Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MARKANIN BENLİĞİ İFADE ETMESİ VE SOSYAL GÖRÜNÜRLÜĞÜNÜN MARKA AŞKI İLE İLİŞKİSİ

The subject of this study is brand love, which is studied in a very limited number of studies. The long-term sustainability of the emotional bond that the consumer has established with the business makes the concept of brand love very important for both consumers and manufacturers today. A brand loved by consumers can gain a great deal of strength in competition. The main goal of the study is to determine the relationship between brand love, self-expression brand and social visibility of brand. In line with the aim, the study has been carried out through colleting primary data from the 459 consumers in Kayseri. The data were analyzed with the SPSS 22 package program. The findings of the research reveal that the brand love is related to as well as to the expression of inner self and social self. It has also been found that there is a relationship between brand love and social visibility of brand. The social visibility of brand is not addressed in the previous literature. It is expected that this work will contribute to a better understanding of the issue as the first study to address the social visibility of the brand in the brand love literature.
Trade Promotions and Suppliers' Market Power

Problem statement: Trade promotions provided to retailers from suppliers are not well understood and have not been consistently reported by manufacturers. Research about the phenomenon has consequently been limited and neither the trade nor government agencies fully understand the phenomenon and its implications. One implication is that some trade promotions (or trade allowances as they are also known) can pose an ethical dilemma in terms of restricting competition to the disadvantage of smaller businesses. Approach: This research takes advantage of a one-time release of data at the individual firm level which includes firm specific information on trade promotions, which includes slotting fees, provided by manufacturers for placement in retail stores as well as advertising and promotion support for the retailer. Firm level specific data gives the researcher a method of analyzing the use of market power exercised by the manufacturer to influence retail behavior. Further, the analysis of trade promotion practices and market power give an indication of possible uncompetitive conditions created by manufacturers with high potential market power. Results: Findings indicate that firms with high potential market power, based on assets, provide more trade promotions. Firms with high profits derived from high gross margins, also exercise high market power. Both of these findings, in terms of potential market power as well as exercised market power, lend credibility to the argument that high market power firms pose an uncompetitive environment for small suppliers. Conclusion/Recommendations: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which previously reviewed this issue, needs to revisit the matter in terms of the creation of the uncompetitive environment that appears to be created through high market power firms. Further, research that considers both the retail and manufacturers’ firm-level data on a broad spectrum should be examined to better understand the situation.
Methods for Boosting Revenue in Combinatorial Auctions

We study the recognized open problem of designing revenue-maximizing combinatorial auctions. It is unsolved even for two bidders and two items for sale. Rather than pursuing the pure economic approach of attempting to characterize the optimal auction, we explore techniques for automatically modifying existing mechanisms in a way that increase expected revenue. We introduce a general family of auctions, based on bidder weighting and allocation boosting, which we call virtual valuations combinatorial auctions (VVCA). All auctions in the family are based on the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism, executed on virtual valuations that are linear transformations of the bidders' real valuations. The restriction to linear transformations is motivated by incentive compatibility. The auction family is parameterized by the coefficients in the linear transformations. The problem of designing a high revenue mechanism is therefore reduced to search in the parameter space of VVCA. We analyze the complexity of the search for the optimal such mechanism and conclude that the search problem is computationally hard. Despite that, optimal parameters for VVCA can be found at least in settings with few items and bidders (the experiments show that VVCA yield a substantial increase in revenue over the traditionally used VCG). In larger auctions locally optimal parameters, which still yield an improvement over VCG, can be found.
Antinoceptive and Anti-inflammatory Activities of the Ethanolic Extract, Fractions and Flavones Isolated from Mimosa tenuiflora (Willd.) Poir (Leguminosae)

