Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of chief information officer's strategic knowledge and structural power on enterprise systems success

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of chief information officer’s (CIO’s) strategic knowledge and structural power on enterprise systems (ES) success in the context of systems usage. , – Drawing upon knowledge-based view, this study links CIO’s strategic knowledge, structural power, ES assimilation and firm performance in an integral model. Sample data were collected in China and partial least squares technique was used to test the model. , – Empirical results suggest that CIO’s strategic information technology (IT) knowledge, strategic business knowledge and structural power have significant influence on ES assimilation. While ES assimilation mediates the association between CIO’s strategic knowledge, CIO’s structural power and firm performance. Another interesting finding in the study is that the imbalance of CIO’s strategic business knowledge and strategic IT knowledge is negatively associated with ES assimilation. , – This study enriches the extant literatures in IS leadership by showing the significant role of CIO’s knowledge balance and authority in promoting the assimilation of ES within the organization. The empirical findings can provide guidelines for the top executive to select a person who is familiar with both strategic business and IT knowledge to take charge of ES, also, to provide the person with appropriate structural power, in order to achieve the benefits of ES successfully.
A Cartesian feedback feasibility study for a zero-IF WCDMA transmitter handset IC

A Cartesian feedback feasibility study is presented describing the main requirements of a WCDMA zero-IF transmitter IC. The transmitter architecture consists of an analog part with a forward modulator, a feedback demodulator and a digital part to adjust the phase rotation around the loop and to remove the DC offset and I/Q gain mismatches in the feedback path. Linearization performances are 27 dB ACPR improvement at 5 MHz offset and 15 dB ACPR improvement at 10 MHz.
Mapping and partial characterization of proteases expressed by a CHO production cell line

The proteolytic activities expressed by a Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line in the cultivation supernatant during the production of recombinant factor VIII were mapped with a broad spectrum protease assay and a series of different types of protease inhibitors. The destabilizing effect on the product emanated from a metalloproteinase, which could be effectively blocked by chelating agents to lead to product stabilization. Amino acid sequences of the isolated metalloproteinase were found to have sequence homology with matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) MMP3, MMP10, and MMP12. Several species with metalloproteinase activity were characterized and found to be related to each other. The results indicate that an MMP pro‐enzyme of ≥200 kDa was released from the CHO cells during the production phase. The enzyme expressed collagenase/gelatinase activity when activated. Due to autoproteolysis, a number of smaller, less specific MMPs were formed with the smallest form, a 19.4 kDa protein, being the most active. These results may be of particular relevance for other production processes using CHO cells for the expression of recombinant proteins. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The mitogenic action of prolactin on some endocrine organs of chicks.

The aim of the present investigation was to explore the mitogenic action of ovine and bovine prolactin hormones in the thyroid, the parathyroid and the thymus glands of chicks. Both the hormones in lowest dosage (1.5 i.u.) increased the mitotic rate in majority of these organs, but it failed to accelerate the mitotic incidence further or were almost ineffective with the higher dosages (5 i.u. and 10 i.u.). Ovine prolactin showed a higher mitogenic response than that seen with the bovine hormone. It is suggested that prolactin in optimal dosage promotes mitosis in these organs of chicks.
[Cognitive function in children with type 1 diabetes].

OBJECTIVE To study the changes in cognitive function of children with type 1 diabetes and explore the possible factors influencing cognitive function. METHODS Thirty-two children with type 1 diabetes (disease course equal to or more than one year) and aged from 6 to 16 years, were enrolled in this study. Cognitive function was evaluated by the Chinese Wechsler Intelligence Scale. Factors influencing cognitive function were investigated using multiple regression analysis. Thirty-two age- and gender-matched healthy children served as the control group. RESULTS Verbal intelligence quotient in the diabetic group was significantly lower than in the control group (97±15 vs 118±13; P<0.01). Full intelligence quotient in the diabetic group was also lower than in the control group (99±15 vs 113±12; P<0.01). In the verbal scale test, a sub-test of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale, scores in knowledge, category, comprehension, arithmetics and vocabulary scale in the diabetic group were significantly lower than in the control group (P<0.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that glycosylated hemoglobin level was significantly negatively with full, verbal and operation intelligence quotients in diabetic children (r=-5.64, -7.29, -3.00 respectively; P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Type 1 diabetes may affect adversely children's verbal intelligence quotient, resulting in a decreased full intelligence quotient. Glycosylated hemoglobin may be an independent risk factor for cognitive function in diabetic children.
ABSENCE OF POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE AMONG BREEDING COLONIES OF THE WAVED ALBATROSS

