Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Technical Systems Development Risk Factors: The Role of Empowering Leadership in Lowering Developers’ Stress

The success of information systems development ISD projects depends on the developers who deliver them. However, developers face many challenges in bringing an ISD project to successful completion. These projects are often large and highly complex, with volatile targets, creating a stressful environment for developers. Although prior literature has considered how technical ISD risk factors, such as project size, complexity, and target volatility, affect team-and project-level outcomes, their effects on developers have received limited attention. This gap in the literature is problematic for two reasons: 1 the interplay between developers and project characteristics are unaccounted for, resulting in an incomplete picture of ISD; and 2 developer stress has been shown to reduce team performance. In this research, we examine the role of empowering leadership in reducing developer stress in ISD. We develop a multilevel model of the effect of empowering leadership on the relationship between technical ISD risk factors and developers' role perceptions, and explore the consequences for developers' stress. The model was tested in a field study of 350 developers in 73 ISD teams from a large U.S.-based firm. Results showed that empowering leadership ameliorated the negative effects of project size and target volatility on role ambiguity as well as the negative effects of project size, complexity, and target volatility on role conflict and stress. We also found that empowering leadership reduced role ambiguity, role conflict, and stress directly, and that role ambiguity and role conflict increased stress. Project size, complexity, and target volatility were found to increase empowering leadership behaviors. We conclude that empowering leadership can be an effective means of helping developers cope with technical ISD risk factors and discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017. 0716 .
Virtual Testing of Concrete Transport Properties

Synopsis: The transport properties of concrete are critical to its field performance. Commonly encountered degradation mechanisms are dependent on ionic diffusivity, sorptivity, and permeability. In this paper, virtual testing of two of these concrete transport properties, diffusivity and permeability, will be reviewed. Virtual evaluations of ionic diffusion (and equivalently conductivity) will be presented as one example that spans the full range of applications, from computations on cement paste with micrometer resolution to a virtual rapid chloride permeability test (RCPT) that simulates the standard ASTM test method for conductivity of concrete cylinders. At the concrete scale, a hard core/soft shell (HCSS) microstructural model may be employed to estimate diffusion coefficients, while finite difference solutions of Fick’s laws that incorporate sorption/reaction may be employed to evaluate remediation strategies for real world bridge decks. Virtual evaluations of permeability are dependent on a sufficient resolution of the pore sizes that are critical for flow under pressure. Two recent successful evaluations will be presented in this paper: the permeability of cement pastes (hydroceramics) cured at elevated temperatures, where transport is controlled by micrometer-sized pores, and the permeability of pervious concrete that is dominated by its coarse porosity (scale of mm). Many of the presented computational (virtual) tools are freely available over the Internet, either for direct access (remote computation) or for downloading.
No-go for quantum seals

Authors note: After posting this manuscript, we were made aware of a number of previous works along very similar lines, such as Refs [1-5] in version 2 of this manuscript, amongst others. We had formulated this concept and arrived at our results independently, and regret that as a result we did not properly cite these works and failed to put our work in a proper context. We are grateful to the individuals who brought this to our attention, and we are gratified to find that our ideas, while not as new as we had believed, are at least of interest to the community. We are currently working on assessing how our results relate to these prior works. In the mean time, we remain proud of our work, and we present the manuscript in its original form. Original abstract: We introduce the concept of a quantum "seal" and investigate its feasibility. We define a seal as a state provided by Alice to Bob along with a set of instructions which Bob can follow in order to "break the seal" and read the classical message stored inside. We define two success criteria for a seal: the probability Bob can successfully read the message if he follows Alice's instructions without any further input must be high, and if Alice asks for the state back from Bob, the probability Alice can tell if Bob broke the seal without permission must be high. We prove that within the constraints of quantum mechanics these two criteria are mutually exclusive. Finally, we derive upper and lower bounds on the achievability of a probabilistic seal for various message lengths, and show that for a 1-bit message our bound is tight.
EFFECT OF PARTICLE SIZE ON THE

According to the regulation of the good manufacturing practice, pharmaceutical producers of solid oral forms have obligation to carry out drug dissolution test (in vitro) which can predict the absorption of the active components in the gastrointestinal tract (in vivo) which represents an indicator for bioequivalent. Objective: The objective of present study was to investigate the effect of particle size on the dissolution of glibenclamide from tablets. Final granulates from ten different batches were used for determination of particle size distribution. Methods: Particle size analysis was performed by laser diffraction method. The dissolution of glibenclamide from tablets was performed using USP dissolution apparatus type II (paddle). Results: Mean values of percentage of glibenclamide dissolution from tablets ranged from 80% to 99%. Obtained results showed that dissolution of glibenclamide decreased with increasing particle size fraction d(0.1) and increased with increasing particle size fractions d(0.9) and D(4,3). Conclusion: The optimal ratio of the particle size and percentage of dissolution of glibenclamide was observed for the sample with particle size distribution of d(0.1) = 36 m, d(0.5) = 172 m, d(0.9) = 499 m and D(4,3) = 229 m. Mean value of percentage dissolution for glibenclamide from this sample is 97%.
Family Satisfaction in Critical Care Units: Does an Open Visiting Hours Policy Have an Impact?

