Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GPU Accelerated Number Plate Localization in Crowded Situation

Number Plate Localization (NPL) has been widely used as part of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system. NPL method determines the accuracy of ANPR system. Although it is a mature research, the challenge stills persist especially in crowded situation where many vehicles present. Therefore, a method is proposed to localize number plate in crowded situation. The proposed NPL method uses vertical edge density to extract potential region of number plate then detect the number plate using combination of Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). The method employs GPU to deal with multiple number plate detection, to handle multi-scale detection window, and to perform real time detection. The test result shows good results, 0.9883 value of AUC (Area Under Curve), and 0.9362 of BAC (Balance Accuracy). Moreover, potential real time detection is foreseen because total process is executed in less than 50 ms. Errors are mainly caused by background that contain letters, non-standard number plate and highly covered number plate
Limit theorems for normalized nearly critical branching processes with immigration

Functional limit theorems are proved for a sequence of Galton{Watson processes with immigration, where the o®spring mean tends to its critical value 1 under weak conditions for the variances of o®spring and immigration processes. In the limit the- orems the norming factors depend on these variances.
A Hepcidin Inhibitor Mobilizes Iron for Incorporation Into Red Blood Cells in an Adenine-Induced Chronic Kidney Disease Model in Rats.

Abstract 2082 Background: Anemia is prevalent in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). A key feature of the anemia of CKD is limited iron availability for efficient erythropoiesis despite adequate body iron stores. It is now well established that excess levels of the iron regulatory hormone hepcidin in CKD are responsible for decreasing expression of the iron exporter ferroportin, thereby blocking iron absorption from the diet and iron release from body stores. Adenine treatment in rats has been proposed as an animal model of anemia of CKD with high hepcidin levels that mirrors the condition in patients. Methods: We developed a modified adenine-induced kidney disease model of anemia in rats by giving a diet supplemented with 0.75% adenine for 3 weeks followed by a normal diet for 3 weeks. We then tested whether the small molecule bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) inhibitor LDN-193189, which has previously been shown to lower hepcidin levels, was able to mobilize iron into the plasma and improve iron-restricted erythropoiesis in adenine-treated rats. Results: The modified adenine model had a higher survival rate than previously reported models, while maintaining irreversible renal failure and anemia. Adenine-treated rats had increased hepatic hepcidin mRNA, decreased serum iron, increased spleen iron content, low hemoglobin, and inappropriately low EPO levels relative to the degree of anemia. LDN-193189 lowered hepatic hepcidin mRNA and mobilized stored iron into plasma in adenine-treated rats. Moreover, the iron was efficiently incorporated into hemoglobin in reticulocytes. However, LDN-193189 alone did not prevent anemia progression in our model. Conclusions: Lowering hepcidin improved iron availability, but did not improve anemia in an adenine-induced kidney disease model in rats. Co-administration of hepcidin lowering agents with erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESAs) may be useful as a combination therapy to correct iron balance and thereby reduce the ESA dose needed to achieve target hemoglobin levels. Disclosures: Sun:FerruMax Pharmaceuticals Inc: Consultancy. Lin:Ferrumax Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties. Babitt:Ferrumax Pharmaceuticals, Inc: Equity Ownership.
Indicators of sustainable forest management: application and assessment

Implementing forest management options for the Life project ManFor C.BD. Description of the test areas . 40 Di Salvatore U. , Becagli C. , Bertini G. , Cantiani P., Chiavetta U. , Fabbio G. , Ferretti F. , Kobal M. , Kobler A. , Kovač M. , Kutnar L. , Sansone D. , Skudnik M. , Simončič P.
Distribution of Extracellular Enzymes in Soils: Spatial Heterogeneity and Determining Factors at Various Scales

Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 78:11–18 doi:10.2136/sssaj2013.04. 0155dgs Received 28 Apr. 2013 *Corresponding author (baldrian@biomed.cas.cz). © Soil Science Society of America, 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison WI 53711 USA All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Permission for printing and for reprinting the material contained herein has been obtained by the publisher. Distribution of Extracellular Enzymes in Soils: Spatial Heterogeneity and Determining Factors at Various Scales
Improving ICT Governance in Australian Companies

This paper begins with the Australian Standard for the Corporate Governance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) AS8015 (Standards Australia, 2005) and presents research findings that can be applied as recommendations to enhance the effective implementation of this Standard’s principles within an organisation. These recommendations relating to the principles outlined within the Standard concern such factors as, identifying and addressing issues surrounding the implementation of this Standard and the actions that could be undertaken to improve the effectiveness of ICT governance by sharply focusing upon the governance aspects of ICT within business, as opposed to the management aspect of ICT.
Communication and burden in dementia care

