LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Huffman Based LZW Lossless Image Compression Using Retinex Algorithm

Image compression is an application of data compression that encodes the original image with few bits. The objective of image compression is to reduce irrelevance and redundancy of the image data in order to be able to store or transmit data in an efficient form. So image compression can reduce the transmit time over the network and increase the speed of transmission. In Lossless image compression no data loss when the compression Technique is done. In this research, a new lossless compression scheme is presented and named as Huffman Based LZW Lossless Image Compression using Retinex Algorithm which consists of three stages: In the first stage, a Huffman coding is used to compress the image. In the second stage all Huffman code words are concatenated together and then compressed with LZW coding and decoding. In the third stage the Retinex algorithm are used on compressed image for enhance the contrast of image and improve the quality of image. This Proposed Technique is used to increase the compression ratio (CR), Peak signal of Noise Ratio (PSNR), and Mean Square Error (MSE) in the MATLAB Software. Keywords-Compression, Encode, Decode, Huffman, LZW.
High School Students’ Perceptions of Motivations for Cyberbullying: An Exploratory Study

OBJECTIVES
Internet usage has increased in recent years resulting in a growing number of documented reports of cyberbullying. Despite the rise in cyberbullying incidents, there is a dearth of research regarding high school students' motivations for cyberbullying. The purpose of this study was to investigate high school students' perceptions of the motivations for cyberbullying.


METHOD
We undertook an exploratory qualitative study with 20 high school students, conducting individual interviews using a semi-structured interview protocol. Data were analyzed using Grounded Theory.


RESULTS
The developed coding hierarchy provides a framework to conceptualize motivations, which can be used to facilitate future research about motivations and to develop preventive interventions designed to thwart the negative effects of cyberbullying. The findings revealed that high school students more often identified internally motivated reasons for cyberbullying (e.g., redirect feelings) than externally motivated (no consequences, non-confrontational, target was different).


CONCLUSION
Uncovering the motivations for cyberbullying should promote greater understanding of this phenomenon and potentially reduce the interpersonal violence that can result from it. By providing a framework that begins to clarify the internal and external factors motivating the behavior, there is enhanced potential to develop effective preventive interventions to prevent cyberbullying and its negative effects.
Sustainability and social corporation responsibility as a competitive strategy in hotels.

RESUMO - Esse artigo tem como objetivo discutir a relacao entre acoes de sustentabilidade e responsabilidade social corporativa no âmbito da hotelaria e suas possiveis contribuicoes para competitividade do setor hoteleiro. O metodo utilizado envolveu a coleta de dados de hoteis do municipio de Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (Brasil), mediante um estudo de caso descritivo. Avaliou-se o discurso formal, o discurso pronunciado e subtendido, silenciado pelo responsavel por cada hotel na interpretacao dos pesquisadores. O estudo buscou descrever as acoes dos dirigentes hoteleiros com reflexos causais no desempenho organizacional de maneira estrategica. As estrategias pesquisadas com enfase foram a associacao do hotel a alguma rede hoteleira ou instituicao turistica local; e a pratica de acoes relacionadas a responsabilidade social corporativa e sustentabilidade. Os fatores operacionais destacados pelos hoteleiros e identificados como indutores da competitividade dos empreendimentos foram: (1) Organizacao em redes e franquias; (2) Manutencao e investimento em infraestrutura e equipamentos de lazer; (3) Qualificacao da mao de obra, notadamente em servicos; (4) Orientacao estrategica de mercado e, (5) Acoes de responsabilidade social corporativa. Finalmente, as acoes sustentaveis nos hoteis pesquisados enfocam principalmente a gestao rigida de caixa, com enfase em controle de centros de custos operacionais. A responsabilidade social corporativa e sustentabilidade apresentam menor prioridade estrategica para os gestores. Palavras-chave: Desempenho hoteleiro; Sustentabilidade em hotelaria; Responsabilidade Social; Competitividade no setor hoteleiro.
Studying Teamwork in Global IT Support

