Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Illustrating the interplay between the extracellular matrix and microRNAs

The discovery of cell surface receptors that bind to extracellular matrix (ECM) components marked a new era in biological research. Since then there has been an increasing appreciation of the importance of studying cells in the context of their extracellular environment. Cell behaviour is profoundly affected by the ECM, whose synthesis and turnover must be finely balanced in order to maintain normal function and prevent disease. In the last decade, microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as key regulators of ECM gene expression. As new technologies for the identification and validation of miRNA targets continue to be developed, a growing body of data supporting the role of miRNAs in regulating the ECM biology has arisen from a variety of cell and animal models along with clinical studies. However, more recent findings suggest an intriguing interplay between the ECM and miRNAs: not only can miRNAs control the composition of the ECM, but also the ECM can affect the expression of specific miRNAs. Here we discuss how miRNAs contribute to the synthesis, maintenance and remodelling of the ECM during development and disease. Furthermore, we bring to light evidence that points to a role for the ECM in regulating miRNA expression and function.
Low Complexity Depth Coding Assisted by Coding Information From Color Video

Recently, color plus depth map format 3-D video has been introduced as a new 3-D scene representation format, which gains the attention for its relatively low storage and transmission bandwidth requirement in comparison to the multiview video system. Usually, encoding of the color video and the depth data uses two traditional H.264 encoders. The complexity and hardware requirements to code one 2-D view and its associated depth data are nearly two times higher than coding one 2-D view. In this paper, we address the reduction of complexity of depth coding. Since both color videos and depth maps represent the same scene at the same time instant, it is likely for each macroblock to have similar coding information including the prediction mode and motion vectors. Taking advantage of correlations between coding information from depth maps and color videos, we propose a low complexity depth coding algorithm incorporating a fast motion search method and a fast mode decision method. Results show that the proposed algorithm reduces 80% computational complexity with a negligible loss of coding efficiency in comparison with the original Joint Multiview Video Coding encoder.
Daytime CO 2 urban surface fluxes from airborne measurements , eddy-covariance observations and 1 emissions inventory in Greater London 2

11 Airborne measurements within the urban mixing layer (360 m) over Greater London are used to quantify CO2 12 emissions at the meso-scale. Daytime CO2 fluxes, calculated by the Integrative Mass Boundary Layer (IMBL) 13 method, ranged from 46 to 104 μmol CO2 m -2 s -1 for four days in October 2011. The day-to-day variability of 14 IMBL fluxes is at the same order of magnitude as for surface eddy-covariance fluxes observed in central 15 London. Compared to fluxes derived from emissions inventory, the IMBL method gives both lower (by -37%) 16 and higher (by 19%) estimates. The sources of uncertainty of applying the IMBL method in urban areas are 17 discussed and guidance for future studies is given. 18 Capsule: CO2 airborne-derived fluxes by Boundary Layer Mass balance are an independent measure of meso19 scale urban fluxes complementing urban eddy-covariance fluxes and emissions inventory 20
Cell adhesion and response to synthetic nanopatterned environments by steering receptor clustering and spatial location

During adhesion and spreading, cells form micrometer‐sized structures comprising transmembrane and intracellular protein clusters, giving rise to the formation of what is known as focal adhesions. Over the past two decades these structures have been extensively studied to elucidate their organization, assembly, and molecular composition, as well as to determine their functional role. Synthetic materials decorated with biological molecules, such as adhesive peptides, are widely used to induce specific cellular responses dependent on cell adhesion. Here, we focus on how surface patterning of such bioactive materials and organization at the nanoscale level has proven to be a useful strategy for mimicking both physical and chemical cues present in the extracellular space controlling cell adhesion and fate. This strategy for designing synthetic cellular environments makes use of the observation that most cell signaling events are initiated through recruitment and clustering of transmembrane receptors by extracellular‐presented signaling molecules. These systems allow for studying protein clustering in cells and characterizing the signaling response induced by, e.g., integrin activation. We review the findings about the regulation of cell adhesion and focal adhesion assembly by micro‐ and nanopatterns and discuss the possible use of substrate stiffness and patterning in mimicking both physical and chemical cues of the extracellular space.
A 40-Gb/s quarter rate CDR with 1∶4 demultiplexer in 90-nm CMOS technology

