Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Managerial Tools and Techniques for Decision Making

The main aim of this chapter is to explain what are considered managerial tools and techniques for decision making in the area of management accounting and how they developed and evolved over the time. This chapter is intended to help us document the innovation, evolution, and the adoption of a variety of relatively new management accounting techniques and practices in organizations. The chapter also looks at primary tasks/services performed by managerial techniques and tools to capture a wider range of techniques/tools that contribute to the conduction of managerial tasks/services but may not be listed as managerial tools in the literature.
Use of Complementary Health Approaches in Individuals With Parkinson's Disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is neurodegenerative and requires ongoing therapy. The purpose of the current study was two-fold: to (a) describe the prevalence, types, and associated factors of complementary health approaches (CHA) used in individuals with PD; and (b) explore reasons for CHA use. A self-administered, cross-sectional survey was used. The response rate was 61.9% (N = 135), and 74.1% of participants used CHA for either PD or general health. The most widely used CHA included exercise, yoga, massage, vitamins, coenzyme Q10, and coconut oil. Higher levels of education and treatment by a movement disorder specialist were significantly related to CHA use. Nurses and other health care professionals may have a role in providing safe care for individuals with PD. Further studies on effectiveness and safety of commonly used CHA are warranted. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 43(2), 46-54. ].
Role of the N-Terminal Region in G Protein – Coupled Receptor Functions : Negative Modulation Revealed by 5-HT 2 B Receptor Polymorphisms s

The putative role of the N-terminal region of rhodopsin-like 7 transmembrane biogenic amine receptors in agonist-induced signaling has not yet been clarified despite recent advances in 7 transmembrane receptor structural biology. Given the existence of N-terminal nonsynonymous polymorphisms (R6G; E42G) within the HTR2B gene in a drug-abusing population, we assessed whether these polymorphisms affect 5-hydroxytryptamine 2B (5-HT2B) receptor in vitro pharmacologic and coupling properties in transfected COS-7 cells. Modification of the 5-HT2B receptor N terminus by the R6G;E42G polymorphisms increases such agonist signaling pathways as inositol phosphate accumulation as assessed by either classic or operational models. The N-terminal R6G;E42G mutations of the 5-HT2B receptor also increase cell proliferation and slow its desensitization kinetics compared with the wild-type receptor, further supporting a role for the N terminus in transduction efficacy. Furthermore, by coexpressing a tethered wild-type 5-HT2B receptor N terminus with a 5-HT2B receptor bearing a N-terminal deletion, we were able to restore original coupling. This reversion to normal activity of a truncated 5-HT2B receptor by coexpression of the membrane-tethered wild-type 5-HT2B receptor N terminus was not observed using a membrane-tethered 5-HT2B receptor R6G;E42G N terminus. These data suggest that the N terminus exerts a negative control over basal as well as agoniststimulated receptor activity that is lost in the R6G;E42G mutant. Our findings reveal a new and unanticipated role of the 5-HT2B receptor N terminus as a negative modulator, affecting both constitutive and agonist-stimulated activity. Moreover, our data caution against excluding the N terminus and extracellular loops in structural studies of this 7 transmembrane receptor family.
A Multilevel Examination of Entrepreneurial Orientation and Corporate Entrepreneurship: the Joint Impact of Unit-Level Social Capital and Firm-Level Transformational Leadership

Abstract We examine the relationship between unit-level entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and unit-level corporate entrepreneurship (CE), which has been typically neglected in entrepreneurship research. Building on the conservation of resource theory (COR), we argue that the relationship between unit-level EO and unit-level CE will be stronger when unit-level social capital is higher. Further, we posit that unit-level social capital becomes more effective when firm-level leaders are viewed as less (and not more) transformational by unit members. Data were collected from 186 managers, 372 employees, and 62 senior managers from 93 units of 31 firms. We find that unit-level EO is positively related to unit-level CE and this relationship strengthens when unit-level social capital is high. This moderating effect of social capital is itself moderated by firm-level transformational leadership, and strengthens as firm-level transformational leadership behaviors decrease (supporting “dark side” views of transformational leadership). Implications of our findings for organizational entrepreneurship research and practice are discussed.
Detection and Prevention of Online Identity Deception in Social Networking Services ( SNSs )

