Consuming Information Systems: An Economic Model of User Satisfaction

This paper has two major objectives. The first objective intends to answer the following question which is of significant interest to information system (IS) researchers and practitioners: How does user satisfaction (satisfaction) respond to changes in system use and system attributes? The second and more ambitious objective is to promote the application of economic theories in user behavior research. In contrast to prior research that conceived the development of user satisfaction as an information valuation and integration process, we consider such development to be embedded in the IS consumption process, that is, users gain utility (satisfaction) from consuming (using) the system. This perspective enables us to re-conceptualize user satisfaction as a proxy of utility and apply utility research in economics to study user satisfaction. An economic model of user satisfaction was developed. Two empirical studies were conducted to examine the research model. The findings confirmed the consumptive nature of user satisfaction. Apart from enriching our understanding of user satisfaction, this research demonstrates the usefulness of economic theories in user behavior research

Chaotic Control and Generalized Synchronization for a Hyperchaotic Lorenz-Stenflo System

This paper is devoted to investigate the tracking control and generalized synchronization of the hyperchaotic Lorenz-Stenflo system using the tracking model and the feedback control scheme. We suppress the chaos to unstable equilibrium via three feedback methods, and we achieve three globally generalized synchronization controls. Novel tracking controllers with corresponding parameter update laws are designed such that the Lorenz-Stenflo systems can be synchronized asymptotically. Moreover, numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness, through the contrast between the orbits before being stabilized and the ones after being stabilized

Novel PAX9 compound heterozygous variants in a Chinese family with non-syndromic oligodontia and genotype-phenotype analysis of PAX9 variants

Studies have reported that >91.9% of non-syndromic tooth agenesis cases are caused by seven pathogenic genes. Objective: To report novel heterozygous PAX9 variants in a Chinese family with non-syndromic oligodontia and summarize the reported genotype-phenotype relationship of PAX9 variants. Methodology: We recruited 28 patients with non-syndromic oligodontia who were admitted to the Hospital of Stomatology Hebei Medical University (China) from 2018 to 2021. Peripheral blood was collected from the probands and their core family members for whole-exome sequencing (WES) and variants were verified by Sanger sequencing. Bioinformatics tools were used to predict the pathogenicity of the variants. SWISS-MODEL homology modeling was used to analyze the three-dimensional structural changes of variant proteins. We also analyzed the genotype-phenotype relationships of PAX9 variants. Results: We identified novel compound heterozygous PAX9 variants (reference sequence NM_001372076.1) in a Chinese family with non-syndromic oligodontia: a new missense variant c.1010C>A (p.T337K) in exon 4 and a new frameshift variant c.330_331insGT (p.D113Afs*9) in exon 2, which was identified as the pathogenic variant in this family. This discovery expands the known variant spectrum of PAX9; then, we summarized the phenotypes of non-syndromic oligodontia with PAX9 variants. Conclusion: We found that PAX9 variants commonly lead to loss of the second molars

Identification of immune-related genes contributing to the development of glioblastoma using weighted gene co-expression network analysis

Background: The tumor microenvironment (TME) of human glioblastoma (GBM) exhibits considerable immune cell infiltration, and such cell types have been shown to be widely involved in the development of GBM. Here, weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) was performed on publicly available datasets to identify immune-related molecules that may contribute to the progression of GBM and thus be exploited as potential therapeutic targets. Methods: WGCNA was used to identify highly correlated gene clusters in Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas glioma dataset. Immune-related genes in significant modules were subsequently validated in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Rembrandt databases, and impact on GBM development was examined in migration and vascular mimicry assays in vitro and in an orthotopic xenograft model (GL261 luciferase-GFP cells) in mice. Results: WGCNA yielded 14 significant modules, one of which (black) contained genes involved in immune response and extracellular matrix formation. The intersection of these genes with a GO immune-related gene set yielded 47 immune-related genes, five of which exhibited increased expression and association with worse prognosis in GBM. One of these genes, TREM1, was highly expressed in areas of pseudopalisading cells around necrosis and associated with other proteins induced in angiogenesis/hypoxia. In macrophages induced from THP1 cells, TREM1 expression levels were increased under hypoxic conditions and associated with markers of macrophage M2 polarization. TREM1 siRNA knockdown in induced macrophages reduced their ability to promote migration and vascular mimicry in GBM cells in vitro, and treatment of mice with LP-17 peptide, which blocks TREM1, inhibited growth of GL261 orthotopic xenografts. Finally, blocking the cytokine receptor for CSF1 in induced macrophages also impeded their potential to promote tumor migration and vascular mimicry in GBM cells. Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that TREM1 could be used as a novel immunotherapy target for glioma patients.publishedVersio

Kovács Mihály és a kibernetika oktatás kezdetei a budapesti Piarista gimnáziumban

Genotype-specific transcriptional DEGs results in resistant genotype and susceptible genotype. (XLSX 4357 kb

