Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A review of the Six Sigma belt system for manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract The Six Sigma methodology creates many possibilities for radically improving process and product quality. While Six Sigma was initially applied within large corporations, the interest of small and medium-sized enterprises in improvement initiatives is increasing. A decade ago, small and medium-sized enterprises became aware that they can enhance their capability, improve quality, and increase their profitability by using Six Sigma. One of the most critical success factors for the implementation of Six Sigma is a strong organizational infrastructure led by different Six Sigma belts. Thus, the aim of this article is to examine the Six Sigma belt system for small manufacturing companies based on a detailed literature review. The fact that few research papers have been published regarding this research field indicates the Six Sigma belt system for small and medium-sized enterprises has not yet been adequately studied and thus opens the door for future research. Nevertheless, it can be concluded that the original Six Sigma belt roles used by large organizations cannot simply be transferred for the application in small enterprises, as there are too many differences between these two company types. This means an extensive organizational infrastructure like in large organizations is not needed in small enterprises. There are various expert opinions but almost no empirical evidence regarding the availability, proportion to the total workforce, working time, hierarchy, project executions, and cost savings of the various Six Sigma belts in small enterprises. For this reason, this paper highlights the need for a standardized approach of the Six Sigma belt system for manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises.
RETROBULBAR REPOSITORY CORTICOSTEROID THERAPY IN THYROID OPHTHALMOPATHY

Twenty patients with severe infiltrative thyroid ophthalmopathy have been treated with retrobulbar injections of Depo‐Medrol; 19 patients have been followed. All patients gained prompt relief from local symptoms of irritation and lachrymation. This treatment appears to be of value in the management of thyroid ophthalmoplegia. However, it is probably not as effective as large doses of oral prednisone in rapidly progressive exophthalmos, although a major improvement in proptosis was seen in many patients. Cushingoid side effects were completely absent and the sole adverse response in 190 injections was one retrobulbar haemorrhage with no permanent sequelae. The safety and apparent efficacy of the treatment are such as to justify wider use and controlled trial.
Molecular genetic characterization of SMAD signaling molecules in pulmonary arterial hypertension

Heterozygous germline mutations of BMPR2 contribute to familial clustering of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). To further explore the genetic basis of PAH in isolated cases, we undertook a candidate gene analysis to identify potentially deleterious variation. Members of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) pathway, namely SMAD1, SMAD4, SMAD5, and SMAD9, were screened by direct sequencing for gene defects. Four variants were identified in SMADs 1, 4, and 9 among a cohort of 324 PAH cases, each not detected in a substantial control population. Of three amino acid substitutions identified, two demonstrated reduced signaling activity in vitro. A putative splice site mutation in SMAD4 resulted in moderate transcript loss due to compromised splicing efficiency. These results demonstrate the role of BMPR2 mutation in the pathogenesis of PAH and indicate that variation within the SMAD family represents an infrequent cause of the disease. 32:1385–1389, 2011. ©2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The “typical” Japanese employment system and women in the late 1990s ～ How were female employees were excluded from the system? ～

This paper addresses the characteristics of Japanese female employees in the late 1990s, and analyses the background. Long tenure and steep upward age-wage profiles are distinctive characteristics of Japan. However, these are characteristics of Japanese men, not women. There are a wide gender gap in a number of aspects in the Japanese labour market. These differences are closely related to womenʼs life cycle of work with long maternal leave during child rearing. In addition, women were previously excluded from the managerial track and tend to remain in the bottom strata in firms. These circumstances have slightly changed due to the Equal Employment Opportunity Act(1987), but substantial improvement did not appear in the late 1990s yet. Moreover, traditional gender roles perpetuated over generations through the aspiration for education.
Erfolgreiches Softwarequalitätsmanagement - Steigerung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit statt Zertifizierung -

