3,434 research outputs found
Measuring and analyzing German and Spanish customer satisfaction of using the iPhone 4S Mobile Cloud service
No full textThis paper presents the customer satisfaction analysis for measuring popularity in the Mobile Cloud, which is an emerging area in the Cloud and Big Data Computing. Organizational Sustainability Modeling (OSM) is the proposed method used in this research. The twelve-month of German and Spanish consumer data are used for the analysis to investigate the return and risk status associated with the ratings of customer satisfaction in the iPhone 4S Mobile Cloud services. Results show that there is a decline in the satisfaction ratings in Germany and Spain due to economic downturn and competitions in the market, which support our hypothesis. Key outputs have been explained and they confirm that all analysis and interpretations fulfill the criteria for OSM. The use of statistical and visualization method proposed by OSM can expose unexploited data and allows the stakeholders to understand the status of return and risk of their Cloud strategies easier than the use of other data analysis
Mauriesia Chang, 2010, gen. nov.
No full textMauriesia gen. nov. Diagnosis: Differs from the other genera of Glomeridae in the following combination of characters. Mediumsized Glomeridae with all four palps of gnathochilarium subequal in length. Organ of Tőmősváry suboval, short. Antennae with four normal apical cones. Collum with two transverse striae. Thoracic shield with a small hyposchism field and numerous transverse striae, of which several crossing the dorsum. Colour pattern vivid. Tegument smooth and shining, devoid of pilosity. Male pygidium with a median lobule at caudal margin. Male leg 17 with a high outer coxal lobe and a 4 -segmented, somewhat reduced telopodite. Male leg 18 with an ogival, or arcuated, syncoxite notch and a 4 -segmented, less strongly reduced telopodite. Male leg 19 (telopod) unusually stout, prefemur especially short (Figs 10 and 11); syncoxite horns high, central lobe present; prefemur medially with a membranous sac and a strong seta near its base on caudal face; femur with a peculiar, long, basal, mediad directed apophysis (a) and a very conspicuous, strongly sclerotized, distal finger (f) on caudal face, as well as with a setose bulge (s) medially; tibia with a smaller but evident, likewise strongly sclerotized, distal finger (p) caudolaterally; tarsus with a strong seta apically. Type species: Mauriesia splendida sp. nov. Name: Honours Jean-Paul Mauriès, the globally renowned specialist in Diplopoda and the author of the modern classification of the Glomerida.Published as part of Chang, Hsueh-Wen, 2010, Pill-millipedes (Glomerida, Diplopoda) in Taiwan, pp. 1-20 in Zootaxa 2477 on page 2, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19531
Heterogeneous and tissue-specific regulation of effector T cell responses by IFN-gamma during Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection.
No full textIFN-γ and T cells are both required for the development of experimental cerebral malaria during Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection. Surprisingly, however, the role of IFN-γ in shaping the effector CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell response during this infection has not been examined in detail. To address this, we have compared the effector T cell responses in wild-type and IFN-γ(-/-) mice during P. berghei ANKA infection. The expansion of splenic CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells during P. berghei ANKA infection was unaffected by the absence of IFN-γ, but the contraction phase of the T cell response was significantly attenuated. Splenic T cell activation and effector function were essentially normal in IFN-γ(-/-) mice; however, the migration to, and accumulation of, effector CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells in the lung, liver, and brain was altered in IFN-γ(-/-) mice. Interestingly, activation and accumulation of T cells in various nonlymphoid organs was differently affected by lack of IFN-γ, suggesting that IFN-γ influences T cell effector function to varying levels in different anatomical locations. Importantly, control of splenic T cell numbers during P. berghei ANKA infection depended on active IFN-γ-dependent environmental signals--leading to T cell apoptosis--rather than upon intrinsic alterations in T cell programming. To our knowledge, this is the first study to fully investigate the role of IFN-γ in modulating T cell function during P. berghei ANKA infection and reveals that IFN-γ is required for efficient contraction of the pool of activated T cells
An Introductory Approach to Risk Visualization as a Service
