Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Grounded Theory als methodische Konzeption für wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Forschungsprojekte

Der von Glaser und Strauss (1967) entwickelten Forschungskonzeption „Grounded Theory“ wird auch von den Wirtschaftswissenschaften zunehmendes Interesse entgegengebracht. In diesem Beitrag sollen die Spezifika dieser Konzeption herausgearbeitet werden. Dabei wird insbesondere auf die Unterschiede abgestellt, die ein (qualitatives) „Grounded Theory“-Forschungsdesign gegenüber einem klassisch (quantitativen) Forschungsdesign aufweist. Darüber hinaus wird die Anwendung der „Grounded Theory“ auf eine betriebswirtschaftliche Forschungsfrage exemplarisch erläutert.
The role of pancreatic stellate cells in pancreatic disorders

N ganglioside is tumor specific antigen from different cancers and it has been associated with bad prognosis. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is an aggressive prognostic indicator in some tumors. Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM), Havana, Cuba has developed vaccines and monoclonal antibodies against these targets. Also, any evidences revealed a functional relationship between EGFR and NGcGM3 at the tumor cell membrane, suggesting a rational for exploring the therapeutic combinations of immunotherapies targeting them. However, limited evidence has been generated. We explored whether the survival and antimetastatic effect of passive anti-EGFR therapy (7A7 mAb; iv) would be modulated by the co-administration of NeuGcGM3/VSSP vaccine (sc), in two murine spontaneous lung metastasis models: Lewis lung carcinoma (3LL-D122) and mammary adenocarcinoma (4T1, orthotropic). Target combination therapy increased survival in two lung metastasis models, in comparison with monotherapy groups (n=10 in each group). Moreover, depletion of NK1.1+, CD4+ and CD8+ cells in vivo completely abrogated the increment in survival of the combination treatment group. Concomitantly, reduction of NGcGM3 ganglioside, Uroquinase Plasminogen Activator Receptor (uPAR) and α5β1integrin expression is leading the inhibition of pro-tumoral signaling by the activation of EGFR, FAk and Src molecules in this group. Combination treatment induces a stronger inhibition of the signaling cascades related to EGFR and NGcGM3 ganglioside at the tumor cell membrane. In summary, these two lung metastasis models are a good murine setting to validate the potential combination of NGcGM3 vaccines and anti-EGFR treatments and suggest the opportunity for cancer patients who overexpressed these two molecules.
Examining the goal-proximity decision mechanism : maze-navigation, incidental learning, Tic-Tac-Toe, and exploration of Second Life virtual worlds

xi 1. Introduction. 1 1.1 The 2-goal Problem . 2 1.2 What’s new here: How might GPD extend ACT-R? 3 1.3 What this paper is not about . 4 2. Historical Review . 6 2.1 Law of Effect and Law of Exercise . 6 2.1.1 Theory Formalization. 8 2.2 Computational Models. 9 2.2.1 Extended Reinforcement Learning Algorithms . 9 2.2.2 Voicu and Schmajuk . 12 2.2. 3 ACT-R. 15 2.2. 4 SNIF-ACT. 17 2.2. 5 Summary . 19 3. Theory. 20 3.1 Modifying ACT-R . 21 3.1.1 Declarative Retrievals as Decisions . 22 3.1.2 Learning . 23 3.2 The GPD Model. 26 3.3 Summary. 28 4. Experiments and Simulations . 29
Development and validation of a new dynamic computer‐controlled model of the human stomach and small intestine

