’s language and literacy development in first and second languages. Findings from this study can inform parents and educators of what, why and how young children interact and learn with digital devices.
Computing mRNA and protein statistical moments for a renewal model of stochastic gene-expression

The level of a given mRNA or protein exhibits significant variations from cell-to-cell across a homogenous population of living cells. Much work has focused on understanding the different sources of noise in the gene-expression process that drive this stochastic variability in gene-expression. Recent experiments tracking growth and division of individual cells reveal that cell division times have considerable intercellular heterogeneity. Here we investigate how randomness in the cell division times can create variability in population counts. We consider a model where mRNA/protein levels evolve according to a linear differential equation with cell divisions times spaced by independent and identically distributed random intervals. Whenever the cell divides the population of mRNA and protein is halved. Considering gamma distributed cell division intervals, we provide a method for computing the mean and variance of mRNA and protein levels and provide exact analytical formulas for the asymptotic values of these statistical moments. Computation of the statistical moments for physiologically relevant parameter values shows that randomness in the cell division process can be a major factor in driving difference in protein levels across a population of cells.
The Application of Self-Determination Theory among Chinese Populations

Self-determination theory(SDT; Deci Ryan,1985a; 2000) is a macro-theory of human motivation and personality.As one of the most important motivational theories,SDT has drawn a lot of interests among researchers from different countries and various disciplines.However,it has not received enough attention from Chinese researchers.The current study gave a systematic review on the literatures relating to SDT which published in both Chinese journals and English journals that with Chinese as participants.It is found that the Chinese papers are mainly review studies,whereas all English papers are empirical studies.In addition,most of these studies are related to education,sport and exercise,organization/management,and psychological health.Further studies should examine the application of SDT among Chinese populations in other fields and investigate the social and individual factors that influence Chinese people's satisfaction of basic psychological needs,formation of goal content,and internalization of motivation.
Effect of tamoxifen on endometrial proliferation.

PURPOSE An increase in the incidence of endometrial cancer and a potential increase in related mortality has been associated with the administration of 20 mg tamoxifen, the dose adopted in breast cancer chemoprevention trials, thus urging studies on intermediate markers of risk. PATIENTS AND METHODS Thirty-three women who received 20 mg tamoxifen as adjuvant breast cancer treatment underwent endometrial biopsy. Samples were divided for histologic examination, including a quantitative analysis of stromal:epithelial ratio, and an assessment of DNA ploidy and proliferation by flow cytometry. Results were compared with 37 symptomatic subjects. RESULTS All histograms were DNA diploid. Compared with controls, a significant increase in the risk of proliferation as measured by the hyperdiploid fraction was associated with tamoxifen duration (< or = 36 months: cumulative odds ratio = 16.5, 95% confidence interval, 1.85 to 146.5; > 36 months: cumulative odds ratio = 28.2, 95% confidence interval, 2.56 to 310.6, P for trend < .05). Tamoxifen-induced risk was significantly reduced by the extent of menopausal status. No cases of cancer or epithelial hyperplasia were observed in the tamoxifen group, whereas seven cases of epithelial hyperplasia without atypia were observed in the control group. The effect of tamoxifen on proliferation was associated with an increase in the stromal component. CONCLUSION Tamoxifen at 20 mg/d exerts a time-dependent proliferative effect on the endometrium, particularly in premenopausal and early postmenopausal women. This effect appears to be mediated by the stromal component, which accounts for the discrepancy between flow cytometry and histology. Our study provides preliminary evidence that the DNA flow cytometric hyperdiploid fraction may be a useful tool for monitoring endometrial cell proliferation in women exposed to tamoxifen.
Traveling waves of two-component reaction-diffusion systems arising from higher order autocatalytic models

We study the existence and uniqueness of traveling wave solutions for a class of twocomponent reaction diffusion systems with one species being immobile. Such a system has a variety of applications in epidemiology, bio-reactor model, and isothermal autocatalytic chemical reaction systems. Our result not only generalizes earlier results of Ai and Huang (Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 2005; 135A:663–675), but also establishes the existence and uniqueness of traveling wave solutions to the reaction-diffusion system for an isothermal autocatalytic chemical reaction of any order in which the autocatalyst is assumed to decay to the inert product at a rate of the same order.
Mechanisms of Atrial Fibrillation

