Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the Relative Performance of Engineering Design Projects: A Case Study Using Data Envelopment Analysis

This paper presents a case study of how Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was applied to generate objective cross-project comparisons of project duration within an engineering department of the Belgian Armed Forces. To date, DEA has been applied to study projects within certain domains (e.g., software and R&D); however, DEA has not been proposed as a general project evaluation tool within the project management literature. In this case study, we demonstrate how DEA fills a gap not addressed by commonly applied project evaluation methods (such as earned value management) by allowing the objective comparison of projects on actual measures, such as duration and cost, by explicitly considering differences in key input characteristics across these projects. Thus, DEA can overcome the paradigm of project uniqueness and facilitate cross-project learning. We describe how DEA allowed the department to gain new insight about the impact of changes to its engineering design process (redesigned based on ISO 15288), creating a performance index that simultaneously considers project duration and key input variables that determine project duration. We conclude with directions for future research on the application of DEA as a project evaluation tool for project managers, program office managers, and other decision-makers in project-based organizations
Access point analysis in smoking and nonsmoking adolescents: findings from the European Smoking Prevention Framework Approach study

This study analyzed possibilities to access European adolescents for tobacco control activities in out-of-school settings as part of comprehensive tobacco control programs. Data on leisure time behaviors of secondary school students were gathered during three waves from six European Union countries as part of the European Smoking Prevention Framework Approach study. The results revealed that streets, shops, sport clubs, swimming pools and snack bars were the most popular leisure time settings for adolescents across the six countries. In addition, leisure time activities were similar across the six countries. European-wide prevention programmes can reach adolescents in similar out-of-school settings. Furthermore, smokers and nonsmokers differed in the places that they visited. Whereas smokers preferred social places such as bars, house/rave parties, discos, snack bars, streets and shops, nonsmokers preferred sport clubs and libraries. Smokers tended to visit more unsupervised and less structured places where smoking tends to be permitted, whereas nonsmokers tended to visit places with more structured activities and places under adult supervision. Over time, both smoking and nonsmoking adolescents tended to spend more of their leisure time in settings with low adult supervision. As structured activities under the supervision of adults can have a protective effect against the involvement in risky behaviours, participation in these types of activities must be promoted. Additional strategies for settings with less supervision need to be developed as they attract more smoking adolescents and older nonsmoking adolescents.
Managerial Entrenchment and the Market for CEOs

This paper studies managerial entrenchment in the presence of a broadening market for managers. Some degree of entrenchment helps create value for shareholders and is therefore desirable, but it also increases the cost of managerial turnover. Firms resolve this trade-off and choose an optimal level of entrenchment for their incumbent CEOs. As managerial skills become less firm-specific and more portable across firms, the market for talent offers better replacement opportunities of incumbents managers. Equilibrium pay also increases but, overall, the profitability of hiring an external CEO increases at large firms, where managerial talent is most productive. As a consequence, large firms reduce the entrenchment of their incumbents to better take advantage of possible market replacements. Equilibrium outcomes can however be inefficient if managers are subject to moral hazard and can exert effort to improve their productivity.
A Service Oriented Analytics Framework for Multi-Level Marketing Business

Today’s enterprises have accumulated vast amount of data and keep exploding by business activities. These datasets may contain potential undiscovered business strategies as a key basis of competition; underpin new waves of productivity growth, innovation, and consumer surplus. Data analysis is crucial in making managerial decisions. Although there are many Business Intelligence (BI) software of commercial and open source, but serving statistical purpose as exuberant as GNU-R (R) is rare. R is a highly extensible language and environment for providing a variety of statistical and graphical features. In enterprise environment, the source data are stored in various forms such as files, database, and streaming data. Currently analysts conduct data analysis in offline mode using statistical software. The offline mode means analysts 1) extract the desired data; 2) store extracted data into files; 3) manipulate software; 4) draw analytical results; 5) generate the inferences. Automating the statistical procedures by directly pulling source data will make critical decision sooner and less costly. It is a common practice that enterprise adopts Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to achieve its operation excellence. Since the business applications populate the source data during the operation processes, pulling the source data directly under SOA is the most effective way of data analysis. This paper demonstrates how service-oriented statistics engine was developed and how such a system benefits the business decision-making.
Cerebrospinal Fluid Concentrations of Nitric Oxide Metabolites in Spinal Cord Injury

