Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A method and application to index design and decision making based on Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy inference

In order to find the optimal solution among contradictory objectives, an aggregation method for the objectives based on Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy inference was proposed. By establishing membership functions and fuzzy rules, this method could express decision makers' preference structure more accurately. The fuzzy inference aggregation method for the objectives is closer to the actual decision-making process and overcomes the limitation of a specific function form, so it has a better approximation characteristic than traditional aggregation methods. An example was showed to illuminate the method and decision-making process.
A Similarity Graph Matching Approach for Instance Disambiguation

Instance matching acts as a significant part of information integration in semantic web research. While ontology matching focuses on the schema level of data, instance matching deals with massive instances objects. Ambiguation is a common problem which may lead to error matching when different instances share the same names or descriptions. To cope with this problem structural approach is used by many matching systems for disambiguation. However, existing structural approach has a hidden problem named 'error propagation' which would affect the precision of matching result. In this paper, we investigate instance matching techniques and propose a new instance matching framework. It is based on a novel structural matching algorithm which calculates similarity separately on sub graphs. The structural information is fully taken advantage of to realize disambiguation and several indexing strategies are used to cut down the computing overhead. We have conducted experiments on instance matching benchmark and results show that our proposed matching approach is comparable to state-of-art systems. And experiment on real dataset has proved the validity of our approach in instance disambiguation.
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for adherence of bacteria to animal cells

Epithelial cells scraped from human oral mucosa and from pig intestines were immobilized onto the flat bottom surfaces of microtiter plates to study the adherence of various bacterial species to host cells. Bacterial adherence was quantitated either by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique with specific antibacterial serum as the first antibody followed by peroxidase-conjugated second antibody or by using biotinylated bacteria and avidin-peroxidase as the detecting agent. Unlabeled Escherichia coli and purified E. coli 987P fimbriae inhibited the adherence of biotinylated E. coli to immobilized enterocytes. The adherence of a mannose-sensitive strain of E. coli to immobilized oral epithelial cells was inhibited by mannose derivatives. The adherence of fimbriated E. coli 987P to immobilized enterocytes was approximately four times higher than the adherence of a nonfimbriated variant of the same strain. The adherence of Streptococcus pyogenes to oral cells was detected in the range of 10 to 150 bacteria per cell and was inhibited by lipoteichoic acid and albumin. The data suggest that the putative receptors which bind bacteria on the immobilized cells retain a functional form similar to that of native cells in suspension. The proposed adherence assay is easy to perform, allows the detection of specific adherence of test bacteria, and provides objective quantitation of adherence with a sensitivity of 10 bacteria per cell. Most importantly, the assay allows the testing of many variables in the same day.
Economic (In)Stability Under Monetary Targeting

Monetary growth targeting is often seen as an effective way of supporting macroeconomic stability. We scrutinize this property by checking whether multiplicity of equilibria, in the form of local indeterminacy (LI), can be both a possible and a plausible outcome of a basic model with an exogenous money growth policy rule. We address the question in different versions of the Sidrauski-Brock-Calvo framework, which isolates the contribution of monetary non-neutralities and monetary targeting. In line with previous literature, real effects of money are found to be a necessary condition for LI: we identify a single pattern for their magnitude if they are to be sufficient too. While the most elementary setups are unable to plausibly generate large enough real effects, LI becomes significantly more likely as one realistically considers additional channels of transmission of monetary expansions onto the real economy: in particular, we show that models in which holding money is valuable to both households and firms may yield a LI outcome for empirically relevant parameterizations, therefore casting some doubt on the stabilizing properties of monetary monitoring.
Alliance structuring behavior: relative influence of alliance type and specific alliance experience

Purpose – Further understanding of structural hierarchy is critically needed to assess the usefulness of different alliance structures. This study goes beyond transaction cost reasoning and incorporates social exchange theoretic perspective with the aim of capturing the concurrent relationships of alliance type and specific alliance experience with hierarchy of alliance structure.Design/methodology/approach – Logistic regression analysis of data on 402 strategic alliances is used to test the two hypotheses advanced in the paper.Findings – The social‐exchange‐based hypothesis is supported – specific alliance experience is negatively related to hierarchy of alliance structure. The transaction‐cost‐based hypothesis is not supported – hierarchy of alliance structure is not greater in horizontal alliances than in vertical alliances.Research limitations/implications – Strategic alliances with different purposes, such as R&D, supply procurement, marketing, co‐production, and co‐development, may have different in.
Native pancreatic α‐cell adaptation in streptozotocin‐induced diabetic primates: importance for pig islet xenotransplantation

