Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Investigation on the Relationship between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction: In the Case of CCG CO.

Nowadays almost all organizations are realizing the significance of customer centered philosophies. One of the key challenges they are facing is how to manage service quality, which holds a great importance to customer satisfaction. The purpose of this investigation has been to gain a better understanding those of the service quality dimensions that affect customer satisfaction from customers’ perspective. Some service quality dimensions have been tested in CCG CO operations and its relationship with customers in order to explore the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. A qualitative approach has been considered for the research. The empirical data has been gathered through in dept interviews. Data analysis has been done in accordance with the research questions and literature review. Finally, conclusions have been derived by answering the research questions. Some of the services qualities dimensions have been addressed in this investigation include reliability, responsiveness, tangibles, empathy, and assurance, and logistic/technical support, fulfillment, pricing and courtesy. SERVQUAL as the most often used approach for, measuring service quality has been to compare customers' expectations before a service encounter and their perceptions of the actual service delivered. The results imply that the quality performance of dimensions have a strong impact on customer satisfaction. Also, price, speed of installation and speed of delivery have been found as new dimensions.
Leaky-wave antenna in planar technology with high directivity in the transverse plane

A leaky-wave antenna (LWA) designed in substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology and showing high directivity in its transverse plane is presented. In addition, the proposed SIW LWA allows for the flexible control of its complex propagation constant, and thus of its radiation properties. For this purpose, the width of the SIW is used for the control of the phase constant and the separation between posts for the leakage rate. Moreover, the proposed structure works with the TE20 mode of the SIW, which makes it possible the radiated electric fields be added in phase at the center of the SIW, providing higher directivity in the transverse plane compared to single line-source antennas. Full-wave simulations are given to support the theoretical concepts exposed along the work. Furthermore, several prototypes have been designed at the frequency of 15 GHz to validate this work.
The micro RNA target paradigm: a fundamental and polymorphic control layer of cellular expression

Evidence is emerging that micro RNA (miRNA) is an important and potentially polymorphic regulatory layer for silencing gene expression in vivo. Knowledge of miRNA targeting may help to elucidate the function of many human genes in common diseases, providing a powerful target validation technology. Accurate in silico prediction of miRNA targets in mRNA is a critical capability, allowing effective evaluation of the impact of variation on the creation, strengthening, weakening and destruction of miRNA binding sites. Application of such analyses identifies thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms, which may potentially impact miRNA regulation of mRNA. The authors believe this information may offer a real opportunity to study miRNA function at a number of levels. First, sequence-focused analysis will help to define the functional boundaries of miRNA target binding. Second, one may be able to identify miRNA target variants in mRNA with a direct role in human disease, which may be valuable therapeutic targets.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIATION IN TWO SYMPATRIC SPARROWS

Geographic variation in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction sites was studied in samples of two sympatric passerine birds, fox (Passerella iliaca) and song (Melospiza melodia) sparrows, collected at the same sites in the western United States. Different levels of variation and differentiation were observed in each species. In 46 fox sparrows taken at nine sites, five clones were observed, partitioned into two distinct east‐west groups that meet at the Great Basin‐Sierra Nevada interface; percent nucleotide divergence was 0.86 between groups and 0.08 within groups. An additional 43 individuals were examined using at least one of seven diagnostic endonucleases, and all supported the east‐west groupings. Considering common mtDNA haplotypes as alleles, an FST of 0.50 was computed, which is an order of magnitude greater than that computed from allozyme comparisons (0.019); mtDNA analyses suggest little intergroup gene exchange. Compared to allozymic variation, analysis of mtDNA revealed a greater degree of population structuring and greater consistency with broad patterns of morphological variation. Fifteen clones were observed in 27 song sparrows taken at seven of the same sites at which fox sparrows were sampled; the percent nucleotide divergence averaged 0.27. There was no detectable geographic pattern to the variation, and no evidence of an east‐west division as in the fox sparrow. However, the mosaic nature of mtDNA variation in song sparrows suggests limited gene exchange. Considering the 15 clones as alleles yielded an Fst of 0.24, which is reduced to 0.039 when corrected for sampling error. In spite of occupying the same geographic area, mtDNA analyses showed that the two species (or at least their mtDNA gene genealogies) have had different evolutionary histories.
A Bayesian Control Chart for a Passivation Process

Multivariate control charts can be used effectively to monitor the quality of complex processes with severalcritical variables simultaneously. However, when the covariance matrix has large dimension in comparison tothe number of runs available for parameter estimation, these charts can perform poorly. We incorporate priorinformation about the covariance matrix in which the number of parameters is reduced to just two. We considera passivation process for semiconductor manufacturing, where each of the variables represents a value ata specific location in a passivation tube, and because of the interaction between the plasma and the reactantgases flowing down the tube, the correlation among the variables might decay with distance between these locations.Moreover, the variability at the locations might be taken equal, further reducing the number of parameters.We use a Bayesian method to construct the multivariate control chart, and a statistic, analogous to Hotelling's2 T , is used for charting.
Cutting Edge: Inhibitory Effects of CD4 and CD8 on T Cell Activation Induced by High-Affinity Noncognate Ligands1

