Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Managing Change to a Quality Philosophy: A Partnership Perspective.

Within the past 5 years there has been an international movement to adapt the principles and practices of Total Quality Management work environments to school-restructuring agendas. This paper reports on the development of a model called the Educational Quality System, a benchmark assessment tool for identifying the essential elements of quality work cultures. In 1994, the Florida Department of Education funded a partnership to develop an education-specific Quality system that would include benchmarks to identify progress over time as education institutions pursue Quality work cultures. The partnership was comprised of the University of South Florida, 13 school districts, and a regional network. The paper addresses the issues observed in managing change, explores the mind shifts necessary for inventing new forms of schooling, and describes the two conceptual models driving the Education Quality System. The information is based on a case study that examined the change process in 28 Florida schools. Data were obtained from interviews with the 28 principals and surveys of 1,235 teachers. The most striking pattern among the principals was that they strongly held visions of success for all students and believed in their faculty's capacity to respond to the needs of students. Two tables and two figures are included. (Contains 21 references.) (LMI) ****************************A****************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. *********************************************************************** Managing Change to a Quality Philosophy: A Partnership Perspective Karolyn J. Snyder Michele Acker-Hocevar Professor, Director Research Associate A Paper Presentation The Association of Management The Thirteenth Annual International Conference Vancouver, British Columbia
The Impact of Internal Entrepreneurship on IS Implementation

This paper is motivated by the reported poor performance of IS implementations. In contrast to the dominant emphasis on formal approaches such as structured methods, this paper takes a position drawing upon research in management science, organizational science and psychology. It focuses on key personal and organizational capabilities in the IS implementation project, and in particular, entrepreneurial ability. Entrepreneurship is first presented as an important organizational capability of innovation in management science and related fields. As a specialization of entrepreneurship, internal entrepreneurship can be defined as both a personal attribute and firm behavior. Linking it with IS implementation, this paper proposes that this phenomenon of internal entrepreneurship can affect the entire process of IS implementation. Therefore, greater interaction between IS and entrepreneurial studies derived from management science and related fields is desirable.
Positive and Negative Association Rules Applied in Coal Accidents

In view of the forecast of the coal spontaneous combustion, an analysis model to forecast the possibility of coal spontaneous combustion was established. Then, an analysis method of positive and negative association rules based on data mining was proposed. Application of the method can mine rules from the explicit and implicit factors related to coal spontaneous combustion. It can not only overcome the weak point of the traditional association rules method which can only mine the explicit rules, but also output some more meaningful rules, providing scientific basis for controlling coal spontaneous combustion.
Title: Cell-selective Modulation of the Drosophila Neuromuscular System by a Neuropeptide Corresponding Author: Running Title: Cell-specific Modulation in Drosophila Larvae

27 Neuropeptides can modulate physiological properties of neurons in a cell-specific 28 manner. The present work examines whether a neuropeptide can also modulate muscle tissue in a 29 cell-specific manner, using identified muscle cells in third instar larvae of fruit flies. 30 DPKQDFMRFa, a modulatory peptide in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, has been shown 31 to enhance transmitter release from motor neurons and to elicit contractions by a direct effect on 32 muscle cells. We report that DPKQDFMRFa causes a nifedipine-sensitive drop in input 33 resistance in some muscle cells (6 and 7) but not others (12 and 13). The peptide also increased 34 the amplitude of nerve-evoked contractions and compound excitatory junctional potentials 35 (EJPs) to a greater degree in muscle cells 6 and 7 than 12 and 13. Knocking down FMRFa 36 receptor (FR) expression separately in nerve and muscle indicate that both presynaptic and 37 postsynaptic FR expression contributed to the enhanced contractions, but EJP enhancement was 38 due mainly to presynaptic expression. Muscle-ablation showed that DPKQDFMRFa induced 39 contractions and enhanced nerve-evoked contractions more strongly in muscle cells 6 and 7 than 40 cells 12 and 13. In situ hybridization indicated that FR expression was significantly greater in 41 muscle cells 6 and 7 than 12 and 13. Taken together, these results indicate that DPKQDFMRFa 42 can elicit cell-selective effects on muscle fibres. The ability of neuropeptides to work in a cell43 selective manner on neurons and muscle cells may help explain why so many peptides are 44 encoded in invertebrate and vertebrate genomes. 45
An ROIs based pedestrian detection system for single images

