Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GPU Acceleration of Image Processing Algorithm Based on Matlab CUDA

Summary MATLAB is one of most commonly used platforms in multiple scientific applications like digital image processing, digital signal processing etc… The high level programming syntax and friendly user of MATLAB makes it best suited to write technical code. Among, the significance of MATLAB’s programming is its rich library of built-in function that makes programming more easily. Nerveless, the standard MATLAB uses an interpreter which decelerates the processing, particularly while executing loops. This becomes a bottleneck performance in programs that make excessive use of loops. Therefore, MATLAB is frequently exposed to the memory latency and the issues of slow execution. In order to accelerate MATLAB’s processing, we use NIVIDIA’S CUDA parallel processing architecture. We note that processing can be speed up significantly by interfacing MATLAB with CUDA and parallelizing the most time consuming portion of MATLAB’s code white balance. The obtained results indicate, that the speedup is proportional to the image size until it attains a maximum at 2056*3088 pixels, beyond these values the speedup decreases. The performance with GPU enhances above a factor of 14~15 compared with CPU.
Why parenting matters for children in the 21st century

This paper provides a structured overview of the existing parenting literature with the aim of developing an evidence-based and culture-sensitive framework of parenting and its influence on child development. The paper outlines how changes in the 21st century have altered family life and summarises evidence from 29 meta-studies and 81 quantitative studies for the developmental impact of different parenting styles and dimensions. Overall, results suggest that warm parenting that provides children with age-appropriate autonomy and structure is key for a healthy and prosperous development of children and adolescents across various domains. The parenting approach adopted by parents but also its effect varies and the paper points to various contextual (e.g. culture, socio-economic factors, support within the community and family) and individual (e.g. gender, personality and health condition of children and parents) factors explaining these variations. The paper discusses how a systematic consideration of such factors not only sharpens the scientific understanding of parenting and its impact but also helps improving family policies and support.
Right atrial appendage pacing may promote atrial fibrillation in patients treated with cardiac resynchronization therapy due to interatrial conduction prolongation

The case report focuses on unfavorable hemodynamic consequences of the right atrial appendage (RAA) pacing in patients treated with cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT-D) and shows how to assess this with echocardiography. A patient with artificial mitral and aortic valves and DDD pacemaker was upgraded to CRT-D due to severe heart failure. Under CRT the patient improved, left ventricular ejection fraction increased from 28 to 40%, right ventricular pressure normalized however, the frequency of atrial fibrillation episodes increased. The RAA-paced rhythm resulted in significant prolongation of the interatrial delay, which precluded optimal paced atrio-ventricular delay (AVD) programming, as with an increase in AVD-paced the biventricular capture was lost. We suspect that increment in left atrial pressure due to suboptimal AVD resulted in progression to chronic AF. Geriatria 2011; 5: 65-69.
Power Line Transient Interferences on a Nearby Pipeline Due to a Lightning Discharge

This paper discusses basic concepts of the lightning phenomena and lightning protection systems (LPS) commonly employed in power lines, and its resulting impacts on a neighboring structure, such as a pipeline. A finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) implementation is employed to simulate the transient interferences produced by the power line due to a lightning strike, with emphasis on safety aspects and risks to which the pipeline is exposed. The distribution of the discharge currents along the grounding conductors is investigated, as well as the resulting ground potential rise, caused by the injection of electrical current into the earth. Results show that a significant portion of the ground potential is transfered to the pipeline in the form of stress voltages, exceeding nominal limits of the insulating coating and equipment connected to the pipeline. Also, the dangers to which people are exposed in the vicinities of the tower, in the form of touch and step voltages, are highlighted, along with possible strategies to mitigate these hazards. Keywords—Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, grounding grid, lightning discharge, power line, pipeline, electromagnetic interference.
A Robust Indoor Positioning System for Heterogeneous Mobile Devices

—Indoor Positioning System (IPS) has become one of the most attractive research ﬁelds due to the increasing demands on Location Based Services (LBSs) in indoor environments. Various IPSs have been developed under different circumstances, and most of them adopt the ﬁngerprinting technique to mitigate pervasive indoor multipath effects. However, the performance of the ﬁngerprinting technique severely suffers from device heterogeneity existing across commercial off-the-shelf mobile devices (e.g. smart phones, tablet computers, etc.) and indoor environmental changes (e.g. the number, distribution and activities of people, the placement of furniture, etc.). In this paper, we transform the Received Signal Strength (RSS) to a standardized location ﬁngerprint based on the Procrustes analysis, and introduce a similarity metric, termed Signal Tendency Index (STI), for matching standardized ﬁngerprints. An analysis on the capability of the proposed STI in handling device heterogeneity and environmental changes is presented. We further develop a robust and precise IPS by integrating the merits of both the STI and Weighted Extreme Learning Machine (WELM). Finally, extensive experiments are carried out and a performance comparison with existing solutions veriﬁes the superiority of the proposed IPS in terms of robustness to device heterogeneity.
EFEITOS DE FONTES DE CÁLCIO NO DESENV OLVIMENTO DE GRAMÍNEAS SOLTEIRAS E CONSORCIADAS Effects of calcium sources on grass growth in monoculture and intercropping

