Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of statin therapy on plasma levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1

Summary Elevated plasma levels of the pro-thrombotic and pro-inflammatory factor plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) may contribute to the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Beyond their lipid-lowering effect, statins have been shown to modulate plasma PAI-1 levels but evidence from individual randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is controversial. Therefore, we aimed to assess the potential effects of statin therapy on plasma PAI-1 concentration through a meta-analysis of RCTs. We searched Medline and SCOPUS databases (up to October 3, 2014) to identify RCTs investigating the effect of statin therapy on plasma PAI-1 concentrations. We performed random-effects meta-analysis and assessed heterogeneity (I2 test, subgroup and sensitivity analyses) and publication bias (funnel plot, Egger and “trim and fill” tests). Sixteen RCTs (comprising 19 treatment arms) were included and pooled analyses showed a significant effect of statins in reducing plasma PAI-1 concentrations (weighted mean difference WMD: –15.72 ng/ml, 95 % confidence interval [CI]: –25.01, –6.43,). In subgroup analysis, this effect remained significant in with lipophilic statins (atorvastatin and simvastatin) (WMD: –21.32 ng/ml, 95 % CI: –32.73, –9.91, I2=99 %) and particularly atorvastatin (WMD: –20.88 ng/mL, 95 % CI: –28.79, –12.97, I2=97 %). In the meta-regression analysis, the impact of statins on PAI-1 did not correlate with the administered dose, duration of treatment and changes in plasma LDL-cholesterol concentrations. Finally, evidence of publication bias was observed. In conclusion, taking into account the limit of heterogeneity between studies, the present meta-analysis suggests that statin therapy (mainly atorvastatin) significantly lowers plasma PAI-1 concentrations.
Private Equity Fundraising, Fund Performance and Firm Specialization

Using a firm-level perspective, this paper studies the effect of specialization on the fundraising activities of private equity firms. In the empirical analysis, we consider two dimensions of specialization: asset class (venture capital versus buy-out) and industry. Using a large sample of US private equity firms, we find that stage-specialized firms raise new funds more quickly, while there is no meaningful difference for industry-specialized firms. Using a competing risk framework to model jointly time until next fundraising and type of fund, we show that fundraising is accelerated only for follow-up funds within their current area of expertise, but delayed for funds raised outside their area. This suggests that expertise cannot be easily extended to other areas. Finally, we analyze the impact of duration between two consecutive fundraising of the same PE firm on the performance of the newly launched fund. We show that there exists a trade-off between quick fundraising and the performance of the newly raised fund, which fund investors should mind before committing their capital to the new PE fund. Version: August 28, 2012 JEL classifications: G2; G24; G3
Oppositely Biased Multibit Cells for Toggle Magnetic Random Access Memory

A new type of multibit cell for toggle type MRAM is presented. The dual-bit cell stack consists of two conventional toggle MRAM cells connected in series. These cells have the same cell geometry, anisotropy, and pinned directions but have opposite magnetic bias along the anisotropy axis directions. These oppositely biasing fields shift the write field switching window of the two cells in opposite directions along the anisotropy axis and enable the dual-bit cells to be selectively toggled. The calculated write switching current margins for the multibit cell with respect to the design and material parameters are included. The write current margin is found to be similar to the single biased low write current MRAM case. This oppositely bias scheme can be combined with the earlier multibit cell of distinct anisotropy axes approach to further enhance the density of the MRAM. This new scheme doubles the multicell bit capacity and reduces the power consumption without adding the photo-patterning steps
The impact of market orientation on the performance of the Vietnamese software firms

paper focuses on the exploration of the relationship between the market orientation of the managers/entrepreneurs of the Vietnamese software firms and their business performances. However, research on market orientation is a mature area of research in the Western nations‟ perspectives, there are little knowledge about how the entrepreneurs and managers in the transition perspectives get along with the market and how this process effect on the performances of their ventures. Results of this research show that there is a positive relationship between the market orientation of the Vietnamese software firms and their business performances. This research also reveals that firm size has an influencing role on the performance setting effect of the market orientation in the firms. Furthermore this research shows that in the case of the Vietnamese software firms, „organization wide dissemination of market intelligence‟ and „organizational responsiveness to the disseminated intelligence‟ has more influence on business performance. Results of this research contributes to the knowledge for understanding about how the managers and entrepreneurs in new markets are adjusting their focuses to the market and how such adjustments are contributing o the performances of their ventures.
Wavelet decomposition and support vector machine for fault diagnosis of monoblock centrifugal pump