The bark of Mimosa tenuiflora (Willd.) Poiret (Leguminosae family), popularly known as “jurema preta” in Brazil, is used by the population of Contendas of Sincorá (Bahia State, Brazil) for the treatment of coughs and wound healing. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities of the bark ethanol extract (EEMT) and solvent soluble fractions (hexane—H, DCM—D, EtOAc—E and BuOH—B) of the extract in vivo. Additionally, we synthesized 5,7-dihidroxy-4’-methoxyflavanone (isosakuranetin) and isolated the compound sakuranetin, and both compounds were also tested. The anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive assays performed were: writhing test; nociception induced by intraplantar formalin injection; leukocyte recruitment to the peritoneal cavity; evaluation of vascular permeability (Evans blue test); and evaluation of mechanical hypernociception (von Frey test). Production of TNF-α, IL-10, myeloperoxidase and the expression of ICAM-1 were also evaluated. Statistical analysis was performed by one-way ANOVA followed by the Bonferroni post-test (n = 8), with P < 0.05. The EEMT showed antinociceptive activities in writhing test (100–200 mg/kg), in the second phase of the formalin test (50–200 mg/kg), and in mechanical hypernociception (100 mg/kg). EEMT showed an anti-inflammatory effect by reducing neutrophil migration to the peritoneal cavity and in the plantar tissue detected by the reduction of myeloperoxidase activity (100 mg/kg), reduction of IL-10 levels and expression of ICAM-1 in the peritoneal exudate and the mesentery (100 mg/kg), respectively. The four soluble EEMT fractions showed good results in tests for antinociceptive (H, D, E, B) and anti-inflammation (H, D, E). Only sakuranetin showed reduction of the writhing and neutrophil migration (200 mg/kg). Thus, the EEMT and soluble fractions of M. tenuiflora bark demonstrated great antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities, as also sakuranetin. More studies should be conducted to elucidate the mechanism of action of this compound. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the antinociceptive activity of the M. tenuiflora fractions and the bioactive isolated compound sakuranetin in vivo.
Interactional promotion content using augmented reality technology

In this paper, we described making process of interactional promotion content using augmented reality technology. I used QualComm's Augmented Reality (QCAR) technology to make promotion content. Because QCAR had presented button function to manipulate augmented object, I could have added interactional factor to the content. Also, I added game content to the augmenting object because QCAR library could be used in the Unity3D game making tool. By utilizing these characteristic, I implemented Interactional promotional content based on the image marker.
Balloon Hashing : a Provably Memory-Hard Function with a Data-Independent Access Pattern

We present the Balloon algorithm for password hashing. This is the first cryptographic hash function that: (i) has proven memoryhardness properties in the random-oracle model, (ii) uses a passwordindependent access pattern, and (iii) meets—and often exceeds—the performance of the best heuristically secure password-hashing algorithms. Memory-hard functions require a large amount of working space to evaluate efficiently and, when used for password hashing, they dramatically increase the cost of offline dictionary attacks. In this work, we leverage a previously unstudied property of a certain class of graphs (“random sandwich graphs”) to analyze the memory-hardness of the Balloon algorithm. The techniques we develop are general: we also use them to give a proof of security of the scrypt and Argon2i password-hashing functions, in the random-oracle model. To motivate the need for security proofs in the area, we demonstrate a practical attack against Argon2i that successfully evaluates the function with less space than was previously claimed possible. Finally, we discuss recent important work on parallel attacks against memory-hard functions with password-independent access patterns, and we propose a defense against them. We experiment with the Balloon hashing algorithm and report on its performance relative to other claimed memory-hard functions.
Application of a generalized lognormal distribution to engineering data fitting

The lognormal distribution is commonly used to model certain types of data that arise in several fields of engineering as, for example, different types of lifetime data or coefficients of wear and friction. However, a generalized form of the lognormal distribution can be used to provide better fits for many types of experimental or observational data. In this paper, a Bayesian analysis of a generalized form of the lognormal distribution is developed. Bayesian inference offers the possibility of taking expert opinions into account. This makes this approach appealing in practical problems concerning many fields of knowledge, including reliability of technical systems. The full Bayesian analysis includes a Gibbs sampling algorithm to obtain the samples from the posterior distribution of the parameters of interest. Empirical proofs over a wide range of engineering data sets have shown that the generalized lognormal distribution can outperform the lognormal one in this Bayesian context.
Chemopreventive activity of celecoxib, a specific cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor, against colon carcinogenesis.

