Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Integrative Model of Trust on IT Outsourcing: From the Service Receiver's Perspective

As the investment in outsourcing continues to grow, both service provider and receiver face an increasing pressure to exhibit the value of outsourcing. Improving the quality of a relationship between service provider and receiver has frequently been suggested as the best way to meet this challenge. Recent studies stress that the most critical time for a successful interorganizational relationship is at the beginning of their relationships. Trust has been considered as a central aspect of a successful outsourcing from the beginning of outsourcing relationship to the end. A great deal of interest in trust has been described, but there has been little in the way of strong theoretical models to aid in understanding the role of trust, the antecedents of trust, and the consequences of trust in outsourcing relationship. This study suggests an integrative model of trust in the context of outsourcing by adopting Mayer and Davis’s organizational trust model and then attempts to empirically explore the role of initial trust, initial distrust, and trust with knowledge sharing as mechanisms for a successful outsourcing project from the service receiver’s perspective. The results show that mutual trust is very important for knowledge sharing and outsourcing success, and affected by initial perception to each other’s partner at the beginning of outsourcing process. The results help extend our understanding of critical success factors in outsourcing.
High Resolution Melting Analysis: A Rapid and Accurate Method to Detect CALR Mutations

Background The recent discovery of CALR mutations in essential thrombocythemia (ET) and primary myelofibrosis (PMF) patients without JAK2/MPL mutations has emerged as a relevant finding for the molecular diagnosis of these myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). We tested the feasibility of high-resolution melting (HRM) as a screening method for rapid detection of CALR mutations. Methods CALR was studied in wild-type JAK2/MPL patients including 34 ET, 21 persistent thrombocytosis suggestive of MPN and 98 suspected secondary thrombocytosis. CALR mutation analysis was performed through HRM and Sanger sequencing. We compared clinical features of CALR-mutated versus 45 JAK2/MPL-mutated subjects in ET. Results Nineteen samples showed distinct HRM patterns from wild-type. Of them, 18 were mutations and one a polymorphism as confirmed by direct sequencing. CALR mutations were present in 44% of ET (15/34), 14% of persistent thrombocytosis suggestive of MPN (3/21) and none of the secondary thrombocytosis (0/98). Of the 18 mutants, 9 were 52 bp deletions, 8 were 5 bp insertions and other was a complex mutation with insertion/deletion. No mutations were found after sequencing analysis of 45 samples displaying wild-type HRM curves. HRM technique was reproducible, no false positive or negative were detected and the limit of detection was of 3%. Conclusions This study establishes a sensitive, reliable and rapid HRM method to screen for the presence of CALR mutations.
Robust Finite‐Time Stability and Stabilization of Linear Uncertain Time‐Delay Systems

Robust finite‐time stability and stabilization problems for a class of linear uncertain time‐delay systems are studied. The concept of finite‐time stability is extended to linear uncertain time‐delay systems. Based on the Lyapunov method and properties of matrix inequalities, a sufficient condition that ensures finite‐time stability of linear uncertain time‐delay systems is given. By virtue of the results on finite‐time stability, a memoryless state feedback controller that guarantees that the closed‐loop system is finite time stable, is proposed. The controller design problem is solved by using the linear matrix inequalities and the cone complementarity linearization iterative algorithm. Numerical examples verify the efficiency of the proposed methods.
Rapid Molecular Characterization of Acinetobacter baumannii Clones with rep-PCR and Evaluation of Carbapenemase Genes by New Multiplex PCR in Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa

Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MDRAB) is an increasing problem worldwide. Prevalence of carbapenem resistance in Acinetobacter spp. due to acquired carbapenemase genes is not known in Finland. The purpose of this study was to examine prevalence and clonal spread of multiresistant A. baumannii group species, and their carbapenemase genes. A total of 55 Acinetobacter isolates were evaluated with repetitive PCR (DiversiLab) to analyse clonality of isolates, in conjunction with antimicrobial susceptibility profile for ampicillin/sulbactam, colistin, imipenem, meropenem, rifampicin and tigecycline. In addition, a new real-time PCR assay, detecting most clinically important carbapenemase genes just in two multiplex reactions, was developed. The assay detects genes for KPC, VIM, IMP, GES-1/-10, OXA-48, NDM, GIM-1, SPM-1, IMI/NMC-A, SME, CMY-10, SFC-1, SIM-1, OXA-23-like, OXA-24/40-like, OXA-58 and ISAbaI-OXA-51-like junction, and allows confident detection of isolates harbouring acquired carbapenemase genes. There was a time-dependent, clonal spread of multiresistant A. baumannii strongly correlating with carbapenamase gene profile, at least in this geographically restricted study material. The new carbapenemase screening assay was able to detect all the genes correctly suggesting it might be suitable for epidemiologic screening purposes in clinical laboratories.
Long-Term Effects of (–)-Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG) on Pristane-Induced Arthritis (PIA) in Female Dark Agouti Rats

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)—a widespread chronic inflammatory disease in industrialized countries—is characterized by a persistent and progressive joint destruction. The chronic pro-inflammatory state results from a mutual activation of the innate and the adaptive immune system, while the exact pathogenesis mechanism is still under discussion. New data suggest a role of the innate immune system and especially polymorphonuclear granulocytes (PMNs, neutrophils) not only during onset and the destructive phase of RA but also at the chronification of the disease. Thereby the enzymatic activity of myeloperoxidase (MPO), a peroxidase strongly abundant in neutrophils, may be important: While its peroxidase activity is known to contribute to cartilage destruction at later stages of RA the almost MPO-specific oxidant hypochlorous acid (HOCl) is also discussed for certain anti-inflammatory effects. In this study we used pristane-induced arthritis (PIA) in Dark Agouti rats as a model for the chronic course of RA in man. We were able to shown that a specific detection of the HOCl-producing MPO activity provides a sensitive new marker to evaluate the actual systemic inflammatory status which is only partially detectable by the evaluation of clinical symptoms (joint swelling and redness measurements). Moreover, we evaluated the long-term pharmacological effect of the well-known anti-inflammatory flavonoid epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Thereby only upon early and continuous oral application of this polyphenol the arthritic symptoms were considerably diminished both in the acute and in the chronic phase of the disease. The obtained results were comparable to the treatment control (application of methotrexate, MTX). As revealed by stopped-flow kinetic measurements, EGCG may regenerate the HOCl-production of MPO which is known to be impaired at chronic inflammatory diseases like RA. It can be speculated that this MPO activity-promoting effect of EGCG may contribute to the pharmacological mode of action of this polyphenol.
The Numerical Simulation of High Explosives using AUTODYN-2D & 3D

This paper describes how 2 and 3-dimensional numerical analysis tools can be applied to the simulation of high explosives. The capabilities of the AUTODYN-2D & AUTODYN-3D hydrocodes are described, with emphasis on the modelling of blast and explosive events. The results of a number of example analyses are presented, to illustrate the application of various modelling techniques to high explosives events. These examples describe the analysis of channelling of air blast down a street, structural response due to an explosion in a munitions store, an explosively formed penetrator, a shaped charge and a fragmenting warhead.
Semi-automatically annotating data semantics to web services using ontology mapping

In this paper, we propose an approach to solve the problem of annotation by mapping concepts in data type definitions, namely XSD, in WSDL files to shared ontologies represented in OWL, then using the mapping results to annotate XML schema according to SAWSDL specifications. Thus, we are moving towards to enrich WSDL with semantics without introducing new standards. Furthermore, our semantic annotation establishes a foundation for data mediation, the solution to the problem of data heterogeneity in service composition.
Neurological soft signs and insight in obsessive–compulsive disorder

