Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Balance Within and Across Domains: The Performance Implications of Exploration and Exploitation in Alliances

Organizational research advocates that firms balance exploration and exploitation, yet it acknowledges inherent challenges in reconciling these opposing activities. To overcome these challenges, such research suggests that firms establish organizational separation between exploring and exploiting units or engage in temporal separation whereby they oscillate between exploration and exploitation over time. Nevertheless, these approaches entail resource allocation trade-offs and conflicting organizational routines, which may undermine organizational performance as firms seek to balance exploration and exploitation within a discrete field of organizational activity (i.e., domain). We posit that firms can overcome such impediments and enhance their performance if they explore in one domain while exploiting in another. Studying the alliance portfolios of software firms, we demonstrate that firms do not typically benefit from balancing exploration and exploitation within the function domain (technology versus marketing and production alliances) and structure domain (new versus prior partners). Nevertheless, firms that balance exploration and exploitation across these domains by engaging in research and development alliances while collaborating with their prior partners, or alternatively, by forming marketing and production alliances while seeking new partners, gain in profits and market value. Moreover, we reveal that increases in firm size that exacerbate resource allocation trade-offs and routine rigidity reinforce the benefits of balance across domains and the costs of balance within domains. Our domain separation approach offers new insights into how firms can benefit from balancing exploration and exploitation. What matters is not simply whether firms balance exploration and exploitation in their alliance formation decisions but the means by which they achieve such balance.
Construct Validity of Five Assessment Instruments at the End of Pre-Clerkship Phase in a PBL Curriculum

Introduction: Developing a framework of educational outcomes which is aligned with student assessment helps in driving the student learning to achieve these outcomes. The validity of this framework is essential for ensuring fairness to learners and to society. Objective: The goal of this study is to investigate the validity of the underlying domains of the assessment framework emerging from the students’ scores using five instruments used at the end of a pre-clerkship, problem-based medical curriculum. Method: Medical students (n=245, Year 4) were enrolled in the study during two consecutive academic years (2011 and 2012). We examined the construct validity of students’ scores from the following assessment instruments: multiple choice questions, integrated short answer questions, objective structured clinical examinations, real patient clinical examinations and computer-based clinical simulations. An exploratory factor analysis was carried out followed by confirmatory analysis using structural equation modelling to evaluate the constructs emerging from the students’ scores of the five instruments. Result: The analysis yielded four inter-related constructs, called medical knowledge, clinical skills, procedural skills, and reasoning skills. In addition, the four constructs loaded on a higher order construct (called competence) with high regression weights. Although the overall fitness of the separate assessment instruments was poor, the fitness indices of the three factor model after cross-loadings between variables of different constructs were improved [(χ [94] = 149.2, p < 0.01 (Bollen-Stine p value = 0.104), Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.96, Tucker Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.94 and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.04 (90% CI = 0.03-0.07)]. Conclusion: The study indicates better validity evidence of the structure from the combined scores of the five instruments in explaining ‘clinical competence” than the individual assessment instruments. The study also demonstrates that computer-based case simulations measure a separate construct which is different from measuring clinical skills in real or standardized patients. Construct Validity of Five Assessment Instruments at the End of Pre-Clerkship Phase in a PBL Curriculum.
Neural control of internal anal sphincter function

The effect on anal tone of electrical stimulation of the presacral (hypogastric) sympathetic nerves has been studied in eight patients during abdominal rectopexy or restorative proctocolectomy. A sharp fall in anal pressure occurred in seven patients (mean fall 59 cmH2O; range 35‐80 cmH2O). In one patient given a β‐ and α‐sympathetic blocking drug (labetalol 200 mg) intra‐operatively, the anal pressure decreased by 15 cmH2O. These observations show that stimulation of the presacral sympathetic nerves causes relaxation of the internal anal sphincter and implies that these nerves may induce relaxation of the sphincter in vivo. The pathway of the recto‐anal reflex has been studied intra‐operatively in three patients undergoing rectal excision. The recto‐anal reflex is present after presacral nerve blockade and after full mobilization of the rectum, but is abolished by circumferential rectal myotomy. The reflex has a local intramural pathway. This observation validates the assumption that absence of this reflex is a feature of aganglionosis, as in Hirschsprung's disease.
In-memory parallel join processing on multi-core processors

