Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Asset Pricing Restrictions on Predictability: Frictions Matter

U.S. stock portfolios sorted on size; momentum; transaction costs; market-to-book, investment-to-assets, and return-on-assets (ROA) ratios; and industry classification show considerable levels and variation of return predictability, inconsistent with asset pricing models. This means that a predictable risk premium is not equal to compensation for systematic risk as implied by asset pricing theory. We show that introducing market frictions relaxes these asset pricing moments from a strict equality to a range. Empirically, it is not short sales constraints but transaction costs (below 35 basis points) that help to reconcile the observed predictability with linear portfolio return-based factor models, and partly with the durable consumption model. Across the sorts, predictability in industry returns can be reconciled with all models considered with only a 25 basis point transaction cost, whereas for momentum and ROA portfolios, up to 115 basis points are needed. This paper was accepted by Wei Xiong, finance.
Analysis of T cell signaling by class I MHC molecules: the cytoplasmic domain is not required for signal transduction

The structural requirements for signal transduction by class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules were examined. Native or mutant HLA-A2 or HLA-B27 constructs lacking most of their cytoplasmic domains were co-transfected with pSV2neo into Jurkat cells. Transfection of either native or mutant constructs resulted in a comparable expression of the gene products. Stimulation of transfectants expressing either native or truncated A2 or B27 molecules with specific mAb evoked an increase in [Ca2+]i upon crosslinking. Moreover, crosslinking native or truncated A2 or B27 induced IL-2 production upon co-stimulation with phorbol myristate acetate. These results confirm that crosslinking class I MHC molecules transduces an activation signal to human T cells. Effective signaling was observed when all but four of the intracytoplasmic residues were deleted, indicating that signal transduction does not require this portion of the molecule.
Metal Abundances of KISS Galaxies. I. Coarse Metal Abundances and the Metallicity-Luminosity Relation

We derive metal abundance estimates for a large sample of starbursting emission-line galaxies (ELGs). Our sample is drawn from the KPNO International Spectroscopic Survey (KISS), which has discovered over 2000 ELG candidates to date. Follow-up optical spectra have been obtained for ∼900 of these objects. A three-step process is used to obtain metal abundances for these galaxies. We first calculate accurate nebular abundances for 12 galaxies whose spectra cover the full optical region from [O II] λλ3726, 3729 to beyond [S II] λλ6717, 6731 and include detection of [O III] λ4363. Using secondary metallicity indicators R23 and p3, we calculate metallicities for an additional 59 galaxies with spectra that cover a similar wavelength range but lack [O III] λ4363. The results are used to calibrate relations between metallicity and two readily observed emission-line ratios, which allow us to estimate coarse metallicities for 519 galaxies in total. The uncertainty in these latter abundance estimates is 0.16 dex. From the large, homogeneously observed sample of star-forming galaxies, we identify low-metallicity candidates for future study and investigate the metallicity-luminosity relation. We find a linear metallicity-luminosity relation of the form 12 + log(O/H) = 4.059 - 0.240MB, with an rms scatter of 0.252. This result implies that the slope of the metallicity-luminosity relation is steeper than when dwarf galaxies are considered alone and may be evidence that the relationship is not linear over the full luminosity range of the sample.
Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work: New Insights for Improving Schools

The guide can be used by individuals, small groups, or an entire faculty to identify key points, raise questions for consideration, and identify steps that might be taken to promote the professional learning community (PLC) concept in a school or school district. The guide is arranged by chapters, enabling readers to either work their way through the entire book or focus on the specific topic that is addressed in a particular chapter. We believe this guide will prove to be a valuable asset for a school or school district that has undertaken the journey to becoming a PLC.
Research Note Supersolar metal abundances and the Broad Line Region of Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies

Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLSy1) are intriguing due to their extreme continuum and emission line properties which are not yet well understood. This paper is motivated by the recent suggestion that NLSy1 galaxies might be young active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and that they may have supersolar metal abundances. We have examined the stability of broad emission line region (BLR) clouds under isobaric perturbation and its dependence on gas metal abundances. We show that supersolar metallicity increases the range where multiple phases in pressure balance may exist. This is particularly important for NLSy1s with steep X-ray spectra where it delays the trend of hindrance of a multi-phase equilibrium. Finally, the role of warm absorbers in the context of this scenario is assessed.
Nursing Workload as a Risk Factor for Healthcare Associated Infections in ICU: A Prospective Study

Introduction Nurse understaffing is frequently hypothesized as a potential risk factor for healthcare-associated infections (HAI). This study aimed to evaluate the role of nursing workload in the occurrence of HAI, using Nursing Activities Score (NAS). Methods This prospective cohort study enrolled all patients admitted to 3 Medical ICUs and one step-down unit during 3 months (2009). Patients were followed-up until HAI, discharge or death. Information was obtained from direct daily observation of medical and nursing rounds, chart review and monitoring of laboratory system. Nursing workload was determined using NAS. Non-compliance to the nurses’ patient care plans (NPC) was identified. Demographic data, clinical severity, invasive procedures, hospital interventions, and the occurrence of other adverse events were also recorded. Patients who developed HAI were compared with those who did not. Results 195 patients were included and 43 (22%) developed HAI: 16 pneumonia, 12 urinary-tract, 8 bloodstream, 2 surgical site, 2 other respiratory infections and 3 other. Average NAS and average proportion of non compliance with NPC were significantly higher in HAI patients. They were also more likely to suffer other adverse events. Only excessive nursing workload (OR: 11.41; p: 0.019) and severity of patient’s clinical condition (OR: 1.13; p: 0.015) remained as risk factors to HAI. Conclusions Excessive nursing workload was the main risk factor for HAI, when evaluated together with other invasive devices except mechanical ventilation. To our knowledge, this study is the first to evaluate prospectively the nursing workload as a potential risk factor for HAI, using NAS.
Long Range Prediction of Fading Signals : Enabling Adaptive Transmission for Mobile Radio Channels

Recently it was proposed to adapt several transmission methods, including modulation, power control, channel coding and antenna diversity to rapidly time variant fading channel conditions. Prediction of the channel coefficients several tens-to-hundreds of symbols ahead is essential to realize these methods in practice. We describe a novel adaptive long range fading channel prediction algorithm (LRP) and its utilization with adaptive transmission methods. This channel prediction algorithm computes the linear Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE) estimates of future fading coefficients based on past observations. This algorithm can forecast fading signals far into the future due to its significant memory span, achieved by using a sufficiently low sampling rate for a given fixed filter size. The LRP is validated for standard stationary fading models, and tested with measured data and with data produced by our novel realistic physical channel model. This model accounts for the variation of the amplitude, frequency and phase of each reflected component of the fading signal. Both numerical and simulation results show that long range prediction makes adaptive transmission techniques feasible for mobile radio channels.
Karyotype stability of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells during in vitro culture

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the chromosomes of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUCMSCs) change following in vitro culture for several generations. In the present study, umbilical cords from two healthy infants following cesarean delivery were collected aseptically and hUCMSCs were isolated by digestion with collagenase and trypsin, and then cultured in vitro. hUCMSCs with fibroblastic morphology were presented from the human umbilical cord tissue after 7 days of adherent culture. When cultured for 6 passages in vitro, the hUCMSCs maintained a stable spindle-shaped morphology. Cells reached the logarithmic growth phase after 3–4 days of culture. In addition, CD13, CD29, CD44, CD90 and CD105 were highly expressed in generations P3-P6. The expression of CD31, CD34, CD45 and HLA-DR was negative. Furthermore, karyotype analysis revealed a normal diploid karyotype with 46 chromosomes and no abnormal changes were found in chromosome structure. These findings suggest that when cultured for 6 passages in vitro, hUCMSCs maintain a stable immunophenotype and chromosome structure, which provides an experimental basis for the safety of hUCMSC cytotherapy.
A Study on Unsupervised Dictionary Learning and Feature Encoding for Action Classification

