Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Framework Facilitating Ex-Ante Evaluation of Information Systems

As organizations continually implement changes to their information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure, change has become an increasing part of "business as usual". Managers are routinely requested to justify expenditure, explain business benefits, and provide ex-ante and ex-post evaluations of ICT initiatives. Ex-ante evaluation is defined as predictive evaluation, and is often based upon quantitative measures such as financial predictions. However, the perception that many organizations are underperforming with regard to the effectiveness of ICT suggests that an approach to ex-ante evaluation employing both qualitative and quantitative components is appropriate. This paper presents a framework designed to facilitate qualitative evaluation of the likely impact of an information system by analyzing a series of key themes derived from a study of the literature of change and change management. The paper concludes with an application of the framework to an ICT development, the intention being to assess the validity of the theoretical framework proposed.
Market efficiency in developed and emerging markets

The weekly and monthly returns of stock indices and portfolios of stock indices were analysed to investigate the weak form of market efficiency in developed and emerging capital markets using standard tests of market efficiency. Our results, based on an analysis of 13 years of data, show mixed results for different indices. However, portfolio returns of developed and emerging markets indicate the absence of market efficiency. Developed markets show inefficiency for monthly returns that is contrary to the conventional perception that developed markets are efficient in comparison to emerging markets owing to their long existence, better maturity, depth and technological development.
A New Strained-Silicon Channel Trench-Gate Power MOSFET: Design and Analysis

In this brief, we propose a new trench power MOSFET with strained-Si channel that provides lower on-resistance than the conventional trench MOSFET. Using a 20% Ge mole fraction in the Si1- Gex body with a compositionally graded Si1 - xGex buffer in the drift region enables us to create strain in the channel along with graded strain in the accumulation region. As a result, the proposed structure exhibits 40% enhancement in current drivability,28% reduction in the on-resistance, and 72% improvement in peak transconductance at the cost of only 12% reduction in the breakdown voltage when compared to the conventional trench-gate MOSFET. Furthermore, the graded strained accumulation region supports the confinement of carriers near the trench sidewalls, improving the field distribution in the mesa structure useful for a better damage immunity during inductive switching.
On autoprotective efforts of schizophrenics, neurotics and controls

ABSTRACT— Autoprotective efforts of schizophrenics have hardly been systematically investigated until now, although the role of coping processes in regard to numerous psychic disorders is increasingly recognized. The investigation of autoprotective efforts, however, is of special significance in view of the different current formulations of the vulnerability stress concept of schizophrenia. Thus the cognitive disorders in the sense of information processing deficits among schizophrenics deserve our special attention, since they are described consistently as vulnerability characteristics and as cause of a heightened susceptibility to stress, and since they can be considered an explanatory basis for a wide range of subjectively experienced basic disorders of schizophrenia. In the present study the two disorder dimensions and the corresponding autoprotective efforts were investigated among 60 schizophrenic patients, 30 neurotic patients and 30 healthy controls. The schizophrenic patients had both significantly more experimental psychologically operationalized dysfunctions in information processing and subjectively experienced basic disorders. However, we found no correlation between the two levels of investigation. This may mainly be attributed to the fact that on the level of subjective experience the primary disorder, the perception of the disorder and the individual response to the disorder cannot be differentiated unequivocally. All of the schizophrenic patients reported consciously performed autoprotective efforts in regard to basic disorders. In this connection it is of interest that the schizophrenic patients had a significantly higher percentage of problem solving oriented attempts in comparison with the two non‐schizophrenic comparison groups, and that this percentage even increased by a progressive amount of disorders. The schizophrenic patients experienced basic disorders with much more emotional tension and existential, ego‐threatening anxiety. They were interpreted by the schizophrenic patients as danger signals, by the neurotic patients, however, predominantly as concomitant symptoms of their neurosis, whereas healthy persons comprehended them within the framework of ordinary psychological explanatory models. The relevance of these results in regard to further research in autoprotective efforts of schizophrenic patients and in their possible therapeutic implications is discussed.
Obtaining cornea donation consent by telephone