Background Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by the presence of obsessions and compulsions that interfere with the patient’s life. It has been shown that patients with OCD have increased rates of neurological soft signs (NSS) when compared with healthy controls. NSS are minor abnormalities like poor motor coordination, sensory and perceptual difficulties, and difficulties in sequencing of complex motor tasks. It has been suggested that OCD patients with poor insight are at the most severe end of this spectrum. Aim of the work The aim of this study was to determine the frequency pattern of symptoms (obsessions and compulsions) in OCD patients, to examine NSS in patients compared with healthy individuals, and find any correlation between NSS scores and the severity of OCDs [total Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) score] and the degree of insight. Participants and methods The study included two groups: 30 OCD patients and 30 healthy individuals as controls. Both groups were subjected to psychiatric and neurological examination using the Cambridge Neurological Inventory (Part 2), the YBOCS checklist to detect types of obsessions and compulsions, and the Overvalued Ideas Scale to assess the degree of insight in OCD patients. Results The most common types of obsessions and compulsions among the patients were religious (70%), contamination (77%), and cleaning compulsions (77%). OCD patients recorded significantly higher total scores of NSS and domain scores (motor coordination, sensory integration, and primitive reflexes) compared with the control group (P<0.05). A positive correlation was found between NSS scores and total YBOCS scores and Overvalued Ideas Scale scores. Conclusion We conclude that OCD patients have higher scores for NSS compared with controls, particularly for motor coordination signs. NSS positively correlated with the severity of disease. There was a positive correlation between NSS scores and OVIS scores, which measures the degree of insight.
The mammalian circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nuclei is reset in vitro by cAMP

A circadian clock located in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the hypothalamus controls the daily behavioral and physiological rhythms of mammals. While the mammalian circadian system has been the focus of research for many years, very little work has been directed at understanding its underlying biochemical mechanisms. In these experiments we used the hypothalamic brain slice technique to investigate these mechanisms, focusing specifically on the intrinsic resetting properties of the circadian clock of the rat. We monitored a primary expression of the clock or pacemaker, the circadian rhythm of electrical activity of SCN neurons. This rhythm continues the oscillatory pattern seen in vivo for up to 60 hr in vitro, with an activity peak near midday that shows very little variation among SCN from different rats. The stability of the rhythm in vitro enabled us to use the time of peak activity to monitor the phase of the underlying pacemaker. Bath application of membrane-soluble cAMP analogs in 1 hr pulses induced robust advances in the phase of the rhythm that remained stable for 2 cycles. This effect depended on the phase of the pacemaker at the time of treatment: the peak was maximally advanced (4–6 hr) by treatments during the middle of the subjective day (projected from the donor's cycle); treatments during most of the subjective night and early subjective day induced no phase changes. Half-maximal phase resetting was induced at 1 x 10(-10) M concentrations of active cAMP analog. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Transferring Syntactic Relations from English to Hindi Using Alignments on Local Word Groups

Various works have used word alignments in parallel corpora to transfer information like POS tags, syntactic trees and word senses from source to target sentences. In this paper, we work on the problem of projecting syntactic relations from English to morphologically rich Hindi parallel text. We show the effectiveness of Local Word Groups (LWGs) in simplifying alignments as well as in transferring syntactic dependencies by building an alignment model with LWGs as base units and training a dependency parser on the relations projected using these LWGs. The LWG alignment model using GIZA++ scores decreases the Alignment Error Rate by 1.16 points when compared to the best GIZA++ model trained on lemmas. We also show that a dependency parser trained on the syntactic relations projected using LWGs obtained statistical significant improvements over the relations projected using lemmas by a margin of 3.49%.
Mycophenolate mofetil: safety and efficacy in the prophylaxis of acute kidney transplantation rejection

Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), a prodrug of mycophenolic acid (MPA), is an inhibitor of inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH). It preferentially inhibits denovo pathway of guanosine nucleotide synthesis in T and B-lymphocytes and prevents their proliferation, thereby suppresses both cell mediated and humoral immune responses. Clinical trials in kidney transplant recipients have shown the efficacy of MMF in reducing the incidence and severity of acute rejection episodes. It also improves long term graft function as well as graft and patient survival in kidney transplant recipients. MMF is useful as a component of toxicity sparing regimens to reduce or avoid exposure of steroids or calcineurin inhibitor (CNI). Enteric-coated mycophenolate sodium (EC-MPS) can be used as an alternative immunosuppressive agent in kidney transplant recipients with efficacy and safety profile similar to MMF.
Department of Anthropology Spring 2014 Fingerprints and the Organization of the Ceramic Industry Over Time at Tell Leilan Gender and the State in Northern Mesopotamia during the Early and Middle Bronze Age

The goal of my research is to elucidate the organization of ceramic production at Tell Leilan with respect to gender roles during from 3400 to 1700 BCE through a study of fingerprint impressions on pottery. I have developed and tested a technique for determining the proportion of men and women who formed and finished vessels in a certain ceramic assemblage using the distribution of epidermal ridge densities. There is a discrete change in the sex of potters at Leilan with the rise of urbanism and state formation at the site, but there is no alteration in this pattern that correlates with changes in the various regimes that had hegemony over the site over time during the Early and Middle Bronze Age. This result informs us about the effect of state authority on the public and private organization of crafts as well as the division of society along gender lines. Surprisingly, the change that occurs with the rise of the state at Tell Leilan does not occur at village sites in the Leilan Regional Survey. This result indicates that the changes in social fabric that occurred at urban sites with the establishment of state institutions did not occur to the same extent in hinterland settlements even though the state did control some of the ceramic production at these sites, at least during the Akkadian period. This methodology and research should allow for further evaluation of the highly theoretical literature on the relationship of gender to craft production in the ancient world. Disciplines Anthropology This thesis or dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn. edu/anthro_seniortheses/153 Fingerprints and the Organization of the Ceramic Industry Over Time at Tell Leilan Gender and the State in Northern Mesopotamia during the Early and Middle Bronze Age
Energy efficient Wi-Fi management for smart devices

Data communication is a significant component of smart device energy consumption today, and is likely to increase with the rising connectivity demands of today's mobile applications. Wi-Fi is a major supporting technology and as such, efficient energy management solutions are much needed. In this paper, we detail the Wi-Fi energy consumption characteristics and propose two energy saving schemes: packing and alignment, implementable at the application layer. Our investigations also reveal that these schemes are highly reliant on the network metric - available bandwidth, which is not readily obtainable on smartphones and existing wired solutions are ill-suited due to the dynamics of the wireless environment, as well as the energy constraint of mobile devices. Therefore, we propose a new energy efficient bandwidth measurement tool called BreezChirp. As validation, we implemented both BreezChirp and the Wi-Fi management schemes on modern Andriod smartphones and evaluated their performance through field experiments.
Long-Term Survival of Enteric Microorganisms in Frozen Wastewater

Abstract : Microorganisms that are found in domestic wastewater and that can cause illness in humans include bacteria viruses protozoan cysts and helminth ova. This literature review attempts to determine whether organisms contained in a frozen sewage bulb in the Antarctic ice would survive for decades. This review briefly examines the structural differences between these organisms; examines the susceptibility of these organisms to chilling freezing thawing and frozen storage and the effect these processes have on the structural components of the organisms; and compares findings from field studies including some archeo-logical studies on the ability of these organisms to withstand natural cold environments.
Early literacy programme as support for immigrant children and as transfer to early numeracy

ABSTRACT We researched the efficacy of an early literacy programme in enhancing immigrant children’s phonological awareness (PA) and print knowledge, including transferring learning to numeracy. Participants were 294 Ethiopian-born immigrant children in Israel at kindergarten age and one of their parents. Parent–child dyads were randomly selected to receive an intervention computer program focused on PA and print knowledge (letter names, letter–sound connections, and print knowledge) or a control computer program focused on general cognitive abilities (spatial perception, eye–hand coordination) and language skills (e.g. colours). Following the activity, greater improvement was found in PA, print knowledge, and numeracy in the intervention group compared to the control group. The intervention had a unique contribution to children’s progress in the three variables, with no contribution for child’s background. Furthermore, PA progress in the intervention group contributed significantly to children’s numeracy beyond the intervention’s contribution. Implications for education and future studies are discussed.
A Novel Quad Band Compact Meandered PIFA Antenna for GPS, UMTS, WiMAX, HiperLAN/2 Applications