This paper presents a 40-Gb/s phase-locked clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit with 1∶4 demultiplexer in IBM 90-nm CMOS technology. The CDR circuit incorporates an inductorless eight-phase LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and a quarter-rate bang-bang phase detector (PD). A novel inductorless eight-phase LC VCO including four LC oscillator cells is presented to generate the eight-phase outputs. A one-forth-rate phase detector employing eight flip-flops is proposed. The 40-Gb/s input data are sampled with eight parallel different-ial master-salve flip-flops every 12.5 ps and the 40-Gb/s data are demultiplexed into four 10-Gb/s outputs when the CDR circuit is locked. The recovered clock exhibits 200mV output swing and a jitter of 0.2 psrms and 0.6 pspp. The retimed data exhibits 200mV output swing and a jitter of 0.5 psrms and 2.1 pspp. The CDR circuit consumes 72 mW from a 1.2 V supply excluding out buffers.
MIM Gets Down to Business

NEW DELHI, INDIA-- Despite concerns about how the new Multilateral Initiative on Malaria will be managed and what impact it will have on the developing world (see p. 1918), researchers haven9t been shy about asking for their share of the money. Last spring, an invitation from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the European Commission for "letters of interest" attracted 134 responses seeking a total of $130 million. With only $2 million pledged, organizers have formed a task force that will meet next month in Geneva to begin the process of elimination.
Evaluation of the change in winding pattern of a large hydro generator

Uprating and refurbishment of large hydro generators presents opportunities for increase in power output, efficiency and life time of the machine. Several parts of the machine can be changed depending on the need and predicted performance outcome. For the generator unit in this paper, refurbishment of the stator winding is to be done while maintaining the same stator core design, therefore a new winding pattern is proposed for the machine. This paper numerically compares the proposed new winding pattern and the old winding pattern using flux density distribution and radial electromagnetic forces in the air gap. Emphasis is given to the low frequency harmonics with the potential to excite the natural frequency of the core, causing noise and vibration. The calculated total harmonic distortion (THD) of the new winding pattern is higher than the old winding pattern by 3%. This was reflected in the increased damper bar and core losses in the machine with the new winding pattern.
Cost and Productivity Ratios in Dual-Frame RDD Telephone Surveys

It has been clear from the first studies with RDD cell phone surveying in the U.S. that in most cases its cost is materially greater than the cost of similar surveying via RDD landline samples. During late 2009, a survey was conducted by the Cost Subcommittee of the AAPOR Cell Phone Task Force (AAPOR 2010) to gather data from a select group of telephone survey organizations in the U.S. This survey used a purposive sample of eight nationally known survey organizations (four commercial and four academic). Telephone interviews were conducted by members of the Cost subcommittee with a senior researcher at each organization who was knowledgeable about the cost information that was to be gathered. Each of those senior researchers then submitted a spreadsheet, assembled by her/his organization, containing available information about each of the dual telephone frame RDD surveys (cell and landline) that the organization had conducted. The results of this research are presented here.
Application of RNA Polymerase β-Subunit Gene (rpoB) Sequences for the Molecular Differentiation of Legionella Species

