Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The venture development processes of “sustainable” entrepreneurs

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the venture development processes (or “entrepreneurial processes”) of “sustainable” entrepreneurs, i.e. entrepreneurs who create and build profitable companies that also pursue environmental or social causes. The paper aims to find how these mission‐oriented entrepreneurs achieve their business objectives while serving their social and environmental causes.Design/methodology/approach – The paper identifies 21 successful sustainable entrepreneurial companies in various industries ranging from apparel to biotechnology that were exemplary in their pursuit for sustainability. The paper examined their key decisions and activities in their “entrepreneurial process”, collecting most of the relevant information from published or self‐developed case studies.Findings – The paper finds that most of sustainable entrepreneurs are an unusual breed with limited business backgrounds. Most obtain financing from non‐conventional sources and employ unorthodox, yet sound huma.
Modeling laws with nomos 2

Nòmos is a framework for modelling law-compliant solutions in software system design. It provides a core set of concepts to enable exploring and selecting alternatives in a variability space defined by laws, a graphical notation to visualize models, and tool support for compliance analysis. This short paper illustrates the features above and sketches some of the research challenges ahead.
Wrap-up Discussion

There has been agreement I think that it was on the whole a pretty good decade for Australia. It’s true, as a number of the papers reminded us, that output growth was on average slower in the 2000s than in the 1990s. It’s also true that productivity growth was slower than in the preceding decade. And while the rise in wealth during the decade was formidable, by the end of the decade household wealth was markedly lower than it had been some years earlier.
UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS FOR MULTI-REGION INPUT–OUTPUT MODELS – A CASE STUDY OF THE UK'S CARBON FOOTPRINT

This paper reviews and demonstrates methods available for estimating standard deviations for carbon multipliers in a multi-regional input–output (MRIO) framework. We attempt to capture all possible variations of underlying data and calculation procedures in a global MRIO model constructed with particular focus on the UK. We consider these variations to be random, and determine the stochastic variation of the whole MRIO system using Monte Carlo techniques. 5000 simulation runs were carried out to determine the standard deviations of multipliers. From these, the standard deviations of components of the UK's carbon footprint were estimated using error propagation. We estimate an 89% probability that the UK's carbon footprint has increased between 1994 and 2004.
Social and Ethnic Segregation in Europe: Levels, Causes, and Effects

ABSTRACT: The measurement of segregation, the understanding of its drivers, and the effects of segregation are three interrelated issues that receive ample attention on both sides of the Atlantic. The comparative study of these subjects in Europe is not an easy task because the continent is highly fragmented and diversified. This regards the types of welfare state, but also the multitude of urban histories. Consequently, there is a lack of uniform information. Nevertheless, this paper makes an attempt to sketch the variety of ethnic and social segregation within Europe, using a large number of sources. It is shown that generally segregation levels in Europe are more moderate compared to what we can find in American cities, but these differences are not absolute. The paper also links the levels of segregation with a range of potential explanations and provides a window on European research focusing on effects of segregation.
Urban expansion extraction and analysis using landsat time series data--a case study of Tianjin

Urban expansion has become a major issue in many metropolitan areas with the rapid development of China. In this study, by taking Tianjin as an example, urban expansion extraction at annual frequency and spatial-temporal analysis were conducted using Landsat time series data from 1992 to 2001. Landsat data were first classified to extract urban area of different years. A temporal consistency check was then applied to improve the classification results. Overall accuracies were generally improved up to 6%, and kappa coefficient increased up to 0.08 after the consistency check. Urban expansion was obtained with post-classification comparison change detection technique. Spatial-temporal analysis was carried out to characterize the urban growth information.
Do antihypertensive drugs precipitate diabetes in predisposed men?

OBJECTIVE--To evaluate the influence of antihypertensive treatment and metabolic characteristics on the development of diabetes mellitus in middle aged men. DESIGN--Prospective study over an average of nine years. SETTING--Community based health survey of middle aged men carried out at the University of Uppsala. SUBJECTS--Seventy three hypertensive men aged 49-54 and 65 normotensive controls matched for body mass index, glucose disappearance rate (k value) at an intravenous glucose tolerance test, and serum triglyceride and cholesterol concentrations. INTERVENTIONS--Hypertensive group was treated with beta blockers, thiazides, hydralazine, or combinations of these drugs. Treatment was not randomised. MEASUREMENTS and MAIN RESULTS--Intravenous glucose tolerance, fasting blood glucose and serum lipid and insulin concentrations, body weight and height, three skinfold measurements, and blood pressure were recorded both during an initial health screening survey in 1970-3 and at a follow up survey in 1980-3. In the period between the two surveys 12 hypertensive men and two controls developed diabetes. Review of values obtained at the initial survey showed that the hypertensive men who developed diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance could be distinguished from those hypertensive men who did not by virtue of a higher fasting serum insulin concentration (26.1 v 15.2 mU/l (confidence interval of difference -15.2 to -6.2)), a lower peak serum insulin concentration (78.9 v 94.3 mU/l (confidence interval of difference -1.1 to 41.1)), and a lower k value (1.29 v 1.68 (confidence interval of difference -0.02 to 0.68)). The insulin index (peak insulin concentration divided by fasting insulin concentration), however, decreased significantly in the hypertensive men over time irrespective of whether they developed diabetes but did not change in the controls. Furthermore, the serum triglyceride concentration increased in the treated group and decreased in the controls. CONCLUSION--A severalfold difference in the incidence of diabetes between treated hypertensive and non-treated, normotensive men may be a consequence of the treatment, which may be particularly deleterious in men predisposed to diabetes.
A highly-efficient two-stage DC-DC converter with wide input voltage

