Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Capital Structure Effects Profitability of The Firms (Evidence from Firms Listed at KSE 100 Index)

Adequate capital structure of any firm can enhance the firm performance. To verify this statement this study has been conducted. To check the impact of capital structure on the performance of firms 8 firms have been selected as a sample. These firms have been chosen from KSE 100 index. Ratio analysis have been applied on the data. Different ratios have been calculated for the purpose of analysis. This analysis have been conducted on seven years data from 2007 to 2013. Regression analysis and correlation analysis have been applied on data to check the relationship between capital structure and profitability. It is concluded that the capital structure have negative effect on the profitability of firms. As the debt ratio increase year by year, the profitability of firms decrease. There also some limitation of the study of limited sample size and analysis techniques. Keywords : Capital structure, profitability, financial performance
Menu Engineering: A Model Including Labor

Menu engineering is a methodology to classify menu items by their contribution margin and popularity. The process discounts the importance of food cost percentage, recognizing that operators deposit cash, not percentages. The authors raise the issue that strict application of the principles of menu engineering may result in an erroneous evaluation of a menu item, and also may be of little use without considering the variable portion of labor. They describe an enhancement to the process by considering labor.
Mutual information evaluation: A way to predict the performance of feature weighting on clustering

Feature weighting is one of the popular and effective ways to improve clustering quality. How to choose a proper weighting method for a data object is widely recognized as a difficult problem. Among majority of weighting schemes and combination weighting methods, the traditional way is evaluating the performance of feature weighting by measuring the quality of clustering. However, it is a time-consuming task because clustering algorithms should be run many times, and the number of times depends on the number of weighting schemes or the number of combination weighting iteration. To address the issue, we propose to apply the Mutual Information to predict the performance of feature weighting. We propose to judge the quality of feature weighting by the resulting gain in mutual information. Therefore, the top s weighted data representations can be selected from the weighting data representation set. Then, the best/second best cluster result can be obtained from the top s representations. Experimental results show that the Mutual Information evaluation reduces the running time without sacrificing the quality of clustering.
Short Selling in Practice--Intermediating Uncertain Share Availability

Uncertain availability of shares to borrow increases the risk of short selling. In practice, intermediaries such as custody banks and prime brokers ameliorate short selling risk through pooling loan supply and employing loan contracts that embed options to extend and fail. These and other institutional features (e.g., average cost pricing) have a significant impact on observed marginal loan rates and the quantity and timing of short sales. We explore the efficiency of these practices with a model of the intertemporal trading strategy of a short seller, where the options to extend and fail are priced into loan fees. Our model provides a framework to isolate short seller beliefs and to understand the function of intermediation in this market. The model generates several empirical predictions for security loan fees and short interest dynamics.
Disturbance of circadian gene expression in hepatocellular carcinoma

Circadian rhythm plays an important role in the regulation of digestive system. The human circadian rhythm is controlled by at least nine circadian genes. The aims of this study are to understand the expression of the circadian genes between hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and nontumor tissues, and to explore the possible mechanism(s) contributing to the difference. We analyzed differential expression of the 9 circadian genes in 46 hepatocellular carcinoma and paired noncancerous tissues by real‐time quantitative RT‐PCR and immunohistochemical detection. We also tested the possible regulatory mechanism(s) by direct sequencing and methylation PCR analysis. Our results showed that decreased expression levels of PER1, PER2, PER3, CRY2, and TIM in hepatocellular carcinomas were observed. Decreased‐expression of these genes was not caused by genetic mutations, but by several factors, such as promoter methylation, overexpression of EZH2 or other factors. The downexpression of more circadian genes may result in disturbance of cell cycle, and it is correlated with the tumor size. Downregulation of circadian genes results in disturbance of circadian rhythm in hepatocellular carcinoma which may disrupt the control of the central pacemaker and benefit selective survival of cancerous cells and promote carcinogenesis. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Ultraviolet-induced genetic recombination in a partially diploid strain of Escherichia coli.