Monoblock centrifugal pumps play a very critical role in a variety of applications and condition monitoring of the various mechanical components of centrifugal pump becomes essential which in turn increases the productivity and reduces the breakdowns. Vibration-based continuous monitoring and analysis using machine learning approaches are gaining momentum. Particularly, artificial neural networks fuzzy logic was employed for continuous monitoring and fault diagnosis. This paper presents the use of support vector machine (SVM) algorithm for fault diagnosis through discrete wavelet features extracted from vibration signals of good and faulty conditions of the components of centrifugal pump. The classification accuracies were computed for different types of classifiers such as artificial neural network (ANN), support vector machine (SVM) and J48 decision tree algorithm.
A Compact Power Controller for Microsat Applications

This paper describes a compact, lightweight power control unit suitable for a microsat. A COTS-based approach was used in component selection to enable short lead times and parts availability in addition to facilitating a lower cost. The five boards in the unit are similar in size to a 3U form factor and are packaged in a lightweight aluminum housing, include ldr Dual 200 W boost-mode battery chargers o 8051 microcontrollers ldr 96 12-bit analog channels ldr 16 5A FET relays with individual current monitors and slew rate control ldr PWM driver for torque rods ldr Sun sensor conditioning circuitry ldr Full-duplex communications channels that support various protocols including HDLC The architecture for the unit is revealed that includes the regulation methods for battery charging and solar panel power. Microcontroller functions are described that include the possibility of performing B-dot magnetic control in addition to implementing the algorithms for solar panel power monitoring. The radiation, vibration, thermal cycling and thermal vacuum test environments that this unit has been exposed to will be summarized. The test methodology and results will be examined.
Fuel Cell Power Management Using Genetic Expression Programming in All-Electric Ships

All-electric ships (AES) are considered as an effective solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as they provide a better platform to use alternative clean energy sources such as fuel cells (FC) in place of fossil fuel. Even though FCs are promising alternative, their response is not fast enough to meet load transients that can occur in ships at sea. Therefore, high-density rechargeable battery storage systems are required to achieve stable operation under such transients. Generally, in such hybrid systems, dc/dc converters are used to interface the FC and battery into the dc link. This paper presents an intelligent FC power management strategy to improve FC performance at various operating points without employing dc/dc interfacing converters. A hybrid AES driveline model using genetic programming is utilized using Simulink and GeneXProTools4 to formulate operating FC voltage based on the load current, FC air, and fuel flow rates. Genetic algorithm is used to adjust air and fuel flow rates to keep the FC within the safe operating range at different power demands. The proposed method maintains FC performance as well as reduces fuel consumption, and, thereby, ensures the optimal power sharing between the FC and the lithium-ion battery in AES application.
Dual objective motion planning subject to state constraints

SUMMARY This paper presents a novel motion planning approach inspired by the Dynamic Programming (DP) applicable to multi degree of freedom robots (mobile or stationary) and autonomous vehicles. The proposed discrete–time algorithm enables a robot to reach its destination through an arbitrary obstacle field in the fewest number of time steps possible while minimizing a secondary objective function. Furthermore, the resulting optimal trajectory is guaranteed to be globally optimal while incorporating state constraints such as velocity, acceleration, and jerk limits. The optimal trajectories furnished by the algorithm may be further updated in real time to accommodate changes in the obstacle field and/or cost function. The algorithm is proven to terminate in a finite number of steps without its computational complexity increasing with the type or number of obstacles. The effectiveness of the global and replanning algorithms are demonstrated on a planar mobile robot with three degrees of freedom subject to velocity and acceleration limits. The computational complexity of the two algorithms are also compared to that of an A*–type search.
Streetwise motivating & rewarding employees : new and better ways to inspire your people

Streetwise is devoted exclusively to business topics. From writing business plans, to financing, to building Web site traffic, these books provide everything ambitious business professionals need. Business happens in the real world, not the classroom. Streetwise recognises this and delivers the goods - fast. No fluff. No wasted time. Just cutting-edge information managers and small business entrepreneurs need to run their business successfully.
Value-at-Risk for long and short trading positions: The case of the Athens Stock Exchange

This paper provides Value-at-Risk estimates for daily stock returns with the application of various parametric univariate models that belong to the class of ARCH models which are based on the skewed Student distribution. We use daily data for three stock indexes of the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) and three stocks of Greek companies listed in the ASE. We conduct our analysis with the adoption of the methodology suggested by Giot and Laurent (2003). Therefore, we estimate an APARCH model based on the skewed Student distribution to fully take into account the fat left and right tails of the returns distribution. We show that the estimated VaR for traders having both long and short positions in the Athens Stock Exchange is more accurately modeled by a skewed Student APARCH model that by a normal or Student distributions.
Caching Puts and Gets in a PGAS Language Runtime

We investigated a software cache for PGAS PUT and GET operations. The cache is implemented as a software write-back cache with dirty bits, local memory consistency operations, and programmer-guided prefetch. This cache supports programmer productivity while enabling communication aggregation and overlap. We evaluated an implementation of this cache for remote data within the Chapel programming language. The cache provides a 2x speedup for several distributed memory application benchmarks written in Chapel across a variety of network configurations. In addition, we observed that improvements to compiler optimization did not remove the benefit of the cache.
Comprehensive analysis of the authentication methods in wireless body area networks

