Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measurement of the Consumer Benefit of Competition in Retail Outlets

In this paper, we estimate the consumer benefits of competition in the retail industry. In our analysis, we incorporated the service quality of retail outlets as outputs. In Japan, in the process of the deregulation of entry restriction on large-scale retail stores, specialty supermarkets have increased their market share with a low price strategy. At the same time, despite their high prices, convenience stores have increased their market share through 1990s. We demonstrate changes in market share for each retail format are explained by the changes in each formats respective service quality.
MicroRNA miR‐137 Regulates Neuronal Maturation by Targeting Ubiquitin Ligase Mind Bomb‐1

The maturation of young neurons is regulated by complex mechanisms and dysregulation of this process is frequently found in neurodevepmental disorders. MicroRNAs have been implicated in several steps of neuronal maturation including dendritic and axonal growth, spine development, and synaptogenesis. We demonstrate that one brain‐enriched microRNA, miR‐137, has a significant role in regulating neuronal maturation. Overexpression of miR‐137 inhibits dendritic morphogenesis, phenotypic maturation, and spine development both in brain and cultured primary neurons. On the other hand, a reduction in miR‐137 had opposite effects. We further show that miR‐137 targets the Mind bomb one (Mib1) protein through the conserved target site located in the 3′ untranslated region of Mib1 messenger RNA. Mib1 is an ubiquitin ligase known to be important for neurodevelopment. We show that exogenously expressed Mib1 could partially rescue the phenotypes associated with miR‐137 overexpression. These results demonstrate a novel miRNA‐mediated mechanism involving miR‐137 and Mib1 that function to regulate neuronal maturation and dendritic morphogenesis during development. STEM Cells 2010;28:1060–1070
What does it take to make a developmentally competent mammalian egg?

BACKGROUND A limitation to our ability to distinguish between developmentally competent and incompetent eggs is our still only partial knowledge of the critical features that are needed to make a good egg and when during oogenesis these specific characteristics are acquired. The main objective of this review is to summarize the results of areas of investigation that are contributing to our still inadequate understanding of the molecular aspects of making developmentally competent eggs. METHODS For each area discussed, a systematic search was made using PubMed. The search was without temporal limits but mainly yielded publications between 1982-1999 (23%) and 2000-2011 (77%). RESULTS Taking an oocyte-centred view, we describe throughout folliculogenesis: (i) the factors that regulate oocyte growth; (ii) the role of oocyte-cumulus cell dialogue; (iii) the epigenetic organization of the oocyte genome and (iv) the storage and regulation of maternal RNAs. CONCLUSIONS The multifaceted complex of factors involved in oocyte growth constitutes the backbone on which oocyte developmental competence is built up. Operating behind the expression of these factors is a specific epigenetic signature established during oogenesis, but our knowledge is only approximate and major efforts will be required for more accurate analyses at specific gene loci. The growing research on small silencing RNAs during oogenesis and early oocyte development is revealing these molecules' critical role in mRNA degradation. Our next challenge will be to dissect the complex interactions among the different molecular players identified and to establish the presence of functional links among these factors.
The concepts and theories of modern democracy

1. Introduction Part 1: Authority in the Modern State 2. Nationalism and the National State 3. Ethnic Cleavages, Multiculturalism and the National State 4. Globalization and the National State 5. Global Terrorism 6. Political Authority and Legitimacy Part 2: The Democratic State and the Citizen 7. Democracy 8. Political Representation 9. Political Participation 10. Liberty and Freedom 11. Rights Part 3: Political Power and Policy Making 12. Political Power 13. Pluralism 14. Elitism & Class Dominance 15. Corporatism Part 4: Styles of Political Analysis 16. Towards a Science of Politics: Positivism, Behaviouralism and Economic Models 17. Against a Science of Politics: Values, Historicism and Hermeutics
Directand IndirectTechniquesfor Free ThyroxinCompared in Patientswith NonthyroidalIllness I . Effectof Free Fatty Acids

We examined the effect of endogenous free fatty acids (FFA) on the measurement of free thyroxin (FT4) by five different methodologies represented in 16 different assays in a large number of patients with nonthyroidal illness (NTI). Some, but not all, one-step (analog) FT4 RIAs negative/ycorrelated with FFA concentration. All two-step FT4 RIAs, equilibrium dialysis FT4, and the dialyzable (free) fraction of T4 positively correlated. In contrast, a binding-rate-based FT4 RIA, FT4 indices based on T3 macroaggregated albumin uptake, and T4/TBG ratios did not correlate. We also analyzed the FT4FFA relationship with a second, more sensitive approach by correlating test results with FFA’albumin molar ratio as an estimate of the “excess” (nonalbumin bound) FFA. We found that all FT4 RIAs, equilibrium dialysis FT4, FT4 indices based on T3 uptake, the dialyzable fraction of labeled T4 in equilibrium dialysis, the fraction of labeled T4 bound to solid phase antibody in the binding-rate-based RIA, and T3 uptake correlated with the FFA/albumin molar ratio. This FFA dependency was comparable among all the various techniques and was relatively small. Thus, increases or decreases in FT4 results due to varying FFA (and albumin) concentrations are highly likely with most currently available methods (only the T4ITBG ratio did not reveal FFA-dependency), but the magnitude of changes varies with the “excess” FFA.
INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS FROM AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

