El arte paraficcional de UBERMORGEN

The objective of this article is to analyze the environment that has facilitated the evolution of parafiction as a trend, leading it to occupy a significant position in current contemporary art, in particular that of the 21st century. The text examines how social and political circumstance coupled with burgeoning technological developments on a global scale have had a dramatic impact on our perceptions of truth, creating an atmosphere in which artists such as the Übermorgen duo have flourished. The work of this duo exemplifies how these creators use parafictional practices to examine contemporary post truth and question fake news by employing extreme social media strategies and unconventional means such as consensual hallucination.El objetivo de este artículo es analizar el entorno que ha facilitado la evolución de la paraficción como tendencia, llevándola a ocupar una posición significativa en el arte contemporáneo actual, y en particular en el del siglo XXI. El texto examina cómo las circunstancias sociales y políticas, junto con un extenso desarrollo tecnológico a escala mundial, han generado un impacto drástico en nuestra percepción de la verdad, propiciando una atmósfera adecuada para artistas como el dúo UBERMORGEN. El trabajo de este dúo ejemplifica cómo estos creadores utilizan prácticas paraficcionales con el fin de examinar la posverdad contemporánea y cuestionar las noticias falsas, para lo cual emplean estrategias radicales de medios sociales y métodos no convencionales, como la alucinación consensual

The Context of Cloud Computing/Services Adoption in Business: A Systematic Review with Activity Theory perspective

Cloud computing has been established as a prominent research topic with the rise of a ubiquitous provision of computing resources over the last decade. According to literature review, previous studies are found focusing on the technical issue mostly; however, accompanying with the cloud service developing progress, there are a wide range of applications for adopting cloud computing/services and without an overall comprehension. This study aims to proposed a conceptual framework to systematically explore the activities and elements related to cloud computing/services adoption in business. The research framework is found useful for understanding the context of cloud computing and services and the preliminary findings are helpful to further explore the related activities and relationships behind on cloud computing/services adoption in business

The right brew? An analysis of the tourism experiences in rural Taiwan's coffee estates

The main goal of this research was to analyze the tourism experiences offered by coffee estates in Taiwan. A mixed-methods approach was applied in two main parts. First, the profiles of Taiwan coffee estates were examined in terms of the experiences provided to engage visitors. In-depth interviews with owners indicated they can be categorized into traditional, educational, and comprehensive coffee estates. Second, using the memorable tourism experiences scale (MTES), the resulting visitor survey findings were overwhelmingly positive. However, four specific recommendations were made for the sustainable development of coffee estate tourism in Taiwan: increasing and improving marketing and branding by government-run destination management organizations; developing an integrated tourism supply system and value chain in areas containing coffee estates; creating new coffee tour products with travel agencies and tour operators; and establishing education as the key selling point of coffee estates. These four initiatives will contribute to solving some of the challenges Taiwanese coffee estates are currently facing, while continuously developing the niche market of coffee estate tourism

A multi-product FPR model with rework and an improved delivery policy

A multi-item finite production rate (FPR) model with rework and an improved delivery policy is examined in this paper. Unlike the classic FPR model whose purpose is to derive the most economic lot size for a single-product production system with perfect quality and a continuous issuing policy, this paper considers a production of multiple products on a single machine, rework of all nonconforming items produced, and a cost-reduction, multi-delivery policy. We extend the work of Chiu et al. [1] by incorporating an improved n+1 shipment policy into their model. According to such a policy, one extra delivery of finished items is made during vendor’s production uptime to satisfy product demands during the period of vendor’s uptime and rework time. When the rest of the production lot is quality assured and the rework has been finished as well, n fixed-quantity installments of finished items are delivered to customers. The objectives are to determine an optimal, common-production cycle time that minimizes the long-run average system cost per time unit, study the effects of rework and the improved delivery policy on the optimal production. Mathematical modelling and analysis is used to derive a closed-form, optimal, common-cycle time. Finally, practical usages of the obtained results are demonstrated by a numerical example

6-Mercaptopurine attenuates tumor necrosis factor-α production in microglia through Nur77-mediated transrepression and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling-mediated translational regulation

