Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamics of the Human Infectious Reservoir for Malaria Determined by Mosquito Feeding Assays and Ultrasensitive Malaria Diagnosis in Burkina Faso.

BACKGROUND Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes are essential for malaria transmission. Malaria control measures that aim at reducing transmission require an accurate characterization of the human infectious reservoir. METHODS We longitudinally determined human infectiousness to mosquitoes and P. falciparum carriage by an ultrasensitive RNA-based diagnostics in 130 randomly selected inhabitants of an endemic area. RESULTS At least 1 mosquito was infected by 32.6% (100 of 307) of the blood samples; in total, 7.6% of mosquitoes (916 of 12 079) were infected. The proportion of infectious individuals and infected mosquitoes were negatively associated with age and positively with asexual parasites (P < .001). Human infectiousness was higher at the start of the wet season and subsequently declined at the peak of the wet season (adjusted odds ratio, 0.52; P = .06) and in the dry season (0.23; P < .001). Overall, microscopy-negative individuals were responsible for 28.7% of infectious individuals (25 of 87) and 17.0% of mosquito infections (145 of 855). CONCLUSIONS Our study reveals that the infectious reservoir peaks at the start of the wet season, with prominent roles for infections in children and submicroscopic infections. These findings have important consequences for strategies and the timing of interventions, which need to include submicroscopic infections and be implemented in the dry season.
3D protein structure determination by THz spectroscopy and molecular modelling: case study on bovine serum albumin

THz spectroscopy is a very powerful tool in investigating the vibrational modes and conformational transitions of biomolecules. Here we have used THz spectroscopy to study the vibrational spectrum of bovine serum albumin, a protein whose 3D structure is yet unknown. Experimental data were fitted with theoretical spectra obtained by normal modes analysis of BSA structures generated by homology modeling.
Development and economic growth: the effectiveness of traditional policies

The empirical evidence of low effectiveness for growth of investment in physical and human capital policies based on international aid is analyzed and discussed (i? ½ 1 and 2). Reasons are linked both to limits of analytical and econometric methods (i? ½ 4) and the existence of strong complementarities between different dimensions of macroeconomic, social and institutional context (i? ½ 3). We critically discuss the new strategies proposed to gain effectiveness in development projects and policies.
Different Prognostic Roles of Mutations in the Helical and Kinase Domains of the PIK3CA Gene in Breast Carcinomas

Purpose: In breast cancer, the PIK3CA gene is frequently mutated at “hotspots” in exons 9 and 20, corresponding to the helical and kinase domains, respectively. We decided to investigate the association of PIK3CA mutations with pathologic features and clinical outcome in a large series of patients with breast cancer. Experimental Design: Frozen samples from 163 consecutive patients were analyzed for PIK3CA mutations using PCR single-strand conformation polymorphism and sequence analyses. Results: We identified 46 missense mutations, 24 (53%) in exon 9, and 21 (47%) in exon 20. Twelve (50%) of the 24 mutations in exon 9 were of the E542K type and 11 (46%) were of the E545K type. Twenty (95%) of the 21 mutations in exon 20 were H1047R substitutions. Mutations in exon 9 were more frequent in lobular carcinomas (42% of cases) than in ductal carcinoma (11% of cases; P = 0.002). At univariate survival analysis, PIK3CA exon 20 mutations were associated with prolonged overall and disease-free survival, whereas mutations in exon 9 were associated with significantly worse prognosis. At multivariate analysis, exon 9 PIK3CA mutations were the strongest independent factor to predict poor prognosis for disease-free survival (P = 0.0003) and overall survival (P = 0.001). Conclusion: Our data show that exon 9 PIK3CA mutations are typical of infiltrating lobular carcinomas. In addition, they indicate that PIK3CA mutations in different exons are of different prognostic value: exon 9 mutations are independently associated with early recurrence and death, whereas exon 20 PIK3CA mutations are associated with optimal prognosis.
The Information Content of the NCREIF Index