1. EINFUHRUNG Zur Zeit beschaftigen sich viele Softwarehersteller mit dem Aufbzw. Ausbau und der Zertifizierung von Qualitatsmanagementsystemen (QMS). Es besteht die Gefahr, das die Unternehmen in erster Linie eine Zertifizierung anstreben, Moglichkeiten der kontinuierlichen (Prozes-)Verbesserung aber nur am Rande betrachten. Die unter Softwareherstellern zur Zeit zu beobachtende „Zertifizierungseuphorie“ soll anhand erster Erfahrungen mit zertifizierten Softwarequalitatsmanagementsystemen kritisch diskutiert werden. Die Starken und Schwachen der ISO 9000 und des Capability Maturity Model (CMM) bzw. der 'europaischen Variante' BOOTSTRAP fur die Steigerung der Wettbewerbsfahigkeit von Softwareherstellern werden erortert und Anhaltspunkte fur erfolgversprechendere Ansatze aufgezeigt. 2. ELEMENTE EINES QUALITATSMANAGEMENT
Glazed Tiles Manufactured from Incinerated Sewage Sludge Ash and Clay

Abstract Sewage sludge incineration is applied extensively in highly populated cities as a final sludge treatment. In this study, incinerated ash was utilized as an additive to clay to manufacture glaze tiles. Four different amounts of ash (0, 15, 30, and 45%) were added, and five glaze concentrations (0.03, 0.06, 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2 g/cm2) were applied on the surface of biscuit tiles to study the effects of ash additive and glaze concentration on properties of fired samples. Sewage sludge was dehydrated and incinerated into ash at 800 °C. Subsequently, tile specimens were manufactured and fired at 800 °C to make biscuit tiles. Fritted glazes and iron oxide were used as the fundamental glaze and colorant, respectively. Finally, glaze was applied on the surface of biscuit tiles and then fired at 1050 °C to sinter them into glazed tile specimens. Tests were performed to analyze properties, including water absorption, firing shrinkage, weight loss on ignition, abrasion resistance, bending resistance, acid-alkali resistance, and aging resistance on specimens of glaze tile. To further understand more about the microstructural behavior of glazed tile specimens, analysis of energy dispersive spectrometer, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray were carried out in this study.
Spend Analysis in Super Market Data

Super Market analysis is an important component of analytical system in retail organizations to determine the placement of goods, designing sales promotions for different segments of customers to improve customer satisfaction and hence the profit of the Supermarket. These issues for a leading supermarket are addressed here using frequent itemset mining. The frequent itemsets are mined from the Super Market database using sqoop and hadoop. A retailer must know the needs of customer and adapt to them. Super Market analysis is one possible way to find out which items can be put together . Super Market analysis gives retailer good information about related sales on group of goods basics Customers who buys bread often also buy several products related to bread like milk, butter or jam. It makes sense that these groups of goods also must be located side-by-side in order to remind customers of related items and to lead them through the center in a logical manner.Super Market analysis is one of the data mining methods focusing on discovering purchasing patterns by extracting associations or co-occurrences from a store’s transactional data. Super Market analysis determines the products which are bought together and to reorganize the supermarket layout, and also to design promotional campaigns such that product’s purchase can be improved. Hence, the Market consumer behaviors need to analyzed, which can be done through different data mining techniques.
Editorial Comment from Dr Kitagawa to Clinicopathological features and outcomes in patients with late recurrence of renal cell carcinoma after radical surgery

