Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hyaluronan Anchored to Activated CD44 on Central Nervous System Vascular Endothelial Cells Promotes Lymphocyte Extravasation in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis*

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease involving lymphocyte infiltration into the central nervous system (CNS). Results: The glycosaminoglycan hyaluronan (HA), anchored to brain blood vessels via the CD44 receptor, facilitates lymphocyte binding to vessels and CNS infiltration. Conclusion: HA-CD44 interactions on brain endothelial cells facilitate the initiation of inflammatory demyelinating disease. Significance: Findings elucidate mechanisms promoting lymphocyte rolling in inflammatory CNS diseases. The extravasation of lymphocytes across central nervous system (CNS) vascular endothelium is a key step in inflammatory demyelinating diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS) and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). The glycosaminoglycan hyaluronan (HA) and its receptor, CD44, have been implicated in this process but their precise roles are unclear. We find that CD44−/− mice have a delayed onset of EAE compared with wild type animals. Using an in vitro lymphocyte rolling assay, we find that fewer slow rolling (<1 μm/s) wild type (WT) activated lymphocytes interact with CD44−/− brain vascular endothelial cells (ECs) than with WT ECs. We also find that CD44−/− ECs fail to anchor HA to their surfaces, and that slow rolling lymphocyte interactions with WT ECs are inhibited when the ECs are treated with a pegylated form of the PH20 hyaluronidase (PEG-PH20). Subcutaneous injection of PEG-PH20 delays the onset of EAE symptoms by ∼1 day and transiently ameliorates symptoms for 2 days following disease onset. These improved symptoms correspond histologically to degradation of HA in the lumen of CNS blood vessels, decreased demyelination, and impaired CD4+ T-cell extravasation. Collectively these data suggest that HA tethered to CD44 on CNS ECs is critical for the extravasation of activated T cells into the CNS providing new insight into the mechanisms promoting inflammatory demyelinating disease.
Analisis Kesejahteraan Hidup Nelayan Pesisir

ABSTRACT This study analyzes the factors determining the well-being of coastal fishermen in Kuala Trengganu district. The issue of well-being or quality of life of fishermen become very important today because the average of coastal fishermen are among the poor as their development became one of the most important agenda of the government. This study focuses on four main areas, profiles or attributes fishermen, the role of government, the role of the community and demography. Aspects of fishermen attribute determines well-being that consists of income, expenses, savings, home ownership, land, vehicles, facilities and equipment of fishermen, health and education. The role of government is also a component of determining the well-being of fishermen from the aspects of infrastructure, courses and training, advisory services, marketing, regulatory, research and development of fishermen. While the role of the community in terms of security and social harmony, cooperation, social and charitable work undertaken by the local community. The role of the community is considered as a moderator to the well-being of local fishermen. The respondents were drawn at random in few fishing villages around Kuala Terengganu. Correlation test showed many determinants have a significant relationship with the well-being of fishermen. ABSTRAK Kajian ini menganalisis faktor-faktor penentu kepada kesejahteraan hidup para nelayan pesisir di daerah Kuala Terengganu. Isu mengenai kesejahteraan atau kualiti hidup nelayan menjadi sangat penting sekarang ini kerana rata-rata para nelayan pesisir termasuk dalam golongan rakyat yang miskin dan pembangunan golongan ini menjadi salah satu agenda terpenting kerajaan. Kajian ini menumpukan kepada empat aspek utama iaitu profil atau atribut nelayan, peranan kerajaan, peranan komuniti dan demografik. Aspek atribut nelayan yang merupakan penentu kepada kesejahteraan hidup terdiri daripada pendapatan, perbelanjaan, simpanan, pemilikan rumah, tanah, kenderaan, kemudahan dan peralatan nelayan, kesihatan dan pendidikan. Peranan kerajaan yang juga merupakan komponen penentu kesejahteraan hidup nelayan dilihat dari aspek prasarana, kursus dan latihan, khidmat nasihat, pemasaran, penguatkuasaan, penyelidikan dan pembangunan nelayan. Manakala peranan komuniti dilihat dari segi keamanan dan keharmonian masyarakat, semangat kerjasama, masalah sosial dan kerja-kerja kebajikan yang diusahakan oleh masyarakat setempat. Peranan komuniti dianggap sebagai moderator kepada kesejahteraan hidup nelayan setempat. Responden kajian ini diambil secara rawak di beberapa buah kampung nelayan di sekitar Kuala Terengganu. Ujian korelasi menunjukkan sebilangan besar faktor-faktor penentu mempunyai hubungan yang signifikan dengan kesejahteran hidup nelayan.
Parallelizing High-Frequency Trading Applications by Using C++11 Attributes

