Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tethered Nano Building Blocks: Toward a Conceptual Framework for Nanoparticle Self-Assembly

We perform molecular simulations to study the self-assembly of nanoparticles functionalized with oligomeric tethers attached to specific locations on the nanoparticle surface. We demonstrate that for certain categories of tethered nano building blocks the obtained morphologies may be predicted using concepts from block copolymer microphase separation and liquid-crystal phase ordering, whereas for other categories the unique packing constraints introduced by nanoparticle geometry and by nanoparticle−tether topology lead to structures far richer than those found in conventional block copolymer, surfactant, and liquid-crystal systems. Our results suggest the potential usefulness of considering tethered nano building blocks as a new class of “macromolecule” for assembling novel materials on the nanoscale.
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Matthew O. Howard as a Mentor and His Influence on the Science of Mindfulness as a Treatment for Addiction

t is difficult to estimate the impact of a scholar. Conventional metrics such as citation counts, h-indexes, publications in top-tier journals, and federal grants all provide some objective indication of scholarly impact, but these indices fail to capture the holistic and historical context of a scholar’s influence on the development and emergence of entire fields of inquiry. To obtain a more comprehensive sense of scholarly impact, a reviewer with close knowledge of both the scholar and the field is required. As his student and colleague, I believe that Matthew Owen Howard, PhD, exerted a singular influence on social work research, and his scholarly efforts helped give rise to a new and critically important field of scientific investigation: the study of mindfulness as a treatment for addiction. Matthew was, simply put, a giant of social work research. With more than 8,866 citations and an h-index of 55 (as of January 9, 2019), and having served several terms as editor-in-chief of peer-reviewed journals and on more than 50 editorial boards and at least 12 National Institutes of Health (NIH) study sections, Matthew’s scholarly efforts had a significant impact on broad domains of science, including the study of addiction, mental health, and evidence-based practice. His early research grew out of his clinical experience treating alcoholism with chemical aversion therapy. Later, Matthew studied the epidemiology of psychiatric and substance use disorders, and he subsequently became one of the world’s leading experts on inhalant abuse (Howard, Bowen, & Garland, 2015), work for which the National Institute on Drug Abuse awarded him both R03 (No. R03DA15929) and R01 (No. R01DA021405) grants as principal investigator. During this time, Matthew had been a faculty member at some of the most prestigious universities in
Effects of Land Acquisition for Large Scale Farming on the Performance of Small Scale Farming in Nigeria

The study examined the effects of land acquisition for large scale farming on the performance; productivity and technical efficiency of small-scale farming in Nigeria. The primary data for the study were collected from 200 small-scale farmers selected using the multistage sampling technique, from three local government areas in Ondo State, Nigeria. The farmers were grouped into Group A: farmers whose families donated land for large scale oil palm project and Group B: farmers whose families did not donate land for the large scale oil palm project in the study area. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, gross margin and stochastic frontier production function analyses. The study revealed that farmers in group A had long distant farms that were in small highly fragmented holdings and produced mainly arable crops that yielded smaller revenue compared with the farmers in group B. It was further revealed that group B farms were more productive in the allocation of resources and over all production as measured by the decreasing positive elasticity of production of most of the variables involved in the production function analysis. The group B farms were also more technically efficient than the group A farms. The study therefore recommends that government should open up the lands on the highways that are not owned by any family for prospective large scale agricultural producers.
Simulation and evaluation of conflict interactions in information systems

The work describes the scenario of conflict interactions in information system and intruder security using the formalism of hybrid automata. Analysis of probability of winning on both sides in the conflict. The possibility of abstraction from a concrete kind of density distributions for the time the parties to the conflict in their possible States. Based on the destructive effects of information distribution models in information system shows the mutual influence of the spread of the destructive processes information on process state changes subjects information system. With this approach, based on a view of information system in the form of a two-dimensional cellular automaton. The results of experimental research of confirming the theoretical conclusions.
On the Decoding of LDPC Codes in IEEE 802 . 16 e Standards for Improving the Convergence Speed

In this paper, the modified iterative decoding algorithm by partitioning check nodes is applied to low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes in IEEE 802.16e standards, which gives us the improvement for convergence speed of decoding. Also, the new method of check node partitioning which is suitable for decoding of the LDPC codes in IEEE 802.16e system is proposed. The improvement of convergence speed in decoding reduces the number of iterations and thus the computational complexity of the decoder. The decoding method by partitioning check nodes can be applied to the LDPC codes whose decoder cannot be implemented in the fully parallel processing.
Impact of Job Crafting on Quality of Care: The Moderating Effect of Commitment