UNDERSTANDING the mechanism of genetic recombination is of prime concern to biologists. Breakage-reunion-type recombination events account for most, if not all, recombinant structures in bacteriophages h (MESELSON and WEIGLE 1961 ; KELLENBERGER, ZICHICHI and WEIGLE 1961; MESELSON 1964) and T4 (TOMIZAWA and ANRAKU 1964,1965; ANRAKU and TOMIZAWA 1965a, b; TOMIZAWA, ANRAKU and IWAMA 1966). These studies have also revealed the nature of some of the steps intermediate to recombinant formation. The genetic systems available in Escherichia coli K-12 are unusual in that they off er opportunities to study both reciprocal and nonreciprocal recombination events. Genetic ( TOMIZAWA 1960) and isotopic labeling ( OPPENHEIM and RILEY 1966) experiments have revealed some aspects of the recombination process following conjugal transfer of donor genetic material to recipient strains. However, problems concerned with replication of the donor chromosome during conjugation and vegetative chromosome replication in the recipient (CURTIS 1966) make complete analysis of recombination events following conjugation difficult. Therefore, it was decided to investigate recombination events in a partially diploid strain of E. coli K-12 (CURTISS 1962, 1964) in order to eliminate problems concerned with gene transfer. LEDERBERG, LEDERBERG, ZINDER and LIVELY (1951) and BECKHORN (see DEMEREC, WITKIN, BECKHORN, VISCONTI, FLINT, CAHN, COON, DOLLINGER, POWELL and SCHWARTZ 1951) showed that small doses of UV (ultraviolet light, 2537 A) would induce haploidization in partially diploid strains of E. coli K-12, but they did not study the kinetics of the process, since all surviving colonies still contained partially diploid cells. UV is known to stimulate genetic recombination in phage (JACOB and WOLLMAN 1955; HERSHEY 1958; LEVINE and CURTIS 196l), in E. coliK-12 (JACOB and WOLLMAN 1961), in yeast (ROMAN and JACOB 1958), and in the phage P22-Salmonella typhimurium transduction system (GAREN and ZINDER 1955). Thus, it was felt that the use of UV to stimulate genetic recombination in a partially diploid strain of E. coli K-12 ( CURTISS 1964) would provide a closed system, not involving gene transfer, with which meaningful results could be obtained. This communication reports findings on UV-induced haploidization, on recombination leading to homozygosity
Human soluble IL-6 receptor: its detection and enhanced release by HIV infection.

By using a fluorescence sandwich ELISA for the quantification of soluble human IL-6R, normal human PBMC were found to be induced to release IL-6R into culture supernatant by stimulation with PHA. Furthermore, certain promonocyte cell lines and human T-cell leukemia virus I (HTLV-I)-positive cell lines produced sIL-6R into culture supernatants constitutively. However, this was not found with HTLV-I negative T cell lines and Burkitt's B cell line. In addition, generation of supernatant IL-6R of the promonocyte cell line was significantly increased 27-fold after PMA treatment and sevenfold after infection with HIV. The released IL-6R molecules were characterized as an apparent m.w. of 50 to 55 kDa by both size-exclusion HPLC and immunoprecipitation of the soluble protein with IL-6R-specific mAb followed by SDS-PAGE analysis. Furthermore, increased levels of serum IL-6R were detected in blood donors seropositive for HIV. Moreover, the released IL-6R could bind efficiently to purified rIL-6 on solid phase and suppressed the proliferative responses of PBMC. These results suggest that the release of soluble IL-6R might be linked to regulatory functions of immune responses induced by IL-6 stimulation during normal and human retrovirus-infected cell growth and differentiation.
Human CD8+ T cell clone regulates autologous CD4+ myelin basic protein specific T cells.

Normal human CD8+ T cell clones were co-isolated from the same culture wells as CD4+ T effector cell clones specific for myelin basic protein (MBP). Microcultures from which the CD8+ clones were isolated initially proliferated weakly to whole MBP and to an MBP peptide spanning residues 90-170. This pattern of response was similar to strongly proliferating wells that yielded CD4+ T cell clones specific for the 90-170 peptide. After repeated stimulation, however, no response to MBP or MBP 90-170 was detected, even though the number of cells increased after stimulation. Phenotyping and TCR analyses revealed the presence of two CD8+, CD4-, IL-2R+ T cell isolates that expressed a single V beta gene (V beta 17) that differed from the CD4+ isolates that uniformly expressed V beta 14. One of these CD8+ clones (C9) inhibited the antigen-driven proliferation of an autologous MBP 90-170 reactive clone but not an autologous clone specific for Herpes simplex virus (HSV), without affecting MHC non-restricted mitogen responses of the same clones. Moreover, C9 did not inhibit heterologous CD4+ T cell clones specific for MBP 1-38 or 90-170. A culture supernatant of the CD8+ clone showed the same pattern but lower levels of inhibition. C9 had mild cytolytic activity when incubated at high ratios with an autologous MBP-specific CD4+ clone. Lysis was blocked completely by anti-MHC class I antibodies, but not by anti-MHC II antibodies. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Topological Overview of Powertrains for Battery-Powered Vehicles With Range Extenders