Pedestrian detection in a single image takes more time than that in a video due to the requirement of scanning the whole image. In this paper, an improved pedestrian detection system based on region of interest (ROI) is proposed for single images. In the improved pedestrian detection system, principal component analysis (PCA) is introduced to improve the detection rate and accuracy of histogram of oriented gradients (HOG) based support vector machine (SVM) classifier for pedestrian detection. PCA eliminates the redundant HOG feature dimensions that have no contribution for the pedestrian classification. A novel ROI extraction method based on fuzzy C-means (FCM) clustering algorithm is used to select the regions that possibly contain pedestrians in a single image. ROI extraction reduces the number of detection windows, resulting in a significant reduction in detection time of a single image. Computer experiments show that the proposed pedestrian detection system can correctly detect the positions of pedestrians in single images in real time.
IMPROVEMENT OF THE PHYSICAL CONDITIONING OF YOUNG SOCCER PLAYERS BY PLAYING SMALL-SIDED GAMES ON DIFFERENT PITCH SIZE – SPECIAL REFERENCE TO PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether young soccer players change their physiological responses according to the different sizes of a pitch for 3-a-side and 4-a-side games (SSG). Sixteen young soccer players (age 14.2±0.6 yrs; height 162.8±5.7 cm; body mass 55.1±7.4 kg) participated in three different formats of 3-a-side (small pitch size: SSGs, 20x15 m; medium pitch size: SSGM, 25X18 m; large pitch size: SSGL, 30X20 m) and 4-a-side (SSGs, 20x20 m; SSGM, 30X20 m; SSGL, 32X25 m) games. Each player performed the Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test (YIRT) level 1. Then, the 3-a-side and 4-a-side games were orgatiized in random order at 2-day intervals. During SSG, heart rate (HR) was recorded. In addition, the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was determined at the end of each SSG. The study results demonstrated that young soccer players presented significantly higher HR (F=14.722; p<.05; 11^=0.495), %HRmax (F=14.694; p<.05; 20495) d RPE (F14045 05 20484) d i 3 i d S S G d b g ( p ; 1 ) , ( ; p ; ri2=0.495) and PEm (F=14.045; p<.05; r|2=0.484) during 3-a-side SSGL compared to both 3-a-side SSGs and S S G M h 4 i d SSG i d d i i f L p s . Moreover, the 4-a-side SSGL induced significantly higher HR (F=6.658; p<.05; r)2=0.307), %HRmax (F=6.495; p<.05; r[^=Q.2,Q2) and RPE,« (F=18.719; p<.05; r|2=0.555) compared to 4-a-side SSGs. Therefore, it can be concluded that young soccer players could change their physiological responses during SSGs according to a different pitch size. The results of this study suggest that coaches of young soccer players should pay special attention to choosing the SSG type and pitch size when targeting physical conditioning of players in soccer training.
High Density Crowd Behaviors Recognition Based on Micro- behavioral and Sparse Representation

This paper presents a novel method to recognize high density crowd behaviors using micro-behaviors combining with Sparse Representation based on Locally Linear Embedding (named LLE-based Sparse Representation or LLE-SR). We extract micro-behaviors from each frame, respectively named Fountainhead, Bottleneck, Blocking, Lane and Ring/Arch, and construct micro-behaviors histograms to better describe complex high density crowd scenes. As the mid-lever semantic, micro-behaviors solve the gap between the high-level semantics and low-level semantic, and the creation of them does not need any information of target track. LLE-SR method fully considers the behavior of local manifold structure of samples. Through adding LLE regularization term in sparse classification model, the unstable property of the manifold structure can be solved, and then recognition rate is improved. Numerous experiments have been conducted in real scenes, the results of which demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method for high density crowd behavior recognition.
Towards an Automated Test Generation with Delayed Transitions for Timed Systems

