Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical facilitators: a new way of working.

AIM To improve the quality and quantity of student clinical placements in an NHS trust. METHOD When nurse training was under review, a 12-month pilot study was undertaken to introduce 12 clinical facilitators to acute and surgical wards at six trust sites on a supernumerary basis. As well as guiding the student, each facilitator liaised with a link tutor and ward staff, thereby maintaining continuity. The project team worked closely with the trust audit department and collected data using a variety of methods. The project leader developed an audit questionnaire for students, ward staff and college tutors. The initial answers were used as a baseline, then the same questionnaire was redistributed so the data could be analysed and compared. RESULTS Most of the students felt more supported and confident to practise. The clinical facilitators were able to help ground the tutors' practice knowledge in reality, and the tutors built up the clinical facilitators' confidence in curricular issues and skills, such as presentation and teaching strategies. CONCLUSION The clinical facilitator can strengthen partnerships between education and service and offer a model for practical facilitation.
The Interference of Flexible Working Times with the Circadian Temperature Rhythm—a Predictor of Impairment to Health and Well‐Being?

In order to analyze whether impairments to health and well‐being under flexible working hours can be predicted from specific characteristics of the work schedules, periodic components in flexible working hours and their interference with the circadian temperature rhythm were analyzed applying univariate and bivariate spectrum analyses to both time series. The resulting indicators of spectral power and phase shift of these components were then related to reported health impairments using regression analysis. The results show that a suppression of both the 24 and the 168 h components in the work schedules (i.e., a lack of periodicity) can be used to predict reported health impairments, and that if there are relatively strong 24 and 168 h components left in the work schedules, their phase difference with the temperature rhythm (as an indicator of the interference between working time and the circadian rhythm) further predicts impairment. The results indicate that the periodicity of working hours and the amount of (circadian) desynchronization induced by flexible work schedules can be used for predicting the impairing effects of flexible work schedules on health and well‐being. The results can thus be used for evaluating and designing flexible shift rosters.
Design and Evaluation of a Short Version of the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ-S)

The user experience questionnaire (UEQ) is a widely used questionnaire to measure the subjective impression of users towards the user experience of products. The UEQ is a semantic differential with 26 items. Filling out the UEQ takes approximately 3-5 minutes, i.e. the UEQ is already reasonably efficient concerning the time required to answer all items. However, there exist several valid application scenarios, where filling out the entire UEQ appears impractical. This paper deals with the creation of an 8 item short version of the UEQ, which is optimized for these specific application scenarios. First validations of this short version are also described.
Mood Stabilizers: Shared Mechanisms of Action at Postsynaptic Signal‐Transduction and Kindling Processes

&NA; Several distinct classes of agents have demonstrated efficacy as mood stabilizers in patients with bipolar disorder. It may be reasonable to assume that these agents share one or more common mechanisms of action. This paper will explore the hypothesis that all effective mood stabilizers exert their actions through inhibition of postsynaptic signal‐transduction and kindling processes. A literature search was performed for all currently used mood stabilizers to identify reports of mood‐stabilizer action in postreceptor cell‐signaling and kindling processes. Most effective mood stabilizers appear to inhibit intracellular calcium mobilization through several distinct mechanisms. In addition, several mood stabilizers appear to diminish generation of second‐messenger molecules from the membrane phospholipids phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylcholine, inhibit the activity of protein kinases, and directly inhibit activity of G‐proteins. Finally, all established mood stabilizers also exhibit antikindling effects. All of these mechanisms of action could dampen excessive intracellular and intercellular signaling, which may be a core feature of the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder. The observation that all effective mood stabilizers inhibit both kindling and signal‐transduction pathways suggests that these processes are intimately linked. We hypothesize that an effective mood stabilizer must possess some specific minimum inhibitory effects at postsynaptic signal‐transduction and kindling processes. If this hypothesis is correct, then a rational search for safer and more effective mood‐stabilizing agents can begin.
An evolvable oestrogen receptor activity sensor: development of a modular system for integrating multiple genes into the yeast genome

