Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Public centric e-governance in Jordan: A field study of people's perception of e-governance awareness, corruption, and trust

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the efforts made by Jordan in the direction of e‐governance and people's perception of corruption, trust, and e‐governance.Design/methodology/approach – Desk research was conducted using secondary data sources followed by a field survey conducted with 412 sample respondents in three major cities of Jordan. Following the triangulation approach, the responses of university professors and the common people were also secured.Findings – The Jordanian government's efforts towards e‐governance are commendable in the Middle East. However, there are certain impediments that are witnessed in the form of the digital divide, corruption, social bottlenecks, the stage of democratization, the lack of marketing to stakeholders, and the citizen's lack of adoption of technology. Educated people are aware of the merit of e‐governance contrary to the uneducated ones and perceive that corruption in the Jordanian public sector is increasing.Research limitations/implications – Th.
Multi objective optimization of an evolutionary feedforward neural network for the automotive air conditioning system performance prediction

In this paper, a novel multi-objective evolutionary artificial neural network approach is proposed to predict the performance of an automotive air conditioning (AAC) system. A Feedforward Neural Network (FNN) was used to simulate the cooling capacity and compressor power under different combination of input compressor speeds, evaporator inlet air speeds, air temperature upstream of the condenser and evaporator. Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm was employed to automatically optimize the FNN's parameters, involving the number of hidden layers and the number of neurons in each hidden layer. The training of connection weights and biases is carried out using the basic backpropagation algorithm with Levenberg Marquardt nonlinear optimization method. For the purpose of multi-objective optimization, the DE algorithm is incorporated with two key elements of the NSGA-II (Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II), namely the non-dominated sorting method and the crowding distance metric. A parametric study was performed on the proposed algorithm and the best DE base variant was determined. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm with DE based variant ‘DE/Best/1’ exhibited its superiority in term of prediction performance. The best neural network obtained is FNN with 4×18×2 network configuration and its network complexity is equivalent to 108 connection weights. It yields an average relative error of 0.60% for the prediction of cooling power and one of 3.0% for the prediction of compressor power.
Study of the interaction among Notch pathway receptors, correlation with stemness, as well as their interaction with CD44, dipeptidyl peptidase-IV, hepatocyte growth factor receptor and the SETMAR transferase, in colon cancer stem cells

Abstract Context: The Notch signaling pathway is one of the most important pathways during normal development and implicated in self-renewal of adult stem cells and differentiation of progenitor cells. Abnormal expression of Notch receptors has been associated with many epithelial metaplastic and neoplastic lesions. Objective-materials and methods: In this particular study, it was determined the relative gene expression of Notch receptors after knockdown experiments in colon cancer stem cells (CSCs) and the gene expression changes in stemness transcription factors (Oct4, Sox2, Nanog), as well in dipeptidylpeptidase-4, CD44 antigen, Met proto-oncogene and in Metnase transposase. Results: In control CSCs Notch-2 had the higher expression, followed by Notch-1, Notch-3. Notch-4 demonstrated the lower gene expression among the receptors. The suppression of Notch-1 led to increased expression of Oct4 and Sox2, but in decreased gene expression of cMET, Setmar and CD44. The CD26 expression remained unchanged. The knockdown of Notch-2 led to decreased expression of all transcription factors. Notch-3 down regulation caused increased Oct4 gene expression, but decreased levels for the rest of the genes. Finally, the suppression of Notch-4 had the same effect as in receptor Notch-3. Discussion and conclusion: The above experimental data suggest the possible interaction between the four different receptors of Notch signaling pathway. The expression of CD26, cMET and N-methyltransferase Setmar was also changed. Finally, the stemness phenotype was changed in a different way each time, according to the receptor that was down regulated. All Notch receptors and particularly Notch-2 seem to play an important role in cancer stem cells.
Nanophotonic visible light phased arrays