Study Design. Multiple center study to evaluate cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of nitric oxide metabolites [NOx] in relation to neurologic severity and prognosis in spinal cord injury (SCI). Objective. To examine whether CSF [NOx] correlates with neurologic severity and recovery in SCI. Summary of Background Data. Inducible nitric oxide synthase is expressed in rat spinal cord immediately after SCI. Excessive nitric oxide production is cytotoxic, causing neuronal apoptosis with subsequent neurodysfunction in the spinal cord. We previously reported a significant correlation between initial [NOx] after incomplete cervical cord injury (CCI) and neurologic recovery at the final follow-up in 25 cases. Methods. Ninty-six cases (SCI group), including 76 patients with CCI and 20 patients with thoracic cord injury were examined. Mean follow-up period was 11 months. The control group comprised 40 cases (3 healthy volunteers and 37 patients with neither pain nor neurologic disorders). CSF [NOx] were measured using the Griess method. Severity of neurologic impairment was assessed using Frankel's classification and the American Spinal Injury Association motor score (ASIA MS). Degree of neurologic recovery was assessed using Frankel's classification and the ASIA motor recovery percentage. Results. CSF [NOx] did not differ significantly among the control, CCI, and thoracic cord injury groups at the initial examination. In the CCI group, [NOx] in the Frankel A and B classes were significantly higher than [NOx] in the control group at 5 to 14 days, in the Frankel A and B classes at 0 to 4 days, and in the Frankel C and D classes at 5 to 14 days. Also, in the CCI group at 5 to 14 days, [NOx] correlated significantly with ASIA MS and motor recovery percentage. Conclusion. There was a significant correlation between CSF [NOx] at the pathologic early subacute stage (approximately 5–14 days) and neurologic severity and recovery in SCI.
Research approaches in logistics : trends and alternative future directions

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to track the evolution of logistics research with a focus on the methods and orientation of the research from the past to the present. Specifically, this paper investigates the evolution of logistics research methodologies in an attempt to address previous calls for a paradigm discussion aimed at assessing the current direction and proposing a future direction for research in the logistics discipline.Design/methodology/approach – The authors chose a previously established framework which describes and evaluates alternative research paradigms. A content analysis of articles in selected journals allows published research of the logistics discipline to be evaluated and categorized. The categorization process uses a two‐dimensional framework which then allows the authors to classify research into cells in a matrix which represent a variety of research paradigms.Findings – The results illustrate that the methodologies employed in logistics have evolved during the perio.
Enabling digital entrepreneurs

The term digital entrepreneurship most commonly refers to the process of creating a new - or novel - Internet enabled and delivered business, product, or service. In the developed world, the emergence of utility-based cloud computing is shifting focus from technical barriers to the business environment challenges facing digital entrepreneurs. Digital entrepreneurship may level the playing field in certain sectors, creating opportunities to work from remote areas, at different hours, from the home, or on the go. It can play an important role in promoting gender equality and social and economic inclusion, stimulate local development, and contribute to sustainable development, especially when new technologies are combined with the availability of open and public data. The main barriers to digital entrepreneurship appear to include: skills, infrastructure, and various aspects of the business environment. It is also important to create a dynamic and competitive digital business environment and address concerns around digital entrepreneurship conditions in order to enable the creation of online services and applications.
Inter-fraction variations in respiratory motion models

Respiratory motion can vary dramatically between the planning stage and the different fractions of radiotherapy treatment. Motion predictions used when constructing the radiotherapy plan may be unsuitable for later fractions of treatment. This paper presents a methodology for constructing patient-specific respiratory motion models and uses these models to evaluate and analyse the inter-fraction variations in the respiratory motion. The internal respiratory motion is determined from the deformable registration of Cine CT data and related to a respiratory surrogate signal derived from 3D skin surface data. Three different models for relating the internal motion to the surrogate signal have been investigated in this work. Data were acquired from six lung cancer patients. Two full datasets were acquired for each patient, one before the course of radiotherapy treatment and one at the end (approximately 6 weeks later). Separate models were built for each dataset. All models could accurately predict the respiratory motion in the same dataset, but had large errors when predicting the motion in the other dataset. Analysis of the inter-fraction variations revealed that most variations were spatially varying base-line shifts, but changes to the anatomy and the motion trajectories were also observed.
Managing brand consistent employee behaviour: relevance and managerial control of behavioural branding

Purpose – This study aims to show that brand success can be improved if the brand promise that is communicated through mass media campaigns is lived up to by each employee of a company. The paper terms such brand consistent employee behaviour behavioural branding and identifies managerial instruments for its implementation and management.Design/methodology/approach – The model in the paper explains the brand's contribution to company success by brand consistent employee behaviour, functional employee performance and brand congruent mass media communication. Brand consistent employee behaviour and functional employee performance in turn are modelled as determined by formal and informal management techniques as well as employee empowerment. The model is tested on a sample of 167 senior managers using partial least squares and finds empirical support. Furthermore, practical implications are provided based on additional top management focus groups.Findings – The paper finds that behavioural branding determine.
Contradictory effects of mitochondria‐ and non‐mitochondria‐targeted antioxidants on hepatocarcinogenesis by altering DNA repair in mice

