LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
RBAC-SC: Role-Based Access Control Using Smart Contract

The role-based access control (RBAC) framework is a mechanism that describes the access control principle. As a common interaction, an organization provides a service to a user who owns a certain role that was issued by a different organization. Such trans-organizational RBAC is common in face-to-face communication but not in a computer network, because it is difficult to establish both the security that prohibits the malicious impersonation of roles and the flexibility that allows small organizations to participate and users to fully control their own roles. In this paper, we present an RBAC using smart contract (RBAC-SC), a platform that makes use of Ethereum’s smart contract technology to realize a trans-organizational utilization of roles. Ethereum is an open blockchain platform that is designed to be secure, adaptable, and flexible. It pioneered smart contracts, which are decentralized applications that serve as “autonomous agents” running exactly as programmed and are deployed on a blockchain. The RBAC-SC uses smart contracts and blockchain technology as versatile infrastructures to represent the trust and endorsement relationship that are essential in the RBAC and to realize a challenge-response authentication protocol that verifies a user’s ownership of roles. We describe the RBAC-SC framework, which is composed of two main parts, namely, the smart contract and the challenge-response protocol, and present a performance analysis. A prototype of the smart contract is created and deployed on Ethereum’s Testnet blockchain, and the source code is publicly available.
Nurse-initiation and maintenance of patients on antiretroviral therapy: are nurses in primary care clinics initiating ART after attending NIMART training?

OBJECTIVES
To determine the percentage of nurses initiating new HIV-positive patients on therapy within 2 months of attending the Nurse Initiation and Maintenance of Antiretroviral Therapy(NIMART) course, and to identify possible barriers to nurse initiation.


METHODS
A brief telephonic interview using a structured questionnaire of a randomly selected sample (126/1736) of primary care nurses who had attended the NIMART course facilitated by the Foundation for Professional Development (FPD) between October 2010 and 31 March 2011 at primary care clinics in 7 provinces. Outcome measures were the number of nurses initiating ART within 2 months of attending the FPD-facilitated NIMART course.


RESULTS
Of the nurses surveyed, 62% (79/126) had started initiating new adult patients on ART, but only 7% (9/126) were initiating ART in children. The main barrier to initiation was allocation to other tasks in the clinic as a result of staff shortages.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite numerous challenges, many primary care nurses working in the 7 provinces surveyed have taken on the responsibility of sharing the task of initiating HIV-positive patients on ART. The barriers preventing more nurses initiating ART include the shortage of primary care nurses and the lack of sufficient consulting rooms. Expanding clinical mentoring and further training in clinical skills and pharmacology would assist in reaching the target of initiating a further 1.2 million HIV-positive patients on ART by 2012.
Age-related trends in late mortality following traumatic brain injury: A multicentre inception cohort study.

AIM
To investigate age-related mortality risk following traumatic brain injury (TBI).


METHODS
Review of 2545 consecutive discharges from three metropolitan rehabilitation centres in New South Wales, between 1 January 1990 and 1 October 2007. Survival status was censored on 1 October 2009. Between-group differences were assessed for older/younger patients. Multivariate Cox hazard regression was used to evaluate age-related mortality risk. Crude mortality rates, standardised mortality ratios and cause of death data were derived for each age decade.


RESULTS
After controlling for known mortality risk factors, older patients were three times more likely to die than younger patients. Crude mortality rates increased exponentially with advancing age. However, when compared to normative population data, younger adults with TBI (<50 years) had the highest risk of death relative to their non-injured peers.


CONCLUSIONS
Crude mortality rates, which do not account for the naturally increasing rate of death associated with ageing, artificially inflate estimates of age-related mortality risk following TBI.
Cataract blindness and barriers to uptake of cataract surgery in a rural community of northern Nigeria.

AIMS
A population based cross sectional survey was conducted to determine the magnitude of cataract blindness and the barriers to uptake of cataract services in a rural community of northern Nigeria.


METHODS
1461 people out of 1924 registered eligible people were examined. The study population was chosen by two stage cluster random sampling. In the first sampling stage 15 villages were randomly chosen while in the final stage 170 people who were 40 years and over were selected in each village. Each selected person had visual acuity recorded for both eyes. Those with vision of less than 3/60 in the better eye were assessed for cataract. People with cataract were asked why they had not sought medical attention.


