Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of e-government services from the supply side to the demand side: Towards better e-services in the Kingdom of Bahrain

There is currently a significant trend toward measuring the success of e-government developments for the better satisfaction of stakeholders. In the Kingdom of Bahrain, many initiatives have been formulated to leverage the quality of governmental electronic services including the establishment of robust measures that provide valuable indications of satisfaction with government e-services from the perspective of stakeholders. Therefore, the current study aims to develop a recognized model based on ACSI for measuring the customer satisfaction index for the e-services in the Kingdom of Bahrain (BHCSI). For this purpose, the key factors affecting customer satisfaction with e-services will be identified. Moreover, the BHCSI will be explored for eservices at different levels using the developed model. In view of these aims, questionnaires were developed and distributed to three different types of stakeholders (residents, business and government). The main finding of this research is that the e-services provided by the iGA are accepted and used by individuals with various ages, gender, nationality and education due to the huge efforts provided by iGA to transform the Kingdom of Bahrain into a digital society and economy. Moreover, reaching a customer index (BHCSI) of 79.4 is another achievement for this small country. Many countries have failed to reach this high score, and it is therefore an outstanding accomplishment and indication of success for the iGA and the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Effect of Different Veneer-joint Forms and Allocations on Mechanical Properties of Bamboo-bundle Laminated Veneer Lumber

Bamboo-bundle laminated veneer lumber (BLVL) was produced by veneer lengthening technology. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different veneer-joint forms and allocations on the mechanical properties of BLVL. Four veneer-joint forms, i.e., butt joint, lap joint, toe joint, and tape joint, and three lap-joint allocations, i.e., invariable allocation (Type I), staggered allocation (Type II), and uniform allocation (Type III), were investigated in laminates. The results revealed that the mechanical properties of veneer-joint BLVL were reduced in comparison with that of un-jointed BLVL. It was found that the best veneer-joint form was the lap joint laminate, of which the tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and modulus of rupture values were reduced by 38.41%, 0.66%, and 10.92%, respectively, when compared to the un-jointed control samples. Type III showed the lowest influence on bending and tensile properties, followed by Type II.
Navigating Stigma and Group Conflict: Group Identification as a Cause and Consequence of Self‐Labeling

A crucial element of navigating group conflict is how group members manage stigma imposed on them by other groups. Across three experiments, we propose that group identification is a cause and consequence of self-labeling with stigmatizing group labels, a practice known to reduce stigma. Experiment 1 found that group identification increased self-labeling with a stigmatizing group label. In Experiment 2, individuals who self-labeled with a stigmatizing group label felt more identified with their group, which reduced the label's perceived negativity; they also persisted longer on an in-group helping task, an effect that was partially mediated by group identification. In Experiment 3, observers perceived self-labelers as more identified with their group and as viewing the label less negatively; perceived group identification mediated the relationship. Group identification is a critical component in reappropriating stigmatizing labels and provides insight into how highly identified members can navigate group conflict by negotiating their group's identity.
Association of C-reactive Protein, Smoking and Metabolic Syndrome Among the Health Check-up Population

Background: C-reactive protein (CRP) is considered a global inflammatory burden indicator. It was unknown which metabolic syndrome risk factor components could predict CRP levels and possible interaction with smoking in healthy young and elderly Taiwanese. Materials & Methods: We collected totally 6,406 adult subjects (41.4% women) from January to December 2001 from the health screening program in a tertiary hospital in Taiwan. High CRP was classified as more than 5.31 mg/L, which was the 90th percentile cutoff value. Components of metabolic syndrome were defined by the modified Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Results: There were 13.5% of the study population with age older than 65 years, with 7.2% abstinence and 17.3% current smokers. The average CRP levels, after adjusting for gender and smoking effects, were 3.43 mg/L in young and 4.64 mg/L in elderly population (p < 0.0001). The prevalence rate of metabolic syndrome was 19.4%, higher in elderly than young age (29.1% vs. 17.9%, p < 0.0001). CRP levels were positively related with smoking status. After adjusting for multiple variables such as gender and smoking status, high CRP levels still strongly associated with metabolic syndrome. Conclusions: CRP was significantly associated with smoking and metabolic syndrome. Inflammation, smoking and atherosclerotic risks were interrelated among healthy population in Taiwan.
The filamentary structure of mixing fronts and its control on reaction kinetics in porous media flows

