Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MIXED INTEGER-DISCRETE-CONTINUOUS OPTIMIZATION BY DIFFERENTIAL EVOLUTION Part 1: the optimization method

This article discusses solving non-linear programming problems containing integer, discrete and continuous variables. The Part 1 of the article describes a novel optimization method based on Differential Evolution algorithm. The required handling techniques for integer, discrete and continuous variables are described including the techniques needed to handle boundary constraints as well as those needed to simultaneously deal with several non-linear and non-trivial constraint functions. In Part 2 of the article a mechanical engineering design related numerical example, design of a coil spring, is given to illustrate the capabilities and the practical use of the method. It is demonstrated that the described approach is capable of obtaining high quality solutions. The novel method is relatively easy to implement and use, effective, efficient and robust, which makes it as an attractive and widely applicable approach for solving practical engineering design problems.
Expansion and Characterization of Neonatal Cardiac Pericytes Provides a Novel Cellular Option for Tissue Engineering in Congenital Heart Disease

Background Living grafts produced by combining autologous heart-resident stem/progenitor cells and tissue engineering could provide a new therapeutic option for definitive correction of congenital heart disease. The aim of the study was to investigate the antigenic profile, expansion/differentiation capacity, paracrine activity, and pro-angiogenic potential of cardiac pericytes and to assess their engrafting capacity in clinically certified prosthetic grafts. Methods and Results CD34pos cells, negative for the endothelial markers CD31 and CD146, were identified by immunohistochemistry in cardiac leftovers from infants and children undergoing palliative repair of congenital cardiac defects. Following isolation by immunomagnetic bead-sorting and culture on plastic in EGM-2 medium supplemented with growth factors and serum, CD34pos/CD31neg cells gave rise to a clonogenic, highly proliferative (>20 million at P5), spindle-shape cell population. The following populations were shown to expresses pericyte/mesenchymal and stemness markers. After exposure to differentiation media, the expanded cardiac pericytes acquired markers of vascular smooth muscle cells, but failed to differentiate into endothelial cells or cardiomyocytes. However, in Matrigel, cardiac pericytes form networks and enhance the network capacity of endothelial cells. Moreover, they produce collagen-1 and release chemo-attractants that stimulate the migration of c-Kitpos cardiac stem cells. Cardiac pericytes were then seeded onto clinically approved xenograft scaffolds and cultured in a bioreactor. After 3 weeks, fluorescent microscopy showed that cardiac pericytes had penetrated into and colonized the graft. Conclusions These findings open new avenues for cellular functionalization of prosthetic grafts to be applied in reconstructive surgery of congenital heart disease.
ESTIMATING COMMODITY INFLOWS TO A SUBSTATE REGION USING INPUT-OUTPUT DATA: COMMODITY FLOW SURVEY ACCURACY TESTS

This paper describes a methodology to estimate current U.S. commodity inflows to a substate region using a supply-side, commodity-by-industry, input-output model and commodity flow data for U.S. states. Because the 1993 Commodity Flow Survey does not capture data below the state level, the estimation of commodity flows to a particular substate region of the United States has always proven difficult. By combining state level commodity flow data with the supply side, commodity-by-industry, input-output model, an estimate of commodity flows to smaller regions can be carried out entirely based on the regional industrial structure. Since the actual substate flows are typically unobserved, the accuracy of the methodology is unknown. However, by applying the same methodology to larger regions, with actual states used as the forecast region, the estimates can be compared with actual flows while maintaining an acceptable level of accuracy.
Gaussian Processes and Fast Matrix-Vector Multiplies

Gaussian processes (GPs) provide a flexible framework for probabilistic regression. The necessary computations involve standard matrix operations. There have been several attempts to accelerate these operations based on fast kernel matrix-vector multiplications. By focussing on the simplest GP computation, corresponding to test-time predictions in kernel ridge regression, we conclude that simple approximations based on clusterings in a kd-tree can never work well for simple regression problems. Analytical expansions can provide speedups, but current implementations are limited to the squared-exponential kernel and low-dimensional problems. We discuss future directions.
Large N spectrum of two matrices in a harmonic potential and BMN energies

The large N spectrum of the quantum mechanical hamiltonian of two hermitean matrices in a harmonic potential is studied in a framework where one of the matrices is treated exactly and the other is treated as a creation operator impurity in the background of the first matrix. For the free case, the complete set of invariant eigenstates and corresponding energies are obtained. When gYM2 interactions are added, it is shown that a full string tension corrected BMN type hamiltonian is obtained.
The sources of co-morbidity between major depression and generalized anxiety disorder in a Swedish national twin sample

