Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Network forms between small and medium sized companies in Slovakia: a perspective for growth and innovation

The field of small and medium sized companies (SMEs) networking has become very popular since 1990s among researches and practitioners. Compared with earlier decades, multilateral cooperation between SMEs has increased. Limited resources of SMEs and increasing international competition have forced small firms to search for new, flexible and effective forms of organization. Under the conditions of an increasing globalization of trade, factor flows, and finance, innovation and learning are regarded as central mechanism for maintaining the competitiveness of the firm. The innovation process has changed considerably in the past years. It is no longer the outstanding and independently acting entrepreneur or firm which is seen as the main driving forces. Instead, innovation is considered as an interactive, cumulative and path-dependent process. Innovation and learning occur in various kinds of networks and/or as some authors call variety of cooperative inter-organizational relationships. In the 1990s a rapidly growing number of firms were entering into series of alliances with the other organizations as part of their strategy to lower overhead costs, obtain new technologies, increase responsiveness to customers, enter new markets and in general, to enhance their flexibility. For SMEs any type of network becomes an essential issue to competition, to have an access to innovation and finally to sustain its growth maybe even survival. Even though networking among SMEs is a growing phenomenon within EU, particularly Slovakia, there has been very little empirical study of the factors that lead to the long term success of these networks. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the three main theories that have been taken to analyze alliances and networks: The resourcebased view, transaction cost economics and social network theories. Specifically, analysis looks at their ability to explain 1) the formation of inter-organizational relationships and 2) value creation in inter-organizational relationships. The paper focuses on the main concept of distinct theories, specific research questions and preliminary results. The results of the inter-organizational research show the different approaches of entrepreneurs to enter the network and highlight possible advantages and prerequisites of successful cooperation. Methodology: A qualitative methodology – case studies research was applied. The primary data were collected through a number of interviews, structured discussions, and workshops with the entrepreneurs. Secondary data were obtained the companies’ materials, reports, and internal documents. There are two potential approaches to cross-case analysis: a case survey approach and a case-comparison approach. Due to the fieldwork limitations (entrepreneurs spread in 2 regional districts) cross-case evidence is analyzed by applying case-comparison approach.
Influence of Roasting on Sensory, Antioxidant, Aromas, and Physicochemical Properties of Carob Pod Powder (Ceratonia siliqua L.)

The main objective of this research was to compare physicochemical parameters, antioxidant activity, lipid composition, and sensory analysis of initial and roasted carob pod powder (Ceratonia siliqua L.) obtained at different roasting temperatures. The roasted products became darker and the average moisture content, water activity, oil content, and sweetness values decreased at higher temperatures. Total polyphenol content and antioxidant activity increased with increasing roasted temperature. Oleic acid, linoleic acid, and palmitic acid were the main fatty acids present in carob oil. Results showed that the roasted carob pod powders are sweeter, have more caramel-like taste, and have more cacao-like aroma at lower roasting temperatures but have more astringent taste, coffee-like aroma, and roasted aroma at higher roasting temperatures.
Minutiae Fusion Based Framework for Thumbprint Identification of Identical Twins

Identical twins identification is a challenging task because they share the same DNA sequence. This research paper presents minutiae coordinates and orientation angles fusion based technique for thumbprint identification of identical twins. Six different thumbprint images of identical twins were taken at a fixed time interval using H3 T&A terminal. The minutiae coordinates and orientation angles of these thumbprints were fused to form a union set. The union set values were stored in the smartcard memory for further identification. The minutiae coordinates and orientation angles of a thumbprint of the person to be identified are computed and fused together for online identification. The fused minutiae are compared with the minutiae union set values stored in the smartcard memory for identity verification. The proposed method was tested on a self generated identical twin dataset and 50 identical twins of standard FVC04 and FVC06 datasets. We observed in experiments that the proposed method is accurately differentiating the identical twins of self generated and FVC datasets.
Investigation of Public Sector Efficiency within Selected European Regions

