Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Parts of competitive intelligence: competitor intelligence

Having written columns for this journal for over two years now, the abundance of topics related to competitive intelligence (CI) is a clear sign that CI is evolving continuously. Also in South Africa, CI has noticeably evolved over the past decade. It has become part of business language and one can even venture to say that there are companies in South Africa that are maintaining a high level of CI maturity.
The sensura neglecta in the pigeon: A scanning electron and light microscope study

Both scanning electron and light microscopy have been used to observe the tiny sensura neglecta which is located in the inferior utricular sinus of the vestibular labyrinth in the pigeon. The following new observations were made. The end organ, which occupies one‐third of the floor of the inferior utricular sinus, is ovoid, measuring 200 μm in length × 80 μm in width and 30 μm in height. The neuroepithelium of the neglecta is uniformly innervated by the neglectar nerve which contains about 60 to 90 myelinated nerve fibers that fasciculate from the posterior ampullary nerve. The fiber spectrum is unimodal with a mode diameter of 1–2 μm. From 150 to 200 Type I and Type II hair cells are found on the surface of the neglecta. The surface features of the hair cells, i.e., the pipe organ patterns of the stereocilia are identical to that of the other vestibular sensory regions. No hair cells are found on the sides of the neglecta and all hair cells project their tufts upward from the top surface. The sensory region of the neglecta is covered by a gelatinous membrane. In no instance are statoconia observed on this covering. The non‐sensory epithelium contiguous to the sensura neglecta is comprised only of “light cells” (Dohlman, '67).
Safety and Immunogenicity of Varicella‐Zoster Virus Vaccine in Pediatric Liver and Intestine Transplant Recipients

Primary varicella‐zoster virus (VZV) infections following organ transplantation may cause significant morbidity. We examined the safety and immunogenicity of Varivax® after transplantation as a potential prophylactic tool. Pediatric liver and intestine transplant recipients without history of chickenpox received one dose of Varivax®. VZV humoral and cellular immunity were assessed before and ≥12 weeks after vaccination. Adverse events (AE) and management of exposure to wild type VZV were monitored. Sixteen VZV‐naïve subjects, 13–76 months of age, at 257–2045 days after transplantation were immunized. Five children developed mild local AE of short duration. Four subjects developed fever and four developed non‐injection site rashes, three of whom received acyclovir. Liver enzymes did not increase during the month after vaccination. Eighty‐seven percent and 86% of children developed humoral and cellular immunity, respectively. There were five reported exposures to varicella in four children, none of which resulted in chickenpox. One subject received VZV‐immunoglobulin and another subject with liver enzyme elevations after exposure received acyclovir; all remained asymptomatic. Varivax® was safe and immunogenic in pediatric liver and intestine transplant recipients. Larger studies are needed to establish the efficacy and role of varicella vaccination after transplantation.
Analysis of a SIRS model with self-protection

An improved SIRS model combined with awareness of self-protection based on the existing model with nonlinear incidence according to the fact that the network nodes would take protective measures under virus attack which changed the structure of network was proposed; The asymptotic stability of system under the protective measures was analyzed by Liapunov stability theory; How the protective measures influenced on the spread of virus on uniform network is showed through the compared simulation. By analyzing the improved SIRS models we have obtained that under the non-disease state, self-protection plays less of a role;To the opposite, the self-protection play a big part in epidemic spreading. The final number of infections will be reduced by self-protection under the epidemic state.
A Brief Analysis of Opportunities and Challenges for Accounting Personnel in the Big Data Era

This paper, mainly from the background of big data, the conception and characteristics of big data, combined with the reformed direction of financial information system in the era of big data, puts forward the strategic significance of accounting personnel’s positioning transition and functional promotion, and emphasizes the following three research directions, that is, Great data of financial data, accounting standardization and the wisdom of the investment decision. Finally, this paper conclude that the solution of assisting businesses to take advantage of the financial management of big data is a worth pondering question. Meanwhile, financial officers should keep with the times to enhance to help companies maximize value through their professional skills, integrated management capacity and the security of data storage and analysis. Key words—Big data; Accounting personnel; Opportunities; Challenges In China, the accounting computerization has gained popularity in recent years. Most enterprises have got rid of the tedious manual bookkeeping and stepped into the informatization palace. Big data era and financial informatization will be full of new life. A lot of work having difficulty in information collection, processing and analysis, such as enterprises’ investment decisions and comprehensive budget management, etc. will no longer be difficult problems; the financial information system will better help enterprises realize management promotion in enterprise investment decisions, accounting management specification, comprehensive budget and cost reduction, etc.
String Stability Analysis for Heterogeneous Vehicle Strings