Abstract: Background: Metabolic compatibility between donor and recipient species is an important matter for pig islet xenotransplantation. Glucagon is a key hormone for the function of pig islets as well as control of hypoglycemia in the recipients of the islets. Because a discrepancy exists in the composition of glucagon cells of pig and human/primate islets, the present study was designed to determine the role of native recipient glucagon cells in the treatment of diabetes by islet transplantation in a “pig‐to‐primate” model.
Designing reliable, yet energy-efficient guardbands

Technology scaling has entered an inflection point in which optimizing on-chip systems for reliability is at least as important as optimizing them for performance. Even though the majority of reliability degradations had been known for a long time, they have been investigated separately. As the causes are of physical origin, the fact that degradation effects may magnify or cancel each other cannot be neglected. Therefore, we investigate the joint impact of multiple degradation effects demonstrating that what matters to answer the critical question of “what is a reliable, yet energy-efficient guardband? ” is the interdependencies between them. Our investigation, based on our degradation-aware cell libraries, demonstrates that considering interdependencies leads to 76% smaller, and hence more efficient, guardbands.
The Interpretation of Instrumental Variables Estimators in Simultaneous Equations Models with an Application to the Demand for Fish

In markets where prices are determined by the intersection of supply and demand curves, standard identification results require the presence of instruments that shift one curve but not the other. These results are typically presented in the context of linear models with fixed coefficients and additive residuals. The first contribution of this paper is an investigation of the consequences of relaxing both the linearity and the additivity assumption for the interpretation of linear instrumental variables estimators. Without these assumptions, the standard linear instrumental variables estimator identifies a weighted average of the derivative of the behavioural relationship of interest. A second contribution is the formulation of critical identifying assumptions in terms of demand and supply at different prices and instruments, rather than in terms of functional-form specific residuals. Our approach to the simultaneous equations problem and the average-derivative interpretation of instrumental variables estimates is illustrated by estimating the demand for fresh whiting at the Fulton fish market. Strong and credible instruments for identification of this demand function are available in the form of weather conditions at sea.
Factor structure and diagnostic fidelity of the Baby and Infant Screen for Children with aUtIsm Traits–Part 1 (BISCUIT–part 1)

Objective: Due to the effectiveness of early intervention on the outcome of individuals with ASD, there is a race to identify children with ASD at younger ages. The Baby and Infant Screen for Children with aUtIsm Traits–Part 1 (BISCUIT–Part 1) is a new assessment tool designed to assess symptoms of ASD in children between the ages of 17–37 months. The aim of this study was to identify the factor structure of BISCUIT–Part 1 and investigate group differences with regards to these factors. Methods: Participants (n = 1287) were enrolled in a state-funded early intervention programme for children at-risk for a developmental disability. The BISCUIT was administered to a parent or other significant caregiver along with other developmental measures as part of the assessment protocol for the early intervention programme. Results: The exploratory factor analysis yielded a three-factor solution consistent with symptom clusters characteristic of ASD. Furthermore, participants diagnosed with ASD exhibited significantly higher scores on the factors of the BISCUIT–Part 1, compared to toddlers without a diagnosis of ASD. Conclusion: The BISCUIT–Part 1 shows promise in aiding clinicians in the diagnosis of ASD in infants and toddlers.
Towards the evolution of a language for creative design

To explore the possibility of evolving grounded artificial languages for creative design, this paper presents an approach to evolving mappings between spatial relations between simple shapes and artificial utterances. An implementation of this approach is presented, which combines Holographic Reduced Representations (HRR) and Self-Organizing Map (SOM). The results from experiments with this implementation have shown that the transformation between artificial language and design concepts can be realised and the hybrid computational system could be utilised in curious design agents for the evolution of artificial language in computational language games.
Purification and Characterization of Phospholipase C Preferentially Hydrolysing Phosphatidylcholine in Tetrahymena Membranes