As modern organizations increasingly operate in a global economy, they need IT support around the globe; favorable economic conditions also encourage the use of offshore IT teams. However, when IT efforts "go global," issues and challenges typical of IT development and support are magnified. In this paper, we review and integrate three research areas that contribute to our understanding and management of global IT support teams: studies of global teamwork practices, small group dynamics theory, and studies of virtual teams. We review key findings from these areas and discuss a case example of global IT support to illustrate the insights possible through these research perspectives. We conclude by outlining an agenda for future research on teamwork in global IT support. 1. Overview and motivation The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) [37] in their World Investment Report 2000 reported that international production by transnational corporations (TNCs), now numbering 63,000 parent firms with about 690,000 foreign affiliates, spans virtually all countries and economic activities. In this global economy, effective use of information technologies (IT) is essential to the operation of modern business organizations. Information technologies enable business managers to redesign core business processes, products, or services and provide necessary information for decision-making [31]. King and Sethi [21] suggest that IT is fundamental to effective global operations in two primary ways: providing a coordination mechanism for geographically dispersed activities, and facilitating the reshaping of the separate organizations into global cooperatives. For example, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software make it possible to operate a multinational firm as a unified enterprise with global product and service sourcing, rather than a loose network of international subsidiaries serving local markets. S fi tw im te an o im st re cr in ho ca ce IT th th st co 8 d b to th
Hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal women with schizophrenia: positive effect on negative symptoms?

BACKGROUND
Some studies of premenopausal women suggest that the severity of psychopathology associated with schizophrenia may be related to levels of estrogen.


METHODS
We examined psychopathology in community-dwelling postmenopausal women with schizophrenia who had received (n = 24) versus had never received (n = 28) hormone replacement therapy.


RESULTS
Users of hormone replacement therapy and nonusers did not differ significantly with respect to age, ethnicity, education, age of onset, duration of schizophrenia, global cognitive functioning, or neuroleptic-induced movement disorders. The hormone replacement therapy users received lower average daily doses of antipsychotic medication; they had similar levels of positive symptoms but significantly less severe negative symptoms compared with hormone replacement therapy nonusers, independent of differences in antipsychotic dosage.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that the use of hormone replacement therapy in conjunction with antipsychotic medication in postmenopausal women with schizophrenia may help reduce negative, but not positive, symptoms.
Exhaled 8-isoprostane in childhood asthma

BACKGROUND
Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is a non-invasive method to assess airway inflammation and oxidative stress and may be useful in the assessment of childhood asthma.


METHODS
Exhaled 8-isoprostane, a stable marker of oxidative stress, was measured in EBC, in children (5-17 years) with asthma (13 steroid-naïve and 12 inhaled steroid-treated) and 11 healthy control.


RESULTS
Mean exhaled 8-isoprostane concentration was significantly elevated in steroid-naïve asthmatic children compared to healthy children 9.3 (SEM 1.7) vs. 3.8 (0.6) pg/ml, p < 0.01. Children on inhaled steroids also had significantly higher 8-isoprostane levels than those of normal subjects 6.7 (0.7) vs. 3.8 (0.6) pg/ml, p < 0.01. Steroid-naïve asthmatics had higher exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) than those of controls 28.5 (4.7) vs. 12.6 (1.5) ppb, p < 0.01. eNO in steroid-treated asthmatics was similar to control subjects 27.5(8.8) vs. 12.6(1.5) ppb. Exhaled 8-isoprostane did not correlate with duration of asthma, dose of inhaled steroids or eNO.


