Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A New Method of Camera Calibration for Large Field Videometrics

A new method of camera calibration is proposed for high-precise videometrics in large field. The camera to be calibrated and the control points used in the new method are both close to the ground. In the condition that the control points and the optical center of the camera are approximately coplanar, the principle point position, focal length, lens distortion coefficients and the camera's position and attitude parameters are calibrated precisely by the method. Two calibration images are taken by the camera to be calibrated in measurement state and vertical rotation state respectively. If the vertical tangent lens distortion can be neglected or the movement field of the targets to be measured are close to the ground, only the measurement state calibration image is needed to calibrate the camera's parameters except the vertical tangent lens distortion coefficients. By the new method, to cali- brate the camera's intrinsic parameters in laboratory in advance is not needed. The new method breaks the localization for the traditional camera calibration methods in large field videometrics which require the control points must be distributed in space rationally.
Tesco’s adaptation to the Irish market

Examines the debate on internationalisation versus globalisation with specific reference to Tesco UK’s expansion into Ireland. First, Tesco UK and Tesco Ireland are introduced in their respective markets. Following this, an analysis of the relevant elements of the marketing mix is presented. The degree of consistency between the companies’ strategies and tactics is then examined with the help of the MIXMAP model. Finally, conclusions are drawn on the extent to which Tesco UK has had to adapt its marketing strategies to the sensitive Irish consumer.
Bowel ischaemia and cocaine consumption; case study and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND Amongst others, cocaine consumption has a detrimental effect in the vascular supply to the mesenteric area causing abdominal ischemic changes. Early recognition of these changes and adequate treatment are essential to avoid serious complications and possible death of the patient from sepsis. CASE REPORT In this case study, the subject is a 40-years-old gentleman presenting with acute abdominal pain due to multiple ischemic changes in both small bowel and sigmoid loops. The patient required emergency surgical intervention consisting of bowel resection and anastomosis. The pathologic analysis of the segment showed transmural necrosis and necrotizing phlebitis caused by the ingestion of drugs or toxic agents. The patient later confirmed the habitual consumption of cocaine. DISCUSSION The increase in cocaine consumption and other recreational toxins substructed from erythroyilon coca alkaloids amongst young people have generated a large number of admissions to Hospital Accident and Emergency Departments with patients complaining of acute abdominal pain. In many of these cases, surgical intervention is required and in some cases patients will sadly die without a proper diagnosis. Some of the most common effects of cocaine and its compounds includes; hollow viscus perforation, gastro-intestinal bleed, and other vascular problems such as enteritis and ischemic colitis. It appears clear that there is a great need for an advance history taking of these patients and their habit to cocaine and other drugs together with a urine test for drug screening. These together with a suspicion of a non- occlusive ischemic bowel caused by the effects of cocaine in young adults with no cardiac risk factors will guide clinicians and establish, and plan the correct treatment for these categories of patients.
Increased risk of ventricular tachycardia and cardiovascular death in patients with myocarditis during the long-term follow-up

Abstract The incidence of acute myocarditis complicated with ventricular tachycardia (VT) is unknown. This study aimed to investigate the association between myocarditis and the incidence of VT and mortality. We also aimed to determine the independent predictors that increased the VT risk in those patients. From 2000 to 2004, 13,250 patients with a history of myocarditis were identified from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The same number of individuals without heart disease with a matched sex and underlying diseases were selected as the control group. The long-term risks of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias and mortality in patients with a history of myocarditis were investigated by an adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression. After a mean follow-up of 10.4 ± 2.94 years (interquartile range: 12, 10.19–12), the myocarditis patients showed a higher incidence of new onset VT events compared with healthy controls (5.4% [519 per 100,000 person-year] in the myocarditis group vs, 0.47% [43 per 100,000 person-year] in the healthy controls; adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 16.1, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 12.4–20.9; P < .001). A higher incidence of cardiovascular death was noted in the myocarditis group than healthy controls (6.52% vs 3.18%; HR: 2.42, 95% CI: 2.14–2.73; P < .001) after adjusting for the multivariate confounders including sex, age, underlying comorbidities, and medications. The results of this study suggested that there was higher incidence of life-threatening VT and mortality during the very long-term follow-up in patients with a history of myocarditis. Future work should focus on an in-depth risk stratification of VT in myocarditis patients.
Cross-Cultural Sensitivities in Tourism: Potentials for Conflict and Understanding

Abstract Growth in the tourism industry internationally has imposed dealings between people from different cultures. As culture relates to norms, values and customs of people, it generates behavioral differentiation. This results in difference in expectations during the service encounters as customers, employees or suppliers. Tourism industry and other sectors of the service industry are faced with challenges of cross-cultural service encounters and continuously need to assess the service performance against the expectation of the customers, employees and suppliers from a diverse background. Such encounters might become easier to deal with if individuals are brought up in a home environment which encourages learning about others and providing service to others. This paper highlights the selected researches on cross-cultural sensitivities and discusses its managerial implications in the tourism industry from service perspective. The study concludes with stating some current issues and suggesting a way forward.
Genetics and Proteomics of Aeromonas salmonicida Lipopolysaccharide Core Biosynthesis

