Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Velocidade crítica como um método não invasivo para estimar a velocidade de lactato mínimo no ciclismo

The lactate minimum velocity (LMV) represents the equilibrium point between blood lactate (lac) production and removal. With the purpose of analyzing the validity of critical velocity (CV) as a non-invasive method to estimate the LMV on outdoor cycling, 15 cyclists (67.9 ± 5.7 kg; 1.70 ± 0.1 m; 26.7 ± 4.2 years) performed all-out tests on distances of 2, 4 and 6 km on velodrome. The CV was identified by distance-time model from combinations of 2 and 4 km (CV2/4), 2 and 6 km (CV2/6), 4 and 6 km (CV4/6) and 2, 4 and 6 km (CV2/4/6). The LMV was identified during 6 x 2 km incremental bouts after a latic acidosis induced by the all-out 2 km. The lower lac during test identified the LMV visually (LMVv) and by applying a polynomial function (LMVp). No differences were observed between LMVv (33.3 ± 2.5 km.h1) and LMVp (33.1 ± 2.6 km.h1). Apart from CV4/6 (34.6 ± 3.5 km.h1), the values of CV2/4 (38.0 ± 2.2 km.h1), CV2/6 (36.1 ± 2.4 km.h1) and CV2/4/6 (36.1 ± 2.5 km.h1) differed from LMVp and LMVv (P < 0,001). The authors concluded that, besides being ~1 km/h above the LMV, the CV determined through predictive series of longer duration (4 and 6 km approximately 6 and 10 min) did not differ statistically from LMV and presented a high correlation and agreement to each other. However, it is necessary to investigate whether the CV reflects the balance between lac production and removal during long-term exercise on outdoor cycling.
Domain formation in cholesterol-phospholipid membranes exposed to adhesive surfaces or environments†

Domain formation in binary mixtures of cholesterol and a single phospholipid has been studied for a long time but the nature of these domains is still a matter of some debate. One interpretation of these domains is that they arise from the coexistence of liquid-ordered and liquid-disordered phases within the membranes. Here, we study the effect of adhesive surfaces and environments on the proposed phase behavior theoretically. The adhesion or partial support of the membranes leads to two or several membrane segments that exhibit different molecular interactions with their environments and, thus, have different molecular affinities to these environments. We show that the affinity contrasts between different environments strongly affect the phase behavior of the membranes. First, the affinity contrasts confine the domain formation spatially to single membrane segments. Second, these contrasts lead to a partitioning of the coexistence region in the composition–temperature plane into distinct coexistence regions for the different membrane segments. Third, the range of membrane compositions, for which one can observe domain formation in one of the membrane segments, is always reduced compared to the composition range of the free membrane. Furthermore, small affinity contrasts represent singular perturbations in the sense that the phase diagrams change in a discontinuous manner as one varies the affinity contrast from small positive to small negative values. All of these results are quite general because they follow from thermodynamic stability alone and apply to any two-component membrane with fluid–fluid coexistence. In addition to these generic features, we also provide a computational scheme, by which one can explicitly calculate the partitioning of the coexistence regions for a specific binary mixture, and illustrate this scheme for binary cholesterol–DPPC membranes. Both the generic and the specific features of domain formation as predicted by our theory are accessible to experimental studies.
MOLECULAR TYPING OF WATERBORNE E. COLI STRAINS USING REP-PCR

Water borne bacteria, including E. coli as the top bacterial quality indicator, are over to be the vital concerns of some society. Typing of bacterial strains is used to confirm or reject epidemiologic evidence that a particular bacterium is the source of infection in a food type, water source or nosocomial infection. Molecular typing is a valued instrument for analysis of genetic relationship among the microbial strains. The purpose of the present study was to determine the molecular types of waterborne E. coli strains using REP-PCR. Present study comprised 100 waterborne E. coli strains isolated from different water sources in Karaj, Iran in 2013. Bacterial isolates were detected and identified via standard microbiological and biochemical exams. Genomic DNA was extracted via Genomic DNA Extraction Kit and genetic relationship among the strains was evaluated via REP-PCR using REP1 and REP2 primers. PCR amplicons were electrophoresed in 1.5% agarose gel and staining using ethidium bromide and visualized via a Gel DocTM XR+(BIORAD) and dendrogram was constructed based on Dice Comparison method and UPGMA Clustering. Using REP-PCR, all strains were typeable. Over 15 different bands ranging from 130 to 2300 bp were amplified in different profiles. Following digitizing (0 and 1) the positive genes and dendrogram construction by PAUP 4.0 software, dendrogram analysis showed the REP-PCR differentiated 100 environmental E. coli strains into 8 rep clusters however the r6 (28%) was the most prevalent cluster. Results of the present study indicated that E. coli strains isolated from different water sources in Karaj belong to diverse clones and different genotypes. Our finding also showed that REP-PCR is a powerful molecular tool with high performance and good discriminatory power for molecular typing of waterborne E. coli.
How to align the organization of the CREM-department to strategy during a recession