This paper introduces a highly-efficient two-stage DC-DC converter with wide input voltage. Based on the digital control technology, it uses two-stage DC-DC conversion. This paper describes the circuit topology, working principle and control method of the convert in detail. The converter consists of the former input circuit, intermediate conversion circuit, output rectifying circuit and feedback control circuit. Through the adaption of the former input circuit, the DC-DC converter avoids the drawback of unreasonable design of transformer turn ratio on the rated input voltage conditions, and then achieves the optimal efficiency of intermediate transformer in the case of rated input voltage. This highly efficient two stage converter control circuit is simple, reliable and easy to implement. In this paper, the working principle of the topology is described in detail, and it is verified by experiments that the topology can meet the requirements of high efficiency, high power density and wide input range of communication power supply modules.
What is worse for asthma control and quality of life: depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, or both?

BACKGROUND The high burden of asthma appears to be related to poor asthma control. Although previous studies have reported associations between depressive disorders (DDs) and anxiety disorders (ADs) and worse asthma control and quality of life, the relative impact of these disorders on asthma control and quality of life has not been explored. This study evaluated the relative impact of having a DD and/or AD on asthma control and quality of life. METHOD Five hundred four consecutive adults with confirmed, physician-diagnosed asthma underwent a brief, structured psychiatric interview using the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders. Asthma control and asthma-related quality of life were assessed using the Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) and the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ). All patients underwent standard spirometry. RESULTS Thirty-one percent of patients (n = 157) met the diagnostic criteria for one or more psychiatric disorders (8% had DD only, 12% had AD only, and 11% had both). Analyses revealed independent effects for DDs on total ACQ scores (p < 0.01), and for DDs and ADs on total AQLQ scores and all four AQLQ subscales (p < 0.05). There were no interaction effects. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest that DDs and ADs are associated with worse asthma-related quality of life, but only DDs are associated with worse asthma control. Interestingly, having both a DD and an AD did not confer additional risk for worse asthma control or quality of life. Physicians may want to consider the differential impact of negative mood states when assessing levels of asthma control and quality of life.
Simulation of Heat Extraction for the Habanero 1 and 3 Doublet Using a Conditioned Discrete Fracture Network Model

The Habanero 1 and 3 doublet is the major component in the original electricity generation plan for the Geodynamics geothermal project in the Cooper Basin of South Australia. Various heat extraction studies have been conducted using simplified models such as a single fracture connecting the two wells or an equivalent porous medium representing the reservoir. In our approach, a more realistic fracture model is constructed conditional on the seismic events generated during the fracture stimulation process of the reservoir. The fluid flow and heat transfer are then solved using the equivalent pipe approach using a simplified heat exchange model. The results are compared with those from other studies. We demonstrate that the combination of a discrete fracture network and an equivalent pipe approach is an efficient and effective means of modelling industrial-scale fluid flow and heat transfer in geothermal systems such as the Habanero reservoir.
5 G WiFi Signal-Based Indoor Localization System Using Cluster k-Nearest Neighbor Algorithm

Indoor localization based on existent WiFi signal strength is becoming more and more prevalent and ubiquitous. Unfortunately, the WiFi received signal strength (RSS) is susceptible by multipath, signal attenuation, and environmental changes, which is the major challenge for accurate indoor localization. To overcome these limitations, we propose the cluster k-nearest neighbor (KNN) algorithm with 5 G WiFi signal to reduce the environmental interference and improve the localization performance without additional equipment. In this paper, we propose three approaches to improve the performance of localization algorithm. For one thing, we reduce the computation effort based on the coarse localization algorithm. For another, according to the detailed analysis of the 2.4 G and 5 G signal fluctuation, we expand the real-time measurement RSS before matching the fingerprint map. More importantly, we select the optimal nearest neighbor points based on the proposed cluster KNN algorithm. We have implemented the proposed algorithm and evaluated the performance with existent popular algorithms. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can effectively improve localization accuracy and exhibit superior performance in terms of localization stabilization and computation effort.
Intra- and extra-cellular sources of T3 binding to putative thyroid hormone receptors in liver, kidney, and gill nuclei of immature rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss.