Considering the cattle-raising in Brazil, the pastures are cultivated in very low soil fertility conditions, with very low calcium, magnesium and sulfur concentrations. The liming and the gypsum usage are the most common ways to increase the calcium level in these soils. In this context, this research aimed to evaluate the effect of calcium sources on the development of monocultured and intercropped grasses. The experiment was carried out in a greenhouse at Embrapa Rice and Beans, on Red Latosol of clay texture. The experimental design used was the randomized blocks with a 3 x 2 x 2 factorial scheme, being three treatments related to calcium (control, lime, and gypsum), two forage species (Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu and Brachiaria humidicola), and two forage species intercropped with a leguminous plant (Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu + Calopogonio and Brachiaria humidicola + Calopogonio), with four replications. At 60 days after germination a cutting was done at 5 cm height from the ground, for evaluation of the dry mass production, root length, and content of calcium and sulfur in the leaf tissue. The best plant height and root development was verified in the monocultured Brachiaria brizantha and also when intercropped with Calopogonio. Calcium application through the gypsum source resulted in higher production of dry mass in the monocultured Brachiaria brizantha as well as when intercropped with Calopogonio. Liming promoted higher calcium concentrations in the foliar tissue in all systems while gypsum promoted higher sulfur concentration, both being higher in the intercropped systems.
Study the impact of organizational learning capability and competitive strategy on export volume Case Study : Iran Khodro

With global growth, organizations must acquire new knowledge and his ability to respond to rapidly changing market needs, increase. In the global market, it is essential to collect knowledge from internal and external sources. However, many studies have been done to examine this issue in detail. This theoretical study is applied organizational learning and competition strategy to arrange organizational learning and performance strategy model based on companies who are active at exportation department. Statistical society included 65 of managers and workers of Iran Khodro Company. Current study is functional in term of purpose and is descriptive in term of gathering information. Consistent with this hypothesis, results of correlation coefficients show any significant meaning between organizational learning and exportation performance. Also, there is no significant meaning between competition advantage and exportation performance, but there is significant meaning between organizational learning and exportation expert. To examine the relationship between these three dimensions to investigate SPSS, Pierson test, Friedman, Komokogrov Smirnov test and T test were used.
Topography and hydrography of Kviturdvikpollen and Vågsböpollen on the West Coast of Norway

Abstract Kviturdvikpollen and Vagsbopollen south of Bergen are two of the many small “miniature fjords” (rolls), common along the coast of Norway, being more or less isolated from the open sea, with certain typical physical features as a consequence. Kviturdvikpollen is connected with the sea (sill-depth 6.5 m) and Vagsbopollen debouches into the innermost part of it (sill-depth 0.5 m). The two polls are together about 3 km in length and divided into a number of basins, none of more than 16 m depth. Most of the shores are rocky; the horizontal bottoms mixed but generally soft. An account is given of the temperature, salinity and oxygen conditions. The big periodical changes of the temperature and salinity of the open sea are transplanted into the polls, especially the outer one. Owing to the sinking of rather cold and salt water the deepest basins are more or less stagnant from spring to autumn. Together with the heavy supply of nutrient-rich material this causes oxygen loss and in several cases H2S-produ.
Ecology of the Columbia spotted frog in northeastern Oregon.

Bull, Evelyn L. 2005. Ecology of the Columbia spotted frog in northeastern Oregon. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-640. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 46 p. The Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) is one of several amphibians in the Western United States experiencing population declines. The breeding, postbreeding, and overwintering habitat and ecology of this species were investigated in 10 study sites in northeastern Oregon from 1997 through 2004. A variety of habitats with permanent water were used as breeding sites and as postbreeding habitat during the summer. Ice-covered ponds, warm springs, rivers, and seeps in forested habitats were used for overwintering. Diet consisted of a wide variety of mollusks and arthropods with beetles, ants, wasps, and flies composing more than 50 percent. Population size was as high as 135 females at one site, and ratios of males to females ranged from 1.0 to 2.8. The oldest male and female were 9.7 and 8.7 years old, respectively, based on skeletochronology. Males reached sexual maturity at 1 year 9 months after metamorphosis and most females at 2 years 9 months after metamorphosis. One female laid eggs in up to 3 consecutive years. Size (snout-vent length) was not a good indicator of age in frogs older than 2 years. Long-term monitoring is necessary to determine the effects of a variety of disturbance factors and chytrid fungus that could influence spotted frog populations in northeastern Oregon.
Large-scale spatial synchrony in red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) sex ratios

