Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Linear Scaling of Reset Current Down to 22-nm Node for a Novel $\hbox{Cu}_{x}\hbox{Si}_{y}\hbox{O}$ RRAM

The relationship between low resistance (<i>R</i><sub>on</sub>) and cell size (from 40 nm to 100 μm) is systematically investigated using a 1-Mb Cu<i>x</i>Si<i>y</i>O resistive RAM (RRAM) array. To our knowledge, this is the first study to attempt such an endeavor. Spacer pattern technology is employed to obtain a small cell size on the basis of a 0.13-μm standard logic process. <i>R</i><sub>on</sub> exhibits minimal change at 100 μm to 90 nm of RRAM size. However, it quadratically increases at 90 to 40 nm. The reset current, which is highly dependent on <i>R</i><sub>on</sub>, is linearly reduced fivefold in accordance with cell size, thereby improving overall power reduction and cell size scaling. The <i>R</i><sub>on</sub> dependence on cell size can be well explained by the dendritelike conductive filament model.
Environmental learning for coping with drought among small scale farmers of Luangwa district,Zambia

Environmental learning is learning about, in and for the environment. With recent recordings of changes in rainfall patterns, environmental learning can enhance rain fed agriculturalists with sound knowledge and skills needed to cope with or manage environmental hazards such as drought. Exploring environmental learning for coping with drought among small scale farmers of Zambia’s Luangwa district constituted the aim of this study. The study was informed by a critical realism paradigm as well as situated learning and structural functional theories set within qualitative methodologies.
How Does Web Personalization Create Value? Lower Cash Flow Volatility or Enhanced Cash Flows

Abstract This study examines the performance consequences of web personalization (WP), a type of personalization in which web content is personalized and recommendations are offered based on customer preferences. Despite the growing popularity of personalization, there is a dearth of research at the firm level on whether and how web personalization creates shareholder value. We develop and test a conceptual model that proposes that the impact of WP on shareholder value is mediated by (1) cash flow volatility and (2) premium price. The hypotheses are tested based on 603 firm-quarter observations spanning 80 firms over six years in the online financial services industry. The results suggest that while WP lowers the volatility of cash flows, it only enables firms to charge premium prices when online trust is high. Additional tests reveal that the reduction in cash flow volatility is because of lower churn as opposed to acquiring new customers or greater cross-buying. Finally, online trust positively moderates the relationships between WP and cash flow volatility and price premia. Practical implications of the findings are discussed.
Executive function and cognitive subprocesses in first-episode, drug-naive schizophrenia: an analysis of N-back performance.

OBJECTIVE This study investigated changes in the cognitive architecture of N-back performance in schizophrenia. METHOD N-back performance of 12 patients with first-episode, drug-naive schizophrenia and matched healthy comparison subjects was studied in a reaction-time decomposition paradigm. RESULTS Imposition of a working memory load led to a significant drop in response accuracy in patients. Reaction-time decomposition suggested slowing of visuomotor and choice reaction processing as well as an inability of parallel processing directed by working memory. DISCUSSION Although N-back tasks validly access working memory function as a neurocognitive trait in the illness, several additional subprocesses and the ability for cognitive parallel processing are altered and require further study in schizophrenia.
In search of excellence : lessons from America's best-run companies

The authors studied 43 successful American companies to discover the secrets of the art of American management. The firms were in various categories, including high-technology companies, consumer goods companies, general industrial goods companies of interest, service companies, project management companies, and resource-based companies. To choose the companies, six measures of long-term superiority (three are measures of growth and long-term wealth creation over a 20-year period, and three are measures of return on capital and sales) were selected and imposed: compound asset growth, compound equity growth, average ratio of market value to book value, average return on equity, and average return on sales. The superior companies had eight attributes characterizing their distinction. Each attribute is discussed in detail, with examples and anecdotes from the firms involved. The attributes are: (1) a bias for action-preferring to do something, anything, rather than performing endless analyses and convening committees; (2) staying close to the customer-learning and catering to the client's preferences; (3) autonomy and entrepreneurship--dividing the corporation into companies and encouraging independent and competitive thought within them; (4) productivity through people--making all employees aware that best efforts are vital and that they will have part of the rewards of the firm's success; (5) hands-on, value driven--insisting that higher-ups keep in contact with the company's essential business; (6) stick to the knitting--staying with the business the firm knows best; (7) simple form, lean staff-administrative layers are few, with few staff members at the top; and (8) simultaneous loose-tight properties--a climate combining dedication to the firm's central values along with tolerance for all employees who accept those values. The rational model of management is discussed, along with its history and implications in corporate functioning. A chapter on human motivation discusses some of the contradictions of human nature that are relevant to management and describes how they can be dealt with to everyone's benefit.
Investigations to Minimum Phone Error Training in Bilingual Speech Recognition