Agriculture's impact on the environment is a complex research problem. A challenge to future economic research is to account for the interrelationship between agricultural production activities, soil productivity, erosion, and water quality. It will become increasingly important to determine not only the economic consequences, but also the environmental effectiveness of alternative policies aimed at improving resource use and quality. The application of biophysical simulation models to environmental quality problems provides a means to better understand the complex interaction between agricultural production and environmental quality.
Extending PSC for Monitoring the Timed Properties in Composite Services

Due to the dynamically evolving attribute, validation of composite services must be extended from design time to run-time. Dynamical verification techniques, such as runtime monitoring, have been first class activities to be performed during the execution of composite services. For a kind of composite services, nonfunctional properties, such as timed properties, are as important as functional properties and need to be monitored at run-time. However, using traditional logic and formalism, these timed properties are not easily represented for general software engineers. In order to deal with this problem, we first extend a novel notation (Property Sequence Chart) with time constructs. Then, we give its semantics in terms of timed Buchi automata and measure its expressiveness based on recently proposed real-time specification patterns. Finally, we propose a novel framework to monitor two kinds of timed properties in composite services: the accomplished time of basic service operations and some additional timed assumptions of the composition process. Our framework provides a completely graphical front-end which can friendly help general software engineers to monitor the timed properties in composite services.
Three dimensional adjustable cavity for flexible singulation of multiple medications in an automated medication dispenser

In the development of an effective medication management system to improve medication adherence, the challenge of flexibly dispensing of medications of multiple sizes and shapes was encountered. It is found that most of the medication dispensers in the market, as well as the feeding and orienting mechanisms in manufacturing sector, are customized to be operated with objects of specific size. In view of the inflexibility of those mechanisms, we proposed a novel method to handle and singulate medications of different sizes and shapes. A three dimensional adjustable cavity is designed as a carrier to separate and dispense one pill at a time. Rotational reciprocating vibration is then designed to provide centrifugal effect to the objects in hopper, in order to assist the singulation. An angle inclination test has been performed on the prototype built to investigate the optimum inclination of the feeding hopper. Preliminary testing has shown propitious results for dispensing round shape tablets of various sizes. The prototype built validated the concept of three dimensional adjustable cavity as a novel singulation technique. The mechanism is not only restricted to the dispensing of various sizes of pills, but has the potential to be implemented in dispensing or feeding of other objects in applications like vending machine, manufacturing system and etc.
Blockade of NR2A-Containing NMDA Receptors Induces Tau Phosphorylation in Rat Hippocampal Slices

Physiological activation of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) subtype of glutamate receptors has been proposed to play a key role in both neuronal cell function and dysfunction. In the present study, we used selective NMDA receptor antagonists to investigate the involvement of NR2A and NR2B subunits in the modulatory effect of basal NMDA receptor activity on the phosphorylation of Tau proteins. We observed, in acute hippocampal slice preparations, that blockade of NR2A-containing NMDA receptors by the NR2A antagonist NVP-AAM077 provoked the hyperphosphorylation of a residue located in the proline-rich domain of Tau (i.e., Ser199). This effect seemed to be Ser199 specific as there was no increase in phosphorylation at Ser262 and Ser409 residues located in the microtubule-binding and C-terminal domains of Tau proteins, respectively. From a mechanistic perspective, our study revealed that blockade of NR2A-containing receptors influences Tau phosphorylation probably by increasing calcium influx into neurons, which seems to rely on accumulation of new NR1/NR2B receptors in neuronal membranes and could involve the cyclin-dependent kinase 5 pathway.
Automatic classification of travertine stones based on sum and difference histograms algorithm

Many industrial machines are used in travertine stone industry. But classification of this type of stone in terms of quality and appearance is generally done by human experts. Using of human experts for classification has a lot of errors, times, and costs. The reason of choosing of travertine stone is the large variety and increasing use of this stone in the building industry. Also, the classification problem in this stone has not been studied yet. Therefore, the need of automatic and computerized methods for classification of travertine stone is very useful. In this study, a set of travertine stones including 124 images from four groups was prepared. The feature extraction approach called sum and difference histogram (SDH) is used and several classification algorithms are applied. The simulation results show that the proposed approach has acceptable classification performance in travertine stones.
Psychophysiology of digital game playing: The relationship of self-reported emotions with phasic physiological responses

