Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Model-driven Approach for Empowering Advance Web Augmentation - From Client-side to Server-side Support

Websites augmentations have been adopted as a mean for improving the User Experience of applications that often are not owned by the user. The augmentations alter the page in order to add, modify and even remove its content pursuing the satisfaction of a user’s need. However, these augmentations are limited to page modification or transcluding content from another site on Internet. Moreover, advance server-side based augmentations have been released only by developers because of the required technical skill for the task. In this work, we have presented a novel approach for designing Web Augmentation coping client-side and serverside using a Model-Driven Web Engineering approach. The approach rises the abstraction level for serverside developments allowing end-users to design, and even implement the new functionalities. Additionally, the approach uses advance separation of concern principles thus we provide a set of tools for designing the composition of the core application and the augmentation. We show as running example an augmentation that introduces a site community’s review support upon an agriculture e-commerce site.
BANK CREDIT TO AGRICULTURE IN INDIA: TRENDS IN THE 1990s AND 2000s

Credit supply is an important determinant of investment in agriculture. Since the nationalisation of commercial banks in 1969, India had strongly pursued a policy of “social and development banking” in the rural areas. As a result, formal institutions of credit provision, mainly commercial banks, emerged as important sources of finance to agriculture displacing usurious moneylenders and landlords. The policy of social and development banking was a supply-led policy; it aimed at augmenting the supply of credit to rural areas, and that too at an affordable interest rate (Shetty 2006; Chavan 2005).
Investment liberalization and environmental protection. Conflicts and compatibilities in the case of India.

This occasional paper reviews the changes in FDI policies and its consequences for FDI approvals and inflows in the Indian economy. Attention is drawn to the fact that differences between environmental practices and regulations of different states have an important bearing on FDI flows as well as the behavior of TNCs in India. The author argues that resolving the tradeoff between environment and FDI in India should also include a consideration of how to extend FDI flows to all states. Environmental legislation though of a long-standing nature has proven to be difficult to implement. Consequently, the positive role that TNCs could play in conjunction with the Indian government in achieving higher environmental standards should be actively encouraged. So far, in the context of generally weak governance capacities in India, urging TNCs to adopt better environmental practices has depended more on community groups/NGO reacting to specific cases of environmental violation than on government action. Please note that the views and opinions expressed in this paper reflect those of the aothor and do not necessarily represent those of UNCTAD or CBS.
An inventory of theory in logistics and SCM research

Purpose – Theory is needed for a discipline to mature. This research aims to provide a summary analysis of the theories being used in contemporary logistics and supply chain management (SCM) studies.Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive literature review of articles appearing in five top tier logistics and SCM journals is conducted in order to identify how often theory is used and to classify the specific theories used. An analysis of the theoretical categories is presented to explain the type and frequency of theory usage.Findings – Over 180 specific theories were found within the sampled articles. Theories grouped under the competitive and microeconomics categories made up over 40 per cent of the theoretical incidences. This does not imply all articles utilize theory. The research found that theory was explicitly used in approximately 53 per cent of the sampled articles.Practical implications – Two implications are central. First, in the minds of editors, reviewers and authors is approximately 5.
A dual-frequency and dual-polarization antenna design for long term evolution applications

A dual-frequency and dual-polarization antenna design is proposed for long term evolution (LTE) applications. The proposed antenna achieves an impedance bandwidth of 45% (658-1070 MHz) at the low-frequency band and 52% (1.643-2.8 GHz) at the high-frequency band with more than 6 dBi gain covering the most of the LTE bands. Mutually orthogonal polarizations are also achieved through the proper placement of the radiators making it possible for multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) mode of operation. The proposed antenna has a physical size of 0. 698λ<sub>o</sub> × 0. 698λ<sub>o</sub> × 0.233 λ<sub>o</sub> with λ<sub>o</sub> being the wavelength at 698 MHz.
Conditions for symmetric running in single- and double-support

Even and odd functions of time - symmetric functions - have been used to simplify the control of running robots and have been observed in the body and leg motion of running animals. This paper explores the relationship between symmetric motion of the body and symmetric use of the legs in three planar models. The algebra of symmetric functions is applied to the equations of motion to show that symmetric leg actuation is required for symmetric body motion in the single-support case, but not in the double-support case unless additional constraints are imposed.
Investigation of Brand Name-Country of Origin Preference in Four Different Product Groups with Respect to Conspicuous Consumption Tendency

