Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
End user computing sophistication in a large health services organization

This paper reports on a study in a large health services organization which investigated the factors which may affect end user sophistication in the use of computers. Quantitative data were gathered by survey from 194 computer users and structural equation modelling was used to test a conceptual model of user sophistication. The research findings emphasised the importance of computer self-efficacy, on-the-job opportunities to use computers, requisite training, and computer use; all were found to have positive effects on user sophistication. Task uncertainty was shown to negatively impact user sophistication. Contrary to expectation, organizational support had a negative effect on user sophistication. Important corroboratory evidence was also found for the role of computer self-efficacy in explaining IT-related behaviours. Overall, the research findings advance current understanding of how user sophistication is developed in, and influenced by, the working environment in this health organisation. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications for practitioners regarding the assessment and development of computing skills in the workplace.
Medium Access and Transport Protocol Aspects in Practical 802.11 ad Networks

The use of directional antennas in millimeter-wave communication promises high spatial reuse at multi-gigabit-per-second data rates in dense wireless networks. Existing work studies such networks using commercial hardware but is limited to individual links. Moreover, such hardware typically allows for little or no control of the lower layers of the protocol stack. In this paper, We study the performance of dense millimeterwave deployments featuring up to eight stations. To this end, we use a practical IEEE 802.11ad millimeter-wave testbed that allows access to the lower layer parameters of each station. This enables us to analyze the impact of these parameters on upper layer performance. We study, for first time to our best knowledge, issues such as the impact of channel contention on the buffer size at the transport layer, the effect of frame aggregation, and the efficiency of spatial sharing. Our results show that using large buffer sizes with TCP is harmful due to channel contention despite the multi-gigabit-per-second data rates. Further, frame aggregation is only beneficial up to a certain level due to higher error rates for large frames. Finally, we also study delay, showing that the regular beacon transmission time can degrade performance.
Innovations Leading Capsule Endoscopy into the New Frontier: Screening and Therapy at Home

This paper proposed patient friendly capsule endoscopy (CE) for not only screening but also treatment. Two different types of CEs with an Internet utility were investigated. The first type used magnetic navigation in the stomach and colon for screening. Magnetic navigation enabled the capsule to explore the whole of the gastrointestinal tract with less risk of missing lesions and complete the screening within the battery life. The system’s design was patiently friendly as it allowed the subjects to leave the hospital after the capsule had been navigated in the stomach. The second investigated two different therapeutic robotic endoscopes. Both prototypes were driven by DC motors and controlled remotely via the internet. In addition, they were equipped with therapeutic tools and each prototype’s ability with the tools was assessed. The investigation showed it was possible to remotely control both prototypes and operate therapeutic tools via the Internet. The investigation identified areas for improvement, such as size, connection speed, security of data, and the holding the capsule’s position during treatment, In conclusion, both methods have the potential to make capsule endoscopy a very patient friendly procedure that can be carried out anywhere. key words: capsule endoscopy, magnetic navigation, robotic endoscope, remote control, Internet
High-Performance CMOS-Compatible Solenoidal Transformers With a Concave-Suspended Configuration

Reported are high-performance solenoid transformers concave suspended in standard (low resistivity) silicon wafers by using a post-CMOS microelectromechanical systems process. The concave-suspended structure of the transformers effectively depress the substrate effects including eddy current and capacitive coupling between the solenoids and substrate, thereby achieving both high-Q factor and broad usable frequency band. Maximum available gain Ga has been measured as high as 0.89 for the transformer. Within the wide usable frequency band of approximately 16 GHz, the measured Ga value is always higher than 0.75. An equivalent-circuit model has been established for optimal design of the high-performance transformers. By using the equivalent-circuit model and ADS software, the transformer parameters are calculated and simulated, resulting in a satisfactory agreement with the measured data. The CMOS-compatible concave-suspended solenoidal microtransformers are promising to be post-CMOS integrated with high-performance RF integrated circuits.
Spintronics: A Spin-Based Electronics Vision for the Future

