Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Differentiation Strategies on the Women Fashion-Clothing’ Performance

Companies need innovation and initiative to win the competition, and to do this, they adopt differentiation strategies through customer satisfaction to survive in the market. The research studies the impact of differentiation strategies, including product differentiation, employee differentiation, service differentiation, distribution differentiation and image differentiation on the performance of fashion clothing companies. We examined the mediating role of customer satisfaction in the relationship between differentiation strategies and performance. Our sample includes 100 women's clothing mesons in Tehran. The results show that the distinction between product and staff and image have a positive and significate effect on the performance of fashion companies. Our finding also shows the customer satisfaction mediates the relationship between differentiation strategies and women fashion clothing performance.
Optimal innovation-based deception attack on remote state estimation

The security issue in cyber-physical systems has attracted growing interests in the last decades. This paper considers how false data injection attack can degrade the estimation quality of a remote state estimation system. In this system, smart sensors measure a dynamic process and send preprocessed data through a communication network to a remote estimator to estimate the process. It is assumed that there are malicious attackers in the communication network, who are able to obtain and falsify all the data sent by the sensors. It is common that the remote estimator is equipped with a residue-based detector to detect potential attacks. We propose a class of deception attack and analyze its feasibility. We show that the proposed attack enables the attacker to inject false data into the remote estimator without being detected. We derive a criterion to judge the optimality of performance of this type of attack in the sense of maximizing the estimation error covariance. Furthermore, we find that a simple linear attack strategy, which flips the sign of intercepted signal, satisfies the optimality criterion. We present numerical examples to illustrate our theoretical results.
Apomorphine test for dopaminergic responsiveness: A dose assessment study

The clinical diagnosis of idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD) remains difficult and is supported by a favorable response to levodopa, while failure to respond represents an exclusion criterion. Recently, the response to subcutaneous apomorphine has been suggested as a tool in predicting levodopa responsiveness in parkinsonian syndromes. We administered apomorphine at doses of 10, 50, and 100 μg/kg dose. Because of the high frequency of side effects with the dose of 100 μg/kg, 50 μ/kg seems more useful. After an adequate period of levodopa/carbidopa therapy (12‐month follow‐up), 29 patients improved; 25 of these had demonstrated a positive response to the apomorphine test. The final diagnosis of IPD, made on the basis of an exhaustive clincal and neuroradiological evaluation and on the response to chronic levodopa therapy, was in good agreeement with the response to the apomorphine test (predictivity of diagnosis, 86.4%). Our data indicate that subcutaneous apomorphine at the dose of 50 μg/kg is a useful tool in the differential diagnosis of parkinsonian syndromes.
A longitudinal study investigating disordered eating during the transition to motherhood among Chinese women in Hong Kong.

OBJECTIVE The current longitudinal study explored the prevalence and psychosocial factors of disordered eating among new Chinese mothers in Hong Kong. METHOD Self-report questionnaires on bulimic symptoms and pregnancy-related factors were collected at both prenatal and postnatal periods from 131 Chinese women. RESULTS Participants reported significantly more severe disordered eating in the postnatal than in the prenatal period, with percentages being 19.08% and 8.4%, respectively, using the Eating Disorder Inventory-2. Results revealed that prenatal disordered eating, weak maternal-fetal attachment, a low level of instrumental spousal support during pregnancy, postnatal depressive symptoms, and a poor mother-infant relationship were significantly related to disordered eating at 6 months postchildbirth. CONCLUSION Findings suggested that the transition to motherhood is a period of stress that may either precipitate or exacerbate disordered eating.
A cross-layer energy-balanced routing algorithm for inter-PAN communications in ZigBee networks