To study a gene interaction network, we developed a gene‐targeting strategy that allows efficient and stable genomic integration of multiple genetic constructs at distinct target loci in the yeast genome. This gene‐targeting strategy uses a modular plasmid with a recyclable selectable marker and a multiple cloning site into which the gene of interest is cloned, flanked by two long regions of homology to the target genomic locus that are generated using adaptamer primers. We used this strategy to integrate into a single yeast strain components of the oestrogen receptor (ER) signalling network, comprising the human ERα and three reporter genes driven by oestrogen response elements (EREs). The engineered strain contains multiple reporters of ligand‐dependent receptor signalling, providing sensitive, reproducible, rapid, low‐cost quantitative assays of ERα activity in order to screen potential receptor agonists. Further, because two of the ERE‐driven reporter genes are required for growth in deficient media, the strain's growth rate—and therefore its fitness—depends on ligand‐induced ERα activity. This evolvable oestrogen receptor activity sensor (EERAS) can therefore provide the foundation of a long‐term experimental evolution strategy to elucidate ER structure–function relations and ligand‐receptor evolution. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Human Papillomavirus DNA Is Rarely Detected in Colorectal Carcinomas and Not Associated with Microsatellite Instability: The Seattle Colon Cancer Family Registry

Background: Persistent infection with oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) types-16 and -18 is an established cause of cervical and other cancers. Some studies report detection of oncogenic HPV DNA in colorectal carcinomas, with prevalence estimates as high as 84%. However, other studies report detecting no HPV DNA in colorectal tumors. Methods: To evaluate the prevalence of HPV in colorectal cancer subsets, we conducted a case–case comparison study. This study included 555 cases of incident colorectal cancer from the Seattle Colon Cancer Family Registry (CCFR), ages 20 to 74 years and diagnosed between 1998 and 2002. Standardized interviews were used to elicit demographics and risk factor data. Tumor DNA was assayed for HPV-16 and -18 DNA using real-time PCR. Microsatellite instability (MSI) status was assessed using a standard 10-marker panel and confirmed with immunohistochemical staining. Prevalence estimates were calculated for the overall sample, and stratified by patient and tumor characteristics. Fisher exact test was used to compare prevalence between strata. Results: HPV-16 DNA was detected in 2% of colorectal tumors, but no HPV-18 DNA was detected. HPV-16 prevalence did not vary between cases according to sex, age, race, smoking-status, or MSI-status (P > 0.05). HPV-16 prevalence in rectal carcinomas was 5% compared with 1% in colon carcinomas (P = 0.03). Conclusions: Among a large sample of colorectal carcinomas, prevalence of HPV-16 and -18 was very low. Prior studies detecting high HPV prevalence in colorectal carcinomas are likely the result of contamination from the anal canal or clinical processing. Impact: HPV is unlikely to play a large role in colorectal carcinogenesis. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 22(2); 317–9. ©2012 AACR.
Wind Speed Forecasting Using Hybrid Wavelet Transform- ARMA Techniques

The objective of this paper is to develop a novel wind speed forecasting technique, which produces more accurate prediction. The Wavelet Transform (WT) along with the Auto Regressive Moving Average (ARMA) is chosen to form a hybrid whose combination is expected to give minimum Mean Absolute Prediction Error (MAPE). A simulation study has been conducted by comparing the forecasting results using the Wavelet-ARMA with the ARMA and Artificial Neural Network (ANN)-Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) hybrid technique to verify the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid method. Results of the proposed hybrid show significant improvements in the forecasting error.
Central and Peripheral Blood Flow During Exercise With a Continuous-Flow Left Ventricular Assist Device: Constant Versus Increasing Pump Speed: A Pilot Study

