Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Pecking Order Theory and Start-up Financing of Small and Medium Enterprises: Insight into Available Literature in the Libyan Context

Purpose: The Pecking Order Theory states that internal financing is preferred when available; and, if external financing is required, debt is preferred over equity. Thus, this paper aims to test the application of The Pecking Order Theory as an exploitation of start-up financing of Small and Medium Enterprises in Libya. Design/Methodology/Approach: Desk research was used. A comprehensive literature search of published academic, peer reviewed professional literature using a variety of databases including journal articles, conference papers and thesis, both published and unpublished, was conducted. The main sources were the Internet. Findings: By reviewing the available literature on access to finance by Small and Medium Enterprises in Libya, the Pecking Order Theory was supported. Research limitations: This study is limited to start-up stage. Moreover, the main limitation of the literature review, as a study methodology, is that it relies on information which has already been researched. Thus, an empirical study is needed to provide more support to findings of this study. Originality/Value: This is the first review of this area and thus should help intending and existing scholars. It could help policy makers to undertake some serious public policy serving the Small and Medium Enterprises access to finance.
Simple Nested Dielectrics in Ray Traced Images

Abstract This paper presents a simple method for modeling and rendering refractive objects that are nested within each other. The technique allows the use of simpler scene geometry and can even improve rendering time in some images. The algorithm can be easily added into an existing ray tracer and makes no assumptions about the drawing primitives that have been implemented.
DDAH gene and cardiovascular risk

The crucial role of nitric oxide (NO) for normal endothelial function is well known. In many conditions associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases such as hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, abdominal obesity, diabetes and smok ing, NO biosynthesis is dysregulated, leading to endothelial dysfunction. The grow ing evidence from animal and human studies indicates that endogenous inhibitors of endothelial NO synthase such as asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA) are associated with the endothelial dysfunc tion and potentially regulate NO synthase. The major route of elimination of ADMA is metabolism by the enzymes dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase-1 and -2 (DDAH). In our recent study 16 men with either low or high plasma ADMA concen trations were screened to identify DDAH polymorphisms that could potentially be associated with increased susceptibility to cardiovascular diseases. In that study a novel functional mutation of DDAH-1 was identified; the mutation carriers had a significantly elevated risk for cardiovascular disease and a tendency to develop hypertension. These results confirmed the clinical role of DDAH enzymes in ADMA metabolism. Furthermore, it is possible that more common variants of DDAH genes contribute more widely to increased cardiovascular risk.
Reference dosimetry for helical tomotherapy: practical implementation and a multicenter validation.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to implement a protocol for reference dosimetry in tomotherapy and to validate the beam output measurements with an independent dosimetry system. METHODS Beam output was measured at the reference depth of 10 cm in water for the following three cases: (1) a 5 × 10 cm(2) static machine specific reference field (MSR), (2) a rotational 5 × 10 cm(2) field without modulation and no tabletop in the beam, (3) a plan class specific reference (PCSR) field defined as a rotational homogeneous dose delivery to a cylindrical shaped target volume: plan with modulation and table-top movement. The formalism for reference dosimetry of small and nonstandard fields [Med.Phys.35: 5179-5186, 2008] and QA recommendations [Med.Phys.37: 4817-4853, 2010] were adopted in the dose measurement protocol. All ionization chamber measurements were verified independently using alanine∕EPR dosimetry. As a pilot study, the beam output was measured on tomotherapy Hi-art systems at three other centers and directly compared to the centers specifications and to alanine dosimetry. RESULTS For the four centers, the mean static output at a depth of 10 cm in water and SAD = 85 cm, measured with an A1SL chamber following the TG-148 report was 6.238 Gy∕min ± 0.058 (1 SD); the rotational output was 6.255 Gy∕min ± 0.069 (1 SD). The dose stated by the center was found in good agreement with the measurements of the visiting team: D(center)∕D(visit) = 1.000 ± 0.003 (1 SD). The A1SL chamber measurements were all in good agreement with Alanine∕EPR dosimetry. Going from the static reference field to the rotational ∕ non modulated field the dose rate remains constant within 0.2% except for one center where a deviation of 1.3% was detected. CONCLUSIONS Following the TG-148 report, beam output measurements in water at the reference depth using a local protocol, as developed at different centers, was verified. The measurements were found in good agreement with alanine∕EPR dosimetry. The presented methodology may provide a good concept for reference dosimetry.
Random set theoretic soft/hard data fusion framework