In this issue of the International Journal of Urology, Kobayashi et al. examined the clinicopathological features, risk factors and prognosis in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients with late recurrence. As they described, one of the unique characteristics of RCC might be a biological potential for recurrence or metastasis over 5 years after primary surgical treatment with curative intent. In the present study, 8.3% of the patients who underwent primary radical surgery and remained free of recurrence after 5 years had late recurrence of disease, which was consistent with the results in previous reports. In terms of risk factors of late recurrence, a risk model (PRELANE score), including factors of lymphovascular invasion, Furman grade and tumor stage, had been recently developed and validated on the basis of a large multicenter database of the Western population. The present study showed that vascular invasion (including microscopic and gross invasion) at the primary site was the only predictor of late recurrence, and the authors reported that larger primary tumor size and more aggressive tumor pathology might be risk factors of early rather than late recurrence. In contrast, a previous study in the Japanese population reported that lymph node metastasis was the only factor to predict late recurrence. Further large Japanese cohort studies will be expected to determine risk factors of late recurrence in Japanese RCC patients and to compare the findings with those in Western patients. From the results regarding risk factors of late recurrence in the present study, the hypothesis that a lower malignant potential of cancer cells results in late recurrence might arise. As expected, Kaplan–Meier curves showed better overall and disease-specific survivals in patients with late than in those with early recurrence, and this finding was consistent with that of a previous study. However, four (9.8%) patients with late recurrence had rapid disease progression and died within 1 year after recurrence. Alterations in the character of cancer before the recurrence clinically emerged were suggested, and the pathological and molecular mechanisms of these alterations should be elucidated in further examinations as the next challenging issue.
Organization of the ribosomal RNA gene cluster in Lytechinus variegatus. Restriction analysis and cloning of restriction fragments.

The DNA coding for ribosomal RNA from Lytechinus variegatus, an Atlantic sea urchin species, is arranged in repeating units. Each unit is cleaved into four frag- ments by the restriction endonuclease Eco RI. The same gene region is dissected by the enzyme Sal 1 to yield two fragments. The restriction nuclease Kpn I has one restriction site within each repeat unit, thus generating a single fragment of about 11.5 kilobase pairs. The Eco RI and Sal 1 fragments total 11,330 base pairs and 11,360 base pairs, respectively. The size of a repeat unit of sea urchin rDNA is therefore about 11.4 kilobase pairs or 7.5 x lo6 daltons. The four Eco RI rDNA fragments as well as the two Sal 1 fragments were incorporated into plasmid vectors and cloned in Escherichia coli. Using data from hybrid- ization of different rDNA fragments to 18 or 26 S rRNA and from double digests of the cloned fragments with the enzymes Eco RI and Sal I, an arrangement of the fragments within the rDNA repeat unit was found and the rRNA coding regions were assigned. These data were confirmed by electron microscope length mea- surements of restriction fragments and RNA-DNA
The third pillar of bacterial signal transduction: classification of the extracytoplasmic function (ECF) σ factor protein family

The ability of a bacterial cell to monitor and adaptively respond to its environment is crucial for survival. After one‐ and two‐component systems, extracytoplasmic function (ECF) σ factors – the largest group of alternative σ factors – represent the third fundamental mechanism of bacterial signal transduction, with about six such regulators on average per bacterial genome. Together with their cognate anti‐σ factors, they represent a highly modular design that primarily facilitates transmembrane signal transduction. A comprehensive analysis of the ECF σ factor protein family identified more than 40 distinct major groups of ECF σ factors. The functional relevance of this classification is supported by the sequence similarity and domain architecture of cognate anti‐σ factors, genomic context conservation, and potential target promoter motifs. Moreover, this phylogenetic analysis revealed unique features indicating novel mechanisms of ECF‐mediated signal transduction. This classification, together with the web tool ECFfinder and the information stored in the Microbial Signal Transduction (MiST) database, provides a comprehensive resource for the analysis of ECF σ factor‐dependent gene regulation.
Bandwidth Enhancement of Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna using Defected Ground Structure

This paper presents the bandwidth enhancement of a Proximity Coupled Feed Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna using a new Defected Ground Structure - an ‘inverted SHA’ shaped slot on the ground plane of the proximity coupled feed rectangular Microstrip patch antenna. The parameters such as Bandwidth, Return loss, VSWR and Radiation efficiency are improved in the proposed antenna than simple proximity coupled feed rectangular Microstrip patch antenna without Defected Ground Structure. A comparison is also shown for the proposed Microstrip patch antenna with the antenna structure without Defected Ground Structure. The proposed antenna resonates in S-band at frequency of 2.4 GHz with bandwidth of 180 MHz. A very good return loss of -47.9223 dB is obtained for the Microstrip patch antenna with an ’inverted SHA’ shaped Defected Ground Structure. Implementing an ‘inverted SHA’ shaped defect in the ground plane of the proximity coupled feed rectangular Microstrip patch antenna results in 5.3% improvement in bandwidth with 16.01% reduction in the overall area of the ground plane as compared to the Microstrip patch antenna without Defected Ground Structure. Full Text: PDF DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.11591/ijeecs.v3. i2.pp428-434
Failure of frontolimbic inhibitory function in the context of negative emotion in borderline personality disorder.

