Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using document clustering and language modelling in mediated information retrieval

Our work addresses a well documented problem: users are frequently unable to articulate a query that clearly and comprehensively expresses their information need. This can be attributed to the information need being too ambiguous and not clearly defined in the user's mind, to a lack of knowledge of the domain of interest on the part of the user, to a lack of understanding of a retrieval system's conceptual model, or to an inability to use a certain query syntax. This thesis proposes a software tool that emulates the human search mediator. It helps a user explore a domain of interest, learn its structure, terminology and key concepts, and clarify and refine an information need. It can also help a user generate high-quality queries for searching the World Wide Web or other such large and heterogeneous document collections. Our work was inspired by library studies which have highlighted the role of the librarian in helping the user explore her information need, define the problem to be solved, articulate a formulation of the information need and adapt it for the retrieval system at hand in order to get information. Our approach, mediated access through a clustered collection, is based on an information access environment in which the user can explore a relatively small, well structured, pre-clustered document collection covering a particular subject domain, in order to understand the concepts encompassed and to clarify and refine her information need. At the same time, the user can ostensively indicate clusters and documents of interest so that the system builds a model of the user's topic of interest. Based on this model, the system assists and guides the user's exploration, or generates `mediated queries' that can be used to search other collections. We present the design and evaluation of WebCluster, a system that reifies the concept of mediated retrieval. Additionally, a variety of mediation experiments are presented,which provide guidelines as to which mediation strategies are more appropriate for different types of tasks. A set of experiments is presented that evaluate document clustering's capacity to group together topical documents and support mediation. In this context we propose and experimentally test a new formulation for the cluster hypothesis. We also look at the ability of language models to convey content, to represent topics and to highlight specific concepts in a given context. They are also successfully applied to generate flexible, task-dependent cluster representatives for supporting exploration through browsing and respectively searching. Our experimental results show that mediation has potential to significantly improve user queries and consequently the retrieval effectiveness.
Clonal spread of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium between patients in three hospitals in two states

The DNAs of 3* vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium isolates from five hospitals in three states were analyzed by contour-clamped homogeneous electric field electrophoresis and plasmid analysis. There were 22 strain types. One strain type was common to patients in three hospitals in two states. These results suggest the apparent intra- and interhospital spread of vancomycin-resistant E. faecium.
Outcome of tobacco cessation in workplace and clinic settings: A comparative study

Aims and Objectives: Several biological, social, and cultural factors contribute to the poor outcome of tobacco cessation interventions. Inability to engage large number of participants is one of the major identifiable factors. The objective of this study was to compare the outcome of tobacco cessation interventions in the clinical and workplace settings. Materials and Methods: In the present study, we recruited 100 participants in tobacco cessation clinic (TCC) group and workplace group (50 participants in each). Both the groups were regularly intervened and were followed up regularly at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months. Active interventions in the form of awareness lectures, focused group discussions, and if needed, pharmacotherapy (nicotine/non-nicotine replacement therapy) was carried out for all participants. The outcome was assessed as no change, harm reduction (>50% reduction), complete cessation, and drop out. Statistical analysis of the data was done using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 21.0. Results: At the end of 1 month, there was higher tobacco cessation rate in the workplace group versus TCC group (n = 22, 44% vs n = 9, 18%; P < 0.0001). The tobacco cessation rate was maintained even after 6 months of intervention (n = 30, 60% vs n = 12, 24%; P = 0.002) and dropout rate was also lower among the workplace group than the TCC group (n = 14, 28% vs n = 27, 54%; P < 0.0001). Conclusions: Our study findings suggest that the workplace setting has superior outcome in tobacco cessation and harm reduction than clinical setting. In addition, it is associated with low dropout rate and the cessation effect is maintained over a period of 6 months.
Operational Risk in Financial Service Providers and the Proposed Basel Capital Accord: An Overview

The 1988 Basel Accord and the proposed revisions to the Accord represent some of the most significant international regulations impacting the financial decisions of firms, in this case, financial services firms, in recent years. The revisions to the Accord incorporate operational risk into the capital, supervisory and market requirements. In our review of the issues in this area, we provide insight into the workings of an important international regulation. We also present suggestions for further research in this area that will become feasible when data on the impact of the new regulations become available after the proposed implementation in 2006.
Double-Sort Trading Strategy on Commodity Futures: Performance Evaluation and Stop-Loss Implementation

