Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PROMOTION, SWITCHING BARRIERS, AND LOYALTY

This paper investigates the causal relationships among promotion effects, switching barriers, and loyalty in the department stores. The relationship between switching barriers and loyalty reveals partially the same results as the switching barriers theory of Jones et al. (2000). The reasons arise from “too often” and “too similar” sales promotion programs of competitive department stores in Taiwan, leading the promotion effects to not contribute to the attractiveness of competitors. The promotion effects have a positive and significant influence on loyalty, which is consistent with the prior literature. Promotion effects are also the most important weight to loyalty in our tested model but it reveals a seeming loyalty, because the loyalty depends on the reward of promotion. The negative relationship between promotion effects and attractiveness of alternative supports the promotion effects, which can lower the attractiveness of competitors, but these similar promotion plans are not attributed to interpersonal relationships.
Cutting Edge: Two Distinct Mechanisms Lead to Impaired T Cell Homeostasis in Janus Kinase 3- and CTLA-4-Deficient Mice1

Cytokine receptor signaling and costimulatory receptor signaling play distinct roles in T cell activation. Nonetheless, deficiencies in either of these pathways lead to seemingly similar phenotypes of impaired T cell homeostasis. A dramatic expansion of CD4+ peripheral T cells with an activated phenotype has been observed in both Janus kinase (Jak) 3-deficient and CTLA-4-deficient mice. Despite these similarities, the mechanisms driving T cell expansion may be distinct. To address this possibility, we examined the TCR repertoire of peripheral T cells in Jak3−/− and CTLA-4−/− mice using complementarity-determining region 3 spectratype analysis. Interestingly, a restricted and highly biased TCR repertoire was observed in the Jak3−/− T cells, strongly supporting a role for foreign Ag in the activation and expansion of these cells. In contrast, CTLA-4−/− T cells had a diverse and unbiased TCR repertoire, suggestive of a universal, Ag-independent mechanism of activation and expansion. These findings provide insight into the diverse mechanisms controlling T cell homeostasis.
A new feature constituting approach to detection of vocal fold pathology

In the last two decades, non-invasive methods through acoustic analysis of voice signal have been proved to be excellent and reliable tool to diagnose vocal fold pathologies. This paper proposes a new feature vector based on the wavelet packet transform and singular value decomposition for the detection of vocal fold pathology. k-means clustering based feature weighting is proposed to increase the distinguishing performance of the proposed features. In this work, two databases Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) voice disorders database and MAPACI speech pathology database are used. Four different supervised classifiers such as k-nearest neighbour (k-NN), least-square support vector machine, probabilistic neural network and general regression neural network are employed for testing the proposed features. The experimental results uncover that the proposed features give very promising classification accuracy of 100% for both MEEI database and MAPACI speech pathology database.
Induction of Apoptosis and Cell Cycle Arrest by Dorema Glabrum Root Extracts in a Gastric Adenocarcinoma (AGS) Cell Line

Objective: Dorema glabrum Fisch. & C.A. Mey is a perennial plant that has several curative properties. Anti-proliferative activity of seeds of this plant has been demonstrated in a mouse fibrosarcoma cell line. The aim of the present study was to evaluate cytotoxicity of D. glabrum root extracts in a human gastric adenocarcinoma (AGS) cell line and explore mechanisms of apoptosis induction, cell cycle arrest and altered gene expression in cancer cells. Materials and Methods: The MTT assay was used to evaluate IC50 values, EB/AO staining to analyze the mode of cell death, and flow cytometry to assess the cell cycle. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) amplification was performed with apoptosis and cell cycle-related gene primers, for cyclin D1, c-myc, survivin, VEGF, Bcl-2, Bax, and caspase-3 to determine alteration of gene expression. Results: Our results showed that n-hexane and chloroform extracts had greatest toxic effects on gastric cancer cells with IC50 values of 6.4 µg/ml and 4.6 µg/ml, respectively, after 72 h. Cell cycle analysis revealed that the population of treated cells in the G1 phase was increased in comparison to controls. Cellular morphological changes indicated induction of apoptosis. In addition, mRNA expression levels of Bax and caspase-3 were increased, and of bcl-2 survivin, VEGF, c-myc and cyclin D1 were decreased. Conclusion: Our study results suggest that D. glabrum has cytotoxic effects on AGS cells, characterized by enhanced apoptosis, reduced cell viability and arrest of cell cycling.
Depolarization‐dependent survival of cultured mouse cerebellar granule neurons is strain‐restrained

