Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCE OF COLLABORATIVE LEARNING METHODS EMPLOYED IN HOSPITALITY FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 1

As conventional teaching methods can no longer be used as the sole instruction approach in higher education, student-centred teaching methods should be employed. The primary objective of this study was to identify students? experience of collaborative learning methods applied in Hospitality Financial Management 1. A descriptive study using an existing questionnaire was used to collect data from 220 Tshwane University of Technology students. The questionnaire was distributed electronically using survey-monkey. Descriptive data-analysis techniques were used. In general, students expressed satisfaction with the collaborative learning experience as well as with the teaching aids employed. Most students disagreed that their group marks were lower than those they would have attained on their own. Equal numbers of respondents experienced either satisfaction or frustration during the collaborative learning experience.
Adapting a global quality management system to a local site

In order to be competitive in today's market which is characterized by rapid changes, increased competition, and stringent regulations, companies need to align their business processes with customer needs and requirements. Implementing a quality management system (QMS) can enable companies to not only identify their key business processes, but also to manage them in a structured way towards creating a higher customer satisfaction. This thesis focuses on a Swedish company operating within the medical technology industry. It has implemented a global QMS and held several ISO certifications. Their global processes seem to be under control, however, as to utilize the system to its full potential, the local sites’ needs and requirements must also be addressed. This puts pressure on the company to implement more adapted QMS for local market sites. The purpose of this thesis is to assist one local site in becoming compliant to the company's internal quality requirements and to bring the site closer to an ISO certification. Critical success factors, QMS implementations, organizational readiness and drivers have been investigated to provide recommendations for the implementation. Several qualitative research methods have been used, including an action research approach due to that employee involvement was a necessity. Triangulation has been applied to increase validity and reliability. By identifying compliance gaps to the company’s internal requirement and then prioritizing them in a structured way, an implementation strategy could be formed. This served as a basis for the QMS. One of the most important critical success factors, as pointed out in the literature, is employee motivation. This was therefore researched at the case company in order to provide appropriate recommendations. Due to fact that the case company values quality, motivation for the QMS was expressed from the start. With this in mind, the case company was recommended to involve the employees in the implementation phase right away to make sure that they felt included. As a result of this thesis and the emphasis on quality at the case company, a 10% resource was hired at the site that would only focus on the implementation of the suggested QMS.
Development of biofilm in anaerobic reactors treating wastewater from coffee grain processing

In recent decades the use of anaerobic fixed bed reactors has been established in Brazil for the treatment of different effluents. As the capability of retaining microorganisms by support media (fixed bed) is a factor influencing the performance of these reactors, the present study aims at evaluating the influence of three fixed bed on the effectiveness of treating an effluent with high pollution potential: wastewater from coffee grain processing (WCP), with organic matter concentrations varying from 812 to 5320 mg L-1 in the form of chemical oxygen demand (COD). Support media used for the immobilization of biomass were: blast furnace slag, polyurethane foam and #2 crushed stone with porosities of 53, 95 and 48%, respectively. The mean efficiency of COD removal in the reactor filled with polyurethane foam was 80%, attributed to its higher porosity index, which also provided greater retention and fixation of biomass which, when quantified as total volatile solids, was found to be 1301 mg g-1 of foam. The biofilm was made up of various microorganisms, including rod, curved rods, cocci, filaments and morphologies similar to Methanosaeta sp. and Methanosarcina sp.
No . 4340 April 2004 ABSTRACT Market Stress and Herding *

Market Stress and Herding* We propose a new approach to detecting and measuring herding which is based on the cross-sectional dispersion of the factor sensitivity of assets within a given market. This method enables us to evaluate if there is herding towards particular sectors or styles in the market including the market index itself and critically we can also separate such herding from common movements in asset returns induced by movements in fundamentals. We apply the approach to an analysis of herding in the US and South Korean stock markets and find that herding towards the market shows significant movements and persistence independently from and given market conditions and macro factors. We find evidence of herding towards the market portfolio in both bull and bear markets. Contrary to common belief, the Asian Crisis and in particular the Russian Crisis reduced herding and are clearly identified as turning points in herding behaviour. JEL Classification: C12, C31, G12 and G14
Prolonged presence of effector‐memory CD8 T cells in the central nervous system after dengue virus encephalitis