This paper provides an integrated discussion of the literature that addresses the effect of communication strategies on dementia care and caregiver burden. With the complexity and multiple symptoms associated with dementia, caregivers are exposed to increased burden which can affect their own health and wellbeing. Communication has been found to be a key to reducing burden and improving the quality of life for the person with dementia (PWD) and their caregiver. The literature review examines current and previous literature in order to acknowledge and synthesize the existing work done, and to identify areas for future research. The material was drawn from three databases; the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed and PsycINFO. The literature search was restricted to relevant studies published in English and available through electronic sources between 2000 and 2017. The search yielded 22 studies. Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria. These studies focused on the use of communication strategies within the context of caregiver burden in dementia care. The qualitative and quantitative studies addressed verbal and nonverbal techniques used to guide caregivers in their communication with PWD and to decrease caregiver burden. The results of the review illustrate the importance of using effective communication techniques for PWD. It shows that using specific strategies improves relationships between caregivers and PWD and effective communication techniques reduce caregiver burden. The importance and significance of these findings indicate the need for further research in the effects that communication have on dementia and caregiver burden.
Comparison of a Perpetual and PD Inventory Control System with Smith Predictor and Different Shipping Delays Using Bicriterial Optimization and SPEA2

Inventory optimization is critical in inventory control systems. The complexity of real-world inventory systems results in a challenging optimization problem, too complicated to solve by conventional mathematical programing methods. The aim of this work is to confront: a perpetual inventory system found in the literature and inventory system with PD control and Smith predictor proposed by the authors. To be precise, the two control systems for inventory management are analyzed with different shipping delays and compared. With regard to complexity of the proposed control system, we use a SPEA2 algorithm to solve optimization task for assumed scenario of the market demand. The objective is to minimize the inventory holding cost while avoiding shortages. A discrete-time, dynamic model of inventory system is assumed for the analysis. In order to compare the results of systems, Pareto fronts and signal responses are generated.
DETERMINATION OF IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF HYDROCOTYLE JAVANICA THUMB WHOLE PLANT EXTRACTS

Antioxidant activity of petroleum ether, benzene, ethyl acetate, methanol and ethanol extracts of Hydrcotyle javanica whole plant have tested using various antioxidant model systems viz., DPPH, hydroxyl, superoxide and ABTS. Methanol extract of H.javanica is found to possess highest DPPH, hydroxyl and ABTS radical cation scavenging activities. The superoxide radical scavenging activity of H. javanica, ethanol extracts records the highest. Like the antioxidant activity, reducing power of the extract increases with increase in concentration. This study indicates significant free radical scavenging potential of H. javanica whole plant which can be exploited for the treatment of various free radical mediated ailments.
Touring the Saturnian System

The Cassini mission to Saturn employs a Saturn orbiter and a Titan probe to conduct an intensive investigation of the Saturnian system. The orbiter flies a series of orbits, incorporating flybys of the Saturnian satellites, called the ‘satellite tour. ’ During the tour, the gravitational fields of the satellites (mainly Titan) are used to modify and control the orbit, targeting from one satellite flyby to the next. The tour trajectory must also be designed to maximize opportunities for a diverse set of science observations, subject to mission-imposed constraints. Tour design studies have been conducted for Cassini over a period of several years to identify trades and strategies for achieving these sometimes conflicting goals. Concepts, strategies, and techniques previously developed for the Galileo mission to Jupiter have been modified, and new ones have been developed, to meet the requirements of the Cassini mission. A sample tour is presented illustrating the application of tour design strategies developed for Cassini.
The history of ocean resources: modeling cod biomass using historical records

Managing the remnants of the ocean's resources is a critical issue worldwide, but evidence for what constitutes a healthy fish population remains controversial. Here, we use historical sources to understand ecosystem trends and establish a biomass estimate for a key marine species prior to the industrialization of fishing. Declining trajectories have been described for predatory fishes and complex coral reef systems globally, but few numerical estimates of past abundance exist. We combined historical research methods and population modeling to estimate the biomass of cod on Canada's Scotian Shelf in 1852. Mid 19th-century New England fishing logs offer geographically specific daily catch records, describing fleet activity on fishing grounds with negligible incentive to falsify records. Combined with ancillary fishery documents, these logs provide a solid, reliable basis for stock assessment. Based on these data we estimate a biomass for cod of 1.26 × 106 mt in 1852 – compared with less than 5 × 104 mt of .
The Geography of Venture Capital Contracts