The recent decade we observed an explosion of social networking services along with the number of users on them. The nature of these sites make identity deception much easier by offering a quick way of setting up identities, managing them and being able to easily deceive and connect with others. Fighting deception requires a coordinated approach by users and developers to ensure detection and prevention of identity deception in these sites. In this article, we identify the most prevalent approaches in detection and prevention for fighting different types of identity deception from a user's perspective as well as from a developer perspective and evaluate their efficiency in social networking services in order to provide recommendations that can assist towards eradicating this issue.
Quality Assessment of Wikipedia Articles Using h-index

In this paper, we propose a method for assessing quality values of Wikipedia articles from edit history using h-index. One of the major methods for assessing Wikipedia article quality is a peer-review based method. In this method, we assume that if an editor’s texts are left by the other editors, the texts are approved by the editors, then the editor is decided as a good editor. However, if an editor edits multiple articles, and the editor is approved at a small number of articles, the quality value of the editor deeply depends on the quality of the texts. In this paper, we apply h-index, which is a simple but resistant to excessive values, to the peer-review based Wikipedia article assessment method. Although h-index can identify whether an editor is a good quality editor or not, h-index cannot identify whether the editor is a vandal or an inactive editor. To solve this problem, we propose p-ratio for identifying which editors are vandals or inactive editors. From our experiments, we confirmed that by integrating h-index with p-ratio, the accuracy of article quality assessment in our method outperforms the existing peer-review based method.
STAP: Spatial-Temporal Attention-Aware Pooling for Action Recognition

Human action recognition is valuable for numerous practical applications, e.g., gaming, video surveillance, and video search. In this paper we hypothesize that the classification of actions can be boosted by designing a smart feature pooling strategy under the prevalently used bag-of-words-based representation. Founded on automatic video saliency analysis, we propose the spatial-temporal attention-aware pooling scheme for feature pooling. First, the video saliencies are predicted using the video saliency model, and the localized spatial-temporal features are pooled at different saliency levels and video-saliency-guided channels are formed. Saliency-aware matching kernels are thus derived as the similarity measurement of these channels. Intuitively, the proposed kernels calculate the similarities of the video foreground (salient areas) or background (nonsalient areas) at different levels. Finally, the kernels are fed into popular support vector machines for action classification. Extensive experiments on three popular data sets for action classification validate the effectiveness of our proposed method, which outperforms the state-of-the-art methods, namely 95.3% on UCF Sports (better by 4.0%), 87.9% on YouTube data set (better by 2.5%), and achieves comparable results on Hollywood2 dataset.
A Prognostic Bio-Model Based on SQSTM1 and N-Stage Identifies Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Patients at High Risk of Metastasis for Additional Induction Chemotherapy

Purpose: Metastasis is one of the most important causes of treatment failure in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). In T4 or N2-3 patients at high-risk of metastasis, concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) is inadequate and additional induction chemotherapy (IC) is controversial. There is a critical need to develop a better patient stratification to efficiently identify patients at high-risk of metastasis for additional IC. Recently, Sequestosome 1 (SQSTM1)/p62, an autophagy adaptor protein, was identified as one of the metastasis-related proteins in NPC. However, the mechanism by which SQSTM1 is involved in NPC metastasis was not investigated. Experimental Design: The effect of SQSTM1 on cell migration and invasion was examined in vitro and in vivo. SQSTM1 expression was analyzed in clinical NPC samples using IHC. Luciferase reporter analyses were conducted to identify the effects of SQSTM1 on NF-κB transcriptional activity. A prediction bio-model was constructed by Cox analysis. Retrospective and prospective randomized clinical data were adopted to build and test the model, respectively. Results: SQSTM1 mediated epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) through the NF-κB pathway to promote NPC metastasis. Inhibiting SQSTM1 enhanced sensitivity to cisplatin in NPC cells. In NPC patients, high SQSTM1 expression was associated with increased risk of distant metastasis. Furthermore, we propose a prognostic bio-model based on SQSTM1 and N-stage to predict NPC metastasis. Most importantly, our prospective randomized study suggested that IC is beneficial for NPC patients with high metastasis risk. Conclusions: The prognostic bio-model identifies NPC patients at high-risk of metastasis for additional IC. Clin Cancer Res; 24(3); 648–58. ©2017 AACR.
Experimental identification of parasitic vibrations on ultrasonic bonding transducer