CONCLUSION
We conclude that 8-isoprostane is elevated in asthmatic children, indicating increased oxidative stress, and that this does not appear to be normalized by inhaled steroid therapy. This suggests that 8-isoprostane is a useful non-invasive measurement of oxidative stress in children and that antioxidant therapy may be useful in the future.
Design of an 99%-efficient, 5kW, phase-shift PWM DC-DC converter for telecom applications

In the last decade power electronic research focused on the power density maximization mainly to reduce initial systems costs [1]. In the field of data centers and telecom applications, the costs for powering and cooling exceed the purchasing cost in less than 2 years [2]. That causes the changing driving forces in the development of new power supplies to efficiency, while the power density should stay on a high level. The commonly used DC-DC converter in the power supply unit (PSU) for data centers and telecom applications are full bridge phase-shift converters since they meet the demands of high power and efficient power conversion, a compact design and the constant operation frequency allows a simple control and EMI design. The development of the converter with respect to high efficiency has a lot of degrees of freedom. An optimization procedure based on comprehensive analytical models leads to the optimal parameters (e.g. switching frequency, switching devices in parallel and transformer design) for the most efficient design. In this paper a 5kW, 400V–48⋖56V phase-shift PWM converter with LC-output filter is designed for highest efficiency (η ≥99%) with a volume limitation and the consideration of the part-load efficiency. The components dependency as well as the optimal design will be explained. The realized prototype design reaches a calculated efficiency of η = 99.2% under full load condition and a power density of ρ = 36W/in3 (2.2 kW/liter).
Diagnostic value of endobronchial and endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration for accessible lung cancer lesions after non-diagnostic conventional techniques: a prospective study

Lung cancer diagnosis is usually achieved through a set of bronchoscopic techniques or computed tomography guided-transthoracic needle aspiration (CT-TTNA). However these procedures have a variable diagnostic yield and some patients remain without a definite diagnosis despite being submitted to an extensive workup. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and cost of linear endobronchial (EBUS) and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) guided fine needle aspiration (FNA), performed with one echoendoscope, for the diagnosis of suspicious lung cancer lesions after failure of conventional procedures. One hundred and twenty three patients with an undiagnosed but suspected malignant lung lesion (paratracheal, parabronchial, paraesophageal) or with a peripheral lesion and positron emission tomography positive mediastinal lymph nodes who had undergone at least one diagnostic flexible bronchoscopy or CT-TTNA attempt were submitted to EBUS and EUS-FNA. Patients with endobronchial lesions were excluded. Of the 123 patients, 88 had a pulmonary nodule/mass and 35 were selected based on mediastinal PET positive lymph nodes. Two patients were excluded because an endobronchial mass was detected at the time of the procedure. The target lesion could be visualized in 121 cases and FNA was performed in 118 cases. A definitive diagnosis was obtained in 106 cases (87.6%). Eighty-eight patients (72.7%) had non-small cell lung cancer, 15 (12.4%) had small cell lung cancer and metastatic disease was found in 3 patients (2.5%). The remaining 15 negative cases were subsequently diagnosed by surgical procedures. Twelve patients (9.9%) had a malignant tumor and in 3 (2.5%) a benign lesion was found. The overall sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of EBUS and EUS-FNA to diagnose malignancy were 89.8%, 100%, 100% and 20.0% respectively. The diagnostic accuracy was 90.1% in a population with 97.5% prevalence of cancer. The ultrasonographic approach avoided expensive surgical procedures and significantly reduced costs (p < 0.001). Linear EBUS and EUS-FNA are able to improve the diagnostic yield of suspicious lung cancer lesions after non-diagnostic conventional techniques. These techniques, performed with one scope, can be offered to patients with accessible lesions as an intermediate step for diagnosis since they may avoid more invasive procedures and hence reduce costs.
Pain sensitisation and the risk of poor outcome following physiotherapy for patients with moderate to severe knee osteoarthritis: protocol for a prospective cohort study

INTRODUCTION
Pain is the dominant symptom of knee osteoarthritis (OA), and recent evidence suggests factors outside of local joint pathology, such as pain sensitisation, can contribute significantly to the pain experience. It is unknown how pain sensitisation influences outcomes from commonly employed interventions such as physiotherapy. The aims of this study are, first, to provide a comprehensive description of the somatosensory characteristics of people with pain associated with knee OA. Second, we will investigate if indicators of pain sensitisation in patients with knee osteoarthritis are predictive of non-response to physiotherapy.