Cerebellar granule neurons (CGNs) isolated from the rat are often used as a model system for the analysis of activity‐dependent survival of neurons. These cells do not survive in culture without addition of a depolarizing agent (KCl or glutamate) to the medium. However, it has been reported that mouse CGN behave differently. Here we found that the requirement for depolarization for the survival of the mouse CGN was strain‐dependent, which may be important for future analyses using transgenic animals. CGNs from the Balb/C mouse could survive without KCl addition, whereas CGNs from the C57Bl/6 mouse could not (similar to the rat CGN). The survival‐promoting activity of the Balb/C mouse CGNs was transferable by coculturing. However, the medium of the Balb/C mouse CGN culture was ineffective, suggesting that the neurotrophic substance that is supposed to be released is labile. Although we are yet to specify the substance, it might be independent of neurotrophins. It is necessary to select the strain of mouse in the production of transgenic animals for the analyses of activity‐dependent neuronal survival.
The Freudenstein Equation and Design of Four-link Mechanisms

Ferdinand Freudenstein (1926-2006) is widely acknowledged to be the father of modern kinematics of mechanisms and machines. His Ph. D. thesis in 1954 and subsequent research papers by him and his students have influenced academic and industrial research, teaching and practice related to the analysis and design of mechanisms and machines throughout the world. In this article, we revisit Freudenstein’s thesis and the equation named after him. The Freudenstein equation results from an analytical approach towards analysis and design of four-link mechanisms which, along with its variants, are present in a large number of machines used in daily life.
Tavelures du pommier et de l'olivier : réalisation de modèles épidémiologiques par des méthodes exploitant des observations biologiques acquises au verger

La modelisation de la dynamique epidemiologique des ascomycetes parasites des arbres fruitiers presente deux aspects tres importants : l’evaluation de la quantite d'inoculum et de son evolution, et l’identification des evenements climatiques donnant lieu a une contamination. Le travail presente aborde ces deux aspects au travers de deux exemples : la tavelure du pommier, et la maladie de l’œil de paon de l’olivier, parasites majeurs pour les filieres concernees.L’acquisition des connaissances sur la biologie des deux maladies a ete abordee uniquement sur la base de donnees acquises sur le terrain, ce qui est original car generalement les modeles ont ete realises sur la base de connaissances etablies en conditions controlees.Dans le cas de Venturia inaequalis, agent de la tavelure du pommier, la vitesse de developpement journalier de l’inoculum a ete etablie par optimisation numerique, sur la base d’observations realisees en Provence. Un modele de dynamique de projection des ascospores incluant la suspension de l’evolution de l’inoculum primaire lors des periodes seches a ete realise puis valide sur un jeu de donnees independantes. La transposabilite du modele a ete ensuite etudiee pour une autre region (Aquitaine). Dans le cas de Fusicladium oleagineum, agent de la maladie de l’oeil de paon, les conditions de contamination ont ete etablies en fonction de la temperature et de l’hygrometrie, d’une part par la realisation d’un abaque sur la base de points selectionnes par dires d’expert, et d’autre part de facon automatique a l’aide d’un systeme par apprentissage (reseau de neurones). Un modele, liant la temperature moyenne apres la contamination a l’apparition des symptomes a ete ensuite realise.
The effect of phenotype variation on detection of linkage in the COGA data

Error in phenotypic measurement can significantly compromise ability to detect linkage. We assessed the impact of introducing phenotypic measurement error on our ability to detect a quantitative trait locus in the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) data. The impact of introducing three different types of errors was evaluated: 1) errors generated by sampling from a normal distribution; 2) errors generated by permuting phenotype values between subjects; and 3) errors generated by sampling from a uniform error distribution.
Kurtosis-Based Blind Noisy Image Quality Assessment in Wavelet Domain

Noise distortions introduced in natural images generally break the initial probability distributions by dispersing image pixels randomly. We found that there exists a big difference between the distributions of Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) coefficients of natural images and noisy images: (1) for natural images, their distributions are sharp with high peaked ness and slight tail, (2) for noisy images, the shapes are much flatter with lower peaked ness and heavier tail. Kurtosis is able to measure and differentiate the probability distributions of noisy images with various noise levels. Moreover, the kurtosis values of DWT coefficients are stable for varying frequency filters. In this paper, we propose a Blind Noisy Image Quality Assessment model using Kurtosis (BNIQAK). Five types of noisy images in the three biggest databases are taken for testing BNIQAK. Experimental results show that BNIQAK has better evaluation performance compared with existing blind noisy models, as well as some general blind and full-reference (FR) methods.
Automatic recognition of the blood cells of myelogenous leukemia using SVM