This master thesis, first, re‐examines the performance of the double‐sort trading strategy on commodity futures using the data from January 1979 to October 2011. The double‐sort strategy is an active strategy that uses momentum and term-­structure signals to form a long‐short portfolio of commodity futures. Second, the performance of the strategy is studied before the beginning of the financial crisis at 2007 and compared to the performance of the strategy during the crisis, i.e. after 2007. We find that the strategy performs better during the crisis. Third, in an effort to reduce the risk measures of the strategy, stop‐loss methods are introduced and added to the strategy. Four different stop‐loss methods are implemented: cumulative, exponentially weighted average, consecutive, and full‐portfolio stop‐loss. We find that none of these methods are able to reduce the risk‐measures of the strategy considerably.
SIMULATED LSST SURVEY OF RR LYRAE STARS THROUGHOUT THE LOCAL GROUP

We report on a study to determine the efficiency of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) to recover the periods, brightnesses, and shapes of RR Lyrae stars' light curves in the volume extending to heliocentric distances of 1.5 Mpc. We place the smoothed light curves of 30 type ab and 10 type c RR Lyrae stars in 1007 fields across the sky, each of which represents a different realization of the LSST sampling cadences, and that sample five particular observing modes. A light curve simulation tool was used to sample the idealized RR Lyrae stars' light curves, returning each as it would have been observed by LSST, including realistic photometric scatter, limiting magnitudes, and telescope downtime. We report here the period, brightness, and light curve shape recovery as a function of apparent magnitude and for survey lengths varying from 1 to 10 years. We find that 10 years of LSST data are sufficient to recover the pulsation periods with a fractional precision of ∼10−5 for ⩾90% of ab stars within ≈360 kpc of the Sun in Universal Cadence fields and out to ≈760 kpc for Deep Drilling fields. The 50% completeness level extends to ≈600 kpc and ≈1.0 Mpc for the same fields, respectively. For virtually all stars that had their periods recovered, their light curve shape parameter ϕ31 was recovered with sufficient precision to also recover photometric metallicities to within 0.14 dex (the systematic error in the photometric relations). With RR Lyrae stars' periods and metallicities well measured to these distances, LSST will be able to search for halo streams and dwarf satellite galaxies over half of the Local Group, informing galaxy formation models and providing essential data for mapping the Galactic potential. This study also informs the LSST science operations plan for optimizing observing strategies to achieve particular science goals. We additionally present a new [Fe/H]–ϕ31 photometric relation in the r band and a new and generally useful metric for defining period recovery for time domain surveys.
Language Competence and Subjective Career Success: A Study of International Business Managers in Finland (Available on Internet)

This thesis investigates the role of language competence for the subjective career success of Finland-based managers working for multinational corporations (MNCs) with a Swedish parent company or with extensive operations in Sweden. The research design is inductive. Qualitative interviews with MNC managers form the basis of data collection, and analysis of resulting empirical data is carried out through coding strategies inspired by Charmaz’ (2006) constructivist grounded theory. The findings reveal how the respondents conceptualize their own career success (= subjective career success), and that language competence can play a significant role for this. This can occur through language skills affecting e.g. recruitment decisions, social capital and networking, ability to convince and lead others, and one’s emotional wellbeing. Even though inter-cultural or communicative competence is often deemed more important than language competence, these three competences are interlinked, and language competence plays an integral role in this tripart constellation. In this particular setting, the main languages (discounting Finnish) that are deemed important are English (a basic requirement), and Swedish (a strong advantage). The findings pose implications for individuals, organizations, national policy makers and researchers. They emphasize the importance of developing required language skills (individuals), incorporating language considerations in recruitment and training decisions (companies), ensuring competence is fostered in the languages of Finlands business partners, including Sweden (national policy makers), and adopting more qualitative approaches when studying subjective career success (researchers).
More stars stay, but the brightest ones still leave: : Job hopping in the shadow of patent enforcement

type="main" xml:id="smj2239-abs-0001"> Competitive advantage often rests on the skills and expertise of individuals who may leave for rival organizations. Although institutional factors like non-compete regimes shape intra-industry mobility patterns, far less is known about firm-specific reputations built through patent enforcement. This study formally models and empirically tests how a firm's prior litigiousness over patents (i.e., its reputation for IP toughness) influences employee mobility. Based on inventor data from the U.S. semiconductor industry, we find that litigiousness not only diminishes the proclivity of inventive workers to “job hop” to others in the industry, it also shifts the distribution of talent released to the market. The study contributes new insights linking firm-level reputations as tough legal enforcers to the “stay versus exit” calculus of knowledge workers . Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
INTELLIGENT BEHAVIOR IN MACHINES EMERGING FROM A COLLECTION OF INTERACTIVE CONTROL STRUCTURES