ZigBee wireless technology is a global standard of short-range and low-data-rate for wireless sensor networks. To reduce the redundant overhead and to conserve nodes' energy in energy-constrained and multi-PAN ZigBee networks, we propose in this paper a cross-layer energy-balanced inter-PAN routing algorithm (CEIPR). The proposed algorithm has three key functionalities: (1) establishes the multipath downstream routing by feedback mechanism based on gradient detection, (2) disperses the information of nodes' residual energy with little overhead based on cross-layer design, and (3) uses gradient and nodes' residual energy as routing criterion in inter-PAN communications. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm outperforms an existing routing algorithm, IP-AODV (Inter-PAN AODV), in terms of energy consumption of nodes, network lifetime and the average end-to-end delay.
The N-terminal Sequence (Residues 1–65) Is Essential for Dimerization, Activities, and Peptide Binding of Escherichia coli DsbC*

Limited proteolysis of DsbC with trypsin resulted in a compact and stable C-terminal fragment (residues 66–216), fDsbC, which retains the active site sequence, -Cys98-Gly-Tyr-Cys101-, and shows only minor differences in conformation compared with that of the intact molecule. The pK a of active site thiol and theK SS with glutathione are very close to that of DsbC, respectively; however, fDsbC is inactive as an isomerase in catalyzing the formation of correct disulfide bonds in scrambled RNase A and denatured and reduced bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor and shows only 13% thiol-protein oxidoreductase activity (TPOR) of DsbC. In contrast to the dimeric DsbC, fDsbC exists as a monomer and has no chaperone activity in assisting the reactivation of denaturedd-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. The heterodimer of DsbC with the inactive DsbC carboxymethylated at both active site thiols shows about 50% TPOR activity of DsbC but no isomerase activity, indicating that the DsbC subunit in the heterodimer displays full TPOR activity but little, if any, isomerase activity. It is concluded that the N-terminal sequence (residues 1–65) is essential for dimer formation and chaperone activity of DsbC. The active sites in both subunits of the dimeric DsbC appear to be essential for its isomerase activity.
Serum‐mediated osteogenic effect in traumatic brain‐injured patients

Background: Patients with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and bone fractures often show an enhanced fracture healing, as well as an increased incidence of heterotopic ossifications (HO). It has been suggested that unknown osteoinductive factors may be released by the injured brain into the systemic blood circulation and act peripherally on the affected tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate whether serum from TBI patients is osteoinductive.
Too Big to Eat: Boosting Analytics Data Ingestion from Object Stores with Scoop

Extracting value from data stored in object stores,such as OpenStack Swift and Amazon S3, can be problematicin common scenarios where analytics frameworks and objectstores run in physically disaggregated clusters. One of the mainproblems is that analytics frameworks must ingest large amountsof data from the object store prior to the actual computation;this incurs a significant resources and performance overhead. Toovercome this problem, we present Scoop. Scoop enables analyticsframeworks to benefit from the computational resources of objectstores to optimize the execution of analytics jobs. Scoop achievesthis by enabling the addition of ETL-type actions to the dataupload path and by offloading querying functions to the objectstore through a rich and extensible active object storage layer. Asa proof-of-concept, Scoop enables Apache Spark SQL selectionsand projections to be executed close to the data in OpenStackSwift for accelerating analytics workloads of a smart energy gridcompany (GridPocket). Our experiments in a 63-machine clusterwith real IoT data and SQL queries from GridPocket show thatScoop exhibits query execution times up to 30x faster than thetraditional “ingest-then-compute” approach.
Tetrapyrrole utilization by Bacteroids ruminocola

Reduced versus oxidized difference spectra of whole cells and pyridine hemochromogens of heme-requiring isolates of Bacteroides ruminicola are altered when deuteroporphyrin or mesoporphyrin replaces protoheme as a growth factor. During growth in the presence of either deuteroporphyrin or mesoporphyrin, whole cells exhibit peaks at 545 t547, 515 to 518, and 412 to 413 nm. Pyridine hemochromogen spectra confirm the presence of meso -or deuteroheme in cells grown in the presence of meso- or deuteroporphyrin. No evidence was found for the conversion of either meso- or deuteroporphyrin to protoheme. Cells grown in the presence of the manganese of magnesium chelates of protoheme form iron-containing hemes. Neither spontaneous decomposition of noniron metalloporphyrin chelates nor spontaneous formation of hemes from Fe2+ and metal-free porphyrins was detected. Protoheme-synthesizing isolates of B. ruminicola fail to use preformed metal-free porphyrins, but form both protoheme- and deuteroheme-containing cytochromes when grown in the presence of manganese deuteroheme. Versatility in tetrapyrrole utilization by B. ruminicola appears to reflect the ability of the organism to mediate the removal of nonferrous ions and to insert Fe2+ into the tetrapyrrole nucleus. The orgamism also forms functional b-type cytochromes with prosthetic groups other than protoheme.
The impacts of complaint efforts on customer satisfaction and loyalty

