Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Glia-Mediated Neurodegeneration in the Drosophila melanogaster CNS

Proper development, function and maintenance of the central nervous system (CNS) are reliant on the intricate relationship between glia and neurons. Glia cells possess a variety of key functions such as maintaining homeostasis, providing neurons with trophic support and the uptake and recycling of neuronal debris. Disruptions in glial function have been implicated in neurological disorders. Despite their obvious importance in the CNS, glia cells remain much less characterized than their neuronal counterparts. With its wide array of genetic tools and its low glia-to-neuron ratio, Drosophila melanogaster presents itself as a useful model organism in studies of glial characterization. Rap/Fzr, an activator of the Anaphase Promoting Complex/Cyclosome (APC/C), a E3 ubiquitin ligase, is the Drosophila homolog of the mammalian Cdh1. Previous studies have shown that proper function of the APC/C regulates glial differentiation in the CNS (Kaplow et al., 2008). Our studies show that targeted pan-glial expression of Rap/Fzr/Cdh1 results in the reduction of glia number in the CNS of 3rd instar larvae. Adult Drosophila with reduced number of glia cells exhibit progressive age-dependent phenotypes such as temperature-sensitive paralysis and vacuolization of the brain, as well as significant lifespan reduction. Employing glia subtype specific GAL4 drivers, we have identified astrocyte-like glia as a critical cell type in neuroprotection. Targeted expression of Rap/Fzr to astrocyte-like glia results in temperature-sensitive paralysis and lifespan reduction. These neurodegenerative phenotypes suggest a vital role for astrocyte-like glia in neuroprotection.
An Evaluation of Optimism and Life Satisfaction of Undergraduate Students in the School of Tourism and Hotel Management

In recent years there are numerous institutions providing education in tourism sector which increase its importance,because of the need for qualified staff. School of Tourism and Hotel Managements are one of these institutions which provide the highest level of education. Due to the forefront of human element because of tourism sectors' structural caharcteristics the purpose of this study is to evaluate optimism and life satisfaction of the undergraduate tourism and hotel management students. “Optimism Scale” developed by Balci and Yilmaz (2002) was used to measure students’ optimism, and “Life Satisfaction” developed by Diener, Emmons, Larsen and Griffin (1985), translated into Turkish by Koker (1991) was used to measure students’ life satisfaction. Element sampling method was used. The sample involved the students who enrolled at School of Tourism and Hotel Management, Selcuk University in Turkey, during the spring semester of 2010-2011 academic year (n= 479). Results showed that the students scored moderately on satisfaction and highly on optimism. Female students were more optimistic and satisfied than male students and the higher the level of income students had, the more optimistic and satisfied they were. Another result showed that there was a positive correlation between students’ optimism and life satisfaction.
Game Interface with Data Projector and Leap Motion

The goal of this paper is to develop user interface using potential of the Leap Motion Controller in combination with projected image of a projector. This interface requires a projector calibration for user to be able to interact with the image. The calibration enables translation of points between coordinate spaces of Leap Motion and projector. Combined with data from Leap Motion, this allows user to interact with applications and games only by hands within the projected image. The solution contains a projector and a Leap Motion located over a table looking at the table desk. Leap Motion is used to track hand motions above the table. The capabilities of the proposed interface are demonstrated on a computer game, which was developed in Unity 3D engine. In this paper is proposed a new way of interacting with applications and games using the unique control interface.
Collaboration and Sustainable Relationships: their Contribution to the Life Cycle Analysis in Agri-Food Supply Chains

The life cycle approach is widely used in the analysis of sustainability. Its application to supply chains is necessary since the product flows, from processing of raw materials to the final customer, are considered. The role of the organizational aspects, expressed in terms of relationships between the supply chain agents, is little considered in the life cycle analysis approach. The aim of this paper is to extend the scope of the food chain life cycle analysis by adding the organizational dimension to the environmental, economic and social ones. Within this context, Collaboration and Sustainable Relationships concepts have been explored based on a literature survey. A theoretical framework, describing their role in assessing the organizational dimension in the life cycle analysis of the food supply chains, is defined. A hypothesis on their joint influence on the supply chains performances is formulated.
Use of FRAM Memories in Spacecrafts