Background— End-stage heart failure is associated with impaired cardiac output (CO) and organ blood flow. We determined whether CO and peripheral perfusion are maintained during exercise in patients with an axial-flow left ventricular assist device (LVAD) and whether an increase in LVAD pump speed with work rate would increase organ blood flow. Methods and Results— Invasively determined CO and leg blood flow and Doppler-determined cerebral perfusion were measured during 2 incremental cycle exercise tests on the same day in 8 patients provided with a HeartMate II LVAD. In random order, patients exercised both with a constant (≈9775 rpm) and with an increasing pump speed (+400 rpm per exercise stage). At 60 W, the elevation in CO was more pronounced with increased pump speed (8.7±0.6 versus 8.1±1.1 L · min−1; mean±SD; P=0.05), but at maximal exercise increases in CO (from 7.0±0.9 to 13.6±2.5 L · min−1; P<0.01) and leg blood flow [0.7 (0.5 to 0.8) to 4.4 (3.9 to 4.8) L · min−1 per leg; median (range); P<0.001] were similar with both pumping modes. Normally, middle cerebral artery mean flow velocity increases from ≈50 to ≈65 cm · s−1 during exercise, but in LVAD patients with a constant pump speed it was low at rest (39±14 cm · s−1) and remained unchanged during exercise, whereas in patients with increasing pump speed, it increased by 5.2±2.8 cm · s−1 at 60 W (P<0.01). Conclusions— With maximal exercise, the axial-flow LVAD supports near-normal increments in cardiac output and leg perfusion, but cerebral perfusion is poor. Increased pump speed augments cerebral perfusion during exercise.
Dynamics of Inflammatory Factors in Aqueous Humor during Ranibizumab or Aflibercept Treatment for Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Purpose: To evaluate the dynamic changes of the aqueous humor levels of inflammatory factors between patients receiving intravitreal ranibizumab injection (IRI) and aflibercept injection (IAI) in patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Methods: The study was performed on 30 eyes with AMD that were scheduled to receive 3 doses of IRI (15 eyes) or IAI (15 eyes) at monthly intervals. Aqueous humor samples were collected when injection was done. The concentrations of VEGF, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-AA, interleukin (IL)-6, and IL-8 were measured in aqueous humor samples from the 30 AMD patients and 10 cataract patients (as controls) by the suspension array method. Results: Aqueous levels of the inflammatory factors (MCP-1, PDGF-AA, IL-6, and IL-8) were significantly correlated with each other. In both the IRI-treated eyes and the IAI-treated eyes, visual acuity and central macular thickness improved significantly, and the aqueous level of VEGF showed a significant decrease. In IAI-treated eyes, the aqueous levels of MCP-1 and PDGF-AA were significantly decreased at 2 months. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the inflammatory factors are involved in the pathogenesis of AMD and also the possibility that the interaction between these inflammatory factors and IRI or IAI is different.
Solving multi-target haptic problems in menu interaction

While haptic feedback has been shown to enhance user performance and satisfaction in single target interactions in desktop user interfaces, it is not clear whether this will hold for more realistic, multi-target interactions. Here we present an experimental study of haptically enhanced menus. We evaluate a visual condition, a haptic condition and an adjusted haptic condition designed to support menu interactions. We conclude that thoughtful design can create multi-target haptic augmentations that provide performance benefits.
Exact Synthesis of Toffoli Gate Circuits with Negative Control Lines

The development of synthesis approaches for reversible circuits is an active research area. Besides heuristic methods, also exact synthesis received significant attention. Here, circuits realizing the desired functions e.g. with a minimal number of gates are determined. However, so far exact synthesis considering Toffoli gate circuits with positive control lines only has been considered. In this paper, we are extending the scope of exact synthesis by additionally considering negative control lines in the circuits to be synthesized. For this purpose, we propose and evaluate a SAT-based synthesis method. Our experiments show that incorporating negative control lines leads to smaller circuits with respect to the number of gates. Furthermore, in some cases even the run-time of the synthesis can be improved.
Activation of Chimeric and Full-length Growth Hormone Receptors by Growth Hormone Receptor Monoclonal Antibodies