This review describes a new paradigm of electronics based on the spin degree of freedom of the electron. Either adding the spin degree of freedom to conventional charge-based electronic devices or using the spin alone has the potential advantages of nonvolatility, increased data processing speed, decreased electric power consumption, and increased integration densities compared with conventional semiconductor devices. To successfully incorporate spins into existing semiconductor technology, one has to resolve technical issues such as efficient injection, transport, control and manipulation, and detection of spin polarization as well as spin-polarized currents. Recent advances in new materials engineering hold the promise of realizing spintronic devices in the near future. We review the current state of the spin-based devices, efforts in new materials fabrication, issues in spin transport, and optical spin manipulation.
Forecasting Volatility of Bombay Stock Exchange

The study uses three different models: GARCH(1,1), EGARCH(1,1) and GJR-GARCH(1,1) to forecast daily volatility of Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange of India from January 1, 2010 to July 4, 2014. The finding indicate that the stock market exhibits the persistence of volatility, mean reverting behavior and volatility clustering.The results reveal the presence of leverage effect implying impact of good and bad news is not same. We used RMSE. MAE, MAPE and TIC to check forecasting accuracy. Our results indicate that GARCH (1,1) is the best forecasting model.
Pre-existing ischaemic heart disease and ischaemic heart disease mortality in women compared with men.

BACKGROUND In all 8353 women and 7058 men aged 45-64 took part in the Renfrew/Paisley survey in 1972-1976. They formed a prospective cohort study of a general population in the West of Scotland; an area with high ischaemic heart disease (IHD) mortality rates. The objective of this study was to investigate three indicators of pre-existing IHD and determine how they predicted subsequent IHD mortality in females compared with males. METHODS Pre-existing IHD was ascertained by the Rose Angina questionnaire, a question on severe chest pain indicating evidence of previous IHD and an electrocardiogram at a screening examination. Mortality information for a 15-year follow-up period was available. RESULTS Pre-existing IHD was higher at older ages and was less common in women than men. The risks of IHD mortality were doubled for those with a single cardiovascular indicator compared to those without, and were increased to fourfold for those with two or more indicators. Indicators of pre-existing IHD had high specificity and low sensitivity for subsequent IHD mortality in both women and men, and the positive predictive values for women in the oldest age group were similar to those for men in the youngest age group. CONCLUSIONS Each indicator of pre-existing IHD was a useful predictor of subsequent IHD mortality in both women and men, even though IHD mortality rates were lower in women. The indicators obtained by questionnaire could be implemented in the primary health care setting to identify quickly those at risk who would benefit from further investigation and intervention.
Purification processes of xenogeneic bone substitutes and their impact on tissue reactions and regeneration

Xenogeneic bone substitute materials are widely used in oral implantology. Prior to their clinical use, purification of the former bone tissue has to be conducted to ensure the removal of immunogenic components and pathogens. Different physicochemical methods are applied for purification of the donor tissue, and temperature treatment is one of these methods. Differences in these methods and especially the application of different temperatures for purification may lead to different material characteristics, which may influence the tissue reactions to these materials and the related (bone) healing process. However, little is known about the different material characteristics and their influences on the healing process. Thus, the aim of this mini-review is to summarize the preparation processes and the related material characteristics, safety aspects, tissue reactions, resorbability and preclinical and clinical data of two widely used xenogeneic bone substitutes that mainly differ in the temperature treatment: sintered (cerabone®) and non-sintered (Bio-Oss®) bovine-bone materials. Based on the summarized data from the literature, a connection between the material-induced tissue reactions and the consequences for the healing processes are presented with the aim of translation into their clinical application.
Parametric Analysis of the Mushroom-like EBG Structure Based on a Quasi-static New Model

