Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Analysis of Online Privacy Policies of Fortune 100 Companies

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the current status of online privacy policies of Fortune 100 Companies. It was found that 94% of the surveyed companies have posted an online privacy policy and 82% of them collect personal information from consumers. The majority of the companies only partially follow the four principles (notice, choice, access, and security) of fair information practices. For example, most of the organizations give consumers some notice and choice in term of the collection and use of their personal information. However, organizations fall short in security requirements. Only 19% of organizations mention that they have taken steps to provide security for information both during transmission and after their sites have received the information. The results also reveal that a few organizations have obtained third-party privacy seals including TRUSTe, BBBOnline Privacy, and Safe Harbor. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-323-2.ch6. 4
BH3 Domain of BAD Is Required for Heterodimerization with BCL-XL and Pro-apoptotic Activity*

BAD interacts with anti-apoptotic molecules BCL-2 and BCL-XL and promotes apoptosis. BAD is phosphorylated on serine residues in response to a survival factor, interleukin-3. Phosphorylated BAD cannot bind to BCL-XL or BCL-2 at membrane sites and is found in the cytosol bound to 14-3-3. We report here that deletion mapping and site-directed mutagenesis identified a BH3 domain within BAD that proved necessary for both its heterodimerization with BCL-XL and its death agonist activity. Substitution of the conserved Leu151 with Ala in the BH3 amphipathic α-helix abrogated both functions. The BAD Leu151 mutant was predominantly in the cytosol bound to 14-3-3. The BH3 domain of BCL-2 also proved important for BCL-2/BAD interaction. These results establish a critical role for a BH3 domain within BAD and provide evidence that BAD may function as a death ligand whose pro-apoptotic activity requires heterodimerization with BCL-XL.
Perceptually Grounded Language Learning: Part 2 - DETE: A Neural/Procedural Model

Abstract In Part 1 of this two-part series, we introduced Katamic memory—a neural network architecture capable of robust sequence learning and recognition. In Part 2, we introduce the Blobs World taskjdomain for language learning and describe the DETE language learning system, which is composed of over 50 Katamic memory modules. DETE currently learns small subsets of English and Spanish via association with perceptual! motor inputs. In addition to Kaiamic memory, DETE employs several other novel features: (1) use of feature planes, to encode visual shapes, spatial relationships and the motions of objects, (2) phase-locking of neural firing, in order to represent focus of atention and to bind objects across multiple feature planes, and (3) a method for encoding temporal relationships, so that DETE can learn utterances involving the immediate past and future. We compare DETE to related models and discuss the implications of this approach for language-learning research.
Involvement of the narJ or narW gene product in the formation of active nitrate reductase in Escherichia coli

Two membrane‐bound nitrate reductases, NRA and NRZ, exist in Escherichia coil. Both isoenzymes are composed of three structural subunits, α, β and γ encoded by narG/narZ, narH/narY and narl/narV, respectively. The genes are in transcription units which also contain a fourth gene encoding a polypeptide, δ, which is not part of the final enzyme. A strain which is devoid of, or does not express, the nar genes, was used to investigate the role of the δ and γ polypeptides in the formation and/or processing of the nitrate reductase. When only the α and γ polypeptides are produced, an (αβ) complex exists which is inactive and soluble. When the α, β and δ and polypeptides are produced, the (αβ) complex is active with artificial donors such as benzyl viologen but is soluble. When the α, β, and δ polypeptides are produced, the (αβ) complex is inactive but partially binds the membrane. It was concluded that the γ polypeptide is involved in the binding of the (αβ) complex to the membrane while the δ polypeptide is indispensable for the (αβ) nitrate reductase activity. The activation by the δ polypeptide does not seem to involve the insertion of the redox centres of the enzyme since the purified inactive (αβ) complex was shown to contain the four iron–sulphur centres and the molybdenum cofactor, which are normally present in the native purified enzyme. The extreme sensitivity of this inactive complex to thermal denaturation or tryptic treatment favours the idea that the δ polypeptide promotes the correct assembly of the α and β subunits. Although this corresponds to the definition of a chaperone protein this possibility has been rejected. In this study we have also demonstrated that the δ or γ polypeptide encoded by one nar operon can be substituted succesfully for by its respective counterpart from the other nar operon to give an active membrane bound heterologous nitrate reductase enzyme.
A Happy Workplace - Are We There Yet?