Epidemiological and laboratory studies suggest that nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs reduce the risk of colon cancer and that the inhibition of colon carcinogenesis is mediated through modulation of prostaglandin production by cyclooxygenase (COX) isozymes (COX-1 and -2). Overexpression of COX-2 has been observed in colon tumors; therefore, specific inhibitors of COX-2 activity could potentially serve as chemopreventive agents. Our recent study indicated that celecoxib (SC-58635), a specific COX-2 inhibitor, suppressed colonic aberrant crypt foci formation induced by azoxymethane in rats and led us to investigate more specifically the chemopreventive potential of this compound using colon tumors as end points. Five-week-old male F344 rats were fed the control diet (modified AIN-76A) or an experimental diet containing 1500 ppm celecoxib. Two weeks later, all animals except those in the saline-treated groups received s.c. injections of azoxymethane (15 mg/kg of body weight) once weekly for 2 weeks. All groups were kept on their regimen until the experiment was terminated, 50 weeks after carcinogen treatment. Colon tumors were evaluated histopathologically. Remarkably, dietary administration of celecoxib inhibited both incidence and multiplicity of colon tumors by about 93 and 97%, respectively. It also suppressed the overall colon tumor burden by more than 87%. The degree of tumor inhibition was more pronounced with celecoxib than it was with previously evaluated nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The results of this study provide evidence, for the first time, that a specific COX-2 inhibitor, celecoxib, possesses strong chemopreventive activity against colon carcinogenesis.
Rapid Effect of 3-Hydroxy-3-Methylglutaryl Coenzyme A Reductase Inhibition on Coronary Endothelial Function

Abstract— Treatment with 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) decreases cardiovascular event rates in hypercholesterolemic patients. Whether statins exert effects within 24 hours on the coronary vasculature in patients with endothelial dysfunction has not been elucidated. Twenty-seven patients with stable angina pectoris and average low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations of 138±9 mg/dL at baseline were allocated to treatment with placebo (14 patients) or 40 mg/d pravastatin (13 patients) in a randomized, double-blind, prospective trial. Coronary endothelial function was assessed before and 24 hours after single treatment by quantitative coronary angiography during intracoronary infusion of nitroglycerin or increasing concentrations of acetylcholine (0.01, 0.1, and 1 &mgr;mol/L). Coronary blood flow reserve was measured by Doppler velocimetry during adenosine infusion. Intracoronary acetylcholine infusion induced abnormal vasoconstriction in both groups before treatment, indicating coronary endothelial dysfunction. Treatment with a single oral 40-mg dose of pravastatin significantly attenuated acetylcholine-mediated vasoconstriction after 24 hours (mean±SE decrease in luminal diameter before and after treatment: 0.01 &mgr;mol/L, 6.1±2.2% versus 3.0±1.2%; 0.1 &mgr;mol/L, 15.6±2.6% versus 7.4±1.8%; P <0.05; 1 &mgr;mol/L, 22.9±2.9% versus 13.2±2.6%; P <0.05). There was no significant difference in the response to acetylcholine in the placebo group (8.1±2.4% versus 9.7±2.4%, 16.1±2.9% versus 16.8±3.2%, and 21.4±3.9% versus 23.3±4.2%). The response to nitroglycerin infusion was not altered in both groups. Increase in coronary blood flow in response to adenosine and coronary flow reserve remained unchanged during placebo and statin treatment. Serum concentrations of blood lipids and high-sensitive C-reactive protein were not significantly altered after 24 hours in response to placebo or pravastatin therapy. Statin treatment improves endothelium-dependent coronary vasomotion within 24 hours in the absence of significant cholesterol reduction. The full text of this article is available online at http://www.circresaha. org.
Perceived productivity threats in large agile development projects