Based on a quasi-static new model, the relations between structure parameters and resonance frequency are analyzed in detail. At the same time, a precision comparison is performed among the new model formulas, Sievenpiper model formulas and Yang modified formulas. The results show that, the theory value of new model compared with other two model values is the closest to the simulation value, and there are some new understanding on the effect of gap width and visa radius. According to the new model and analyzed results, some engineering design guidelines for the mushroom-like EBG structures are presented.
Functional Imaging of Decision Conflict

Decision conflict occurs when people feel uncertain as to which option to choose from a set of similarly attractive (or unattractive) options, with many studies demonstrating that this conflict can lead to suboptimal decision making. In this article, we investigate the neurobiological underpinnings of decision conflict, in particular, the involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Previous studies have implicated the ACC in conflict monitoring during perceptual tasks, but there is considerable controversy as to whether the ACC actually indexes conflict related to choice, or merely conflict related to selection of competing motor responses. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we dissociate the decision and response phases of a decision task, and show that the ACC does indeed index conflict at the decision stage. Furthermore, we show that it does so for a complex decision task, one that requires the integration of beliefs and preferences and not just perceptual judgments.
Changes in the physiological properties and kinetics of citric acid accumulation via carbon ion irradiation mutagenesis of Aspergillus niger

The objective of this work was to produce citric acid from corn starch using a newly isolated mutant of Aspergillus niger, and to analyze the relationship between changes in the physiological properties of A. niger induced by carbon ion irradiation and citric acid accumulation. Our results showed that the physiological characteristics of conidia in A. niger were closely related to citric acid accumulation and that lower growth rate and viability of conidia may be beneficial to citric acid accumulation. Using corn starch as a raw material, a high-yielding citric acid mutant, named HW2, was obtained. In a 10-L bioreactor, HW2 can accumulate 118.9 g/L citric acid with a residual total sugar concentration of only 14.4 g/L. This represented an 18% increase in citric acid accumulation and a 12.5% decrease in sugar utilization compared with the original strain. 概要目 的探讨黑曲霉生理特性的改变对其柠檬酸积累的影响。 创新点首次报道了碳离子束对黑曲霉生理特性的影响, 提出黑曲霉生理特性的改变对其柠檬酸的积累有影响。 方 法(1) 孢子直径和孢子活力的测定: 利用流式细胞仪对两株黑曲霉突变菌株以及原始菌株进行了孢子直径测定。 通过该实验说明碳离子束可以诱导黑曲霉孢子直径发生改变 (表 1)。 利用 MTT 法, 测定了突变菌株和原始菌株孢子活力。 同时, 通过该实验表明碳离子束可以诱导黑曲霉孢子活力发生改变 (图 1)。 (2)生长速率的测定: 利用不同糖分的平板生长法测定了突变体和原始菌株生长速度的差异。 通过该实验说明碳离子束可以诱导黑曲霉生长速率发生改变 (图 3 和图 4)。 (3)柠檬酸积累实验: 利用摇瓶发酵实验和 10 L 酵罐扩培实验测定了突变体和原始菌株柠檬酸积累的差异。 通过该实验说明生理特性改变的突变体与原始菌株在柠檬酸积累上存在显著差异 (图 6∼8)。 结 论通过两株黑曲霉突变体与原始菌株之间生理特性的差异研究, 我们发现黑曲霉生理特性的改变对其柠檬酸积累有一定的影响, 低的黑曲霉孢子活力以及生长速率对柠檬酸的积累是有益的。 最终, 获得了一株高产菌株HW2, 其 10 L 发酵罐柠檬酸的积累能力比原始菌株提高了 18% 。
INITIAL PERCEPTIONS OF COMPANY TRUSTWORTHINESS ONLINE: A COMPREHENSIVE MODEL AND EMPIRICAL TEST

