Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
QuickBird remotely sensing image fusion between panchromatic image and multispectral image using nonsubsampled contourlet transform

For the purpose of improving the spatial information of the QuickBird multispectral(MS) image while preserving spectral information, this paper proposed an approach for fusing QuickBird multispectral and panchromatic(Pan) images using nonsubsampled contourlet transform(NSCT). The low resolution QuickBird MS image is resampled to the fine scale of the Pan image and sharpened by injecting highpass directional details extracted from the high resolution Pan image using the NSCT. Experimental results show that the proposed approach outperforms other approaches in preserving spectral information while improving spatial information.
A New Sickling Variant ‘Hb S-Wake β[(Glu6Val-Asn139 Ser)]’ Found in a Compound Heterozygote with Hb S β(Glu6Val) Coinherited with Homozygous α-Thalassemia-2: Phenotype and Molecular Characteristics

We report the case of a 14-year-old African-American boy who was diagnosed with sickle cell disease. Laboratory tests showed that the patient was a compound heterozygote for a novel Hb variant with a double mutation detected on βS allele, Hb S βGlu6Val, and βAsn139Ser substitution, i.e. a β-chain variant named ‘Hb S-Wake’. The patient also carried a single Hb S mutation in trans allele, leading to Hb SS-Wake disease. He had coinherited homozygous α+-thalassemia (–α3.7/–α3.7) simultaneously which resulted in multiple globin gene abnormalities.
Monitoring for Accessibility and University Websites: Meeting the Needs of People with Disabilities.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), people with disabilities are guaranteed access to all postsecondary programs and services. The purpose of this study, conducted by the Center for Excellence in Disabilities, was to evaluate the current status of a major university’s web accessibility. The results indicated that in 2011 only 51% of 509 web pages (sample) at a large public university in the northeastern United States passed automated web accessibility tests with Cynthia Says for Section 508 compliance (WCAG 1.0). Only 35% passed using the WAVE Accessibility Tool for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0 Level A) Priority 1 compliance, which is a more rigorous evaluation level. The stricter the level of testing, the more university web pages failed. Stricter web accessibility requirements may be legally imposed instead of Section 508 in the future. Universities will succeed in meeting an important mandate of the ADA by making institutional websites accessible to current and future students and employees with disabilities.
Presence of dissolved nucleotides in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre and their role in cycling of dissolved organic phosphorus

Dissolved and particulate nucleotide triphosphate (NTP) concentrations were measured in the upper 1000 m of the water column during 3 summer and 3 winter months at Stn ALOHA (22.75°N, 158° W) in the oligotrophic North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. In the euphotic zone (0 to 175 m) particulate adenosine-5'-triphosphate (P-ATP) and dissolved ATP (D-ATP) concentrations were positively correlated in summer (0 to 175 m; r 2 = 0.61, p 65 % of the total ATP (T-ATP) pool in the summer, and ∼50 % in winter. Dissolved guanosine-5'-triphosphate (D-GTP) inventories were 5- to 6-fold greater in July and August than those observed in mid-June (1.1 ± 0.1 vs. 8.0 ± 0.6 and 6.5 ± 0.3 μmol D-GTP m -2 , respectively) and winter concentrations were on average lower than the mean summer concentrations. The particulate GTP (P-GTP) inventories were almost twice those measured in winter (mean 1.1 ± 0.4 in summer vs. 0.6 ± 0.1 pmol P-GTP m -2 in winter, n = 3). These results are consistent with higher microbial growth rates in summer. Uptake of D-ATP showed multi-phasic kinetic patterns. The half-saturation constants (K t ) ranged from 1 to 26 nM at D-ATP concentrations of 0.2 to 30 nM, and V max ranged from 0.3 to 1.4 nM d -1 . At concentrations >30 nM, K t exceeded 100 nM and V max was 10.4 nM d -1 . The calculated net production rates of D-ATP ranged from 40 to 150 pM d -1 , and the turnover time of the ambient D-ATP pool was estimated to be 1 to 2 d. The P flux through the D-ATP pool could potentially be 5 times faster than that of the bulk DOP pool, implying that P derived from nucleotides may be an important pathway in the P cycle of oligotrophic oceans.
Electronical beam scanning using integrated CMOS continuous 0°–360° phase shifter