It has been proposed that MHC restriction during thymocyte selection is controlled by coreceptor (CD4 or CD8) sequestration of the signaling molecule Lck. We explored this model as a mechanism for preventing peripheral T cell activation due to non-MHC ligand cross-reactivities of TCRs. TCRs that have a range of affinities for a class I MHC ligand were transduced into a T cell hybridoma in the absence or presence of coreceptors. High and intermediate affinity TCRs (KD = 17 and 540 nM) did not require CD8 for T cell activity, but CD4 acted as a potent inhibitor of the intermediate affinity TCR. These and other findings support the view that even high-affinity TCR:ligand interactions can be influenced by coreceptor sequestration of Lck. Thus, CD4 and CD8 act as “coreceptor inhibitors” to maintain appropriate TCR-mediated MHC restriction in peripheral T cell activity.
The Relationship between Poverty, Conflict and Development

Contrary to the expectations and dreams nourished by many people that the end of the ‘Trio-Crisis Initiators’ in Africa: Colonialism (1960s) Cold War (1998) and Apartheid (1994), will bring stability and succour to the continent, however, the new era could as well be perceived as a turbulent period. This paper establishes the relationship between poverty, conflict and development (PCD) in analysing instability in the African continent. In its analysis, the paper examines several variable factors that can help in the explanations of the relationship between PCD in Africa. These variable factors includes: economic, political, population, climate and environment, ethnic composition, militarization, poor growth and political corruption. None of these varying factors can unilaterally explain the relationship between poverty, conflict and development as issues behind Africa’s instability. However, the paper argues that political corruption stands out as the most persuasive, compelling and primary explanation for the (causal) relationship(s) between PCD, though, it is not an exclusive one. While, the paper recognises that there are both exogenous and endogenous trends that influence political corruption, the paper adopts the endogenous (domestic political corruption) perspective, because political governance is now more controlled at home. The paper employs the human needs theory for analysis.
Parental State Anxiety as a Function of The Visitation Schedule of Pediatric Intensive Care Units

ü his study investigated the state anxiety level of the parent whose child had been admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) with restricted visiting hours and the state anxiety level of the parent whose child had been admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care unit with unrestricted visiting hours. The 15 parents in each of the two visitation groups were very similar in terms of age, gender, and marital status. Parental state anxiety levels were measured using the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). A tool evaluating visiting hours and the STAI were given to the parent of the child hospitalized in the Pediatric ICU between the 12th and 36th hour of hospitalization. While no significance was found at ~ c . 0 5 level, implications for further research are discussed. CHAPTER
A Multidimensional Measure of Caregiving Appraisal: Validation of the Caregiver Appraisal Scale in Traumatic Brain Injury

Objective:To investigate the factor structure and concurrent validity of the Caregiver Appraisal Scale (CAS) in a sample of caregivers of adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Design:Prospective cohort study. Setting:Two sites: (1) Outpatient clinics associated with a comprehensive inpatient brain injury rehabilitation program and (2) a comprehensive residential postacute rehabilitation program in the Southern United States. Participants:One hundred forty-nine caregivers of adults with TBI enrolled in the TBI Model Systems Project and 92 caregivers of adults with TBI admitted to a residential postacute rehabilitation program. Most caregivers were women and either parents or spouses of the injured person. Main Outcome Measures:Caregiver Appraisal Scale (CAS); Subjective Burden Scale (SBS); Objective Burden Scale (OBS); General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Results:Principal components analysis with varimax rotation yielded four factors: perceived burden (PB), caregiver relationship satisfaction (CRS), caregiving ideology (CI), and caregiving mastery (CM), which were found to be fairly stable across treatment settings. Adequate concurrent validity was demonstrated for the perceived burden factor, and adequate internal consistency was found for three of four scales. Conclusions:Preliminary support for the use of the CAS in caregivers of adults with TBI was obtained. However, further scale development, particularly for the CM factor, will likely improve the stability and usefulness of this instrument.
Psychosocial Problems in Asylum Seekers' Children: The Parent, Child, and Teacher Perspective Using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

