Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Corporate social responsibility as a tool for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth

The recently adopted Strategy for the economic and social development of the EU - Europe Strategy 2020, recognizes the concept of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as one of the tools for the achievement of a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Although the integration of CSR concept into business strategies is made on voluntary bases, governments, civil sector, media and academia have an important role in its promotion. The aim of this paper is to analyse the role that CSR plays in the socio-economic development focusing on Serbia. While the Government perceives the importance of CSR for Serbian socio-economic development, it is noticeable that pressure on companies to undertake socially responsible activities made by media, NGOs, consumers and business partners is not remarkable. In addition, the business community still does not have enough CSR initiatives that would be both beneficial to the community and profitable for companies. The paper argues that education on CSR of the managers and the broader public is essential in raising the awareness of the benefits that CSR offer. Consequently, it would lead towards the wider implementation of CSR in Serbia.
STERYL GLUCOSIDES: A GENETIC APPROACH TO DETERMINE THEIR ROLE IN CELLULOSE SYNTHESIS AND LIPID METABOLISM IN ARABIDOPSIS by DANIEL FLOYD STUCKY

Steryl glucosides (SGs) are a common conjugate of sterols found in the plasma membranes of most plants and fungi, but their cellular functions remain largely unknown. Glycosylation of the C3 hydroxyl group of the sterol nucleus is catalyzed by UDP-glucose:steryl glucosyltransferase 80 (UGT80) enzymes. Two genes encoding UGT80A2 and UGT80B1 are responsible for most SG production in Arabidopsis thaliana, while UGT80C1 presents a putative third enzyme. In Arabidopsis, seed imbibition signals the epidermal seed coat cells to secrete an encapsulating mucilage that consists primarily of hydrated polysaccharides. Cellulose has been identified in the inner layer of the mucilage, providing a convenient model to study cellulose synthesis since seed mucilage is dispensable for viability and pectin and cellulose staining dyes are readily available. A reverse genetics and biochemical approach was used to characterize the role of UGT80 enzymes and their impact on cellulose synthesis in seed mucilage. ugt80B1 mucilage was found to have elongated cellulosic rays, but no defects in pectin synthesis. A double mutant of ugt80B1 and mum3-1, a mutant allele of CELLULOSE SYNTHASE 5 (CESA5), displays a novel phenotype with irregular cellulose patterning and extreme shedding of the pectinaceous layer surrounding the seed coat. The observed mucilage defects may be indicative of disrupted cellulose synthesis and a mechanistic relationship between SGs and the cellulose synthase machinery. UGT80A2 and B1 demonstrate glycosylation activity with a multitude of plant sterols. The two enzymes do display some substrate specificity, however, with UGT80A2 producing the large majority of sitosterol and stigmasterol glucoside compared to B1. UGT80C1 shows little or no sterol glucosyltransferase activity in vitro or in vivo and likely has evolved a different function from the two other genes. GFP:UGT80C1 expressed either from the constitutive 35S or from its native promoter was localized to lipid droplets and possibly chloroplasts as well, creating a new perspective on the role of the protein in plant lipid metabolism. This study extends the currently limited view of SGs as ubiquitous components of the plasma membrane to active regulators of cellulose synthesis in seeds. Evidence presented here changes the perceived role of the plant conserved protein, UGT80C1, from a putative steryl glucosyltransferase enzyme to having a function in intracellular lipid droplets.
Three-Dimensional CFD-Simulation of a Thermal Bubble Jet Printhead