The mixing dynamics resulting from the combined action of diffusion, dispersion, and advective stretching of a reaction front in heterogeneous flows leads to reaction kinetics that can differ by orders of magnitude from those measured in well‐mixed batch reactors. The reactive fluid invading a porous medium develops a filamentary or lamellar front structure. Fluid deformation leads to an increase of the front length by stretching and consequently a decrease of its width by compression. This advective front deformation, which sharpens concentration gradients across the interface, is in competition with diffusion, which tends to increase the interface width and thus smooth concentration gradients. The lamella scale dynamics eventually develop into a collective behavior through diffusive coalescence, which leads to a disperse interface whose width is controlled by advective dispersion. We derive a new approach that quantifies the impact of these filament scale processes on the global mixing and reaction kinetics. The proposed reactive filament model, based on the elementary processes of stretching, coalescence, and fluid particle dispersion, provides a new framework for predicting reaction front kinetics in heterogeneous flows.
P‐143: Realization of High Efficiency Green Phosphorescent Top‐emitting Organic Light‐emitting Diodes by Employing Ultrathin Non‐doped Emissive Layer

Green phosphorescent top-emitting organic light-emitting diodes (TOLEDs) based on a single ultrathin non-doped emissive layer (EML) are investigated for utilizing the cavity standing wave effect to enhance device performance. Furthermore, double ultrathin non-doped EMLs separated by a bi-layer structure is introduced to balance charges and further improve the efficiency.
Modeling Driving Risk Using Naturalistic Driving Study Data

Motor vehicle crashes are one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Traffic safety research targets at understanding the cause of crash, preventing the crash, and mitigating crash severity. This dissertation focuses on the driver-related traffic safety issues, in particular, on developing and implementing contemporary statistical modeling techniques on driving risk research on Naturalistic Driving Study data. The dissertation includes 5 chapters. In Chapter 1, I introduced the backgrounds of traffic safety research and naturalistic driving study. In Chapter 2, the state-of-practice statistical methods were implemented on individual driver risk assessment using NDS data. The study showed that critical-incident events and driver demographic characteristics can serve as good predictors for identifying risky drivers. In Chapter 3, I developed and evaluated a novel Bayesian random exposure method for Poisson regression models to account for situations where the exposure information needs to be estimated. Simulation studies and real data analysis on Cellphone Pilot Analysis study data showed that, random exposure models have significantly better model fitting performances and higher parameter coverage probabilities as compared to traditional fixed exposure models. The advantage is more apparent when the values of Poisson regression coefficients are large. In Chapter 4, I performed comprehensive simulation-based performance analyses to investigate the type-I error, power and coverage probabilities on summary effect size in classical meta-analysis models. The results shed some light for reference on the prospective and retrospective performance analysis in meta-analysis research. In Chapter 5, I implemented classicaland Bayesian-approach multi-group hierarchical models on 100-Car data. Simulation-based retrospective performance analyses were used to investigate the powers and parameter coverage probabilities among different hierarchical models. The results showed that under fixed-effects model context, complex secondary tasks are associated with higher driving risk.
Application of AMMI for Grain Yield Stability Analysis in Large Speckled Bean Genotypes Grown in Midlands of Bale Zone

Genotypes–environment interaction was studied for grain yield of seventeen large speckled bean genotypes at Goro, Ginnir and Dellomena in the midlands of Bale zone for two consecutive years 2016 to 2017 main cropping season. Randomized complete block design with four replications was used for this study. Plot size of 6.4m2 (4 rows at 40cm spacing and 4m long) was used at all the tested locations. Yield stability is one of the setbacks facing plant breeders in developing widely adapted varieties with superior yield. The present study was carried out to investigate theeffect of genotype by environment (GxE) on the yield stability of speckled common bean using seventeen genotypes in six environments (Locations x years combination). The combined analysis of variance for mean grain yield revealed that highly significant variation for year, environment, genotypes, and Genotype by environment interaction. It revealed that 34.16% of the total variation was attributed to environment effect followed by genotypes 11.84%, and genotypes by environment interaction 2.97%. On the other hand the AMMI analysis for the grain yield revealed that 69.75% of the variation was due to environment effect followed by Genotypes (24.18) and GE (6.07%). AMMI 1 component explained 61.64% of the total interaction sum squares whereas AMMI 2 accounted for 38.36% of the variation. Of the tested genotypes G5 and G11 showed consistent stability across the testing environments showing slop value close to unity and deviation from regression near to zero with high mean grain yield. Therefore, these two genotypes were identified as candidate varieties to be verified in the coming cropping season for the possible releases in the midlands of bale zone and similar agro-ecologies.
Effects of auditory, visual and gestural input on the perceptual learning of tones