Background. Prior studies report high levels of co-morbidity between major depression (MD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and suggest that these disorders are closely related genetically. The personality trait of neuroticism (N) is substantially correlated with risk for MD and GAD. Method. Bivariate twin models were applied to lifetime diagnoses of modified DSM-IV diagnosis of MD and GAD obtained at personal interview in 1998–2003 with 37296 twins from the population-based Swedish Twin Registry. A trivariate Cholesky model with N, MD and GAD was applied to a subset (23280 members of same-sex twin pairs) who completed a self-report questionnaire assessing N in 1972–1973. Results. In the best-fit bivariate model, the genetic correlation between MD and GAD was estimated at +1·00 in females and +0·74 in males. Individual-specific environmental factors were also shared between the two disorders with an estimated correlation of +0·59 in males and +0·36 in females. In the best-fit trivariate Cholesky model, genetic factors indexed by N impacted equally on risk for MD and GAD in males and females. However, in both sexes, genetic risk factors indexed by N contributed only around 25% to the genetic correlation between MD and GAD. Conclusion. Genetic risk factors for lifetime MD and GAD are strongly correlated, with higher correlations in women than in men. Although genetic risk factors indexed by the personality trait of N contribute substantially to risk for both MD and GAD, the majority of genetic covariance between the two disorders results from factors not shared with N.
Regulatory environment, environmental dynamism, political ties, and performance: Study of entrepreneurial firms in a developing economy

Purpose – Regulatory environment, environmental dynamism, and political ties are typically modelled as separate antecedents of firm performance. However, the boundary conditions for such models are less examined in a developing country context where regulatory environments have been argued to be weak. Accordingly, drawing on institutional and social capital theories, the purpose of this paper is to examine the interrelationship between regulatory environment, political ties, environmental dynamism, and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses primary data gathered from 372 entrepreneurial firms in Nigeria, a Sub-Saharan African country. Findings – The findings of the paper suggest that that regulatory environment is negatively related to firm performance. However, political ties and environmental dynamism moderate the regulatory environment-firm performance relationship such that such relationship is positive and significant. Research limitations/implications – First, the study provi.
Governing the Organic Cocoa Network from Ghana: Towards Hybrid Governance Arrangements?

In this paper, we examine the processes of initiation, construction and transformation of the organic cocoa network from Ghana. We address in particular how the state responded to and engaged with civil-society actors in the organic cocoa network and to what extent state involvement reshaped state–business–civil society relations? While most of the literature argues that globalization and liberalization processes weakened the state's position as key player in the development and management of agro-food networks, the case of the (organic) cocoa sector in Ghana is often depicted as an exception because of the strong position the state still occupies in it. Employing a global commodity network perspective to analyse the Ghanaian organic cocoa case, this paper demonstrates that although the state is still a major player in the contemporary (organic) cocoa network, some hybrid governance arrangements, involving state, transnational and national NGO networks, and businesses, are emerging. The organic cocoa network also prompted a double process of ‘dis- and re-embedding’ at the local level that helped shape and strengthen the organic cocoa network.
Ambulatory motor assessment in Parkinson's disease

We developed an algorithm that distinguishes between on and off states in patients with Parkinson's disease during daily life activities. Twenty‐three patients were monitored continuously in a home‐like situation for approximately 3 hours while they carried out normal daily‐life activities. Behavior and comments of patients during the experiment were used to determine the on and off periods by a trained observer. Behavior of the patients was measured using triaxial accelerometers, which were placed at six different positions on the body. Parameters related to hypokinesia (percentage movement), bradykinesia (mean velocity), and tremor (percentage peak frequencies above 4 Hz) were used to distinguish between on and off states. The on–off detection was evaluated using sensitivity and specificity. The performance for each patient was defined as the average of the sensitivity and specificity. The best performance to classify on and off states was obtained by analysis of movements in the frequency domain with a sensitivity of 0.97 and a specificity of 0.97. We conclude that our algorithm can distinguish between on and off states with a sensitivity and specificity near 0.97. This method, together with our previously published method to detect levodopa‐induced dyskinesia, can automatically assess the motor state of Parkinson's disease patients and can operate successfully in unsupervised ambulatory conditions. © 2005 Movement Disorder Society
Accuracy of transthoracic ultrasound for the detection of pleural adhesions.