We show that geographical elements and regional culture can play an essential role in contract design in addition to the influence of more “traditional” determinants such as information and agency problems or the nature of legal institutions. Across 1,800 financial contracts written between U.S. entrepreneurial companies and U.S. Venture Capital (VC) investors, we show that contracts include significantly fewer investor-friendly cash flow contingencies if the company is located in California or if the lead VC is more exposed to the California market. The regional differences in contract design can, to some degree, be explained by the level of concentration of local VC markets. We also show that when the geographical distance between a VC and a company is greater, contracts give high-powered incentives to entrepreneurs by including more investor-friendly cash flow contingencies. This latter finding supports the view that geographical proximity enhances monitoring and soft information. However, the “California effect” persists even after we control for distance and VC market concentration.
Ab initio x-ray absorption study of copper K-edge XANES spectra in Cu(II) compounds

This work reports a theoretical study of the x-ray absorption near-edge structure spectra at the Cu K edge in several Cu(II) complexes with N-coordinating ligands showing a square-planar arrangement around metal cation. It is shown that single-channel multiple-scattering calculations are not able to reproduce the experimental spectra. The comparison between experimental data and ab initio computations indicates the need of including the contribution of two electronic configurations (3d{sup 9} and 3d{sup 10}L) to account for a proper description of the final state during the photoabsorption process. The best agreement between theory and experiment is obtained by considering a relative weight of 68% and 32% for the two absorption channels 3d{sup 10}L and 3d{sup 9}, respectively.
Genetic Analysis of Biofortification of Micronutrient Breeding in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Rice is a staple food for millions of people and has great importance in food and nutri- tional security. Rice is the second most widely consumed in the world next to wheat. The poorest to the richest person in the world consumes rice in one or other form. New research on the importance of micronutrients, vitamins and proteins aims at biological and genetic enrichment. Vital nutrients that the farmer can grow indefinitely without any additional input to produce nutrient-packed rice grains in a sustainable way is the only feasible way of reaching the malnourished population in India. In the present study, an attempt has been made to improve the nutritional quality of rice.
A Study on Human Fall Detection Systems: Daily Activity Classification and Sensing Techniques

Fall detection for elderly is a major topic as far as assistive technologies are concerned. This is due to the high demand for the products and technologies related to fall detection with the ageing population around the globe. This paper gives a review of previous works on human fall detection devices and a preliminary results from a developing depth sensor based device. The three main approaches used in fall detection devices such as wearable based devices, ambient based devices and vision based devices are identified along with the sensors employed. The frameworks and algorithms applied in each of the approaches and their uniqueness is also illustrated. After studying the performance and the shortcoming of the available systems a future solution using depth sensor is also proposed with preliminary results.
Cardiac contractility modulation improves cardiac function in a rabbit model of chronic heart failure

Cardiac Contractility Modulation (CCM) is a novel device-based therapy for chronic heart failure. This study aimed to explore the effects of CCM on electrophysiological characteristics of heart failure. Rabbits were randomly divided into sham group (n=10), HF group (n=10) and CCM group (n=10). The rabbit chronic heart failure model was induced after 12 weeks aortic constriction. Then CCM was delivered to the anterior wall of left ventricle lasting six hours per day for 4 weeks. Changes in cardiac function and electrophysiological characteristics were monitored and SERCA2a expression was detected by quantitative real time qRT-PCR and Western blot analysis. Compared to sham group, HF group showed decreases in LVEF, LVFS, E/A ratio, VFT and increase in QTc and ERP, as well as decreased mRNA and protein levels of SERCA2a (P<0.05). CCM restored LVEF, LVFS, E/A ratio, LVESD, LVEDD, VFT, QTc and ERP, and SERCA2a expression levels in rabbits with heart failure to sham group. In conclusion, CCM benefits cardiac function and electrophysiological characteristics in rabbit model of chronic heart failure, perhaps due to the up regulation of SERCA2a expression.
Journal of Emerging Trends in Marketing and Management

The emergence of mobile devices, especially the tablet, has created chances and challenges for mobile commerce vendors across the continents, as they seek to increase their profits and optimize the users’ online shopping experience. This study examines how mobile devices affect mobile commerce with regards to tablet usage for online shopping in developed and developing nations. The intervention of mobile devices in mobile commerce should be aboveboard, so that it can be easily understood by both, customers and e -tailers. An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to validate the constructs while structural equation modelling was employed to test the hypotheses based on 550 respondents’ feedback. The findings show that the reputation of an e-tailer’s website is the determinant of trust to use a mobile tablet for online shopping while ease of use colligates with customer loyalty. Future research can concentrate on the impact of using a tablet for sales increase or how social media apps influence mobile commerce by using a tablet, with a focus on generation X and Y of developed and developing countries. This research impacts and extends the growing body of knowledge on usage of mobile devices. This study reveals the need for e-tailers to combine their in-house strategy with emerging technology and create a technology plan that targets consumer interest. Online vendors need to target the tablet users globally when optimizing their websites, for effective visibility and usability. This action plan will facilitate a cordial customer-e-tailer relationship. This study on mobile commerce in the context of tablet usage is paramount to the marketing practitioners and the scholars. This is a scanty research domain, but there is more publicity about the study on practitioner’s electronic and print media. Due to this limitation in academia, this study contributes to filling some research vacuum in mobile commerce.
Energy Consumption, Green-house Gases Emissions, Water Usage and Waste Practices: Evidence from Top Global 100 Firms in the Area of Sustainability

