Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mediating Service Recovery Satisfaction in the Relationship between Internet Service Recovery and Customer Loyalty

This current study purposes to identify the relationships between service recovery strategies, service recovery satisfaction, and both dimensions of customer loyalty in regard to Internet providers using the partial least squares (PLS-SEM) approach on a sample of 430 internet customers in Egypt.This study contributes insights into how seven service recovery strategies affected customer loyalty with its both attitudinal and behavioral dimensions directly and indirectly via service recovery satisfaction. These insights are helpful for service managers faced with service failure and academicians interested in how service providers respond to service failures and customer dissatisfaction in the B2C context.The results of this study show that some SR strategies positively influence both service recovery satisfaction and customer loyalty toward internet providers. Furthermore, service recovery satisfaction positively influencing the customer loyalty. In addition, SRS plays a mediating role in the relationship between SR strategies and customer loyalty. The results highlight that internet service providers should implement SR strategies quickly and with an empathetic manner to satisfy customers and to encourage customer's loyalty. Finally, some implications and further research directions were presented.
Using Digital Mapping Tool in Ill-structured Problem Solving

Scaffolding students’ problem solving and helping them to improve problem solving skills are critical in instructional design courses. This study investigated the effects of students’ uses of a digital mapping tool on their problem solving performance in a design case study. It was found that the students who used the digital mapping tool performed better than those who did not use the tool in providing arguments when defining the problem and justifying the solutions. The results indicated that digital concept mapping could facilitate students’ ill-structured problem solving. In this study, guide map was used. Future research may examine the use of free style map in problem solving.
Explorer Grounding Symbols in Multi-Modal Instructions

As robots begin to cohabit with humans in semi-structured environments, the need arises to understand instructions involving rich variability—for instance, learning to ground symbols in the physical world. Realistically, this task must cope with small datasets consisting of a particular users’ contextual assignment of meaning to terms. We present a method for processing a raw stream of cross-modal input— i.e., linguistic instructions, visual perception of a scene and a concurrent trace of 3D eye tracking fixations—to produce the segmentation of objects with a correspondent association to high-level concepts. To test our framework we present experiments in a table-top object manipulation scenario. Our results show our model learns the user’s notion of colour and shape from a small number of physical demonstrations, generalising to identifying physical referents for novel combinations of the words.
An Image Encryption Approach Using a Combination of Permutation Technique Followed by Encryption

Summary Data encryption is widely used to ensure security in open networks such as the internet. Each type of data has its own features, therefore, different techniques should be used to protect confidential image data from unauthorized access. Most of the available encryption algorithms are used for text data, however, due to large data size and real time constrains, algorithms that are good for textual data may not be suitable for multimedia data. In most of the natural images the values of the neighboring pixels are strongly correlated. This means that the value of any given pixel can be reasonably predicted from the values of its neighbors. In this paper, we introduce a new permutation technique based on the combination of image permutation and a well known encryption algorithm called RijnDael. The original image was divided into 4 pixels × 4 pixels blocks, which were rearranged into a permuted image using a permutation process presented here, and then the generated image was encrypted using the RijnDael algorithm. The results showed that the correlation between image elements was significantly decreased by using the combination technique and higher entropy was achieved.
Combining smart lighting and radio fingerprinting for improved indoor localization

This work proposes a hybrid indoor positioning system, which combines a minimal smart lighting deployment for Visible Light Positioning (VPL) purposes, with an IEEE 802.11 RSS Fingerprint-based Indoor Positioning System. Such a hybrid deployment improves the localization performance by utilizing the benefits of both the visible light and radio technologies. Improvement is demonstrated in terms of accuracy, coverage and processing requirements. At the same time, the deployment cost and complexity remains in affordable levels, due to the minimal deployment of the smart lighting system and the utilization of an existing IEEE 802.11 wireless network.
MEMAHAMI KONSEP E-GOVERNANCE SERTA HUBUNGANNYA DENGAN E-GOVERNMENT

