Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Cyclosporine on Mycophenolic Acid Area Under the Concentration–Time Curve in Pediatric Kidney Transplant Recipients

Mycophenolic acid (MPA), the active compound of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), shows substantial interindividual and intraindividual variability. It was recently shown that in vitro calcineurin inhibitors alter the bioavailability of MPA by dose-dependent inhibition of MPA glucuronidation. The authors retrospectively analyzed full 10-point profiles for both MPA and cyclosporine (CyA) in 23 pediatric patients receiving MMF and cyclosporine microemulsion (Neoral; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada; Dorval, Quebec, Canada). Mycophenolic acid was measured using a commercially available EMIT (Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Canada) assay. As the majority of patients were treated with low doses of cyclosporine after adding MMF, the area under the concentration–time curve (AUC) for cyclosporine showed a wide scatter ranging from 296 to 6400 ng × h/mL. The mean cyclosporine dose was 100 ± 76 mg/m 2 per day (range: 28 to 331). There was no correlation between MPA AUC and MPA dose, and there was substantial interindividual variation. However, there was a significant negative correlation between dose-normalized MPA AUC and cyclosporine AUC (r 2 = 0.23, p < 0.0220). When dividing the MPA profiles into two groups (11 and 12 patients) with a CyA AUC less than or greater than 1600 ng × h/mL, there was a significantly higher 8-hour concentration in the patients with the lower CyA AUC, secondary to a higher second peak. The data demonstrate that the cyclosporine AUC is a determining factor for the MPA AUC and that MPA dose should be reduced when cyclosporine dose is reduced to achieve the same MPA AUC. The significantly higher peak in the group with a lower CyA profile supports the concept of a dose-dependent cyclosporine-induced inhibition of MPA glucuronidation.
Transcriptome analysis of the Brassica napus–Leptosphaeria maculans pathosystem identifies receptor, signaling and structural genes underlying plant resistance

The hemibiotrophic fungal pathogen Leptosphaeria maculans is the causal agent of blackleg disease in Brassica napus (canola, oilseed rape) and causes significant loss of yield worldwide. While genetic resistance has been used to mitigate the disease by means of traditional breeding strategies, there is little knowledge about the genes that contribute to blackleg resistance. RNA sequencing and a streamlined bioinformatics pipeline identified unique genes and plant defense pathways specific to plant resistance in the B. napus-L. maculans LepR1-AvrLepR1 interaction over time. We complemented our temporal analyses by monitoring gene activity directly at the infection site using laser microdissection coupled to quantitative PCR. Finally, we characterized genes involved in plant resistance to blackleg in the Arabidopsis-L. maculans model pathosystem. Data reveal an accelerated activation of the plant transcriptome in resistant host cotyledons associated with transcripts coding for extracellular receptors and phytohormone signaling molecules. Functional characterization provides direct support for transcriptome data and positively identifies resistance regulators in the Brassicaceae. Spatial gradients of gene activity were identified in response to L. maculans proximal to the site of infection. This dataset provides unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution of the genes required for blackleg resistance and serves as a valuable resource for those interested in host-pathogen interactions.
A comparison study of sponsorship effectiveness between on-site and web-based sponsorship activities

Virtually no evidence exists that current sponsorship activities on sporting event Web sites enable corporations to achieve sponsorship objectives including, but not limited to, increasing sales, improving image, or increasing awareness. The purpose of this study was to determine if significant differences of sponsorship effectiveness measures (brand awareness, attitude toward sponsorship, and purchase intentions) existed among a sample of Generation Y participants exposed to various sponsorship activities (on-site, online, and both on-site and online). The study surveyed 228 participants (112 on-site fans, 56 online fans, and 60 both on-site and online fans) exposed to the ESPN Winter X Games 13. Research findings revealed product sampling/trial as the most common activity that sponsors conducted at the event, while banners linking to the sponsors’ Web sites were most often conducted by sponsors on the event Web site. Most sponsors also employed interactive activities on-site such as action sport related games, premiums or giveaways, and athlete autograph sessions. However, the majority of sponsors failed to capitalize on the interactive features of the event Web site. In addition, attitudes toward sponsorship and purchase intentions for sponsors’ products or services were not significantly different between on-site and online sponsorship activities. However, online sponsorship activities were less effective than on-site activities in terms of brand awareness. On-site sponsorship activities were more effective in increasing brand awareness than activities on the Web site. The findings suggested that online sponsorship activities could be more effective if sponsors fully capitalized on the Internet medium by employing interactive contents related to the sport. Online sponsorship activities may not replace but can support onsite activation in reaching larger target audiences.
A robust adaptive denoising framework for real-time artifact removal in scalp EEG measurements

