Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Size Matters: Optimal Calibration of Shrinkage Estimators for Portfolio Selection

We carry out a comprehensive investigation of shrinkage estimators for asset allocation, and we find that size matters—the shrinkage intensity plays a significant role in the performance of the resulting estimated optimal portfolios. We study both portfolios computed from shrinkage estimators of the moments of asset returns (shrinkage moments), as well as shrinkage portfolios obtained by shrinking the portfolio weights directly. We make several contributions in this field. First, we propose two novel calibration criteria for the vector of means and the inverse covariance matrix. Second, for the covariance matrix we propose a novel calibration criterion that takes the condition number optimally into account. Third, for shrinkage portfolios we study two novel calibration criteria. Fourth, we propose a simple multivariate smoothed bootstrap approach to construct the optimal shrinkage intensity. Finally, we carry out an extensive out-of-sample analysis with simulated and empirical datasets, and we characterize the performance of the different shrinkage estimators for portfolio selection.
The costs of egg production and incubation in great tits (Parus major)

The costs of egg production and incubation may have a crucial effect on avian reproductive decisions, such as clutch size and the timing of reproduction. We carried out a brood–size enlargement experiment on the great tit (Parus major), in which the birds had to lay and incubate extra eggs (full costs), only incubate extra eggs (free eggs) or did not pay any extra cost (free chicks) in obtaining a larger brood. We used female fitness (half the recruits produced plus female survival) as a fitness measure because it is the female which pays the costs of egg production and incubation, and because clutch size is under female control. Female fitness decreased with increasing costs (fitness of free chicks females is higher than that of free eggs females which is higher than that of full costs females). These fitness differences were due to differences in female survival rather than in the number of recruits produced. This is the first time that the costs of egg production and incubation have been estimated using such a complete fitness measure, including, as our measure does, the local survival to the following year of both the female and her offspring. Our results emphasize that reproductive decisions cannot be understood without taking egg production and incubation costs into account.
Believing is buying: religiosity, advertising skepticism, and corporate trust

Abstract Prior research has shown that religiosity influences consumer skepticism, but such research has lacked examination of the breadth of this effect and isolation of this effect by manipulating religion. Three studies explore this relationship. Study 1 shows that advertising skepticism mediates the relationship between religiosity and corporate trust. Study 2 finds that highly religious consumers are less skeptical of advertising leading to higher product perceptions and higher company trust. Study 3 primes religion with a writing task to show that the effects from Studies 1 and 2 are magnified after exposure to a religious prime, such that consumers who are primed with religion, in comparison to a control condition, exhibit significantly lower (higher) advertising skepticism, resulting in higher (lower) product evaluations, and higher (lower) brand trust. Corresponding implications for the trust, deception, and persuasion literature are discussed.
A Novel Method for Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy by Indocyanine Green Fluorescence Technique in Breast Cancer

We investigated the feasibility of sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy using indocyanine green (ICG) technique in 411 patients with early breast cancer at three institutes. ICG, a fluorescence source, and blue dye were injected into the subareolar area to enable real-time image-guided surgery and identification of SLN fluorescence after meticulous dissection. The subcutaneous lymphatic channels were precisely detected in all cases. SLN identification rate was 99% (408/411) with a mean of 2.3 nodes identified per patient. Thirty-nine cases (9.5%) had SLNs involved and all of them were ICG positive. Thus, the ICG technique has a high SLN identification rate comparable with that of the radioisotope method.
AC 114: A Cluster with a Soft X-Ray Tail

We present Chandra observations of the galaxy cluster AC 114. The cluster shows a strongly irregular morphology, with signs of multiple merging activity. We report the discovery of a soft X-ray filament originating close to the core of the cluster, curving to the southeast for approximately 1. ′5. We confirm that X-ray emission is associated with two of three mass concentrations identified in previous gravitational lensing studies of this object. These two mass concentrations are located at opposite ends of the soft filament, and we interpret this as evidence for interaction between them. The northern part of the cluster reveals signs of further dynamical activity. Two sharp discontinuities are detected in both the surface brightness and temperature profiles, evincing another more recent merger event that took place in or close to the cluster core. A preliminary combined mass and lensing analysis shows, in spite of the merger activity, remarkably good agreement between lensing and X-ray masses computed with the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium.
Pathogenic polyglutamine proteins cause dendrite defects associated with specific actin cytoskeletal alterations in Drosophila

