Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ontwikkelingen in het marktonderzoek

Major sports events draw unsurpassed media attention. Companies try to benefit from the large audiences by increasing advertising investments around these events. Question is whether this is a sound strategy, or wether it would! be better to avoid advertising in these periods as (too) many brands are following this strategy? This study investigates when consumer packaged goods companies should invest in advertising to increase sales: before, during, or after the event or outside these event periods. It provides estimates of short­ and long­term own­ and cross­advertising elasticities for 206 brands using four years of weekly data. Considerable heterogeneity exists across brands but in general, own-advertising effectiveness diminishes especially before and during major sports events, in both the short and the long run. However, strong increases in advertising spending resul-ting in significant growth in share of voice around focused, single-sport events are a successful stra-tegy to overcome this overall general negative trend. intentions but also to greater perceived intrusiveness, which then negatively affects purchase intentions. This chapter addresses consumer expenditures during the persisting economic downturn between 2008 and 2015.The focus is in a longitudinal study on tourism demand within the context of expenditures on other consumer goods, taking in account the ’why’ of the development of this demand over time. The findings show that holidays, in particular the main summer holiday, can be posi-tioned closer to being a necessary good than to being a luxury good, at least during an economic downturn. Many vacationers are prepared to sacrifice expenditures on a variety of products just so as to keep on going on holiday. The major explanation is the high essentiality of vacations for a better quality of life. The influence of income and personal economic situation on tourist demand at the micro-level during an economic downturn is relatively minor or non-existent.
On the Relationship Between Cardiovascular Risk Marker Calcium Phosphate Product and Health-Related Quality of Life in Hemodialysis Patients

Background: End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients undergoing hemodialysis suffer from multiple comorbidities, including cardiovascular disorders. Calcium phosphate product is one of the stand-alone cardiovascular risk markers. The relationship between calcium phosphate product-based cardiovascular risk and HRQOL needs to be further studied. Methods: This project was a cross-sectional survey using the Kidney Disease Quality of Life (KDQOL-36) of patient health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Calcium phosphate product was calculated from the information in the medical records. The study was conducted at the hemodialysis ward of the hospital affiliated with the Thumbay University. Spearman’s correlation coefficient (rs) was used to explore an association (correlation) between HRQOL domains and categorized calcium phosphate products. In this study, the significance level was set at P = 0.05, and SPSS software version 26 was used to analyze the data. Results: The mean score (58%) of the Short Form (SF)-12 Physical composite was lower than the mean score of mental composite (70%). Among kidney-specific domains, the highest HRQOL score was associated with the symptom/problem list (71%), followed by effects on kidney disease (63%) and the burden of kidney disease (40%), respectively. There was a non-strong negative correlation between the ‘burden of kidney disease’ and corrected calcium phosphate product (rs -0.439, P-value 0.032) and between ‘symptom/ problem list’ and corrected calcium phosphate product (rs -0.431, P-value 0.035), and the other KDQOL domains revealed insignificant relationship with calcium phosphate product. Conclusions: ESKD affects HRQOL in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis. Calcium phosphate product also needs to be decreased by < 55 mg/dL in the concerned patients. Calcium phosphate product and HRQOL were not correlated in this group of patients. The HRQOL measures need to be revised to detect cardiovascular risk.
Non-Markovian Inverse Hawkes Processes

Hawkes processes are a class of self-exciting point processes with a clustering effect whose jump rate is determined by its past history. They are generally regarded as continuous-time processes and have been widely applied in a number of fields, such as insurance, finance, queueing, and statistics. The Hawkes model is generally non-Markovian because its future development depends on the timing of past events. However, it can be Markovian under certain circumstances. If the exciting function is an exponential function or a sum of exponential functions, the model can be Markovian with a generator of the model. In contrast to the general Hawkes processes, the inverse Hawkes process has some specific features and self-excitation indicates severity. Inverse Markovian Hawkes processes were introduced by Seol, who studied some asymptotic behaviors. An extended version of inverse Markovian Hawkes processes was also studied by Seol. With this paper, we propose a non-Markovian inverse Hawkes process, which is a more general inverse Hawkes process that features several existing models of self-exciting processes. In particular, we established both the law of large numbers (LLN) and Central limit theorems (CLT) for a newly considered non-Markovian inverse Hawkes process.
Neuroprotective therapeutic strategy against neuronal damage