SIMULATION PROCEDURE This paper reports on a three-dimensional simulation of a commercial, thermally actuated bubble jet printhead using an appropriate pressure boundary condition for the bubble nucleation and expansion. The ink jet system has been used as a realistic show case for the application of the volume of fluid (VOF) method that is implemented in the simulation package ACE+ of CFDRC (1). Comparing the results obtained by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with stroboscopic and gravimetric measurements, excellent agreement with experimental findings has been obtained. The differences in ejected droplet volume and droplet speed between simulation and experiment have been lower than 5 %. The simulation tool applied has been used to derive quantitative predictions not only in simplified two-dimensional test geometries, but also for the real three-dimensional device. It proves to be a valuable tool for cost- and time-efficient optimisation of printhead performance. Due to the complexity of the ejection process of a thermally actuated bubble jet printer including heating of a micro-heater, bubble nucleation, collapse of the vapour bubble and the actual droplet ejection no complete physical simulation could be accomplished so far. The simulation task is typically divided into smaller sub problems like actuation and ejection. To model the actuation it is necessary to find an appropriate pressure boundary condition to substitute the complicated bubble nucleation, expansion and collapse. Using this as input for the simulation package ACE+ of CFDRC a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation has been set up and the droplet ejection process has been studied. Using a complete three- dimensional model, instead of a simplified two-dimensional one, provides the opportunity to examine the influences occurring only in the three-dimensional case. For instance this can be the effect of asymmetric ink inlet channels or a non-spherical bubble shape. But also the effects appearing at problematic parts of the printhead geometry, for example problems of the capillary refilling at convex edges or transitions between the angular nozzle chamber and the round nozzle, can be examined in 3D simulations. A further advantage of the three-dimensional case is, that the realistic flight path of the droplet can be studied in dependence of the whole geometry.
Boundary Layer Flow and Heat Transfer of FMWCNT/Water Nanofluids over a Flat Plate

In the present study, the heat transfer and flow of water/FMWCNT (functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotube) nanofluids over a flat plate was investigated using a finite volume method. Simulations were performed for velocity ranging from 0.17 mm/s to 1.7 mm/s under laminar regime and nanotube concentrations up to 0.2%. The 2-D governing equations were solved using an in-house FORTRAN code. For a specific free stream velocity, the presented results showed that increasing the weight percentage of nanotubes increased the Nusselt number. However, an increase in the solid weight percentage had a negligible effect on the wall shear stress. The results also indicated that increasing the free stream velocity for all cases leads to thinner boundary layer thickness, while increasing the FMWCNT concentration causes an increase in the boundary layer thickness.
THE RESOLVED STELLAR POPULATION IN 50 REGIONS OF M83 FROM HST/WFC3 EARLY RELEASE SCIENCE OBSERVATIONS

We present a multi-wavelength photometric study of ∼15,000 resolved stars in the nearby spiral galaxy M83 (NGC 5236, D = 4.61 Mpc) based on Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 observations using four filters: F336W, F438W, F555W, and F814W. We select 50 regions (an average size of 260 pc by 280 pc) in the spiral arm and inter-arm areas of M83 and determine the age distribution of the luminous stellar populations in each region. This is accomplished by correcting for extinction toward each individual star by comparing its colors with predictions from stellar isochrones. We compare the resulting luminosity-weighted mean ages of the luminous stars in the 50 regions with those determined from several independent methods, including the number ratio of red-to-blue supergiants, morphological appearance of the regions, surface brightness fluctuations, and the ages of clusters in the regions. We find reasonably good agreement between these methods. We also find that young stars are much more likely to be found in concentrated aggregates along spiral arms, while older stars are more dispersed. These results are consistent with the scenario that star formation is associated with the spiral arms, and stars form primarily in star clusters and then disperse on short timescales to form the field population. The locations of Wolf–Rayet stars are found to correlate with the positions of many of the youngest regions, providing additional support for our ability to accurately estimate ages. We address the effects of spatial resolution on the measured colors, magnitudes, and age estimates. While individual stars can occasionally show measurable differences in the colors and magnitudes, the age estimates for entire regions are only slightly affected.
A Retrospective Study Evaluating Effectiveness of Concurrent And Adjuvant Temozolamide in Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme in Indian Population.

