Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An evaluation of the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) within the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector in Jordan

Recognising quality to be a key focus for competitiveness, Total Quality Management (TQM) was established and used in developed countries as a new philosophy for managing organisations. However, TQM in developing countries has received little attention and little research has been conducted into the successful implementation of TQM systems in these countries. The research described in this thesis assesses the adoption of TQM factors in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector in Jordan and identifies the main impediments to successful adoption. In addition, this research explores the impact of TQM implementation on improving competitiveness and the role of environmental factors (government policy and social culture) in encouraging the implementation and sustainability of TQM in the Jordanian ICT sector. Both questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were employed to fulfil the study objectives. The questionnaire aimed to investigate the implementation of TQM in the ICT sector, while, semi-structured interviews with General and TQM managers aimed to gain an understanding of themes which had emerged from the questionnaire. In order to fully understand company performance, customers of the ten largest companies in the Jordanian ICT sector were also interviewed. Analysis of the data identified three potential impediments to the successful implementation of TQM. These impediments being; the internal cultural characteristics of organisations, the level of employee empowerment and the degree of continuous improvement that takes place. The results also indicate the critical impact that successful TQM implementation has on improving company competitiveness. The results also show the success of government reward policy, government policy identifying quality performance levels of organisations and the national education system as the source of qualified staff. These are seen as encouraging and supporting TQM implementation. Conversely, governmental policy towards taxation and new licences, bureaucracy and customer perspective regarding quality which gives a priority to price rather than quality as the discouraging factor. The research findings have enabled the development of a model to support TQM implementation within the Jordanian ICT sector. The study has made an original contribution to the academic and practical knowledge of quality management. This is an important first exploratory empirical study of TQM implementation in the ICT sector in Jordan. Some recommendations for further research have been derived from this research.
Downgrade Attack on TrustZone

Security-critical tasks require proper isolation from untrusted software. Chip manufacturers design and include trusted execution environments (TEEs) in their processors to secure these tasks. The integrity and security of the software in the trusted environment depend on the verification process of the system. We find a form of attack that can be performed on the current implementations of the widely deployed ARM TrustZone technology. The attack exploits the fact that the trustlet (TA) or TrustZone OS loading verification procedure may use the same verification key and may lack proper rollback prevention across versions. If an exploit works on an out-of-date version, but the vulnerability is patched on the latest version, an attacker can still use the same exploit to compromise the latest system by downgrading the software to an older and exploitable version. We did experiments on popular devices on the market including those from Google, Samsung and Huawei, and found that all of them have the risk of being attacked. Also, we show a real-world example to exploit Qualcomm's QSEE. In addition, in order to find out which device images share the same verification key, pattern matching schemes for different vendors are analyzed and summarized.
Optical coherence tomography findings in patients with retinitis pigmentosa and low visual acuity.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE To study the morphological features of the macula of patients with retinitis pigmentosa and visual acuities of 20/200 or less as examined by optical coherence tomography. PATIENTS AND METHODS In an observational case series study, 42 eyes (21 patients) with retinitis pigmentosa and visual acuities of 20/200 or less were evaluated by optical coherence tomography. RESULTS Thirty-four (81%) eyes had atrophic retina (group 1) and 8 (19%) eyes had cystoid macular edema (group 2). The mean visual acuity was 20/1000 in group 1 and 20/300 in group 2. Epiretinal membrane was identified in 27 (64.3%) eyes. CONCLUSION Optical coherence tomography is a more sensitive method in detecting macular pathology and can help in selecting cases where treatment may be applied.
Effects of the angiotensin‐converting enzyme inhibitor enalapril on blood haematopoietic progenitors and Acetyl‐N‐Ser‐Asp‐Lys‐Pro concentrations

Acetyl‐N‐Ser‐Asp‐Lys‐Pro (AcSDKP) is a physiological inhibitor of the proliferation of haematopoietic stem cells. In 12 healthy volunteers treated with the angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor enalapril (20 mg day−1 for 15 days), we studied plasma and urinary AcSDKP levels, the in vitro degradation of AcSDKP by plasma ACE and the numbers of circulating haematopoietic progenitors (granulocyte‐monocytic colony forming unit: CFU‐GM; burst forming unit‐erythroid: BFU‐E; and mixed colony forming unit: CFU‐mixed). During treatment, plasma and urinary AcSDKP concentrations increased 2‐ to 5‐fold, degradation of AcSDKP was reduced, and CFU‐mixed significantly increased by 100% while BFU‐E and CFU‐GM significantly decreased by 16% and 26%, respectively. These results indicate that ACE inhibitors may be of value during chemotherapy or radiotherapy, warranting further study.
Commercial Skipping Technology and the New Market Dynamic: The Relevance of Antitrust Law to an Emerging Technology