Large-scale studies on population-level sex ratios are few, even though sex ratio is an important determinant of population viability and dynamics. Mechanisms driving large-scale sex ratio variation include spatially autocorrelated resources and scale differences in local versus global Fisherian feedback of the operational sex ratio. In this study, we reanalyze historic data on sex ratios based on 187,404 hunted subadult and adult red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) capturing spatial sex ratio variation in 50×50 km squares throughout Finland over a period of 8 years. Overall, sex ratio was slightly male biased (50.9%) and relatively more 50×50 km squares showed a bias toward males (19% of squares) compared to females (8% of squares). Sex ratio was spatially autocorrelated at distances up to 200 km and in some years showed a U-shaped pattern: regions that were in close proximity and those that were far apart had similar sex ratios, but regions in-between had opposite sex ratios. We found no evidence that food supply (spruce cone crop) drives regional red squirrel sex ratio. Our findings add to the scarce evidence that vertebrate sex ratios show spatial patterns over large scales.
Transforming Virtual Teams: Translucence and Pitbull Mentality

Investigating virtual team collaboration in industry using grounded theory this paper presents the in-dept analysis of empirical work conducted in a global organization of 100.000 employees where a global virtual team with participants from Sweden, United Kingdom, Canada, and North America were studied. The research question investigated is how collaboration is negotiated within virtual teams? This paper presents findings concerning how collaboration is negotiated within a virtual team and elaborate the difficulties due to invisible articulation work and managing multiple communities in transforming the virtual team into a community. It is argued that translucence in communication structures within the virtual team and between team and management is essential for engaging in a positive transformation process of trustworthiness supporting the team becoming a community, managing the immanent multiple communities, and bringing visibility to articulation work, and that groupware technology should facilitate communication and negotiation instead of implementing the workflows just enhancing existing abilities, practices, and skills.
The Internet-of-Things Breadmaker: Smart Device for Studying Interaction with Autonomous Systems in Naturalistic Settings

Smart and autonomous systems are becoming increasingly integrated into everyday interactions and user experiences, offering great potential to make technology more efficient and more enjoyable to use. Developing our understanding of user interactions with these systems will allow designers and developers to improve the smart technology of the future. However, previous studies in the area have frequently been conducted in laboratory environments, and therefore may lack the ecological validity of evaluation within a more natural setting where participants can be affected by their surrounding contexts. Creating prototypes to be used in-the-wild is a necessary step for developing a more realistic understanding of smart systems. This thesis presents an Internet of Things (IoT) breadmaker, which is designed and implemented for conducting studies within the kitchen environment. The breadmaker prototype is deployed in an exploratory study, investigating the cognitive biases caused by motion cues from the device, and how users perceive and interact with an IoT device in the kitchen. The study demonstrates the potential for future deployment of the prototype in more extended, long-term field studies. Additionally, the study findings provide insight into the challenges of measuring bias from motion cues, how users understand motion within the interface, and more generally what users expect from smart devices in the kitchen. These results can help to inform the further use of similar prototypes for research.
MUTI-LEVEL SB COLLIDE: COLLISION AND SELF-COLLISION IN SOFT BODIES

In interactive 3D graphics collision detection of soft bodies in real time is a significant problem. It is time consuming because soft bodies are composed of possibly thousands of moving particles. Each time step all particles rearrange in new positions according to their behaviors and collision must be detected for each particle. To optimize collision detection in soft bodies, we introduce a solution called Multi-Level SB Collide. The method relies on the construction of subdivided bounding boxes, box hash functions, and contact surfaces. Multi-level SB collide applies multi-level subdivided bounding boxes (AABBs) into a box hash function and uses contact surface method to detect collision. This contact surface can be used to detect both collision with other objects and self-collision in soft bodies. Experimental results show that multi-level SB Collide is an accurate and efficient method for real-time collision detection in soft bodies.
Movement between benefit types

It is often the case that in the analysis of the determinants of welfare dependence at a microeconomic level, focus tends to be on the duration of one spell of one particular payment type, often unemployment benefits or sole parent payments. However, to date, the extent to which individuals move from one payment type to another and the time they spend in total on different payments, is largely unknown. This is important as the extent of movement from, for example, unemployment payments to some other types of benefit, may be an indicator of the extent and nature of hidden unemployment. If the duration of unemployment spells are curtailed by movement away from unemployment benefits, the extent of welfare dependency could be underestimated if movement is to another benefit payment type. In addition, even if a payment recipient exits off all benefits, those recipients regularly return to benefit payments within a short time period. Using a primarily descriptive approach, the results suggest that there is indeed, a significant amount of “churning” across benefit types, such that an analysis of one particular type of payment spell would significantly underestimate the extent of welfare dependency. The paper finds considerable differences between the average duration on one particular spell and the average duration on all spells within a five-year period, indicating a return to payment after exit off payments or a direct move from one type of payment spell to another type of payment spell.
Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Broadening the Definition of

