Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An energy-level perspective of bias temperature instability

Many recent publications discussing the stress and recovery behavior of bias temperature instability (BTI) have suggested the existence of two components contributing to the phenomenon. One of these components was found to be quickly relaxing while the other was only slowly relaxing or even permanent. Curiously, although the most likely suggested mechanisms are the generation of interface states and the capture of holes into pre-existing traps, there is no agreement on which mechanism corresponds to which component and both possibilities have been suggested. Alternatively, other groups have suggested evidence that BTI is dominated by a single mechanism, and used the reaction-diffusion (RD) model to describe the degradation. However, RD theory cannot explain the recovery and related intricacies of the phenomenon. We present a new modeling framework based on the various possible energetic configurations of the system and tentatively assign these levels to the hydrogen binding/transport levels in an amorphous oxide. We investigate the possibility that the often observed recoverable and permanent components are in fact two facets of a single degradation mechanism proceeding as a series of steps. We finally subject the model to various experimental data (DC, AC, duty-factor, negative and positive stress, mixed stresses) which are all well reproduced by the model.
Monopsony Power in Migrant Labor Markets: Evidence from the United Arab Emirates

By exploiting a reform in the United Arab Emirates that relaxed restrictions on employer transitions, we provide new estimates of the monopsony power of firms over migrant workers. Our results show that the reform increased incumbent migrants’ earnings and firm retention. This occurs despite an increase in employer transitions and is driven by a fall in country exits. While the outcomes of incumbents improved, the reform decreased demand for new migrants and lowered their earnings. These results are consistent with a model of monopsony in which firms face upward-sloping labor supply curves for both new recruits in source countries and incumbent migrants.
Controlled Wetting on Electrodeposited Oxide Thin Films: From Hydrophilic to Superhydrophobic

We have explored how surface morphology and structure affect wetting properties of electrodeposited oxide thin films notwithstanding chemical modifications. Microstripes of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold were prepared using a microcontact printing (μCP) technique, which served as molecular templates to guide the electrochemical deposition of zirconia in aqueous solution. The wetting properties of the thus-prepared zirconia oxide thin films are shown to be tunable; i.e., a wide range of wettabilities from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic can be obtained by simply varying the SAM template and the electrodeposition conditions (potential scan rate and number of cycles). In particular, a “two-tier” micro/nanoscale roughness was achieved on the gold substrate patterned with alternating stripes of 1-octadecanethiol and 6-mercapto-1-hexanol SAMs, which leads to a superhydrophobic surface (water contact angle ∼150°). Of great significance is the demonstrated ability herein to convert an intrinsically hydr.
Football spectator no-show behaviour in the German Bundesliga

ABSTRACT Despite an extensive literature on stadium attendance demand, our understanding of those factors shaping spectator no-show behaviour is rudimentary at best. Here, we explore such behaviour by using a comprehensive two-step approach: First, we examine the determinants of no-show behaviour in the German Bundesliga between the four seasons 2014–15 and 2017–18; Second, because our initial results imply that spectator no-show behaviour is more prominent among season ticket holders (STHs), we exploit additional survey data to understand individual STH no-show appearances better. Our results suggest that club managers interested in reducing the no-show rate should rethink existing season ticket strategies.
Factors influencing job satisfaction among primary health care (PHC) physicians in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

It is unlikely that optimal medical care can be delivered by unhappy or maladapted physicians. A description of physicians’ stresses and adaptations would facilitate educational, personal, and social changes that could improve the quality of medical care. 1 Mira et al. found that general practitioners’ (GPs) work yields job satisfaction, but the most important sources of stress were interruptions of family life, emergency calls, monotony and practice administration, and other conditions which disturb intimacy. 2
T-Score Discordance of Bone Mineral Density in Patients with Atypical Femoral Fracture

Background: Although atypical femoral fracture (AFF) occurs more frequently in patients taking bisphosphonates and longer treatment is associated with higher risk, the causal relationship between AFF and bisphosphonates has not been established. Most patients with AFF have osteoporosis that is being treated with bisphosphonates, but we are not aware of any reports regarding the areal bone mineral density (aBMD) and discordance between the T-scores of the femur and spine in such patients. We investigated the prevalence of aBMD discordance and the characteristics of patients with AFF. Methods: Medical records for 63 consecutive patients treated for AFF were retrospectively evaluated, and 48 patients, all female, were eligible for the study. The average age at the time of fracture was 73.0 years, the average duration of bisphosphonate use was 68.5 months, and the average presumed age at bisphosphonate initiation was 67.2 years. We evaluated the prevalence of discordance, defined as a difference between the T-score categories of the femur and spine in the same individual as well as demographic differences between the discordance and concordance groups. We also compared the prevalence of discordance in patients with AFF with that in 114 female patients with intertrochanteric femoral fracture (ITFF). Results: T-score concordance, minor discordance, and major discordance were seen in 14 (29%), 32 (67%), and 2 (4%) of the patients with AFF, respectively. The prevalence of discordance was significantly higher in those with AFF (71%) than in those with ITFF (23%) (p < 0.001). The average age at bisphosphonate initiation in the AFF group was lower in the discordance group (65.7 years) than in the concordance group (70.7 years) (p = 0.04). Conclusions: The prevalence of T-score discordance between the hip and lumbar spine was relatively high in patients with AFF, and the presumed age at the initiation of bisphosphonate therapy was younger in patients with discordant T-scores in this study. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Hipertensão arterial e fatores associados em uma comunidade quilombola da Bahia, Brasil