In this paper we analyze the influence of the urgency in the timed transitions, and as consequence, in the test suite generation. As result, we formalize rules to generate sequences where the messages exchanged may be instantaneous or delayed. In addition, the generated scenarios are able to detect timing faults. For test generation, we use a prototype tool called HJ2IF. It is based on a test purpose algorithm, called hit-or-jump and it is applied for systems specified using Intermediate Format language (IF).
Explaining and Predicting Flotation Method Choice for Equity Issuance in the UK

This paper challenges conventional wisdom that all UK seasoned equity offerings occur by the rights method, and builds on work by Slovin, Sushka and Lai (2000). It exploits data such as firm and issue characteristics, ownership and information variables to propose a decision model of equity flotation method choice. A model reflecting all categories of variable suggested as having potential to influence flotation approach, would have correctly predicted 89% of all sample issues. Variables relating to ownership, and proxies for commercially sensitive information, were highly significant in the model, and appear to influence flotation choice importantly for UK firms.
Assessing a multimodal user interface in a target acquisition task

The goal of multimodal user interfaces is to assist users in completing tasks quicker or with fewer errors, by reducing their cognitive workload. Visual, auditory and tactile feedback modalities are commonly used as a means to provide users with information through different sensory channels. Understanding how visual, auditory and tactile feedback modalities complement each other is still an open research area for understanding how computers can help users to complete everyday tasks more efficiently. In this paper, we evaluate user performance on a target acquisition task that simulates a real life scenario: locating a book in a bookcase. We performed a comprehensive comparison among the seven possible combinations of three feedback channels (visual, auditory and tactile). Twenty-four volunteers participated in our experiment. Our results show that using the combination of the three feedback modalities improves user performance on this evidently visual task. However, using the visual modality alone does not increase user performance as much as the other feedback channels. By means of a post-experiment questionnaire, subjects reported that they perceived tactile modality as the most helpful feedback channel.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Migraine: Bystanders or Partners?

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and migraine are distinct clinical disorders. Apart from the characteristics of chronic and recurrent pain in nature, these pain-related disorders apparently share many similarities. For example, IBS is female predominant with community prevalence about 5-10%, whereas that of migraine is 1-3% also showing female predominance. They are often associated with many somatic and psychiatric comorbidities in terms of fibromyaglia, chronic fatigue syndrome, interstitial cystitis, insomnia and depression etc., even the IBS subjects may have coexisted migraine with an estimated odds ratio of 2.66. They similarly reduce the quality of life of victims leading to the social, medical and economic burdens. Their pathogeneses have been somewhat addressed in relation to biopsychosocial dysfunction, heredity, genetic polymorphism, central/visceral hypersensitivity, somatic/cutaneous allodynia, neurolimbic pain network, gonadal hormones and abuses etc. Both disorders are diagnosed according to the symptomatically based criteria. Multidisciplinary managements such as receptor target new drugs, melantonin, antispasmodics, and psychological drugs and measures, complementary and alternatives etc. are recommended to treat them although the used agents may not be necessarily the same. Finally, the prognosis of IBS is pretty good, whereas that of migraine is less fair since suicide attempt and stroke are at risk. In conclusion, both distinct chronic pain disorders to share many similarities among various aspects probably suggest that they may locate within the same spectrum of a pain-centered disorder such as central sensitization syndromes. The true pathogenesis to involve these disorders remains to be clarified in the future.
Craft, computing & culture

