Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Stressors on Turnover Intention: Examining the Role of Employee Well-Being

— This study empirically examines the differentiating impact of challenge-hindrance stressors on turnover intention through job satisfaction in IT industry of Pakistan. Moreover, perceived job alternatives were tested as a moderator in the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. Primary data was collected from 186 randomly selected IT professionals, working in project-based IT organizations of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Results indicated significant: (1) positive relationship between challenge stressors and job satisfaction, (2) negative relationship between hindrance stressors and job satisfaction, (3) negative relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention, (4) Job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between challenge stressor and turnover intention, (5) Job satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between hindrance stressor and turnover intention. However, it was observed that perceived job alternatives do not have any moderating effect. Proper balancing of two stressors may help top management to increase the job satisfaction and reduce the turnover intention of IT professionals.
Advocating an ambivalent approach to theorizing the built environment

This paper outlines the breadth of approaches to conceptualization of the built environment that exist across a range of literature sets, including construction management, architectural design and organization theory. It considers the commensurability, or otherwise, of different theoretical perspectives based upon their grounding in different ontological and epistemological stances. It also considers the basis of models derived of empirical engagement with practice. In contemplating the relationship between theory and practice throughout the life cycle of the built environment, along with the range of involved stakeholders; and illustrated by reference to the example of the contemporary ‘workplace’; an ambivalent approach to theorizing at the local level of involved actors is proposed. In this approach, conceptualization of the built environment is based not upon early exclusive either/or choices between different theories and models, but rather upon inclusive both/and considerations. However, this does not mean that all are considered as equally valid in the outcomes of decision-making, and the role of power and politics is acknowledged within the process of negotiation of a ‘good’ outcome. The potential, and the limitations, of this ambivalent approach are informed by a contemporary social science interpretation of the concept of phronēsis, or practical wisdom, which has roots in Aristotelian philosophy. Cet article donne un aperçu de l'ampleur des approches de la conceptualisation du milieu bâti qui existent dans la littérature, y compris la gestion de la construction, la conception architecturale et la théorie de l'organisation. Il considère la commensurabilité, ou autrement dit, de différentes perspectives théoriques basées sur leur ancrage dans différentes positions ontologiques et épistémologiques. Il considère aussi la base de modèles dérivés de l'engagement empirique avec la pratique. En analysant les relations entre la théorie et la pratique tout au long du cycle de vie du milieu bâti, avec la diversité des parties prenantes impliquées et illustré par des références à l'exemple du lieu de travail contemporain, il propose une approche ambivalente de la théorisation au niveau local des secteurs impliqués. Dans cette approche, la conceptualisation du milieu bâti repose non pas sur des choix prématurés exclusifs «soit ou» entre différents modèles et théories mais plutôt sur des considérations inclusives «les deux/et». Toutefois, cela ne signifie pas que tout est considéré comme étant également valide dans les résultats du processus décisionnel et le rôle du pouvoir politique est reconnu dans les limites du processus de négociation d'un bon résultat. Le potentiel, et les limites, de cette approche ambivalente sont justifiés par une interprétation sociale et scientifique contemporaine du concept de phronèse ou, sagesse pratique, qui trouve ses racines dans la philosophie d'Aristote. ambivalence, phronèse, pouvoir, sagesse pratique, rationalité, théorisation
General self-efficacy influences affective task reactions during a work simulation: the temporal effects of changes in workload at different levels of control

