Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of Anti-TIMP-1 Monoclonal Antibodies for Immunohistochemical Localization in Formalin-fixed, Paraffin-embedded Tissue

The aim of this study was to evaluate seven anti-TIMP-1 (tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1) monoclonal antibodies by immunohistochemical (IHC) staining of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue. Detection of the TIMP-1 protein was studied by IHC in FFPE human archival normal and neoplastic samples. Indirect IHC technique was used, and the seven antibodies (clones VT1, VT2, VT4, VT5, VT6, VT7, and VT8) were tested in various concentrations using different pretreatment protocols. All seven VT antibodies specifically immunostained the cytoplasm of islets of Langerhans cells in normal pancreas, epithelial cells of hyperplastic prostate, tumor cells of medullary thyroid carcinoma, and fibroblast-like cells of malignant melanoma. Specificity of the anti-TIMP-1 antibodies was confirmed by several controls, e.g., Western blotting on proteins extracted from FFPE tissue showed that the VT7 antibody reacted specifically with a protein band of ~28 kDa, corresponding to the molecular mass of TIMP-1. However, sensitivity varied with the different antibodies. Use of heat-induced epitope retrieval (HIER) and the VT7 clone applied at low concentrations demonstrated more intense immunoreactivity with the TIMP-1-positive cell types compared to the other six clones. Furthermore, when tested on a range of normal and neoplastic endocrine tissues, the VT7 clone demonstrated immunoreactivity with all neuroendocrine cell types. In conclusion, all seven antibodies detected TIMP-1 protein in various normal and neoplastic FFPE tissues, but one clone, VT7, was superior for IHC staining of TIMP-1 in FFPE tissue sections when using HIER.
The antecedents of perceived value in the Airbnb context

Purpose This study aims to examine the antecedents of perceived value in the Airbnb context using the variables of perceived benefits (i.e. monetary saving, hedonic benefit, novelty and social interaction) and perceived risks (i.e. performance, physical, psychological and time). Design/methodology/approach The study population was Airbnb users in South Korea. This study applied a survey research method using a questionnaire. A link to the survey was sent via e-mail to panel members of a multinational research company. Findings The results revealed the positive influence of monetary saving, hedonic benefit and novelty on perceived value and the negative influence of psychological risk on perceived value. Research limitations/implications The results of this study, which identified the specific factors that influence Airbnb users’ perception of value, can assist Airbnb managers and Airbnb hosts in developing appropriate marketing plans and strategies to enhance the value of their offerings. Originality/value This study provided empirical support to the inclusion of affective factors and risk in determining perceived value. Moreover, while previous Airbnb studies focused on consumers from Western countries (e.g. USA and Canada), this study used a sample of South Korean consumers.
Acetabulum morphology in osteoarthritis secondary to Crowe II developmental dysplasia of the hip, a CT study

Using computed tomography (CT) we studied the morphology of 15 patients with osteoarthritis secondary to developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH). All the patients were unilateral as Crowe II DDH. From the CT scanning, we measured acetabular depths and widths, anterior and posterior rim depths, thickness of the acetabular wall in both sides, for a statistical analysis. Statistically, there are no deficiencies in acetabular wall thickness and anterior and posterior rim depths of DDH, comparing to the opposite normal sides. While the acetabular depths and widths in the affected sides are different to the normal sides. These results suggest that surgeon should remodel the true actabulum depending on both anterior and posterior rims to obtain the proper coverage for the acetabular component, and choose suitable size and reliable location for the acetabular component with the help of CT.
Survey of Techniques for Deep Web Source Selection and Surfacing the Hidden Web Content

Large and continuously growing dynamic web content has created new opportunities for large-scale data analysis in the recent years. There is huge amount of information that the traditional web crawlers cannot access, since they use link analysis technique by which only the surface web can be accessed. Traditional search engine crawlers require the web pages to be linked to other pages via hyperlinks causing large amount of web data to be hidden from the crawlers. Enormous data is available in deep web that can be useful to gain new insight for various domains, creating need to access the information from the deep web by developing efficient techniques. As the amount of Web content grows rapidly, the types of data sources are proliferating, which often provide heterogeneous data. So we need to select Deep Web Data sources that can be used by the integration systems. The paper discusses various techniques that can be used to surface the deep web information and techniques for Deep Web Source Selection.
An Improved Wavelet Based Preconditioner for Sparse Linear Problems

