Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM FOR NURSES

Author Graeme Redshaw, RGN, Dip HE, RMA, Cert Man, FETC, is nurse manager, Risedale at Lonsdale Nursing Home, Risedale Estates, Cumbria. AbstrAct Redshaw, G. (2008) Improving the performance appraisal system for nurses. Nursing Times; 104: 18, 30–31. This article describes a project in one organisation that aimed to improve the appraisal system for nurses. Evidence suggests that appraisals have been poorly implemented in some organisations. Questionnaires were completed by eight nurses, who expressed mostly negative attitudes towards appraisals. The article outlines improvements put in place as a result of the analysis.
Low (60 cGy) Doses of 56Fe HZE-Particle Radiation Lead to a Persistent Reduction in the Glutamatergic Readily Releasable Pool in Rat Hippocampal Synaptosomes

Abstract Exposure to galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) is considered to be a potential health risk in long-term space travel, and it represents a significant risk to the central nervous system (CNS). The most harmful component of GCR is the HZE [high-mass, highly charged (Z), high-energy] particles, e.g. 56Fe. In ground-based experiments, exposure to HZE-particle radiation induces pronounced deficits in hippocampus-dependent learning and memory in rodents. The mechanisms underlying these impairments are mostly unknown, but some studies suggest that HZE-particle exposure perturbs the regulation of long-term potentiation (LTP) at the CA1 synapse in the hippocampus. In this study, we irradiated rats with 60 cGy of 1 GeV 56Fe-particle radiation and established its impact on hippocampal glutamatergic neurotransmissions at 3 and 6 months after exposure. Exposure to 60 cGy 56Fe-particle radiation significantly (P < 0.05) reduced hyperosmotic sucrose evoked [3H]-glutamate release from hippocampal synaptosomes, a measure of the readily releasable vesicular pool (RRP). This HZE-particle-induced reduction in the glutamatergic RRP persisted for at least 6 months after exposure. At 90 days postirradiation, there was a significant reduction in the expression of the NR1, NR2A and NR2B subunits of the glutamatergic NMDA receptor. The level of the NR2A protein remained suppressed at 180 days postirradiation, but the level of NR2B and NR1 proteins returned to or exceeded normal levels, respectively. Overall, this study shows that hippocampal glutamatergic transmission is sensitive to relative low doses of 56Fe particles. Whether the observed HZE-particle-induced change in glutamate transmission, which plays a critical role in learning and memory, is the cause of HZE-particle-induced neurocognitive impairment requires further investigation.
Directional 3D Edge Detection in Anisotropic Data: Detector Design and Performance Assessment

A new directional 3D edge detector designed for anisotropic image data is reported. The detector is based on interpolating the image intensity function in a small neighborhood of every voxel by a tri-cubic polynomial. The analytical approximation of the image intensity function is used to compute the intensity function gradients. The developed edge detector uses a maximum average of directional derivatives of the approximated image intensity function over a small neighborhood to determine the gradient direction. Our method is directly applicable to anisotropic image data, and it models the integrative character of data acquisition. With all these features, it remains computationally as expensive as any other convolution-based directional edge detector. Quantitative measures of the 3D edge detection accuracy were employed to compare the performance of our new edge detector to that of the 3D Canny edge detector. 3D edges with step and ramp profiles with varying surface curvatures at the edge point, as well as several levels of noise, were used for the performance testing. The reported edge detector significantly out-performed the Canny edge detector in most experiments in anisotropic data, as well as in data with superimposed noise. Another important property of the new edge detector is the ease of its implementation. Although its design required complex steps, the implementation employs straightforward 3D convolution in the volumetric image data using three precomputed directional masks. A complete description of the gradient implementation is presented.
The Effect of Corpus Size on Case Frame Acquisition for Predicate-Argument Structure Analysis

This paper reports the effect of corpus size on case frame acquisition for predicate-argument structure analysis in Japanese. For this study, we collect a Japanese corpus consisting of up to 100 billion words, and construct case frames from corpora of six different sizes. Then, we apply these case frames to syntactic and case structure analysis, and zero anaphora resolution, in order to investigate the relationship between the corpus size for case frame acquisition and the performance of predicate-argument structure analysis. We obtained better analyses by using case frames constructed from larger corpora; the performance was not saturated even with a corpus size of 100 billion words.
Arsenic bioavailability in the soil amended with leaves of arsenic hyperaccumulator, Chinese brake fern (Pteris vittata L.)