Previously demonstrated integrated optical phased arrays have primarily been implemented in silicon-based platforms and have therefore been limited to operation at infrared wavelengths, where silicon provides low-loss transmission. Developing integrated optical phased arrays for visible wavelengths would enable the exploration of new applications for this technology, such as autostereoscopic displays and neuronal targeting for optogenetics. The work presented in this thesis involves the development of visible light integrated optical phased array components and systems with a focus on autostereoscopic image projection applications. Practical 3D microdisplay applications will require (1) large-aperture phased array systems for diffraction minimization, (2) integrated phase modulation for implementing dynamically reconfigurable phased array antenna elements, and (3) a phased array system architecture for accurately encoding the light field of virtual objects. Integrated photonic architectures for all three aforementioned goals are investigated in this thesis. With respect to the first goal, a lxi mm 2 aperture visible light phased array with a near diffraction limited far-field spot size is demonstrated. With respect to the second goal, the design of an integrated phase modulator based on the electro-optic tuning of a nematic liquid crystal waveguide cladding layer is developed and a near-7i phase shift is demonstrated in a fabricated device. Finally, an autostereoscopic image projection system comprised of multiple tiled phased arrays configured to project a virtual image with parallax in one dimension within an 8.580 field of view is demonstrated. Thesis Supervisor: Michael R. Watts Title: Associate Professor
Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Gene Polymorphism in Coronary Artery Disease: The Indian Scenario

Abstract Angiotensin converting enzyme is a key component of the renin angiotensin system that plays an important role in cardiovascular regulation. It seems to modulate cardiovascular growth by virtue of its role in the conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II and degradation of kinins. A deletion polymorphism localized in intron 16 of the human angiotensin converting enzyme gene, corresponding to a 287 bp long Alu repetitive sequence, was found to be associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction in various subgroups, including European, French and Japanese coronary patients. This angiotensin converting enzyme gene I/D polymorphism was examined by the polymerase chain reaction in a cross-sectional study of 201 healthy Indian subjects and 150 patients (angiographically proven cases of coronary artery disease) whose serum angiotensin converting enzyme levels were concomitantly measured. The D/D, I/D and I/I genotypes were found in 20.66 %, 46.66 % and 32.66 % of the Indian coronary heart disease patients and in 23.38 %, 49.75% and 26.86 % of controls respectively. One of the reasons for not finding an association between the D allele and coronary artery disease in this study could be the ethnic heterogeneity and disease status heterogeneity among the patients and controls. However the phenotypic variance of serum angiotensin converting enzyme levels is strongly influenced by this polymorphism. In the Indian population, the angiotensin converting enzyme gene I/D polymorphism is not associated with risk for coronary artery disease although it is associated with plasma angiotensin converting enzyme activity. Hence the angiotensin converting enzyme gene I/D polymorphism does not seem to be a useful marker for coronary artery disease in the Indian population.
Opioid analgesics for cancer pain: symptom control for the living or comfort for the dying? A qualitative study to investigate the factors influencing the decision to accept morphine for pain caused by cancer.

BACKGROUND Morphine and other opioids are the mainstay of cancer pain management, yet considerable fears surrounding them present barriers to pain control. Research in groups already using opioids has examined their concerns, but there is little evidence about how patients react when first offered opioids. We explored the factors influencing the decision to accept or reject morphine when first offered to patients with cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS A qualitative in-depth interview study nested within a cancer pain management trial. Interviews were conducted with 18 patients (nine females), aged 42-88 years. RESULTS The categories that surrounded decisions about commencement of opioids were: anticipation of death; morphine as a last resort; the role of the professional; and 'no choice' but to commence. Participants rejected morphine as a medical intervention to control pain and promote quality of life because they saw it only as a comfort measure for the dying. However, opioids were more acceptable if health care providers had confidence in opioids and side-effects were well managed. CONCLUSION Among cancer patients the idea that opioids represent a comfort measure for the dying and not legitimate analgesics may represent a greater barrier to their uptake than concerns about tolerance or addiction.
Insufficient Vectorization: A New Method to Exploit Superword Level Parallelism