RESULTS
A blindness prevalence of 8.2% (95% CI 5.8%-10.5%) was found among the sampled population. Cataract was responsible for 44.2% of the blindness. Thus, a cataract blindness prevalence of 3.6% was found. The cataract surgical coverage (people) was 4.0% and the couching coverage (people) was 18%. The main barrier to seeking cataract surgery was cost of the service (61%).


CONCLUSION
Some regions of the world still have high burden of cataract blindness that needs attention. Such areas need an effective free cataract outreach programme.
Challenges of using quality improvement methods in nursing homes that "need improvement".

OBJECTIVES
Qualitatively describe the adoption of strategies and challenges experienced by intervention facilities participating in a study targeted to improve quality of care in nursing homes "in need of improvement". To describe how staff use federal quality indicator/quality measure (QI/QM) scores and reports, quality improvement methods and activities, and how staff supported and sustained the changes recommended by their quality improvement teams.


DESIGN/SETTING/PARTICIPANTS
A randomized, two-group, repeated-measures design was used to test a 2-year intervention for improving quality of care and resident outcomes in facilities in "need of improvement". Intervention group (n = 29) received an experimental multilevel intervention designed to help them: (1) use quality-improvement methods, (2) use team and group process for direct-care decision-making, (3) focus on accomplishing the basics of care, and (4) maintain more consistent nursing and administrative leadership committed to communication and active participation of staff in decision-making.


RESULTS
A qualitative analysis revealed a subgroup of homes likely to continue quality improvement activities and readiness indicators of homes likely to improve: (1) a leadership team (nursing home administrator, director of nurses) interested in learning how to use their federal QI/QM reports as a foundation for improving resident care and outcomes; (2) one of the leaders to be a "change champion" and make sure that current QI/QM reports are consistently printed and shared monthly with each nursing unit; (3) leaders willing to involve all staff in the facility in educational activities to learn about the QI/QM process and the reports that show how their facility compares with others in the state and nation; (4) leaders willing to plan and continuously educate new staff about the MDS and federal QI/QM reports and how to do quality improvement activities; (5) leaders willing to continuously involve all staff in quality improvement committee and team activities so they "own" the process and are responsible for change.


CONCLUSIONS
Results of this qualitative analysis can help allocate expert nurse time to facilities that are actually ready to improve. Wide-spread adoption of this intervention is feasible and could be enabled by nursing home medical directors in collaborative practice with advanced practice nurses.
Emissions from Light-Duty Diesel and Gasoline In-Use Vehicles Measured on Chassis Dynamometer Test Cycles

The reduction in vehicle exhaust emissions achieved in the last two decades is offset by the growth in traffic, as well as by changes in the composition of emitted pollutants. The present investigation illustrates the emissions of eight in-use gasoline and diesel passenger cars using the official European driving cycle and the ARTEMIS real-world driving cycles. Measurements comprised gaseous regulated pollutants (CO, CO2, NOx and hydrocarbons), particulate matter and its carbonaceous content (organic and elemental carbon, OC and EC), as well as about 20 different volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the C6–C11 range. It was observed that some of the vehicles do not comply with the corresponding regulations. Significant differences in emissions were registered between driving cycles. Not all regulated pollutants showed a tendency to decrease from Euro 3 to Euro 5. The particulate carbon emission factors were significantly lower under the ARTEMIS Road compared with the ARTEMIS Urban driving cycle with cold start. In general, cold start-up driving conditions produced the highest emission factors. A tendency to the decline of carbonaceous emissions from Euro 3 to Euro 5 diesel vehicles was observed, whilst this trend was not registered for petrol-powered cars. The fraction of total carbon composed of EC was much lower in particles emitted by petrol vehicles (< 10%) than by diesel engines (50–95%). However, the EC content in emissions from more modern vehicles equipped with diesel particulate filter (DPF) is almost negligible. Among VOCs, benzene, toluene and xylenes were generally the dominant species. A significant decrease in emissions from Euro 4 to Euro 5 petrol-powered vehicles was observed. The trend in VOC emissions is unclear when diesel engines are considered. During DPF regeneration cycles, pollutant emissions are several times larger than those during normal engine operation.
DextrES: Wearable Haptic Feedback for Grasping in VR via a Thin Form-Factor Electrostatic Brake

