Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Queueing management and improving customer experience: empirical evidence regarding enjoyable queues

Purpose The purpose of this study is that service sectors sectors create queues intentionally as a promotional strategy. Potential buyers might become actual customers after witnessing and joining queues. However, the effectiveness of company promotional activities involving queues remains unclear. Despite the innovativeness of this marketing strategy, few companies have adopted this approach, owing to the lack of research on how waiting influences customer behaviors toward waiting in queues. Design/methodology/approach Therefore, this study identifies four factors of customer willingness to stand in a queue using questionnaire survey: company promotional activities, improvement of waiting environment, company’ reactions to the queue and customers’ perceptions regarding waiting time. Findings This study identifies causal relationships among the aforementioned factors. The results of this investigation reveal that a company’s promotional activities significantly and indirectly reduce customers’ perceived waiting time by improving the waiting environment. Analytical results also show that a company’s queuing management can indirectly reduce customers’ perceived waiting time by improving the waiting environment. Originality/value Based on the analytical results concerning causal relationships, improving the waiting environment is critical to affecting positively customers’ perceptions regarding waiting time. Queuing management can indirectly reduce customers’ perceived waiting time by improving the waiting environment. A company’s promotional activities can indirectly reduce customers’ perceived waiting time by improving the waiting environment. Customers who enjoy both the waiting environment and the promotional activities experience much shorter perceived waiting time.
Doping of Active Region in Long Wavelength InP-Based Transistor Lasers

The effects of doping in the multiquantum well (MQW) active region on the properties of InP-based long wavelength deep ridge transistor lasers (TLs) are numerically studied. Doping in the MQWs is shown to lead to a decrease of the slope efficiency and a notable increase of the current gain of the TLs, which makes MQW doping a useful tool for facilitating the design of TLs. When there are nonradiative recombination centers on the exposed MQW side walls of the TLs, doping in the MQWs is found to be able to enhance the performance of the TLs by reducing the threshold current and increasing the current gain greatly. With doping in the MQWs, the carrier diffusivity is decreased, making the defects less effective in consuming the carriers. The results show that doping in the MQWs helps to obtain high-quality TLs. The reduced carrier diffusion that results from doping also helps to improve the quality of a normal diode laser in case a deep ridge structure is needed.
The Insider Misuse Threat Survey : Investigating IT misuse from legitimate users

The majority of computer security methods tend to focus upon the detection and prevention of security incidents of external origin. However, a number of surveys and media reports indicate the dangers of legitimate user misuse of IT resources, a separate category of computer security incidents with serious consequences for the integrity, privacy and availability of computer systems and networks. After the discussion of some basic terminology, accompanied by relevant case studies, the paper explores the problem of insider IT misuse by analyzing the results of a survey that specifically examines the issue. The results revealed that insider misuse is a significant problem – both in terms of the volume of incidents and their consequent impacts upon the organizations concerned. The findings also suggested characteristics that may help to profile insider IT misuse, and hence develop more efficient tools for the mitigation of insider threat.
Assessing Genetically Modified Crops to Minimize the Risk of Increased Food Allergy: A Review

The first genetically modified (GM) crops approved for food use (tomato and soybean) were evaluated for safety by the United States Food and Drug Administration prior to commercial production. Among other factors, those products and all additional GM crops that have been grown commercially have been evaluated for potential increases in allergenic properties using methods that are consistent with the current understanding of food allergens and knowledge regarding the prediction of allergenic activity. Although there have been refinements, the key aspects of the evaluation have not changed. The allergenic properties of the gene donor and the host (recipient) organisms are considered in determining the appropriate testing strategy. The amino acid sequence of the encoded protein is compared to all known allergens to determine whether the protein is a known allergen or is sufficiently similar to any known allergen to indicate an increased probability of allergic cross-reactivity. Stability of the protein in the presence of acid with the stomach protease pepsin is tested as a risk factor for food allergenicity. In vitro or in vivo human IgE binding are tested when appropriate, if the gene donor is an allergen or the sequence of the protein is similar to an allergen. Serum donors and skin test subjects are selected based on their proven allergic responses to the gene donor or to material containing the allergen that was matched in sequence. While some scientists and regulators have suggested using animal models, performing broadly targeted serum IgE testing or extensive pre- or post-market clinical tests, current evidence does not support these tests as being predictive or practical. Based on the evidence to date, the current assessment process has worked well to prevent the unintended introduction of allergens in commercial GM crops.
Shading correction algorithm for improvement of cone-beam CT images in radiotherapy