Abstract We used four variable microsatellite loci to examine the distribution of genetic variation and degree of genetic structuring among three subcolonies of Waved Albatrosses (Phoebastria irrorata). The breeding population of this species is almost entirely limited to the island of Española in the Galápagos Archipelago. Such strong philopatry could lead to population genetic structure among subcolonies on the island. Pairwise values of the FST analog, θ, calculated from microsatellite genotypes, were all less than 0.012, indicating little genetic differentiation and the presence of gene flow throughout the population.
Gappy TotalReCaller for RNASeq BaseCalling BaseCalling BaseCalling and Mapping

Understanding complex mammalian biology depends crucially on our ability to define a precise map of all the transcripts encoded in a genome, and to measure their relative abundances. A promising assay depends on RNASeq approaches, which builds on next generation sequencing pipelines capable of interrogating cDNAs extracted from a cell. The underlying pipeline starts with base-calling, collect the sequence reads and interpret the raw-read in terms of transcripts that are grouped with respect to different splice-variant isoforms of a messenger RNA. We address a very basic problem involved in all of these pipeline, namely accurate Bayesian base-calling, which could combine the analog intensity data with suitable underlying priors on base-composition in the transcripts. In the context of sequencing genomic DNA, a powerful approach for base-calling has been developed in the TotalReCaller pipeline. For these purposes, it uses a suitable reference whole-genome sequence in a compressed self-indexed format to derive its priors. However, TotalReCaller faces many new challenges in the transcriptomic domain, especially since we still lack a fully annotated library of all possible transcripts, and hence a sufficiently good prior. There are many possible solutions, similar to the ones developed for TotalReCaller, in applications addressing de novo sequencing and assembly, where partial contigs or string-graphs could be used to boot-strap the Bayesian priors on base-composition. A similar approach would be applicable here too, partial assembly of transcripts can be used to characterize the splicing junctions or organize them in incompatibility graphs and then used as priors for TotalReCaller. The key algorithmic techniques for this purpose have been addressed in a forthcoming paper on Stringomics. Here, we address a related but fundamental problem, by assuming that we only have a reference genome, with certain intervals marked as candidate regions for ORF (Open Reading Frames), but not necessarily complete annotations regarding the 5’ or 3’ termini of a gene or its exon-intron structure. The algorithms we describe find the most accurate base-calls of a cDNA with the best possible segmentation, all mapped to the genome appropriately.
Regulatory role of C5a in LPS‐induced IL‐6 production by neutrophils during sepsis

Experimental sepsis in rodents occurring after cecal ligation/puncture (CLP) is associated with excessive complement activation and a systemic inflammatory response. The proinflammatory mediator IL‐6 has recently been shown to be an important inducer of the C5a receptor (C5aR) during sepsis. We now provide evidence that serum IL‐6 production during sepsis in rats was reduced in neutrophil‐depleted animals and that absence of C5aR in mice as well as antibody‐ blockade of C5a in rats significantly reduced serum levels of IL‐6 during sepsis. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced production in vitro of IL‐6 by neutrophils was significantly enhanced in the co‐presence of C5a, likely due to transcriptional up‐regulation of IL‐6. Production of IL‐6 in neutrophils by LPS was NF‐κB dependent (but not on the presence of p50) and dependent on phosphorylation of p38‐mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) as well as p44/p42 MAPK (ERK1/2) but not on phosphorylation of c‐Jun N‐terminal kinases (JNK1/2). C5a stimulation of neutrophils elicited a rapid phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK. Accordingly, we suggest that induction of IL‐6 after CLP is neutrophil and C5a/C5aR dependent, likely due to the ability of C5a to cause activation of ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK signaling pathways.
Macroeconomic Factors and Equity Returns in Borsa Istanbul

This paper investigates equity return exposure to various macroeconomic factors and the performance of factor betas in predicting the cross-sectional variation in stock returns. We utilize a two-step procedure to directly test the implications of the Arbitrage Pricing Theory. First, we calculate monthly factor betas and then, we estimate the sensitivity of equity returns towards the factor betas. We find that (i) there exists a negative and significant relation between interest rate betas and future equity returns; (ii) the inclusion of market, book-to-market, size and momentum factor betas does not subsume the predictive power of the interest rate beta; and (iii) these results are driven by the debt-to-equity ratios of individual firms. We conclude that the financial leverage driven sensitivity of returns towards interest rates is a priced risk factor in the Turkish stock market.
Learning Strategic Sophistication