Signal transduction by the growth hormone receptor (GHR) occurs through growth hormone (GH)-induced dimerization of two GHRs to form a trimeric complex. It is thought that dimerization alone is sufficient for signaling, since monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against the extracellular domain of the GHR elicit proliferation of FDC-P1 cells transfected with a chimeric receptor comprising the extracellular domain of the GHR and the fibronectin and cytoplasmic domains of the murine granulocyte colony-stimulating factor receptor. We have screened 14 GHR mAbs for proliferative activity against characterized FDC-P1 and BaF-B03 cell lines stably expressing the full-length human, rabbit, or rat GHR, or the chimeric human GHR/granulocyte colony-stimulating factor receptor, and for transactivation of the c-fos promoter and STAT activation. With the chimeric receptor, eight mAbs were able to elicit proliferation, although there was no correlation between inhibition of hormone binding and agonist activity. In contrast, no mAbs were able to act as agonists with the full-length GHR FDC-P1 cell lines, although nine competed with GH for binding. A weak proliferative response was observed in the BaF-B03 cell lines with two of the mAbs (263 and 1C9), and the addition of anti-mouse F(ab)2resulted in increased signaling in the hGHR BaF-B03 cell line to a plateau of 28 ± 4% of the GH maximum for mAb 263. These data could indicate considerable stringency in the ability of mAbs to correctly dimerize the full-length GHR. However, the ability of mAb 263 to stimulate a mutant hGHR altered in the F′–G′ loop of domain 2 was nearly abolished, concurrent with an increased affinity of this mAb for the receptor. Since the F′–G′ loop undergoes a conformational change on GH binding and is necessary for full proliferative signaling, we propose that in addition to promoting receptor dimerization, mAb 263 may induce specific changes in receptor conformation similar to GH, which are required for the biological response.
Australia Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics Stochastic Models Underlying Croston's Method for Intermittent Demand Forecasting Stochastic Models Underlying Croston's Method for Intermittent Demand Forecasting

Croston's method is a widely used to predict inventory demand when it is inter­ mittent. However, it is an ad hoc method with no properly formulated underlying stochastic model. In this paper, we explore possible models underlying Croston's method and three related methods, and we show that any underlying model will be inconsistent with the prop­ erties of intermittent demand data. However, we find that the point forecasts and prediction intervals based on such underlying models may still be useful.
On the Frequency Limits of SiGe HBTs for TeraHertz Applications

We report record f<sub>max</sub> for a silicon-based transistor, and the first combined set of f<sub>1</sub>+ f<sub>max</sub> above one-terahertz for silicon-germanium heterojunction bipolar transistors (SiGe HBTs). Peak f<sub>max</sub> of 618 GHz and f<sub>rfloor</sub> of 463 GHz at 4.5 K (chuck temperature) were measured for a scaled 0.12 times 2.5 mum-SiGe HBT (343 / 309 GHz at 300 K), at a breakdown voltage BV<sub>CEO</sub> of 1.62 V (1.70 at 300 K), yielding a record f<sub>T</sub> x BV<sub>CEO</sub> product of 750 GHz-V (510 GHz-V at 300 K). An examination of base transport in these devices at low temperatures suggests non-equilibrium effects are operative.
Analysis of partial body weight support during treadmill and overground walking of children with cerebral palsy.

OBJECTIVE to analyze the spatial-temporal characteristics and joint angles during overground walking without body weight support (BWS) and with 0% and 30% BWS, and during treadmill walking with the same BWS in children with cerebral palsy. METHODS six children with hemiplegic and spastic cerebral palsy (7.70 ± 1.04 years old) were videotaped during overground walking at a comfortable speed with no BWS, with 0% and 30% BWS, and during treadmill walking with 0% and 30% BWS. Reflective markers were placed over main bony landmarks in both body sides to register the coordinates "x", "y", "z". RESULTS during overground walking, children walked faster and presented longer and faster strides, longer duration of single-stance and swing periods, and shorter duration of double-stance period, than treadmill walking, regardless of BWS use. The hip was the only joint that presented a difference between body sides and experimental conditions; i.e. range of motion (ROM) was reduced in the plegic side when compared to the nonplegic side, and during overground walking without BWS when compared to 30% BWS. CONCLUSION children with hemiplegic and spastic cerebral palsy were able to walk overground and on a treadmill with different percentages of BWS, and their performance was superior during overground walking, regardless of BWS use.
A biomechanical review of factors affecting rowing performance

