Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Environmental Forces as Catalysts in Electronic-Marketing, The 21st Century Trends in Nigeria

Electronic marketing is the use of electronic data and applications for planning and executing the conception, distribution and pricing of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals. While a number of research studies have examined the factors that drive electronic marketing, there is only scant empirical evidence on the link between environmental forces activity and electronic marketing integration into our contemporary business model. The objective of this study is to critically analyze the environment forces that influence e-marketing practices in the 21 st century trend in Nigeria. Various environmental factors were identified that hampers electronic marketing growth in Nigeria. Technological Acceptance Model was used as the theoretical underpin for the study. It was concluded that a systematic implementation of e-marketing strategies is positively related to the enhanced job performance of Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) owner/managers and the overall success of core business processes, that the environmental force if properly streamlined will result to full integration of the electronic marketing tools into the business operation. Various recommendations were given and limitations/suggestion for further studies.
Street orientations: The first step towards a sustainable place

In recent times emerged a lot of interests that seek to achieve sustainability in all fields, including the buildings and their relationship to the streets, which requires the organization of the relationship according to the local climate characteristics of each city, there are cities characterized by a warm climate, dry and other cities Hot- wet or cold or desert. These characteristics, must have a clear impact on the urban planning and Urban design in order to create sustainable cities. Main streets planning geographical and directing style plays a big role in achieving sustainability of cities where lined and organized by public and private, commercial and service to recreational buildings that make up the urban landscape architecture, and is the ideal direction for these streets are the first step towards the sustainability of cities, and that the sustainability of cities is not a luxury intellectually but are needed actual and important step that must be observed by the planned urban designer. There is variation in the intensity of the main streets in the city of Baghdad use by the people, first; some of them are not encouraged to walk during the day time, secondly; others lacked environmental efficiency, because of the presence of sunlight annoying, third; the lack of environmental processors provide protection for people during the movement, and the lack of fit comfortably with the height of the buildings display those streets. So there was a need to assess this situation through the creation of a comparison between the ideal orientations and the current orientation of the main streets of Baghdad city as a model. Pol service Report (1982); To be the perfect orientations for buildings in hot dry areas is 350 East toward the South. In spite of the lack of reference to the ideal orientations to the streets directly, but he took it, that the main streets will inevitably be in the same orientations at an angle of 350 buildings any South- east being lined up on those streets. The research aims to verify the ideal orientations for a number of the main streets of the Baghdad city, which constitute the urban structure, and the results showed that all the samples that have been verified lacks ideal orientations. Find the perfect guidance recommends the adoption in the planning and design of future studies and to find the necessary solutions to fix the reality of the streets that are an essential step towards achieving sustainability of cities.
The vertical migration behavior of Trichocoleus sp. in the absence of light

Trichocoleus sp. is a blue-green algal species that forms mats in the sandy sediments of Douglas Lake. The alga forms mats in order to gain protection from UV radiation, and the alga sacrifices productivity in the process. Once removed from light and UV exposure, Trichocoleus sp. interestingly did not migrate upward in the sediments to seek higher nutrient concentrations and light levels. A combination of mechanisms such as positive and negative chemotaxis and factors such as shading and anoxic conditions could have influenced the behavior of Trichocoleus sp. in such a way that no change in mat depth was evident at the conclusion of the experiment. The thickness of the mat did increase slightly, however. The function of mat thickness is unclear but might represent mat stability.
Synchronizability of Small-World Networks Generated from a Two-Dimensional Kleinberg Model

This paper investigates the synchronizability of small-world networks generated from a two-dimensional Kleinberg model, which is more general than NW small-world network. The three parameters of the Kleinberg model, namely, the distance of neighbors, the number of edge-adding, and the edge-adding probability, are analyzed for their impacts on its synchronizability and average path length. It can be deduced that the synchronizability becomes stronger as the edge-adding probability increases, and the increasing edge-adding probability could make the average path length of the Kleinberg small-world network go smaller. Moreover, larger distance among neighbors and more edges to be added could play positive roles in enhancing the synchronizability of the Kleinberg model. The lorentz oscillators are employed to verify the conclusions numerically.
The progression from acute to chronic pain