For critically ill patients, the interaction between health care providers and family members is essential in daily decision making. Improving this relationship has a positive impact on satisfaction with the overall care provided to patients and reduces family member symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. In this study, we analyzed the impact of visitation policy (open versus restricted) on family satisfaction using the previously well-validated Critical Care Family Satisfaction Survey (CCFSS) questionnaire. Methods This is a cross-sectional prospective observational study conducted between November 1, 2009, and January 31, 2010, in 2 critical care units with 2 different visiting policy systems, unit A (open visiting hours) and B (restricted visiting hours), comparing family satisfaction in both units using the CCFSS questionnaire. Responses were grouped in 5 satisfaction constructs, namely, the support construct, which assesses the degree of satisfaction with the support of the intensive care staff as perceived by relatives; the assurance construct, which assesses the degree of satisfaction regarding honest answers being given and the responder's confidence that the patient is receiving the best care possible; the proximity construct, which assesses the degree of satisfaction with the physical and emotional access to the patient; the information construct, which assesses the degree of satisfaction with the adequacy of information given to relatives; and the comfort construct, which assesses satisfaction with physical comfort and amenities. Results During the study period, 115 questionnaires were distributed in each of the 2 sites. The response rates in units A and B were 92% (106) and 100% (115), respectively. The mean stay time in the intensive care unit was 3.7 days. There were more trauma cases in unit A and more cardiac patients in unit B. There was no significant difference between the 2 units in any of the 5 satisfaction constructs, the support, assurance, proximity, information, and comfort constructs, although there was a nonsignificant trend favoring the unit with the more liberal visit policy regarding amenities (unit A). Conclusions We concluded that family satisfaction to care provided in intensive care as measured by the CCFSS questionnaire was not influenced by frequency of visitation among Saudi families. Factors other than open visiting hours may be important to evaluate.
Induction of the p53 Tumor Suppressor in Cancer Cells through Inhibition of Cap-Dependent Translation

ABSTRACT The p53 tumor suppressor plays a critical role in protecting normal cells from malignant transformation. Development of small molecules to reactivate p53 in cancer cells has been an area of intense research. We previously identified an internal ribosomal entry site (IRES) within the 5′ untranslated region of p53 mRNA that mediates translation of the p53 mRNA independent of cap-dependent translation. Our results also show that in response to DNA damage, cells switch from cap-dependent translation to cap-independent translation of p53 mRNA. In the present study, we discovered a specific inhibitor of cap-dependent translation, 4EGI-1, that is capable of inducing the accumulation of p53 in cancer cells retaining wild-type p53. Our results show that 4EGI-1 causes an increase in p53 IRES activity, leading to increased translation of p53 mRNA. We also observed that 4EGI-1 induces cancer cell apoptosis in a p53-dependent manner. Furthermore, 4EGI-1 induces p53 in cancer cells without causing DNA double-strand breaks. In conclusion, we discovered a mechanistic link between inhibition of cap-dependent translation and enhanced p53 accumulation. This leads to apoptosis of cancer cells without causing collateral damage to normal cells, thus providing a novel and effective therapeutic strategy for cancer.
For More Energy-Efficient Dual-Hop DF Relaying Power-Line Communication Systems

Energy efficiency in multihop cooperative power-line communication (PLC) systems has recently received considerable attention in the literature. In order to make such systems more energy efficient, this paper proposes a relaying technique equipped with energy-harvesting capabilities. More specifically, we consider a dual-hop decode-and-forward (DF) broadband PLC relaying system in which the relay exploits the high noise inherent in PLC channels to further enhance energy efficiency; this system will be referred to as DF with energy harvesting (DF-EH). This study deploys, particularly, the time-switching relaying protocol for energy harvesting. An accurate analytical expression for the energy efficiency and a closed-form expression for the average outage probability of the proposed system are derived and then verified with Monte Carlo simulations. For the sake of comparison and to highlight the achievable gains, we also analyze the energy-efficiency performances and the average outage probabilities of the conventional DF relaying system, i.e., without energy harvesting, as well as that of the direct-link approach. Furthermore, various frequency selection and power allocation strategies, namely, optimal frequency selection, random frequency selection, and equal power allocation, exploiting the multiple power cables, are studied. Then, the impact of several system parameters such as the energy-harvesting time factor, various idle power consumption profiles, relay location, power allocation as well as different noise scenarios are examined. The results reveal that the proposed DF-EH system is able to provide energy efficiency improvements of more than 30% compared to the conventional DF relaying scheme. It is also shown that the proposed system with optimal frequency selection performs better at low SNR, whereas at high SNR the equal power allocation based system will have the best performance.
Chemical ‘fingerprint’ studies of fire atmosphere