A phospholipase C (PLC) activity that preferentially hydrolyses phosphatidylcholine to diacylglycerol and phosphorylcholine was found to be present in Tetrahymena pyriformis, strain W and most of its activity was recovered in the membrane fraction. This enzyme was extracted with 1% Triton X‐100 from the membrane fraction and purified to apparent homogeneity by sequential chromatographies on Fast Q‐Sepharose, hydroxyapatite HCA‐100S, Mono Q and Superose 12 gel filtration columns. The purified enzyme had specific activity of 2083 nmol of diacylglycerol released/mg of protein/min for dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine hydrolysis. Its apparent molecular mass was 128 kDa as determined by SDS‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and was 127 kDa by gel filtration chromatography, indicating that the enzyme is present in a monomeric form. The enzyme exhibited an optimum pH 7.0 and the apparent Km value was determined to be 166 μM for dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine. A marked increase was observed in phosphatidylcholine hydrolytic activity in the presence of 0.05% (1.2 mM) deoxycholate. Ca2+ but not Mg2+ enhanced the activity at a concentration of 2 mM. This purified phospholipase C exhibited a preferential hydrolytic activity for phosphatidylcholine but much less activity was observed for phosphatidylinositol (∼ 9%) and phosphatidylethanolamine (∼ 2%).
Exchange Rate and Demand for Money in Nigeria

This study is designed to examine empirically the impact of exchange rate on the stability of demand for money in Nigeria where official and black market exchange rates operate side by side due to exchange controls. Variants of money demand model are estimated using monthly data for the period of 2005-2013. Cointegration and system equation techniques combined with CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests are employed in the data analysis. Results indicate that in all the variants of the money demand model, coefficients of exchange rates variable (official or black market exchange rates) manifest significant t statistics, meaning that the null hypothesis of restricting the coefficients of exchange rates in money demand model in Nigeria is rejected for each variant. This suggests that coefficient of exchange rates variable (OMEXR or BMEXR) belongs to the cointegrating space in all the instances. Judging from the freakiness of the coefficients of the variants of the money demand function and the results of the tests for stability of the models combined, the most appropriate demand for money function for Nigeria appear to be the one that includes M1, the interest rate, inflation rate, and official exchange rate. This implies that in Nigeria, a greater percentage of the foreign exchange demand may be public sector driven and substantial percentage of the private sector foreign exchange needs is sourced from the official exchange rate market due to the substantial disparity between the two rates. This may mean consumers’ easy access to official exchange rate and transparency in the operation of official exchange rate market in Nigeria.
Different Blood‐Borne Human Osteoclast Precursors Respond in Distinct Ways to IL‐17A

Osteoclasts are bone‐degrading cells that are formed through fusion of their monocytic precursors. Three distinct subsets of monocytes have been identified in human peripheral blood: classical, intermediate, and non‐classical monocytes. They are known to play different roles in physiology and pathology, but their capacity to differentiate into osteoclasts and whether inflammatory cytokines influence this differentiation is unknown. We hypothesized that classical, intermediate, and non‐classical monocytes generate functionally different osteoclasts and that they respond in different ways to the inflammatory cytokine interleukin‐17A (IL‐17A). To investigate this, the different monocyte subsets were isolated from human peripheral blood and osteoclastogenesis was induced with the cytokines M‐CSF and RANKL, with or without IL‐17A. We found that all subsets are able to differentiate into osteoclasts in vitro, and that both osteoclastogenesis and subsequent bone resorption was distinctly affected by IL‐17A. Osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption by osteoclasts derived from classical monocytes remained unaffected by IL‐17A, while osteoclast formation from intermediate monocytes was inhibited by the cytokine. Surprisingly, bone resorption by osteoclasts derived from intermediate monocytes remained at similar levels as control cultures, indicating an increased bone resorbing activity by these osteoclasts. Limited numbers of osteoclasts were formed from non‐classical monocytes on bone and no bone resorption was detected, which suggest that these cells belong to a cell lineage different from the osteoclast. By providing more insight into osteoclast formation from human blood monocytes, this study contributes to the possible targeting of specific osteoclast precursors as a therapeutic approach for diseases associated with inflammatory bone loss. J. Cell. Physiol. 231: 1249–1260, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
HEALTH EXPENDITURE IN ITALY: A REGIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE PUBLIC-PRIVATE MIX

