Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Utilising mindfulness to analyse agile global software development

As Information Systems Development (ISD) organisations face increasing market demands, ISD strategies such as Agile development and Global Systems Development (GSD) have been employed to help address these demands. With anecdotal evidence pointing to substantially successful implementations, organisations are beginning to embrace the combination of these seemingly orthogonal strategies with beneficial results. However, with the two areas of research still maturing, the bulk of research is made up of anecdotal studies. Utilising mindfulness, a theoretical concept for understanding how organisations can achieve flexibility and reliability, this paper explores how to effectively integrate Agile and GSD methodologies. Incorporating a longitudinal case study, an operationalised mindfulness instrument is applied and triangulated with qualitative data. The findings depict an in-depth analysis of a GSD organisation and provide key contributions for practitioners. Furthermore, theoretical contributions of the paper include: (i) a comprehensive definition of mindfulness that incorporates shared understanding as a key component, and (ii) the development of relationships between the individual mindfulness components.
On the Seasonal Growth, Monthly Recruitment Andmonthly Ibliothek K'ei

Proceedings of the expert consultation to examine changes in abundance and species composition of neritic fish resources,Resumen Se han examinado en detalle datos de longitud-captura mensual de anchoveta peruana (EngpQulis pingens) correspondientes a la region Norte, usando los programas de computadora ELEFAN I Y III (Electronic LEngth Frequency ANalysis). ELEFAN ] proporciono para cada uno de los-anos,desde1961 a 1979, valores similares de La>Y K de Ia ecuacion de crecimiento de Von Bertalanffy. Se muestra que ocurren oscilaciones estacionales en el crecimiento, los cuales son cuantificados. El programa ELEFAN III, que permite la aplicacion de diferentes formas del analisis de poblacion virtual en base a datos de longitud-captura, fue empleado para obtener series de tiempo, sobre una base mensual, de los siguientes parametros: reclutamiento (R), stock desovante (S) y biomasa total (B). Tambien se presentan y discuten series de tiempo de capturas mensuales (C) y de valores derivados (log (R/S) y F = C/B).
Design, Analysis, and Electrification of a Solar-Powered Electric Vehicle

Nowadays, the automobile industry is moving towards hybridized and fully electric vehicles. The industry has been slowly moving towards this future from decades. Firstly, hybrid and semi-hybrid cars became famous, and now due to the advancements in battery technology, fully electric cars are becoming increasingly popular. Due to the car manufacturers designations, the electric cars have reached the stage of mass production. Many countries such as the U.S., Germany, and France have pledged to reduce the usage of gasoline and diesel cars, and increase the use of electric vehicles due to the diminishing non-renewable resources. In this paper, electrification of an electric vehicle has been performed, in which the solar energy has been used along with the traditional plug-in energy to power the vehicle. The solar energy absorbed from the sun by the solar panel is converted into chemical energy, and stored in batteries. Therefore, the solar-powered electric car can work with an electric motor instead of an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) to drive the car. Also, the motor can run on AC current which is converted by the inverter from DC current stored in batteries. To drive the car in electric mode, a 360 V Li-polymer battery pack with 100 kWh energy capacity has been proposed to install in the car. Thus, the approach of transforming solar energy into chemical energy, and converting chemical energy to mechanical energy have been applied in this solar-powered electric car. Moreover, the functionality of off-road driving, as well as on-road has been considered. In order to increase/decrease the ground clearance of the car, equipping the car with air suspension system has been investigated.
Sexually transmitted infections, adverse pregnancy outcome and neonatal infection.

Prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the sexually active population are the main steps to prevent perinatal infection. However, the spread of STIs continues at an astronomical pace despite various attempts at controlling the epidemic. An important reason for this lack of STI control is that a large percentage of infected people go untreated because they have asymptomatic or unrecognized infections. The microbial differential diagnosis of STIs implicated in adverse pregnancy outcome is broad and includes viral, bacterial and protozoal infections. Infertility, ectopic pregnancy, pelvic inflammatory disease, chorioamnionitis, premature rupture of membranes, preterm birth and puerperal sepsis are some of complications seen in women as a result of infection with sexually transmitted pathogens. In addition, STIs may facilitate the acquisition and transmission of HIV. In the fetus or neonate, complications include abnormalities of the major organ systems. Infections in the form of pneumonia or conjunctivitis may also occur. Due to the lack of simple, inexpensive and sensitive point-of-care tests, screening for STIs in pregnancy is not performed routinely.
Method of Profile Storage for Improving Recommendation Accuracy on Ubiquitous Computing

