Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reactive phase shifter for bandwidth enhancement of microstrip reflectarray antennas

A popular method for creating required phase shifts for patches in a microstrip reflectarray uses open ended stubs attached to the patches. Uniform stubs are narrowband and hence limit the bandwidth of the array. In this paper, a novel method for designing broadband reactive phase shifters is proposed based on the method of least squares. A structure consisting of transmission lines and open-ended stubs is considered for the phase shifter. A least square error function is constructed for the required phase shift and the characteristic impedances and electrical lengths of transmission lines are obtained by its minimization. Then, the circuit is realized by microstrip lines to be attached to the microstrip patch. It is shown that this novel phase shifter creates the required phase shift in a broader bandwidth than those of uniform stub phase shifters.
Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of the Apollo Model of Pediatric Rehabilitation Service Delivery

ABSTRACT This article presents the experience of a rehabilitation program that undertook the challenge to reorganize its services to address accessibility issues and improve service quality. The context in which the reorganization process occurred, along with the relevant literature justifying the need for a new service delivery model, and an historical perspective on the planning; implementation; and evaluation phases of the process are described. In the planning phase, the constitution of the working committee, the data collected, and the information found in the literature are presented. Apollo, the new service delivery model, is then described along with each of its components (e.g., community, group, and individual interventions). Actions and lessons learnt during the implementation of each component are presented. We hope by sharing our experiences that we can help others make informed decisions about service reorganization to improve the quality of services provided to children with disabilities, their families, and their communities.
Impact of Detector Defects on Image Quality and Quantification for the microPET Focus 220 Scanner

Hardware problems with the detector systems of high resolution animal PET scanners could have an important impact on image quality and quantification. The aims of this work were to study the influence of detector defects on images acquired with the microPET Focus 220 animal scanner in terms of both, visible artifacts and quantitative accuracy, and to investigate possible approaches to ameliorate the effects of faulty detectors. Defects were simulated at the sinogram level by manipulating pixel values in the fully 3D sinograms that correspond to lines of response that involve the defective detector. Repair was also performed at the sinogram level using the constrained Fourier space method introduced by Karp et al. [1988]. Visible image artifacts were produced when a whole detector module (4 detectors) or a whole bucket (16 detectors) experienced total loss of efficiency. In addition, quantitative accuracy was decreased significantly in the case of a defective detector bucket with a bias in activity concentration of up to -36%. A defective module caused a bias of about -5% in most cases. A problem with a single detector had a negligible influence on the images and quantification. Sinogram repair worked effectively for a defective module. Very good quantitative accuracy was achieved for almost all data, and most artefacts in the images could be eliminated. However, in the case of a defective bucket, the gap in the sinogram data was too large for effective repair.
Elixir of the Service Quality of Islamic Banking Sector in Bangladesh

Islamic Banking Sector (IBS) is the most influential domain in the economic development of Bangladesh. In the 21st century, IBS has passed thirty years glorious journey creating huge competition considering its service quality and achieved a remarkable growth. Service Quality (SQ) is the most significant affecting factor for remarkable growth of IBS in Bangladesh from 1983 to 2013. Thus, this research work attempts to determine the elixir of the service quality of Islamic Banks existed in Bangladesh as Islamic Banking Sector using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). This research uses modified CARTER model (Compliance of Islamic Shariah, Reliability, Assurance, Tangibility, Empathy and Responsiveness) consisting of 34 (thirty four) dimensions with 6 (six) constructs. A total of 396 samples have been used from 6 (six) full pledged Islamic banks in Bangladesh. This study reveals that 20 (twenty) factors have found as the elixir of service quality of Islamic banks in Bangladesh where assurance is the most significant construct followed by reliability, tangibility, empathy, responsiveness and tensely compliance of Islamic Shariah.
A powerful global router: based on Steiner min-max trees

A study is made of the global routing of multiterminal nets. The authors propose a novel global router. Each step consists of finding a tree, called Steiner min-max tree, that is, a Steiner tree with the maximum-weight edge minimized (real vertices represent channels containing terminals of a net, Steiner vertices represent intermediate channels, and weights correspond to densities). An efficient algorithm is presented for obtaining a Steiner min-max tree, in a weighted graph. Experimental results on difficult examples, randomly generated data, master slice chips, and benchmark examples from the physical design workshop are very promising. (In all cases, previous results have been improved.). <<ETX>>
Organizational Effects of Information Technology: Investigating Information Technology Use in the Context of Lean Manufacturing

