Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of switched diversity systems on generalized-fading channels

The performances of switched diversity systems operating on generalized (Nakagami)-fading channels are analyzed using a discrete-time model. The average bit error rate (BER) of binary noncoherent frequency shift keying (NCFSK) on slow, nonselective Nakagami-fading channels is derived. Closed-form expressions that can be used to determine optimum switching thresholds (in a minimum error rate sense) are also derived. In addition, the use of optimum fixed thresholds is considered. It is found that a considerable amount of diversity gain can be obtained using an optimum fixed (rather than adaptive) switching threshold. Results are obtained for both independent and correlated Nakagami-fading branch signals. The effects of fading severity and the correlation coefficient on both the BER and on the optimum switching threshold are investigated. It is shown that useful diversity gain can be obtained with power correlation coefficients as high as 0.9 when the fading is strong. The results for a Rayleigh channel are obtained and presented as a special case of generalized-fading model. >
Cell cycle dependent regulation of protein kinase CK2 signaling to the nuclear matrix

Protein kinase CK2 is a ubiquitous protein serine/threonine kinase that is involved in cell growth and proliferation as well as suppression of apoptosis. Several studies have suggested that the kinase plays a role in cell cycle progression; however, changes in enzyme activity during phases of cell cycle have not been detected. Nuclear matrix is a key locus for CK2 signaling in the nucleus. We therefore examined CK2 signaling to the nuclear matrix in distinct phases of cell cycle by employing synchronized ALVA‐41 prostate cancer cells. Removal of serum from the culture medium resulted in G0/G1 arrest, and a reduction in the nuclear matrix‐associated CK2 activity which was rapidly reversed on addition of serum. Arresting the cells in G0/G1 phase with hydroxyurea and subsequent release to S phase by serum gave similar results. Cells arrested in the G2/M phase by treatment with nocodazole demonstrated an extensive reduction in the nuclear matrix‐associated CK2 which was reversed rapidly on addition of serum. Changes in the immunoreactive CK2 protein were concordant with the activity data reflecting a dynamic trafficking of the kinase in distinct phases of cell cycle. Under the same conditions, CK2 activity in total cellular lysate remained essentially unaltered. These results provide the first direct evidence of discrete modulations of CK2 in the nuclear matrix during the cell cycle progression. Inducible overexpression of CK2 in CHO cells yielded only a modest increase in CK2 activity even though a significant increase in expression was apparent at the level of CK2α‐specific message. Stably transfected ALVA‐41 cells, however, did not show a significant change in CK2 levels despite increased expression at the message level. Not surprisingly, both types of the stably transfected cells failed to show any alteration in cell cycle progression. Distribution of the CK2 activity in the cytosolic versus nuclear matrix fractions in normal cells appears to be different from that in the cancer cells such that the ratio of nuclear matrix to cytosolic activity is much higher in the latter. Considering that nuclear matrix is central to several nuclear functions, this pattern of intracellular distribution of CK2 may have implications for its role in the oncogenic process. Published 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An Empirical Investigation of Underpricing in Chinese IPOs

Morn than 300 share initial public offerings(IPOs)that list on Shanghai Security Exchange from February 2002 to April 2004 and the relation between the underpricing and more than 40 indices including the corporation finance,status of a new issue and macro-economics etc were studied.The result shows that there is severe underpricing decreasing every year in Chinese IPOs.Through regression analysis,the cause was found in depth,and some suggestion to reduce the underpricing was put forward.
Participation after stroke compared to normal aging.