Sustainability is a new imperative in the business world. However, there is scant research on factors that drive sustainability at firm-level. Our study examines the effects of gender diversity on Board of Directors, CEO pay levels and firm's R&D intensity on sustainability. Based on data from Global Top100 Sustainable firms, our study shows that while gender diversity on Board of Directors and R&D intensity have positive correlation on sustainability, CEO pay level is uncorrelated to sustainability. Aggregate analyses in our study revealed a tenuous linkage between sustainability and firm-level determinants. We conclude with implications for managerial practice and future research.
Insight from simulations of single-well injection-withdrawal tracer tests on simple and complex fractures - eScholarship

LBNL-2487E Insight from Simulations of Single-Well Injection- Withdrawal Tracer Tests on Simple and Complex Fractures Chin-Fu Tsang 1,2 and Christine Doughty 1 Earth Sciences Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley, California 94720, USA Department of Earth Science and Engineering Imperial College London SW7 2AZ, UK June 2009
The Role of Expenditure Components in Determination of Import Demand: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

This study is aimed at in-depth empirical analysis of impact of final expenditure components on import demand in Pakistan. ARDL bound testing approach to cointegration is used to analyze the long run relationship of import demand, relative prices of imports and components of final expenditure like household consumption, investment, exports and government consumption expenditures. Empirical results show that there exists a long run relationship between import demand and the macro components of final expenditure and relative prices. Long run coefficients indicate that elasticity of import demand with respect to different macro components of final expenditure is different. The impact of the all expenditure components on import demand is positive and significant. The relative prices have negative but insignificant relationship with import demand in Pakistan. For the analysis of Short Run dynamics, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) has been used. The results show that all expenditure components have positive and significant impact on import demand in Pakistan while the effect of relative prices is also statistically insignificant in short run.
Does normal variation in birthweight confer susceptibility to health problems? A co-twin control study

Population-based twin data were used to study whether normal variation in birthweight confers disadvantage for a variety of health outcomes from birth through young adulthood. The sample consists of 5,864 identical and fraternal twins and includes 2,570 intact pairs. Variation in birthweight may be associated with an increased risk for epilepsy in males and with refractive disorders, chronic ear infections and intestinal problems in women. Two variants of the co-twin control design, based on identical twins only, were used to control for genetic and shared environmental effects that influence both birthweight and the health outcome. Results indicated that the prevalence of health outcomes was not greater among the lighter twin from birthweight discordant pairs. Furthermore, intra-pair differences in birthweight between members of pairs who were health-discordant were significant only for nearsightedness among the MZ males. Due to lack of statistical power these results should be interpreted with caution.
Bridging the gap between science and the stakeholder: the case of climate change research

This paper provides an overview of the EU-funded project ‘Modelling the Impact of Climate Extremes’ (MICE) and, specifically, the stakeholder collaboration and dissemination activities undertaken during the 3 year project. MICE was a pan-European end-to-end assessment of the potential impacts of climate change on a range of economic sectors important to the region. MICE actively encouraged the promotion of dialogue between the research and stakeholder communities in order to ensure that the research activities undertaken within the project were useful to the wider user community. Five workshops were held during the final 18 months of the project. In addition to these, a workshop report and a non-technical stakeholder-focussed brochure were produced to ensure that results do not remain solely within the academic community. The present paper provides a brief overview of the aims and objectives of the MICE project and describes the 5 workshops, including the rationale behind the structure of the final pan-European workshop, and selected results produced by the MICE Consortium. The main outcomes of the final workshop were (1) that the next 10 to 20 yr are important to stakeholders, whilst projections for the 2080s have limited relevance for decision-makers (2) the reliability of climate models needs to be increased and uncertainties decreased; (3) scientific results should be made accessible to the non-specialist, and stakeholders should be involved in relevant projects, preferably from the design stage; (4) there is the need to recognise and work to bridge the gap between what scientists can realistically achieve and what stakeholders require.