Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Success factor validation for global ERP programmes

Previous research has determined that women and men process information differently and have unique values. These findings are further confirmed in the context of online shopping where women are known to have diverse preferences from men related to website design, and different sentiments regarding website trust and security. Yet despite these known differences, relatively there is little research has examined gender and website design. Further, although online shoppers hail from all corners of the globe, no research has examined gender differences concerning website design in a multicultural sample. To fill this gap, the current investigation examined differences between men and women with a focus on trust, satisfaction, loyalty, and website design in eight countries. Results demonstrate significant differences between men and women on all variables tested. Further analyses of four of the countries in the sample (China, Canada, the United States, and Germany) are compared related to socio-cultural values for masculinity-femininity. As expected, countries more alike on this dimension exhibited more similarities in terms of gender comparisons. All hypotheses in the study are supported. Suggestions are made regarding avenues for future research.
Multibiometric authentication with MATLAB simulation

Multimodal Biometric Authentication has been used as more security purpose for establishing the user Identification, Authentication and Verification purpose. Multimodal Biometric like Fingerprint and iris are used in this research work for authentication purpose using Matlab simulation. Fingerprint recognition process like Image Enhancement, binarization, Segmentation, thinning, Minutia marking, and Matching are performed with various techniques like Histogram Equalization, Adaptive Binarization, Morphological operations, Minutiae based techniques etc.,Iris recognition process like Segmentation, Normalization, Encoding and Matching are performed with various techniques like Canny edge detection, Daughman’s Rubber sheet model, Hamming Distance etc., can be applied for Fingerprint and iris recognition for authentication purpose. Finally Performance the measure of Precision, Recall, F-Score and Accuracy has evaluated in both fingerprint and iris. It can be concluded Iris Accuracy is higher 0.96% compared with fingerprint accuracy 0.81%.
Curiosity-Aware Bargaining Cédric

Opponent modeling consists in modeling the strategy or preferences of an agent thanks to the data it provides. In the context of automated negotiation and with machine learning, it can result in an advantage so overwhelming that it may restrain some casual agents to be part of the bargaining. We qualify as “curious” an agent driven by the desire of negotiating in order to collect information and improve its opponent model. However, neither curiosity-based rationality nor curiosity-robust protocol have been studied in automatic negotiation. In this paper, we rely on mechanism design to propose three extensions of the standard bargaining protocol that limit information leak. Those extensions are supported by an enhanced rationality model, that considers the exchanged information. Also, they are theoretically analyzed and experimentally evaluated.
2 Nanofiber Reinforced Composite Polymer Electrolyte Membranes

The path breaking studies of Wright and Armand on ionically conducting polymers, called “polymer electrolytes” in the 1970s have opened an innovative area of materials research with potential applications in the power sources industry (Fenton et al., 1973). The main applications of the polymer electrolytes are in rechargeable lithium batteries as an alternative to liquid electrolytes (Chen et al., 2002; Lobitz et al., 1992). The advantages such as no leakage of electrolyte, higher energy density, flexible geometry and improved safety hazards have drawn the attention of many researchers on the development of lithium polymer batteries and other electrochemical devices such as supercapacitors, electrochromic windows, and sensors (Gray, 1991). In batteries being a separator membrane polymer electrolyte must meet the following requirements. 1. high ionic conductivity 2. high cationic transference number 3. good dimensional stability 4. high electrochemical stability and chemical compatibility with both Li anode and cathode material and 5. good mechanical stability. The need for high ionic conductivity arises from the fact that at what rate or how fast energy from a Li-battery can be drained, which largely depends on the extent of ionic mobility in the electrolyte and hence on ionic conductivity. For battery applications, along with high ionic conductivity the electrolyte material must be dimensionally stable since the polymer electrolyte will also function as separator in the battery, which will provide electrical insulation between the cathode and the anode. This implies that it must be possible to process polymer electrolyte into freestanding film with adequate mechanical strength. Requirement of high cationic transport number rather than anionic is also important in view of the battery performance because concentration gradients caused by the mobility of both cations and anions in the electrolyte arise during discharging, which may result in premature battery failure. Recent advances in nanotechnology have made materials and devices easier to be fabricated at the nanoscale. Nanofibres and nanowires with their huge surface area to volume ratio, about a thousand times higher than that of a human hair, have the potential to significantly improve current technology and find applications in new areas. Nanofibers in particular,
Virulence Dynamics and Breeding for Resistance to Stripe, Stem, and Leaf Rust in Canada Since 2000.