With the wide diffusion of parallel architectures parallelism has become an indispensable factor in the application design. However, the cost of the parallelization process of existing applications is still too high in terms of time-to-development, and often requires a large effort and expertise by the programmer. The REPARA methodology consists in a systematic way to express parallel patterns by annotating the source code using C++11 attributes transformed automatically in a target parallel code based on parallel programming libraries (e.g. FastFlow, Intel TBB). In this paper we apply this approach in the parallelization of a real high-frequency trading application. The description shows the effectiveness of the approach in easily prototyping several parallel variants of the same code. We also propose an extension of a REPARA attribute to express a user-defined scheduling strategy, which makes it possible to design a high-throughput and low-latency parallelization of our code outperforming the other parallel variants in most of the considered test-cases.
Experimental and theoretical modeling of polarization-mode dispersion in single-mode fibers

The random coupling-length basis was used in the numerical simulation of single-mode fibers (SMF's) with the coarse step method. We show that a single set of coupling lengths, angles and phases accounts for both, the Maxwellian statistics and the nonperiodical differential group delay spectral dependence in agreement with experimental observations. An SMF and a polarization mode dispersion (PR ID) emulator were both measured and simulated. The comparison between the experimental results and numerical simulations shows that the random coupling-lengths mathematical model and the emulator device provide good descriptions either for the first-order PMD statistics or second-order PMD, being powerful tools for the simulation of signal distortion.
Towards real-life application of EMG-based speech recognition by using unsupervised adaptation

This paper deals with a Silent Speech Interface based on Surface Electromyography (EMG), where electrodes capture the electric activity generated by the articulatory muscles from a user’s face in order to decode the underlying speech, allowing speech to be recognized even when no sound is heard or created. So far, most EMG-based speech recognizers described in literature do not allow electrode reattachment between system training and usage, which we consider unsuitable for practical applications. In this study we report on our research on unsupervised session adaptation: A system is pre-trained with data from multiple recording sessions and then adapted towards the current recording session using data accruable during normal use, without requiring a time-consuming specific enrollment phase. We show that considerable accuracy improvements can be achieved with this method, paving the way towards real-life applications of the technology. Index Terms: Silent Speech Interfaces, EMG, EMG-based Speech Recognition, Unsupervised Adaptation
A Scoring Function for Retrieving Photo Sets with Broad Topic Coverage

As a storage-unit of user created web objects, the set has become an emerging challenge in the retrieval. Set search requires relevant sets to meet the information need of users, whereas traditional information retrieval focuses on finding relevant web objects. This paper proposes a new approach to measure relevance of sets with respect to a user query by their topic coverage. The main idea of the proposed approach is to prefer the set which covers as many different query-related topics as possible. The problem domain of this paper is photo sets of the Flickr.com, which are collections of photos. The experimental result shows that our algorithm outperforms the previous collection selection algorithm.
Increased Risk of Colorectal Cancer Due to Interactions Between Meat Consumption and the CD36 Gene A52C Polymorphism Among Japanese

