Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding Determinants of Complaint Intentions in Online Shopping - The Perspectives of Justice and Technology

Consumers’ complaint behaviors are critical in determining repurchase behaviors in online shopping. An understanding of complaint behaviors can provide insight to the failed service experience with consumers and in turn, effectively redress consumers’ problems. Therefore, it is important to comprehend the antecedents of complaint intentions in online shopping. The major issue is two-fold: behavior and technology. This study thus integrates justice theory and expectation-confirmation model to examine the antecedents of complaint intentions in terms of these two issues. Moreover, customer satisfaction is an important mediator in the relationship structure. Data are collected from online shoppers with dissatisfied experience. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze this model. The results indicate that distributive justice and interactional justice are important in influencing customer satisfaction and complaint intentions while interactional justice is not. Technology-based antecedents, such as perceived usefulness, are all important in determining customer satisfaction and complaint intentions. Implications for managers and scholars are discussed.
Protein synthesis-dependent formation of protein kinase Mzeta in long- term potentiation

The maintenance of long-term potentiation (LTP) in the CA1 region of the hippocampus has been reported to require both a persistent increase in phosphorylation and the synthesis of new proteins. The increased activity of protein kinase C (PKC) during the maintenance phase of LTP may result from the formation of PKMzeta, the constitutively active fragment of a specific PKC isozyme. To define the relationship among PKMzeta, long-term EPSP responses, and the requirement for new protein synthesis, we examined the regulation of PKMzeta after sub-threshold stimulation that produced short-term potentiation (STP) and after suprathreshold stimulation by single and multiple tetanic trains that produced LTP. We found that, although no persistent increase in PKMzeta followed STP, the degree of long-term EPSP potentiation was linearly correlated with the increase of PKMzeta. The increase was first observed 10 min after a tetanus that induced LTP and lasted for at least 2 hr, in parallel with the persistence of EPSP enhancement. Both the maintenance of LTP and the long-term increase in PKMzeta++ were blocked by the protein synthesis inhibitors anisomycin and cycloheximide. These results suggest that PKMzeta is a component of a protein synthesis-dependent mechanism for persistent phosphorylation in LTP.
Regulatory motif discovery: from decoding to meta-analysis

Gene transcription is regulated by interactions between transcription factors and their target binding sites in the genome. A motif is the sequence pattern recognized by a transcription factor to mediate such interactions. With the availability of high-throughput genomic data, computational identification of transcription factor binding motifs has become a major research problem in computational biology and bioinformatics. In this chapter, we present a series of Bayesian approaches to motif discovery. We start from a basic statistical framework for motif finding, extend it to the identification of cis-regulatory modules, and then discuss methods that combine motif finding with phylogenetic footprinting, gene expression or ChIP-chip data, and nucleosome positioning information. Simulation studies and applications to biological data sets are presented to illustrate the utility of these methods.
Support groups for HIV-positive people in South Africa: Who joins, who does not, and why?

Psychosocial health care for persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) is inadequate. Support groups for PLWHA could offer arenas where psychosocial issues are addressed, yet more knowledge is needed about those who join and those who do not join such groups. In this study, conducted in Limpopo province, South Africa, 49 PLWHA were asked about their motivations for joining a support group, while 22 PLWHA were asked about their reasons for not joining a support group. The most prevalent motivations for joining were to get information (59%) and social support (53%). The main reasons for not having joined were lack of knowledge (32%) and understanding (19%) about the support group and time constraints (19%). Physical symptoms and mental health were measured using the Stages of HIV Related Physical Symptoms & 20-item Symptom Checklist for HIV Infection and the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28). Physical symptoms ranged from 0 to 17 with an average of 6. Mental distress was high, with 55% of members and 46% of non-members scoring above threshold levels. Support group members tended to be female, younger, to have tested due to pregnancy or out of concern, and to have grants as their sources of income. Non-members had tested due to illness, reported considerably more pain and were more likely to have no income. PLWHA experienced high mental, physical and social distress which must be addressed. Attention to gender differences is called for. While all members joined the support group to gain information and learn to cope, women were more likely to join to get support and deal with stress, while men joined to stay active and educate others. Support groups could be important links in the chain of comprehensive HIV health service delivery, given that they manage to recruit and meet the needs of PLWHA.
Raccoon Social Networks and the Potential for Disease Transmission