E-Governance, E-government dan e-Demokrasi kerap kali mempunyai definisi yang saling tumpang tindih. Banyak yang mengartikannya sebagai penggunaan ‘elektonik’ terutama oleh sektor publik sebagai alat pada proses pemerintahan. Pendapat ini tidak keliru namun tidak menggambarkan seluruh aspek dari proses governance yang cukup kompleks. Berangkat dari problema tersebut paper ini mengkaji konsep governance kemudian mengintegrasikannya dengan penggunaan ICTs (Information Communication Technologies) sehingga menghasilkan framework e-Governance yang komprehensif. Paper ini merupakan studi literatur yang menjelaskan e-Governance dan hubungannya dengan e-Government dan e-Demokrasi dengan menggunakan konsep governance oleh Jon Pierre (2000) dan Mark Bevier (2007) serta konsep partisipasi dalam proses demokrasi oleh Antiroiko (2004) yang membahas potensi ICTs dalam proses demokrasi. Beberapa ilustrasi mengenai multi sektor, multi level serta dimensi governance ditunjukkan untuk memperjelas proses governance. Kemudian pembahasan mengenai framework e-Governance, e-Government dan e-Demokrasi diharapkan dapat menjelaskan hubungan dan perbedaan antara ketiga konsep tersebut.
Tryptophan-immobilized column adsorbs immunoglobulin G anti-GQ1b antibody from Fisher's syndrome

Sera from patients with Fisher's syndrome in the acute phase contain immunoglobulin (Ig)G anti-GQ1b ganglioside antibody. Removal of the autoantibody should lead to earlier recovery with less residual neurologic involvement. A tryptophan- or phenylalanin-immobilized polyvinyl alcohol gel column (IM-TR 350 or IM-PH 350) semiselectively adsorbs such autoantibodies as rheumatoid factor, anti-DNA antibody, or anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody. A batchwise adsorption test showed that an IM-TR gel adsorbed a larger amount of the IgG anti-GQ1b antibody than did an IM-PH column. Several patients with Fisher's syndrome therefore were given immunoadsorbent therapy using the IM-TR column without adverse reactions. An ex vivo plasma perfusion study done with the IM-TR column confirmed that it effectively adsorbs the IgG anti-GQ1b antibody. Results of adsorption tests done with various amino acid-immobilized gels suggest that both the hydrophobic force of the side chain and the anionic charge of the carboxylic acid in tryptophan are important in the adsorption of the autoantibody by the IM-TR gel. Immunoadsorption using the IM-TR column, which does not need replacement fluids, offers an alternative type of plasmapheresis for Fisher's syndrome. NEUROLOGY 1996;46: 1644-1651
Pathogen-specific TLR 2 Protein Activation Programs Macrophages to Induce Wnt-- Catenin Signaling *

Innate immunity recognizes and resists various pathogens; however, the mechanisms regulating pathogen versus nonpathogen discrimination are still imprecisely understood. Here, we demonstrate that pathogen-specific activation of TLR2 upon infection with Mycobacterium bovis BCG, in comparison with other pathogenic microbes, including Salmonella typhimurium and Staphylococcus aureus, programs macrophages for robust up-regulation of signaling cohorts of Wnt-catenin signaling. Signaling perturbations or genetic approaches suggest that infection-mediated stimulation of Wnt-catenin is vital for activation of Notch1 signaling. Interestingly, inducible NOS (iNOS) activity is pivotal for TLR2-mediated activation ofWnt-catenin signaling as iNOS / mice demonstrated compromised ability to trigger activation ofWnt-catenin signaling as well as Notch1-mediated cellular responses. Intriguingly, TLR2-driven integration of iNOS/NO, Wnt-catenin, and Notch1 signaling contributes to its capacity to regulate the battery of genes associated with TReg cell lineage commitment. These findings reveal a role for differential stimulation of TLR2 in deciding the strength of Wnt-catenin signaling, which together with signals fromNotch1 contributes toward themodulation of a defined set of effector functions inmacrophages and thus establishes a conceptual framework for the development of novel therapeutics.
Eligibility Propagation to Speed up Time Hopping for Reinforcement Learning