Vibration in the end of transducer affects the quality of fine pitch thermosonic bonding. Based on the experimental data acquired by laser Doppler vibrometer, vibration coupling along the different directions is analyzed. The bonding tool on/off test was performed to determine the bonding tool's effect on the transducer vibration. This work can be used for tool length selection for the better performance
Prognostic significance of treatment‐induced pathologic necrosis in extremity and truncal soft tissue sarcoma after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy

Histologic response to chemotherapy has been shown to be an independent prognostic factor in patients with osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma. However, in patients with soft tissue sarcoma (STS), the prognostic impact of histologic response to chemotherapy is less clear. In the current study, the authors sought to determine the prognostic significance of treatment‐induced pathologic necrosis in patients receiving neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for STS.
Shape extraction of volumetric images of filamentous bacteria using topology adaptive self organization

The study of the filamentous objects in waste water has gained momentum due to its significant effect in environmental pollution. The paper describes a neural network based skeleton extraction technique for volumetric images of these biofilm objects. These objects require huge computer storage space. One way to economize the storage space is to represent such images in the form of a vector skeleton (a piecewise linear approximation). Such a skeleton preserves the essential structure of the object. The proposed neural network does not start with a predefined net topology. The topology evolves during the learning process on the basis of the input. The present technique has certain advantages over the conventional 3-D thinning techniques. It achieves data reduction at a higher rate. Also, the proposed technique is highly robust to noise and arbitrary rotations of an image.
Predicting extreme pKa shifts in staphylococcal nuclease mutants with constant pH molecular dynamics

Accurate computational methods of determining protein and nucleic acid pKa values are vital to understanding pH‐dependent processes in biological systems. In this article, we use the recently developed method constant pH molecular dynamics (CPHMD) to explore the calculation of highly perturbed pKa values in variants of staphylococcal nuclease (SNase). Simulations were performed using the replica exchange (REX) protocol for improved conformational sampling with eight temperature windows, and yielded converged proton populations in a total sampling time of 4 ns. Our REX‐CPHMD simulations resulted in calculated pKa values with an average unsigned error (AUE) of 0.75 pK units for the acidic residues in Δ + PHS, a hyperstable variant of SNase. For highly pKa‐perturbed SNase mutants with known crystal structures, our calculations yielded an AUE of 1.5 pK units and for those mutants based on modeled structures an AUE of 1.4 pK units was found. Although a systematic underestimate of pK shifts was observed in most of the cases for the highly perturbed pK mutants, correlations between conformational rearrangement and plasticity associated with the mutation and error in pKa prediction was not evident in the data. This study further extends the scope of electrostatic environments explored using the REX‐CPHMD methodology and suggests that it is a reliable tool for rapidly characterizing ionizable amino acids within proteins even when modeled structures are employed. Proteins 2011; © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Ebolavirus Δ-Peptide Immunoadhesins Inhibit Marburgvirus and Ebolavirus Cell Entry