For ethical, regulatory, and economic reasons, in vitro human digestion models are increasingly used as an alternative to in vivo assays. This study aims to present the new Engineered Stomach and small INtestine (ESIN) model and its validation for pharmaceutical applications. This dynamic computer‐controlled system reproduces, according to in vivo data, the complex physiology of the human stomach and small intestine, including pH, transit times, chyme mixing, digestive secretions, and passive absorption of digestion products. Its innovative design allows a progressive meal intake and the differential gastric emptying of solids and liquids. The pharmaceutical behavior of two model drugs (paracetamol immediate release form and theophylline sustained release tablet) was studied in ESIN during liquid digestion. The results were compared to those found with a classical compendial method (paddle apparatus) and in human volunteers. Paracetamol and theophylline tablets showed similar absorption profiles in ESIN and in healthy subjects. For theophylline, a level A in vitro–in vivo correlation could be established between the results obtained in ESIN and in humans. Interestingly, using a pharmaceutical basket, the swelling and erosion of the theophylline sustained release form was followed during transit throughout ESIN. ESIN emerges as a relevant tool for pharmaceutical studies but once further validated may find many other applications in nutritional, toxicological, and microbiological fields. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 1325–1335. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Building, Registrating, and Fusing Noisy Visual Maps

This paper deals with the problem of building three-dimen sional descriptions (we call them visual maps) of the environ ment of a mobile robot using passive vision. These maps are local (i.e., attached to specific frames of reference). Since noise is present, they incorporate information about the ge ometry of the environment and about the uncertainty of the parameters defining the geometry. This geometric uncertainty is directly related to its source (i.e., sensor uncertainty). We show how visual maps corresponding to different positions of the robot can be registered to compute a better estimate of its displacement between the various viewpoint positions, as suming an otherwise static environment. We use these esti mates to fuse the different visual maps and reduce locally the uncertainty of the geometric primitives which have found correspondents in other maps. We propose to perform these three tasks (building, registrating, and fusing visual maps) within the general framework of extended Kalman filtering, which allows efficient combination of measurements in the presence of noise.
GPGPU Footprint Models to Estimate per-Core Power

We explore the problem of how to easily estimate the per-core power distribution of GPGPUs from the total power of all cores. We show that the dynamic energy consumption of a core for a given kernel, represented by its work footprint, is approximately proportional to the total time taken by all work units executing on that core, and the static power, represented by its core footprint, is proportional to the time that the core has assigned work. Footprints can be easily tracked using two hardware counters per GPU core. We also show how per-core power estimates can be used to compute power-performance pareto frontiers that identify opportunities for saving power and energy in cases of non-uniform work distribution by exploiting per-core DVFS support for GPGPUs.
Classification of image database using SVM with Gabor Magnitude

The CBIR term has been widely used to describe the process of retrieving desired images from a large collection on the basis of features (such as color, texture and shape) that can be extracted from the images themselves. In this paper, we have proposed an image retrieval system on the basis of classification using Support Vector Machine (SVM) which is implemented in MATLAB with the help of Gabor Filtered image features. In the proposed system, texture features are found by calculating the Standard Deviation of the Gabor Filtered image. A SVM classifier can be learned from training data of relevance images and irrelevance images marked by users. Using the classifier, the system can retrieve more images relevant to the query in the database efficiently. The proposed CBIR technique is implemented on a database having 1000 images spread across 11 categories and COIL image database having 1080 images spread across 15 categories. For each proposed CBIR technique 55 queries (5 per category) are fired on the database and net average precision and recall are computed. The results have shown performance improvement with higher precision and recall values, achieving crossover point as high as 89% with SVM technique as compared to image retrieval using Gabor Magnitude without SVM technique where the maximum crossover point is approximately 79%.
Posttranslational modifications of Rab GTPases help their insertion into membranes

GTPases of the Rab family, which comprises more than 60 members in mammals, have emerged as key regulators of virtually all transport steps between intracellular compartments. By interacting with a diverse range of effector proteins, such as lipid kinases and phosphatases, molecular motors, tethering factors, and scaffolding proteins, they regulate the formation of transport carriers from donor membranes, their movement along cytoskeletal tracks, and their targeting to acceptor membranes (1). Like other GTPases, Rab proteins function as molecular switches, cycling between an inactive GDP-bound form and an active GTP-bound form. Because Rabs display high affinities for both GDP and GTP and very low intrinsic GTPase activity, the GDP/GTP cycle must be regulated by guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) that promote GDP release and by GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs) that stimulates GTP hydrolysis.
Forebrain Deletion of αGDI in Adult Mice Worsens the Pre-Synaptic Deficit at Cortico-Lateral Amygdala Synaptic Connections