The spacing errors of a string stable, homogeneous vehicle string attenuate uniformly down the vehicle chain. This result is useful for implementing vehicle formation control because it provides a guideline for the proper intervehicle spacing. In the heterogeneous case, the differing dynamics of the vehicles means the spacing errors do not attenuate or amplify uniformly down the vehicle chain, regardless of whether the formation is string stable or not. Questions arise regarding how heterogeneous string stability should be defined, and what should the proper intervehicle spacing be in order to guarantee nominal safety. In this paper, heterogeneous vehicle strings under simple decentralized control laws with the constant spacing control policy are analyzed. A definition for heterogeneous string stability is proposed. The necessary and sufficient conditions for heterogeneous string stability are given for the constant spacing leader-predecessor following control strategy. The scalability of the control scheme is verified by analyzing the worst case disturbance to error gain. It is shown that string stability can be achieved for heterogeneous vehicle strings of arbitrary length and arbitrary vehicle type ordering.
Suicidal Fantasies in Normal Children

This study of a randomly selected sample of 101 schoolchildren, who had no history of previous psychiatric symptomatology, showed that approximately 12% of the children had suicidal impulses. Verbatim statements of the children about their suicidal tendencies are presented. Case vignettes illustrate the common occurrence of parental depression and suicidal behavior and the child's identification with these depressed parents. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
A solution to control the dynamic behaviour of a pneumatic quadruped robot

Describes a control/command architecture developed for the authors' quadruped robot RALPHY (French acronym for legged robot with pneumatic actuators). Dynamical and real time aspects as well as theoretical and practical approaches have been taken into account. In order to hierarchize and distribute as far as possible the different tasks to be realized, the robot dynamic model has been decomposed in two parts. A "coordinator level" controls the platform stability by means of leg to platform interaction model. In a dynamic situation, this stability is ensured by a "center of mass acceleration control" and a "force distribution control". A "leg level" deals with the control problem of each leg. The authors propose an adaptive computed torque type controller which takes into account nonlinearities due both to the dynamic model and to the pneumatic system. Finally, the authors develop the connection between these two levels, proposing a solution to deal with uneven terrains.
A hidden Markov model fingerprint matching approach

Fingerprint identification system is mainly consisted of fingerprint achieving, fingerprint classification and fingerprint matching. Fingerprint matching is the key to the system and effects on the precision and efficiency of the whole system directly. Fingerprints are matched mainly based on their fingerprint texture pattern, which can be described with the orientation field of fingerprints. A fingerprint, which has the different orientation angle structure in different local area of the fingerprint and has a texture pattern correlation among the neighboring local areas of the fingerprint, can be viewed as a Markov stochastic field. A novel method of fingerprint matching, which is based on embedded hidden Markov model (HMM) that is used for modeling the fingerprint's orientation field, is described in this paper. The accurate and robust fingerprint matching can be achieved by matching embedded hidden Markov model parameters which were built after the processing of extracting features from a fingerprint, forming the samples of observation vectors and training the embedded hidden Markov model parameters.
Determined Sun-Seekers and Others–Travel Motives, Holiday Type, and Holiday Behavior Among Norwegian Charter Tourists

ABSTRACT In a comprehensive survey (N = 1,222) of Norwegian charter tourists, the relationships between tourists' motives for traveling, their definition of holiday type, and their behavior are examined among two different groups of tourists. The first group, the “Decision Makers,” actually made the travel decisions themselves (71%), while the second group (“Non-Decision Makers”) were subject to random factors or to other people's decisions (29%). A majority (80%) identify themselves as going on a “Sun-beach” trip, while the rest (20%) identify themselves as going on a “Round-trip,” “Big city visit,” “Alpine-tour,” or “Cruise,” all of which are subsumed under the name “Other tourists. ” Some differences are found between “decision makers” and “non-decision makers”; most path coefficients are slightly larger and more variance is explained for the “decision makers. ” Results indicate that relatively simple motive scales are useful for understanding central distinctions in the demand structure of the Norwegian holiday charter market.
Seasonal Variations in the Contributions of Different Bacterial Groups to the Uptake of Low-Molecular-Weight Compounds in Northwestern Mediterranean Coastal Waters