OBJECTIVE To examine the reduction in participation of people who have had a stroke compared with healthy people with normal aging. DESIGN Participation of people who had a stroke was compared with participation of healthy subjects. SUBJECTS/PATIENTS Forty-six people who had a stroke for 2-4 years and 46 healthy participants matched on age, sex and living environment. MEASUREMENTS Participation was estimated with the Assessment of Life Habits (LIFE-H). The LIFE-H (short version 2.1) is composed of 58 daily activities and social roles associated to the 12 categories of the Disability Creation Process model. The LIFE-H gives separate scores for each category, for 2 main subsections "Daily activities" and "Social roles" and a total score. RESULTS Scores of healthy subjects did not reach the maximum value (9/9) of the LIFE-H, their mean scores varying from 6.3 to 8.6, according to the categories. These scores are higher than of the participants with stroke for all categories (scores varying from 3.9 to 6.5; p-values from 0.002 to <0.001), except the interpersonal relationships category (score of 7.8 vs 8.0) where no difference was found (p=0.49). The disruption in participation after stroke varies according to the categories of the LIFE-H, but is more important in the daily activities categories. CONCLUSION The comparison of the scores obtained by the 2 groups suggests that a part of the reduction in participation in daily activities and social roles after stroke is attributable to normal aging and not entirely to the stroke itself. It helps to focus interventions on activities and roles disruption domains that are really attributable to stroke.
Intratumoral injection of IL‐2‐activated NK cells enhances the antitumor effect of intradermally injected paraformaldehyde‐fixed tumor vaccine in a rat intracranial brain tumor model

Combined therapy with a fixed‐tumor cell vaccine and intratumoral injection of NK cells induced strong tumor regression of rat glioma. Rat 9L glioma cells were inoculated into syngeneic male rats at the flank (subcutaneous tumor model) or at the basal ganglia of the right hemisphere (intracranial tumor model). Rats were intradermally injected three times with vaccine comprising fixed 9L cells, IL‐2‐ and GMCSF‐microparticles, and tuberculin prior to (protective studies) or after (therapeutic studies) challenge with live 9L cells. In the protective studies, the vaccine alone achieved significant tumor growth inhibition and elongation of mean life span in both the subcutaneous and intracranial tumor models. No therapeutic effect was observed in the intracranial tumor model with the vaccine alone. However, intratumoral injection of rat NK cells strongly assisted the therapeutic effect of the vaccine in the brain tumor model and resulted in a statistically significant elongation of life span. We propose that intratumoral injection of NK cells may not only kill brain tumor cells directly, but also trigger a strong immune response in the focal lesion of the brain after vaccination. (Cancer Sci 2004; 95: 98–103)
Quantifying dysphonia severity using a spectral/cepstral-based acoustic index: Comparisons with auditory-perceptual judgements from the CAPE-V

This study investigated the relationship between acoustic spectral/cepstral measures and listener severity ratings in normal and disordered voice samples. CAPE-V sentence samples and the vowel /ɑ/were elicited from eight normal speakers and 24 patients with varying degrees of dysphonia severity. Samples were analysed for measures of the cepstral peak prominence (CPP), the ratio of low-to-high spectral energy, and their respective standard deviations. Perceptual ratings of overall severity were also obtained for all samples. Results showed that all acoustic variables combined in a four-factor model which correlated with perceived severity with R = 0.81 (R2 = 0.65). For the vowel /ɑ/, a five-factor model incorporating all acoustic variables and gender correlated with perceived severity with R = 0.96 (R2 = 0.91). Results indicate that a strong relationship between perceptual and acoustic estimates of dysphonia severity can be achieved in both continuous speech and vowel contexts using a model incorporating spectral/cepstral measures.
Competitive strategies and customer retention among commercial banks in Kenya

v LIST OF TABLES viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background of the Study 1 1.1.1 The Concept of Strategy 2 1.1.2 Competitive Strategies 2 1.1.3 Customer Retention 3 1.1.4 Commercial Banks in Kenya 4 1.2 Research Problem 5 1.3 Research Objective 6 1.4 Value of the Study 6 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 8 2.
Characterization of PLZT Ceramics for Optical Sensor and Actuator Devices