Commercial-skipping technology can liberate the consumer and make the television business more competitive. It rose to prominence with the advent of the digital video recorder (DVR), also known as the personal video recorder (PVR). PVRs have helped advertisers reach their target audience more effectively through personalized advertisements, and it has successfully pressured television networks and advertisers to innovate more appealing ways to induce consumers to buy advertised products. But even if this technology fails to enhance the business of television, television networks can still outpace commercialskipping technology in an arms race. Through competitive pressure, such technology promotes innovation, progress, and a more competitive market without posing an undue burden on the entertainment industry.
Expression of recombination-activating genes and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase and secondary rearrangement of immunoglobulin kappa light chains in rheumatoid arthritis synovial tissue.

OBJECTIVE Lymphocytic infiltrates in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovium often resemble lymphoid follicles and contain clonally related Ig transcripts, suggesting in situ antigen-dependent B cell selection. Recent reports have shown expression of recombination-activating genes (RAGs) and concurrent secondary rearrangement of Ig genes in normal peripheral lymphoid organs (receptor revision). We sought to determine if RAG-mediated receptor revision of Ig kappa light chains occurs in B cells within the RA synovium. Because we previously reported enhanced N-region addition at V(L)-J(L) joins in clonally expanded light-chain transcripts from RA synovium, we also sought expression of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT), which is normally expressed only in B cell precursors or immature B cells. METHODS Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect RAG and TdT transcripts from unselected and B cell-enriched synovial and peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained from 12 RA patients. Activity of RAG protein was sought using ligation-mediated PCR to detect recombination intermediates, and immunohistochemistry was performed to identify RAG+ cells within synovia. RESULTS We found evidence of RAG-mediated secondary Ig kappa light chain rearrangements in about one-third of RA synovia. TdT expression was found in several samples, but did not correlate with RAG expression. CONCLUSION RAG-mediated secondary Ig rearrangements of kappa light chains may contribute to the local production of antibodies to autoantigens (e.g., rheumatoid factor) or exogenous antigens, or it may represent a failed attempt at immune tolerance. TdT expression suggests the presence of immature B cells in RA synovia. These findings have important implications for the local generation of antibodies in RA and other chronic inflammatory diseases.
Scanning Probe Microscopy for the Characterization of Biomaterials and Biological Interactions a

The scanning probe microscopies provide a unique view of biological and biomedical systems at a nanoscale appropriate to appreciate molecular events. The advent of these methods has brought the ability to acquire quantitative information at the molecular level. Given the proliferation of microscopes and associated methods, the probability for important discoveries is high. If tempered with an appreciation for the potential for artifacts, the SPMs may revolutionize our view of biological systems and biomaterials interactions with those systems.
CD8(+) T cells express a T-helper 1--like phenotype after burn injury.

BACKGROUND Previous studies suggest that CD8(+) T cells are immunosuppressive after burn injury, but recent reports indicate that CD8(+) T cells have several functions similar to CD4(+) T cells, including the secretion of cytokines. This study uses HY male antigen in transgenic HY female mice to determine the antigen-specific response of activated CD8(+) T cells after burn injury. METHODS HY TCR transgenic female mice underwent burn or sham injury. Seventy-two hours after the burn, splenocytes were stimulated with 20 micromol/L HY peptide for 16, 48, and 64 hours; cellular proliferation, intracellular interferon-gamma and interleukin-2, and apoptosis were measured. RESULTS Burn injury significantly impaired proliferation to HY antigen (P < or =.05). Activated CD8(+) T cells from burned mice showed increased intracellular interferon-gamma and interleukin-2 16 hours after stimulation compared with sham (P < or =.05) and at no time was less than control mice. The percent of CD8(+) T cells decreased with the time of stimulation but was not due to apoptosis by Annexin V staining. CONCLUSIONS Activated CD8(+) T cells express a T(h1)-like phenotype after burn injury. This provides evidence that CD8(+) T cells are not simply suppressive and that is consistent with data that CD4(+) T cells are primed for a T(h1) response after burn injury.
Recurrent urticaria: clinical investigation of 330 patients

