Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation the Relationship between ICT- Adoption and Business Process Reengineering in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises of Kermanshah Province

Information and communications corporations usually work in an environment in which business requirements are subject to continuous inevitable change. Therefore, in order to sustain competitive advantage, the corporations are required to continuously configure their business processes and operations with respect to these changes. This paper provides a model interconnecting ICT adoption, ICT-enabled business process re-engineering (BPR), and performance with a balanced scorecard approach. A relevant literature review, which investigates critical indicators in ICT adoption and its impact on BPR is carried out. To this end, 9 hypotheses were made, research method is descriptive-correlation and obviously based on structural equations (AMOS) model, being an applied one in terms of its goal. Statistical population consisted of small and medium sized enterprises of Kermanshah province, sample were taken classifiably and observation related to the questionnaire and variables of each hypothesis's items on the scale of likkert were provided. This paper provides empirical evidence to examine how intra- and extra-organizational factors influence ICT adoption, how ICT shapes BPR, and business performance. These findings will be valuable in understanding various motivations of ICT adoption, and predicting outcome of business performance stemming from ICT-enabled BPR. This condition leads to a high resistance and finally the failure of the changes in corporation. The results showed that the adoption of information and communication technologies can improve business process re engineering.
The health effects of taxi driving: the case of visible minority drivers in Toronto.

OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between work and health among visible minority taxi drivers. METHODS In-depth semi-structured interviews with taxi drivers (10) and industry informants (5), document analysis, and participant observation. Data analysis followed the principles of grounded theory. RESULTS The data suggest that factors such as racism/discrimination, the nature of their social position (e.g., immigrant status, language barriers, lack of access to economic resources, lack of 'Canadian' work experience), and the social and organizational characteristics of work (e.g., employment contracts and the nature of work) constituted threats to taxi drivers' health and influenced their health-related behaviours. They experienced economic exploitation, economic uncertainty, occupational violence, fatigue, and high levels of competition, and they engaged in risky behaviours on the job. Taxi drivers also employed various health-protective behaviours in an effort to manage the threats to health. DISCUSSION These findings are consistent with extant studies of taxi drivers. However, further research is needed to more clearly discern the influence of ethnicity in work-health relationships. The study has implications for population health and is suggestive of areas for further research; e.g., other service-oriented occupations where workers have limited control and little is known about their health or health-related behaviours.
Absolute Localization using Visual Data for Autonomous Vehicles

In this paper, we propose an algorithm for estimating the absolute pose of a vehicle using visual data. Our method works in two steps: first we construct a visual map of geolocalized landmarks, then we localize the vehicle using this map. The main advantages of our method are that the localization of the vehicle is absolute and that it requires only a monocular camera and a low-cost GPS. We firstly outline our method, then we present our experimental results on real images using a reference database: the KITTI Vision Benchmark Suite.
HLA‐B alleles, high‐risk HPV infection and risk for cervical neoplasia in southern Chinese women

A population‐based study was conducted on 256 southern Chinese with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade III (CIN III) or invasive cervical cancer (ICC) and on 258 controls to examine the associations between HLA‐B alleles, infection with high‐risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) and the development of cervical neoplasia. HLA‐B15 was found to be protective for CIN III/ICC overall (pcorrected = 0.003), and for HPV52‐positive CIN III/ICC (pcorrected = 0.003). A marginal protective effect of B15 was observed for HPV16‐positive CIN III/ICC, but no significant associations were revealed for HPV18‐ or HPV58‐positive cases. None of the HLA‐B alleles were found to confer an increased risk for cervical neoplasia. HLA‐B15 is common among Asian for whom HPV52, a worldwide uncommon HPV type, also exists in a relatively high prevalence. It would also be worthwhile to assess the association between HLA‐B15, HPV52 and cervical cancer in other Asian populations. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The inhibitory effect on aldose reductase by an extract of Ganoderma lucidum

The human aldose reductase inhibitory effects of the methanol extracts of 17 medicinal and edible mushrooms were examined. Ganoderma lucidum showed the highest aldose reductase inhibitory activity compared with the other mushrooms. The effect of an ethanol extract of G. lucidum on the galactitol level in the eye lens was studied in a galactosemic rat model in vivo. This mushroom significantly decreased the galactitol accumulation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Promoting User Satisfaction

Three of the five main concerns about IT from senior executives in Europe and the USA are related to poor user satisfaction. The current spend justification paradigm, cost benefit analysis, is that the justification for an IT purchase is done only after a decision has been made to procure that technology. User needs are a minor factor. The proposed alternative, Benefit Cost Analysis, is one of recognising the required gains first and then deciding on specific IT that will help deliver them. The result is lower investment and higher user satisfaction with IT.
In Vivo Anti-diabetic and Biological Activities of Milk Protein and Milk Protein Hydrolyaste