: Currently, the methods of treating neurodegenerative diseases are not fully effective. The available drugs are not able to stop the disease process, but to slow it down, [1] therefore, research on new compounds and new approaches to treating these disorders is still ongoing. We are looking for compounds with neuroprotective properties that will prevent cell death as well as restore the function and number of damaged neurons [2]. The presented research focuses on developing an effective treatment of neurodegenerative diseases based on the compound with neuroprotective properties. A multi-target antipsychotic compound, D2AAK1, was used in the conducted research. The experiments were carried out on mouse hippocampal neuron cells (HT-22), neuroblastoma cells (SH-SY5Y) and male Swiss mice. The conducted studies showed that the compound causes an increase in cell proliferation and improves memory in mice models. Moreover, the compound caused a reduction in the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS), nitrogen (RNS), a decrease in intracellular calcium levels (Ca2+) and the level of DNA damage in the form of micronuclei (MN).
The pattern of technological accumulation: The comparative advantage and relative impact of 3D printing technology

Purpose The national technology accumulation pattern in three-dimensional (3D) printing technology field has not yet been studied until now. This paper is to fill this gap. To be specific, the purpose of this paper is to answer the following two questions. What is the comparative advantage of 3D printing technology among countries? What is the relative impact of 3D printing technology in the worldwide? Design/methodology/approach Patent bibliometric analysis was used for analyzing and collecting data to find critical information of 3D printing. Some indicators (RTA, FSGI, RII, CV) have been applied in analyzing the national patterns of technology accumulation in developed and developing countries by using patent statistics. Findings First, the USA, Japan, and Germany are the leading countries in 3D printing technology, while the technology accumulation patterns of these countries are rather different. Second, Israel and Italy have good performance in the fast-growing technology sub-fields. Third, although the number of patents owned by developing countries, such as China and Russia, is not few, the citations received by these patents are low. Research limitations/implications A limitation of this study is that technological development can be reflected by many indicators and patent statistic is merely one reflection form. This study just analyzes the 3D printing technology development from the perspective of patent statistic, the authors would like to continue the comprehensive analysis with the other data indicators in a future study. Originality/value The national technology accumulation pattern in 3D printing technology field has not yet been studied until now. This paper is to fill this gap.
Development of the Cook-EdTM Matrix to Guide Food and Cooking Skill Selection in Culinary Education Programs That Target Diet Quality and Health

Culinary education programs are generally designed to improve participants’ food and cooking skills, with or without consideration to influencing diet quality or health. No published methods exist to guide food and cooking skills’ content priorities within culinary education programs that target improved diet quality and health. To address this gap, an international team of cooking and nutrition education experts developed the Cooking Education (Cook-EdTM) matrix. International food-based dietary guidelines were reviewed to determine common food groups. A six-section matrix was drafted including skill focus points for: (1) Kitchen safety, (2) Food safety, (3) General food skills, (4) Food group specific food skills, (5) General cooking skills, (6) Food group specific cooking skills. A modified e-Delphi method with three consultation rounds was used to reach consensus on the Cook-EdTM matrix structure, skill focus points included, and their order. The final Cook-EdTM matrix includes 117 skill focus points. The matrix guides program providers in selecting the most suitable skills to consider for their programs to improve dietary and health outcomes, while considering available resources, participant needs, and sustainable nutrition principles. Users can adapt the Cook-EdTM matrix to regional food-based dietary guidelines and food cultures.
Data-Driven Assessment of Wind Turbine Performance Decline with Age and Interpretation Based on Comparative Test Case Analysis

An increasing amount of wind turbines, especially in Europe, are reaching the end of their expected lifetimes; therefore, long data sets describing their operation are available for scholars to analyze the performance trends. On these grounds, the present work is devoted to test case studies for the evaluation and the interpretation of wind turbine performance decline with age. Two wind farms were studied, featuring widely employed wind turbine models: the former is composed of 6 Senvion MM92 and the latter of 11 Vestas V52 wind turbines, owned by the ENGIE Italia company. SCADA data spanning, respectively, 10 and 7 years were analyzed for the two test cases. The effect of aging on the performance of the test case wind turbines was studied by constructing a data-driven model of appropriate operation curves, selected depending on the working region. For the Senvion MM92, we found that it is questionable to talk about performance aging because there is no evident trend in time: the performance variation year by year is in the order of a few kW and is therefore irrelevant for practical applications. For the Vestas V52 wind turbines, a much wider variability is observed: two wind turbines are affected by a remarkable performance drop, after which the behavior is stable and under-performing with respect to the rest of the wind farm. Particular attention is devoted to the interpretation of the results: the comparative discussion of the two test cases indicates that the observed operation curves are compatible with the hypothesis that the worsening with age of the two under-performing Vestas V52 can be ascribed to the behavior of the hydraulic blade pitch. Furthermore, for both test cases, it is estimated that the gearbox-aging contributes negligibly to the performance decline in time.
Design Procedure for Three-Stage CMOS OTAs with AC Boosting Frequency Compensation Technique