The great success of Minimum Phone Error (MPE) training criterion in mono-language large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) tasks motivates us to apply it to bilingual LVCSR systems. In this paper, in conjunction with the previous respectable bilingual phoneme inventory construction techniques, we give a comprehensive investigation to the performance of MPE/fMPE on various Mandarin-English bilingual test sets under different test conditions. The evaluation results show that the final fMPE+MPE model achieves significant improvements compared to the baseline models. On the mono-language test sets, the best improvement is a relative error rate reduction of 28.4%. And on the code-mixing test set, it also achieves a relative error rate reduction of 8.1%. The within- and cross-language substitution error rate introduced in this paper also explicitly shows that fMPE/MPE training can effectively improve the model's within- and cross-language discriminabilities in our bilingual recognition tasks.
A Modular Systolic Linearization of the Warshall-Floyd Algorithm

In this paper, we use a variant of the geometric method to derive efficient modular linear systolic algorithms for the transitive closure and shortest path problems. Furthermore, we show that partially-pipelined modular linear systolic algorithms with an output operation, for matrix multiplication, can be as fast as the fully-pipelined existing ones and, moreover, they need less cells.
Effects of Pulsatile Shear Stress on Nitric Oxide Production and Endothelial Cell Nitric Oxide Synthase Expression by Ovine Fetoplacental Artery Endothelial Cells1

Abstract Placental blood flow, endothelial nitric oxide (NO) production, and endothelial cell nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) expression increase during pregnancy. Shear stress, the frictional force exerted on endothelial cells by blood flow, stimulates vessel dilation, endothelial NO production, and eNOS expression. In order to study the effects of pulsatile flow/shear stress, we adapted Cellco CELLMAX artificial capillary modules to study ovine fetoplacental artery endothelial (OFPAE) cells for NO production and eNOS expression. OFPAE cells were grown in the artificial capillary modules at 3 dynes/cm2. Confluent cells were then exposed to 10, 15, or 25 dynes/cm2 for up to 24 h. NO production by OFPAE cells exposed to pulsatile shear stress was inhibited to nondetectable levels by the NOS inhibitor l-NMMA and reversed by excess NOS substrate l-arginine. NO production and expression of eNOS mRNA and protein by OFPAE cells were elevated by shear stress in a graded fashion (P < 0.05). The rise in NO production with 25 dynes/cm2 shear stress (8-fold) was greater (P < 0.05) than that observed for eNOS protein (3.6-fold) or eNOS mRNA (1.5-fold). The acute shear stress-induced rise in NO production by OFPAE cells was via eNOS activation, whereas the prolonged NO rise occurred by elevations in both eNOS expression and enzyme activation. Thus, elevations of placental blood flow and physiologic shear stress may be partly responsible for the increases in placental arterial endothelial eNOS expression and NO production during pregnancy.
Automated, inter-macro channel space adjustment and optimization for faster design closure

Achieving optimal floor-plans during the physical synthesis flow is an iterative and resource intensive process and its quality has a significant impact on subsequent synthesis stages in terms of runtime and quality of results. This problem intensifies due the abundance of macros in advance technology nodes which poses challenges in the physical design flow, especially in the floor-plan stage. It has resulted in an excessive number of channels among macros that need to be spaced carefully and optimized as they consume placement and routing resources. The work presented here is two-fold: First, a tool is introduced for automatic channel space adjustment. Second, the impact of channel space minimization on the quality of results along with runtimes are investigated. Experimental results for two complex partitions of a taped out design, Design-A and Design-B, each with 3M instances including 225 and 205 macros respectively, are presented. The results indicate an existence of an optimum channel spacing in which a 35% and 124% reduction in turn-around-time is observed with same or better quality of results, when compared to the taped out version of the same.
SURFACE ELECTROMYOGRAPHIC ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECT OF STATIC STRETCHING OF THE GASTROCNEMIUS ON VERTICAL JUMP PERFORMANCE