ABSTRACT Comparison between the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) core structures of Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida A450 and Aeromonas hydrophila AH-3 shows great similarity in the inner LPS core and part of the outer LPS core but some differences in the distal part of the outer LPS core (residues ld-Hep, d-Gal, and d-GalNAc). The three genomic regions encoding LPS core biosynthetic genes in A. salmonicida A450, of which regions 2 and 3 have genes identical to those of A. hydrophila AH-3, were fully sequenced. A. salmonicida A450 region 1 showed seven genes: three identical to those of A. hydrophila AH-3, three similar but not identical to those of A. hydrophila AH-3, and one without any homology to any well-characterized gene. A. salmonicida A450 mutants with alterations in the genes that were not identical to those of A. hydrophila AH-3 were constructed, and their LPS core structures were fully elucidated. At the same time, all the A. salmonicida A450 genes identical to those of A. hydrophila AH-3 were used to complement the previously obtained A. hydrophila AH-3 mutants for each of these genes. Combining the gene sequence and complementation test data with the structural data and phenotypic characterization of the mutant LPSs enabled a presumptive assignment of all LPS core biosynthesis gene functions in A. salmonicida A450. Furthermore, hybridization studies with internal probes for the A. salmonicida-specific genes using different A. salmonicida strains (strains of different subspecies or atypical strains) showed a unique or prevalent LPS core type, which is the one fully characterized for A. salmonicida A450.
Switching Costs as a Moderator of Service Satisfaction Processes in Thailand

SUMMARY Satisfaction is a well established outcome of a successful service encounter, and increasingly satisfaction is being linked to perhaps the most important construct in marketing-behavioral loyalty. In this paper satisfaction as the dependent variable is regressed on technical quality and functional quality, as independent variables. However, the study moves beyond the modeling the pure antecedents of satisfaction to a contingency model of satisfaction evaluation where psychological switching costs is employed as a moderator. The results show that switching costs have a strong impact on the relationship between technical and functional quality, and satisfaction, across all four service industries studied in Thailand. In other words, the impact of technical and functional quality varies under different contingency conditions.
Corporate branding in the new economy

This article offers the “brand web” model as a conceptual framework for the creation and ongoing analysis of corporate brands and brand relationships. The framework is particularly relevant for new economy ventures that result from alliances. In deploying the brand web model, marketers are asked to consider: the power relationship between the corporate brands; their corporate identities and brand values; the goals of each brand; and the relative strategies pursued to achieve these goals. These questions are posed within the context of the semiotic model of corporate identity.
A sensory role for the cruciate ligaments.

Morphologic, physiologic, and clinical evidence for the sensory role of the cruciate ligaments is reviewed. The cruciate ligaments accommodate morphologically different sensory nerve endings (Ruffini endings, Pacinian corpuscles, Golgi tendon organlike endings, and free nerve endings) with different capabilities of providing the central nervous system with information not only about noxious and chemical events but also about characteristics of movements and position-related stretches of these ligaments. A survey of available data reveals that low threshold joint-ligament receptor (i.e., mechanoreceptor) afferents evoke only weak and rare effects in skeletomotor neurons (alpha-motor neurons), while they frequently and powerfully influence fusimotor neurons (gamma-motor neurons). The effects on the gamma-muscle-spindle system in the muscles around the knee are so potent that even stretches of the cruciate ligaments at relatively moderate loads (not noxious) may induce major changes in responses of the muscle spindle afferents. As the activity in the primary muscle spindle afferents modifies the stiffness in the muscles, the cruciate ligament receptors, via the gamma-muscle-spindle system, may participate in the regulation and preprogramming of the muscular stiffness around the knee joint and thereby of the knee joint stiffness. Thus, the sensory system of the cruciate ligaments is able to significantly contribute to the functional stability of the knee joint.
Open-Ended Learning of Skills in Robots : Insights from Looking at the Brain

The capacity to learn an increasing number of flexible sensorimotor skills in an open-ended autonomous fashion is one of the most remarkable features of human intelligence. How can we design robot controllers that exhibit the same capability? We start from the idea that to accomplish this objective one needs to design a complex architecture formed by multiple components, rather than single algorithms. The decisions at the high-level are critical for the specification of the single components and their interplay, and hence for the overall success of the system. Here we look at the brain architecture and functioning possibly underlying open-ended development in humans and claim that it suggests two possible principles that can be exploited to build open-ended learning robots: (a) The sensorimotor hierarchy underlying motor behaviour should have three specific levels of organisation rather than a continuously graded granularity; (b) Intrinsic motivations should guide the formation of specific goals, and regulate the skill learning processes pivoting on them, rather than guiding learning processes at fine spatial and temporal scales. Here we draw from the biology to support these principles and present our past and current work implementing and testing their utility for open-ended learning robots.
Phosphorylation of α‐tubulin by protein kinase C stimulates microtubule dynamics in human breast cells