Raccoons are an important vector of rabies and other pathogens. The degree to which these pathogens can spread through a raccoon population should be closely linked to association rates between individual raccoons. Most studies of raccoon sociality have found patterns consistent with low levels of social connectivity within populations, thus the likelihood of direct pathogen transmission between raccoons is theoretically low. We used proximity detecting collars and social network metrics to calculate the degree of social connectivity in an urban raccoon population for purposes of estimating potential pathogen spread. In contrast to previous assumptions, raccoon social association networks were highly connected, and all individuals were connected to one large social network during 15 out of 18 months of study. However, these metrics may overestimate the potential for a pathogen to spread through a population, as many of the social connections were based on relatively short contact periods. To more closely reflect varying probabilities of pathogen spread, we censored the raccoon social networks based on the total amount of time spent in close proximity between two individuals per month. As this time criteria for censoring the social networks increased from one to thirty minutes, corresponding measures of network connectivity declined. These findings demonstrate that raccoon populations are much more tightly connected than would have been predicted based on previous studies, but also point out that additional research is needed to calculate more precise transmission probabilities by infected individuals, and determine how disease infection changes normal social behaviors.
Orthogeriatrics - considerations in caring for older orthopaedic patient

Patients over the age of 65 are the fastest growing segment of t he population, and it is estimated that it comprises 12.5% of the entire population in the developed countries. Advances in medicine, science and healthy lifestyles have promoted substantially increased lifespans, as well as better quality of life with more physical activity. On the other hand, aging is associated with a variety of physiologic changes that affect orthopedic care. Due to natural involution processes older adults may not have the physiologic reserves necessary to promote healing or to prevent or recover from complications. Degenerative diseases and injuries sustained from trauma in combination with physiologic changes and comorbidity in the aged pose a significant health problem in older adults and a major treatment challenge for an orthopaedic surgeon. This review summarizes some of these unique challenges in care for older orthopaedic patient.
A consensus-based decentralized algorithm for non-convex optimization with application to dictionary learning

In handling massive-scale signal processing problems arising from `big-data' applications, key technologies could come from the development of decentralized algorithms. In this context, consensus-based methods have been advocated because of their simplicity, fault tolerance and versatility. This paper presents a new consensus-based decentralized algorithm for a class of non-convex optimization problems that arises often in inference and learning problems, including `sparse dictionary learning' as a special case. For the proposed algorithm, we provide sufficient conditions for convergence to a stationary point. Numerical results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm and provide evidence that validates our convergence claim.
Crystal structures of truncated alphaA and alphaB crystallins reveal structural mechanisms of polydispersity important for eye lens function

Small heat shock proteins alphaA and alphaB crystallin form highly polydisperse oligomers that frustrate protein aggregation, crystallization, and amyloid formation. Here, we present the crystal structures of truncated forms of bovine alphaA crystallin (AAC59–163) and human alphaB crystallin (ABC68–162), both containing the C‐terminal extension that functions in chaperone action and oligomeric assembly. In both structures, the C‐terminal extensions swap into neighboring molecules, creating runaway domain swaps. This interface, termed DS, enables crystallin polydispersity because the C‐terminal extension is palindromic and thereby allows the formation of equivalent residue interactions in both directions. That is, we observe that the extension binds in opposite directions at the DS interfaces of AAC59–163 and ABC68–162. A second dimeric interface, termed AP, also enables polydispersity by forming an antiparallel beta sheet with three distinct registration shifts. These two polymorphic interfaces enforce polydispersity of alpha crystallin. This evolved polydispersity suggests molecular mechanisms for chaperone action and for prevention of crystallization, both necessary for transparency of eye lenses.
Discovery of a small molecule that inhibits bacterial ribosome biogenesis

While small molecule inhibitors of the bacterial ribosome have been instrumental in understanding protein translation, no such probes exist to study ribosome biogenesis. We screened a diverse chemical collection that included previously approved drugs for compounds that induced cold sensitive growth inhibition in the model bacterium Escherichia coli. Among the most cold sensitive was lamotrigine, an anticonvulsant drug. Lamotrigine treatment resulted in the rapid accumulation of immature 30S and 50S ribosomal subunits at 15°C. Importantly, this was not the result of translation inhibition, as lamotrigine was incapable of perturbing protein synthesis in vivo or in vitro. Spontaneous suppressor mutations blocking lamotrigine activity mapped solely to the poorly characterized domain II of translation initiation factor IF2 and prevented the binding of lamotrigine to IF2 in vitro. This work establishes lamotrigine as a widely available chemical probe of bacterial ribosome biogenesis and suggests a role for E. coli IF2 in ribosome assembly. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.03574. 001
Phrase Term Static Index Pruning Based on the Term Cohesiveness

This paper proposes a static index pruning method for phrase queries which is based on the cohesive similarity between terms. The co-occurrence between terms is model by term's cohesiveness within document. The less relevant terms gets pruned away while assuring that there is no change in the top-k results. The proposed method creates an effective pruned index. This method also considers the term proximity based on the term frequency and the terms informative ness. The experiments were conducted on a number of different standard text collections, and analysis of the results shows promising results and is comparable with the existing static pruning method. It is an advantage of the proposed approach that it can be applies to standard inverted index for phrase queries also.
Cooperative mission planning for a class of carrier-vehicle systems