It is evident that public sector is one of significant factors affecting an economic and social situation in particular countries (regions), and therefore the measuring of public sector efficiency has received a more attention in recent years. The current situation of the world economy requires a proper and efficient use of public resources. The measuring of public sector efficiency is difficult and an understanding current level of public sector efficiency is a prerequisite to understanding what saving might be possible in the future. There are several approaches that can be used to identify both efficient and inefficient activities in the public sector. The article is focused on investigating the public sector efficiency within selected European regions on the base of data from international databases (World Bank, Eurostat, WEO database) in the years of 1994-2009. From the methodological point of view, there are used several approaches for measuring a public sector efficiency of European regions including simple methods (public sector performance (PSP) and public sector efficiency (PSE)) and mathematical method such as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The article outlines the existence of significant differences in the level of public sector efficiency within the selected European regions in time period. RESUMO É evidente que o sector public é um dos factores mais significativos que afectam a situação económica e social nos países (regiões), e por isso a medição da eficácia do sector público recebeu maior atenção nos últimos anos. A situação actual da economia mundial requer uma utilização eficiente dos recursos públicos. A medição da eficiência do sector público é difícil e a compreensão de um determinado nível da eficiência do sector público é um pré-requisito para entender que economia é possível realizar no futuro. ING. ZLATA VAĽOVSKÁ PhD, Faculty of Public Administration, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. Slovak Republic
USE , MANAGEMENT AND DOMESTICATION OF COLUMNAR CACTI IN SOUTH · CENTRAL MEXICO : A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Ethnohistorical and cthnobotanical information on columnar cactus species utilized and managed by peoples of the south Pacific slope in south-central Mexico is presented. This region comprises the highest diversity of ~;pecies of columnar cacti in the world, with 45 of the 70 Mexican species of Pachyccrceae and Cerceae, all of them being useful species. Although columnar cacti have been used by local people for thousands of years, no archaeological or historical records have been found on human manipulation of these plants in the past. At present, most of the columnar cactus species are only gathered from wild populations, but wild populations of 18 species are managed i'l situ and 12 species are cultivated. Quality and availability of useful products, their importance in human subsistence and the viability of manipulation of plants are all factors influencing the way of management of columnar cacti. The pattern of domestication ex sitll a:nd in situ acting simultaneously, observed in $tenocaells stellatlls is hypothesized to occur also in other columnar cactus species with relatively fasl growth and vegetative propagation, whereas a pattern of domestication ill situ acting alone is hypothesized to occur in giant columnar cactus species. Comparative biological studies of wild and manipulated populations could give information on trends and extent of changes under domestication and, then, to lead to a better understanding on the nature and antiquity of the process.
Interdecadal Variability in a Hybrid Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Sea Ice Model

Interdecadal climate variability in an idealized coupled ocean-atmosphere-sea-ice model is studied. The ocean component is a fully three-dimensional primitive equation model and the atmospheric component is a two-dimensional (2D) energy balance model of Budyko-Sellers-North type, while sea ice is represented by a 2D thermodynamic model. In a wide range of parameters the model climatology resembles certain aspects of observed climate. Two types of interdecadal variability are found. The first one is characterized by northward-propagating upper-ocean temperature anomalies in the northwestern part of the ocean basin and a westward-propagating, wavelike temperature pattern at depth. The other type has larger-scale temperature anomalies that propagate westward in both the upper and deep ocean, along the sea ice edge. Both types of oscillations have been found previously in similar models that do not include sea ice. Therefore, the oscillation mechanism does not depend on sea-ice feedbacks nor is it modified very much by the inclusion of sea ice. For some parameter values, the interdecadal oscillations are self-sustained, while for others they are damped. Stochastic-forcing experiments show that, in the latter case, significant interdecadal signals can still be identified in the time series of oceanic heat transport. The periods of these signals, however, do not closely match those identified in a stability analysis of the deterministic model when linearized about its steady state. The authors show that linearization around the actual climatology of the stochastically forced integrations provides a better match for some of the modes that were poorly explained when linearizing about the deterministic model's steady state. The main difference between the two basic states is in the distribution of climatological convective depth, which is affected strongly by intermittent atmospheric forcing.
Industrial Clustering, Innovation and Competitive Advantage in the Metropolitan Regions: Evidence from the Auto-parts Cluster within the Tehran Metropolitan Region

This paper explores the empirical evidence of the nature of intra-metropolitan supply linkages and industrial clustering and searches for the driving forces that enhances the learning processes and innovation capacities hence; contributing to competitive advantage within the Tehran metropolitan. The research points to accelerating growth in the automotive sector since the late 1980s and early 1990s which has been the driving force of the Tehran’s economy. This growth appears to be related to industrial clustering and systemic linkages with actors such as suppliers, subcontractors and so on. The analysis of empirical evidences from the sample industrial cluster indicates a considerable number of interesting findings from strong degrees of industrial clustering. However, there are some weak evidences of industrial clustering such as weak institutional environment in the cluster.
An integrated screening framework to analyze flexibility in engineering systems design

This paper presents ongoing development for a novel integrated screening framework for flexibility analysis considering multi-domain uncertainty sources and multi-criteria for designing complex engineering systems. The proposed methodology aims to address two main issues in the design process for flexibility: 1) the complexity of exploring exhaustively flexible design strategies under multiple uncertainty sources, and 2) the multiple and possibly conflicting criteria inherent to design decision-making. The proposed screening framework is applied to a real-world capital-intensive project in the oil and gas industry. Current results indicate that the screening model offers better performance than a full exhaustive search of the design space in terms of the number of evaluations and simulation runtime, while providing good design solutions in terms of lifecycle performance. The work provides insights on how to analyze flexibility in the conceptual design of complex systems, especially when computational resources are limited, and design needs to consider multiple decision-making criteria.
Oyster Mushroom Cultivation on Different Cellulosic Substrates

