Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
2 Shotgun stochastic search 2 . 1 Bayesian model averaging and inclusion probabilities

This paper evaluates a novel sampling algorithm, called shotgun stochastic search (S3), for Bayesian model averaging in the context of finding predictors for inflation when the set of potential predictors is large. This is a relevant case in the forecasting literature, where often hundreds of predictors are compared with autoregressive distributed lag models for inflation. With such a large model space, standard Bayesian approaches like MCMC model composition (MC3) tend to converge slowly. On the other hand, S3 systematically searches in the neighborhood of good models and concentrates on regions of high posterior probability in the model space. We carry out a Monte Carlo simulations to compare the computational effi ciency of S3 to MC3, based on standard data generating processes from the literature. When many potential predictors are available, S3 outperforms MC3. In an empirical exercise, we apply the two algorithms to find predictors for US inflation from a set of about one hundred indicators and their lags. S3 absorbs posterior mass much quicker than MC3 and makes Bayesian estimation of the standard inflation equations with many predictors computationally feasible.
Group Sparse Beamforming for Green Cloud-RAN

A cloud radio access network (Cloud-RAN) is a network architecture that holds the promise of meeting the explosive growth of mobile data traffic. In this architecture, all the baseband signal processing is shifted to a single baseband unit (BBU) pool, which enables efficient resource allocation and interference management. Meanwhile, conventional powerful base stations can be replaced by low-cost low-power remote radio heads (RRHs), producing a green and low-cost infrastructure. However, as all the RRHs need to be connected to the BBU pool through optical transport links, the transport network power consumption becomes significant. In this paper, we propose a new framework to design a green Cloud-RAN, which is formulated as a joint RRH selection and power minimization beamforming problem. To efficiently solve this problem, we first propose a greedy selection algorithm, which is shown to provide near-optimal performance. To further reduce the complexity, a novel group sparse beamforming method is proposed by inducing the group-sparsity of beamformers using the weighted ℓ1/ℓ2-norm minimization, where the group sparsity pattern indicates those RRHs that can be switched off. Simulation results will show that the proposed algorithms significantly reduce the network power consumption and demonstrate the importance of considering the transport link power consumption.
Hepatoprotective Effects of Total Triterpenoids and Total Flavonoids from Vitis vinifera L against Immunological Liver Injury in Mice

Suosuo grape (the fruits of Vitis vinifera L) has been used for prevention and treatment of liver diseases in Uighur folk medicine in China besides its edible value. In this study, the hepatoprotective effects of total triterpenoids (VTT) and total flavonoids (VTF) from Suosuo grape were evaluated in Bacille-Calmette-Guerin- (BCG-) plus-lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced immunological liver injury (ILI) in mice. Various dose groups (50, 150, and 300 mg/kg) of VTT and VTF alleviated the degree of liver injury of ILI mice, effectively reduced the BCG/LPS-induced elevated liver index and spleen index, hepatic nitric oxide (NO), and malondialdehyde (MDA) content, increased liver homogenate alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels, and restored hepatic superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in ILI mice. VTT and VTF also significantly inhibited intrahepatic expression of Th1 cytokines (IFN-γ and IL-2) in ILI mice and increased intrahepatic expression of Th2 cytokines (IL-4 and IL-10). Moreover, the increased Bax/Bcl-2 ratio was significantly downregulated by VTT and VTF in liver tissue of ILI mice. These results are comparable to those of biphenyl dicarboxylate (DDB, the reference hepatoprotective agent) and suggest that VTT and VTF play a protective role against immunological liver injury, which may have important implications for our understanding of the immunoregulatory mechanisms of this plant.
Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of NGC 6251

We present new X-ray observations of the nucleus, jet and extended emission of the nearby radio galaxy NGC 6251 using the Chandra/ACIS-S camera, together with a reanalysis of archival Chandra/ACIS-I and XMM‐Newton/EPIC data. We find that the nuclear X-ray spectrum is well fitted with an absorbed power law, and that there is tentative, but not highly significant, evidence for Fe Kα emission. We argue that the observed nuclear X-ray emission is likely to originate in a relativistic jet, based on the double-peaked nature, and our synchrotron selfCompton modelling, of the radio to X-ray spectral energy distribution. However, we cannot rule out a contribution from an accretion flow. We resolve X-ray jet emission in three distinct regions, and argue in favour of a synchrotron origin for all three; inverse Compton emission models are possible but require extreme parameters. We detect thermal emission on both galaxy and group scales, and demonstrate that hot gas can confine the jet, particularly if relativistic beaming is important. We show evidence that the radio lobe has evacuated a cavity in the Xray-emitting gas, and suggest that the lobe is close to the plane of the sky, with the jet entering the lobe close to the surface nearest to the observer. Ke yw ords: galaxies: active ‐ galaxies: individual: NGC 6251 ‐ galaxies: jets ‐ X-rays: galaxies.
DEEP XMM-NEWTON SPECTROSCOPIC AND TIMING OBSERVATIONS OF THE ISOLATED RADIO MILLISECOND PULSAR PSR J0030+0451

