Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Signaling pathways mediating VEGF165‐induced calcium transients and membrane depolarization in human endothelial cells

Cytosolic calcium and membrane potential were monitored simultaneously in quiescent human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) exposed to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)165 using the fluorescent indicators indo‐1 AM and DiSBAC2(3), respectively. Application of VEGF165 to cells elicits a rapid rise in cytosolic calcium followed by a slower decline toward control values. Peak calcium is associated with a slight membrane hyperpolarization; however, as calcium falls toward control, a strong depolarization develops and is sustained throughout a 10‐min period of VEGF165 stimulation. Both the VEGF165‐mediated rise in cytosolic calcium and membrane depolarization are eliminated by inhibitors of VEGFR‐2, tyrosine kinase, src kinase and inositol‐1,4,5 triphosphate‐operated calcium channels. Calcium entry, which is initially facilitated by transient hyperpolarization, is restricted by a substantial, sustained depolarization that developed during the downstroke of the calcium spike. Inhibition of plasmalemmal calcium channels diminished the magnitude and duration of the calcium spike, suggesting that extracellular calcium influx, secondary to stores release, is a significant component of the calcium transient. Inhibition of chloride channels substantially reduced membrane depolarization. In addition, the depolarization is modulated by PI3 kinase in a ras‐independent manner. In summary, intracellular calcium and membrane potential are influenced by several key signaling cascades of VEGFR‐2 activation in HUVEC. —Dawson, N. S. , Zawieja, D. C. , Wu, M. H. , Granger, H. J. Signaling pathways mediating VEGF165‐induced calcium transients and membrane depolarization in human endothelial cells. FASEB J. 20, E141‐E149 (2006)
Mucosal vaccination against tuberculosis using Ag85A-loaded immunostimulating complexes

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major devastating diseases in the world, mainly caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Furthermore, multi-drug resistant TB and extremely drug resistant TB are becoming big problems globally. Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is the only available vaccine which provides protection against TB. The BCG vaccine is effective in children but not recommended in adults and elderly patients due to an associated low risk of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and variable effectiveness of the vaccine. The main aim of this research study is to develop such a vaccine which will provide a better and safer profile in children and adults, as well as in elderly patients. In this present study, we prepared pulmonary tubercular vaccine by using an Antigen 85 complex (Ag85)-loaded nanocarrier such as the immunostimulating complex (ISCOM). Immunological outcomes clearly indicated significant improvement in humoral as well as cellular immune responses after pulmonary immunization with ISCOMs containing Quil A in mice.
Organizational structure, innovation performance and customer relationship value in the Greek advertising and media industry

Purpose This paper aims to explore the impact of organizational structure dimensions on innovation performance as well as its implications on business customers’ relationship value and financial performance in the business-to-business (B2B) market of the Greek advertising and media industry. Design/methodology/approach Based on a sample of 180 executives, who are at the helm of 163 Greek advertising and media organizations, the authors apply the partial least square method to test the association of organizational structure with innovation performance, business customers’ relationship value and financial outcomes. Findings Findings have brought to light that training boosts organization’s capacity to innovate, whereas direct supervision as a coordination mechanism significantly restricts this capacity. Innovation performance in the advertising B2B market fosters business customers’ relationship value and financial performance, while financial outcomes are also beneficially affected by profitable relationships with customer relationship value. Practical implications Because of the dramatic decline in their profitability caused by the economic crisis in the past five years, Greek advertising and media companies are threatened with extinction; thus, they are required to enhance their effectiveness through the adoption of a more innovation-oriented structure. Thus, managers should facilitate structures supporting training and delimiting direct supervision to foster the development of a competitive advantage built on innovation, creativity and business clients’ relationship. Originality/value This study contributes to the existing relationship marketing literature because it introduced Mintzberg’s typology to measure organizational structure and led to the diagnosis of the associations between different dimensions of organizational structure and various aspects of performance in the media and advertising industry, revealing the partial mediating role of customer relationship value between innovation and financial performance in the B2B market.
Epstein-Barr Virus BGLF 4 Kinase Suppresses the Interferon Regulatory Factor 3 Signaling Pathway †