A phase shifter designed in a 130 nm CMOS technology is presented. It consists of a variable gain amplifier in cascade with a 2.45 GHz LC differential quadrature oscillator and allows to get a continuous phase step from 0° to 360°. An application to dynamic beam scanning is presented and a 1° accuracy of the scanning angle is demonstrated for an 8×1 planar antenna array with phase control.
Neuro–evolutionary patterning of sociality

Evolutionary shifts in species–typical group size (‘sociality’) probably reflect natural selection on motivational processes such as social arousal, approach–avoidance, reward, stress/anxiety and dominance. Using four songbird species that differ selectively in sociality (one territorial, one modestly gregarious, and two highly gregarious species), we here examined immediate early gene (IEG) responses of relevant brain regions following exposure to a same–sex conspecific. The paradigm limited behavioural performance, thus species differences should reflect divergence in motivational and/or perceptual processes. Within the extended medial amygdala (which is involved in appetitive approach, social arousal and avoidance), we observed species differences in IEG response that are negatively graded in relation to sociality. In addition, brain areas that are involved in social stress and dominance–related behaviour (ventrolateral septum, anterior hypothalamus and lateral subdivision of the ventromedial hypothalamus) exhibited IEG responses that dichotomously distinguish the territorial species from the three gregarious species. The IEG responses of areas involved in reward (nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum) and general stress processes (e.g. paraventricular hypothalamus, lateral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and most areas of the lateral septum) do not correlate with sociality, indicating that social evolution has been accompanied by selection on a relatively discrete suite of motivational systems.
Design of flat magnetic core for inductively coupled coils in high efficiency wireless power transfer application

A pad-like flat magnetic core with high permeability is adopted and was placed under the primary side coil as well as above the secondary side coil of wireless power transfer (WPT) system. It can be as a shielding for the magnetic field. Moreover, the insertion of the magnetic material increases the coupling coefficient of the two coils and thus reduces the leakage flux compared with core-less system. A WPT system with nominal power of 200W was built to validate the feasibility of the proposed method. Results show that after inserting the magnetic core, the power transfer efficiency is increased by about 30% with power transfer distance being 60mm–80mm.
Dimensions of the perceived value of malls: Muslim shoppers’ perspective

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify customers’ perceived value constructs of shopping malls from the perspective of Muslim shoppers and to develop items for measuring these constructs, empirically validate the scale, and carry out an initial investigation of the effect of these dimensions on behavioural outcomes. Design/methodology/approach By means of a multi-dimensional procedure on a sample of 329 Muslim mall shoppers in the UAE, the authors have developed a scale of measurement of these shoppers’ perceived value of malls through grouping 30 value items into eight dimensions. Findings The study constructed and validated a scale of perceived value of malls taking into consideration the mall shopper’s religion (i.e. Islam). The authors name this new scale Muslim MALLVAL. This scale demonstrates that, like any other shoppers, Muslims who shop in malls assess the shopping experience through both cognitive and affective values in addition to the Islamic value of the mall. The study in addition reveals that the dimensions of Muslim MALLVAL have significant positive influences on behavioural outcomes such as willingness to continue shopping and recommendation of the mall to others. Research limitations/implications This study is carried out on Muslim shoppers in the UAE context. However, the authors urge other researchers to replicate the study and get replies from different countries and in particular to use the measures developed in this study to test their robustness. Practical implications Muslim mall shoppers evaluate not only the traditional aspects of mall value but also the religious identity related aspects that contribute to the value creation. Therefore, mall developers and managers who target Muslim shoppers (residents and/or tourists) should create and maintain the appropriate shopping environment for Muslim shoppers. Originality/value This study is the first to provide an integrative scale for the perceived value of shopping malls from the perspective of Muslim shoppers.
Behavioural heterogeneity in the New Zealand stock market