Wheat (Triticum spp.) is a major field crop in Canada in terms of acreage, annual production, and export market value. There are nine classes of Canadian wheat based on growth habit (winter or spring), kernel hardness (hard or soft), seed coat color (red or white), and quality factors (grain protein content and gluten strength). Wheat was described by Newman in 1928 as "the economic fairy to the industrial and commercial life of Canada, having built practically the whole economic structure of the Prairie Provinces. " Wheat production in Canada is affected by several biotic and abiotic stresses. The major abiotic stresses are frost damage, drought, and heat stress. Among biotic stresses, diseases caused by fungal pathogens are the most important although wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV) has caused some localized outbreaks in some years. In context of cultivar registration in Canada, there are certain diseases that breeders have to take into account while developing resistant cultivars. The Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye, and Triticale (PRCWRT) classify wheat diseases into priority one, priority two, and priority three depending on prevalence and potential damage they can cause. However, priority one diseases are more of a concern and a minimum level of resistance in commercial cultivars is recommended for those.
Radiation Characteristics of a Probe-Fed Microstrip Patch Antenna on a Finite Grounded High Permittivity Substrate

Radiation characteristics of a probe-fed rectangular microstrip patch antenna printed on a finite grounded high permittivity substrate are investigated systematically for various square grounded dielectric substrate sizes with several thicknesses and dielectric constants by experiment and full wave simulation. The effect of the substrate size on the radiation characteristics of a rectangular patch antenna is mainly determined by the effective dielectric constant of surface waves on a grounded dielectric substrate. As the effective dielectric constant of surface waves increases, the substrate sizes for the maximum broadside gain and the required onset for a large magnitude of squint angle decrease, while the variations of the broadside gain, the front-to-back ratio, and the magnitude of squint angle versus the substrate size increase due to the increase of the power of the surface wave.
Autonomous Localization of Hexapod Walking Robot

Vision-based localization of hexapod walking robot is addressed in this thesis. In particular, localization methods called Simultaneous localization and mapping that are based on visual approaches have been studied. In recent years, several methods of simultaneous localization and mapping using detection of salient points in the robot’s environment by various types of cameras were developed. Some of these methods were proved to be very effective for localization of wheeled robots. However, in this thesis, we address more challenging visual localization of hexapod walking robot where sensors suffer from motion blur, the robot’s oscillations and fast rotations around several axes, induced by the robot’s locomotion. Three different simultaneous localization and mapping methods (S-PTAM, ORB-SLAM2 and RGB-D SLAM v2) in combination with three different types of sensors are evaluated in this thesis. Moreover, we propose to evaluate performance of the localization methods by evaluation proposed in literature that has been further improved according to performed experimental deployments of the robot. Experiments with localization systems were performed on a low-cost hexapod platform in an office environment. Based on the presented results, we can conclude that the evaluated vision based localization can provide relatively accurate position estimation of the hexapod robot especially for short term localization. For more demanding cases, we propose to use enhance the position estimation by active localization approaches.
The Setaria viridis genome and diversity panel enables discovery of a novel domestication gene