This paper examines the dynamic behavior of the NCREIF index. NCREIF total return and appreciation indexes are smooth and exhibit strong autocorrelation and autoregressive heteroskedasticity. We test the information transmission from the NAREIT index to the NCREIF index. In our VAR analysis, the NAREIT index returns Granger cause the returns of the NCREIF indexes. In our ARCH information transmission analysis, the NCREIF indexes are observed to incorporate information spillover from the NAREIT indexes in both the mean and variance of the index returns. The ARCH dynamics between the NCREIF and NAREIT indexes suggest a nonlinear relation between the two indexes.
Two essays on the predictive ability of implied volatility

This dissertation examines the information content of implied volatility with regard to future asset returns and future earnings announcements. By definition, implied volatility is the market’s best guess of the future volatility over the term of the option. Thus, the objective of my first essay is to investigate whether expected idiosyncratic risk (i.e. firm-specific risk as opposed to market risk), as measured from implied volatility, is related to future returns. I find a strong positive link between implied idiosyncratic volatility and future returns. It is also clear that historical realized idiosyncratic volatility is unimportant in the presence of implied idiosyncratic volatility. The robust results of my first essay motivate the idea that implied volatility might also contain information about future earnings. Therefore, in my second essay I examine whether information about earnings announcement surprises is imbedded in option prices (via implied volatility and the implied volatility skew) prior to the announcement. I find some limited support for this idea. In particular, the results of my second essay suggest that investors might profit by buying put options in low volatility skew firms 3, 10, 20, or even 30 days before the earnings announcement.
Prevalence of common canine digestive problems compared with other health problems in teaching veterinary hospital, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt

Aim: The present study was conducted to ascertain the prevalence of common digestive problems compared to other health problems among dogs that were admitted to the teaching veterinary hospital, faculty of veterinary medicine, Cairo University, Egypt during 1 year period from January to December 2013. Also, study the effect of age, sex, breeds, and season on the distribution of digestive problems in dogs. Materials and Methods: A total of 3864 dogs included 1488 apparently healthy (included 816 males and 672 females) and 2376 diseased dogs (included 1542 males and 834 females) were registered for age, sex, breed, and the main complaint from their owners. A complete history and detailed clinical examination of each case were applied to the aids of radiographic, ultrasonographic, and endoscopic examination tools. Fecal examination was applied for each admitted case. Rapid tests for parvovirus and canine distemper virus detection were also performed. Results: A five digestive problems were commonly recorded including vomiting, diarrhea, concurrent vomiting with diarrhea, anorexia, and constipation with a prevalence (%) of 13.6, 19.1, 10.1, 13.1, and 0.5 respectively while that of dermatological, respiratory, urinary, neurological, cardiovascular, auditory, and ocular problems was 27.9, 10.5, 3.3, 0.84, 0.4, 0.25, and 0.17 (%) respectively. This prevalence was obtained on the basis of the diseased cases. Age and breed had a significant effect on the distribution of digestive problems in dogs (p<0.001). Gender had an effect on the distribution of digestive problems with significant (p≤0.01) while season had a non-significant effect (p>0.05) on the distribution of such problems. Conclusion: Digestive problems were the highest recorded problems among dogs, and this was the first records for such problems among dogs in Egypt. Age, gender, and breeds had a significant effect on the distribution of the digestive problems in dogs while season had a non-significant effect on the distribution of such problems. The present data enable veterinarians in Egypt to ascertain their needs for diagnostic tools and medication that must be present at any pet clinic.
Towards Ventricular Arrhythmia Prediction from ECG Signals

