Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Smaller, lighter, faster? Reducing the carbon footprint of ambulances

This paper outlines a feasibility project investigating the potential for smaller, lighter rapid response vehicles (RRVs) in reducing the carbon footprint and response times of ambulances. Five stakeholder consultations were held with two ambulance trusts, an ambulance manufacturer, a paramedic and the Ultra-Light Vehicle Group to generate three novel design concepts for RRVs, which were then reviewed by four UK feet managers and four clinicians. The results indicated that the integrated clinician service model could create a future market for smaller, lighter vehicles. Reducing carbon emissions in the short term will most likely be achieved using lower emission engines and improving engine and power management for dual-crewed ambulances. In the medium term (5–10 years), there will be a demand for low emission, composite light-weight dual-crewed ambulances.
A Novel Developed Detection and Analysis Method of DNA Microarray Hybridization Using FRET technique

Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) is a distance-sensitive energy transfer process which is widely used in probing molecular interaction in the 1-10 nm range. DNA microarray chip technique is a high throughput analysis method in molecular biology research. In this paper, we explored a novel detection and analysis method of DNA microarray hybridization using FRET technique. In our study, TMR dye labeled DNA oligomer was immobilized on the microarray chips and hybridized with complementary DNA oligomer labeled with Cy5 dye. We successfully detected and analysed the FRET signal of the hybridized DNA microarray. The variation of FRET signal intensity and the efficiency of FRET in response to the concentration of the sample were studied.
Control of Homodirectional and General Heterodirectional Linear Coupled Hyperbolic PDEs

Research on stabilization of coupled hyperbolic PDEs has been dominated by the focus on pairs of counter-convecting (“heterodirectional”) transport PDEs with distributed local coupling and with controls at one or both boundaries. A recent extension allows stabilization using only one control for a system containing an arbitrary number of coupled transport PDEs that convect at different speeds against the direction of the PDE whose boundary is actuated. In this paper we present a solution to the fully general case, in which the number of PDEs in either direction is arbitrary, and where actuation is applied on only one boundary (to all the PDEs that convect downstream from that boundary). To solve this general problem, we solve, as a special case, the problem of control of coupled “homodirectional” hyperbolic linear PDEs, where multiple transport PDEs convect in the same direction with arbitrary local coupling. Our approach is based on PDE backstepping and yields solutions to stabilization, by both full-state and observer-based output feedback, and trajectory tracking problems.
Robot-Initiated Specification Repair through Grounded Language Interaction

Robots are required to execute increasingly complex instructions in dynamic environments, which can lead to a disconnect between the user's intent and the robot's representation of the instructions. In this paper we present a natural language instruction grounding framework which uses formal synthesis to enable the robot to identify necessary environment assumptions for the task to be successful. These assumptions are then expressed via natural language questions referencing objects in the environment. The user is prompted to confirm or reject the assumption. We demonstrate our approach on two tabletop pick-and-place tasks.
Semiclassical methods and the summation of the scattering partial wave series.

The Hilb formula, an asymptotic continuous approximation in l for the Legendre polynomials that is valid from forward angles to nearly 180/sup 0/, is tested numerically in semiclassical summations of scattering amplitudes. It works remarkably well even when the amplitude oscillates and falls by many orders of magnitude so long as the S matrix varies slowly with l. We generalize the Hilb formula to the associated Legendre functions.
New technologies and 21st century children

This paper provides a synthesis of the literature on and recent trends in new technologies and its effect on 21st century children (0-18 years old). It begins by providing an overview of recent trends in the access and use of new technologies as well as a summary of online opportunities and risks. It then explores a variety of factors, including economic, social and cultural status which underlie these trends and lead to online and offline inequalities. Building digital resilience is an important skill for 21st century children. Effective strategies to accomplish this include encouragement of active rather than passive Internet use, e-safety in the school curriculum, and teacher and parental Information and Communication Technology (ICT) support. A focus on younger children (primary school or younger) and the effects of new emerging technologies would be helpful for future research.
Metabolic cardiovascular risk burden and atherosclerosis in African black and Caucasian women with rheumatoid arthritis: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES The impact of metabolic risk factors on atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ACVD) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from developing populations is currently unknown. We examined the relationships of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components with carotid artery atherosclerosis in African women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from a developing black and developed Caucasian population. METHODS We assessed the associations of the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATPIII) defined MetS and its criteria with high resolution B-mode ultrasound determined common carotid artery intima-media thickness (cIMT) and carotid artery plaque in multivariable regression models in 104 black and 93 Caucasian women with RA. RESULTS The MetS prevalence was 30.8% in black compared to 9.7% in Caucasian women with RA (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval]=10.11 [1.76-58.03] [p=0.009]). Population origin impacted on the relationships of metabolic risk factors with atherosclerosis. In Caucasian women, the MetS was associated with cIMT (p=0.036) and MetS triglycerides and the number of MetS criteria were each associated with both cIMT (p=0.01 and p=0.028, respectively) and plaque (p=0.049 and p=0.02, respectively); by contrast, in black women, MetS blood pressure was related to cIMT (p=0.04). CONCLUSIONS A high overall metabolic cardiovascular risk burden as disclosed by markedly prevalent MetS in women with RA from developing groups of black African descent was not associated with atherosclerosis. This calls for systematic rigorous cardiovascular risk management irrespective of metabolic risk factor profiles in African black women with RA.
Effects of a Longitudinal Interprofessional Educational Outreach Program on Collaboration