An incubation experiment was carried out to better understand the fate of As during the decomposition of As‐rich Chinese brake fern (Pteris vittata L.) leaves and to assess As bioavailability in soil. Dried fern leaves with an As concentration of 1,150 ± 14 μg/g were amended with unpolluted soil at 1 and 3%. After aging for one, three, and six months, germinated wheat was planted in the soil. After two months, wheat plants were harvested. Results showed that As concentration in shoots and roots significantly increased with increasing amounts of As‐rich leaf additions in soil samples and decreased over the incubation time (p < 0.001). For treatments with 3% fern leaf incubation, the average of As concentration in shoots was 1.59 μg/g dry weight after one month of incubation, nearly 20‐fold higher than that of the nonamended treatment; after six months of incubation, As concentration in shoots was 0.48 μg/g, almost 10‐fold higher than the corresponding nonamended treatment. Based on a sequential extraction method, As showed a shift from weakly adsorbed fractions to more strongly adsorbed fractions during the incubation, hence resulting in less As bioavailability. Arsenic concentrations in shoots and roots could be well described with linear functions of As concentrations distributed in different fractions. In conclusion, aging effect should be considered during risk assessment of As in soil–plant systems where As is recycled by the plant.
QoE-Based Performance Evaluation for Adaptive Media Playout Systems

To improve the playout quality of video streaming services, several adaptive media playout (AMP) mechanisms were proposed in literature. However, all performance evaluations and comparisons for AMPs were made in terms of quality of service (QoS) metrics. As one knows, there may exist a trade-off between QoS metrics, such as buffer underflow and overflow performance. Thus, it is not sufficient to only evaluate the performance of AMPs in terms of QoS metrics. In this paper, we will evaluate and compare the performance of several AMPs from the aspect of quality of experience (QoE). Numerical results will show that some existing AMP systems do not perform better than the nonadaptive playout system from the point of view of overall QoE.
Effect of a separated rotary instrument on bacterial penetration of obturated root canals.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a separated rotary instrument on the time required for bacterial penetration of obturated root canals METHODOLOGY Twenty-six extracted human mandibular premolars with single canals were used in this study. Group 1 consisted of teeth that contained a separated size 40 K3 rotary file, and were obturated with gutta-percha and AH-26 sealer to the level of the separated file. Group 2 consisted of teeth that were obturated similar to Group 1 but without a separated file. The negative control canals were obturated and had the entire root surface sealed with nail varnish. The positive controls were obturated without sealer. Enterococcus faecalis was placed in the access chamber daily, and penetration was determined when turbidity was noted in the culture broth. RESULTS The results showed no significant difference between Groups 1 and 2. However, differences between the experimental groups and control groups were statistically significant. CONCLUSION Under the conditions of the present study, the separated instrument itself does not play a significant role in the sealing ability of the obturation material.
Deep Learning With Noise

Recent works have shown that, by allowing some inaccuracy when training deep neural networks, not only the training performance but also the accuracy of the model can be improved. Our work, taking those previous works as examples and guidance, tries to study the impact of introducing different types of noise in different components of training a deep neural network. We intend to experiment with noise types which include Binomial noise, Gaussian noise, Gamma noise, etc. We also intend to study the effects of noise in different parts of the model which include neurons and network links in the input, hidden, and output layers, as well as matrix multiplication and gradient computation in the backward propagation process.
Distinct and Non-Overlapping T Cell Receptor Repertoires Expanded by DNA Vaccination in Wild-Type and HER-2 Transgenic BALB/c Mice1

Central tolerance to tumor-associated Ags is an immune-escape mechanism that significantly limits the TCR repertoires available for tumor eradication. The repertoires expanded in wild-type BALB/c and rat-HER-2/neu (rHER-2) transgenic BALB-neuT mice following DNA immunization against rHER-2 were compared by spectratyping the variable (V)β and the joining (J)β CDR 3. Following immunization, BALB/c mice raised a strong response. Every mouse used one or more CD8+ T cell rearrangements of the Vβ9-Jβ1. 2 segments characterized by distinct length of the CDR3 and specific for 63-71 or 1206-1214 rHER-2 peptides. In addition, two CD4+ T cell rearrangements recurred in >50% of mice. Instead, BALB-neuT mice displayed a limited response to rHER-2. Their repertoire is smaller and uses different rearrangements confined to CD4+ T cells. Thus, central tolerance in BALB-neuT mice acts by silencing the BALB/c mice self-reactive repertoire and reducing the size of the CD8+ T cell component. CD8+ and CD4+ T cells from both wild-type and transgenic mice home to tumors. This definition of the T cell repertoires available is critical to the designing of immunological maneuvers able to elicit an effective immune reaction against HER-2-driven carcinogenesis.
Determinants and their measurements of mobile marketing performance

