Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quality improvement of technical education in Saudi Arabia: self-evaluation perspective

Purpose – In Saudi Arabia, technical education is managed by Technical and Vocational Training Corporation. However, there is no independent accrediting body to accredit the technical institutes and assure its quality, which causes the lack of unified quality assurance standards and manageable quality improvement processes. The purpose of this paper is to propose self-evaluation standards to help the technical institutes to evaluate their performance. Design/methodology/approach – The author has used a brainstorming technique of local practitioners in quality assurance. Such technique was performed by adopting DACUM that stands for “Developing A CurriculUM”. The author has used a heuristic educational and training process as the foundation of the standards and processes development, namely; curriculum, environment, training managements, and instructors. A team has been established that has been trained locally and abroad on the quality assurance standards and processes. The team studied several quality fr.
Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor-2 Signaling Attenuates Vein Graft Neointima Formation by Promoting Endothelial Recovery

Objective—Inflammation appears intricately linked to vein graft arterialization. We have previously shown that tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor-1 (TNFR1, p55) signaling augments vein graft neointimal hyperplasia (NH) and remodeling through its effects on vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs). In this study we examined the role of TNFR2 (p75) signaling in vein graft arterialization. Methods and Results—Inferior vena cava-to-carotid artery interposition grafting was performed between p75−/− and congenic (C57B1/6J) wild-type (WT) mice. Six weeks postoperatively, neointimal and medial dimensions were greater in p75−/− grafts placed into p75−/− recipients (by 42% or 60%, respectively; P<0.05), when compared with WT veins grafted into WT recipients. Relative to WT vein grafts, p75 deficiency augmented early (2-week-old) graft vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 expression (by 2.4-fold, P<0.05), increased endothelial cell apoptosis (2-fold), and delayed graft re-endothelialization. Both cellular proliferation in early, and collagen I content of mature (6-week-old) vein grafts were increased (by 70% and 50%, respectively) in p75−/− grafts. P75 deficiency augmented TNF-induced apoptosis of cultured endothelial cells, but did not affect TNF-stimulated SMC proliferation or migration induced by co-cultured macrophages. Conclusions—TNF signaling via p75 reduces vein graft neointimal hyperplasia through mechanisms involving reduction of adhesion molecule expression and endothelial cell apoptosis.
Compiling Java just in time

The Java programming language promises portable, secure execution of applications. Early Java implementations relied on interpretation, leading to poor performance compared to compiled programs. Compiling Java programs to the native machine instructions provides much higher performance. Because traditional compilation would defeat Java's portability and security, another approach is necessary. This article describes some of the important issues related to just-in-time, or JIT, compilation techniques for Java. We focus on the JIT compilers developed by Sun for use with the JDK (Java Development Kit) virtual machine running on SPARC and Intel processors. (Access the Web at www.sun. com/workshop/java/jit for these compilers and additional information.) We also discuss performance improvements and limitations of JIT compilers. Future Java implementations may provide even better performance, and we outline some specific techniques that they may use.
Entrepreneurial learning and the growth process in SMEs

This paper draws on case and interview material, from research with entrepreneurs in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to examine the process of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning in SMEs. The cases have been drawn from different sectors including services, manufacturing and technology‐based sectors such as hydraulics, and software development. This paper reviews the contribution of organisational learning theories, which, it is argued, have been developed for large firms rather than SMEs. More appropriate theories are examined from fields that accepted the impact of uncertainty and dynamics in decision making, such as Schumpeterian dynamic approaches to learning and development. Case study evidence is presented on the nature of entrepreneurial learning in growth SMEs and compared with theories in the literature.
Screening for Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Patients Presenting for Snoring Surgery

Excessive mortality is associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Therefore it is important to diagnose OSA in patients presenting for snoring surgery. A prospective study was performed to develop screening models to detect OSA compared with universal polysomnography for sensitivity and cost. Multivariate analysis of 150 consecutive patients was based on clinical data, questionnaire data, and polysomnography. Two screening models obtained 100% sensitivity and reduced the need for polysomnograms. Cost savings of screening based on clinical data was projected to be $35 to $80 per patient using reported prevalence rates of OSA among snorers. A screening model for OSA using clinical data alone is more cost‐effective than one that combines these data with pulse oximetry data, but savings over universal polysomnography were modest.
Nonlinear H∞ control for an integrated suspension system via parameterized linear matrix inequality characterizations

The automotive hydro-pneumatic integrated suspen- sion model is nonlinear with large dimension. As a consequence, the nonlinear control methodology based on the traditional Hamilton-Jacoby-Isaacs equation is impractical in this appli- cation. An alternative so-called parameterized linear matrix inequality (PLMI) approach is proposed for solving this hard nonlinear control problem. The validity of the proposed approach is confirmed not only by detailed and realistic simula- tions but also by extensive experiments. Specifically, the proposed nonlinear control method outperforms the more classical feedback linearization control technique.
Molecular analysis of a 11 700‐year‐old rodent midden from the Atacama Desert, Chile