Based on experimental studies in the canine heart and an early computer model, atrial fibrillation (AF) has been thought to be due to multiple reentrant wavelets. However, subsequent studies in animal models are most consistent with a mechanism of AF due to a stable reentrant circuit of short cycle length or unstable reentrant circuits of short cycle length that drive the atria so fast that much or most of the atrial tissue manifests fibrillatory conduction. Limited mapping studies in patients during open heart surgery and during electrophysiologic studies using endocardial catheter electrodes also are most consistent with the concept of a driver, seemingly most often a focus in or near one or more of the pulmonary veins, precipitating and maintaining AF. However, a precise understanding of the mechanism(s) of AF in patients is not yet available. (J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol, Vol. 14, pp. S267‐S274, December 2003, Suppl.)
Reliability of malaria microscopy in epidemiological studies: results of quality control

Summary To assess the interrater reproducibility of malaria microscopy in epidemiological studies, 711 thick blood films from population‐based surveys were randomly selected and reread by 4 experienced microscopists. Sample estimates of the prevalence of P. falciparum infection, geometric mean parasite density and the proportion of samples above various parasite density cut‐off levels were almost identical in the routine and quality control readings. Differences were, however, encountered in the sample estimates for gametocyte ratio, proportion of mixed infection and average density index. In all three cases the quality control result was significantly higher than the routine evaluation. On the level of the individual slide there was good interrater agreement for the presence of P. falciparum infections (Kappa index κ = 0.79) which was even better when parasite densities between 4 and 100/μl were excluded (κ = 0.94). With respect to the assessment of parasite density, a high level of disagreement was found. While the mean difference between the two readings was not different from 0, the second reading was between 0.12 and 10 times that of the first. However, the level of disagreement significantly fell with increasing parasite densities. Thus malaria microscopy is very reliable for the estimation of parasite ratios and geometric mean parasite densities within and between studies as long as the same methodology is used, but tends to underestimate the gametocyte ratio and proportion of mixed infections. Care must be taken, however, when individual parasite density is related to other explanatory variables, due to the high degree of variability in the parasite enumeration.
A novel nanoscaled device concept: quasi-SOI MOSFET to eliminate the potential weaknesses of UTB SOI MOSFET

For the first time, a novel device concept of a quasi-silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFET is proposed to eliminate the potential weaknesses of ultrathin body (UTB) SOI MOSFET for CMOS scaling toward the 35-nm gate length, and beyond. A scheme for fabrication of a quasi-SOI MOSFET is presented. The key characteristics of quasi-SOI are investigated by an extensive simulation study comparing them with UTB SOI MOSFET. The short-channel effects can be effectively suppressed by the insulator surrounding the source/drain regions, and the suppression capability can be even better than the UTB SOI MOSFET, due to the reduction of the electric flux in the buried layer. The self-heating effect, speed performance, and electronic characteristics of quasi-SOI MOSFET with the physical channel length of 35 nm are comprehensively studied. When compared to the UTB SOI MOSFET, the proposed device structure has better scaling capability. Finally, the design guideline and the optimal regions of quasi-SOI MOSFET are discussed.
Set Covering Problems with General Objective Functions

We introduce a parameterized version of set cover that generalizes several previously studied problems. Given a ground set V and a collection of subsets S_i of V, a feasible solution is a partition of V such that each subset of the partition is included in one of the S_i. The problem involves maximizing the mean subset size of the partition, where the mean is the generalized mean of parameter p, taken over the elements. For p=-1, the problem is equivalent to the classical minimum set cover problem. For p=0, it is equivalent to the minimum entropy set cover problem, introduced by Halperin and Karp. For p=1, the problem includes the maximum-edge clique partition problem as a special case. We prove that the greedy algorithm simultaneously approximates the problem within a factor of (p+1)^1/p for any p in R^+, and that this is the best possible unless P=NP. These results both generalize and simplify previous results for special cases. We also consider the corresponding graph coloring problem, and prove several tractability and inapproximability results. Finally, we consider a further generalization of the set cover problem in which we aim at minimizing the sum of some concave function of the part sizes. As an application, we derive an approximation ratio for a Rent-or-Buy set cover problem.
Automated Ontology Creation using XML Schema Elements

Ontologies are commonly used to represent formal semantics in a computer system, usually capturing them in the form of concepts, relationships and axioms. Axioms convey asserted knowledge and support inferring new knowledge through logical reasoning. For complex systems, the process of creating ontologies manually can be tedious and error-prone. Many automated methods of knowledge discovery are based on mining domain text corpus, but current state-of-the-art methods using this approach fail to consider properly semantic data embedded in XML schemata in complex systems. This paper proposes a mapping method for identifying relevant semantic data in XML schemata, automatically structuring and representing it in the form of a draft ontology. Concepts, concept hierarchy and domain relationships from XML schema are mapped to relevant parts of an OWL ontology. A part-ofspeech tagging method extracts domain relationships from schema annotations. This mapping method can be applied to any system that has a well-annotated XML schema. We illustrate our process with the preliminary results obtained when creating a command and control to simulation (C2SIM) draft ontology from an XML schema. Keywords—OWL, XML Schema, Part of Speech tagging, Command and Control, Interoperability
Ralston Tracing the Costs and Benefits of Improvements in Food Safety The Case of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Program for Meat and Poultry

