Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing and controlling the quality of a project end product: the earned quality method

Quality is achieved to the extent that a project end product meets the client's needs and expectations. This paper addresses the fundamental issues relating to the periodic assessment and control of the quality of the end product of a project. The proposed earned quality method (EQM) enables project managers to assess and control the quality of the end product throughout the project's life cycle. EQM rests on two fundamental assumptions: (1) that quality is a measurable concept; and (2) that quality is accrued progressively throughout the project's life cycle. EQM decomposes the end product's overall quality into its main attributes and criteria and relates them to the project activities. This elucidation process of the client's needs and expectations helps both the client and the project manager to identify valid quality indicators, estimate their relative contribution to the overall quality objective, and devise acceptable assessment protocols. Using a multicriteria approach, EQM allows project managers to deal in a formal and quantitative fashion with the client's stated and implied needs. By comparing earned quality and planned quality of the work performed. EQM enables project managers to detect quality deviations and initiate early corrective actions. EQM should contribute significantly to the quality of a project end product by improving communications between the client and the project manager at its outset, by elucidating the client's needs and expectations, by providing ongoing quality assessment measures, by avoiding time-consuming and costly rework through early corrective actions, by promoting greater quality accountability and project coordination, and finally, by preventing costly legal disputes over the quality of the project end product.
Apprentissage actif par modèles locaux

Les methodes d'apprentissage statistiques exploitent des exemples, pour enseigner un comportement a un modele predictif. La classification supervisee requiert des exemples etiquetes. En pratique, l'etiquetage des exemples peut se revele couteux. Dans certain cas, l'etiquetage implique un expert humain, un instrument de mesure, un temps de calcul eleve.etc. Les methodes d'apprentissage actif reduisent le cout de preparation des donnees d'apprentissage. Ces methodes cherchent a etiqueter uniquement les exemples les plus utiles a l'apprentissage d'un modele. Les travaux presentes dans ce manuscrit sont realises dans le cadre de l'echantillonnage selectif, qui n'autorise pas les strategies actives a generer de nouveaux exemples d'apprentissage. Les strategies actives de la litterature utilisent generalement des modeles globaux a l'espace des variables d'entrees. Nous proposons dans ce manuscrit une strategie originale qui effectue un partitionnement dichotomique recursif de l'espace d'entree. Cette strategie met en competition les modeles locaux a chacune des zones, pour choisir les exemples a etiqueter. Notre strategie decide “quand” couper une zone et “ou” la couper. Une amelioration possible consiste `a exploiter une methode de discretisation pour prendre ces deux decisions. L'extension de l'approche de discretisation MODL au cas de l'apprentissage semi-supervise constitue un des apports majeurs de cette these. Nous proposons une deuxieme amelioration qui consiste a selectionner, localement a la meilleure zone, l'exemple le plus utile a l'apprentissage du modele local. Nous proposons une strategie active originale, qui maximise la probabilite des modeles de discretisation connaissant les donnees et l'exemple candidat a l'etiquetage.
The Impact of Communication Strategies and Access to Finance on the Success of Small-Scale Enterprises in Tabor Sub-city, Hawassa

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of communication strategies and access to finance on the success of small-scale enterprises in Tabor sub-city in Hawassa of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Regional State. To this end, the authors have employed a mixed research approach. The target population of the study was small-scale enterprises in the sub-city. Samples of 122 small business owners were randomly taken from the total of 177 small business owners in the sub-city. Both primary and secondary data were collected for the study. Primary data were collected through structured questionnaire and direct personal interview small-scale business owners and head of the small-scale establishing government body. Secondary data were collected by reviewing related materials. Logit model was employed to analyze the data with Statistical software package for Social science version (23.0) to present the results of this study. The findings of this study showed that out of two explanatory variables incorporated in the model both variables (i.e. communication strategies and access to finance) were found to be fundamental determinants of the success of the small-scale enterprises in the sub-city. Finally, the findings of the study may inform policymakers about the determinants of success of small-scale enterprises in the sub-city, support them to formulate constructive policy and make decisions on these issues in order to achieve the goal of reducing unemployment rate and promoting the economic development of the country.
Genetic Inactivation of COPI Coatomer Separately Inhibits Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Entry and Gene Expression