Control strategies that decompose the competence of an agent into independent, task‐achieving control structures are emerging as viable alternatives to the notion that a robot is an explicit symbol processing device with input and output extensions in the form of sensors and actuators. This approach draws inspiration from ethology and the cognitive sciences, where the competence of biological creatures is seen to be a result of the successful combination of several distinct behavior patterns that enable them to interact effectively with their environments.
Critical success factors in the context of humanitarian aid supply chains

– Critical success factors (CSFs) have been widely used in the context of commercial supply chains. However, in the context of humanitarian aid (HA) this is a poorly addressed area and this paper therefore aims to set out the key areas for research. , – This paper is based on a conceptual discussion of CSFs as applied to the HA sector. A detailed literature review is undertaken to identify CSFs in a commercial context and to consider their applicability to the HA sector. , – CSFs have not previously been identified for the HA sector, an issue addressed in this paper. , – The main constraint on this paper is that CSFs have not been previously considered in the literature as applied to HA. The relevance of CSFs will therefore need to be tested in the HA environment and qualitative research is needed to inform further work. , – This paper informs the HA community of key areas of activity which have not been fully addressed and offers. , – This paper contributes to the understanding of supply chain management in an HA context.
Satisfaction with sales manager training ‐ Design and implementation issues

States that little empirical work is available as a guide in the design and implementation of sales manager training programs. Examines the relationship between trainee satisfaction with sales manager training (a measure for training effectiveness) and the format, site, instructor, instructional method, and content of the program. Reports results of a survey of sales managers in field sales organizations. Indicates that training satisfaction is associated with all five issues. Offers direct implications for enhancing sales manager training programs.
Acute exposure to pulsed 2450-MHz microwaves affects water-maze performance of rats.

Rats were trained in six sessions to locate a submerged platform in a circular water maze. They were exposed to pulsed 2450-MHz microwaves (pulse width 2 micros, 500 128;pulses/s, average power density 2 mW/cm(2), average whole body specific absorption rate 1.2 W/kg) for 1 h in a circular waveguide system immediately before each training session. One hour after the last training session, they were tested in a probe trial during which the platform was removed and the time spent in the quadrant of the maze in which the platform had been located during the 1-min trial was scored. Three groups of animals, microwave-exposed, sham-exposed, and cage control, were studied. Microwave-exposed rats were slower than sham-exposed and cage control rats in learning to locate the platform. However, there was no significant difference in swim speed among the three groups of animals, indicating that the difference in learning was not due to a change in motor functions or motivation. During the probe trial, microwave-exposed animals spent significantly less time in the quadrant that had contained the platform, and their swim patterns were different from those of the sham-exposed and cage control animals. The latter observation indicates that microwave-exposed rats used a different strategy in learning the location of the platform. These results show that acute exposure to pulsed microwaves caused a deficit in spatial "reference" memory in the rat.
Ultraschall bei Pfortaderhochdruck – Teil 2 – und EFSUMB-Empfehlungen zur Durchführung und Dokumentation von Ultraschalluntersuchungen bei Pfortaderhochdruck

Institute 1 Hepatic Hemodynamic Laboratory, Liver Unit, Institut d’Investigacions Biomediques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (Ciberehd) 2 Abdominal Imaging Section, Centre Diagnostic per la Imatge (CDIC), Hospital Clinic i Provincial, Barcelona, Spain 3 Division of Internal Medicine, Department of Digestive Disease and Internal Medicine, General and University Hospital S. Orsola-Malpighi, Bologna, Italy
Romanian Public Sector Entities between Performance and Audit of Performance

Performance creation and measurment in the public sector entities has become a priority in the Romanian public sector. Limited resources, many and different requests for quality services compel the government to have a greater control upon the way of spending public money and providing economy, efficiency and effectiveness services. By this constructive research we define the performance concept, identify the ways of measuring and assessing the degree of performance achievement in the public sector from Romania.
Lung function imaging under quantitative spirometrically controlled CT.