We introduce DextrES, a flexible and wearable haptic glove which integrates both kinesthetic and cutaneous feedback in a thin and light form factor (weight is less than 8g). Our approach is based on an electrostatic clutch generating up to 20 N of holding force on each finger by modulating the electrostatic attraction between flexible elastic metal strips to generate an electrically-controlled friction force. We harness the resulting braking force to rapidly render on-demand kinesthetic feedback. The electrostatic brake is mounted onto the the index finger and thumb via modular 3D printed articulated guides which allow the metal strips to glide smoothly. Cutaneous feedback is provided via piezo actuators at the fingertips. We demonstrate that our approach can provide rich haptic feedback under dexterous articulation of the user's hands and provides effective haptic feedback across a variety of different grasps. A controlled experiment indicates that DextrES improves the grasping precision for different types of virtual objects. Finally, we report on results of a psycho-physical study which identifies discrimination thresholds for different levels of holding force.
Sustained attention in children with specific language impairment (SLI).

PURPOSE
Information-processing limitations have been associated with language problems in children with specific language impairment (SLI). These processing limitations may be associated with limitations in attentional capacity, even in the absence of clinically significant attention deficits. In this study, the authors examined the performance of 4- to 6-year-old children with SLI and their typically developing (TD) peers on a visual sustained attention task. It was predicted that the children with SLI would demonstrate lower levels of performance in the absence of clinically significant attention deficits.


METHOD
A visual continuous performance task (CPT) was used to assess sustained attention in 13 children with SLI (M = 62.07 months) and 13 TD age-matched controls (M = 62.92 months). All children were screened for normal vision, hearing, and attention. Accuracy (d') and response time were analyzed to see if this sustained attention task could differentiate between the 2 groups.


RESULTS
The children with SLI were significantly less accurate but not significantly slower than the TD children on this test of visual sustained attention.


CONCLUSION
Children with SLI may have reduced capacity for sustained attention in the absence of clinically significant attention deficits that, over time, could contribute to language learning difficulties.
A recursive soft-decision approach to blind image deconvolution

This paper presents a new approach to blind image deconvolution based on soft-decision blur identification and hierarchical neural networks. Traditional blind algorithms require a hard-decision on whether the blur satisfies a parametric form before their formulations. As the blurring function is usually unknown a priori, this precondition inhibits the incorporation of parametric blur knowledge domain into the restoration schemes. The new technique addresses this difficulty by providing a continual soft-decision blur adaptation with respect to the best-fit parametric structure throughout deconvolution. The approach integrates the knowledge of well-known blur models without compromising its flexibility in restoring images degraded by nonstandard blurs. An optimization scheme is developed where a new cost function is projected and minimized with respect to the image and blur domains. A nested neural network, called the hierarchical cluster model is employed to provide an adaptive, perception-based restoration. Its sparse synaptic connections are instrumental in reducing the computational cost of restoration. Conjugate gradient optimization is adopted to identify the blur due to its computational efficiency. The approach is shown experimentally to be effective in restoring images degraded by different blurs.
Targeting BTK with ibrutinib in relapsed or refractory mantle-cell lymphoma.

BACKGROUND
Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) is a mediator of the B-cell-receptor signaling pathway implicated in the pathogenesis of B-cell cancers. In a phase 1 study, ibrutinib, a BTK inhibitor, showed antitumor activity in several types of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, including mantle-cell lymphoma.


METHODS
In this phase 2 study, we investigated oral ibrutinib, at a daily dose of 560 mg, in 111 patients with relapsed or refractory mantle-cell lymphoma. Patients were enrolled into two groups: those who had previously received at least 2 cycles of bortezomib therapy and those who had received less than 2 complete cycles of bortezomib or had received no prior bortezomib therapy. The primary end point was the overall response rate. Secondary end points were duration of response, progression-free survival, overall survival, and safety.


RESULTS
The median age was 68 years, and 86% of patients had intermediate-risk or high-risk mantle-cell lymphoma according to clinical prognostic factors. Patients had received a median of three prior therapies. The most common treatment-related adverse events were mild or moderate diarrhea, fatigue, and nausea. Grade 3 or higher hematologic events were infrequent and included neutropenia (in 16% of patients), thrombocytopenia (in 11%), and anemia (in 10%). A response rate of 68% (75 patients) was observed, with a complete response rate of 21% and a partial response rate of 47%; prior treatment with bortezomib had no effect on the response rate. With an estimated median follow-up of 15.3 months, the estimated median response duration was 17.5 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 15.8 to not reached), the estimated median progression-free survival was 13.9 months (95% CI, 7.0 to not reached), and the median overall survival was not reached. The estimated rate of overall survival was 58% at 18 months.