Physical interaction between Nur77 and p65. BV-2 cells were pretreated with 6-MP (50 μM) for 16 h followed by exposure to LPS (100 ng/ml) for 60 min. Nuclear extracts were harvested for immunoprecipitation (IP) experiments using anti-Nur77 and anti-p65 antibodies. Immunoblot (IB) analyses of the immunoprecipitates were performed using these antibodies. The immunoblots are representative of three independent experiments. (TIF 280 kb

A new analysis tool for individual-level allele frequency for genomic studies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Allele frequency is one of the most important population indices and has been broadly applied to genetic/genomic studies. Estimation of allele frequency using genotypes is convenient but may lose data information and be sensitive to genotyping errors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This study utilizes a unified intensity-measuring approach to estimating individual-level allele frequencies for 1,104 and 1,270 samples genotyped with the single-nucleotide-polymorphism arrays of the Affymetrix Human Mapping 100K and 500K Sets, respectively. Allele frequencies of all samples are estimated and adjusted by coefficients of preferential amplification/hybridization (CPA), and large ethnicity-specific and cross-ethnicity databases of CPA and allele frequency are established. The results show that using the CPA significantly improves the accuracy of allele frequency estimates; moreover, this paramount factor is insensitive to the time of data acquisition, effect of laboratory site, type of gene chip, and phenotypic status. Based on accurate allele frequency estimates, analytic methods based on individual-level allele frequencies are developed and successfully applied to discover genomic patterns of allele frequencies, detect chromosomal abnormalities, classify sample groups, identify outlier samples, and estimate the purity of tumor samples. The methods are packaged into a new analysis tool, ALOHA (<b>A</b>llele-frequency/<b>L</b>oss-<b>o</b>f-<b>h</b>eterozygosity/<b>A</b>llele-imbalance).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This is the first time that these important genetic/genomic applications have been simultaneously conducted by the analyses of individual-level allele frequencies estimated by a unified intensity-measuring approach. We expect that additional practical applications for allele frequency analysis will be found. The developed databases and tools provide useful resources for human genome analysis via high-throughput single-nucleotide-polymorphism arrays. The ALOHA software was written in R and R GUI and can be downloaded at <url>http://www.stat.sinica.edu.tw/hsinchou/genetics/aloha/ALOHA.htm</url>.</p

THE INTELLECTUAL STRUCTURE OF ELECTRONIC RECORDS MANAGEMENT

A number of countries have launched projects with a particular emphasis on using information technologies (IT) to provide electronic information and services to citizens and businesses. Through various IT, tremendous amount of electronic records in government agencies are created. These records and archives are the basis of knowledge management. Electronic records management (ERM) is a fast growing field throughout the last decades. Theoretical foundations for ERM have remained obscure from the research community. To map the intellectual structure of ERM research, this study identifies the high-impact articles as well as the correlations among these scholar publications. In this study, co-citation, co-word, association rule and cluster analysis techniques are used to investigate the intellectual pillars of the ERM literature. This study exposes researchers to a new way of profiling knowledge networks and their relationships the area of ERM, thereby helping academia and practitioners better understand contemporary studies. The results of the mapping can help identify the research direction of ERM research, provide a valuable tool for researchers to access ERM literature, and acts as an exemplary model for future researches

Glycogen synthase kinase-3β inactivation inhibits tumor necrosis factor-α production in microglia by modulating nuclear factor κB and MLK3/JNK signaling cascades