Abstract: A previous study showed expression of CD36, recently reported to play important roles in metabolism of oxidized low-density lipoprotein and long-chain fatty acids and to be positively correlated with colon cancer prognosis. To examine relationships between colorectal cancer and the CD36 gene A52C polymorphism according to meat consumption as a surrogate for saturated fatty acid intake, we conducted the present hospital-based, case-control study of 128 cases and 238 non-cancer controls. Consumption of meat and vegetables/fruit was divided into three (low, moderate, and high) and two (low and high) groups, respectively. Regarding the risk of colorectal cancer on cross-classifying subjects for the CD36 genotype and meat consumption, the odds ratio (OR) for the C/C genotype with moderate meat consumption relative to the A/A genotype with low meat consumption was 8.30 (95% confidence interval, CI = 2.15–32.00). None of individuals with the C/C genotype was in the high meat consumption group. In the low vegetables/fruit consumption group, the OR for the C/C genotype relative to the A/A genotype was 3.03 (95% CI = 1.12–7.90). Our findings suggest that interactions between moderate-high meat consumption and the CD36 gene A52C polymorphism may increase the risk of colorectal cancer.
Improved siRNA delivery efficiency via solvent-induced condensation of micellar nanoparticles

Efficient delivery of short interfering RNA (siRNA) remains one of the primary challenges of RNA interference therapy. Polyethylene glycol (PEG)ylated polycationic carriers have been widely used for the condensation of DNA and RNA molecules into complex-core micelles. The PEG corona of such nanoparticles can significantly improve their colloidal stability in serum, but PEGylation of the carriers also reduces their condensation capacity, hindering the generation of micellar particles with sufficient complex stability. This presents a particularly significant challenge for packaging siRNA into complex micelles, as it has a much smaller size and more rigid chain structure than DNA plasmids. Here, we report a new method to enhance the condensation of siRNA with PEGylated linear polyethylenimine using organic solvent and to prepare smaller siRNA nanoparticles with a more extended PEG corona and consequently higher stability. As a proof of principle, we have demonstrated the improved gene knockdown efficiency resulting from the reduced siRNA micelle size in mice livers following intravenous administration.
Nondestructive monitoring of tissue-engineered constructs

Abstract Tissue engineering as a multidisciplinary field enables the development of living substitutes to replace, maintain, or restore diseased tissue and organs. Since the term was introduced in medicine in 1987, tissue engineering strategies have experienced significant progress. However, up to now, only a few substitutes were able to overcome the gap from bench to bedside and have been successfully approved for clinical use. Substantial donor variability makes it difficult to predict the quality of tissue-engineered constructs. It is essential to collect sufficient data to ensure that poor or immature constructs are not implanted into patients. The fulfillment of certain quality requirements, such as mechanical and structural properties, is crucial for a successful implantation. There is a clear need for new nondestructive and real-time online monitoring and evaluation methods for tissue-engineered constructs, which are applicable on the biomaterial, tissue, cellular, and subcellular levels. This paper reviews current established nondestructive techniques for implant monitoring including biochemical methods and noninvasive imaging.
Text Mining For Stock Movement Predictions:A Malaysian Perspective