A mechanism called Eligibility Propagation is proposed to speed up the Time Hopping technique used for faster Reinforcement Learning in simulations. Eligibility Propagation provides for Time Hopping similar abilities to what eligibility traces provide for conventional Reinforcement Learning. It propagates values from one state to all of its temporal predecessors using a state transitions graph. Experiments on a simulated biped crawling robot confirm that Eligibility Propagation accelerates the learning process more than 3 times.
Space and time in models of speech rhythm

How do rhythmic patterns in speech arise? There are many representational frameworks for describing rhythmic patterns, but none of these directly connect representations to articulatory processes, which have physical manifestations in the acoustic signal. Here, a new model of speech rhythm is presented, one in which rhythmic patterns arise from spatial mechanisms that govern the organization of articulatory gestures. The roles of time and space in symbolic representations of the metrical structure are analyzed, and conventional understandings of stress and accent are called into question. One aspect of rhythmic patterns, in particular—the directionality of accentual patterns—is examined closely. A novel dynamical model is developed, which proposes a reinterpretation of directionality and other temporal phenomena in speech.
GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY OFFICE OF CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION PROJECT ADMINISTRATION DATA SHEET

The surface ship bubble boundary value and near wake evolution problems are studied. The "initial" data needed for determining bubble wake evolution is determined and the general form of the near ship bubble evolution equation investigated. Based upon the notion of a hydrodynamic correlation time and a "random walk" simulation of turbulence, the form of the bubble diffusion tensor is established and a new vorticiy based transport mechanism is derived. The latter allows turbulent capture of bubbles from a flow zone interface even when the mean flow is tangent to the interface, a vorticity and turbulence dependent mecj,ianism. Modifications of current bubble transport codes as diSCussed and the procedure for solving the bubble boundary value problem is discussed.
The SCAR‐3 study: 5‐year adhesion‐related readmission risk following lower abdominal surgical procedures

Objective The Surgical and Clinical Adhesions Research (SCAR) and SCAR‐2 studies demonstrated that the burden of adhesions following lower abdominal surgery is considerable and appears to remain unchanged despite advances in strategies to prevent adhesions. In this study, we assessed the adhesion‐related readmission risk directly associated with common lower abdominal surgical procedures, taking into account the effect of previous surgery, demography and concomitant disease.
Consumption of Traded Goods and Real Exchange Rate Dynamics with Epstein-Zin Preferences

The paper analyzes the consumption-real exchange rate anomaly in a multi-country model with recursive preferences, complete markets, long-run risks and stochastic volatility. Recent research indicates that such a model is successful in replicating low correlation between consumption and real exchange rates as in the data, thus resolving the anomaly. The paper focuses on another implication of the model that bilateral real exchange rates are linked to consumption in both countries and to the ratio of domestic consumption of home endowment relative to exports of domestic goods to the foreign country. This implication finds little empirical support with data for 9 OECD economies. (JEL F31, F41) *I am grateful to Julien Bengui, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Francois Gourio, Baris Kaymak, Michel Normandin, Lukas Schmid, and Amir Yaron for useful discussions. I thank seminar participants at the University of Montreal. Some work on this project was performed while the author was visiting the University of Montreal. Department of Economics, University of Saskatchewan, 9 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A5, Canada. Phone 1-306-966-6468, Fax 1-306-966-5232, E-mail maxym.chaban@usask.ca
Fomepizole for the treatment of ethylene glycol poisoning. Methylpyrazole for Toxic Alcohols Study Group.