Children of asylum seekers are at risk for psychosocial problems because of their flight history and exceptional living circumstances. This study aims to assess the association of sociodemographic factors and asylum procedural factors with psychosocial problems of asylum seekers' children, and differences herein by informant (parents, teachers, and children). To this end, we obtained data on psychosocial problems among a random sample of 267 children aged 4 to 16, living in Dutch asylum seekers' centers, using the multi-informant Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. The results show that the prevalence rate of psychosocial problems among asylum seekers' children was high. The occurrence was not associated with asylum-procedural variables but only with child-contextual factors such as mental health of the mother and leaving behind a parent in the country of origin. The associations varied in strength by informant. Therefore, preventive and supportive measures to improve psychosocial health of young asylum-seekers should concentrate on these contextual issues.
Automatic recognition of a car license plate using color image processing

An automatic recognition method of a car license plate using color image processing is presented. At first, background colors of a plate are extracted from an input car image. A neural network is used for more stable extraction. To find a plate region, a fixed ratio of horizontal and vertical length of a plate is used. To recognize characters in a plate, template matching and postprocessing techniques are used. Since the proposed method does not depend on line information of a plate it is very robust to boundary deformation. Also, this method is strong enough to deal with a car's image which has many similar regions with a plate. <<ETX>>
A comparative study of identical VMAT plans with and without jaw tracking technique

The unwanted radiation transmission through the multileaf collimators could be reduced by the jaw tracking technique which is commercially available on Varian TrueBeam accelerators. On the basis of identical plans, this study aims to investigate the dosimetric impact of jaw tracking on the volumetric‐modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans. Using Eclipse treatment planning system (TPS), 40 jaw‐tracking VMAT plans with various tumor volumes and shapes were optimized. Fixed jaw plans were created by editing the jaw coordinates of the jaw‐tracking plans while other parameters were identical. The deliverability of this artificial modification was verified using COMPASS system via three‐dimentional gamma analysis between the measurement‐based reconstruction and the TPS‐calculated dose distribution. Dosimetric parameters of dose‐volume histogram (DVH) were compared to assess the improvement of dose sparing for organs at risk (OARs) in jaw‐tracking plans. COMPASS measurements demonstrated that over 96.9% of structure volumes achieved gamma values less than 1.00 at criteria of 3 mm/3%. The reduction magnitudes of maximum and mean dose to various OARs ranged between 0.06%∼6.76%(0.04∼7.29 Gy) and 0.09%∼7.81%(0.02∼2.78 Gy), respectively, using jaw tracking, agreeing with the disparities of radiological characteristics between MLC and jaws. Jaw tracking does not change the delivery efficiency and total monitor units. The dosimetric comparison of VMAT plans with and without jaw tracking confirms the physics hypotheses that reduced transmission through tracking jaws will reduce doses to OARs without sacrificing the target dose coverage because it is meant to be covered by radiation beams going through the opening. PACS number(s): 87.55. de, 87.55. dk
Ultra low-power high-speed single-bit hybrid full adder circuit

In this paper a low power hybrid 1-bit full adder circuit is designed and extended for 4 bit ripple carry adder (RCA). A new XNOR logic is designed using complimentary-metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) logic and Pass transistor logic. CMOS weak inverters improve the power consumption while pass transistors overcome voltage degradation problem. Carry logic is designed using transmission gates which reduces the carry propagation path. A 4-Bit RCA is also designed using the proposed single bit full adder. The proposed full adder and RCA are designed in 180nm technology and post layout simulations are done using Cadence Virtuoso. Power, delay, power delay product (PDP) and area are performance parameters of the proposed full adder which are calculated using umc technology. The power and delay parameters of the proposed single-bit full adder are 930.3-nW and 43.07-ps respectively.
Evapotranspiration from pilot-scale constructed wetlands planted with Phragmites australis in a Mediterranean environment

This article reports the results of evapotranspiration (ET) experiments carried out in Southern Italy (Sicily) in a pilot-scale constructed wetland (CW) made of a combination of vegetated (Phragmites australis) and unvegetated sub-surface flow beds. Domestic wastewater from a conventional wastewater treatment plant was used to fill the beds. Microclimate data was gathered from an automatic weather station close to the experimental plant. From June to November 2009 and from April to November 2010, ET values were measured as the amount of water needed to restore the initial volume in the beds after a certain period. Cumulative reference evapotranspiration (ET0) was similar to the cumulative ET measured in the beds without vegetation (ETcon), while the Phragmites ET (ET phr ) was significantly higher underlining the effect of the vegetation. The plant coefficient of P. australis (Kp) was very high (up to 8.5 in August 2009) compared to the typical Kc for agricultural crops suggesting that the wetland environment was subjected to strong “clothesline” and “oasis” effects. According to the FAO 56 approach, Kp shows different patterns and values in relation to growth stages correlating significantly to stem density, plant height and total leaves. The mean Water Use Efficiency (WUE) value of P. australis was quite low, about 2.27 g L−1, probably due to the unlimited water availability and the lack of the plant's physiological adaptations to water conservation. The results provide useful and valid information for estimating ET rates in small-scale constructed wetlands since ET is a relevant issue in arid and semiarid regions. In these areas CW feasibility for wastewater treatment and reuse should also be carefully evaluated for macrophytes in relation to their WUE values.
Development of Oxytetracycline Test Kit Using Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay Technique