Conflicting effects of antioxidant supplementation on cancer prevention or promotion is of great concern to healthy people and cancer patients. Despite recent studies about antioxidants accelerating the progression of lung cancer and melanoma, antioxidants may still play a role in cancer prevention. Both tumor and antioxidants types influence the actual efficacy. However, little is known about the impact of different types of antioxidants on primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), including non‐mitochondrial‐ and mitochondrial‐targeted antioxidants. Utilizing mouse models of chemical hepatocarcinogenesis, we showed that administration of non‐mitochondria‐targeted antioxidants N‐acetylcysteine (NAC) and the soluble vitamin E analog, Trolox, prevented tumorigenesis, whereas administration of mitochondria‐targeted antioxidants SS‐31 (the mitochondria‐targeted peptide) and Mito‐Q (a derivative of ubiquinone) facilitated tumorigenesis. RNA sequencing revealed that NAC and SS‐31 caused very different changes in the oxidation‐reduction state and DNA damage response. In diethylnitrosamine (DEN)‐treated primary hepatocytes, NAC and Trolox alleviated DNA damage by activating ataxia‐telangiectasia mutated (ATM)/ATM and Rad3‐related (ATR) for DNA repair whereas SS‐31 and Mito‐Q aggravated damage by inactivating them. Interestingly, partial recovery of SS‐31‐scavengened mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mtROS) could alleviate SS‐31‐aggravated DNA damage. Localization of ATM between mitochondria and nuclei was altered after NAC and SS‐31 treatment. Furthermore, blockage of phospho‐ATR (p‐ATR) led to the recurrence of NAC‐ameliorated DEN HCC. In contrast, reactivation of p‐ATR blocked SS‐31‐promoted DEN HCC. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that the type of antioxidants plays a previously unappreciated role in hepatocarcinogenesis, and provide a mechanistic rationale for exploring the therapeutic use of antioxidants for liver cancer. (Hepatology 2018;67:623‐635).
Detection of Human c-Myc and EGFR Amplifications in Circulating Extracellular Vesicles in Mouse Tumour Models

Essentially, all cells release extracellular vesicles (EVs) that end up in biofluids, including blood, and the contents of these EVs can provide a window into the status of the cells from which they are released. This is particularly interesting in cancer, since these EVs allow for ‘ex-vivo’ analysis of the properties of the tumours without the need for biopsy. Gene mutations, rearrangements, amplifications, and epigenetic changes in the transcriptome can be monitored in circulating EVs. In this study, we used two human tumour cell lines derived from an epidermoid carcinoma and a medulloblastoma, which had amplification for the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and c-Myc genes, respectively. Cells were implanted subcutaneously into immunocompromised mice, and levels of gene amplification in both groups of subcutaneous tumours were quantified. We then determined if elevated levels of transcripts for the human EGFR and c-Myc were represented in circulating EVs in tumour-bearing mice. The expression levels of both human EGFR (h-EGFR) and human c-Myc (h-c-Myc) mRNAs in circulating EVs correlated well with their amplified status in the tumours. This data provides further support to the idea that circulating EVs are a potential platform for tumour biomarkers.
The Impact of Customer Satisfaction on Share-of-Wallet in a Business-to-Business Environment

Research has found that customer satisfaction is positively related to repurchase intention, actual repurchase, market share, and word of mouth. There is growing recognition among managers of the importance of measuring the share of business a customer conducts with a particular service provider (share-of-wallet) as opposed to simply repurchasing a product or service at some point in the future or continuing to keep a business relationship with a service provider. Currently there is very little empirical research concerning the relationship between customer satisfaction and share-of-wallet. This article examines the relationship between satisfaction and actual share-of-wallet in a business-to-business environment. The authors not only find that there is a positive relationship but that the relationship is nonlinear, with the greatest positive impact occurring at the upper extreme of satisfaction levels.
Thoracoscopic cell sheet transplantation with a novel device

Regenerative medicine with transplantable cell sheets fabricated on temperature‐responsive culture surfaces has been successfully achieved in clinical applications, including skin and cornea treatment. Previously, we reported that transplantation of fibroblast cell sheets to wounded lung had big advantages for sealing intraoperative air leaks compared with conventional materials. Here, we report a novel device for minimally invasive transplantation of cell sheets in endoscopic surgery, such as video‐assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). The novel device was designed with a computer‐aided design (CAD) system, and the three‐dimensional (3D) data were transferred to a 3D printer. With this rapid prototyping system, the cell sheet transplantation device was fabricated using a commercially available photopolymer approved for clinical use. Square cell sheets (24 × 24 mm) were successfully transplanted onto wound sites of porcine lung placed in a human body model, with the device inserted through a 12 mm port. Such a device would enable less invasive transplantation of cell sheets onto a wide variety of internal organs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Increased reaction time predicts visual learning deficits in Parkinson's disease