Objective. Non-invasive measurement of human neural activity based on the scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) allows for the development of biomedical devices that interface with the nervous system for scientific, diagnostic, therapeutic, or restorative purposes. However, EEG recordings are often considered as prone to physiological and non-physiological artifacts of different types and frequency characteristics. Among them, ocular artifacts and signal drifts represent major sources of EEG contamination, particularly in real-time closed-loop brain–machine interface (BMI) applications, which require effective handling of these artifacts across sessions and in natural settings. Approach. We extend the usage of a robust adaptive noise cancelling (ANC) scheme ( H ∞ ? > filtering) for removal of eye blinks, eye motions, amplitude drifts and recording biases simultaneously. We also characterize the volume conduction, by estimating the signal propagation levels across all EEG scalp recording areas due to ocular artifact generators. We find that the amplitude and spatial distribution of ocular artifacts vary greatly depending on the electrode location. Therefore, fixed filtering parameters for all recording areas would naturally hinder the true overall performance of an ANC scheme for artifact removal. We treat each electrode as a separate sub-system to be filtered, and without the loss of generality, they are assumed to be uncorrelated and uncoupled. Main results. Our results show over 95–99.9% correlation between the raw and processed signals at non-ocular artifact regions, and depending on the contamination profile, 40–70% correlation when ocular artifacts are dominant. We also compare our results with the offline independent component analysis and artifact subspace reconstruction methods, and show that some local quantities are handled better by our sample-adaptive real-time framework. Decoding performance is also compared with multi-day experimental data from 2 subjects, totaling 19 sessions, with and without H ∞ ? > filtering of the raw data. Significance. The proposed method allows real-time adaptive artifact removal for EEG-based closed-loop BMI applications and mobile EEG studies in general, thereby increasing the range of tasks that can be studied in action and context while reducing the need for discarding data due to artifacts. Significant increase in decoding performances also justify the effectiveness of the method to be used in real-time closed-loop BMI applications.
Service Brand Relationship Quality

Customers' long-term brand relations are crucial drivers of a service brand's sustainable competitive advantage. This research empirically examines the quality of customer-service brand relationships in the context of an airline's frequent flyer program. The authors show that service brand relationship quality (BRQ) involves both a hot (based on emotions) and a cold (based on object-relevant beliefs) component. They find that these two components have different implications for a service brand's performance and are at least partially driven by different antecedents whose relative importance changes over time. Specifically, cold BRQ is important for word-of-mouth behavior and is strongly driven by partner quality (i.e., the generalized assessment of the brand in its role as a relationship counterpart). Hot BRQ, on the other hand, has a stronger impact on willingness to pay a price premium and consideration set size. In early stages of a customer-brand relationship hot BRQ is more strongly driven by self-congruence (i.e., consumer's perception of the fit between his/her self and the brand's personality), in later stages partner quality becomes more relevant. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for the development of BRQ and the implementation of alternative growth strategies in a services context.
Design for Elderly – A Meeting Point for Ethnography and Usability

Abstract Ethnographic research methods are getting more and more popular in disciplines that have mainly been dominated by quantitative or experimental methodological approaches. Especially in technology-driven research, ethnography seems to enrich common approaches by investigating the use of technology in the everyday life of prospective users. By participating in and observing the users and their mundane activities, routines and rituals ethnography provides insights that can be integrated in the design process to improve the usability of the artifact. This article discusses the intersection of ethnography and usability by introducing ethnographic methods, discussing their application in the context of design for elderly and presenting results of an ethnographic case study in the field of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL).
A Map of Funding Durability and Risk

The dynamics of the financial system and the undercurrents of its vulnerabilities rest on the flow of funding. Analysts typically represent these dynamics as a network with banks and financial entities as the nodes and the funding links as the edges. This paper focuses instead on the funding operations within the nodes, in particular those within Bank/Dealers, adding a critical level of detail about potential funding risks. We present a funding map to illustrate the primary business activities and funding sources of a typical Bank/Dealer. We use that map to trace the paths of risk through four specific financial institutions during historical crises and to identify gaps in data needed for financial stability monitoring. We also introduce the concept of "funding durability," defined as the effective term of funding in the face of signaling and reputational considerations during periods of stress. Using these tools, the paper highlights the points of potential durability mismatch and resulting funding risks within the Bank/Dealer. It also provides insight into how funding weaknesses can pass from one institution to another and ultimately affect financial stability.
Exploring Sentiment Analysis to Improve Supply Chain Decisions

