LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Generational diversity: what nurse managers need to know.

AIM
This article presents a discussion of generational differences and their impact on the nursing workforce and how this impact affects the work environment.


BACKGROUND
The global nursing workforce represents four generations of nurses. This generational diversity frames attitudes, beliefs, work habits and expectations associated with the role of the nurse in the provision of care and in the way the nurse manages their day-to-day activities.


DATA SOURCES
An electronic search of MEDLINE, PubMed and Cinahl databases was performed using the words generational diversity, nurse managers and workforce. The search was limited to 2000-2012.


DISCUSSION
Generational differences present challenges to contemporary nurse managers working in a healthcare environment which is complex and dynamic, in terms of managing nurses who think and behave in a different way because of disparate core personal and generational values, namely, the three Cs of communication, commitment and compensation.


IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
An acceptance of generational diversity in the workplace allows a richer scope for practice as the experiences and knowledge of each generation in the nursing environment creates an environment of acceptance and harmony facilitating retention of nurses.


CONCLUSION
Acknowledgement of generational characteristics provides the nurse manager with strategies which focus on mentoring and motivation; communication, the increased use of technology and the ethics of nursing, to bridge the gap between generations of nurses and to increase nursing workforce cohesion.
Mobile Robot Integrated with Gyroscope by Using IKF

This paper mainly proposes absolute positioning instruments  using  camera  positioning  system  and compass.The  absolute  positioning  systems  are  used  to estimate  absolute  position  and  orientation  errors combined with  estimated  position  and  orientation  from differential  odometry  integrated  with  gyroscope  to calculate  absolute  position  and  orientation  of  mobile robot. In the method, the indirect Kalman filter is used to estimate absolute position and orientation errors and the estimated  errors  are  fed  back  to  odometry  system,  and also estimates some parameter errors to correct odometry system  and  gyroscope  error.  The  simulation  and experimental  results  show  the  estimated  position  and orientation  of  odometry  system  integrated  with gyroscope,  systematic  errors  of  odometry  system  and gyroscope, absolute position from the camera positioning system and absolute orientation from compass compared with odometry system integrated with gyroscope.
Psychopathological and cognitive effects of therapeutic cannabinoids in multiple sclerosis: a double-blind, placebo controlled, crossover study.

OBJECTIVES
To study possible psychopathological symptoms and cognitive deficits, abuse induction, as well as general tolerability and effects on quality of life, fatigue and motor function in cannabis-naïve patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) treated with a free-dose cannabis plant extract (Sativex).


METHODS
In an 8-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group crossover trial, 17 cannabis-naïve patients with MS were assessed at baseline and at the end of the cannabis and placebo phases of the trial (each of 3 weeks) by means of Symptom Checklist-90 Revised, Self-rating Anxiety Scale, Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite (of which 1 dimension is the Paced Auditory Serial Additional Test that was used to evaluate cognition), Visual Analogue Scale on health-related quality of life, Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale-29, and Fatigue Severity Scale.


RESULTS
Postplacebo versus postcannabinoid scores showed that no significant differences could be detected on all the variables under study. A significant positive correlation was found between Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol blood levels and scores at the General Symptomatic Index and at the "interpersonal sensitivity," "aggressive behaviour," and "paranoiac tendencies" subscales of the Symptom Checklist-90 Revised. No serious adverse events, abuse tendencies, or direct withdrawal symptoms were reported. Increased desire for Sativex with secondary depression was reported in 1 subject.


CONCLUSIONS
Cannabinoid treatment did not induce psychopathology and did not impair cognition in cannabis-naïve patients with MS. However, the positive correlation between blood levels of Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and psychopathological scores suggests that at dosages higher than those used in therapeutic settings, interpersonal sensitivity, aggressiveness, and paranoiac features might arise, although greater statistical power would be necessary to confirm this finding.
Cosmology of multigravity

We have constructed a nonlinear multi-graviton theory. An application of this theory to cosmology is discussed. We found that scale factors in a solution for this theory repeat acceleration and deceleration.
A population-based lifestyle intervention to promote healthy weight and physical activity in people with cardiac disease: The PANACHE (Physical Activity, Nutrition And Cardiac HEalth) study protocol

BACKGROUND
Maintaining a healthy weight and undertaking regular physical activity are important for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, many people with CVD are overweight and insufficiently active. In addition, in Australia only 20-30% of people requiring cardiac rehabilitation (CR) for CVD actually attend. To improve outcomes of and access to CR the efficacy, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of alternative approaches to CR need to be established.This research will determine the efficacy of a telephone-delivered lifestyle intervention, promoting healthy weight and physical activity, in people with CVD in urban and rural settings. The control group will also act as a replication study of a previously proven physical activity intervention, to establish whether those findings can be repeated in different urban and rural locations. The cost-effectiveness and acceptability of the intervention to CR staff and participants will also be determined.