The paper presents a topological overview of hybrid powertrains for battery-powered vehicles reinforced by range extenders. First, tradeoffs of employing high energy versus high power battery are revealed. Then, different topologies of battery-ultracapacitor hybrids are discussed, highlighting pros and cons of each configuration. The superiority of fully active hybrids is indicated, obtained at the expense of increase of power electronic circuitry, control effort, and efficiency. The second part of the paper focuses on two types of range extenders: renewable energy and fuel-based units. The operation strategy is shown to be different for each range extender type. The renewable-energy-based range extender should be operated employing either passive or active maximum power point tracking strategy and hence not be involved in the powertrain energy balancing. It is shown that such a strategy allows the rest of system to perceive the renewable energy range extender (RERE) as a part of the load and act accordingly. Solar array is given as an example of a RERE and the possible connection topologies are discussed. On the other hand, the fuel-based range extender (FBRE) should be operated near the lowest specific fuel consumption point employing maximum efficiency point tracking strategy. Fuel cells and internal combustion engines are specified as examples of FBREs. The complete powertrain is shown to resemble a dc microgrid with source, storage, and load units connected through power management circuitry to a common dc link.
ORGANIZATIONAL BRAND COMMITMENT: A STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF EMPLOYEE’S EXPECTATIONS AT THE WORKPLACE

There have been many previous researches that examine the role of branding from a customer perspective but, there is little research that examines the role branding plays in attracting and retaining employees who constitute the firm's human capital and, ultimately, contribute to the efficient and effective delivery of products and services. Employee’s attitude towards their organizational brand is decided by the level of their commitment towards the organization which is dependent on their expectations from the job and organization as a whole. Internal Branding acts a bridge between the employee expectations and employee’s level of organizational brand commitment. Employees have different expectations from their job and the organization. The fulfilment of these expectations increases the level of employee’s organizational commitment and thus creates organizational citizenship behaviour. This paper focuses on the employee’s expectations at the workplace and its influence on developing organizational brand commitment. Internal branding helps minimising the gap between what employees expect from their organization and what is being delivered to them by the organization. Thus, the present study reveals a few factors at the workplace which influence organizational brand commitment and helps in better understanding of the role internal branding plays in attracting and retaining employees.
Piecewise Linear Relaxation Techniques for Solution of Nonconvex Nonlinear Programming Problems

A piecewise linear relaxation technique is presented for generation of mathematical programming relaxations of nonconvex nonlinear programming (NLP) problems. In this method, the original nonconvex nonlinear problem is converted to a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem using logical constraints and outer approximations of convex function relaxations. A global solution of this MILP problem serves as a lower bound to the original problem. It may be possible to tighten the original problem variable bounds by use of a MILP-based bound contraction procedure. In some cases, multiple iterations of MILP-based bound contraction can aid in derivation of tighter variable bounds. The proposed techniques are implemented on several global optimization test problems. Computational results demonstrate that the gap between the lower bound and the upper bound can be significantly decreased by implementing the proposed technique. Additionally, the solution time using this method can be decreased significantly when variable contraction is performed in parallel.
Combining neuroanatomical and clinical data to improve individualized early diagnosis of schizophrenia in subjects at high familial risk

To date, there are no reliable markers for making an early diagnosis of schizophrenia before clinical diagnostic criteria are fully met. Neuroimaging and pattern classification techniques are promising tools towards predicting transition to schizophrenia. Here, we investigated the diagnostic performance of a combination of neuroanatomical and clinical data in predicting transition to schizophrenia in subjects at high familial risk (HR) for the disorder. Baseline structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and clinical data from 17 HR subjects, who subsequently developed schizophrenia and an age and sex-matched group of 17 HR subjects who did not make a transition to the disease, yet had psychotic symptoms, were included in the analysis. We employed Support Vector Machine, along with a recursive feature selection technique to classify subjects at an individual level. Combination of both structural MRI and clinical data achieved an accuracy of 94% in predicting at baseline disease conversion in subjects at genetic HR. Overall, this paper presents a promising step in combining neuroanatomical and clinical information to improve early prediction of schizophrenia.
A novel active site‐directed probe specific for deubiquitylating enzymes reveals proteasome association of USP14

A C‐terminally modified ubiquitin (Ub) derivative, ubiquitin vinyl sulfone (UbVS), was synthesized as an active site‐directed probe that irreversibly modifies a subset of Ub C‐terminal hydrolases (UCHs) and Ub‐specific processing proteases (UBPs). Specificity of UbVS for deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs) is demonstrated not only by inhibition of [125I]UbVS labeling with N‐ethylmaleimide and Ub aldehyde, but also by genetic analysis. [125I]UbVS modifies six of the 17 known and putative yeast deubiquitylating enzymes (Yuh1p, Ubp1p, Ubp2p, Ubp6p, Ubp12p and Ubp15p), as revealed by analysis of corresponding mutant strains. In mammalian cells, greater numbers of polypeptides are labeled, most of which are likely to be DUBs. Using [125I]UbVS as a probe, we report the association of an additional DUB with the mammalian 26S proteasome. In addition to the 37 kDa enzyme reported to be part of the 19S cap, we identified USP14, a mammalian homolog of yeast Ubp6p, as being bound to the proteasome. Remarkably, labeling of 26S‐associated USP14 with [125I]UbVS is increased when proteasome function is impaired, suggesting functional coupling between the activities of USP14 and the proteasome.
Designing dependable process-oriented software - a CSP-based approach