Purpose of review The persistence of pain after surgical procedure or trauma has become a major focus of interest and its prevention now represents a challenge as an indicator of quality of healthcare. The only way to develop effective strategies to prevent the development of chronic pain is to better understand the mechanisms involved in the progression from acute to chronic pain, with the aim to target high-risk patients and to adapt perioperative management. Recent findings Several important risk factors involved in chronic pain development after tissue injury have been identified, underlining how much the phenomenon is complex and multifaceted. Recent studies have highlighted some important points on which to focus, mainly during the acute and subacute postinjury periods. These studies promote a more dynamic approach related to a better evaluation of acute pain resolution using individualized pain trajectories, the assessment of endogenous pain-modulatory processes and individual's psychological flexibility when facing physical threat and pain. Summary A dynamic view of both physiological and psychological response of an individual after injury (trauma, surgery) should improve our ability to target predisposed patients who might develop persistent pain. We should then be more able to provide those patients with the most appropriate preventive management.
Using the analytic hierarchy process to create an erosion risk map. A case study in Malakasiotiko stream, Trikala perfecture

Σκοπός της παρούσας eργασίας eίναι η αποτίμηση του κινδύνου διάβρωσης, της λeκάνης απορροή του Μαλακασιώτικου ρέματος του νομού Τρικάλων, μe τη χρήση Γeωγραφικών Συστημάτων Πληροφοριών (ΓΣΠ). Μια βάση δeδομένων, δημιουργήθηκe στο ΓΣΠ, απαρτιζόμeνη από τους παράγοντeς που eπιδρούν στην διάβρωση και συγκeκριμένα, τη μορφολογική κλίση, τη λιθολογία, την υδρογραφική πυκνότητα, την πυκνότητα των τeκτονικών χαρακτηριστικών, τη χρήση γης και τις βροχοπτώσeις. Κάθe ένας παράγοντας διαχωρίστηκe σe διαφορeτικές κατηγορίeς. Μια μέθοδος γνωστή ως αναλυτική διαδικασία ιeράρχησης eφαρμόστηκe για να βαθμονομηθeί η κάθe κατηγορία του κάθe eνός παράγοντα και να σταθμιστeί η eπιρροή του eνός παράγοντα eνάντια στον άλλο, προκeιμένου να προσδιοριστeί η σημασία τους στις διαβρωτικές διeργασίeς. Τα αποτeλέσματα της eφαρμογής της μeθόδου σe συνδυασμό μe τeχνικές των ΓΣΠ χρησιμοποιήθηκαν για να eκτιμήσουν τον συνολικό κίνδυνο διάβρωσης και να δημιουργήσουν το χάρτη eπικινδυνότητας σe διάβρωση. Η πeριοχή μeλέτης διαιρέθηκe σe τρeις ζώνeς κινδύνου σe διάβρωση. Οι υψηλές ζώνeς κινδύνου διάβρωσης βρίσκονται συνήθως στα βορeιοδυτικά, δυτικά και νότια τμήματα της ^άνης απορροής του Μαλακασιώτικου ρeύματος. Ο χάρτης κινδύνου διάβρωσης της πeριοχής μeλέτης μπορeί να eίναι ένα χρήσιμο γeωλογικό και γeωμορφολογικό κριτήριο για τον σχeδιασμό των χρήσeων γης
EXTRUDED POLYLACTIDE FOAMS BLOWN WITH CARBON DOXDE

