Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ERP Redefined: Optimizing Parameters with Lean Six Sigma for Small & Medium Enterprises

Think Globally and Act Locally. Globalization, once the domain for only large companies, is now presenting new markets for the growth of small to mid market companies. ERP can be the road to prosperity for SMEs if one can select steps to implement Lean Six Sigma approach carefully to make the organization proficient and profitable. Besides the analysis of optimizing or tailoring parameters during ERP implementation suggests that even without new module development, small companies may be able to build unique functionality into a standard ERP system to their competitive advantages. While our ancient MRP-centric ERP is largely obsolete, this paper presents an evolving and sustainable Enterprise System approach which will definitely live on by mutating and adapting to a new world of shrinking cycle times, budgets, non-value-added activities and head counts.
The Perceived Role of Diploma Examinations in Alberta, Canada

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceived uses of diploma examination results by Alberta, Canada, high school teachers and to replicate and extend D. Loerke's (1993) study. Classroom teachers and school-based administrators (N = 414) across Alberta took part in the research questionnaire developed to measure the variables under study. Findings indicate that classroom instruction has improved as a result of the reimplementation of diploma examinations, concerns about the reduction of teacher autonomy as a result of diploma examinations persist, study participants lacked the professional training necessary to make the most of the available student assessment information, and the perceived uses of diploma examination results have changed since the Loerke study. These findings have the potential to contribute to changes in teacher assessment practices in Alberta regarding appropriate use of standardized test results as a measure of student learning.
Healing Past Violence: Traumatic Assumptions and Therapeutic Interventions in War and Reconciliation

Since South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a therapeutic moral order has become one of the dominant frameworks within which states attempt to deal with a legacy of violent conflict. As a consequence, the grammar of trauma, suffering, repression, denial, closure, truth-revelation, and catharsis has become almost axiomatic to postconflict state-building. The rise of the postconflict therapeutic framework is tied, ineluctably, to the global proliferation of amnesty agreements. This article examines the emergence and application of two therapeutic truisms that have gained political credence in postconflict contexts since the work of the TRC. The first of these is that war-torn societies are traumatized and require therapeutic management if conflict is to be ameliorated. The second, and related truism, is that one of the tasks of the postconflict state is to attend to the psychiatric health of its citizens and the nation as a whole. The article shows how, and to what effect, these truisms coalesce powerfully at the site of postconflict national reconciliation processes. It argues that the discourse of therapy provides a radically new mode of state legitimation. It is the language through which new state institutions, primarily truth commissions, attempt to acknowledge suffering, ameliorate trauma and simultaneously found political legitimacy. The article concludes by suggesting that, on a therapeutic understanding, postconflict processes of dealing with past violence justify nascent political orders on new grounds: not just because they can forcibly suppress conflict, or deliver justice and protect rights, but because they can cure people of the pathologies that are a potential cause of resurgent violence.
Caution in the Use of Difference Scores in Consumer Research

This article illustrates the common use of difference scores in consumer research and discusses a number of potential problems with using them. Difference scores often have problems in the areas of reliability, discus validity, spurious correlations, and variance restriction. The article concludes that difference scores should generally not be used in consumer research and offers alternatives that overcome their limitations. Copyright 1993 by the University of Chicago.
Promoting Positive Interactions Between Teachers and Students With Emotional/Behavioral Disorders

T students with emotionalhehavioral disorders (EBD), are increasingly faced with challenges regarding the instruction and management of their students. Although teachers have at their disposal an endless list of interventions to address students’ academic and behavioral needs, these interventions often lack empirical support; furthermore, methods that are rooted in sound empiricism may lack effectiveness due to improper application
Age-related changes in tissue macrophages precede cardiac functional impairment

Cardiac tissue macrophages (cTMs) are abundant in the murine heart but the extent to which the cTM phenotype changes with age is unknown. This study characterizes aging-dependent phenotypic changes in cTM subsets. Using the Cx3cr1GFP/+ mouse reporter line where GFP marks cTMs, and the tissue macrophage marker Mrc1, we show that two major cardiac tissue macrophage subsets, Mrc1−GFPhi and Mrc1+GFPhi cTMs, are present in the young (<10 week old) mouse heart, and a third subset, Mrc1+GFPlo, comprises ~50% of total Mrc1+ cTMs from 30 weeks of age. Immunostaining and functional assays show that Mrc1+ cTMs are the principal myeloid sentinels in the mouse heart and that they retain proliferative capacity throughout life. Gene expression profiles of the two Mrc1+ subsets also reveal that Mrc1+GFPlo cTMs have a decreased number of immune response genes (Cx3cr1, Lpar6, CD9, Cxcr4, Itga6 and Tgfβr1), and an increased number of fibrogenic genes (Ltc4s, Retnla, Fgfr1, Mmp9 and Ccl24), consistent with a potential role for cTMs in cardiac fibrosis. These findings identify early age-dependent gene expression changes in cTMs, with significant implications for cardiac tissue injury responses and aging-associated cardiac fibrosis.
Perspectives of learners and teachers on school dysfunctions in South Africa