Perovskite Lead Lanthanum Zirconate Titanate (PLZT) ceramics have the following chemical formula Pb1-x Lax (Zry , Ti1-y)1-0.25x VB0.25x O3 and are typically known as PLZT (100x/100y/100(1-y)). Compositional changes within this quaternary ferroelectric system, especially along the morphotropic phase boundaries, can significantly alter the material’s properties and behaviour under applied electric fields or temperature variations. This allows such a system to be tailored to a variety of transducer applications. For instance, PLZT ceramics have been suggested for use in optical devices (Glebov et al. 2007; Liberts, Bulanovs, and Ivanovs 2006; Wei et al. 2011; Ye et al. 2007; Zhang et al. 2009) because of their good transparency from the visible to the near-infrared, and their high refractive index ( 2.5 n  ), which is advantageous in light wave guiding applications (Kawaguchi et al. 1984; Thapliya, Okano, and Nakamura 2003). PLZT compositions near the tetragonal and rhombohedral ferroelectric phases and anti-ferroelectric/cubic phases, typically with compositions (a/65/35) with 7<a<12, are known as relaxor ferroelectrics, since they exhibit a frequency-dependent diffuse ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition in their complex dielectric permittivity. Relaxor ferroelectrics are particularly attractive in transducer applications because they can be electrically or thermally induced into a ferroelectric phase possessing a large dipole moment accompanied by a large mechanical strain, and revert back to a non-ferroelectric state upon the removal of the field or temperature. They also exhibit a slim hysteretic behaviour in the transition region, upon the application of an electric field, making them ideal for precise control actuator applications.
Neutron-Capture Elements in the Early Galaxy: Insights from a Large Sample of Metal-poor Giants

New abundances for neutron-capture (n-capture) elements in a large sample of metal-poor giants from the Bond survey are presented. The spectra were acquired with the KPNO 4 m echelle and coudé feed spectrographs, and have been analyzed using LTE fine-analysis techniques with both line analysis and spectral synthesis. Abundances of eight n-capture elements (Sr, Y, Zr, Ba, La, Nd, Eu, and Dy) in 43 stars have been derived from blue (λλ4070-4710, R ~ 20,000, S/N ratio ~ 100-200) echelle spectra and red (λλ6100-6180, R ~ 22,000, S/N ratio ~ 100-200) coudé spectra, and the abundance of Ba only has been derived from the red spectra for an additional 27 stars. Overall, the abundances show clear evidence for a large star-to-star dispersion in the heavy element-to-iron ratios. This condition must have arisen from individual nucleosynthetic events in rapidly evolving halo progenitors that injected newly manufactured n-capture elements into an inhomogeneous early Galactic halo interstellar medium. The new data also confirm that at metallicities [Fe/H] ≲ -2.4, the abundance pattern of the heavy (Z ≥ 56) n-capture elements in most giants is well-matched to a scaled solar system r-process nucleosynthesis pattern. The onset of the main r-process can be seen at [Fe/H] ≈ -2.9; this onset is consistent with the suggestion that low mass Type II supernovae are responsible for the r-process. Contributions from the s-process can first be seen in some stars with metallicities as low as [Fe/H] ~ -2.75 and are present in most stars with metallicities [Fe/H] > -2.3. The appearance of s-process contributions as metallicity increases presumably reflects the longer stellar evolutionary timescale of the (low-mass) s-process nucleosynthesis sites. The lighter n-capture elements (Sr-Y-Zr) are enhanced relative to the heavier r-process element abundances. Their production cannot be attributed solely to any combination of the solar system r- and main s-processes, but requires a mixture of material from the r-process and from an additional n-capture process that can operate at early Galactic time. This additional process could be the weak s-process in massive (~25 M☉) stars, or perhaps a second r-process site, i.e., different from the site that produces the heavier (Z ≥ 56) n-capture elements.
Factors Influencing Physical Risk Taking in Rock Climbing

This study was designed to investigate factors influencing physical risk taking in the sport of rock climbing. Specifically, the relationships between physical risk taking, sensation seeking, spheres of control, and desirability of control were examined. One hundred five rock climbers from the United States completed a series of surveys measuring each of the above-mentioned psychological variables. As predicted, physical risk taking demonstrated significant positive relationships to both total sensation seeking and thrill/adventure seeking (TAS). The expected relationships between physical risk taking, personal control and desirability of control were not supported. As hypothesized, no substantive patterns were revealed between physical risk taking and interpersonal control or sociopolitical control. Finally, comparisons between high and low physical risk taking rock climbers revealed significant group differences for total sensation seeking, TAS, and disinhibition. The identification of predictors of physical risk taking is a key step toward identifying individuals likely to engage in high physical risk behavior, and under what circumstances they are likely to do so.
Association of IS26-composite transposons and complex In4-type integrons generates novel multidrug resistance loci in Salmonella genomic island 1.