This paper describes a proposed system that extracts keyphrases from online news articles for stock movement predictions. The proposed system is implemented and tested on selected active sectors from Bursa Malaysia, a Malaysian Stock Exchange. The implementation is based on two crucial factors: firstly, stock related news articles are influential in the sense that they can influence a buyer’s attitude and subsequently can cause the stocks to move; and secondly, textual data are considered more superior and contain more information than numeric data (Cho et al. [1]) because the former not only allows us to predict future stock prices but at the same time provides us with reasons as to why it is so. This paper reviewed investigations on how the online Malaysian news articles are mined to extract appropriate keyphrases; which are then subsequently used to predict the movements of stock prices in Bursa Malaysia. The main focus of this paper is to implement appropriate text mining techniques to extract the said keyphrases from online news sources. The proposed system is then trained and tested based on a collection of Malaysian news articles from The Star Online: Malaysia Business News [2]. The findings indicate that the implementation is capable of providing valuable keyphrases whether or not original keyphrases are provided.
Glycogen—a covalently linked component of the cell wall in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Glycogen in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is present in two pools, one soluble and intracellular, the other present in the cell wall and rendered water‐insoluble owing to its covalent linkage to cell wall β‐glucan. The insoluble glycogen fraction was solubilized using β‐1,3‐glucanase. The αβ‐glucan complex obtained showed intense red staining with iodine and was isolated from free β‐glucans by affinity chromatography using concanavalin A sepharose 4B. Further use of molecular sieving has confirmed that glycogen is linked to β‐glucan as the non‐retained fraction on Biogel P2 split into two peaks on treatment with amyloglucosidase. Partial acid hydrolysis and subsequent paper chromatography of the αβ‐glucan complex isolated revealed the presence of gentiobiose and other higher oligosaccharides, indicating that glycogen is linked to β‐1,3‐glucan through a β‐1,6 branch. The insoluble glycogen can be extracted in a soluble form by acetic acid treatment and is known as acid‐soluble glycogen. The presence of glycogen in the cell wall is confirmed by controlled enzymatic release of αβ‐glucan complex using lyticase from Arthobacter luteus without disruption of the plasma membrane, as can be visualized using electron microscopy. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Implications for Asymmetry, Nonproportionality, and Heterogeneity in Brand Switching from Piece-wise Exponential Mixture Hazard Models

The authors develop a class of mixtures of piece-wise exponential hazard models for the analysis of brand switching behavior. The models enable the effects of marketing variables to change nonproportionally over time and can, simultaneously, be used to identify segments among which switching and repeat buying behavior differ. Several forms of asymmetry in brand switching are accommodated. The authors provide an application to the analysis of scanner panel data on ketchup, which illustrates the implications for asymmetry, nonproportionality, and heterogeneity. The results show that the model predicts purchases and purchase timing in holdout data better than the models proposed by Kamakura and Russell (1989) and Vilcassim and Jain (1991).
Recognition memory for words and pictures: an event‐related potential study

EVENT-RELATED potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the test phase of recognition memory tests for words and pictures of objects. ERPs elicited by recognized items contained a temporo-parietally distributed positive shift (the parietal old/new effect), which was strongly left lateralized regardless of stimulus type. This finding suggests that the lateral distribution of the parietal old/new effect is unrelated to the lateralization of the memory functions supported by the medial temporal lobe memory system. The ERPs to pictures, but not to words, also demonstrated frontally distributed old/new effects, which shifted over time from a left- to a right-sided maximum. These effects may reflect the richer informational content associated with episodic memory for pictures.
Providing Virtual Memory Support for Sensor Networks with Mass Data Processing

With the development of sensor networks and emerging of various sensors, sensor networks are capable of acquiring mass data to achieve much more complex monitoring tasks than ever. For example, image sensor nodes take photos using cameras, and images are collected and processed or stored for further processing. So, mass data processing is required for these sensor networks. However, low-power resource-constrained sensor nodes are normally equipped with kilobytes of RAM which might be not enough for storing large data for processing. In this paper, we propose an optimized virtual memory mechanism for large data processing on low-power sensor nodes. We point out the major overhead of virtual memory for large data processing on sensor nodes and introduce efficient solutions to address these issues. Evaluation shows that the overhead of the proposed virtual memory is reduced to an affordable range. We further compare the energy consumption of data processing programs using virtual memory with other means that process or transmit data. Data processing using virtual memory can be significantly more energy efficient than data processing using rich-resource sensor nodes or transmitting data to powerful gateways for central processing.
Ownership Strategies and Subsidiary Performance: Impacts of Institutional Distance and Experience