Great emphasis is placed on the laboratories, equipment and emerging technologies that are hosted by a core service facility at universities, however, expert staff are the most important assets. Staff retention can be a significant management challenge, particularly when career progression pathways are unclear, key performance indicators differ from other university employees and when long-term operational funding may be uncertain. A variety of techniques are available to managers who are seeking to enhance the morale and performance of service facility employees working within this environment.
Turbulent mixing and beyond: non-equilibrium processes from atomistic to astrophysical scales

Turbulent mixing is a source of paradigm problems in physics, engineering and mathematics. Beyond this important interdisciplinary role, it has immense consequences for a broad range of applications in astrophysics, geophysics, climate and large-scale energy systems. In two volumes, we summarize and provide a perspective on the topic through some 20 articles focusing on turbulent mixing and beyond. The volumes are grouped, somewhat loosely, into those associated with fundamental aspects of turbulence and those specific to Rayleigh–Taylor turbulent mixing.
Offender Mobility and Crime Pattern Formation from First Principles

Foraging theory is the domain of ecology that seeks to model how organisms deploy alternative behavioral strategies to bring themselves into contact with the resources that they need for survival. For stationary organisms such as plants or sessile animals, foraging might mean attempting to establish and control a spatial position within the environment that ensures at least a minimum flow of nutrients past that location. For mobile animals such as large mammalian herbivores or carnivores seeking stationary or mobile prey, foraging may mean developing movement routines that ensure a certain rate of encounter and return from prey items. In exactly aBSTracT
A hybrid router combining circuit switching and packet switching with virtual channels for on-chip networks

In this paper, we propose a hybrid router which combines circuit switching and packet switching with virtual channels for on-chip networks in order to efficiently transfer streaming and best-effort traffics in specific applications. Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) technique and clock-gating scheme are used to take the benefits from the flexibility and throughput advantage of packet-switched router and superior power efficiency performance of circuit-switching. Synthesis and simulation results show that the proposed router has a gain of optimization in latency and average power consumption compared to either of the routers with single switching technique, with a slight growth of 6.8% in area overhead, while the virtual channels increase the network bandwidth by 26%.
Heavy Drinking in University Students With and Without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Contributions of Drinking Motives and Protective Behavioral Strategies

This study examined rates of heavy drinking and alcohol problems in relation to drinking motives and protective behavioral strategies in university students with a documented current diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 31) compared with students with no history of ADHD (n = 146). Participants completed a Web-based questionnaire, and logistic regression models tested interactions between ADHD/comparison group membership and motives and protective strategies. Group differences in rates of heavy drinking and alcohol problems were not statistically significant, but medium-sized risk ratios showed that students without ADHD reported heavy drinking at a rate 1.44 times higher than students with ADHD and met screening criteria for problematic alcohol use at a rate of 1.54 times higher than students with ADHD. Other key findings were, first, that drinking to enhance positive affect (e.g., drinking because it is exciting), but not to cope with negative affect (e.g., drinking to forget your worries), predicted both heavy drinking and alcohol problems. Second, only protective behavioral strategies that emphasize alcohol avoidance predicted both heavy drinking and alcohol problems. Contrary to expectations, we found no ADHD-related moderation of effects of motives or protective strategies on our alcohol outcomes. Results of this study are limited by the small sample of students with ADHD but highlight tentative similarities and differences in effects of motives and strategies on drinking behaviors and alcohol problems reported by students with and without ADHD.
MECHANISMS AND PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS INVOLVED IN PLANT GROWTH PROMOTION BY RHIZOBACTERIA