My doctoral research investigates how digital technologies are woven into the production and consumption of the artifacts we create. To date I have explored these issues in the work of handcraft where I find that social networking sites and software are not only seen as key channels for organizing and propagating material; they are also worked with as material in themselves. I further find that IT contributes to the longevity of cultural material, a concept that challenges mainstream notions of digital media as ephemeral and separate from matter.
Dynamics of markets : econophysics and finance

Preface 1. The moving target 2. Neo-classical economic theory 3. Probability and stochastic processes 4. Scaling the ivory tower of finance 5. Standard betting procedures in portfolio selection theory 6. Dynamics of financial markets, volatility and option pricing 7. Thermodynamic analogies vs. instability of markets 8. Scaling, correlations and cascades in finance and turbulence 9. What is complexity? References Index.
Modeling the mid-infrared thermal radiative properties of silicon complex gratings

A finite-difference time-domain numerical scheme was used to model the infrared radiative properties of heavily doped silicon simple and complex gratings. High absorptance from heavily doped silicon for the transverse magnetic wave incidence can be achieved with one-dimensional periodic gratings. For simple binary gratings, the associated absorptance peak is narrowband. The drawback can be remedied by using complex gratings. The spectral absorptance displays a peak with a much bigger full-width-at-half-maximum FWHM . The broadband absorptance peak can be attributed to the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons based on the electromagnetic fields and Poynting vectors plots. It demonstrates that the complex gratings may significantly enhance the performance of infrared detectors.
Effect of Berberine on PPARα/NO Activation in High Glucose- and Insulin-Induced Cardiomyocyte Hypertrophy

Rhizoma coptidis, the root of Coptis chinensis Franch, has been used in China as a folk medicine in the treatment of diabetes for thousands of years. Berberine, one of the active ingredients of Rhizoma coptidis, has been reported to improve symptoms of diabetes and to treat experimental cardiac hypertrophy, respectively. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential effect of berberine on cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in diabetes and its possible influence on peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARα)/nitric oxide (NO) signaling pathway. The cardiomyocyte hypertrophy induced by high glucose (25.5 mmol/L) and insulin (0.1 μmol/L) (HGI) was characterized in rat primary cardiomyocyte by measuring the cell surface area, protein content, and atrial natriuretic factor mRNA expression level. Protein and mRNA expression were measured by western blot and real-time RT-PCR, respectively. The enzymatic activity of NO synthase (NOS) was measured using a spectrophotometric assay, and NO concentration was measured using the Griess assay. HGI significantly induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and decreased the expression of PPARα and endothelial NOS at the mRNA and protein levels, which occurred in parallel with declining NOS activity and NO concentration. The effect of HGI was inhibited by berberine (0.1 to 100 μmol/L), fenofibrate (0.3 μmol/L), or L-arginine (100 μmol/L). MK886 (0.3 μmol/L), a selective PPARα antagonist, could abolish the effects of berberine and fenofibrate. N G-nitro-L-arginine-methyl ester (100 μmol/L), a NOS inhibitor, could block the effects of L-arginine, but only partially blocked the effects of berberine. These results suggest that berberine can blunt HGI-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in vitro, through the activation of the PPARα/NO signaling pathway.
AutoStyle: Automatic Style Transfer from Image Collections to Users' Images

Stylizing photos, to give them an antique or artistic look, has become popular in recent years. The available stylization filters, however, are usually created manually by artists, resulting in a narrow set of choices. Moreover, it can be difficult for the user to select a desired filter, since the filters’ names often do not convey their functions. We investigate an approach to photo filtering in which the user provides one or more keywords, and the desired style is defined by the set of images returned by searching the web for those keywords. Our method clusters the returned images, allows the user to select a cluster, then stylizes the user's photos by transferring vignetting, color, and local contrast from that cluster. This approach vastly expands the range of available styles, and gives each filter a meaningful name by default. We demonstrate that our method is able to robustly transfer a wide range of styles from image collections to users’ photos.
International Joint Ventures vs. Wholly Owned Subsidiaries