Cone-beam CT (CBCT) images have recently become an established modality for treatment verification in radiotherapy. However, identification of soft-tissue structures and the calculation of dose distributions based on CBCT images is often obstructed by image artefacts and poor consistency of density calibration. A robust method for voxel-by-voxel enhancement of CBCT images using a priori knowledge from the planning CT scan has been developed and implemented. CBCT scans were enhanced using a low spatial frequency grey scale shading function generated with the aid of a planning CT scan from the same patient. This circumvents the need for exact correspondence between CBCT and CT and the process is robust to the appearance of unshared features such as gas pockets. Enhancement was validated using patient CBCT images. CT numbers in regions of fat and muscle tissue in the processed CBCT were both within 1% of the values in the planning CT, as opposed to 10–20% different for the original CBCT. Visual assessment of processed CBCT images showed improvement in soft-tissue visibility, although some cases of artefact introduction were observed.
The bZIP transactivator of Epstein-Barr virus, BZLF1, functionally and physically interacts with the p65 subunit of NF-kappa B

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) BZLF1 (Z) immediate-early transactivator initiates the switch between latent and productive infection in B cells. The Z protein, which has homology to the basic leucine zipper protein c-Fos, transactivates the promoters of several replicative cycle proteins. Transactivation efficiency of the EBV BMRF1 promoter by Z is cell type dependent. In B cells, in which EBV typically exists in a latent form, Z activates the BMRF1 promoter inefficiently. We have discovered that the p65 component of the cellular factor NF-kappa B inhibits transactivation of several EBV promoters by Z. Furthermore, the inhibitor of NF-kappa B, I kappa B alpha, can augment Z-induced transactivation in the B-cell line Raji. Using glutathione S-transferase fusion proteins and coimmunoprecipitation studies, we demonstrate a direct interaction between Z and p65. This physical interaction, which requires the dimerization domain of Z and the Rel homology domain of p65, can be demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo. Inhibition of Z transactivation function by NF-kappa B p65, or possibly by other Rel family proteins, may contribute to the inefficiency of Z transactivator function in B cells and may be a mechanism of maintaining B-cell-specific viral latency.
Dimensions of Grandparent-Adult Grandchild Relationships: From Family Ties to Intergenerational Friendships*

ABSTRACT This paper examines the growing demographic phenomenon of grandparent–adult grandchild relationships from the perspectives of both generations. Drawing on qualitative life-history interviews (n = 37), this research explores the subjective meanings of the relationship, as well as the experiences of being grandparents and adult grandchildren. Despite tremendous diversity in grandparent–adult grandchild relationships, including differences among and between generations, both groups in this study view one another positively and conceptualize their ties as personally and existentially meaningful. They classify their relationships as a distinct family tie centred on unconditional love, mutual support, respect, and obligation. A number of individuals also discuss their grandparent–adult grandchild relationships as friendships, involving mutual trust, shared confidences, and personal choice. Overall, this research suggests that grandparent-grandchild relationships often grow more profound and meaningful as grandparents and grandchildren age, move through the life course, and experience life events. RÉSUMÉ Cet article porte sur le phénomène démographique croissant des relations entre les grands-parents et leurs petits-enfants d'âge adulte, selon les perspectives des deux générations. Á la lumière d'entrevues qualitatives portant sur les cycles biologiques (n = 37), cette recherche étudie les significations subjectives de ces relations, ainsi que les expériences vécues par les grands-parents et les petits-enfants d'âge adulte. Malgré l'énorme diversité des relations entre les grands-parents et leurs petits-enfants d'âge adulte, y compris les différences entre les générations et au sein d'une même génération, les deux groupes visés par cette étude ont une perspective positive de l'autre et ils voient leurs liens comme étant importants d'un point de vue personnel et existentiel. Ils décrivent leurs relations comme des liens familiaux particuliers axés sur un amour inconditionnel, du soutien mutuel, du respect et un sens du devoir. Un certain nombre de personnes décrivent également cette relation comme une relation d'amitié, fondée sur une confiance réciproque, un échange de confidences et un choix personnel. Dans l'ensemble, cette recherche semble indiquer que les liens entre les grands-parents et leurs petits-enfants d'âge adulte deviennent généralement plus profonds et plus importants au fur et à mesure que les grands-parents et les petits-enfants vieillissent, qu'ils parcourent leur cheminement de vie et qu'ils expérimentent les événements de la vie.
Maximum load of database service with recovery

The main purpose of any database is to provide efficient services to users. One of the fundamental works on relational databases (Codd, 1970) identifies four main types of database services: "Projection", "Intersection", "Selection" and "Union" and four types of special services: "Subtraction", "Descartes product", "Connection" and "Division". All these services are independent from each other, although special services can be expressed in terms of the basic relational operators. Each of the services in the database is processed during the period of time determined by the type of query. This indicates the presence of heterogeneity in database network queries processing.
Study of Axial-Flux-Type Superconducting Eddy-Current Couplings