The aim of this paper is to better understand the enabling and inhibiting impacts IT has on lean manufacturing. This paper provides a rich picture of a paper mill producing liner reels and the impact of a reel administration system on the manufacturing process. It is important that an IT tool supporting lean manufacturing reflects its organization. When it does the IT tool can act as an enabler of organizational change that in turn increase productivity and the production quality, when it fails to do so it inhibits organizational change and hampers the quality of production. The conclusion is that framing the definition of high production quality regarding product and process is important and that teambuilding would be a contribution to this end by enhancing perspective taking among the
Hepatitis C treatment in patients on the liver transplant waiting list

Purpose of reviewHepatitis C virus (HCV) infection remains the leading indication for liver transplant, and viral eradication prior to liver transplant to prevent disease recurrence has traditionally been challenging because of the poor tolerability and efficacy of available therapies. However, with the recent introduction of potent interferon (IFN)-free direct acting antiviral regimens, viral eradication prior to liver transplant is now possible. Recent findingsAlthough data are limited, several proof of concept studies have now shown high rates of safety and efficacy in patients with compensated as well as mild-to-moderately decompensated cirrhosis. Although, treatment on the liver transplant waiting list can safely prevent postliver transplant recurrence in selected patients, the ideal regimen and treatment duration have yet to be determined. SummaryAlthough IFN-free therapies represent a tremendous advance in our ability to cure this previously difficult to treat population, additional data on the safety of these regimens, particularly in patients with severely decompensated cirrhosis, the consequences of virologic failure and the impact of viral eradication on short- and long-term liver function are urgently needed.
Labelling of “Peripheral‐Type” Benzodiazepine Binding Sites in the Rat Brain By Using [3H]PK 11195, an Isoquinoline Carboxamide Derivative: Kinetic Studies and Autoradiographic Localization

Abstract: PK 11195 [1‐(2‐chlorophenyl)‐N‐methyl‐N‐(1‐methylpropyl)‐3‐isoquinolinecarboxamide] is a new ligand for the “peripheral‐type” benzodiazepine binding sites, chemically unrelated to benzodiazepines. It displaces with a very high potency (IC50× 10−9M) [3H]‐RO5–4864 (a benzodiazepine which specifically labels the peripheral‐type sites) from its binding sites. [3H]PK 11195 binds to a membrane fraction from rat brain cortex and rat olfactory bulb in a saturable and reversible manner with a very high affinity (KD= 10−9M). The number of maximal binding sites was ten times greater in the olfactory bulb than in the brain cortex. The order of potency of several compounds as displacers at 25°C (PK 11195 > RO5–4864 > diazepam > dipyridamole > clonazepam) demonstrates that [3H]PK 11195 binds to the peripheral‐type benzodiazepine binding sites. The KD value for the [3H]PK 11195 binding is not affected by temperature changes, whereas RO5–4864 and diazepam affinities decrease with increasing temperatures. Autoradiographic images of [3H]PK 11195 binding to rat brain sections show that binding sites are mainly localized in the olfactory bulb, median eminence, choroid plexus, and ependyma. This ligand could be a useful tool to elucidate the physiological and pharmacological relevance of these binding sites.
Baggage Recognition in Baggage Position Control System for Handling the Adjoined Bags in Airport

Medium or large sized airports that can serve increasing number of airlines and passengers from all over the world have been expanding. As a result, the amount of baggage processed at an airport has also been increasing. Therefore, for fast and reliable handling of baggage, the importance of Baggage Handling System has gradually increased. A checked-in bag is top-loaded on a conveyor belt to a high-speed tray for high-speed processing. Before being top-loaded, the bag may be unstably positioned, dropped, or double loaded on a tray in various situations. Baggage Position Control System in an airport controls a position of the bag just before top-loading to solve problems. In this paper, we discussed the methods that distinguish whether baggage be adjacent to another and that decide the arrangement types to be able to process unstable baggage in the control part of Baggage Position Control System.
THE CYTOCHEMICAL APPLICATION OF NEW POTENT INHIBITORS OF ALKALINE PHOSPHATASES

The inhibitory properties of levamisole and its analogue R 8231 on alkaline phosphatases of various rat tissues were investigated cytochemically. Very low concentrations, respectively, 0.5 and 0.1 mM, sufficed to achieve complete inhibition in most tissues except intestine. The inhibition was reversible as for other known uncompetetive inhibitors but was found to be substrate-independent. The influence of fixation and incubation procedures was negligable. Other phosphatases as acid phosphatase, adenosine triphosphatase, thiamine pyrophosphatase, glucose 6-phosphatase and 5'-nucleotidase remained unchanged in the presence of the inhibitors.
No influence of SLC6A3 40 base VNTR polymorphism on the response to risperidone