Applying agile methodology in large software development projects introduces many challenges. For example, one may expect that the combination of autonomous teams and the necessity for an overall organizational control structure may lead to conflicts, and one may expect that Agile's informal means of knowledge sharing breaks down as the number of project participants increases. Such issues may in turn compromise the project's productivity. In order to better understand potential threats to productivity in large agile development projects, we conducted repertory grid interviews with 13 project members on their perceptions of threats to productivity. The project was a large software development project consisting of 11 Scrum teams from three different subcontractors. The repertory grid sessions produced 100 issues, which were content analyzed into 10 main problem areas: (1) Restraints on collaboration due to contracts, ownership, and culture, (2) Architectural and technical qualities are given low priority, (3) Conflicts between organizational control and flexibility, (4) Volatile and late requirements from external parties, (5) Lack of a shared vision for the end product, (6) Limited dissemination of functional knowledge, (7) Excessive dependencies within the system, (8) Overloading of key personnel, (9) Difficulties in maintaining well-functioning technical environments, (10) Difficulties in coordinating test and deployment with external parties. Using critical-case reasoning, we claim that projects deploying agile practices in projects with less favorable conditions than those enjoyed in the current project, and that are larger and more complex, are likely to face similar challenges.
A mass spectrometry-based method for comprehensive quantitative determination of post-transcriptional RNA modifications: the complete chemical structure of Schizosaccharomyces pombe ribosomal RNAs

We present a liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based method for comprehensive quantitative identification of post-transcriptional modifications (PTMs) of RNA. We incorporated an in vitro-transcribed, heavy isotope-labeled reference RNA into a sample RNA solution, digested the mixture with a number of RNases and detected the post-transcriptionally modified oligonucleotides quantitatively based on shifts in retention time and the MS signal in subsequent LC-MS. This allowed the determination and quantitation of all PTMs in Schizosaccharomyces pombe ribosomal (r)RNAs and generated the first complete PTM maps of eukaryotic rRNAs at single-nucleotide resolution. There were 122 modified sites, most of which appear to locate at the interface of ribosomal subunits where translation takes place. We also identified PTMs at specific locations in rRNAs that were altered in response to growth conditions of yeast cells, suggesting that the cells coordinately regulate the modification levels of RNA.
Activation of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway in the diaphragm in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

RATIONALE Studies show that the myosin content of the diaphragm in patients with mild to moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is reduced, compromising diaphragm contractile performance. The mechanisms for reduced contractile protein content are unknown. In the present study we hypothesized that the loss of contractile protein content is associated with activation of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway in the diaphragm of patients with mild to moderate COPD. METHODS Proteolytic activity of isolated 20S proteasomes was determined in diaphragm biopsies from patients with and without COPD (predicted mean FEV1, 66 and 93%, respectively). In addition, we determined 20S proteasome subunit C8 protein levels by means of Western blotting, ubiquitin-ligase mRNA levels by means of real-time polymerase chain reaction, and caspase-3 activity by determining the hydrolysis of fluorogenic substrates. RESULTS The 20S proteasome activity was about threefold increased in the diaphragm of patients with COPD. C8 protein levels were not significantly different between COPD and non-COPD diaphragm, indicating increased specific activity of individual proteasomes, rather than an increased number of proteasomes. mRNA levels of the muscle-specific ubiquitin-ligase MAFbx were significantly higher in diaphragm from patients with COPD compared with patients without COPD. Caspase-3-mediated cleavage of actomyosin complexes is considered an initial step in muscle wasting, yielding fragments that can be degraded by the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. In line with the increased ubiquitin-proteasome activity, caspase-3 activity was higher in diaphragm homogenates from patients with COPD. CONCLUSIONS The present study is the first to demonstrate increased activity of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway in COPD diaphragm. Importantly, these changes occur in patients with only mild to moderate COPD (Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease stage I/II).
Perceptual Kalman filtering for speech enhancement in colored noise