A theoretical physical model of axial-flux-type superconducting eddy-current coupling is systematically investigated. A mathematical description of a high-field superconducting bulk magnet used as the magnetic field source is modeled based on the physical superconducting mechanism. Thereafter, a practical two-dimensional (2-D) magnetic equivalent circuit model for the analytical calculation of magnetic field distribution in this coupling design using Schwarz–Christoffel mapping is proposed to predict the air gap magnetic density and the transferred torque, taking nonlinear effects of the magnetic materials into consideration. Finally, a 1/6 section 3-D model of the proposed superconducting eddy-current coupling is designed and analyzed via finite element method. The calculation results by the proposed analytical model are verified with those issued from the finite element method. Also, the efficiency of superconducting eddy current couple is analyzed theoretically.
Insulin resistance, inflammation, and serum fatty acid composition.

OBJECTIVE Fatty acids (FAs) have been involved in the development of chronic inflammatory conditions such as insulin resistance and obesity. However, the relation among insulin resistance, obesity, inflammatory activity (circulating interleukin [IL]-6) and dietary FAs has been scarcely studied in otherwise healthy subjects. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We aimed to study these interactions in 123 overweight (BMI 26.9 +/- 2.4 kg/m(2) [means +/- SD]) subjects and 109 lean (BMI 21.7 +/- 1.7 kg/m(2), P < 0.000001) subjects. IL-6 was measured by immunoassay and FA by gas liquid cromatography. RESULTS The percentage of saturated FAs (r = 0.30, P = 0.01) and omega-6 FAs (r = -0.32, P = 0.001) were significantly associated with circulating IL-6, whereas the percentage of omega-3 FAs correlated negatively with C-reactive protein in overweight subjects (P = 0.04). Saturated-to-omega-3 and saturated-to-omega-6 FA ratios were significantly and positively associated with C-reactive protein (P < 0.0001) and IL-6 (P < 0.001), respectively. In contrast, none of these associations reached statistical significance in lean subjects. Those subjects in the most insulin-sensitive quintile (homeostasis model assessment value) showed a significantly higher percentage of linoleic acid (C18:2 varpi6) (P = 0.03) and a significantly lower level of araquidic (C20:0) (P = 0.04), behenic (C22:0) (P = 0.009), lignoceric (C24:0) (P = 0.02), and nervonic (C24:1 varpi9) (P = 0.001) FAs than the remaining subjects. In parallel, the most insulin-sensitive subjects showed significantly decreased C-reactive protein (P = 0.03). Serum C-reactive protein was significantly associated with percent linoleic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid in nonsmoking men (P = 0.03 and P = 0.04, respectively) and with docosahexaenoic acid in nonsmoking women (r = -0.46, P < 0.0001). We constructed a multivariant regression analysis to predict circulating IL-6. Age, BMI, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), smoking status, and the relation of saturated to omega-6 or saturated to omega-3 FAs were considered as independent variables separately in men and women. In overweight men, the ratio of saturated to omega-3 FAs (P = 0.01), but not age, sex, BMI, WHR, or smoking status, independently contributed to 17% of IL-6 variance. In lean men, smoking status (P = 0.02), but not the remaining variables, contributed to 8% of IL-6 variance. CONCLUSIONS Dietary FAs (as inferred from plasma FA concentration) seem to be linked to inflammatory activity in overweight subjects and in subjects with insulin resistance. Being overweight modulates the relation of FAs to inflammatory markers.
Synapsin is required to “boost” memory strength for highly salient events

Synapsin is an evolutionarily conserved presynaptic phosphoprotein. It is encoded by only one gene in the Drosophila genome and is expressed throughout the nervous system. It regulates the balance between reserve and releasable vesicles, is required to maintain transmission upon heavy demand, and is essential for proper memory function at the behavioral level. Task-relevant sensorimotor functions, however, remain intact in the absence of Synapsin. Using an odor–sugar reward associative learning paradigm in larval Drosophila, we show that memory scores in mutants lacking Synapsin (syn97) are lower than in wild-type animals only when more salient, higher concentrations of odor or of the sugar reward are used. Furthermore, we show that Synapsin is selectively required for larval short-term memory. Thus, without Synapsin Drosophila larvae can learn and remember, but Synapsin is required to form memories that match in strength to event salience—in particular to a high saliency of odors, of rewards, or the salient recency of an event. We further show that the residual memory scores upon a lack of Synapsin are not further decreased by an additional lack of the Sap47 protein. In combination with mass spectrometry data showing an up-regulated phosphorylation of Synapsin in the larval nervous system upon a lack of Sap47, this is suggestive of a functional interdependence of Synapsin and Sap47.
Spatially limited mud turbidites on the Cascadia margin: segmented earthquake ruptures?