Digital game playing is the fastest growing form of entertainment media [1]. Given that emotions and emotionrelated variables (e.g., competitiveness) play a critical role in gaming behavior [2, 3], increasing our understanding of what actually happens during video game playing in terms of emotional responses is of increasing importance from the point of view of communication researchers, media psychologists, and game industry (game developers).
D-logic exploration: Rapid search of Pareto fronts during architectural synthesis of custom processors

Searching for a superior architecture in the design space of data paths during architectural synthesis of application specific (custom) processors is not a trivial task. This requires simultaneously resolving multiple conflicting design objectives as well as efficient management of orthogonal issues such as exploration speed and quality of result. This paper introduces a novel methodology using Dominance criterion (D-logic) to efficiently combat the problem of design space exploration (DSE) of functional resources during architectural synthesis. Novel D-logic models for power, area and execution time parameters have been proposed in this paper that deterministically resolves the orthogonal issues encountered during DSE, thereby resulting into a set of non-dominated Pareto fronts. Finally the optimal point from the Pareto fronts is selected based on the final user objective. The proposed method is several orders of magnitude faster and superior in terms of searching Pareto fronts and indentifying an optimal solution than most of the current stochastic techniques employed for DSE in architectural synthesis. This has been confirmed through the results obtained after comparison with a recent genetic based DSE technique where average improvement in quality of results (QoR) achieved is >9% (in terms of power and execution time) and average reduction in exploration time is >90%.
Improving Project Management with Lean Thinking?

In the new business economy, project management has become a central way for undertaking several of the business activities. One of the increasing and most significant concerns with projects is that, projects are behind schedule, over budget and show unsatisfactory performance in terms quality and customer satisfaction. In the last few decades the manufacturing industry successfully improved quality and productivity, by using the concepts of lean thinking. The thesis explores the relevance of lean concepts in project management and how lean concepts can improve project productivity. The qualitative method is used in this study. Further, a systematic approach was used to identify the relevance of lean concepts in project management. The qualitative data was collected using an interview with a project consultant. The results of the study reveal that all concepts of lean thinking are relevant to project management in specific kinds of projects. However, a greater degree of understanding and interpretation of each concept is needed when applying lean thinking in project management. Furthermore, some of the concepts have to be interpreted with caution when they are used in innovative projects. In general, it is found that, lean project management can improve project productivity. The findings suggest that the lean concepts can reduce cost and time which are two key measures of project success. The results of this study can be seen as a tentative framework intended to stimulate further discussion about integrating lean thinking in project and program management.
Expanding Our View of Teaching and Learning: Applying Constructivist Theory(s) to Teachers Education.

TITLE Expanding Our View of Teaching and Learning: Applying Constructivist Theory(s) to Teachers Education. PUB DATE 2003-00-00 NOTE 33p. ; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (New Orleans, LA, January 24-27, 2003). PUB TYPE Information Analyses (070) Speeches/Meeting Papers (150) EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Portfolio Assessment; Action Research; *Constructivism (Learning); Cooperative Learning; Educational Environment; Elementary Secondary Education; Field Experience Programs; Higher Education; *Inservice Teacher Education; Interpersonal Relationship; *Preservice Teacher Education; Problem Solving; Reflective Teaching; Student Attitudes; Student Participation; Teacher Attitudes IDENTIFIERS Authenticity; Learner Centered Instruction
Nonasymptotic bounds for vector quantization in Hilbert spaces

Recent results in quantization theory show that the convergence rate for the mean-squared expected distortion of the empirical risk minimizer strategy, for any fixed probability distribution satisfying some regularity conditions is O(1/n), where n is the sample size. However, the dependency of the average distortion on other parameters is not known. This paper offers more general conditions, which may be thought of as margin conditions, under which a sharp upper bound on the expected distortion rate of the empirically optimal quantizer is derived. This upper bound is also proved to be sharp with respect to the dependency of the distortion on other natural parameters of the quantization issue.
Exploring the Benefits of Information Sharing in a Distribution System