This study investigated the effects of workload, control, and general self-efficacy on affective task reactions (i.e., demands-ability fit, active coping, and anxiety) during a work simulation. The main goals were (1) to determine the extent general self-efficacy moderates the effects of demand and control on affective task reactions and (2) to determine if this varies as a function of changes in workload. Participants (N=141) completed an inbox activity under conditions of low or high control and within low and high workload conditions. The order of trials varied so that workload increased or decreased. Results revealed individuals with high general self-efficacy reported better demands-abilities fit and active coping as well as less anxiety. Three interactive effects were found. First, it was found that high control increased demands-abilities fit from trial 1 to trial 2, but only when workload decreased. Second, it was found that low efficacious individuals active coping increased in trial 2, but only under high control. Third, it was found that high control helped high efficacious individuals manage anxiety when workload decreased. However, for individuals with low general self-efficacy, neither high nor low control alleviated anxiety (i.e., whether workload increased or decreased over time).
Semantic Routing in Peer-to-Peer Systems

Currently search engines like Google, Yahoo and Excite are centralized, which means that all queries that users post are sent to some big servers (or server group) that handle them. In this way it is easy for the systems to relate IP-addresses with the queries posted from them. Clearly privacy is a problem here. Also censoring out certain information which is not 'appropriate' is simple, and shown in recent examples. To give more privacy to the users and make censoring information more difficult, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems are a good alternative to the centralized approach. In P2P systems the search functionality can be devided over a large group of autonomous computers (Peers), where each computer only has a very small piece of information instead of everything. Now the problem in such a distributed system is to make the search process efficient in terms of bandwith, storage, time and CPU usage. In this Ph.D. thesis, three approaches are described that try to reach goal of finding the short routes between seeker and providers with high efficiency. These routing algorithms are all applied on 'Semantic-Overlay-Networks' (SONs). In a SON, peers maintain pointers to semantically relevant peers based on content descriptions, which makes them able to choose the relevant peers for queries instead of, for example, choosing random peers. This work tries to show that decentralized search algorithms based on semantic routing are a good alternative to centralized approaches.
5.6 A 0.68nW/kHz supply-independent Relaxation Oscillator with ±0.49%/V and 96ppm/°C stability

RC Relaxation Oscillators (RxO) are attractive for integrated clock sources compared to LC and ring oscillators (RO), as LC oscillators pose integration challenges and RO designs have limited voltage and temperature (V-T) stability. RxOs generate a clock whose time period (TP) depends only on the timing resistor (R) and capacitor (C). Ideally, TP is independent of V-T; however, most RxOs use a reference voltage (VREF) against which the voltage of C (Vc) is compared. Generating a V-T-independent VREF is non-trivial and causes variations in RxO frequency. A common approach is the use of VDD-independent current sources or band-gap or device-Vt-based VREF [1]. The former are generally high-power options [2] while the latter is subject to process and V-T variations. A correct-by-design approach was adopted in [3] demonstrating VDD-independent operation by cancelling variations through differential sampling of VDD. Further, the power overhead of a supply-independent VREF is overcome by exploiting differential-integrator virtual ground. However, 4V2/R power in the RC tank and high-power VCO increase the energy/cycle.
Slow-Paced Persistent Network Attacks Analysis and Detection Using Spectrum Analysis

A slow-paced persistent attack, such as slow worm or bot, can bewilder the detection system by slowing down their attack. Detecting such attacks based on traditional anomaly detection techniques may yield high false alarm rates. In this paper, we frame our problem as detecting slow-paced persistent attacks from a time series obtained from network trace. We focus on time series spectrum analysis to identify peculiar spectral patterns that may represent the occurrence of a persistent activity in the time domain. We propose a method to adaptively detect slow-paced persistent attacks in a time series and evaluate the proposed method by conducting experiments using both synthesized traffic and real-world traffic. The results show that the proposed method is capable of detecting slow-paced persistent attacks even in a noisy environment mixed with legitimate traffic.
Semantic Integration in Text From Ambiguous Names to Identiﬁable Entities

