Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Game theory based resource management framework for revenue maximization and differentiated services in competitive wireless data networks

This dissertation takes a game theoretic approach to model non-cooperative relationship between the service providers and the customers in a competitive environment, and utilizes the game formulation to propose an novel framework to solve the resource management problem in code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless data networks, providing flexibility to support differentiated quality of service (QoS) to different classes of users at the same time. At the session (or macro) level, the admission control problem is formulated as a non-cooperative game between the service provider and the user(s) requesting admission into the network. Two modes of admission are considered: admitting the users one at a time, and in batch mode. The user behavior of migrating between service providers, which is called churning, is modeled with the help of utility functions for the players. It is shown that each instance of the admission control game has an equilibrium or a dominant strategy, which clearly defines the service provider's admission strategy. It is also shown that the batch admission mode yields better overall utility, at the cost of longer admission delay. At the medium access control (MAC) frame (or micro) level, a multi-rate CDMA system model is employed. In this model, different groups of users are allowed to have different subscribed transmission rates, and it is allowed to go below the subscribed rate when congestion happens at the air interface. The proposed optimal rate allocation strategy is guided by the user churn rate that is derived directly from the user's satisfaction (utility). The NP-Complete optimal rate allocation problem is solved by highly efficient heuristics that produce high quality sub-optimal solutions. The admission control and rate allocation schemes at two levels interact with each other through the use of the utility functions. In particular, the rate allocation decides on the instantaneous utility for the service provider and the user, while the admission control makes use of such instantaneous utility and ensures that the overall utility is maximized. The performance of the integrated admission and rate control framework is studied in detail with extensive simulations under realistic traffic models. Analytical and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed framework is able to improve the total revenue for the service provider as much as 45%. Moreover, the differentiated QoS is achieved for different classes of users, both at the session level and the frame level.
Online Dispute Resolution for Business: B2b, Ecommerce, Consumer, Employment, Insurance, and Other Commercial Conflicts

Preface.Introduction. Part I: What Is ODR? 1. Overview.2. How ODR Works.3. Advantages of ODR.Part II: ODR and Business.4. ODR: Essential to E-Commerce.5. Providing Online Redress: ODR and B2C E-Commerce.6. A Well-Lighted Place: ODR and B2B E-Commerce.7. Maximizing Efficiency:How ODR Can Help the Insurance Industry.8. ODR and Employment: Resolving Workplace Disputes Online.9. Electronic Democracy: ODR and Government.10. Confidentiality and Privacy:Health Care and Finance.11. Building a Global Justice System: ODR and Transboundary Disputes.12. Other Applications of ODR.Part III: Designing Effective ODR for Business: Envisioning the Fourth Party.13. Key Considerations: Designing ODR for People, Not Machines.14. Designing the Platform: Technology.15. Defining the Process: Setting Standards of Practice.16. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). 17. Conclusion.Appendix. Notes.Suggested Reading.Index. About the Author.
FOSL1 Is Integral to Establishing the Maternal-Fetal Interface

ABSTRACT Remodeling of uterine spiral arteries by trophoblast cells is a requisite process for hemochorial placentation and successful pregnancy. The rat exhibits deep intrauterine trophoblast invasion and accompanying trophoblast-directed vascular modification. The involvement of phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K), AKT, and Fos-like antigen 1 (FOSL1) in regulating invasive trophoblast and hemochorial placentation was investigated using Rcho-1 trophoblast stem cells and rat models. Disruption of PI3K/AKT with small-molecule inhibitors interfered with the differentiation-dependent elaboration of a signature invasive-vascular remodeling trophoblast gene expression profile and trophoblast invasion. AKT isoform-specific knockdown also affected the signature invasive-vascular remodeling trophoblast gene expression profile. Nuclear FOSL1 increased during trophoblast cell differentiation in a PI3K/AKT-dependent manner. Knockdown of FOSL1 disrupted the expression of a subset of genes associated with the invasive-vascular remodeling trophoblast phenotype, including the matrix metallopeptidase 9 gene (Mmp9). FOSL1 was shown to occupy regions of the Mmp9 promoter in trophoblast cells critical for the regulation of Mmp9 gene expression. Inhibition of FOSL1 expression also abrogated trophoblast invasion, as assessed in vitro and following in vivo trophoblast-specific lentivirally delivered FOSL1 short hairpin RNA (shRNA). In summary, FOSL1 is a key downstream effector of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway responsible for development of trophoblast lineages integral to establishing the maternal-fetal interface.
Development of a Stability Indicating UPLC-MS/MS Method for Rapid and Reliable Determination of Fenofibrate in Marketed Product (Lypanthyl® 200M) and Human Plasma