Whereas the neurodegeneration associated with various polyglutamine (polyQ) diseases has prompted extensive studies of polyQ-induced cell death, the neuronal loss that typically appears during late stages of the diseases may not account for the preceding movement and mental disorders. The cellular basis for polyQ-induced neuronal dysfunction preceding neuronal cell death remains largely unknown. Here we report defective dendrite morphogenesis within a specific subset of neurons due to polyQ toxicity that can be dissociated from caspase-dependent cell death. Expressing pathogenic spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) or type 3 (SCA3) proteins in Drosophila larval dendritic arborization neurons caused neuronal type-specific dendrite phenotypes primarily affecting terminal branches. We further show that expression of pathogenic polyQ proteins in adult flies after the formation of neuronal dendrites also greatly reduced dendritic complexity. These defects are associated with disruption of dendritic F-actin structures that can be partially mitigated by increasing Rac-PAK signaling. Together, these findings suggest that specific actin cytoskeletal alterations that alter dendrite morphology and function may contribute to the pathogenesis of at least a subset of polyQ disorders, including SCA3 and SCA1.
Deformation of Weyl Modules and Generalized Parking Functions

Local Weyl modules over two-dimensional currents with values in Glr are deformed into spaces with bases related to parking functions. Using this construction, we (1) propose a simple proof that dimension of the space of diagonal coinvariants is not less than the number of parking functions; (2) describe the limits of Weyl modules in terms of semi-infinite forms and find the limits of characters; and (3) propose a lower bound and state a conjecture for dimensions of Weyl modules with arbitrary highest weights. Also we express characters of deformed Weyl modules in terms of ρ-parking functions and the Frobenius characteristic map.
Temperature trends at high elevations: Patterns across the globe

Most climate models suggest amplification of global warming in high mountains, but observations are less clear. Using comprehensive, homogeneity‐adjusted temperature records from over 1000 high elevation stations across the globe, we examine the causes of changing temperature trends with elevation, assessing the roles of free atmospheric change, topography (exposure and aspect), and cryospheric feedback. The data show that observed 20th century temperature trends are most rapid near the annual 0°C isotherm due to snow‐ice feedback. Mountain summit and freely draining slope sites are dominated by free‐air advection and thus have consistent trend magnitudes, with reduced inter‐site variance in comparison with incised valley sites where local factors are more important. Thus, while there has been no simplistic elevational increase in warming rates, some generalizations can be made. Water resources and ecosystems near the 0°C isotherm in the extratropics are at increased risk from accelerated warming. The data also suggest that exposed mountain summits, away from the effects of urbanization and topographic sheltering, may provide a relatively unbiased record of the planet's climate.
On manifolds with trivial logarithmic tangent bundle

By a classical result of Wang [14] a connected compact complex manifold X has holomorphically trivial tangent bundle if and only if there is a connected complex Lie group G and a discrete subgroup Γ such that X is biholomorphic to the quotient manifold G/Γ. In particular X is homogeneous. If X is Kähler, G must be commutative and the quotient manifold G/Γ is a compact complex torus. The purpose of this note is to generalize this result to the noncompact Kähler case. Evidently, for arbitrary non-compact complex manifold such a result can not hold. For instance, every domain over C has trivial tangent bundle, but many domains have no automorphisms. So we consider the “open case” in the sense of Iitaka ([7]), i.e. we consider manifolds which can be compactified by adding a divisor. Following a suggestion of the referee, instead of only considering Kähler manifolds we consider manifolds in class C as introduced in [5]. A compact complex manifold X is said to be class in C if there is a surjective holomorphic map from a compact Kähler manifold onto X. Equivalently, X is bimeromorphic to a Kähler manifold ([13]). For example, every Moishezon manifold is in class C. We obtain the following characterization:
Assessing the Impact of a Community-Based Health and Nutrition Education on the Management of Diarrhea in an Urban District, Cairo, Egypt

Diarrhea is considered as a major cause of mortality in children aged less than five years old. This pre/post interventional study was designed to assess maternal knowledge about diarrhea and implement a community-based health and nutrition education messages. The study was held in Al-Darb Al-Ahamar (ADAA) district, Cairo, Egypt and targeted a random sample of 600 mothers having at least one child under-five years old and complained of at least one previous attack of diarrhea. The study was conducted in three phases. The pre-intervention phase included a base line survey for the mothers and training activities for the community health workers (CHWs). Intervention phase included health and nutrition education sessions; performance evaluation for the CHWs during providing the message. In phase three, the mothers had no instructions for 3 months then the post- intervention interview and feedback sessions were conducted. Results showed that knowledge of mothers about diarrhea (etiological factors and preventive measures) had improved significantly after the intervention. During observation CHWs’ scored 50% of the required tasks in education and communication skills. In the feedback sessions, all the mothers declared that nutrition education sessions were highly valuable, and asked for on-going support and training programs. The current study found that health and nutrition education sessions were successful in improving mothers’ knowledge regarding preventive measures and management of diarrhea. CHWs are effective health education providers especially in household based intervention. Thus, health services should support community based interventions to reinforce mothers’ knowledge and practices towards their sick children.
Treatment with microemulsified cyclosporine in children with frequently relapsing nephrotic syndrome.

