Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Manufacturing Variety: Economies of Scope in a Low-Volume, High-Mix Environment

Increasingly, the Holy Grail in manufacturing is the ability to combine the flexibility of customized production with the efficiency of mass production to achieve “mass customization. ” Our research has identified an innovative method of customized manufacturing in an unlikely place – contract manufacturers that provide electronic manufacturing services (EMS). We conduct an in-depth case study of two EMS firms in the Pearl Delta Region of China who have created value-added by providing variety in production to their customers through adaptive, or flexible, manufacturing techniques. The firms’ success in these techniques is derived from investment in repeatable and robust routines, rather than from low-cost labor or from high tech equipment. Specifically, by investing in organization and technological routines in three key areas – customer relations, supplier relations, and labor relations – the EMS providers are able to create a production process that is relatively independent of changes in customers and workforce as well as changes in the design, technology, and markets of the products they produce.
Logistics orchestration scenarios in a potted plant supply chain network

The Dutch potted plant sector has a dominant international position, but new marketing channels and emerging markets on distance call for new logistics concepts. This paper explores the potential of an advanced logistics concept, i.e. logistics orchestration, that aims for improved collaboration between supply chain actors. A mixed integer linear programming model is developed to investigate the benefits of logistics orchestration in three scenarios. In these scenarios, the effects of network design and logistics consolidation on logistics costs, working times and CO2 emissions are quantified. Modelling assumptions and data were validated in collaboration with business partners. Results show that logistics costs, working time and emissions can be significantly reduced by use of a hub network and consolidation. The better the European economic centre can be reached through the hub network, the larger the benefits can be. Embodying a substantial part of European goods flows is required to realise these benefits.
Electric energy production in a wind farm - the statistical analysis of measurement results using the time series

The paper presents an analysis of the results of electric energy production in a wind farm. A statistical analysis of the measurement results were performed using the STATISTICA program. The article presents time series on the forecast of electric energy production and actually sold electric energy produced in a wind farm. The analysis was based on data coming from a real wind farm - located in Subcarpathion region.
Digital Angular Speed Measurement Using Waveform Sampling

A method of digital angular speed measurement based on waveform sampling utilizing an orthogonal pair of sinusoids is proposed in this paper. Details of the derivation and implementation of the technique are described. One of the earlier techniques of speed measurement is compared with the proposed waveform sampling technique by estimating the speed of turbine-generator unit model under steady-state and transient conditions.
The impact of complexity and perceived difficulty on consumer revisit intentions

Abstract Many consumer tasks that are facilitated by technology are inherently complex. More complex tasks are generally perceived by consumers as more difficult. Complexity and perceived difficulty can impact on the consumer's intention to revisit a website. This paper uses the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to compare directly the impact of both task complexity and perceived task difficulty on consumers’ revisit intentions. Data collected from 298 European consumers were analysed using structural equation modelling to address these objectives. The findings show that both complexity and perceived difficulty impact on consumers’ revisit intentions. Consequently, website designers and marketing managers need to evaluate both when considering consumers’ online interactions with their organisation.
The Correlation between Recombination Rate and Codon Bias in Yeast Mainly Results from Mutational Bias Associated with Recombination Rather than Hill-Robertson Interference

Codon usage has been reported to be correlated with local recombination rate, which can be explained by two proposed models. In the present study, correspondence analysis was used to investigate the major trends in codon usage variation among S. cerevisiae genes. It was found that the first principle source of codon usage variation in yeast is due to the variance of expressional levels, which is consistent with the previous translational selection model. Moreover, recombination rate is also correlated with the codon pattern, which might be a byproduct of mutational bias associated with recombination rather than the consequence of Hill-Robertson interference. A recent study has analysed the genome sequence, but reached opposite conclusions: the positive correlation between recombination rate and codon bias in yeast mainly results from Hill-Robertson interference. In light of this conflicting result, we have discussed the possible reason and found that the previous analysis was undermined by mistaken assumptions that weak selection acting at expression level led to the correlation between recombination and codon bias
Meta‐analysis of Epidemiologic Dose‐Response Data

We discuss methods for summarizing epidemiologic studies of dose-response. The data from such a study typically appear as a series of dose-specific relative risks, with one category serving as the common reference group. We present methods for estimating the dose-response parameters from single and multiple study reports, for assigning levels to exposure categories when modeling relative risks, and for investigating the effects of study design and subject characteristics on dose-response curves. Finally, we discuss the choice of fixed vs random effects models. We illustrate our points with data from case-control studies of the relation between duration of oral contraceptive use and risk of breast cancer.
Hybrid-sensor high-resolution light field imaging

