Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
rpoZ, encoding the omega subunit of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase, is in the same operon as spoT

Highly purified Escherichia coli RNA polymerase contains a small subunit termed omega. This subunit consists of 91 amino acids with a molecular weight of 10,105. We previously reported the cloning and sequencing of the gene encoding omega, which we call rpoZ (D. R. Gentry and R. R. Burgess, Gene 48:33-40, 1986). We constructed an rpoZ insertion mutation by placing a kanamycin resistance cassette into the coding region of the rpoZ gene. Purified RNA polymerase from strains carrying this mutation lacked detectable omega. We found that the insertion mutation conferred a slow-growth phenotype when introduced into most strains. We mapped the position of rpoZ on the E. coli chromosome by genetic techniques and by examining the restriction map of the whole chromosome and found that rpoZ maps around 82 min, very close to spoT. We determined that the slow-growth phenotype of the insertion mutant is suppressed in relA mutants and that the rpoZ insertion results in a classical SpoT- phenotype. This finding strongly suggests that rpoZ is upstream of spoT in the same operon and that the slow-growth phenotype elicited by the insertion mutation is due to polarity on spoT.
A back-EMF based sensorless speed control of permanent magnet synchronous machine

This paper proposes a sensor less speed control technique for permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM), using field oriented control technique, by sensing the back-emf developed across the stator windings. Conventionally, t o control the speed of a PMSM, speed encoders like optical encoders, proximity sensors, precision encoders etc are used to sense the speed. These encoders are very expensive and are also prone to external noises as they are mounted on the motor shaft. So a sensor less speed detection algorithm is developed by sensing the back-emf and the speed is calculated. A field-oriented control (FOC) technique is used in which the rotor flux is oriented along the d-axis of the rotating frame, at rotor speed (synchronous speed). The q-axis current component represents the armature current. Thus both field and armature current can be independently controlled. A surface mounted permanent magnet synchronous machine (SPMSM) is selected for study. The entire system was simulated in MATLAB/Simulink and the performance was analyzed for various speed and torque references.
Virtual Machine Introspection Based Malware Behavior Profiling and Family Grouping

The proliferation of malwares have been attributed to the alternations of a handful of original malware source codes. The malwares alternated from the same origin share some intrinsic behaviors and form a malware family. Expediently, identifying its malware family when a malware is first seen on the Internet can provide useful clues to mitigate the threat. In this paper, a malware profiler (VMP) is proposed to profile the execution behaviors of a malware by leveraging virtual machine introspection (VMI) technique. The VMP inserts plug-ins inside the virtual machine monitor (VMM) to record the invoked API calls with their input parameters and return values as the profile of malware. In this paper, a popular similarity measurement Jaccard distance and a phylogenetic tree construction method are adopted to discover malware families. The studies of malware profiles show the malwares from a malware family are very similar to each others and distinct from other malware families as well as benign software. This paper also examines VMP against existing anti-malware detection engines and some well-known malware grouping methods to compare the goodness in their malware family constructions. A peer voting approach is proposed and the results show VMP is better than almost all of the compared anti-malware engines, and compatible with the fine tuned text-mining approach and high order N-gram approaches. We also establish a malware profiling website based on VMP for malware research.
Commonality of a virulence factor among Yersinia species.

Please address requests for reprints to Dr. Daniel N. Harrison, Department of Hazardous Microorganisms, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C. 20012. here, P-I sensitivity is closely associated with ability of strains of Y. enterocolitica to kill mice, a result suggesting a commonality of underlying virulence mechanisms throughout the genus. Further, some modification of the P-I sensitivity test may assist in the rapid presumptive identification of most strains of Y. enterocolitica that are lethal to mice and permit the resolution of many of the confusing problems encountered in differentiating Y. enterocolitica from enterocolitica-like organisms.
Interleaved Spatial Diversity Transmission with Coordinate Interleaver for MIMO-OFDM Systems

Multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system provides a promising means to increase the spectral efficiency. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) allows broadband transmission over frequency selective fading channels. Recently, a coordinate interleaver (CI) is considered in order to maximize the diversity gain for MIMO system. In this paper, a new concept of coordinate interleaver for MIMO-OFDM system and an optimum receiver structure are suggested. Using the CI, the real and imaginary components of signals experience different fading channels and it provides additional diversity gains. Simulation results show that the system employing the proposed CI outperforms the conventional V-BLAST architecture.
Performance of System for Analyzing Diffusion of Social Media Messages in Real Time