OBJECTIVE The authors sought to test the hypothesis that in patients with borderline personality disorder, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and associated regions would not be activated during a task requiring motor inhibition in the setting of negative emotion. Such a finding would provide a plausible neural basis for the difficulty borderline patients have in modulating their behavior during negative emotional states and a potential marker for treatment interventions. METHOD A specifically designed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation probe was used, with statistical parametric mapping analyses, to test hypotheses concerning decreased prefrontal inhibitory function in the context of negative emotion in patients with borderline personality disorder (N=16) and healthy comparison subjects (N=14). 3-T fMRI scanning was used to study brain activity while participants performed an emotional linguistic go/no-go task. RESULTS Analyses confirmed that under conditions associated with the interaction of behavioral inhibition and negative emotion, borderline patients showed relatively decreased ventromedial prefrontal activity (including medial orbitofrontal and subgenual anterior cingulate) compared with healthy subjects. In borderline patients, under conditions of behavioral inhibition in the context of negative emotion, decreasing ventromedial prefrontal and increasing extended amygdalar-ventral striatal activity correlated highly with measures of decreased constraint and increased negative emotion, respectively. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest specific frontolimbic neural substrates associated with core clinical features of emotional and behavioral dyscontrol in borderline personality disorder.
Novel Double-Barrier Rotor Designs in Interior-PM Motor for Reducing Torque Pulsation

This paper presents various flux-barrier designs in an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) for reducing torque pulsation. A conventional single-layer IPMSM model, a popular double-layer IPMSM model and two novel double-barrier IPMSM models featuring as a double pairs of flux-barrier flexibly coupled with the simplest single-layer PM, are built and compared together. The geometries of flux-barrier structure in each IPMSM model are optimized by performing response surface methodology (RSM) for minimizing torque ripple and cogging torque. The presented IPMSM models are analyzed by using finite element analysis (FEA), and the validity is confirmed by experiment. Finally, the beneficial attributes of the proposed novel double-barrier IPM designs compared with the single-layer and double-layer IPM designs are emphasized.
Gestion dynamique d'ontologies à partir de textes par systèmes multi-agents adaptatifs

Une ontologie est une representation structuree des connaissances d'un domaine sous la forme d'un reseau conceptuel. Les ontologies sont considerees comme un support indispensable a la communication entre agents logiciels, a l'annotation des sites Web et des ressources documentaires dans une optique de recherche semantique de l'information. Parce que les connaissances d'un domaine sont amenees a evoluer, une ontologie doit elle aussi evoluer pour rester en coherence avec le domaine qu'elle modelise. Actuellement, la plupart des travaux traitant de l'evolution d'ontologies se preoccupent de la verification et du maintien de la coherence de l'ontologie modifiee. Ces travaux n'apportent pas de solutions concretes a l'identification de nouvelles connaissances et a leur integration dans une ontologie. Les travaux en ingenierie d'ontologies a partir de textes quant a eux traitent ce probleme d'evolution comme un probleme de reconstruction d'une nouvelle ontologie. Souvent, le resultat produit est completement different de l'ontologie a modifier. Par ailleurs, les logiciels d'evolution specifiques a un domaine particulier rendent impossible leur utilisation dans d'autres domaines. Cette these propose une solution originale basee sur les systemes multi-agents adaptatifs (AMAS) pour faire evoluer des ontologies a partir de textes. Chaque terme et concept sont representes par un agent qui essaie de se situer au bon endroit dans l'organisation qui n'est autre que l'ontologie. Ce travail est concretise par un outil nomme DYNAMO. Un besoin d'evolution est declenche par l'ajout de nouveaux textes dans un corpus de documents. DYNAMO utilise les resultats d'un extracteur de termes et de relations lexicales ainsi qu'un AMAS, nomme DYNAMO MAS, pour proposer une ontologie modifiee a un ontographe. Ce dernier interagit avec DYNAMO MAS via une interface graphique en modifiant l'ontologie proposee (deplacement, ajout, modification de concepts, de termes et/ou de relations), produisant ainsi des contraintes auxquelles l'AMAS doit s'adapter. Cette "coevolution" entre l'AMAS et l'ontographe cesse lorsque l'ontographe juge que l'ontologie modifiee est coherente avec le nouveau corpus.
Discovery of symbols in design