During the last few years, there have been radical changes in the hardware landscape. Intel’s co-founder Gordon E. Moore’s famous conjecture that the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles roughly every two years still holds today. However, multi-core processors caused a paradigm shift in hardware where increasing number of transistors are invested in parallelism and advanced features on chip designs. The game-changing technological trends constitute the driving force behind how new data processing systems and algorithms should be designed and tailored today. The architectural changes introduced with multi-core processors have triggered a redesign of main-memory join algorithms for relational database systems. Join processing in database systems is a complex and a demanding operation. Traditionally, there have been sorting and hashing based approaches for implementing joins. However, in the last few years several diverging views have appeared regarding how to design and implement main-memory joins on multi-core processors. On the one hand, there are two camps on how to implement main-memory hash joins on multi-core. Hardware-oblivious hash join variants do not depend on hardware-specific parameters. Rather, they consider qualitative characteristics of modern hardware and are expected to achieve good performance on any technologically similar platform. The assumption that these algorithms make is that hardware has now become good enough at hiding its own limitations—through automatic hardware prefetching, out-of-order execution or simultaneous multithreading (SMT)—to make hardware-oblivious algorithms competitive without the overhead of carefully tuning to the underlying hardware. Hardware-conscious implementations, such as (parallel) radix join, aim to maximally exploit a given architecture by tuning the algorithm parameters (e.g., hash table sizes) to the particular features of that architecture. The assumption here is that explicit parameter tuning yields enough performance advantages to warrant the effort required. The thesis compares the two approaches for hash joins under a wide range of workloads (relative table sizes, tuple sizes, effects of sorted data, etc.) and configuration parameters (VM page sizes, number of threads, number of cores, SMT,
Interaction of Candida albicans Cell Wall Als3 Protein with Streptococcus gordonii SspB Adhesin Promotes Development of Mixed-Species Communities

ABSTRACT Candida albicans colonizes human mucosa and prosthetic surfaces associated with artificial joints, catheters, and dentures. In the oral cavity, C. albicans coexists with numerous bacterial species, and evidence suggests that bacteria may modulate fungal growth and biofilm formation. Streptococcus gordonii is found on most oral cavity surfaces and interacts with C. albicans to promote hyphal and biofilm formation. In this study, we investigated the role of the hyphal-wall protein Als3p in interactions of C. albicans with S. gordonii. Utilizing an ALS3 deletion mutant strain, it was shown that cells were not affected in initial adherence to the salivary pellicle or in hyphal formation in the planktonic phase. However, the Als3− mutant was unable to form biofilms on the salivary pellicle or deposited S. gordonii DL1 wild-type cells, and after initial adherence, als3Δ/als3Δ (ΔALS3) cells became detached concomitant with hyphal formation. In coaggregation assays, S. gordonii cells attached to, and accumulated around, hyphae formed by C. albicans wild-type cells. However, streptococci failed to attach to hyphae produced by the ΔALS3 mutant. Saccharomyces cerevisiae S150-2B cells expressing Als3p, but not control cells, supported binding of S. gordonii DL1. However, S. gordonii Δ(sspA sspB) cells deficient in production of the surface protein adhesins SspA and SspB showed >50% reduced levels of binding to S. cerevisiae expressing Als3p. Lactococcus lactis cells expressing SspB bound avidly to S. cerevisiae expressing Als3p, but not to S150-2B wild-type cells. These results show that recognition of C. albicans by S. gordonii involves Als3 protein-SspB protein interaction, defining a novel mechanism in fungal-bacterial communication.
Trehalase in Conidia of Aspergillus oryzae

Horikoshi, Koki (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan), and Yonosuke Ikeda. Trehalase in conidia of Aspergillus oryzae. J. Bacteriol. 91:1883–1887. 1966. —Trehalases (soluble trehalase and coat-bound trehalase) were found in the conidia of Aspergillus oryzae, and the total activity of the trehalases increased during the germination process. The soluble trehalase was purified by diethylaminoethyl-cellulose column chromatography; its optimal pH, Michaelis constant, and heat stability were studied. In vitro, the trehalases were competitively inhibited by d-mannitol, which was also contained in the conidia. Since the trehalose content in the conidia decreased at an early stage of germination, it was assumed that trehalase might begin to hydrolyze trehalose after the inhibitory effect of d-mannitol decreased.
Characterization of genes required for pilus expression in Pseudomonas syringae pathovar phaseolicola

Nonpiliated, phage phi 6-resistant mutants of Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola were generated by Tn5 transposon mutagenesis. A P. syringae pv. phaseolicola LR700 cosmid library was screened with Tn5-containing EcoRI fragments cloned from nonpiliated mutants. The cosmid clone pVK253 complemented the nonpiliated mutant strain HB2.5. A 3.8-kb sequenced region spanning the Tn5 insertion site contained four open reading frames. The transposon-inactivated gene, designated pilP, is 525 bp long, potentially encoding a 19.1-kDa protein precursor that contains a typical membrane lipoprotein leader sequence. Generation of single mutations in each of the three remaining complete open reading frames by marker exchange also resulted in a nonpiliated phenotype. Expression of this gene region by the T7 expression system in Escherichia coli resulted in four polypeptides of approximately 39, 26, 23, and 18 kDa, in agreement with the sizes of the open reading frames. The three genes upstream of pilP were designated pilM (39 kDa), pilN (23 kDa), and pilO (26 kDa). The processing of the PilP precursor into its mature form was shown to be inhibited by globomycin, a specific inhibitor of signal peptidase II. The gene region identified shows a high degree of homology to a gene region reported to be required for Pseudomonas aeruginosa type IV pilus production.
Serum dilution test for bactericidal activity. I. Selection of a physiologic diluent.