A firm’s ability to seek out new, successful opportunities is essential for success.Using an intentions-based model, the emergence of environmental opportunities and the development of cognitive infrastructures that are opportunity-receptive are analyzed. Initially, the theory and evidence relating to sustainable opportunity are briefly discussed.Then the cognition-based model of environmental opportunities is presented.The "mental models" or schema needed to increase a firm's potential for seeking environmental opportunities are examined, as are critical attitudes and factors influencing intentions. To further the concept of intentions, examples of antecedents to intentions are presented--i.e., perceived desirability--personal attitude; perceived desirability--social norms; perceived feasibility--self-efficacy; perceived feasibility--collective efficacy; exogenous factors; precipitating factors.The tools necessary to build a supportive cognitive infrastructure are discussed, including the need to increase feasibility perceptions and to increase desirability perceptions. (AKP)
Labour Productivity, Technological Gap and Spillovers Evidence from Moroccan Manufacturing Industries

The objective of this paper is to investigate empirically whether there is any evidence that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has had a positive impact on productivity performance in Moroccan manufacturing industries. To this end a panel data set at sector level for the Moroccan manufacturing industries in the period 1987-1996 was used. Our results suggest that the foreign presence increases the domestic labour productivity. However, this relationship is a complex one and depends on absorptive capacity or technological gap (distance between foreign and indigenous firms in terms of total factor productivity). The technological gap seems to be a condition for spillovers, but only within a certain range. Our results show a significant positive effect of trade openness (exports) on the Moroccan labour productivity.
The Regional Multinationals

Although many firms label themselves 'global', very few can back this up with truly global sales and operations. In The Regional Multinationals Alan Rugman examines first-hand data from multinationals and finds that most multinationals are strongly regional, with international operations in their home regions of North America, the US or Asia. Only a tiny proportion of the world's top 500 companies actually sell the same product and deliver the same services around the world. Rugman exposes the facts behind the popular myths of doing business globally, explores a variety of regional models and offers an authoritative agenda for future business strategy. The Regional Multinationals is the essential resource for all academics and students in International Business, Organization and Strategic Management, as well as those with an interest in finding out how multinationals really work in practice and how future strategy must respond.
Comparative study of colon and faeces microbial communities and activities in horses fed a high starch diet

Under current practices, athletic horses receive massive quantities of readily fermentable carbohydrates (RFC) in one meal. The overload of RFC non digested in the foregut enters the large intestine and can cause severe digestive diseases like colics, laminitis or enterotoxemia. It was shown in fistulated animals that these disturbances were connected to a pH decrease and an increase of lactic acid concentration in the colon, due to fermentative activities of the autochthonous microflora. In addition to modifications in the fermentation pattern, important changes in numbers of some bacterial populations in the colon have been reported: counts of cellulolytics decreased whereas that of Streptococci, Lactobacilli and lactate utilisers increased. It is not known if the same changes would affect the faeces. In other monogastric animals and in humans, it has been established that faeces can reflect, on a microbiological and biochemical point of view, the distal colon. Therefore, the objective of our work was to compare colon and faeces microbial ecosystems of horses fed a high starch diet, in order to allow future utilisation of faeces as a marker to study changes of the microbial balance in horses hindgut.
Effects of decontamination of eggs and γ—irradiation of provisions on alfalfa leafcutter bee (Megachile rotundata) larvae

SUMMARYMethods for axenic rearing of alfalfa leafcutter bee (Megachile rotundata) larvae were investigated. Gamma irradiation at a dose of 15 kGy prior to egg placement effectively sterilized provisions, and larval development on these provisions was not significantly different from larval development on untreated provisions, measured by time to defaecation, spinning of cocoons and prepupal weights. On a sterilized artificial diet, prepupae were significantly heavier and times to initial spinning and termination of cocoon construction were significantly longer than when larvae were reared on natural provisions. Surface treatment of eggs with buffer and 0.3% dry chlorine (sodium dichloro-s-triazine trione) decreased the incidence of micro-organisms on eggs by 11.1% and 56.4%, respectively. Treatment of eggs with 0.5% and 0.3% dry chlorine increased mortality by 51% and 27%, respectively, relative to eggs treated with buffer. When eggs were treated with 0.3% dry chlorine prior to placement on γ-irradiated p.