We present a platinum-quality genome assembly for the model grass Setaria viridis, and high quality genomic sequences of 600+ wild accessions (average 42.6x coverage). Presence-absence variation (PAV) and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identify several subpopulations in North America. Using genome-wide association mapping plus CRISPR-Cas9 technology, we identified and validated Less Shattering1 (SvLES1), a gene for seed shattering with a retrotransposon insertion in the domesticated S. italica (foxtail millet) allele. We also identified a candidate gene for erect leaves, orthologous to the maize gene liguleless2. These results demonstrate the utility of the model plant S. viridis for complex trait dissection in panicoid crops.
Wideband, Low-Profile, Dual-Polarized Slot Antenna with an AMC Surface for Wireless Communications

A wideband dual-polarized slot antenna loaded with artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is proposed for WLAN/WIMAX and LTE applications. The slot antenna mainly consists of two pairs of arrow-shaped slots along the diagonals of the square patch. Stepped microstrip feedlines are placed orthogonally to excite the horizontal and vertical polarizations of the antenna. To realize unidirectional radiation and low profile, an AMC surface composed of 7 × 7 unit cells is designed underneath a distance of ( being the wavelength in free space at 2.25 GHz) from the slot antenna. Both the dual-polarized slot antenna and the AMC surface are fabricated and measured. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed antenna achieves for both polarizations a wide impedance bandwidth (return loss 10 dB) of 36.7%, operating from 1.96 to 2.84 GHz. The isolation between the two input ports keeps higher than 29 dB whereas the cross-polarization levels basically maintain lower than −30 dB across the entire frequency band. High front-to-back ratios better than 22 dB and a stable gain higher than 8 dBi are obtained over the whole band.
PGRMC1 phosphorylation status and cell plasticity 1: glucose metabolism, mitochondria, and mouse xenograft tumorigenesis

ABSTRACT Background Progesterone Receptor Membrane Component 1 (PGRMC1) is expressed in many cancer cells, where it is associated with detrimental patient outcomes. Multiple different functions and cellular locations have been attributed to PGRMC1 in a variety of contexts, however the mechanisms underlying PGRMC1 biology remain obscure. The protein contains several phosphorylated residues including tyrosines which were acquired in animal evolution prior to bilateral symmetry, and could be involved with animal cell differentiation mechanisms. Results Here we demonstrate that mutagenic manipulation of PGRMC1 phosphorylation status in MIA PaCa-2 pancreatic cells exerts broad pleiotropic effects, influencing cell plasticity and tumorigenicity, as assayed by cell biological and proteomics measurements. Relative to parental cells over-expressing hemagglutinin-tagged wild-type PGRMC1-HA, cells expressing a PGRMC1-HA-S57A/S181A double mutant exhibited reduced levels of proteins involved in energy metabolism and mitochondrial function, and altered glucose metabolism suggesting modulation of the Warburg effect. This was associated with Rho-kinase inhibitor-sensitive changes including altered cell shape, motility, increased PI3K/Akt activity, and fragmented mitochondrial morphology. An S57A/Y180F/S181A triple mutant reduced PI3K/Akt activity, indicating involvement of Y180 in PI3K/Akt induction. Both triple mutant and Y180F single mutant cells exhibited attenuated mouse xenograft tumor growth. Conclusions Phosphorylation status of the PGRMC1 tyrosine 180 regulatory motif exerts dramatic influence over cancer cell biology, including Warburg effect-like glucose metabolism. In accompanying papers we show that: 1) the cells examined here exhibit dramatically altered metabolism and epigenetic status, with the triple mutant inducing hypermethylation similar to that of embryonic stem cells, and that 2) Y180 was acquired in evolution concurrently with appearance of the organizer that induces animal gastrulation. Taken together, these results indicate that the undescribed mechanisms regulating PGRMC1 phosphorylation may be of great disease relevance and merit urgent investigation.
High Temperature Graphite Simulations Using Molecular Dynamics