A social media message that is forwarded (e.g., Retweeted in Twitter) by many users may diffuse widely. Such a 'viral' message may have a major impact in the real world. If the content maligns a company, the company must respond as quickly as possible to defend its brand image. Timely knowledge about what kinds of information are diffusing in social media is thus quite important. We have developed a system that enables real-time analysis of information diffusion in social media. We defined typical data access patterns and created a special view for complicated queries such as top-k ranking queries to improve query performance. The time window is customized by estimating diffusion extinction, which enables retention of diffusion data in the system as long as it is being retweeted frequently. Evaluation showed that the processing of simple access patterns was extremely fast, that the special view effectively improved performance, and that the time-window customization improved accuracy.
Tourism Marketing Strategy to Increase Tourist Visit to Bawean Island, Gresik, East Java

Strategic marketing planning is very necessary to achieve the goals and objectives. The stakeholders must start to think about what can be done well and what must be protected, so that in facing this competitive competition, it requires reinterpretation of the implemented policy strategy. This study aimed to describe and analyze tourism marketing strategy to increase tourist visit to Bawean Island, Gresik. The approach of this study was qualitative with analysis model developed by Miller and Huberman, where the analysis was conducted to the collected data, reduction, classification, presentation, and verification at the same time. The findings of this study were: 1) The necessity of motivating the local people to improve the quality of available resources so as to manage and utilize the existing potentials well; 2) Services required to be adjusted in Bawean were tourism products including religious and historical tour, natural tour, cultural art and handicraft tour, where overall tourism objects in Bawean Island had not have appropriate services as feasible tourism objects; 3) The existing tourism objects needed to be supported by feasible facilities and infrastructures so that the quality of services provided satisfaction, the proofs of less supporting tourism services in Bawean Island were the minimum number of lodgings and hotels, restaurants, sea and air transportations, limited electricity and telephone, narrow and unfeasible road infrastructure, they needed to be improved to manage the existing problems by designing the physics of facilities and infrastructures, balancing the demand and offer by promotion and publication, attracting investors by investment promotion and meeting among investors.
Sales Force Competence Evaluation and Marketing Performance of Industrial and Domestic Products Firms in Nigeria

This study set out to determine the association between sales force competence evaluation and marketing performance of industrial and domestic product firms in Nigeria. Drawing from both resources-based and control theories, the paper argues that a firm can enhance its marketing performance through the way it evaluates its sales force competence. Primary data from l35 marketing executives and sales managers were analyzed using Pearson Correlation and regression statistics. The empirical evidence shows that sales force competence evaluation is a determinant of marketing performance of these firms. Sequel to this, the paper strongly recommends that firms whose objective is to boost their marketing performance should emphasize the key elements of sales force competence evaluation, namely, behavioral measures, summative evaluation, learning measures, formative evaluation, and reaction measures.
An introduction to interval-based constraint processing.

Constraint programming is often associated with solving problems over finite domains. Many applications in engineering, CAD and design, however, require solving problems over continuous (real-valued) domains. While simple constraint solvers can solve linear constraints with the inaccuracy of floating-point arithmetic, methods based on interval arithmetic allow exact (interval) solutions over a much wider range of problems. Applications of interval-based programming extend the range of solvable problems from non-linear polynomials up to those involving ordinary differential equations. In this text, we give an introduction to current approaches, methods and implementations of interval-based constraint programming and solving. Special care is taken to provide a uniform and consistent notation, since the literature in this field employs many seemingly different, but yet conceptually related, notations and terminology.
A structurational analysis of CRM systems' cultural aspects: a comparative case study

Cultural dimensions are often identified as a crucial influence on the success/failure of Information Systems (IS), specifically Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. Prior research proposed a cultural dimensions framework for the management of CRM systems implementation in a multinational environment (Ali and Alshawi, 2005). This paper assesses that framework through a comparative case study in a large multinational organisation in two countries. The study examined the implementation of CRM systems within the one organisation in both Egypt and the UK. Following observation, document analysis and interviews, a Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) analysis was used to determine themes for each case study. Using Structuration Theory (ST) (Giddens, 1979; 1984) as a lens (Orlikowski, 2000; Walsham, 2002), cultural dimensions which may impact CRM systems implementation were derived. The paper concludes by proposing a revised framework of cultural dimensions for the management of CRM systems within multinational organisations.
Electric field coupling to short dipole receivers in cavity mode enabled wireless power transfer