No full textThis paper introduces the Risk Visualization as a Service (RVaaS) and presents the motivation, rationale, methodology, Cloud APIs used, operations and examples of using RVaaS. Risks can be calculated within seconds and presented in the form of Visualization to ensure that unexploited areas are ex-posed. RVaaS operates in two phases. The first phase includes the risk modeling in Black Scholes Model (BSM), creating 3D Visualization and Analysis. The second phase consists of calculating key derivatives such as Delta and Theta for financial modeling. Risks presented in visualization allow the potential investors and stakeholders to keep track of the status of risk with regard to time, prices and volatility. Our approach can improve accuracy and performance. Results in experiments show that RVaaS can perform up to 500,000 simulations and complete all simulations within 24 seconds for time steps of up to 50. We also introduce financial stock market analysis (FSMA) that can fully blend with RVaaS and demonstrate two examples that can help investors make better decision based on the pricing and market volatility information. RVaaS provides a structured way to deploy low cost, high quality risk assessment and support real-time calculations
Search performance is better predicted by tileability than presence of a unique basic feature
No full textTraditional models of visual search such as feature integration theory (FIT; Treisman & Gelade, 1980), have suggested that a key factor determining task difficulty consists of whether or not the search target contains a “basic feature” not found in the other display items (distractors). Here we discriminate between such traditional models and our recent texture tiling model (TTM) of search (Rosenholtz, Huang, Raj, Balas, & Ilie, 2012b), by designing new experiments that directly pit these models against each other. Doing so is nontrivial, for two reasons. First, the visual representation in TTM is fully specified, and makes clear testable predictions, but its complexity makes getting intuitions difficult. Here we elucidate a rule of thumb for TTM, which enables us to easily design new and interesting search experiments. FIT, on the other hand, is somewhat ill-defined and hard to pin down. To get around this, rather than designing totally new search experiments, we start with five classic experiments that FIT already claims to explain: T among Ls, 2 among 5s, Q among Os, O among Qs, and an orientation/luminance-contrast conjunction search. We find that fairly subtle changes in these search tasks lead to significant changes in performance, in a direction predicted by TTM, providing definitive evidence in favor of the texture tiling model as opposed to traditional views of search.National Eye Institute (R01-EY021473
CHANG-ES: XVIII—The CHANG-ES Survey and Selected Results
No full textThe CHANG-ES (Continuum Halos in Nearby Galaxies) survey of 35 nearby edge-on galaxies is revealing new and sometimes unexpected and startling results in their radio continuum emission. The observations were in wide bandwidths centred at 1.6 and 6.0 GHz. Unique to this survey is full polarization data showing magnetic field structures in unprecedented detail, resolution and sensitivity for such a large sample. A wide range of new results are reported here, some never before seen in any galaxy. We see circular polarization and variability in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), in-disk discrete features, disk-halo structures sometimes only seen in polarization, and broad-scale halos with reversing magnetic fields, among others. This paper summarizes some of the CHANG-ES results seen thus far.For the first author, this research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery grant number 388-528We acknowledge support by the CSIC Open Access Publication Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI)Peer reviewe
T Cell responses to whole SARS Coronavirus in humans
No full textEffective vaccines should confer long-term protection against future outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused by a novel zoonotic coronavirus (SARS-CoV) with unknown animal reservoirs. We conducted a cohort study examining multiple parameters of immune responses to SARS-CoV infection, aiming to identify the immune correlates of protection. We used a matrix of overlapping peptides spanning whole SARS-CoV proteome to determine T cell responses from 128 SARS convalescent samples by ex vivo IFN-γ ELISPOT assays. Approximately 50% of convalescent SARS patients were positive for T cell responses, and 90% possessed strongly neutralizing Abs. Fifty-five novel T cell epitopes were identified, with spike protein dominating total T cell responses. CD8+ T cell responses were more frequent and of a greater magnitude than CD4+ T cell responses (p < 0.001).