DNA was extracted from an 11 700‐year‐old rodent midden from the Atacama Desert, Chile and the chloroplast and animal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) gene sequences were analysed to investigate the floral environment surrounding the midden, and the identity of the midden agent. The plant sequences, together with the macroscopic identifications, suggest the presence of 13 plant families and three orders that no longer exist today at the midden locality, and thus point to a much more diverse and humid climate 11 700 years ago. The mtDNA sequences suggest the presence of at least four different vertebrates, which have been putatively identified as a camelid (vicuna), two rodents (Phyllotis and Abrocoma), and a cardinal bird (Passeriformes). To identify the midden agent, DNA was extracted from pooled faecal pellets, three small overlapping fragments of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene were ampli‐fied and multiple clones were sequenced. These results were analysed along with com‐plete cytochrome b sequences for several modern Phyllotis species to place the midden sequence phylogenetically. The results identified the midden agent as belonging to an ancestral P. limatus. Today, P. limatus is not found at the midden locality but it can be found 100 km to the north, indicating at least a small range shift. The more extensive sampling of modern Phyllotis reinforces the suggestion that P. limatus is recently derived from a peripheral isolate.
Understanding sports-related concussion: coming into focus but still fuzzy.

YOUNG ATHLETE COLLIDES WITH AN OPPONENT.THE play ends. The athlete walks from the field of play in an unsteady fashion. The medical staff begins the process of assessment. And the questions begin: Are you OK? What’s wrong? How many fingers? What do you remember? ” After the assessment is complete, decisions are made. Initially, the question is, should the athlete be returned to play? Other questions routinely follow: How should the injury be handled? What’slikelytooccurwiththeindividualintheensuinghoursanddays? Cancliniciansintercedetospeedtheprocessofrecoveryandrehabilitation? Andfinally,themostimportantquestion:What’sthe“right”thingtodointhissituation? The above scenario is repeated, in its infinite variations, thousands of times each year 1,2 as athletes sustain sportsinducedmildtraumaticbraininjury(TBI). Controversyhas surroundedthistopicforalongtime.Asclinicalsciencebeginstoembracetheconceptsofevidence-basedinjurymanagement, substantial gaps in the evaluation and treatment of certain mild TBIs have become apparent. In fact, there has been disagreement even as to the definition of concussion until relatively recently. Concussion management has been a particularly vexing issue, dominated more by opinion than by evidence. Proprietary interests do exist. At least 17 concussion managementprotocolsexistinthemedicalliterature, 3-19 allattemptingtocategorizeanddeterminethebestwaytomanagemild TBI cases. Clinical scientists have emphasized various approaches, usually based on particular symptom sets, without regard to much more than clinical experience and anecdotal preferences. Since large data sets from rigorous outcome studies have been unavailable, concussion treatment typically has been rather parochial, sometimes using a particular published protocol, many times modifying that protocol to the comfort level of the practitioner involved. 20 In this issue of THE JOURNAL, 2 articles 21,22 use data from
A young lady with seronegative systemic lupus erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease. It is a multisystem disease which can involve any organ in the body. Most of the SLE cases are seropositive which depend on positive test for antinuclear antibody (ANA), Lupus erythematous (LE) cells, and antibody to DNA but seronegative SLE cases also rarely can present with complications.
Building hybrid knowledge representations from text

A significant obstacle to the development of intelligent natural language processing systems is the lack of rich knowledge bases containing representations of world knowledge. For experimental systems it is common practice to construct small knowledge bases by hand; however, this approach does not scale well to large systems. An alternative is to attempt to extract the desired information from existing knowledge sources intended for human consumption; however, attempts to construct broad-coverage knowledge bases using in-depth analysis have met with limited success. In this paper we present some preliminary work on an alternative approach that involves using shallow processing techniques to build a hybrid knowledge representation that stores information in a partially analysed form.
Ontologies and Matching Techniques for Peer-based Knowledge Sharing