OBJECTIVES In the era of minimally invasive surgery, preoperative detection of pleural adhesions can be very useful for the assessment of surgical approach, because pleural adhesions are the main contraindication to video-assisted thoracoscopy. The aim of this study was to assess the sensitivity and specificity of transthoracic ultrasound in the detection of pleural adhesions prior to thoracic surgery. METHODS From February 2010 to January 2011, 142 consecutive patients (male, 98; female, 44; age range, 36-83 years, mean age, 63.4 years) undergoing surgical thoracic intervention (except for pneumothorax) were preoperatively scanned by two different surgeons. According to thoracic wall projections of lung segments, we created a nine-region topographic map, in which every pulmonary area was scanned to assess the presence or the absence of 'gliding sign' (lesion-by-lesion analysis). During operations the surgeon, blinded to the prediction, confirmed or excluded each suspected adhesion or documented other adhesions not previously identified. RESULTS A total of 1192 predictions were made. Ultrasound predictions were confirmed 1124 times and refuted 68 times. Sensitivity was 80.6% (95% confidence interval, 0.740-0.872) and specificity 96.1% (95% confidence interval, 0.949-0.973). The positive predictive value was 73.2% and the negative predictive value was 97.4%. CONCLUSIONS Transthoracic ultrasound is an effective method for predicting pleural adhesions before thoracic surgery in experienced hands. Its safety, feasibility and low cost make it a useful method for the planning of minimally invasive surgical interventions.
Predator–prey interactions under climate change: the importance of habitat vs body temperature

Habitat temperature is often assumed to serve as an effective proxy for organism body temperature when making predictions of species distributions under future climate change. However, the determinants of body temperature are complex, and organisms in identical microhabitats can occupy radically different thermal niches. This can have major implications of our understanding of how thermal stress modulates predatorprey relationships under field conditions. Using body temperature data from four different sites on Santa Cruz Island, California, we show that at two sites the body temperatures of a keystone predator (the seastar Pisaster ochraceus) and its prey (the mussel Mytilus californianus) followed very different trajectories, even though both animals occupied identical microhabitats. At the other two sites, body temperatures of predator and prey were closely coupled across a range of scales. The dynamical differences between predator and prey body temperatures depended on the location of pairs of sites, at the extremes of a persistent landscapescale weather pattern observed across the island. Thus, the well understood predatorprey interaction between Pisaster and Mytilus cannot be predicted based on habitat-level information alone, as is now commonly attempted with landscape-level (‘climate envelope’) models.
Explicit Incentives, Implicit Incentives, and Performance: Evidence from Academic Tenure

This paper tests agency theory on explicit and implicit incentives using a special sample. Specifically, we investigate the productivity (total number of papers) and impact (citations of papers) of the economics and finance faculty from top twenty-five schools and find that these academics’ impact remains consistent before and after tenure. Because impact is arguably a better measure of academics’ performance, our results cannot conclude that these academics slacked off after tenure. We argue that our results are consistent with the notion that if agents have sufficient implicit incentives, they may still exert costly effort even in the absence of explicit contracts.
A Computational Strategy to Select Optimized Protein Targets for Drug Development toward the Control of Cancer Diseases

In this report, we describe a strategy for the optimized selection of protein targets suitable for drug development against neoplastic diseases taking the particular case of breast cancer as an example. We combined human interactome and transcriptome data from malignant and control cell lines because highly connected proteins that are up-regulated in malignant cell lines are expected to be suitable protein targets for chemotherapy with a lower rate of undesirable side effects. We normalized transcriptome data and applied a statistic treatment to objectively extract the sub-networks of down- and up-regulated genes whose proteins effectively interact. We chose the most connected ones that act as protein hubs, most being in the signaling network. We show that the protein targets effectively identified by the combination of protein connectivity and differential expression are known as suitable targets for the successful chemotherapy of breast cancer. Interestingly, we found additional proteins, not generally targeted by drug treatments, which might justify the extension of existing formulation by addition of inhibitors designed against these proteins with the consequence of improving therapeutic outcomes. The molecular alterations observed in breast cancer cell lines represent either driver events and/or driver pathways that are necessary for breast cancer development or progression. However, it is clear that signaling mechanisms of the luminal A, B and triple negative subtypes are different. Furthermore, the up- and down-regulated networks predicted subtype-specific drug targets and possible compensation circuits between up- and down-regulated genes. We believe these results may have significant clinical implications in the personalized treatment of cancer patients allowing an objective approach to the recycling of the arsenal of available drugs to the specific case of each breast cancer given their distinct qualitative and quantitative molecular traits.
The K-theory of symplectic quotients

Let G be a compact connected Lie group and (M, ω) a Hamiltonian G-space. In a previous paper, the authors showed that the equivariant K-theory of the manifold M surjects onto the ordinary integral K-theory of the symplectic quotient M//G, under certain technical conditions on μ. In this paper, we give a method for computing the K-theory of M//G by obtaining an explicit description of the kernel of the surjection κ : K∗ G(M) ։ K ∗(M//G). Our results are K-theoretic analogues of the work of Tolman and Weitsman for Borel-equivariant cohomology. We first obtain a description of the kernel of κ in the case when G = T is abelian by Morse-theoretic methods. We then use our K-theoretic analogue of a result of Martin in Borel-equivariant rational cohomology to reduce the non-abelian case to the abelian case. Further, in the abelian case, we prove that under suitable technical conditions on the T -orbit stratification of M , there is an explicit Goresky-KottwitzMacPherson (“GKM”) type combinatorial description of the K-theory of a Hamiltonian T -space in terms of fixed point data. Finally, we illustrate our methods by computing the ordinary K-theory of smooth compact toric varieties, which arise as symplectic quotients of an affine space C by a linear torus action. CONTENTS
A GENERALIZED VANISHING CONJECTURE