In this paper, we present the construction of purely algebraic Daubechies wavelet based preconditioners for Krylov subspace iterative methods to solve linear sparse system of equations. Effective preconditioners are designed with DWTPerMod algorithm by knowing size of the matrix and the order of Daubechies wavelet. A notable feature of this algorithm is that it enables wavelet level to be chosen automatically making it more robust than other wavelet based preconditioners and avoids user choosing a level of transform. We demonstrate the efficiency of these preconditioners by applying them to several matrices from Tim Davis collection of sparse matrices for restarted GMRES.
Optimal Pricing and Production Strategies in Closed-Loop Supply Chains with Convex Recovery Costs, Variable Returns Quality and Remanufacturing Losses

x List of Abbreviations Used . xi Acknowledgements . xii Chapter
Joint Resource Allocation for Cellular and D2D Multicast Based on Cognitive Radio

Device-to-device (D2D) communication is an excellent technology to improve the system capacity by sharing the spectrum resources of cellular networks. Multicast service is considered as an effective transmission mode for the future mobile social contact services. Therefore, multicast based on D2D technology can exactly improve the spectrum resource efficiency. How to apply D2D technology to support multicast service is a new issue. In this paper, a resource allocation scheme based on cognitive radio (CR) for D2D underlay multicast communication (CR-DUM) is proposed to improve system performance. In the cognitive cellular system, the D2D users as secondary users employing multicast service form a group and reuse the cellular resources to accomplish a multicast transmission. The proposed scheme includes two steps. First, a channel allocation rule aiming to reduce the interference from cellular networks to receivers in D2D multicast group is proposed. Next, to maximize the total system throughput under the condition of interference and noise impairment, we formulate an optimal transmission power allocation jointly for the cellular and D2D multicast communications. Based on the channel allocation, optimal power solution is in a closed form and achieved by searching from a finite set and the interference between cellular and D2D multicast communication is coordinated. The simulation results show that the proposed method can not only ensure the quality of services (QoS), but also improve the system throughput.
The Historical Origins of Business Statistics and a Current Application in Lodging Forecasting

Roger W. Babson is remembered today primarily as the benefactor of Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Few may realize that he was a wellknown investor in the early twentieth century and the founder of Babson’s Statistical Organization, which served as a clearinghouse for information about investments and business conditions. After developing this firm and amassing a small fortune, Babson turned his efforts to offering advice through many other channels. He served for more than a decade as a weekly columnist for the Saturday Evening Post and published nearly 50 books. One of Babson’s earliest and most renowned works, Business Barometers for Anticipating Conditions, was first published in 1909. Although written over a century ago, it expresses his vision of a world in which business statistics could chart a path to business success, and remains quite relevant today. In this book, he identified two general classes of business statistics, comparative statistics and fundamental statistics. Babson defined ‘comparative statistics’ as those that are used in determining the current financial condition of a subject being reviewed and are useful for making buy, sell, or hold decisions for particular investment assets. In the case of the hospitality industry, this would be analysis based on standard financial statements (such as profit and loss stateApplication
Source-Sink Dynamics Between Transgenic and Non-Transgenic Habitats and Their Role in the Evolution of Resistance

Abstract The interaction of population dynamics and movement among two habitat types (toxic transgenic fields and nontoxic refuge fields) on the evolution of insecticide resistance was examined in two different simulation models. The two models were developed to test the hypothesis that increasing habitat grain from fine-grained to coarse-grained, and the resultant increase in nonrandom mating, would increase the rate of local adaptation, here the evolution of resistance. The first model, a complex, stochastic spatially explicit model, altered habitat grain by varying adult dispersal rates between habitat patches. In contrast to the expectation that increasing patch isolation and increasing the coarseness of the habitats would increase the rate of resistance evolution, intermediate levels of dispersal actually delayed resistance by as much as fivefold over the range of dispersal levels observed. Source-sink dynamics related to ovipositional patterns and the related population dynamics appear to explain the results. A simple deterministic model was developed to abstract out the separate impacts of mating and ovipositional behaviors. This model showed qualitatively the same results, although under similar assumptions it predicted much longer delays in resistance evolution. In this model, nonrandom mating alone always increased the rate at which insects adapted to transgenic crops, but nonrandom mating in combination with nonrandom oviposition could significantly delay resistance evolution. Differences between the two models may be due to the population regulation incorporated in the spatially explicit model. The models clearly suggest that resistance management programs using untreated refuges should not over-emphasize random mating at the cost of making the habitat too fine-grained.
An Experience-based Collaborative Service System Model