senting, and manipulating correspondences between entities in disparate data sources. The topic has been widely studied in the context of structured data, with problems being considered including ontology and schema matching, matching relational tuples, and reconciling inconsistent data values. In recent years, however, semantic integration over text has also received increasing attention. This article studies a key challenge in semantic integration over text: identifying whether different mentions of real-world entities, such as “JFK” and “John Kennedy,” within and across natural language text documents, actually represent the same concept. We present a machine-learning study of this problem. The first approach is a discriminative approach—a pairwise local classifier is trained in a supervised way to determine whether two given mentions represent the same real-world entity. This is followed, potentially, by a global clustering algorithm that uses the classifier as its similarity metric. Our second approach is a global generative model, at the heart of which is a view on how documents are generated and how names (of different entity types) are “sprinkled” into them. In its most general form, our model assumes (1) a joint distribution over entities (for example, a document that mentions “President Kennedy” is more likely to mention “Oswald” or “White House” than “Roger Clemens”), and (2) an “author” model that assumes that at least one mention of an entity in a document is easily identifiable and then generates other mentions via (3) an “appearance” model that governs how mentions are transformed from the “representative” mention. We show that both approaches perform very accurately, in the range of 90–95 percent. F1 measure for different entity types, much better than previous approaches to some aspects of this problem. Finally, we discuss how our solution for mention matching in text can be potentially applied to matching relational tuples, as well as to linking entities across databases and text.
Pre-Treatment Prediction of Chemoresistance in Second-Line Chemotherapy of Ovarian Carcinoma: Value of Serological Tumor Marker Determination (Tetranectin, YKL-40, CASA, CA 125)

Objective To examine if the determination of the levels of serological tumor markers at time of relapse had any predictive value for chemoresistance in the second-line treatment of ovarian cancer patients. Methods From a registry of consecutive single-institution patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma pretreated with paclitaxel plus platinum, we selected 82 patients with (a) solid tumor recurrence, and (b) second-line chemotherapy consisting of topotecan (platinum-resistant disease) or paclitaxel plus carboplatin (platinum-sensitive disease). Stored serum samples were analyzed for the biochemical tumor markers tetranectin, YKL-40, CASA (cancer-associated serum antigen), and CA 125. The serum tumor marker levels at time of relapse were correlated with response status at landmark time after 4 cycles of second-line chemotherapy. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses (chemoresistant vs non-chemoresistant disease) were performed. Results At landmark time, 26% of patients had progression according to the GCIG (Gynecologic Cancer Intergroup) progression criteria. In univariate logistic regression analysis, the tumor markers tetranectin (OR 0.4; 95% CI: 0.2–0.8; p=0.008), YKL-40 (OR 1.8; 95% CI: 1.0–3.3; p=0.045), and CASA (OR 1.8; 95% CI: 1.2–2.7; p=0.007) had predictive value for second-line chemoresistance, whereas serum CA 125 had no predictive value. In a multivariate logistic regression analysis, serum tetranectin and CASA both had independent predictive value for chemoresistance. The combined determination of tetranectin and CASA had a specificity of 90% with 33% sensitivity for the prediction of chemoresistance (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.78; 95% CI: 0.66–0.91; p=0.001). Conclusion Low serum levels of tetranectin, or high serum levels of CASA or YKL-40, are associated with increased risk of second-line chemoresistance in patients with ovarian cancer.
MKP-1 mRNA Stabilization and Translational Control by RNA-Binding Proteins HuR and NF90

ABSTRACT The mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase phosphatase 1 (MKP-1) plays a major role in dephosphorylating and thereby inactivating the MAP kinases extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and p38. Here, we examine the posttranscriptional events underlying the robust MKP-1 induction by oxidants in HeLa cells. H2O2 treatment potently stabilized the MKP-1 mRNA and increased the association of MKP-1 mRNA with the translation machinery. Four RNA-binding proteins (RNA-BPs) that influence mRNA turnover and/or translation (HuR, NF90, TIAR, and TIA-1) were found to bind to biotinylated transcripts spanning the MKP-1 AU-rich 3′ untranslated region. By using ribonucleoprotein immunoprecipitation analysis, we showed that H2O2 treatment increased the association of MKP-1 mRNA with HuR and NF90 and decreased its association with the translational repressors TIAR and TIA-1. HuR or NF90 silencing significantly diminished the H2O2-stimulated MKP-1 mRNA stability; HuR silencing also markedly decreased MKP-1 translation. In turn, lowering MKP-1 expression in HuR-silenced cultures resulted in substantially elevated phosphorylation of JNK and p38 after H2O2 treatment. Collectively, MKP-1 upregulation by oxidative stress is potently influenced by increased mRNA stability and translation, mediated at least in part by the RNA-BPs HuR and NF90.
Gallstones: Best Served Hot