Protein kinase C (PKC) engenders motility through phosphorylation of α‐tubulin at Ser‐165 in nontransformed MCF‐10A cells. Live cell imaging explored the impact of PKC‐mediated phosphorylation on microtubule (MT) dynamics. MTs fluorescently labeled with GFP‐α‐tubulin were treated with diacylglycerol (DAG)‐lactone (a membrane‐permeable PKC activator), or cotransfected with a pseudophosphorylated S165D‐α6‐tubulin mutant. Each condition increased the dynamicity of MTs by stimulating the rate and duration of the growth phase and decreasing the frequency of catastrophe. In MDA‐MB‐231 metastatic breast cells where the intrinsic PKC activity is high, these MT growth parameters were also high but could be suppressed by expression of phosphorylation‐resistant S165N‐α6‐tubulin or by treatment with a pan‐PKC inhibitor (bis‐indoleylmaleimide). Subcellular fractionation and immunofluorescence of MCF‐10A cells showed that phosphorylation (via DAG‐lactone) or pseudophosphorylation of α6‐tubulin increased its partitioning into MTs as compared to controls, and produced longer, more stable MTs. Following expression of the plus‐end binding protein GFP‐EB1, DAG‐lactone accelerated the formation and increased the number of nascent MTs. Expression of S165D‐α6‐tubulin promoted Rac1 activation and Rac1‐dependent cell motility. These findings call attention to PKC‐mediated phosphorylation of α‐tubulin as a novel mechanism for controlling the dynamics of MTs that result in cell movement. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Prevalence of low back pain among rice farmers in a rural community in Thailand.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of low back pain (LBP) among rice farmers in a rural community in Phitsanulok, Thailand. MATERIAL AND METHOD A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 283 rice farmers in Wangnamkhu subdistrict, Muang district, Phitsanulok province, a rural community in Lower Northern Thailand. Face-to-face interviews with a structured closed-end questionnaire were performed to collect information on the presence of LBP in lifetime, within the last 12 months prior to and at the time of the present study. RESULTS The lifetime, 1-year (12-month) and point prevalence rates of LBP were 77%, 56% and 49%, respectively. No relationship between age and LBP was found. However women (61%) had significantly greater 1-year prevalence than men (51%). Ninety-five percent of LBP rice farmers were chronic (experiencing pain longer than 12 weeks) with a mean duration of 292 weeks (5.6 years). CONCLUSION The prevalence of LBP among Thai rice farmers is high. Further research should investigate risk factors among this group of the population to design appropriate preventive measures.
The Role of Privacy in the Adoption of Location-Based Services

Abstract Businesses are paying increasing attention to engaging mobile phones users through location-based services (LBS). LBS on mobile phones presents a tremendous opportunity for businesses to market their products and services. However, using LBS may pose privacy concerns for consumers. An understanding of what facilitates consumers to adopt LBS on their mobile phones and how privacy concerns may inhibit their adoption would help marketers promote LBS services more effectively. A research model was developed based on the technology acceptance model. We augmented the model with privacy concerns and emotional reactions to LBS. Specifically, we investigated whether and how perceived usefulness, ease of use, affective values, and privacy concerns influence consumers' behavioral intentions to adopt LBS and to spread positive word-of-mouth about LBS. Based on data collected from an online survey of 176 potential LBS adopters, we tested the research model using structural equation modeling. The results suggest that perceived usefulness, affective values, and privacy concerns have significant impacts on LBS adoption intentions, whereas only perceived usefulness and affective values influenced the intentions to spread positive word-of-mouth. Practical and theoretical contributions are discussed.
A produção de cafés especiais no Brasil e a emergência de novos padrões de competitividade

The deregulation of the coffee market in the 1990 s, marked with the end of the Brazilian Coffee Institute, and the fall in the prices, initiated an institutional change in the coffee sector, that allied with the new consumption pattern, reinforced the formation of the specialty coffee segment. Considering the economic environment of crisis, producers, especially the small ones, found in the production of specialty coffees a competitive alternative to aggregate value that was fundamental for the technological development and the construction of a new institutional design. Relating important attributes like: sustainable production, superior quality, and solidary commerce, these coffees can achieve premium prices in the international market. The discriminating strategy used in this sector, relied on the support of institutions that emerged from this new market branch, and from institutions that where already operating in the traditional coffee activity, know focusing on strategies for the development of quality coffees. The conceptual reference used in the study, rotated toward competitiveness aspects that overcome the theory of endowment factors.
Corporate Governance Issues in Executive Compensation: The Indian Experience (2008–2012)