The aim of this study is to examine different preferences for brand name–country of origin shaped in line with levels of conspicuous consumption tendency and to determine Turkish consumers’ preferences for brand name–country of origin combinations in different product groups. The study was conducted in Eskisehir (Turkey) with a sample of 413 people chosen through convenience sampling. The study data were collected with a questionnaire and face-face-to interviews. The participants’ preferences for brand name-country of origin combinations were determined separately based on four different product groups(hedonic, utilitarian, durable and non-durable). The study showed that, for all the four product groups, the participants preferred the products with a Turkish brand name and Turkey as the country of origin most, followed by the products with a French brand name and France as the country of origin. This finding suggests that, with respect to the four product groups in the study, Turkish consumers preferred domestic products over foreign products. Also, the participants who preferred French brand name-France as the country of origin for the hedonic product, French brand name-Turkey as the country of origin for the utilitarian product, French brand name-Turkey as the country of origin for the durable product and French brand name-France as the country of origin for the non-durable product were found to have highest tendency of conspicuous consumption in the corresponding product groups. In other words, as the level of conspicuous consumption increased, the participants tended to prefer French brand name-France as the country of origin for the hedonic product, French brand name-Turkey as the country of origin for the utilitarian product, French brand name-Turkey as the country of origin for the durable product and French brand name-France as the country of origin for the non-durable product.
Operations Research in Healthcare: a survey

Optimisation problems in Healthcare have received considerable attention for more than three decades. More recently, however, with decreasing birth rates in nearly all of the developed countries and increasing average longevity globally, optimisation issues in Healthcare have become noticeably important and attract keen interest from the Operations Research community. Over the years, attention has gradually expanded from resource allocation and strategic planning to include operational issues such as resource scheduling and treatment planning. This paper surveys several applications of Operations Research in the domain of Healthcare. In particular, the paper reviews key contributions addressing contemporary optimisation issues in this area. It highlights current research activities, focusing on a variety of optimisation problems as well as solution techniques used for solving the optimisation problems.
Laryngotracheal Stenosis Repair Using Cartilage-Derived Morphogenic Proteins: A Pilot Study

Objectives: This pilot study evaluated the role of cartilage-derived morphogenic proteins (CDMPs) as promoters of cartilage growth and differentiation and as a possible alternative to autologous cartilage grafts in laryngotracheal reconstruction. Methods: In phase 1, 6 New Zealand rabbits underwent subperichondrial injection of CDMP-1, CDMP-2, or CDMP-3 in the right thyroid ala and normal saline solution in the left thyroid ala as controls. In phase 2, 14 rabbits underwent anterior cricoid split and interposition of a fibrillar collagen sponge saturated with normal saline solution, CDMP-2, or CDMP-3. Results: In both phases, saline solution failed to induce new cartilage or bone growth. Small foci of cartilage and/or bone formation were observed within the thyroid subperichondria of those rabbits injected with CDMP-2 or CDMP-3. In phase 2, a few small foci of new cartilage and/or bone formation were observed at the edges of the cricoid split with CDMP-2 and CDMP-3. Conclusions: A different carrier of CDMP, a change in dosage, or a combination of CDMPs might yield more significant neochondrification. The role of CDMPs as promoters of cartilage and differentiation could not be disqualified in this study and should be further investigated.
Relationship marketing defined? An examination of current relationship marketing definitions

Attempts to define “relationship marketing” have been varied and many, neatly reflecting the diverse academic and socio‐political backgrounds of RM scholars. This paper lists 26 such definitions, collected as a by‐product of a literature review. Presented alongside this resource are the results of applying a content‐analysis‐based methodology to these definitions. These results suggest that seven RM “constructs” enjoy general support. In a discussion of this, it is concluded that any integration of disparate RM theories implied by these findings is at best superficial and at worst misleading. It is further suggested that “true” and complete integration of RM theory must wait until a coherent understanding of these fundamental concepts has been developed. From the 26 definitions listed, one is judged as being more comprehensive and generally acceptable, and a new definition is presented as an inducement to further discussion.
Pathways between neurocognition, social cognition and emotion regulation in bipolar disorder

Converging evidence suggests that in bipolar disorder (BD), social cognition and emotion regulation are affected by the capacity for effective neurocognitive function. Adaptive emotion regulation may also rely on intact social cognition, and it is possible that social cognition acts as a mediator in its relationship with neurocognition. We aimed to address this hypothesis by explicitly examining interrelationships among neurocognition, social cognition and emotion regulation in an out‐patient sample meeting criteria for a DSM‐IV‐TR diagnosis of BD compared with controls.
Light signaling to the zebrafish circadian clock by Cryptochrome 1a