The effect of milk protein (MP) and milk protein hydrolysate (MPH) as Anti-diabetic agent were investigated in vivo using six groups of normal and type 2 diabetic rats. The results of this study showed that the treatments of diabetic rats by oral intake of MP or MPH significantly reduced the concentrations of plasma glucose, total lipids of blood plasma, triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL and VLDL in rat plasma. Also, the treatments of diabetic rats by oral intake of MP or MPH significantly increased the globulin value and HDL, while the concentration of urea, creatinine and bilirubin were reduced. In addition, oral intake of MPH has no affective on acid phosphatase (ACP), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) activities in blood plasma and liver of normal rats and protective its concentrations in diabetic rats. The present results concluded that MP and MPH could be used as anti-diabetic agents.
Respiratory kinematics of the upper abdominal organs: A quantitative study

Despite the fact that respiratory motion is a major factor limiting the image quality of MR examinations in the upper abdomen, little quantitative information is available about the kinematics of visceral motion during respiration. The objective of this study was to obtain a measure of the relative longitudinal and transverse displacements of the upper abdominal organs during breathing using an MR line scan technique. © 1992 Academic Press, Inc.
Near‐Infrared Spectroscopy: What Can It Tell Us about Oxygen Saturation in Skeletal Muscle?

&NA; Near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) measures hemoglobin saturation in small vessels. A number of interesting studies have used this method. However, difficulties with signal quantification and studies in which NIRS oxygen saturation did not behave as expected raise concerns. NIRS remains promising for studies of skeletal muscle, but a better understanding of the method is needed.
PENGUNGKAPAN NON FINANCIAL MEASURES: PENILAIAN VALUE RELEVANCE BAGI INVESTOR DAN PENGARUHNYA TERHADAP COST OF EQUITY DAN PERFORMANCE BAGI PERUSAHAAN PUBLIK

Research has called for increased demand of non financial measures (NFM) disclosure. This research examines the association between firm characteristics and the extent of NFM disclosure. Furthermore, we investigate the value relevance of NFM disclosure and its effects to cost of equity andfirms performance. The results of this research are: (1) firm strategy (prospector/ defender), regulatory factors, firms ’ age and foreign ownership are significantly positively associated with the level of NFM disclosure (2) NFM disclosure is a good signal for investors, which is relevant for earning persistency valuation. (3) the level of NFM disclosure is significantly negatively associated with cost ofequity (4) the level of NFM disclosure is significantly positively associated with firm performance.
On pseudo-hallucinations

Synopsis The term ‘pseudo-hallucination’ has received two incompatible definitions. It can refer either to self-recognized hallucinations (exterocepted or interocepted) or to introspected images of great vividness and spontaneity. It is argued that the phenomena to which the two definitions refer might best be distinguished as perceived and imaged pseudo-hallucinations.
Bootstrapping as a Resource Dependence Management Strategy and its Association with Startup Growth

This paper studies the association between bootstrapping and startup growth. Bootstrapping reduces a startup’s dependence on financial investors, but may create new dependencies. Drawing upon resource dependence theory, we hypothesize that when bootstrapping does not create new strong dependencies it will benefit startup growth, especially when dependence from financial investors is high. However, when bootstrapping creates new strong dependencies it will constrain growth, especially when dependence from financial investors is low. We use a longitudinal database of 205 Belgian startups comprising data from both questionnaires and yearly financial accounts. Findings broadly confirm our hypotheses. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Market Structure of Nepalese Banking Industry

This paper examines the evolution of market concentration and tests the market competition of Nepalese banking industry for an unbalanced panel of 15-25 banks for the period of 2001-2009. The market concentration is measured by Hirschman-Herfindahl indices and concentration ratios whereas market competition is tested under Panzar-Rosse approach. The concentration measures indicate decreasing trend and low level of market concentration in Nepalese banking industry. The test of market competition/contestability by using Panzar-Rosse approach rejects both the hypotheses for monopoly and perfect competition indicating monopolistic market behaviors among banks. In addition, the market for interest-based income is found more competitive than that of the market for fee-based income. The results further indicate that size has positive and equity capitalization has negative impact on revenue generation. The results are robust across different specifications and across different estimation techniques.
Managerial Economics for the Service Industries