Abstract. A series of 23 thin, mostly mud-silt turbidites are found interspersed between larger, well-dated and regionally correlated paleoseismic sandy turbidites that extend along most of the Cascadia margin, northwestern United States. Investigation of the structure, distribution, and sedimentology of these thin mud-silt units supports the interpretation of these units as turbidites originating on the continental slope. Interpretation of mud turbidites is inhibited by bioturbation and lower response to analytical and imaging techniques; nevertheless most of the 23 interpreted beds exhibit most of the characteristics of coarser turbidites. These characteristics include sharp bases, fining upward sequences, darker color, increased gamma and CT density and magnetic susceptibility relative to the hemipelagic background, sparse microfossils, high lithic content, and evidence of transport from marine sources on the continental slope. New core data from sites south of Rogue Apron indicate that sandy and muddy turbidites may be correlated at least 150 km south to Trinidad Plunge Pool for the period ~ 4800 yr BP to present. Many of the mud turbidites initially described at Rogue Apron coarsen southward, becoming sandy turbidites. High-resolution Chirp seismic profiles reveal that turbidite stratigraphy along the base of the southern Cascadia continental slope is continuous, with little variation for at least 240 km along strike. The Chirp data show that turbidites along the Cascadia base of slope are ubiquitous, and likely not sourced solely from submarine canyon mouths, but may also have been delivered to the proximal abyssal plain as sheet flows from the open continental slope and coalescing local sources. Regional stratigraphy reveals that hemipelagic sedimentation rates and total Holocene turbidite thickness and mass are similar at widely separated sites, yet the total thickness of the Holocene section is greater by a factor of two in southern Cascadia. This difference is primarily due to the presence of the 21 mud and two additional sandy turbidites. We conclude that the Cascadia mud turbidites are ubiquitous along southern Cascadia only, with only one likely example of a correlated turbidite limited to the northern margin. Eight onshore sites including three marsh sites and five lakes include potential seismogenic correlatives of the southern Cascadia turbidites. In all, the onshore sites may have recorded > 80% of the events attributed to plate boundary earthquakes offshore during the period 0–6000 yr ago. Slope stability calculations suggest that earthquakes of Mw = 7.0 or greater should generate ground accelerations sufficient to destabilize open slopes and canyon heads with or without excess pore fluid pressure. Estimates of Mw for segmented ruptures are in the range of 7.4–8.7, exceeding the slope stability criteria for typical slopes by at least a factor of ~ four.
Altered Distribution of Cell Cycle Transcriptional Regulators during Alzheimer Disease

A number of mechanisms have been proposed to contribute to the selective neuronal cell loss observed during Alzheimer disease (AD). These include the formation and accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ)-containing plaques, neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), and inflammatory processes mediated by astrocytes and microglia. Neuronal responses to such insults in AD brain include increased protein levels and immunoreactivity for kinases known to regulate cell cycle progression. One downstream target of these cell cycle regulatory proteins, the Retinoblastoma susceptibility gene product (pRb), has been shown to exhibit altered expression patterns in AD. Furthermore, in vitro studies have implicated pRb and one of the transcription factors it regulates, E2F1, in Aβ-induced cell death. To further explore the role of these proteins in AD, we examined the distribution of the E2F1 transcription factor and the hyperphosphorylated form of pRb (ppRb), which is unable to bind and regulate E2F activity, in the cortex of patients with AD and in non-demented controls. We observed increased ppRb and E2F1 immunoreactivity in AD brain, with ppRb predominately located in the nucleus and E2F1 in the cytoplasm. Although neither of these proteins significantly co-localized with NFTs, both ppRb and E2F1 were found in cells surrounding a subset of Aβ-containing plaques. These results support a role for G1 to S phase cell cycle regulators in AD.
The SQUASH 1000 tangible user interface system

A hand-held object whose pose can be determined automatically is useful for augmented reality (AR) and other applications needing human-computer interaction. Some existing such input devices use active (ex. LED lighting) or passive markers to be recognized in a video image by computer vision. Markers are typically mounted onto flat objects which are not ergonomic, or can only have limited number of sides due to the small library and inter-marker confusion rate of the marker system used. A system is presented based on the ARTag fiducial marker system where objects of arbitrary shape can be covered with many small markers, the pose of the object is recovered automatically and can be used as an input device. Other tangible user interface systems require specialized hardware, whereas this approach needs only a printer, a video camera or Webcam, and a large garden vegetable. The utility of this system both for measuring pose and for 3D modeling is shown.