Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
International Conference on Information Systems ( ICIS ) 1991 EXTERNAL VERSUS INTERNAL PERSPECTIVES IN DETERMINING A FIRM ' S PROGRESSIVE USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The use of IT in a firm can vary depending on a number of factors such as atop executive's perceptions and the firm's industry. In this study, variables representing the organization's external and internal characteristics were examined to determine whether they affect the firm's progressive use of IT and, if so, which has the strongest effect. A questionnaire was mailed to the Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial Officers of 300 small and medium-sized publicly-traded companies. Results indicate that internal factors (Chief Executive Officer's perception of IT importance and the information intensity of the product), more than the external factors, influenced the firm's progressive use of IT.
RHAMM/HMMR (CD168) is not an ideal target antigen for immunotherapy of acute myeloid leukemia

Background Criteria for good candidate antigens for immunotherapy of acute myeloid leukemia are high expression on leukemic stem cells in the majority of patients with acute myeloid leukemia and low or no expression in vital tissues. It was shown in vaccination trials that Receptor for Hyaluronic Acid Mediated Motility (RHAMM/HMMR) generates cellular immune responses in patients with acute myeloid leukemia and that these responses correlate with clinical benefit. It is not clear however whether this response actually targets the leukemic stem cell, especially since it was reported that RHAMM is expressed maximally during the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. In addition, tumor specificity of RHAMM expression remains relatively unexplored. Design and Methods Blood, leukapheresis and bone marrow samples were collected from both acute myeloid leukemia patients and healthy controls. RHAMM expression was assessed at protein and mRNA levels on various sorted populations, either fresh or after manipulation. Results High levels of RHAMM were expressed by CD34+CD38+ and CD34- acute myeloid leukemia blasts. However, only baseline expression of RHAMM was measured in CD34+CD38- leukemic stem cells, and was not different from that in CD34+CD38- hematopoietic stem cells from healthy controls. RHAMM was significantly up-regulated in CD34+ cells from healthy donors during in vitro expansion and during in vivo engraftment. Finally, we demonstrated an explicit increase in the expression level of RHAMM after in vitro activation of T cells. Conclusions RHAMM does not fulfill the criteria of an ideal target antigen for immunotherapy of acute myeloid leukemia. RHAMM expression in leukemic stem cells does not differ significantly from the expression in hematopoietic stem cells from healthy controls. RHAMM expression in proliferating CD34+ cells of healthy donors and activated T cells further compromises RHAMM-specific T-cell-mediated immunotherapy.
Appraisal and coping as predictors of psychological distress and self-reported physical disability before lung transplantation.

CONTEXT Certain appraisals and coping strategies have been associated with increased levels of psychological distress and disability in other medical populations, but no study has examined this relationship with patients who are awaiting lung transplantation. OBJECTIVE To describe the cognitive appraisal and coping strategies used by patients who are pursuing lung transplantation and to evaluate the extent to which these processes are associated with depression, anxiety, and disability. METHODS This is a cross-sectional design with 160 participants (42.5% men) who have end-stage lung disease and were evaluated for lung transplantation at a large medical center. MEASURES The outcome variables of depression, anxiety, and physical disability were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory, Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Sickness Impact Profile, respectively. The predictor variables, coping and appraisal styles, were measured using the COPE and the Stress Threat Questionnaire, respectively. Demographic variables were also assessed. RESULTS Patients used a variety of adaptive problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies. Hierarchical multiple regressions demonstrated that harm appraisals and the use of particular types of coping styles; namely, disengagement, avoidance, ruminating and venting emotions, low solicitation of emotional support, and suppressing other activities are maladaptive and were uniquely related to psychological distress and disability. CONCLUSIONS Maladaptive appraisal and coping styles can serve as markers of emotional distress and disability that may help the transplant team identify patients who may benefit from counseling and psychological interventions.
High-resolution cryo-EM structure of the F-actin–fimbrin/plastin ABD2 complex

Many actin binding proteins have a modular architecture, and calponin-homology (CH) domains are one such structurally conserved module found in numerous proteins that interact with F-actin. The manner in which CH-domains bind F-actin has been controversial. Using cryo-EM and a single-particle approach to helical reconstruction, we have generated 12-Å-resolution maps of F-actin alone and F-actin decorated with a fragment of human fimbrin (L-plastin) containing tandem CH-domains. The high resolution allows an unambiguous fit of the crystal structure of fimbrin into the map. The interaction between fimbrin ABD2 (actin binding domain 2) and F-actin is different from any interaction previously observed or proposed for tandem CH-domain proteins, showing that the structural conservation of the CH-domains does not lead to a conserved mode of interaction with F-actin. Both the stapling of adjacent actin protomers and the additional closure of the nucleotide binding cleft in F-actin when the fimbrin fragment binds may explain how fimbrin can stabilize actin filaments. A mechanism is proposed where ABD1 of fimbrin becomes activated for binding a second actin filament after ABD2 is bound to a first filament, and this can explain how mutations of residues buried in the interface between ABD2 and ABD1 can rescue temperature-sensitive defects in actin.
Employee responses to formal performance appraisal feedback