First, it is necessary to identify patients under risk of developing VF. Two Physionet databases were used (mitdb and cudb), and the patients were divided between those who eventually suffer VF, and all other patients (who might nonetheless suffer from other kinds of arrhythmias). The classification algorithm used was Regularized Least Squares (RLS) with a radial basis kernel. Two kinds of input vectors are used: the power spectrum of the raw ECG signals, and the power spectrum of the beat- to-beat intervals. It can be shown that the latter is a superior feature vector, as it allows perfect class separation between the VF patients and control patients (validated by the Leave-One-Out Cross Validation scheme). The next step will be to focus the analysis on the patients with VF, comparing the intervals and identifying the ones closer to the onset of fibrillation. This can be turned into a supervised ranking problem, and several cutting-edge methods will be tested. Impact The results of the patient classification using the power spectrum of the beat-to-beat intervals are fully reproducible and very promising. This method can lead to more accurate risk stratification of patients, and consequently to better treatment. The method for the prediction of VF onset is still under development. If the results are positive, it will potentially allow for more efficient monitoring of patients and better design of implantable cardioverterdefibrillators (ICDs). References:
Insiders’ Pre-IPO Ownership, Underpricing, and Share-Selling Behavior: Evidence from Korean IPOs

ABSTRACT We examine the effects of insiders’ ownership type and their pre-IPO ownership changes as well as levels on IPO pricing and insiders’ share-selling behaviors in the Korean IPO market. We find that insiders’ direct ownership level is positively associated with underpricing. We also find that when insiders increase their direct ownership in pre-IPO periods, the probability of insiders’ selling shares after lockup expirations and the amount sold both increase. However, these results do not hold when insiders hold indirect ownership, implying that the role of insiders’ ownership in IPO is limited to the case of direct ownership in the Korean market.
Title: Multiple Aberrations of Chromosome 3p Detected in Oral Premalignant Lesions Affiliations: Departments of 1 Cancer Genetics and Developmental Biology, And

Running title: Segmental changes on the 3p arm in oral premalignant lesions Abstract The study of oral premalignant lesions (OPLs) is crucial to the identification of initiating genetic events in oral cancer. However, these lesions are minute in size, making it a challenge to recover sufficient DNA from microdissected cells for comprehensive genomic analysis. As a step toward identifying genetic aberrations associated with oral cancer progression, we used tiling-path array comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) to compare alterations on chromosome 3p for 71 OPLs against 23 oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs). 3p was chosen because, while it is frequently altered in oral cancers and has been associated with progression risk, its alteration status has only been evaluated at a small number of loci in OPLs. We identified six recurrent losses in this region that were shared between high-grade dysplasias (HGDs) and OSCCs, including a 2.89 Mbp deletion spanning the FHIT gene (previously implicated in oral cancer progression). When the alteration status for these six regions was examined in 24 low-grade dysplasias (LGDs) with known progression outcome, we observed that they occurred at a significantly higher frequency in LGDs that later progressed to later stage disease (p < 0.003). Moreover, parallel analysis of all profiled tissues showed that the extent of overall genomic alteration at 3p increased with histological stage. This first high resolution analysis of chromosome arm 3p in oral premalignant lesions represents a significant step towards predicting progression risk in early pre-invasive disease and provides a keen example of how genomic instability escalates with progression to invasive cancer.
Long-term power consumption demand prediction: A comparison of energy associated and Bayesian modeling approach

This paper contributes with two different prediction approaches for long-term power consumption demand prediction using an artificial neural networks (ANN) short-term time series predictor filter. The techniques proposed here are non-linear stochastic models using the energy associated to series and Bayesian inference, implemented by ANN. The system has the advantage of requiring as input only the historical demand time series of power consumption and allows its extension to a forecast medium and long term 3-6-12-18 months forward. The paper predicts the power consumption in the area covered by the country during the period January 1980-November 2013 in Argentina. Thus, the next 18 forecasted values are presented by the evolution of total monthly power consumption demand of the National Interconnected System of Argentina. The computational results of the prediction comparison are evaluated against the classical non-linear ANN predictor on high roughness short term chaotic time series that shows a better performance of Bayesian approach in long-short-term forecasting.
Mechanism and Kinetics of Heterosynaptic Depression at a Cerebellar Synapse