BACKGROUND Acute episodes of gallstone-related diseases have traditionally been managed conservatively. In the event of gallstones obstructing the common bile duct, patients had endoscopic extraction of calculi with interval cholecystectomy after 4 weeks to 6 weeks when acute inflammatory changes have subsided. This placed the patient at risk of recurrent cholecystitis, pancreatitis, or other complications of cholelithiasis. METHODS Patients presenting with acute gallstone-related diseases were investigated and underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy during the same admission according to a predetermined treatment protocol. RESULTS All patients (119) treated according to the study protocol had good results, with no 30-day mortality and no biliary tract injuries. One patient had bleeding from the cystic artery, and 6 patients required conversion to open cholecystectomy. CONCLUSION Growing expertise in laparoscopic cholecystectomy has made it possible for surgeons to perform safe cholecystectomy in the presence of acute gallstone-related disease. Our experience of managing gallstone disease with prompt cholecystectomy during the index admission shows that this approach provides better, safer, and more cost-effective patient care.
An evaluation of 3-D object pointing using a field sequential stereoscopic display

Experiments to measure user performance in 3-D object pointing using a field sequential stereoscopic display are described . First , huma.n performance in adjusting a random dot stereogram depth is measured to determine the possibility of pointing at a 3-D object. This experiment shows that the image displayed on the field sequential stereoscopic display can give enough depth information to its user who inputs 3-D coordinate with a mouse. Next, user performance in pointing at 3-D objects using a mouse as an input device is measured . The target for 3-D pointing and an arrow shaped 3-D cursor are in the form of wire frames and displayed stereoscopically. Finally, user performance using a 3-D magnetic tracking input device is tested. These experiments show that it is possible to point at a 3-D object on a field sequential stereoscopic display with relatively high accuracy. However, pointing at objects in depth takes much more time than pointing at objects in a plane. When a mouse is used , the required pointing time heavily depends on the direction of pointing. This tendency is due to the difficulties of depth detection using the field sequential stereoscopic display, and of manipulating a 3-D cursor with a 2-D input device. For the task tested, the 3-D magnetic tracking device was better in terms of the task completion time and error rate.
Predicting completion times of batch query workloads using interaction-aware models and simulation

A question that database administrators (DBAs) routinely need to answer is how long a batch query workload will take to complete. This question arises, for example, while planning the execution of different report-generation workloads to fit within available time windows. To answer this question accurately, we need to take into account that the typical workload in a database system consists of mixes of concurrent queries. Interactions among different queries in these mixes need to be modeled, rather than the conventional approach of considering each query separately. This paper presents a new approach for estimating workload completion times that takes the significant impact of query interactions into account. This approach builds performance models using an experiment-driven technique, by sampling the space of possible query mixes and fitting statistical models to the observed performance at these samples. No prior assumptions are made about the internal workings of the database system or the cause of query interactions, making the models robust and portable. We show that a careful choice of sampling and statistical modeling strategies can result in accurate models, and we present a novel interaction-aware workload simulator that uses these models to estimate workload completion times. An experimental evaluation with complex TPC-H queries on IBM DB2 shows that this approach consistently predicts workload completion times with less than 20% error.
PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS IN THE BLOOD OF FREE-RANGING SEA OTTERS (ENHYDRA LUTRIS SSP.) IN ALASKA AND CALIFORNIA