(54) EXTRUDED POLYLACTIDE FOAMS BLOWN (86). PCT No.: PCT/US05/09892 WITH CARBON DOXDE S371 (c)(1), (2), (4) Date: Sep. 14, 2006 (76) Inventors: Kevin Cink, Brooklyn Park, MN O O (US); Jeffrey C. Smith, Woodbury, Related U.S. Application Data MN (US); James F. Nangeroni, (60) Provisional application No. 60/556,646, filed on Mar. Doylestown, PA (US): Jed Richard 26, 2004. Randall, Minneapolis, MN (US) Publication Classification
Quantization Error Correction Schemes for Lattice-Reduction Aided MIMO Detectors

Lattice reduction aided (LRA) linear detectors have been known to achieve near optimal performance at low complexity. However, one weakness of LRA detector is that the quantization step in LRA detector is not optimal. Based on simulation results, we show that most of detection errors in LRA linear detectors are due to quantization errors. We then propose two methods to correct the quantization errors. In the first method, sphere detectors are introduced to correct quantization errors at low additional complexity. As a second approach, we propose a list quantization scheme which can generate a list of candidate symbols from the original LRA estimated symbols. From these listed symbols, decisions are made according to the minimum Euclidean distance between the received and estimated points. It is shown by simulations that both methods provide significant BER performance improvements with only a small additional complexity.
Catchment classification based on characterisation of streamflow and precipitation time series

The formulation of objective procedures for the delineation of homogeneous groups of catchments is a fun- damental issue in both operational and research hydrology. For assessing catchment similarity, a variety of hydrological information may be considered; in this paper, gauged sites are characterised by a set of streamflow signatures that in- clude a representation, albeit simplified, of the properties of fine time-scale flow series and in particular of the dynamic components of the data, in order to keep into account the sequential order and the stochastic nature of the streamflow process. The streamflow signatures are provided in input to a clus- tering algorithm based on unsupervised SOM neural net- works, obtaining groups of catchments with a clear hydro- logical distinctiveness, as highlighted by the identification of the main patterns of the input variables in the different classes and the interpretation of their interrelations. In addition, even if no geographical, morphological nor climatological infor- mation is provided in input to the SOM network, the clusters exhibit an overall consistency as far as location, altitude and precipitation regime are concerned. In order to assign ungauged sites to such groups, the catchments are represented through a parsimonious set of morphometric and pluviometric variables, including also in- dexes that attempt to synthesise the variability and correla- tion properties of the precipitation time series, thus provid- ing information on the type of weather forcing that is spe- cific to each basin. Following a principal components anal- ysis, needed for synthesizing and better understanding the morpho-pluviometric catchment properties, a discriminant analysis finally assigns the ungauged catchments, through a leave-one-out cross validation, to one of the above iden- tified hydrologic response classes. The approach delivers a quite satisfactory identification of the membership of un- gauged catchments to the streamflow-based classes, since the comparison of the two cluster sets shows a misclassification rate of around 20 %. Overall results indicate that the inclusion of information on the properties of the fine time-scale streamflow and rain- fall time series may be a promising way for better represent- ing the hydrologic and climatic character of the study catch- ments.
Motivating knowledge sharing through a knowledge management system

Based on both economic and sociological theory, the effects of supervisory control and organizational support on the frequency and effort of individuals in contributing their personally held valuable knowledge to a "best practices-lessons learned, repository-based" knowledge management system (KMS) were compared. Supervisory control, as expected, had significant impact on frequency, but it also had unexpectedly significant influence on effort. When system variables--usefulness and ease of use--were controlled for, the organizational support measure had little effect on either outcome. These results provide greater support for economic-agency-theory motivators of knowledge sharing and lesser support for organizational support motivators than has been previously believed. They also emphasize the important impact of systems variables in motivating KMS use. Since the study was conducted in a government (joint civilian-military) organization, the organizational type may significantly influence the results. However, since the result is contrary to the conventional wisdom that suggests that a "knowledge-sharing culture" is all-important, at the very least, this study shows that the nature of the organization may moderate the relationship between the motivational approach and the outcomes.
Estimating and forecasting structural breaks in financial time series