OBJECTIVES Clinical isolates of Salmonella enterica serovar Haifa and Newport, which displayed extended multidrug resistance phenotypes, were investigated for the presence of Salmonella genomic island 1 (SGI1) and the genetic organization of its antibiotic resistance gene clusters. METHODS The S. enterica strains were isolated from humans in France in 2003 and 2004. Antibiotic susceptibility tests and various molecular techniques were used for detection and characterization of SGI1. RESULTS We identified SGI1 integrated in the 3' end of the chromosomal thdF gene in six multidrug-resistant serovar Haifa and Newport strains. Two strains, of serovar Haifa and Newport, harboured the previously described SGI1-H variant. A new variant of the novel SGI1-Ks group, named SGI1-K6, revealed IS26-mediated rearrangements of the antibiotic resistance gene cluster in two serovar Newport strains. Two other serovar Newport strains harboured the SGI1-L complex class 1 integron containing the dfrA15 and bla(PSE-1) resistance gene cassettes. In addition, these variants of SGI1 also contained large IS26-composite transposons inserted by a transposition event in the SGI1 backbone. These IS26-composite transposons showed a similar genetic structure to the SGI1-K variants containing an In4-type integron, a mercury resistance operon and parts of Tn1721 and Tn5393. These extended resistance gene clusters containing up to 10 antibiotic resistance genes were named SGI1-L1 and -L2. CONCLUSIONS The serovar Haifa represents the 16th S. enterica serovar in which SGI1 has been identified. The genomic island SGI1 appears to be a hotspot of acquisition of antibiotic resistance genes by the transposition of In4-type integrons and large IS26-composite transposons.
Selective separation of tryptic β‐casein peptides through ultrafiltration membranes: Influence of ionic interactions

Peptide separation by selective membrane filtration has numerous potential applications such as production of peptides with biological activities or spectific enrichment in compounds acting as flavoring agents or as growth factors required by the fermentation industry. The retention of peptides arising from tryptic hdroysis of β‐casein using an M5 Carbosep membrane (molecular wieght cutoll = 10,000 D) has been studied. The peptides with known sequences were characterized by their molecular weight, isoelectric point, and hydrophobicity. Our experiments highlighted that their transmission involves mechanisms other than size exclusion as developed elsewhere. The effect of ionic interactions between peptides and membrance has been investgated by vrying pH, ionic strength of bulk, and electric potential of filtering material. The charge of both peptides and membrane plays an important role in the transmission, particularly with small size and high or lkow isoelectric point. Then, peptides with the same sign as the membrane have lower transmission than expected from the size xclusion model, whereas peptides with opposite sign have higher trnsmission than expected, and even higher than 1 with some of them. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Study on the Lipolytic Function of GPR43 and Its Reduced Expression by DHA