Our aim in this paper is to develop a specialized model of service engagement in the design of services. We build on some widely accepted constructions of service science that have appeared in the literature to produce a model that is relevant and useful in our context: technology-enabled services. We do this by conducting a field study in the telecommunications industry in a developing economy. We believe that this context is important to study due to the rapidly increasing rate of design and delivery of such services in emerging economies. By integrating existing frameworks and incorporating the results from our own findings, we present an experience-based service system model that explicitly includes consumer participation in the service design process. The main outcome of our data analysis is the characterization of the multidimensional nature of services based on three different ontological frameworks from the literature. Our model of service engagement does not devalue any of the earlier models; how.
PWM switched capacitor voltage divider with high step-down ratio

Novel PWM switched capacitor voltage dividers (SCVDs) are proposed for high step-down voltage conversion applications. The proposed PWM-SCVDs achieve greater stepdown voltage conversion at a given duty cycle than do conventional PWM buck converters, which suffer from extremely low duty cycle for high step-down applications. Fundamental operation analysis was performed to compare the proposed PWM-SCVDs with a traditional PWM buck converter in terms of step-down ratio and normalized inductor ripple current. Two 30-W prototypes of PWM-SCVDs were built and their power conversion efficiencies were measured at step-down ratios of 0.214 and 0.125 for an output voltage of 6.0 V. Efficiencies higher than 86% and 83%, respectively, were achieved in an output power range higher than 10 W. Measured duty cycles were about 0.4, demonstrating that the proposed PWM-SCVDs achieve high step-down voltage conversion without operation at extremely low duty cycle.
CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENTS AND OUTSOURCING: A MODIFIED TRANSACTION-COST ANALYSIS

While organizational boundaries have attracted an increasing amount of theoretical and empirical attention in recent years, little is known about service outsourcing strategies. In this paper, we use a modified version of the Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) approach to empirically examine service outsourcing contracts. We test the link between contractual hazards (i.e., asset specificity, internal uncertainty and external uncertainty), the contractual aspects of outsourcing (i.e., contract duration and contractual density) and the level of ex post transaction costs. While TCE proponents generally link contractual hazards to governance forms, we propose a modified TCE framework linking contractual hazards, governance forms and transaction costs. The results of the three-tier model reveal that contractual hazards have both a direct and indirect effect on ex post transaction costs. It also shows that contract duration, an often-neglected dimension in TCE literature, is positively related to contractual density. Finally, outsourcing is a bilateral governance with an intermediate level of specificity which requires contractual safeguards.
Evaluation of service quality and its impact on customer satisfaction - a life insurance experience

Customer service is the critical success factor in a company and providing top notch customer service differentiates great customer service from indifferent customer service. In the fast paced environment that surrounds industries today, companies find themselves faced with the pressure to discover foolproof ways to manage their businesses. Insurance industry in India is no exception and is undergoing revolutionary changes. Competition has been central to the agenda of companies and it has become one of the enduring themes of our time. The Insurance Industry today is experiencing intense competition and the major players, including LIC have come under pressure. In lieu of this, retaining a Customer is cheaper than finding a new customer. LIC should focus on assurance and empathy to further strengthen the level of satisfaction. Major players in the market especially LIC have to concentrate on retaining existing customers, which could offer huge business potential. Time based competition, quality, product range, timely advertisement, follow up, prompt and error free service are the key ingredients for the better service and it will boost up the sales.
A fully differential low noise amplifier with real-time channel hopping for ultra-wideband wireless applications

In this paper, a CMOS low noise amplifier (LNA) employing the switched-capacitors is proposed to perform multi-band tuning for an MB-OFDM ultra-wideband (UWB) hopping system. By using the fully differential topology, the switching noise generated during each frequency transition interval is greatly suppressed. The proposed UWB LNA is implemented in a standard 0.18-mum CMOS process. The simulation results show that it is capable of performing the fast switching with a settling time of less than 3 ns. Furthermore, the switching noise voltage at the output is rapidly reduced to less than 1 muV within 5 ns. The designed circuit is optimized in each center frequency, achieving the maximum power gain of 16.2 dB and the minimum noise figure of 2.63 dB
Improving Uncertainty Estimates through the Relationship with Adversarial Robustness

Robustness issues arise in a variety of forms and are studied through multiple lenses in the machine learning literature. Neural networks lack adversarial robustness -- they are vulnerable to adversarial examples that through small perturbations to inputs cause incorrect predictions. Further, trust is undermined when models give miscalibrated or unstable uncertainty estimates, i.e. the predicted probability is not a good indicator of how much we should trust our model and could vary greatly over multiple independent runs. In this paper, we study the connection between adversarial robustness, predictive uncertainty (calibration) and model uncertainty (stability) on multiple classification networks and datasets. We find that the inputs for which the model is sensitive to small perturbations (are easily attacked) are more likely to have poorly calibrated and unstable predictions. Based on this insight, we examine if calibration and stability can be improved by addressing those adversarially unrobust inputs. To this end, we propose Adversarial Robustness based Adaptive Label Smoothing (AR-AdaLS) that integrates the correlations of adversarial robustness and uncertainty into training by adaptively softening labels conditioned on how easily it can be attacked by adversarial examples. We find that our method, taking the adversarial robustness of the in-distribution data into consideration, leads to better calibration and stability over the model even under distributional shifts. In addition, AR-AdaLS can also be applied to an ensemble model to achieve the best calibration performance.
Symphony: Task Scheduling and Memory Management in Heterogeneous Computing