Abstract Dengue virus infection in the central nervous system (CNS) of immunized mice results in a strong influx of CD8 T cells into the brain. Whereas the kinetics of the splenic antiviral response are conventional, i.e. expansion followed by a rapid drop in the frequency of specific CD8 T cells, dengue virus‐specific CD8 T cells are retained in the CNS at a high frequency. These CD8 T cells display a partially activated phenotype (CD69high, Ly‐6A/Ehigh, CD62Llow), characteristic for effector‐memory T cells. CD43 expression, visualized by staining with the 1B11 mAb, decreased in time, suggesting that these persisting CD8 T cells differentiated into memory cells. These data add to the growing evidence implicating the CNS as a non‐lymphoid tissue capable of supporting prolonged T cell survival/maintenance.
Contributions of cortical subventricular zone to the development of the human cerebral cortex

The cortical subventricular zone (SVZ), a proliferative compartment in the forebrain, has a uniquely important role during the second half of intrauterine development in human. This is best observed in numerous neonatal pathologies that result from prenatal SVZ damage. These conditions highlight a need to better understand the contribution of the SVZ to the development of the human cerebral cortex. With this goal in mind, we analyzed histological organization, cell proliferation, and molecular diversity in the human fetal SVZ from 7–27 gestational weeks (gw) using light and electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, and in vitro methods. Complex histological organization distinguishes human cortical SVZ from that of other mammals. In vitro quantification showed that ∼50% of cells in the VZ/SVZ region are neurons, 30% are astroglia, 15% are nestin+ cells, with other cell types representing smaller fractions. Immunolabeling with BrdU showed that a considerable number of cells (∼10%) are generated in the human cortical SVZ during midgestation (18–24 gw) under in vitro conditions. Immunofluorescence with cell type‐specific markers and BrdU revealed that all major cell types, neural precursors (nestin+), astroglia including radial glia (GFAP+, vimentin+), and oligodendrocyte progenitors (PDGFR‐α+) were proliferating. An increase in the ratio of the size of the SVZ to VZ, protracted period of cell proliferation, as well as cellular and histological complexity of the human fetal SVZ are directly related to the evolutionary expansion of the human cerebral cortex. J. Comp. Neurol. 491:109–122, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Fiscal inequity: A case study of superintendents and business managers in Pennsylvania high poverty school districts

v List of Tables . xii Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 Pennsylvania Education Funding . 3 High Poverty Districts . 6 Financing at the Local Level . 6 Statement of the Problem . 8 Purpose Statement . 9 Research Questions . 10 Definition of Terms . 10 Adequacy . 10 Aid ratio . 11 Equity . 11 High Poverty School District . 11 Millage rate . 11 Theoretical Framework . 11 Delimitations . 12 Significance of Study . 13 Practice . 13 Policy . 14 Research . 14 Overview of Dissertation . 15
An improved artificial immune system for solving loading problems in flexible manufacturing systems

Flexible manufacturing system (FMS) has been a focal point in manufacturing related research for improving competitiveness. Machine loading problem in FMS is known to be NP-hard problems and its complexity so extensive that even small problems take excessive computational time to reach the optimal solution. Since the problem has been recognized as one of the most important planning problems, it needs to be solved before actual manufacturing. The objective of the loading problems is to minimize the system unbalance and maximize the throughput satisfying the technological constraints such as availability of machining time and tool slots. To ease the tedious computations, and to get a good solution for large problems, this paper proposes an improved artificial immune system algorithm. It demonstrated the capabilities of the proposed algorithm to converge faster and to a better solution than other comparable techniques. For the same cause, the proposed algorithm has been tested over a set of benchmark problems taken from open literature.
Formulation and evaluation of fluconazole pro-niosomal gel for topical administration