Light field imaging is an emerging research field due to the new capabilities it brings, including post-capture refocusing, aperture control, and 3D modeling. Single-shot single-sensor light field cameras try to balance the fundamental trade-off between spatial and angular resolution. The spatial resolution achieved with such cameras is typically far from being satisfactory, limiting the extensive adoption of light field cameras. In this paper, we present a hybrid-sensor light field camera that uses minimal optical components, a regular sensor and a micro-lens array based light field sensor to produce high-spatial-resolution light field. The use of a single lens and matching image planes prevent complexities, such as occlusions, that multi-lens systems suffer from. In our experiments, we demonstrate that the proposed hybrid-sensor camera leads to improved depth estimation in addition to increase in spatial resolution.
Using Semantics to Search Answers for Unanswered Questions in Q&A Forums

The expert based question and answering forums are crowdsourced and rely on people to provide answers for questions. This paper focuses on technology based Q&A systems like StackOverflow and Reddit. These websites are popular and yet many questions remain unanswered. The Suman system uses semantic keyword search in combination with traditional text search techniques to find similar questions with answers for unanswered questions. Furthermore, the Suman system also recommends experts who can answer those questions. This helps to narrow down the long tail of unanswered questions. The Suman system utilises Semantic Web and Linked Data technologies to integrate the datasets from two websites, structure them and link them to Linked Data Cloud. It uses available tools to solve name entity disambiguation problem and expands the query term with added semantics. The Suman system was evaluated and results were analysed to show its viability.
Simulating the impact of sensorimotor deficits on reaching performance

The healthy human nervous system accurately and robustly controls movements despite nonlinear dynamics, noise, and delays. After a stroke, motor ability frequently becomes impaired. To provide insight into the relative impact of specific sensorimotor deficits on motor performance, we modeled neural control of reaching with the human upper limb as a near-optimally feedback-controlled two-degree-of-freedom system with biologically based parameters. We added three sensorimotor impairments commonly associated with post-stroke hemiparesis—abnormal joint coupling, increased noise on internally modeled dynamics, and muscular weakness— and examined the impact on reaching performance. We found that abnormal joint coupling unknown to the system’s internal model caused systematic perturbations to trajectories, longer reach durations, and target overshoot. Increasing internal model noise and muscular weakness had little impact on motor performance unless model noise was increased by several orders of magnitude. Many reaches performed by our perturbed models replicate features commonly observed in reaches by hemiparetic stroke survivors. The sensitivity to unmodeled abnormal joint coupling agrees with experimental findings that abnormal coupling (possibly related to internal model errors) is the main cause of post-stroke motor impairment.
The results of 479 thumb carpometacarpal joint replacements reported in the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register

In this study we report the results of thumb carpometacarpal (CMC) joint replacements in the Norwegian population over a 17-year period. In total, 479 primary replacements performed from 1994 to 2011 were identified in the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register. Implant survival and risk of revision were analyzed using Cox regression analyses. Four different implant designs were compared and time trends were analyzed. The overall 5 and 10 year survivals were 91% and 90%, respectively. The newer metal total arthroplasties did not outperform the older silicone and mono-block implants. At 5 years, the implant survival ranged from 90% to 94% for the different implant brands. Gender, age, and diagnosis did not influence the risk of revision. The incidence of thumb CMC joint replacement did not change during the study period. Despite relatively satisfactory implant survivorship in our register study, current evidence does not support widespread implementation of thumb CMC replacements.
Retail brands and the theft of identity

The marketing of own brands is a feature of modern multiple retailing. Retailers can create brand image by advertising their own products or creating brand equity in their own stores and transferring such imagery to their physical products. The costs of branding to the retailer are approximately an order of magnitude lower than that to the manufacturers of brands sold via those same retailers. Despite their inherent advantage in managing brands, retailers have often chosen to ape the presentation of established brands. Affronted brand owners can sue under British law for “passing off”, but the protection offered appears limited to the idea of protecting the shopper from confusion, rather than the brand owner from unfair competition. Empirical evidence is presented as to how a “lookalike” brand can acquire the image of the established brand, leading to the challenge of a theft of identity. Whether changes to British law and the different legal situation in other countries takes account of this phenomenon is questioned.
Socio-Economic Disclosure in Islamic Banking Case Study in Indonesia

Islamic Banking must give benefit for their stakeholders. Benefit reflects the performance of Islamic Banking which can be seen through their annual reports. One of important information which reflects the performance of Islamic Banking is socio-economicdisclosure. This report gives information about the performance of Islamic Banking which covers social and economic aspects which show the social economic responsibility of Islamic Banking. Socio-economic disclosure indicators have been taken from Corporate Social Performance which are the indicators consist of four parts, namely community involvement; human resources; natural resources and contribution to the environment; contribution to the product or service. This paper uses qualitative method. This research identifies the socioeconomic disclosure from annual report of Islamic Banking in Indonesia, majoring Bank Syariah Mandiri and Bank Muamalat Indonesia. The result of this paper shows that Bank Syariah Mandiri and Bank Muamalat Indonesia conduct social economic responsibility through socio-economic disclosure from annual report of both of the Islamic Banks in 2009.
The Amanda Network Backkup Manager