METHODS/DESIGN
This study is a randomised controlled trial. People referred for CR at two urban and two rural Australian hospitals will be invited to participate. The intervention (healthy weight) group will participate in four telephone delivered behavioural coaching and goal setting sessions over eight weeks. The coaching sessions will be on weight, nutrition and physical activity and will be supported by written materials, a pedometer and two follow-up booster telephone calls. The control (physical activity) group will participate in a six week intervention previously shown to increase physical activity, consisting of two telephone delivered behavioural coaching and goal setting sessions on physical activity, supported by written materials, a pedometer and two booster phone calls. Data will be collected at baseline, eight weeks and eight months for the intervention group (baseline, six weeks and six months for the control group). The primary outcome is weight change. Secondary outcomes include physical activity, sedentary time and nutrition habits. Costs will be compared with outcomes to determine the relative cost-effectiveness of the healthy weight and physical activity interventions.


DISCUSSION
This study addresses a significant gap in public health practice by providing evidence for the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a low cost, low contact, high reach intervention promoting healthy weight and physical activity among people with CVD in rural and urban areas in Australia. The replication arm of the study, undertaken by the control group, will demonstrate whether the findings of the previously proven physical activity intervention can be generalised to new settings. This population-based approach could potentially improve access to and outcomes of secondary prevention programs, particularly for rural or disadvantaged communities.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
ACTRN12610000102077.
Rasch analysis of the pediatric outcomes data collection instrument in 720 patients with cerebral palsy.

BACKGROUND
The pediatric outcomes data collection instrument (PODCI) was originally developed to carry out a functional assessment of children and adolescents (including patients with cerebral palsy), focusing on musculoskeletal health. Validated questionnaires are important for assessing the functional outcome of cerebral palsy, and are meant to have unidimensionality, proper item gap, no ceiling and floor effects, and no item redundancy. The advances in health measurements have led to the application of Rasch analysis to assess questionnaires. This study evaluated PODCI in patients with cerebral palsy using Rasch analyses.


METHODS
The study included a total of 720 patients with gross motor function classification system level I to III, 192 with unilateral involvement and 528 with bilateral involvement. Rasch analysis was performed to obtain information on (1) the information weight fit statistic to assess the unidimensionality and redundancy of the items in each domain; (2) average item calibration to detect the item separation; and (3) item map to evaluate the ceiling and floor effects.


RESULTS
The PODCI worked best in the sports/physical function domain. In information weight fit statistics, there were 4 items violating unidimensionality, which included "putting on his/her coat" in transfer/basic mobility and "getting together and do things with friends" in sports/physical function. There were 4 items with item redundancy. Inadequate item separation was observed in the transfer/basic mobility domain. A ceiling effect was found in all domains, except for the sports/physical function.


CONCLUSIONS
The sports/physical function domain in PODCI generally satisfies the requirements of Rasch item response theory and is an appropriate measure of the function in cerebral palsy. Although some individual items do not fit well, the PODCI can be improved by eliminating the redundant items and by adding more difficult tasks to fill in the gaps.


LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
Level II.
Acquiring Self-Knowledge: The Search for Feedback That Fits

This report is concerned with the influence of people's self-conceptions on the feedback they solicit during their social interactions. In the first of three empirical investigations, participants were given an opportunity to seek feedback from interaction partners that would either confirm or disconfirm their self-conceptions. In this investigation, participants displayed a clear preference for feedback that would confirm their self-perceived emotionality and self-perceived assertiveness. Participants in Investigation 2 spent more money for the purchase of self-confirmatory social feedback than self-disconfirmatory feedback. The third investigation asked what might motivate this tendency to preferentially solicit self-confirmatory feedback. It was found that participants regard self-confirmatory feedback as especially informative. This suggests that the feedback preferences found in Investigations 1 and 2 may reflect a cognitively based tendency for people to regard confirmatory instances of phenomena to be more diagnostic and compelling than disconfirmatory instances of phenomena. The discussion considers how people's efforts to solicit self-confirmatory feedback from others may stabilize their social environment, their self-conceptions, and their behavior.
A software flaw taxonomy: aiming tools at security