This article integrates institutional theory and organizational learning perspective and proposes a contingency framework on the relationship between ownership strategies and subsidiary performance. Using a sample of Japanese subsidiaries worldwide, the article finds important main effects of ownership, institutional distance, and host country experience on subsidiary survival. Furthermore, the effect of ownership is contingent on institutional distance and host country experience. In institutionally distant countries, subsidiaries have better survival chances if foreign parents have more ownership. Host country experience has a negative impact on subsidiary survival, but the effect is weaker if foreign parents have larger ownership positions in the subsidiaries.
Methods to control the pharmaceutical cost impact of chronic conditions in the elderly

Multimorbidity is the main cause of polypharmacy in elderly people, with the consequent increment in cost and use of inappropriate medication. To control cost, specific strategies have been implemented in healthcare services to reduce potentially inappropriate prescription. Many interventions are applied online during the prescription process using computerized decision support systems, for example, therapeutic algorithms and alerts. Other interventions can be categorized as offline due to their application before or after the prescription process, the main strategies being financial incentives, medication reviews and organizational change. All these strategies are complementary and multifaceted. There is evidence that some of these interventions are effective, but further research should be directed in this field, including investigation of patient cost and outcomes.
Particle filtering and Polyak averaging-based non-stationary noise tracking for ASR in noise

This paper addresses a speech recognition problem in non-stationary noise environments: the estimation of noise sequences. To solve this problem, we present a particle filter-based sequential noise estimation method for front-end processing of speech recognition in noise. In the proposed method, a noise sequence is estimated in three stages: a sequential importance sampling step, a residual resampling step, and finally a Markov chain Monte Carlo step with Metropolis-Hastings sampling. The estimated noise sequence is used in the MMSE-based clean speech estimation. We also introduce Polyak averaging and feedback into a state transition process for particle filtering. In the evaluation results, we observed that the proposed method improves speech recognition accuracy in the results of non-stationary noise environments a noise compensation method with stationary noise assumptions
Entrepreneurial orientation, organizational capability, and competitive advantage in emerging economies: Evidence from China

In order to understand how to leverage firm capabilities to support their entrepreneurial strategies in emerging settings, we examine whether the possession of an entrepreneurial orientation and the possession of its complementarities of market and guanxi capabilities, through which the entrepreneurial orientation is deployed into a successful entrepreneurial practice, are the key drivers of firm’s competitive advantages. Based on the data set of 119 Chinese firms, our findings suggest that the higher the level of market and guanxi capabilities, the stronger the positive linkage between entrepreneurial orientation and firm’s competitive advantage; thus, the potential needs for the fit between strategy and capability are highlighted. Meanwhile, we find that the relative moderating effects of market and guanxi capabilities are different in the state owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-SOEs due to the unique institutional environments they face. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings to entrepreneurship literature, capability complementarity perspective, and the studies about firm strategy in emerging economies, are also discussed. Key words: Entrepreneurial orientation, emerging economy, market capability, guanxi capability, ownership.
Differential Expression of Estrogen Receptors α and β mRNA During Differentiation of Human Osteoblast SV-HFO Cells.

Estrogens have been shown to be essential for maintaining a sufficiently high bone mineral density and ER alpha expression has been demonstrated in bone cells. Recently, a novel estrogen receptor, estrogen receptor beta (ERbeta) has been identified. Here we demonstrate that also ERbeta is expressed in human osteoblasts, and that ER alpha and ERbeta are differentially expressed during human osteoblast differentiation. ERbeta mRNA expression increased gradually during osteoblast culture, resulting in an average increase of 9.9+/-5.3 fold (mean+/-S.D., n=3) at day 21 (mineralization phase) as compared to day 6 (proliferation phase). In contrast, ER alpha mRNA expression levels increased only slightly until day 10 (2.3+/-1.7 fold) and then remained constant. The observed differential regulation of ER alpha and beta is suggestive for an additional functional role of ERbeta to ER alpha in bone metabolism.