Abstract The aim of this article is to develop and test a systematic framework for conceptualising and analysing dysfunctions in schools. Based on the Explanatory Model of School Dysfunctions (EMSD) developed by Bergman, Bergman and Gravett (2011), dysfunctions as experienced by teachers and learners were analysed. Data for this research are non-representative and include 40 essays written by teachers and approximately 1 500 open-ended responses by recently matriculated students. It was found that the EMSD is suitable for modelling the problem domains experienced by teachers and learners. Perceived causes and consequences of dysfunctions relate to their proximal contact zone, i.e. the agents and behaviours with which they are most familiar. This article includes a discussion on theoretical and empirical limitations, recommendations for future research in this field, as well as policy recommendations to address some of the problems experienced by teachers and learners in South Africa.
Omnidirectional Obstacle Perception and Collision Avoidance for Micro Aerial Vehicles

In this paper, we propose a complete micro aerial vehicle platform—including hardware setup and processing pipeline—that is able to perceive obstacles in (almost) all directions in its surrounding. In order to compensate for deficiencies of individual obstacle sensors, we make use of different sensor modalities. Detected obstacles are fused and accumulated in a three-dimensional egocentric obstacle map. For avoiding collisions with detected obstacles, we employ a predictive potential field-based approach to relax the assumption of classic approaches that the vehicle can change its dynamic state instantaneously. We present results in simulation and with the integrated robot.
A Dynamic Pharmacophore Drives the Interaction between Psalmotoxin-1 and the Putative Drug Target Acid-Sensing Ion Channel 1a

Acid-sensing ion channel 1a (ASIC1a) is a primary acid sensor in the peripheral and central nervous system. It has been implicated as a novel therapeutic target for a broad range of pathophysiological conditions including pain, ischemic stroke, depression, and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. The only known selective blocker of ASIC1a is π-TRTX-Pc1a (PcTx1), a disulfide-rich 40-residue peptide isolated from spider venom. π-TRTX-Pc1a is an effective analgesic in rodent models of acute pain and it provides neuroprotection in a mouse model of ischemic stroke. Thus, understanding the molecular basis of the π-TRTX-Pc1a–ASIC1a interaction should facilitate development of therapeutically useful ASIC1a blockers. We therefore developed an efficient bacterial expression system to produce a panel of π-TRTX-Pc1a mutants for probing structure-activity relationships as well as isotopically labeled toxin for determination of its solution structure and dynamics. We demonstrate that the toxin pharmacophore resides in a β-hairpin loop that was revealed to be mobile over a wide range of time scales using molecular dynamics simulations in combination with NMR spin relaxation and relaxation dispersion measurements. The toxin-receptor interaction was modeled by in silico docking of the toxin structure onto a homology model of rat ASIC1a in a restraints-driven approach that was designed to take account of the dynamics of the toxin pharmacophore and the consequent remodeling of side-chain conformations upon receptor binding. The resulting model reveals new insights into the mechanism of action of π-TRTX-Pc1a and provides an experimentally validated template for the rational design of therapeutically useful π-TRTX-Pc1a mimetics.
The Lived Experiences of Professional Clinical Psychologists who Recently Started a New Academic Career

Abstract Employing an adapted Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method, the experience of practicing Clinical Psychologists entering academia is explored. The article explores the recursive process between individual and institution as professional and academic identities develop in the context of a multiplicity of trajectories emerging at the intersection of professional and personal boundaries of identity, rhetoric and reality. The three authors, all of whom are practicing Clinical Psychologists new to academia and who constitute the focus of this study, engaged in a hermeneutic discussion regarding their experience. Exploration of the data gathered from this discussion using the adapted IPA methodology evidenced three central themes, namely: (1) The ‘nuts and bolts’ of academia; (2) Surviving versus thriving; and (3) It’s always personal. These themes are discussed in the context of contemporary literature exploring the experiences of new academics in general and Clinical Psychologists entering academia in particular. The pharmakon (sic.) that carts the Clinical Psychologists interviewed in the study from professional practice to academia is positioned in the context of an emergent meta-theme where the questions are asked: “What is good and what is not good? ” and “who will teach us these things? ” In the process of contextualizing, exploring and analyzing the emergent themes, the researchers/participants gradually evidence a response that is less of an answer to the conundrum than it is a koan whereby the questions lose meaning as growth in identity has taken them to the point of the rhetorical response: “Need we ask anyone to tell us these things? ”
REFERRED A NSWER S ETS FOR E XTENDED L OGIC P ROGRAMS