Author(s): Pearce, JL; Porter, LW | Abstract: The present study investigates the attitudinal impacts of the receipt of formal performance appraisal feedback. It is suggested that the feedback that one is "satisfactory" will be disconfirming for many feedback recipients. Therefore, it is hypothesized that (a) attitudes toward the performance appraisal systems and (b) organizational commitment will decrease and remain lower for those receiving "satisfactory" ratings, whereas the attitudes of those receiving higher appraisal ratings will remain unchanged. The hypotheses are tested on panels of management and nonmanagement employees (these latter receiving new appraisals 12 months after their managers) in two federal agencies over a 30-month period using perceived and actual performance ratings. There was a significant and stable drop in the organizational commitment of satisfactory employees after the introduction of formal appraisals, with mixed results for attitudes toward the appraisal system. The findings suggest that potentially negative consequences of implicitly comparative formal performance appraisals can occur for those performing at a satisfactory, but not outstanding, level. This study also provides an empirical check on the accuracy of self-reported appraisal ratings. © 1986 American Psychological Association.
Thinking about the state, talking bureaucracy, teaching public administration

By examining issues concerning the role and nature of the state together with the character of public bureaucracy, this article shows that, as a practical activity, public administration retains a distinct identity. Notwithstanding the many changes that have taken place in the public sector during recent years, programmes of study in the subject still have much to offer. Such programmes should reassert their place within the social sciences. Their virtues should be proclaimed with confidence, while resisting misplaced calls for more narrowly focused vocationalism.
Power-performance simulation and design strategies for single-chip heterogeneous multiprocessors

Single chip heterogeneous multiprocessors (SCHMs) are becoming more commonplace, especially in portable devices where reduced energy consumption is a priority. The use of coordinated collections of processors which are simpler or which execute at lower clock frequencies is widely recognized as a means of reducing power while maintaining latency and throughput. A primary limitation of using this approach to reduce power at the system level has been the time to develop and simulate models of many processors at the instruction set simulator level. High-level models, simulators, and design strategies for SCHMs are required to enable designers to think in terms of collections of cooperating, heterogeneous processors in order to reduce power. Toward this end, this paper has two contributions. The first is to extend a unique, preexisting high-level performance simulator, the Modeling Environment for Software and Hardware (MESH), to include power annotations. MESH can be thought of as a thread-level simulator instead of an instruction-level simulator. Thus, the problem is to understand how power might be calibrated and annotated with program fragments instead of at the instruction level. Program fragments are finer-grained than threads and coarser-grained than instructions. Our experimentation found that compilers produce instruction patterns that allow power to be annotated at this level using a single number over all compiler-generated fragments executing on a processor. Since energy is power*time, this makes system runtime (i.e., performance) the dominant factor to be dynamically calculated at this level of simulation. The second contribution arises from the observation that high-level modeling is most beneficial when it opens up new possibilities for organizing designs. Thus, we introduce a design strategy, enabled by the high-level performance power-simulation, which we refer to as spatial voltage scaling. The strategy both reduces overall system power consumption and improves performance in our example. The design space for this design strategy could not be explored without high-level SCHM power-performance simulation.
“Othering” agricultural biotechnology: Slovenian media representation of agricultural biotechnology

While studies on media representations of agricultural biotechnology mostly analyse media texts, this work is intended to fill a research gap with an analysis of journalistic interpretations of media representations. The purpose of this project was to determine how news media represent agricultural biotechnology and how journalists interpret their own representations. A content and critical discourse analysis of news texts published in the Slovenian media over two years and in-depth interviews with their authors were conducted. News texts results suggest that most of the news posts were “othering” biotechnology and biotechnologists: biotechnology as a science and individual scientists are represented as “they,” who are socially irresponsible, ignorant, arrogant, and “our” enemies who produce unnatural processes and work for biotechnology companies, whose greed is destroying people, animals, and the environment. Most journalists consider these representations to be objective because they have published the biotechnologists’ opinions, despite their own negative attitudes towards biotechnology.
Investigating pre‐service early childhood teachers’ views and intentions about integrating and using computers in early childhood settings: compilation of an instrument