Purpose: Traditional information sharing and supply chain decisions are examined in light of emerging technologies. Focusing on the bullwhip effect, implications of information asymmetry for upstream firms, distant from a market, are highlighted. A novel approach is presented as effective for sensing changes in market demand without reliance on supply chain partners.Design/methodology/approach: Remedies for the bullwhip effect based on traditional supply chain management techniques and technologies are discussed, providing a series of succinct hypotheses that summarise key relationships. These hypotheses are used to establish the usefulness of an emerging technology. Findings: The paper explains how the emerging technology of sentiment analysis can meet the same fundamental requirements for supply chain managers. Through rapid and real-time monitoring of aggregated opinions expressed in social media, upstream suppliers can gather additional external data that reduce reliance on supply chain partners to achieve the same objectives. Research limitations/implications: The effectiveness of the process is demonstrated by logically extrapolating that the approach is valuable to upstream companies, after showing that a consumer-facing firm can use the approach with accuracy. Practical implications: The practical value of textual data analysis is highlighted to emphasise how upstream firms can improve sensitivity to market demand changes, without requiring collaboration with supply chain members.Originality/value: Through the novel application of sentiment analysis to support supply chain management, the value of this paper is the unique opportunity logically afforded upstream firms to increase transparency and speed of response to market changes.
Do female CEOs add value for stockholders? A case study of Yahoo!

This paper presents an analysis of financial performance of male and female CEO’s in Yahoo, Inc. which has appointed two female CEOs in the last five years. The study uses two metrics to evaluate the financial performance of CEOs. The one uses event study methodology to examine the announcement effects of both male and female CEOs on the stock price. It examines the significance of abnormal returns with the appointments of CEOs. The second metric is Economic Value Added (EVA), which examines the returns generated over and above the weighted average cost of capital with different CEOs. This methodology has not been used to date to discern differences amongst CEOs based on gender. Using data from CRSP, Value Line and Compustat, the research finds no difference in the relative performance of female CEOs and male CEOs.
Mechanism for developing a kinesthetic haptic feedback system

Kinesthetic information is beneficial in detecting, recognizing, and interpreting haptic objects in virtual space. Unfortunately, kinesthetic feedback requires linkage-based high-powered multi-dimensional manipulators, such as exoskeletons or robotic arms, which are currently not possible to integrate with mobile devices. To overcome this challenge, we describe a novel system that is able to apply linkage-free directional forces to a stylus tip, in order to control user input behavior and provide haptic information. Elaborating on the theoretical approach introduced by Reznik and Canny in their `Universal Plannar Manipulator', this paper illustrates the development of the novel “Stick-slip” Kinesthetic Display Surface (SKDS) prototype. The SKDS prototype is an evolution of various design efforts, highlighting the efficiency, accuracy, and reliability of the system. We demonstrate how it is possible to generate directional forces on an interactive display in order to move a linkage-free stylus over a touchscreen in a fully controlled and efficient manner.
Effects of perceived fitness level of exercise partner on intensity of exertion

Problem statement: Social comparison theory was used to examine if exercising with a research confederate posing as either high fit or low fit would increase the exertion in exercising. Approach: 91 college students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Biking alone, biking with a high fit confederate, or biking with a low fit confederate. All participants were instructed to complete 20 min of exercise at 60-70% of their maximum target heart rate. Results: Results indicated that participants in the high fit condition exercised harder than those in the low fit condition. However, no mood differences emerged between conditions. Conclusion: Social comparison theory predicts exercise outcome such that participants gravitate towards the behavior (high fit or low fit) of those around them.
Direct Metal Transfer Lithography for Fabricating Wire-Grid Polarizer on Flexible Plastic Substrate

This paper reports on the fabrication of polymer-based metallic wire-grid polarizers using a direct metal contact printing method. The proposed method can directly transfer a metal pattern from a silicon mold to a soft plastic substrate simply by roller pressing and infrared (IR) heating. With properly chosen loading contact pressure and heating temperature, metallic linear grating structures with a linewidth of 60 nm, a period of 170 nm, and an area size of 2.5 &times;2.5&nbsp;cm2 are successfully formed on the surface of a polyethylene terephtalate (PET) substrate. The optical performance of the fabricated flexible polarizers is experimentally measured and numerically analyzed in the near-IR spectrum with wavelength from 800 to 1500 nm. Inspired by the numerical simulation results, the optical characteristics of the flexibe polarizers are further enhanced by reactive ion etching on the PET substrate. Good agreements between experiments and theoretical simulation are obtained. Future developments and potential applications of this metal contact transfer lithography method will be addressed.
Does Investor Awareness Matter for Asset Pricing?