The sources of extracellular and intracellular 3,5,3'-triiodo-L-thyronine (T3) binding to putative thyroid hormone receptors in liver, kidney, and gill nuclei were determined in vivo for immature rainbow trout at 12 degrees C. Both [131I]T3 and [125I]T4 were injected intraperitoneally, the plasma and tissues were examined at isotopic equilibrium at 20 h, and the proportions of intracellular [125I]T3 and extracellular [131I]T3 saturably bound in the nucleus were determined. Comparable total amounts of T3 were saturably bound in the nuclei of liver (7.2), kidney (8.0), and gill (9.7 moles x 10(-13) . mg DNA-1), but the percentage of nuclear T3 generated within the target cell was greater for gill (76%) than for liver (50%) and kidney (28%). Both gill and liver possess a low Km T4 5'monodeiodinase which could be responsible for the high proportion of the nuclear T3 generated within those tissues.
Information Shares of Two Parallel Currency Options Markets: Trading Costs versus Transparency/Tradability

This paper studies whether trading costs or transparency/tradability are more important to price discovery using a unique dataset of currency options that trade simultaneously in two parallel markets. The Over-The-Counter (OTC) market is characterized by sophisticated investors, low trading costs, and low transparency/tradability compared to the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). Pricing errors are much larger on the TASE and the information share of the OTC market is significantly larger than that of the TASE by various information share measures, showing that trading costs and trader type have a first-order effect on price discovery while transparency/tradability have a second-order effect.
To Vote or Not to Vote

What makes people vote? In addressing this simple question, Andre Blais examines the factors that increase or decrease turnout at the aggregate, cross-national level and considers what affects people's decision to vote or abstain. In doing so, Blais assesses the merits and limitations of the rational choice model in explaining voter behaviour. The past few decades have witnessed a rise in the popularity of the rational choice model in accounting for voter turnout, and more recently a groundswell of outspoken opposition to rational choice theory. Blais brings together the opposing theories and literatures, and offers tests of these different viewpoints. Using new data sets from many countries, Blais concludes that while rational choice is an important tool - even when it doesn't work - its empirical contribution to understanding why people vote is quite limited.
Hypothalamic functions in patients with pituitary insufficiency

The main objective of this thesis is to increase our understanding of hypothalamic (dys)function in patients with pituitary insufficiency. This goal is driven by the clinical experience of persisting symptoms in patients adequately treated for pituitary insufficiency. We focus primarily on patients with a history of compression of the optic chiasm (CC), cranial radiotherapy (CRT) and/or pituitary surgery to optimize the chance of the presence of functional damage to the hypothalamus.
Annual Repeat Rates of Laparoscopic Surgery: A Marker of Practice Variation

Use of laparoscopy is an area of interest owing to a previous report of significant numbers of repeat laparoscopic surgery in some women in Alberta, Canada. It was hypothesized that analyzing individual-woman rates of annual repeat procedures documents potential overuse of laparoscopic surgery. Administrative data concerning yearly individual specific laparoscopy experiences were obtained from Alberta Health and Wellness for the years 1996 to 2007. Rates of repeat diagnostic and operative laparoscopic procedures were determined for each fiscal year and analyzed using statistical process control methods. The rate of reoperation for an individual woman for both procedures has “special causes” of variation. Rates of reoperation within the fiscal year varied significantly. The reasons could include operating room access, initial clinical enthusiasm for new surgery, changing surgical skills, and changing processes in decision making. The presence of such variation will require policy initiatives to address high rates of annual repeat procedures.
Compartment model of aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation in a municipal solid waste landfil

The mathematical formulations in a one-dimensional compartment model of the biodegradation of organic landfill components are described. The model is designed to switch between anaerobic and aerobic conditions, depending on the local oxygen concentration. The model also includes the effect of environmental factors, such as moisture content, pH, and temperature, on reaction rates. The model includes not only biodegradation processes for carbon compounds (acetate, CO2, CH4), but also for nitrogen compounds involved in nitrification and denitrification due to their significance in landfills. Two example runs to simulate anaerobic and aerobic waste were conducted for a single landfill unit cell by changing the organic content and diffusion coefficient.
Indicators of Dematerialization and the Materials Intensity of Use