ABSTRACT The nucleotide sequences of the partial rpoB gene were determined from 38 Legionella species, including 15 serogroups of Legionella pneumophila. These sequences were then used to infer the phylogenetic relationships among the Legionella species in order to establish a molecular differentiation method appropriate for them. The sequences (300 bp) and the phylogenetic tree of rpoB were compared to those from analyses using 16S rRNA gene and mip sequences. The trees inferred from these three gene sequences revealed significant differences. This sequence incongruence between the rpoB tree and the other trees might have originated from the high frequency of synonymous base substitutions and/or from horizontal gene transfer among the Legionella species. The nucleotide variation of rpoB enabled more evident differentiation among the Legionella species than was achievable by the 16S rRNA gene and even by mip in some cases. Two subspecies of L. pneumophila (L. pneumophila subsp. pneumophila and subsp. fraseri) were clearly distinguished by rpoB but not by 16S rRNA gene and mip analysis. One hundred and five strains isolated from patient tissues and environments in Korea and Japan could be identified by comparison of rpoB sequence similarity and phylogenetic trees. These results suggest that the partial sequences of rpoB determined in this study might be applicable to the molecular differentiation of Legionella species.
Aging assessment of dielectric vegetable oils

The combination of a dielectric solid (paper) and a dielectric liquid (mineral, vegetable, or silicone) is the most commonly used insulation system in power transformers because of the favorable dielectric properties of these insulations and the high heat capacity of the oil, which allows for cooling. It is known that temperature is the main parameter in determining the aging of these insulations and, therefore, the lifetime of a power transformer.
Optimal admission and price control in a retrial queueing system

In this paper, we analyze the optimal control policy to minimize the average costs in a retrial queueing system. At any decision epoch, the manager uses admission probabilities a's to control the arriving customers and determines a cancellation price c for the unsuccessful retrial customer, which will lead to him out of system with the probability of G(c) otherwise back to the orbit. We cast the problem as a Markov decision process and derive that the optimal policy has a pure threshold form. We also show that the two thresholds are monotonic in system parameters. Furthermore, based on the structure of the optimal policy, we construct a performance evaluation model for computing efficiently the optimal thresholds. The expression of the average cost is given by solving the quasi-birth-death (QBD) process. Finally, some numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the effect of the system parameters on the optimal policy.
Bank Participation in Private Equity Funds: Risk Implication and Capital Adequacy

World markets have seen a dramatic growth in Private Equity (PE) in the last decade. Substantial portion of the new investments in PE has come from commercial banks. This study estimates the regulatory capital requirement of standard PE portfolios and evaluates various methods proposed in the Basel II regulatory guideline, in the light of the growing concern for adequate capitalisation of bank portfolios. Value-at-risk assessments are based on an ARMA-GARCH forecast model. Whereas the Basel II simple risk weight prescription for PE stands at 400% the study finds that less than 900% risk weights could be undercapitalising the portfolios.
THE FINANCIAL ADVANTAGES OF THE LEAN SUPPLY CHAIN

SUBTITLE: COMPANIES ARE INVESTING IN SOFTWARE, HIRING CONSULTANTS, AND RECONFIGURING THEIR PHYSICAL SUPPLY CHAINS IN ORDER TO CAPTURE THE PROMISED RETURNS FROM LEAN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT. YET THE RETURNS FROM THESE INVESTMENTS CAN BE ELUSIVE. WHAT THESE COMPANIES MAY NOT REALIZE IS THAT IT'S NOT ABOUT EXPENSE REDUCTION OR PROFIT ENHANCEMENT -- IT'S ABOUT CREATING CAPACITY FOR CROWTH.
Staying Positive: Positive Affect as a Predictor of Resilience in Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes.