Practice shows that many enterprises could not achieve remarkable performance in mobile marketing mainly because consumers' intention to accept it is very low. According to the literature research, the article considered consumer intention to accept mobile marketing as a measurement indicator of mobile marketing performance. Then the article explored the determinants of consumer's intention to accept mobile marketing and built a conceptual model. The model included five determinants: technology, consumer innovativeness, personalization, permission and entertainment; two mediators: perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness; one outcome variable: intention. The article constructed the measurements of those variables and used SPSS software to carry out the reliability analysis and the exploratory factor analysis. Finally, the article confirmed the measurements of variables which would be applied in future research.
Investing Back Homereturn Migration and Business Ownership in Albania

In view of its increasing importance, and the dearth of information on return migration and its impacts on source households, this study uses data from the 2005 Albania Living Standards Measurement Study survey and assesses the impact of past migration experience of Albanian households on non-farm business ownership through instrumental variables regression techniques. Moreover, considering the differences in earning potentials and opportunities for skill acquisition in different destination countries, the impact of household past migration experience is differentiated by main migrant destinations, namely Greece and Italy. The study also tests for the hypothesis of the existence of migration cycles, by differentiating the time spent abroad based on the year of return. The empirical results indicate that household past migration experience exerts a positive impact on the probability of owning a non-farm business. While one additional year in Greece increases the probability of household business ownership by roughly 7 percent, a similar experience in Italy or further destinations raises the probability by over 30 percent. Although past migration experience for the period 1990-2000 is positively associated with the likelihood of owning a household enterprise, a similar impact does not materialize for the period 2001-2004. The latter finding seems suggestive of the fact that more recent migrants are yet to attain a target level of required savings and skills in order to successfully establish a new business upon return.
Electric parameters identification of synchronous generator connecting to the grid

The peper describes a new method of parameter identification of synchronous generator, which allows identifying generator parameters from oscillograms of currents and voltages after connection to the grid. There are some theoretical foundations in the paper and explanations for oscillograms processing of transient process are given. Action of the proposed method is demonstrated on the digital model of simplest grid with salient-pole machine. Calculated results are also performed in paper.
A combined object-oriented and logic programming tool for AI

Object-oriented programming and logic programming are two of the most used programming paradigms in artificial intelligence. The authors describe a proposal to combine these two paradigms into a common logical framework. The combined framework encompasses the main features of both paradigms, making it a suitable tool for developing AI applications. First, the combined paradigm is defined as the combination of the main properties of both paradigms. Then, the authors describe the main features of the Plog programming language, a logical language that supports such a paradigm.
The Research for the Performance Evaluation Index System of Supply Chain Based on Internet of Things

Today, internet of things is on the rapid development stage. Scientific measures for supply chain performance which based on internet of things is an important content of the supply chain management. This article establishes the performance evaluation index system which based on internet of things from five aspects. They are financial, customer, business process, node coordination and information transmission, then using the AHP method and the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to evaluate.
Sparse cluster analysis of large-scale discrete variables with application to single nucleotide polymorphism data

Currently, extreme large-scale genetic data present significant challenges for cluster analysis. Most of the existing clustering methods are typically built on the Euclidean distance and geared toward analyzing continuous response. They work well for clustering, e.g. microarray gene expression data, but often perform poorly for clustering, e.g. large-scale single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data. In this paper, we study the penalized latent class model for clustering extremely large-scale discrete data. The penalized latent class model takes into account the discrete nature of the response using appropriate generalized linear models and adopts the lasso penalized likelihood approach for simultaneous model estimation and selection of important covariates. We develop very efficient numerical algorithms for model estimation based on the iterative coordinate descent approach and further develop the expectation–maximization algorithm to incorporate and model missing values. We use simulation studies and applications to the international HapMap SNP data to illustrate the competitive performance of the penalized latent class model.
Characterisation of lightly oxidised organic aerosol formed from the photochemical aging of diesel exhaust particles