ABSTRACT Viruses coopt cellular membrane transport to invade cells, establish intracellular sites of replication, and release progeny virions. Recent genome-wide RNA interference (RNAi) screens revealed that genetically divergent viruses require biosynthetic membrane transport by the COPI coatomer complex for efficient replication. Here we found that disrupting COPI function by RNAi inhibited an early stage of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) replication. To dissect which replication stage(s) was affected by coatomer inactivation, we used visual and biochemical assays to independently measure the efficiency of viral entry and gene expression in hamster (ldlF) cells depleted of the temperature-sensitive ε-COP subunit. We show that ε-COP depletion for 12 h caused a primary block to virus internalization and a secondary defect in viral gene expression. Using brefeldin A (BFA), a chemical inhibitor of COPI function, we demonstrate that short-term (1-h) BFA treatments inhibit VSV gene expression, while only long-term (12-h) treatments block virus entry. We conclude that prolonged coatomer inactivation perturbs cellular endocytic transport and thereby indirectly impairs VSV entry. Our results offer an explanation of why COPI coatomer is frequently identified in screens for cellular factors that support cell invasion by microbial pathogens.
Brca1-Deficient Murine Mammary Epithelial Cells have Increased Sensitivity to CDDP and MMS

In this report we describe the isolation of an isogenic pair of Brca1+/+ and Brca1-/-murine mammary epithelial cells (MMECs). These cells were isolated from Brca1conditional knock out mice which contained loxP sites flanking exon 11 of the Brca1gene (Brca1fl/fl) and then immortalized by infection with HPV-16E6 retrovirus to degradep53 protein. Brca1-/- MMECs were generated by deletion of exon 11 followingtransduction of Brca1fl/fl MMECs with a retroviral vector expressing Cre recombinase.Brca1-deficiency rendered MMECs sensitive to cis-platinum (II) diamine dichloride(CDDP) and methylmethane sulfonate (MMS). The Brca1+/+ and Brca1-/- MMECS is theonly known pair of isogenic mammary epithelial cell lines. The understanding of themechanisms of the CDDP sensitivity of the BRCA1-deficient mammary epithelial cellswould be very important in understanding how BRCA1-deficiency plays out in tissuespecific breast cancer chemotherapy. These studies support the role of BRCA1 in theCDDP-induced and MMS-induced DNA damage and repair by p53-independentpathways.
A governmental model for special patients

Received 19.12. 2017 Revised 28.12. 2017 Accepted 13.03. 2018 Background & Aim: Over the past decades, due to the high acceptance of patients in hospitals, the consequent relapse of the disease, the high cost of treatment and medication, the lack of coordination between the provision of hospital services and the needs of the community, the necessity of paying attention to the status of special patients and conducting a study for designing a suitable model in the country has been increased. Methods & Materials: This research is descriptive-correlation-exploratory and the data were collected through qualitative and quantitative methods. The research sample involves 392 persons in the quantitative section and 20 in the qualitative section. The research instrument was an open-ended questionnaire and a test; the data were collected using cluster sampling. Results: A total of 7 factors were identified as the final model of health management services for special patients, including: policymaking and load factor planning (0.72), organizational structure (0.63), government intervention methods in financing (0.81), control mechanism (0.88), government intervention in the affairs of special patients (0.79), pharmaceutical and therapeutic support services and medical aids (0.69), and educational support and prevention services (0.68). Also, the fitting of the designed model is 0.027, indicating appropriate fit for the model. Conclusion: Providing health services to patients by government has a significant role in the patient health services management, and prevention-based education, identification of primary risk factors, and preventing the epidemics and applying the pattern of health services management to special patients with all dimensions and emphasizing the effective role of government control over the provision of services can lead to presenting executive strategies over time.
Make notifications great again: learning how to notify in the age of large-scale vulnerability scanning

As large-scale vulnerability detection becomes more feasible, it also increases the urgency to find effective largescale notification mechanisms to inform the affected parties. Researchers, CERTs, security companies and other organizations with vulnerability data have a variety of options to identify, contact and communicate with the actors responsible for the affected system or service. A lot of things can – and do – go wrong. It might be impossible to identify the appropriate recipient of the notification, the message might not be trusted by the recipient, it might be overlooked or ignored or misunderstood. Such problems multiply as the volume of notifications increases. In this paper, we undertake several large-scale notification campaigns for a vulnerable configuration of authoritative nameservers. We investigate three issues: What is the most effective way to reach the affected parties? What communication path mobilizes the strongest incentive for remediation? And finally, what is the impact of providing recipients a mechanism to actively demonstrate the vulnerability for their own system, rather than sending them the standard static notification message. We find that retrieving contact information at scale is highly problematic, though there are different degrees of failure for different mechanisms. For those parties who are reached, notification significantly increases remediation rates. Reaching out to nameserver operators directly had better results than going via their customers, the domain owners. While the latter, in principle, have a stronger incentive to care and their request for remediation would trigger the commercial incentive of the operator to keep its customers happy, this communication path turned out to have slightly worse remediation rates. Finally, we find no evidence that vulnerability demonstrations did better than static messages. In fact, few recipients engaged with the demonstration website.
Why Silicon Valley?: an "entrepreneurial ecosystem" perspective on regional venture creation and new venture fundraising, evidence from China