P2P systems and Super-Peer Network systems (SPN) [6] have recently become popular for data sharing, and systems for peer-based data management (PDMS) have recently appeared [3–5]. For data sharing, in PDMS and SPNs special peers like mediators and super-peers are identified having the responsibility of building and maintaining an integrated view of the data in a cluster of semantically related nodes of the network. An important requirement to be considered for peer-based knowledge sharing is related to the inherent dynamism of the context and to the role of Semantic Web techniques for sharing semantically rich data. To this end, there is the need of a knowledge sharing infrastructure and related tools to support data semantics representation and rich query languages, and a decentralized sharing and administration of knowledge. In the framework of the italian research project called WEB-MINDS (Wide-scalE, Broadband, Middleware for Network Distributed Services), we are developing the Helios (Helios Evolving Interaction-based Ontology knowledge Sharing) infrastructure for peer-based knowledge sharing. In this paper, we provide a general overview of Helios, by focusing on the role of peer ontologies and matching techniques for knowledge sharing (Section 2). In Section 3, we discuss future research works in Helios.
Investigation on HID lamps impedance using commercial lamps

This paper provides some study results on high pressure discharge lamps impedance behavior. Using commercial high intensity discharge (HID) lamps first supplied with a current driven dimmable commercial electronic ballast, lamp impedance variation as a wattage function was investigated. Further measurements were done in order to verify that the lamp has a linear comportment within its normal operation window. Lamp was then supplied with a system approaching a voltage source. From these results, qualitative understanding and related conclusions about lamp-supply interaction can be drawn
Post-Divorce Relocation: In the Best Interests of the Child?

This article focuses on factors that should be considered when determining whether post-divorce relocation is likely to be beneficial or detrimental to the psychological well-being of children. The article is a reflection on psychological literature and legal cases as opposed to an empirical study. The central arguments of the article are that (a) a continuing shared parental responsibility model rivals the traditional primary caregiver model, (b) downplaying a child's emotional attachment to a non-relocating parent places that child at emotional risk, (c) depriving children of ready access to non-custodian parents to whom they are attached may violate children's rights, and (d) the ‘best interests of the child’ standard has advantages in the evaluation process. Implications of these arguments are discussed and a framework for relocation evaluations is offered. While acknowledging the need to protect parents' mobility rights, the ‘best interests of the child’ is recognised as the principle of paramount importance. In relocation cases, individualised decisions as to a child's best interests necessitate consideration of various factors, which are explicated.
Experience-dependent plasticity in the inferior colliculus: a site for visual calibration of the neural representation of auditory space in the barn owl

The optic tectum (homolog of the superior colliculus) contains mutually aligned neural maps of auditory and visual space. During development, the organization of the auditory map is guided by spatial information provided by vision: barn owls raised wearing prismatic spectacles, which optically shift the visual field and the visual map in the optic tectum, develop an auditory map that is shifted by an approximately equivalent amount, such that alignment between the two maps is preserved (Knudsen and Brainard, 1991). In this study we investigated whether this shift in the auditory map is intrinsic to the optic tectum or whether it reflects plasticity at an earlier stage in the auditory pathway. Owls were raised wearing prismatic spectacles that displaced the visual field by 23 degrees to the left or right. This manipulation alters the normal correspondence between locations in the visual field and interaural time difference (ITD), the primary cue for the azimuth of a sound source. In normal owls and in owls with at least 150 d of prism experience, extracellular unit recordings were used to assess the representations of ITD at anatomically and physiologically defined sites in the optic tectum and in the two prior stages of the auditory pathway, the external and central nuclei of the inferior colliculus (ICx and ICc). In the optic tectum of normal owls, the values of ITD to which units responded most strongly (best ITDs) varied systematically with the azimuths of unit visual receptive fields (VRFs). In the prism- reared owls, best ITDs were shifted from normal toward the values of ITD produced by sounds at the locations of the units' optically displaced VRFs. In the ICx of prism-reared owls, the representation of ITD also was shifted from normal, by an amount and in a direction that could completely account for the shift in ITD measured in the optic tectum. At some sites in the ICx, the shift in ITD tuning was apparent within the first 7–8 msec of the response; shifted tuning at such short latencies argues that the altered representation of ITD in the ICx reflects plasticity in the ascending auditory pathway, and is not the result of descending activity from higher auditory centers. In the ICc, which immediately precedes the ICx in the ascending pathway, the representation of ITD was normal. The results indicate that the visual instruction of auditory spatial tuning of neurons in the optic tectum reflects plasticity at the level of the ICx, the site where the auditory map of space is first synthesized.
Web of Science and Scopus: a journal title overlap study

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to provide the scientific community with some quantitative data of relevance to the evaluation of two major citation databases. In addition, various aspects of the methodology of database coverage comparisons are discussed. Design/methodology/approach - Calculations of the overlaps between the journal lists of Web of Science and Scopus and some other major scientific databases are presented. Findings - The results provide some measures of the overall title coverage as well as the amount of unique material in the sources studied. Research limitations/implications - The journal title overlap calculations are based on journal lists provided by the database producers rather than searches in the databases themselves. Any inaccuracies in the lists may be reflected in the results. Also, the lists do not provide any information about the depth and consistency of the coverage. The nature of possible error sources is discussed. Originality/value - The methodology chosen allows comparatively quick comparisons between the contents of databases. This makes it suitable for analysis of trends in database coverage.
Deconstructing (2,0) Proposals