In this paper a quad band compact meandered PIFA antenna for various wireless applications is proposed. The proposed antenna is designed as meandered PIFA Antenna in order to obtain high gain, wide bandwidth, multiband and good efficiency. The method of using meandered slits on top radiating patch is use to increases the gain and further reduces the size of conventional PIFA antenna. It also enhanced the bandwidth and current path of the antenna. The proposed antenna is only 20mm × 10mm in area and built on a very small ground plane of size 60mm × 40mm using FR4 substrate of thickness 1.57mm. The proposed antenna covers GPS, UMTS, WiMAX, Hiper LAN/2 and ISM bands. The simulation results are analyzed with the help of HFSS software. Following parameters of the antenna, including structure of the proposed antenna, return loss, quad-band frequencies, bandwidth, and simulated distribution of current density, radiation patterns are presented and discussed. It is also noted that proposed antenna obtained very high gain of 26.4689dB.
Why study metaphor and gesture

There are numerous ways to research gestures which represent abstract notions, and this paper begins with an overview of some of them which are represented in the current volume – from various semiotic approaches to experimental psychological studies. Then particular attention is given to metaphoric gestures studied as expressions of conceptual metaphors. This line of research has shown some of the similarities and differences between verbal and gestural metaphoric expression. The paper surveys some of the evidence provided from gesture studies which supports the view of metaphor as a cognitive phenomenon, and the notion that thought, even for abstract topics, is grounded in embodied experience. However, the study of gesture also raises some questions for research on conceptual metaphors and how it is conducted. Topics discussed include how one identifies metaphoric expressions, what counts as evidence of conceptual metaphors, how one labels them, and how gesture highlights the graded nature of metaphoricity.
Comparison of Long-Term Outcomes between Peritoneal Dialysis Patients with Diabetes as a Primary Renal Disease or as a Comorbid Condition

Objective To investigate the long-term outcomes of peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients with diabetes as primary renal disease and patients with diabetes as a comorbid condition. Methods All diabetic patients who commenced PD between January 1, 1995 and June 30, 2012 at Ren Ji Hospital, China were included. Patients were divided into diabetic nephropathy group (DN group) and non-diabetic nephropathy group (NDN group) according to their diagnosis of primary renal disease at the initiation of PD. They were followed until death, cessation of PD, transferred to other centers or to the end of study (June 30, 2013). Outcomes were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression models. Results A total of 163 diabetic patients were enrolled in the study, including 121 (74.2%) in DN group and 42 (25.8%) in NDN group. The 1-, 2-, 3- and 5-year patient survival rates were 89%, 78%, 66% and 51% for DN group, and 85%, 63%, 53% and 25% for NDN group, respectively. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients in NDN group had a worse patient survival compared with DN group (log rank 4.830, P=0.028). Patients in NDN group had a marginally shorter peritonitis-free period (log rank 3.297, P=0.069), however, there was no significant difference in technique survival (log rank 0.040, P=0.841). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that older age (HR 1.047, 95% CI 1.022-1.073, p<0.001), cardiovascular disease comorbidity (HR 2.200, 95% CI 0.1.269-3.814, P=0.005) and diabetes as a comorbidity condition (HR 1.806, 95% CI 1.003-3.158, P=0.038) were the independent predictors of increased mortality. Conclusions PD patients with diabetes as a comorbidity had an inferior patient survival compared to those with diabetic nephropathy, and closer monitoring and extra attention in the former subgroup of patients are therefore warranted.