Rhizobacteria are capable of stimulating plant growth through a variety of mechanisms that include improvement of plant nutrition, production and regulation of phytohormones, and suppression of disease causing organisms. While considerable research has demonstrated their potential utility, the successful application of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in the field has been limited by a lack of knowledge of ecological factors that determine their survival and activity in the plant rhizosphere. To be effective, PGPR must maintain a critical population density of active cells. Inoculation with PGPR strains can temporarily enhance the population size, but inoculants often have poor survival and compete with indigenous bacteria for available growth substrates. PGPR often have more than one mechanism for enhancing plant growth and experimental evidence suggests that the plant growth stimulation is the net result of multiple mechanisms of action that may be activated simultaneously. The aim of this review is to describe PGPR modes of action and discuss practical considerations for PGPR use in agriculture.
Depleting T Cells in Newly Diagnosed Autoimmune (Type 1) Diabetes—Are We Getting Anywhere?

Autoimmune, or type 1 diabetes (T1D), is increasing worldwide in parallel with increases in the global standard of living. Geographically, the prevalence and incidence are diverse, explained in part by the heterogeneous distribution of HLA genetic factors on chromosome 6 that control the body’s way of dealing with infectious diseases. This may explain why some countries have a higher prevalence of T1D than others. Indeed, while Japan has relatively low levels of T1D, other countries such as Finland and Sweden are more heavily affected. The disease may affect a person at any age and the severity of the clinical onset loss of β-cells is highly variable (Fig. 1). As there are no screening programs for HLA risk and islet autoantibodies that predict the disease, the vast majority of T1D patients are not recognized until the day of clinical diagnosis (1,2). FIG. 1. Relationship between insulin release in relation to the remaining β-cell mass. Research subjects entering an intervention trial at 8–35 years of age at the time of clinical diagnosis, such as the Protege trial, may have vastly different baselines that may affect treatment and outcome. Subjects to the left may have lost a major proportion of their β-cells but still remain asymptomatic due to well-functioning β-cells and high insulin sensitivity. Subjects to the right may develop diabetes due to poor β-cell function and high insulin resistance. Heterogeneity already at baseline complicates immunomodulation intervention trials in T1D. The figure is courtesy of Daniel Cook and Ian Sweet, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. At diagnosis, patients’ β-cell function profile can vary depending on the loss of β-cells. Some younger patients may have lost essentially all β-cells and their function, while older patients may still have considerable endogenous insulin left, with their diabetes masquerading as type 2 (1). It has taken …
DISCUSSION OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF PUBLIC KEY INFRASTRUCTURE IN REAL LIFE

S ince public keys in asymmetric cryptosystems need not be kept se­cret, key management in those systems is simpler than in symmetric schemes. Private keys, however, must be kept secret. Also, public keys must be protected from falsification and abuse. Therefore, ap­propriate public-key infrastructures (PKI) must be set up. They are responsible for key distribution and management. In this paper, we describe how such public-key infrastructures work.
Design Requirements for Autonomous Multivehicle Surface-Underwater Operations

Future autonomous marine missions will depend on the seamless coordination of autonomous vehicles: unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Such coordination will enable important inter-vehicle applications such as autonomous refueling, high-throughput data transfer and periodic maintenance to extend the mission length. A critical enabling capability is the autonomous capture, retrieval and deploymentofaUUVfromaUSVplatform.Asa firststeptowardsolvingthisproblem, we propose a performance specification that quantifies the necessary motion compensation required to safely and reliably operate a USV and UUV in concert in the dynamic marine environment. To accomplish this, we use a model-based approach to predict the motion of typical vehicles under the influence of the same sea conditions. We summarize the predictions succinctly using a scalar performance metric, the peak-to-peak vertical displacement, as a function of vehicle type, sea-state and vehicle formation. To substantiate this model-based approach experimentally, we present sea-trial data and compare the empirical observations to model predictions. The results show that although simple three degree-of-freedom models do not capture the full complexity of an actual six degree-of-freedom ship motion, they can prove expedient in an engineering context for quantifying the design requirements of a USV-UUV capture, deployment and retrieval system.
Managing by Objectives or Prescribing Behavior: Achieving Soil Protection and Economic Benefits in Forestry WP 96.07