This work provides a method of wireless power transfer that uses the resonant modes of a metallic cavity to deliver power to a small dipole nearly anywhere within the structure. We derive an expression for the coupling coefficient between the E→-fields of the cavity mode and the dipole, and then validate the analytic model via finite element simulations. Lastly, we use the results for the coupling coefficient to predict the wireless power transfer efficiency as the dipole is moved throughout the chamber.
Transmission Channels and Real Economy Effects of the Current Global Crisis on the Economies of Central East Europe

This contribution analyses the real economy effects of the current global crisis in Central East Europe. It focuses on the transmission channels of a drying up of capital inflows, in particular on foreign direct investment inflows and on foreign currency borrowing, the current account, and the exchange rate regime. The analysis shows that the adverse real economy effects of the externally‐driven capital inflow setback could be mitigated by a reduction of current account deficits, even though the latter depends on the flexibility of the exchange rate regime. Therefore, the countries with a fixed exchange rate to the Euro proved to be the countries in the region hit hardest. Next to these commonalities, the contribution also makes the case that in some cases, unsound national policies generated vulnerabilities that the crisis unveiled as non‐sustainable and aggravated the real economy effects of this global crisis. Estonia’s construction and housing sectors are used here as a case in point. This contribution hence provides its own insights into the role of the exchange rate regime in the face of recurring financial crisis and in the run‐up to Euro adoption, and argues that whilst there is very limited room for own national policies due to the external‐biased growth and development strategy of the region, those were often unsound and aggravated the adverse effects of the global crisis on Central East Europe.
WP No 569 September , 2004 STRATEGY-MAKING VIA PARTICIPATION

This paper studies the interplay between top and middle managers as a determinant of strategy-making effectiveness. Participation is a pivotal concern among different types of strategy-making process to grasp the conditions that account for effective strategy-making. We deal with how the resolution of the interplay between managerial levels fosters or hinders subsequent managerial action, by means of a multiple case design of six Spanish companies. These six organizations shared managerial participation in different degrees as a valued property of their strategy process. First round interviews with key informants provided a profile for each strategic process. Next, we gathered all key informants in an interactive discussion group, which further evidenced their diversity in the making of strategy. Lastly, we carried out a final round of interviews to enhance clarification. The targeted organizations varied in their types of process, core businesses and size. This variety provided a rich and diverse context to study interaction between upper and lower level managers. By analyzing how interaction resolved into goals and strategy within the different modes of strategy process, we dig into the resolution conditions. We present a theoretical framework that extends existing knowledge on how strategy-making, as a cooperative endeavor between managerial levels, translates strategy into organizational activities. Findings show that legitimation of strategic objectives explains the extent to which tasks are carried out and objectives are accomplished. As an interplay resolution mechanism, legitimation is a property integrated into goals and means through mutual validation by both top management and organizational members.
Gypsy Moth Management Programs in the United States: Status, Evaluation, and Recommendations

A national survey of gypsy moth (GM), Lymantria dispar (L.), program implementors was conducted to determine the status of GM management in the United States. The goal of this study is to provide GM management recommendations to individuals with large-area (e.g., state, county, city) program development and implementation responsibilities. We concluded that functional working groups must be formed with representatives from research, extension, and implementation groups, and those who are affected by GM, before truly effective management can take place. As a result of formation of these groups, large-area management packages must be developed. Management packages should include standardized sampling protocols, computer based geographic information systems, and a range of control techniques appropriate for a given situation. To foster development of management packages and transfer of new technologies, adequate monetary incentives must be provided to functional working groups by appropriate state and federal agencies. Results from this study stressed the need for closer scrutiny of the entire way in which GM is dealt with at local, state, regional, and national levels.
Consumer perceptions of food quality and safety and their relation to traceability

Purpose – The research presented here aims to gain understanding of consumers' perceptions of the concepts of food quality and safety, two concepts that play an important role in how consumers perceive food, and that are used in decision making.Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative semi‐structured interviews (n=163 consumers) were held in four European countries (Germany, France, Italy and Spain). Consumers' own definitions of the two concepts of food quality and safety were examined, together with the perceived interrelationship between quality and safety, and whether these concepts were linked to improved food chain traceability.Findings – The results indicate that most consumers see food quality and food safety as interlinked concepts, which becomes evident in their partly overlapping definitions of the two concepts. Consumers believe both food safety and quality are important to food in general, but pay relatively more attention to food quality when purchasing a product. Traceability was linked no.
Huber’s M-Estimation-Based Process Uncertainty Robust Filter for Integrated INS/GPS