OBJECTIVE To assess the possibility of using spirometrically controlled computed tomography (CT) to test pulmonary ventilation function. METHODS Spiral CT scans under the control of a spirometer were performed on 30 healthy adults. Spiral CT scan was performed at 50% vital capacity (VC) with an 8 mm slice thickness. Mean attenuation values and pixel index (PI) of lung regions were evaluated with semiautomatic evaluation software. RESULTS There were significant differences in PI values between four pixel intervals. CONCLUSIONS Spirometrically controlled spiral CT with semiautomatic evaluation software is an accurate and reproducible method of measuring lung density and PI, which has the possibility of indicating pulmonary ventilation function.
Territorial Exclusivity in Franchisee Systems

This article shows that the higher the problems of hold-up and free-riding in franchise systems, the higher the probability that the franchisor will provide franchisees with territorial exclusivity. It therefore appears that territorial exclusivity is an assurance from a franchisor that the return on the sunk investments of a franchisee will not be subsequently held-up. Moreover, it appears that territorial exclusivity alleviates free-riding problem by making the franchisees local monopolists for the brand in question, which increases the probability that they will receive most of the benefits generated by their service provision.
Development of Ethical Business: An Islamic Framework

Ethical business attempts to establish justice to all of its stakeholders by satisfying their ethical desires. But lack of ethical desires of the stakeholders is a major hindrance to developing an ethical business. In a larger-scale-enterprise, owner, management, and accountant play vital role in initiating, establishing, and ensuring ethical guidelines for all of its stakeholders. In the way to ethical business development, one or two of these three parties are not able to ensure justice independently rather needs a mutual cooperation
Hemostatic powder spray: a new method for managing gastrointestinal bleeding

Gastrointestinal bleeding is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. The management of gastrointestinal bleeding is often challenging, depending on its location and severity. To date, widely accepted hemostatic treatment options include injection of epinephrine and tissue adhesives such as cyanoacrylate, ablative therapy with contact modalities such as thermal coagulation with heater probe and bipolar hemostatic forceps, noncontact modalities such as photodynamic therapy and argon plasma coagulation, and mechanical hemostasis with band ligation, endoscopic hemoclips, and over-the-scope clips. These approaches, albeit effective in achieving hemostasis, are associated with a 5–10% rebleeding risk. New simple, effective, universal, and safe methods are needed to address some of the challenges posed by the current endoscopic hemostatic techniques. The use of a novel hemostatic powder spray appears to be effective and safe in controlling upper and lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Although initial reports of hemostatic powder spray as an innovative approach to manage gastrointestinal bleeding are promising, further studies are needed to support and confirm its efficacy and safety. The aim of this study was to evaluate the technical feasibility, clinical efficacy, and safety of hemostatic powder spray (Hemospray, Cook Medical, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA) as a new method for managing gastrointestinal bleeding. In this review article, we performed an extensive literature search summarizing case reports and case series of Hemospray for the management of gastrointestinal bleeding. Indications, features, technique, deployment, success rate, complications, and limitations are discussed. The combined technical and clinical success rate of Hemospray was 88.5% (207/234) among the human subjects and 81.8% (9/11) among the porcine models studied. Rebleeding occurred within 72 hours post-treatment in 38 patients (38/234; 16.2%) and in three porcine models (3/11; 27.3%). No procedure-related adverse events were associated with the use of Hemospray. Hemospray appears to be a safe and effective approach in the management of gastrointestinal bleeding.
International trade in services in selected ASEAN countries : telecommunications and finance

This paper outlines the analytical rationale in favour of liberalization of trade in services with particular reference to the key infrastructural subsectors of telecommunications and finance and discusses the empirical evidence thereof. The paper goes on to offer an overview of the state of deregulation and the schedule of liberalization of the two service subsectors in three middle-income ASEAN countries, viz. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. It compares their GATS commitments in these sectors with those made under a regional agreement (ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services or AFAS). An attempt is also made to synthesize the individual country experiences and extract common themes thereof.