Background. Cornea donation process comes up against difficulties in obtaining families’ consent. A face-to-face interview is often not possible for logistical reasons. We carried out a prospective study of the effectiveness of telephone contact in obtaining donation consent. Methods. Consent was obtained by a single, nonmedical, hospital coordinator. If a face-to-face interview was not possible, a telephone interview was conducted using a standardized procedure. Results. Over a 21-month period, 334 families were contacted, either in a face-to-face interview (142, 42.5%) or by telephone (192, 57.5%). Donation consent was obtained in 66.5% of cases, 106 times by telephone and 116 times in face-to-face interview. The acceptance rate was 55.2% by telephone and 81.6% face to face (P <0.001). In total, 47.7% of the cornea recovery consents were obtained after telephone interview. Conclusions. Telephone interview is an effective method for obtaining consent to cornea donation. Although the acceptance rate using this method is lower than by face-to-face interview, using the telephone should not be overlooked as this enabled procurement of nearly half the corneas in our hospital.
Structural Alterations from Multiple Displacement Amplification of a Human Genome Revealed by Mate-Pair Sequencing

Comprehensive identification of the acquired mutations that cause common cancers will require genomic analyses of large sets of tumor samples. Typically, the tissue material available from tumor specimens is limited, which creates a demand for accurate template amplification. We therefore evaluated whether phi29-mediated whole genome amplification introduces false positive structural mutations by massive mate-pair sequencing of a normal human genome before and after such amplification. Multiple displacement amplification led to a decrease in clone coverage and an increase by two orders of magnitude in the prevalence of inversions, but did not increase the prevalence of translocations. While multiple strand displacement amplification may find uses in translocation analyses, it is likely that alternative amplification strategies need to be developed to meet the demands of cancer genomics.
Shaking Off Burdens – Debt Relief and Moral Intuitions

Motivated by the prevalence of debt crises and the resulting policy debates, this study uses a vignette-based survey to examine the moral intuitions that underlie debt-related policy preferences. After reading a hypothetical scenario involving a debtor and a lender, survey respondents rate the degree of fairness that they attach to a third party’s decision to allow debt relief. The experimental design varies (1) the responsibility of lenders and debtors in terms of whether their situations stem from bad luck or poor choices, (2) the salience of a lender’s profit motive and (3) whether the debtor and the lender are individuals or corporations. The results show that debt relief is more likely to be found fair in a corporate context compared to a personalized context and that the factors that drive the perceived fairness of debt relief differ across corporate and personalized contexts. With corporate debt, debtor and lender responsibility are strongly, and consistently, linked to the perceived fairness of debt relief. With personalized debt, lender responsibility is never a significant driver of the perceived fairness of debt relief, and debtor responsibility only matters if the lender’s profit motive is made salient.
Cytokine and cytokine receptor genes of the adaptive immune response are differentially associated with breast cancer risk in American women of African and European ancestry

Disparities in breast cancer biology are evident between American women of African ancestry (AA) and European ancestry (EA) and may be due, in part, to differences in immune function. To assess the potential role of constitutional host immunity on breast carcinogenesis, we tested associations between breast cancer risk and 47 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 26 cytokine‐related genes of the adaptive immune system using 650 EA (n = 335 cases) and 864 AA (n = 458 cases) women from the Women's Circle of Health Study (WCHS). With additional participant accrual to the WCHS, promising SNPs from the initial analysis were evaluated in a larger sample size (1,307 EAs and 1,365 AAs). Multivariate logistic regression found SNPs in genes important for T helper type 1 (Th1) immunity (IFNGR2 rs1059293, IL15RA rs2296135, LTA rs1041981), Th2 immunity (IL4R rs1801275), and T regulatory cell‐mediated immunosuppression (TGFB1 rs1800469) associated with breast cancer risk, mainly among AAs. The combined effect of these five SNPs was highly significant among AAs (P‐trend = 0.0005). When stratified by estrogen receptor (ER) status, LTA rs1041981 was associated with ER‐positive breast cancers among EAs and marginally among AAs. Only among AA women, IL15 rs10833 and IL15RA rs2296135 were associated with ER‐positive tumors, and IL12RB1 rs375947, IL15 rs10833 and TGFB1 rs1800469 were associated with ER‐negative tumors. Our study systematically identified genetic variants in the adaptive immune response pathway associated with breast cancer risk, which appears to differ by ancestry groups, menopausal status and ER status.
Governance Models for the Delivery of Public Services Through the Web 2.0 Technologies

The growing participation in social networking sites is altering the nature of social relations and changing the nature of political and public dialogue. This article contributes to the current debate on Web 2.0 technologies and their implications for local governance through the identification of governance models to be adopted by local governments if Web 2.0 technologies are implemented for providing public services. Also, this article analyzes whether the political competition could be an attribute that could explain the governance models to be adopted by municipalities. To achieve this aim, an e-survey during the period of May–July 2014 has been performed by policy makers responsible of strategies for e-government in Spanish municipalities. Findings indicate that policy makers are mainly prone to implement Web 2.0 technologies under the “Bureaucratic Model” framework, keeping the leading role in this implementation. Nonetheless, political competition seems to be essential to understand the findings of this article. Thus, majority governments are prone to implement collaborative models of governance, whereas minority governments are in favor to implement noncollaborative models of governance.
Effect of Microthread Design on Marginal Bone Level Around Dental Implants Placed in Fresh Extraction Sockets