Users are able to use the information and service more free than previous wire network due to development of wireless network and device. For this reason, various studies on ubiquitous networks have been conducted. Various contexts brought in this ubiquitous computing environment, have recognized user¿s action through sensors. This results in the provision of better services. Because services exist in various places in ubiquitous networks, the application has the time of services searching. In addition, user¿s context is very dynamic, so a method needs to be found to recommend services to user by context. Therefore, techniques for reducing the time of service and increasing accuracy of recommendation are being studied. But it is difficult to quickly and appropriately provide large numbers of services, because only basic context information is stored. For this reason, we suggest DUPS(Dimension User Profile System), which stores location, time, and frequency information of often used services. Because previous technique used to simple information for recommending service without predicting services which is going to use on future, we can provide better service, and improve accuracy over previous techniques.
Is rice improvement still making a difference? Assessing the economic, poverty and food security impacts of rice varieties released from 1989 to 2009 in Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines

This is one of the three proposals funded through a competitive call for proposals to evaluate the links between agricultural research and poverty in 2011. More background on the SPIA project (Social impacts: poverty and hunger) can be found here. The productivity impact of the initial diffusion of modern varieties (MVs) of rice across Asia during the 1960s through the 1980s, as part of the 'Green Revolution', is one of the most documented successes of international development assistance in agriculture. However, much less is known about whether continued efforts to further improve rice varieties are making similar contributions to on farm productivity. This study assesses the degree to which post 1989 MVs of rice have led to increased agricultural productivity, economic surplus, welfare for the poor, food security and environmental benefits in Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Ambient noise tomography across the Cascadia subduction zone using dense linear seismic arrays and double beamforming

In the summer of 2017, we deployed 174 three-component nodal geophones along a 130 km west–east line across the central Oregon forearc lasting about 40 d. Our goal was to evaluate the possibility of imaging the lithospheric structure in detail with a dense but short-duration sampling of passive seismic signals. In this study, we used passive recordings from the nodal array and the previous CASC93 broad-band array along the same line to calculate noise cross-correlations. Fundamental Rayleigh wave signals were observed in the cross-correlations between 3 and 15 s period. To enhance the signal and simultaneously measure the phase velocity, we employed a double beamforming method. At each period and location, a source beam and a receiver beam were selected and the cross-correlations between the two were shifted and stacked based on the presumed local velocities. A 2-D grid search was then used to find the best velocities at the source and receiver location. Multiple velocity measurements were obtained at each location by using different source and receiver pairs, and the final velocity and uncertainty at each location were determined using the mean and the standard deviation of the mean. All available phase velocities across the profile were then used to invert for a 2-D shear wave crustal velocity model. Well resolved shallow slow velocity anomalies are observed corresponding to the sediments within the Willamette Valley, and fast velocity anomalies are observed in the mid-to-lower crust likely associated with the Siletzia terrane. We demonstrate that the ambient noise double beamforming method is an effective tool to image detailed lithospheric structures across a dense and large-scale (>100 km) temporary seismic array.
Human Male Meiotic Sex Chromosome Inactivation

In mammalian male gametogenesis the sex chromosomes are distinctive in both gene activity and epigenetic strategy. At first meiotic prophase the heteromorphic X and Y chromosomes are placed in a separate chromatin domain called the XY body. In this process, X,Y chromatin becomes highly phosphorylated at S139 of H2AX leading to the repression of gonosomal genes, a process known as meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI), which has been studied best in mice. Post-meiotically this repression is largely maintained. Disturbance of MSCI in mice leads to harmful X,Y gene expression, eventuating in spermatocyte death and sperm heterogeneity. Sperm heterogeneity is a characteristic of the human male. For this reason we were interested in the efficiency of MSCI in human primary spermatocytes. We investigated MSCI in pachytene spermatocytes of seven probands: four infertile men and three fertile controls, using direct and indirect in situ methods. A considerable degree of variation in the degree of MSCI was detected, both between and within probands. Moreover, in post-meiotic stages this variation was observed as well, indicating survival of spermatocytes with incompletely inactivated sex chromosomes. Furthermore, we investigated the presence of H3K9me3 posttranslational modifications on the X and Y chromatin. Contrary to constitutive centromeric heterochromatin, this heterochromatin marker did not specifically accumulate on the XY body, with the exception of the heterochromatic part of the Y chromosome. This may reflect the lower degree of MSCI in man compared to mouse. These results point at relaxation of MSCI, which can be explained by genetic changes in sex chromosome composition during evolution and candidates as a mechanism behind human sperm heterogeneity.
A crowdsourcing game-theoretic intrusion detection and rating system

One of the main concerns for smartphone users is the quality of apps they download. Before installing any app from the market, users first check its rating and reviews. However, these ratings are not computed by experts and most times are not associated with malicious behavior. In this work, we present an IDS/rating system based on a game theoretic model with crowdsourcing. Our results show that, with minor control over the error in categorizing users and the fraction of experts in the crowd, our system provides proper ratings while flagging all malicious apps.
The presence of müllerian inhibiting substance in human seminal plasma.