ABSTRACT We examine the dynamics of the New Zealand stock market using an asset pricing model with heterogeneous agents. Applying the model to historical data from 1899 to 2015, we identify both fundamentalist and trend-following (chartist) behaviours of investors. In addition, we document that investors switch between fundamentalist and chartist rules when either of these rules has been more profitable in the recent past. Both behaviours contribute to large fluctuations of stock prices relative to their fundamental value and can explain some of the dynamics around bubbles and crashes.
The Key Elements of Online Learning Communities

An online learning community can be a place for vibrant discussions and the sharing of new ideas in a medium where content constantly changes. This chapter will first examine the different definitions that researchers have provided for online learning communities. It will then illuminate several key elements that are integral to online learning communities: interactivity, in both its task-driven and socio-emotional forms; collaboration, which both builds and nurtures online communities; trusting relationships, which are developed primarily through social interaction and consist of shared goals and a sense of belonging or connectedness; and communication media choices, which impact the other three elements. This chapter also provides suggestions for the practical application of these elements in the online classroom.
Granulocyte macrophage‐colony stimulating factor stimulates the synthesis of membrane and nuclear proteins in murine neutrophils

The effect of granulocyte macrophage‐colony stimulating factor (GM‐CSF), a well‐characterized hemopoietic regulator, on protein synthesis in murine bone marrow neutrophils is described. Bone marrow neutrophils in excess of 95% purity were obtained by fluorescence‐activated cell sorting.While GM‐CSF did not appear to slow the rate of dying of peritoneal exudate neutrophils or thymus cells, the viability of bone marrow neutrophils after 17 hr was enhanced (40%) by GM‐CSF. GM‐CFS had no effect on total 35S‐methionine incorporation by thymocytcs or peritoneal exudate neutrophils over a 17‐hr incubation period; however, bone marrow neutrophils showed increased incorporation (approximately 10%) at all times between 5–17 hr. As viability and 35S‐methionine incorporation of bone marrow neutrophils at 5 hr,were minimally affected by GM‐CSF, this time point was chosen to study the effect of GM‐CSF on the synthesis of particular proteins. Two‐dimensional polyacrylamide gels of 35S‐methionine‐labelled lysates were prepared from whole cells, isolated nuclei, and membranes. Quantitative analysis of the fluorograms obtained from the two‐dimensional electropherograms by a computer‐linked optical data digitiser indicated that out of a total of 180 proteins, the amount of label contained in 11 proteins was significantly higher in the presence of GM‐CSF, while.three proteins, apparently of cytoplasmic origin, contained less label than control cells. Eight of these proteins were identified as nuclear, and one was membrane derived. Attempts have been made to identify some of the inducible proteins and to correlate results with other studies of normal hemopoietic and Icukcmic cells. The significance and multiple functions of GM‐CSF in hemopoiesis are discussed.
The MHC Class II Molecule I-Ag7 Exists in Alternate Conformations That Are Peptide Dependent1

Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus is an autoimmune disease that is genetically linked to the HLA class II molecule DQ in humans and to MHC I-Ag7 in nonobese diabetic mice. The I-Ag7 β-chain is unique and contains multiple polymorphisms, at least one of which is shared with DQ alleles linked to insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. This polymorphism occurs at position 57 in the β-chain, in which aspartic acid is mutated to a serine, a change that results in the loss of an interchain salt bridge between αArg76 and βAsp57 at the periphery of the peptide binding groove. Using mAbs we have identified alternative conformations of I-Ag7 class II molecules. By using an invariant chain construct with various peptides engineered into the class II-associated invariant chain peptide (CLIP) region we have found that formation of these conformations is dependent on the peptide occupying the binding groove. Blocking studies with these Abs indicate that these conformations are present at the cell surface and are capable of interactions with TCRs that result in T cell activation.
HS1 Interacts with Lyn and Is Critical for Erythropoietin-induced Differentiation of Erythroid Cells*