Relying on the random set theory, a new data fusion framework is proposed to enable fusion of both soft and hard data. First, soft and hard data are modeled in a unified approach. Next, a novel method for soft data trustworthiness estimation is developed. The experimental results demonstrate significant performance improvement achieved through systematic incorporation of soft data into the data fusion process.
DISSocIAtIon AS A trAnSDIAgnoStIc conStruct. A coMMentAry on eLLert r. S. nIjenhuIS' PAPer "ten reASonS For conceIvIng AnD cLASSIFyIng PoSttrAuMAtIc StreSS DISorDer AS A DISSocIAtIve DISorDer"

A major problem with psychiatric diagnoses concerns their specifi city. Clinicians should apply consistent labels that identify, describe, and confi ne the patients’ condition of being peculiar to a particular group of symptoms and behaviors. Specifi city is a crucial aspect of validity, and it is of course necessary for advances in treatment and scientifi c progress more generally. However, sometimes we should also remember that psychiatric disorders are not entities per se. As clinicians, we can observe patterns of symptoms and problem behaviors, we can even look at physiological, psychosocial, and genetic factors that are related (possibly on both an empirical and theoretical level) to these symptoms and behaviors, but in the end we can only infer biopsychosocially consistent prototypes that adhere to our current understanding of psychological health and disease. Therefore, any classifi cation of psychiatric disorders is an attempt to operationalize multifaceted and multidimensional constructs, as human experiences are. Classifi cations are important, especially when they assume shared meanings within a scientifi c community and extend to culture and society, but they cannot describe the idiographic factors that makes an individual who he or she actually is. Furthermore, when human experiences are complex and multifaceted—as those related to the concept of dissociation are—an excessive search for specifi city in the defi nition and circumscription of a given disorder may result in a reduced sensitivity, in other terms in the risk of a parcelization of the psychic and behavioral mechanisms involved in the disorder, which may results in missing important links and common features shared by different disorders. As a matter of fact, it is not so common in clinical practice that a patient can be categorized into a single diagnostic class: for example, many substance abusers and many bulimic patients show comorbid personality disorders and/or depression, many obsessive-compulsive patients and many people suffering from somatic symptom disorder also show anxiety disorders, many people with anxiety disorders also suffer from depressive disorders, and so on. how these considerations relate with dissociative symptoms and dissociative disorders? In the words of cardena and carlson (2011, pp. 251-252), dissociative symptoms are “characterized by (a) a loss of continuity in subjective experience with accompanying involuntary and unwanted intrusions into awareness and behavior (so-called positive dissociation); and/or (b) an inability to access information or control mental functions, manifested as symptoms such as gaps in awareness, memory, or self identifi cation, that are normally amenable to such access/
Aging and failure modes of IGBT power modules undergoing power cycling in high temperature environments