Systematic Transcriptome Profiling of hPSC-Derived Osteoblasts Unveils CORIN’s Mastery in Governing Osteogenesis Through CEBPD Modulation

The commitment of stem cells to differentiate into osteoblasts is a highly regulated and complex process that involves the coordination of extrinsic signals and intrinsic transcriptional machinery. While rodent osteoblastic differentiation has been extensively studied, research on human osteogenesis has been limited by cell sources and existing models. Here, we systematically dissect human pluripotent stem cell-derived osteoblasts to identify functional membrane proteins and their downstream transcriptional networks involved in human osteogenesis. Our results reveal an enrichment of type II transmembrane serine protease CORIN in humans but not rodent osteoblasts. Functional analyses demonstrated that CORIN depletion significantly impairs osteogenesis. Genome-wide chromatin immunoprecipitation enrichment and mechanistic studies show that p38 MAPK-mediated CCAAT enhancer binding protein delta (CEBPD) upregulation is required for CORIN-modulated osteogenesis. Contrastingly, the type I transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan SDC1 enriched in mesenchymal stem cells exerts a negative regulatory effect on osteogenesis through a similar mechanism. Chromatin immunoprecipitation-seq, bulk and single-cell transcriptomes, and functional validations indicated that CEBPD plays a critical role in controlling osteogenesis. In summary, our findings uncover previously unrecognized CORIN-mediated CEBPD transcriptomic networks in driving human osteoblast lineage commitment

Comparative Analysis of the Complete Mitochondrial Genomes for Development Application

This present research work reports the comparative analysis of the entire nucleotide sequence of mitochondrial genomes of Serranochromis robustus and Buccochromis nototaenia and phylogenetic analyses of their protein-coding genes in order to establish their phylogenetic relationship within Cichlids. The mitochondrial genomes of S. robustus and B. nototaenia are 16,583 and 16,580 base pairs long, respectively, including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, and one control region (D-loop) which is 888 and 887 base pairs long, respectively, showing the same gene order and identical number of gene or regions with other well-elucidated mitogenomes of Cichlids. However, with exception of cytochrome-c oxidase subunit-1 (COX-1) gene, all the identified PCGs were initiated by ATG-codons. Structurally, 11 tRNA genes in B. nototaenia species and 9 tRNA genes in S. robustus species, folded into typical clover-leaf secondary structure created by the regions of self-complementarity within tRNA. All the 22 tRNA genes in both species lack variable loop. Moreover, 28 genes which include 12-protein-coding genes are encoded on the H-strand and the remaining 9 genes including one protein-coding gene are encoded on the L-strand. Thirteen sequences of concatenated mitochondrial protein-coding genes were aligned using MUSCLE, and the phylogenetic analyses performed using maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference showed that S. robustus and B. nototaenia had a broad phylogenetic relationship. These results may be a useful tool in resolving higher-level relationships in organisms and a useful dataset for studying the evolution of the Cichlidae mitochondrial genome, since Cichlids are well-known model species in the study of evolutionary biology, because of their extreme morphological, biogeographical, parental care behavior for eggs and larvae and phylogenetic diversities

Exploring the associations between microRNA expression profiles and environmental pollutants in human placenta from the National Children's Study (NCS)

The placenta is the principal regulator of the in utero environment, and disruptions to this environment can result in adverse offspring health outcomes. To better characterize the impact of in utero perturbations, we assessed the influence of known environmental pollutants on the expression of microRNA (miRNA) in placental samples collected from the National Children's Study (NCS) Vanguard birth cohort. This study analyzed the expression of 654 miRNAs in 110 term placentas. Environmental pollutants measured in these placentas included dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), bisphenol A (BPA), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), and cadmium (Cd). A moderated t-test was used to identify a panel of differentially expressed miRNAs, which were further analyzed using generalized linear models. We observed 112 miRNAs consistently expressed in >70% of the samples. Consistent with the literature, miRNAs located within the imprinted placenta-specific C19MC cluster, specifically mir-517a, mir-517c, mir-522, and mir-23a, are among the top expressed miRNA in our study. We observed a positive association between PBDE 209 and miR-188–5p and an inverse association between PBDE 99 and let-7c. Both PCBs and Cd were positively associated with miR-1537 expression level. In addition, multiple let-7 family members were downregulated with increasing levels of Hg and Pb. We did not observe DDE or BPA levels to be associated with placental miRNA expression. This is the first birth cohort study linking environmental pollutants and placental expression of miRNAs. Our results suggest that placental miRNA profiles may signal in utero exposures to environmental chemicals

Economic growth and equity returns : application to the chinese stock market

Mestrado em Economia Monetária e FinanceiraThis dissertation provides new insights on the estimation of the long run expected equity return in China, following the framework of Cornell (2010) on Economic Growth and Equity return, taking into consideration of convergence in economic growth, thus extending the research scope from mature countries to emerging market. We assess the period 1990-2017, explore the long run expected equity return in China, and we find that it should not be more than -0.5% over the long run.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio