Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Social Media As a Marketing Tool for Businesses

Businesses turn to social media to increase market share and profits. Many social media platforms provide a unique customer experience between the company and social media. The analysis discusses how businesses to use social media platforms as one of the marketing strategies. It includes about four businesses cases, which includes two big companies Starbucks and Nike, two small local companies Coava Coffee Roaster and Portland Gear. When using social media, a company needs to be aware of the safety concerns of its customers, to the best of their ability, that they are protected. Two examples of Facebook “Like” button and YouTube recommendation system shows the information exchange between social media platforms and businesses. With the comparison between Facebook APIs and Twitter APIs, businesses can know how to send advertising to the target customers and get more new customers by using the APIs.
Variation in recombination rate and its genetic determinism in sheep (Ovis Aries) populations from combining multiple genome-wide datasets

Recombination is a complex biological process that results from a cascade of multiple events during meiosis. Understanding the genetic determinism of recombination can help to understand if and how these events are interacting. To tackle this question, we studied the patterns of recombination in sheep, using multiple approaches and datasets. We constructed male recombination maps in a dairy breed from the south of France (the Lacaune breed) at a fine scale by combining meiotic recombination rates from a large pedigree genotyped with a 50K SNP array and historical recombination rates from a sample of unrelated individuals genotyped with a 600K SNP array. This analysis revealed recombination patterns in sheep similar to other mammals but also genome regions that have likely been affected by directional and diversifying selection. We estimated the average recombination rate of Lacaune sheep at 1.5 cM/Mb, identified about 50,000 crossover hotspots on the genome and found a high correlation between historical and meiotic recombination rate estimates. A genome-wide association study revealed two major loci affecting inter-individual variation in recombination rate in Lacaune, including the RNF212 and HEI10 genes and possibly 2 other loci of smaller effects including the KCNJ15 and FSHR genes. Finally, we compared our results to those obtained previously in a distantly related population of domestic sheep, the Soay. This comparison revealed that Soay and Lacaune males have a very similar distribution of recombination along the genome and that the two datasets can be combined to create more precise male meiotic recombination maps in sheep. Despite their similar recombination maps, we show that Soay and Lacaune males exhibit different heritabilities and QTL effects for inter-individual variation in genome-wide recombination rates.
Spontaneous ictal-like discharges and sustained potential shifts in the developing rat neocortex.

1. Intra- and extracellular recording techniques were used to study epileptogenesis in in vitro slices of immature rat neocortex. Slices of sensorimotor cortex were prepared from animals 5-60 days old. Epileptiform activity was induced by bath application of 50 microM picrotoxin. 2. Convulsant-induced paroxysmal activity was observed only rarely in the youngest age group (5-7 days) and consisted of orthodromically evoked bursts of low-amplitude isolated discharges. This activity was labile and could be evoked only at long interstimulus intervals (greater than 10 s). 3. Extracellular recordings in slices from 8- to 15-day-old rats showed spontaneous epileptiform activity consisting of 10- to 30-s paroxysms of repetitive spike discharges superimposed on a 3- to 5-mV negative steady potential. This steady potential declined slightly during the course of the prolonged discharge and returned quickly to base line following the last spike discharge. 4. Laminar analysis of epileptiform activity in 8- to 15-day-old rats showed that the spike discharges were negative and superimposed on a positive slow wave in superficial cortical layers. At 100 micron below the pial surface, the slow potential reversed polarity and remained negative throughout the remainder of the cortex. Spike discharges reversed polarity 800 micron below the pial surface. 5. In intracellular recordings from slices obtained from 9- to 14-day-old animals, each paroxysm began with a sharply rising membrane depolarization (paroxysmal depolarizing shift, or PDS). A second PDS occurred before the cells repolarized to their resting potential. A series of PDSs then followed, superimposed on a sustained membrane depolarization. This was associated with a 33% decrease in input resistance. Afterhyperpolarizations (AHPs) following termination of the depolarization were low in amplitude or absent. 6. In the 16- to 30-day-old age group, extracellular recordings showed paroxysmal activity consisting of 3-10 initial spikes followed by a sustained, slow, negative-potential shift. This slow potential could be as great as 30 mV in amplitude and could last as long as 180 s. Paroxysmal events recurred spontaneously at intervals of 4-11 min. Spontaneous PDSs and slow, negative-potential shifts were not observed after 30 days of age, although PDSs could still be evoked by orthodromic stimulation. 7. Intracellular recordings in the 16- to 30-day-old group revealed that each paroxysmal event consisted of an initial period of increased synaptic activity and cellular firing, followed by a marked, long-lasting depolarization (LLD), culminating in an AHP. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Distinctive Patterns of Medical Care Utilization in Patients Who Somatize

Background:Somatizing patients have maladaptive and increased rates of medical care utilization. If there were a way of routinely identifying such patients, one that did not require intensive, case-by-case review, they could be targeted for specific interventions to improve their use of medical care. Objective:We sought to identify patterns of medical care utilization that would distinguish somatizing and nonsomatizing medical outpatients with acceptable sensitivity and specificity. Design:Subjects completed questionnaires assessing somatization and sociodemographic characteristics. Their medical care utilization was obtained for the 12 months preceding the index visit. We then used multivariable logistic regression and recursive partitioning to identify patients with a provisional diagnosis of somatoform disorder. These exploratory models used various patterns of medical care utilization and sociodemographic characteristics as the independent variables. Subjects:We studied consecutive adults attending 2 primary care practices on randomly chosen days. Measures:The provisional diagnosis of a somatoform disorder was assessed with a 15-item self-report questionnaire. The number of primary care visits, specialty visits, mental health visits, emergency visits, and inpatient and outpatient costs were obtained for the 12 months preceding the index visit from our hospital's automated medical records, which also provided a rating of aggregate medical morbidity. Self-reported utilization outside our hospital system was obtained from a subsample of patients. Results:Complete data were obtained on 1440 patients. Somatizing patients had more specialty care than primary care visits, higher outpatient than inpatient costs, and more emergency visits than nonsomatizing patients. A regression model containing 7 measures of utilization and 4 sociodemographic characteristics distinguished somatizing and nonsomatizing patients with a c-statistic = 0.73. Recursive partitioning identified 10 terminal nodes with a very high specificity (99%) but a very low sensitivity (15%). Conclusions:We identified 7 discrete patterns of medical care utilization that distinguished somatizing and nonsomatizing patients. However, they did so with only modest specificity and sensitivity. This algorithm might be used effectively as the first step in a 2-step screening procedure whose second step would entail more intensive screening or individual, case-by-case review to identify somatizing patients in primary care practice.
Delft University of Technology Visual Perception with Color for Architectural Aesthetics

Studies on computer-based visual perception and aesthetical judgment for architectural design are presented. In the model, both color and the geometric aspects of human vision are jointly taken into account, quantifying the perception of an individual object, as well as a scene consisting of several objects. This is accomplished by fuzzy neural tree processing. Based on the perception model, aesthetical color compositions are identified for a scene using multi-objective evolutionary algorithm. The methodology is described together with associated computer experiments verifying the theoretical considerations. Modeling of aesthetical judgment is a significant step for applications, where human-like visual perception and cognition are of concern. Examples of such applications are architectural design, product design, and urbanism. Keywords—visual perception; color difference; fuzzy neural tree; architectural design; genetic algorithm; Pareto front
Using GPS SNR data to estimate Soil Moisture variations: Proposing a new interference model

Soil moisture measurements are important for disciplines such as hydrology, climatology and agriculture. GNSS Reflectometry (GNSS-R) technique has been demonstrated to be an effective tool to sense soil moisture content (SMC). Besides airborne observations, great efforts have also been made concerning ground-based measurements. However, those methods are either based on too many hypotheses or depend on specially-made receivers. This paper proposes a new interference method which can extract parameters related to SMC from the raw SNR data routinely collected by geodetic GPS receivers. During long-term observation, the surface soil moisture variations can be ideally tracked by the effective reflector height, which decreases along with the increasing SMC. This method can also be applied to the retrieval of the surface topography around the GPS stations.
Investigation of Diel Activity of Culicoides Biting Midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in the United Kingdom by using a Vehicle-Mounted Trap

ABSTRACT Truck trap collections of Culicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) were made during 2 yr of sampling from 2008 to 2009 at a farm site in southern England. Samples were collected from 810 sample runs carried out over 52 d and contained 7,095 Culicoides of which more than half (50.3%) were identified as Culicoides obsoletus Meigen by using a multiplex polymerase chain reaction assay. Other commonly encountered species included Culicoides scoticus Downes & Kettle (14.7% of total Culicoides caught), Culicoides dewulfi Goetghebuer (3.7%), and Culicoides chiopterus Meigen (4.2%). The activity rates of these species were examined with regard to both meteorological factors (light intensity, humidity, temperature, and wind speed and direction) and other potentially contributing variables (lunar phase and brightness, sunset time, and year) by using generalized linear models. All the species examined were collected in greater abundance at sunset, although the relationship between underlying light intensity and numbers was less pronounced in C. dewulfi and C. chiopterus. Collections of Culicoides were reduced at temperatures above 21°C and were inversely related to wind speed. Variation between species was recorded, however, in response to wind direction: C. dewulfi and C. chiopterus were associated with prevailing winds passing through fields containing livestock, whereas C. obsoletus and C. scoticus demonstrated no such relationship. A male:female ratio of 1:3.56 was observed in catches, and male populations were protandrous. These results are discussed with reference both to the ecology of these species and methods currently used to predict adult Culicoides movement and abundance in Europe.
A Case Study on the Impact of Customization, Fitness, and Operational Characteristics on Enterprise-Wide System Success, User Satisfaction, and System Use

Enterprise resource planning ERP system success is of paramount importance for almost all organizations, as it is a prerequisite for improved and continuous benefit-realization. This study investigates the impact of ERP business dynamics i.e., system customization required, system fitness i.e., process fit, data fit, and user interface fit and functional area operational characteristics on ERP system success, user satisfaction and system use. The author draws on relevant theoretical background information to construct the research model. Surveys are administered to 91 ERP system users within a multinational food company; in-depth interviews are also conducted with some system users. Empirical results indicate that the amount of ERP system customizations and/or modifications does not have any substantial impact on ERP system use or user satisfaction. In terms of ERP system fitness, these systems are found to be more suitable for complex, functional-area operational environments. The results show that only user interface fit positively affects ERP system use, while only process fit positively influences ERP system user satisfaction. In addition, different degrees of information quality, system quality and service quality have diverse effects on some of the relationships investigated. Finally, the perceived net benefit from an ERP system depends on how the ERP system is used, rather than the management level of the users.
Predicting Expatriate Job Performance for Selection Purposes

This article meta-analytically reviews empirical studies on the prediction of expatriate job performance. Using 30 primary studies (total N = 4,046), it was found that predictive validities of the Big Five were similar to Big Five validities reported for domestic employees. Extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were predictive of expatriate job performance; openness was not. Other predictors that were found to relate to expatriate job performance were cultural sensitivity and local language ability. Cultural flexibility, selection board ratings, tolerance for ambiguity, ego strength, peer nominations, task leadership, people leadership, social adaptability, and interpersonal interest emerged as predictors from exploratory investigations (K < 4). It is surprising that intelligence has seldom been investigated as a predictor of expatriate job performance.
Fitting and fabrication of a prosthesis for a severe flexion contracture: case study.

A patient, sent from a VA hospital, was seen at the VAPC Special Clinic for evaluation and prescription. He was not considered a good candidate for a prosthesis, since his condition was beyond what is generally accepted as a "good risk. " Normally, SO deg. of flexion contracture is considered a maximum limit for fitting of below-knee amputees. This patient exceeds this maximum by almost 40 deg. However, his good spirits and desire to walk again induced the clinic team to try to develop a prosthesis he could tolerate. His background and followup from prescription to gait training follow:
What Drives Foreign Direct Investment to BRICS?

This study explores the factors that drive foreign direct investment (FDI) to India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Russia that are called as “BRICS” collectively. Employing random effect panel estimation technique on panel data for the years 1990-2011, the study found that market size, trade openness, GDP growth rate, macroeconomic stability and infrastructure availability are essentially the key location factors for overseas investors. While, WTO accession has an insignificant impact on FDI in BRICS.
Data improvement in lab verification of smart power products using DoE

The paper focuses on treating and characterizing variations that occur in measurements or that are intrinsic in electronic systems. Methods illustrating basic principles of Design of Experiments such as replication and blocking are implemented and used so that valid and objective conclusions are drawn. Replication is used for three purposes: verifying the metamodel adequacy, defining the confidence interval of the measured mean value of the system's response and determining the minimum number of replications that are needed in order to measure the system's response with a given accuracy. Blocking helps with eliminating the systematic error that appears due to the measuring conditions and was used in the screening process. The methods were applied on a lighting control system used in automotive applications.
Challenges to Intra-family Succession In South African Townships

While family-owned businesses contribute favourably to the economy, the fact that they seldom survive a generational transition provides ample justification for undertaking to determine the factors which militate against the successful planning for succession in family-owned businesses in South Africa. Mimicking the mixed research approach, this paper adopted an integrated approach in the collection and analysis of the data. The paper was based on quantitative data from 120 participants collected by the way of a semi-structured questionnaire administered to family-businesses in a designated township in South Africa. The study profited from the qualitative insights concomitant with the use of open-ended question in the questionnaire. The data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The results concede that the incapability of family owned businesses to ensure competent family leadership across generations is still a major problem today. In particular, the results noted that most family-owned businesses were unable to identify their future needs with respect to talents; found it difficult to discuss potential successors with members of their families and could not generate a pool of suitable candidates. Other obstacles to succession planning included the lack of interest on the part of the members of the family and complicated emotional factors in the incumbent-successor relationship. This paper contributes to the succession planning discourse with a specific reference to family-owned businesses in South African townships. Recommendations were made.
Cyclic reduction on distributed shared memory machines

Cyclic reduction for the solution of linear equation systems with banded matrices exhibits fine to medium grain potential parallelism with regular but diverse data dependencies. We consider the parallel implementation for this algorithm on a distributed shared memory machine with different programming models. As distributed shared memory machine we use the Convex SPP2000. We compare the runtime results with results from a Cray T3E.
Acetate, the key modulator of inflammatory responses in acute alcoholic hepatitis

Acute alcoholic hepatitis is characterized by disproportionate macrophage inflammatory cytokine responses to bacterial lipopolysaccharide. Lack of knowledge of the underlying mechanism has limited progress toward effective therapy. We postulated a novel mechanism by which ethanol increases histone acetylation, increasing proinflammatory gene transcription and cytokine synthesis. Cytokine responses to lipopolysaccharide in a human macrophage cell line cultured in 86 mM ethanol, 1 mM acetate, and normal media were measured by multiplex immunoassay. Changes in histone acetylation were determined by immunofluorescence microscopy and chromatin immunoprecipitation on presentation. The effect of ethanol and acetate on acetyl‐coenzyme A (acetyl‐coA) synthetases, which convert acetate to acetyl‐coA, the substrate for histone acetylation, was determined by quantitative reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction and immunoblotting. Knockdown of acetyl‐coA synthetases by short hairpin RNA (shRNA) was used to determine their role in ethanol's enhancement of the inflammatory cytokine response. Ethanol‐exposed macrophages developed enhanced interleukin 6 (IL6), IL8, and tumor necrosis factor alpha responses to lipopolysaccharide with time‐dependent increases in histone acetylation that could be prevented by inhibition of ethanol metabolism. Chromatin immunoprecipitation confirmed increased histone acetylation at promoter regions of specific cytokine genes. The effect of ethanol was reproduced by incubation with acetate, the principal hepatic metabolite of ethanol, and both ethanol and acetate reduced histone deacetylase activity and up‐regulated acetyl‐coA synthetases. Knockdown of the acetyl‐coA synthetases abrogated the effect of ethanol on cytokine production. Conclusion: Synthesis of metabolically available acetyl‐coA from acetate is critical to the increased acetylation of proinflammatory gene histones and consequent enhancement of the inflammatory response in ethanol‐exposed macrophages. This mechanism is a potential therapeutic target in acute alcoholic hepatitis. (HEPATOLOGY 2010)
Functional Expression and Site-directed Mutagenesis of a Synthetic Gene for a-Bungarotoxin *

In order to explore the structure-function relationships of the curaremimetic a-neurotoxins we have constructed and cloned a synthetic gene for Bungarus multicincfus a-bungarotoxin which is expressed in Escherichia coli. The recombinant a-bungarotoxin s expressed as a fusion protein with a-bungarotoxin linked to the COOH-terminal end of the T7 Gene 9-encoded coat protein. After treatment of the fusion protein with Factor Xa protease, a recombinant a-bungarotoxin is released that co-migrates with authentic a-bungarotoxin upon reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography and ion-exchange chromatography. Final yields of active recombinant a-bungarotoxin were about 0.4 mgfliter of starting bacterial culture. The recombinant a-bungarotoxin contains 10 additional residues linked to the NH,-terminal Ile of the a-bungarotoxin sequence due apparently to the inaccessibility of the engineered cleavage site to Factor Xa. Nevertheless, the recombinant a-bungarotoxin s capable of binding to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor with an apparent affinity that is only decreased “1.7-fold from that of authentic a-bungarotoxin. Alanine substitution of a residue, Asps0, highly conserved among a-neurotoxins and previously suggested to play a key role in receptor recognition, resulted in a recombinant a-bungarotoxin whose receptor binding activity is indistinguishable from authentic a-bungarotoxin.
Blockchains and Data Protection in the European Union

This paper examines data protection on blockchains and other forms of distributed ledger technology (‘DLT’). Transactional data stored on a blockchain, whether in plain text, encrypted form or after having undergone a hashing process, constitutes personal data for the purposes of the GDPR. Public keys equally qualify as personal data as a matter of EU data protection law. We examine the consequences flowing from that state of affairs and suggest that in interpreting the GDPR with respect to blockchains, fundamental rights protection and the promotion of innovation, two normative objectives of the European legal order, must be reconciled. This is even more so given that, where designed appropriately, distributed ledgers have the potential to further the GDPR’s objective of data sovereignty.