ABSTRACT This study identifies the depth structure of customer complaint efforts and investigates the roles of each dimension in the structural relations with customer satisfaction and loyalty. Three dimensions of customer complaint efforts were identified, procedural effort, cognitive effort, and affective effort in the restaurant context. This study uses two subsamples to develop and validate the proposed three-dimension customer complaint efforts scale. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the first subsample of 211 participants. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were applied on the second subsample of 328 participants. It is found that customers’ physical/procedural and cognitive efforts exerted during the complaint resolution process compound their affective efforts, which further reduce customer satisfaction with the complaint process and erode customer behavioral and attitudinal loyalty. This study bridges the research gap gaps and provides managerial implications to help reduce customer complaint efforts and ensure positive customer behaviors.
In vitro binding of Helicobacter pylori to human gastric mucin

The in vitro binding of four Helicobacter pylori strains to human gastric mucin was studied with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. All four strains were found to bind to purified mucin. Neuraminidase treatment and nonspecific oxidation of mucin decreased bacterial adherence to the macromolecule. Mucin preparations were also found to inhibit attachment of H. pylori to HEp-2 monolayers.
Microbial Diversity in Engineered Haloalkaline Environments Shaped by Shared Geochemical Drivers Observed in Natural Analogues

ABSTRACT Microbial communities in engineered terrestrial haloalkaline environments have been poorly characterized relative to their natural counterparts and are geologically recent in formation, offering opportunities to explore microbial diversity and assembly in dynamic, geochemically comparable contexts. In this study, the microbial community structure and geochemical characteristics of three geographically dispersed bauxite residue environments along a remediation gradient were assessed and subsequently compared with other engineered and natural haloalkaline systems. In bauxite residues, bacterial communities were similar at the phylum level (dominated by Proteobacteria and Firmicutes) to those found in soda lakes, oil sands tailings, and nuclear wastes; however, they differed at lower taxonomic levels, with only 23% of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) shared with other haloalkaline environments. Although being less diverse than natural analogues, bauxite residue harbored substantial novel bacterial taxa, with 90% of OTUs nonmatchable to cultured representative sequences. Fungal communities were dominated by Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, consistent with previous studies of hypersaline environments, and also harbored substantial novel (73% of OTUs) taxa. In bauxite residues, community structure was clearly linked to geochemical and physical environmental parameters, with 84% of variation in bacterial and 73% of variation in fungal community structures explained by environmental parameters. The major driver of bacterial community structure (salinity) was consistent across natural and engineered environments; however, drivers differed for fungal community structure between natural (pH) and engineered (total alkalinity) environments. This study demonstrates that both engineered and natural terrestrial haloalkaline environments host substantial repositories of microbial diversity, which are strongly shaped by geochemical drivers.
Relaxometry model of strong dipolar perturbers for balanced‐SSFP: Application to quantification of SPIO loaded cells