The positive price effect of index inclusion has been well-documented in the literature. The underlying cause still remains in dispute, since this finding is consistent with a number of hypotheses. In this paper, I revisit this debate by examining the price effects in the emerging markets setting using MSCI EM index changes. I find the inclusions to have a permanent price effect, while this is not the case for the exclusions. This result contradicts the demand and new information hypotheses, but is consistent with the investor awareness hypothesis. By making use of analysts' recommendations data, I am able to show that there is a significant increase in coverage for the included stocks. This is also significantly related to the change in price.
Ultrastructure of the spermatozoon of the digenean Plagiorchis elegans (Rudolphi, 1802) (Plagiorchioidea, Plagiorchiidae)

The ultrastructure of the mature spermatozoon of the type genus of the Plagiorchiidae Plagiorchis elegans (Rudolphi, 1802), a parasite of the Golden hamster, Mesocricetus auratus is described. This study is the first ultrastructural study of the spermatozoon of a Plagiorchis, the second of a plagiorchiid species and only the third in the Plagiorchioidea. Previously data on spermatozoon ultrastructure existed only for the plagiorchiid Enodiotrema reductum and the omphalometrid Rubenstrema exasperatum. The mature spermatozoon of P. elegans exhibited the general pattern described in most digenean species, namely two axonemes of the 9 + “1” Trepaxonemata pattern, nucleus, mitochondria, external ornamentation of the plasma membrane, spine‐like bodies, and glycogen granules. However, the rather typical expansion of the plasma membrane is not found in P. elegans. Another peculiarity of the spermatozoon of P. elegans is the presence of a structure called thin cytoplasm termination. Spermatozoon ultrastructure of P. elegans is compared with that of E. reductum and R. exasperatum. Spermatozoon of P. elegans conforms to the general pattern described in E. reductum. Thus, this study further expands our knowledge on the spermatozoon ultrastructure among the members of the Plagiorchioidea, one of the most phylogenetically derived groups of the digenea. J. Morphol. 274:965–972, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Collaborative Recommendation System Using Dynamic Content based Filtering, Association Rule Mining and Opinion Mining

This paper proposes a recommendation system (RS) that generates items recommendations to users with the help of dynamic content based filtering, collaborative filtering, association rules and opinion mining. This RS uses dynamic content based filtering for creating and continuously monitoring the changing shopping behaviour of users. The proposed approach finds other like-minded people with the target user that may cooperate with each other, in the form of items ratings using collaborative filtering. The approach uses association rule mining for the analysis of current market trend. It generates association rules only from those items that are liked by the users. Most of the people prefer to read reviews about the product, before purchasing. Almost all well-known e-commerce websites have hundreds of product reviews available, so it becomes very difficult for the user to read each and every review before buying any item. The proposed approach uses its own unique weighted opinion miner that summarizes the reviews and generates the weights for each item based on customers’ reviews. These weights help in estimating the popularity of an item among customers. This RS generates the final recommendations to users by combining the outputs from the collaborative-classifier, association rules and weighted opinion miner. The proposed RS is evaluated over live dataset using precision evaluation metric. The result shows that recommendations generated by proposed method out performed existing benchmark recommendations methods.
Single Dose of Glycoengineered Anti-CD19 Antibody (MEDI551) Disrupts Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis by Inhibiting Pathogenic Adaptive Immune Responses in the Bone Marrow and Spinal Cord while Preserving Peripheral Regulatory Mechanisms

Plasma cells and the autoreactive Abs they produce are suspected to contribute to the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis, but recent attempts to target these components of humoral immunity have failed. MEDI551, an anti-CD19 Ab that depletes mature B cells including plasma cells may offer a compelling alternative that reduces pathogenic adaptive immune responses while sparing regulatory mechanisms. Indeed, our data demonstrate that a single dose of MEDI551, given before or during ongoing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, disrupts development of the disease. Leukocyte infiltration into the spinal cord is significantly reduced, as well as short-lived and long-lived autoreactive CD138+ plasma cells in the spleen and bone marrow, respectively. In addition, potentially protective CD1dhiCD5+ regulatory B cells show resistance to depletion, and myelin-specific Foxp3+ regulatory T cells are expanded. Taken together, these results demonstrate that MEDI551 disrupts experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis by inhibiting multiple proinflammatory components whereas preserving regulatory populations.