As part of tagging and ecologic research efforts in 1997 and 1998, apparently healthy sea otters of four age-sex classes in six locations in Alaska and three in California were sampled for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and other chemicals of ecologic or environmental concern (COECs). Published techniques for the detection of POPs (specifically Σpolychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs], ΣDDTs, Σhexachlorocyclohexanes [HCHs], Σpolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs], Σchlordanes [CHLs], hexachlorobenzene [HCB], dieldrin, and mirex) in the tissue of dead otters were modified for use with serum from live sea otters. Toxic equivalencies (TEQs) were calculated for POPs with proven bioactivity. Strong location effects were seen for most POPs and COECs; sea otters in California generally showed higher mean concentrations than those in Alaska. Differences in contaminant concentrations were detected among age and sex classes, with high levels frequently observed in subadults. Very high levels of ΣDDT were detected in male sea otters in Elkhorn Slough, California, where strong freshwater outflow from agricultural areas occurs seasonally. All contaminants except mirex differed among Alaskan locations; only ΣDDT, HCB, and chlorpyrifos differed within California. High levels of ΣPCB (particularly larger, more persistent congeners) were detected at two locations in Alaska where associations between elevated PCBs and military activity have been established, while higher PCB levels were found at all three locations in California where no point source of PCBs has been identified. Although POP and COEC concentrations in blood may be less likely to reflect total body burden, concentrations in blood of healthy animals may be more biologically relevant and less influenced by state of nutrition or perimortem factors than other tissues routinely sampled.
Vapor Shear Effects on Falling-Film Mode Transitions Between Horizontal Tubes

A liquid falling between horizontal tubes can take the form of droplets, jets, or a continuous sheet mode, depending on the flow rate. The so-called falling-film flow regime is important to heat and mass transfer, and to maintaining wetted-surface conditions in a falling-film tube bundle, and the performance of such tube bundles is important in many air-conditioning systems. In this paper, we review prior work on falling film mode transitions between horizontal tubes and investigate vapor shear effects on the mode transitions. It is shown that vapor shear effects on mode transitions depend on liquid properties. Mode transition hysteresis is reduced by an increasing gas flow velocity. It is also found that the liquid feeding length can have an impact on falling-film mode transitions.
Transcriptome-based gene profiling provides novel insights into the characteristics of radish root response to Cr stress with next-generation sequencing

Radish (Raphanus sativus L.) is an important worldwide root vegetable crop with high nutrient values and is adversely affected by non-essential heavy metals including chromium (Cr). Little is known about the molecular mechanism underlying Cr stress response in radish. In this study, RNA-Seq technique was employed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) under Cr stress. Based on de novo transcriptome assembly, there were 30,676 unigenes representing 60,881 transcripts isolated from radish root under Cr stress. Differential gene analysis revealed that 2985 uingenes were significantly differentially expressed between Cr-free (CK) and Cr-treated (Cr600) libraries, among which 1424 were up-regulated and 1561 down-regulated. Gene ontology (GO) analysis revealed that these DEGs were mainly involved in primary metabolic process, response to abiotic stimulus, cellular metabolic process and small molecule metabolic process. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis showed that the DEGs were mainly involved in protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum, starch and sucrose metabolism, amino acid metabolism, glutathione metabolism, drug and xenobiotics by cytochrome P450 metabolism. RT-qPCR analysis showed that the expression patterns of 12 randomly selected DEGs were highly accordant with the results from RNA-seq. Furthermore, many candidate genes including signaling protein kinases, transcription factors and metal transporters, chelate compound biosynthesis and antioxidant system, were involved in defense and detoxification mechanisms of Cr stress response regulatory networks. These results would provide novel insight into molecular mechanism underlying plant responsiveness to Cr stress and facilitate further genetic manipulation on Cr uptake and accumulation in radish.