This thesis advocates dependability as a crucial aspect of software quality. Process orientation, as it is defined in this thesis, concentrates on the notion of a process as a basic building component of a dataflow-centred software architecture. The dependability approach in the proposed variant of process orientation builds on a few specific strengths of the particular dataflowcentred architecture which is based on the principles of the CSP process algebra.
PID-like Fuzzy Logic Control Scheme for Control of a Planar Parallel (3PPR U-base) Manipulator

The paper investigates the control of a three prismatic-pri smatic-revolute (3 PPR) U-base planar parallel manipulator in the presence of p arameter uncertainties and unknown disturbances. The 3PPR U-base planar paral lel manipulator is a motion platform with singularity free workspace (bound ed orientation angle θz ≤ ±90 ◦) and has manipulator legs located on the plane in associatio n with a moving platform. Each leg has a prismatic-prismatic-revol ute joint configuration in which one prismatic joint is active in each leg. To control the end-effector’s mobility of the 3PPR U-base motion platform a proportionalintegral-derivative (PID)-like fuzzy logic control scheme is introduced. To dem onstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller, experiments (on a in-house fabricated prototype of the proposed manipulator) with a desired characteristic tr ajectory are performed and its control performance is compared with an existing con ventional PID controller. The results confirmed that the proposed controller has the capability to track the desired task space trajectory and gives a better ro bust control performance.
National-scale cropland mapping based on spectral-temporal features and outdated land cover information

The lack of sufficient ground truth data has always constrained supervised learning, thereby hindering the generation of up-to-date satellite-derived thematic maps. This is all the more true for those applications requiring frequent updates over large areas such as cropland mapping. Therefore, we present a method enabling the automated production of spatially consistent cropland maps at the national scale, based on spectral-temporal features and outdated land cover information. Following an unsupervised approach, this method extracts reliable calibration pixels based on their labels in the outdated map and their spectral signatures. To ensure spatial consistency and coherence in the map, we first propose to generate seamless input images by normalizing the time series and deriving spectral-temporal features that target salient cropland characteristics. Second, we reduce the spatial variability of the class signatures by stratifying the country and by classifying each stratum independently. Finally, we remove speckle with a weighted majority filter accounting for per-pixel classification confidence. Capitalizing on a wall-to-wall validation data set, the method was tested in South Africa using a 16-year old land cover map and multi-sensor Landsat time series. The overall accuracy of the resulting cropland map reached 92%. A spatially explicit validation revealed large variations across the country and suggests that intensive grain-growing areas were better characterized than smallholder farming systems. Informative features in the classification process vary from one stratum to another but features targeting the minimum of vegetation as well as short-wave infrared features were consistently important throughout the country. Overall, the approach showed potential for routinely delivering consistent cropland maps over large areas as required for operational crop monitoring.
The human mammary gland basement membrane is integral to the polarity of luminal epithelial cells.

We show that myoepithelial cell basement membrane derived E3 and E8 domains of laminin-1 are capable of polarizing luminal epithelial cells with regard to epithelial membrane antigen localization. This event is dependent on the alpha6 integrin and results in aggregation and phosphorylation of the tyrosine residues of the focal adhesion kinase complex. We also demonstrate that uncultured normal luminal epithelial cells synthesize normal levels of beta and gamma laminin chains and reduced levels of alpha chains mRNA in common with malignant epithelial cells. In contrast normal myoepithelial cells synthesize all three constituent chains of laminin-1. Therefore in breast cancer the absence of myoepithelial cells could result in a lack of laminin alpha chains which may contribute to loss of polarity of malignant epithelial cells.
A model for the implementation of ERP systems in midsize businesses

This study proposes an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation model for midsize businesses. The proposed model uses a strategic approach containing; ERP implementation processes, stages, factors & issues associate with ERP adoption in midsize businesses. This model can be used as part of ERP implementation strategy for midsize businesses, enabling business managers/owner to have better understanding of their implementation process. The model comprises ERP implementation stages and related factors categorised in the Technology, Organisation and People domains.
Determinants of Chairman Compensation

This study examines determinants of chairman compensation in a supervisory board setting and, specifically, the relationship between chairman and CEO compensation. Using a sample of publicly listed firms in Sweden, the study indicates that chairman compensation – despite its fixed nature – is reflective of firm performance via a positive relationship to CEO compensation. As CEO compensation is set before chairman compensation, we argue that the chairman may be inclined to conspire with the CEO in earnings management efforts at the expense of monitoring on behalf of investors. Supporting our argument, we find evidence that the gap between chairman and CEO compensation is less at firms where the chairman has previously served on the executive management team.