While the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement had the larger agenda of protesting against the influence of corporations in policy making and governance, one of its focal points was the growing disparity in the distribution of wealth and income across the world. The spectacular collapse of giants in the world of banking and finance between 2007 and 2009 revived the focused attention on the unduly high executive compensation paid by these organisations. The central issue in the compensation debate is what ought to be and what are in practice the determinants of such compensation. This paper explores these issues in the Indian context with special reference to the role of corporate performance, corporate ownership, and corporate governance in optimising CEO compensation in keeping with the shareholders’ interests. The study is based on published compensation data (both yearly absolutes and year-on-year changes) relating to the 5-year period 2007–2012 for the top 102 companies in the country.
Mixed features of depression: why DSM-5 is wrong (and so was DSM-IV)

Summary The DSM system has never acknowledged a central position for mixed states; thus, mixed depressions have been almost completely neglected for decades. Now, DSM-5 is proposing diagnostic criteria for depression with mixed features that will lead to more misdiagnosis and inadequate treatment of this syndrome. Different criteria, based on empirically stronger evidence than exists for the DSM-5 criteria, should be adopted.
New technology-based firms created in Spain between the years 2000 and 2010: profile of their entrepreneurs and importance of the public support in their development

This paper attempts to provide some new insights about the new technology-based firms (NTBF) created in Spain, analyzing their geographic and sectoral distribution, size, financial structure, intellectual property rights, participation in R&D pro- grams and the profile of their entrepreneurs. It carries out a descriptive analysis of the firms which were granted a Neotec aid from the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) between the years 2000 and 2010. It also examines the profile of the technology entrepreneurs who created spin-off in Spain in the last decade.
Transaction Cost Theory: Inferences from Clinical Field Research on Downstream Vertical Integration

A bulk of the marketing research on distribution channel design attempts to resolve the question of when a direct company-owned sales operation would be preferred to an indirect independent distributor operation. The widely accepted theoretical rationale is provided by transaction-cost theory which indicates that the total costs of going-to-market, inclusive of distribution as well as its administration, is likely to be lower for the direct option when the sales transactions require investments in unique assets for effectively serving the end customer. Examples of unique assets are account-specific sales teams and account dedicated repair and maintenance facilities. Conversely, transaction-cost theory indicates that an indirect option would be the more efficient one for sales transactions that require investments only in nonunique assets, such as an inventory of standard parts. Since its formulation in 1975, the transaction-cost framework has been empirically confirmed in a variety of marketing channel se.
Association of Carotid Plaque Echogenicity with Recurrence of Ischemic Stroke

Background: Atherosclerosis is related to various cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events like cerebral infarction. Recurrence of ischemic stroke is specifically related to atherosclerotic load as determined by the presence of carotid atheromatous plaques and its echogenicity. Aim: This study was to evaluate the association of recurrence of stroke with echogenic characteristics of carotid plaque in ischemic stroke patients. Materials and Methods: Carotid sonography using high-resolution 7.5 MHz along with gray-scale technique was done in each ischemic stroke patient to find the occurrence of plaque and its echogenicity according to Mannheim Carotid Intima-Media Thickness Consensus (2004-2006). Followup of patient done to know the recurrence of stroke during 6-month duration and its association with plaque echogenicity. Results: A significant association found between the presence of plaque and known cerebrovascular risk factors. Also significant association found between recurrence of stroke and echolucent character of carotid plaque in bivariate analysis (P = 0.0028). Conclusions: Recurrence of stroke is related to advanced stage of atherosclerosis that is specified by carotid plaque and its characteristics. It will help us to identify groups of patients at different risk for stroke and planning better strategies to prevent such events.
Too much of a good thing? Exploring the inverted-U relationship between self-control and happiness.

OBJECTIVE Can having too much self-control make people unhappy? Researchers have increasingly questioned the unilateral goodness of self-control and proposed that it is beneficial only up to a certain point, after which it becomes detrimental. The little empirical research on the issue shows mixed results. Hence, we tested whether a curvilinear relationship between self-control and subjective well-being exists. METHOD We used multiple metrics (questionnaires, behavioral ratings), sources (self-report, other-report), and methods (cross-sectional measurement, dayreconstruction method, experience sampling method) across six studies (Ntotal = 5,318). RESULTS We found that self-control positively predicted subjective well-being (cognitive and affective), but there was little evidence for an inverted U-shaped curve. The results held after statistically controlling for demographics and other psychological confounds. CONCLUSION Our main finding is that self-control enhances subjective well-being with little to no apparent downside of too much self-control.