High levels of activity at a synapse can lead to spillover of neurotransmitter from the synaptic cleft. This extrasynaptic neurotransmitter can diffuse to neighboring synapses and modulate transmission via presynaptic receptors. We studied such modulation at the synapse between granule cells and Purkinje cells in rat cerebellar slices. Brief tetanic stimulation of granule cell parallel fibers activated inhibitory neurons, leading to a transient elevation of extracellular GABA, which in turn caused a short-lived heterosynaptic depression of the parallel fiber to Purkinje cell EPSC. Fluorometric calcium measurements revealed that this synaptic inhibition was associated with a decrease in presynaptic calcium influx. Heterosynaptic inhibition of synaptic currents and calcium influx was eliminated by antagonists of the GABAB receptor. The magnitude and time course of the depression of calcium influx were mimicked by the rapid release of an estimated 10 μm GABA using the technique of flash photolysis. We found that inhibition of presynaptic calcium influx peaked within 300 msec and decayed in <3 sec at 32°C. These results indicate that presynaptic GABAB receptors can sense extrasynaptic GABA increases of several micromolar and that they rapidly regulate the release of neurotransmitter primarily by modulating voltage-gated calcium channels.
What drives housing outcomes in Australia? Understanding the role of aspirations, household formation, economic incentives and labour market interactions:positioning paper

The sequence of housing stages that an individual moves through over their lifetime forms the 'housing career' of that individual.1 While each housing career follows a unique path, a set of general forces act to influence the overall direction taken by individual housing careers. Key among these are the following five determinants: (a) Housing tenure preferences and housing market trends (house prices, rents etc.); (b) Household formation aspirations and outcomes; (c) Labour market effects (wages, employment, unemployment, and retirement); (d) Lifetime wealth accumulation objectives, and, (e) Housing assistance, income support, tax, and welfare programs. In this project, we map out how these (and other) drivers influence the trajectory of Australian housing careers. We focus attention on three distinct stages: (1) Early adulthood when the first, independent housing career transitions are made (ages 15-34); (2) the middle age stage (ages 35-49); and (3) The mature phase of the life cycle (ages 50-69). Our aim in this project is to increase our understanding of what drives housing outcomes in Australia and what determines the structure of Australian housing careers. The project also has an important policy objective: To illustrate how the output from a formal modelling of housing careers can be used in the development of an evidence-based housing policy. The project aims to shed light on how a range of specific government policy actions (e.g., rent assistance programs, public housing programs, etc.) impact on the direction taken by Australians in their housing careers.
Monitoring Urban Dynamics in the Southeast U.S.A. Using Time-Series DMSP/OLS Nightlight Imagery

The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)’s Operational Line-scan System (OLS) stable nighttime light (NTL) imagery offers a good opportunity for characterizing the extent and dynamics of urban development at the global and regional scales. However, their ability to characterize intra-urban variation is limited due to saturation and blooming of the data values. In this study, we adopted the methods of Mann-Kendall and linear regression to analyze urban dynamics from time series Vegetation Adjusted NTL Urban Index (VANUI) data from 1992 to 2013 in the Southeast United States of America (U.S.A.), which is one of the fastest growing regions in the nation. The newly built urban areas were effectively detected based on the trend analysis. In addition, the VANUI-derived urban areas with an optimal threshold method were found highly consistent with the Landsat-derived National Land Cover Database. The total urbanized areas in large metropolitan areas in southeastern U.S.A. increased from 8524 km2 in 1992 to 14,684 km2 in 2010, accounting for 5% and 9% of the total area, respectively. The results further showed that urban expansion in the region cannot be purely explained by population growth. Our results suggested that the VANUI time series provided an effective method for characterizing the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban extent at the regional scale.
Voluntary exercise‐induced neurogenesis in the postischemic dentate gyrus is associated with spatial memory recovery from stroke