ABSTRACT With the exception of Reston and Lloviu viruses, filoviruses (marburgviruses, ebolaviruses, and “cuevaviruses”) cause severe viral hemorrhagic fevers in humans. Filoviruses use a class I fusion protein, GP1,2, to bind to an unknown, but shared, cell surface receptor to initiate virus-cell fusion. In addition to GP1,2, ebolaviruses and cuevaviruses, but not marburgviruses, express two secreted glycoproteins, soluble GP (sGP) and small soluble GP (ssGP). All three glycoproteins have identical N termini that include the receptor-binding region (RBR) but differ in their C termini. We evaluated the effect of the secreted ebolavirus glycoproteins on marburgvirus and ebolavirus cell entry, using Fc-tagged recombinant proteins. Neither sGP-Fc nor ssGP-Fc bound to filovirus-permissive cells or inhibited GP1,2-mediated cell entry of pseudotyped retroviruses. Surprisingly, several Fc-tagged Δ-peptides, which are small C-terminal cleavage products of sGP secreted by ebolavirus-infected cells, inhibited entry of retroviruses pseudotyped with Marburg virus GP1,2, as well as Marburg virus and Ebola virus infection in a dose-dependent manner and at low molarity despite absence of sequence similarity to filovirus RBRs. Fc-tagged Δ-peptides from three ebolaviruses (Ebola virus, Sudan virus, and Taï Forest virus) inhibited GP1,2-mediated entry and infection of viruses comparably to or better than the Fc-tagged RBRs, whereas the Δ-peptide-Fc of an ebolavirus nonpathogenic for humans (Reston virus) and that of an ebolavirus with lower lethality for humans (Bundibugyo virus) had little effect. These data indicate that Δ-peptides are functional components of ebolavirus proteomes. They join cathepsins and integrins as novel modulators of filovirus cell entry, might play important roles in pathogenesis, and could be exploited for the synthesis of powerful new antivirals.
Topological analysis of HVDC circuit breaker with coupling transformer

The rapid progress of large-scale clean energy accessing to the grid promotes the development of DC grid technologies. HVDC (high voltage direct current) circuit breaker as one of the key equipment of the DC grid has gradually attracted more and more attentions. Direct current is more difficult to be interrupted comparing to alternative current because of without natural zero-crossing, especially in the high voltage and large capacity system. This paper briefly reviews the research status of DC circuit breaker firstly. Then a novel topology of DC circuit breaker with coupling transformer is proposed. Its topology is presented and operating principle is analyzed. The equivalent model for different stages is established, and the key component parameters are designed. Operating characteristic of the HVDC circuit breaker is simulated relying ZhouShan 5-terminal flexible HVDC project. Simulation results have verified the correctness of theoretical analysis and the effectiveness of the novel HVDC circuit breaker interrupting the fault current in the flexible HVDC transmission grid. This provides a basis for HVDC circuit breaker design.
Hybrid Integrated Antenna for Automotive Short Range Radar Applications at 79GHz

This paper discusses the feasibility of integrating antennas on silicon for millimeter wave automotive radars. Since radar specifications require high gain and directivity antennas, the radiating structures cannot be fully integrated on silicon because of the intrinsic low resistivity of the substrate. We therefore investigate hybrid solutions, combining both an on-silicon antenna array and a coupled focusing system. A folded slot antenna is used as a primary antenna. Two solutions have been considered in order to significantly improve the gain and efficiency. Silicon integrated antenna arrays are first discussed, considering additional low loss dielectric sheets. A focusing system is then analyzed by applying the Robieux theorem and hybrid simulation techniques combining electromagnetic simulators and coupling techniques to avoid any complex multi-scale electromagnetic problem. A 6.5 dBi gain is achieved for a 4times4 element array while a 24.5dBi value can be achieved with an appropriate focusing system. Simulations are proposed and we also discuss the hybrid simulation procedure used. The manufacturing structure is in progress and experimental results will be presented during the conference.
Bioactivity of Diosmetin Glycosides Isolated from the Epicarp of Date Fruits, Phoenix dactylifera, on the Biochemical Profile of Alloxan Diabetic Male Rats