OF THE DISSERTATION . II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . V TABLE OF CONTENT. VI LIST OF TABLES . IX LIST OF FIGURES . X PAPER 1: WHY SILICON VALLEY? AN "ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM" PERSPECTIVE ON REGIONAL VENTURE CREATION . 1 ABSTRACT .
Use of reduced aperture waveguide as a calculable standard for the verification of millimetre-wave vector network analyzers

In this paper, 3D electromagnetic simulation is used to predict the attenuation of a length of reduced aperture waveguide (RAW) and to estimate the uncertainty in the predicted attenuation due to imperfect dimensions and alignment of the waveguide. This allows the RAW to be used as a calculable standard for the verification of mm-wave waveguide vector network analyzers (VNAs). The VNA is verified if the attenuation of the RAW measured on the VNA agrees with the predicted attenuation to within the uncertainties.
Nuclear accumulation of myocyte muscle LIM protein is regulated by heme oxygenase 1 and correlates with cardiac function in the transition to failure

The present study investigated the mechanism associated with impaired cardiac mechanosensing that leads to heart failure by examining the factors regulating muscle LIM protein subcellular distribution in myocytes. In myocytes, muscle LIM protein subcellular distribution is regulated by cell contractility rather than passive stretch via heme oxygenase‐1 and histone deacetylase signalling. The result of the present study provide new insights into mechanotransduction in cardiac myocytes. Myocyte mechanosensitivity, as indicated by the muscle LIM protein ratio, is also correlated with cardiac function in the transition to failure in a guinea‐pig model of disease. This shows that the loss mechanosensitivity plays an important role during the transition to failure in the heart. The present study provides the first indication that mechanosensing could be modified pharmacologically during the transition to heart failure.
Electrical activity patterns and the functional maturation of the neocortex

At the earliest developmental stages, sensory neocortical areas in various species reveal distinct patterns of spontaneous neuronal network activity. These activity patterns either propagate over large neocortical areas or synchronize local neuronal ensembles. In vitro and in vivo experiments indicate that these spontaneous activity patterns are generated from neuronal networks in the cerebral cortex, in subcortical structures or in the sensory periphery (retina, cochlea, whiskers). At early stages spontaneous periphery‐driven and also sensory evoked activity is relayed to the developing cerebral cortex via the thalamus and the neocortical subplate, which amplifies the afferent sensory input. These early local and large‐scale neuronal activity patterns influence a variety of developmental processes during corticogenesis, such as neurogenesis, apoptosis, neuronal migration, differentiation and network formation. The experimental data also indicate that disturbances in early neuronal patterns may have an impact on the development of cortical layers, columns and networks. In this article we review our current knowledge on the origin of early electrical activity patterns in neocortical sensory areas and their functional implications on shaping developing cortical networks.
Osteochondral repair in hemophilic ankle arthropathy: from current options to future perspectives

Abstract Young hemophilic patients are frequently affected by ankle arthropathy. At the end stage of the disease, the current treatments are arthrodesis and arthroplasty, which have significant drawbacks. Validated procedures capable of slowing down or even arresting the progression towards the end stage are currently lacking. This review aims to discuss the rationale for and feasibility of applying, in mild hemophilic ankle arthropathy, the main techniques currently used to treat osteochondral defects, focusing in particular on ankle distraction, chondrocyte implantation, mesenchymal stem cell transplantation, allograft transplantation and the use of growth factors. To date, ankle distraction is the only procedure that has been successfully used in hemophilic ankle arthropathy. The use of mesenchymal stem cells have recently been evaluated as feasible for osteochondral repair in hemophilic patients. There may be a rationale for the use of growth factors if they are combined with the previous techniques, which could be useful to arrest the progression of the degeneration or delay end-stage procedures.
Insulator-metal transition in solid hydrogen: Implication of electronic-structure calculations for recent experiments.