We present deep XMM-Newton European Photon Imaging Camera spectroscopic and timing X-ray observations of the nearby solitary radio millisecond pulsar, PSR J0030+0451. Its emission spectrum in the 0.1–10 keV range is found to be remarkably similar to that of the nearest and best-studied millisecond pulsar, PSR J0437–4715, being well described by a predominantly thermal two-temperature model plus a faint hard tail evident above ∼2 keV. The pulsed emission in the 0.3–2 keV band is characterized by two broad pulses with pulsed fraction ∼60%–70%, consistent with a mostly thermal origin of the X-rays only if the surface polar cap radiation is from a light-element atmosphere. Modeling of the thermal pulses permits us to place constraints on the neutron star radius of R > 10.7 (95% confidence) and R > 10.4 km (at 99.9% confidence) for M = 1.4 M☉.
Surgical outcomes of pediatric patients with ventricular septal defects in a tertiary referral center in Pakistan: a retrospective cohort study

Background: The nature of complications and outcomes for Ventricular septal defect (VSD) repair differ between developed and developing countries. Understanding these differences can help optimize patient management according to geographical location. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the risk factors associated with in-hospital peri- and post-surgical complications of VSD repair in a developing country. Design: A retrospective cohort study. Setting: A tertiary referral center. Participants: 117 patients under 18 years of age admitted for surgical closure of ventricular septal defect between July 1998 and June 2008. Main Outcomes: Only patients with isolated VSD or VSD associated with acyanotic congenital heart disease were included. Outcomes were defined as in-hospital minor and major complications and mortality. Results: Adverse complications occurred in 35.9% (42/117) and death in 3.4% (4/117) of cases. Age >12 months (OR 0.17 13 months-5 years; 0.10 5-18 years), weight >10 kg (OR 0.24 11-20 kg; 0.13>21 kg), and absence of pulmonary artery hypertension (OR 0.43) were all significantly associated with a reduced rate of adverse events. A longer stay in intensive care unit/semi-intensive care unit (OR 11.6 5-7 days; OR 6.1 >8 days) and larger size of ventricular septal defect (OR 5.4 medium size; 3.9 large size) were associated with an increased risk of adverse events. Infection (20%) and pneumonia (10%) were the commonest complications. Conclusions and relevance: Age under one year, weight less than ten kilograms, pulmonary artery hypertension, and moderate to large size ventricular septal defect are more likely to be associated with adverse outcomes after surgical repair of ventricular septal defect. Infection and pneumonia comprise almost one third of the total complications, compared to higher arrhythmic events in developed countries. Developing countries have a distinct spectrum of complications that may be avoidable and treatable.
Capillary Pressure–Saturation Relations for Saprolite: Scaling With and Without Correction for Column Height

Dense nonaqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) are important subsurface contaminants. Information is lacking on DNAPL behavior in heterogeneous porous media such as weathered rock (saprolite). We measured air–water and Fluorinert (a nontoxic DNAPL surrogate; 3M, St. Paul, MN)–water capillary pressure–saturation relations, θw(hc), close to saturation on an 18‐cm‐long by 10‐cm‐diameter undisturbed column of interbedded sandstone and clayshale saprolite. The Campbell empirical model was fitted to both θw(hc) relations. The resulting best‐fit parameters were 19.54 and 30.10 cm of H2O for the displacement capillary pressure head (h0) and 0.029 and 0.045 for the pore‐size distribution index (1/b), for the air–water and Fluorinert–water data, respectively. Corresponding model parameters corrected for the hydrostatic fluid distribution within the column were 14.08 and 15.96 cm of H2O for h0, and 0.026 and 0.034 for 1/b The correction procedure had a large effect on the Fluorinert–water θw(hc) relation and relatively little impact on the air–water θw(hc) relation. Parameters from the air–water relations were used to predict Fluorinert–water θw(hc) relations using the expression: (h0)2 = (σ2/σ1)(h0)1, where (h0)1, (h0)2 and σ1, σ2 are the capillary displacement pressure heads and interfacial tensions with water for air and Fluorinert, respectively. These analyses showed that direct measurements of the Fluorinert–water θw(hc) relation need to be corrected for column height. The corrected Fluorinert–water θw(hc) relation was accurately predicted (R2 ≅ 0.99) by both the fitted and corrected (h0)1 values. Thus, the error in prediction introduced by not considering column height or contact angle effects was relatively small. Our results show that scaled air–water θw(hc) relations can be used to predict DNAPL intrusion into water‐saturated saprolite at a physical point.
Noise and function