Spatial cognitive impairment is common after stroke insults. Voluntary exercise could improve the impaired spatial memory. Newly generated neurons in the dentate gyrus are necessary for the acquisition of new hippocampus‐dependent memories. However, it is not well known whether voluntary exercise after stroke promotes neurogenesis in the adult dentate gyrus, thereby promoting spatial memory recovery. Here, we examined in mice subjected to focal cerebral ischemia the effect of voluntary or forced exercise on neurogenesis in the ischemic dentate gyrus and spatial memory. Exposure to voluntary wheel running after stroke enhanced newborn cell survival and up‐regulated the phosphorylation of cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) in the dentate gyrus and reversed ischemia‐induced spatial memory impairment. However, the enhanced newborn cell survival and CREB phosphorylation in the dentate gyrus and improved spatial memory were not observed in the mice exposed to forced swimming. Moreover, there was a significant correlation between the total number of surviving newborn cells in the dentate gyrus and the ability of mice to locate the platform in the Morris water maze. These results suggest that, in the adult mice, exposure to voluntary exercise after ischemic stroke may promote newborn cells survival in the dentate gyrus by up‐regulating CREB phosphorylation and consequently restore impaired hippocampus‐dependent memory. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Convergence Of The Monte Carlo EM For Curved Exponential Families

SUMMARY The Monte Carlo Expectation Maximization (MCEM) algorithm (Wei and Tanner (1991)), a stochas-tic version of EM, is a versatile tool for inference in incomplete data models, especially when used in combination with MCMC simulation methods. Examples of applications include, among many others: regression with missing values (Wei and Tanner (1991)), time-series analysis (Chan and Ledolter (1995)), hierarchical generalized linear models (Booth and Hobert (1999)). In this contribution, the convergence of MCEM is established under conditions on the imputation techniques weaker than those stated by Chan and Ledolter (1995). It is shown, using uniform version of ergodicity theorems for Markov chains, that MCEM converges under weak conditions on the simulation kernel, veriied, e.g. by the random walk Hastings-Metropolis algorithm and the independent sampler. The rate of convergence is studied, showing the impact of the simulation schedule on the uctuation of the parameter estimate at the convergence. A novel averaging procedure is then proposed to reduce the simulation variance.
Unsupervised Sentiment Analysis for Social Media Images

Recently text-based sentiment prediction has been extensively studied, while image-centric sentiment analysis receives much less attention. In this paper, we study the problem of understanding human sentiments from large-scale social media images, considering both visual content and contextual information, such as comments on the images, captions, etc. The challenge of this problem lies in the "semantic gap" between low-level visual features and higher-level image sentiments. Moreover, the lack of proper annotations/labels in the majority of social media images presents another challenge. To address these two challenges, we propose a novel Unsupervised SEntiment Analysis (USEA) framework for social media images. Our approach exploits relations among visual content and relevant contextual information to bridge the "semantic gap" in prediction of image sentiments. With experiments on two large-scale datasets, we show that the proposed method is effective in addressing the two challenges.
Practical Learning of Predictive State Representations

Over the past decade there has been considerable interest in spectral algorithms for learning Predictive State Representations (PSRs). Spectral algorithms have appealing theoretical guarantees; however, the resulting models do not always perform well on inference tasks in practice. One reason for this behavior is the mismatch between the intended task (accurate filtering or prediction) and the loss function being optimized by the algorithm (estimation error in model parameters). A natural idea is to improve performance by refining PSRs using an algorithm such as EM. Unfortunately it is not obvious how to apply apply an EM style algorithm in the context of PSRs as the Log Likelihood is not well defined for all PSRs. We show that it is possible to overcome this problem using ideas from Predictive State Inference Machines. We combine spectral algorithms for PSRs as a consistent and efficient initialization with PSIM-style updates to refine the resulting model parameters. By combining these two ideas we develop Inference Gradients, a simple, fast, and robust method for practical learning of PSRs. Inference Gradients performs gradient descent in the PSR parameter space to optimize an inference-based loss function like PSIM. Because Inference Gradients uses a spectral initialization we get the same consistency benefits as PSRs. We show that Inference Gradients outperforms both PSRs and PSIMs on real and synthetic data sets.