Purpose:This study was designed to compare radiographically the effect of microthread on the coronal portion of the fixture on marginal bone level (MBL) around immediately placed dental implants in human subjects. Material and Methods:Forty-one roughened surface screw type Dentium oral implants (Dentium) were inserted in fresh extraction sockets of the anterior segment of maxilla of 30 patients. The implants were selected randomly using either microthread design on coronal portion of the fixture (Implantium) (test group) or without microthread thread design (Superline) (control group). MBL was measured using digital subtraction radiography technique after 3, 6, and 12 months. Results:At month 3, the microthread groups have been associated with more marginal bone loss than the control group (P = 0.04). At months 6 and 12, both groups had comparable bone levels (P = 0.21). Conclusion:The microthread design of the implant collar could not have a positive effect in maintaining the MBL around implants placed in fresh extraction socket in anterior maxilla.
The national minimum wage and young workers: implications for employment and training in urban and rural areas

Theoretical and empirical work on minimum wage policy can be characterised as being located within two main perspectives. On the one hand, there is strong opposition to this policy (e.g. neo-classical models) on the grounds that interference in the free labour market will lead to negative employment consequences. On the other hand, more recent approaches (e.g. dynamic monopsony model, radical segmentation model, efficiency wage theory) support this policy and oppose the role played by an 'invisible hand' in the market. Given the conflicting findings in the literature about minimum wage policy, the influence of the National Minimum Wage on employment is reconsidered in this paper by examining the minimum wage's influence on the employment of young workers within the hospitality sector in urban and rural areas. Preliminary findings based on an exploratory study of 29 hospitality firms suggest that the National Minimum Wage has had little impact on employment practices, and has not led to the substitution of young workers for older workers in either the rural or urban areas.
High Throughput Hardware Design for AV1 Paeth and Smooth Intra Modes

Developed by AOMedia industry consortium and released in June 2018, AV1 is an open-source and royalty-free video coding format. The main goal of AV1 is to deliver substantial compression gains over state-of-the-art codecs such as VP9 and HEVC, while keeping a practical decoding complexity, hardware feasibility and its open and free status. This paper presents a high throughput hardware architecture for four important AV1 intra prediction coding modes: Paeth, Smooth, Smooth Vertical and Smooth Horizontal. The proposed architecture was designed to support all 19 block sizes specified by AV1 and to process every single combination of these blocks according to the 10-way partition tree, with a throughput of UHD 4K (3840×2160 pixels) videos at up to 30 frames per second. When synthesized to the TSMC 40nm cell library targeting a frequency of 648MHz, the proposed design used 109.57K gates and showed a power dissipation and an energy efficiency of 16.1mW and 1.23pJ/sample respectively. No other works were found in the literature describing hardware designs for AV1 intra prediction.
Beauveria bassiana isolated from engorged females and tested against eggs and larvae of Boophilus microplus (Acari: Ixodidae)

The purpose of this work was to evaluate the in vitro virulence of three isolates of Beauveria bassiana to eggs and larvae of the tick Boophilus microplus. The fungus tested were isolated from engorged females of B. microplus collected on the field, and identified as Bb28, Bb29 and Bb30. These isolates were evaluated by immersion of eggs and larvae in suspensions with different conidial concentrations: 108, 107, 106 and 105 conidia/ml and compared to the control groups. In the treated eggs, there was a percentage much smaller of hatching than that observed in the controls. The egg hatch was inversely proportional to the conidial concentration. In larval bioassays, all isolates resulted in a higher mortality of larvae compared to the control according to the conidial concentrations/ml, 10 days after treatment inoculation.
Assessment Feedback using Screencapture Technology in Political Science

This article serves to introduce a new technology for student feedback on written assignments to political scientists. Developed in the field of composition studies, screencapture commentary is a novel technique designed to provide audiovisual responses to student writing. To receive feedback, students watch a recorded video of the instructor’s computer terminal, listening to the instructor’s commentary while watching the cursor move and highlight selections of the text for illustration. The final section of this article demonstrates preliminary evidence of improved educational outcomes in courses taught at two large 4-year universities where screencapture technology was employed. On the basis of these findings, I also argue that screencapture comments may be especially beneficial in online course environments.
Educational Expenditure: Implications for Equality