This review analyses rowing by linking the biological and mechanical systems that comprise the rowing system. Blade force was found to be the only propulsive force to counter the drag forces, consisting of both air drag and hydrodynamic drag, acting on the system. Vertical oscillations of the shell are shown to have minimal impact on system dynamics. The oar acts as the link between the force generated by the rower and the blade force and transmits this force to the rowing shell through the oarlock. Blade dynamics consist of both lift and drag mechanisms. The force on the oar handle is the result of a phased muscular activation of the rower. Oar handle force and movement are affected by the joint strength and torque-velocity characteristics of the rower. Maximising sustainable power requires a matching of the rigging setup and blade design to the rower’s joint torque-velocity characteristics. Coordination and synchrony between rowers in a multiple rower shell affects overall system velocity. Force-time profiles should be better understood to identify specific components of a rower’s biomechanics that can be modified to achieve greater force generation.
Balanced Scorecard Implementation in Jordan: An Initial Analysis

This paper analyses the state of implementation of the balanced scorecard (BSC) among Jordanian industrial companies. From an economic perspective, Jordan is an exemplar of an advanced developing nation in the Middle Eastern region. The paper is part of a wider investigation into the usage of Western developed performance measurement diversity techniques in the Jordanian context. A quantitative survey of 168 companies provided insight into the level of implementation, diffusion and purposes for the use of the BSC approach among medium and large industrial companies. The results showed that 35.1% of the surveyed companies used the BSC approach. The finding also indicated that approximately a further 30% of the responding companies were either considering or currently implementing the BSC approach. The results revealed some inconsistency in terms of the types and number of BSC perspectives used. Companies that had implemented the BSC used different perspectives in their BSC with a greater focus on the original four perspectives as suggested by the original authors Kaplan and Norton.
Multivariable Empirical Analysis of Coupled Oxygen and Moisture for Potential and Rate of Quantitative Corrosion in Concrete

AbstractQualitative as well as quantitative effect of oxygen on the corrosion of reinforced concrete structures under various environments and compositions has been successfully obtained through extensive multivariable laboratory experimentation in this research for which the previous research data is limited and has difference of opinion. The experiment results of this research showed that the diffusion of oxygen is not an influential factor for corrosion inhibition as long as the reinforced concrete is not placed completely under water even in very high humidity environmental conditions as much as 95% relative humidity. The only exception is when the diffusion path of oxygen from the surface of concrete to the depth of steel reinforcement is extended and made slender enough by using a thick concrete cover and low water/cement ratio to make the coefficient of oxygen comparable to that of submerged condition which is not a normal practice. In all cases of relative humidity less than one hundred percent, t.
BBM: bayesian browsing model from petabyte-scale data

Given a quarter of petabyte click log data, how can we estimate the relevance of each URL for a given query? In this paper, we propose the Bayesian Browsing Model (BBM), a new modeling technique with following advantages: (a) it does exact inference; (b) it is single-pass and parallelizable; (c) it is effective. We present two sets of experiments to test model effectiveness and efficiency. On the first set of over 50 million search instances of 1.1 million distinct queries, BBM out-performs the state-of-the-art competitor by 29.2% in log-likelihood while being 57 times faster. On the second click-log set, spanning a quarter of petabyte data, we showcase the scalability of BBM: we implemented it on a commercial MapReduce cluster, and it took only 3 hours to compute the relevance for 1.15 billion distinct query-URL pairs.
A 0.6 V, 4.32 mW, 68 GHz Low Phase-Noise VCO With Intrinsic-Tuned Technique in 0.13 $\mu$m CMOS

An intrinsic-tuned, 68 GHz voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) without an extra on-chip accumulation-mode metal oxide semiconductor (MOS)-varactor is demonstrated in a standard, 0.13 mum CMOS technology. This VCO exhibits phase noises of -98.4 dBc/Hz and -115.2 dBc/Hz at 1 and 10 MHz offset, respectively, along with a tuning range of 4.5 % even under a small power consumption of 4.32 mW. Besides, the highest figure-of-merit (taking frequency tuning range into account) of -182 dBc/Hz under the 1 MHz offset condition is achieved among all previously reported >60 GHz CMOS-based VCOs, which is attributed to the proposed intrinsic tuning mechanism.