Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Inattentive Participant: Portfolio Trading Behavior in 401(K) Plans

Most workers in defined contribution retirement plans are inattentive portfolio managers: only a few engage in any trading at all, and only a tiny minority trades actively. Using a rich new dataset on 1.2 million workers in over 1,500 plans, we find that most 401(k) plan participants are characterized by profound inertia. Almost all participants (80%) initiate no trades, and an additional 11% makes only a single trade, in a two-year period. Even among traders, portfolio turnover rates are one-third the rate of professional money managers. Those who trade in their 401(k) plans are more affluent older men, with higher incomes and longer job tenure. They tend to use the internet for 401(k) account access, hold a larger number of investment options, and are more likely to hold active equity funds rather than index or lifecycle funds. Some plan features, including offering own-employer stock, also raise trading levels.
Active site-blocked factors VIIa and IXa differentially inhibit fibrin formation in a human ex vivo thrombosis model.

The role of tissue factor/factor VIIa (FVIIa) and factor VIIIa/factor IXa (FVIIIa/FIXa) complexes in thrombus formation was examined in a human ex vivo blood flow system by use of active site-blocked FVIIa (FVIIai) and FIXa (FIXai) as selective inhibitors. Blood was drawn directly from the veins of volunteers into a mixing device where FVIIai and FIXai were mixed with flowing blood. The blood then entered parallel-plate chambers containing coverslips coated with human fibrillar collagen or tissue factor-expressing cell layers of tumor necrosis factor-alpha-stimulated human endothelial cells, human smooth muscle cells, and J82 cells. Exposure of stimulated endothelial cells to blood flowing at a venous shear rate of 65/s led to fibrin deposition, which was inhibited by infusion of FVIIai (IC50, 3 nmol/L), as quantified by micro-densitometry of fibrin-stained coverslips. Whereas FIXai (600 nmol/L) was only a weak inhibitor, FVIIai (60 nmol/L) reduced fibrinopeptide A (FPA) plasma levels from 504 +/- 79 to 171 +/- 27 ng/mL and concomitantly inhibited platelet thrombus deposition. Similarly, experiments with smooth muscle cells and J82 cells showed that FVIIai but not FIXai efficiently reduced FPA levels. Conversely, with tissue factor-free collagen, ,hich induces platelet-dependent fibrin formation, infusion of FIXai but not of FVIIai inhibited fibrin deposition (IC50, 8 nmol/L) and reduced FPA levels from 55 +/- 8 to 9 +/- 5 ng/mL. However, FIXai did not affect the number of platelet thrombi deposited on collagen. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
MicroRNAs are shaping the hematopoietic landscape

Hematopoiesis is regulated by microRNAs (miRNAs). These small regulatory RNAs are master regulators of developmental processes that modulate expression of several target genes post-transcriptionally. Various miRNAs are up-regulated at specific stages during hematopoietic development and the functional relevance of miRNAs has been proven at many different stages of lineage specification. Knockout of specific miRNAs can produce dramatic phenotypes leading to severe hematopoietic defects. Furthermore, several studies demonstrated that specific miRNAs are differentially expressed in hematopoietic stem cells. However, the emerging picture is extremely complex due to differences between species, cell type dependent variation in miRNA expression and differential expression of diverse target genes that are involved in various regulatory networks. There is also evidence that miRNAs play a role in cellular aging or in the inter-cellular crosstalk between hematopoietic cells and their microenvironment. The field is rapidly evolving due to new profiling tools and deep sequencing technology. The expression profiles of miRNAs are of diagnostic relevance for classification of different diseases. Recent reports on the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells with miRNAs have fuelled the hope that specific miRNAs and culture conditions facilitate directed differentiation or culture expansion of the hematopoietic stem cell pool. This review summarizes our current knowledge about miRNA expression in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, and their role in the hematopoietic stem cell niche.
Epidemiological study of parasitic infestations in lower socio-economic group in Chandigarh (north India).