Introduction: Interprofessional education (IPE) interventions lack clarity regarding development and implementation, impeding a clear understanding of their role and effectiveness. The aim of this study was to identify whether and how an outreach program targeting interprofessional health care teams can improve self-efficacy and interprofessional collaboration (IPC). Methods: A cohort study was conducted to explore the effect of the program on individual self-efficacy and perceived IPC and investigate factors affecting interprofessional learning and collaboration. The program was a two-year IPE program consisting of workshops, educational materials, and interworkshop support. Participants were physicians, nurses, dietitians, pharmacists, and social workers at two primary care teams in Toronto. Self-efficacy and team function were measured five times throughout the program. We used analysis of variance and t-tests to compare between teams and used Pearson correlations to estimate the relationship between self-efficacy and team function. One-on-one interviews investigated factors affecting IPC and the program's effect on IPC. Results: Team function improved as the program progressed (P = .02); although it did not affect self-efficacy, there was an increasing correlation between self-efficacy and team function as the program progressed (P < .01 for workshop 5). Interviews revealed that trust, liability concerns, and geographic proximity were mediators of IPC. The workshops were perceived to enable trust building by increasing knowledge and allowing nonphysician team members to showcase their expertise. Discussion: Our findings demonstrate that an IPE workshop, through role clarification, cultivation of trust, and a community of practice, can promote these elements. Trust in team members and geographic proximity are potential facilitators to IPC developed during an interprofessional program.
BugCatcher.Net: Detecting Bugs and Proposing Corrective Solutions

— Although achieving zero-defect software release is practically impossible, software industries should take maximum care to detect defects/bugs well ahead in time allowing only bare minimums to creep into released version. This is a clear indicator of time playing an important role in the bug detection. In addition to this, software quality is the major factor in software engineering process. Moreover, early detection can be achieved only through static code analysis as opposed to conventional testing. BugCatcher.Net is a static analysis tool, which detects bugs in . NET ® languages through MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language) inspection. The tool utilizes a Parser based on Finite State Automata to carry out bug detection. After being detected, bugs need to be corrected immediately. BugCatcher.Net facilitates correction, by proposing a corrective solution for reported warnings/bugs to end users with minimum side effects. Moreover, the tool is also capable of analyzing the bug trend of a program under inspection.
Développement et étude des matériaux ferroélectriques accordables en vue d'une application pour les antennes intelligentes

Les materiaux ferroelectriques sont aujourd’hui etudies pour leur permittivite elevee et accordable en vue de la realisation d’antennes intelligentes. L’accordabilite importante requise amene souvent a une augmentation des pertes dielectriques et un compromis entre accordabilite elevee et faibles pertes est alors a realiser. L’objectif de ces travaux est l’etude des phenomenes lies a la permittivite dielectrique des materiaux ferroelectriques afin de decrire l’influence des parois de domaine sur celle-ci. Un modele dielectrique complexe est utilise qui prend en compte les pertes independantes du champ electrique applique et une loi hyperbolique est proposee, permettant de distinguer les contributions liees aux vibrations et aux sauts de parois de domaines ainsi que celles provenant du materiau. La stabilite des proprietes dielectriques en frequence et en temps est abordee en y degageant l’influence des parois de domaine sur les phenomenes de relaxation observees. L’analyse sur la phase ferroelectrique est etendue a la phase paraelectrique en etudiant le BST en fonction du taux de strontium. Ceci permet de comprendre les mecanismes responsables de l’accordabilite dans les phases ferroelectrique et paraelectrique ainsi qu’a la transition de phase. Les materiaux ferroelectriques etant envisages pour une utilisation en hyperfrequences, une methode de caracterisation basee sur l’analyse statique de la transformation conforme d’une ligne coplanaire, est etudiee. La loi hyperbolique permet de connaitre la composition du BST qui presente le meilleur compromis entre accordabilite et pertes et donc les conditions optimales d’utilisation des materiaux ferroelectriques
Reasons for officiating soccer: the role of passion-based motivations among Norwegian elite and non-elite referees