Four lignocellulosic substrates (sawdust, peat of coconut husk, narrow leaf cattails and bagasse) were used for Pleurotus ostreatus cultivation, and 3-6 flushes were obtained from these substrates. A bagasse substrate accelerated the mushroom growing processes. The mycelial completed colonization, primordium initiation and fruiting body formation were found within 28, 40 and 44 days, respectively. The sawdust gave the maximum mushroom yield (536.85 g per 1 kg substrate) and this yield was significantly different to those found from bagasse (360.84 g), peat of coconut husk (278.78 g) and narrow leaf cattails (112.10 g) at a confidence level of 95%. However, the highest percentages of biological efficiency was obtained in bagasse substrate even it showed lower mushroom yield than sawdust. Low percentages of biological efficiency were found in peat of coconut husk (56.76%) and narrow leaf cattails (44.67%). Even the highest percentage of biological efficiency was obtained from bagasse (103.56%) but this percentage was insignificant differences at a confidence level of 95% to those found in control (95.02%; sawdust). When the percentage of biological efficiency was taking into account the lignocellulosic substrate likes bagasse has shown great potential for use as a raw material instead of sawdust since this substrate provides an economically acceptable production alternative for P. ostreatus cultivation.
Effect of L-carnitine supplementation on drake semen quality

This study was conducted to determine the effect on semen quality traits of supplementing the diets of Iraqi drakes with L-carnitine. Forty eight male Iraqi ducks, 30 weeks old, were randomly allocated to four treatments with 12 drakes per treatment group, replicated three times, with four drakes per replicate. The treatment groups consisted of birds fed a diet free of L-carnitine (T1, control group); birds fed a diet containing 50 mg L-carnitine/kg diet (T2); birds fed a diet containing 100 mg L-carnitine/kg diet (T3); and birds fed a diet containing 150 mg L-carnitine/kg diet. The drakes were fed the experimental diets only during the experimental period, which lasted three months. The semen quality traits that were investigated were ejaculate volume, mass and individual motility of spermatozoa, spermatocrit, spermatozoa concentration, percentages of dead and abnormal spermatozoa and acrosomal abnormalities. Supplementing the diet of drakes with L-carnitine at the levels of 50 - 150 mg/kg diet significantly increased ejaculate volume, spermatocrit, mass and individual motility of spermatozoa, and concentration of spermatozoa, while percentages of dead and abnormal spermatozoa and acrosomal abnormalities were decreased. However, T4 (150 mg L-carnitine/kg diet) recorded the best results in relation to all semen quality traits included in this study. Dietary supplementation with L-carnitine improved the semen quality of local drakes; therefore L-carnitine can be used as an efficient feed additive to improve the reproductive performance of male ducks.
An Underwater Acoustic Routing protocol based on Hole Projecton

The directed routing protocol ends in failure when it faces a situation of the destination node with a very low velocity in a sparse ad hoc network so that none of nodes exist in its forwarding zone. Illuminated by BFDREAM and ZONER, the paper firstly proposes a novelty routing protocol that is fairly immune to forwarding failure through projecting the present source node on the boundaries of baffle holes of underwater acoustic networks in deep sea. Compared with DREAM and BFDREAM, the experimental results show our protocol achieves a great improvement in decreasing the propagation delay and reducing quantities of the non-effect information. So the new protocol may have a bright application prospect in deep sea acoustic networks.
The Lorenz manifold: Crochet and curvature

We present a crocheted model of an intriguing two-dimensional surface — known as the Lorenz manifold — which illustrates chaotic dynamics in the well-known Lorenz system. The crochet instructions are the result of specialized computer software developed by us to compute socalled stable and unstable manifolds. The implicitly defined Lorenz manifold is not only key to understanding chaotic dynamics, but also emerges as an inherently artistic object.
Resonant nonlinear optics in coherently prepared media: Full analytic solutions

We derive an analytic solution for pulsed frequency conversion based on electromagnetically induced transparency or maximum coherence in resonant atomic vapors. In particular, drive-field and coherence depletion are taken into account. The solutions are obtained with the help of a Hamiltonian approach, which in the adiabatic limit allows one to reduce the full set of Maxwell-Bloch equations to simple canonical equations of Hamiltonian mechanics for the field variables. Adiabatic integrals of motion can be obtained and general expressions for the spatiotemporal evolution of field intensities derived. Optimum conditions for maximum conversion efficiency are identified and the physical mechanism of nonlinear conversion in the limit of drive-field and coherence depletion discussed.
Photosynthetic variation and yield attributes of two mustard varieties against cadmium phytotoxicity