Zebrafish tissues and cells have the unusual feature of not only containing a circadian clock, but also being directly light-responsive. Several zebrafish genes are induced by light, but little is known about their role in clock resetting or the mechanism by which this might occur. Here we show that Cryptochrome 1a (Cry1a) plays a key role in light entrainment of the zebrafish clock. Intensity and phase response curves reveal a strong correlation between light induction of Cry1a and clock resetting. Overexpression studies show that Cry1a acts as a potent repressor of clock function and mimics the effect of constant light to “stop” the circadian oscillator. Yeast two-hybrid analysis demonstrates that the Cry1a protein interacts directly with specific regions of core clock components, CLOCK and BMAL, blocking their ability to fully dimerize and transactivate downstream targets, providing a likely mechanism for clock resetting. A comparison of entrainment of zebrafish cells to complete versus skeleton photoperiods reveals that clock phase is identical under these two conditions. However, the amplitude of the core clock oscillation is much higher on a complete photoperiod, as are the levels of light-induced Cry1a. We believe that Cry1a acts on the core clock machinery in both a continuous and discrete fashion, leading not only to entrainment, but also to the establishment of a high-amplitude rhythm and even stopping of the clock under long photoperiods.
The Methods of Preparation of Ti-Ni-X Alloys and Their Forming

The continuous development of science and technology in all industrial sectors means connecting and usage of a wide range of new knowledge together with implementation of new modern technologies for production of materials with high functional, specific and special properties. Intermetallic compounds TiNi with shape-memory effect are an interesting group of materials. These materials are used in a wide range of industry, such as electronics, robotics, tele-communication and also in medicine and optics. Shape-memory alloys (SMA) are a group of materials characterized by shape-memory effect (SME) and superelasticity (SE), also called pseudoelasticity.
Human skin imaging using three-phase spectral matching imager

A method for detecting human skin and identifying the surface condition of it using the three-phase spectral matching imager (3PSMI) is proposed. The 3PSMI produces correlations pixel-wise between the spectrum of an unknown object and an orthonormal pair of known reference spectra by use of the correlation image sensor (CIS), and outputs the result as a complex image at an ordinary video frame rate, thus realizing both real-time operation and high spectral resolution. In order to apply the 3PSMI to human skin, two tasks-discrimination between skin and non-skin objects and evaluation of the degree of suntan and congestion on skin-are considered and methods of generating an orthonormal pair of reference spectra for these tasks are proposed. Experiments on these tasks are carried out on the developed 3PSMI with the reference spectra generated by the proposed methods.
Seroprevalence of Helicobacter pylori in the adult population of Christchurch: risk factors and relationship to dyspeptic symptoms and iron studies.

AIM To determine the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in subjects randomly selected from the Christchurch population and to determine the risk factors and symptoms related to the infection. METHODS A list of names was randomly generated from the 1996 electoral roll and subjects were sequentially contacted and invited to participate. A questionnaire on dyspeptic symptoms was completed and the subject's serum was analysed for H. pylori antibodies using the Roche method. Equivocal samples were retested by the Meridian method. RESULTS One thousand and sixty-four subjects participated in the study. In four subjects results for H. pylori were indeterminate and these subjects were excluded from analysis. Of the remaining 1060 subjects, 254 (24.0%) were seropositive for H. pylori. The seropositivity in males (n=444) was 25.9% and in females (n=616) 22.6%. On multivariate analysis age, ethnicity, low income and smoking > 20 cigarettes per day were all independent predictors of H. pylori seropositivity. H. pylori positive subjects had shorter stature compared to those who were seronegative. The symptom scores for dyspepsia were similar in both the seropositive and seronegative subjects. In males the serum iron levels were lower in seropositive subjects but there were no significant differences in serum ferritin in either males or females between seropositive and seronegative subjects. CONCLUSION H. pylori is a common infection in the Christchurch community with the prevalence increasing significantly with age. H. pylori positive subjects had shorter stature and in males lower serum iron levels were observed. Infection was not associated with an increased risk of dyspeptic symptoms.
Analysis of gene expression in the preimplantation mouse embryo: use of mRNA differential display.

The analysis of differential gene expression during preimplantation embryogenesis has been hindered by the paucity of biological material. We report modifications of the recently described mRNA differential display method (Liang, P. & Pardee, A. B. (1992) Science 257, 967-971) to analyze differential gene expression during mouse preimplantation development. The method detects the appropriate changes in the temporal pattern of expression of an amplicon that by DNA sequence analysis is the cytokeratin endo A, a gene whose temporal pattern of expression has been previously determined by S1 nuclease digestion. In addition, this method identifies amplicons that likely represent genes (i) that encode maternal mRNAs, (ii) that are products of early and late zygotic gene activation, (iii) whose expression is greatest during the eight-cell stage (i.e., expressed in a stage-specific manner), and (iv) whose expression is greatest in the blastocyst. In addition to endo A, sequence analysis of these amplicons reveals that an amplicon that displays a temporal pattern of expression consistent with it being a maternal mRNA is the alpha subunit of the mitochondrial F1 ATP synthase.
SAFETY OF BRUCELLA ABORTUS STRAIN RB51 IN BULL ELK