Although proposals were made three decades ago to build static analysis tools to either assist software security evaluations or to find security flaws, it is only recently that static analysis and model checking technology has reached the point where such tooling has become feasible. In order to target their technology on a rational basis, it would be useful for tool-builders to have available a taxonomy of software security flaws organizing the problem space. Unfortunately, the only existing suitable taxonomies are sadly out-of-date, and do not adequately represent security flaws that are found in modern software.In our work, we have coalesced previous efforts to categorize security problems as well as incident reports in order to create a security flaw taxonomy. We correlate this taxonomy with available information about current high-priority security threats, and make observations regarding the results. We suggest that this taxonomy is suitable for tool developers and to outline possible areas of future research.
Sparse channel estimation based on a reweighted least-mean mixed-norm adaptive filter algorithm

A sparsity-aware least-mean mixed-norm (LMMN) adaptive filter algorithm is proposed for sparse channel estimation applications. The proposed algorithm is realized by incorporating a sum-log function constraint into the cost function of a LMMN which is a mixed norm controlled by a scalar-mixing parameter. As a result, a shrinkage is given to enhance the performance of the LMMN algorithm when the majority of the channel taps are zeros or near-zeros. The channel estimation behaviors of the proposed reweighted sparse LMMN algorithm is investigated and discussed in comparison with those of the standard LMS and the least-mean square/fourth (LMS/F) and previously sparse LMS/F algorithms. The simulation results show that the proposed reweighted sparse LMMN algorithm is superior to aforementioned algorithms with respect to the convergence speed and steady-state error floor.
Bankruptcy prediction using support vector machine with optimal choice of kernel function parameters

Bankruptcy prediction has drawn a lot of research interests in previous literature, and recent studies have shown that machine learning techniques achieved better performance than traditional statistical ones. This paper applies support vector machines (SVMs) to the bankruptcy prediction problem in an attempt to suggest a new model with better explanatory power and stability. To serve this purpose, we use a grid-search technique using 5-fold cross-validation to find out the optimal parameter values of kernel function of SVM. In addition, to evaluate the prediction accuracy of SVM, we compare its performance with those of multiple discriminant analysis (MDA), logistic regression analysis (Logit), and three-layer fully connected back-propagation neural networks (BPNs). The experiment results show that SVM outperforms the other methods. q 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Connection mechanism capable of genderless coupling for modular manipulator system

Gender characteristics of connecting side between modules affects the number of configurations after assembly of modular manipulator systems. A modular connection mechanism capable of genderless coupling of mechanical and electrical connection between modules is introduced. The connection can be established between two modules via four types of relative positions of 90° intervals.
High serum level of retinol and α-tocopherol affords protection against oral cancer in a multiethnic population.

BACKGROUND
A comparative cross-sectional study involving oral cancer patients and healthy individuals was designed to investigate associations between retinol, α-tocopherol and β-carotene with the risk of oral cancer.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
This study included a total of 240 matched cases and controls where subjects were selected from the Malaysian Oral Cancer Database and Tissue Bank System (MOCDTBS). Retinol, α-tocopherol and β-carotene levels and intake were examined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) respectively.


RESULTS
It was found that results from the two methods applied did not correlate, so that further analysis was done using the HPLC method utilising blood serum. Serum levels of retinol and α-tocopherol among cases (0.177±0.081, 1.649±1.670μg/ml) were significantly lower than in controls (0.264±0.137, 3.225±2.054μg/ml) (p<0.005). Although serum level of β-carotene among cases (0.106±0.159 μg/ml) were lower compared to controls (0.134±0.131μg/ml), statistical significance was not observed. Logistic regression analysis showed that high serum level of retinol (OR=0.501, 95% CI=0.254-0.992, p<0.05) and α-tocopherol (OR=0.184, 95% CI=0.091-0.370, p<0.05) was significantly related to lower risk of oral cancer, whereas no relationship was observed between β-carotene and oral cancer risk.


CONCLUSIONS
High serum levels of retinol and α-tocopherol confer protection against oral cancer risk.
Town Crier: An Authenticated Data Feed for Smart Contracts

Smart contracts are programs that execute autonomously on blockchains. Their key envisioned uses (e.g. financial instruments) require them to consume data from outside the blockchain (e.g. stock quotes). Trustworthy data feeds that support a broad range of data requests will thus be critical to smart contract ecosystems.
 We present an authenticated data feed system called Town Crier (TC). TC acts as a bridge between smart contracts and existing web sites, which are already commonly trusted for non-blockchain applications. It combines a blockchain front end with a trusted hardware back end to scrape HTTPS-enabled websites and serve source-authenticated data to relying smart contracts.
 TC also supports confidentiality. It enables private data requests with encrypted parameters. Additionally, in a generalization that executes smart-contract logic within TC, the system permits secure use of user credentials to scrape access-controlled online data sources.
 We describe TC's design principles and architecture and report on an implementation that uses Intel's recently introduced Software Guard Extensions (SGX) to furnish data to the Ethereum smart contract system. We formally model TC and define and prove its basic security properties in the Universal Composibility (UC) framework. Our results include definitions and techniques of general interest relating to resource consumption (Ethereum's "gas" fee system) and TCB minimization. We also report on experiments with three example applications.
 We plan to launch TC soon as an online public service.
Filtered extreme‐value theory for value‐at‐risk estimation: evidence from Turkey