ABSTRACT An analytic design guide to design a three-stage cascade CMOS operational amplifier compensated by AC boosting frequency compensation (ACBC) method is presented in this paper. The procedure allows electrical parameters such as gain bandwidth (GBW) product or phase margin to be related to the value of circuit elements such as aspect ratio or biasing currents of transistors. The presented design guide is suited for pencil-and-paper design and yields accurate performance without unnecessary circuit constraint introduction. Simulation results using TSMC 0.18 µm CMOS process verifies accuracy and robustness of proposed procedure. Various load capacitors and circuit conditions are simulated and, based on obtained results, the presented design guide is comprehensive and efficient since it leads us from frequency response parameters to aspect ratio of MOSFETs.
In Vitro Anti-Obesity Effect of Shenheling Extract (SHLE) Fermented with Lactobacillus fermentum grx08

Obesity is a common global problem. There are many fat-reducing herbal prescriptions in traditional Chinese medicine that have been proven to be safe and functional during long-term application. Microbial fermentation can improve the efficacy of herbal medicine and improve the unsavory flavor. In this study, Shenheling extract (SHLE) composed of six medicine food homology materials was used as the research object. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of Lactobacillus fermentum grx08 fermentation on the antiobesity efficacy and flavor of SHLE. We found that L. fermentum grx08 grew well in SHLE. After 72 h of fermentation, the total polysaccharides, total flavonoids, total polyphenols and total saponins of SHLE decreased, but the lipase inhibitory activity and total antioxidant capacity (FRAP) were significantly increased (p < 0.01). There were no significant differences in the α-glucosidase inhibition rate and DPPH· clearance rate before or after fermentation (p > 0.05). In addition, the fermentation reduces the unpleasant flavors of SHLE such as bitterness and grassy and cassia flavors. This study demonstrates that SHLE fermented by L. fermentum grx08 improved some anti-obesity functions and improved the unpleasant flavor.
Safety of data exchange in pulse interferometer

Current solutions used for protection of information transmitted in fibre optic networks are based on direct detection of fibre optic cable eavesdropping and encryption of transmitted information. Protection of fibre optic cables from physical intrusion in to the transmission channel is realized on dark optical fibres, not used in the transmission of information. Security of encrypted information is based on the assumption of limited computing power used for cryptanalysis, what with the introduction of operating quantum computers will cease to apply. So ideal solution for information protection is physical it coding that makes eavesdropping near to impossible, in the same time allows of constant monitoring of fibre physical integrity. The article describes the construction and principle of operation used in fibre optic pulse interferometer, that allows to detect mechanical disorders of fibre optic transmission line with simultaneous transmission of information. Operation of the system relies on encoding information in phase of optical radiation pulses and for monitoring the status of the transmission line by analysis polarization of radiation in interferometer. System configuration provides stabilized work of pulse interferometer over several kilometres, under varying environmental conditions. Unique capabilities of detection system enable the use of two independent criteria for alarm signal excitation. The aim of the study was to determine the security degree provided by system to protection of transmitted information in proposed arrangement.
Effect of magnesium oxide nanoparticles, hydroxyapatite and hydrogel on regeneration of transverse fracture of distal radius

Study's purpose of this study is to conduct synthesis and evaluate the effect of hydroxyapatite (HA) with hydrogel locally magnesium oxide nanoparticles (MgONPS) locally or intraperitoneally (IP) on the healing of the distal third radial fracture. Concentrations of MgONPs 200μg/ml, dissolved in 1 cc distilled water and the solution stirred by a stirrer for 10 min. HA 0.5 mg in 1ml hydrogel and the solution stirring at the vortex for 15 min. These materials were evaluated in vitro to ensure their suitability with the tissues. Seventy-five healthy adult male rabbits, aged about 1.5- 2 years old with average weighting 1.7- 2.3 Kg. B.W were used. Rabbits were divided into three groups randomly (n=25), group A (HA mixed hydrogel applied locally), group B (HA mixed with hydrogel and MgONPs applied locally) and group C (HA mixed hydrogel applied locally and MgONPs IP). Animals were anesthetized by i.m 40 mg/ kg B.W ketamine hydrochloride and 5mg/ kg B.W xylazine. A 5cm incision had made cranio-medially in the skin of the forelimb (right forelimb) and exposure radius and ulna. The macroscopic evaluation revealed that all groups at 2nd week showed bone reaction in different degrees.
Dynamic manipulability measure for on-orbit manipulation by frictional contacts