This chapter shows some applications of commercial ferroelectric memories in the space. The discussion goes through the description of the theory behind their usage in this environment and describes the techniques used to achieve the desired reliability in real designs. We are focusing on the low-Earth orbit, or LEO, the zone surrounding the Earth between 500 ÷ 800 km, characterized by many challenging aspects, mainly related to the reduced atmosphere. Indeed the biggest problem of this environment is given by the presence of high-energy particles (not filtered by atmosphere and the Van Allen belts) hitting the active areas of electronic devices. These particles are thus reducing the reliability of the integrated circuits (i.e., their life or the life of information stored in them), affecting the reliability of the complete space-borne mission. Other issues are related to the reduced cooling effect due to the lack of air convection movements: electronic systems have to reduce at most the power consumption, in order to decrease the power to be dissipated. Both power consumption and heat dissipation can be achieved using commercial low-power devices and low-power techniques (i.e., power cycling, smart power management policies, .). We motivate the use of FeRAM memories and propose some architectural solutions which can mitigate the effects of cosmic rays, without using expensive radiation-hardened space components. The choice of using commercial-off-the-shelf components (COTS) improves the overall characteristics of the whole avionic system, since it helps reducing its costs, reducing the power consumption (and so the power to be dissipated in the environment) and increases the re-usability of existing projects and documentation. We applied our considerations and techniques to some small satellites developed in our research group during the last years. We cover twomain projects: the first is a small prototype which was designed few years ago and launched in 2006; the second is a more advanced and challenging project aimed at developing a modular platform for small-sized satellites, which is still on-going. Both of them contain FeRAM devices and we show here how these devices have been introduced and how they can actually increase the global avionic performance and reliability. We discuss which are our constraints on the functional and architectural point of view (memory size, power consumption, latency, reliability) and which are the reasons for using FeRAM memories in our applications. In both designs we have performed simulation of the chip behavior in space through some space simulation environments (i.e., SPENVIS, CREME) to analyze the reliability of our design in this environment. At the end we draw some conclusions on the work done and on the results we have, tracing further steps and considerations for future applications. 10
Non-Markov Gaussian Term Structure Models: The Case of Inflation

Standard Gaussian term structure models impose the Markov property: the conditional mean is a function of the risk factors. We relax this assumption and consider models where yields are linear in the conditional mean (but not in the risk factors). To illustrate, yields should span expected inflation but not inflation. Second, expected and surprise yield changes can have opposite contemporaneous effects on expected inflation. Third, the survey forecasts and inflation rate can both be in the state. These three features are inconsistent with the Markov assumption. These effects matter empirically in the USA and in Canada.
Evolution in franchising: Trends and new perspectives

Franchising as a legal or marketing concept was not new. It arose as a structured business system in the US, around 1860´s when The Singer Company established a network of resellers for sewing machines. Nowadays franchising is one of the fastest developing forms of business in the world. The evolution of theories that seek to explain franchise systems have been published in academic journals from time to time, but until now there was not a study that have established a social network analysis to quantify the degree of centrality and cohesion of the relationship between the main authors, journals, methods and theories in franchise. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to extend the knowledge about franchising through an extensive research on its main theoretical perspectives into relevant international academic journals, showing the evolution of the field, highlighting the principal issues, authors and methods. Through a selection of 130 articles ranging from 1966 to 2015 the study investigates five relevant theories in franchising: (1) Resource Acquisition Theory, (2) Agency Theory, (3) Transaction Cost Analysis, (4) Signaling Theory, and (5) Property Rights Theory. A descriptive statistical analysis was done in order to identify the main authors and trends with the most used associated theories in franchise papers. The findings show agency theory and signaling theory, and resource scarcity theory as the main perspectives used in studies about franchising, but other perspectives have been increasing its presence, mainly the institutional theory and resource based-view perspective. The main dependent and independent variables cover a wide range of constructs, but ownership, performance, age, size, growth, geographical dispersion, and internationalization have been the most cited.
A Pragmatic Approach in Lossless Data Hiding for JPEG Images

— In this paper Reversible Data hiding restores the carrier once the removing hidden secret information. Many reversible data hiding techniques were proposed within the past few years, but on analysis, almost all does not have in providing the security and authentication. This paper proposes a novel reversible data hiding technique which effort is separable, the receiver can extract the initial image or additional embedded information or both based on the keys hold from the receiver. Alternatively the receiver can verify the information hided through the data hider, so that the work proposes both security and authentication. Digital steganography and watermarking are both types of information hiding. Digital watermarking usually mentioned as hiding for comforting the data. Information hiding in image process could occur the long term frame distortions and then the initial cover medium is probably not prepared to be turned around precisely, once the hidden knowledge are extracted out. This work proposes a novel scheme for separable reversible data hiding in encrypted images. Within the first phase, a content owner encrypts the initial uncompressed image having an encryption key. Then, a data-hider may compress minimal significant bits of the encrypted image by using a data-hiding step to produce a sparse space to allow for some additional data. Through an encrypted image containing additional data, if the receiver gets the data-hiding key, he is able to extract the additional data though he doesn't be aware of image content. When the receiver contains the encryption key, they can decrypt the received data to acquire an image just
Minerals and Vitamins for Dairy Cows: Magic Bullets or Just Bullets?