This paper discusses the compilation of an instrument in order to investigate pre‐service early childhood teachers’ views and intentions about integrating and using computers in early childhood settings. For the purpose of this study a questionnaire was compiled and administered to 258 pre‐service early childhood teachers (PECTs), in Greece. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted and a one‐factor model was accepted. Our results revealed very strong links between PECTs’ views and intentions, being indistinguishable. Students expressed positive views‐intentions and this constitutes one way forward towards the integration of information and communications technology in the classroom. From the path analysis model, direct and indirect links were shown between PECTs’ views‐intentions and the year of study as well as other computer use‐related variables. Year of study and computer self‐efficacy had a significant effect on PECTs’ views‐intentions. Access to a computer at home had an indirect impact on PECTs’ views‐intentions via computer self‐efficacy and years of experience with computers.
Identifying the nonspeaking population: a demographic study

Two studies were conducted in the state of Washington to determine the size, characteristics, and intervention needs of school-age nonspeaking students, as well as the professional staff and school district needs related to implementing augmentative communication systems. Multihandicapped and severely/profoundly retarded students made up the largest proportions of nonspeaking students identified. Sign language and gestures/emotional reactions were the most frequently employed augmentative communication systems. In-service training in the implementation of augmentative communication systems was among the most frequently identified professional staff need. Release time and funding for workshops were the most frequently indicated district needs.
A Plant-Type (β-Class) Carbonic Anhydrase in the Thermophilic Methanoarchaeon Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum

ABSTRACT Carbonic anhydrase, a zinc enzyme catalyzing the interconversion of carbon dioxide and bicarbonate, is nearly ubiquitous in the tissues of highly evolved eukaryotes. Here we report on the first known plant-type (β-class) carbonic anhydrase in the archaea. TheMethanobacterium thermoautotrophicum ΔH cabgene was hyperexpressed in Escherichia coli, and the heterologously produced protein was purified 13-fold to apparent homogeneity. The enzyme, designated Cab, is thermostable at temperatures up to 75°C. No esterase activity was detected withp-phenylacetate as the substrate. The enzyme is an apparent tetramer containing approximately one zinc per subunit, as determined by plasma emission spectroscopy. Cab has a CO2 hydration activity with a kcat of 1.7 × 104 s−1 and Km for CO2 of 2.9 mM at pH 8.5 and 25°C. Western blot analysis indicates that Cab (β class) is expressed in M. thermoautotrophicum; moreover, a protein cross-reacting to antiserum raised against the γ carbonic anhydrase fromMethanosarcina thermophila was detected. These results show that β-class carbonic anhydrases extend not only into theArchaea domain but also into the thermophilic prokaryotes.
User-Centric Networking for Dense C-RANs: High-SNR Capacity Analysis and Antenna Selection

Ultra-dense cloud radio access networks (C-RANs) are an example of the architectures that will be critical components of the next-generation wireless systems. In a C-RAN architecture, an amorphous cellular framework, where each user connects to a few nearby remote radio heads (RRHs) to form its own cell, appears to be promising. In this paper, we study the ergodic capacity of such amorphous cellular networks at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) where we model the distribution of the RRHs by a Poisson point process. We derive tractable approximations of the ergodic capacity at high-SNRs for arbitrary antenna configurations, and tight lower bounds for the ergodic capacity when the numbers of antennas are the same at both ends of the link. In contrast to prior works on distributed antenna systems, our results are derived based on random matrix theory and involve only standard functions which can be much more easier evaluated. The impact of the system parameters on the ergodic capacity is investigated. By leveraging our analytical results, we propose two efficient scheduling algorithms for RRH selection for energy-efficient transmission. Our algorithms offer a substantial improvement in energy efficiency compared with the strategy of connecting a fixed number of RRHs to each user.
Postural control in patients with severe idiopathic scoliosis: a prospective study