BACKGROUND We previously established a treatment protocol for conventional cyclosporine (Sandimmune, Novartis, Basel, Switzerland) in children with frequently relapsing nephrotic syndrome; ∼50% of patients remained relapse free for 2 years, without serious adverse events. Recently, microemulsified cyclosporine (Neoral, Novartis), which has a more stable absorption profile than conventional cyclosporine, has been developed. We tested the hypothesis that microemulsified cyclosporine is at least as effective as conventional cyclosporine. METHODS To evaluate the safety and efficacy of microemulsified cyclosporine, a prospective, multicentre trial was conducted according to the previously established protocol, using microemulsified cyclosporine instead of conventional cyclosporine. The duration of treatment was 24 months. During the first 6 months, patients received microemulsified cyclosporine in a dose that maintained the trough level between 80 and 100 ng/mL of cyclosporine. For the next 18 months, the dose was adjusted to maintain a level between 60 and 80 ng/mL. RESULTS A total of 62 patients (median age, 5.4 years; 48 males, 14 females) were studied. The frequency of relapse decreased from 4.6 ± 1.4 to 0.7 ± 1.5 times per year (P < 0.0001). The probability of relapse-free survival at Month 24 was 58.1% (95% confidence interval, 45.8-70.3%). The probability of progression (to frequently relapsing nephrotic syndrome)-free survival at Month 24 was 88.5% (95% confidence interval, 80.4-96.5%). Cyclosporine nephrotoxicity was detected in only 8.6% of patients who underwent renal biopsy after 2 years of treatment. Antihypertensive agents were administered to 12.9% of the patients to control hypertension without severe sequelae. CONCLUSIONS Microemulsified cyclosporine administered according to our treatment protocol is safe and effective in children with frequently relapsing nephrotic syndrome.
GBLENDER: towards blending visual query formulation and query processing in graph databases

Given a graph database D and a query graph g, an exact subgraph matching query asks for the set S of graphs in D that contain g as a subgraph. This type of queries find important applications in several domains such as bioinformatics and chemoinformatics, where users are generally not familiar with complex graph query languages. Consequently, user-friendly visual interfaces which support query graph construction can reduce the burden of data retrieval for these users. Existing techniques for subgraph matching queries built on top of such visual framework are designed to optimize the time required in retrieving the result set S from D, assuming that the whole query graph has been constructed. This leads to sub-optimal system response time as the query processing is initiated only after the user has finished drawing the query graph. In this paper, we take the first step towards exploring a novel graph query processing paradigm, where instead of processing a query graph after its construction, it interleaves visual query construction and processing to improve system response time. To realize this, we present an algorithm called GBLENDER that prunes false results and prefetches partial query results by exploiting the latency offered by the visual query formulation. It employs a novel action-aware indexing scheme that exploits users' interaction characteristics with visual interfaces to support efficient retrieval. Extensive experiments on both real and synthetic datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our solution.
Early diagnosis of airways obstruction

Cochcrane, G. M. , Prieto, F. , Hickey, B. , Benatar, S. R. , and Clark, T. J. H.Thorax, 29, 389-393. Early diagnosis of airways obstruction. Three simple tests, maximum expiratory flow volume curve, maximum expiratory volume time curve and `closing volume', were used to detect early airways obstruction in 21 smokers. A high proportion had abnormal values for MEF75%, MEF50%, and FET (86%, 71%, and 62% respectively) with a relatively normal FEV1. There was a good correlation between tests of small airways obstruction obtained from the forced expiratory manoeuvre. The measurement of `closing volume' (phase 4/VC%) was less satisfactory as there were difficulties with interpretation of the records in half of the studies. We conclude that the forced expiratory manoeuvre can be used to detect early airways obstruction as well as providing FEV1 and vital capacity. The importance of early diagnosis of airways obstruction is not yet clear and further information is required about its natural history, and its relation to smoking habits and to the more advanced and less reversible stages of airways obstruction. It may be possible to use early detection to prevent the development of disabling chronic obstructive bronchitis.
Neuroimage of Voluntary Movement: Topography of the Bereitschaftspotential, a 64-Channel DC Current Source Density Study