Trust has often been identified as an important factor in Business-to-Consumer (B2C) electronic commerce. Lack of trust in online companies is a primary reason why many web users do not shop online. This study proposes a model of the determinants and effects of perceived company trustworthiness by first-time customers. The model is empirically tested using a questionnaire-based field study. The results indicate that the most important determinant of initial perceptions regarding a company’s trustworthiness is how well customers believe the company will protect their privacy. Also significant is the perceived usefulness of the company’s web site. Other important determinants include perceived company reputation, the company’s willingness to customize, and perceived security control of the web site. Interestingly, while perceived company trustworthiness can increase customer intention to purchase we found no relationship with intention to return.
Canonical high power blazars

The jets of powerful blazars propagate within regions relatively dense of radiation produced externally to the jet. This radiation is a key ingredient to u nderstand the origin of the high energy emission of blazars, from the X‐ray to the γ‐ray energy band. The main components contributing to the external radiation field are the accreti on disk emission, including its X‐ray corona, the broad line region, the infrared emitting torus a nd the cosmic background radiation. Their importance changes as a function of the distance from the black hole and of the value of the bulk Lorentz factor of the jet. These external ra diation fields control the amount of the inverse Compton radiation with respect to the synchrotron flux. Therefore the predicted spectral energy distribution (SED) will depend on where the jet dissipates part of its energy to produce the observed radiation. We investigate in detail how the SED changes as a function of the location of the jet dissipation region, by assuming ra ther “standard” (i.e. “canonical”) prescriptions for the accretion disk and its X‐ray corona, t he profile of the jet magnetic field and the external radiation. We confirm that most of the dissip ation, if producing the γ‐ray flux we see, must occur at hundreds of Schwarzschild radii fro m the black hole, to avoid the γ‐γ! e ± process, and the consequent re‐emission by the produced pairs. The magnetic energy density of a “canonical” jet almost never dominates the radiative cooling of the emitting electrons, and consequently the inverse Compton flux almost always dominates the bolometric output. This is more so for large black hole masses. Dissipation taking place beyond the broad line region is particularly interesting, since it acc ounts in a simple way for the largest inverse Compton to synchrotron flux ratios accompanied by an extremely hard X‐ray spectrum. Furthermore it makes the high power blazars at high redshift useful tools to study the optical to UV cosmic backgrounds.
Investigation of EBT3 radiochromic film's response to humidity

Abstract Purpose The aim of this work is to investigate the effects of immersing EBT3 radiochromic film in water and to evaluate its contribution to the total uncertainty in dose determination. Materials and methods We used 3 cm × 3 cm EBT3 radiochromic films irradiated in the range of 0–70 Gy to study the impact of water immersion on the change in net optical density. These films were placed in a water container for a period of 24 h. The net optical density was measured before (0 h) and after of the immersion in water (1, 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 h). The absorbance spectrum of the EBT3 radiochromic film was measured at 0 h and 24 h after immersion in water. The uncertainty in dose determination due to the effects of keeping the EBT3 radiochromic film submerged in water at 0, 1, and 24 h were recorded in the red, green, and blue channels. Results We observed an increase in the net optical density as an effect on the film due to its immersion in water. The penetration of the water at the edges of the radiochromic film was observed to be a function of time during which the film remained in the water. On the other hand, the penetration of water at the edges of the film was found to be independent of irradiation dose. Conclusions EBT3 radiochromic film is found more resistant to water penetration through the edges than its predecessors. However, there is evidence that suggest that liquid water damage the Nylon cover layer of the film by changing its optical properties. Therefore, it is recommended to build a new calibration curve for radiochromic films for a specific situation involving dose measurements in liquid water.
A Probabilistic Based Approach towards Software System Clustering

In this paper we present a clustering based approach to partition software systems into meaningful subsystems. In particular, the approach uses lexical information extracted from four zones in Java classes, which may provide a different contribution towards software systems partitioning. To automatically weigh these zones, we introduced a probabilistic model, and applied the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. To group classes according to the considered lexical information, we customized the well-known K-Medoids algorithm. To assess the approach and the implemented supporting system, we have conducted a case study on six open source software systems.
Prefabrication and postfabrication architecture exploration for partially reconfigurable VLIW processors