When stool samples from 970 subjects belonging to lower socio-economic groups were examined for parasites, a total of 121 subjects (12.5%) i.e., 57 (12.1%) males and 64 (12.9%) females showed positive results. The overall prevalence of parasitic infestation did not correlate with sex, caste or religion and living conditions. However, the prevalence was higher in hospital employees residing in well sanitated area. Giardia lamblia (69.5%), Entamoeba, histolytica (15.7%), Hymenolepis nana (12.4%), Ancylostoma duodenale (10.7%), Ascaris lumbricoides (8.3%) and Taenia (0.8%) were the parasites seen. Mixed infections were seen in 9 subjects. Twenty families of the 196 studied had more than one family member positive for parasites. Asymptomatic positivity was high amongst all groups of subjects, and with all parasites.
Photoproduction of Λ and Σ0 hyperons using linearly polarized photons

Background: Measurements of polarization observables for the reactions (gamma) over right arrowp -> K+ Lambda and (gamma) over right arrowp -> K+ Sigma(0) have been performed. This is part of a program of measurements designed to study the spectrum of baryon resonances in particular, and nonperturbative QCD in general. Purpose: The accurate measurement of several polarization observables provides tight constraints for phenomenological fits, which allow the study of strangeness in nucleon and nuclear systems. Beam-recoil observables for the (gamma) over right arrowp -> K+ Sigma(0) reaction have not been reported before now. Method: Themeasurements were carried out using linearly polarized photon beams incident on a liquid hydrogen target, and the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The energy range of the results is 1.71 < W < 2.19 GeV, with an angular range -0.75 < cos theta(K)* < +0.85. Results: The observables extracted for both reactions are beam asymmetry Sigma, target asymmetry T, and the beam-recoil double polarization observables O-x and O-z. Conclusions: Comparison with theoretical fits indicates that, in the regions where no previous data existed, the new data contain significant new information, and strengthen the evidence for the set of resonances used in the latest Bonn-Gatchina fit.
Ability Grouping’s Effects on Grades and the Attainment of Higher Education

To test the effect of ability grouping on grades and the attainment of higher education, this study examines a naturally occurring experiment—an admission reform that dramatically increased ability sorting between schools in the municipality of Stockholm. Following six cohorts of students (N = 79,020) from the age of 16 to 26, I find a mean effect close to zero and small positive and negative differentiating effects on grades. With regard to the attainment of higher education, I find a mean effect close to zero, the achievement group gap was unaffected, the immigrant–native gap increased, and the class background gap decreased. These results are consistent with much previous research that has found small mean effects of ability grouping. They are inconsistent with previous research, however, in that I find ability grouping’s effects on gaps are rather small and point in different directions.
Effect of aerobic training in patients with spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (Kennedy disease)

Objective: We examined the effect of aerobic exercise in patients with spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA). SBMA is caused by a defect androgen receptor. This defect causes motor neuron death, but considering the important function of androgens in muscle, it is possible that muscle damage in SBMA also occurs independently of motor neuron damage. Methods: Eight patients with SBMA engaged in regular cycling exercise for 12 weeks. Maximum oxygen uptake (Vo2max), maximal work capacity (Wmax), muscle morphology, citrate synthase (CS) activity, body composition, EMG, static strength measurements, lung function, plasma proteins, and hormones were evaluated before and after training. Evaluation of improvements in activities of daily living (ADL) was conducted after training. Results: Wmax increased by 18%, and CS activity increased by 35%. There was no significant change in Vo2max or any of the other variables examined before and after training, and the patients with SBMA did not feel improvements in ADL. Conclusions: Frequent, moderate-intensity aerobic conditioning is of little beneficial effect in patients with spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA). High levels of plasma creatine kinase and muscle regeneration indicate a primary myopathic affection, which, in parallel with the motor neuron deficiency, may attenuate the response to exercise training in patients with SBMA.
Reverse transcription PCR to detect enteroviruses in surface water