Extreme returns in stock returns need to be captured for a successful risk management function to estimate unexpected loss in portfolio. Traditional value-at-risk models based on parametric models are not able to capture the extremes in emerging markets where high volatility and nonlinear behaviors in returns are observed. The Extreme Value Theory (EVT) with conditional quantile proposed by McNeil and Frey (2000) is based on the central limit theorem applied to the extremes rater than mean of the return distribution. It limits the distribution of extreme returns always has the same form without relying on the distribution of the parent variable. This paper uses 8 filtered EVT models created with conditional quantile to estimate value-at-risk for the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE). The performances of the filtered expected shortfall models are compared to those of GARCH, GARCH with student-t distribution, GARCH with skewed student-t distribution and FIGARCH by using alternative back-testing algorithms, namely, Kupiec test (1995), Christoffersen test (1998), Lopez test (1999), RMSE (70 days) h-step ahead forecasting RMSE (70 days), number of exception and h-step ahead number of exception. The test results show that the filtered expected shortfall has better performance on capturing fat-tails in the stock returns than parametric value-at-risk models do. Besides increase in conditional quantile decreases h-step ahead number of exceptions and this shows that filtered expected shortfall with higher conditional quantile such as 40 days should be used for forward looking forecasting. JEL classification: G0, C52, C32, C22
WEIGHTING: WHY, WHEN, AND HOW?*

1. Introduction Fundamental questions about weighting (Fig 1) seem to be ~ most common during the analysis of survey data and I encounter them almost every week. Yet we "lack a single, reasonably comprehensive, introductory explanation of the process of weighting" [Sharot 1986], readily available to and usable by survey practitioners, who are looking for simple guidance, and this paper aims to meet some of that need. Some partial treatments have appeared in the survey literature [e.g., Kish 1965], but the topic seldom appears even in the indexes. However, we can expect growing interest, as witnessed by six publications since 1987 listed in the references.
Near-Infrared Transillumination Back Scattering Sounding—New Method to Assess Brain Microcirculation in Patients with Chronic Carotid Artery Stenosis

PURPOSE
The purpose of the study was to assess the responses of pial artery pulsation (cc-TQ) and subarachnoid width (sas-TQ) to acetazolamide challenge in patients with chronic carotid artery stenosis and relate these responses to changes in peak systolic velocity (PSV), cerebral blood flow (CBF), cerebral blood volume (CBV), mean transit time (MTT) and time to peak response (TTP).


METHODS
Fifteen patients with carotid artery stenosis ≥ 90% on the ipsilateral side and <50% on the contralateral side were enrolled into the study. PSV was assessed using colour-coded duplex sonography, CBF, CBV, MTT and TTP with perfusion computed tomography, cc-TQ and sas-TQ with near-infrared transillumination/backscattering sounding (NIR-T/BSS).


RESULTS
Based on the ipsilateral/contralateral cc-TQ ratio after acetazolamide challenge two groups of patients were distinguished: the first group with a ratio ≥ 1 and the second with a ratio <1. In the second group increases in CBF and CBV after the acetazolamide test were significantly higher in both hemispheres (ipsilateral: +33.0% ± 8.1% vs. +15.3% ± 4.4% and +26.3% ± 6.6% vs. +14.3% ± 5.1%; contralateral: +26.8% ± 7.0% vs. +17.6% ± 5.6% and +20.0% ± 7.3% vs. +10.0% ± 3.7%, respectively), cc-TQ was significantly higher only on the ipsilateral side (+37.3% ± 9.3% vs. +26.6% ± 8.6%) and the decrease in sas-TQ was less pronounced on the ipsilateral side (-0.7% ± 1.5% vs. -10.2% ± 1.5%), in comparison with the first group. The changes in sas-TQ following the acetazolamide test were consistent with the changes in TTP.


CONCLUSIONS
The ipsilateral/contralateral cc-TQ ratio following acetazolamide challenge may be used to distinguish patient groups characterized by different haemodynamic parameters. Further research on a larger group of patients is warranted.