In this paper, we address the issue of how Gelfond and Lifschitz’s answer set semantics for extended logic programs can be suitably modified to handle prioritized programs. In such programs an ordering on the program rules is used to express preferences. We show how this ordering can be used to define preferred answer sets and thus to increase the set of consequences of a program. We define a strong and a weak notion of preferred answer sets. The first takes preferences more seriously, while the second guarantees the existence of a preferred answer set for programs possessing at least one answer set. Adding priorities to rules is not new, and has been explored in different contexts. However, we show that many approaches to priority handling, most of which are inherited from closely related formalisms like default logic, are not suitable and fail on intuitive examples. Our approach, which obeys abstract, general principles that any approach to prioritized knowledge representation should satisfy, handles them in the expected way. Moreover, we investigate the complexity of our approach. It appears that strong preference on answer sets does not add on the complexity of the principal reasoning tasks, and weak preference leads only to a mild increase in complexity. 1Universität Leipzig, Institut für Informatik, Abteilung Intelligente Systeme,Augustusplatz 9/10, D-04109 Leipzig, Germany. Email: brewka@informatik.uni-leipzig.de 2Institut für Informatik, Universität Gießen, Arndtstraße 2, D-35392 Gießen, Germany. Email: eiter@informatik.uni-giessen.de A short and partial version of this paper will appear in the Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR ’98), Trento, Italy, June 2–4, 1998. Copyright c 1998 by the authors
Output Bidding: A New Search Advertising Model Complementary to Keyword Bidding

A search engine can be modeled as a mapping that takes in user keywords as input and produces search results as output. Currently, the most dominant form of search advertising is input bidding where advertisers bid to associate their advertisements with keywords. We propose output bidding where advertisers bid to associate their advertisements with search results without changing or replacing any search result. We argue how the two forms of bidding complement each other as well as how output bidding also ties in contextual advertising to search advertising. We propose three basic variations with examples: associating advertisements with output from the same site, using output to make more expressive input bidding, and associating advertisements with output in general. We experimentally show the potential of output bidding using real data.
Distributed Representation of Single Touches in Somatosensory and Visual Cortex

Multi‐voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) was used to analyze blood–oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) data, which were acquired as human subjects received brief vibrotactile stimulation of their hands and feet. Support vector machines trained and tested on the whole brain fMRI data were able to accurately decode the body site of single touches, with mean performance of 92% in a two‐way discrimination task (chance performance 50%) and 70% in a four‐way discrimination task (chance performance 25%). Primary and secondary somatosensory areas (S1 and S2) alone decoded the touched body site with high accuracy. S1 was more accurate at decoding touches closely spaced on the body surface (different fingers of the same hand) whereas S2 and S1 were equally accurate at decoding widely spaced touches (hand vs. foot). The hand and foot regions of S1 (S1hand and S1foot) were separately examined in a two‐way classification task. S1hand was better able to decode the hand of stimulation (left vs. right), and S1foot was better able to decode the foot of stimulation. In addition to S1 and S2, vibrotactile responses were observed in a region of visual cortex, areas MST and STP (MST/STP) in lateral occipito‐temporal lobe. MST/STP was able to accurately decode the hand but not the foot of stimulation, supporting the idea of a role for MST/STP in eye‐hand coordination. Hum Brain Mapp 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Drinking in a Micro-Perspective: The Role of Engagement in Imitation of Sips of Alcoholic Beverages

In the current study, we used a real-time approach to test whether engagement during an interaction was related to imitation of another person's drinking behaviour. We observed moment-to-moment engagement levels and sipping behaviour during a 30 minute interaction between same-sex confederates and participants in a semi-naturalistic ad lib drinking context (N = 34 dyads; 18 males; 18–25 years). We applied multilevel proportional hazard models to test the relationships between engagement levels and imitation of sipping, when consuming alcohol compared to soda. Results showed that engagement levels were not related to the propensity to imitate sipping. Whether the dyad consumed alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages did not moderate the associations between engagement and imitation of sipping.
Bring out the counterpoint: exploring the relationship between implied polyphony and rubato in Bach's solo violin music

Performers are consistently instructed to use rubato to `bring out' the implied polyphony in Bach's solo string music. But previous research on the perception of this structural feature suggests that Bach's use of implied polyphony often creates a sense of structural expression, which is something that adds interest to the notes themselves and stands in contrast to the expressive nuances that a performer might later supply. If this is the case, performers could refrain from using much rubato in passages that contain structurally expressive types of implied polyphony, thereby allowing the inherent expression to emerge on its own. In order to test this hypothesis, expert performances from commercial recordings were analyzed to determine the relationship between type of implied polyphony and amount of tempo variation. Initial data confirms that violinists generally avoided any extensive use of rubato in passages where the implied polyphony alters the motivic, metric and/or metric structure and creates this structural expression. Performances of passages containing types of implied polyphony that are less structurally complex or disruptive were then characterized by a more extensive use of rubato that served to `bring out' the contrapuntal structure that was not already inherently expressive.
Time scale dependent viscoelastic and contractile regimes in fibroblasts probed by microplate manipulation.