with 50% pooled human serum (MHB-S/HS); and pooled human serum alone (HS). Protein binding of 13 antimicrobial agents was determined in MHB-S/5%A, MHB-S/ HS, and HS. Results obtained by macro- and micromethods for broth and serum dilution tests were compared with those obtained by the agar dilution test for carbenicillin, oxacillin, and gentamicin against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Activity of oxacillin against S. aureus was decreased fourfold by the presence of human serum in concentrations of -25%. Physiologic concentrations of Ca++ and Mg++ decreased the susceptibility of P. aeruginosa to gentamicin fourfold. The performance of MHB-S/HS was similar to that of HS, whereas the performance of MHB, MHB-S, and MHB-S/5%A was not similar to that of HS. MHB-S/HS is a suitable diluent for use in standardization of the serum dilution test. The serum dilution test is a direct method of
Prevalence and associated factors of cardio-metabolic risk factors in Iranian seafarers.

BACKGROUND Since Iran's economy is based on the sale of petroleum products, seafaring is considered a crucial job. Little research has been done on issues related to seafarers' health in Iranian maritime industry. The present study investigated the prevalence and associated factors of cardio-metabolic risk factors in seafarers of National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC). MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectional study was performed on 234 Iranian male seafarers of NITC in 2015. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) was diagnosed according to the reports of National Committee of Obesity. Three main blood parameters (of elevated total cholesterol, elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and elevated very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol) and general obesity were included as additional cardio-metabolic risk factors. RESULTS The mean age of the participants was 36.0 ± 10.3 years. The prevalence of MetS was 14.9%. The common cardio-metabolic risk factors were excess weight (51.1%), abdominal obesity (38.5%), and smoking (27.8%) among Iranian seafarers. In multivariate analysis, age (OR: 1.05, 95% CI: 1.01-1.09) and body mass index (OR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.01-1.27) were associated with the increase in hypertension risk. CONCLUSIONS Our finding showed that the current prevalence of MetS among Iranian male seafarers working on tankers can affect negatively their health and career at sea.
The Looming Threat of Overgrazing : Effects and Recommendations

Executive Summary Livestock in Ethiopia has an important economic, functional, and cultural significance. Various functions of livestock include dairy production, meat production, draught labor and transportation. Economically, livestock production accounts for nearly 80% of farmer income 1 in the country. In addition, livestock serves as a “savings account” or a way of building assets. Culturally, in many parts of Ethiopia ownership of livestock denotes social status and is important for marriage. However, much of Ethiopia’s livestock is low producing in terms of milk production and weight gain and do not reach their maximum potential. Due to disappearing grazing lands, livestock is forced to trek further and further to reach feed. Therefore, animals are using a significant portion of their gross energy (total energy content of feed) for basic maintenance (walking to grazing lands) instead of productivity (milk production and weight gain).
Works Title Exon repression by polypyrimidine tract binding protein

Polypyrimidine tract binding protein (PTB) is known to silence the splicing of many alternative exons. However, exons repressed by PTB are affected by other RNA regulatory elements and proteins. This makes it difficult to dissect the structure of the pre-mRNP complexes that silence splicing, and to understand the role of PTB in this process. We determined the minimal requirements for PTB-mediated splicing repression. We find that the minimal sequence for high affinity binding by PTB is relatively large, containing multiple polypyrimidine elements. Analytical ultracentrifugation and proteolysis mapping of RNA cross-links on the PTB protein indicate that most PTB exists as a monomer, and that a polypyrimidine element extends across multiple PTB domains. The high affinity site is bound initially by a PTB monomer and at higher concentrations by additional PTB molecules. Significantly, this site is not sufficient for splicing repression when placed in the 3 splice site of a strong test exon. Efficient repression requires a second binding site within the exon itself or downstream from it. This second site enhances formation of a multimeric PTB complex, even if it does not bind well to PTB on its own. These experiments show that PTB can be sufficient to repress splicing of an otherwise constitutive exon, without binding sites for additional regulatory proteins and without competing with U2AF binding. The minimal complex mediating splicing repression by PTB requires two binding sites bound by an oligomeric PTB complex.
A strategy to arrest and reverse coronary artery disease: a 5-year longitudinal study of a single physician's practice.