Research has shown that audio-visual speech information facilitates second language (L2) speech learning, yet multiple input modalities including co-speech gestures show mixed results. While L2 learners may benefit from additional channels of input for processing challenging L2 sounds, multiple resources may also be inhibitory if learners experience excessive cognitive load. The present study examines the use of metaphoric hand gestures in training English perceivers to identify Mandarin tones. Native Mandarin speakers produced tonal stimuli with simultaneous hand gestures mimicking pitch contours in space. The English participants were trained to identify Mandarin tones in one of four modalities: audio-only (AO, speaker voice only), audio-visual (AV, speaker voice and face), audio-gesture (AG, speaker voice and hand gestures) and audio-visual-gesture (AVG). Results show significant improvements in tone identification from pre- to post-training tests across all four training groups, demonstrating that gestural as well as visual articulatory information may facilitate tone perception. However, further analyses with individual tones reveal some group differences. Most noticeably, the AVG group had a slower learning curve during training compared to the other trainee groups for Tone 4, the least accurately identified tone, indicating a negative effect of multiple input modalities on the perception of difficult L2 sounds. In contrast, for Tones 2 and 3, the AG group revealed slower learning effects compared to the AV group, presumably because of the similar gestural trajectories for these two tones, which made the gestural input less distinct. Overall, the results suggest a positive role of gestures in tone identification, one that may also be constrained by phonetic and cognitive demands.
The Motivational Effects of Pay Fairness

One of the continuing challenges in the hotel industry is developing effective compensation policies that motivate frontline employees. Unfortunately, the areas of compensation and pay fairness are underresearched, and what research does exist often provides methodological and theoretical precision without necessarily lending itself to practical insight. The study presented here uses a longitudinal design to examine the effects of pay fairness on employees’ work effort and performance. Data for this study were collected from 270 employees and their supervisors in seven hotels in China. In practical terms, the results indicate that a fairly straightforward model connects perceptions of pay fairness with work effort and job performance. In theoretical terms, this study further validates the second-order factor structure of pay fairness dimensions (distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational). Stated more technically, despite the construct validity associated with a multidimensional structure of fairness, a more parsimonious model using an overall fairness representation predicts work effort and job performance better than the more detailed model that involves four distinct but interrelated fairness measurements. The chief implication is that although actual pay levels are important to perceptions of compensation fairness, hotel employees also take into account the compensation procedures, the nature of their interactions with management, and the extent to which managers and the company are forthcoming about compensation practices. Thus, money alone is not the only motivating factor for hotel employees but management treatment is also a large element of employees’ view of fairness.
Effects of Broad-Spectrum Antioxidant Supplementation on the Antioxidant Status of Human Plasma

therosclerosis is believed to be an inflammatory disorder triggered in part by oxidative stress. Free-radical injury to arterial endothelial cells and oxidative modification of LDL are both thought to contribute to the endothelial dysfunction that eventually leads to atherosclerosis. Epidemiological studies and human clinical trials support this view. Diets rich in antioxidants, including vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta-carotene, have been linked to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. Use of vitamin E and vitamin C supplements has also been associated with reduced risk of heart disease, and while the results of clinical evaluations are mixed, at least one clinical trial involving patients at significant risk for heart disease showed some benefit from vitamin E supplementation. The purpose of this clinical study was to evaluate the short-term effects of the USANA Essentials (a multivitamin and mineral supplement containing a broad spectrum of antioxidant ingredients) on the antioxidant status of human blood.
Hypothermia Should Also Have Been Considered to Be a Predictor of Adverse Perioperative Cardiac Events

LMA-PTM. It is not a single-use LMA-PTM because substantial details are designed and constructed in a different way to overcome weaknesses of other LMAsTM, as the producers of the LMA-STM promote their device. The LMA-STM’s clinical performance can only be evaluated in clinical trials. First published comparisons with a reasonable sample size between the LMA-PTM and LMA-STM showed clinically important differences in the seal pressure between both devices. We affirm our statement that acute airway obstruction of LMAsTM can occur at any time, and backup strategies for the failure of the backup device LMATM have to be considered.
The Effect of Inventory Level on Product Availability and Sale

By increasing inventories, retailers attempt to raise service levels, and thus increase sale. However, in addition to a positive impact on product availability and sale, higher inventory levels may cause problems in performing in-store activities. As poor backroom-to-shelf replenishment process emerges as one of the most common causes of stock-out situations, this article compares store and on-shelf FMCG product availability at SKU level in different stores of a single retailer. In relation to this, besides direct, we have also investigated the indirect effect of inventory level on sale, by using store and shelf out-of-stocks as mediators. The results of the research showing much higher level of shelf- compared to store stock-out rate confirmed the existence of the problem in the realization of internal product flows within retail stores. However, despite the occurrence of this problem, besides direct positive effect of inventory level on sale, its indirect effect was positive as well. Therefore, these results were analysed in the context of other similar studies. In addition to empirical research, the article also discusses certain implications of more efficient organisation of in-store activities.
Seasonal and interannual variability of the Arctic sea ice: A comparison between AO‐FVCOM and observations