Electronic structure calculations for compressed molecular hydrogen are performed to provide more insight into the diversity of phenomena recently observed experimentally. We perform full-potential LAPW calculations and analyze them in terms of a molecular tight-binding model. We show that $\sigma _g$ and $\sigma _u$ bands overlap occurs at rather low pressure, while an insulating state persists at specific orientations up to 200 GPa, in accord with previous work, and is due to opening of hybridization gaps at the Fermi level. We also present calculations of electronic properties such as plasma frequencies and electron-vibron coupling.
Incorporating Chinese Elements：On the Effect of Culture Identity on Purchasing Likelihood of Global Brands’ Products

Taking global brands’ products incorporating Chinese elements as test objects, this paper explores the effect of culture identity on purchasing likelihood in Chinese market. Empirical results show that cultural identity has a significantly positive impact on brand local icon value, which plays a completely mediating role in the effect of cultural identity on purchasing likelihood. Meanwhile, preference for authenticity positively moderates the indirect effect of cultural identity on purchasing likelihood. However, its role is mainly reflected in the second stage of the effect of cultural identity on purchasing likelihood. The theoretical significance of this paper lies in its introduction of cultural identity as an antecedent variable to explain the effectiveness of Chinese elements for the first time and the mediating role of brand local icon value. Besides, combining with related research like authenticity, this paper introduces the preference for authenticity to explain differences in the effects across market segments. The practical significance lies in that if multinationals want to leverage cultural identity of Chinese consumers to improve the competitiveness of global brands, they should place emphasis on making Chinese consumers perceive local icon value of global brands and differentiating between market segments with different preference for authenticity.
Detection of Intestinal Metaplasia in Barrett's Esophagus

TO THE EDITOR: The article by Sawhney et al. compares the prevalence of advanced colonic neoplasm in nonanemic patients and anemic patients with a variety of ferritin levels (1). While the use of odds ratios in Table 3 is correctly interpreted in the text, the likelihood ratios in Table 4 are not clearly discussed in the text. Guyatt et al. define an odds ratio as “a ratio of the odds of an event in an exposed group to the odds of the same event in a group that is not exposed” (2). Using the data from Table 3, Sawhney et al. correctly state patients with ferritin <50 ng/mL and ferritin 51–100 ng/mL are almost 5 times more likely to have advanced colonic neoplasia than those patients with ferritin >100 ng/mL or nonanemic controls. A likelihood ratio is defined by Guyatt et al. as the relative likelihood that a given test would be expected in a patient with as opposed to one without a disorder of interest (2). Fletcher and Wagner state likelihood ratios reflect the probability of that test result in people with the disease divided by the probability of the result in people without disease (3). Therefore, using the likelihood ratios in Table 4, the authors should have clarified in the text that a ferritin >100 ng/mL is 0.27 times as likely to occur in a patient with colonic neoplasm compared to a patient without colonic neoplasm. If a statement defining likelihood ratios was included, readers could more readily interpret the results. The likelihood ratio and the odds ratio could then be expressed to a patient in terms that the patient could understand and weigh the risks and benefits.
Evaluation of the protective value of an antisolvent gel by laser Doppler flowmetry and histology

In a previous histological study. we observed the protective efficiency of an antisolvent gel (Antixol3) against the skin irritation induced by epicutaneous application of n‐hexane for 15 and 30 rain. In [he present study, we tried to evaluate the prolix‐live efficiency of the Antixol gel against the cutaneous irritation induced by the application of toluene for 10 min. The possible application of laser Doppler flowmetry as h new objective method to test skin irritation and to evaluate the protective efficiency of burner creams of barrier creams and gels was confirmed by the histological findings.
Insulitis in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disease in which autoreactive T‐cells and inflammation cause severe loss of pancreatic beta cells. Insulitis, the pathologic hallmark of T1D, is an inflammatory lesion consisting of immune cell infiltrates around and within the islets. New research initiatives and methodologies are advancing our understanding of pancreas pathology. Studies have revealed the predominant cellular types that infiltrate the islets, novel molecular aspects associated with insulitis, and the coexistence of additional pathological abnormalities. While insulitis is a critical element of T1D pathology and pathogenesis, it is typically present only in a modest proportion of islets at any given time, even at diagnosis, with overall limited relation to disease duration. Thus, the relative importance of insulitis as a determining factor of diabetes symptoms at disease onset appears to have been overestimated; growing evidence also shows that beta cell loss at diagnosis is more modest than previously thought. Thus, the sole targeting of the immune system may not afford full therapeutic efficacy if dysfunction affects beta cells that are not under immune attack and this is a key contributor to symptoms. Combination therapies that promote both immunoregulation and address beta cell dysfunction should be more effective in treating this chronic disease process. It remains a major goal to clarify the relation of insulitis with the dynamics of beta cell loss and coexisting mechanisms of dysfunction, according to clinical stage; such improved understanding is key to design therapeutic strategies that target multiple pathogenic mechanisms.