The standard of care for glioblastoma is surgical resection followed by adjuvant radiotherapy with concurrent and adjuvant temozolamide. However survival data and impact of temozolamide on survival in Indian population is scanty. Between January 2014 to December 2015, patients of glioblastoma who underwent surgery and had received post-operative radiotherapy(RT) with temozolomide(TMZ) were analyzed. A total of 16 patients who received RT/TMZ. Median overall survival (OS) of patients who received RT/TMZ was 11 months. On multivariate analysis age(p=0.005), KPS(p=0.05), extent of surgery(p=0.043) were found to affect survival. Concurrent radiotherapy and temozolamide followed by adjuvant temozolamide results in improved survival in glioblastoma. The benefit of temozolomide needs to be further evaluated by larger randomized trials in Indian population with particular emphasis on MGMT promoter methylation and other molecular markers.
The cluster of galaxies LCDCS‐S001 – II. r′ and i′ photometry, morphological analysis and improved kinematic parameters

We present photometric parameters of the galaxies in the direction of the galaxy cluster LCDCS-S001 and improved kinematic parameters from new spectroscopic observations. From GMOS multi-object spectroscopy, we have been able to confirm a new set of 10 cluster members, resulting in a total 22 objects from previous observations. With these data, a dispersion velocity of σ= 887 ± 249 km s−1, a virial radius R200= 0.98 ± 0.22 Mpc and a mass of M200= (5.4 ± 2.8) × 1014 M⊙ have been derived. From GMOS i′ and r′ images, we have extracted the individual sources and derived their magnitudes, relative positions and the bulge+disc brightness profile decomposition. We show that the cluster has an elongated morphology along the north–south direction, with ellipticity ɛ= 0.49 ± 0.14, well represented by a King model with a core radius RC= 283 ± 66 kpc, above the typical core radii of regular clusters. It shows at least one local overdensity, north-west from the cluster centre, very compact and with a very high central density. The i′ luminosity function of LCDCS-S001 has an almost flat faint-end, α=−1.16 ± 0.18. As for the constituent galaxies, we have found that a large fraction of the cluster galaxies are late-type systems. Extensive simulations were made in order to verify the validity of our conclusions. We discuss the implication of these results for the evolutionary status of LCDCS-S001 and conclude that this cluster is still dynamically young.
Evolving Prototypes Towards The Best-suited Design and Interaction Schema Using The Genetic Algorithm.

The recent advances in the mobile environment, such as multi-touch gestures paradigm, introduce new challenges for the interaction designers in producing the best-suited final prototype. Moreover, the short delivery-time pressure of the current mobile market makes it harder to perform the detailed evaluations for selecting the best prototype amongst the created ones. In this vision paper, we propose an approach for evolving the created prototypes towards the final prototype with the best-suited design and interaction schema. Our approach is based on using the Genetic Algorithm for searching the best solution (prototype with the best-suited design and interaction schema) from the set of created prototypes during the design phase. The proposed approach suits the mobile application development and would enhance the interaction designers’ ability of producing the final prototype of the target mobile application in an efficient and effective way. Author
The Impact of SQF Certification on U.S. Agri-Food Exports with a Focus on Product Quality

Many studies show that product quality plays an important role in determining the direction of trade. This paper uses the Safe Quality Food (SQF) certification as a proxy variable for quality to investigate its effect on U.S. exports. The results of this study show that only the highest level of SQF quality certification has a positive effect on U.S. agri-food exports. The results of this paper have three implications. Firms in the U.S. may want to become certified at the highest level of private standards if they are serious about increasing their exports. On the government side, they should consider employing high public standards or follow other strategies to promote development of high private standards. On the consumer side, SQF may have a signaling effect. SQF represents high quality in terms of food safety, which means that
The Identity and Social Mobility of Sama-Bajau