A high-resolution (up to 2 km), unstructured-grid, fully ice-sea coupled Arctic Ocean Finite-Volume Community Ocean Model (AO-FVCOM) was used to simulate the sea ice in the Arctic over the period 1978–2014. The spatial-varying horizontal model resolution was designed to better resolve both topographic and baroclinic dynamics scales over the Arctic slope and narrow straits. The model-simulated sea ice was in good agreement with available observed sea ice extent, concentration, drift velocity and thickness, not only in seasonal and interannual variability but also in spatial distribution. Compared with six other Arctic Ocean models (ECCO2, GSFC, INMOM, ORCA, NAME, and UW), the AO-FVCOM-simulated ice thickness showed a higher mean correlation coefficient of ∼0.63 and a smaller residual with observations. Model-produced ice drift speed and direction errors varied with wind speed: the speed and direction errors increased and decreased as the wind speed increased, respectively. Efforts were made to examine the influences of parameterizations of air-ice external and ice-water interfacial stresses on the model-produced bias. The ice drift direction was more sensitive to air-ice drag coefficients and turning angles than the ice drift speed. Increasing or decreasing either 10% in water-ice drag coefficient or 10° in water-ice turning angle did not show a significant influence on the ice drift velocity simulation results although the sea ice drift speed was more sensitive to these two parameters than the sea ice drift direction. Using the COARE 4.0-derived parameterization of air-water drag coefficient for wind stress did not significantly influence the ice drift velocity simulation.
A study on morphological variants of human superficial palmar arch and their clinical importance

Superficial palmar arch is a linkage between superficial branch of the radial artery and ulnar artery. According to traditional concept the arch is mainly fed by the ulnar artery. But there occur a lot of variations in the formation of superficial palmar arch. This study was done in 92 hands from the adult human cadavers. The cadavers were well fixed with 10% formalin solution in the department of anatomy of Hi-Tech Medical College, Bhubaneswar and MKCG Medical College, Berhampur. The different pattern of formation of superficial palmar arch was then observed. Among the specimens 76 hands had the classical morphology i.e. formed between superficial branch of radial artery and ulnar artery. In 1st variant i.e. in two hands the arch was incomplete and formed by the superficial branch of the ulnar artery alone. In the 2nd variant i.e. in two cases the arch was there like the normal pattern but there was another bridging vessel in between the two main vessels. In the 3rd variant i.e. in 10 cases the arch was in between superficial branch of ulnar artery and Arteria radialis indicis. In the 4th variant i.e. in two cases the arch was formed by only ulnar artery and the Arteria radialis indicis had risen from the arch.
Coupling between CO2, water vapor, temperature, and radon and their fluxes in an idealized equilibrium boundary layer over land

on the growth of the daytime dry boundary layer. We show equilibrium solutions for the diurnally averaged properties of the boundary layer that link the mixed layer equilibrium (on timescales longer than a day) of potential temperature, water vapor, CO2 (and other trace gases such as radon) with an interactive cloud layer and with the surface energy, water, and carbon balance. We examine these processes as a function of a set of external parameters: soil water content, which directly impacts respiration and photosynthesis, and hence transpiration; the surface net shortwave, directly linked to net radiation, which is also coupled to photosynthesis and transpiration; and the radiative cooling of the mixed layer (ML), which in the equilibrium model directly affects the surface sensible heat. We also show solutions where the net shortwave and radiative cooling are coupled to the cloud field. Our other variable model parameters are the properties of air entrained into the CBL, the midtropospheric values of vapor mixing ratio, CO2 and radon, and the lapse rate above cloud base. We considered two idealized ecosystems: forest (based on observations in Wisconsin) and grassland (using parameter estimates from the literature) to show how the vegetation model affects the ML equilibrium. We show how the mass transport out of the subcloud layer and the mass exchange with the free troposphere couples the mixed layer equilibrium of water vapor, CO2, and radon with the corresponding surface fluxes. We suggest that regional ML budgets may give useful constraints on regional carbon budgets, and that the coupling with the cloud field is a fundamental part of the ML equilibrium. INDEX TERMS: 1818 Hydrology: Evapotranspiration; 1615 Global Change: Biogeochemical processes (4805); 3307 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Boundary layer processes; 3322 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Land/ atmosphere interactions; KEYWORDS: boundary layer, CO2 fluxes, energy and water fluxes