The following argument was indicated in the course of a conversation between D. Arinkin, V. Drinfeld, D. Gaitsgory and D. Kazhdan on 7.29. 2010. 1. Formulation 1.1. Classical localization. Let Rep(Ǧ)[Ran] be the Ran version of the category Rep(Ǧ). The (symmetric) monoidal structure on Rep(Ǧ) coupled with convolution on the Ran space makes Rep(Ǧ)[Ran] into a (symmetric) monoidal category (without a unit). Consider the category QCoh(LocSysǦ). We have a naturally defined symmetric monoidal functor LocǦ,cl : Rep(Ǧ)[Ran]→ QCoh(LocSysǦ), which admits a right adjoint, that we denote by ΓǦ,cl. Theorem 1.2. The functor ΓǦ,cl is fully faithful. Another way to phrase this theorem is that the functor LocǦ,cl realizes QCoh(LocSysǦ) as a localization of Rep(Ǧ)[Ran] with respect to the subcategory ker(LocǦ,cl). In particular, at the level of triangulated categories, the former is a Verdier quotient of the latter by the corresponding triangulated subcategory. 1.3. Remarks. Explicitly, the functor LocǦ,cl can be viewed as follows. For points x1, . , xn ∈ X and Ǧ-representations V1, . , Vn, we view (V1)x1 ⊗ . ⊗ (Vn)xn as an object of Rep(Ǧ)[Ran], and its image under LocǦ,cl is the vector bundle on LocSysǦ equal to ⊗
Two cellulases, CelA and CelC, from the polycentric anaerobic fungus Orpinomyces strain PC-2 contain N-terminal docking domains for a cellulase-hemicellulase complex

Two cDNAs encoding two cellulases, CelA and CelC, were isolated from a cDNA library of the polycentric anaerobic fungus Orpinomyces sp. strain PC-2 constructed in Escherichia coli. Nucleotide sequencing revealed that the celA cDNA (1,558 bp) and celC cDNA (1,628 bp) had open reading frames encoding polypeptides of 459 (CelA) and 449 (CelC) amino acids, respectively. The two cDNAs were 76.9 and 67.7% identical at the nucleotide and amino acid levels, respectively. Analysis of the deduced amino acid sequences showed that starting from the N termini, both CelA and CelC had signal peptides, which were followed by noncatalytic repeated peptide domains (NCRPD) containing two repeated sequences of 33 to 40 amino acid residues functioning as docking domains. The NCRPDs and the catalytic domains were separated by linker sequences. The NCRPDs were homologous to those found in several hydrolases of anaerobic fungi, whereas the catalytic domains were homologous to the catalytic domains of fungal cellobiohydrolases and bacterial endoglucanases. The linker sequence of CelA contained predominantly glutamine and proline residues, while that of CelC contained mainly threonine residues. CelA and CelC did not have a typical cellulose binding domain (CBD). CelA and CelC expressed in E. coli rapidly decreased the viscosity of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), indicating that there was endoglucanase activity. In addition, they produced cellobiose from CMC, acid-swollen cellulose, and cellotetraose, suggesting that they had cellobiohydrolase activity. The optimal activity conditions with CMC as the substrate were pH 4.3 to 6.8 and 50 degrees C for CelA and pH 4.6 to 7.0 and 40 degrees C for CelC. Despite the lack of a CBD, CelC displayed a high affinity for microcrystalline cellulose, whereas CelA did not.
An application of classification models to predict learner progression in tertiary education

This paper reports on an application of classification models to identify college students at risk of failing in the first year of study. Data was gathered from three student cohorts in the academic years 2010 through 2012. Students within the cohorts were sampled from a range of academic disciplines (n=1074), and were diverse in their academic backgrounds and abilities. Metrics used included data that are typically available to colleges such as age, gender and prior academic performance. The study also considered psychometric indicators that can be assessed in the early stages after enrolment, specifically, personality, motivation and learning strategies. Six classification algorithms were considered. Model accuracy was assessed using cross validation and was compared to outcomes when models were applied to a subsequent academic year. It was found that mature students were more complex to model than younger students. Furthermore, 10-fold cross validation accurately estimated model performance when modeling younger students only, but over-estimated model accuracy when modeling mature students.