Many efforts have been devoted to develop alternative methods to traditional vector quantization in image domain such as sparse coding and soft-assignment. These approaches can be split into a dictionary learning phase and a feature encoding phase which are often closely connected. In this paper, we investigate the effects of these phases by separating them for video-based action classification. We compare several dictionary learning methods and feature encoding schemes through extensive experiments on KTH and HMDB51 datasets. Experimental results indicate that sparse coding performs consistently better than the other encoding methods in large complex dataset (i.e., HMDB51), and it is robust to different dictionaries. For small simple dataset (i.e., KTH) with less variation, however, all the encoding strategies perform competitively. In addition, we note that the strength of sophisticated encoding approaches comes not from their corresponding dictionaries but the encoding mechanisms, and we can just use randomly selected exemplars as dictionaries for video-based action classification.
Antibody Class Switching Mediated by Yeast Endonuclease – Generated DNA Breaks

relatively modest in the catalytic core domain between structures but increase with increasing distance from this region, as is particularly evident for the ABC signature sequence. When the catalytic domains of one NBD in the intact HI1470/1 transporter and one NBD in the intact BtuCD transporter are superimposed, the relative positions of the partner NBDs observed in these structures are shifted by a translation or screw component of ~4.5 A ˚ along an axis parallel to the interface between NBDs (Fig. 4B); this trans-lational component repositions the two NBDs in a direction perpendicular to that generated by the tweezers-type motion observed between different nucleotide states of MalK (27), which also corresponds to the hinge motion between BtuD and the closed form of MalK. Notably, the direction of this translational shift coincides with the direction of the twist motion observed between the TMDs of HI1470/1 and BtuCD (Fig. 3A). This screw component arises from the coupling of the local rotation axes relating individual NBDs in different structures to the molecular twofold rotation, which generates a displacement along the subunit-subunit interface as the separation between NBDs varies (Fig. 4C). The linkage between NBD positioning and the twist between TMDs supports a coupling mechanism connecting the permeation pathway and nucleotide state of the transporter, where the ABCs can remain juxtaposed during the transport cycle. The structures of HI1470/1 and BtuCD demonstrate that inward-and outward-facing con-formations of an importer-type ABC transporter may be accommodated with relatively little change in overall architecture. Because neither HI1470/1 nor BtuCD were crystallized in the presence of nucleotide, binding protein, or ligand, the energetic basis of the differential stabilization of alternate conformations is not obvious ; one possibility is that the substitution of the native bilayer with detergent has shifted the equilibrium between inward-and outward-facing conformations. A comparable phenomenon has recently been discussed for the conformation of the voltage sensor in potassium channels (30). Lattice contacts overlapping the molecular twofold axis of HI1470 and the periphery of BtuD could also play a role in stabilizing the observed conformations of the ABCs. Consequently , despite the differences in structures of HI1470/1 and BtuCD, it is not possible to establish the correspondence between nucleotide state and transporter conformation with certainty; however , the closer juxtaposition of ABC subunits in BtuCD relative to HI1470/1 suggests that the outward-facing conformation of the transporter corresponds to the closed (ATP) state of the NBDs, as …
Exploring the Role of Race and Gender in the Subprime Lending Crisis∗