Cette these a pour objet l'etude de la fiabilite de modules de puissance triphases a IGBTs 200 A - 600 V, destines a la construction d'onduleurs de traction pour des applications automobiles hybrides ou electriques. Ces travaux visent a evaluer la tenue de ces modules de puissance en regime de cyclage thermique actif a hautes temperature, en mettant l'accent sur leur resistance a la fatigue thermomecanique. Deux approches complementaires ont ete mises en oeuvre dans ce but: tests de vieillissement accelere et modelisation numerique. Une compagne d'essais de vieillissement par cyclage actif a ete menee avec des profils de temperature varies, definis par la temperature ambiante et la variation de temperature de jonction des IGBTs, utilises comme facteurs d'acceleration des contraintes. Au cours de ces tests, les composants ont electriquement fonctionne dans des conditions semblables a une application reelle (commande MLI). L'objectif etait d'identifier les modes de defaillance, d'estimer l'influence des facteurs d'acceleration du vieillissement, et d'evaluer la pertinence des indicateurs de defaillance classiques dans ces conditions de stress thermiques severes. Aussi, afin de mieux comprendre les mecanismes de defaillance responsables de la fatigue de l'assemblage des modules consideres, une modelisation thermomecanique visant a determiner l'impact des modeles de comportement mecanique sur la duree de vie estimee des brasures, a ete developpee. La reponse de l'assemblage a des contraintes de cyclage actif similaires a celles appliquees durant les essais a ete evaluee par analyse numerique. Les differentes lois de comportement ont ete comparees en termes de contraintes, deformations plastiques, et densite d'energie plastique dans les brasures.
SOCIAL MEDIA AS A COMPETITIVE TOOL IN ORGANIZATIONS: THE RED QUEEN EFFECT

Today’s organizations, public or private, pursue both substantive and organizational goals, which they must balance in their operations. Also, they have to change theirselves against environmental conditions that challenge them every day. Organizations seek both to maintain (or expand) their own autonomy and authority and to achieve their substantive goals, such as maintain their customers and find new ones. Therefore, strategic management and its applications are one of the most essential subjects for organizations. One of the most popular strategic application in recent years is social media management. Globalization and high competition have made social media applications as a part of organization’s daily life. So, what does social media means for organizations? It is the effective and efficient use of resources so that an organization can survive in the long term, ensure a sustainable competitive advantage and achieve above average profit in the competition system. The Red Queen Effect (RQE) which is the research topic of this paper is seen as an important issue in the context of the use of social media as an important competitive tool in the organization-environment interaction.
A programming model for application-defined multipath TCP scheduling

Multipath TCP enables remarkable optimizations for throughput, load balancing, and mobility in today's networks. The design space of Multipath TCP scheduling, i.e., the application-aware mapping of packets to paths, is largely unexplored due to its inherent complexity. Evidence in this paper suggests that an application-aware scheduling decision, if leveraged right, pushes Multipath TCP beyond throughput optimization and thereby provides benefits for a wide range of applications. This paper introduces a high-level programming model that enables application-defined Multipath TCP scheduling. We provide an efficient interpreter and eBPF-based runtime environment for the Linux Kernel, enabling isolated application-defined schedulers in multi-tenancy environments. In combination with a high-level API, our work closes the gap between scheduler specification and deployment. We show the strength of our programming model by implementing seven novel schedulers tackling diverse objectives. Our real world measurements, for example, of an application- and preference-aware scheduler, show that the programming model enables timely scheduling decisions to retain fine-grained throughput objectives. Further measurements of a novel HTTP/2-aware scheduler show significantly improved interactions with upper-layer protocols, e.g., an optimized dependency resolution, while preserving path preferences.
An empirical explanation of management accounting change : Malaysian manufacturing organisations

This is a study of management accounting control system (MACS) changes in Malaysian manufacturing organizations. It both replicates and extends the MACS change model developed in Libby and Waterhouse's (1996) exploratory study in Canadian manufacturing firms and in Williams and Seaman's (2001) Singapore study. Comparisons are made between these two studies and the Malaysian results. The analysis confirms that most changes in MACS are incremental or evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The great variety of changes and causes demonstrates that management accounting change is not a uniform phenomenon as is often implicitly assumed in the literature. The introduction of several new independent variables (change causal factors) does improve the original model's explanatory power significantly. However this improved model does not explain how the changes take place. A case study was therefore designed to complement the survey. In general the results of the case study provide support for the management accounting change literature and the survey findings.
VERBOS INSTRUMENTAIS: UMA CLASSE RELEVANTE GRAMATICALMENTE?

