Validating Perception and Use of Mobile Social Network Service: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Study

The rapid developments of Social Network Services (SNS) and mobile technology have offered opportunities to revisitseminal theories of technology use in today’s socio-technical environment. Mobile technology based SNSprovides various service channels that are highly correlated with their respective service contexts, in which culturalinfluences are omnipresent. Investigating use intention in a cross-cultural mobile SNS study implies new theoreticaldiscoveries and managerial practices. This research in progress (RIP) paper suggests that important distinctions existbetween U.S. and Chinese SNS subscribers in terms of SNS use and perceptions. Taking the perspective of SNSusers, we strive to explore the effects of cultural factors (e.g., collectivism vs. individualism) on trust formulation,degree of social awareness, and privacy concern. We examine the antecedents and consequences of legacyconstructs (e.g., technology acceptance and social capital) in SNS. This paper describes the research design to testthe research hypotheses. A triangulation methodology (i.e., qualitative and quantitative methods) is desired andproposed in the design. A discussion of research implications and business practices is also included in this RIPpaper

Improving the Robustness of Summarization Systems with Dual Augmentation

A robust summarization system should be able to capture the gist of the document, regardless of the specific word choices or noise in the input. In this work, we first explore the summarization models' robustness against perturbations including word-level synonym substitution and noise. To create semantic-consistent substitutes, we propose a SummAttacker, which is an efficient approach to generating adversarial samples based on language models. Experimental results show that state-of-the-art summarization models have a significant decrease in performance on adversarial and noisy test sets. Next, we analyze the vulnerability of the summarization systems and explore improving the robustness by data augmentation. Specifically, the first brittleness factor we found is the poor understanding of infrequent words in the input. Correspondingly, we feed the encoder with more diverse cases created by SummAttacker in the input space. The other factor is in the latent space, where the attacked inputs bring more variations to the hidden states. Hence, we construct adversarial decoder input and devise manifold softmixing operation in hidden space to introduce more diversity. Experimental results on Gigaword and CNN/DM datasets demonstrate that our approach achieves significant improvements over strong baselines and exhibits higher robustness on noisy, attacked, and clean datasets.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, ACL 2023 main coferenc

Pain-Related Factors and Their Impact on Quality of Life in Chinese Patients With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

ObjectivesPain is considered a common symptom in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). However, the results of studies on pain in ALS are limited and inconsistent. The aim of our study was to comprehensively evaluate the potential factors of pain and effects on quality of life (QoL) in patients with ALS from China.Participants and MethodsPatients were eligible if they fulfilled the criteria of probable and definitive ALS according to the revised El Escorial criteria. Pain was assessed by the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI). Disease severity, sleep quality, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and quality of life (QoL) were evaluated in ALS patients by the ALS Functional Rating Scale-revised (ALSFRS-R) and ALS severity scale (ALSSS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire (MQOL). Then, the clinical characteristics of ALS patients with pain were compared with those without pain. Last, associated factors of pain, as well as impact on QoL in Chinese ALS patients, were assessed.ResultsA total of 86 ALS patients were included. ALS patients with pain tended to have higher FSS scores and poorer QoL. The FSS score and ALSSS [lower extremity (LE) + upper extremity (UE)] were associated with pain in ALS patients. The ALS Functional Rating Scale-revised (ALSFRS-R), Pain Severity Index (PSI), HARS and HDRS scores were significantly associated with both the physical and psychological domains of QoL.ConclusionOur study was the first to comprehensively evaluate factors associated with pain in Chinese ALS patients, finding that fatigue can be a risk factor for pain and ALSSS (LE + UE) score was related with pain intensity. Additionally, we identified the adverse effects of ALSSS (LE + UE), HARS and HDRS scores on QoL in Chinese ALS patients

Comparative Analyses of H3K4 and H3K27 Trimethylations Between the Mouse Cerebrum and Testis

AbstractThe global features of H3K4 and H3K27 trimethylations (H3K4me3 and H3K27me3) have been well studied in recent years, but most of these studies were performed in mammalian cell lines. In this work, we generated the genome-wide maps of H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 of mouse cerebrum and testis using ChIP-seq and their high-coverage transcriptomes using ribominus RNA-seq with SOLiD technology. We examined the global patterns of H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 in both tissues and found that modifications are closely-associated with tissue-specific expression, function and development. Moreover, we revealed that H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 rarely occur in silent genes, which contradicts the findings in previous studies. Finally, we observed that bivalent domains, with both H3K4me3 and H3K27me3, existed ubiquitously in both tissues and demonstrated an invariable preference for the regulation of developmentally-related genes. However, the bivalent domains tend towards a “winner-takes-all” approach to regulate the expression of associated genes. We also verified the above results in mouse ES cells. As expected, the results in ES cells are consistent with those in cerebrum and testis. In conclusion, we present two very important findings. One is that H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 rarely occur in silent genes. The other is that bivalent domains may adopt a “winner-takes-all” principle to regulate gene expression

Large-scale collection and annotation of gene models for date palm (Phoenix dactylifera, L.)