A questionnaire was used from 1972–1978 for 330 consecutive patients with recurrent urticaria of 3 months to 40 years duration. Fifty men and fifty women had only urticaria. The rest had both urticaria and angio‐oedema and most of them were women between 24 and 38 years of age. Urticarial attacks were less frequent during the daytime. A personal history of rhinitis, asthma or atopic dermatitis was recorded in more than one‐third. Nasal polyps, migraine and arthralgia were found in 6–7% of the patients. Severe psychiatric problems were mentioned by 16%. Abdominal problems, mainly gastritis, were described by 44%. A history of side effects from drugs was found in 32% of the patients. Food was mentioned as a factor worsening the weals by 30% and drinks by 18%. Fruits, vegetables and nuts were the most common. Despite all cases with physical urticaria having been excluded, physical factors such as exercise were considered by 20% to make the urticaria worse. Provocation tests with various food additives such as azo dyes, benzoates, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) sorbic acid, quinoline yellow, carotene, canthaxanthine, annatto and nitrite revealed one or more positive reactions in one‐third of the patients, one‐third showed negative provocation tests and, in the rest, one or several tests were questionable. Routine laboratory investigations and X‐rays of sinuses or teeth were of little value if there was no sign or history of other diseases. The fibrin microclot generation test which indicates the presence of circulating endotoxins was positive in 24%.
Performance, Bias, and Efficiency of Foreign Exchange Correlation Forecasts

This paper evaluates the performance, bias, and the efficiency of option-implied, and return-based correlation measures using twelve years of daily data on foreign exchange and over-the-counter (OTC) currency option. The sample includes five years of rates for the Polish zloty and the Czech koruna with respect to the euro and the U.S. dollar. The results show that implied correlation is a good predictor of realized correlation and is, generally, unbiased and efficient.
Cross-site tracing XST攻击

XST攻击是攻击者将恶意代码嵌入主机上的Web文件，当访问者浏览时．恶意代码在浏览器中执行．然后访问者的Cookie、http基本验证以及NTLM验证信息将被发送到已经被控制的主机，同时传送Trace请求给目标主机．导致Cookie欺骗或者是中间人攻击。
Decision Making in the Stock Market: Incorporating Psychology with Finance

The decision-making by individual investors is usually based on their age, education, income, investment portfolio, and other demographic factors. The impact of behavioural aspect of investing is, however, often ignored. The objective of this paper is to explore the impact of behavioural factors and investor’s psychology on their decision-making, and to examine the relationship between investor’s attitude towards risk and behavioural decision-making. The research uses the literature relevant to behavioural decision-making and investor’s psychology. The research is based on the secondary data relating to investments, finance, and economics available on the Internet, previous publications of the author, and some other publications as well. The information is then integrated in order to understand the interrelationships of investor’s perception of risk, behavioural factors, and decision-making in the Indian context. Through this research, the author finds that unlike the classical finance theory suggests, individual investors do not always make rational investment decisions. Their investment decision-making is influenced, to a great extent, by behavioural factors like greed and fear, cognitive dissonance, heuristics, mental accounting, and anchoring. These behavioural factors must be taken into account as risk factors while making investment decisions. Investment advisors and finance professionals must incorporate behavioural issues as risk factors in order to formulate effective investment strategies for individual investors. With an objective to create investor’s confidence in the Stock market, behavioural issues are the newest of the things which must be considered while formulating investment strategies. This research will help investment advisors and finance professionals judge investor’s attitude towards risk in a better way, thus leading to better investment decision-making
Edge Detection

The goal of vision is to recover physical properties of objects in a scene, such as the location of object boundaries and the structure, color, and texture of object surfaces, from the two-dimensional image that is projected onto the eye or camera. The first clues about the physical properties of the scene are provided by the {\it changes of intensity} in the image. The importance of intensity changes and edges in early visual processing has led to extensive research on their detection, description, and use, both in computer and biological vision systems. This article reviews some of the theory that underlies the detection of edges and the methods used to carry out this analysis.
DNA Double-Strand Breaks and Telomeres Play Important Roles in Trypanosoma brucei Antigenic Variation

ABSTRACT Human-infecting microbial pathogens all face a serious problem of elimination by the host immune response. Antigenic variation is an effective immune evasion mechanism where the pathogen regularly switches its major surface antigen. In many cases, the major surface antigen is encoded by genes from the same gene family, and its expression is strictly monoallelic. Among pathogens that undergo antigenic variation, Trypanosoma brucei (a kinetoplastid), which causes human African trypanosomiasis, Plasmodium falciparum (an apicomplexan), which causes malaria, Pneumocystis jirovecii (a fungus), which causes pneumonia, and Borrelia burgdorferi (a bacterium), which causes Lyme disease, also express their major surface antigens from loci next to the telomere. Except for Plasmodium, DNA recombination-mediated gene conversion is a major pathway for surface antigen switching in these pathogens. In the last decade, more sophisticated molecular and genetic tools have been developed in T. brucei, and our knowledge of functions of DNA recombination in antigenic variation has been greatly advanced. VSG is the major surface antigen in T. brucei. In subtelomeric VSG expression sites (ESs), VSG genes invariably are flanked by a long stretch of upstream 70-bp repeats. Recent studies have shown that DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), particularly those in 70-bp repeats in the active ES, are a natural potent trigger for antigenic variation in T. brucei. In addition, telomere proteins can influence VSG switching by reducing the DSB amount at subtelomeric regions. These findings will be summarized and their implications will be discussed in this review.
Banking Marketing in Customer Value Creation