Environmental context The effects of atmospheric fine particulate matter (aerosols) on climate and human health can be strongly influenced by the chemical transformations that the particles undergo in the atmosphere, but these ‘aging’ reactions are poorly understood. Here diesel exhaust particles are aged in the laboratory to better understand how they could evolve in the atmosphere, and subtle but unmistakable changes in their chemical composition are found. These results provide a more complete picture of the atmospheric evolution of aerosols for inclusion in atmospheric models. Abstract The oxidative aging of the semivolatile fraction of diesel exhaust aerosol is studied in order to better understand the influence of oxidation reactions on particle chemical composition. Exhaust is sampled from an idling diesel truck, sent through a denuder to remove gas-phase species and oxidised by hydroxyl (OH•) radicals in a flow reactor. OH• concentrations are chosen to approximately match the OH• exposures a particle would experience over its atmospheric lifetime. Evolving particle composition is monitored using aerosol mass spectrometry in two different modes, electron impact ionisation (EI) for the measurement of elemental ratios and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photoionisation for the measurement of molecular components. Changes to mass spectra in both modes indicate major changes to particle composition over the range of OH• exposures studied. The product aerosol is only lightly oxidised (O/C < 0.3), suggesting an intermediate oxidation state between primary organics and the highly oxidised organic aerosol observed in the atmosphere. These lightly oxidised organics appear to be composed of secondary organic aerosol from semivolatile species, as well as from heterogeneously oxidised particle-phase organics. Key chemical characteristics (elemental ratios, oxidation kinetics and mass spectrometric features) of the reaction system are examined in detail. Similarities between this laboratory-generated aerosol and ‘hydrocarbon-like organic aerosol’ (HOA) reported in ambient studies suggest that HOA might not be entirely primary in origin, as is commonly assumed, but rather might include a significant secondary component.
Molecular MR Imaging Probes

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been successfully applied to many of the applications of molecular imaging. This review discusses by example some of the advances in areas such as multimodality MR-optical agents, receptor imaging, apoptosis imaging, angiogenesis imaging, noninvasive cell tracking, and imaging of MR marker genes.
Sports motion analysis based on mobile sensing technology

Motion analysis plays a significant role in most of the sports, a large number of demands of Information Technology exist in related fields, including the sports training and P.E. practicing. As the development of mobile smart devices and relative software applications, we are able to assist sports practicing and training more easily and freely. Here, in this paper, we are going to focus on the application of sensor within smart phone in sports motion evaluation, such as the estimation of gymnastics gestures, and we are going to propose a solution scheme on sports motion evaluation.
Do parents know they matter? Engaging all parents in learning

Background: This paper outlines the findings from a research project carried out in the UK that explored the relationship between parental engagement and student achievement. Purpose: The 12-month research project was commissioned to explore the relationship between innovative work with parents and the subsequent impact upon student achievement. A main aim of the research project was to capture the views and voices of parents, students and teachers and to explore the barriers to parental engagement and the respective benefits to learning. Programme description: The study was qualitative in design and collected in-depth case-study data from 20 schools and 314 respondents. In addition a range of documentary evidence plus performance data were collected at each case-study site. Sample: A sample of schools in England was selected on two main criteria: firstly, the type of development, and secondly, the particular focus of parental engagement. Schools in the sample were selected to ensure that there was a broad geographical spread and a mix of urban and rural schools. Other factors were also taken into account to ensure a diverse range of schools (e.g. number on roll, socio-economic status (SES) and black minority ethnic (BME) percentages). Design and methods: Case-study methodology was used as the prime method of data collection in the study. In addition, school data sets relating to student performance, behaviour and attendance were analysed. These data sets allowed patterns and trends to be identified. This analysis formed the basis of the more detailed interrogation of the case-study evidence at each of the 20 sites. Results: The research findings highlight a number of barriers facing certain parents in supporting their children's learning. It is clear that powerful social and economic factors still prevent many parents from fully participating in schooling. The research showed that schools rather than parents are often ‘hard to reach’. The research also found that while parents, teachers and pupils tend to agree that parental engagement is a ‘good thing’, they also hold very different views about the purpose of engaging parents. It is also clear that there is a major difference between involving parents in schooling and engaging parents in learning. While involving parents in school activities has an important social and community function, it is only the engagement of parents in learning in the home that is most likely to result in a positive difference to learning outcomes. Conclusions: Parental engagement in children's learning in the home makes the greatest difference to student achievement. Most schools are involving parents in school-based activities in a variety of ways but the evidence shows but this has little, if any, impact on subsequent learning and achievement of young people.
Performance of a raster scanning laser display system using diamond shaped frame supported micromirror

We describe the design, fabrication, and experimental results of a raster scanning laser display system using micromachined electrostatic scanning micromirror. The micromirror is comprised of a diaphragm mirror plate supported by an array of diamond shaped support frame, and movable comb electrodes. A prototype raster scanning laser display system using the fabricated micromirror, having optical scan angle of 16.9deg at resonance frequency of 19.55 kHz, as the horizontal scanner was developed and tested. To compensate for the nonlinear characteristics of the scanner, a simple image correction method was developed, and the projected image was analyzed and compared with the simulation results