Noise is widely understood to be something that interferes with a signal or process. Thus, it is generally thought to be destructive, obscuring signals and interfering with function. However, early in the 20th century, mechanical engineers found that mechanisms inducing additional vibration in mechanical systems could prevent sticking and hysteresis. This so-called "dither" noise was later introduced in an entirely different context at the advent of digital information transmission and recording in the early 1960s. Ironically, the addition of noise allows one to preserve information that would otherwise be lost when the signal or image is digitized. As we shall see, the benefits of added noise in these contexts are closely related to the phenomenon which has come to be known as stochastic resonance, the original version of which appealed to noise to explain how small periodic fluctuations in the eccentricity of the earth's orbit might be amplified in such a way as to bring about the observed periodic transitions in climate from ice age to temperate age and back. These noise-induced transitions have since been invoked to explain a wide array of biological phenomena, including the foraging and tracking behavior of ants. Many biological phenomena, from foraging to gene expression, are noisy, involving an element of randomness. In this paper, we illustrate the general principles behind dithering and stochastic resonance using examples from image processing, and then show how the constructive use of noise can carry over to systems found in nature.
A New Therapy Paradigm for Prostate Cancer Founded on Clinical Observations

Efficacy equivalent to that reported in other common adult solid tumors considered to be chemotherapy-sensitive has been reported with Docetaxel in patients with castrate-resistant prostate cancer. However, in contrast to other cancers, the expected increase in efficacy with the use of chemotherapy in earlier disease states has not been reported to date in prostate cancer. On the basis of these observations, we speculated that the therapy development paradigm used successfully in other cancers may not apply to the majority of prostate cancers. Several lines of supporting clinical and experimental observations implicate the tumor microenvironment in prostate carcinogenesis and resistance to therapy. We conclude that a foundation to guide the development of therapy for prostate cancer is required. The therapy paradigm we propose accounts for the central role of the tumor microenvironment in bone and, if correct, will lead to microenvironment-targeted therapy. Clin Cancer Res; 16(4); 1100–7
The Mutation and Injection Framework: Evaluating Clone Detection Tools with Mutation Analysis

An abundant number of clone detection tools have been proposed in the literature due to the many applications and benefits of clone detection. However, there has been difficulty in the performance evaluation and comparison of these clone detectors. This is due to a lack of reliable benchmarks, and the manual efforts required to validate a large number of candidate clones. In particular, there has been a lack of a synthetic benchmark that can precisely and comprehensively measure clone-detection recall. In this paper, we present a mutation-analysis based benchmarking framework that can be used not only to evaluate the recall of clone detection tools for different types of clones but also for specific kinds of clone edits and without any manual efforts. The framework uses an editing taxonomy of clone synthesis for generating thousands of artificial clones, injects into code bases and automatically evaluates the subject clone detection tools following the mutation analysis approach. Additionally, the framework has features where custom clone pairs could also be used in the framework for evaluating the subject tools. This gives the opportunity of evaluating specialized tools for specialized contexts such as evaluating a tool’s capability for the detection of complex Type-4 clones or real world clones without writing complex mutation operators for them. We demonstrate this framework by evaluating the performance of ten modern clone detection tools across two clone granularities (function and block) and three programming languages (Java, C and C#). Furthermore, we provide a variant of the framework that can be used to evaluate specialized tools such as for large gaped clone detection. Our experiments demonstrate confidence in the accuracy of our Mutation and Injection Framework when comparing against the expected results of the corresponding tools, and widely used real-world benchmarks such as Bellon’s benchmark and BigCloneBench. We provide features so that most clone detection tools that report clones in the form of clone pairs (either in filename/line numbers or filename/tokens) could be evaluated using the framework.
“Keep Your Spirit Aligned”: A Case Study on Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Queer Students Defining and Practicing Spirituality

Researchers have explored the juxtaposition of racial identity and spirituality and/or religious identity of Black collegians (Herndon, 2010; Stewart, 2009; K. L. Walker & Dixon, 2002). Though spirituality and religion are often (inter)connected, Hill and colleagues (2000) argued that religion is often associated with proscribing “a search for the sacred” or “search for non-sacred goals” (e.g., sense of belonging) that receives “validation and support from within an identifiable group of people” (e.g., a religious institution) and spirituality is about a search for the sacred that may or may not be proscribed by an organized entity (p. 66). Researchers have found that spirituality and religion are sources of resiliency for Black college students as they navigate predominantly White campus environments and/or academic demands (Herndon, 2010; Patton & McClure, 2009; Wood & Hilton, 2012); however, heteronormativity and homophobia can complicate the relationship between self and religion and spirituality for Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) students (McGuire, Cisneros, & McGuire, 2017; Means, 2017; Washington & Wall, 2010). Building on Patton and McClure’s (2009) study on African American women and the role of spirituality in their collegiate lives, we sought to better understand the role of spirituality in the lives of Black LGBQ students through a qualitative case study. Our research questions were: How do Black LGBQ undergraduate and graduate students define spirituality? and What resources and spaces are available to Black LGBQ undergraduate and graduate students to develop, practice, and/or exercise their spirituality? We were interested in how Black LGBQ students define spirituality, if religion is included in their definition, and how they exercise their spirituality.
Value-added strategies and forward integration in the Swedish sawmill industry: positioning and profitability in the high-volume segment