Abstract Excess cadmium accumulation in shoot decreases the photosynthetic attributes and the activity of carbonic anhydrase (CA; E.C. 4.2.1.1) thereby retarding plant growth metabolism, in a cultivar dependent manner. Two mustard (Brassica juncea) varieties were treated with increasing cadmium doses (0, 25, 50 or 100 mg CdCl2 kg−1 of soil) in the soil in a net house. The photosynthetic features, activity of CA, and the yield attributes were recorded in association with morphological characters. A clear-cut difference in these features was noted among the varieties, where Varuna excelled in its resistance to the cadmium toxicity with better growth and yield, at harvest.
Development of a Model for Detection and Estimation of Depth of Shallow Buried Non-Metallic Landmine at Microwave X-Band Frequency

Detection and estimation of depth of shallow buried landmines using microwave remote sensing is a complex and computationally intensive task. Despite a lot of research to correctly locate and identify the buried landmines, and to estimate its depth using microwave remote sensing data which is essential for demining with minimal risk, a lot of uncertainties still exist. Therefore in this paper, an extensive study using a ground based X-band scatterometer for detection of shallow buried landmine and estimation of its depth has been carried out. An experimental setup consisting of a ground based scatterometer operating in microwave X-band (10 GHz, 3 cm) has been used to generate backscatter data in a grid of 24×24 and a series of experiments under laboratory conditions conducted using dummy landmines (without explosives) buried to different depths up to 10 cm in dry smooth sand. It is difficult to detect the buried landmine by visual inspection of the raw data; therefore a novel approach by fusion of image processing techniques with electromagnetic (EM) analysis has been evolved for detection and estimation of depth of the landmine. The raw data generated through the experiments was processed through a series of image processing steps and a 226 Tiwari, Singh, and Arora region of interest segmented using Otsu and maximum entropy based thresholding methods for further processing. A detection figure test has been proposed at this stage to reduce false alarms. Genetic algorithm (GA) with an electromagnetic (EM) model fusion has been proposed to estimate the depth after segmenting a suspected region containing the mine. The main advantage of the proposed model is that it does not have any requirement of separate training and test data set to train the optimizer and validate the results. Analyses of the results indicate that it is possible to segment suspected region of interest containing the landmines in data obtained in microwave Xband using either of the two thresholding methods. The depth of buried landmines estimated using the proposed GA optimized EM model was also found to be in good agreement with the actual depth. The proposed analysis is expected to be extremely useful in future in detection and estimation of the depth of landmines using satellite data in microwave X-band.
Dietary modelling of nutrient densities: Effect and response in different growing phases on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, litter quality and leg health in turkey production.

An experiment was conducted to explore the time bound (different growth phases) effect of different dietary nutrient densities i.e., different energy and protein concentration while maintaining the ratio between the two, all with the same ideal amino acid profile, on litter quality and leg health (footpad dermatitis (FPD) and hock burn (HB)), when fed to growing turkeys. The effects of dietary nutrient modelling on growth performance parameters, water intake and excretion, dry matter (DMD), organic matter (OMD), crude protein (CPD) digestibility coefficients and apparent metabolisable energy (AME) were also examined, when fed to growing turkeys invarying growth phases. At twenty-eight days of age one hundred and seventy five male turkeys (BUT 8) were transferred to 35 floor pens, using stratified randomisation on body weight, 5 birds in a pen, all pens were equipped with plastic feed hoppers and drinkers. The experiment was a randomized block design consisting of 5 treatments (5 levels of CP and ME concentrations and 4 feeding/ growth phases). Each dietary treatment was replicated 7 times with 5 birds in each replicate. Feed and water were offered ad libitum throughout the experiment. Five dietary treatments, containing either 77, 85, 100, 110 or 120% of the crude protein (CP) and metabolisable energy (ME) content recommended by the breed standard. The whole experimental period of 16 weeks starting from 4 weeks of age was divided into 4 weeks standard growth phases: 4-8, 8-12, 12-16 and 16-20 weeks, finishing at 20 weeks of turkey’s age, according to commercial management guide for BUT 8 (Aviagen Turkeys Ltd.). Nutrient density had a positive and linear effect (P<0.001) on weight gain, feed efficiency and dry matter digestibility (DMD) whereas the effect of nutrient density on dietary protein digestibility (CPD) only approached significance (P=0.081). As might be expected increasing nutrient density had a negative and linear effect on feed (P<0.001) and water (P<0.01) intake and did not affect the ratio between these two parameters. Increasing nutrient density had a positive effect on litter quality (linear (P 0.05) of treatment on FPD. The results suggest that an increase in nutrient concentration can reduce the moisture content of the litter and so improve overall litter quality. However, the incidence of hock burn increased with the high nutrient density diet s, suggesting that factors other than the litter moisture alone may contribute the occurrence of leg health problems in turkey production.