A new method for speech enhancement in colored noise is proposed. A Kalman filter concatenated with a post-filter based on the masking properties of the human auditory system is proposed for the problem. A recursive approach to compute the noise covariance matrix is used for estimating the colored noise statistics. In the post-filter, both time domain masking properties and frequency domain masking properties are taken into account. From the calculated masking level, the noisy speech spectrum is adjusted accordingly. Simulation results show that the proposed approach has the best performance compared with other recent methods, evaluated with PESQ scores.
The homogenization of orthorhombic piezoelectric composites by the strong-property-fluctuation theory

The linear strong-property-fluctuation theory (SPFT) was developed in order to estimate the constitutive parameters of certain homogenized composite materials (HCMs) in a long-wavelength regime. The component materials of the HCM were generally orthorhombic mm2 piezoelectric materials, which were randomly distributed as oriented ellipsoidal particles. At the second-order level of approximation, wherein a two-point correlation function and its associated correlation length characterize the component material distributions, the SPFT estimates of the HCM constitutive parameters were expressed in terms of numerically tractable two-dimensional integrals. Representative numerical calculations revealed that (i) the lowest order SPFT estimates are qualitatively similar to those provided by the corresponding Mori–Tanaka homogenization formalism, but differences between the two estimates become more pronounced as the component particles become more eccentric in shape, and (ii) the second-order SPFT estimate provides a significant correction to the lowest order estimate, which accommodates attenuation due to scattering losses.
Segmentation of Doppler optical coherence tomography signatures using a support-vector machine

When processing Doppler optical coherence tomography images, there is a need to segment the Doppler signatures of the vessels. This can be used for visualization, for finding the center point of the flow areas or to facilitate the quantitative analysis of the vessel flow. We propose the use of a support-vector machine classifier in order to segment the flow. It uses the phase values of the Doppler image as well as texture information. We show that superior results compared to conventional simple threshold-based methods can be achieved in conditions of significant phase noise, which inhibit the use of a simple threshold of the phase values.
Active Queue Management , But Only At Network Edges !

Congestion control in the internet is usually decomposed into an end-system controller (eg: TCP) and a bottleneck controller (AQM or Drop-Tail queueing) which generates feedback. This paper asks an architectural question: can the active queue management (AQM) function be moved to the edges of the network so that the core routers focus simply on packet forwarding? The question is interesting in the light of recent trends to consolidate traffic management functions at network edges. We develop a theoretical framework to answer this question in the affirmative. The idea is to use a notion of path capacity and path demand to build an edge-based virtual queue AQM (called EVQ) at the network edges. We show that such a scheme can achieve the usual steady state objectives: high utilization, low persistent queue length, negligible packet drop rate and max-min fairness. We also establish the global asymptotic stability for arbitrary number of flows and time delays, characterize its equilibrium fairness to be max-min and not proportional. For real networks, the realization of the framework and the transient performance depend upon robust and short-timescale estimation of edge-to-edge parameters: path capacity and available bandwidth. This work uses recent advances in active measurements (e.g.,CapProbe, pathChirp) and can leverage future advances in this area. We demonstrate the measurement tradeoffs and parameter sensitivities through simulations of multi-bottleneck scenarios.
The Value of Subsistence Production

Most anthropologists and economists examining peasant agriculture have either not attempted to place a monetary value on crops consumed at home or have valued such production at market (selling) price. This article argues that this can lead to incomplete or erroneous analyses of agricultural behavior, since a sensible farmer should often value subsistence production near retail (buying) price. Theoretical problems associated with assigning monetary values to subsistence production are discussed, some evidence on how farmers actually value crops consumed at home is presented, and suggestions for future research are made.