We present Amanda, a freely redistributable network backup manager written at the University of Maryland. Amanda is designed to make backing up large networks of data-full workstations to gigabyte tape drives automatic and efficient. Amanda runs on top of standard Unix backup tools such as dump and tar. It takes care of balancing the backup schedule and handling any problems that arise. Amanda runs backups in parallel to insure a reasonable run time for the nightly backups, even in the presence of slow computers on the network. Tape labeling insures that the wrong tap is not overwritten. A report detailing any problems is mailed to the system administrator in the morning. In our department, we use Amanda to back up about 35 gigabytes of data in 336 filesystems on more than 130 workstations, using a single 5 gigabyte 8mm tape drive. Nightly runs typically complete in three to four hours. Amanda is currently in daily use at sites around the world.
Pem Homeobox Gene Regulatory Sequences That Direct Androgen-dependent Developmentally Regulated Gene Expression in Different Subregions of the Epididymis*

The epididymis is a useful model system to understand the mechanisms that govern region-specific gene expression, as many gene products display spatially restricted expression within this organ. However, surprisingly little is known about how this regulation is achieved. Here, we report regulatory sequences from thePem homeobox gene that drive expression in different subregions of the mouse epididymis in vivo. We found that the 0.3-kb 5′-flanking sequence (region I) from the Pemproximal promoter (Pem Pp) was sufficient to confer androgen-dependent and developmentally regulated expression in the caput region of the epididymis. Expression was restricted to the normal regions of expression of Pem in the caput (segments 2–4), but there was also aberrant expression in the corpus region. This corpus misexpression was extinguished when 0.6 kb of Pem Pp5′-flanking sequence was included in the transgene, indicating that one or more negative regulatory elements exist between 0.6 and 0.3 kb upstream of the Pem Pp start site (region II). When heterologous sequences were introduced upstream of the Pem Pp, expression was further restricted, mainly to caput segment 3, implying that the Pem Pp has segment-specific regulatory elements. To our knowledge, the regulatory regions we have identified are the shortest so far defined that dictate regionally localized expression in the epididymis in vivo. They may be useful for identifying the factors that regulate region-specific expression in the epididymis, for expressing and conditionally knocking out genes in different subregions of the epididymis, for treating male infertility, and for generating novel methods of male contraception.
Sovereign Debt Restructurings 1950-2010; Literature Survey, Data, and Stylized Facts

This paper provides a comprehensive survey of pertinent issues on sovereign debt restructurings, based on a newly constructed database. This is the first complete dataset of sovereign restructuring cases, covering the six decades from 1950–2010; it includes 186 debt exchanges with foreign banks and bondholders, and 447 bilateral debt agreements with the Paris Club. We present new stylized facts on the outcome and process of debt restructurings, including on the size of haircuts, creditor participation, and legal aspects. In addition, the paper summarizes the relevant empirical literature, analyzes recent restructuring episodes, and discusses ongoing debates on crisis resolution mechanisms, credit default swaps, and the role of collective action clauses.
Role of ZNF224 in cell growth and chemoresistance of chronic lymphocitic leukemia

Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is associated with apoptosis resistance and defective control of cell growth. Our study describes for the first time a critical role in CLL for the KRAB-zinc finger protein ZNF224. High ZNF224 transcript levels were detected in CLL patients with respect to control cells. Moreover, ZNF224 expression was significantly lowered after conventional chemotherapy treatment in a subset of CLL patients. By in vitro experiments we confirmed that ZNF224 expression is suppressed by fludarabine and demonstrated that ZNF224 is involved in apoptosis resistance in CLL cells. Moreover, we showed that ZNF224 positively modulates cyclin D3 gene expression. Consistently, we observed that alteration of ZNF224 expression leads to defects in cell cycle control. All together, our results strongly suggest that in CLL cells high expression level of ZNF224 can lead to inappropriate cell growth and apoptosis resistance, thus contributing to CLL progression. Targeting ZNF224 could thus improve CLL response to therapy.
Distributed energy resources optimization for demand response using MILP

Demand response, over the years, has emerged as a key feature of smart grid. This paper investigates the problem of optimal demand response of residential customer equipped with smart loads, distributed storage and distributed generation which together form distributed energy resources (DER). A novel way of linking distributed storage i.e., battery operation to real time prices via a price threshold is proposed and incorporated in Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulation to optimally schedule smart loads and battery. Simulation results validate that the price threshold constraint is effective in optimizing the battery charging/discharging cycles and MILP formulation optimally scheduled the loads for bill reduction within scheduling requirements. Finally, to show how distributed generation coupled with smart loads and distributed storage can further bring down energy costs, a comparison is drawn for various scenarios of customer DER set up.
Inhibition of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling by natural products.

Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) lies downstream of the type I insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGFR), a transmembrane tyrosine kinase [1-4]. In response to ligand binding, IGFR is activated via autophosphorylation of multiple tyrosine residues. Activated IGFR in turn phosphorylates the insulin receptor substrates 1-4 (IRS1-4) and src- and collagen-homology (SHC) adaptor proteins, which can trigger multiple downstream signal transduction pathways including PI3K pathway [1-4]. Phosphorylated IRS recruits the p85 subunit of PI3K and signals to the p110 catalytic subunit of PI3K, resulting in activation of PI3K. Activated PI3K catalyzes the conversion of phosphatidylinositol (4,5)-bisphosphate (PIP2) to phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate (PIP3) [1-4]. This pathway is negatively regulated by PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog on chromosome ten), a dual-specificity protein and lipid phosphatase. Increased PIP3 binds to the pleckstrin homology (PH) domain of Akt and, in combination with additional Ser/Thr phosphorylation of Akt by phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1 (PDK1) and mTOR complex 2 (mTORC2), results in full activation of Akt [1-4]. Subsequently, activated PI3K or Akt may positively regulate mTOR, leading to increased phosphorylation of ribosomal p70 S6 kinase (S6K1) and eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) binding protein 1 (4E-BP1), the two best-characterized downstream effector molecules of mTOR [1-4]. Studies have placed tuberous isolated from the roots of the plant Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (Danshen). Studies have shown that cryptotanshinone inhibits cell proliferation and induces cell death in a variety of cancer cells. Also, cryptotanshinone inhibits angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, suggesting that cryptotanshinone is a potential anticancer agent. However, because of its poor bioavailability, cryptotanshinone has not been in clinical trials for any cancer therapy. Here Chen et al. review recent findings, showing evidence that cryptotanshinone inhibits mTORC1-mediated phosphorylation of
Reducing the Agonist Activity of Antiandrogens by a Dominant-negative Androgen Receptor Coregulator ARA70 in Prostate Cancer Cells*

Although the progression of prostate cancer initially is dependent on androgens, tumor progression to an androgen-independent growth eventually occurs in most of patients treated with androgen ablation and/or antiandrogen therapy. After the initial response, antiandrogens lose their efficacy and eventually act as agonists to promote androgen receptor (AR)-mediated growth of prostate cancer cells. An aberrant regulation of AR activity, presumably by AR coregulators, may contribute to this acquired agonist activity of antiandrogens. Using an in vitro mutagenesis and a double-negative selection in yeast two-hybrid screening, we have identified a dominant-negative AR coregulator ARA70 (dARA70N), which can inhibit AR transcriptional activity by inactivating the normal function of ARA70 in the LNCaP cells. Whereas ARA70 in oligomeric form interacts with AR and enhances its transcriptional activity, dARA70N lacks AR interaction and might retain the ability to form a non-functional heteromer with ARA70 and interrupt AR transcriptional activity without a change in AR protein itself. The addition of dARA70N reduces the agonist activity and rescues the normal function of antiandrogens in prostate cancer cells. RNA-interference-mediated silencing of ARA70 gene further confirms these observations. Taken together, these findings indicate that ARA70 may contribute to the acquired agonist activity of antiandrogens and plays an important role in making prostate cancer cells resistant to androgen ablation and/or antiandrogen therapy. ARA70 may, thus, be a critical target for developing therapeutic agents against AR-mediated progression of prostate cancer.
Reconhecimento de Informações Comuns para a Fusão de Sentenças Comparáveis do Português

A fusao de sentencas e uma tarefa que consiste em produzir, a partir de um conjunto de sentencas relacionadas, uma unica sentenca que resume as informacoes comuns apresentadas no conjunto. Essa tarefa e de grande interesse em diversas aplicacoes do Processamento de Lingua Natural (PLN), tais como a Sumarizacao Automatica, a Traducao Automatica, os sistemas de Perguntas e Respostas, entre outros. No entanto, um dos principais desafios da fusao consiste em identificar as informacoes comuns entre as sentencas relacionadas. Este trabalho apresenta um sistema baseado em conhecimento lexical, sintatico, semântico e em algumas regras de parafraseamento que permite o reconhecimento de sequencias de palavras distintas, mas com o mesmo significado em sentencas comparaveis do Portugues. Os experimentos realizados com o sistema mostraram um desempenho de 87% de Precisao, 83% de Cobertura e 85% de Medida-f. Os resultados estao de acordo com outros trabalhos reportados na literatura para outras linguas.