Objetivo Determinar a prevalencia da hipertensao arterial (HA) e investigar fatores associados em uma comunidade quilombola da Bahia, Brasil. Metodos A HA foi determinada por autorreferimento de diagnostico feito por um medico ou enfermeiro. Por meio de questionario, foram coletados dados demograficos, socioeconomicos, habitos de vida e alimentares e presenca de comorbidades. Foram realizadas medidas antropometricas e dosagens bioquimicas para determinacao de sobrepeso/obesidade, diabetes e dislipidemias. Empregaram-se analise univariada para determinar associacao entre HA e variaveis de interesse, e analise multipla por regressao de Poisson para estimativa das razoes de prevalencia. Resultados A populacao estudada foi de 213 individuos maiores de 18 anos. A prevalencia de HA foi de 38,5%. Apos analise ajustada, permaneceram associados a HA: sexo feminino, idade, menor escolaridade, maior renda per capita, uso de medicamentos nos ultimos 15 dias, obesidade e diabetes mellitus. Conclusoes Os resultados evidenciam a necessidade de acoes intersetoriais voltadas para a melhoria das condicoes de vida e saude dessa comunidade. A adequacao da infraestrutura e do funcionamento do servico de saude local, bem como a realizacao de campanhas de promocao da saude, pode contribuir para a prevencao, diagnostico precoce e tratamento da hipertensao e outros agravos.
Distrust and Political Turnover During Economic Crises

We present findings that document one way in which a society's culture can affect political outcomes. Examining an annual panel of democratic countries over six decades, we show that severe economic downturns are more likely to cause political turnover in countries that have lower levels of generalized trust. The relationship is only found among democracies and for regular leader turnover, which suggests that the underlying mechanism works through leader accountability and the electoral process. Moreover, we find that the effects of trust on turnover are greatest during years with regularly-scheduled elections, and within democracies with a parliamentary system, a fully free media, and greater stability. The estimates suggest that generalized trust affects political institutions by influencing the extent to which citizens attribute economic downturns to the mistakes of politicians.
[Communication skills: a preventive factor in Burnout syndrome in health professionals].

BACKGROUND Health professionals are a group that suffers high levels of job stress and burnout. The aim of this study is to demonstrate empirically that the healthcare count on communication skills helps prevent Burnout Syndrome. METHOD An observational, analytical, cross-sectional study was proposed, involving a sample of 927 health professionals (197 doctors, 450 nurses and 280 auxiliary nurses). Participants completed questionnaires measuring communication skills in health care (EHC-PS) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS). RESULTS A negative and statistically significant correlation between the different dimensions of communication skills and emotional exhaustion and depersonalization dimensions of burnout was obtained. On the other hand, a positive and statistically significant correlation between the dimensions of communication skills and the personal accomplishment dimension of burnout was observed. CONCLUSIONS It was shown that the communication skills of health professionals provide protection from and cushion Burnout Syndrome.
Listen to Your Customers: Insights into Brand Image Using Online Consumer-Generated Product Reviews

ABSTRACT Online consumer-generated product reviews are a growing phenomenon and have led to the posting of colossal amounts of data by consumers on the Web. These data include consumers’ thoughts, opinions, and feelings about brands and offer firms the opportunity to “listen in” on consumers to get a better understanding of the topics discussed about their brands. Using the human associative memory model as the theoretical framework, the authors introduce an approach to convert online product reviews into meaningful information about brand images using a novel combination of text mining and network analysis methodologies. Following a network-based understanding of brand image, the authors use online product reviews to extract consumers’ brand associations and their interconnections as well as to depict and characterize the network of brand associations. In an empirical study, the authors test the approach and illustrate its managerial usefulness. The suggested approach allows managers to effectively monitor and detect strengths and weaknesses of brand image. Moreover, the proposed approach is one of the first attempts to measure brand image using consumer-generated content by applying text mining and network analysis.
An Ultrastructural Study of the Thalamic Input to Layer 4 of Primary Motor and Primary Somatosensory Cortex in the Mouse