We have developed a simple, fast, and efficient procedure to detect enteroviruses in water samples. Aliquots of water are subjected to two-step filtration, with the second filter containing a positively charged nylon membrane that holds back virus particles. Viruses thus adsorbed are directly lysed, and RNA is isolated by hybridization to specific oligonucleotides bound to magnetic beads. The solution used contains guanidine thiocyanate, which lyses virus particles, inactivates enzymes, e.g., RNases, allows mild hybridization conditions, and does not influence biotin-streptavidin interaction on magnetic beads. Detection and specific identification are accomplished by reverse transcription PCR of the highly conserved noncoding region at the 5' end of virus RNA combined with Southern hybridization. The system was tested with tap water artificially spiked with poliovirus vaccine and yielded a detection limit of 20 50% tissue culture infective doses per liter. We used the same procedure to investigate the water quality of surface water at public beaches by rivers and lakes. Of 40 samples tested, 7 were positive for enteroviruses. A comparison with enterobacterial contamination determined by PCR and classical microbiological methods in parallel showed that enteroviruses were found only in samples also positive for Escherichia coli. In conclusion, this procedure can easily be adapted to test large water samples and is simple enough to be used for routine determinations of water quality in terms of virus contamination.
NUMERICAL MODELING OF MICROHARDNESS TESTS FOR POLYMER MATERIALS*

A computational method in conjunction with indentation measurements is presented to determine stiffness properties of different polymeric materials. Experiments were performed using a Vickers-type indenter. Five different polymers were tested: polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), copolymer amorphous polyethylene terephthalate/polyethylene naphthalate (PET/PEN 70/30), copolymer crystalline polyethylene terephthalate/polyethylene naphthalate (PET/PEN 70/30), a random copolyester of polyethylene naphthalate/hydroxybenzoate (PEN/PHB 50/50), and a blend of isotactic polypropylene/ethylene co-propylene rubber (i-PP/EPR 85/15). Elastic properties are determined from the unloading curve of indentation. Identification of plastic properties of polymers are performed from the loading curve of indentation. A novel approach based on experimental design and finite-element analysis is discussed. Yield stress and tangent modulus are obtained by minimizing the deviation between the calculated and the experimental data. Results are verified by the finite-element method. Good agreement between the experimental and numerical load-indentation depth curves is observed. *Dedicated to Prof. Francisco J. Baltá Calleja on the occasion of his 65th birthday.
Joint iterative decoding of serially concatenated error control coded CDMA

Joint iterative decoding of multiple forward error control (FEC) encoded data streams is studied for linear multiple access channels, such as code-division multiple access (CDMA). It is shown that such systems can be viewed as serially concatenated coding systems, and that iterative soft-decision decoding can be performed successfully To improve power efficiency, powerful FEC codes are used. These FEC codes are themselves serially concatenated. The overall transmission system can be viewed as the concatenation of two error control codes with the linear multiple access channel, and soft-decision decoders are used at each stage. A variance transfer function approach applied to the analysis of this system captures the role of the component decoders in an overall iterative decoding system. We show that this approach forms a methodology to study the effects of the component codes as well as that of the iteration schedule. Analysis and simulation examples are presented for transmission systems that operate close to the Shannon limit and illustrate the accuracy of the analysis.
GC Fractionation Enhances Microbial Community Diversity Assessment and Detection of Minority Populations of Bacteria by Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis

ABSTRACT Effectively and accurately assessing total microbial community diversity is one of the primary challenges in modern microbial ecology. This is particularly true with regard to the detection and characterization of unculturable populations and those present only in low abundance. We report a novel strategy, GC fractionation combined with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (GC-DGGE), which combines mechanistically different community analysis approaches to enhance assessment of microbial community diversity and detection of minority populations of microbes. This approach employs GC fractionation as an initial step to reduce the complexity of the community in each fraction. This reduced complexity facilitates subsequent detection of diversity in individual fractions. DGGE analysis of individual fractions revealed bands that were undetected or only poorly represented when total bacterial community DNA was analyzed. Also, directed cloning and sequencing of individual bands from DGGE lanes corresponding to individual G+C fractions allowed detection of numerous phylotypes that were not recovered using a traditional random cloning and sequencing approach.
Stochastic models of progression of cancer and their use in controlling cancer-related mortality