Müllerian inhibiting substance (MIS), produced by testicular Sertoli cells, is present in adult male serum. The first aim of this study was to determine if MIS is present in seminal plasma. Using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), we measured MIS concentrations in seminal plasma from 23 donors exhibiting normal (WHO criteria) sperm qualities, and 169 patients with subnormal sperm parameters. The second aim of this study was to examine a potential relationship between MIS and sperm motility. MIS concentrations in seminal plasma ranged from 0.5 to 3.6 ng/ml in donors and from 0.5 to 17.8 ng/ml in patients. Motility index (MI, mean +/- SEM) for all patient samples was lower compared with donors (113.3 +/- 3.2 and 198.3 +/- 13.5, P < 0.00001), while mean MIS concentration +/- SEM) was higher (4.2 +/- 0.3 and 1.4 +/- 0.2, P < 0.0003). When the patients were stratified into Groups I (motility < 50%, n = 42) and II (motility > 50%, n = 127), the MI (mean +/- SEM) values were 62.3 +/- 3.8 and 130.2 +/- 2.7 respectively (P < 0.0001 for both compared with donors) and mean MIS concentrations (+/- SEM) were 5.4 +/- 0.6 and 3.9 +/- 0.3, respectively (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.001 compared with donors). The inverse relationship between MIS concentration in seminal plasma and motility index suggests that MIS may have a function in modulating motility.
Task-Dependent Constraints in Motor Control: Pinhole Goggles Make the Head Move Like an Eye

In the 19th century, Donders observed that only one three-dimensional eye orientation is used for each gaze direction. Listing's law further specifies that the full set of eye orientation vectors forms a plane, whereas the equivalent Donders' law for the head, the Fick strategy, specifies a twisted two-dimensional range. Surprisingly, despite considerable research and speculation, the biological reasons for choosing one such range over another remain obscure. In the current study, human subjects performed head-free gaze shifts between visual targets while wearing pinhole goggles. During fixations, the head orientation range still obeyed Donders' law, but in most subjects, it immediately changed from the twisted Fick-like range to a flattened Listing-like range. Further controls showed that this was not attributable to loss of binocular vision or increased range of head motion, nor was it attributable to blocked peripheral vision; when subjects pointed a helmet-mounted laser toward targets (a task with goggle-like motor demands but normal vision), the head followed Listing's law even more closely. Donders' law of the head only broke down (in favor of a “minimum-rotation strategy”) when head motion was dissociated from gaze. These behaviors could not be modeled using current “Donders' operators” but were readily simulated nonholonomically, i.e., by modulating head velocity commands as a function of position and task. We conclude that the gaze control system uses such velocity rules to shape Donders' law on a moment-to-moment basis, not primarily to satisfy perceptual or anatomic demands, but rather for motor optimization; the Fick strategy optimizes the role of the head as a platform for eye movement, whereas Listing's law optimizes rapid control of the eye (or head) as a gaze pointer.
Atypical mitochondria in the ellipsoid of the photoreceptor cells of vertebrate retinas.

The fine structure of ellipsoids in a number of vertebrate retinas was studied in material prepared with various fixatives. Several atypical ellipsoidal mitochondria were found in ellipsoids of certain animals. A peculiar configuration of the internal mitochondrial membranes caused by fusion of the outer surfaces of adjacent cristae was found in the lamprey retina. Intramitochondrial glycogen granules and granular or filamentous intracristal inclusions were observed in the toad and giant salamander, respectively. In photoreceptor cells of the gecko, carp, and snake, the ellipsoid was particularly differentiated, containing modified mitochondria. The possible functional significance of such differentiated ellipsoids is discussed briefly with respect to the oil droplets.
Endothelin-2-Mediated Protection of Mutant Photoreceptors in Inherited Photoreceptor Degeneration