The paper presents the system for automatic recognition of the leukemia blast cells on the basis of the image of the bone marrow aspirate. The recognizing system uses support vector machine (SVM) as the classifier and exploits the features of the image of the blood cells related to the texture, geometry and histograms. The results presented in the paper are concerned with the features generation and selection in order to get the best results of recognition. The results of numerical experiments of recognition of 17 classes of blood cells of myelogenous leukemia are presented and discussed.
A multi-center self-deployment algorithm of mobile sensor network

In order to resolve the problems of network segmentation, coverage holes and unable to conduct key monitoring upon specific target area by the conventional virtual force algorithm (abbr. VFA) in sparse network environment, a Multi-center Self-deployment Algorithm (abbr. MCSA) is presented hereby. Through construction of virtual repulsive force between nodes as well as a virtual attraction force field centering on specific target area, to enable the network possessing key coverage, self-repairing and anti-splitting abilities. Experiments demonstrated that the coverage capacity of the mobile sensor network has been greatly strengthened by the MCSA.
Should we revise our approach to 'optimal medical therapy'? The case of chronic heart failure.

The concept of ‘optimal medical therapy’ relies on recommendations of current consensus-derived guidelines, most of which are supported by ‘level of evidence C’ (no scientific evidence). 1 However, guidelines recommendations for commonly employed cardiovascular drugs often are based on strong evidence (‘level A’). 2 Generally, such drugs are recommended at ‘target doses’ employed in the trials on which their putative efficacy and regulatory approval are based, and are considered ‘optimal medical therapy’. Information about the effectiveness of other doses, lower, or higher, seldom is available. Currently, reports of randomized controlled trials of new drugs in chronic heart failure (CHF) as well as in other conditions must quantitatively define the use of guidelines-recommended ‘optimal medical therapy’, usually as the proportion of patients who took these drugs, regardless of dose. However, in contemporary registries in CHF, for which therapy is particularly complex, large segments of the affected population fail to receive the recommended drugs and substantially less than half receive guidelines-based ‘target doses’. This is apparent from the Table 1 , in which doses of drugs for CHF actually employed, from the 12-country 2010 European Survey of the European Society of Cardiology3 are compared with ‘target doses’ of the same drugs from contemporary (2008) published guidelines.4 View this table: Table 1 Rate of use and dosages of the most frequently prescribed renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system blockers and beta-blockers. Modified from McMurray et al . 2 The use of beta-blockers for CHF is an example. In a recent trial—SHIFT—testing the effect of a pure heart rate slowing agent—ivabradine—against placebo in patients with CHF, maximized guidelines-recommended background therapy was mandated, specifically for beta-blockers, which also slow heart rate.5 In SHIFT, 89% of patients received a beta-blocker but only one-fourth reached the ‘target doses’, and only 56% achieved ≥50% of target. These results subsequently were echoed in CIBIS-ELD,6 …
Conducting pilot and feasibility studies.

Planning a well-designed research study can be tedious and laborious work. However, this process is critical and ultimately can produce valid, reliable study findings. Designing a large-scale randomized, controlled trial (RCT)-the gold standard in quantitative research-can be even more challenging. Even the most well-planned study potentially can result in issues with research procedures and design, such as recruitment, retention, or methodology. One strategy that may facilitate sound study design is the completion of a pilot or feasibility study prior to the initiation of a larger-scale trial. This article will discuss pilot and feasibility studies, their advantages and disadvantages, and implications for oncology nursing research.
Message Quality and Standing to Support: A Qualitative Study of Support Messages Given to African-American HIV Survivors

We interviewed 25 African American HIV survivors who were as much as 25 years distant from their original diagnoses. We asked them to tell us about both supportive and non-supportive messages they received upon learning of their HIV status. Their interviews showed evidence of the importance of what we call standing to support. This idea is that particular roles (e.g., medical or family) imply a duty to offer constructive support. Anyone without such a standing is essentially irrelevant to the provision of support. Successful performance of a standing requires ability (to give information, to be empathetic, etc.) but the performance must be activated by the person who needs support. We found contrasts in the quality of messages originating in each of the standings we studied: medical, family, friends, relational partners, churches, and community centers. Dual consideration of supportive and non-supportive messages is productive in understanding the different standings to support.
A Comprehensive Approach to the Identification and Management of the BRCA Patient