The BGLF4 protein kinase of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a member of the conserved family of herpesvirus protein kinases which, to some extent, have a function similar to that of the cellular cyclin-dependent kinase in regulating multiple cellular and viral substrates. In a yeast two-hybrid screening assay, a splicing variant of interferon (IFN) regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) was found to interact with the BGLF4 protein. This interaction was defined further by coimmunoprecipitation in transfected cells and glutathione S-transferase (GST) pulldown in vitro. Using reporter assays, we show that BGLF4 effectively suppresses the activities of the poly(I: C)-stimulated IFNpromoter and IRF3-responsive element. Moreover, BGLF4 represses the poly(I:C)stimulated expression of endogenous IFNmRNA and the phosphorylation of STAT1 at Tyr701. In searching for a possible mechanism, BGLF4 was shown not to affect the dimerization, nuclear translocation, or CBP recruitment of IRF3 upon poly(I:C) treatment. Notably, BGLF4 reduces the amount of active IRF3 recruited to the IRF3-responsive element containing the IFNpromoter region in a chromatin immunoprecipitation assay. BGLF4 phosphorylates GST-IRF3 in vitro, but Ser339-Pro340 phosphorylation-dependent, Pin1-mediated downregulation is not responsible for the repression. Most importantly, we found that three prolinedependent phosphorylation sites at Ser123, Ser173, and Thr180, which cluster in a region between the DNA binding and IRF association domains of IRF3, contribute additively to the BGLF4-mediated repression of IRF3(5D) transactivation activity. IRF3 signaling is activated in reactivated EBV-positive NA cells, and the knockdown of BGLF4 further stimulates IRF3-responsive reporter activity. The data presented here thus suggest a novel mechanism by which herpesviral protein kinases suppress host innate immune responses and facilitate virus replication.
UNEXAR—Mini AUV design & measurement UNEXAR—Desain dan Pengukuran Mini-AUV

UNEXAR is a mini autonomous underwater robot in a cubic shape similar to a drone. This robot can be used to monitor local environment and observe an object below much more closely than otherwise needing us to wear underwater suit which is bothersome. It can also be used as an exploration device, to map unreachable area somewhere that's not in our line of sight. Robot can also be used to find an object with specific color using camera and image processing in debian based operating system. Other than that as an AUV it is able to carry some load and transport it somewhere near as long as the power is sufficient. AUV Design compromised by planting artificial intelligence, planning the mechanical structure and electronics design. Component primarily discussed here are locomotion mechanism, particle density and buoyancy. Experiment data, measurement data, failures and lesson learned from the research are also included.
Automatic detection of fovea using property of vessel free region

Accumulation of blood and its constituents over fovea of the retina lead to irreversible vision degradation in Diabetic Retinopathy (DR). Thus, fovea location contains very vital information in automated analysis. In this study, we have developed a simple approach for identification of fovea location. The main advantage of the method is that it does not require prior knowledge of the spatial relationship of optic disc location. The algorithm first searches for the fovea region considering the information that fovea is devoid of blood vessels. Later, dark intensity property of fovea is utilized for its detection from the region of interest. The method requires detection of blood vessel network and then search for vessel free region. Various morphological image processing tools are explored in different color planes for the successful execution of the method. The algorithm is tested on 759 images of DRIVE, DIARETDB0, DIARETDB1, LOCAL, MESSIDOR and HRF databases containing both normal and pathological cases of DR, with efficiency of detection obtained at 100%, 96.85%, 97.67%, 98.46% 96.25% and 100% respectively. The overall accuracy is 98.21%.
Clustering Corporate Brands based on Opinion Mining: A Case Study of the Automobile Industry

Since the Internet provides a way of expressing and sharing Internet users' mindsets, corporate marketers want to acquire measurable and actionable insights from web data. In the past, companies used to analyze the attitude, satisfaction, and loyalty of consumers toward their brands using survey data, whereas nowadays this is done using the big data extracted from Social Network Services. In this study, we propose a framework for clustering brand names using the social metrics gathered on social media. We also conduct a case study of the automobile industry to verify the feasibility of the proposed framework. We calculate the brand name distance for each pair of brand names based on the total number of times that they are mentioned together. These distances are used to project the brand name onto a 3-dimensional space using multidimensional scaling. After the projection, we found the clusters of brand names and identified the characteristics of each cluster. Furthermore, we concluded this paper with a discussion of the limitations and future directions of this research.
SOCIAL FACTORS RELATED TO SYRINGE SHARING AMONG INJECTING PARTNERS: A FOCUS ON GENDER

The study of social networks has become an increasingly utilized method of examining the relationship between injection drug users' social environment and risk of HIV. This study examined relational aspects of two injection drug users (IDUs) within a single social network as they relate to sharing syringes. Data presented in this study were derived from baseline interviews of 508 IDUs from Baltimore, MD. Analyses were performed separately for male and female participants in an effort to understand gender differences in social aspects of syringe sharing. Among this sample, women shared syringes with a significantly higher percentage of injecting partners compared to men. In separate multilevel logistic regression models, significant variables associated with males' and females' syringe sharing were: sharing drugs daily with female injecting partners, injecting partners' provision of drugs when indexes' were withdrawing, being sexual partners, and injecting partners' injecting speedballs. Factors associated with male injecting dyads sharing of syringes were: being kin, injecting partners' injection of heroin and daily drug use, and drinking alcohol together. Results from this study demonstrate the usefulness of examining relationship characteristics of injecting dyads related to syringe sharing as they differ between men and women.
Intergovernmental Cooperation and Tax Enforcement