The present investigation was aimed to explore the potential of proniosomal gel for the topical delivery of fluconazole. Fluconazole-loaded proniosomes were prepared by the coacervation method using different non-ionic surfactants (spans and tweens) and evaluated for various parameters like size, shape, stability, entrapment efficiency, in-vitro release, ex-vivo skin permeation and retention study. Results showed that proniosomes composed of span20 (F1), span60 (F4), span80 (F7) were more stable compared with tween20 (F10) and tween80 (F13) with smaller size, “i.e.” 4.08±0. 18µm, 2.61±0.15 µm, 2.01±0.12 µm, 8.56±0.20 µm, and 7.10±0.31 µm, respectively, along with higher entrapment efficiency (approx. >46%). Ex-vivo skin penetration and retention studies revealed that cutaneous deposition was affected by the nature of surfactant and vesicle size. Therefore the proniosomes containing span 60 having high amount of drug retained in skin, “i.e.” 25.97±1.28 which can help in localized delivery of drug especially in fungal mediated skin diseases, thereby increased efficacy for prolonged period can be achieved.
Security Model for Healthcare Application In Cloud Computing

Personal Health Records (PHRs) is based on cloud virtual machine in web oriented application in which the lifelong health data of patients, who should be able to show them conveniently and securely to selected disables in an institution. The MyPHRMachines, a cloud-based PHR system taking a radically new architectural solution to health record portability. In MyPHR Machines, health-related data and the application software to view and analyze it are separately deployed in the PHR system. After uploading their medical data to MyPHRMachines, patients can access them again from remote virtual machines that contain the right software to visualize and analyze them without any need for conversion. Patients can share their remote virtual machine session with selected caregivers, my aim at providing patients (and their trusted caregivers) remote desktop or tablet computer access to all their PHR data, and support this access by the software that matches the data format. Since do not tackle semantic data integration in the paper, one can more specifically label this as health record mobility and portability. The person will need only a Web browser to access the pre-loaded fragments of their lifelong PHR.
Semantische Struktur und die Verarbeitung von Sätzen

Im ersten Kapitel („Einleitung: Hinfuhrung zum Problem“) erlautert er die seiner Ansicht nach bestehenden Unzulanglichkeiten verschiedener Sprachverarbeitungstheorien, die der Syntax eine dominierende Rolle zuweisen und die Bedeutung der Semantik vernachlassigen. Im zweiten Kapitel stellt er Noam Chomskys Syntax-Theorie in Ausschnitten dar, wobei er wesentliche Punkte anhand von Beispielen erklart. Im folgenden Kapitel uber „Die Relevanz der Phrasenstruktur fur die Satzverarbeitung“ werden verschiedene Experimente zur Satzverarbeitung vorgestellt. Aufgrund der Ergebnisse dieser Experimente wurden die Phrasenstrukturregeln zum Mittelpunkt einiger Satzverarbeitungstheorien. Zwei dieser Theorien behandelt das vierte Kapitel unter dem Titel „Psychologische Theorien der Satzproduktion“. Engelkamp legt dar, inwieweit diese Theorien mit den Ergebnissen der Experimente ubereinstimmen. Im funften Kapitel uber „Die Bedeutung der Wortbedeutung“ zeigt er, wie Worter nach ihren semantischen Merkmalen eingeteilt werden konnen. Dabei wird deutlich, dass es keine einheitliche oder objektive Methode zur Bestimmung der semantischen Merkmale gibt. Im anschliesenden Kapitel „Von der Wortbedeutung zur Satzbedeutung“ erlautert der Autor, wie sich die Satzbedeutung aus der Kombination der semantischen Merkmale zusammensetzt. Des weiteren geht er auf die Rolle des Verbs im Satz und seine Beziehung zu den Satzteilen ein. Diese theoretischen Uberlegungen werden im siebten Kapitel uber „Die Konstruktion des Versuchsmaterials“ an Bespielsatzen uberpruft. Im achten Kapitel uber „Codiervorgange und ihre Messung“ erklart Engelkamp, welche Methoden zu dem Versuch geeignet sind, die Wirkung von semantischen Beziehungen zwischen Wortern eines Satzes auf die Satzverarbeitung nachzuweisen. Im Anschluss daran formuliert er im neunten Kapitel die zu prufenden „Hypothesen“, den „Versuchsaufbau und Versuchsablauf“ zeigt er im zehnten Kapitel. In den drei folgenden Kapiteln „Zum Einflus der syntaktischen Struktur auf das Lernen von Satzen“, „Vergleich der Befunde N und K“ und „Vergleich der Bedingungen V und K“ („N“, „K“ und „V“ stehen dabei fur die im Experiment verwendeten Satze) geht der Autor auf die Ergebnisse seines Experiments ein und stellt sie den Resultaten ahnlicher Versuche gegenuber. Das letzte Kapitel „Abschliesende Diskussion“ weist auf Ziele der weiteren Erforschung der Satzverarbeitung hin. Es folgen eine Zusammenfassung, ein Literaturverzeichnis und Anhang.
A Randomized, Double‐Blind, Multicenter Comparison of the Efficacy and Tolerability of Restylane Versus Zyplast for the Correction of Nasolabial Folds

