The Magnitude of Switching Costs for Corporate Antivirus Software Switching Decision

Today’s businesses environment is forcing companies to become increasingly more efficient in applying Internet technology to conduct transactions. AS the possibility of infection by computer virus is much greater now than ever before, businesses search for appropriate corporate antivirus software to safeguard their computer systems. This paper considers corporate antivirus software switching as one of the major security selection problem and proposes possible avenues for software switching decision and management. In conceptual model, we draw upon switching costs where transaction costs, learning costs, and artificial costs were examined as main costs for software switching decision. Our findings shown only two out of three types of switching costs have influence over corporate antivirus software switching decisions. Despite the existence of switching costs, businesses continue to repeat software switching because the perceived risks of security threats are much greater than the switching cost itself. Furthermore, we examine various approaches to the cost of switching and then propose an index map to evaluate switching decision. Five sets of propositions are advanced to help guide this research

Causal Evidence for the Role of Specific GABAergic Interneuron Types in Entorhinal Recruitment of Dentate Granule Cells

The dentate gyrus (DG) is the primary gate of the hippocampus and controls information flow from the cortex to the hippocampus proper. To maintain normal function, granule cells (GCs), the principal neurons in the DG, receive fine- tuned inhibition from local-circuit GABAergic inhibitory interneurons (INs). Abnormalities of GABAergic circuits in the DG are associated with several brain disorders, including epilepsy, autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer disease. Therefore, understanding the network mechanisms of inhibitory control of GCs is of functional and pathophysiological importance. GABAergic inhibitory INs are heterogeneous, but it is unclear how individual subtypes contribute to GC activity. Using cell-type-specific optogenetic perturbation, we investigated whether and how two major IN populations defined by parvalbumin (PV) and somatostatin (SST) expression, regulate GC input transformations. We showed that PV-expressing (PV+) INs, and not SST- expressing (SST+) INs, primarily suppress GC responses to single cortical stimulation. In addition, these two IN classes differentially regulate GC responses to θ and γ frequency inputs from the cortex. Notably, PV+ INs specifically control the onset of the spike series, whereas SST+ INs preferentially regulate the later spikes in the series. Together, PV+ and SST+ GABAergic INs engage differentially in GC input-output transformations in response to various activity patterns

Assembling a cellulase cocktail and a cellodextrin transporter into a yeast host for CBP ethanol production

Background: Many microorganisms possess enzymes that can efficiently degrade lignocellulosic materials, but donot have the capability to produce a large amount of ethanol. Thus, attempts have been made to transform suchenzymes into fermentative microbes to serve as hosts for ethanol production. However, an efficient host for aconsolidated bioprocess (CBP) remains to be found. For this purpose, a synthetic biology technique that cantransform multiple genes into a genome is instrumental. Moreover, a strategy to select cellulases that interactsynergistically is needed.Results: To engineer a yeast for CBP bio-ethanol production, a synthetic biology technique, called “promoter-basedgene assembly and simultaneous overexpression” (PGASO), that can simultaneously transform and express multiplegenes in a kefir yeast, Kluyveromyces marxianus KY3, was recently developed. To formulate an efficient cellulasecocktail, a filter-paper-activity assay for selecting heterologous cellulolytic enzymes was established in this study andused to select five cellulase genes, including two cellobiohydrolases, two endo-β-1,4-glucanases and onebeta-glucosidase genes from different fungi. In addition, a fungal cellodextrin transporter gene was chosen totransport cellodextrin into the cytoplasm. These six genes plus a selection marker gene were one-step assembledinto the KY3 genome using PGASO. Our experimental data showed that the recombinant strain KR7 could expressthe five heterologous cellulase genes and that KR7 could convert crystalline cellulose into ethanol.Conclusion: Seven heterologous genes, including five cellulases, a cellodextrin transporter and a selection marker,were simultaneously transformed into the KY3 genome to derive a new strain, KR7, which could directly convertcellulose to ethanol. The present study demonstrates the potential of our strategy of combining a cocktailformulation protocol and a synthetic biology technique to develop a designer yeast host

Deep Complex U-Net with Conformer for Audio-Visual Speech Enhancement

Recent studies have increasingly acknowledged the advantages of incorporating visual data into speech enhancement (SE) systems. In this paper, we introduce a novel audio-visual SE approach, termed DCUC-Net (deep complex U-Net with conformer network). The proposed DCUC-Net leverages complex domain features and a stack of conformer blocks. The encoder and decoder of DCUC-Net are designed using a complex U-Net-based framework. The audio and visual signals are processed using a complex encoder and a ResNet-18 model, respectively. These processed signals are then fused using the conformer blocks and transformed into enhanced speech waveforms via a complex decoder. The conformer blocks consist of a combination of self-attention mechanisms and convolutional operations, enabling DCUC-Net to effectively capture both global and local audio-visual dependencies. Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of DCUC-Net, as it outperforms the baseline model from the COG-MHEAR AVSE Challenge 2023 by a notable margin of 0.14 in terms of PESQ. Additionally, the proposed DCUC-Net performs comparably to a state-of-the-art model and outperforms all other compared models on the Taiwan Mandarin speech with video (TMSV) dataset

Microwave amplification via interfering multi-photon processes in a half-waveguide quantum electrodynamics system