A hierarchical approach to forest planning is formulated, where harvest schedules are first determined, followed by a decision about harvest methods. Choice of harvest methods is particularly important because of concerns about harvest–related soil disturbance. In the decision model developed in this paper determination of a harvest system regime is expressed as a multiple–objective decision incorporating maximization of net present value and minimization of cumulative soil disturbance for different site classes, subject to maintaining high levels of production, an even flow of timber, and avoiding green–up violations. The search for preferred harvest system regimes is performed over a set of non–dominated harvest schedules, with alternative weights placed on the objectives to reflect values of different stakeholders. Based on an application of the model to the Tangier River watershed in south–eastern British Columbia, we conclude that a regulatory approach that restricts the choice of harvest systems is inferior (in terms of both economic and environmental objectives) to one that prescribes performance standards with respect to soil protection without restricting the choice of harvest methods available to the manager.
Construction and Evaluation of a Service Level Agreement Test-Bed

DWEKAT, ZYAD AHMAD. Construction and Evaluation of a Service Level Agreement Test-Bed. (Under the direction of Drs. Mladen A. Vouk and George N. Rouskas) Differentiated Services (DiffServ) enable quality-of-service provisioning by coupling traffic aggregates with a specific forwarding path treatment. Per-Hop forwarding Behavior (or PHB) describes the forwarding path behavior required in network nodes, while the Per-Domain Behavior (or PDB) describes the behavior experienced by a particular set of packets as they cross a DiffServ domain. PHB and PDB implementations with traffic conditioners, provisioning strategies and billing models are building blocks used in Services Level Agreements (SLA). The goal of the project was to construct an SLA test-bed using soft DiffServ routing nodes. This test-bed, and the associated tools, is intended for in-depth studies of SLA translation and mapping algorithms. The specific objectives of the work reported in this thesis were to construct the test-bed, and then verify, validate and evaluate different elements of the SLA test-bed. Specifically, proof-of-concept experiments were conducted to show that one can implement a general Services Level Agreement (SLA) based on DiffServ, to show how to translate SLA requirements into real test-bed parameters, and then run experiments, collect data and make performance measurements. The study is empirical and involves implementation of some of the quality of service (QoS) related IETF drafts and RFCs in a five-node soft DiffServ-based SLA testbed. This includes implementation and empirical evaluation of Expedite Forwarding (EF) PHB, Assured Forwarding (AF) PHB, Virtual Wire (VW) PDB, and of Assured Forwarding PDB. Virtual Wire PDB was implemented using both the Priority Scheduler and a Weighted Fair Queuing Scheduler. The effect of Best Effort packet size and rate on the protected EF traffic was investigated empirically. This provided proof of concept data on how successful can a VW implementation be in protecting Voice over IP (VoIP) streams. We
University Students Use of Computers and Mobile Devices for Learning and their Reading Speed on Different Platforms

This research was aimed at the investigation of mobile device and computer use at a higher learning institution. The goal was to determine the current use of computers and mobile devices for learning and the students' reading speed on different platforms. The research was contextualised in a sample of students at the University of South Africa. Students indicated their use of computers and mobile devices for educational purposes in closed questions. The results of this case study showed that most students preferred reading from university supplied printed materials than from notes downloaded on computers or mobile devices. The percentages of students who use computers and mobile devices were calculated. Students currently use computers more than mobile devices for reading downloaded notes. A mobile eye tracker was used to analyse the students' reading speed on paper, and on a mobile device. Screen based eye tracking was also used to analyse the participants' reading speed when reading on a desktop screen. Participants who read on paper had the fastest reading speed than those who read on mobile device or computer screen.
The work/study dilemma: A pilot study