The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.), famed for its sugar-rich fruits (dates) and cultivated by humans since 4,000 B.C., is an economically important crop in the Middle East, Northern Africa, and increasingly other places where climates are suitable. Despite a long history of human cultivation, the understanding of P. dactylifera genetics and molecular biology are rather limited, hindered by lack of basic data in high quality from genomics and transcriptomics. Here we report a large-scale effort in generating gene models (assembled expressed sequence tags or ESTs and mapped to a genome assembly) for P. dactylifera, using the long-read pyrosequencing platform (Roche/454 GS FLX Titanium) in high coverage. We built fourteen cDNA libraries from different P. dactylifera tissues (cultivar Khalas) and acquired 15,778,993 raw sequencing reads—about one million sequencing reads per library—and the pooled sequences were assembled into 67,651 non-redundant contigs and 301,978 singletons. We annotated 52,725 contigs based on the plant databases and 45 contigs based on functional domains referencing to the Pfam database. From the annotated contigs, we assigned GO (Gene Ontology) terms to 36,086 contigs and KEGG pathways to 7,032 contigs. Our comparative analysis showed that 70.6 % (47,930), 69.4 % (47,089), 68.4 % (46,441), and 69.3 % (47,048) of the P. dactylifera gene models are shared with rice, sorghum, Arabidopsis, and grapevine, respectively. We also assigned our gene models into house-keeping and tissue-specific genes based on their tissue specificity. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11103-012-9924-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

The Disequilibrium of Nucleosomes Distribution along Chromosomes Plays a Functional and Evolutionarily Role in Regulating Gene Expression

To further understand the relationship between nucleosome-space occupancy (NO) and global transcriptional activity in mammals, we acquired a set of genome-wide nucleosome distribution and transcriptome data from the mouse cerebrum and testis based on ChIP (H3)-seq and RNA-seq, respectively. We identified a nearly consistent NO patterns among three mouse tissues—cerebrum, testis, and ESCs—and found, through clustering analysis for transcriptional activation, that the NO variations among chromosomes are closely associated with distinct expression levels between house-keeping (HK) genes and tissue-specific (TS) genes. Both TS and HK genes form clusters albeit the obvious majority. This feature implies that NO patterns, i.e. nucleosome binding and clustering, are coupled with gene clustering that may be functionally and evolutionarily conserved in regulating gene expression among different cell types

Origami Mönster Tube för Vehicle Crash Box

With an increasing number of traffic accidents, more and more people are injuring or even dying during the collision. One of the main reasons is frontal collisions. Therefore, the safety system is a very important part of the vehicle. In order to ensure the passengers’ safety, the common way to minimize mortality and property damage in a collision is to install energy absorption device in the vehicle structure called crash box. We propose to implement the principle of the origami pattern to improve the traditional bumper system, let the bumper have folding property. Origami properties make it useful to apply in a variety of engineering fields. The thin-walled tube and beam will undergo elastic deformation to decrease the impact force and absorb more kinetic energy. We use Autodesk Inventor 2012 to model the seamless origami pattern tube, and do the simulation by ABAQUS to analyze the displacement of axial compression and the impact force. The numerical results show that origami patterns perform well. Then we can obtain the plot with relationship between force and displacement in the elastic behavior and in the elastic-ideal plastic behavior. As for manufacturing field, we analyze existing manufacturing methods include stamping and tube hydroforming, compare them to find their features. Meanwhile we try to explore a new way to improve the accuracy and efficiency of manufacturing origami pattern tube.Med ett ökande antal trafikolyckor, fler och fler människor att skada eller till och med dö under kollisionen. Ett av de viktigaste skälen är frontalkollisioner. Därför är säkerhetssystemet en mycket viktig del av fordonet. För att garantera passagerarnas säkerhet, är det vanligaste sättet att minimera dödlighet och skador på egendom vid en kollision för att installera enheten energiupptagning i fordonets struktur som kallas crash box. Vi föreslår att genomföra principen om origami mönstret att förbättra traditionella stötfångaren systemet, låt stötfångaren har fällbara egendom. Origami egenskaper gör det användbart att tillämpa i en mängd olika tekniska områden. Den tunnväggigt rör och strålen kommer att genomgå elastisk deformation för att minska stötkraften och absorbera mer kinetisk energi. Vi använder Autodesk Inventor 2012 att modellera sömlösa rör origami mönster, och göra simuleringen av ABAQUS att analysera förskjutning av axiell kompression och slagstyrka. De numeriska resultaten visar att origami mönster prestera bra. Då kan vi få tomten med förhållandet mellan kraft och förskjutning i den elastiska beteendet och i det elastiska-ideala plast beteende. När det gäller tillverkning område, vi analyserar befintliga tillverkningsmetoder inkluderar stämpling och rör hydroformning, jämföra dem att hitta sina funktioner. Samtidigt försöker vi att utforska ett nytt sätt att förbättra noggrannheten och effektiviteten i tillverkningen origami mönster röret