BACKGROUND. Bovine collagen is extensively used for facial soft tissue augmentation but provides only temporary correction and can cause hypersensitivity reactions. Hyaluronic acid derivatives potentially offer improved longevity of correction and a reduced risk of immunogenicity and hypersensitivity. OBJECTIVE. To compare the efficacy and safety of nonanimal stabilized hyaluronic acid gel (Restylane; Q‐Med, Uppsala, Sweden) with that of bovine collagen (Zyplast) for treatment of nasolabial folds. METHODS. One hundred thirty‐eight patients with prominent nasolabial folds were randomized to treatment with hyaluronic acid gel and bovine collagen on contralateral sides of the face. Treatments were repeated at 2‐week intervals, as required, to achieve “optimal cosmetic result” (baseline). Outcomes were evaluated by a blinded investigator at 2, 4, and 6 months after baseline. RESULTS. Less injection volume was required for “optimal cosmetic result” with hyaluronic acid gel than with bovine collagen, and patients and investigators judged hyaluronic acid gel to be more effective in maintaining cosmetic correction. The investigator‐based Wrinkle Severity Rating Scale and Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale assessments at 6 months after baseline indicated that hyaluronic acid gel was superior in 56.9% and 62.0% of patients, respectively, whereas bovine collagen was superior in 9.5% and 8.0% of patients, respectively. The frequency, intensity, and duration of local injection‐site reactions were similar for the two products. CONCLUSION. Nonanimal stabilized hyaluronic acid provides a more durable aesthetic improvement than bovine collagen and is well tolerated.
A multi-hypothesis solution to data association for the two-frame SLAM problem

We propose a multi-hypothesis solution to the simplified problem of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) that arises when only two measurement frames are available. The proposed solution is obtained through direct evaluation of the posterior density as given by finite set statistics. We show that hypothesis probabilities can be evaluated within reasonable accuracy by means of a closed-form expression. Consistency properties are discussed extensively. We overcome inconsistency problems of the extended Kalman filter by means of natural gradient optimization, and we demonstrate through implementations on simulated and real data that the proposed approach has better consistency properties than alternative approaches when applied to the two-frame SLAM problem.
Characterizing geo-located tweets in brazilian megacities

This work presents a framework for collecting, processing and mining geo-located tweets in order to extract meaningful and actionable knowledge in the context of smart cities. We collected and characterized more than 9M tweets from the two biggest cities in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. We performed topic modeling using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation model to produce an unsupervised distribution of semantic topics over the stream of geo-located tweets as well as a distribution of words over those topics. We manually labeled and aggregated similar topics obtaining a total of 29 different topics across both cities. Results showed similarities in the majority of topics for both cities, reflecting similar interests and concerns among the population of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Nevertheless, some specific topics are more predominant in one of the cities.
Defining nucleic acid-binding properties of avian retrovirus integrase by deletion analysis

