University of Portsmouth

About: University of Portsmouth is a education organization based out in Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Galaxy. The organization has 5452 authors who have published 14256 publications receiving 424346 citations. The organization is also known as: Portsmouth and Gosport School of Science and Art & Portsmouth and Gosport School of Science and the Arts.

The outsourcing dilemma: a composite approach to the make or buy decision

Abstract: The decision to outsource a part of an organisation’s activities is often the result of an initiative to realise potential production cost efficiencies. In order to avoid the use of such narrow decision criteria this paper considers the use of a wider array of inputs. Following a review of the literature, a composite outsourcing decision framework is presented. This framework consists of three main components. The first seeks to utilise the unique contextual factors associated with each decision; the second considers the strategic implications of deciding to outsource and the third investigates the traditional cost aspects. The framework is then applied to a case study concerning an engineering organisation which had to decide whether to outsource part of its production facilities. The outcomes suggest that the framework was a useful instrument in assisting management in making this decision, although further work in this area is required.

Regularized orthogonal least squares algorithm for constructing radial basis function networks

Abstract: The paper presents a regularized orthogonal least squares learning algorithm for radial basis function networks. The proposed algorithm combines the advantages of both the orthogonal forward regression and regularization methods to provide an efficient and powerful procedure for constructing parsimonious network models that generalize well. Examples of nonlinear modelling and prediction are used to demonstrate better generalization performance of this regularized orthogonal least squares algorithm over the unregularized one.

Advances in View-Invariant Human Motion Analysis: A Review

Abstract: As viewpoint issue is becoming a bottleneck for human motion analysis and its application, in recent years, researchers have been devoted to view-invariant human motion analysis and have achieved inspiring progress. The challenge here is to find a methodology that can recognize human motion patterns to reach increasingly sophisticated levels of human behavior description. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of this significant research with the emphasis on view-invariant representation, and recognition of poses and actions. In order to help readers understand the integrated process of visual analysis of human motion, this paper presents recent development in three major issues involved in a general human motion analysis system, namely, human detection, view-invariant pose representation and estimation, and behavior understanding. Public available standard datasets are recommended. The concluding discussion assesses the progress so far, and outlines some research challenges and future directions, and solution to what is essential to achieve the goals of human motion analysis.

Regulation of myofibroblast transdifferentiation by DNA methylation and MeCP2: implications for wound healing and fibrogenesis

Abstract: Myofibroblasts are critical cellular elements of wound healing generated at sites of injury by transdifferentiation of resident cells. A paradigm for this process is conversion of hepatic stellate cells (HSC) into hepatic myofibroblasts. Treatment of HSC with DNA methylation inhibitor 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-azadC) blocked transdifferentiation. 5-azadC also prevented loss of IkappaBalpha and PPARgamma expression that occurs during transdifferentiation to allow acquisition of proinflammatory and profibrogenic characteristics. ChIP analysis revealed IkappaBalpha promoter is associated with transcriptionally repressed chromatin that converts to an active state with 5-azadC treatment. The methyl-CpG-binding protein MeCP2 which promotes repressed chromatin structure is selectively detected in myofibroblasts of diseased liver. siRNA knockdown of MeCP2 elevated IkappaBalpha promoter activity, mRNA and protein expression in myofibroblasts. MeCP2 interacts with IkappaBalpha promoter via a methyl-CpG-dependent mechanism and recruitment into a CBF1 corepression complex. We conclude that MeCP2 and DNA methylation exert epigenetic control over hepatic wound healing and fibrogenesis.