The GDI1 gene encodes αGDI, which retrieves inactive GDP-bound RAB from membranes to form a cytosolic pool awaiting vesicular release. Mutations in GDI1 are responsible for X-linked Intellectual Disability. Characterization of the Gdi1-null mice has revealed alterations in the total number and distribution of hippocampal and cortical synaptic vesicles, hippocampal short-term synaptic plasticity and specific short-term memory deficits in adult mice, which are possibly caused by alterations of different synaptic vesicle recycling pathways controlled by several RAB GTPases. However, interpretation of these studies is complicated by the complete ablation of Gdi1 in all cells in the brain throughout development. In this study, we generated conditionally gene-targeted mice in which the knockout of Gdi1 is restricted to the forebrain, hippocampus, cortex and amygdala and occurs only during postnatal development. Adult mutant mice reproduce the short-term memory deficit previously reported in Gdi1-null mice. Surprisingly, the delayed ablation of Gdi1 worsens the pre-synaptic phenotype at cortico-amygdala synaptic connections compared to Gdi1-null mice. These results suggest a pivotal role of αGDI via specific RAB GTPases acting specifically in forebrain regions at the pre-synaptic sites involved in memory formation.
A Parsimonious Approach for Obtaining Resource-Efficient and Trustworthy Execution

We propose a resource-efficient way to execute requests in Byzantine-fault-tolerant replication that is particularly well-suited for services in which request processing is resource-intensive. Previous efforts took a failure masking all-active approach of using all execution replicas to execute all requests; at least 2t + 1 execution replicas are needed to mask t Byzantine-faulty ones. We describe an asynchronous protocol that provides resource-efficient execution by combining failure masking with imperfect failure detection and checkpointing. Our protocol is parsimonious since it uses only t + 1 execution replicas, called the primary committee or PC, to execute the requests under normal conditions characterized by a stable network and no misbehavior by PC replicas; thus, a trustworthy reply can be obtained with the same latency, but with only about half of the overall resource use of the all-active approach. However, a request that exposes faults among the PC replicas causes the protocol to switch to a recovery mode, in which all 2t + 1 replicas execute the request and send their replies; then, after selecting a new PC, the protocol switches back to parsimonious execution. Such a request incurs a higher latency using our approach than the all-active approach, mainly because of fault detection latency. Practical observations point to the fact that failures and instability are the exception rather than the norm. That motivated our decision to optimize resource efficiency for the common case, even if it means paying a slightly higher performance cost during periods of instability
Development of the mandibular condylar cartilage in human specimens of 10–15 weeks’ gestation

This study analyses some morphological and histological aspects that could have a role in the development of the condylar cartilage (CC). The specimens used were serial sections from 49 human fetuses aged 10–15 weeks. In addition, 3D reconstructions of the mandibular ramus and the CC were made from four specimens. During weeks 10–11 of development, the vascular canals (VC) appear in the CC and the intramembranous ossification process begins. At the same time, in the medial region of the CC, chondroclasts appear adjacent to the vascular invasion and to the cartilage destruction. During weeks 12–13 of development, the deepest portion of the posterolateral vascular canal is completely surrounded by the hypertrophic chondrocytes. The latter emerge with an irregular layout. During week 15 of development, the endochondral ossification of the CC begins. Our results suggest that the situation of the chondroclasts, the posterolateral vascular canal and the irregular arrangement of the hypertrophic chondrocytes may play a notable role in the development of the CC.
Spatiotemporal Masking in Pure Olfaction a