We investigate the amplification of a microwave probe signal by a superconducting artificial atom, a transmon, strongly coupled to the end of a one-dimensional semi-infinite transmission line. The end of the transmission line acts as a mirror for microwave fields. Due to the weak anharmonicity of the artificial atom, a strong pump field creates multi-photon excitations among the dressed states. Transitions between these dressed states, Rabi sidebands, give rise to either amplification or attenuation of the weak probe. We obtain a maximum amplitude amplification of about 18 %, higher than in any previous experiment with a single artificial atom, due to constructive interference between Rabi sidebands. We also characterize the noise properties of the system by measuring the spectrum of spontaneous emission

Adaptor protein Shc acts as an immune-regulator for the LPS-stimulated maturation of bone marrow-derived dendritic cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Shc isoforms is known to mediate immune responses and has been indicated as a negative regulator of autoimmunity and lymphocyte activation. We aimed to evaluate the immune-regulatory role of Shc in rat bone marrow-derived DCs in the maturation process triggered by LPS.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that, in response to LPS, expression of Shc proteins was induced and that neutralization of Shc inhibited the LPS-induced transient phosphorylation of p52Shc on pTyr239/240 in DCs of Lewis (LEW; RT1^l) rats. Moreover, the significantly enhanced expression of IL-10 and the surface level of costimulatory molecule CD80, as well as suppressed expression of IL-6 and IL-12 in the Shc-silenced DCs were also observed. Similar IκB phosphorylation occurred in Shc-silenced DCs primed by LPS, indicating Shc is not associated with NF-κB pathway. We further demonstrate that Shc blockade on LPS-treated DCs results in significant increase of the overall STAT3 phosphorylation and the relative levels of phospho-STAT3 in the nuclear fraction. STAT3 activation by LPS with or without Shc blockade was totally abolished by SU6656, a selective Src family kinases inhibitor, underscoring the critical role of Src-mediated activation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We conclude that Shc blockade in LPS-primed DC leads to the development of tolerogenic DC via Src-dependent STAT3 activation and that adaptor protein Shc might play a pivotal role in mediating immunogenic and tolerogenic properties of DCs.</p

Nonlinear optical diode effect in a magnetic Weyl semimetal

Weyl semimetals have emerged as a promising quantum material system to discover novel electrical and optical phenomena, due to their combination of nontrivial quantum geometry and strong symmetry breaking. One crucial class of such novel transport phenomena is the diode effect, which is of great interest for both fundamental physics and modern technologies. In the electrical regime, giant electrical diode effect (the nonreciprocal transport) has been observed in Weyl systems. In the optical regime, novel optical diode effects have been theoretically considered but never probed experimentally. Here, we report the observation of the nonlinear optical diode effect (NODE) in the magnetic Weyl semimetal CeAlSi, where the magnetic state of CeAlSi introduces a pronounced directionality in the nonlinear optical second-harmonic generation (SHG). By physically reversing the beam path, we show that the measured SHG intensity can change by at least a factor of six between forward and backward propagation over a wide bandwidth exceeding 250 meV. Supported by density-functional theory calculations, we establish the linearly dispersive bands emerging from Weyl nodes as the origin of the extreme bandwidth. Intriguingly, the NODE directionality is directly controlled by the direction of magnetization. By utilizing the electronically conductive semimetallic nature of CeAlSi, we demonstrate current-induced magnetization switching and thus electrical control of the NODE in a mesoscopic spintronic device structure with current densities as small as 5 kA/cm$^2$. Our results advance ongoing research to identify novel nonlinear optical/transport phenomena in magnetic topological materials. The NODE also provides a way to measure the phase of nonlinear optical susceptibilities and further opens new pathways for the unidirectional manipulation of light such as electrically controlled optical isolators.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figure

Incidence Rate and Predictors of Globus Pallidus Necrosis after Charcoal Burning Suicide

Objective: This study examined predictors of globus pallidus necrosis as there was a paucity of literature of globus pallidus necrosis resulted from carbon monoxide poisoning after charcoal burning suicide. Methods: A total of 67 patients who had attempted charcoal burning suicide were recruited and stratified into two subgroups based on either presence (n = 40) or absence (n = 27) of globus pallidus necrosis. Demographic, clinical, laboratory, and radiographic data were obtained for cross-sectional analysis. All patients were followed to investigate the risks for mortality. Results: The patients aged 36.8 ± 11.1 years (67.2%) were male. Patients with globus pallidus necrosis were younger (p = 0.044) and had less hypertension (p = 0.015) than patients without globus pallidus necrosis. Furthermore, patients with globus pallidus necrosis suffered from severer medical complications, i.e., fever (p = 0.008), acute myocardial injury (p = 0.022), acute rhabdomyolysis (p = 0.022), and neuropsychiatric symptoms (p < 0.001) than patients without globus pallidus necrosis. Moreover, patients with globus pallidus necrosis received less hyperbaric oxygen therapy than without necrosis (p = 0.024). Two patients (3.0%) died on arrival. In a multivariable regression model, it was revealed that acute myocardial injury (odds ratio 4.6, confidence interval 1.1-18.9, p = 0.034) and neuropsychiatric symptoms (odds ratio 8.0, confidence interval 2.0-31.4, p = 0.003), decreased blood bicarbonate level (odds ratio 0.8, confidence interval 0.7-1.0, p = 0.032), and younger age (odds ratio 0.9, confidence interval 0.9-1.0, p = 0.038) were significant predictors for globus pallidus necrosis. Conclusion: Although patients who had attempted charcoal burning suicide had a low mortality rate (3.0%), globus pallidus necrosis was not uncommon (59.7%) in this population. Further studies are warranted.Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, TaiwanChang Gung Memorial Hospital [CLRPG3D0016, CORPG5G0051]Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]