Single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) extension provides an energy-efficient platform to scale the performance of media and scientific applications while still retaining post-programmability. However, the major challenge is to translate the parallel resources of the SIMD hardware into real application performance. Currently, all the slots in the vector register are used when compilers exploit SIMD parallelism of programs, which can be called sufficient vectorization. Sufficient vectorization means all the data in the vector register is valid. Because all the slots which vector register provides must be used, the chances of vectorizing programs with low SIMD parallelism are abandoned by sufficient vectorization method. In addition, the speedup obtained by full use of vector register sometimes is not as great as that obtained by partial use. Specifically, the length of vector register provided by SIMD extension becomes longer, sufficient vectorization method cannot exploit the SIMD parallelism of programs completely. Therefore, insufficient vectorization method is proposed, which refer to partial use of vector register. First, the adaptation scene of insufficient vectorization is analyzed. Second, the methods of computing inter-iteration and intra-iteration SIMD parallelism for loops are put forward. Furthermore, according to the relationship between the parallelism and vector factor a method is established to make the choice of vectorization method, in order to vectorize programs as well as possible. Finally, code generation strategy for insufficient vectorization is presented. Benchmark test results show that insufficient vectorization method vectorized more programs than sufficient vectorization method by 107.5% and the performance achieved by insufficient vectorization method is 12.1% higher than that achieved by sufficient vectorization method. key words: SIMD extension, SIMD parallelism, vector register, insufficient vectorization
A Meta‐Analysis of Effects of Heparin Flush and Saline Flush: Quality and Cost Implications

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to estimate the effects of heparin flush and saline flush solutions on maintaining patency, preventing phlebitis, and increasing duration in peripheral heparin locks. The average effect size (value) across 15 studies with a total sample size of 3,490 was 0573 for patency (clotting). The 95% credibility interval ranged from-. 2267 to . 3413. The average effect size across 13 studies with a total sample size of 2,356 was -. 0757 for phlebittis. The 95% credibility interval ranged from -. 2497 to . 0983. The average effect size for duration across six samples with a total sample size of 1,960 was -. 0550. The 95% credibility interval ranged from -. 2424 to . 1324. It can be concluded that saline is as effective as heparin in maintaining patency, preventing phlebitis, and increasing duration in peripheral intravenous locks. Quality of care can be enhanced by using saline as the flush solution, thereby eliminating problems associated with anticoagulant effects and drug incompatibilities. In addition, an estimated yearly savings of $109,100,000 to $218,200,000 U.S. health care dollars could be attained.
Attractive, Informative, and Communicative Robot System on Guide Plate as an Attendant with Awareness of User’s Gaze

Abstract In this paper, we introduce an interactive guide plate system by adopting a gaze-communicative stuffed-toy robot and a gaze-interactive display board. An attached stuffed-toy robot on the system naturally show anthropomorphic guidance corresponding to the user’s gaze orientation. The guidance is presented through gaze-communicative behaviors of the stuffed-toy robot using joint attention and eye-contact reactions to virtually express its own mind in conjunction with b) vocal guidance and c) projection on the guide plate. We adopted our image-based remote gaze-tracking method to detect the user’s gazing orientation. The results from both empirical studies by subjective / objective evaluations and observations of our demonstration experiments in a semipublic space show i) the total operation of the system, ii) the elicitation of user’s interest by gaze behaviors of the robot, and iii) the effectiveness of the gaze-communicative guide adopting the anthropomorphic robot.
RILP regulates vacuolar ATPase through interaction with the V1G1 subunit

ABSTRACT Rab-interacting lysosomal protein (RILP) is a downstream effector of the Rab7 GTPase. GTP-bound Rab7 recruits RILP to endosomal membranes and, together, they control late endocytic traffic, phagosome and autophagosome maturation and are responsible for signaling receptor degradation. We have identified, using different approaches, the V1G1 (officially known as ATP6V1G1) subunit of the vacuolar ATPase (V-ATPase) as a RILP-interacting protein. V1G1 is a component of the peripheral stalk and is fundamental for correct V-ATPase assembly. We show here that RILP regulates the recruitment of V1G1 to late endosomal and lysosomal membranes but also controls V1G1 stability. Indeed, we demonstrate that V1G1 can be ubiquitylated and that RILP is responsible for proteasomal degradation of V1G1. Furthermore, we demonstrate that alterations in V1G1 expression levels impair V-ATPase activity. Thus, our data demonstrate for the first time that RILP regulates the activity of the V-ATPase through its interaction with V1G1. Given the importance of V-ATPase in several cellular processes and human diseases, these data suggest that modulation of RILP activity could be used to control V-ATPase function.
Anytime Capacity of a Class of Markov Channels