We present an algorithm, based on a differential evolution MCMC method, for Bayesian inference in AR-GARCH models subject to an unknown number of structural breaks at unknown dates. Break dates are directly treated as parameters and the number of breaks is determined by the marginal likelihood criterion. We prove the convergence of the algorithm and we show how to compute marginal likelihoods. We allow for both pure change-point and recurrent regime specifications and we show how to forecast structural breaks. We illustrate the efficiency of the algorithm through simulations and we apply it to eight financial time series of daily returns over the period 1987-2011. We find at least three breaks in all series.
Impact of political costs on company benefits in the institutions with high free cash flow and low growth opportunity: Evidence from Tehran Stock Exchange

The political costs, bonuses paid to managers, how to use the growth opportunities obtained and their effects on the profitability of companies are the issues that have always been a major of corporations’ concerns. Company exposure to political decisions, its costs and effects on the company's cash flow is very important. Hence, understanding the relationship between variables in a company and how they influence on each other helps management decisions for better opportunities and reduction in political costs, increase cash flow and ultimately increase the profitability of the firms. This survey studies the relationship between the impact of political costs on companies with high free cash flow and low growth opportunity. In this survey, company's assets, sales, income and number of employees are estimated. Then the indexes related to these costs are evaluated based on the tax component, the cost of the sports, personnel costs and relationships among them. Pearson correlation coefficient, regression coefficients and analysis of variance have been used to examine the hypotheses of the survey. The results show that the political cost, high free cash flow and low growth opportunity had negative correlations with each other. In other words, there was a negative relationship between profit and political costs in companies with high free cash flow and low growth opportunity. Moreover, high free cash flow and low growth opportunities had significant effect on the relationship between political costs and benefits in companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange.
PLASTICIZING POLY(LACTIC ACID) USING EPOXIDIZED PALM OIL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY PACKAGING MATERIAL

Renewable resources can create a platform to substitute petroleum-based polymers through innovative bio-based polymers. Poly(lactic) acid (PLA) is the most reliable biodegradable polymer that can be substitute for the application of petrochemical-polymer. Suitable biodegradable plasticizer was studied to examine the effect of the incorporation of plasticizer on mechanical and thermal properties of PLA. The mechanical properties were determined through three-point flexural test and tensile test. The thermal properties were characterized by using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). Results revealed that the flexibility of PLA can be achieved by the addition of epoxidized palm oil (EPO) as plasticizer in the polymer. It had been proved that 100:10 PLA/EPO was the most significant ratio for PLA/EPO blend. The reinforcement of EPO increased the tensile stress and elongation at break in fact the plasticizer reduced the glass transition of PLA to obtain flexible film of biopolymer.
Effects of low-dose ionising radiation on pituitary adenoma: is there a role for L-type calcium channel?

Adenomas de pituitaria constituem cerca de 6-18% dos tumores cerebrais em adultos. A ativacao de correntes de calcio dependentes de voltagem podem levar a super-excrecao de hormonio do crescimento produzindo acromegalia e aumentando a mortalidade. Ions Ca2+ como mediadores de sinalizacao intracelular sao cruciais no desenvolvimento da apoptose. No entanto, o papel da [Ca 2+] no desenvolvimento da apoptose e ambiguo. Neste estudo nos avaliamos os efeitos de baixas doses de radiacao gama (60Co) na sobrevivencia e proliferacao de celulas de adenoma de pituitaria de rato e o papel do calcio na apoptose radio-induzida. Nossos resultados mostraram que a dose de 3Gy foi suficiente para inibir a proliferacao das celulas GH3. Apesar de existir um numero significativo de celulas vivas apos 168 horas do tratamento com radiacao, elas nao estavam aptas a proliferar. Nossos resultados tambem indicaram que bloqueio do influxo de calcio extracelular nao interfere na apoptose induzida pela radiacao.
Cybersecurity in Distributed and Fully-Decentralized Optimization: Distortions, Noise Injection, and ADMM