ABSTRACT: In olfaction, it is not possible to determine which nostril is being stimulated, i.e., lateralize, when a pure olfactory substance, e.g., phenylethyl alcohol or vanillin, is administered into one nostril, and, simultaneously, an odorless, solvent blank into the contralateral nostril. We subjected volunteers to extensive training, with feedback on each trial, in an attempt to determine whether it was possible, in these well‐trained subjects, to overcome this apparent impossibility. We failed to obtain any evidence to support the notion that a pure olfactory stimulus could be lateralized when the odorant and blank were presented simultaneously. The task, however, became simple when the odorant and the blank entered each nostril sequentially. We investigated, using a two‐channel olfactometer, temporal parameters that enabled such discrimination. We controlled the duration of odorant and blank air puffs, as well as their mutual timing, to determine the threshold stimulus onset‐disparity, i.e., the interval between stimulus onset and blank onset, that resulted in an inability to lateralize. Latencies shorter than the threshold interval would be perceived as simultaneous stimulation. We determined that the onset interval was between 200 and 400 ms, depending on the duration of the stimuli (a shorter interval was noted for stimuli of 150‐ms duration relative to 300‐and 450‐ms stimuli). This was also true when two odorants were applied, rather than an odorant and a blank, and the subject was instructed to focus on the sequence of odorant delivery and side of stimulation. The temporal onset threshold was the same for lateralization and for order of stimulation. Whether the olfactory system per se mediates this discrimination or whether inputs from olfaction and chemesthesis, via trigeminal free nerve endings stimulated by air‐stream onset, combine to allow this discrimination has yet to be determined.
Blocking probability of vertically stacked optical banyan networks under random routing

Vertical stacking of optical banyan networks is an attractive scheme for building nonblocking (crosstalk-free) optical switching networks. The resulting networks, namely vertically stacked optical banyan (VSOB) networks, preserve all the good properties of banyan networks, but increase the hardware cost significantly. In this paper, we study the blocking probabilities of VSOB networks under random routing strategy, and develop a model to compute the blocking probabilities with respect to the number of planes in the networks. Our model calculates the blocking probabilities stage by stage recursively, and it depicts accurately the blocking behaviors of VSOB networks under random routing. The proposed model is significant because it reveals the inherent relationships between blocking probability and network hardware cost in terms of the number of planes, and provides network developers a quantitative guidance to find a desirable tradeoff between blocking probability and hardware cost. An important conclusion drawn from our work that has practical applications is that the hardware cost of a VSOB network can be reduced dramatically if a predictable and almost negligible non-zero blocking probability is allowed.
Actual Psychotropic Medication Use in Preschool Children

Preschool children who receive psychotropic medications are a special and vulnerable group of children. They have a wide range of mental health and other medical diagnoses. Their families face challenges in parenting as well as social and mental health issues. These children receive a very large spectrum of psychotropic medications. The issue of safe and appropriate use of such medication is of concern within the context of increased diagnosis of mental health conditions, especially attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorders, and the increased use of psychotropic medications for all children and adults. Stimulants, risperidone, and clonidine are the few medications studied in this age group. A national registry or other large-scale organized approach is likely the best method to gather information related to indications and long-term management of psychotropic medications for preschool-aged children. An approach is suggested to allow treatment while specific guidance is formulated at the national level to address the urgent and serious problems presented by preschool children and their families.
An Analysis of Industrial SRAM Test Results—A Comprehensive Study on Effectiveness and Classification of March Test Algorithms

This paper deals with efficient test algorithm identification of embedded SRAMs. The approach is based on silicon test results of automotive microcontroller devices, which tries to identify efficient tests by removing unnecessary test patterns that cover the same subset of faults. Results of an industrial case under 29 test algorithms and a large amount of chips are obtained; among them, efficient ones are identified.
Deep Recurrent Conditional Random Field Network for Protein Secondary Prediction