In this work we focus on mission planning problems in scenarios in which a carrier vehicle, typically slow but with virtually infinite range, and a carried vehicle, which on the contrary is typically fast but has a shorter range, are coordinated to make the faster vehicle visit a given collection of points in minimum time. In particular in this paper we will address two mission planning problems: a first one, in which we have to sequentially visit a list of points under the hypothesis the takeoff/landing sequence is not determined a priori and a second one, a Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), in which the optimal visiting sequence of points has to be determined. Those two problems will be analyzed, sub-optimal heuristics will be presented and their properties pointed out.
MACCS:: an industrial study of hands-free wireless communications for mobile healthcare workers

In many work environments there is a growing component of employees whose job tasks require them to be mobile within their local workspace. Examples of these types of workers can be found in many service and industrial markets including healthcare, manufacturing, and retail. Our goal was to see if we could address the communications needs of these mobile workers by using a small, inexpensive, wearable, hands-free audio device (a wireless headset) along with a speech interface to an intelligent agent. The market segment that we chose to target was the healthcare industry because it is ripe for the introduction of new technology that can positively influence patient care. In this paper we describe the design, implementation and real-world deployment of our Mobile Access to Converged Communications System (MACCS) that empowers mobile workers with a hands-free voice interface to manage their communications.
Distribution of neuropeptide Y‐containing nerves in the neurogenic and non‐neurogenic detrusor

To evaluate the role of neuropeptide Y in the detrusor of patients with neurogenic detrusor overactivity (NDO), as it has an important role in the neural regulation of the lower urinary tract by exerting differential effects on the release of cholinergic and adrenergic transmitters via autoinhibition and heterosynaptic interactions
HPV shapes tumor transcriptome by globally modifying the pool of RNA binding protein-binding motif

Human papillomavirus (HPV) positive head and neck cancer displayed specific transcription landscape but the underlying molecular mechanisms are not fully determined. Here, we interestingly found that HPV infection could globally elongate the 3’-untranslated regions (3’UTRs) in the majority of alternative polyadenylation (APA)-containing genes. Counterintuitively, the 3’UTR elongation does not affect their resident gene expression. Rather, they significantly increase the number of binding sites for RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and subsequently upregulate a group of oncogenic genes by absorbing RBPs. A significant fraction of HPV affected genes are regulated through such mechanism that is 3’UTR-mediated recruitment of RBPs. As an example, we observed that HPV infection increases the length of 3’UTR of RBM25 transcript and hence recruits much more RNA binding protein including FUS and DGCR8. Consequently, in the absence of FUS and DGCR8 regulation, PD-1 was rescued and up-regulated after HPV infection. Taken together, our findings not only suggest a novel paradigm of how oncogenic viruses shape tumor transcriptome by modifying the 3’UTR, but also present a previously unrecognized layer of APA—RBP interplay in this molecular hierarchy. Modification of the pool of RBP-binding motif might expand our understandings into virus-associated carcinogenesis.
Safe kernel programming in the OKE

This paper describes the implementation of the OKE, which allows users other than root to load native and fully optimised code in the Linux kernel. Safety is guaranteed by trust management, language customisation and a trusted compiler. By coupling trust management with the compiler, the OKE is able to vary the level of restrictions on the code running in the kernel, depending on the programmer's privileges. Static sandboxing is used as much as possible to check adherence to the security policies at compile time.
An improved performance poly Si Pirani vacuum gauge using heat distributing structural supports

A new micro-Pirani gauge has been designed and fabricated that employs a ladder-shape structure with two parallel bridges and cross-links in between. This design enhances the physical performance of the gauge by increasing structural rigidity, thus allowing for longer beams and a wider selection of materials and by allowing for better heat distribution across the sensor -therefore improving the full scale range of device functionality. Using a 4 /spl times/ 2 /spl times/ 1000 /spl mu/m polysilicon Pirani gauge with the ladder structure, pressures below 0.01 Torr were resolved. The measurement accuracy was the limiting factor in Pirani gauge performance and was roughly 5% of the measured pressure in the 10 to 0.1 Torr range.
Molecular imaging of retinal gliosis in transgenic mice induced by kainic acid neurotoxicity.