The recent subprime mortgage crisis has brought to the forefront the possibility of discriminatory lending on the basis of race or gender. I explore these claims using approximately 10 million observations collected by the federal government in 2006 through the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. I address two possible theories of discrimination: (1) structural discrimination, which is that any discriminatory lending patterns are picking up the fact that minority borrowers went to different lenders, and (2) individual discrimination, which is the possibility that individual lenders discriminated against identically situated borrowers. The results provide some evidence of both. However, a sensitivity test to examine the effect of missing controls (such as credit score) finds that these racial differences could be explained by a 50% difference in negative credit attributes between blacks and whites under structural discrimination, and 17% difference under individual discrimination. ∗This research was conducted with support from the John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business at Harvard Law School as well as from the Real Estate Academic Initiative at Harvard University. I am extremely grateful to Jennifer Hochschild, Gary King, Jim Greiner, Adam Glynn, Matt Blackwell, Richard Nielsen, Omar Wasow, Alisha Holland, Sparsha Saha, Burt Monroe and attendees of the Harvard Graduate Methods and Models Class for ongoing conversations about this project. In addition, I thank various participants at the 2010 Midwest Political Science Association conference panel on race and public policy, the 2010 Penn State New Faces in Political Methodology Conference, and the 2009 Society for Political Methodology conference poster session for helpful comments and suggestions. †Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Rochester, Harkness Hall 322, Rochester, NY 14627. ‡mayasen.org.
Bystander or No Bystander for Gene Directed Enzyme Prodrug Therapy

Gene directed enzyme prodrug therapy (GDEPT) of cancer aims to improve the selectivity of chemotherapy by gene transfer, thus enabling target cells to convert non-toxic prodrugs to cytotoxic drugs. A zone of cell kill around gene-modified cells due to transfer of toxic metabolites, known as the bystander effect, leads to tumour regression. Here we discuss the implications of either striving for a strong bystander effect to overcome poor gene transfer, or avoiding the bystander effect to reduce potential systemic effects, with the aid of three successful GDEPT systems. This review concentrates on bystander effects and drug development with regard to these enzyme prodrug combinations, namely herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-TK) with ganciclovir (GCV), cytosine deaminase (CD) from bacteria or yeast with 5-fluorocytodine (5-FC), and bacterial nitroreductase (NfsB) with 5-(azaridin-1-yl)-2,4-dinitrobenzamide (CB1954), and their respective derivatives.
Labour Demand During Transition in Hungary

Transition from socialist to market economy brought drastic changes on the Hungarian labour market. Employment fell by 1.6m, i.e., by more than 25% during the past decade, while unemployment jumped from practically nil to over 14% within four years. This paper describes the changes in corporate labour demand resulting in this drop in aggregate employment, and gives an empirical analysis of the corporate labour demand during the transition period, based on a panel of medium-sized and large Hungarian firms.
Paracellular Absorption Is Relatively Low in the Herbivorous Egyptian Spiny-Tailed Lizard, Uromastyx aegyptia

Absorption of small water-soluble nutrients in vertebrate intestines occurs both by specific, mediated transport and by non-specific, passive, paracellular transport. Although it is apparent that paracellular absorption represents a significant route for nutrient absorption in many birds and mammals, especially small, flying species, its importance in ectothermic vertebrates has not previously been explored. Therefore, we measured fractional absorption (ƒ) and absorption rate of three paracellular probes (arabinose, l-rhamnose, cellobiose) and of 3-O-methyl d-glucose (absorbed by both mediated and paracellular pathways) by the large herbivorous lizard, Uromastyx aegyptia, to explore the relative importance of paracellular and mediated transport in an ectothermic, terrestrial vertebrate. Fractional absorption of 3-O-methyl d-glucose was high (ƒ = 0.73±0.04) and similar to other vertebrates; ƒ of the paracellular probes was relatively low (arabinose ƒ = 0.31±0.03, l-rhamnose ƒ = 0.19±0.02, and cellobiose ƒ = 0.14±0.02), and decreased with molecular mass, a pattern consistent with other vertebrates. Paracellular absorption accounted for approximately 24% of total 3-O-methyl d-glucose uptake, indicating low reliance on this pathway for these herbivorous lizards, a pattern similar to that found in other terrestrial vertebrates, and different from small flying endotherms (both birds and bats).
Decoupling Action Potential Bias from Cortical Local Field Potentials