Improving the efficiency of tax collection is important for development and fairness purposes. I study the Audit Exchange Information Agreements, which are agreements between the states and the U.S. federal government to exchange information about income tax audit plans and techniques, signed between the 1950s and the 1970s. Adopting a difference-in-differences identification strategy, I show that the program increased state income tax revenues by about 15 percent. I show that mobility and the reported income do not appear to react to the policy, suggesting that the effects may be linked to higher quality auditing. The effects are stronger in places where there are more civic and social organizations, suggesting that tax compliance is higher when there is more cooperative gathering.
The Relationship Between Service Quality and Profitability: An Empirical Study in Banking Industry

This paper focuses on the link between customers’ satisfaction and organizational performance. Three groups of banks namely, Associates of State Bank of India, Nationalised Banks and Private Sector Banks were included in the study. The empirical data on customer satisfaction on the quality of various services offered by the banks and its business performance were collected through interview schedule. Based on the empirical data, authors identified the important items in the service quality of banks as Empathy, Assurance, Reliability, Tangibles and Responsiveness. The study identifies the positive impact of customer satisfaction on service quality of banks resulting in its net profit. The significant impact on net profit is created by the customers’ satisfaction on the service quality factors, namely, Empathy, Assurance and Tangibles. The study concludes that the suitable strategy to increase the profit among the banks is “creating, maintaining and enhancing appropriate service quality to the customers (customer orientation)”. The increasing competition in the service industry requires higher market orientation among the units in the industry. The market orientation facilitates the delivery of marketing mix packages to the target markets to realize optimal satisfaction of the customers (Shiffman and Kanuk, 1995) and achievement of long term institutional goals through continuous integrated and consistent efforts of the organisation (Kotler 2000). It takes cognizance of target customers’ needs (Stanton, Etzel and Walker, 1994) and competitors’ strategy (Erris, 1980) so as to effectively meet these unfulfilled requirements sooner and better than the competitors (Kotler, 2000). The customers’ satisfaction is one of the integral aspects of market orientation which basically measures the gap between customer’s expectations and his actual experience (Kotler, 1996). The link between customer satisfaction and profit of the organisation is very important to the service unit to plan a proper strategy to achieve its corporate goals. Zeithaml (2000) found a direct relationship between customer satisfaction and organisational performance. Lehmann (1994) identified a significant association between customers’ satisfaction and accounting returns on assets. Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman (1996) found out that there is a strong correlation between the customer satisfaction and the re-purchase intentions and the willingness to recommend the company also. Ittner and Larchuer (1996) found that shareholder value is highly elastic with respect to customer satisfaction. Hence the present study makes an attempt to study the link between customer satisfaction on the service quality offered by the banks and the performance of the banks.
Specificity of gene expression in adipocytes

During the differentiation of preadipose 3T3 cells into adipose cells, the mRNAs for three proteins increase strikingly in abundance. To determine the degree of cell-type specificity in the expression of these mRNAs, we estimated their abundances in several nonadipose tissues of the mouse. None of these mRNAs was strictly confined to adipocytes, but the ensemble of three mRNAs was rather specific to adipocytes. Insofar as is revealed by these three markers, the distinctive phenotype of adipocytes is the result of the enhanced expression of a number of genes, none of which is completely silent in all other cell types.
Sample-Data Modeling for Active Clamp Flyback Converter in Critical Conduction Mode with PCM and ZVS control at Variable Switching frequency

Critical conduction mode (CrCM) active clamp flyback (ACF) converter is a good candidate to be applied in low power adaptor applications. Based on sample-data model, this paper proposes an accurate small signal model of variable-frequency PCM and discrete ZVS controlled CrCM ACF converter. In the modeling process, the total current close loop model is decomposed to the linear combination of the PCM and ZVS model. The conduction time of power switch is regarded as the control signal, which is different to constant-frequency converter. In addition, the discrete ZVS control strategy is also considered. To verify the proposed sample-data model, the single PCM model, Suntio’s average model, the SIMPlis simulation and experimental result based on CrCM ACF converter are given. The comparison result show that the proposed sample-data model can fit well with the simulation and experimental result.
Highly structured nucleotide variation within and among Arabidopsis lyrata populations at the FAH1 and DFR gene regions