PURPOSE Gliosis is a universal response of the central nervous system to diverse insults. Here the authors aimed to develop a noninvasive fluorescence system to monitor and quantify retinal gliosis in real time. METHODS Transgenic mice expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the control of the glial fibrillary acidic protein promoter were treated with excitatory neurotoxicant kainic acid (KA) through a single intraperitoneal injection to induce gliosis in the brain and the retina. The expression of the GFAP-GFP transgene as a surrogate reporter for gliosis was noninvasively and longitudinally imaged with a confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope for 2 weeks to monitor the progression of gliosis. RESULTS The authors demonstrated that KA-induced gliosis (an elevation in GFP fluorescence intensity [FI]) could be noninvasively detected starting on day 3 and that it peaked on day 7, as quantified for the optic disc astrocytes. A significant increase in the FI in retinal glial cells was also visible on the processed images. Immunohistochemistry in defined regions of the brain (hippocampal CA1, CA3, dentate gyrus) known to be affected by KA neurotoxicity showed that severe gliosis in these regions occurred at day 7, when retinal gliosis peaked. CONCLUSIONS The current real-time fluorescent imaging method described here is a powerful preclinical tool to directly monitor retinal gliosis caused by various retinopathies. In addition, this molecular imaging method should be useful in assessing retinal neurotoxicity and in therapeutic development in a preclinical setting.
Macroscopic Examination of Semen Quality from Infertile Patients Fed with Supplement from Anadara granosa L

A study on macroscopic examnination of semen quality from infertile patients after being fed with supplement from marine clam, Anadara granosa L.was conducted. The objective of this study was to analyze the difference of sperm quality from the treated patients before and after they consumed nutrients from A. granosa L. Semen samples were taken from infertile patients and analyzed at the Prodia Laboratory, Makassar, Indonesia. The clam samples were collected from Pannaikiang Island, District of Barru, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Data analysis applied T-test in order to know the difference of sperm quality before and after administration of supplement from A. granosa L. Placebo administration of 1 capsule per day did not affect the macroscopic characteristics (volume, pH, odor, and color) of collected sperm. Administration of one capsule per day and two capsules per day significantly improved the macroscopic characteristics of the sperm.
Inositol phosphatase SHIP1 is a primary target of miR-155

MicroRNA-155 (miR-155) has emerged as a critical regulator of immune cell development, function, and disease. However, the mechanistic basis for its impact on the hematopoietic system remains largely unresolved. Because miRNAs function by repressing specific mRNAs through direct 3′UTR interactions, we have searched for targets of miR-155 implicated in the regulation of hematopoiesis. In the present study, we identify Src homology-2 domain-containing inositol 5-phosphatase 1 (SHIP1) as a direct target of miR-155, and, using gain and loss of function approaches, show that miR-155 represses SHIP1 through direct 3′UTR interactions that have been highly conserved throughout evolution. Repression of endogenous SHIP1 by miR-155 occurred following sustained over-expression of miR-155 in hematopoietic cells both in vitro and in vivo, and resulted in increased activation of the kinase Akt during the cellular response to LPS. Furthermore, SHIP1 was also repressed by physiologically regulated miR-155, which was observed in LPS-treated WT versus miR-155−/− primary macrophages. In mice, specific knockdown of SHIP1 in the hematopoietic system following retroviral delivery of a miR-155-formatted siRNA against SHIP1 resulted in a myeloproliferative disorder, with striking similarities to that observed in miR-155-expressing mice. Our study unveils a molecular link between miR-155 and SHIP1 and provides evidence that repression of SHIP1 is an important component of miR-155 biology.
Epidermal growth factor receptor mutations in non- small cell lung cancers in a multiethnic malaysian patient population.

BACKGROUND Mutations in the tyrosine kinase domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in non- small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are predictive of response to EGFR-targeted therapy in advanced stages of disease. This study aimed to determine the frequency of EGFR mutations in NSCLCs and to correlate their presence with clinical characteristics in multiethnic Malaysian patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this prospective study, EGFR mutations in exons 18, 19, 20 and 21 in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded biopsy specimens of consecutive NSCLC patients were asessed by real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS EGFR mutations were detected in NSCLCs from 55 (36.4%) of a total of 151 patients, being significantly more common in females (62.5%) than in males (17.2%) [odds ratio (OR), 8.00; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.77-16.98; p<0.001] and in never smokers (62.5%) than in ever smokers (12.7%) (OR, 11.50; 95%CI, 5.08-26.03; p<0.001). Mutations were more common in adenocarcinoma (39.4%) compared to non-adenocarcinoma NSCLCs (15.8%) (p=0.072). The mutation rates in patients of different ethnicities were not significantly different (p=0.08). Never smoking status was the only clinical feature that independently predicted the presence of EGFR mutations (adjusted OR, 5.94; 95%CI, 1.94- 18.17; p=0.002). CONCLUSIONS In Malaysian patients with NSCLC, the EGFR mutation rate was similar to that in other Asian populations. EGFR mutations were significantly more common in female patients and in never smokers. Never smoking status was the only independent predictor for the presence of EGFR mutations.