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Deciphering the mechanisms that modulate the inflammatory response induced by microglial activation not only improves our insight into neuroinflammation but also provides avenues for designing novel therapies that could halt inflammation-induced neuronal degeneration. Decreasing glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) activity has therapeutic benefits in inflammatory diseases. However, the exact molecular mechanisms underlying GSK-3β inactivation-mediated suppression of the inflammatory response induced by microglial activation have not been completely clarified. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) plays a central role in injury caused by neuroinflammation. We investigated the regulatory effect of GSK-3β on TNF-α production by microglia to discern the molecular mechanisms of this modulation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was used to induce an inflammatory response in cultured primary microglia or murine BV-2 microglial cells. Release of TNF-α was measured by ELISA. Signaling molecules were analyzed by western blotting, and activation of NF-κB and AP-1 was measured by ELISA-based DNA binding analysis and luciferase reporter assay. Protein interaction was examined by coimmunoprecipitation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Inhibition of GSK-3β by selective GSK-3β inhibitors or by RNA interference attenuated LPS-induced TNF-α production in cultured microglia. Exploration of the mechanisms by which GSK-3β positively regulates inflammatory response showed that LPS-induced IκB-α degradation, NF-κBp65 nuclear translocation, and p65 DNA binding activity were not affected by inhibition of GSK-3β activity. However, GSK-3β inactivation inhibited transactivation activity of p65 by deacetylating p65 at lysine 310. Furthermore, we also demonstrated a functional interaction between mixed lineage kinase 3 (MLK3) and GSK-3β during LPS-induced TNF-α production in microglia. The phosphorylated levels of MLK3, MKK4, and JNK were increased upon LPS treatment. Decreasing GSK-3β activity blocked MLK3 signaling cascades through disruption of MLK3 dimerization-induced autophosphorylation, ultimately leading to a decrease in TNF-α secretion.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results suggest that inactivation of GSK-3β might represent a potential strategy to downregulate microglia-mediated inflammatory processes.</p

Comparative global immune-related gene profiling of somatic cells, human pluripotent stem cells and their derivatives: implication for human lymphocyte proliferation.

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced PSCs (iPSCs), represent potentially unlimited cell sources for clinical applications. Previous studies have suggested that hPSCs may benefit from immune privilege and limited immunogenicity, as reflected by the reduced expression of major histocompatibility complex class-related molecules. Here we investigated the global immune-related gene expression profiles of human ESCs, hiPSCs and somatic cells and identified candidate immune-related genes that may alter their immunogenicity. The expression levels of global immune-related genes were determined by comparing undifferentiated and differentiated stem cells and three types of human somatic cells: dermal papilla cells, ovarian granulosa cells and foreskin fibroblast cells. We identified the differentially expressed genes CD24, GATA3, PROM1, THBS2, LY96, IFIT3, CXCR4, IL1R1, FGFR3, IDO1 and KDR, which overlapped with selected immune-related gene lists. In further analyses, mammalian target of rapamycin complex (mTOR) signaling was investigated in the differentiated stem cells following treatment with rapamycin and lentiviral transduction with specific short-hairpin RNAs. We found that the inhibition of mTOR signal pathways significantly downregulated the immunogenicity of differentiated stem cells. We also tested the immune responses induced in differentiated stem cells by mixed lymphocyte reactions. We found that CD24- and GATA3-deficient differentiated stem cells including neural lineage cells had limited abilities to activate human lymphocytes. By analyzing the transcriptome signature of immune-related genes, we observed a tendency of the hPSCs to differentiate toward an immune cell phenotype. Taken together, these data identify candidate immune-related genes that might constitute valuable targets for clinical applications

Mineral particles stimulate innate immunity through neutrophil extracellular traps containing HMGB1.

Calcium phosphate-based mineralo-organic particles form spontaneously in the body and may represent precursors of ectopic calcification. We have shown earlier that these particles induce activation of caspase-1 and secretion of IL-1β by macrophages. However, whether the particles may produce other effects on immune cells is unclear. Here, we show that these particles induce the release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in a size-dependent manner by human neutrophils. Intracellular production of reactive oxygen species is required for particle-induced NET release by neutrophils. NETs contain the high-mobility group protein B1 (HMGB1), a DNA-binding protein capable of inducing secretion of TNF-α by a monocyte/macrophage cell line and primary macrophages. HMGB1 functions as a ligand of Toll-like receptors 2 and 4 on macrophages, leading to activation of the MyD88 pathway and TNF-α production. Furthermore, HMGB1 is critical to activate the particle-induced pro-inflammatory cascade in the peritoneum of mice. These results indicate that mineral particles promote pro-inflammatory responses by engaging neutrophils and macrophages via signaling of danger signals through NETs