Neurophysiologists have recently become interested in studying neuronal population activity through local field potential (LFP) recordings during experiments that also record the activity of single neurons. This experimental approach differs from early LFP studies because it uses high impendence electrodes that can also isolate single neuron activity. A possible complication for such studies is that the synaptic potentials and action potentials of the small subset of isolated neurons may contribute disproportionately to the LFP signal, biasing activity in the larger nearby neuronal population to appear synchronous and cotuned with these neurons. To address this problem, we used linear filtering techniques to remove features correlated with spike events from LFP recordings. This filtering procedure can be applied for well-isolated single units or multiunit activity. We illustrate the effects of this correction in simulation and on spike data recorded from primary auditory cortex. We find that local spiking activity can explain a significant portion of LFP power at most recording sites and demonstrate that removing the spike-correlated component can affect measurements of auditory tuning of the LFP.
Significance of Microalbuminuria in Relation to Subclinical Coronary Atherosclerosis in Asymptomatic Nonhypertensive, Nondiabetic Subjects

We aimed to investigate the significance of microalbuminuria and its relationship with subclinical atherosclerosis in nonhypertensive and nondiabetic patients, by using coronary artery computed tomography (CT). A total of 1,318 nonhypertensive and nondiabetic subjects who had taken coronary artery CT and measured spot urine albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR) were evaluated. The atherosclerotic changes of coronary arteries were greater in subjects with microalbuminuria, reflected by coronary artery calcium score (CACS) and significant coronary artery stenosis (CACS ≥ 100 in 15.3% vs 7.6% and stenosis ≥ 50% in 11.5% vs 4.9% of patients with vs without microalbuminuria, P = 0.008 and P = 0.011, respectively). Among various parameters that are known as a risk factor or possible biomarkers of coronary artery disease, presence of microalbuminuria, age and Framingham risk score were significantly related to coronary artery stenosis. Among them the presence of microalbuminuria showed stronger correlation than others to the coronary artery stenosis detected by CT, even after adjusting confounding factors (OR 3.397, 95% confidence interval 1.138 to 10.140, P = 0.028). The presence of microalbuminuria by UACR was significantly associated with presence of coronary artery stenosis ≥ 50% in asymptomatic, nonhypertensive and nondiabetic general population. Our study suggests that the presence of microalbuminuria may imply subclinical coronary artery disease, even in asymptomatic population.
Cumulative clinical experience from over a decade of use of levofloxacin in urinary tract infections: critical appraisal and role in therapy

The treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs) continues to evolve as common uropathogens increasingly become resistant to previously active antimicrobial agents. In addition, bacterial isolates, which were once considered to be either colonizers or contaminants, have emerged as true pathogens, likely related to the more complex array of settings where health care is now delivered. Even though the reliability of many antimicrobial agents has become less predictable, the fluoroquinolone group of agents has remained a frequent, if not the most often prescribed, antimicrobial therapy for almost all types of UTIs. Levofloxacin has taken its position at the top of the list as one of the most regularly administered fluoroquinolone agents given to patients with a suspected or proven UTI. The authors review the clinical experience of the use of levofloxacin over the past decade and suggest that the use of levofloxacin for the treatment of UTIs, although still fairly dependable, is perhaps not the best use of this important antimicrobial agent.
Modular forms and Donaldson invariants for 4-manifolds with $b_+=1$

The Donaldson invariants of a smooth simply connected 4-manifold X depend by definition on the choice of a Riemannian metric g. In case b(X) > 1 they turn out to be independent of the metric as long as it is generic, and thus give C-invariants of X . We study the case b+(X) = 1, where the invariants have been introduced in [Ko]. We denote by Φ c1,N the Donaldson invariant of X with respect to a lift c1 ∈ H (X,Z) of w2(P ) for an SO(3) bundle P on X with −p1(P )− 3 = N . Kotschick and Morgan showed in [K-M] that the invariants only depend on the chamber of the period point of g in the positive cone H(X,R) in H(X,R). For two metrics g1, g2, which do not lie on a wall they express Φ X,g1 c1,N −Φ2 c1,N as the sum over certain wall-crossing terms δ ξ,N , where ξ runs over all classes in H (X,Z) which define a wall between g1 and g2. They also make the following conjecture.