We experimentally investigate coordination games in which cognition plays an important role, i.e. where outcomes are affected by the agents level of understanding of the game and the beliefs they form about each others understanding.We ask whether and when repeated exposure permits agents to learn to improve cognition in a strategic setting.We find evidence for strategic sophistication being learned, generalized and promoted.Agents acquire strategic sophistication in simple settings.They may fail to do so in similar but more demanding settings.Given the opportunity, they transfer learning from the simple to the more demanding task.There is heterogeneity in sophistication.We find some evidence for sophisticated agents trying to spread sophistication early in the game, provided there is a long enough time horizon.
Relative-Income Effects and the Appropriate Level of Public Expenditure

The welfare of an individual depends not only on his own income but also on his income relative to that of others. A private good that he consumes yields him (intrinsic consumption and relative-income) utilities, but also imposes external costs on others through the relative-income effects. Expenditure on public goods not only produces intrinsic consumption utilities but also indirect relative-income utilities by reducing private expenditure. Since this indirect effect is unlikely to be adequately accounted for, the "optimal" level of public expenditure estimated by the conventional SMRS 3 MRT is really suboptimal. Copyright 1987 by Royal Economic Society.
Optimizing information displays using multimodal design science

This paper introduces the Multimodal Information Design Support (MIDS) system, which is an empirically validated software tool aimed at optimizing information display design. Operators in information-intense environments, such as control rooms, are constantly faced with the challenge of processing vast amounts of disparate information, which may cause information overload and negatively impact task completion. Current control room interfaces are primarily visual displays with some auditory cues (e.g. alarms), and often consist of outdated technology with little consideration of human information processing limitations. While incorporating human-computer interaction (HCI) design guidance should improve operator performance to some degree, greater benefits may be achieved by matching task demands with human perceptual and cognitive abilities. MIDS uses a validated equation to predict operator workload and periods of overload on a second-by-second basis based on the targeted task environment. For times of predicted overload, MIDS provides interface designers with multimodal design guidelines that consider cross-modal interactions within a multi-tasking environment to optimize information presentation across available resources. MIDS has effectively been applied in various command and control settings and has resulted in significantly reduced predicted time of cognitive overload and increased performance and situation awareness. It is expected that similar benefits may be realized in power plant control rooms.
Use of Cultured Cells to Study Alcohol Metabolism

The use of cells grown in the laboratory (i.e., cultured cells) in alcohol research has many advantages. Among these are the ability to investigate individual metabolic pathways, the ability to precisely control exposure to ethanol and its metabolites in the absence of confounding variables, and the uniformity of genetically identical (i.e., clonal) cell lines. Additionally, because of the cost and relative ease of culturing large quantities of cells, many more experimental replicas may be performed to confirm findings. As described in this article, the use of cultured cells has contributed greatly to the understanding of the mechanisms by which alcohol metabolism affects cells and ultimately results in alcoholic liver disease.
Delay-Dependent Decentralized $H_\infty$ Filtering for Discrete-Time Nonlinear Interconnected Systems With Time-Varying Delay Based on the T–S Fuzzy Model

This paper is concerned with the problem of delay-dependent H∞ filter design for a class of discrete-time nonlinear interconnected system with time-varying delays via the Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model. The T-S fuzzy model consists of N time-delay T-S fuzzy subsystems, and a decentralized H∞ filter is designed for each subsystem. Based on the delay-dependent piecewise Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (DDPLKF) and with an improved free-weighting matrix technique, the delay-dependent stability and a prescribed H∞ performance index are guaranteed for the overall filtering error system. A sufficient condition for the existence of such a filter is established by using linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) that are numerically feasible. Two numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantage of the proposed approach.
Evaluating Restrictionist Trade Regimes: Theory and Measurement

This paper contains a comparison of the effective tariff and domestic resource cost measures. It is shown that, under four stringent conditions, these measures yield identical rankings of activities when the tariff equivalents of trade restrictions are used in the computation. When any of the conditions are absent, the domestic resource cost measure is superior for evaluating the economic costs of trade restrictions or for deciding among alternative investment projects. If there is no substitution among factors and purchased inputs, the effective tariff measure provides a better predictor of the resource pulls resulting from a given set of trade barriers.
Real enough: using virtual public speaking environments to evoke feelings and behaviors targeted in stuttering assessment and treatment.