The level and distribution of the costs and benefits of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulatory program for meat and poultry change dramatically once economywide effects are included in the analysis. Using a Social Accounting Matrix Model, we find that reduced premature deaths had a strong positive effect on household income, with economywide benefits almost double initial benefits. Contrary to expectations, reduced medical expenses resulted in a decrease in household income, while HACCP costs resulted in an increase. Net economywide benefits were slightly larger than initial net benefits, with poor households receiving a proportionally smaller share of the increased benefits than nonpoor because of their weak ties to the economy. Our SAM analysis provides policymakers useful information about who ultimately benefits from reduced foodborne illnesses and who ultimately pays the costs of food safety regulation. This analysis also sheds light on a number of issues central to cost-benefit analysis involving health, highlighting the danger of equating changes in income with changes in well-being.
Myelopoietic Response in Mice Exposed to Acute Cold/Restraint Stress: Modulation by Chlorella vulgaris Prophylactic Treatment

In this study, hematopoietic cells from mice pretreated with CVE and exposed to acute cold/restraint stress were stimulated in the presence of growth factors to form colonies, thus providing accurate information about the modulation of the green algae of the stress‐induced changes in the hematopoietic response. Our results demonstrated that exposure to acute stress affected hematopoiesis. Mice exposed for a 2.5‐hour time period of cold and restraint presented diminished clonal capacity for CFU‐GM content per femur, which was decreased by as much as 50% compared with that in control mice, in spite of the significant increase in serum colony‐stimulating activity (CSA). Treatment with 50 mg/kg CVE for 5 days, previously to the stress regimen, attenuates the effects of the stress, since comparable levels of myeloid progenitors were found in the bone marrow of both CVE/stress and control mice. Moreover, the sera from stressed mice pretreated with CVE further increased the CFU‐GM formation. On the contrary, the spleen seemed to be less sensitive to acute stress in our experimental conditions. These findings are in line with our previous reports showing that the stress‐induced reduction in bone marrow CFU‐GM of rats exposed to electric shocks is mediated by activation of the HPA axis and by secretion of opioid agonists. No changes were observed in bone marrow, spleen and thymus total cell counts, and in relative organ weights. However, a 50% reduction in the body weight loss produced by the stress was observed in mice given the extract.
Limited Role of Antibody in Clearance of Streptococcus pneumoniae in a Murine Model of Colonization

ABSTRACT Colonization is the first step in the interaction between Streptococcus pneumoniae and its human host. To better understand the mechanisms contributing to natural carriage, a mouse model of pneumococcal colonization was developed with a clinical isolate of S. pneumoniae previously characterized in experimental colonization of humans. Similar to carriage events in humans, colonization of mice was self-limited and there was no evidence of lower respiratory tract or invasive disease. Carriage induced a serum antibody response to whole pneumococci that was associated temporally with clearance of colonization in three inbred strains of mice. Individual mice, however, did not demonstrate a correlation between the density of colonization and amounts of serum or of mucosal antibodies, including antibodies of different isotypes and antigenic specificities. The role of antibody in the clearance of carriage was then examined in mice with genetic defects in humoral immunity. xid mice, which have deficient responses to polysaccharide antigens, cleared colonization at the same rate as the parent strain. Finally, we showed that μMT mice, which lack mature B cells and fail to produce antibody, were unaffected in the density or duration of colonization. These results demonstrate that antibody is not required for clearance of pneumococcal colonization in mice.
Survey of Forensic and Analysis Tools based on Grouping of Digital Evidence using Metadata Functionality

Computer forensics can be defined as obtaining computer storage media so that data can be used as evidence in court. Traditionally the analysis of sources of digital evidences is done by examining the artefacts and metadata of artefacts for authenticating the gathered information and sequencing them in the manner they occurred. Analyzing the information acquired by forensic investigator in traditional way is a cumbersome task but it can be overcome if all the related artefacts are grouped together on the basis of metadata information they prevails. This paper is mainly focused on metadata based association of digital evidences which can simplify the task of forensic investigator and can also help in reducing human intervention making the process automatic. The main objective of this paper is to study working principal and compare different existing forensic tools on the basis of various parameters such as capability for accessing digital evidence, sources they can examine, metadata parsing capability, and analyzing them that whether they can provide grouping of different artefacts present in same or different investigating sources on the basis of metadata they contain.
Birth weight and adult hypertension and obesity in women.