The integration of the inertial navigation system and the global positioning system (INS/GPS) is a widely used procedure for position and attitude determination applications. The Kalman type filter (KTF) is the primary mechanism to perform the integration. In the KTF, the process noise is always assumed to be Gaussian distribution, which may be violated by the vehicle's severe maneuver, resulting in a much degraded performance. In this paper, the Huber's M-estimation methodology is investigated to suppress the process uncertainty, founded on the cascaded form of the M-estimation-based Kalman filter. An iterated algorithm is designed to construct the weighted matrix to rescale the prior state estimate covariance. The proposed process uncertainty robust algorithm is embedded into the newly derived modified unscented quaternion estimator to perform the standard inertial navigation equations-based INS/GPS integration. The car-mounted experiments are carried out to validate the proposed method against the process uncertainty.
Getting More Out of Two-Asset Portfolios

Two asset portfolio mathematics is a fixture in many introductory finance and investment courses. However, the actual development of the efficient frontier and capital market line are generally left to a heuristic discussion with diagrams. In this paper, the mathematics for calculating these attributes of two asset portfolios are introduced in a framework intended for the undergraduate classroom.
HMM modeling for audio-visual speech recognition

Bimodal speech recognition is a robust technique for automated speech analysis, and has received a lot of attention in the last few decades. In this paper, we analyze the effect of the HMM models on the performance of the bimodal speech recognizer, present a comparative analysis of the different HMM models that can be used in bimodal speech recognition, and finally propose a novel model, which has been experimentally verified to perform better than others. One of the unique characteristic of our HMM model is the novel fusion strategy of the acoustic and the visual features, that takes into account the different sampling rates of these two signals. Compared to audio only, the bimodal speech recognition scheme has a much more improved recognition accuracy, especially in presence of noise.
A modified boost converter for energy harvesting applications

Energy harvesting is an attractive research area to replace batteries especially for low power consumer electronics, biomedical applications and wireless sensor networks. This paper presents a modified inductive type of DC to DC boost converter. With 120mV input, it can achieve up to 1.66V output. The values of inductors required are much lower than the previous scheme. Hence, the proposed structure can be easily realized in IC form. All investigations have been carried out using HSPICE simulations.
A Comparative Study of Different Physics-Based NBTI Models

Different physics-based negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) models as proposed in the literature are reviewed, and the predictive capability of these models is benchmarked against experimental data. Models that focus exclusively on hole trapping in gate-insulator-process-related preexisting traps are found to be inconsistent with direct experimental evidence of interface trap generation. Models that focus exclusively on interface trap generation are incapable of predicting ultrafast measurement data. Models that assume strong correlation between interface trap generation and hole trapping in switching hole traps cannot simultaneously predict long-time dc stress, recovery, and ac stress and cannot estimate gate insulator process impact. Uncorrelated contributions from generation and recovery of interface traps, together with hole trapping and detrapping in preexisting and newly generated bulk insulator traps, are invoked to comprehensively predict dc stress and recovery, ac duty cycle and frequency, and gate insulator process impact of NBTI. The reaction-diffusion model can accurately predict generation and recovery of interface traps for different devices and experimental conditions. Hole trapping/detrapping is modeled using a two-level energy well model.
The Implementation Of ISO9000 In Vietnam: Case Studies From The Footwear Industry

Following the implementation of "doi moi" or economic renovation policies in Vietnam in the late 1980s, State-Owned Enterprises have been forced to compete in a market economy environment. This new focus on competition necessitates a change in the quality management system. Looking at the process of ISO 9000 implementation in two Vietnamese footwear companies, this article examines the effect of different interpretations by top management of the need for and commitment to ISO 9000 certification. The results suggest that management attitude plays an important role in determining the process and impact of ISO implementation.
Market practices of legitimization

This article presents a reflexive discussion as to how new academic communities can legitimize their field of work. I integrate Abbott’s theory of professionalism and the body of consumer research on brand communities, subcultures and microculture consumption practices to propose a market-based theory of legitimacy. I identify four modes of practices that allow academic communities to break through the boundaries of cultural and social legitimacy: (1) mobilizing cultural myths, (2) code switching, (3) creating market resources and (4) community building. To illustrate, I examine the rise of the subfield of Consumer Culture Theory within consumer behavior.