&NA; As the testing criteria for BRCA expand, we are identifying a greater number of young women at significant risk for breast and ovarian cancer. Fortunately, there is strong evidence to support risk reduction from mastectomy and oophorectomy. However, these surgeries come with significant psychological and physical health consequences. For breast cancer, screening with mammogram and magnetic resonance imaging may be a reasonable approach for a woman who does not desire surgery. However, there is no evidence to suggest any efficacy in screening for ovarian cancer, and women electing to not undergo surgery must have a detailed discussion with their physician regarding the risks and benefits of different management strategies. As more women are electing to undergo surgical risk reduction, providers must also be able to counsel and care for these women who will face unique health challenges after surgical menopause at a young age. A review of the current evidence behind management of the BRCA woman follows, with a focus on areas of controversy and current research. Target Audience Obstetricians and gynecologists, family physicians Learning Objectives After completing this CME activity, physicians should be better able to summarize the common criteria for referring a women for genetic testing for hereditary breast/ovarian cancer, illustrate the cancer risks and other associated cancers based on BRCA1 or BRCA2 result; provide evidence-based guidelines from which to base management discussions with women testing positive for a BRCA mutation; and highlight areas of controversy including the role of concurrent hysterectomy with risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy, role for salpingectomy, use of hormonal replacement therapy, and management of long-term health outcomes following risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy.
Possible role of Escherichia coli penicillin-binding protein 6 in stabilization of stationary-phase peptidoglycan

Plasmids for high-level expression of penicillin-binding protein 6 (PBP6) were constructed, giving rise to overproduction of PBP6 under the control of the lambda pR promoter in either the periplasmic or the cytoplasmic space. In contrast to penicillin-binding protein 5 (PBP5), the presence of high amounts of PBP6 in the periplasm as well as in the cytoplasm did not result in growth as spherical cells or in lysis. Deletion of the C-terminal membrane anchor of PBP6 resulted in a soluble form of the protein (PBP6s350). Electron micrographs of thin sections of cells overexpressing both native membrane-bound and soluble PBP6 in the periplasm revealed a polar retraction of the cytoplasmic membrane. Cytoplasmic overexpression of native PBP6 gave rise to the formation of membrane vesicles, whereas the soluble PBP6 formed inclusion bodies in the cytoplasm. Both the membrane-bound and the soluble forms of PBP6 were purified to homogeneity by using the immobilized dye Procion rubine MX-B. Purified preparations of PBP6 and PBP6s350 formed a 14[C]penicillin-protein complex at a 1:1 stoichiometry. The half-lives of the complexes were 8.5 and 6 min, respectively. In contrast to PBP5, no DD-carboxypeptidase activity could be detected for PBP6 by using bisacetyl-L-Lys-D-Ala-D-Ala and several other substrates. These findings led us to conclude that PBP6 has a biological function clearly distinct from that of PBP5 and to suggest a role for PBP6 in the stabilization of the peptidoglycan during stationary phase.
Modelación con diferencias finitas del comportamiento dinámico de suelos estratificados sometidos a cargas en superficie: Caso 2D

Siempre que se concibe un proyecto de ingenieria, lo primero que se debe entender es que este debera estar vinculado al suelo mediante un sistema suelo-fundacion, y que la correcta interaccion entre el suelo y dicha fundacion debe ser la que garantice la estabilidad geotecnica y estructural del proyecto. Debido a que las maquinas y equipos mecanicos que generan vibraciones hacen parte de los diversos sistemas de produccion en la industria energetica, minera, siderurgica, de petroleos, etc., es muy comun que los ingenieros se encuentren con la necesidad de disenar la cimentacion de este tipo de equipos, razon por la cual es fundamental el adecuado conocimiento del comportamiento del sistema maquina-fundacion-suelo. Por lo anterior se en este proyecto analizo el comportamiento de un sistema maquina vibratoria-fundacion-suelo, para un suelo de dos estratos y un cimiento de longitud infinita. El presente proyecto se desarrollo mediante el metodo de diferencias finitas en el dominio del tiempo (FDTD, por sus siglas en ingles), a traves de un programa escrito en el lenguaje FORTRAN 90 usando la plataforma libre INTEL VISUAL STUDIO, donde se propuso un modelo que contiene las cargas estaticas de la fundacion y dinamicas de la maquina vibratoria, ademas de la geometria del cimiento y parametros del suelo.
Affine correlation

We propose a method for maximising the affine correlation between images. The method is more global in its search than for example steepest descent based methods. In a first approximation, there is no need to compute any derivatives and it is shown that the results are very good. The method is based on certain changes of coordinates in the images and extensive use of the fast Fourier transformation (FFT). This makes the method very fast, when implemented on a computer.
A 22-mW 7b 1.3-GS/s pipeline ADC with 1-bit/stage folding converter architecture

We have developed a 7-b 1.3-GSa/s 1-bit/stage pipeline ADC with a folding characteristic that uses a polarity selecting technique. The ADC achieves an ENOB of 6.5-b and consumes only 22 mW from 1.2V supply. These results yield a figure of merit (FOM) of 190-fJ/conv. -step. It is implemented in 45-nm CMOS technology and occupies a core area of 0.023 mm2.