Abstract Objectives. The SLC6A3 40 base variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphism has been associated with several clinical phenotypes associated with dysregulation of dopamine transmission. However, there is only little evidence about a possible influence of such genetic variant on the response to antipsychotics. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether SLC6A3 40 base VNTR polymorphism could modulate response to risperidone in a sample of Korean schizophrenia subjects. Methods. One hundred and forty-two schizophrenia inpatients were treated with a flexible dose of risperidone. Efficacy was assessed at baseline and at discharge using the scores of the Clinical Global Impression-severity (CGI-S), Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and Positive and Negative Symptom Score (PANSS). Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to test possible influences of SLC6A3 VNTR variants on clinical scores. Results. None of the genotypes and of the alleles under investigation was associated with clinical scores at discharge or with changes of clinical scores over time. In addition, we also failed to find any association between genotypes and allele frequency distribution in accordance with treatment response defined as a 20% (or 30%) or more reduction in the total PANSS scores from the baseline to the end of treatment. Conclusion. Our findings do not suggest a possible association between SLC6A3 40 base VNTR polymorphism and response to risperidone. However, because of several limitations including the investigation of a single drug, the flexible design of the present study and the absence of a complete coverage of features which could influence the response, further investigations could be required.
Integrated Modeling Environment ( IME ) Special Project

The IME Special Project proposal included in the IIASA 2006-2010 Research Plan was approved for 2006-2008 by the IIASA Council at its June 2005 meeting. The proposal contains the specification of the research topics, detailed discussion of the corresponding research needs and opportunities, as well as the IME contributions to IIASA objectives and mission. In this document we copy from the proposal only the IME Strategic Goal and Objectives , and ask the readers interested in the details to consult the full IME proposal that is available as the document COUN-65-V-d-1 submitted to the Council meeting in June 2005.
CT coronary angiography in low- to intermediate-risk patients: Less radiation, less invasive angiography, and less revascularisation

Abstract Objectives. We investigated whether any change in the use of invasive coronary angiography and coronary revascularisation after CT coronary angiography in patients with a low to intermediate pre-test probability of coronary artery disease could be explained from alterations in patient characteristics. Design. A cohort study based on data samples from the Western Denmark Heart Registry. Follow-up ended on 11 March 2014. Results. A total of 3541 persons were examined during the period of January 2010–December 2013. The median radiation dose was reduced from 4.2 to 2.2 mSv (p < 0.001) due to improved technology. The immediate referral rate for subsequent myocardial perfusion scans was increased from 2.8% to 10.0% (p < 0.001), while the immediate referral rate for invasive coronary angiography decreased from 25.3% to 10.8% (p < 0.001). The revascularisation rate diminished from 10.4% to 6.3%. The multivariable adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) for invasive coronary angiography during follow-up after CT coronary angiography was 0.59 (0.47–0.74) and that for coronary revascularisation was 0.66 (0.45–0.97) in 2013 compared to that in 2010. Conclusions: The radiation dose diminished considerably. The reductions in the use of invasive coronary angiography and coronary revascularisation could not be explained by changes in patient characteristics but are driven by an increased use of perfusion scans in combination with increasing use of measurement of functional coronary flow reserve.
Strategies in a global environment: Sim Mercury Shoes

The intent of this report is to reflect my team’s successes and failures in managing Mercury Shoes during the four years and five rounds of the SIM, and evaluates my abilities to successfully do so. This assessment includes some discussion of the areas such as strategy, mission and values, performance, and externalities. It also includes comments on ways/areas where my team and I might have been more effective in addressing each area.
The Relationship between Systolic Blood Pressure and Microvascular Resistance in Non-Diabetic and Diabetic Subjects

Skin blood flow and microvascular resistance were measured in the feet of hypertensive and normotensive subjects by the non-invasive transient thermal clearance method. Skin blood flow decreased and microvascular resistance increased as a function of systolic brachial blood pressure for the non-diabetic subjects who were not treated by vasoactive medication. The relationship between blood flow and systolic blood pressure for diabetic patients and for patients who were treated by enalapril was poor. The average resistance for non-diabetic patients treated by enalapril was lower than that of untreated non-diabetic subjects. For diabetic patients no significant difference in resistance between enalapril treated and untreated patients was found. The results demonstrate that for non-diabetic patients the role of microvascular resistance in hypertension is significant while it is less important in diabetic patients.
Managing Conflicts in Joint Venture Projects

A joint venture (JV) involves two or more businesses pooling their resources and expertise to achieve a particular goal, where the risks and rewards are shared. JV has become popular because of their importance as a strategic alternative in global competition. The number of JV has increased over the past two decades due to intensified technology, competitive challenges and market globalisation but it is important to understand what causes some JV to fail and others to succeed. Conflict is the main reason that causes some JV to fail. It may create problems in future planning and have negative effects on the financial performance of the firm that would affect JV survival. Hence, the study concentrates on the JV relationship between partners in the Malaysian construction industry in order to identify the effective ways in managing conflicts. A total of 100 questionnaires were distributed to the selected respondents and the finding shows that all of the respondents experienced conflict in the JV and the conflict management team seems to be inexistent to manage the conflict. Some recommendations in managing conflict are dictated by discussing the problem such as open talk, self-patience, endurance and being decisive as well as educating all the staffs in handling conflict.
Activity recognition from body worn accelerometers-toward real-time event detection