Magnetic resonance microscopy using magnetically labeled cells is an emerging discipline offering the potential for non‐destructive studies targeting numerous cellular events in medical research. The present work develops a technique to quantify superparamagnetic iron‐oxide (SPIO) loaded cells using fully balanced steady state free precession (b‐SSFP) imaging. An analytic model based on phase cancellation was derived for a single particle and extended to predict mono‐exponential decay versus echo time in the presence of multiple randomly distributed particles. Numerical models verified phase incoherence as the dominant contrast mechanism and evaluated the model using a full range of tissue decay rates, repetition times, and flip angles. Numerical simulations indicated a relaxation rate enhancement (ΔR2b=0.412γ · LMD) proportional to LMD, the local magnetic dose (the additional sample magnetization due to the SPIO particles), a quantity related to the concentration of contrast agent. A phantom model of SPIO loaded cells showed excellent agreement with simulations, demonstrated comparable sensitivity to gradient echo ΔR*2 enhancements, and 14 times the sensitivity of spin echo ΔR2 measurements. We believe this model can be used to facilitate the generation of quantitative maps of targeted cell populations. Magn Reson Med, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Prognostic value of C-reactive protein levels within six hours after the onset of acute myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND Inflammation is an important feature of atherosclerotic lesions, and the vulnerability of coronary lesions in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) at the time of onset may be related to blood levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) on admission, before CRP levels are affected by myocardial damage. METHODS A total of 234 patients with AMI in whom plasma CRP was measured within 6 hours after onset were studied. They were divided into 2 groups: group 1 (n = 49) with elevated CRP (>/=0.3 mg/dL) on admission within 6 hours after onset and group 2 (n = 185) with normal CRP (<0.3 mg/dL) within 6 hours after onset. All were treated by primary percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty with provisional stenting. RESULTS There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics between the 2 groups. In-hospital adverse coronary events, including coronary reocclusion, reinfarction, target vessel revascularization, and death, were significantly more frequent in group 1 (22.4%) than in group 2 (4.3%, P <.005), and bailout stenting was performed significantly more frequently in group 1 (61. 2%) than in group 2 (37.8%, P <.005). In contrast, there were no significant differences between the 2 groups in parameters that represent myocardial damage, including peak creatine kinase and left ventricular ejection fraction. CONCLUSION CRP levels within 6 hours after the onset of AMI reflect the vulnerability of culprit coronary lesions and predict adverse coronary events after primary PTCA/stenting.
The Japanese Asset Price Bubble: Evolvement and Consequences

Asset price bubbles and deep financial crises have occurred frequently during the past three decades. It began with the Japanese stock and housing market in the eighties, the technology bubble in stock markets before the millennium, and the housing bubble in the US and other countries, just to name a few. Such a degree of financial instability with extreme economic and social costs is unusual in economic history. To be able to find measures and their optimal timing to protect against these events a deeper understanding of the causes, evolvement and consequences of asset price bubbles is needed. The aim of this paper is to contribute to an improvement of that understanding by analyzing the historical case of the Japanese asset price bubble on the housing and stock market. The added value of such an analysis may come from the availability of today´s research, experiences and econometric techniques.
ABERRANT ANGIOGENIC CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN BRAIN ARTERIOVENOUS MALFORMATION ENDOTHELIAL CELLS

OBJECTIVETo identify and characterize the phenotypic and functional differences of endothelial cells derived from cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVM), as compared with endothelial cells derived from a normal brain. METHODSIsolated AVM brain endothelial cells and control brain endothelial cells were evaluated immunohistochemically for expression of the endothelial cell markers von Willebrand factor and CD31, as well as angiogenic factors including vascular endothelial growth factor A, interleukin-8, and endothelin-1. Vascular endothelial growth factor receptors 1 and 2 were also evaluated using immunohistochemistry techniques. Functional assays evaluated cell proliferation, cytokine production, tubule formation, and cell migration using the modified Boyden chamber technique. RESULTSEndothelial cells derived from AVMs expressed high levels of vascular endothelial growth factor A and significantly overexpressed the vascular endothelial growth factor receptors 1 and 2 (P < 0.05), as compared with control endothelial cells. In addition, comparison to control brain endothelial cells demonstrated that AVM brain endothelial cells proliferated faster, migrated more quickly, and produced aberrant tubule-like structures. CONCLUSIONEndothelial cells derived from cerebral AVMs are highly activated cells overexpressing proangiogenic growth factors and exhibiting abnormal functions consistent with highly activated endothelial cells.
Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Promotes Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase Enhancer A and AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Interaction to Suppress Lipid Oxidation in Skeletal Muscle

Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) is an inflammatory cytokine that plays a central role in obesity-induced insulin resistance. It also controls cellular lipid metabolism, but the underlining mechanism is poorly understood. We report in this study that phosphoinositide 3-kinase enhancer A (PIKE-A) is a novel effector of TNF-α to facilitate its metabolic modulation in the skeletal muscle. Depletion of PIKE-A in C2C12 myotubes diminished the inhibitory activities of TNF-α on mitochondrial respiration and lipid oxidation, whereas PIKE-A overexpression exacerbated these cellular responses. We also found that TNF-α promoted the interaction between PIKE-A and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) to suppress its kinase activity in vitro and in vivo. As a result, animals with PIKE ablation in the skeletal muscle per se display an upregulation of AMPK phosphorylation and a higher preference to use lipid as the energy production substrate under high-fat diet feeding, which mitigates the development of diet-induced hyperlipidemia, ectopic lipid accumulation, and muscle insulin resistance. Hence, our data reveal PIKE-A as a new signaling factor that is important for TNF-α–initiated metabolic changes in skeletal muscle.
Hematological, morphological and morphometric characteristics of blood cells from rhea, Rhea Americana (Struthioniformes: Rheidae): a standard for Brazilian birds.

AbstractBlood exams are an indispensable tool in bird medicine. This study aimed at describing values and aspects of rheas' hematology, Rhea americana, as well as analyzing the morphology and morphometry of all blood cells. Fifty eight adult rheas of both sexes from two farms, one in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Espírito Santo State and the other in São Carlos, São Paulo State, were selected. Blood samples were taken and RBC count, PCV and Hb levels measured and used in hematimetric indexes calculations. The total and differentiated leukocyte counts, as well as the TPP and fibrinogen were determined. Erythrocytes, leukocytes and thrombocytes were identified and characterized morphologically. The values for the red series and hematimetric indexes were: RBC (2.81±0.15×106/μL), PCV (44.20±2.86%), Hb (12.12±0.74 g/dL), MCV (15.75±0.89 fL), MCH (43.18±1.82 pg), MCHC (27.44±0.80 g/dL); the values of white series were: WBC (12.072±4116/μL), heterophils (64.10±9.90%), eosinophils (2.05±2.06%), monocytes (6.40±2.99%), lymphocytes (26.93±9.62%), basophils (0.52±1.27%). One may conclude that on average, rheas' blood cells are larger than those of other birds, but these cells in smears cannot be differentiated only by their size. Besides rheas' leukocytes have different components and coloring as in other bird species, however, there are no components or staining aspects unique to the species.
Isolation and Characterization of Salmonid CD4+ T Cells

This study reports the isolation and functional characterization of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) CD4-1+ T cells and the establishment of an IL-15–dependent CD4-1+ T cell line. By using Abs specific for CD4-1 and CD3ε it was possible to isolate the double-positive T cells in spleen and head kidney. The morphology and the presence of transcripts for T cell markers in the sorted CD4-1+CD3ε+ cells were studied next. Cells were found to express TCRα, TCRβ, CD152 (CTLA-4), CD154 (CD40L), T-bet, GATA-3, and STAT-1. The sorted CD4-1+ T cells also had a distinctive functional attribute of mammalian T lymphocytes, namely they could undergo Ag-specific proliferation, using OVA as a model Ag. The OVA-stimulated cells showed increased expression of several cytokines, including IFN-γ1, IL-4/13A, IL-15, IL-17D, IL-10, and TGF-β1, perhaps indicating that T cell proliferation led to differentiation into distinct effector phenotypes. Using IL-15 as a growth factor, we have selected a lymphoid cell line derived from rainbow trout head kidney cells. The morphology, cell surface expression of CD4-1, and the presence of transcripts of T cell cytokines and transcription factors indicated that this is a CD4-1+ T cell line. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the presence of CD4-1+CD3ε+ T cells in salmonids. As in mammals, CD4-1+ T cells may be the master regulators of immune responses in fish, and therefore these findings and the new model T cell line developed will contribute to a greater understanding of T cell function and immune responses in teleost fish.