WBANs are of the promising technologies, applied in the e-healthcare systems, for extracting and transferring critical medical data from patient body. In WBANs, the privacy and integrity of the patient's private medical data are very important, as a result, the WBANs communications and even communication with other E-Healthcare components should be authenticated and secured. This paper provides a complete survey and analysis of the various authentication schemes proposed in the literature to improve the WBANs security. Besides, it classifies the proposed authentication schemes based on the applied techniques for authentication and illustrates each scheme in detail. Furthermore, it highlights the advantages and limitations of the authentication schemes and presents a comprehensive comparison of their capabilities and features. Finally, the paper concludes with open issues and future research directions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The performance measurement of local banks in the era of the financial liberalization on Taiwan

This paper analyzes the operating performance of 49 local banks in Taiwan and their corresponding productivity growth over the period 2000-2002, using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and DEA-based Malmquist productivity index. Results from the analysis show that mean technical efficiency is the lowest (0.894) in 2002, reflecting the ability of resource utilization would be critical for those inefficient banks facing the competitive operating environment in Taiwan. The study also shows that the overall average productivity is increasing over the 2000-2002 period. The growth is due to innovations rather than improvements in efficiency.
FugueGenerator - Collaborative Melody Composition Based on a Generative Approach for Conveying Emotion in Music

This paper exemplifies an approach for generative music software. Therefore new operational principles are used, i.e. drawing melody contours and changing their emotional expression by making use of valence and arousal. Known connections between music, emotions and algorithms out of existing literature are used to deliver a software experience that augments the skills of individuals to make music according to the emotions they want. A user-study lateron shows the soundness of the implementation in this regard. A comprehensive analysis of in-game statistics makes it possible to measure the music produced by testers so that connections between valence, arousal, melody properties and contours and emotions will be depicted. In addition, temporal sequences of reaction patterns between music making individuals during their creative interaction are made visible. A questionnaire filled out by the testers puts the results on a solid foundation and shows that the incorporated methods are appreciated by the users to apply emotions musically as well as for being creative in a free and joyful manner.
8-PENTACHLORODIBENZOFURAN IS A MORE POTENT CYTOCHROME P 4501 A INDUCER THAN 2 , 3 , 7 , 8-TETRACHLORODIBENZO-p-DIOXIN IN HERRING GULL HEPATOCYTE CULTURES

JESSICA C. HERVÉ,yz DOUG L.D. CRUMP,z KRISTINA K. MCLAREN,z JOHN P. GIESY,§k MATTHEW J. ZWIERNIK,k STEVEN J. BURSIAN,k and SEAN W. KENNEDY*yz yDepartment of Biology, Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada zNational Wildlife Research Centre, Environment Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada §Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences and Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5B3, Canada kZoology Department and Center for Integrative Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
A comparison of simulated cloud radar output from the multiscale modeling framework global climate model with CloudSat cloud radar observations

[1] Over the last few years a new type of global climate model (GCM) has emerged in which a cloud-resolving model is embedded into each grid cell of a GCM. This new approach is frequently called a multiscale modeling framework (MMF) or superparameterization. In this article we present a comparison of MMF output with radar observations from the NASA CloudSat mission, which uses a near-nadir-pointing millimeter-wavelength radar to probe the vertical structure of clouds and precipitation. We account for radar detection limits by simulating the 94 GHz radar reflectivity that CloudSat would observe from the high-resolution cloud-resolving model output produced by the MMF. Overall, the MMF does a good job of reproducing the broad pattern of tropical convergence zones, subtropical belts, and midlatitude storm tracks, as well as their changes in position with the annual solar cycle. Nonetheless, the comparison also reveals a number of model shortfalls including (1) excessive hydrometeor coverage at all altitudes over many convectively active regions, (2) a lack of low-level hydrometeors over all subtropical oceanic basins, (3) excessive low-level hydrometeor coverage (principally precipitating hydrometeors) in the midlatitude storm tracks of both hemispheres during the summer season (in each hemisphere), and (4) a thin band of low-level hydrometeors in the Southern Hemisphere of the central (and at times eastern and western) Pacific in the MMF, which is not observed by CloudSat. This band resembles a second much weaker ITCZ but is restricted to low levels.
A Comparison of Evaluation Techniques for Building Extraction From Airborne Laser Scanning