CONCLUSIONS
Ibrutinib shows durable single-agent efficacy in relapsed or refractory mantle-cell lymphoma. (Funded by Pharmacyclics and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01236391.)
Stop interfering: Stroop task conflict independence from informational conflict and interference.

Performance of the Stroop task reflects two conflicts-informational (between the incongruent word and ink colour) and task (between relevant colour naming and irrelevant word reading). This is supported by findings showing that the anterior cingulate cortex is more activated by congruent and incongruent stimuli than by nonword neutral stimuli. Previously, researchers demonstrated behavioural evidence for task conflict-a reverse facilitation effect under a reduced task conflict control condition. The boundary conditions of this Stroop reverse facilitation effect are not yet clear. The current study aimed to investigate whether task conflict arises, and task control is needed, whenever there are two possible tasks, even if the irrelevant task cannot mislead one to give erroneous responses (i.e., stimuli do not contain an informational conflict). To this end, in both experiments no incongruent stimuli were presented. In Experiment 1, participants conducted a Stroop task with a high proportion of nonword neutrals and with a neutral/congruent cue in 50% of the trials. In Experiment 2, the nonword neutral was replaced by a real non-colour-word. We found the reverse facilitation effect in the noncued trials of Experiment 1. Moreover, as expected, this effect was eliminated when a noncolour neutral word that induced task conflict was used (Experiment 2). We conclude that task conflict control is reactively activated whenever there are at least two possible tasks, even in the absence of any possibility of informational conflict.
Rectangular microstrip patch antenna with EBG structure

This paper presents a rectangular microstrip patch antenna with EBG structure. The combination of the rectangular microstrip patch antenna fabricated on the top of the substrate Rogers RO3003 with Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) structures at the ground plane is proposed to investigate the metamaterial characteristics in antenna design for satellite application. The patch antenna along with the EBG structure is designed to resonate at 7.3 GHz. Simulations and measurements have been carried out to verify the performance of EBG structures in patch antenna. All the simulation and measurement work is done by using Computer Simulation Technology Microwave Studio (CST-MWS) and Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) respectively. Metamaterial characteristics which exhibit negative permittivity and permeability of the proposed EBG structures have been verified using Nicolson-Ross-Weir (NRW) method. As a result of combining the rectangular patch with EBG structure, the bandwidth of the antenna has been increased by 39.63% and the size of the antenna reduced by 22.38% compared to the antenna without EBG. The return loss also met the specification of -10 dB cut off.
ICT Integration in an M&A Process

As deals are becoming more complex, and as technology, and the people supporting it, are becoming key drivers of merger and acquisition processes, planning of information and communication technologies in early stages of the integration process is vital to the realization of benefits of an Merger & Acquisition process. This statement is substantiated through review of literature from academics as well as practitioners, and case exemplifications of the financial service organization, the Nordea Group.
Generalizability in Item Response Modeling

An approach called generalizability in item response modeling (GIRM) is introduced in this article. The GIRM approach essentially incorporates the sampling model of generalizability theory (GT) into the scaling model of item response theory (IRT) by making distributional assumptions about the relevant measurement facets. By specifying a random effects measurement model, and taking advantage of the flexibility of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation methods, it becomes possible to estimate GT variance components simultaneously with traditional IRT parameters. It is shown how GT and IRT can be linked together, in the context of a single-facet measurement design with binary items. Using both simulated and empirical data with the software WinBUGS, the GIRM approach is shown to produce results comparable to those from a standard GT analysis, while also producing results from a random effects IRT model.
Empowerment: Hotel employees’ perspective

An empowered worker is a knowledgeable worker. Thus, the aims of this study were to examine how empowerment is perceived by the front-line hotel employees and secondly, to identify the factors affecting empowerment within the industry. Factors such as communication, coaching, participation, training and reward were examined for any significant relationship with empowerment, along with whether the employee’s sociodemographic characteristics affected their perceptions of empowerment. The findings indicated that except for gender, socio-demographic factors were not a strong influence on the diffusion of empowerment among employees. In order to ensure that the employees feel empowered, factors such as communication, coaching, participation, training and reward should be given due attention by the management. Based on the findings, implications for companies are discussed and further research is suggested.