BACKGROUND Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) are at increased risk for diminished quality of life, deteriorating glycemic control, and psychological symptoms, yet some adolescents are able to adapt to the challenges associated with having diabetes exceptionally well. We sought to examine positive affect as a protective process predicting resilience over time in youth with T1D. METHOD Adolescents and their mothers completed questionnaire data, and HbA1c was obtained from adolescents' medical records at baseline and after 6 months. Adolescents were coded for observed positive mood during a videotaped interaction with their mothers. RESULTS Positive mood, including both self-report and observed mood, was associated with glycemic control, psychological symptoms, and quality of life. In addition, positive mood predicted improvements in glycemic control and externalizing problems over 6 months. CONCLUSIONS Positive affect emerged as a protective process for resilient outcomes in adolescents with T1D, suggesting novel targets for intervention in this high-risk population.
Automatic Retrieval of Action Video Shots from the Web Using Density-Based Cluster Analysis and Outlier Detection

SUMMARY In this paper, we introduce a fully automatic approach to construct action datasets from noisy Web video search results. The idea is based on combining cluster structure analysis and density-based outlier detection. For a speciﬁc action concept, ﬁrst, we download its Web top search videos and segment them into video shots. We then organize these shots into subsets using density-based hierarchy clustering. For each set, we rank its shots by their outlier degrees which are determined as their isolatedness with respect to their surroundings. Finally, we collect high ranked shots as training data for the action concept. We demonstrate that with action models trained by our data, we can obtain promising precision rates in the task of action classiﬁcation while o ﬀ ering the advantage of fully automatic, scalable learning. Experiment results on UCF11, a challenging action dataset, show the e ﬀ ectiveness of our method.
Adaptive Front-ends for End-to-end Source Separation

Source separation and other audio applications have traditionally relied on the use of short-time Fourier transforms as a front-end frequency domain representation step. We present an auto-encoder neural network that can act as an equivalent to short-time front-end transforms. We demonstrate the ability of the network to learn optimal, real-valued basis functions directly from the raw waveform of a signal and further show how it can be used as an adaptive front-end for end-to-end supervised source separation.
Customer Knowledge Management: People, Processes, and Technology

Customer knowledge is becoming the new competitive asset in e-business that enables companies to serve each customer in his or her preferred way, and to nurture profitable and durable customer relationships. As companies grow and interact with more and more customers through increasingly diverse media and channels, having a systematic approach to customer knowledge management becomes critical.Customer Knowledge Management: People, Processes, and Technology introduces an integrated approach to analyzing and building customer knowledge management (CKM) synergy for sustainable competitive advantage. Well-organized and unique, this book provides concise yet comprehensive coverage of CKM concepts, methodologies, tools, issues, applications, and future trends.
Clinical trial end points for assessing efficacy of novel therapies for soft-tissue sarcomas

Soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) comprise a heterogeneous group of rare malignancies from mesenchymal tissues. Although outcome varies by histology, adults with disseminated metastatic STS have a poor prognosis despite current treatment options. The authors reviewed commonly used clinical end points for STS and discussed which end points may be appropriate for evaluating the clinical benefit of novel targeted therapies. In sarcoma, surrogates for both overall survival, the gold standard end point, and the objective response rate, measured by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors, are commonly used. More appropriate end points for evaluating newly targeted agents include progression-free survival and clinical benefit rate. Results from recently completed Phase III trials of two targeted therapies in advanced STS, the mTOR inhibitor ridaforolimus and the multikinase inhibitor pazopanib, should shed light on whether progression-free survival and clinical benefit rate are appropriate end points in advanced STS.
Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion Control for Wind Turbine Load Mitigation based on Wind Speed Measurement

The design of an advanced controller for wind turbine load mitigation is presented. The controller is based on Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion control methods combined with Pseudo Control Hedging to account for the actuator limits and a two degree of freedom control system for the collective pitch control of the rotor blades. The controller uses wind speed measurement information to adjust to wind gust load. A newly developed wind turbine system dynamics library in the Modelica language is used to model an elastic wind turbine for a simulation study of the controller. The simulation results show a large reduction of the gust load on the wind turbine using the proposed controller.
Millimeter-wave/terahertz massive MIMO BDMA transmission with per-beam synchronization