In this paper, different methods for the evaluation of building detection algorithms are compared. Whereas pixel-based evaluation gives estimates of the area that is correctly classified, the results are distorted by errors at the building outlines. These distortions are potentially in an order of 30%. Object-based evaluation techniques are less affected by such errors. However, the performance metrics thus delivered are sometimes considered to be less objective, because the definition of a ldquocorrect detectionrdquo is not unique. Based on a critical review of existing performance metrics, selected methods for the evaluation of building detection results are presented. These methods are used to evaluate the results of two different building detection algorithms in two test sites. A comparison of the evaluation techniques shows that they highlight different properties of the building detection results. As a consequence, a comprehensive evaluation strategy involving quality metrics derived by different methods is proposed.
Identification of Pseudomonas alcaligenes chromosomal DNA in the plasmid DNA of the chlorobenzene-degrading recombinant Pseudomonas putida strain CB1-9

The recombinant Pseudomonas putida strain CB1-9, which acquired the ability to grow on chlorobenzenes, contains a 33-kilobase (kb) plasmid (pKFL3) which lacked homology to an indigenous 15-kb plasmid (pKFL1) in Pseudomonas alcaligenes C-0 parent but was homologous to a 55-kb plasmid (pKFL2) from the P. putida R5-3 parent. Chromosomal DNA of P. alcaligenes C-0 hybridized to probes prepared from pKFL3 but not to probes prepared from pKFL2. A single clone from a genomic library of P. alcaligenes C-0 hybridized to EcoRI-digested pKFL3. Southern blot hybridization with the insert DNA from that clone identified homology with specific restriction enzyme fragments in pKFL3. The ability of the recombinant to utilize 3-chlorobenzoate, chlorobenzene, and 1,4-dichlorobenzene as well as its loss of utilization of xylenes and methylbenzoates appears to be associated with the transfer and integration of chromosomal DNA from P. alcaligenes into a Tol-like plasmid of P. putida R5-3.
Munc13-4 Restricts Motility of Rab27a-expressing Vesicles to Facilitate Lipopolysaccharide-induced Priming of Exocytosis in Neutrophils*

LPS is an efficient sensitizer of the neutrophil exocytic response to a second stimulus. Although neutrophil exocytosis in response to pathogen-derived molecules plays an important role in the innate immune response to infections, the molecular mechanism underlying LPS-dependent regulation of neutrophil exocytosis is currently unknown. The small GTPase Rab27a and its effector Munc13-4 regulate exocytosis in hematopoietic cells. Whether Rab27a and Munc13-4 modulate discrete steps or the same steps during exocytosis also remains unknown. Here, using Munc13-4- and Rab27a-deficient neutrophils, we analyzed the mechanism of lipopolysaccharide-dependent vesicular priming to amplify exocytosis of azurophilic granules. We found that both Munc13-4 and Rab27a are necessary to mediate LPS-dependent priming of exocytosis. However, we show that LPS-induced mobilization of a small population of readily releasable vesicles is a Munc13-4-dependent but Rab27a-independent process. LPS-induced priming regulation could not be fully explained by secretory organelle maturation as the redistribution of the secretory proteins Rab27a or Munc13-4 in response to LPS treatment was minimal. Using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy and a novel mouse model expressing EGFP-Rab27a under the endogenous Rab27a promoter but lacking Munc13-4, we demonstrate that Munc13-4 is essential for the mechanism of LPS-dependent exocytosis in neutrophils and unraveled a novel mechanism of vesicular dynamics in which Munc13-4 restricts motility of Rab27a-expressing vesicles to facilitate lipopolysaccharide-induced priming of exocytosis.
Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis for Intersex Conditions: Beyond Parental Decision Making

Sparrow (2013b) argues that parents have ethical reasons to use preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to attempt to prevent the birth of a child with an intersex condition. While we appreciate Sparrow’s efforts, in this article and in his previous work, to take seriously the arguments of disability studies scholars, queer theorists, and feminist scholars, we disagree with Sparrow’s current arguments in four main areas. First, there are several biological and logistical arguments against the inclusion of genetically based intersex conditions in PGD protocols. To start, our understanding of the contribution of genetics to the development of intersex phenotypes is still very limited. A specific molecular diagnosis for “disorders of sexual development” (DSDs) is only made in approximately 20% of cases (Ono and Harley 2013). The complex gene interactions involved in urogenital development make it exceedingly difficult to identify a specific mutation in a single gene that reliably causes the same intersex phenotype across individuals (and thus could be included in PGD). Variations in gene dosage are common causes of intersex, so surveying the genome of any embryo for single mutations is not a useful or practical approach. With that said, the gene variants that we know to be associated with the development of intersex conditions typically (a) are unique, spontaneously occurring (“de novo”) mutations and (b) render an individual infertile. The primary use of PGD is to aid couples at high risk of transmitting a genetic disorder (Hens et al. 2013). Thus, if most intersexrelated mutations are unique, arise spontaneously, and/or are not heritable (due to infertility of the affected individual), it does not make practical sense to include intersexrelated mutations in PGD. In addition, spontaneous variations in embryonic development can cause DSDs in