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of static stretching of the gastrocnemius muscle on maximal vertical jump performance using electromyographic activity (EMG) of the gastrocnemius musculature to record muscle activation during vertical jump performance. Fourteen healthy adults (8 men and 6 women) aged 18–34 years, who were familiar with the vertical jumping task and had no lower extremity injuries or any bone or joint disorders within the past year, served as participants for this study. After a brief warm-up, participants performed the following sequence: (a) three baseline maximal vertical jump trials, (b) 15 minutes of quiet sitting and three 30-second bilateral static stretches of the gastrocnemius muscles, and (c) 3 maximal vertical jump trials. Jump height data were collected using the Kistler force plate, while muscle activity was recorded during the jumping and stretching trials using a Noraxon telemetry EMG unit. Vertical jump height data as well as EMG values were averaged for the 3 trials and analyzed using paired t-tests for pre- and poststretching (a5 0.05). Vertical jump height was 5.6% lower when poststretch heights were compared with prestretch heights (t 524.930, p < 0.005). Gastrocnemius EMG was 17.9% greater when the EMG during poststretch jumps was compared with prestretch jumps (t = 2.805, p < 0.02). The results from this study imply that, despite increased gastrocnemius muscle activity, static stretching of the gastrocnemius muscles had a negative effect on maximal jumping performance. The practical importance concerns coaches and athletes, who may want to consider the potential adverse effects of performing static stretching of the gastrocnemius muscles only before a jumping event, as jump height may be negatively affected. Future research is required to identify the mechanisms that affect vertical jump performance.
Joint Homography Estimation for Highlight Removal

This paper addresses the problem of removing highlight regions caused by the light sources reflecting off glossy surfaces in indoor environments. We devise an efficient method to detect and remove the highlights from the target scene by jointly estimating separate homographies for the target scene and the highlights. Our method is based on the observation that when given two images captured at different viewpoints, the displacement of the target scene is different from that of the highlight regions. We show the effectiveness of our method in removing the highlight reflections by comparing it with the related state-of-the-art methods. Unlike the previous methods, our method has the ability to handle saturated and relatively large highlights which completely obscure the content underneath.
Exploring earned value management in the Spanish construction industry as a pathway to competitive advantage

ABSTRACT As a well established discipline and profession, project management has its distinctive tools and techniques. One of them that has been considered the embodiment of the core principles of project management is the Earned Value Management (EVM). In managing construction projects, the EVM has been considered as a suitable tool and hence, has been implemented in various construction industry but absent in some others. Taking into account the dynamic environment where construction companies have to operate, particularly in turbulence environments as the direct result of recent global economic downturn, this paper explores the potential implementation of EVM in one of the construction industry, the Spanish construction industry. The outcomes confirm the needs for and feasibility of implementing EVM as a structured approach in the industry to reposition the Spanish construction industry with the long term view to increase its project management maturity level as a pathway to gaining competitive advantage.
Bacillus subtilis spore coats: complexity and purification of a unique polypeptide component

Extensively washed, dormant spores of Bacillus subtilis were disrupted with glass beads in buffer at pH 7 in the presence of protease inhibitors. Approximately 31% of the total spore protein was soluble, and another 14% was removed from the insoluble fraction by hydrolysis with lysozyme and washing with 1 M KCl and 0.1% sodium dodecyl sulfate. The residual spore integuments comprised 55% of the total spore proteins and consisted of coats and residual membrane components. Treatment of integuments with sodium dodecyl sulfate and reducing agents at pH 10 solubilized 40% of the total spore protein. Seven low-molecular-weight polypeptide components of this solubilized fraction comprised 27% of the total spore protein. They are not normal membrane components and reassociated to form fibrillar structures resembling spore coat fragments. The residual insoluble material (15% of the total spore protein) was rich in cysteine and was probably also derived from the spore coats. A solubilized coat polypeptide of molecular weight 12,200 has been purified in good yield (4 to 5% of the total spore protein). Five amino acids account for 92% of its total amino acid residues: glycine, 19%; tyrosine, 31%; proline, 23%; arginine, 13%; and phenylalanine, 6%.
Molecular evidence of the haploid origin in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) with Aegilops kotschyi cytoplasm and whole genome expression profiling after haploidization

Aegiolops kotschyi cytoplasmic male sterile system often results in part of haploid plants in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). To elucidate the origin of haploid, 235 wheat microsatellite (SSR) primers were randomly selected and screened for polymorphism between haploid (2n = 3x = 21 ABD) and its parents, male-sterile line YM21 (2n = 6x = 42 AABBDD) and male fertile restorer YM2 (2n = 6x = 42 AABBDD). About 200 SSR markers yielded clear bands from denatured PAGE, of which 180 markers have identifiable amplification patterns, and 20 markers (around 8%) resulted in different amplification products between the haploid and the restorer, YM2. There were no SSR markers that were found to be distinguishable between the haploid and the male sterile line YM21. In addition, different distribution of HMW-GS between endosperm and seedlings from the same seeds further confirmed that the haploid genomes were inherited from the maternal parent. After haploidization, 1.7% and 0.91% of total sites were up- and down-regulated.
Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Abolishes the Susceptibility of Polarized Epithelial Cell Lines to Measles Virus*