The present study is part of a broader research project aimed at the analysis of the job environment of eldercare and nursing homes employees. In this context, the aim of this research is to analyze the direct effect of job crafting, specifically, task, relational and cognitive crafting, on quality of care, and the moderator effect of commitment on these relationships. A correlational cross-sectional design was used. A non-probabilistic accidental sample of 530 eldercare and nursing home employees was recruited. Standardized instruments were used to assess employees’ job crafting, quality of care and commitment. Regression analyses with PROCESS were used to test the moderated model. Results showed a moderated effect of exchange, values, and affective commitment on the relationship between cognitive job crafting and quality of care, but not on the relationship of task and relational job crafting and quality of care. This study highlights the importance of nurses’ job crafting activities for quality of care. Quality of care depends on cognitive job crafting among nurses with high levels of organizational commitment. Those employees with high levels of need commitment perceived low levels of quality of care, independently of their job crafting.
Dielectric less and dimple less MEMS capacitive switches: The actuation mechanism

The present paper investigates for the first time the electrical properties of dielectric less and dimple less MEMS capacitive switches. The capacitance of these devices increases rapidly beyond pull-in being proportional to the Fowler-Nordhein current-voltage relation. The study is carried out through experimentally obtained capacitance- and current-voltage characteristic that agree with the corresponding capacitance and field emission current models.
Fingerprint Indexing Using Ridge Invariants

Indexing large fingerprint databases is an important and challenging problem. In this paper, an invariant-based fingerprint indexing scheme is proposed. Minutia and surrounding ridges are combined to form a substructure. The invariants describe binary relations between substructures. Experimental results on FVC2002 database demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm
Epistemic Structural Realism and Poincaré’s Philosophy of Science

Recent discussions of structuralist approaches to scientific theories have stemmed primarily from John Worrall’s “Structural Realism” in which he defends a position (since characterized “epistemic structural realism”) whose historical roots he attributes to Poincaré. In the renewed debate inspired by Worrall, it is thus not uncommon to find Poincaré’s name associated with various structuralist positions. However, Poincaré’s structuralism is deeply entwined with neo-Kantianism and the roles of convention and objectivity within science. In this article we explore the nature of these dependencies. What emerges is not only a clearer picture of Poincaré’s position regarding structuralism but also two arguments for versions of epistemic structuralism different in kind from that of Worrall.
State-of-the-Art Review on Relevance of Genetic Algorithm to Internet Web Search

People use search engines to find information they desire with the aim that their information needs will be met. Information retrieval (IR) is a field that is concerned primarily with the searching and retrieving of information in the documents and also searching the search engine, online databases, and Internet. Genetic algorithms (GAs) are robust, efficient, and optimizated methods in a wide area of search problems motivated by Darwin's principles of natural selection and survival of the fittest. This paper describes information retrieval systems (IRS) components. This paper looks at how GAs can be applied in the field of IR and specifically the relevance of genetic algorithms to internet web search. Finally, from the proposals surveyed it turns out that GA is applied to diverse problem fields of internet web search.
User experience of mobile augmented reality: A review of studies

Augmented Reality is an advance technology that enhances the real world by overlaying digital data on top of it. When Augmented Reality (AR) experience is delivered on mobile devices it is termed as mobile augmented reality (MAR). MAR is state-of-the-art technology that has completely revolutionized the way of accessing and interacting with information thus invoking new experiences for users all around the world. This article is an effort to summarize the current research regarding user experience of MAR. Mobile AR Publications of past 10 years are identified for a preliminary review from prominent online databases and digital libraries. The aim of this study is to identify the areas of User Experience (UX) that lack research. We present a classification of present UX research in MAR domain. Research findings and possible opportunities for future research are also discussed.
Multicast Multiaccess Algorithm with Forward Error Correction for Mobile Users

Mobile devices are typically equipped with multiple access network interfaces, supporting the coexistence of heterogeneous wireless access networks. The selection of an optimal set of multiple serving mobile networks for multicast streams is NP-hard and is, therefore, a challenging problem. We propose and evaluate a simple heuristic algorithm that provides configuration of multicast groups for a given network topology and network conditions. We consider that a forward error correction technique is applied to deal with packet loss of the wireless communication.
Using Outcome Polarity in Sentence Extraction for Medical Question-Answering