METHODS AND ANALYSIS
This is a multicentre prospective cohort study with 140 participants. Eligible patients with moderate to severe symptomatic knee osteoarthritis will be identified at outpatient orthopaedic and rheumatology clinics. A baseline assessment will provide a comprehensive description of the somatosensory characteristics of each participant by means of clinical examination, quantitative sensory testing, and validated questionnaires measuring pain and functional capacity. Participants will then undergo physiotherapy treatment. The primary outcome will be non-response to physiotherapy on completion of the physiotherapy treatment programme as defined by the Osteoarthritis Research Society International treatment responder criteria. A principal component analysis will identify measures related to pain sensitisation to include in the predictive model. Regression analyses will explore the relationship between responder status and pain sensitisation while accounting for confounders.


ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION
This study has been approved by St James' Hospital/AMNCH Research Ethics Committee and by the St Vincent's Healthcare Group Ethics and Medical Research Committee. The results will be presented at international conferences and published in a peer review journal.


TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER
NCT02310945.
Automatic Generation of Personal Chinese Handwriting by Capturing the Characteristics of Personal Handwriting

Personal handwritings can add colors to human communication. Handwriting, however, takes more time and is less favored than typing in the digital age. In this paper we propose an intelligent algorithm which can generate imitations of Chinese handwriting by a person requiring only a very small set of training characters written by the person. Our method first decomposes the sample Chinese handwriting characters into a hierarchy of reusable components, called character components. During handwriting generation, the algorithm tries and compares different possible ways to compose the target character. The likeliness of a given personal handwriting generation result is evaluated according to the captured characteristics of the person’s handwriting. We then find among all the candidate generation results an optimal one which can maximize a likeliness estimation. Experiment results show that our algorithm works reasonably well in the majority of the cases and sometimes remarkably well, which was verified through comparison with the groundtruth data and by a small scale user survey.
Comparison of Traditional Breeding and Transgenesis in Farmed Fish with Implications for Growth Enhancement and Fitness

Improvements in the performance of fish species used in aquaculture are being accomplished using a variety of approaches, including both traditional and molecular genetic methodologies. Historical gains in productivity have been achieved by domestication, selection, interspecific and interstrain crossbreeding, polyploidy, and synthesis of monosex populations. More recently, transgenesis has been explored as a technique to enhance growth rate and other performance characteristics. Domestication of species, without directed selection, can yield improvement in production characteristics. Domesticated strains of farmed fish usually grow faster than wild strains, and this effect can be achieved fairly rapidly: for example in channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, domestication can improve the growth rate by approximately 2–6% per generation. In contrast, directed selection (mass selection) for body weight in fish has resulted in an up to 55% increase in body weight after four to ten generations of selection. In channel catfish, correlated responses to selection include higher dressing percentage, but a decreased ability to tolerate low concentrations of dissolved oxygen. Intraspecific crossbreeding can increase growth in channel catfish, common carp and salmonids, but crossbreeding does not always result in heterosis. Interspecific hybridization seldom results in overdominant performance in fish. However, one catfish hybrid, channel catfish female 3 blue catfish (I. furcatus) male, exhibits improved performance for several traits including growth, disease resistance, survival, tolerance of low dissolved oxygen, angling vulnerability, seinability, dressing and fillet %. Ploidy manipulation and sex-control technologies have also played an important role in enhancing production performance. Induction of triploidy does not improve performance in catfish hybrids, but in salmonids triploidy can enhance flesh quality by preventing sexual maturation, although growth rate is somewhat reduced
Culture and politics

Introductory Chapter: On Cultural Analysis of Politics Part 1: On the Methodology of Cultural Analysis 1. Cultural Enquiry: Scientific Objectivity and Ethical Neutrality 2. Cultural Studies: Subjectivism and 'Verstehen' Part 2: Elements of Culture 3. Ethnicity 4. Religion 5. Tradition 6. Religion or Tradition: The Lack of Modernization in the Arab world Part 3: Research into Value-Orientations: Some Critiques 7. Methodology for the Enquiry into Value-Orientations 8. Gender and Homosexuality 9. Basic Value-Orientations 10. Social Capital: Identification of the Concept(s) 11. Ambiguity of Post-Materialism 12. What are Self-Expression or Emancipatory Values? Part 4: Exploration into New Values 13. Happiness or Life Satisfaction 14. Culture and Ecology 15. Globalization Values 16. Culture and Conflicts 17. Causes of Cultural Conflicts 18. New Aspects of the Attitudes towards Homosexuality and Gender
Os-level virtualization and its applications

of the Dissertation OS-level Virtualization and Its Applications
A New Model for Stock Price Movements Prediction Using Deep Neural Network