Creation and delivery of customer value is one of the most important issues for banking in the light of the increasingly competitive market. Marketing in banking sector is inherently based on exchange processes – namely, transactions made between the bank and its customers, and related to exchange of certain values. Banking customers evaluate market offers from the viewpoint of prospective values – they strive for maximization of those values, while at the same time appraising the cost incurred in the process. They have certain expectations in regard to the value of services offered, and those expectations shape their behavior. This paper presents the notion of customer value and its determinants, as well as ways to improve customer value creation.
Improving climatic signal representation in tropical ice cores: A case study from the Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru

The published ice core records for Quelccaya, Peru are shown to contain numerous errors in annual layer determination, introduced by the subjective methodology of the original analysis. A new methodology is presented that aligns and then merges d18O sample measurement profiles from the two Quelccaya cores. Absolute dating of the stratigraphy is established by comparison of prominent dust anomalies with documented earthquake reference‐marker events. The results demonstrate that the original sample measurements can register a comprehensive millennial climate history at sub‐annual resolution, thus also offering great potential for clearer interpretations of ENSO signals in tropical Andean ice cores.
Channel estimation by set partitioning for OFDM with cyclic delay diversity

For OFDM based systems using cyclic delay diversity (CDD), a multiple input channel is transformed to a single input channel with increased frequency selectivity. While CDD provides additional frequency diversity which can he utilized by the outer channel decoder, a conventional channel estimator may have difficulties tracking the increased dynamics of the received signal. However, the knowledge about the cyclic delays can be utilized by the channel estimator. We show that for maximum cyclic delays, adjacent subcarriers become uncorrelated. By partitioning uncorrelated subcarriers into sets, and performing channel estimation for each set separately, a simple and yet very efficient channel estimation scheme can be derived.
The Cellular Uptake of Anandamide Is Coupled to Its Breakdown by Fatty-acid Amide Hydrolase*

Anandamide is an endogenous compound that acts as an agonist at cannabinoid receptors. It is inactivated via intracellular degradation after its uptake into cells by a carrier-mediated process that depends upon a concentration gradient. The fate of anandamide in those cells containing an amidase called fatty-acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) is hydrolysis to arachidonic acid and ethanolamine. The active site nucleophilic serine of FAAH is inactivated by a variety of inhibitors including methylarachidonylfluorophosphonate (MAFP) and palmitylsulfonyl fluoride. In the current report, the net uptake of anandamide in cultured neuroblastoma (N18) and glioma (C6) cells, which contain FAAH, was decreased by nearly 50% after 6 min of incubation in the presence of MAFP. Uptake in laryngeal carcinoma (Hep2) cells, which lack FAAH, is not inhibited by MAFP. Free anandamide was found in all MAFP-treated cells and in control Hep2 cells, whereas phospholipid was the main product in N18 and C6 control cells when analyzed by TLC. The intracellular concentration of anandamide in N18, C6, and Hep2 cells was up to 18-fold greater than the extracellular concentration of 100 nm, which strongly suggests that it is sequestered within the cell by binding to membranes or proteins. The accumulation of anandamide and/or its breakdown products was found to vary among the different cell types, and this correlated approximately with the amount of FAAH activity, suggesting that the breakdown of anandamide is in part a driving force for uptake. This was shown most clearly in Hep2 cells transfected with FAAH. The uptake in these cells was 2-fold greater than in vector-transfected or untransfected Hep2 cells. Therefore, it appears that FAAH inhibitors reduce anandamide uptake by cells by shifting the anandamide concentration gradient in a direction that favors equilibrium. Because inhibition of FAAH increases the levels of extracellular anandamide, it may be a useful target for the design of therapeutic agents.
Improving the Relationship between Continuing Education Leadership and Marketing Directors

I n this economy, college and university continuing education units will not automatically reap the benefits of returning adult learners as in past recessions: this economy caused a drastic reduction of resources available to the workforce and for personal revenue. As a result of decreased personal income and workforce training funding, competition for a potentially smaller market of adult learners in the US will be more focused and intense. Further compounding the complexity of marketing challenges is a shifting marketing environment: • The Nielsen Company reports a 12 percent decrease in overall advertising expenditures in the first quarter of 2009. • In November 2008, the Newspaper Association of America noted a continuing shift away from print to online media. • There is a growing movement toward search engine optimization (iProspect). • A lack of certainty regarding the impact of social networking on continuing education has caused a decline in this type of marketing due to measurement and effectiveness issues (Williamson).