Deep learning has become the state-of-the-art method for predicting protein secondary structure from only its amino acid residues and sequence profile. Building upon these results, we propose to combine a bi-directional recurrent neural network (biRNN) with a conditional random field (CRF), which we call the biRNN-CRF. The biRNN-CRF may be seen as an improved alternative to an auto-regressive uni-directional RNN where predictions are performed sequentially conditioning on the prediction in the previous time-step. The CRF is instead nearest neighbor-aware and models for the joint distribution of the labels for all time-steps. We condition the CRF on the output of biRNN, which learns a distributed representation based on the entire sequence. The biRNN-CRF is therefore close to ideally suited for the secondary structure task because a high degree of cross-talk between neighboring elements can be expected. We validate the model on several benchmark datasets. For example, on CB513, a model with 1.7 million parameters, achieves a Q8 accuracy of 69.4 for single model and 70.9 for ensemble, which to our knowledge is state-of-the-art.
How to make a knowledge-sharing group: a group social capital perspective

Purpose – Although the work group is the main context for knowledge exchange and combination in today’s organizations, few knowledge-sharing studies have been conducted at the group level. The purpose of this paper is to apply the concept of group social capital to determine how to promote knowledge sharing at the group level. The authors divided group social capital into two segments, conduits and resources, and argue that different group social capital conduits (i.e. work design in this study) lead to varied resources, which subsequently influence group knowledge sharing. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, group social capital conduits included social interaction and task interdependence, and group social capital resources included group trust and a supportive climate for knowledge sharing. The authors conducted a survey on work groups in the high-tech industry using a sample of 86 work groups. Findings – The results indicated that social interaction in a work group was positively related to g.
A graph based abstraction of textual concordances and two renderings for their interactive visualisation

Concordancing, or the arranging of passages of a textual corpus in alphabetical order according to user-defined keywords, is one of the oldest and still most widely used forms of text analysis. It finds applications in areas such as lexicography, computational linguistics, translation studies and computer-assisted machine translation. Yet, the basic form of visualisation employed in the analysis of textual concordances has remained essentially the same since the keyword-in-context technique was introduced, over fifty years ago. This paper presents a generalisation of this technique as an analytical abstraction of concordances represented as undirected graphs, and then characterises keywords in terms of graph eccentricity properties. We illustrate this proposal with two distinct visual renderings: a mosaic (space-filling) display and a bi-directional hierarchical display. These displays can be used in isolation or in conjunction with traditional keyword-in-context components in an overview-plus-detail pattern, or as synchronised views. We discuss scenarios of use for these arrangements in lexicographical corpus analysis, in translation studies and in text comparison tasks.
Evaluation of the sterility testing process of hematopoietic stem cells at Canadian Blood Services

BACKGROUND: Sterility testing of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) at The Canadian Blood Services Stem Cell Laboratory is performed using BacT/ALERT aerobic (SA) culture bottles. This study was conducted to verify the efficacy of this method and to assess the use of the BacT/ALERT aerobic (BPA) and anaerobic (BPN) culture bottles for microbial testing of HSCs.
Distributed Delay Estimation and Call Admission Control in IEEE 802.11 WLANs

In recent years VoIP and IEEE 802.11 networks have seen a rapid growth. In IEEE 802.11 networks, an Access Point (AP) and the stations (STAs) it serves form a Basic Service Set (BSS). Each AP can support a limited number of concurrent voice calls; we refer to this number as the AP capacity. After the number of concurrent voice calls in the BSS surpasses the AP capacity, the communication of all users at that AP suffers from high delay, and therefore, poor quality. These are the problems we address with Call Admission Control (CAC). We propose a mobile-station-based CAC mechanism. One of the strengths of the proposed approach is that it is very simple and yet accurate, while not requiring any probing of the medium. Our approach is entirely client-based, thus not requiring any changes in the infrastructure and the protocol.