We propose to construct a realistic statistical model of lung cancer risk and progression. The essential elements of the model are genetic and behavioral determinants of susceptibility, progression of the disease from precursor lesions through early localized tumors to disseminated disease, detection by various modalities, and medical intervention. Using model estimates as a foundation, mortality reduction caused by early-detection and intervention programs can be predicted under different scenarios. Genetic indicators of susceptibility to lung cancer should be utilized to define the highest-risk subgroups of the high-risk behavior population (smokers). Calibration and validation of the model will be done by applying our techniques to a variety of data sets available, including public registry data of the SEER type, data from the NCI lung cancer chest X-ray screening studies, and the recent ELCAP CT-scan screening study.
A Self-Adaptive Sleep/Wake-Up Scheduling Approach for Wireless Sensor Networks

Sleep/wake-up scheduling is one of the fundamental problems in wireless sensor networks, since the energy of sensor nodes is limited and they are usually unrechargeable. The purpose of sleep/wake-up scheduling is to save the energy of each node by keeping nodes in sleep mode as long as possible (without sacrificing packet delivery efficiency) and thereby maximizing their lifetime. In this paper, a self-adaptive sleep/wake-up scheduling approach is proposed. Unlike most existing studies that use the duty cycling technique, which incurs a tradeoff between packet delivery delay and energy saving, the proposed approach, which does not us duty cycling, avoids such a tradeoff. The proposed approach, based on the reinforcement learning technique, enables each node to autonomously decide its own operation mode (sleep, listen, or transmission) in each time slot in a decentralized manner. Simulation results demonstrate the good performance of the proposed approach in various circumstances.
MULTILISP: a language for concurrent symbolic computation

Multilisp is a version of the Lisp dialect Scheme extended with constructs for parallel execution. Like Scheme, Multilisp is oriented toward symbolic computation. Unlike some parallel programming languages, Multilisp incorporates constructs for causing side effects and for explicitly introducing parallelism. The potential complexity of dealing with side effects in a parallel context is mitigated by the nature of the parallelism constructs and by support for abstract data types: a recommended Multilisp programming style is presented which, if followed, should lead to highly parallel, easily understandable programs. Multilisp is being implemented on the 32-processor Concert multiprocessor; however, it is ultimately intended for use on larger multiprocessors. The current implementation, called Concert Multilisp, is complete enough to run the Multilisp compiler itself and has been run on Concert prototypes including up to eight processors. Concert Multilisp uses novel techniques for task scheduling and garbage collection. The task scheduler helps control excessive resource utilization by means of an unfair scheduling policy; the garbage collector uses a multiprocessor algorithm based on the incremental garbage collector of Baker.
MMSE Based Transceiver Designs in Closed-Loop Non-Regenerative MIMO Relaying Systems

In this paper, we propose a new design strategy based on the minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) in closed-loop non-regenerative multiple-input multiple-output relaying systems. Instead of conventional singular value decomposition based methods, we address the problem for joint MMSE design in a different approach using the Wiener filter solution which leads to simple derivations of the optimal MMSE designs. First, allowing the channel state information (CSI) at the source, we provide a new closed form solution for a source-relay-destination joint MMSE design by extending existing relay-destination joint MMSE designs. Second, for the limited feedback scenario, we address a codebook design criteria for the multiple streams preceding design with respect to the MMSE criterion. From our design strategy, we observe that compared to conventional non-regenerative relaying systems, the source or the destination only needs to know the CSI corresponding to its own link such as the source-to-relay or the relay-to-destination in view of the MMSE. Simulation results show that the proposed design gives about 7.5 dB gains at a bit error rate of 10-4 over existing relay-destination joint MMSE schemes and we can get close to the optimal unquantized schemes with only a few feedback bits.
Diagnosis of early Lyme disease by polymerase chain reaction amplification and culture of skin biopsies from erythema migrans lesions