Multiple pieces of text describing various pieces of evidence in clinical trials are often needed in answering a clinical question. We explore a multi-document summarization approach to automatically find this information for questions about effects of using a medication to treat a disease. Sentences in relevant documents are ranked according to various features by a machine learning approach. Those with higher scores are more important and will be included in the summary. The presence of clinical outcomes and their polarity are incorporated into the approach as features for determining importance of sentences, and the effectiveness of this is investigated, along with that of other textual features. The results show that information on clinical outcomes improves the performance of summarization.
An initialization scheme for supervized K-means

Over the last years, researchers have focused their attention on a new approach, supervised clustering, that combines the main characteristics of both traditional clustering and supervised classification tasks. Motivated by the importance of the initialization in the traditional clustering context, this paper explores to what extent supervised initialization step could help traditional clustering to obtain better performances on supervised clustering tasks. This paper reports experiments which show that the simple proposed approach yields a good solution together with significant reduction of the computational cost.
Diverse neuronal lineages make stereotyped contributions to the Drosophila locomotor control center, the central complex

The Drosophila central brain develops from a fixed number of neuroblasts. Each neuroblast makes a clone of neurons that exhibit common trajectories. Here we identified 15 distinct clones that carry larval‐born neurons innervating the Drosophila central complex (CX), which consists of four midline structures including the protocerebral bridge (PB), fan‐shaped body (FB), ellipsoid body (EB), and noduli (NO). Clonal analysis revealed that the small‐field CX neurons, which establish intricate projections across different CX substructures, exist in four isomorphic groups that respectively derive from four complex posterior asense‐negative lineages. In terms of the region‐characteristic large‐field CX neurons, we found that two lineages make PB neurons, 10 lineages produce FB neurons, three lineages generate EB neurons, and two lineages yield NO neurons. The diverse FB developmental origins reflect the discrete input pathways for different FB subcompartments. Clonal analysis enlightens both development and anatomy of the insect locomotor control center. J. Comp. Neurol. 521:2645–2662, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Some Remarks on Derivatives Markets

1. The parameter δ in the Black-Scholes formula The Black-Scholes option-pricing formula is given in Chapter 12 of McDonald without proof. A rather unrealistic assumption on dividend payments is needed to derive formula (12.1). The assumption is given in the first sentence of the last paragraph on page 129: dividends are paid continuously at a rate that is proportional to the stock price. More precisely, for each share of the stock, the amount of dividends paid between time t and time t+dt is assumed to be S(t)δdt, where S(t) denotes the price of one share of the stock at time t, t ≥ 0. (Note that the book also writes S(t) as St. The symbol S in formula (12.1) is the value of the stock price at time 0, while S in other formulas, such as those in Appendix 12.B, may mean the value of the stock price at time t. ) The dividend yield, δ, is a nonnegative constant. The equation that defines the stock price process is (20.1), which can be rewritten as dS(t) + S(t)δdt = S(t)αdt + S(t)σdZ(t). The total return on a stock has two components: price change and dividend income. The two terms on the left-hand side of this equation are the two components of the total return on the stock between time t and time t+dt. It is pointed out on page 130 that, if all dividends are re-invested immediately, then one share of the stock at time 0 will grow to eδT shares at time T, T ≥ 0. Here is an alternative derivation. Let n(t) denote the number of shares of the stock held at time t under the reinvestment policy. Thus, n(0) = 1. Instead of receiving dividends, the investor receives additional shares of the stock: n(t)S(t)δdt = [n(t+dt) – n(t)]S(t). Cancelling S(t) yields n(t)δdt = dn(t). Hence, for T ≥ 0,
Citation for final published version: Verdezoto, Nervo and Gronvall, Erik 2016. On preventive blood pressure self-monitoring at home

Self-monitoring activities are increasingly parts of people’s everyday lives. Some of these measurements are performed voluntary rather than being referred by a physician, and conducted because of either a preventive health interest, or to better understand the body and its functions (so-called ‘Quantified Self’). In this article, we explore socio-technical complexities that may occur when introducing preventive health-measurement technologies into older adults’ daily routines and everyday lives. In particular, the original study investigated blood pressure (BP) measurement in nonclinical settings, to understand existing challenges, and uncover opportunities for self-monitoring technologies to support preventive healthcare activities among older adults. From our study, several aspects emerged that are important to consider when designing preventive self-monitoring technology, such as the complexity of guidelines for selfmeasuring, the importance of interpretation, understanding and health awareness, sharing self-monitoring information for prevention, various motivational factors, the role of the doctor in prevention, the home as a distributed information space, and so on. An awareness of these aspects may help designers to develop better support tools for people’s preventive self-monitoring needs, compared to existing solutions. Supporting the active and informed individual may improve their self-care, awareness, and implementation of preventive care. Based on our study, we reflect on the findings to illustrate how these aspects may also inform both people engaged in Quantified Self activities and designers alike, and the tools and approaches that have sprung from the so-called ‘Quantified Self’ movement.
Implementation and demonstration of receiver-coordinated distributed transmit beamforming across an ad-hoc radio network