Measles virus (MV), an enveloped negative-strand RNA virus, remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. MV predominantly infects immune cells by using signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAM; also called CD150) as a receptor, but it also infects polarized epithelial cells, forming tight junctions in a SLAM-independent manner. Although the ability of MV to infect polarized epithelial cells is thought to be important for its transmission, the epithelial cell receptor for MV has not been identified. A transcriptional repressor, Snail, induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), in which epithelial cells lose epithelial cell phenotypes, such as adherens and tight junctions. In this study, EMT was induced by expressing Snail in a lung adenocarcinoma cell line, II-18, which is highly susceptible to wild-type MV. Snail-expressing II-18 cells lost adherens and tight junctions. Microarray analysis confirmed the induction of EMT in II-18 cells and suggested a novel function of Snail in protein degradation and distribution. Importantly, wild-type MV no longer entered EMT-induced II-18 cells, suggesting that the epithelial cell receptor is down-regulated by the induction of EMT. Other polarized cell lines, NCI-H358 and HT-29, also lost susceptibility to wild-type MV when EMT was induced. However, the complete formation of tight junctions rather reduced MV entry into HT-29 cells. Taken together, these data suggest that the unidentified epithelial cell receptor for MV is involved in the formation of epithelial intercellular junctions.
A Socio-Technical Approach to Manage Analytics-as-a-Service - Results of an Action Design Research Project

The ability to generate business-relevant information and its use for business process improvements is a key success factor for businesses today. Answering the call for further research on success-relevant practices and instruments for managing business analytics, we report on the results of a three-year action design research project at a global car manufacturer. Drawing on the socio-technical systems theory, we identify seven meta-requirements and specify four principles for the design of an instrument to manage Analytics-as-a-Service (Aaas) portfolios. Our results reinforce the importance of coordinating different socio-technical components in business analytics initiatives and demonstrate how concrete management instruments, such as the proposed portfolio management tool, contribute to socio-technical alignment. For practitioners, the documented design components may provide guidance on how to design and implement similar instruments that support the management of Aaas portfolios.
Predicting In‐Hospital Falls: Development of the Scott and White Falls Risk Screener

Falling is the most common hospital accident, and up to 15% of fallers sustain a serious injury. This study focused on developing a simple, practical fall risk screener using routine admission and daily in-hospital stay data. A case-control design was used. Logistic regression identified individual characteristics associated with an increased risk of a fall. Four variables were identified: history of falls, ambulation assistance, disoriented, and bowel control problems, creating a fall risk model with 70% sensitivity and 57% specificity.
Error estimation of nanoindentation mechanical properties near a dissimilar interface via finite element analysis and analytical solution methods

Nanoindentation methods are well suited for probing the mechanical properties of a heterogeneous surface, since the probe size and contact volumes are small and localized. However, the nanoindentation method may introduce errors in the computed mechanical properties when indenting near the interface between two materials having significantly different mechanical properties. Here we examine the case where a soft material is loaded in close proximity to an interface of higher modulus, such as the case when indenting bone near a metallic implant. The results are derived from both an approximate analytical quarter space solution and a finite element model, and used to estimate the error in indentation-determined elastic modulus as a function of the distance from the apex of contact to the dissimilar interface, for both Berkovich and spherical indenter geometries. Sample data reveal the potential errors in mechanical property determination that can occur when indenting near an interface having higher stiffness, or when characterizing strongly heterogeneous materials. The results suggest that caution should be used when interpreting results in the near-interfacial region.
Improved Microwave Noise Performance by SiN Passivation in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on Si

Effects of silicon nitride (SiN) surface passivation by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) on microwave noise characteristics of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on high-resistivity silicon (HR-Si) substrate have been investigated. About 25% improvement in the minimum noise figure (<i>NF</i> <sub>min</sub>) (0.52 dB, from 2.03 dB to 1.51 dB) and 10% in the associate gain (<i>G</i> <sub>a</sub>) (1.0 dB, from 10.3 dB to 11.3 dB) were observed after passivation. The equivalent circuit parameters and noise source parameters (including channel noise coefficient (<i>P</i>), gate noise coefficient (<i>R</i>), and their correlation coefficient (<i>C</i>)) were extracted. <i>P</i>, <i>R</i> and <i>C</i> all increased after passivation and the increase of C contributes to the decrease of the noise figure. It was found that the improved microwave small signal and noise performance is mainly due to the increase of the intrinsic transconductance (<i>g</i> <sub>m0</sub>) and the decrease of the extrinsic source resistance (<i>R</i> <sub>s</sub>).
Sequential multiple methods as a contemporary method in learning disability nursing practice research

This paper explores and advocates the use of sequential multiple methods as a contemporary strategy for undertaking research. Sequential multiple methods involve the use of results obtained through one data collection method to determine the direction and implementation of subsequent stages of a research project (Morse, 1991; Morgan, 1998). This paper will also explore the significance of how triangulating research at the epistemological, theoretical and methodological levels could enhance research. Finally the paper evaluates the significance of sequential multiple method in learning disability nursing research practice.