The traditional classification of primary motor cortex (M1) as an agranular area has been challenged recently when a functional layer 4 (L4) was reported in M1. L4 is the principal target for thalamic input in sensory areas, which raises the question of how thalamocortical synapses formed in M1 in the mouse compare with those in neighboring sensory cortex (S1). We identified thalamic boutons by their immunoreactivity for the vesicular glutamate transporter 2 (VGluT2) and performed unbiased disector counts from electron micrographs. We discovered that the thalamus contributed proportionately only half as many synapses to the local circuitry of L4 in M1 compared with S1. Furthermore, thalamic boutons in M1 targeted spiny dendrites exclusively, whereas ∼9% of synapses were formed with dendrites of smooth neurons in S1. VGluT2+ boutons in M1 were smaller and formed fewer synapses per bouton on average (1.3 vs 2.1) than those in S1, but VGluT2+ synapses in M1 were larger than in S1 (median postsynaptic density areas of 0.064 μm2 vs 0.042 μm2). In M1 and S1, thalamic synapses formed only a small fraction (12.1% and 17.2%, respectively) of all of the asymmetric synapses in L4. The functional role of the thalamic input to L4 in M1 has largely been neglected, but our data suggest that, as in S1, the thalamic input is amplified by the recurrent excitatory connections of the L4 circuits. The lack of direct thalamic input to inhibitory neurons in M1 may indicate temporal differences in the inhibitory gating in L4 of M1 versus S1. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Classical interpretations of the function of primary motor cortex (M1) emphasize its lack of the granular layer 4 (L4) typical of sensory cortices. However, we show here that, like sensory cortex (S1), mouse M1 also has the canonical circuit motif of a core thalamic input to the middle cortical layer and that thalamocortical synapses form a small fraction (M1: 12%; S1: 17%) of all asymmetric synapses in L4 of both areas. Amplification of thalamic input by recurrent local circuits is thus likely to be a significant mechanism in both areas. Unlike M1, where thalamocortical boutons typically form a single synapse, thalamocortical boutons in S1 usually formed multiple synapses, which means they can be identified with high probability in the electron microscope without specific labeling.
Upregulation of endothelin 1 and its precursor by IL-1beta, TNF-alpha, and TGF-beta in the PC3 human prostate cancer cell line.

Increasing evidence indicates that endothelin 1 (ET-1) is implicated in prostate tumour progression. However, data on ET-1 regulation in human prostate and prostate cancer cell lines are lacking. In this study, regulation of ET-1 and its precursor big ET-1, using PC3 cells, a human bone metastatic prostatic carcinoma cell line, was addressed. ET-1 and big ET-1 assays demonstrated greater secretion of both peptides in the presence of 10% fetal calf serum (FCS) as compared with 0.5% FCS. Incubation of PC3 cells in the absence and presence of various cytokines and growth factors known to be implicated in prostate stroma-epithelium interactions, revealed that IL-6, FGF7/KGF and FGF2/bFGF had no effect on ET-1 and big ET-1 secretion, whereas interleukin 1beta (IL-1beta), tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) stimulated their secretion in a concentration-dependent manner. Binding experiments indicated the presence of specific ET-1 receptors in PC3 cells: Kdapp = 1.1 x 0.2 x 10(-10)M, Bmax = 2660 +/- 390 sites/cell. Data analysis demonstrated the presence of only the ETA receptor subtype in PC3 cells. In conclusion, our results indicate that the implication of ET-1 in prostate cancer is likely to be mediated via paracrine/autocrine control of cell factors.
On the role of unequal exchange in the containment of transposable element copy number.

A population genetics model of the role of asymmetric pairing and unequal exchange in the stabilization of transposable element copy number in natural populations is proposed and analysed. Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the approximations incorporated into the analysis are robust in the relevant parameter ranges. Given several simple assumptions concerning transposition and excision, equal and unequal exchange, and chromosome structure, predictions of the relative numbers of transposable elements in various regions of the Drosophila melanogaster genome are compared to the observed distribution of roo / B104 elements across chromosomal regions with differing rates of exchange, and between X chromosomes and autosomes. There is no indication of an accumulation of elements in the distal regions of chromosomes, which is expected if unequal exchange is reduced concomitantly with normal crossing over in the distal regions. There is, however, an indication of an excess of elements relative to physical length in the proximal regions of the chromosomes, which also have restricted crossing over. This observation is qualitatively consistent with the model's predictions. The observed distribution of elements between the mid-sections of the X chromosomes and autosomes is consistent with the predictions of one of two models of unequal exchange.
Mobile Payments In South Africa: Middle Income Earners' Perspective