This information was presented at the 2012 Herd Health and Nutrition Conferences, organized by the PRO-DAIRY program in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. This conference provides an opportunity for dairy producers, veterinarians, feed industry representatives and agriservice personnel to increase their knowledge of current herd health and nutrition management techniques while interacting with other professionals. Full conference proceedings may be purchased online at http://www.ansci. cornell.edu/dm/proceedings_orders. html.
BIOTECHNOLOGY AND THE VALUE OF IDEAS IN ESCAPING THE MALTHUSIAN TRAP

Agronomists have used increasingly sophisticated genetic manipulation of agricultural plants to ensure that food production has outpaced population growth. Biotechnology, the newest stage in that process, is jeopardized by unfounded concerns that it could harm human health or the environment. To continue feeding a growing population, world farmers and consumers must embrace biotechnology, or sacrifice other environmental priorities.
The Impact of Message Characteristics on Online Viral Diffusion in Online Social Media Services : The Case of Twitter

In this paper, we explore the information diffusion mechanism under social network environments by investigating the effect of message characteristics on the volume and speed of retweeting in Twitter, a popular online social media service. To this end, we select eight main keywords (i.e., '무상급식', '반값등록금', '나가수', '평창', '김연아', '박태환', '아이폰', '갤럭시') that have been popular on online social media in recent days. Each keyword represents various social aspects of Korea that recently grab people's attention such as political issues, entertainment, sports celebrities, and the latest digital products, and eventually holds distinctive message characteristics. Analyzing the frequency and velocity of retweeting for each keyword, we find that more than half of the sample messages posted on Twitter contain personal opinions for the certain keyword, but we also find that the tweets which include objective messages with hyperlink are the fastest ones when being retweeted by other followers. In overall, when being retweeted, the group of messages related to the certain keyword present distinctive diffusion patterns and speed according to message characteristics. From academic perspective, the findings in the study broaden our theoretical knowledge of information diffusion mechanism over online social media. For practitioners, the results also provide managerial implications regarding how to strategically utilize online social media for marketing communications with customers.
Values’ family flow: associations between grandparents, parents and adolescent children

ABSTRACT The present study analyzed cross-generational trends in values and family patterns of value association across three generations (grandparents, parents and children). In this study, 101 family triads with adolescent children (N = 303) completed questionnaires assessing personal values. Grandparents’ values (Generation 1) were measured through parents’ perceptions of their own parents. In general, parents prioritize collectivist values, and there is an increased focus on individualist values across generations. Fathers’ individualist values mediate the relationship between their perceptions of grandfathers’ individualist values and grandchildren’s individualist values. There is no family association of collectivist values. The article outlines the implications of the increasing adherence to individualism and hypothesizes that the adherence of individualist values across families with adolescent children is a pathway to maintenance of family cohesion and cooperation. The role of fathers and the paternal lineage on adolescents’ acquisition of values are discussed.
Spectral widening of the excitation signal for telephone-band speech enhancement

In current telephone systems the speech to be transmitted is band-limited. The resulting speech quality degradation can be reduced by supplementing the missing spectral components of an enlarged frequency band in an artificial way. One important component of an enhancement system is the wide-band synthesis-filter that has to be driven with a wide-band excitation signal. The focus of this paper is to propose different methods to generate this wide-band excitation signal from a telephone-band limited version.
Human rights in the management literature: leading publications and research agenda

This paper identifies and examines leading publications on human rights within the management literature. For that, we used features of a bibliometric analysis -- specifically exploring product and impact indicators -- in order to identify the leading publications on human rights that were examined aiming to portray how the issue has been addressed within this field. Moreover, by identifying the key articles and concepts adopted by the leading publications, this paper offers an interpretation of the academic context that enabled the emergence of a human rights approach within the management field. Thus, a contribution of this paper is to highlight how the debate on human rights in management has been strengthened, identifying articles and journals that can be a source of reference for future research. Our study has identified a shift in the discussion regarding human rights. During the last decade the topic, which was initially focused on the role of states in guaranteeing human rights, has started to examine the relationship between organizations and society. Such transformation has placed human rights as both, a responsibility and a duty of corporations. It is suggested that the literature on ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) was the entrance for a human rights approach within management literature. However, the discipline has already engaged in elaborating different interpretation of human rights. Our research shows the potential of human rights in consolidate a research agenda on corporate impact in our societies.
Motivic Decomposition and Intersection Chow Groups II