Purpose - In times of recession a lot of companies need to reduce costs. This also affects the budgets that are available for corporate real estate (CRE). Therefore it is important that the organization of the CRE management (CREM)-department is optimally aligned with CRE-strategy. This study provides a tool for evaluating the organization of the CREM-department when applying the CRE-strategy of cost reduction.Design/methodology/approach - The evaluation tool for alignment of the organization of the CREM-department is a result of an explorative study. First a literature study was conducted which led to a theoretical model of factors that influence the organization of the CREM-department, with regard to five components: Organizational structure, Sourcing, Centralization, Process management and Company culture. Then empirical data was collected through interviews with two groups of respondents, namely CREM-departments who served as cases and CRE-consultants to hear their expert opinions. Cross-case analysis and a comparison of these results with the expert opinion of the consultants were used to look for links between the CREM department components and each CRE strategy.Findings - It was not possible to formulate links between every possible CRE strategy and the CREM-organization as most of the cases had implemented the same strategy, namely cost reduction. This did provide the opportunity to construct a clear evaluation model for this particular strategy. Not all the themes were aligned with the chosen CRE-strategy identically by all the CREM-departments with a cost reduction strategy, but many similarities came forward and were backed by the CREM experts. This was worked into an evaluation model on the alignment of the organization of the CREM-department with a cost reduction strategy.Research limitations/implications - The model developed is especially relevant for CREM-departments who have similar characteristics as the CREM-departments who served as cases: large companies with a division macro-organizational structure that apply the CRE-strategy of cost reduction. The evaluation model does not spell out exactly how the CREM organization should be managed and formed, but does provide insight in a number of main choices that can influence the organization of CREM. The purpose of the evaluation model is that the CREM department becomes aware of the consequences for the organization of CREM when implementing a cost reduction aimed CRE-strategy.
A Novel Robust Adaptive Trajectory Tracking in Robot Manipulators

In this paper, a novel adaptive sliding mode control for rigid robot manipulators is proposed. In the proposed system, since there may exist explicit unknown parameters and perturbations, a Lyapunov based approach is presented to increase system robustness, even in presence of arbitrarily large (but not infinite) discontinuous perturbations. To control and track the robot, a continuous controller is designed with two phases of adaptation. The first phase is related to the robot parameters and the other one is accounted for perturbation estimating. We investigated the stability in the sense of Lyapunov with derive adaptive laws and uniform ultimate boundedness in the applied worst condition. The simulation results for two degrees of freedom rigid robot manipulator effectively demonstrate capability of the mentioned approach. Moreover, the results show that the domain of attraction is so vast and a global uniform ultimate boundedness could be expected.
Better qualified but a lower acceptance rate: does Higher Education discriminate against women?

Using a sample of around 2.3 million observations on applications to UK Higher Education institutions from 1996-2001, the paper explores whether the selection process into Higher Education is discriminatory. The answer is no discrimination, even though women are better qualified and less likely to be offered an HE place. The lower tier Higher National Diploma sector is a key issue because women are less likely to undertake these courses, which are `male orientated'. The policy conclusion is that to encourage less well-qualified females to undertake Higher Education, more appropriate provision is necessary that recognizes the reality of subject gender segregation.
The essential requirements for compatible cars in frontal collisions

The work reported here forms part of a research project that is being undertaken to further the understanding of compatibility in car to car collisions and develop crash evaluation procedures that are suitable for consumer and legislative testing. For frontal impact, full scale crash testing, accident analysis case studies and supportive finite element modelling studies have been used to identify the major factors that influence compatibility. One result is that the geometrical interaction of car structures has a large effect and it is now believed that obtaining good structural interaction is an essential prerequisite for frontal impact compatibility. Having achieved this, the next step is to control the global stiffness of the cars to ensure that they are able to absorb the collision energy, with minimal occupant compartment intrusion, without compromising the vehicle's deceleration pulse profile. Frontal impact evaluation procedures are being developed, which use load cell wall measurements to asess a car's compatibility. The current state of development of possible procedures is described, with an emphasis on results from full width deformable barrier tests. Procedures to assess side impact compatibility may be added following further research. This reported research is being used to support the European Enhanced Vehicle-safety Committee (EEVC) and the International Harmonisation of Research Activities (IHRA) Compatibility Working Group activities, and is funded by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). (A) For the covering abstract see ITRD E111577.
RISK ANALYSIS OF ICE THROW FROM WIND TURBINES