Large-scale fire experiments have been carried out in a special test rig to study the chemical nature of fire atmosphere using a ‘fingerprint’ sampling and analysis method. Four polymeric materials—wood, polypropylene, polymethyl methacrylate and polystyrene foam—were used separately as fuel, with both high and low ventilation. In addition to oxides of carbon the fingerprints yielded typically between twenty and forty different chemical compounds including several (e.g. aldehydes) which could contribute significantly to the irritancy of the fire gases. The change in nature of the fingerprint gases with the different ventilation conditions, different polymeric materials and with different stages of the same fire is discussed, together with the toxicological significance of the results.
Comparative Investigation of Phase Transformation Behavior as a Function of Annealing Temperature and Cooling Rate of Two Medium‐Mn Steels

Transformation‐induced plasticity (TRIP)‐assisted medium‐Mn steels with a ferritic matrix containing considerable amounts of retained austenite are a promising candidate to fulfill the requirements for the third‐generation of advanced high‐strength steels (AHSS), which is currently under development. The influence of the intercritical annealing temperature and cooling rate on the final microstructure of a 0.1C3. 5Mn and 0.1C5Mn steel, respectively, was elaborately investigated. Dilatometric experiments were carried out and additionally supported by microstructural observations. During soaking in the two‐phase ferrite–austenite region and subsequent slow cooling the C and Mn concentration in the austenite increased and resulted in its chemical stabilization. The variation of the annealing temperature and cooling rate altered the amounts of ferrite, retained austenite, bainite, pearlite, and martensite in the final microstructure. Furthermore, two thermodynamical models for the prediction of the maximum retained austenite content and the optimal annealing temperature have been thoroughly evaluated in this work. It can be stated that the experimental data revealed a shift of the maximum retained austenite to higher annealing temperatures compared to the model calculations. As diffusional transformations were not considered in the applied models, slow cooling rates led to pronounced deviations between calculation and experiment, thereby showing the need for model adaptions.
Library-Based Placement and Routing in FPGAs with Support of Partial Reconfiguration

While traditional Field-Programmable Gate Array design flow usually employs fine-grained tile-based placement, modular placement is increasingly required to speed up the large-scale placement and save the synthesis time. Moreover, the commonly used modules can be pre-synthesized and stored in the library for design reuse to significantly save the design, verification time, and development cost. Previous work mainly focuses on modular floorplanning without module placement information. In this article, we propose a library-based placement and routing flow that best utilizes the pre-placed and routed modules from the library to significantly save the execution time while achieving the minimal area-delay product. The flow supports the static and reconfigurable modules at the same time. The modular information is represented in the B*-Tree structure, and the B*-Tree operations are amended together with Simulated Annealing to enable a fast search of the placement space. Different width-height ratios of the modules are exploited to achieve area-delay product optimization. Partial reconfiguration-aware routing using pin-to-wire abutment is proposed to connect the modules after placement. Our placer can reduce the compilation time by 65% on average with 17% area and 8.2% delay overhead compared with the fine-grained results of Versatile Place and Route through the reuse of module information in the library for the base architecture. For other architectures, the area increase ranges from 8.32% to 25.79%, the delay varies from − 13.66% to 19.79%, and the runtime improves by 43.31% to 77.2%.
Clinical outcomes associated with per‐operative discontinuation of aspirin in patients with coronary artery disease: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Background: Postoperative state is characterized by increased thrombotic risk by virtue of platelet activation. Whether aspirin ameliorates this risk in patients with established coronary artery disease undergoing cardiac or noncardiac surgery is unknown. We conducted a systematic review and meta‐analysis to compare the risk of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and the risk of bleeding in patients with early (3–5 or more days before surgery) vs. late discontinuation(<3–5 days)/no discontinuation of aspirin.
Differences in Medicaid Antipsychotic Medication Measures Among Children with SSI, Foster Care, and Income-Based Aid