A reliable, fast, sensitive and selective Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method has been developed and validated for the determination of fenofibrate in marketed product (Lipanthyl) and human plasma. The chromatographic separation was performed on a reversed-phase Acquity®BEH C 18 column (1.7 μm particle size, 50 mm x 2.1 mm ID) with an isocratic elution profile and mobile phase consisting of methanol and water (80:20, %, v/v). To achieve optimum chromatographic condition the influence of mobile phase composition and flow rate was investigated. The total chromatograph ic analysis time was as short as 2 min. Detection and quantification of the analyzed drug sample were carried out with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer using Electrospray Ionization (ESI) operating in positive ionization mode. The data acquisition was performed in Multiple Reactions Monitoring (MRM) mode. The method was validated over a concentration range of 0.5-200ng/ mL (r 2 =0.993, n=6). The selectivity, matrix effect, recovery, accuracy, precision, and stabilities were validated for determination of fenofibrate in human plasma. Analytical recoveries of extracted fenofibrate from plasma were more than 92%. The validation results showed that the proposed method was sensitive, economical and less toxic and it could successfully be applied for evaluation of pharmacokinetics of fenofibrate in animals.
Directional control of an omnidirectional walking support walker: adaptation to individual differences with fuzzy learning

We are developing a method to recognize a user’s directional intention to control an omnidirectional walker (ODW) according to the force interaction between the ODW and the user. Since the characteristics in the force interaction are different among persons especially for those with walking difficulty, a fuzzy learning method is developed in this study to adapt to the individual difference in forearm pressures in order to improve the usability of the method. The experiment results show that fuzzy learning can significantly improve the accuracy of recognition by updating the fuzzy rules according to the characteristics in the force interaction. Graphical Abstract
Negative symbolic consumption and consumers’ drive for self‐esteem: The case of the fashion industry

Self‐esteem is an important motivational drive for consumption involving both the acceptance and rejection/avoidance of symbolic goods. This paper examines the relationship between self‐esteem and the rejection of goods and brands within the context of fashion consumption by young professionals. A conceptualisation which accounts for consumers’ use of various strategies in their efforts to maintain or enhance their self‐esteem is suggested. A small‐scale exploratory study is used to examine first, how consumers invest products and brands with negative symbolic meanings; and second, how this leads consumers to reject products and brands. The importance of understanding negative symbolic consumption when marketing high involvement products such as fashion goods is identified; and the implications for fashion retailers and marketing management are discussed.
Toward an inclusive semantic interoperability: the case of Cree hydrographic features

There has been ample work in GIScience on the formalization of ontologies but a relatively neglected area is the influence of language and culture on ontologies of geography. Although this subject has been investigated for conceptual ontologies using indigenous words denoting geographic features, this article represents the first attempt to develop a logical ontology with an indigenous group. The process of developing logical ontologies is here referred to as formalization. A methodology for formalizing ontologies with indigenous peoples is presented. A conceptual (human readable) ontology and a logical (axioms specified in mathematical logic) ontology were developed using this methodology. Research was conducted with the Cree, the largest indigenous language grouping in Canada. Results show that the geospatial ontology developed from Cree geographic concepts possesses unique design considerations: no superordinate classes were found from archival sources or Cree speakers so ontologies are structurally flat; the ontology contains some unique classes of water bodies; and the ontology challenges our notions of the generalizability of ontologies within indigenous groups. Whereas these difficulties are not insurmountable to the establishment of a cross-cultural Geospatial Semantic Web, the current plans of the World Wide Web Consortium do not adequately address them. We suggest future directions toward an inclusive semantic interoperability.
Soluble IL-6 Receptor Governs IL-6 Activity in Experimental Arthritis: Blockade of Arthritis Severity by Soluble Glycoprotein 130

Studies in IL-6-deficient (IL-6−/−) mice highlight that IL-6 contributes to arthritis progression. However, the molecular mechanism controlling its activity in vivo remains unclear. Using an experimental arthritis model in IL-6−/− mice, we have established a critical role for the soluble IL-6R in joint inflammation. Although intra-articular administration of IL-6 itself was insufficient to reconstitute arthritis within these mice, a soluble IL-6R-IL-6 fusion protein (HYPER-IL-6) restored disease activity. Histopathological assessment of joint sections demonstrated that HYPER-IL-6 increased arthritis severity and controlled intrasynovial mononuclear leukocyte recruitment through the CC-chemokine CCL2. Activation of synovial fibroblasts by soluble IL-6R and IL-6 emphasized that these cells may represent the source of CCL2 in vivo. Specific blockade of soluble IL-6R signaling in wild-type mice using soluble gp130 ameliorated disease. Consequently, soluble IL-6R-mediated signaling represents a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
Financial Centre Productivity and Innovation prior to and during the Financial Crisis