As problems in machine learning, smartgrid dispatch, and IoT coordination problems have grown, distributed and fully-decentralized optimization models have gained attention for providing computational scalability to optimization tools. However, in applications where consumer devices are trusted to serve as distributed computing nodes, compromised devices can expose the optimization algorithm to cybersecurity threats which have not been examined in previous literature. This paper examines potential attack vectors for generalized distributed optimization problems, with a focus on the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM), a popular tool for convex optimization. Methods for detecting and mitigating attacks in ADMM problems are described, and simulations demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed models. The weaknesses of fully-decentralized optimization schemes, in which nodes communicate directly with neighbors, is demonstrated, and a number of potential architectures for providing security to these networks is discussed.
A Study and Comparison of First and Second Order Cellular Automata with Examples

This thesis will give an introduction to the concepts of cellular automata and higher order cellular automata, and go through several examples of both. Cellular automata are discrete systems of cells in an n-dimensional grid. The cells interact with each other through the use of a rule depending only on local characteristics, which lead to some global behaviour. Higher order cellular automata are hierarchical structures of cellular automata with added possibilities for dynamic local interaction. We first give an introduction for non-mathematicians. A mathematical definition of cellular automata follows, and we illustrate the many possibilities with a few examples. Higher order cellular automata are introduced and defined, and we look at the consequences higher order cellular automata has on optimization of computer implementations. Finally we apply higher order structures to some of the examples, and study the effects.
The remarkable X-ray variability of IRAS 13224–3809 – I. The variability process

We present a detailed X-ray timing analysis of the highly variable narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxy IRAS 13224–3809. The source was recently monitored for 1.5 Ms with XMM–Newton, which, combined with 500 ks archival data, makes this the best-studied NLS1 galaxy in X-rays to date. We apply standard time- and Fourier-domain techniques in order to understand the underlying variability process. The source flux is not distributed lognormally, as expected for all types of accreting sources. The first non-linear rms–flux relation for any accreting source in any waveband is found, with rms ∝ flux2/3. The light curves exhibit significant strong non-stationarity, in addition to that caused by the rms–flux relation, and are fractionally more variable at lower source flux. The power spectrum is estimated down to ∼10−7 Hz and consists of multiple peaked components: a low-frequency break at ∼10−5 Hz, with slope α < 1 down to low frequencies, and an additional component breaking at ∼10−3 Hz. Using the high-frequency break, we estimate the black hole mass MBH=[0.5−−2]×106M⊙ and mass accretion rate in Eddington units, m˙Edd≳1m˙Edd≳1⁠. The broad-band power spectral density (PSD) and accretion rate make IRAS 13224–3809 a likely analogue of very high/intermediate-state black hole X-ray binaries. The non-stationarity is manifest in the PSD with the normalization of the peaked components increasing with decreasing source flux, as well as the low-frequency peak moving to higher frequencies. We also detect a narrow coherent feature in the soft-band PSD at 7 × 10−4 Hz; modelled with a Lorentzian the feature has Q ∼ 8 and an rms ∼3 per cent. We discuss the implication of these results for accretion of matter on to black holes.
Analysis of Numerical and Exact solutions of certain SIR and SIS Epidemic models

We study here a particular case of SIR and SIS epidemic models for a given constant population. These mathematical models are described by coupled nonlinear first order differential equations. Exact solutions are computed by linearizing the term in the resulting differential equation for the infective population. We then compare the exact solution with the numerical, using a Runge-Kutta algorithm implemented by MathCAD software. The profiles of the solutions are provided from which we infer that the numerical and exact solutions agreed very well. However for the SIR model the approximation in the derivation of the exact solution made this to deviate slightly from the numerical, for small initial population of susceptibles. For larger values it is observed that this deviation becomes negligible.