Due to unilateral constraints of frictional contacts and the dynamic coupling phenomenon, the study on the unfixed manipulation through frictional contacts for multi-arm space robots is few carried out. This paper proposes a new measure method to assess the dynamic manipulability of the unfixed manipulation through frictional contacts. In particular, the explicit map from the base actuation and joint torques to the object acceleration, the base acceleration, and the internal force is formulated under unilateral constraints of frictional contacts. Considering typical control scenarios of both free-floating and free-flying systems, dynamic manipulabilities are derived separately. As an illustrative example, the dynamic manipulability of a planar dual-arm space robot is computed and reported, which visualizes the influence of different system parameters.
Recent Advances of Emerging Organic Pollutants Degradation in Environment by Non-Thermal Plasma Technology: A Review

Emerging organic pollutants (EOPs), including endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), and persistent organic pollutants (POPs), constitute a problem in the environmental field as they are difficult to completely degrade by conventional treatment methods. Non-thermal plasma technology is a novel advanced oxidation process, which combines the effects of free radical oxidation, ozone oxidation, ultraviolet radiation, shockwave, etc. This paper summarized and discussed the research progress of non-thermal plasma remediation of EOPs-contaminated water and soil. In addition, the reactive species in the process of non-thermal plasma degradation of EOPs were summarized, and the degradation pathways and degradation mechanisms of EOPs were evaluated of selected EOPs for different study cases. At the same time, the effect of non-thermal plasma in synergy with other techniques on the degradation of EOPs in the environment was evaluated. Finally, the bottleneck problems of non-thermal plasma technology are summarized, and some suggestions for the future development of non-thermal plasma technology in the environmental remediation were presented. This review contributes to our better understanding of non-thermal plasma technology for remediation of EOPs-contaminated water and soil, hoping to provide reference for relevant practitioners.
RadarSLAM: A robust simultaneous localization and mapping system for all weather conditions

A Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) system must be robust to support long-term mobile vehicle and robot applications. However, camera and LiDAR based SLAM systems can be fragile when facing challenging illumination or weather conditions which degrade the utility of imagery and point cloud data. Radar, whose operating electromagnetic spectrum is less affected by environmental changes, is promising although its distinct sensor model and noise characteristics bring open challenges when being exploited for SLAM. This paper studies the use of a Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave radar for SLAM in large-scale outdoor environments. We propose a full radar SLAM system, including a novel radar motion estimation algorithm that leverages radar geometry for reliable feature tracking. It also optimally compensates motion distortion and estimates pose by joint optimization. Its loop closure component is designed to be simple yet efficient for radar imagery by capturing and exploiting structural information of the surrounding environment. Extensive experiments on three public radar datasets, ranging from city streets and residential areas to countryside and highways, show competitive accuracy and reliability performance of the proposed radar SLAM system compared to the state-of-the-art LiDAR, vision and radar methods. The results show that our system is technically viable in achieving reliable SLAM in extreme weather conditions on the RADIATE Dataset, for example, heavy snow and dense fog, demonstrating the promising potential of using radar for all-weather localization and mapping.
Seasonal and Zonal Succession of Bacterial Communities in North Sea Salt Marsh Sediments

Benthic microbial communities of intertidal zones perform important biogeochemical processes and provide accessible nutrients for higher organisms. To unravel the ecosystem services of salt marsh microbial communities, we analyzed bacterial diversity and metabolic potential along the land–sea transition zone on seasonal scales on the German North Sea Island of Spiekeroog. Analysis of bacterial community was based on amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA genes and –transcripts. Insights into potential community function were obtained by applying the gene prediction tool tax4fun2. We found that spatial variation of community composition was greater than seasonal variations. Alphaproteobacteria (15%), Gammaproteobacteria (17%) and Planctomycetes (11%) were the most abundant phyla across all samples. Differences between the DNA-based resident and RNA-based active communities were most pronounced within the Planctomycetes (17% and 5%) and Cyanobacteriia (3% and 12%). Seasonal differences were seen in higher abundance of Gammaproteobacteria in March 2015 (25%) and a cyanobacterial summer bloom, accounting for up to 70% of the active community. Taxonomy-based prediction of function showed increasing potentials for nitrification, assimilatory nitrate and sulfate reduction from sea to land, while the denitrification and dissimilatory sulfate reduction increased towards the sea. In conclusion, seasonal differences mainly occurred by blooming of individual taxa, while the overall community composition strongly corresponded to locations. Shifts in their metabolism could drive the salt marsh’s function, e.g., as a potential nitrogen sink.