In Thailand, farmers often use oxytetracyline (OTC) to protect and treat shrimps from disease. The widespread use of OTC could lead to OTC residues in food-producing animal. To prevent consumers from exposure to drug residues and increasing in drug resistance pathogens, several regulatory authorities around the world have set the maximum residue limits (MRLs) for OTC and the surveillance detection programs are enforced. Therefore, an effective screening method is essential to detect OTC in food. Enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a suitable method for screening a large number of samples due to its simplicity, rapidity, cost effectiveness, high sensitivity and high specificity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the antibody (clone 2-4F) in different ELISA formats, including antibodycaptured competitive indirect ELISA, antibody-captured competitive direct ELISA and antigen-captured competitive direct ELISA, in order to detect OTC. The results showed that the antibody-captured competitive direct format was the most suitable one with the 50% inhibition concentration (IC50) and the limit of detection (LOD) of 11.5 ng/ml and 1.55 ng/ml, respectively. The detection range of the prototype test kit was between 0.4 ng/ml and 128 ng/ml which covered the current MRLs. In addition, the specificity of this prototype was also tested. The antibody cross-reacted with other tested antibiotics in tetracycline group but did not cross-react wit other unrelated compounds. Taken together, we concluded that the monoclonal antibody from hybridoma clone 2-4F can be used in the antibody-captured competitive direct ELISA format to detect OTC with an acceptable sensitivity and specificity level.
Identification and characterization of an injury-induced skeletal progenitor

Significance Here, we characterize the injury-induced activation of a specific, highly purified population of multipotent skeletal progenitor cells. These activated progenitors show increased cell frequency, increased viability, and enhanced osteogenic potential. They also possess a unique transcriptional profile that distinguishes them from progenitors found in uninjured bone. We report that these features improve regenerative capacity, suggesting that activated progenitors play a principal role in bone healing. We hope that a better understanding of stem and progenitor activation will inspire novel therapies that restore impaired skeletal regeneration. The postnatal skeleton undergoes growth, remodeling, and repair. We hypothesized that skeletal progenitor cells active during these disparate phases are genetically and phenotypically distinct. We identified a highly potent regenerative cell type that we term the fracture-induced bone, cartilage, stromal progenitor (f-BCSP) in the fracture callus of adult mice. The f-BCSP possesses significantly enhanced skeletogenic potential compared with BCSPs harvested from uninjured bone. It also recapitulates many gene expression patterns involved in perinatal skeletogenesis. Our results indicate that the skeletal progenitor population is functionally stratified, containing distinct subsets responsible for growth, regeneration, and repair. Furthermore, our findings suggest that injury-induced changes to the skeletal stem and progenitor microenvironments could activate these cells and enhance their regenerative potential.
Highly Enhanced Performance of Network Channel Polysilicon Thin-Film Transistors

This letter presents the electrical characteristics of newly proposed network-channel low-temperature polysilicon channel (LTPS) thin-film transistors (TFTs). Due to effective reduction of grain boundary traps and enhanced gate controllability, the network-channel TFTs show better subthreshold slope, lower threshold voltage, and higher ON- OFF current ratio, compared with conventional planar devices. The extracted grain boundary trap density and the interface trap density are significantly reduced in the network-channel devices. In addition, the network-channel devices show higher immunity to hot-carrier stressing, which are confirmed from the low-frequency noise characteristics with various stressing time. These results suggest that the network-channel devices are very promising for next-generation LTPS TFT applications.
The immunological aspects of keloid tumor formation

This study considered possible immunological alterations that may be associated with keloid tumor formation. Laser immunonephelometry was used to quantitate circulating immune complexes and complement C3 and C4 among keloid formers. IgG complex level was significantly higher, while C3 and C4 were lower, than in the control population. The raised IgG was positively correlated with C4 (r = 0.15). When considered with reports of earlier workers, keloid genesis could result from genetic predisposition, environmental trigger, or localized and systemic immune complex formations. The relationship of these factors to a disequilibrium between fibroblast synthesis of collagen and turnover degradation still remains unclear.
Effects of drift region parameters on the static properties of power LDMOST

The effects of the drift region geometry and the physical parameters on the thin layer (resurfed) lateral DMOS transistor operation have been studied for both the static on-state and the off-state. The variations of breakdown voltage with drift region parameters were investigated using numerical modeling and compared to the experimental results. The operation of the LDMOST in the on-channel condition was modeled semi-empirically. The analytical and experimental results show that the operation of the device depends strongly on the geometry and the physical parameters of the drift region, particularly at high gate voltages and low drain voltages. Design guidelines for the lateral DMOS transistor for switching applications are discussed.