Wind turbines are normally erected far away from houses, industry, etc., as the wind conditions are not favourable in the vicinity of large obstacles. Furthermore, with regard to acoustic noise emission and shadow flicker certain distances are required by national regulations, when wind farms are planned in the neighbourhood of residential areas. Thus, wind turbines should not cause risks as far as ice throw is concerned. However, the turbines are erected close to roads or agricultural infrastructure in order to avoid long and expensive access roads for erection and maintenance. This induces a risk for persons passing by the wind turbines, cars passing the streets if ice fragments fall down from a turbine. Especially in the mountainous sites or in the northern areas icing may occur frequently and any exposed structure - also wind turbines - will be covered by ice under special meteorological conditions. This is also true if today’s Multi Megawatt turbines with heights from ground to the top rotor blade tip of more than 150 m can easily reach lower clouds with supercooled rain in the cold season, causing icing if it hits the leading edge.
Impact of TRMM SSTs on a Climate-Scale SST Analysis

Prior efforts have produced a sea surface temperature (SST) optimum interpolation (OI) analysis that is widely used, especially for climate purposes. The analysis uses in situ (ship and buoy) and infrared (IR) satellite data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). Beginning in December 1997, ‘‘microwave’’ SSTs became available from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite Microwave Imager (TMI). Microwave SSTs have a significant coverage advantage over ‘‘IR’’ SSTs because microwave SSTs can be retrieved in cloud-covered regions while IR SSTs cannot. However, microwave SSTs are at a much lower spatial resolution than the IR SSTs. In this study, the impact of SSTs derived from TMI was tested from the perspective of the OI analysis. Six different versions of the OI were produced weekly from 10 December 1997 to 1 January 2003 using different combinations of AVHRR and TMI data and including versions with and without a bias correction of the satellite data. To make the results more objective, 20% of the buoys were randomly selected and the SSTs from these buoys were withheld from the OI for independent verification. The results of the intercomparisons show that both AVHRR and TMI data have biases that must be corrected for climate studies. These biases change with time as physical properties of the atmosphere change and as satellite instruments and the orbits of the satellites, themselves, change. It is critical to monitor differences between satellite and other products to quickly diagnose any of these changes. For the OI analyses with bias correction, it is difficult using the withheld buoys to clearly demonstrate that there is a significant advantage in adding TMI data. The advantage of TMI data is clearly shown in the OI analyses without bias correction. Because IR and microwave satellite algorithms are affected by different sources of error, biases may tend to cancel when both TMI and AVHRR data are used in the OI. Bias corrections cannot be made in regions where there are no in situ data. In these regions, the results of the analyses without bias corrections apply. Because there are areas of the ocean with limited in situ data and restricted AVHRR coverage due to cloud cover, the use of both TMI and AVHRR should improve the accuracy of the analysis in these regions. In addition, the use of more than one satellite product is helpful in diagnosing problems in these products.
The economics of a sustainable population

The population age distribution is shown to be more important than the population growth rate itself. The age distribution directly impacts average living standards through the ratio of workers to consumers and may also affect labour productivity. The population growth rate itself, however, contains little useful information. Indeed the search for an optimal population growth rate is a futile exercise, as is the notion of Australia’s ‘carrying capacity’. There are simply too many uncertainties and value judgements required to make such calculations useful—for example, what factors (social, cultural, environmental, economic) to include in social wellbeing and how to measure them, how to value the wellbeing of future generations, how to value contemporaneous gains and losses to various groups in society, economies and diseconomies of scale, the different effects of fertility and immigration as population drivers, and the importance of both the spatial and age distribution of the population in the transition from one population growth rate to another.
IN VITRO EVALUATION OF ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTY OF CATHARANTHUS ROSEUS (LINN.) G. DON. VAR. “ROSEA” AND “ALBA”