Modern application-specific instruction-set processors (ASIPs) face the daunting task of delivering high performance for a wide range of applications. For enhancing the performance, architectural features, for example, pipelining, VLIW, are often employed in ASIPs, leading to high design complexity. Integrated ASIP design environments, like template-based approaches and language-driven approaches, provide an answer to this growing design complexity. At the same time, increasing hardware design costs have motivated the processor designers to introduce high flexibility in the processor. Flexibility, in its most effective form, can be introduced to the ASIP by coupling a reconfigurable unit to the base processor. Because of its obvious benefits, several reconfigurable ASIPs (rASIPs) have been designed for years. This design paradigm gained momentum with the advent of coarse-grained FPGAs, where the lack of domain-specific performance common in general-purpose FPGAs are largely overcome by choosing application-dependent basic functional units. These rASIP designs lack a generic flow from high-level specification, resulting in intuitive design decisions and hard-to-retarget processor design tools. Although partial, template-based approaches for rASIP design is existent, a clear design methodology especially for the prefabrication architecture exploration is not present. In order to address this issue, a high-level specification and design methodology for partially reconfigurable VLIW processors is proposed in this article. To show the benefit of this approach, a commercial VLIW processor is used as the base architecture and two domains of applications are studied for potential performance gain.
Association between smoking, hematological parameters, and metabolic syndrome in Japanese men.

Cigarette smoking increases the risk for metabolic syndrome (1), and it may also affect hematological parameters (2). Because certain hematological parameters may be associated with metabolic syndrome (3), we have investigated whether the mode of association between smoking and metabolic syndrome varies according to hematological parameters. Among individuals who had undergone a general heath screening test between 1994 and 2003, 27,972 subjects (9,729 never smokers [52.8 ± 10.7 years], 7,242 former smokers [54.8 ± 9.9 years], and 11,001 current …
Can technological change account for the sexual revolution

By reducing the risk of unwanted parenthood, more effective contraception reduces the cost of sex outside of marriage, increasing the value of single life. Could this explain why marriage and birth rates declined in the U.S. after 1970? We illustrate our hypothesis with a one-period example. We then extend the analysis to allow for repeated matching over many periods, modeling the shotgun-marriage, contraception- method and abortion margins. We use US survey data on contraception, sexual activity and family dynamics to calibrate the model for the 1970s, and then compute the effects of liberalizing access to contraception and abortion. The results suggest the hypothesis can explain 60% of the behavioral shifts associated with the sexual revolution.
Automatic assistance to Parkinson's disease diagnosis in DaTSCAN SPECT imaging.

PURPOSE In this work, an approach to computer aided diagnosis (CAD) system is proposed as a decision-making aid in Parkinsonian syndrome (PS) detection. This tool, intended for physicians, entails fully automatic preprocessing, normalization, and classification procedures for brain single-photon emission computed tomography images. METHODS Ioflupane[(123)I]FP-CIT images are used to provide in vivo information of the dopamine transporter density. These images are preprocessed using an automated template-based registration followed by two proposed approaches for intensity normalization. A support vector machine (SVM) is used and compared to other statistical classifiers in order to achieve an effective diagnosis using whole brain images in combination with voxel selection masks. RESULTS The CAD system is evaluated using a database consisting of 208 DaTSCAN images (100 controls, 108 PS). SVM-based classification is the most efficient choice when masked brain images are used. The generalization performance is estimated to be 89.02 (90.41-87.62)% sensitivity and 93.21 (92.24-94.18)% specificity. The area under the curve can take values of 0.9681 (0.9641-0.9722) when the image intensity is normalized to a maximum value, as derived from the receiver operating characteristics curves. CONCLUSIONS The present analysis allows to evaluate the impact of the design elements for the development of a CAD-system when all the information encoded in the scans is considered. In this way, the proposed CAD-system shows interesting properties for clinical use, such as being fast, automatic, and robust.