Size and importance of the service industries. The functions and limits of the market. Demand - introduction: market and firm's demand. The firm, why it exists its goals. Costs in the service industries. The investment decision. Costs in their strategic context. Monopolistic competition. Oligopoly. The regulation of oligopoly. Deregulation and competition in the transport industries. Health services and the market for health.
A Controlled Trial of Phenothiazine Withdrawal in Chronic Schizophrenic Patients

Summary Phenothiazine drugs were withdrawn from 17 chronic schizophrenic in-patients, with a control group of 14 patients remaining on active medication. The trial was conducted under double blind conditions over a period of 42 weeks with weekly assessment of the patients by ward nurses. Of the placebo group 35 per cent relapsed, relapse being related to the level of previous active medication.
Effects of the inquiry-based mobile learning model on the cognitive load and learning achievement of students

The advancement of mobile device and wireless communication technologies is having a great influence on the design concept of learning activities. In this study, we attempt to integrate field study into the inquiry-based mobile learning model; moreover, a mobile learning environment that allows students to access both physical and virtual resources is developed accordingly. During the in-field learning activity, the mobile learning system is able to present the learning tasks, guide the students to visit the real-world learning targets for exploration, and provide them with supplementary materials via the mobile devices. The aim of this research focuses on the effects of this mobile learning model on students' cognitive load and learning achievements. The 51 sixth graders who participated in this research were assigned to an experimental and a control group. From the pre and posttests as well as the cognitive load questionnaire, it was found that the students who learned with the inquiry-based mobile learning approach had better learning achievement and less cognitive load than those who learned with the traditional approach. Therefore, it is concluded that the mobile learning model has positive effects on elementary students in local culture learning.
Rapid Virus Dissemination in Infant Macaques after Oral Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Exposure in the Presence of Local Innate Immune Responses

ABSTRACT A vaccine to protect human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-exposed infants is an important goal in the global fight against the HIV pandemic. Two major challenges in pediatric HIV vaccine design are the competence of the neonatal/infant immune system in comparison to the adult immune system and the frequent exposure to HIV via breast-feeding. Based on the hypothesis that an effective vaccine needs to elicit antiviral immune responses directly at the site of virus entry, the pattern of virus dissemination in relation to host immune responses was determined in mucosal and lymphoid tissues of infant macaques at 1 week after multiple oral exposures to simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). The results show that SIV disseminates systemically by 1 week. Infant macaques can respond rapidly to virus challenge and mount strong innate immune responses. However, despite systemic infection, these responses are most pronounced in tissues close to the viral entry site, with the tonsil being the primary site of virus replication and induction of immune responses. Thus, distinct anatomic compartments are characterized by unique cytokine gene expression patterns. Importantly, the early response at mucosal entry sites is dominated by the induction of proinflammatory cytokines, while cytokines with direct antiviral activity, alpha/beta interferons, are only minimally induced. In contrast, both antiviral and proinflammatory cytokines are induced in lymphoid tissues. Thus, although infant macaques can respond quickly to oral viral challenge, the locally elicited immune responses at mucosal entry sites are likely to favor immune activation and thereby virus replication and are insufficient to limit virus replication and dissemination.
Object detection of polarized hyperspectal images based on fourth-order tensor matched filtering

The polarized hyperspectral images (PHSI) include the multidimensional information of polarization, spectral, spatial and radiant features, which provide more information about objects and background than traditional spectrum or intensity ones. However, the conventional object detection algorithms of PHSI are based on the Stokes vector, which mainly take advantage of the spectral information, and often ignore the continuous variation characteristics of polarized dimension, being similar to the spectrum. What is more, when the data is large, it will increase the calculative difficulty and error. Hence, a fourth-order tensor matched filtering (FTMF) is proposed in this paper, which is applied to the original data directly without extracting the Stokes vector, and achieves the combined utilization of polarization and spectrum. The experimental results also show that the proposed method in this paper is more suitable for the object detection of the PHSI.
Robust Genomic Control and Robust Delta Centralization Tests for Case-Control Association Studies

The population-based case-control design is a powerful approach for detecting susceptibility markers of a complex disease. However, this approach may lead to spurious association when there is population substructure: population stratification (PS) or cryptic relatedness (CR). Two simple approaches to correct for the population substructure are genomic control (GC) and delta centralization (DC). GC uses the variance inflation factor to correct for the variance distortion of a test statistic, and the DC centralizes the non-central chi-square distribution of the test statistic. Both GC and DC have been studied for case-control association studies mainly under a specific genetic model (e.g. recessive, additive or dominant), under which an optimal trend test is available. The genetic model is usually unknown for many complex diseases. In this situation, we study the performance of three robust tests based on the GC and DC corrections in the presence of the population substructure. Our results show that, when the genetic model is unknown, the DC- (or GC-) corrected maximum and Pearson’s association test are robust and have good control of Type I error and high power relative to the optimal trend tests in the presence of PS (or CR).
Relationship of childhood anxiety to adult panic disorder: correlates and influence on course.