Thirty-one patients with severe adolescent idiopathic scoliosis were evaluated preoperatively by computerized dynamic posturography. Curve type, magnitude and spine balance were measured radiographically. In four girls, a very mild vestibular dysfunction was observed on the sensory organization analysis, and three of them had a horizontal shift of more than 2 cm; a disbalance was observed in only three other patients among the 27 patients with normal posturography. These results suggest that abnormalities in the sensory systems are not involved in the etiology of severe adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. The vestibular dysfunction detected in the four patients was most probably the result of disbalance and not the cause of the disease.
Two-Year Pulmonary Safety and Efficacy of Inhaled Human Insulin (Exubera) in Adult Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE—The purpose of this study was to evaluate the 2-year pulmonary safety of inhaled human insulin (Exubera [EXU]) in 635 nonsmoking adults with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Patients were randomly assigned to receive prandial EXU or subcutaneous insulin (regular or short-acting) plus basal (intermediate- or long-acting) insulin. The primary end points were the annual rate of decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and carbon monoxide diffusing capacity (DLCO). RESULTS—Small differences in FEV1 favoring subcutaneous insulin developed during the first 3 months but did not progress. Adjusted treatment group differences in FEV1 annual rate of change were −0.007 l/year (90% CI −0.021 to 0.006) between months 0 and 24 and 0.000 l/year (−0.016 to 0.016) during months 3–24. Treatment group differences in DLCO annual rate of change were not significant. Both groups sustained similar reductions in A1C by month 24 (last observation carried forward) (EXU 7.7–7.3% vs. subcutaneous insulin 7.8–7.3%). Reductions in fasting plasma glucose (FPG) were greater with EXU than with subcutaneous insulin (adjusted mean treatment difference −12.4 mg/dl [90% CI −19.7 to −5.0]). Incidence of hypoglycemia was comparable in both groups. Weight increased less with EXU than with subcutaneous insulin (−1.3 kg [−1.9 to −0.7]). Adverse events were comparable, except for a higher incidence of mild cough and dyspnea with EXU. CONCLUSIONS—Two-year prandial EXU therapy showed a small nonprogressive difference in FEV1 and comparable sustained A1C improvement but lower FPG levels and less weight gain than seen in association with subcutaneous insulin in adults with type 2 diabetes.
Tourism development at the Baptism Site of Jesus Christ, Jordan: residents' perspectives

Several studies have discussed the impacts of mass tourism on destinations and how local residents perceive such impacts. However, only a few studies have looked specifically at how sacred destinations and their residents are affected by religious tourism. This research note explores tourism's impacts on the Baptismal Site of Jesus on the eastern side of the Jordan River in Jordan. The study also examines the perceptions of residents about these impacts. Interviews were conducted with staff at the site, including the manager, the conservationist and locals working in conservation and tour guiding. Findings revealed that religious tourism helped create a source of income in the area and enhanced the local infrastructure. Tourism was also perceived to help restore and protect archeological remains. There is a general positive perception of tourism development; no negative sociocultural impacts were perceived. As well, it appears that residents have little concern for negative social impacts because their economic benefits outweigh any concerns, and there is minimal contact between tourists and residents.
Evaluation Practice Among Community-Based Organizations

Increasingly, government, foundations, and others are asking community-based organizations for more evaluation information. Although the demand for this information may be increasing, the field knows very little about the way organizations are responding to this demand. Using data collected from interviews and a mail survey of community-based organizations, this article addresses five research questions: (a) What types of activities do community-based organizations use to evaluate their programs? (b) What types of data do they collect? (c) How do they collect data? (d) Who has the primary responsibility for conducting evaluation? and (e) Where does the funding come from? The answers to these questions are intended to serve as the basis for future discussions about building evaluation capacity and improving community-based services.
The Cultural Politics of Celebrity

[Extract:] Celebrities are a ubiquitous aspect of contemporary Western culture. Although the phenomenon of celebrity itself predates the twentieth century, the rise of the modern mass media – popular newspapers, cinema, radio, and television, and more recently the Internet and other digital communication technologies – has done much to promote and circulate public knowledge of celebrities during the last 100 years. The presence of multi-channel digital television, radio, and the World Wide Web in Western households at the turn of the twenty-first century has not only increased the number of places in which celebrities can be seen and heard, but has also required media producers to compete with each other and with alternative leisure activities for the attention of fragmented audiences, an increasingly precious commodity. The rise of celebrity culture is inextricably linked to developments in media systems that operate within capitalist systems of commodity exchange. Most obviously, celebrities provide a well-proven route to attracting and retaining audiences, helping to offset the risks inherent in cultural production. They also play out a fantasy of the individual simultaneously performing within public and the private spheres. As P. David Marshall neatly puts it, celebrities might be seen as a “production locale for an elaborate discourse on the individual and individuality” (1997: 4). However the ubiquity of celebrity culture does not mean that its considerable diversity can be ignored. A cursory glance through the prime-time television schedules, for instance, reveals how one might choose between shows featuring celebrity hosts and guests, contest-based reality television shows that participate in the construction of celebrity, personality driven lifestyle programming, sports shows featuring star athletes and commentators, and even political shows with celebrity journalists. All of this is indicative not just of the pervasiveness of modern celebrity culture but also its diversity and breadth.
SEXUALITY AND AGING: A TIMELY ADDITION TO THE GERONTOLOGY CURRICULUM

This article highlights the importance of including a sexuality and aging course as a separate offering in the curriculum of a master s of arts in human development and gerontology program. Despite growing interest and literature in the field, there have been few attempts to integrate sexuality into course curricula. Descriptions of an initial pilot course and the follow-up elective course; a critical review of the literature, including comments; student evaluations; and suggestions for future course content are presented. The article critically discusses specific books and articles that are most relevant and appropriate and describes the limitations of the selected literature. Recommendations for course development, educators, and future research are discussed.