INTRODUCTION With the relentless onslaught of globalization, many firms are faced with the question of where and how to launch their operations in world markets or to expand and integrate their existing international operations. Some are seeking new outlets for their products and knowhow outside their home markets while others are seeking expansion capital and new technology not available in their own countries. In order to achieve these goals, a firm must determine the appropriate mode for organizing its foreign business activities. Among the vast array of alternative modes available, international joint ventures (IJV) and wholly owned subsidiaries (WOS) represent two primary but largely competing strategic options that a firm may choose. Each of these strategies has different implications for the degree of control which a firm can exercise over the foreign operation, the resources it must commit to the foreign operation, and the risks that it must bear to expand into a foreign country. Thus, the performance of one mode in relation to another is a critical measure of its relative efficacy and would directly affect their choice by firms. A primary objective of this study was to measure the performance of a sample of U.S. parent companies that were engaged in IJV or WOS in a foreign country. Prior research has concentrated mainly on the study of why IJV is chosen in preference to other alternative modes or under what conditions would IJV be an optimal choice relative to either a contractual mode (e.g. licensing) or WOS. Very few studies have examined the results of the implementation of the various strategic entry modes. This paper focused on the effectiveness of IJV versus WOS and also shed light on the characteristics of firms that pursued these strategies. LITERATURE REVIEW In the current global marketplace, strategic alliances in the form of international joint ventures have become a popular mode for entering foreign markets. Traditional direct investment methods, such as setting up wholly-owned subsidiaries, offer the benefits of total profits and full control over the foreign subsidiary. However, the higher costs and risks involved in undertaking RD Killing, 1982). Chowdhury argued that the basis for such contradiction depends on how the instability is defined. …
Geography, Biogeography and the International Distribution of Prosperity

The Neolithic transition from hunting and gathering to sedentary agriculture, which made possible the rapid technological progress that ultimately led to the Industrial Revolution, is one of the most important events in thousands of years of humankind’s economic development. In this paper we present theory and evidence showing that geography and biogeography exerted decisive influence on the location and timing of transitions to agriculture, to complex social organization and, eventually, to modern industrial production. Evidence from a large cross-section of countries indicates that the effects of geographic and initial biogeographic conditions on present-day levels of economic development are remarkably strong, even when conditioned on institutional arrangements that exert powerful proximate influence on the productivity of nations.
Photon and Particle Emission, Heat Production and Surface Transformation in Ni-H System

The results obtained in several experiments on Ni-H system are presented here. Photon emission during the preliminary phases of activation and H isotope absorption are shown; their correlation with the kind of surfaces (Ni and its alloys) and with neutron and other particle emission in the excitation progress and in large heat production is also presented. Finally the SEM-EDAX analysis of the sample surfaces after same months of heat production is shown; new elements (not present in the initial analysis) appeared. The concentrations of these elements with atomic number between C and Zn, is compared to the unmodified parts of same samples that remained inside the cell, outside of the activated region.
Compiler and runtime support for irregularly coupled regular meshes

Regular meshes are frequently used for modeling physical phenomena on both serial and parallel computers. One advantage of regular meshes is that efficient discretization schemes can be implemented in a straightforward manner. However, geometrically-complex objects, such as aircraft, cannot be easily described using a single regular mesh. Multiple interacting regular meshes are frequently used to describe complex geometries. Each mesh models a subregion of the physical domain. The meshes, or subdomains, can be processed in parallel, with periodic updates carried out to move information between the coupled meshes. In many cases, there are a relatively small number (one to a few dozen) subdomains, so that each subdomain may also be partitioned among several processors. We outline a composite run-time/compile-time approach for supporting these problems efficiently on distributed-memory machines. This paper describes these methods in the context of a multiblock fluid dynamics problem developed at the NASA Langley Research Center.