BACKGROUND Ethylene glycol poisoning causes metabolic acidosis and renal failure and may cause death. The standard treatment is inhibition of alcohol dehydrogenase with ethanol, given in intoxicating doses, and adjunctive hemodialysis. We studied the efficacy of fomepizole, a new inhibitor of alcohol dehydrogenase, in the treatment of ethylene glycol poisoning. METHODS We administered intravenous fomepizole to 19 patients with ethylene glycol poisoning (plasma ethylene glycol concentration, > or =20 mg per deciliter [3.2 mmol per liter]). Patients who met specific criteria also underwent hemodialysis. Treatment was continued until plasma ethylene glycol concentrations were less than 20 mg per deciliter. Acid-base status, renal function, the kinetics of fomepizole, and ethylene glycol metabolism were assessed at predetermined intervals. RESULTS Fifteen of the patients initially had acidosis (mean serum bicarbonate concentration, 12.9 mmol per liter). Acid-base status tended to normalize within hours after the initiation of treatment with fomepizole. One patient with extreme acidosis died. In nine patients, renal function decreased during therapy; at enrollment, all nine had high serum creatinine concentrations and markedly elevated plasma glycolate concentrations (> or =97.7 mg per deciliter [12.9 mmol per liter]). None of the 10 patients with normal serum creatinine concentrations at enrollment had renal injury during treatment; all 10 had plasma glycolate concentrations at or below 76.8 mg per deciliter (10.1 mmol per liter). Renal injury was independent of the initial plasma ethylene glycol concentration. The plasma concentration of glycolate and the urinary excretion of oxalate, the major metabolites of ethylene glycol, uniformly fell after the initiation of fomepizole therapy. Few adverse effects were attributable to fomepizole. CONCLUSIONS In patients with ethylene glycol poisoning, fomepizole administered early in the course of intoxication prevents renal injury by inhibiting the formation of toxic metabolites.
Current perspectives between metabolic syndrome and cancer

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors that lead to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Recent studies linked metabolic syndrome and several types of cancer. Although metabolic syndrome may not necessarily cause cancer, it is linked to poorer cancer outcomes including increased risk of recurrence and overall mortality. This review tends to discuss the major biological and physiological alterations involved in the increase of incidence and mortality of cancer patients affected by metabolic syndrome. We focus on metabolic syndrome-associated visceral adiposity, hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia, insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) pathway as well as estrogen signaling and inflammation. Several of these factors are also involved in carcinogenesis and cancer progression. A better understanding of the link between metabolic syndrome and cancer may provide new insight about oncogenesis. Moreover, prevention of metabolic syndrome – related alterations may be an important aspect in the management of cancer patients during simultaneous palliative care.
Infants infer an unseen agent from its effects

A large literature suggests that infants can represent the causal structure of events by 6 or 7 months old, including distinguishing the entities in the agentive and receptive roles. Infants also categorise an entity according to its stable causal dispositions (e.g. as inert, or as capable or self-motion or goal-directed action). The current studies investigate how infants combine these two kinds of causal inference. In Experiment 1, 9.5 month-old infants used the position of a human hand (a causal agent), but not a toy train (an inert object), to predict the subsequent path of motion a beanbag (an inert object). Conversely, in experiment 2, 10-and even 7-month old infants used the path of motion of the beanbag to infer the position of a previously unseen hand, but not of a toy block. These data (and see also Saxe, Tenenbaum & Carey, In Press) suggest that (1) by ten months, infants expect, and infer the existence of, an agent as the source of motion of an inert object, and (2) recognise a human hand, but not a toy train or block, as a possible agent. The current studies also find evidence of this inference in 7-month-olds, nearing the age of the earliest demonstrated sensitivity to the causal structure of events.
The AWA1 Gene Is Required for the Foam-Forming Phenotype and Cell Surface Hydrophobicity of Sake Yeast

ABSTRACT Sake, a traditional alcoholic beverage in Japan, is brewed with sake yeasts, which are classified as Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Almost all sake yeasts form a thick foam layer on sake mash during the fermentation process because of their cell surface hydrophobicity, which increases the cells' affinity for bubbles. To reduce the amount of foam, nonfoaming mutants were bred from foaming sake yeasts. Nonfoaming mutants have hydrophilic cell surfaces and no affinity for bubbles. We have cloned a gene from a foam-forming sake yeast that confers foaming ability to a nonfoaming mutant. This gene was named AWA1 and structures of the gene and its product were analyzed. The N- and C-terminal regions of Awa1p have the characteristic sequences of a glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor protein. The entire protein is rich in serine and threonine residues and has a lot of repetitive sequences. These results suggest that Awa1p is localized in the cell wall. This was confirmed by immunofluorescence microscopy and Western blotting analysis using hemagglutinin-tagged Awa1p. Moreover, an awa1 disruptant of sake yeast was hydrophilic and showed a nonfoaming phenotype in sake mash. We conclude that Awa1p is a cell wall protein and is required for the foam-forming phenotype and the cell surface hydrophobicity of sake yeast.
Research on Domestic Violence in the 1990s: Making Distinctions