Les raisons de l’arbitrage en football : Le role des motivations basees sur la passion parmi les arbitres elite et non-elite norvegiensCette etude examine les raisons de l’investissement des arbitres de football elite et non-elite norvegiens. Quatre-vingt-trois arbitres elite et 44 non-elite ont complete un questionnaire en ligne (SurveyXact) interrogeant leurs trois principales raisons d’exercer la fonction d’arbitre de football. Les donnees ont ete obtenues par epoche, intuition et description de leurs differentes raisons. Trois principales categories descriptives emergent (pourcentage elite/non-elite) : les motivations liees a la passion (57/25 %), les motivations sociales (25/25 %) et les motivations liees a la sante (13/31 %). Les arbitres elite norvegiens sont significativement plus motives par la passion que les arbitres nonelite. La frequence de motivations liees a la sante est significativement plus basse pour les arbitres elite que pour les autres. Les motivations sociales ont approximativement la meme importance pour les deux groupes d’arbitres.
ACCEPTANCE ANALYSIS OF EXPERT SYSTEM IN FOREX AND COMMODITIES ONLINE TRADING A CASE STUDY OF METATRADER4 USERS

Abstract This study measures the acceptance of foreign exchange and commodities traders/investors on the use of the expert system in the form of EA in helping their online trading process. This research model is based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) popularized by Fred D. Davis. Constructs used in this study is Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Usefulness, Attitude Toward Using, Behavioural Intention to Use, Actual System Use, External Variables (User Involvement. The primary data in this study were obtained from questionnaires. Some sample of forex traders as respondents were asked to fill out an online questionnaire. The data then processed and analysed by Structural Equation Model (SEM) method with the help of IBM SPSS AMOS 20 software. The results of this study show that Perceived Ease of Use has a positive and strong influence on Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Usefulness has a positive and strong influence on Attitude Toward Using, Attitude Toward Using has a positive and strong influence on Behavioral Intention to Use, Behavioral Intention to Use has a positive and strong influence on Actual System Use and user involvement has a positive and strong influence on Perceived Ease of Use. Keywords— Expert System, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)
In vitro efficacy of ciprofloxacin and gentamicin against a biofilm of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and its free-living forms.

BACKGROUND Infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). With chronicity of infection, the organism acquires a mucoid phenotype and grows as microcolonies in a biofilm in the respiratory passages of the host. This acts as a protective niche and helps the organism to evade the host immune response. In the biofilm the organism has a high resistance to antibiotics, leading to problems in eradication, and poses a therapeutic challenge. We studied the antimicrobial susceptibility of P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853 in a biofilm and as free-living forms against ciprofloxacin and gentamicin, the commonly used antibiotics in patients with CF. METHODS Biofilm formation of P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853 was characterized by in vitro biofilm formation assay. The biofilm was detected by light microscopy and quantitated by measuring the absorbance at 575 nm and by viable bacterial counts. After the maximal biofilm was established, the effect of various concentrations of ciprofloxacin (1, 2 and 4 microg/ml) and gentamicin (4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 microg/ml) was observed and the minimal biofilm eradication concentration (MBEC) determined. The minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) of both the antibiotics was determined against the free-living forms of the organism. The MBEC of the two antibiotics was further compared with the MBC. RESULTS On microscopic examination, the maximal biofilm of P. aeruginosa was established on a coverslip at 12 hours, the maximum absorbance was at 575 nm and viable counts were observed at 12 hours, which corresponded to the maximal biofilm production. The organisms in the biofilm showed a 4-fold greater resistance against ciprofloxacin and gentamicin as compared to the free-living forms. CONCLUSION In biofilm, P. aeruginosa shows greater resistance against antibiotics. This renders these antibiotics ineffective, leading to chronic and persistent infections.
Reaching Further and Learning More? Evaluating Public Impact's "Opportunity Culture" Initiative. Working Paper 181.

Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture (OC) initiative provides a suite of models aimed at extending the reach of highly effective teachers and has partnered with school districts to implement these interventions in schools. Using administrative data from three partner school districts that collectively include 44 OC schools, we estimate the relationship between OC staffing models and student achievement in math and reading. We find that the bulk of exposed students received treatment under OC’s multiclassroom leadership model, in which a master teacher with demonstrated effectiveness intensively leads and coaches a team of teachers, and that these students scored higher in math in all specifications. In reading, while most specifications find positive and significant learning gains for students taught by team teachers, the specification that performs best in our placebo tests – one that includes school-by-year fixed effects to account for overall improvement in treatment schools – does not find any impact. Results for other specifications are more mixed and are imprecisely estimated.
Smart Operation of Wind Turbines and Diesel Generators According to Economic Criteria