This paper is a continuation of [CH], where we formulated the motivic analogue of the decomposition theorem in [BBD]. The decomposition theorem says, if X, S are quasi-projective complex algebraic varieties with X smooth, and p : X → S is a projective map, then the direct image of the constant sheaf Rp∗QX is a direct sum of intersection complexes (of local systems on smooth locally closed subvarieties of S) with shifts. The motivic analogue is a conjectural statement that the decomposition be lifted to a decomposition in a suitably defined motivic category. In [CH] we defined the category of Chow motives over S, and showed that the existence of the motivic decomposition in this category is a consequence of the conjectures of Grothendieck and of Bloch-Beilinson-Murre. If the map p : X → S is a resolution of singularities, one of the direct summands of Rp∗QX is the intersection complex ICS = ICS(Q) of S. The motivic decomposition has a direct summand corresponding to the intersection complex. We will call it the motivic intersection complex of S. The Chow group of this object we call the intersection Chow group of S, and denote it by ICH(S). The content of this paper is as follows. (1) In §3 we give an acount of this theory, under the conjectures of Grothendieck and of Bloch-Beilinson-Murre. The definition of intersection Chow group ICH(S) of a quasi-projective variety S rests on the existence of the motivic decomposition for a desingularization p : X → S. The group ICH(S) is a canonical subquotient of the Chow group CH(X). We then derive a formula (3.9) for the intersection Chow group in terms of the Chow groups of X and of the exceptional loci of p. These Chow groups have filtrations denoted F • S , which appear in the formula. The filtration has to do with the perverse Leray filtration on objects in the motivic category, which is defined using the motivic decomposition. (2) In §4 we give an unconditional definition of intersection Chow group. Here “unconditional” means independent of any conjectures. For this we take the formula mentioned above, and turn it into the definition. We need to define the filtrations F • S on Chow groups, without assuming the existence of motivic decomposition. This can be done, using cohomology realizations, as Shuji Saito did for the case S = Spec k. We can show the intersection Chow group is well-defined, independent of the choice of a resolution. §4 was inspired by §3, but it is logically independent. We do not even need the motivic category of Chow motives in §4. (3) There is an analogous formula for the intersection cohomology of S, in terms of the cohomology of the exceptional loci of a desingularization, see (2.4). This is discussed in §2.
Comparison of Plasma Leptin, Insulin and Thy- roid Hormone Concentrations and Some Bio- chemical Parameters Between Fat-Tailed and Thin-Tailed Sheep Breeds

L'objectif de cette etude est d'analyser l'influence du stockage intra-caudal des graisses sur differents marqueurs biochimiques du metabolisme basal et de l'utilisation des nutriments chez le mouton. Les concentrations plasmatiques en insuline et en leptine ont ete mesurees par radio-immunologie, le statut thyroidien par immuno-enzymologie (Triiodothyronine totale (T 3 ). thyroxine totale (T 4 ) et formes libres (FT 3 ) et FT 4 )). les concentrations en glucose, uree, cholesterol et vitamine A par spectrophotometrie puis les resultats obtenus ont ete compares entre des moutons de 1 an soit a queue grasse (race Akkaraman, n = 12), soit a queue maigre (race Merinos d'Anatolie. n = 12) apres une periode d'acclimatation de 30 jours. Les moutons Akkaraman ont presente une glycemie et une uremie significativement diminuees de meme que des alterations concomitantes du statut thyroidien ce qui suggere une reduction du metabolisme basal dans cette race : des diminutions significatives des concentrations en T 3 , et FT 4 couplees a une augmentation significative de laT 4 ont ete observees et une correlation positive entre la glycemie et la FT 4 a ete mise en evidence. En revanche, les formes libres et liees des hormones thyroidiennes ont ete correctement correlees chez les moutons Merinos. Bien que les concentrations en insuline soient fortement et negativement correlees avec la T 3 et la T 4 chez les moutons a queue grasse, elles ont ete comparables a celles obtenues chez les animaux a queue maigre. En depit d'une correlation negative avec l'uremie (significative chez les moutons Merinos), aucune augmentation significative des concentrations en leptine n'a ete observee chez les moutons Akkaraman. Au contraire, des correlations positives entre les concentrations en leptine et en FT3 ont ete obtenues dans les 2 races ovines. Ces resultats suggerent que la regulation de la production de leptine in vivo est controlee partiellement par le metabolisme basal et le statut thyroidien de facon opposee.
Does 'Clustering' really help firms'innovative activities?

This paper examines whether location in strong industrial clusters translates into a higher probability of innovating. A firm-level analysis of the UK and Italy is performed. Innovative activities of firms (European patent data for 1988-98) are related to regional employment, other cluster-specific and firm-specific variables. Clustering per se does not explain all of a firm's inno-vative performance. While location in a cluster densely populated by innovative firms positively af-fects the likelihood of innovating, strong disadvantages arise from the presence of non-innova-tive firms, both in own and other sectors industries. Firms' innovative persistence and the regional knowledge stock are also important.