Developing countries in Africa tend to face many challenges when it comes to ICT adoption and use. This is partly due to their low income which makes it difficult to spend on ICTs and related innovations. However, with the proliferation of mobile technology and the newly increase of the middle class citizens who tend to be younger, better educated, and a keen adopter of new technologies; organizations are forced to find ways of understanding these customers better and find how best they can provide goods and services to this emerging class. South Africa, one of the sub-Saharan countries with the most advanced telecommunication network infrastructures of the emerging markets, has experienced an increase in middle class citizens and comparatively better smartphone penetration. With this in mind, one would imagine that South Africa would have been one of the leaders in mobile payments. However, adoption has been lower than most other sub-Saharan African countries. The purpose of this study is therefore to examine the factors that affect mobile payments in the South African context from perspective of the middle class individuals. Following a quantitative approach and collecting data via an online questionnaire, the findings show that trust, risk and habitual use were factors that significantly affected intention to adopt mobile payments by South African middle class citizens. The findings provide the financial services industry and providers of mobile commerce offering with a better understanding of what are the main customer concerns in South Africa from the middle income clientele perspective.
Conventional Methods versus 16S Ribosomal DNA Sequencing for Identification of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria: Cost Analysis

ABSTRACT The clinical profile of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) has been raised by the human immunodeficiency virus and AIDS pandemic. Different laboratory techniques, often molecular based, are available to facilitate the rapid and accurate identification of NTM. The expense of these advanced techniques has been questioned. At the National Reference Center for Mycobacteriology and the Health Sciences Center, University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, Canada, we performed a direct cost analysis of laboratory techniques for commercial DNA probe-negative (Gen-Probe, Inc., San Diego, Calif.), difficult-to-identify NTM. We compared the costs associated with conventional phenotypic methodology (biochemical testing, pigment production, growth, and colony characteristics) and genotypic methodology (16S ribosomal DNA [rDNA] sequence-based identification). We revealed a higher cost per sample with conventional methods, and this cost varied with organism characteristics: $80.93 for slowly growing, biochemically active NTM; $173.23 for slowly growing, biochemically inert NTM; and $129.40 for rapidly growing NTM. The cost per sample using 16S rDNA sequencing was $47.91 irrespective of organism characteristics, less than one-third of the expense associated with phenotypic identification of biochemically inert, slow growers. Starting with a pure culture, the turnaround time to species identification is 1 to 2 days for 16S rDNA sequencing compared to 2 to 6 weeks for biochemical testing. The accuracy of results comparing both methodologies is briefly discussed. 16S rDNA sequencing provides a cost-effective alternative in the identification of clinically relevant forms of probe-negative NTM. This concept is not only useful in mycobacteriology but also is highly applicable in other areas of clinical microbiology.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Spatially Reconfiguring Erosion Hot Spots to Reduce Stream Sediment Load in an Upland Agricultural Catchment of South Korea

Upland agricultural expansion and intensification cause soil erosion, which has a negative impact on the environment and socioeconomic factors by degrading the quality of both nutrient-rich surface soil and water. The Haean catchment is a well-known upland agricultural area in South Korea, which generates a large amount of sediment from its cropland. The transportation of nutrient-rich sediment to the stream adversely affects the water quality of the Han River watershed, which supports over twenty million people. In this paper, we suggest a spatially explicit mitigation method to reduce the amount of sediment yield to the stream of the catchment by converting soil erosion hot spots into forest. To evaluate the effectiveness of this reconfiguration, we estimated the sediment redistribution rate and assessed the soil erosion risk in the Haean catchment using the daily based Morgan–Morgan–Finney (DMMF) model. We found that dry crop fields located in the steep hill-slope suffer from severe soil erosion, and the rice paddy, orchard, and urban area, which are located in a comparatively lower and flatter area, suffer less from erosion. Although located in the steep hill-slope, the forest exhibits high sediment trapping capabilities in this model. When the erosion-prone crop lands were managed by sequentially reconfiguring their land use and land cover (LULC) to the forest from the area with the most severe erosion to the area with the least severe erosion, the result showed a strong reduction in sediment yield flowing to the stream. A change of 3% of the catchment’s crop lands of the catchment into forest reduced the sediment yield entering into the stream by approximately 10% and a change of 10% of crop lands potentially resulted in a sediment yield reduction by approximately 50%. According to these results, identifying erosion hot spots and managing them by reconfiguring their LULC is effective in reducing terrestrial sediment yield entering into the stream.