Erythroid cells terminally differentiate in response to erythropoietin binding its cognate receptor. Previously we have shown that the tyrosine kinase Lyn associates with the erythropoietin receptor and is essential for hemoglobin synthesis in three erythroleukemic cell lines. To understand Lyn signaling events in erythroid cells, the yeast two-hybrid system was used to analyze interactions with other proteins. Here we show that the hemopoietic-specific protein HS1 interacted directly with the SH3 domain of Lyn, via its proline-rich region. A truncated HS1, bearing the Lyn-binding domain, was introduced into J2E erythroleukemic cells to determine the impact upon responsiveness to erythropoietin. Truncated HS1 had a striking effect on the phenotype of the J2E line—the cells were smaller, more basophilic than the parental proerythoblastoid cells and had fewer surface erythropoietin receptors. Moreover, basal and erythropoietin-induced proliferation and differentiation were markedly suppressed. The inability of cells containing the truncated HS1 to differentiate may be a consequence of markedly reduced levels of Lyn and GATA-1. In addition, erythropoietin stimulation of these cells resulted in rapid, endosome-mediated degradation of endogenous HS1. The truncated HS1 also suppressed the development of erythroid colonies from fetal liver cells. These data show that disrupting HS1 has profoundly influenced the ability of erythroid cells to terminally differentiate.
Assignment of the canine tectorin alpha gene (TECTA) to CFA5q12→q13 by FISH and confirmation by radiation hybrid mapping

This project and S.G. R. are supported by a grant of the Gesellschaft zur Förderung Kynologischer Forschung (GKF) e.V. , Bonn. H.K. is supported by a grant from the affirmative action program for women of the School of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. P.Q. is supported by funds from the Conseil Regional de Bretagne. The authors are grateful to Heike Klippert and Stefan Neander for expert technical assistance.
A Literature Review of Servant Leadership and Criticism of Advanced Research

— Although there are many theories and discussion of leadership, the necessity of having a new leadership paradigm was emphasized. The existing leadership characteristic of instruction and control revealed its limitations. Market competition becomes fierce and economic recession never ends worldwide. Of the leadership theories, servant leadership was introduced recently and is in line with the environmental changes of the organization. Servant leadership is a combination of two words, 'servant' and 'leader' and can be defined as the role of the leader who focuses on doing voluntary work for others with altruistic ethics, makes members, customers, and local communities a priority, and makes a commitment to satisfying their needs. This leadership received attention as one field of leadership in the late 1990s and secured its legitimacy. This study discusses the existing research trends of leadership, the concept, behavior characteristics, and lower dimensions of servant leadership, compares servant leadership with the existing leadership researches and diagnoses if servant leadership is a useful concept for further leadership researches. Finally, this study criticizes the limitations in the existing researches on servant leadership.
Early detection of fraud: Evidence from restatements

Researchers are continually trying to find reliable fraud indicators (e.g., Beasley, 1996) and some are working on building fraud prediction models (e.g., Spathis, 2002) to aid auditors in fraud detection. With this same goal of predicting fraud in mind, the purpose of this study is to explore the potential of qualitative fraud risk indicators. Content analysis is used in analyzing the Management's Discussion and Analysis (MDA) section of the annual report to identify potential indicators of deception to increase the likelihood of fraud detection in a timelier manner than current quantitative models. By examining asynchronous communication contained in annual reports for companies required by the SEC to restate their financial statements, patterns of key linguistic characteristics were identified and compared to those used by companies not required to restate. Findings evidence significant differences on several dimensions. Using language cues for detection of deception has the advantage over quantitative methods of providing a more timely method of determining deception. Quantitative models often cannot detect deception until the effects are validated by financial impairment. Implications of the findings suggest that qualitative methods of deception detection may provide an earlier, and thus more useful, method of the detection of fraud. The results of this study should provide stakeholders with a set of indicators to aid in identifying misstated information. This approach is also one that can be generalized to other written documents used to predict fraudulent communication.
IS EQUITY RESEARCH VALUABLE FOR INVESTORS? AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE ITALIAN PECULIARITY