Abstract The changing market conditions for the Swedish sawmill industry place a focus on a better understanding of the pros and cons of value-added and forward integration strategies. The purpose of this article is to describe and explain recent value-added strategies in the Swedish sawmill industry. The study includes strategies from 13 of the 15 largest sawmill companies for the period between 2002 and 2005, describing a differentiation between value added in primary sawmill production and forward integration into secondary production. It also aims to relate some basic conditions, such as company size, company growth and corporate strategy, to value added and forward integration to profitability. The results show strong positive and significant correlations between forward integration, value added in primary production (somewhat weaker) and unit revenue, and profitability measured as return on investment. There were no strong or significant correlations between size and profitability, playing down the importance of economies of scale (among these already large companies). An interesting result is the much higher profitability of the buying sawmill companies compared with the forest corporations, stressing the importance of both a long-term strategy when investing in value-added activities and ultimately the priorities of ownership.
Software effort estimation using machine learning methods

In software engineering, the main aim is to develop projects that produce the desired results within limited schedule and budget. The most important factor affecting the budget of a project is the effort. Therefore, estimating effort is crucial because hiring people more than needed leads to a loss of income and hiring people less than needed leads to an extension of schedule. The main objective of this research is making an analysis of software effort estimation to overcome problems related to it: budget and schedule extension. To accomplish this, we propose a model that uses machine learning methods. We evaluate these models on public datasets and data gathered from software organizations in Turkey. It is found out in the experiments that the best method for a dataset may change and this proves the point that the usage of one model cannot always produce the best results.
25-Hydroxycholesterol is involved in the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

This study aimed to evaluate the levels of three major hydroxycholesterols (24-, 25-, and 27-hydroxycholesterols) in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), as well as to show their role in the pathogenesis of ALS experimental models. The level of 25-hydroxycholesterol were higher in untreated ALS patients (n = 30) than in controls without ALS (n = 33) and ALS patients treated with riluzole (n = 9) both in their serum and CSF. The level of 25-hydroxycholesterol in the serum of ALS patients were significantly associated with their disease severity and rate of progression. In the motor neuron-like cell line (NSC34) with the human mutant G93A superoxide dismutase 1 gene (mSOD1-G93A), 25-hydroxycholesterol induced motor neuronal death/ apoptosis via glycogen synthase kinase-3β and liver X receptor pathways; riluzole treatment attenuated these effects. The expressions of enzymes that synthesize 25-hydroxycholesterol were significantly increased in the brains of early symptomatic mSOD1G93A mice. Our data, obtained from patients with ALS, a cellular model of ALS, and an animal model of ALS, suggests that 25-hydroxycholesterol could be actively involved in the pathogenesis of ALS, mostly in the early symptomatic disease stage, by mediating neuronal apoptosis.
Axiomatic stable homotopy - a survey

We survey various approaches to axiomatic stable homotopy theory, with examples including derived categories, categories of (possibly equivariant or localized) spectra, and stable categories of modular representations of finite groups. We focus mainly on representability theorems, localisation, Bousfield classes, and nilpotence.
Memory Patterns in Children with Reading Disabilities, with and without Auditory Processing Disorders

Researchers in the fields of audiology and education debate the role of auditory processing disorders (APD) in the development of several other language based learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Despite the controversies, certain neurological, cognitive, and behavioral characteristics are apparent among children diagnosed with APD, several of which are shared with the dyslexic population. The current study attempted to illuminate one such characteristic ? deficiencies in verbal memory skills. Forty children with moderate to severe reading disabilities, half of whom had a co-morbid diagnosis of APD, between the ages of 7 and 12 years, and twenty normally achieving children matched for gender and age participated in this study. Consistent with previous research, results indicated significantly lower scores on verbal memory tasks among children with reading disabilities. However, whether a diagnosis of APD obtained by behavioral measures was significantly related to more profound verbal memory deficits among children with reading disabilities could not be clearly established. Children with comorbid RD and APD displayed significantly lower IQ scores and significantly lower levels of reading achievement than their reading disabled counterparts without APD diagnoses. These findings help to illuminate the nature of a possible link between APD and more profound reading disabilities and cognitive deficits and may have important implications for educational practice and intervention for these children. ( en )