OBJECTIVE This study investigated the correlates of a childhood history of anxiety disorders in adult patients participating in a longitudinal study of panic disorder. The authors hypothesized that a history of anxiety during childhood would be associated with higher rates of comorbid anxiety and depressive disorders, greater likelihood of anxiety disorders in family members, and greater chronicity, as reflected by decreased time spent in remission. METHOD The presence of a childhood history of anxiety disorders was assessed by structured interview, and its association with comorbid anxiety and depressive disorders, family history, and select anxiety severity variables was examined in a replication sample of 94 patients. The influence of childhood anxiety on the prospectively ascertained course of disorder was assessed in a full group of 194 patients. RESULTS Over half (54%) of the patients experienced anxiety disorders during childhood. These patients experienced higher rates of comorbid anxiety and depression, family history of anxiety, and increased levels of agoraphobia, panic frequency, and global severity of illness at baseline evaluation. Childhood anxiety disorders were not independently associated with the number of months in remission or the severity of illness over time, although a modest effect for this variable was evident when degree of avoidance and anxiety sensitivity at baseline were statistically controlled. CONCLUSIONS Adult panic patients with a history of anxiety disorders in childhood have elevated rates of comorbid anxiety and depressive disorders and a tendency toward increased avoidance, but there was not strong evidence that these patients respond differently to treatment over time.
Transcriptional Up-Regulation of the Cyclin D2 Gene and Acquisition of New Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Partners in Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1-Infected Cells

ABSTRACT Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the etiologic agent for adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis. Tax1 is a 40-kDa phosphoprotein, predominantly localized in the nucleus of the host cell, which functions to transactivate both viral and cellular promoters. It seems likely that HTLV-1, through expression of the viral regulatory protein Tax1, provides some initial alteration in cell metabolism predisposing the development of ATL. Here, we demonstrate that HTLV-1 infection in T-cell lines and patient samples causes overexpression of an early G1 cyclin, cyclin D2. The transcriptional up-regulation of the cyclin D2 gene is due to activation of Tax on the cyclin D2 gene. More important, we find that overexpression of cyclin D2 is accompanied by acquisition of new partners such as cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (cdk2), cdk4, and cdk6 in infected cells. This is in contrast to uninfected T cells, where cyclin D2 associates only with cdk6. Functional effects of these cyclin-cdk complexes in infected cells are shown by hyperphosphorylation of Rb and histone H1, indicators of active progression into S phase as well as changes in cellular chromatin and transcription machinery. These studies link HTLV-1 infection with changes of cellular cyclin gene expression, hence providing clues to development of T-cell leukemia.
Social uses of advertising

This study identifies social uses of advertising by young male adults who have been brought up in a mass media-driven society, which makes them more advertising literate. A diary study revealed the frequent use of TV advertising slogans and taglines that did not directly relate to any product purchase or use occasion. Moreover, the meanings consumed by the group were independent of the product that the ads promoted. The topic of social uses of advertising by groups has far-reaching practitioner implications for advertising research and copy development, which are discussed.
When Are We Most Vulnerable to Temperature Variations in a Day?

Daily temperature measures are commonly used when examining the association between temperature and mortality. In fact, temperature measures are available 24 hours a day and more detailed records may provide a better prediction of mortality compared to daily statistics. In this article, monthly stratified analysis modeling for mortality is conducted for the total population as well as the stratified elderly and younger subgroups. We identified the most significant time during the day that is associated with daily mortality. Surprisingly, the estimates of relative risk and magnitude of associations derived from the hourly temperature measures are similar or even stronger compared to those modeled by the daily statistics. This phenomenon remains true for lagged hourly temperature measures and the changing patterns of associations from January through December are revealed. In summary, people are the most vulnerable to temperature variations in the early morning around 5 am and the night time around 8 pm.
The reliability calculation of equipment impact resistance based on stress-strength interference model

The equipment will product break down if only stress exceeds strength according to the SSI model. But, Traditional SSI model is not involved in strength degradation. This paper brings in the characteristics of Poisson Process. At first, reliability computing model of equipment of which strengths are invariable, and stress are inputted discretely is established. Then, reliability computing model of equipment of which strengths are random but no degradation over time is established, the function of reliability against time is gained. At last, we will establish the computing model when the strength follows the linear degradation.