HEHR, BRIAN DOUGLAS. High Temperature Graphite Simulations using Molecular Dynamics. (Under the direction of Ayman I. Hawari). Graphite, a major structural and moderator material in the proposed Generation IV reactor roadmap, is expected to experience irradiation at temperatures up to 1800 K. In this study, molecular dynamics (MD) is employed to investigate the physical properties of graphite from 0 K to 1800 K. MD applies the classical laws of physics to simulate atomisticlevel behavior, and from the observed microscopic data, macroscopic properties may be surmised. For the purposes of this study, a graphite-specific MD code was created and benchmarked against high temperature graphite data. Modifications were introduced into the interatomic potential function as needed to fit experimental measurements. Graphite-specific modifications include a plane-by-plane center of mass velocity correction, an additional potential energy cutoff function for out-of-plane displacements, and temperature-dependent parameterization of the potential function. These adjustments were fitted to high temperature measurements of thermal expansion and mean squared displacement. The refined MD model of graphite was subsequently utilized to examine the threshold displacement energy at temperatures ranging from 300 K to 1800 K. It was found that the threshold energy depends strongly on the knock-on direction, as is expected due to the highly anisotropic nature of graphite. MD calculations of the threshold energy exhibited good agreement with the results of two electron irradiation studies. High Temperature Graphite Simulations Using Molecular Dynamics
Above-ground tree biomass equations and nutrient pools for a paraclimax chestnut stand and for a climax oak stand in the Sierra de Francia Mountains, Salamanca, Spain

Above-ground tree biomass and total amounts of nutrients in biomass were estimated at two plots: the first in a Castanea sativa Mill. paraclimax coppice and the second in a Quercus pyrenaica (Wild.) climax forest, both of them located in the south of the Salamanca (Spain), by harvesting 10 trees at each plot. In order to obtain the best fit possible, for these analyses, four regression equations were applied: linear, logarithmic, potential and exponential. In the chestnut coppice, the best fits were obtained using the exponential regression, while for the oak plot the best fit was obtained with the linear regression. A parametric analysis was also performed for each fraction of the tree biomass between both plots. This revealed that, total biomass and that of the trunks, branches and leaves at the chestnut coppice were significantly greater than those found at the oak plot. At the chestnut coppice for the nutrients (except carbon) significant differences were observed between leaves, branches and trunks, the highest concentrations being found in the leaves, followed by the branches and the trunks. This order was also observed at the oak plot, with the exception of calcium, which did not reveal significant differences between the branches and the trunks. Key words: Above-ground biomass, allometric method, nutrient storage, forest ecosystems, Castanea sativa, Quercus pyrenaica.
AGENCY VS. STEWARDSHIP: PERFORMANCE, STRATEGIC FLEXIBILITY AND RISK

With taxpayers subsidizing the survival of publicly traded firms, questions of corporate governance, including the steward versus agency design of the firm, are now public policy issues. We use publicly traded insurance firms in the United States to study the value and risk relationship of agency versus stewardship firms. We find that stewardship and agency firms have different timing-related performance perspectives, have different degrees of strategic flexibility, and manage short term, or operational risk, and longer term risk differently. Our findings are consistent with the predictions of corporate governance theory.
Effects of High Intensity Interval Training and Curcumin Supplement on Glutathione Peroxidase (GPX) Activity and Malondialdehyde (MDA) Concentration of the Liver in STZ Induced Diabetic Rats

iabetes prevalence is increasing throughout the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of diabetic patients will reach to at least 366,000,000 persons, until 2030 (1). Diabetes prevalence is growing in both developing and developed countries (1). The high concentration of glucose causes adverse endothelial effects among diabetic patients. Indeed, production of free-radicals and oxidative stress induce adverse endothelial performance that is relevant to hyperglycemia (2). The oxidative stress due to reactive oxygen species (ROS), which is created by D 1. PhD student of Biochemistry and Exercise Metabolism, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran branch, Tehran, Iran. 2. Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran branch, Tehran, Iran. 3. Professor, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran branch, Tehran, Iran.
, 1990-OL 4 t OliTopical homophily on the meme spreading in online social networks /