Some of the elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) of the Greater Yellowstone Area (Wyoming, Idaho, Montana; USA) are infected with Brucella abortus, the bacterium that causes bovine brucellosis. Brucella abortus strain RB51 vaccine is being considered as a means to control B. abortus induced abortions in cow elk. However, the most probable vaccination strategies for use in free-ranging elk might also result in some bull elk being inoculated, thus, it is important to insure that the vaccine is safe in these animals. In the winter of 1995, 10 free-ranging bull elk calves were captured, tested for B. abortus antibodies, and intramuscularly inoculated with 1.0 × 109 colony forming units (CFU) of B. abortus strain RB51. Blood was collected for hemoculture and serology every 2 wk after inoculation for 14 wk. Beginning 4 mo postinoculation and continuing until 10 mo postinoculation elk were serially euthanized, necropsied, and tissues collected for culture and histopathology. These elk cleared the organism from the blood within 6 wk and from all tissues within 10 mo. No lesions attributable to B. abortus were found grossly and only minimal to mild lymphoplasmacytic epididymitis was found in a few elk on histologic examination. In a separate study, six adult bull elk from Wind Cave National Park (South Dakota, USA) were taken to a ranch near Carrington (North Dakota, USA). Three were orally inoculated with approximately 1.0 × 1010 CFU of RB51 and three were inoculated with corn syrup and saline. Ninety days post-inoculation semen was examined and cultured from these bulls. Strain RB51 was not cultured from their semen at that time. There were no palpable abnormalities in the genital tract and all elk produced viable sperm. Although they contain small sample sizes, these studies suggest that B. abortus strain RB51 is safe in bull elk.
Examination of the in vitro and in vivo estrogenic activities of eight commercial phthalate esters.

The estrogenic activities of eight phthalate esters (i.e., di-2-ethylhexyl, di-n-butyl (DBP), butylbenzyl (BBP), di-hexyl (DHP), diiso-heptyl, di-n-octyl, diiso-nonyl, diiso-decyl) were investigated in vitro using estrogen receptor (ER) competitive ligand-binding and mammalian- and yeast-based gene expression assays. In vivo, their effects on uterine wet weight and vaginal cell cornification using ovariectomized Sprague-Dawley rats were assessed. DBP, BBP, and DHP weakly competed with 17 beta-estradiol (E2) for binding to the ER in competitive ligand-binding assays. In gene expression assays using MCF-7 cells transiently transfected with the Gal4-human estrogen receptor construct, Gal4-HEGO, and the Gal4-regulated luciferase reporter gene, 17m5-G-Luc, 10 microM DBP, BBP, or DHP exhibited 36, 42, and 20% activity, respectively, when compared to the 100% response observed with 10 nM E2. Only BBP was found to induce luciferase activity (32%) in HeLa cells stably transfected with Gal4-HEGO and 17m5-G-Luc constructs and to impart minimal ER-mediated viability to the E2-dependent recombinant yeast strain, PL3, on selective medium. No significant responses were observed with the other phthalate esters in any of the in vitro assays. In vivo, none of the eight phthalate esters reproducibly induced significant increases in uterine wet weight in immature ovariectomized Sprague-Dawley rats treated with oral doses of 20, 200, or 2000 mg/kg of phthalate ester. In addition, treatment with phthalate esters at the same doses did not affect the degree of vaginal epithelial cell cornification in mature ovariectomized rats. These results indicate that only selected phthalate esters (i.e., DBP, BBP, and DHP) exhibit weak ER-mediated activity in some in vitro assays at high concentrations but none of the eight phthalate esters elicited in vivo estrogenic responses based upon results obtained from uterotrophic and vaginal cornification assays.
Text Line Extraction Using DMLP Classifiers for Historical Manuscripts

This paper proposes a novel text line extraction method for historical documents. The method works in two steps. In the first step, layout analysis is performed to recognize the physical structure of a given document using a classification technique, more precisely the pixels of a coloured document image are classified into five classes: text-block, core-text-line, decoration, background, and periphery. This layout recognition is achieved by a cascade of two Dynamic Multilayer Perceptron (DMLP) classifiers and works without binarisation. In the second step, an algorithm takes the layout recognition results as an input, extracts the text lines, and groups them into blocks using the connected components approach. Finally, the algorithm refines the boundaries of the text lines using the binary image and the layout recognition results. Our system is evaluated on three historical manuscripts with a test set of 49 pages. The best obtained hit rate for text lines is 96.3%.
Changes of anterior segment parameters in primary angle closure with axial myopia: a retrospective study of 369 patients grouped by axial length

Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, Shanghai, China; Key Laboratory of Myopia, Ministry of Health (Fudan University), Shanghai, China; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Visual Impairment and Restoration, Fudan University, Shanghai, China; State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China