G protein-coupled receptor 43 (GPR43) is a newly-discovered short-chain free fatty acid receptor and its functions remain to be defined. The objective of this study was to investigate the function of GPR43 on lipolysis. We successfully cloned the GPR43 gene from the pig (EU122439), and measured the level of GPR43 mRNA in different tissues and primary pig adipocytes. The expression level of GPR43 mRNA was higher in adipose tissue and increased gradually with adipocyte differentiation. Then we examined GPR43 mRNA level in different types, growth-stages and various regions of adipose tissue of pigs. The results showed that the expression level of GPR43 mRNA was significantly higher in adipose tissue of obese pigs than in lean pigs, and the expression level also gradually increased as age increased. We further found that the abundance of GPR43 mRNA level increased more in subcutaneous fat than visceral fat. Thereafter, we studied the correlation between GPR43 and lipid metabolism-related genes in adipose tissue and primary pig adipocytes. GPR43 gene had significant negative correlation with hormone-sensitive lipase gene (HSL, r = -0.881, p<0.01) and triacylglycerol hydrolase gene (TGH, r = -0.848, p<0.01) in adipose tissue, and had positive correlation with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor y gene (PPARy, r = 0.809, p<0.01) and lipoprotein lipase gene (LPL, r = 0.847, p<0.01) in adipocytes. In addition, we fed different concentrations of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) to mice, and analyzed expression level changes of GPR43, HSL and TGH in adipose. The results showed that DHA down-regulated GPR43 and up-regulated HSL and TGH mRNA levels; GPR43 also had significant negative correlation with HSL (low: r = -0.762, p<0.01; high: r = -0.838, p<0.01) and TGH (low: r = -0.736, p<0.01; high: r = -0.586, p<0.01). Our results suggested that GPR43 is a potential factor which regulates lipolysis in adipose tissue, and DHA as a receptor of GPR43 might promote lipolysis through down-regulating the expression of GPR43 mRNA.
Pattern of neuropathic pain induced by topical capsaicin application in healthy subjects

Abstract Human experimental pain models are widely used to study drug effects under controlled conditions, but they require further optimization to better reflect clinical pain conditions. To this end, we measured experimentally induced pain in 110 (46 men) healthy volunteers. The quantitative sensory testing (QST) battery (German Research Network on Neuropathic Pain) was applied on untreated (“control”) and topical capsaicin-hypersensitized (“test”) skin. Z-transformed QST-parameter values obtained at the test site were compared with corresponding values published from 1236 patients with neuropathic pain using Bayesian statistics. Subjects were clustered for the resemblance of their QST pattern to neuropathic pain. Although QST parameter values from the untreated site agreed with reference values, several QST parameters acquired at the test site treated with topical capsaicin deviated from normal. These deviations resembled in 0 to 7 parameters of the QST pattern observed in patients with neuropathic pain. Higher degrees (50%-60%) of resemblance to neuropathic QST pattern were obtained in 18% of the subjects. Inclusion in the respective clusters was predictable at a cross-validated accuracy of 86.9% by a classification and regression tree comprising 3 QST parameters (mechanical pain sensitivity, wind-up ratio, and z-transformed thermal sensory limen) from the control sites. Thus, we found that topical capsaicin partly induced the desired clinical pattern of neuropathic pain in a preselectable subgroup of healthy subjects to a degree that fuels expectations that experimental pain models can be optimized toward mimicking clinical pain. The subjects, therefore, qualify for enrollment in analgesic drug studies that use highly selected cohorts to enhance predictivity for clinical analgesia.
Selection of Xilose-Fermenting Yeast Strains

In Brazil, ethanol is obtained by fermentat of sugar cane juice using Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The cane juice extraction generates the bagasse that has been used for obtaining generation biofuel. However, the sugarcane bagasse has 30% pentose that cannot be fermented to ethanol by S. cerevisiae. Thus the aim of this study was to isolate a yeast able to ferment xylose to ethanol. Samples of cane juice and flowers were used for the isolation of 165 strains that were then screened for ethanol production using plate testing. Among them, the ethanol positive strains Wickerhamomyces anomalus, Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Starmerella meliponinorum were selected for a xylose fermentation assay, using a semi-synthetic and bagasse hydrolysate as must. S. meliponinorum and S. pombe produced 0.63 and 2.7 gL-1 of ethanol, respectively, from xylose in a semisynthetic medium. In the medium consisting of bagasse hydrolysate must, 0.67 and 1.1 gL-1 of ethanol were obtained from S. meliponinorum and S. pombe, respectively. All the yeasts produced xylitol from xylose in the semisynthetic medium and S. meliponinorum was that which produced the highest quantity (14.5 g L-1).