Polychromatic cytometry analysis indicated that the virus-specific T cells from the severe group tended to be a central memory phenotype (CD27+/CD45RO+) with a significantly higher frequency of polyfunctional CD4+ T cells producing IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-2, and CD8+ T cells producing IFN-γ, TNF-α, and CD107a (degranulation), as compared with the mild-moderate group. Strong T cell responses correlated significantly (p < 0.05) with higher neutralizing Ab. The serum cytokine profile during acute infection indicated a significant elevation of innate immune responses. Increased Th2 cytokines were observed in patients with fatal infection. Our study provides a roadmap for the immunogenicity of SARS-CoV and types of immune responses that may be responsible for the virus clearance, and should serve as a benchmark for SARS-CoV vaccine design and evaluation
Corrigendum: Cobalt Diselenide Nanorods Grafted on Graphitic Carbon Nitride: A Synergistic Catalyst for Oxygen Reactions in Rechargeable Li−O<sub>2</sub> Batteries
No full textThe author names in the original manuscript should be corrected to the text below: Dr. Surender Kumar,[+,a,f] Dr. Anirudha Jena,[+,a,b] Yao-Chong Hu,[b] Dr. Chaolun Liang,[c,d] Prof. Wuzong Zhou,[c] Dr. Tai-Feng Hung,[e] Dr. Wen-Sheng Chang,[e] Prof. Ho Chang*[b] and Prof. Ru-Shi Liu*[a,b] The following format should be used to cite the original paper: S. Kumar, A. Jena, Y. C. Hu, C. Liang, W. Zhou, T. F. Hung, W. S. Chang, H. Chang, R. S. Liu, ChemElectroChem, 2018, 5, 29–35. The authors apologize for the mistake.</p
Indo-European vocabulary in Old Chinese : a new thesis on the emergence of Chinese language and civilization in the late Neolithic age
No full textThis study is a much expanded version of the paper I read at the XXXII International Congress for Asian and North African Studies on August 28, 1986 in Hamburg (Germany). Contents 1. Recent developments in the field of historical linguistics 2. Monosyllabic structure of Chinese words and Indo-European stems 3. Tonal accents of Middle Chinese 4. Preliminaries on the comparison of consonants and vowels 5. Some IE stems corresponding to Chinese words of entering tone 6. Middle Chinese tones and final consonants of IE stems 7. Some IE stems corresponding to Chinese words of rising tone 8. Some IE stems corresponding to Chinese words of vanishing tone 9. Some IE stems corresponding to Chinese words of level tone 10. Reconstruction of Middle Chinese vocalism according to Yün-ching 11. Old Chinese vocalism 12. Vocalic correspondences between Chinese and IE 13. Initials of Old Chinese 14. Initial consonant clusters in Old Chinese as seen from IE-stems 15. Proximity of Chinese to Germanic 16. Relation of Old Chinese to neighboring languages 17. Emergence of Chinese Empire and language in the middle of the third millennium B.C. Appendix * Abbrevations * Bibliography * Rhyme Tables of Early Middle Chinese (600) * Rhyme Tables of Early Mandarin (1300) * Word Index o English o Pinyin In 1786, just over two hundred years ago, comparative historical linguistics was born, when Sir William Jones (1746-1794) discovered the relationship between Old-Indian Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin. Since then, the emerging Indo-European philology has thrown much light on the early history of mankind in Eurasia. During the past two hundred years, many suggestions were also made in regard to relationships of Indo-European to other languages such as Semitic, Altaic, Austronesian, Korean etc., but Indo-Europeanists commonly rejected such attempts for want of convincing evidence. As to Chinese, Joseph Edkins was the first to advance the thesis of its proximity to Indo-European. In his work China's Place in Philology. An Attempt to show that the Language of Europe and Asia have a Common Origin (1871) he presented a number of Chinese words similar to those of Indo-European. In his time, Edkins' thesis seemed bold and extravagant. But today, more than a hundred years later, we are in a much better position to carry out a comprehensive and well-founded comparative study. Since the end of the nineteenth century, many Sinologists have been engaged in reconstruction of the mediaeval and archaic readings of Chinese characters. Among them, Karlgren (1889-1978) was the most successful, and in 1940 he published a comprehensive phonological and etymological dictionary entitled Grammata Serica. In the meantime, the Indo-Europeanists Alois Walde (1869-1924) and Julius Pokorny (1887-1970) were devoting themselves to the compilation of a useful etymological dictionary. The result was the Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch by Pokorny (1959) which provides a solid basis for our lexical comparisons. Soon thereafter, some Sinologists made use of the two dictionaries by Karlgren and Pokorny to compare Chinese and Indo-European words. In 1967, an unaffiliated German scholar, Jan Ulenbrook, published an article "Einige Übereinstirnrnungen zwischen dem Chinesischen und dem Indogermanischen", in which he claimed that 57 words are related. Shortly afterwards, Tor Ulving of the University of Goteborg, Sweden, wrote a review of this article framing the title as a question: "Indo-European elements in Chinese?" While working on his thesis on word families in Chinese, Ulving compiled for his own use two dictionaries: "Archaic Chinese - English" and "English - Archaic Chinese", and discovered thereby 238 Chinese words similar to Indo-European roots. In spite of this considerable number of word equivalents, however, Mr. Ulving became discouraged and, as he told me in his letter of April, 1986, has given up his researches in this field. The skepticism, common among Indo-Europeanists in regard to comparative studies with other languages, is largely based on the dogmatic opinion that only morphology is relevant