ABSTRACT We analyzed the contributions of different heterotrophic bacterial groups to the uptake of several low-molecular weight compounds during a seasonal cycle on the northwestern Mediterranean coast (Blanes Bay Microbial Observatory). The bacterial assemblage structure had been shown to change substantially year-round for this site, but whether changes in the activities of the different bacterial groups also occurred on the seasonal scale was unknown. Microautoradiography combined with catalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization was used to analyze the patterns of glucose, amino acid, and ATP uptake by different bacterial groups. Gammaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were not very active in the uptake of glucose at any time of the year (<10% of cells were active) compared to Alphaproteobacteria (generally >20% of cells were active). Dissolved free amino acids were taken up considerably by Alphaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria but not by Bacteroidetes. Relatively high percentages of cells of the three broad phylogenetic groups actively took up ATP, which could be related to the important phosphorous limitation of bacterial production during most of the year in Blanes Bay. The contribution of SAR11 to the uptake of the monomers was variable year-round, generally with fewer than 30% of the cells being active. By contrast, Roseobacter were highly overrepresented in the uptake of all the substrates throughout all the year, with more than 50% of cells being active in all the samples and for all substrates. Our results suggest that substantial changes in the activity of some phylogenetic groups of bacteria occur throughout the year.
Impact of Cash Flow Coverage, Debt Service & Current Ratio on Capital Structure Decisions: Empirical Evidence from the Indian Corporate Sector

This empirical study examines the capital structure decisions of developing countries through a case study of Indian corporate sector by classifying the capital structure of 298 out of top 500 private sector manufacturing firms selected on the basis of sales turnover for the year 2004-2005 which covers a time span of eleven years commencing from 1995-96 to 2005-06 by cash flow coverage ratio, debt service ratio and current ratio. The study reveals that larger number of companies is distributed, for all the variables under study, in 0-100 percent capital structure range during 1995-96 (55 to 55.93 percent) and 2005-06 (62.68 to 63.29 percent), respectively. It is found that lesser number of companies is distributed, for all the variables under study, in 200-300 percent and more than 300 percent capital structure ranges during 1995-96 (3.93 to 4.06 percent each) and 2005-06 (7.32 to 7.39 percent and 3.48 to 3.52 percent), respectively. Overall, there is a shifting of companies from higher capital structure ranges towards lower capital structure ranges during the study period. Cash flow coverage ratio, debt-service ratio and current ratio are showing negative relationship with capital structure, implying less use of debt when these variables attain a higher value during 1995-96 and 2005-06, respectively.
Topical Structure in Long Informal Documents

This dissertation describes a research project concerned with establishing the topical structure of long informal documents. In this research, we place special emphasis on literary data, but also work with speech transcripts and several other types of data. It has long been acknowledged that discourse is more than a sequence of sentences but, for the purposes of many Natural Language Processing tasks, it is often modelled exactly in that way. In this dissertation, we propose a practical approach to modelling discourse structure, with an emphasis on it being computationally feasible and easily applicable. Instead of following one of the many linguistic theories of discourse structure, we attempt to model the structure of a document as a tree of topical segments. Each segment encapsulates a span that concentrates on a particular topic at a certain level of granularity. Each span can be further sub-segmented based on finer fluctuations of topic. The lowest (most refined) level of segmentation is individual paragraphs. In our model, each topical segment is described by a segment centre – a sentence or a paragraph that best captures the contents of the segment. In this manner, the segmenter effectively builds an extractive hierarchical outline of the document. In order to achieve these goals, we use the framework of factor graphs and modify a recent clustering algorithm, Affinity Propagation, to perform hierarchical segmentation instead of clustering. While it is far from being a solved problem, topical text segmentation is not uncharted territory. The methods developed so far, however, perform least well where they are most needed: on documents that lack rigid formal structure, such as speech transcripts, personal correspondence or literature. The model described in this dissertation is geared towards dealing with just such types of documents. In order to study how people create similar models of literary data, we built two corpora of topical segmentations, one flat and one hierarchical. Each document in these corpora is annotated for topical structure by 3-6 people. The corpora, the model of hierarchical segmentation and software for segmentation are the main contributions of this work.
Design of multiple classifier systems based on evidential neural network

To make full use of the data information and improve the classification performance, a new evidential neural network classifier is proposed and a novel implementation of multiple classifier systems based on the new evidential neural network classifier is presented in this paper. The ambiguous data contained in the training data is considered as a new class — compound class and the training data is reconstructed into a new data set with compound classes. The evidential neural network member classifiers are trained using the new data set with compound classes, and the classification output is modeled with the belief function. We use of a variety of fusion rules in evidence theory to combine the member classifiers. According to the experimental results on the artificial data sets and some UCI data sets, the new multiple classifier systems can effectively improve the classification accuracy compared with some other existing ways to implement multiple classifier systems.
Implementing routine outcome monitoring in clinical practice: Benefits, challenges, and solutions

Abstract This article reviews the benefits, obstacles, and challenges that can hinder (and have hindered) implementation of routine outcome monitoring in clinical practice. Recommendations for future routine outcome assessment efforts are also provided. Spanning three generations, as well as multiple developed tools and approaches, the four authors of this article have spent much of their careers working to address these issues and attempt to consolidate this learning and experience briefly here. Potential “elephants in the room” are brought into the discussion wherever relevant, rather than leaving them to obstruct silently the field's efforts. Some of these topics have been largely ignored, yet must be addressed if we are to fulfill our promise of integrating science and practice. This article is an attempt to identify these important issues and start an honest and open dialogue.
The community model of content management: A case study of the music industry