Nucleotide variation at the FAH1 and DFR gene regions was surveyed in four populations of Arabidopsis lyrata (two European A. l. petraea and two North American A. l. lyrata populations). In contrast to previous results, levels of variation were not consistently lower in A. l. lyrata than in A. l. petraea, and similar degrees of genetic differentiation were detected between and within subspecies. These observations and the significant genetic differentiation detected among populations suggest population substructure and no real subdivision between subspecies. For each gene studied, genotypic data were obtained, which allowed comparing nucleotide diversity within individuals (between sequences from the same individual) and within populations (between sequences from the same population). The generally lower level of variation within than among individuals detected in each population yielded a significant deviation from panmixia within populations. In three of the four populations studied, two highly divergent alleles were detected within populations at the highly variable DFR locus. This pattern and the significant excess of derived variants detected in most populations suggest that most variation segregating within populations results from rare migration events between relatively small and isolated populations exhibiting reduced panmixia.
An alpha wave pattern from attenuation to disappearance for predicting the entry into sleep during simulated driving

Attenuation of alpha wave is considered as the most valid marker of sleep onset during sleep, but this has received little attention during driving. Interestingly, from our simulated driving experiments, a new alpha wave's attenuation-disappearance phenomenon was observed to frequently appear in eye closure events (ECEs), with an obvious split point, which divides ECE into alpha attenuation phase and alpha disappearance phase. Firstly, we used box plots to visualize the general distribution of the alpha wave's power spectrum density (PSD) values in each of the two phases. Secondly, more quantitative analysis method was used to examine the characteristics of change in alpha PSD values. In addition, we analyzed the duration distribution of ECEs with alpha attenuation-disappearance phenomenon to measure sleepiness level and calculated the percentage of these ECEs across four sub duration ranges. The experimental results indicate that there is a general sharp decline of alpha PSD values from the alpha attenuation phase to the alpha disappearance phase among all the ten subjects. This result is consistent with visual observations and verified the alpha wave's attenuation-disappearance phenomenon as a general pattern. Moreover, this alpha attenuation pattern was proved to be more likely to appear under the condition of higher sleepiness level, predicting the entry into sleep.
Adaptive Self-Tuned Mixed-Signal Controller IC for Resonant Wireless Power Transfer

This paper introduces an adaptive self-tuned controller IC for resonant wireless power transfer (RWPT) systems. The new controller IC comprises an on-the-fly very-high-frequency tracking hardware with high-resolution and an independent high-resolution digital PWM-based (HR-DPWM) current programmed control. These facilitate precise frequency generation as well as adaptive tuning of the reactive components in the matching network, which translate into tight current/power regulation capabilities while retaining optimized power transfer conditions. This enables to effectively disengage the power delivery capabilities from the variations of the resonators, electrical circuits and wireless medium. A fully synthesizable digital two-loop controller has been realized through HDL tools, and several new IP blocks have been developed and described in-detail: a delay-line (DL) based phase detector, high-resolution digital controlled oscillator (DCO), HR-DPWM. To fully exploit the benefits of digital electronics, reduce power consumption and save area, the digital core of the controller has been designed through asynchronous architecture, eliminating the need of high-speed clock and its related architecture. The mixed-signal controller IC has been designed and implemented in 0.18 µm, resulting in total effective silicon area of 1.44 mm2. Post-layout results of the fabricated IC operating in closed-loop are provided, demonstrating the performance and benefits of the new controller for meeting the requirements of resonant-based WPT systems. In addition, to validate and verify the controller core prior to IC fabrication, the control algorithm has been implemented on FPGA. To demonstrate closed-loop operation of a wireless power system, an experimental LC resonant capacitive-based WTP system has been constructed. The effectiveness of the controller is well demonstrated and evaluated at the MHz range up to an airgap of 200 mm, validating adaptive self-tuned system.
Secure And Policy Update Method on Big Data Access In Cloud Storage

Big data is key force of modernization diagonally in both educational as well as business. In the Cloud computing, big data security is a current and critical research topic. Cloud computing plus data storage offers clients among different facilities to accumulate as well as run their big data in third party data handling hubs. When a corporation selects to accumulate data or applications on the open cloud, it drops its capacity to have substantial access to the servers crowding its data. As a consequence, probably hypersensitive data is at risk from aids offensives. This difficulty turns into a concern to firm when considering uploading data on to the cloud. In this paper, we have proposed a new method that facilitates capable access control through dynamic policy that updating for big data in the cloud system. In this we have focused on implementing an outsourced policy for update method which is used for Attribute-Based Encryption systems. This method is evading the broadcast of coded data plus reduces the calculation effort of data holders, via building exploit of the earlier coded data among older access policies. We have also proposed a policy updating algorithms that help to access different types of policies. In the end, we have implemented a capable as well as protected method which permits data holder to ensure that whether the cloud server has reorganized accurately or not.