Objective: To evaluate the antibacterial property of crude, aqueous and organic solvent extract from leaf, stem and root parts of two different var. of Catharanthus roseus (i.e. “ rosea” and “a lba ”) under in vitro conditions on various human pathogenic bacteria. Methods: Antibacterial activity of crude (fresh), aqueous, ethanolic, methanolic and equimolar (1:1) mixture of ethanolic dried leaf extract of variety “rosea” and “alba” was evaluated against various pathogenic bacteria viz. Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus by disk diffusion method under in vitro conditions. Results: Gram-positive bacteria were found to be more susceptible than Gram-negative. Dried extracts of root, stem and leaf of C. roseus var. “ rosea” and “ alba” plants showed maximum antibacterial potency against all the test microorganisms. The equimolar mixture of ethanolic dried leaf extracts of species “ rosea” and “ alba” exhibited the maximum zone of inhibition against B. subtilis, E. coli and S. aureus as compare to extract prepared from individual parts. The findings of the ethanolic mixture of dried leaves of the two varieties on the tested bactera confirm that the effect is potentiating which may be synergistic or additive. Conclusion: From the findings, it could be inferred that C. roseus var. “ rosea” and “ alba ” could be efficiently used in the development of new life-saving drugs against bacterial pathogens.
Location-Based Authentication Mechanism for Server Access Control

Recently, security incidents occur continuously, resulting in the leakages of a large amount of the company's confidential and private information. For these reasons, the security technologies such as the authentication and the access control in order to prevent the information leakage are attracting attention. In particular, location-based authentication that utilizes the user's current location information which is used an authentication factor. And it provides more powerful authentication by controlling the users who attempt to access and blocks internal information leakage path. However, location information must be handled safely since it is the personal information. The location based authentication scheme proposed in this paper enhances the stability of the process location information compared with existing relevant location-based authentication protocol. Also it strengthens the end-user authentication by using one-time password. In addition, the proposed scheme provides authentication to prevent information leakage and employs the concept of the user's physical access control. Resultingly, the proposed scheme can provide higher security than the previous studies, while guarantee to low communication cost.
Patients’ Level of Satisfaction with the Health Care Services Received at Outpatient Departments in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania

Introduction: Patients’ satisfaction is a measure of health system performance and can be used as a foundation of encouraging health care providers to become more responsible to their patients. Satisfaction manifests itself as a distribution, access and utilization of health services. This study aimed to determine patients’ level of satisfaction with the health care services received in outpatient department in Kilimanjaro Region. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted at Mawenzi Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH), Same District Hospital (DH) and Huruma Designated District Hospital (DDH) using Donabedian model to determine patients’ level of satisfaction with the health care services received at outpatient departments in Kilimanjaro Region. Systematic sampling was used to select 450 patients. Service quality questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics was performed. Paired sample t-test, independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni posthoc test were used to compare mean gap scores. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The overall patient’s level of satisfaction with health service provision at OPD in all three hospitals was 20%. The gap on health services provision in all three hospitals was -37.0 (± 47.0) signifying overall dissatisfaction among patients. No statistically significant difference (p<0.05) on the gap in satisfaction with quality of service provision existed between MRRH and Huruma DDH as well as between MRRH and Same DH. However, a significant gap difference was demonstrated between Huruma DDH and Same DH (p, 0.002) with a smaller gap in satisfaction at Huruma DDH compared to Same DH (-28.0 versus -46.7). The highest level of dissatisfaction in the five service dimensions tested was on empathy (-7.8). Conclusion: Patients attending OPD in all three hospitals demonstrate an overall dissatisfaction with quality of care. Hospital managements should focus on: improvement of patient-provider relationship, availability of equipment and drugs and affordability of hospital bills.
Temporal variation of extreme precipitation events in Lithuania

Abstract Heavy precipitation events in Lithuania for the period 1961–2008 were analysed. The spatial distribution and dynamics of precipitation extremes were investigated. Positive tendencies and in some cases statistically significant trends were determined for the whole of Lithuania. Atmospheric circulation processes were derived using Hess & Brezowski’s classification of macrocirculation forms. More than one third of heavy precipitation events (37%) were observed when the atmospheric circulation was zonal. The location of the central part of a cyclone (WZ weather condition subtype) over Lithuania is the most common synoptic situation (27%) during heavy precipitation events. Climatic projections according to outputs of the CCLM model are also presented in this research. The analysis shows that the recurrence of heavy precipitation events in the 21st century will increase significantly (by up to 22%) in Lithuania.
Time-varying World Integration of the Malaysian Stock Market: A Kalman Filter Approach

This paper estimates the time-varying world integration of the Malaysian stock market and examines if the paths of the time-varying integration match the economic events of the country. We employed weekly time series data for the period between February 1988 and September 2009 to coincide with the liberalisation of the Malaysian market since the late 1980s. To capture the time-varying degree of market integration, we employed the Kalman Filter technique, which produces time-varying coefficients in estimating International Capital Asset Pricing Model (ICAPM). The changes in the level of market integration coincide with the economic events that took place in the country and provide some evidence to the practical application and suitability of the Kalman Filter technique in studying stock market integration.