Task scheduling and memory management are challenges that make Heterogeneous Computing difficult for the masses. There are several programming models and tools that exist targeting partitioning of workload and accessibility of data between CPU and GPU. We have developed and deployed Symphony SDK - a framework that makes workload partitioning, scheduling and memory management 'simple' for developers. In this talk, we will introduce Symphony architecture, elaborate how existing OpenCL kernels can be reused with heterogeneous task synchronization, task scheduling, and memory management capabilities of Symphony. We will also share real-world cases where Symphony has provided 2x-6x performance speed-ups.
An intramolecular bond at cluster of differentiation 81 ectodomain is important for hepatitis C virus entry

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the leading causes of chronic liver diseases; however, HCV vaccine remains unavailable to date. One main obstacle is the lack of an efficient small animal model. Cluster of differentiation 81 (CD81) is an essential entry coreceptor for HCV species specificity to humans, though the underlying mechanisms are yet to be fully elucidated. We performed structural, biophysical, and virologic studies on HCV nonpermissive∗∗∗ CD81s from mice and African green monkeys [mouse cluster of differentiation 81 (mCD81) and African green monkey cluster of differentiation 81 (agmCD81)] and compared with human cluster of differentiation 81 (hCD81). We discovered an intramolecular hydrogen bond (Gln188‐Nε2‐H: Glu196‐Oε2, 2 Å, 124°) within the large extracellular loop (LEL) of mCD81 and a salt bridge (Lys188‐Nζ: Asp196‐Oδ2,2.4Å) within agmCD81‐LEL between residues 188 and 196. This structural feature is missing in hCD81. We demonstrated that the introduction of a single 188‐196 bond to hCD81 impaired its binding affinity to HCV envelope glycoprotein 2 (HCV E2) and significantly decreased HCV pseudoviral particle (HCVpp) entry efficiency (4.92‐ to 8.42‐fold) and cell culture‐grown HCV (HCVcc) infectivity (4.55‐fold), despite the availability of Phe186. For HCV nonpermissive CD81s, the introduction of Phe186 by Leu186F substitution alone was insufficient to confer HCV permissiveness. The disruption of the original 188‐196 bond and Leu186F substitution were both required for potent binding to HCV E2 HCVpp entry efficiency and HCVcc infectivity. Our structural and biophysical analyses suggest that the intramolecular 188‐196 bond restricts the intrinsic conformational dynamics of D‐helix of CD81‐LEL, which is essential for HCV entry, thus impairs HCV permissiveness. Our findings reveal a novel molecular determinant for HCV entry in addition to the well‐characterized Phe186 and provide further guideline for selecting an HCV small animal model. —Yang, W. , Zhang, M. , Chi, X. , Liu, X. , Qin, B. , Cui, S. An intramolecular bond at cluster of differentiation 81 ectodomain is important for hepatitis C virus entry. FASEB J. 29, 4214‐4226 (2015). www.fasebj. org
Non‐parametric tests for right‐censored data with biased sampling

Summary. Testing the equality of two survival distributions can be difficult in a prevalent cohort study when non‐random sampling of subjects is involved. Owing to the biased sampling scheme, the independent censoring assumption is often violated. Although the issues about biased inference caused by length‐biased sampling have been widely recognized in the statistical, epidemiological and economical literature, there is no satisfactory solution for efficient two‐sample testing. We propose an asymptotic most efficient non‐parametric test by properly adjusting for length‐biased sampling. The test statistic is derived from a full likelihood function and can be generalized from the two‐sample test to a k‐sample test. The asymptotic properties of the test statistic under the null hypothesis are derived by using its asymptotic independent and identically distributed representation. We conduct extensive Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the performance of the test statistics proposed and compare them with the conditional test and the standard log‐rank test for various biased sampling schemes and right‐censoring mechanisms. For length‐biased data, empirical studies demonstrated that the test proposed is substantially more powerful than the existing methods. For general left‐truncated data, the test proposed is robust, still maintains accurate control of the type I error rate and is also more powerful than the existing methods, if the truncation patterns and right censoring patterns are the same between the groups. We illustrate the methods by using two real data examples.