Current laboratory diagnosis of Lyme disease relies on tests for the detection of antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi, the etiologic agent of the disease. These tests are often unreliable because of a lack of sensitivity and specificity and test-to-test variability. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification for detection of B. burgdorferi in skin biopsy specimens. Forty-six 2-mm skin biopsy samples were obtained from 44 patients with a clinical diagnosis of erythema migrans, 9 of whom were receiving antibiotic therapy at the time of biopsy. Specimens were ground in BSK medium with separate aliquots taken for culture and PCR. Of the specimens from the untreated group, 57% (21 of 37) were positive by culture and 22% (8 of 37) were culture negative; 22% (8 of 37) of the cultures were uninformative because of contamination. By comparison, 22 (59%) of 37 specimens were positive by PCR amplification. Of 21 culture-positive samples, 13 (62%) were also positive by PCR analysis. Thus, the sensitivity of the PCR was 59 to 62%, based on either a clinical or cultural diagnosis of untreated Lyme disease. None of the nine specimens from antibiotic-treated patients grew in culture, whereas two of the nine were positive by PCR analysis. Given the complexity and time required for culture, PCR is a promising technique for the diagnosis of early Lyme disease.
An aromatic residue switch in enhancer-dependent bacterial RNA polymerase controls transcription intermediate complex activity

The formation of the open promoter complex (RPo) in which the melted DNA containing the transcription start site is located at the RNA polymerase (RNAP) catalytic centre is an obligatory step in the transcription of DNA into RNA catalyzed by RNAP. In the RPo, an extensive network of interactions is established between DNA, RNAP and the σ-factor and the formation of functional RPo occurs via a series of transcriptional intermediates (collectively ‘RPi’). A single tryptophan is ideally positioned to directly engage with the flipped out base of the non-template strand at the +1 site. Evidence suggests that this tryptophan (i) is involved in either forward translocation or DNA scrunching and (ii) in σ54-regulated promoters limits the transcription activity of at least one intermediate complex (RPi) before the formation of a fully functional RPo. Limiting RPi activity may be important in preventing the premature synthesis of abortive transcripts, suggesting its involvement in a general mechanism driving the RPi to RPo transition for transcription initiation.
Complete Minors in Cubic Graphs with few short Cycles and Random Cubic Graphs

We first prove that for any fixed kappa a cubic graph with few short cycles contains a K-kappa-minor. This is a direct generalisation of a result on girth by Thomassen. We then use this theorem to show that for any fixed k a random cubic graph contains a Kk-minor asymptotically almost surely.
Hyperspectral Image Target Detection Improvement Based on Total Variation

For the hyperspectral target detection, the neighbors of a target pixel are very likely to be target pixels, and those of a background pixel are very likely to be background pixels. In order to utilize this spatial homogeneity or smoothness, based on total variation (TV), we propose a novel supervised target detection algorithm which uses a single target spectrum as the prior knowledge. TV can make the image smooth, and has been widely used in image denoising and restoration. The proposed algorithm uses TV to keep the spatial homogeneity or smoothness of the detection output. Meanwhile, a constraint is used to guarantee the spectral signature of the target unsuppressed. The final formulated detection model is an ℓ1-norm convex optimization problem. The split Bregman algorithm is used to solve our optimization problem, as it can solve the ℓ1-norm optimization problem efficiently. Two synthetic and two real hyperspectral images are used to do experiments. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the other algorithms for the experimental data sets. The experimental results also show that even when the target occupies only one pixel, the proposed algorithm can still obtain good results. This is because in such a case, the background is kept smooth, but at the same time, the algorithm allows for sharp edges in the detection output.