One of the central problems in the computational social science is to understand how information spreads in online social networks. Some works state that people using these networks may not cope with the amount of information due to cognitive restrictions, resulting in a limit of attention spent reading and sharing messages. A competition scenario emerges, where memes of messages want to be remembered and shared in order to outlast others. This research is concerned with building empirical evidence that homophily plays a role in the success of each meme over the competition. Homophily is an effect observed when people prefer to interact with those they identify with. By gathering data from Twitter, we clustered memes into topics that are used to characterize the homophily. We executed a computational experiment, based on a simplified memory model of meme adoption, and verified that the adoption is influenced by topical homophily.
AN UPDATE ON THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COMPUTED DELTA VS AND IMPACT SPEEDS FOR OFFSET CRASH TESTS

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety evaluates some aspects of new vehicle crashworthiness based on performance in a 40 percent frontal offset test into a deformable barrier. The impact speed of 64 km/h used in this program has been criticized as being too high and not representative of real-world crashes. At the 1996 Enhanced Safety of Vehicles conference, the estimated crash severities of a sample of real-world crashes from the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS) were compared with the Institute's 64 km/h offset crash tests of 16 midsize 1995-96 model four-door cars. Injury likelihood from the NASS sample was related to the test speed through delta V using the CRASH3 damage-only algorithm. Results from that study suggest that a 40 percent frontal offset test into a deformable barrier conducted at a speed less than 64 km/h would represent a crash severity that is lower than a large number of real-world car crashes with serious injuries. The present study expands on the previous work by providing one additional year of NASS data and results from 41 additional crash tests of 1995-98 model cars, passenger vans, and utility vehicles. Delta V and injury data were collected for real-world offset crashes from NASS for each of the three vehicle types and separated by restraint use. Results indicate that for cars, the Institute's 64 km/h frontal offset test represents a crash severity that encompasses about 80 percent of all real-world crashes with AIS 3 or greater injuries (ie the remainder occur at higher crash severities) but only about 33 percent of all fatal crashes. (A) For the covering abstract see IRRD E102514.
Downward Control from the Lower Stratosphere

Abstract The concept of downward control proposes a mechanism for the impact of the stratospheric circulation on the troposphere. Momentum forcing at upper-stratospheric levels induces a meridional circulation that eventually reaches the surface. So far, a lack of sufficiently accurate data hindered an observational test of this downward propagation. The concept is extended in this paper by looking at the effect of angular momentum forcing in prescribed regions in the lower stratosphere on the tropospheric circulation. In that case, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis Project (ERA) data can be used to investigate the atmospheric response to forcing in a prescribed domain. It is found that these forcing events are quite short lived and that angular momentum flux convergence in the prescribed domain is highly correlated with convergence outside this forcing area. Typically, these fields of convergence and also divergence extend to the surface in a quasibarotropic manner outside.
Comparing Survey and Sampling Methods for Reaching Sexual Minority Individuals in Flanders

Abstract As part of a large sexual health study, we used two different approaches to target Sexual Minority Individuals (SMIs). Firstly, we drew on a probability sample (1,832 respondents aged 14-80) of the Flemish population in Belgium. Secondly, we set up a targeted sampling design followed by an Internet survey. Our focus was to explore how two different sampling procedures and survey designs could lead to differences in sample characteristics. Results showed that for female SMIs (we excluded male SMIs from the analyses due to their low numbers) the population sample differed from the Internet sample in terms of sociodemographic characteristics (the latter included younger and more highly educated respondents) and scores on sexual orientation dimensions (the population sample included more respondents who didn’t identify as lesbian or bisexual but reported same-sex sexual experiences and desire). Respondents’ scores on sexual health indicators differed between the samples for two of the seven variables. We discuss implications for improving the quality and validity of nonrandom samples.