Inequalities in educational outcomes over time are described. Patterns of educational expenditure are outlined, highlighting differences between and within the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Recent policy developments are explored which involve targeting spending on "disadvantaged" schools, through special programmes and initiatives. The implications of educational failure for labour market and other outcomes among young people in particular and the adult population in general are discussed.
TrustPAY: Trusted mobile payment on security enhanced ARM TrustZone platforms

Recent technological advances have accelerated the design and deployment of kinds of secure applications on smartphones. Although users can access and handle their data flexibly and stably with mobile devices, not only computing devices, it poses security challenges of a new dimension that users disclose lots of sensitive data and privacy information over open devices and networks as well. Thus, more and more malwares are emerging to compromise mobile OS and steal sensitive data from these applications. In this paper, we propose a mobile payment framework TrustPAY on TrustZone security enhanced platform, which can ensure payment transactions security and realize privacy friendly payment. We have implemented a prototype system on a simulation environment by using ARM FastModel and Open Virtualization software stack for ARM TrustZone, and presented our implementation on a real development board by using ARM CoreTile Express A9×4. Our experiment evaluation and security analysis prove that our scheme can effectively meet the security requirements of a practical m-payment with acceptable performance. Furthermore, TrustPAY is also flexible to support kinds of secure applications requiring to privacy protection.
Assessment of executive function in ADHD adolescents: contribution of performance tests and rating scales

ABSTRACT This study aimed to analyze performance on measures of neuropsychological and behavioral executive functions (EF) in adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and to evaluate the utility of performance-based tests for predicting scores on behavioral EF ratings. One hundred eighteen adolescents (75 ADHD and 43 controls) aged 12–16 years performed neuropsychological tests and completed a behavior rating scale of EF. The ADHD group presented significantly lower scores than controls on Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) and all indexes of the WISC-IV, except the verbal comprehension index (VCI). The ADHD group had significantly lower scores on performance-based tests of working memory, planning and inhibition, and on EF rating scales. Scores on the cognitive EF working memory, planning and flexibility modestly predicted performance on behavioral EF. The results suggest that the combined use of performance-based tests and rating scales provides valuable complementary information that can improve the assessment of executive domains in ADHD.
In Vivo and In Vitro Activities and ADME-Tox Profile of a Quinolizidine-Modified 4-Aminoquinoline: A Potent Anti-P. falciparum and Anti-P. vivax Blood-Stage Antimalarial

Natural products are a prolific source for the identification of new biologically active compounds. In the present work, we studied the in vitro and in vivo antimalarial efficacy and ADME-Tox profile of a molecular hybrid (AM1) between 4-aminoquinoline and a quinolizidine moiety derived from lupinine (Lupinus luteus). The aim was to find a compound endowed with the target product profile-1 (TCP-1: molecules that clear asexual blood-stage parasitaemia), proposed by the Medicine for Malaria Venture to accomplish the goal of malaria elimination/eradication. AM1 displayed a very attractive profile in terms of both in vitro and in vivo activity. By using standard in vitro antimalarial assays, AM1 showed low nanomolar inhibitory activity against chloroquine-sensitive and resistant P. falciparum strains (range IC50 16–53 nM), matched with a high potency against P. vivax field isolates (Mean IC50 29 nM). Low toxicity and additivity with artemisinin derivatives were also demonstrated in vitro. High in vivo oral efficacy was observed in both P. berghei and P. yoelii mouse models with IC50 values comparable or better than those of chloroquine. The metabolic stability in different species and the pharmacokinetic profile in the mouse model makes AM1 a compound worth further investigation as a potential novel schizonticidal agent.
Six-month follow-up of naltrexone and psychotherapy for alcohol dependence.

BACKGROUND The goal of this study was to examine the persistence of naltrexone's effects on drinking outcomes among alcoholics following discontinuation of treatment and to determine whether coping skills therapy improves long-term outcomes compared with supportive therapy. METHODS Eighty of 97 alcohol-dependent subjects randomized to receive naltrexone or placebo and either coping skills therapy or supportive therapy for 12 weeks were assessed at a 6-month off-treatment follow-up. RESULTS Subjects who received naltrexone were less likely to drink heavily or to meet criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence than subjects who received placebo. The effect of naltrexone therapy on abstinence rates persisted only through the first month of follow-up. Coping skills therapy was associated with decreased levels of drinking among subjects who received placebo. Psychotherapy condition, however, did not predict alcohol diagnosis at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Some but not all of the benefits resulting from short-term naltrexone treatment persist after discontinuation of treatment. The findings suggest that continued treatment with naltrexone may be beneficial for some patients.