This review of the family literature on domestic violence suggests that two broad themes of the 1990s provide the most promising directions for the future. The first is the importance of distinctions among types or contexts of violence. Some distinctions are central to the theoretical and practical understanding of the nature of partner violence, others provide important contexts for developing more sensitive and comprehensive theories, and others may simply force us to question our tendency to generalize carelessly from one context to another. Second, issues of control, although most visible in the feminist literature that focuses on men using violence to control “their” women, also arise in other contexts, calling for more general analyses of the interplay of violence, power, and control in relationships. In addition to these two general themes, our review covers literature on coping with violence, the effects on victims and their children, and the social effects of partner violence. She wandered the streets, looking in shop windows. Nobody knew her here. Nobody knew what he did when the door was closed. Nobody knew. (Brant, 1996, pp. 281)
Renormalization of Dirac ’ s Polarized Vacuum Mathieu Lewin

We review recent results on a mean-field model for relativistic electrons in atoms and molecules, which allows to describe at the same time the self-consistent behavior of the polarized Dirac sea. We quickly derive this model from Quantum Electrodynamics and state the existence of solutions, imposing an ultraviolet cut-off Λ. We then discuss the limit Λ → ∞ in detail, by resorting to charge renormalization. Proceedings of the Conference QMath 11 held in Hradec Králové (Czechia) in September 2010. c © 2010 by the author. This paper may be reproduced, in its entirety, for non-commercial purposes. For heavy atoms, it is necessary to take relativistic effects into account. However there is no equivalent of the well-known N -body (non-relativistic) Schrödinger theory involving the Dirac operator, because of its negative spectrum. The correct theory is Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). This theory has a remarkable predictive power but its description in terms of perturbation theory restricts its range of applicability. In fact a mathematically consistent formulation of the nonperturbative theory is still unknown. On the other hand, effective models deduced from nonrelativistic theories (like the Dirac-Hartree-Fock model [40, 16]) suffer from inconsistencies: for instance a ground state never minimizes the physical energy which is always unbounded from below. Here we present an effective model based on a physical energy which can be minimized to obtain the ground state in a chosen charge sector. Our model describes the behavior of a finite number of particles (electrons), coupled to that of the Dirac sea which can become polarized. Our existence results are fully non-perturbative. Like in QED, the model contains divergences which have to be removed by renormalization. We review several results obtained in collaboration with Christian Hainzl, Philippe Gravejat, Éric Séré and Jan Philip Solovej. These works have already been summarized in [23] and in the fourth chapter of [29], to which the interested reader is refered for more details. 1. A nonlinear Dirac equation We present a mean-field model describing the self-consistent behavior of a finite number of ‘real’ electrons in an atom or a molecule, and, simultaneously, of the infinitely many ‘virtual’ electrons of the Dirac sea. The state of the system is described by a one-body density matrix P which is a self-adjoint operator acting on the Hilbert space H := L2(R2,C4), and satisfying the constraint 0 ≤ P ≤ 1 (1 denotes the identity operator on H).
An innovative implementation of indoor positioning system using GPS

Global Positioning System is used by GPS tracking unit to determine the precise location of vehicles, persons or other assets and to record their position at regular intervals. The recorded data can be stored within the tracking unit or it may be transmitted to a data base or internet-connected computer device using a cellular, radio or satellite modem embedded in the unit. This will allow the location to be demonstrated as a map backdrop either considered in real time or later analyzing the track depending on different GPS Tracking System. This archetype is a combination of cellular device, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), indoor and outdoor positioning systems and Server Software giving people information to guide them to their destination. The main motivation of this work is to introduce with a new tracking system which is an innovative additional device that can enable the individual to enjoy the flexibility in motion and develops an advanced sense of confidence and self-reliance.