We examine the relationships between three proposals for the six-dimensional (2,0) theory: the DLCQ of [1, 2], the deconstruction prescription of [3], and the five-dimensional maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills proposal of [4, 5]. We show that [3] gives a deconstruction of five-dimensional maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills. The proposal of [1, 2] uses a subset of the degrees of freedom of five-dimensional Yang-Mills and we show that compactification of it on a circle of finite radius agrees with the DLCQ arising from the proposal of [4, 5] or from the deconstruction proposal of [3].
Investigating Burnout and Psychological Well-Being of Staff Working with People with Intellectual Disabilities and Challenging Behaviour: The Role of Personality.

Background The present research extended previous research by broadening the dimensions of personality traits, and focusing on burnout and psychological well-being among staff working with people with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour. Methods This is a cross-sectional survey in which 103 staff completed questionnaires measuring clients’ challenging behaviour according to staff perception, as well as staff burnout, psychological well-being and personality traits. Results Regression analyses showed that staff perception of challenging behaviour predicted burnout. Controlling for challenging behaviour, three personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion and conscientiousness) predicted burnout and psychological well-being. Conclusions Personality traits can affect the degree of burnout and poor psychological well-being that staff may experience. Staff should be informed about the role that their personality traits can play in their well-being. Training programmes for staff should incorporate the complex relationship between personality traits and well-being. Further studies should aim at identifying other personality traits that could increase or decrease resilience of staff working in this area.
Modeling Natural Photic Entrainment in a Subterranean Rodent (Ctenomys aff. knighti), the Tuco-Tuco

Subterranean rodents spend most of the day inside underground tunnels, where there is little daily change in environmental variables. Our observations of tuco-tucos (Ctenomys aff. knighti) in a field enclosure indicated that these animals perceive the aboveground light-dark cycle by several bouts of light-exposure at irregular times during the light hours of the day. To assess whether such light-dark pattern acts as an entraining agent of the circadian clock, we first constructed in laboratory the Phase Response Curve for 1 h light-pulses (1000lux). Its shape is qualitatively similar to other curves reported in the literature and to our knowledge it is the first Phase Response Curve of a subterranean rodent. Computer simulations were performed with a non-linear limit-cycle oscillator subjected to a simple model of the light regimen experienced by tuco-tucos. Results showed that synchronization is achieved even by a simple regimen of a single daily light pulse scattered uniformly along the light hours of the day. Natural entrainment studies benefit from integrated laboratory, field and computational approaches.
ON THE SENTENTIAL NATURE OF PRENOMINAL ADJECTIVES IN GERMAN

Over the last twenty years, generative grammar has made a considerable move from abstract structures towards more surface oriented ones. ,One major exception to this lies in the enrichment of surface structures with empty elements like NP-trace or PRO. As the goal of generative linguistics isl to explain what the underlying mental representations of grammar look like, how languages can be acquired by children the way they are, this möve can be justified if a) a theory postulating empty elements for certain positions helps us to keep a number of subtheories of grammar simpler and if b) postulating empty elements will not lead to a proliferation of stipulations concerning the nature of and rules governing these elements. Certainly, both conditions are fidfilled for standardly assumed empty NPs like PRO, wh-trace or NP-trace. For instance, postulating an NP-trace in (1) will allow for a very simple formulation of the theories of subcategorization, theta-role assignment. The anaphoric nature of NP-trace straightforwardly accounts for the locality of passive or raising to subject.
Exploring the Role of Professional Associations in Collective Learning in London and New York's Advertising and Law Professional-Service-Firm Clusters

The value of regional economies for collective learning has been reported by numerous scholars. However, often their work has been criticised for lacking analytical clarity and failing to explore the architectures of collective learning and the role of the knowledge produced in making firms in a cluster economy successful. In this paper I engage with these problematics and investigate how collective learning is facilitated in the advertising and law professional-service-firm clusters in London and New York. I explore the role of professional associations and investigate how they mediate a collective-learning process in each city. I argue that professional associations seed urban communities of practice that emerge outside of the formal activities of professional associations. In these communities individuals with shared interests in advertising and law learn from one another and are therefore able to adapt and evolve one-another's approaches to common industry challenges. I suggest this is another form of the variation Marshall highlighted in relation to cluster-based collective learning. I also show how the collective-learning process is affected by the presence, absence, and strength of an institutional thickness. I therefore argue that a richer understanding of institutional effects is needed in relation to collective learning.