Peer-to-peer architectures for sharing pieces of music illustrate how quickly consumers adopt novel structures - as long as they provide clear incentives. The services MP3.com, Napster, and gnutella are alternatives to the classical architecture of the value chain in which the music industry had a prominent role. We present a community model for content management and analyze system architectures, value chains, the relation between content and community management, and the trend towards peer-to-peer architectures. We argue that the traditional content is being increasingly embedded in a social, economic and organizational context and that therefore content management can hardly be separated from community management. We explain this comparing traditional and novel peer-to-peer content and community management of the music industry.
Proteolysis at Arg740 Facilitates Subsequent Bond Cleavages during Thrombin-catalyzed Activation of Factor VIII*

Thrombin activates factor VIII by proteolysis at three P1 residues: Arg372, Arg740, and Arg1689. Cleavage at Arg372 and Arg1689 are essential for procofactor activation; however cleavage at Arg740 has not been rigorously studied. To evaluate the role for cleavage at Arg740, we prepared and stably expressed two recombinant B-domainless factor VIII mutants, R740H and R740Q to slow and eliminate, respectively, cleavage at this site. Specific activity values for the variants were ∼50 and 20%, respectively, that of wild-type factor VIII. Activation of factor VIII R740H by thrombin showed an ∼40-fold reduction in the rate of A2 subunit generation, which reflected an ∼20-fold reduction in cleavage rate at Arg372. Similarly, a ∼40-fold rate reduction in cleavage at Arg1689 and consequent generation of the A3-C1-C2 subunit were observed. Rate values for A2 and A3-C1-C2 subunit generation were reduced by >700-fold and ∼140-fold, respectively, in the R740Q variant. These results suggest that initial cleavage at Arg740 affects cleavage at both Arg372 and Arg1689 sites. Results obtained evaluating proteolysis of the factor VIII mutants by factor Xa revealed more modest rate reductions (<10-fold) in generating A2 and A3-C1-C2 subunits from either variant, suggesting that factor Xa-catalyzed activation of factor VIII was significantly less dependent upon prior cleavage at residue 740 than thrombin. Overall, these results support a model whereby cleavage of factor VIII by thrombin is an ordered pathway with cleavage at Arg740 facilitating cleavages at Arg372 and Arg1689, which result in procofactor activation.
The choice of environmental regulatory enforcement by lobby groups

Across countries and regions, we observe wide variations in the level of enforcement instruments (fines and inspections) that are used to reach compliance with environmental regulations. In this paper, we study whether the differences in enforcement policies can be justified from an efficiency perspective, and if not, whether they favour the interests of certain lobby groups. We develop a theoretical model to derive the preferred enforcement policy, which is characterised from a global efficiency point of view and also from the point of view of different interest groups. Also, we explicitly allow for a non-linear deterrence effect of fines. We find that, despite the regulatory costs, green interest groups generally favour more stringent enforcement strategies with high fines and high inspection frequencies, while brown interest groups prefer laxer enforcement strategies.
Acoustic monitoring in terrestrial environments using microphone arrays: applications, technological considerations and prospectus

Summary 1. Animals produce sounds for diverse biological functions such as defending territories, attracting mates, deterring predators, navigation, finding food and maintaining contact with members of their social group. Biologists can take advantage of these acoustic behaviours to gain valuable insights into the spatial and temporal scales over which individuals and populations interact. Advances in bioacoustic technology, including the development of autonomous cabled and wireless recording arrays, permit data collection at multiple locations over time. These systems are transforming the way we study individuals and populations of animals and are leading to significant advances in our understandings of the complex interactions between animals and their habitats. 2. Here, we review questions that can be addressed using bioacoustic approaches, by providing a primer on technologies and approaches used to study animals at multiple organizational levels by ecologists, behaviourists and conservation biologists. 3. Spatially dispersed groups of microphones (arrays) enable users to study signal directionality on a small scale or to locate animals and track their movements on a larger scale. 4. Advances in algorithm development can allow users to discriminate among species, sexes, age groups and individuals. 5. With such technology, users can remotely and non-invasively survey populations, describe the soundscape, quantify anthropogenic noise, study species interactions, gain new insights into the social dynamics of sound-producing animals and track the effects of factors such as climate change and habitat fragmentation on phenology and biodiversity. 6. There remain many challenges in the use of acoustic monitoring, including the difficulties in performing signal recognition across taxa. The bioacoustics community should focus on developing a