BACKGROUND: Concerns about antipsychotic prescribing for children, particularly those enrolled in Medicaid and with Supplemental Security Income (SSI), continue despite recent calls for selective use within established guidelines. OBJECTIVES: To (a) examine the application of 6 quality measures for antipsychotic medication prescribing in children and adolescents receiving Medicaid and (b) understand distinctive patterns across eligibility categories in order to inform ongoing quality management efforts to support judicious antipsychotic use. METHODS: Using data for 10 states from the 2008 Medicaid Analytic Extract (MAX), a cross-sectional assessment of 144,200 Medicaid beneficiaries aged < 21 years who received antipsychotics was conducted to calculate the prevalence of 6 quality measures for antipsychotic medication management, which were developed in 2012-2014 by the National Collaborative for Innovation in Quality Measurement. These measures addressed antipsychotic polypharmacy, higher-than-recommended doses of antipsychotics, use of psychosocial services before antipsychotic initiation, follow-up after initiation, baseline metabolic screening, and ongoing metabolic monitoring. RESULTS: Compared with children eligble for income-based Medicaid, children receiving SSI and in foster care were twice as likely to receive higher-than-recommended doses of antipsychotics (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.4, 95% CI = 2.3-2.6; AOR = 2.5, 95% CI = 2.4-2.6, respectively) and multiple concurrent antipsychotic medications (AOR = 2.2, 95% CI = 2.0-2.4; AOR = 2.2, 95% CI = 2.0-2.4, respectively). However, children receiving SSI and in foster care were more likely to have appropriate management, including psychosocial visits before initiating antipsychotic treatment and ongoing metabolic monitoring. While children in foster care were more likely to experience baseline metabolic screening, SSI children were no more likely than children eligible for income-based aid to receive baseline screening. CONCLUSIONS: While indicators of overuse were more common in SSI and foster care groups, access to follow-up, metabolic monitoring, and psychosocial services was somewhat better for these children. However, substantial quality shortfalls existed for all groups, particularly metabolic screening and monitoring. Renewed efforts are needed to improve antipsychotic medication management for all children.
Noncontact Vision-Based Cardiopulmonary Monitoring in Different Sleeping Positions

Individuals with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can experience partial or complete collapse of the upper airway during sleep. This condition affects between 10-17% of adult men and 3-9% of adult women, requiring arousal to resume regular breathing. Frequent arousals disrupt proper sleeping patterns and cause daytime sleepiness. Untreated OSA has been linked to serious medical issues including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Unfortunately, diagnosis rates are low (∼20%) and current sleep monitoring options are expensive, time consuming, and uncomfortable. Toward the development of a convenient, noncontact OSA monitoring system, this paper presents a simple, computer vision-based method to monitor cardiopulmonary signals (respiratory and heart rates) during sleep. System testing was performed with 17 healthy participants in five different simulated sleep positions. To monitor cardiopulmonary rates, distinctive points are automatically detected and tracked in infrared image sequences. Blind source separation is applied to extract candidate signals of interest. The optimal respiratory and heart rates are determined using periodicity measures based on spectral analysis. Estimates were validated by comparison to polysomnography recordings. The system achieved a mean percentage error of 3.4% and 5.0% for respiratory rate and heart rate, respectively. This study represents an important step in building an accessible, unobtrusive solution for sleep apnea diagnosis.
Diagnostic value of hyperfibrinogenemia as a predictive factor for appendiceal perforation in acute appendicitis

Acute appendicitis is one of the most common emergency requiring operation. As the first discovered coagulation factor, plasma fibrinogen frequently increases with inflammation due to the activation of coagulation. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the diagnostic value of hyperfibrinogenemia as a preoperative laboratory marker for appendiceal perforation in patients with acute appendicitis.
Candidate genes have sex-specific effects on timing of spring migration and moult speed in a long-distance migratory bird

Abstract The timing of major life-history events, such as migration and moult, is set by endogenous circadian and circannual clocks, that have been well characterized at the molecular level. Conversely, the genetic sources of variation in phenology and in other behavioral traits have been sparsely addressed. It has been proposed that inter-individual variability in the timing of seasonal events may arise from allelic polymorphism at phenological candidate genes involved in the signaling cascade of the endogenous clocks. In this study of a long-distance migratory passerine bird, the willow warbler Phylloscopus trochilus, we investigated whether allelic variation at 5 polymorphic loci of 4 candidate genes (Adcyap1, Clock, Creb1, and Npas2), predicted 2 major components of the annual schedule, namely timing of spring migration across the central Mediterranean sea and moult speed, the latter gauged from ptilochronological analyses of tail feathers moulted in the African winter quarters. We identified a novel Clock gene locus (Clock region 3) showing polyQ polymorphism, which was however not significantly associated with any phenotypic trait. Npas2 allele size predicted male (but not female) spring migration date, with males bearing longer alleles migrating significantly earlier than those bearing shorter alleles. Creb1 allele size significantly predicted male (but not female) moult speed, longer alleles being associated with faster moult. All other genotype–phenotype associations were statistically non-significant. These findings provide new evidence for a role of candidate genes in modulating the phenology of different circannual activities in long-distance migratory birds, and for the occurrence of sex-specific candidate gene effects.