Expression of the Endothelin-2 (Edn2) mRNA is greatly increased in the photoreceptors (PRs) of mouse models of inherited PR degeneration (IPD). To examine the role of Edn2 in mutant PR survival, we generated Edn2−/− mice carrying homozygous Pde6brd1 alleles or the Tg(RHO P347S) transgene. In the Edn2−/− background, PR survival increased 110% in Pde6brd1/rd1 mice at post-natal (PN) day 15, and 60% in Tg(RHO P347S) mice at PN40. In contrast, PR survival was not increased in retinal explants of Pde6brd1/rd1; Edn2−/− mice. This finding, together with systemic abnormalities in Edn2−/− mice, suggested that the increased survival of mutant PRs in the Edn2−/− background resulted at least partly from the systemic EDN2 loss of function. To examine directly the role of EDN2 in mutant PRs, we used a scAAV5-Edn2 cDNA vector to restore Edn2 expression in Pde6brd1/rd1; Edn2−/− PRs and observed an 18% increase in PR survival at PN14. Importantly, PR survival was also increased after injection of scAAV5-Edn2 into Pde6brd1/rd1 retinas, by 31% at PN15. Together, these findings suggest that increased Edn2 expression is protective to mutant PRs. To begin to elucidate Edn2-mediated mechanisms that contribute to PR survival, we used microarray analysis and identified a cohort of 20 genes with >4-fold increased expression in Tg(RHO P347S) retinas, including Fgf2. Notably, increased expression of the FGF2 protein in Tg(RHO P347S) PRs was ablated in Tg(RHO P347S); Edn2−/− retinas. Our findings indicate that the increased expression of PR Edn2 increases PR survival, and suggest that the Edn2-dependent increase in PR expression of FGF2 may contribute to the augmented survival.
An OSD-based approach to managing directory operations in parallel file systems

Distributed file systems that use multiple servers to store data in parallel are becoming commonplace. Much work has already gone into such systems to maximize data throughput. However, metadata management has historically been treated as an afterthought. In previous work we focused on improving metadata management techniques by placing file metadata along with data on object-based storage devices (OSDs). However, we did not investigate directory operations. This work looks at the possibility of designing directory structures directly on OSDs, without the need for intervening servers. In particular, the need for atomicity is a fundamental requirement that we explore in depth. Through performance results of benchmarks and applications we show the feasibility of using OSDs directly for metadata, including directory operations.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute Micro Price Dynamics during Japan's Lost Decades

We study micro price dynamics and their macroeconomic implications using daily scanner data from 1988 to 2013. We provide five facts. First, posted prices in Japan are ten times as flexible as those in the U.S. scanner data. Second, regular prices are almost as flexible as those in the U.S. and Euro area. Third, the heterogeneity of frequency and size of price change across products is sizable and maintained throughout the sample period. Fourth, during Japan's lost decades, temporary sales have played an increasingly important role in households' consumption expenditure. Fifth, the frequency of upward regular price revisions and the frequency of sales are significantly correlated with the macroeconomic environment in particular indicators associated with a labor market while other components of price changes are not. and conference and seminar participants at AEPR, CIGS and Waseda University for useful comments. The views in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Bank of Japan, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas or the Federal Reserve System.
Tanystropheid archosauromorphs in the Lower Triassicof Gondwana

Tanystropheidae is a clade of early archosauromorphs with a reported distribution ranging from the Early to the Late Triassic of Asia, Europe, and North America. Although some specimens with possible tanystropheid affinities from the Lower Triassic beds of Brazil have been previously attributed to “Protorosauria”, little is known about the tanystropheid record in Gondwana. Here, two new and one previously reported specimen from the Sanga do Cabral Formation (Induan–Olenekian) of Brazil are described and interpreted as ? Tanystropheidae. These records, together with other tetrapods previously reported for the Sanga do Cabral Formation, increase the knowledge of the biotic diversification during the beginning of the Triassic. This contribution reinforces that the archosauromorph diversification occurred shortly after the Permo-Triassic extinction, making the Sanga do Cabral Formation an important unit for the study of early Mesozoic faunas.
Intake of Liquid and Solid Sucrose in Relation to Changes in Body Fatness over 6 Years among 8- to 10-Year-Old Children: The European Youth Heart Study

Objective: To examine if intake of soft drinks is more closely associated with weight gain than other energy sources and if these associations are mediated through differences in energy intake or insulin level. Methods: Data derived from the Danish part of the European Youth Heart Study (n = 359). Height, weight, and waist circumference (WC) were measured in 1997-1998 and again in 2003-2004. Results: Intake of liquid sucrose was associated with changes in waist circumference (ΔWC) (β = 0.226, p = 0.07, R2 = 0.17) as well as BMI z-scores (ΔBMIz) (β = 0.031, p = 0.05, R2 = 0.30). Associations attenuated slightly after adjusting for energy intake, but were substantially reduced when adjusting for insulin. Adjustment for both insulin and energy intake attenuated the effect of soft drinks intake on ΔBMIz, but not on ΔWC. Conclusion: Liquid sucrose seemed more clearly associated with ΔWC and ΔBMIz than other energy sources. For ΔWC, the association seemed to be based on decreases in insulin sensitivity rather than increases in energy intake, whereas for ΔBMIz the association seemed to be based on both increases in energy intake and decreases in insulin sensitivity.