Rencana pendek ini adalah mengenai pengukuhan identiti dan kesannya ke atas mobiliti sosial di kalangan Sama-Bajau pra-merdeka, yang secara umumnya membabitkan mereka di tiga buah wilayah di Alam Melayu, iaitu Malaysia, Filipina dan Indonesia. Rencana ini cuba memberi tafsiran ke atas persoalan bagaimana dinamik dan proses pengukuhan identiti itu berkait secara terus dengan pergerakan sosial Sama-Bajau, dari keadaan yang tidak baik kepada yang lebih baik. Didapati ada tiga komponen utama identiti Sama-Bajau, iaitu Sama atau Bajau, bahasa, dan Islam. Ketiga-tiga dasar identiti ini berkait erat dengan tiga faktor lain, iaitu orang perahu, kurang nilai Islam dan ekonomi yang berasaskan laut dan pulau. Faktor-faktor inilah yang menjadi ciri kepada dasar identiti Sama-Bajau zaman pra-merdeka. Kepada anggota masyarakat yang berkuasa atau berpengaruh, ciri-ciri identiti Sama-Bajau ini dipandang sebagai amat rendah. Persepsi ini menyebabkan Sama-Bajau terasing dari masyarakat lain. Kebolehan Sama-Bajau untuk mempertingkat status sosialnya tertakluk kepada kedinamikaan proses pengukuhan identitinya. Berdasarkan pengalaman sejarah, Sama-Bajau di Malaysia, Filipina dan Indonesia menampakkan kejayaan mereka memartabatkan status sosial dari yang tidak baik kepada yang lebih baik kerana transformasi ke atas ciri-ciri identitinya. Mobiliti sosial ini memperlihatkan adanya dua gerak kuasa sosial yang menghalang mahupun mendorong kebolehan Sama-Bajau untuk membangunkan dirinya: faktor struktural dan faktor kebudayaan.
Model-Based Deadtime Compensation of Virtual Machine Startup Times

Scaling the amount of resources allocated to an application according to the actual load is a challenging problem in cloud computing. The emergence of autoscaling techniques allows for autonomous decisions to be taken when to acquire or release resources. The actuation of these decisions is however affected by time delays. Therefore, it becomes critical for the autoscaler to account for this phenomenon, in order to avoid over- or under-provisioning. This paper presents a delay-compensator inspired by the Smith predictor. The compensator allows one to close a simple feedback loop around a cloud application with a large, time-varying delay, preserving the stability of the controlled system. It also makes it possible for the closed-loop system to converge to a steady-state, even in presence of resource quantization. The presented approach is compared to a threshold-based controller with a cooldown period, that is typically adopted in industrial applications. (Less)
Effects of physical disturbance on infaunal and epifaunal assemblages in subtropical, intertidal seagrass beds

We assessed the impact of large-scale commercial and recreational harvesting of polychaete worms Marphysa spp. on macrobenthic assemblages in a subtropical estuary in Queensland, Australia, by examining: (1) the spatial extent of harvesting activities and the rate of recovery of the seagrass habitat over an 18 to 20 mo period; (2) the recovery of infauna in and around commercial pits of known age; (3) the indirect effects of physical disturbance from trampling and deposition of sediments during harvesting on epibenthos in areas adjacent to commercial and recreational pits; (4) impacts of potential indirect effects through manipulative experimentation. Harvesting caused a loss of seagrass, changes to the topography and compaction of the sediments associated with the creation of walls around commercial pits, and the deposition of rubble dug from within the pit. The walls and rubble were still evident after 1.8 to 20 mo, but comprised only a small proportion of the total area on the intertidal banks. There was a shift from an intertidal area dominated by Zostera capricorni to one with a mixture of Z. capricorni, Halophila spp. and Halodule uninervis, but there was no overall decline in the biomass of seagrass in these areas. There were distinct impacts from harvesting on the abundance of benthic infauna, especially amphipods, polychaetes and gastropods, and these effects were still detectable after 4 mo of potential recovery. After 12 me, there were no detectable differences in the abundances of these infauna between dug areas and reference areas, which suggested that infauna had recovered from impacts of harvesting; however, an extensive bloom of toxic fireweed Lyngbya majsucula may have masked any remaining impacts. There were no detectable impacts of harvesting on epifauna living in the seagrass immediately around commercial or recreational pits.
When risk‐based regulation aims low: A strategic framework