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the value of financial analysts’ recommendations on Italian listed firms. Italy is an interesting case since analysts have to compulsory send their reports to the Stock Exchange Commission on the same day they are available to their private clients (“report date”). Then, reports are available to the public within a period of sixty days on the Stock Exchange website (“public access date”). Exploiting this regulatory peculiarity and the unique database formed directly analyzing analysts’ reports, two distinct short-term event studies are performed finding a significant market reaction both in terms of volumes and returns around the report date. General implications for event study research design, highlighting some problems in commercial databases are also provided.
Fast wiener filter-based denoising for fine details and edges preservation in the blind condition

In this paper, we present a denoising method based on the frequency domain Wiener filter for implementation in the blind condition. We aim at preserving fine details and edges while suppressing noise, and efficient computational cost. This method consist of a two-phase process where the noise and image power spectra are first estimated from a noisy image and employed for the frequency domain Wiener filter. Two images restored by the Wiener filter with different parameter settings are utilized in the decomposition of smooth and non-smooth regions for further denoising. The simulation results show that the proposed method is fast, and outperforms or is comparable to the restoration performance of the conventional methods applied in the blind and ideal condition.
Biosynthesis of Fluorinated Analogs of Drugs Using Human Cytochrome P450 Enzymes Followed by Deoxyfluorination and Quantitative Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to Improve Metabolic Stability

Replacement of hydrogen with fluorine is a useful drug design strategy when decreases in cytochrome P450 (P450) metabolic lability are needed. In this paper, a facile two-step method of inserting fluorine into metabolically labile sites of drug molecules is described that utilizes less than 1 mg of starting material and quantitative NMR spectroscopy to ascertain the structures and concentrations of products. In the first step, hydroxyl metabolites are biosynthesized using human P450 enzymes, and in the second step these metabolites are subjected to deoxyfluorination using diethylaminosulfur trifluoride (DAST). The method is demonstrated using midazolam, celecoxib, ramelteon, and risperidone as examples and CYP3A5, 2C9, 1A2, and 2D6 to catalyze the hydroxylations. The drugs and their fluoro analogs were tested for metabolic lability. 9-Fluororisperidone and 4′-fluorocelecoxib were 16 and 4 times more metabolically stable than risperidone and celecoxib, respectively, and 2-fluororamelteon and ramelteon were metabolized at the same rate. 1′-Fluoromidazolam was metabolized at the same rate as midazolam by CYP3A4 but was more stable in CYP3A5 incubations. The P450-catalyzed sites of metabolism of the fluorine-containing analogs were determined. Some of the metabolites arose via metabolism at the fluorine-substituted carbon, wherein the fluorine was lost to yield aldehydes. In summary, this method offers an approach whereby fluorine can be substituted in metabolically labile sites, and the products can be tested to determine whether an enhancement in metabolic stability was obtained.
Using Fully Homomorphic Encryption to Secure Cloud Computing

The concept of cloud computing receiving a great deal of attention both in publication and among users. Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the Internet. Cloud services allow individuals and businesses to use software and hardware resources that are managed by cloud providers at remote locations. The distance between the client and the physical location of his data creates a barrier because this data can be accessed by a third party and this would affect the privacy of client’s data. The using of traditional encryption schemes to encrypt the remoted data before sending to the cloud provider has been most widely used technique to bridge this security gab. But, the client will need to provide the private key to the server to decrypt the data before perform the calculations required. Homomorphic encryption allows to perform computations on encrypted data without decryption. This paper deals with the use of homomorphic encryption to encrypt the client’s data in cloud server and also it enables to execute required computations on this encrypted data.