The Bereitschaftspotential (BP) was recorded at 56 scalp positions when 17 healthy subjects performed brisk extensions of the right index finger. Aim of the study was to contribute to our understanding of the physiology underlying the BP and, in particular, to specify the situation at BP onset. For this purpose, the spatial pattern of the BP was analyzed in short time intervals (35 and/or 70 ms) starting 2.51 s before movement onset. For each time segment a spherical model of the BP was calculated by using spline interpolation. Then the spatial distribution of the electric potential at the scalp surface was transformed into a spatial distribution of current source densities (CSD map). Onset times of the BP and onset times of initial CSD-activity ranged between 2.23 and 1.81 s before movement onset. We selected a time window between 1.6 and 1.5 s before movement onset in order to analyze the spatial CSD pattern in each subject. In 10 subjects there was a significant current sink in the scalp area located over medial-wall motor areas (pre-SMA, SMA proper and anterior cingulate cortex: electrode positions C1, C2, FCz, Cz) in the absence of a significant current sink over the primary motor cortex (MI: electrode positions C3, CP3, and CP5). In three subjects significant current sinks were present at both sites and in another three subjects a current sink only over the lateral motor cortex was observed. In one subject no significant current sinks were measured. It is concluded that there is a large group of subjects (13/17) in whom BP at onset is associated with a current sink over medial-wall motor areas. At a later time interval (0.6 to 0.5 s before movement onset), significant current sinks were found in 13 subjects in medial and in 10 subjects in lateral recordings. These data were considered to be consistent with the hypothesis that, at least in a majority of subjects, medial-wall motor areas are activated earlier than lateral motor areas when organizing the initiation of a simple self-paced movement. Surface-recordings of the EEG do not allow further specification of cortical areas, which contribute to the current sinks. But in context with the current literature of the electrophysiology of nonhuman primates and of brain imaging in humans it is suggested that SMA and anterior cingulate cortex contribute to the current sink, the fronto-central midline, and that the primary motor cortex (MI) contributes to the current sink in the scalp area, which is located above MI and closely posterior to it.
Spatial variation in particle number size distributions in a large metropolitan area

Air quality studies have indicated that particle number size distribution (NSD) is unevenly spread in urban air. To date, these studies have focussed on differences in concentration levels between sampling locations rather than differences in the underlying geometries of the distributions. As a result, the existing information on the spatial variation of the NSD in urban areas remains incomplete. To investigate this variation in a large metropolitan area in the southern hemisphere, NSD data collected at nine different locations during different campaigns of varying duration were compared using statistical methods. The spectra were analysed in terms of their modal structures (the graphical representation of the number size distribution function), cumulative distribution and number median diameter (NMD). The study found that with the exception of one site all distributions were bimodal or suggestive of bimodality. In general, peak concentrations were below 30 nm and NMDs below 50 nm, except at a site dominated by diesel trucks, where it shifted to around 50 and 60 nm respectively. Ultrafine particles (UFPs (<100 nm)) contributed to 82–90% of the particle number, nanoparticles (<50 nm) to around 60–70%, except at the diesel traffic site, where their contribution dropped to 50%. Statistical analyses found that the modal structures heterogeneously distributed throughout Brisbane whereas it was not always the case for the NMD. The discussion led to the following site classification: (1) urban sites dominated by petrol traffic, (2) urban sites affected by the proximity to the road and (3) an isolated site dominated by diesel traffic. Comparisons of weekday and weekend data indicated that, the distributions were not statistically different. The only exception occurred at one site, where there is a significant drop in the number of diesel buses on the weekend. The differences in sampling period between sites did not affect the results. The statistics instead suggested variations in traffic composition. However, the relative contribution of petrol vehicle emissions at each site could not be assessed due to the limited traffic information available.
Dual Role of the PhoP∼P Response Regulator: Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB45 Phytase Gene Transcription Is Directed by Positive and Negative Interactions with the phyC Promoter

ABSTRACT Several Bacillus strains secrete phytase, an enzyme catalyzing dephosphorylation of myo-inositol hexakisphosphate (phytate). We identified the phyC (phytase) gene from environmental Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB45 as a member of the phosphate starvation-inducible PhoPR regulon. In vivo and in vitro assays revealed that PhoP∼P is essential for phyC transcription. The transcriptional start site was identified downstream of a σA-like promoter region located 27 bp upstream of the probable translation ATG start codon. Inspection of the phyC promoter sequence revealed an unusual structure. The− 35 and −10 regions are separated by a window of 21 bp. A pair of tandemly repeated PhoP TT(T/A/C)ACA binding boxes was located within and upstream of the −35 consensus promoter region. A single PhoP box was found within the −10 consensus promoter region. DNase I footprinting experiments performed with isolated PhoP confirmed that PhoP∼P binds at two sites overlapping with the phyC −35 and −10 consensus promoter region. While binding of dimeric PhoP∼P at −35 is essential for activation of the phyC promoter, binding of PhoP∼P at− 10 suppresses promoter activity. A sixfold enhancement of phyC gene expression was registered after T:G substitution of nucleotide −13 (mutant MUT13), which eliminates PhoP binding at the single PhoP box without impairing the −10 consensus sequence. Moreover, MUT13 also expressed phyC during phosphate-replete growth, suggesting that the repressing effect due to binding of PhoP∼P at −10 was abolished. A model is presented in which transcription initiation of phyC is positively and negatively affected by the actual concentration of the PhoP∼P response regulator.