Inadequate physical activity is a leading risk factor in public health and inactive people are more vulnerable to having chronic diseases. In addition, levels of physical activity may be an indicator of health problems in elderly individuals, a particular problem in many societies where there is a growing ratio of elderly people. Identifying levels of physical activity may have a significant effect on reducing healthcare costs in the future. As a consequence, finding approaches for measuring the individuals’ activities is a persistent need, in order to provide a view about their quality life and to observe their current health status. This may be best achieved by using low-cost wearable technologies such as accelerometer based inertial sensors. In this work, accelerometer data was projected onto a sphere of radius g (magnitude of acceleration due to earth gravitate) and the angle between the posture of the individual’s trunk and the gravity vector was used together with the dot product of two successive accelerations to extract significant features from accelerometer data. Two datasets were used, the first had been collected for SPHERE project from individuals with Parkinson’s disease in their home and the second is a public domain benchmark data set. Decision Trees and Naïve Bayes classifiers were used on both datasets. The classification results of a small set of activities of single individual from first dataset show that Naïve Bayes have a higher overall accuracy rate, which is 85.41% compared with 78.56% for Decision Trees. The second dataset of daily household activities is used to provide a comparison with one state-of-the-art approach in the literature. The result shows that Decision Trees with the proposed features outperform the literature approach by having an overall accuracy rate exceeded 91%. 1 Biomedical Engineering group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG1 5AQ, UK 2 Department of Computer Systems, Babel Technical Institute, Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, Babylon, Iraq 3 Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK 4 NIHR CLAHRC Wessex, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK 5 Faculty of Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1UB, UK
Sevoflurane-nitrous oxide or halothane-nitrous oxide for paediatric bronchoscopy and gastroscopy.

We have studied 120 infants and children, in three age groups (3-11 months, 1-5 yr and 6-15 yr), to compare anaesthesia with sevoflurane or halothane for bronchoscopy or gastroscopy, or both. Premedication or i.v. anaesthetic agents were not used. Patients were allocated randomly to receive either 7% sevoflurane or 3% halothane in 66% nitrous oxide in oxygen for induction of anaesthesia. The same inspired mixture was continued during bronchoscopy while the concentration of the inhalation agent was reduced by 50% during gastroscopy. Induction times were shorter for infants than for children and shorter for sevoflurane than for halothane. Cardiac arrhythmias were significantly more frequent during halothane than during sevoflurane anaesthesia. Physiological and psychomotor recovery were more rapid after sevoflurane than after halothane. At 24-h follow-up, children who received sevoflurane had significantly less nausea and vomiting. We conclude that sevoflurane was superior to halothane for paediatric bronchoscopy and gastroscopy.
College Women Who Had Sexual Intercourse When They Were Underage Minors (13-15): Age of Their Male Partners, Relation to Current Adjustment, and Statutory Rape Implications

In a survey of 1,439 female college students, 24% reported that they had what they considered consensual sexual intercourse between ages 13 and 15 (2% at age 13, 7% at age 14, and 15% at age 15). Contrary to the impression left by studies of teenage mothers, the majority of their male sexual partners were not substantially older than them but instead were more typically "somewhat older" (2-4 years apart) or similar aged (less than 2 years apart). The percentage of "much older" partners (5 or more years older) was 31 % for those who had intercourse at age 13, 17% for those who had intercourse at age 14, and 13% for those who had intercourse at age 15. Women who had intercourse at age 13 endorsed more current symptoms of psychological distress than those who first had intercourse at age 14 or 15. There were no significant differences between the groups in current levels of sexual satisfaction. Partner's age difference was not significantly associated with current levels of either psychological distress or sexual satisfaction. The implications of these results were discussed in light of recent calls in the United States for more strict and rigorous enforcement of statutory rape laws.
Comprehensive load-pull data for amplifier design

This paper presents the needed interface geometry from device characterization process that is required for a comprehensive set of load-pull data. It also shows the method to obtain this geometry when the dielectric material used for characterizing the active device is different from the one used for the amplifier. The basics of load-pull method for device characterization are used to make the case for comprehensive load-pull data.
Mycobacterium orygis Lymphadenitis in New York, USA

We report a case of lymphadenitis caused by Mycobacterium orygis in an immunocompetent person in Stony Brook, New York, USA. Initial real-time PCR assay failed to provide a final subspecies identification within the M. tuberculosis complex, but whole-genome sequencing characterized the isolate as M. orygis.