PURPOSE Virtual reality environments (VREs) are computer-generated, 3-dimensional worlds that allow users to experience situations similar to those encountered in the real world. The purpose of this study was to investigate VREs for potential use in assessing and treating persons who stutter (PWS) by determining the extent to which PWS's affective, behavioral, and cognitive measures in a VRE correlate with those same measures in a similar live environment. METHOD Ten PWS delivered speeches-first to a live audience and, on another day, to 2 virtual audiences (neutral and challenging audiences). Participants completed standard tests of communication apprehension and confidence prior to each condition, and frequency of stuttering was measured during each speech. RESULTS Correlational analyses revealed significant, positive correlations between virtual and live conditions for affective and cognitive measures as well as for frequency of stuttering. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that virtual public speaking environments engender affective, behavioral, and cognitive reactions in PWS that correspond to those experienced in the real world. Therefore, the authentic, safe, and controlled environments provided by VREs may be useful for stuttering assessment and treatment.
Design of a High Aspect Ratio Wing Box using an Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm

Every aircraft currently crossing the sky are using fossil fuels in order to generate the propulsion required to fly, which leads to the production of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that warm the environment. Having this in mind, the main drive for the next generation of aircraft is fuel efficiency. One of the solutions that is being tested to increase the fuel efficiency is the introduction of high aspect ratio wings. A high aspect ratio wing leads to many structural problems, and to solve them one needs to have a considerably stiff wing box. The given solution increases the weight of the wing and reduces the advantages brought by the introduction of a high aspect ratio (AR) wing, thus making the design of the wing box a fundamental aspect. In order to have the stiffest possible structure having the minimum possible weight, one can do a topology optimization to find the optimal design for the given constraints. The main goal of this thesis is to find the optimal design of the wing box by performing a topology optimization using Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm. ACO is a meta-heuristic biologically influenced algorithm that has been proven to be useful to solve NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems in an expedite way. Its application to solve topology optimization has been introduced recently. Conclusions on the close to optimal topology of a wing box from a high aspect ratio wing are presented. In this thesis, a MATLAB © code integrated with ANSYS © for the structural analysis, is developed, in order to do a topology optimization. One will start by solving a literature case. Afterwards, the wing box of the NOVEMOR project of the EU 7 framework wing was optimized.
DO EMERGING MARKET FIRMS FOLLOW DIFFERENT DIVIDEND POLICIES FROM U.S. FIRMS

We find that emerging market firms exhibit dividend behavior similar to U.S. firms, in the sense that dividends are explained by profitability, debt, and the market-to-book ratio. However, empirical dividend policy equations are structurally different, indicating different sensitivities to these variables. Additionally, emerging market firms seem to be more affected by asset mix, which seems to be due to their greater reliance on bank debt. Overall, country factors are as important in dividend policies as previous studies find them to be in capital structure decisions. 2003 The Southern Finance Association and the Southwestern Finance Association.
Motion analysis and experimental study of a cable-driven soft surgical robot

A cable-driven soft robot manipulator is analyzed in this paper. The soft robot manipulator is made of silicon and driven by cables. To improve its flexibility and controllability, the soft robot manipulator is divided into two parts from the middle. Due to infinite degrees of freedom (DOF) and soft materials, the soft robot manipulator is more difficult to model and control. A kinematic model, which takes the two parts into consideration, is established to analyze the motion of the soft robot manipulator. This kinematic model is based on piecewise constant curve. Experiments about motion analysis have been conducted for many times with artificial heart and healthy swine. The experiments demonstrate that the two-part soft robot manipulator is controlled better than one-part and has the ability to reach almost every regions of the heart including the posterior left atrial wall (LAPw).
Conservation Needs of Batrachophrynus and Telmatobius Frogs of the Andes of Peru

Recent reports indicate that Andean frogs of the genera Batrachophrynus and Telmatobius have under­gone severe population declines across much of their geographical range, with several factors (e.g., pollu­tion, habitat degradation and destruction, climate change, disease and harvesting) potentially involved in these declines. However, positive identification and quantification of these factors, as well as that of their interactions, are needed in order to better inform future conservation action. Peru is considered a hotspot for these frogs; it is home to at least 40 percent of all known species of Telmatobius and 100 percent of all known species of Batrachophrynus. An assessment of the current state of conservation knowledge of these Andean frogs in this country is provided, including data from both the Global Amphibian Assess­ment, and Peru's Instituto Nacional de los Recursos Naturales, with special attention to those factors that may affect population status. Specific research and conservation recommendations for these frogs and their habitats are suggested.
A failure-to-safety "Kyozon" system with simple contact detection and stop capabilities for safe human-autonomous robot coexistence

In this paper, we discuss a method to achieve safe autonomous robot system coexistence (or Kyozon in Japanese). First, we clarify human pain tolerance and point out that a robot working next to an operator should be covered with a soft material. Thus, we propose a concept and a design method of covering a robot with a viscoelastic material to achieve both impact force attenuation and contact sensitivity, keeping within the human pain tolerance limit. We stress the necessity of a simple robot system from the viewpoint of reliability. We provide a method of sensing contact force without any force sensors by monitoring the direct drive motor current and velocity of the robot. Finally, we covered a two-link arm manipulator with the optimum soft covering material, and applied the developed manipulator system to practical coexistence tasks.