Several new expressions for the anytime capacity of Sahai and Mitter are presented for a time-varying rate-limited channel with noiseless output feedback. These follow from a novel parametric characterization obtained in the case of Markov time-varying rate channels, and include an explicit formula for the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$r$</tex-math></inline-formula>-bit Markov erasure channel, as well as formulas for memoryless rate processes including Binomial, Poisson, and Geometric distributions. Beside the memoryless erasure channel and the additive white Gaussian noise channel with input power constraint, these are the only cases where the anytime capacity has been computed. At the basis of these results is the study of the threshold function for <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$m$</tex-math></inline-formula>-th moment stabilization of a scalar linear system controlled over a Markov time-varying digital feedback channel that depends on <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$m$</tex-math></inline-formula> and on the channel's parameters. This threshold is shown to be a continuous and strictly decreasing function of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$m$</tex-math></inline-formula> and to have as extreme values the Shannon capacity and the zero-error capacity as <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$m$</tex-math></inline-formula> tends to zero and infinity, respectively. Its operational interpretation is that of achievable communication rate, subject to a reliability constraint.
PERIPHERAL MILLING OF THIN TITANIUM PLATES: MODELING, ANALYSIS, AND PROCESS PLANNING (PREPRINT)

Abstract : This paper presents research conducted to model and analyze the peripheral milling of thin titanium plates. Impact tests are performed and the vibration characteristics of a thin titanium plate are modeled empirically. The force process is described by a mechanistic model and experimental data are used to determine the model parameters. The Particle Swarm Optimization technique is used to determine the parameters of the plate vibration and force process models, which are combined to create a complete model of the thin titanium plate peripheral milling operation. The models are validated experimentally and the results showed excellent agreement between the simulation and experimental results. A process planning scheme for peripheral milling of thin titanium plates is developed and applied. In this scheme, integer numbers of widths-of-cut and depths-of-cut are used and the optimal helix angle and feed are computed for each combination of width-of-cut and depth-of-cut. The process planning test case revealed the optimal material removal rate decreases as the width-of-cut decreases.
Laser Based Real-Time Measurement of Thorax 3D Deformation with Motion Compensation

We present a novel method for full-area, 3D visual breathing assistance with body motion compensation. The method is based on Kinect structured light triangulation sensor and uses local features detection algorithm to correct the undesired body motion during breathing training. The measuring system is contactless and operates in real-time with 30 frames per second. The feature detection algorithm is based on finding the best match between the reference template and the acquired texture image. This is performed by calculating the normalized cross-correlation inside the specified region of interest for four markers attached to the patient's thoraco-abdominal region. The motion compensation is achieved by 3D transformation of the acquired data with respect to the spatial coordinates of the detected markers. This enables the monitoring of respiratory-related displacements only, disregarding other displacements incurred by body motion. The displacements of the current surface with respect to the reference surface are displayed using a color gradient, which offers visual support to the patients and helps to control respiratory motion according to the training requirements. The results of the study show that the 3D measuring system with motion compensation is robust and provides a reliable and unbiased method of breathing pattern assessment.
Allergic airway responses in obese mice.

RATIONALE Epidemiologic data indicate an increased incidence of asthma in the obese. OBJECTIVES To determine whether obese mice exhibit augmented pulmonary responses after allergen sensitization and challenge. METHODS Lean, wild-type (C57BL/6), obese ob/ob, and obese db/db mice were sensitized to ovalbumin (OVA), and then challenged with aerosolized OVA or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Changes in total pulmonary resistance (Rl) induced by intravenous methacholine were measured by forced oscillation. Blood was collected, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was performed, and lungs were harvested for measurement of cytokine expression by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS OVA challenge increased baseline Rl in ob/ob, but not wild-type, mice, and airway responsiveness was greater in ob/ob than wild-type mice, regardless of the challenge. Compared with PBS, OVA challenge caused an increase in the number of BAL fluid (BALF) cells, an increase in lung Th2 cytokine expression, and an increase in serum IgE. Significantly fewer BALF cells were recovered from OVA-challenged ob/ob versus wild-type mice, whereas serum IgE levels were elevated significantly more in ob/ob versus wild-type mice. BALF and lung Th2 cytokine expression was not different in ob/ob versus wild-type mice. Airway responsiveness was greater in db/db versus wild-type mice, regardless of the challenge, and OVA caused airway hyperresponsiveness in db/db but not wild-type mice, despite reduced BALF cells in OVA-challenged db/db versus wild-type mice. CONCLUSIONS These results demonstrate that obesity enhances OVA-induced changes in pulmonary resistance and serum IgE and that these changes are not the result of increased Th2 type airway inflammation.