In this paper, we introduce a new prediction model depend on Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit (BGRU). Our predictive model relies on both online financial news and historical stock prices data to predict the stock movements in the future. Experimental results show that our model accuracy achieves nearly 60% in S&P 500 index prediction whereas the individual stock prediction is over 65%.
A clinical comparison of pneumatic compression devices: the basis for selection.

PURPOSE
The five pneumatic compression devices (PCDs) that are marketed provide mechanical protection from deep venous thrombosis (DVT). They differ with respect to patterns of compression and the length of the sleeve. Evidence linking differences to clinical outcomes is lacking. Our purpose was twofold: to evaluate each of the marketed PCDs with respect to effectiveness, compliance, and patient and nursing satisfaction and to determine whether there is a clinical basis for the selection of one device over another.


METHODS
Each of the marketed devices was used exclusively for a 4-week period. Patients participated in an evaluation including venous duplex ultrasound scan, DVT risk assessment, and device evaluation. Vascular laboratory records were used to document DVT. Compliance was measured by meters installed on all pumps. A ranking matrix was stratified by compression pattern: rapid graduated sequential compression, graduated compression, and intermittent compression, and each device was rated by patients and nurses.


RESULTS
The PCDs were used in 1350 cases with a DVT rate of 3.5% ranging from 2% to 9.8% depending on the method of compression. Patients with DVT were older (58 vs 54 years), had better compliance (67% vs 50%), and had more compression days (11 vs 7.2). When thigh-length sleeves were used, a greater proportion of DVT occurred in the proximal segments (71%) as compared with the number of proximal DVT when the calf-length devices were used (52%; P =.21). Devices W, X, and Y had comparable rates of DVT, which were lower than those for V and Z. Compression device W, [correction] with calf and thigh sleeves, achieved the best overall ranking largely because of high scores for patient and nurse satisfaction.


CONCLUSION
Our data appear at odds with commonly held beliefs. We were unable to show a difference in DVT incidence based on the length of the device or the method of compression. Randomized studies are needed to confirm our findings and evaluate hypotheses derived from this study.
Thankful for the little things: A meta-analysis of gratitude interventions.

A recent qualitative review by Wood, Froh, and Geraghty (2010) cast doubt on the efficacy of gratitude interventions, suggesting the need to carefully attend to the quality of comparison groups. Accordingly, in a series of meta-analyses, we evaluate the efficacy of gratitude interventions (ks = 4-18; Ns = 395-1,755) relative to a measurement-only control or an alternative-activity condition across 3 outcomes (i.e., gratitude, anxiety, psychological well-being). Gratitude interventions outperformed a measurement-only control on measures of psychological well-being (d = .31, 95% confidence interval [CI = .04, .58]; k = 5) but not gratitude (d = .20; 95% CI [-.04, .44]; k = 4). Gratitude interventions outperformed an alternative-activity condition on measures of gratitude (d = .46, 95% CI [.27, .64]; k = 15) and psychological well-being (d = .17, 95% CI [.09, .24]; k = 20) but not anxiety (d = .11, 95% CI [-.08, .31]; k = 5). More-detailed subdivision was possible on studies with outcomes assessing psychological well-being. Among these, gratitude interventions outperformed an activity-matched comparison (d = .14; 95% CI [.01, .27]; k = 18). Gratitude interventions performed as well as, but not better than, a psychologically active comparison (d = -.03, 95% CI [-.13, .07]; k = 9). On the basis of these findings, we summarize the current state of the literature and make suggestions for future applied research on gratitude. (PsycINFO Database Record