Distributed transmit beamforming using an ad-hoc network of 10 RF transmitters was demonstrated using radio nodes developed from off-the-shelf components and modules. A time-slotted protocol allowed carrier phases from each transmitter to be measured at a receiver and fed back to the transmitters where Kalman filters were used to predict the offset phases and frequencies. Offsets were digitally compensated for during beamforming intervals. Beamforming gain within 0.1dB of ideal was demonstrated across 1 km at 910MHz. This is the first report (to our knowledge) of a successful outdoor RF distributed transmit beamforming experiment using independent clocks at this scale.
Experiences of leaders in the implementation of Lean in a teaching hospital—barriers and facilitators in clinical practices: a qualitative study

Objectives To date, experiences of leaders in the implementation of Lean after a Lean Training Programme have not been systematically investigated within teaching hospitals. Existing studies have identified barriers and facilitators only from an improvement programme perspective and have not considered the experiences of leaders themselves. This study aims to bridge this gap. Design Semistructured, indepth interviews. Setting One of largest teaching hospitals in the Netherlands. Participants 31 medical, surgical and nursing professionals with an average of 19.2 years of supervisory experience. All professionals were appointed to a Lean Training Programme and were directly involved in the implementation of Lean. Results The evidence obtained in this study shows that, from the perspectives of participants, leadership management support, a continuous learning environment and cross-departmental cooperation play a significant role in successful Lean implementation. The results suggest that a Lean Training Programme contributed to positive outcomes in personal and professional skills that were evident during the first 4 months after programme completion. Conclusions Implementing Lean in a teaching hospital setting is a challenge because of the ambiguous and complex environment of a highly professionalised organisation. The study found that leadership management support and a continuous learning environment are important facilitators of Lean implementation. To increase the successful outcomes of leadership actions, training should be supplemented with actions to remove perceived barriers. This requires the involvement of all professionals, the crossing of departmental boundaries and a focus on meaning-making processes rather than simply ‘implementing’ facts. Therefore, this research suggests that programme participants, such as staff members and leaders, can mutually explore the meanings of Lean thinking and working for their own contexts. By entering this shared learning process (eg, learning on the job) the ownership of Lean implementation could also increase.
Design and Optimization of a Java Ahead-of-Time Compiler for Embedded Systems

Most embedded Java software platforms include a Java middleware installed on the client device. It can be optimized using the ahead-of-time compiler (AOTC), which translates the Java bytecode into the machine code before runtime. There are many approaches to AOTC, but a bytecode-to-C AOTC which translates the bytecode into C code and then compile it using an existing optimizing compiler such as gcc would be a practical one. This paper explores a few important design and optimization issues of a bytecode-to-C AOTC, including the compilation strategy for the translated C code, the call interfaces between Java methods, and Java-specific optimizations by the AOTC that can complement the gcc optimizations. We evaluate these issues with a bytecode-to-C AOTC to understand their performance impact.
Multi-Resolution Global Models for Teleseismic and Regional Event Location

Abstract : Reconciliation of structures shown in global models of Earth structure with those shown in detailed, high-resolution regional models has become one of the most important tasks in seismic tomography. Recent studies have shown that combination of regional seismic phases with teleseismic phases can greatly increase location accuracy; however, for this to be the case, the velocity structure has to be well resolved on a fine scale. The most efficient method to accomplish this task is development of multi-resolution models using local (but smooth) basis functions that increase in resolution from regions with sparse data coverage to regions of dense coverage. This paper reports on recent results from an ongoing project designed to bridge the gap between regional and global seismic tomography and achieve correspondingly incremental improvements in event location. We have previously developed a moderately high-resolution global model (equivalent to spherical harmonic degree 18) using local spline functions. This model improves locations using teleseismic phases over other more finely parameterized models ( Antolik et al., 2001). Here we extend the same techniques to simultaneous development of more detailed regional models for inclusion within the global model. We describe progress in constructing a new regional model of the Africa/Mediterranean region which makes use of surface wave dispersion data, regional travel times and waveforms, and teleseismic phase arrivals. This model also incorporates shear wave anisotropy and agrees well with other published models for the region. Other regions for which we intend to develop combined regional/global models include the former Soviet Union and North America. Tomographic models can also be vastly improved through the use of sources with calibrated travel-time data (i.e., reference events with accurately known locations).