This paper assesses and tests the response of banks operating in the financial centres to the financial crisis in terms of the actual productivity change and its main components: the pure efficiency change, scale efficiency change and technological change (innovation). The heterogeneity in the organizational form and the size that exists among banks have been accounted for with the Aggregated Malmquist Productivity Index and the bootstrap techniques extended to this index. Our findings indicate that both the branch and subsidiary banks respond to the financial crisis with productivity improvements, and in both cases, this improvement is driven mostly by the positive technical change. However, the branch banks outperform the subsidiary banks. In addition, for the three categories of big, medium and small banks, we find a positive productivity reaction to the crisis, driven by the technical change. However, as small banks not only respond to the financial crisis with improvements in the technical change but also in the scale-efficiency change, they seem to reach a higher productivity growth, compared with larger banks, as a response to the financial crisis.
Do short-sellers arbrtrage accrual-based return anomalies?

We find a positive association between short-selling and accruals, and between short-selling and NOA, during 1988-2003. The accrual and NOA return anomalies are asymmetric. The absolute value of mean abnormal returns is larger for high-accrual firms than low-accrual firms on NASDAQ, but not on NYSE, and the abnormal return asymmetry is stronger among firms with low institutional holdings. For NOA, there is only limited evidence that the abnormal return asymmetry is stronger on NASDAQ than on NYSE. These findings indicate that there is short arbitrage of the accrual and NOA anomalies, but that short sale constraints limit the effectiveness of short arbitrage (especially among NASDAQ firms).
Participation in sustainable tourism development : stakeholders & partnership working

In order to achieve more sustainable development, many are advocating the crucial role of involving a comprehensive range of stakeholders in all stages of the development process, from policy making to project implementation. Following the sustainable development literature, it is believed that tourism will also achieve greater levels of sustainability if all stakeholders participate in its development. As the interest in stakeholders has grown, so too have partnerships become popular vehicles for the delivery of strategic goals, such that other more dynamic, less resource intensive forms of stakeholder participation may be overlooked. Given the widespread interest in stakeholders, it might be anticipated that there would be a well-developed theory of stakeholding. While there is a stakeholder theory, which some tourism researchers have previously used, its current value is questioned here and a number of other organisational theories are therefore considered in an attempt to develop a more comprehensive framework for analysing stakeholding in practice. By also reflecting on collaboration, network and structuration theories, a fuller understanding of the complex range of issues is enabled. Tourism in Wales is investigated here, which provides an interesting case study as it has recently undergone a restructuring process that attempted to increase coordination between and involvement of stakeholders. There is also a policy commitment, driven by the National Assembly for Wales, for increased partnership working between organisations. Policy and strategy documents from key organisations were analysed for their commitment to stakeholder involvement and a comprehensive range of stakeholder groups was interviewed. The study explores who the stakeholders are, the kind of mechanisms and processes employed to ensure that views are heard, and the effects of doing so in terms of benefits and problems. The network and coordination structures that underlie all communications are also key considerations. Analysis is undertaken at two different levels a national and regional level of organisational coordination, as well as a local level case study of a scheme involving diverse stakeholder groups. How the different levels interact and the associated issues are also considered. It is concluded that while there are some positive structural moves, there are also some embedded social constraints that mean more effective forms of stakeholder participation are not yet fully operationalised. The top-down focus on partnership working has meant that while some more well-resourced organisations and individuals have enjoyed more privileged access to decision-making processes, more 'grass-roots' stakeholders' opportunities to participate have not greatly increased. The evident enthusiasm for partnership working and stakeholder involvement must therefore be carefully nurtured to ensure success.
Peak-power reduction for multiple-scan circuits during test application

This paper proposes a novel method to reduce the peak power of multiple scan chain based circuits during testing. The peak periodicity and the peak width of the power waveforms for scan-based circuits are analyzed. An interleaving scan architecture based on adding delay buffers among the scan chains is proposed which can significantly reduce the peak power. This method can be efficiently employed in a recently proposed broadcast multiple scan architecture due to the sharing of scan patterns. The effects of the interleaving scan technique applied to the conventional multiple scan and the broadcast multiple scan with 10 scan chains are investigated. The improvement percentage can be up to 50% when the data output of a scan cell is affected by the scan path during scan. When the data output is disabled during scan, 76% of peak-power reduction can be achieved.
Nucleotide Binding by Lhs1p Is Essential for Its Nucleotide Exchange Activity and for Function in Vivo