To determine whether the process involved in movement preparation of patients in the early stages of Parkinson's disease (PD) shares attentional resources with visual learning, we tested 23 patients with PD and 13 healthy controls with two different tasks. The first was a motor task where subjects were required to move as soon as possible to randomly presented targets by minimizing reaction time. The second was a visual learning task where targets were presented in a preset order and subjects were asked to learn the sequence order by attending to the display without moving. Patients with PD showed higher reaction and movement times, while visual learning was reduced compared with controls. For patients with PD, reaction times, but not movement times, displayed an inverse significant correlation with the scores of visual learning. We conclude that visual declarative learning and movement preparation might share similar attentional and working memory resources. © 2010 Movement Disorder Society
Mortgage Pricing Differentials across Hispanic, African-American, and White Households: Evidence from the American Housing Survey

This article uses recent metropolitan area samples of the American Housing Survey (AHS) for 1998, 2002, and 2004 to investigate differences in the terms, conditions, and use of mortgage financing alternatives. It investigates how financing and mortgage rates differ for Hispanics compared with other ethnic groups across a number of different U.S. housing markets. The principal focus of the article is to examine the extent to which differences in the interest rates obtained by homeowners of different race/ethnicity and income levels can be explained by differences in the characteristics of the borrowers, the property, and the loan itself. For example, Hispanic households appear to have a relatively high burden of first mortgage debt. Although limitations in the information available in the AHS do not allow for the determination of whether discrimination exists for minorities in the sample, this data set does identify important differences in the characteristics of these households, which in turn affect mortgage pricing.
PrivacyProxy: Leveraging Crowdsourcing and In Situ Traffic Analysis to Detect and Mitigate Information Leakage

Smartphone apps often transmit personally identifiable information (PII) without the user's knowledge. To address this issue, we present PrivacyProxy, a system that monitors outbound network traffic and generates app-specific signatures to represent privacy sensitive data being shared, all without any modifications to the OS. We use a crowdsourcing based approach to detect likely PII in an adaptive and scalable manner by anonymously combining signatures from different users of the same app. Our system design is itself privacy sensitive as we do not see users' network traffic and instead rely on cryptographically hashed signatures. We present the design and implementation of PrivacyProxy and evaluate its effectiveness in detecting various PIIs through a lab study and a field deployment. Our field study shows that even without any user labeling of PII, PrivacyProxy automatically detects various forms of PII with a precision of 0.81. We also show that the performance overhead of PrivacyProxy is under 13% and majority of the users report no perceptible impact on battery life or the network.
Dual Regulation of R-Type CaV2.3 Channels by M1 Muscarinic Receptors

Voltage-gated Ca2+ (CaV) channels are dynamically modulated by G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR). The M1 muscarinic receptor stimulation is known to enhance CaV2.3 channel gating through the activation of protein kinase C (PKC). Here, we found that M1 receptors also inhibit CaV2.3 currents when the channels are fully activated by PKC. In whole-cell configuration, the application of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), a PKC activator, potentiated CaV2.3 currents by ∼two-fold. After the PMA-induced potentiation, stimulation of M1 receptors decreased the CaV2.3 currents by 52 ± 8%. We examined whether the depletion of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2) is responsible for the muscarinic suppression of CaV2.3 currents by using two methods: the Danio rerio voltage-sensing phosphatase (Dr-VSP) system and the rapamycin-induced translocatable pseudojanin (PJ) system. First, dephosphorylation of PI(4,5)P2 to phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate (PI(4)P) by Dr-VSP significantly suppressed CaV2.3 currents, by 53 ± 3%. Next, dephosphorylation of both PI(4)P and PI(4,5)P2 to PI by PJ translocation further decreased the current by up to 66 ± 3%. The results suggest that CaV2.3 currents are modulated by the M1 receptor in a dual mode—that is, potentiation through the activation of PKC and suppression by the depletion of membrane PI(4,5)P2. Our results also suggest that there is rapid turnover between PI(4)P and PI(4,5)P2 in the plasma membrane.
MMSE Channel Estimation For MIMO-OFDM Using Spatial and Temporal Correlations

- This paper provide MMSE Channel estimation For MIMO-OFDM Using Spatial and Temporal Correlations. Generally there are a lot of methods for channel estimation of OFDM as well as MIMO OFDM. In this paper I first described about the latest MIMO OFDM channel estimation which is super resolution approach that explores spatial and temporal correlation of MIMO-OFDM. I then implemented it using MMSE channel estimation technique. I then plotted 2D Graph of the channel Response and the I compared the bit error rate performance of the channel estimation technique.