We propose beam division multiple access (BDMA) with per-beam synchronization (PBS) in time and frequency for wideband massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission over millimeter-wave (mmW)/Terahertz (THz) channels. Based on a physically motivated beam domain channel model, we first show that the envelopes of the beam domain channel elements tend to be independent of time and frequency when both the numbers of antennas at base station and user terminals (UTs) tend to infinity. Motivated by this, we then propose PBS for massive MIMO. We show that both the effective delay and Doppler frequency spreads of massive MIMO channels with PBS are reduced by a factor of the number of UT antennas compared with the conventional synchronization approaches. Subsequently, we apply PBS to BDMA and investigate beam scheduling to maximize the achievable ergodic rates for BDMA. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of BDMA with PBS for mmW/THz massive MIMO in typical mobility scenarios.
MicroRNAs involved in skeletal muscle development and their roles in rhabdomyosarcoma pathogenesis

MicroRNAs (miRs) are small non‐coding RNAs known to fulfill various functions in tissue development, function, and pathogenesis of various diseases, including cancer. Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) represents the most common soft tissue tumor in the pediatric population. miRs have been shown to play important roles in RMS pathogenesis and some of the studies suggest their potential as diagnostic, prognostic, and even therapeutic tools facilitating better management of this disease. This review summarizes current information about the role of miRs in the development of normal skeletal muscle and their deregulation in RMS. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2013;60:1739–1746. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Partnerships to Improve Supply Chains

The more open exchange of information (e.g., sharing cost and demand data) and coordinated decision making typical of a long-term supply-chain partnership can reduce the inefficiencies inherent in less collaborative relationships, such as excess inventories and slow response. Different from strategic alliances or project-based partnerships, supply-chain partnerships are characterized by levels of investment that further improve the joint supply chain to mutual advantage. The authors describe two joint supply-chain improvement projects, one of which led to logistics benefits and helped reverse a traditionally adversarial relationship that, in turn, translated into commercial benefits. The second project held the potential to quickly deliver logistics benefits, yet did not yield the expected commercial value. Understanding the distinction between logistics and commercial success is critical, though often disregarded when assessing supply-chain partnerships, according to the authors. Logistics success is the degree of overall supply-chain improvement, regardless of how costs and benefits are allocated. Commercial success depends on how much more profitable trading with the partner becomes ? whether by getting a share of the logistics improvements or by obtaining better trading terms. The authors note that sacrificing some short-term logistics success may be worth achieving commercial benefits at a later stage. In contrasting the two projects, the authors identified key steps to take when beginning joint supply-chain improvement projects. They recommend a simple framework that consists of pragmatic steps often neglected in practice: Step 1. Establish mutually agreed on processes and objectives in advance. Step 2. Prepare thoroughly. Important factors are team selection, benefit-sharing agreements, analysis of opportunities, supply-chain mapping, setting of performance standards, and allocation of required resources. Step 3. Integrate the project within the respective organizations ? particularly within the purchasing group of the affiliated business. Especially in matrix organizations, benefits also must accrue to the departments that provide resources within both organizations. This tentative road map of a practical process allows firms not closely affiliated to improve supply-chain logistics and approach true partnership stature.
Use of Derivatives and Bank Holding Companies' Interest-Rate Risk

The primary finding of this study is that the use of derivatives by bank holding companies reduces the stock return sensitivity to interest-rate changes during the 1998-2003 sampling period, controlling for balance sheet composition and asset size. In this study, the extent to which derivatives lessen interest-rate risk exposure is explored. The evidence from this study indicates that managers of bank holding companies’ interest-rate risk separate their efforts to control exposure to interest-rate risk, using gap-management approaches to control exposure to changes in short-term rates and using interest-rate derivatives to control residual rate exposures such as those from changes in the slope of the term structure. This evidence suggests that interest-rate derivatives increase bank holding companies’ ability to manage exposure to changes in interest rates during the sample period (1998-2003). The results of this study are consistent with Diamond’s (1984) insight that banks using interest-rate derivatives can make better use of diversification to lessen their overall risk levels.