but not vocabulary. Since the typology of Chinese seems to preclude a cognate relation to Indo-European, they are inclined to discard any lexical correspondences as merely accidental or onomatopoetic. Besides, prehistorical contacts and mixtures between these languages seem not conceivable, as the Indo-Europeans are supposed to have originated in Northern Europe or at best in the Central Asian steppe, thousands of miles away from East Asia. Hence, any research into a relationship between Old Chinese and Indo-European languages would be but futile from the outset. Yet there are also opposing views among Indo-Europeanists. Investigations into Germanic languages and the oldest Indo-European language, Hittite, led some of them to a critical revision of the prevailing conception about a Proto-Indo-European. Hermann Hirt (1934) for instance states: "Inflexion of Indo-European languages is due to a relatively late development, and its correct comprehension can be achieved only by proceeding from the time of non-inflexion." And Carl Karstien (1936) holds the opinion that "Chinese corresponds most ideally to the hypothetic prototype of Indo-European." Regarding vocabulary, there are striking similarities in the monosyllabic structure of the basic words. In modern German and English, all the words of everyday speech are monosyllabic and their stereotypical structure is: initial consonant(s) + vowel(s) + final consonant(s). The same word structure is valid for Chinese as well. It is fundamentally different from the disyllabic structure of Altaic words and from the triconsonantal-disyllabic structure of Semitic words. Characteristic of the monosyllabic word structure is, besides, the complexity of the syllable nucleus, which consists of different vowels and vowel clusters in contrast to the monophthongal vocalism of polysyllabic words. Another objection raised to comparisons between Chinese and Indo-European is the existence of tonal accents in Chinese. Since most modern Indo-European languages have only expiratory accents, Chinese is considered to be a highly exotic language. Yet, even in Chinese, the use of tonal accents as a means of lexical differentiation is a result of comparatively recent development in the long history of Chinese language, the earliest monuments of which date back to 1300 B.C. (cf. Chang 1970, p.21). Unknown to Old Chinese, the existence of tonal accents was for the first time mentioned in the 5th century by Shen Yüeh (441-513). In Middle Chinese (Mch.) there were four tone categories: A P'ing-sheng 平 a level tone (which developed into Mandarin tone 1 or 2). B Shang-sheng 上 a rising tone (Mandarin tone 3). C Ch'u-sheng 去 a vanishing, i.e. falling tone (Mandarin tone 4). D Ju-sheng 入 an entering tone with a staccato effect, the word being abruptly stopped by a final consonant -p, -t, -k. (In Early Mandarin the words of this tone lost their final consonant and were distributed among the tones 2, 3 and 4, respectively according to the phonation of initials). In Middle Chinese, words of the entering tone were the only group which still preserved the final stops and therefore a close syllabic structure. So they are most appropriate for convincing comparisons with monosyllabic Indo-European word stems. The final stops -p, -t, -k of the entering tone are nowadays still extant in daily speech of several dialects in South China as well as in Chinese borrowings in Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean. As a speaker of a Taiwan dialect of Minnan origin, I could immediately identify some Indo-European stems with corresponding Chinese words. Besides, the command of Japanese and German was also a great help for this study. In the following lists I have chosen a number of Indo-European stems which are phonetically and semantically equivalent to Chinese words. Correspondences in initial and final consonants refer to the points of articulation, thus we have equations: IE labials = Old Chinese labials, IE dentals = dentals, IE l, r = dentals (cf. p. 31); Ø, i (final and medial) IE velars = velars and laryngeals, and occasionally (the so-called "satem"-forms) IE velars = dental sibilants and affricates. Regarding the manner of articulation, there are no regular correspondences between Indo-European and Chinese consonants like Grimm's law which is valid among Indo-European dialects to a certain extent. But this is not astonishing, since in Old Chinese the alternation of initials in voicing was a conventional means of creating new words from one basic form. The rules of vocalic correpondences among Indo-European dialects are quite complex. Vowels permanently change their qualities from one language to another, and from time to time within one language also, as is well known from the history of English pronunciations. Generally, the vocalism of Old Greek is taken as the standard for Proto-Indo-European. Old Chinese vowels corresponds nearly (cf. p. 30), but the details about the reconstruction of Middle and Old Chinese vocalism will be treated later (pp. 26-30). For the moment, it is necessary to notice in advance that the stem of ablauting Germanic verbs is the form of preterite or noun, rather than that of infinitive as assumed hitherto. Therefore, in some cases I must slightly modify the basic vowel of verbal stems given in Pokorny, in order to get better basis for comparison. As Old Chinese verbs were non-flexional, they might probably have preserved the original vowel the best
Capacity bound for a noiseless T-user binary adder channel
No full textThe author proves an upper bound on the sum capacity of a noiseless T-user binary adder channel, thus settling a conjecture made in 1979 by Chang and Weldon. The bound is asymptotically tight and enables a more accurate performance evaluation of some very recent code constructions.</p
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