Over the past decade Australian universities have experienced rapid growth and increased diversity of the student population. Increased diversity has been achieved by increased enrolments of students from groups in Australian society that have little or no experience of university study. Many of these students are working either full-time or part-time while pursuing their university studies. This combination of work and study poses many problems, both for individual students and the universities they attend.
Adherence to Prescribed Treatment for Asthma: Evidence from Pharmacy Benefits Data

Background. Failure to use asthma controller medications as prescribed is associated with more asthma-related adverse events. Medication utilization may vary with ease of drug administration, efficacy, and tolerability as well as other factors. We hypothesized that in usual-care clinical practice settings, there would be greater adherence to oral controller than to inhaled controller asthma medications. Methods. We compared adherence to newly initiated asthma controller therapy among patients initiating monotherapy with leukotriene receptor antagonists (LTRAs), inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), or inhaled long-acting β-agonists (ILBA) from 03 1998 to 07 1999. We measured adherence as the sum of drug supply days between first and last fill dates divided by length of drug therapy. Analyses were stratified by the number of short-acting β-agonists (SBA) prescriptions per year to control for disease severity. Results. Pharmacy claims data from 48,751 subjects (6 to 55 years) were analyzed (mean age 30.4 years; 56% female). Mean adherence to new start monotherapy on LTRA was 67.7%, to ICS was 33.8%, and to ILBA was 40.0%. Adherence to all three controller agents increased with increasing SBA use. The percent of patients persistent to asthma controller monotherapy at both 6 and 9 months was significantly greater among those on LTRA monotherapy than on either ICS or ILBA. Conclusions. In clinical practice settings, patients initiating LTRA monotherapy have about twice the adherence as patients initiating ICS or ILBA monotherapy. Because adherence to treatment is a critical component of treatment response, it is important to consider this factor in the prescription of oral vs. inhaled asthma medications.
Engineered underdominance allows efficient and economical introgression of traits into pest populations.

A novel form of underdominance is suggested as a mechanism that is able to drive desired genes into pest populations through the release of transgenic individuals over one or more generations. Such a mechanism is urgently needed by those working to reduce the impact of malaria by releasing strains of Anopheles, the vector of the disease, that are not susceptible to malaria parasites. We use simple population genetics models to quantify the benefits conferred when heterozygous genotypes, arising from matings between introduced and wild individuals, are not viable. In a randomly mating population, underdominant systems accelerate introgression of desired alleles and allow the release of individuals to be discontinued once the frequency of transgenic alleles attains a threshold. A set of two constructs, which together are selectively neutral but lethal when one is carried without the other, are found to produce dynamics that are characteristic of underdominant systems. When these constructs are carried on non-homologous chromosomes, then the ratio of released to natural born individuals need only be greater than 3:100 for introgression to occur. Furthermore, the threshold for the gene frequencies over which the introduced genes are expected to become fixed upon discontinuing the release of transgenic individuals is surprisingly low. The location of the threshold suggests that the introduced genes are expected to spread in space, at least locally. For the first time, the prospect of a practical drive mechanism for the genetic manipulation of pest populations is raised.
Cadherins: a molecular family important in selective cell-cell adhesion.

PERSPECTIVES AND SUMMARY 237 SELECTIVE C LL ADHESION 238 CELL-CELL ,a,DHESION MOLECULES 239 CADHERINS 240 cDNA TRANSFECTION STUDIES ON CADHERIN FUNCTION 242 BINDING SPECIFICITIES OF CADHERINS 242 MOLECULAR BASIS FOR CADHERIN-MEDIATED SELECTIVE ADHESION . 244 SPECIES-SPECIFICITIES OF CADHERINS 245 TRANSMEMBRANE CONTROL OF CADHERIN FUNCTION 246 ROLE OF CADHERINS 1N MORPHOGENESIS 248