This article develops a strategic framework for regulators to employ when choosing intervention strategies for dealing with low risks and reviewing performance, building on the analysis by the same authors in the previous edition of this journal. The framework occupies the operational “middle ground” between risk analysis and formal enforcement action. At its core is a matrix, the Good Regulatory Intervention Design (GRID), which provides a framework to categorize sites or activities on the basis of two factors: the nature of the risk and the nature of the regulatee. Using GRID, regulators can select which intervention tools to use, and determine the overall level of regulatory intensity that should apply. GRID is accompanied by the Good Regulatory Assessment Framework (GRAF) for agencies to use in reviewing their performance and provides a step-by-step process for enabling “double loop learning. ” The article also argues that the process of developing such a framework highlighted the extent to which “low risk” and “high risk” regulation are distinct. “Low risk” means “low priority. ” Justifying why certain risks should not receive much regulatory attention requires a particular type of engagement, and has a bearing on the regulatory strategies that are adopted
Raman spectroscopic studies of chemical speciation in calcium chloride melts

Raman spectroscopy was applied to CaCl2 melts at 900 degrees C under both non-electrolyzed and electrolyzed conditions. The later used titania cathodes supplied by TIMET, Inc. and graphite anodes. Use of pulse-gating to collect the Raman spectra successfully eliminated any interference from black-body radiation and other stray light. The spectrum of molten CaCl2 exhibited no distinct, resolvable bands that could be correlated with a calcium chloride complex similar to MgCl42- in MgCl2 melts. Rather, the low frequency region of the spectrum was dominated by a broad “tail” arising from collective oscillations of both charge and mass in the molten salt “network. ” Additions of both CaO and Ca at concentrations of a percent or two resulted in no new features in the spectra. Addition of CO2, both chemically and via electrolysis at concentrations dictated by stability and solubility at 900 degrees C and 1 bar pressure, also produced no new bands that could be correlated with either dissolved CO2 or the carbonate ion. These results indicated that Raman spectroscopy, at least under the conditions evaluated in the research, was not well suited for following the reactions and coordination chemistry of calcium ions, nor species such as dissolved metallic Ca and CO2more » that are suspected to impact current efficiency in titanium electrolysis cells using molten CaCl2. Raman spectra of TIMET titania electrodes were successfully obtained as a function of temperature up to 900 degrees C, both in air and in-situ in CaCl2 melts. However, spectra of these electrodes could only be obtained when the material was in the unreduced state. When reduced, either with hydrogen or within an electrolysis cell, the resulting electrodes exhibited no measurable Raman bands under the conditions used in this work. « less
Learning perspectives: Implications for pedagogy in science education

How we understand learning has implications for the learning outcomes we value and how we seek to achieve them particularly when we want to do something about learning. In this paper I outline, albeit briefly, the implications for the relations between teaching and learning, for teacher roles and responsibilities, and for the goals of education and curriculum-making of the cognitive-constructivist and situated-social views of learning. The proposal here is not that either of the views is right or better but rather that each foregrounds different aspects of the teaching-learning process and supports particular ways of acting and interacting and hence learning and teaching. A perspective is not a recipe; it doesn't tell you just what to do. Rather, it acts as a guide about what to pay attention to, what difficulties to expect and how to approach problems. (Wenger, 1998, p. 9) Learning is not something that is tied to a particular time, place or group of people nor is it necessarily dependent on instruction (Wells & Claxton, 2002; Wenger, 1998). Nevertheless, schools are responsible to society for bringing about learning. They are places where teachers are increasingly being held accountable for the learning of individual students in relation to what is prescribed in national curriculum documents (Crooks, 2003). This assumes there is a direct and unproblematic relationship between teaching and learning and that what is and should be learned is uncontested. Whether this might be so depends on how learning is viewed. How we understand learning has implications for the outcomes we value and how we seek to achieve them particularly when we want to do something about learning - as individuals, as communities, and as organisations (Driver, Asoko, Leach, Mortimer & Scott, 1994; Wenger, 1998). Views of learning have the potential to serve as frameworks for analysing pedagogy and for creating further possibilities. This paper sets out two broad views of learning to discuss what insights these offer as a means for conceptualising pedagogy, with particular reference to science education. Questions are raised with respect to the appropriate unit of analysis and implications for how teaching might be enhanced.