Protein translocation and folding in the endoplasmic reticulum of Saccharomyces cerevisiae involves two distinct Hsp70 chaperones, Lhs1p and Kar2p. Both proteins have the characteristic domain structure of the Hsp70 family consisting of a conserved N-terminal nucleotide binding domain and a C-terminal substrate binding domain. Kar2p is a canonical Hsp70 whose substrate binding activity is regulated by cochaperones that promote either ATP hydrolysis or nucleotide exchange. Lhs1p is a member of the Grp170/Lhs1p subfamily of Hsp70s and was previously shown to function as a nucleotide exchange factor (NEF) for Kar2p. Here we show that in addition to this NEF activity, Lhs1p can function as a holdase that prevents protein aggregation in vitro. Analysis of the nucleotide requirement of these functions demonstrates that nucleotide binding to Lhs1p stimulates the interaction with Kar2p and is essential for NEF activity. In contrast, Lhs1p holdase activity is nucleotide-independent and unaffected by mutations that interfere with ATP binding and NEF activity. In vivo, these mutants show severe protein translocation defects and are unable to support growth despite the presence of a second Kar2p-specific NEF, Sil1p. Thus, Lhs1p-dependent nucleotide exchange activity is vital for ER protein biogenesis in vivo.
Bandwidth Enhancement: Correcting Magnitude and Phase Distortion in Wideband Piezoelectric Transducer Systems

Acoustic ultrasonic measurements are widespread and commonly use transducers exhibiting resonant behaviour due to the piezoelectric nature of their active elements, being designed to give maximum sensitivity in the bandwidth of interest. We present a characterisation of such transducers that provides both magnitude and phase information describing the way in which the receiver responds to a surface displacement over its frequency range. Consequently, these devices work efficiently and linearly over only a very narrow band of their overall frequency range. In turn, this causes phase and magnitude distortion of linear signals. To correct for this distortion, we introduce a software technique, which considers only the input and the final output signals of the whole systemwhich is therefore generally applicable to any acoustic system. By correcting for the distortion of the magnitude and phase responses, we have ensured the signal seen at the receiver replicates the desired signal. We demonstrate a bandwidth extension on the received signal from 60-130 kHz at -6dB to 40-200 kHz at -1dB in a test system. The linear chirp signal we used to demonstrate this method showed the received signal to be almost identical to the desired linear chirp. Such systemcharacterisation will improve ultrasonic techniques when investigating material properties by maximising the accuracy of magnitude and phase estimations.
Bundling communication messages in large scale cloud environments

Cloud computing has been receiving a growing attention due to its features on the provisioning of computing resources for distributed processing. A lot of interest lays on the enabled benefits of flexible and elastic management of cheap and reliable computing sources though virtualization. The cheap characteristic brought from virtualization helps data centers to host more than one operating system on any machine. However, the time-sharing nature of virtualization and the existence of more software layers lead to larger delays in execution and network communications. The bundling of network messages directed to the same destination can be used as means to reduce the number of network transfers. In this paper, the effect of different message bundling aspects closely related to cloud applications is investigated. Analysis shows that message bundling effectively enhances communication efficiency; however, it is directly influenced by parameters such as number of messages, length of the bundling cycle, and number processing units. Thus, the highest performance gain is achieved by flexibly adjusting according bundling parameters towards data communication in large-scale cloud environments.
Establishing trust in social commerce through social word of mouth

Social commerce, a new stream in e-commerce, enables hyper-informed consumers to support the businesses in new product development. Hyper-informed consumers are the results of online communication provided by social media. These consumers have been empowered by Web 2.0 technologies to have online communication, which drives value for the companies in new product development. Trust is one the values that might be provided by the online communication of individuals through sharing the knowledge and experience of a new product. The paper sheds on new product development and trust concepts along with social commerce construct theory in order to develop a research model for investigating the impact of online communication of consumers, which produce social word of mouth on trust building mechanisms. The results from a survey reveal that social word of mouth, offered by social media, increases the level of trust on new products. The conclusion, discussion, and future research suggestion in the end of the paper support its contribution to the track of marketing and innovation.
Competitive Bidding with Disparate Information

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