Neste artigo tomamos como objeto de estudo os verbos instrumentais do portugues brasileiro a fim de averiguarmos se eles constituem uma classe verbal relevante gramaticalmente. Como conclusao, temos que os verbos instrumentais nao formam uma classe unitaria, o que nos mostra que a propriedade semântica de ter o nome de um instrumento contido no radical verbal nao e relevante gramaticalmente.
Long-Term, Open-Label Venlafaxine Extended-Release Treatment in Children and Adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder

ABSTRACT Introduction: Because major depressive disorder (MDD) is often chronic and recurrent, even pediatric patients who are treated successfully during an acute episode may need longer-term treatment. Yet, data on long-term treatment with antidepressants in pediatric MDD are limited. Objective: To evaluate long-term effectiveness and safety of treatment with venlafaxine extended-release (ER) in children and adolescents with MDD. Methods: Subjects (n=86) 7–17 years of age with MDD entered a multicenter, open-label study of flexible-dose venlafaxine ER for 6 weeks of acute treatment, followed by continuation treatment for up to 6 months total treatment. The primary efficacy variable was the Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R) total score (intent-to-treat population). Results: Mean CDRS-R total score decreased from 60.1±10.0 at baseline to 36.3±13.1 at week 6, and to 33.8±15.0 at 6 months (last observation carried forward). Among completers (n=36), the mean CDRS-R total score was 24.3±7.6 at the end of 6 months of treatment. The most frequent treatment-emergent adverse events were headache (53%), nausea (26%), infection (24%), abdominal pain (22%), vomiting (21%), and pharyngitis (19%). Fifteen (17%) participants discontinued due to adverse events, 9 of whom did so within the first 6 weeks. Serious adverse events (suicide attempt [two], hostility [two], hallucinations, depression, and pharyngitis) occurred in seven patients. There were no suicides. Conclusion: Most improvement with venlafaxine ER occurs during the first 6 weeks of treatment. Prescribers should be alert to signs of suicidal ideation and hostility in pediatric patients.
Current status of corneal collagen cross‐linking for keratoconus: a review

Over the past decade, corneal collagen cross‐linking has become commonplace as a treatment option for individuals with progressive keratoconus. This is based on laboratory data suggesting that cross‐linking using riboflavin and ultraviolet‐A irradiation increases collagen diameter and the biomechanical strength of the treated cornea. Case series and limited randomised controlled trials support these findings with data demonstrating that cross‐linking slows and possibly halts the progression of keratoconus. In some patients cross‐linking results in an improvement in maximum corneal curvature, visual acuity, spherical equivalent and higher‐order aberrations. The number of reported complications is small. More recently, variations in the treatment protocol have been described, although they have not yet been subject to comparative studies. While the published data indicate cross‐linking is effective in modifying the natural history of keratoconus, the long‐term impact of this treatment is still unknown. This paper reviews the theoretical basis, pre‐clinical research and clinical results of corneal collagen cross‐linking in keratoconus.
Autotrophic Carbon Dioxide Assimilation in Thermoproteales Revisited