In a distribution system, the distribution center (DC) observes order streams from all retailers it serves while each individual retailer may only have the local demand information available. This paper investigates how the DC can exploit this informational advantage over the retailers to improve its own performance as well as the performance of the entire supply chain. Specifically, we study a stylized model with one DC and two retailers. The demand processes of the retailers are subject to potential market interactions and thus are modeled by a vector ARMA process. Given that each individual retailer only observes its own demand process, we show that the DC can recover the joint external demand process from the retailers order histories. If the DC shares with the retailers the information derived from the joint demand process, the retailers can always improve their forecasting accuracy and reduce inventory cost. However, the DCs forecasting accuracy and cost performance may deteriorate because additional information alters the retailers order processes and may decrease their predictability. In the special case of zero lead times, we establish a necessary and sufficient condition for the DC itself to benefit from information sharing. In the case of general lead times, we quantify the magnitude of the benefit/loss by a numerical study. We also examine the information security and privacy issues raised in our settings that may prohibit the DC from sharing information and materializing the associated benefits. The existence of privacy preserving information-sharing mechanisms is established, and a protocol is developed for the DC to prove that the improved demand forecasts are indeed credible without releasing one retailers demand information to the other. (Key Terms: Information Sharing; Forecasting; Distribution System; Privacy Preserving)
National Centre of Competence in Research Financial Valuation and Risk Management Working Paper No . 242 Guiding analysts and rational autocorrelation in forecast errors

Empirical investigations of analysts’ forecast surveys concerning financial or macroeconomic variables find significant time varying biases such as autocorrelation in the time series of forecast errors. This fact is usually attributed to behavioral biases of analysts. We develop a random dynamical system describing the evolution of forecasts, actual outcomes and fundamental values, when insiders manipulate analysts’ forecasts to minimize short-term variation in the actual outcomes. Studying optimal control, we can show that autocorrelated forecast errors are induced and, hence, rational. The Reuters survey of institutional euro-dollar forecasts reveals, that the central bank has tried to control the volatility of the external value of Euroland’s assets and autocorrelated forecast errors are created. ∗Financial support by the National Center of Competence in Research ”Financial Valuation and Risk Management” (NCCR-FINRISK) is gratefully acknowledged. The national centers in research are managed by the Swiss National Science Foundation on behalf of the federal authorities. We are grateful to Thorsten Hens and Wolfgang Koehler for valuable comments. Furthermore, we would like to thank Reuters for providing us with data on their quarterly poll regarding banks’ forecasts of economic variables, and Tan Schelling for preparing the data. Corresponding author: peter.woehrmann@iew.unizh. ch
Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases‐1 (TIMP‐1) modulates neuronal death, axonal plasticity, and learning and memory

The tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases‐1 (TIMP‐1) belongs to a family of multifunctional proteins that inhibit matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), but also regulate cell growth, proliferation, migration and apoptosis in non‐nervous tissues. We had previously reported that kainate (KA)‐mediated excitotoxic seizures induce the expression of TIMP‐1 in resistant neurons and reactive astrocytes of the rat CNS, but the functional implications of these changes had not been elucidated. In the present work we used a targeted gene null mutation in mice to investigate in vivo the involvement of TIMP‐1 in neuronal death and axonal sprouting following KA. We found no differences in seizure behaviour between the wild‐type (WT) and the TIMP‐1 knock‐out (KO) mice, without any compensation by other TIMPs, at least at the mRNA level. However, the TIMP‐1 KO mice were resistant to excitotoxicity and did not undergo the typical mossy fibre sprouting observed in WT mice. The lack of TIMP‐1 paradoxically hampered the increase in the activity of MMPs observed in the seizing WT mice. In addition, we demonstrate that learning and memory are impaired in untreated KO mice. In conclusion, this study provides the first in vivo evidence for the implication of TIMP‐1 in neuronal death and axonal sprouting in a pathological situation, but also suggests the involvement of TIMP‐1 in the synaptic mechanisms underlying learning and memory in physiological conditions. More generally, these data support the idea that the control of proteolysis is instrumental for pathological and physiological processes in the brain.
Formalizing exception handling in WS-CDL and WS-BPEL for conformance verification

We have previously developed a formal approach to verifying conformance for web services choreography based on the formalism of Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP). In this paper, we extend the approach to cover exception handling, which is commonly used in specifying the choreography as well as orchestration of web services. In particular, we show how timeout exceptions and message events are handled in the formal approach and illustrate it using a document ordering and delivery process as an example.
Surveying the frontier between signal processing and dynamical systems

The first and most obvious rapprochement between the areas of signal processing (SiP) and that of dynamical systems (DS) is their very fundamental interest: the analysis, prediction and control of real world physical systems, either natural or man-made. This occurred quite fast at the level of analysis and modeling tools, either research area borrowing with great ease methods and concepts from another, from elementary to the very complex levels. The main purpose of this paper is to review several such convincing examples, presenting them from a global perspective. The question of the chaotic systems, a subclass of DS, is also addressed. While already used in large bandwidth communications, their influence is shown to be extendable even further. On this line, their use in sea electromagnetic echo is presented. The article ends with conclusions, which analyze the pros and the cons, and perspectives, which are aimed at future research axis.