This paper proposes an innovative system for Smart Grid (SG) management aiming at minimizing the total costs supported for carrying out the delivery of energy to consumers. These costs include the production costs of distributed generators, the cost of the power provided by the primary substation, and the cost associated with grid power losses. After a brief overview on the main SG aspects, this paper describes the proposed approach that makes use of an optimal power flow algorithm and the active management schemes. The efficiency of the method is verified on a distribution system comprising wind turbines and diesel generators, considering the time-varying characteristics of the load demand and wind power generation.
Author Profiling: Age Prediction Based on Advanced Bayesian Networks

In this study, we present a new method for proﬁling the author of an anonymous English text. The aim of author proﬁling is to determine demographic (age, gender, region, education level) and psychological (personality, mental health) properties of the authors of a text, especially authors of user generated content in social media. To obtain the best classiﬁcation, authors resort to machine learning methods. Focusing on the works which use the Bayesian networks, all those methods rather apply the Bayesian naïve classiﬁers which do not yield the best results. Therfore we propose a method based on advanced Bayesian networks for age prediction to over come the mentioned detail problem. We obtained promising results by relying on an English PAN@CLEF 2013 corpus. The obtained results are comparable to the ones obtained by the best state of the art methods. The software and data can be publicly downloaded from www.cicling. org/2016/ data/248/CICLING_248. zip.
Porter’s Competitive Strategies Influence on Performance of Mobile Telecommunication Companies in Kenya

Abstract: The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship between Porter’s competitive strategies and performance of mobile telecommunication companies in Kenya. More specifically the study sought to determine the influence of cost leadership, differentiation and market focus strategies on performance of mobile telecommunication companies in Kenya. The target population of the study comprised of 241 management staff drawn from; Safaricom PLC, Airtel, Telkom and Equitel mobile telecommunication companies in Kenya. A sample of 117 respondents was selected purposively for the study. The study adopted a mixed method of explanatory and cross sectional survey research design approach. The research utilized both primary and secondary data. The data obtained was summarized using descriptive and inferential statistics. Pearson’s correlation was used to determine the relationship between the variables, and multiple regression to determine the influence of Porter’s competitive strategies on performance of mobile telecommunication companies. The study concluded that Porter’s competitive strategies; cost leadership, differentiation and market focus strategies adopted by the telecommunication companies had a positive significant influence on their performance in terms of sales and market share in customer’s subscription. The study recommended that mobile telecommunication companies in Kenya should embrace Porter’s competitive strategies more to continue achieving competitive advantage and enhance their performance.
INTERFERENCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND CORPORATE PERFORMANCE

This research aimed to determine the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and corporate performance in State Owned Corporations (SOEs) through Organizational Communication as the moderating variable. This research was a verificative descriptive research. Data were collected through a survey on SOEs in Indonesia. The results showed that in the SOE management structure, communication processes is based on efforts to develop capacity continuously and the ideas freely direct the achievement of organizational performance, formulated according to multidisciplinary assumptions. Communication management in SOEs based on adult and independent communication assumptions with information technology support directs the capacity of employees to produce an optimal organizational performance.
Postmortem examinations in a statewide audit of neonatal intensive care unit admissions in Australia in 1992 *

The objectives of the investigation were (i) to study infants registered in a statewide audit of tertiary neonatal intensive care units in New South Wales, Australia in 1992 and who died, and (ii) to examine postmortem rates, quality of postmortem reports and compare clinical cause of death with postmortem report. Death rates, data on clinical cause of death and postmortem status were collected prospectively as part of the routine audit. Postmortem reports were examined by LS. Fifteen percent of the cohort died and 43% had a postmortem examination. The postmortem rate was highest in the 28‐36 week gestation group and in babies dying of pulmonary haemorrhage, intracranial haemorrhage or sudden infant death syndrome. Fewer than 50% of babies with a major congenital anomaly had a postmortem. The postmortem changed the major diagnosis in 10% of cases and added useful information in 17%. We conclude that postmortem examination should be an essential part of any audit of neonatal intensive care unit outcomes.
Government Spending, Entry, and the Consumption Crowding‐In Puzzle

This article documents empirically that net firm entry robustly rises after a U.S. government spending expansion. We use this new finding to test the empirical validity of various model features that have been proposed to generate consumption crowding-in after positive expenditure shocks. Endogenous-entry models typically fail to generate the observed joint increase in consumption and entry. Model features that dampen the wealth effect, such as rule-of-thumb households or complementarity between labor and consumption in preferences, tend to reduce entry. We show that utility- or productivity-enhancing public spending can reconcile the model with our documented fact and performs well empirically.