Many essential phenomena in biology involve changes in cell shape. Cell deformation occurs in response to physical forces either coming from the external environment or intracellularly generated. In most tests of cell rheology, an external constraint is usually superimposed on an already mechanically active cell, thus the measurements may reflect both active motion and passive viscoelastic deformation. To show that active and passive processes could be distinguished on a time scale basis, we designed a novel piezo-controlled micromanipulation system to impose dynamic mechanical deformations on individual cells. Chick fibroblasts were seized between two glass microplates; one of the plates, more flexible, served as a sensor of the applied force. Controlled amounts of unidirectional compression and traction in the range of 10(-8)-10(-7) N were applied, using either step functions or sinusoidal signals at chosen frequencies. These tests allowed identification of three time scale dependent regimes. (1) A dominant elastic response, characterized by a linear stress-strain relationship, was especially apparent at short times (seconds); (2) A viscous behavior, characterized by force relaxation and irreversible cell deformation, was noticeable at intermediate times (minutes). Data from traction and oscillatory excitation tests were well fitted by a three-element Kelvin viscoelastic model, allowing the calculation of two elastic moduli in the range of 600-1,000 N/m2 and an apparent viscosity of about 10(4) Pa.s. (3) A contractile regime, in which actin-dependent traction forces were developed in response to uniaxial load was apparent at longer times (several tens of minutes). These forces were in the order of 4 x 10(-8) N above viscous relaxation. Thus we could distinguish, on a time scale basis, the specific contributions of passive viscoelasticity and active traction, and evaluate their mechanical characteristics within one experiment on a single cell.
Fuzzy Relationship Mapping and Intuition Inversion: A Computer Intuition Inference Model

The paper introduces a method of hesitate relationship mapping inversion (HRMI) to the acquisition of intuition information, and poses a model of intuition decision. Through the relationship construction of hesitate set and knowledge model, it sets up a couple of mapping models intuition information acquisition. The study shows that the premise of intuition decision is to set up patterns of intuition hesitate information. The author views that the reliability of the intuition decision depends on the man-computer interaction results. Simultaneously, choosing the knowledge clue should be determined by comprehensive evaluations, and self-learning of intuition are essentially needed.
Reverse engineering of framework design using a meta-patterns-based approach

Object-oriented frameworks are a powerful reuse technique but they are also very complex and difficult to design. Framework's design aims at separating the invariant aspects across several applications in a domain - frozen spots - from the aspects that vary among applications and thus must be kept flexible and customizable - hot spots. The flexibility and extensibility provided at hot spots is usually achieved by following common design patterns, which are often hard and tiresome to identify without proper documentation. This paper proposes a reverse engineering approach to identify the design patterns used in a framework, using a high-level hot spot representation. The goals of this work include: researching a design approach that produces usable intermediate reuse information; defining a representation for design patterns based on meta-patterns; and developing a supporting tool to automate the reverse engineering process.
Treatment of AG129 mice with antisense morpholino oligomers increases survival time following challenge with dengue 2 virus

Abstract Objectives To determine the antiviral activity of phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMO) and peptide-conjugated PMO (PPMO) in AG129 mice infected with dengue 2 virus (DENV-2). Methods Antisense PMO and PPMO were designed against the 5′ terminal region (5′SL) or the 3′-cyclization sequence region (3′CS) of DENV genomic RNA and administered to AG129 mice before and/or after infection with DENV-2. In addition, cell culture evaluations designed to determine optimum PPMO length, and pharmacokinetic and toxicity analysis of PPMO were also carried out. Results Mock-treated AG129 mice lived for 9–17 days following intraperitoneal (ip) infection with 104–106pfu of DENV-2 (strain New Guinea C). Intraperitoneal administration of 5′SL or 3′CS PPMO before and after DENV infection produced an increase in the average survival time of up to 8 days. Animals receiving only post-infection PPMO treatment did not benefit significantly. Cell culture studies showed that PPMO of 22–24 bases long produced substantially higher DENV titre reductions than did PPMO that were either shorter or longer. Pharmacokinetic and toxicology analysis with non-infected animals showed that nine consecutive once‐daily ip treatments of 10 mg/kg PPMO resulted in high concentrations of PPMO in the liver and caused little impact on overall health. Conclusions The data indicate that PPMO had considerable antiviral efficacy against DENV-2 in the AG129 mouse model and that PPMO treatment early in the course of an infection was critical to extending the survival times of DENV-2-infected mice in the AG129 model system.