BACKGROUND Animal experiments and epidemiological studies have suggested that coronary disease could be prevented, arrested, or even reversed by maintaining total serum cholesterol levels below 150 mg/dL (3.88 mmol/L). In 1985, we began to study how effective one physician could be in helping patients achieve this cholesterol level and what the associated effect of achieving and maintaining this cholesterol level has on coronary disease. METHODS The study included 22 patients with angiographically documented, severe coronary artery disease that was not immediately life threatening. These patients took cholesterol-lowering drugs and followed a diet that derived no more than 10% of its calories from fat. Disease progression was measured by coronary angiography and quantified with the percent diameter stenosis and minimal lumen diameter methods. Serum cholesterol was measured biweekly for 5 years and monthly thereafter. RESULTS Of the 22 participants, 5 dropped out within 2 years, and 17 maintained the diet, 11 of whom completed a mean of 5.5 years of follow-up. All 11 of these participants reduced their cholesterol level from a mean baseline of 246 mg/dL (6.36 mmol/L) to below 150 mg/dL (3.88 mmol/L). Lesion analysis by percent stenosis showed that of 25 lesions, 11 regressed and 14 remained stable. Mean arterial stenosis decreased from 53.4% to 46.2% (estimated decrease = 7%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.3 to 10.7, P < .05). Analysis by minimal lumen diameter of 25 lesions found that 6 regressed, 14 remained stable, and 5 progressed. Mean lumen diameter increased from 1.3 mm to 1.4 mm (estimated increase = 0.08 mm; 95% CI, -0.06 to 0.22, P = NS). Disease was clinically arrested in all 11 participants, and none had new infarctions. Among the 11 remaining patients after 10 years, six continued the diet and had no further coronary events, whereas the five dropouts who resumed their prestudy diet reported 10 coronary events. CONCLUSIONS A physician can influence patients in the decision to adopt a very low-fat diet that, combined with lipid-lowering drugs, can reduce cholesterol levels to below 150 mg/dL and uniformly result in the arrest or reversal of coronary artery disease.
A load adaptive IEEE 802.11e EDCA backoff scheme with enhanced service differentiation

In view of the disadvantages of IEEE 802.11e EDCA in QoS guarantee and collision avoidance, an enhanced EDCA scheme called SD-AEDCA is presented which dynamically adjusts two EDCA parameters, namely contention window (CW) and backoff time counter (BC), according to channel load conditions and QoS requirements of network services. SD-AEDCA makes improvements to EDCA backoff scheme from post-backoff, upon-collision and post-transmission phases respectively by differentiating real-time and non real-time frames. Specifically, frozen rate is calculated to estimate the channel load conditions during EDCA backoff process and then used to guide CW and BC adjustment. And the waiting time is explored deliberately to satisfy the transmission latency requirements of real-time frames. Simulation results show that SD-AEDCA improves network throughput by reducing transmission collisions and provides more satisfactory QoS to real-time services at heavy load conditions.
Real-world challenges in application of MT for localization: the Baltic case

In this paper we share our experience from implementing machine translation in localization into relatively small languages of the three Baltic countries – Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian. We describe our approach in improving terminology translation and consistency by preprocessing of the source text and performing term integration. We present results of a formal evaluation of MT impact on the productivity of translators’ work. Quality, usability, increase of productivity of translation process has been evaluated. Our evaluation shows that the use of the SMT suggestions in addition to the translation memories in the SDL Trados CAT tool leads to the increase of translation performance by up to 32.9% while maintaining an acceptable quality of translation.
Finger vein recognition using minutia‐based alignment and local binary pattern‐based feature extraction

With recent increases in security requirements, biometrics such as fingerprints, faces, and irises have been widely used in many recognition applications including door access control, personal authentication for computers, Internet banking, automatic teller machines, and border‐crossing controls. Finger vein recognition uses the unique patterns of finger veins to identify individuals at a high level of accuracy. This article proposes a new finger vein recognition method using minutia‐based alignment and local binary pattern (LBP)‐based feature extraction. Our study makes three novelties compared to previous works. First, we use minutia points such as bifurcation and ending points of the finger vein region for image alignment. Second, instead of using the whole finger vein region, we use several extracted minutia points and a simple affine transform for alignment, which can be performed at fast computational speed. Third, after aligning the finger vein image based on minutia points, we extract a unique finger vein code using a LBP, which reduces false rejection error and thus the equal error rate (EER) significantly. Our resulting EER was 0.081% with a total processing time of 118.6 ms. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 19, 179–186, 2009
Indoor location estimation using BLE beacon with multiple transmission power levels

In this paper, we introduce an indoor location estimation method based on the Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacon. Beacons are advertised at low transmission power level to limit the estimation error. Each beacon point transmits with multiple power levels to increase the utilizing efficiency. We fully take advantage of BLE beacons that are cheap and controllable. Simulation results show that the estimation error of the proposed scheme is less than a meter.