The new natural flavonoid compounds – diosmetin 7‐O‐β‐L‐arabinofuranosyl (1 → 2) β‐D‐apiofuranoside (1) and diosmetin 7‐O‐β‐D‐apiofuranoside (2) – were isolated from the acetone extract of date fruits epicarp belonging to family Arecaceae (Palmae). Elucidation of their chemical structures was determined by different spectroscopic methods in addition to the chemical and physical methods of analysis. These compounds were assessed for their biological activity on alloxan diabetic rats. A dose of 1.5 ml of (1) and (2) suspensions/100 gm b. wt were orally administrated to alloxan diabetic rats for 30 days. The treatment of diabetic rats with these compounds resulted in marked improvement of the different biochemical results, i.e. the serum glucose level (highly significant, from 330 + 5.5 mg/dL to 140 + 1.2 mg/dL) treated with (1); liver functions markedly developed both by AST and ALT levels, (reduced significantly from 68.3 + 4.8 μ/L to 54 + 5.5 μ/L and from 61.0 + 3.6 μ/L to 40.1 + 3.6 μ/L, respectively) treated with (2), accompanying with mild decrease in both cholesterol and triglycerides levels with (1) or (2). Decrease of TBARS level was observed in whole blood when treated with (1) or (2), while levels of glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase were increased in liver. Serum testosterone level was highly significantly increased (from 705.1 + 3.6 mg/100 ml to 720 + 4.7 mg/100 ml), total acid phosphatase and prostate acid phosphatase activities were highly significantly decreased (from 16.9 + 0.28 μ/L to 10.7 + 1.2 μ/L and from 9.7 + 0.7 μ/L to 6.5 + 1 μ/L, respectively) for compound (1). Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Coordination of Hpr 1 and ubiquitin binding by the UBA domain of the mRNA export factor Mex 67

The ubiquitin-associated (UBA) domain of the mRNA nuclear export receptor Mex67 helps in coordinating transcription elongation and nuclear export by interacting both with ubiquitin conjugates and specific targets, such as Hpr1, a component of the THO complex. Here, we analyzed substrate specificity and ubiquitin selectivity of the Mex67 UBA domain. UBA-Mex67 is formed by three helices arranged in a classical UBA fold plus a fourth helix, H4. Deletion or mutation of helix H4 strengthens the interaction between UBA-Mex67 and ubiquitin, but it decreases its affinity for Hpr1. Interaction with Hpr1 is required for Mex67 UBA domain to bind polyubiquitin, possibly by inducing an H4-dependent conformational change. In vivo, deletion of helix H4 reduces cotranscriptional recruitment of Mex67 on activated genes, and it also shows an mRNA export defect. Based on these results, we propose that H4 functions as a molecular switch that coordinates the interaction of Mex67 with ubiquitin bound to specific substrates, defines the selectivity of the Mex67 UBA domain for polyubiquitin, and prevents its binding to nonspecific substrates. HOBEIKA, Maria, et al. Coordination of Hpr1 and ubiquitin binding by the UBA domain of the mRNA export factor Mex67. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 2007, vol. 18, no. 7, p. 2561-8 DOI : 10.1091/mbc.E07-02-0153
Wireless-Sensor-Networks-based healthcare system: a survey on the view of communication paradigms

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs)-based technology has invaded the Medicine and Healthcare scopes. The potential to replace wired iatrical equipments with wireless ones in the hospital will change the whole healthcare system out of question. The objective of this paper is to survey the research on the WSN-based healthcare systems to enhance further understanding of this technology for users or engineers. In this paper, we outline the structure of the WSN-based healthcare system, analyse the design space, summarise and compare the states of some well-documented applications and discuss the key research points of these systems.
Perceived Service Quality and Its Influence on Behavioral Intention in South Korean Public Dental Hospitals

South Korean national university dental hospitals (NUDHs) face unprecedented challenges in maintaining primary function as public hospitals and surviving in intensified competition. The aim of the study was to evaluate the perceived service quality of NUDH patients and its influences on behavior and to gain managerial implications. Perceived service quality, value, satisfaction, and behavioral intention were measured in 438 NUDH patients from 3 NUDHs. With demographic analyses, the authors used structural equation models to test the validity to prove the relationship between dimensions. Results showed that the dimension of dentist concern directly influenced satisfaction and behavior, and tangibles was the only significant antecedent factor of value that had a significant positive effect on satisfaction. Based on demographic characteristics, highly educated, self-motivated patients who underwent multiple treatments had lower perceptions of value and satisfaction. NUDHs need to maintain their public image and to improve the dimensions of communication and tangibles to gain competitiveness.