In this work, we propose a mechanism for learning grounded symbols based on design experience as acquired by a CAD system. We discover the functionally feasible regions FFRs lying along lower dimensional surfaces or manifolds, reflecting latent interdependencies between design variables sometimes called chunks constitute the intermediate step between raw experience and the eventual symbol that arises after these patterns become stabilised through communication. We search this lower-dimensional manifolds using either linear or nonlinear techniques, and demonstrate low-dimensionality at three stages of an 'infant designer': a learning image schemas for fits and clearances using linear algorithms; b universal motor, 2-parameter - learning a non-linear manifold; c universal motor, 8-parameter, reducing to two parameters or chunks using both linear and nonlinear mappings.
Stimulus repetition, change, and assessments of sensitivities of and relationships among an electrodermal and two plethysmographic components of the orienting reaction.

Twenty Ss were presented with 15 300-msec tones (for half the Ss) or lights (for the remaining Ss) followed by a change trial to the other modality. There was highly reliable habituation in the electrodermal skin resistance response (SRR) and the plethysmographic pulse volume (PV), but no clear habituation in the plethysmographic blood volume (BV). Change produced reliable increases in all three orienting-reaction (OR) components. Application of signal-detection methods showed SRR to be a more sensitive index of both initial OR and OR to change than either PV or BV, which were not different. Neither PV nor BV were correlated with SRR, but the BV-PV correlations were significant, and, when corrected for attenuation, approximated +. 75. The problem of why the plethysmographic OR components sometimes habituate to stimulus repetition, and sometimes do not, was discussed, but it was concluded that while some possible explanations have been eliminated by the present results, the problem itself still awaits solution and poses a challenge to psychophysiologists.
Immunohistochemical localization of fibrillin in developing macaque and term human placentas and fetal membranes

The objective of this study was to examine the developmental appearance of the extracellular matrix glycoprotein fibrillin in macaque placentas and fetal membranes and to compare this distribution to that seen in term human placentas and fetal membranes. Standard immunoperoxidase methods were used on paraformaldehyde‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded tissues. At early gestational ages (26–30 days), fibrillin was found in cell columns and cytotrophoblastic shell, with weak staining in the villous stroma. Staining was abundant in the shell and columns at 53 days as well, and stronger staining was seen in the stroma of the chorionic plate and stem villi. Staining in the shell and remnants of the cell columns in later gestation continued to be positive, though variable. Generally, the strongest staining was present in the distal cytotrophoblastic shell. Stroma in the tips of anchoring villi was also strongly positive. Later in gestation, fibrillin was observed around the multilayered cytotrophoblast of the chorionic plate. Fibrillin was abundant in the stromal cores of human term placental villi. In early macaque amnion, fibrillin staining was abundant in a layer beneath the amniotic epithelium. Later in gestation, macaque chorioamnion staining was generally similar to human term chorioamnion staining, with the heaviest staining in portions of the compact and reticular layers. Fibrillin was sometimes localized in regions known to be rich in connective tissue microfibrils, but, in other regions known to have abundant microfibrils, fibrillin staining was weak. This suggests that some microfibrils in placenta may be composed predominantly of some other protein(s). The function of fibrillin in the various placental compartments is unknown at present. It may provide attachment points for cells while at the same time providing a strong, yet flexible, matrix to accommodate growth particularly in areas subject to shear stress. Microsc. Res. Tech. 38:42–51, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.