Calculative trust, relational trust, and organizational performance: A meta-analytic structural equation modeling approach

We draw on transaction cost economics and social exchange theory to explore how two different types of inter-organizational trust, namely, calculative trust and relational trust, affect organizational performance. Our meta-analysis of 60 empirical studies shows that both types of trust have a positive effect on organizational performance. However, the two types of trust influence organizational performance through different mediating mechanisms. Whilst calculative trust influences organizational performance through inter-organizational information exchange and uncertainty, relational trust affects organizational performance through inter-organizational communication and commitment. Our study enhances understanding of the mechanisms through which trust influences organizational performance, and also provides an explanation of the contradictory findings regarding the relationship between inter-organizational trust and organizational performance

Origami Mönster Tube för Vehicle Crash Box

With an increasing number of traffic accidents, more and more people are injuring or even dying during the collision. One of the main reasons is frontal collisions. Therefore, the safety system is a very important part of the vehicle. In order to ensure the passengers’ safety, the common way to minimize mortality and property damage in a collision is to install energy absorption device in the vehicle structure called crash box. We propose to implement the principle of the origami pattern to improve the traditional bumper system, let the bumper have folding property. Origami properties make it useful to apply in a variety of engineering fields. The thin-walled tube and beam will undergo elastic deformation to decrease the impact force and absorb more kinetic energy. We use Autodesk Inventor 2012 to model the seamless origami pattern tube, and do the simulation by ABAQUS to analyze the displacement of axial compression and the impact force. The numerical results show that origami patterns perform well. Then we can obtain the plot with relationship between force and displacement in the elastic behavior and in the elastic-ideal plastic behavior. As for manufacturing field, we analyze existing manufacturing methods include stamping and tube hydroforming, compare them to find their features. Meanwhile we try to explore a new way to improve the accuracy and efficiency of manufacturing origami pattern tube.Med ett ökande antal trafikolyckor, fler och fler människor att skada eller till och med dö under kollisionen. Ett av de viktigaste skälen är frontalkollisioner. Därför är säkerhetssystemet en mycket viktig del av fordonet. För att garantera passagerarnas säkerhet, är det vanligaste sättet att minimera dödlighet och skador på egendom vid en kollision för att installera enheten energiupptagning i fordonets struktur som kallas crash box. Vi föreslår att genomföra principen om origami mönstret att förbättra traditionella stötfångaren systemet, låt stötfångaren har fällbara egendom. Origami egenskaper gör det användbart att tillämpa i en mängd olika tekniska områden. Den tunnväggigt rör och strålen kommer att genomgå elastisk deformation för att minska stötkraften och absorbera mer kinetisk energi. Vi använder Autodesk Inventor 2012 att modellera sömlösa rör origami mönster, och göra simuleringen av ABAQUS att analysera förskjutning av axiell kompression och slagstyrka. De numeriska resultaten visar att origami mönster prestera bra. Då kan vi få tomten med förhållandet mellan kraft och förskjutning i den elastiska beteendet och i det elastiska-ideala plast beteende. När det gäller tillverkning område, vi analyserar befintliga tillverkningsmetoder inkluderar stämpling och rör hydroformning, jämföra dem att hitta sina funktioner. Samtidigt försöker vi att utforska ett nytt sätt att förbättra noggrannheten och effektiviteten i tillverkningen origami mönster röret