In latest years there has been a growing interest on factors explaining health expenditure at a regional level. Indeed, in the case of Italy, even though the health care system was initially designed as a centralized one, the government has progressively undertaken a decentralization process up to the point of modifying the Constitution in order to appoint regions with exclusive health care responsibilities. Starting from 1992, a set of reforms was specifically designed to increase the autonomy of Regional Health Authorities in both the financing and delivery of health care. Regions have thus carried out differentiated policies, which have exacerbated rather than shorten interregional inequalities. Unlike previous studies, in this paper we intend to investigate the impact of institutional and non institutional variables on the public-private mix in health care expenditure. Using pooled time-series cross-section observations over the period 1990-2003, different models for the ratio of public to total health expenditure as well as for private health spending are estimated at a regional level. Among the other findings, there is evidence that public expenditure is not sufficiently able to mitigate regional differences in income levels. JEL classification: H7, H51, I18
Comparing perspectives on high involvement management and organizational performance across the British economy

We identify three perspectives on the link between high involvement management and organizational performance. In particular, we distinguish between high involvement management as a set of complementary best practices, as a set of synergistic practices, and as an underlying orientation or philosophy. We show that no study has investigated all perspectives simultaneously, and those that have tested one or two of them have produced mixed results. Consequently, we design and report a study aimed at testing the three viewpoints, which uses data from a large representative sample of workplaces across the British economy. The results show that, individually, practices tend to be unrelated to performance and do not have significant synergistic relationships. A high involvement orientation as measured by a latent variable that is centred on flexible working is related to the level and rate of change in labour productivity. Yet its association with the level of productivity is in combination with a TQM orientation; for productivity change, it is in combination with variable pay. Moreover, it is discrete from work enrichment practices, which are more strongly associated with labour productivity. Variable pay and the TQM orientation are more strongly related to productivity change than is the high involvement orientation, which is also not associated with labour turnover, but, unexpectedly, it is positively associated with absenteeism.
Capital Structure and Product-Market Rivalry: How Do We Reconcile Theory and Evidence?

This paper presents empirical evidence on the interaction of capital structure decisions and product market behavior. We examine when firms recapitalize and increase the proportion of debt in their capital structure. The evidence in this paper shows that firms with low productivity plants in highly concentrated industries are more likely to recapitalize and increase debt financing. This finding suggests that debt plays a role in highly concentrated industries where agency costs are not significantly reduced by product market competition. Following the empirical evidence we introduce the "strategic investment" effects of debt and argue that this effect, in conjunction with agency costs, appears to fit the data.
Flocking algorithms for multi-agent systems with time-delay

Focusing on the time-delay problem of multi-agent systems, this paper provides solutions for flocking of systems with time-delay. For the circumstance with a virtual leader, the agents would follow the virtual leader and achieve the same velocity asymptotically. Systems with homogeneous and inhomogeneous time-delays are discussed respectively. The appropriate simulation circumstance is set up, and the obtained results are in agreement with the theoretical deduction, which show the effectiveness of the proposed flocking algorithm.
Auto-offsetting and -referencing in biomolecular NMR experiments

A frequency ratio RatioXH associated with two carrier frequencies in ppm is introduced for achieving auto-offsetting and -referencing (AOR) in biomolecular NMR. Once the center of 1H is referenced, all the offsets in other dimensions are automatically determined and the centers of the spectral widths provide accurate indirect references. Since the scale in ppm is independent of the magnetic field strength, the AOR does not require manually updating carrier frequencies from time to time, making the multidimensional NMR experiments greatly simplified and reliable. It is extremely valuable when molecules need to be run a large number of experiments at different times and the data (chemical shifts, for example) need to be compared with each other. In AOR, the error arising from improper referencing of 1H is handed down in the same amount to the other nuclei being referenced. This error-inheritance provides a measure of accuracy in indirect referencing. The temperature dependence of the frequency ratio of DSS is derived with the first-order approximation and it can be used for temperature dependent AOR. For nuclei other than 13C, certain frequency ratios regarding TMS need to be derived (rather than measured) based on the recommended frequency ratios of DSS, thus avoiding conflicts and unifying the two standards.
Super-resolution Reconstruction for Binocular 3D Data

In this study, a super-resolution reconstruction approach for binocular 3D data is proposed. The aim is to obtain the high-resolution (HR) disparity map from a low-resolution (LR) binocular image pair by super-resolution reconstruction. The proposed approach contains five stages, i.e., initial disparity map estimation using local aggregation, disparity plane model computation, global energy cost minimization, HR disparity map composition by region-based fusion (selection), and fused HR disparity map refinement. Based on the experimental results obtained in this study, in terms of PSNR and bad pixel rate (BPR), the final HR disparity maps by the proposed approach are better than those by four comparison approaches.