We review the major empirical analyses of the related concepts of dematerialization and intensity of use. Dematerialization refen to the absolute or relative reduction in the quantity of materials used and/or the quantity of waste generated in the production of a unit of economic output A common indicator is the intensity of material use, which is the quantity of material used per unit of economic output. Our discussion focuses on seven topics: the environmental Kuznets curve for materials, material use and long wave theory material decomposition analysis, statistical, inpuboutput and dynamic models of material use, and analyses of national material use. We examine the measurement of aggregate material use and waste emissions, hypothesis testing, the importance of imports, and forces that countervail dematerialization such as rising affluence and the “rebound effect. ” We conclude that: our knowledge of the extent of and mechanisms behind the patterns of material use are limited largely to individual materials or very specific industries, and most of those examples are metals; the economy is getting “lighter” but the aggregate economic significance of that trend, if any, is unknown; there is no compelling macroeconomic evidence that the US. economy is “decoupled” from material inputs; and we know even less about the net environmental effects of many changes in materials use. We caution against gross generalizations about material use, particularly the “gut” feeling that technical change, substitution, and a shift t o the “information age” inexorably lead to decreased materials intensity and reduced environmental impact. We end with some suggestions for research that may help answer these important questions.
Evidence for sialyl glycoconjugates as receptors for Bordetella bronchiseptica on swine nasal mucosa

The nature of the receptors for Bordetella bronchiseptica was investigated by using the in vitro adherence assay system. The results indicated that sialyl glycoconjugates acted as receptors on swine nasal mucosa. These results were obtained by two independent approaches: inhibition of epithelial cell adherence with sialic acid-containing compounds but not with compounds lacking sialic acid residues and loss of adherence after treatment of epithelial cells with periodate or neuraminidase. B. bronchiseptica seems to have strong affinity for mucin. This may help the bacterium to colonize the mucosal surfaces of the swine nasal cavity.
A 225mW 28Gb/s SerDes in 40nm CMOS with 13dB of analog equalization for 100GBASE-LR4 and optical transport lane 4.4 applications

A key challenge in optical networking is the development of low-power transceivers that interface to optical sub-assemblies (TOSAs & ROSAs). While SiGe technologies are often selected for jitter performance with optical links, especially on the egress path to the transmit optics, lower-power and higher levels of digital integration often result from CMOS approaches . This paper describes a generic CMOS 25-to-30Gb/s SerDes for use within CDR or gearbox applications, targeting the draft requirements of the OIF 28G-VSR standard and suitable for both 100GBASE-LR4/OTL4.4 gearbox and retiming applications, including CFP and CFP2.
Complementary feeding with fortified spread and incidence of severe stunting in 6- to 18-month-old rural Malawians.

OBJECTIVE To compare growth and incidence of malnutrition in infants receiving long-term dietary supplementation with ready-to-use fortified spread (FS) or micronutrient-fortified maize-soy flour (likuni phala [LP]). DESIGN Randomized, controlled, single-blind trial. SETTING Rural Malawi. PARTICIPANTS A total of 182 six-month-old infants. INTERVENTION Participants were randomized to receive 1 year of daily supplementation with 71 g of LP (282 kcal), 50 g of FS (FS50) (256 kcal), or 25 g of FS (FS25) (130 [corrected] kcal). OUTCOME MEASURES Weight and length gains and the incidences of severe stunting, underweight, and wasting. RESULTS Mean weight and length gains in the LP, FS50, and FS25 groups were 2.37, 2.47, and 2.37 kg (P = .66) and 12.7, 13.5, and 13.2 cm (P = .23), respectively. In the same groups, the cumulative 12-month incidence of severe stunting was 13.3%, 0.0%, and 3.5% (P = .01), of severe underweight was 15.0%, 22.5%, and 16.9% (P = .71), and of severe wasting was 1.8%, 1.9%, and 1.8% (P > .99). Compared with LP-supplemented infants, those given FS50 gained a mean of 100 g more weight and 0.8 cm more length. There was a significant interaction between baseline length and intervention (P = .04); in children with below-median length at enrollment, those given FS50 gained a mean of 1.9 cm more than individuals receiving LP. CONCLUSION One-year-long complementary feeding with FS does not have a significantly larger effect than LP on mean weight gain in all infants, but it is likely to boost linear growth in the most disadvantaged individuals and, hence, decrease the incidence of severe stunting.
Bactericidal activities of various antimicrobial agents against human and animal isolates of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis

The MICs and MBCs of various antimicrobial agents for strains of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis isolated from animal and human sources were evaluated. The MICs and MBCs of rifabutin, ciprofloxacin, ethambutol, clofazimine, streptomycin, cefazolin, and amikacin were found to be well below therapeutic levels in serum and tissue.