ABSTRACT For Crenarchaea, two new autotrophic carbon fixation cycles were recently described. Sulfolobales use the 3-hydroxypropionate/4-hydroxybutyrate cycle, with acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA)/propionyl-CoA carboxylase as the carboxylating enzyme. Ignicoccus hospitalis (Desulfurococcales) uses the dicarboxylate/4-hydroxybutyrate cycle, with pyruvate synthase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase being responsible for CO2 fixation. In the two cycles, acetyl-CoA and two inorganic carbons are transformed to succinyl-CoA by different routes, whereas the regeneration of acetyl-CoA from succinyl-CoA proceeds via the same route. Thermoproteales would be an exception to this unifying concept, since for Thermoproteus neutrophilus, the reductive citric acid cycle was proposed as a carbon fixation mechanism. Here, evidence is presented for the operation of the dicarboxylate/4-hydroxybutyrate cycle in this archaeon. All required enzyme activities were detected in large amounts. The key enzymes of the cycle were strongly upregulated under autotrophic growth conditions, indicating their involvement in autotrophic CO2 fixation. The corresponding genes were identified in the genome. 14C-labeled 4-hydroxybutyrate was incorporated into the central building blocks in accordance with the key position of this compound in the cycle. Moreover, the results of previous 13C-labeling studies, which could be reconciled with a reductive citric acid cycle only when some assumptions were made, were perfectly in line with the new proposal. We conclude that the dicarboxylate/4-hydroxybutyrate cycle is operating in CO2 fixation in the strict anaerobic Thermoproteales as well as in Desulfurococcales.
Economic Analysis and Spatial Arrangements of Engineering SMEs Performance in Olomouc Region of Czech Republic

The aim of this paper is to describe SMEs performance on the regional level with respect to their geographical location. As there is no such research on the regional level, we calculate and describe traditional indicators of performance, financial position and changes in the financial position represented by ROE, Financial Leverage and Cash Flow on Sales. These indicators are then compared with the results of previous research which has been conducted on Eastern Europe and also spatially projected on the map to demonstrate spatial distribution of companies’ performance. Our findings from the observation of 170 SMEs allow us compare the regional level of financial indicators with the European one, and our findings suggest that the Olomoucký region is weaker.
Secured Public Auditing for Shared Data in the Cloud

With cloud information administrations, it is typical for information to be put away in the cloud, as well as shared over different clients. Lamentably, the respectability of cloud information is liable to wariness because of the presence of equipment/programming disappointments and human blunders. A few instruments have been intended to permit both information proprietors and open verifiers to proficiently review cloud information uprightness without recovering the whole information from the cloud server. Nonetheless, open inspecting on the honesty of imparted information to these current instruments will definitely uncover classified data—character security—to open verifiers. In this paper, we propose a novel protection saving instrument that backings open examining on shared information put away in the cloud. Specifically, we adventure ring marks to register confirmation metadata expected to review the accuracy of shared information. With our instrument, the character of the underwriter on every piece in shared information is kept private from open verifiers, who have the capacity to productively check shared information uprightness without recovering the whole record. Moreover, our instrument has the capacity perform different inspecting assignments at the same time as opposed to confirming them one by one. Our trial results exhibit the adequacy and productivity of our instrument when reviewing shared information respectabil
Composants mathématiques pour la théorie des groupes

Les systemes de preuves formelles ont connu ces dernieres annees des evolutions importantes. Des travaux recents, comme la preuve formelle du theoreme des quatre couleurs ou celle du theoreme des nombres premiers, ont montre que ces systemes ont atteint un niveau de maturite leur permettant de s'attaquer a des problemes mathematiques non triviaux. Malgre cela, l'utilisation des systemes de preuves formelles en mathematique reste tres limitee. Un des arguments qui est avance pour expliquer cette situation est le manque de bibliotheques de preuves formelles. Cette these s'interesse au developpement de composants mathematiques pour la theorie des groupes finis. Elle entre dans le cadre du travail de formalisation du theoreme de Feit-Thompson sur la classification des groupes finis. L'objectif principal dans ce travail est d'appliquer les techniques de genie logiciel pour faciliter la reutilisation et l'organisation des developpements mathematiques formelles de grande echelle, comme la formalisation du theoreme de Feit-Thompson. Cette these presente une premiere formalisation du theoreme de Cayley-Hamilton sur les polynomes et les matrices. Elle presente aussi des developpements sur la theorie des representations des groupes finis qui est une composante necessaire a la formalisation de la preuve du theoreme de Feit-Thompson. En particulier, elle presente une formalisation de la theorie des modules sur un corps ou sur une algebre ainsi qu'une formalisation du theoreme de Maschke. Ces developpements ont ete faits dans le systeme Coq et avec l'extension SSReflect.