Integration of retroviral DNA into the host genome requires the activity of retrovirus-encoded integration protein IN. We expressed Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) IN, 286 amino acid residues in length, by using in vitro transcription, followed by in vitro translation in rabbit reticulocyte lysate. The nucleic acid-binding activity of in vitro-translated IN was assessed by using DNA-cellulose affinity chromatography and poly(U)-Sepharose affinity chromatography and by sedimentation analysis in the presence or absence of DNA. In vitro-translated RSV IN exhibited nucleic acid-binding activity similar to that of IN purified from avian myeloblastosis virus. To identify regions of IN which bind to nucleic acids, several deletions of RSV IN were generated. The NH2-terminal 26 amino acids, including the two His residues of a His-Cys box, were not necessary for IN nucleic acid binding with any of the substrates tested. The substrates included native calf thymus DNA, poly(U), and a double-stranded linear DNA molecule with RSV long terminal repeat sequences at its termini. The COOH-terminal region (residues 178 to 286) of IN bound quantitatively (greater than 90%) to poly(U) and to single-stranded circular phi X174 DNA but did not exhibit the double-stranded linear DNA-binding ability of the entire IN molecule.
Proteoglycans in the central nervous system: Role in development, neural repair, and Alzheimer's disease

Proteoglycans (PGs) are major components of the cell surface and extracellular matrix and play critical roles in development and maintenance of the central nervous system (CNS). PGs are a family of proteins, all of which contain a core protein to which glycosaminoglycan side chains are covalently attached. PGs possess diverse physiological roles, particularly in neural development, and are also implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). The main functions of PGs in the CNS are reviewed as are the roles of PGs in brain injury and in the development or treatment of AD. © 2013 IUBMB Life, 65(2)108–120, 2013.
Possibility of superconductivity in the electron-hole liquid.

It is shown that an electron-hole liquid under suitable conditions can become superconducting. This conclusion is reached by using an effective electron-electron interaction which includes vertex corrections and multiple electron-hole scattering by means of local-field corrections. A simple parametrization is proposed for the latter, and the parameters are determined in a self-consistent manner. The superconducting transition temperature T/sub c/, the interaction parameters lambda and . mu. , and the characteristic frequency . omega. /sub 0/ are studied as functions of density, hole- to electron-mass ratio and valley degeneracy. T/sub c/ is estimated to be of an observable magnitude (T/sub c/approx.1 K) in some cases of interest. The mechanism of superconductivity is purely based on Coulomb interactions. The intermediate bosons responsible for pairing of the electrons are not acoustic plasmons but correlated pair excitations from the Fermi sea of the holes.
Exploiting array manipulation habits to optimize garbage collection and type flow analysis

A widespread practice to implement a flexible array is to consider the storage area into two parts: the used area, which is already available for read/write operations, and the supply area, which is used in case of enlargement of the array. The main purpose of the supply area is to avoid as much as possible the reallocation of the whole storage area in case of enlargement. As the supply area is not used by the application, the main idea of the paper is to convey the information to the garbage collector, making it possible to avoid completely the marking of the supply area. We also present a simple method to analyze the types of objects, which are stored in an array as well as the possible presence of NULL values within the array. This allows us to better specialize the work of the garbage collector when marking the used area, and also, by transitivity, to improve overall results for type analysis of all expressions of the source code. After introducing several abstract data types, which represent the main arrays concerned by our technique (i.e., zero or variable indexing, circular arrays and hash maps), we measure its impact during the bootstrap of two compilers whose libraries are equipped with these abstract data types. We then measure, on various software products we have not written, the frequency of certain habits of manipulation of arrays, to assess the validity of our approach. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.