BACKGROUND Low birth weight has been associated with an increased risk of hypertension, and high birth weight has been associated with increased adult body mass index. Published studies on adults have included only a small number of women. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied 71 100 women in the Nurses Health Study I (NHS I) who were 30 to 55 years of age in 1976 and 92 940 women in the Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II) who were 25 to 42 years of age in 1989. Information on birth weight, blood pressure, physician-diagnosed hypertension, and other relevant variables was collected by biennial mailed questionnaire. Ninety-five percent of the women were white. Compared with women in the middle category of birth weight (NHS I, 7.1 to 8.5 lb; NHS II, 7.0 to 8.4 lb), the age-adjusted odds ratio of hypertension in NHS I women with birth weights < 5.0 lb was 1.39 (95% CI, 1.29 to 1.50); in NHS II, for birth weights < 5.5 lb, the age-adjusted odds ratio was 1.43 (95% CI, 1.31 to 1.56). There was no material change in the estimates after adjustment for other risk factors. In addition, compared with women in NHS I who weighed 7.1 to 8.5 lb at birth, those who weighed > 10 lb had an age-adjusted odds ratio of 1.62 (95% CI, 1.38 to 1.90) of being in the highest (> 29.2 kg/m2) versus the lowest (< 21.9 kg/ m2) quintile of body mass index in midlife. Similar results were seen in the NHS II cohort. CONCLUSIONS Early life exposures affecting birth weight may be important in the development of hypertension and obesity in adults.
Control of differential linear repetitive processes using strong practical stability and ℋ∞ disturbance attenuation

Repetitive processes have a 2D systems structure and therefore standard control theory and design algorithms are not applicable. This article develops new algorithms for differential processes to achieve stabilisation together with a prescribed level of disturbance attenuation as measured by an H ∞-norm. There are several physically motivated definitions of stability for repetitive processes and in this article the interest is in strong practical stability.
Finite aperture influence on energy concentration, frequency shift, and signal enhancement, for acoustic transmission in the negative group velocity region of the S1 leaky Lamb mode

Acoustic beam diffraction phenomena for normal beam incidence to a viscoelastic plate, such as resonance frequency downshift, beam narrowing, and axial signal enhancement near certain leaky Lamb modes, have been demonstrated in recent years, as compared to plane-wave analyses. A close correlation between these phenomena and apparantly different guided-wave dispersion phenomena, including negative group velocity, has been shown by [Aanes et al., Proc. IEEE Int. Ultras. Symp. , Taipei, Taiwan, 2015]. It was proposed that the beam diffraction phenomena depend on the size of the mode's NGV region being excited. In the present work, such possible connection between the mentioned beam diffraction phenomena in the frequency region of the S1 leaky Lamb mode, and the gradual excitation of this mode's NGV region, is investigated. A detailed study shows a close correlation between these beam diffraction phenomena and the portion of the S1 leaky mode's NGV region being excited.
Effects of light on development of mammalian zygotes

It is generally assumed that light has no effect on the physiology of oocytes, zygotes, or early embryos. Therefore, little or no attention has been paid to lighting conditions during the handling of these cells in vitro. Here we show that cool white fluorescent light, rich in short-wavelength visible light and commonly used in research and clinical laboratories, produces more reactive oxygen species in mouse and hamster zygotes than does warm white fluorescent light. Mouse blastocysts that developed from zygotes shielded from light best developed to term fetuses followed by those exposed to warm white fluorescent light and then by those exposed to cool white fluorescent light. We hypothesized that light is one of the physical factors affecting embryonic environment and that its effects on cultured mammalian zygotes and embryos should not be overlooked.
Affective organizational commitment and dispositional mindfulness as correlates of burnout in health care professionals

ABSTRACT A study conducted on 98 Italian health professionals investigated the associations between mindfulness, organizational commitment, and burnout syndrome, controlling for the effect of potentially stressful events. Results showed that affective commitment and dispositional mindfulness were negatively associated with burnout. Dispositional mindfulness also moderated the relation between potentially stressful events and two burnout dimensions, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. These findings suggest that affective commitment and dispositional mindfulness are important factors in protecting against the onset of burnout in healthcare professionals. Moreover, mindfulness seems to contain the adverse consequences of potentially stressful events.