Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conditional Value-at-Risk for General Loss Distributions

Fundamental properties of conditional value-at-risk, as a measure of risk with significant advantages over value-at-risk, are derived for loss distributions in finance that can involve discreetness. Such distributions are of particular importance in applications because of the prevalence of models based on scenarios and finite sampling. Conditional value-at-risk is able to quantify dangers beyond value-at-risk, and moreover it is coherent. It provides optimization shortcuts which, through linear programming techniques, make practical many large-scale calculations that could otherwise be out of reach. The numerical efficiency and stability of such calculations, shown in several case studies, are illustrated further with an example of index tracking.
Mutant Erythropoietin Without Erythropoietic Activity Is Neuroprotective Against Ischemic Brain Injury

Background and Purpose— Erythropoietin (EPO) confers potent neuroprotection against ischemic injury. However, treatment for stroke requires high doses and multiple administrations of EPO, which may cause deleterious side effects due to its erythropoietic activity. This study identifies a novel nonerythropoietic mutant EPO and investigates its potential neuroprotective effects and underlying mechanism in an animal model of cerebral ischemia. Methods— We constructed a series of mutant EPOs, each containing a single amino acid mutation within the erythropoietic motif, and tested their erythropoietic activity. Using cortical neuronal cultures exposed to N-methyl-D-aspartate neurotoxicity and a murine model of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion, neuroprotection and neurofunctional outcomes were assessed as well as activation of intracellular signaling pathways. Results— The serine to isoleucine mutation at position 104 (S104I-EPO) completely abolished the erythropoietic and platelet-stimulating activity of EPO. Administration of S104I-EPO significantly inhibited N-methyl-D-aspartate-induced neuronal death in primary cultures and protected against cerebral infarction and neurological deficits with an efficacy similar to that of wild-type EPO. Both S104-I-EPO and wild-type EPO activated similar prosurvival signaling pathways such as phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT, mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2, and STAT5. Inhibition of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT or mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 signaling pathways significantly attenuated the neuroprotective effects of S104-I-EPO, indicating that activation of these pathways underlies the neuroprotective mechanism of mutant EPO against cerebral ischemia. Conclusions— S104-I-EPO confers neuroprotective effects comparable to those of wild-type EPO against ischemic brain injury with the added benefit of lacking erythropoietic and platelet-stimulating side effects. Our novel findings suggest that the nonerythropoietic mutant EPO is a legitimate candidate for ischemic stroke intervention.
Use of Guidelines for Reducing Stroke Risk in Patients With Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation: A Review From a Latin American Perspective

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a prominent risk factor for stroke and a leading cause of death and disability throughout Latin America. Contemporary evidence-based guidelines for the management of AF and stroke incorporate the use of practical and relatively simple scoring methods to estimate both stroke and bleeding risk, in order to assist in matching patients with appropriate interventions. This review examines consistencies and differences among guidelines for reducing stroke risk in patients with AF, assessing the role of user-friendly scoring methods to determine appropriate patients for anticoagulation and other treatment options. Current options include warfarin and direct oral anticoagulants such as dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban, and edoxaban. These agents have been found to be superior or noninferior to standard vitamin K antagonist anticoagulation in large randomized trials. Potential benefits of these agents mainly include lower ischemic stroke rates, reduced intracranial bleeding, no need for regular monitoring, and fewer drug–drug and drug–food interactions. Expert opinions regarding clinical situations for which data are presently lacking, such as emergency bleeding and stroke in anticoagulated patients, are also provided. Enhanced attention and adherence to evidence-based guidelines are essential components for a strategy to reduce stroke morbidity and mortality across Latin America.
Streaming video over the Internet: approaches and directions

Due to the explosive growth of the Internet and increasing demand for multimedia information on the Web, streaming video over the Internet has received tremendous attention from academia and industry. Transmission of real-time video typically has bandwidth, delay, and loss requirements. However, the current best-effort Internet does not offer any quality of service (QoS) guarantees to streaming video. Furthermore, for video multicast, it is difficult to achieve both efficiency and flexibility. Thus, Internet streaming video poses many challenges. In this article we cover six key areas of streaming video. Specifically, we cover video compression, application-layer QoS control, continuous media distribution services, streaming servers, media synchronization mechanisms, and protocols for streaming media. For each area, we address the particular issues and review major approaches and mechanisms. We also discuss the tradeoffs of the approaches and point out future research directions.
Real-Time Rendering of 3D Magic Lenses having arbitrary convex Shapes

We present a real-time algorithm for rendering volumetric 3D Magic Lenses™ having arbitrary convex shapes. During fragment processing the algorithm performs a second depth test using a shadow map. Exploiting the second depth test we are able to classify each fragment, with respect to its position relative to the lens volume. Using this classification we first render the geometry behind the lens volume, then the geometry intersecting the lens volume using a different visual appearance and finally the parts in front of the lens volume. Regardless of the shape of the lens volume just two additional rendering passes are needed. Furthermore there are no limitations to the choice of visual appearance used to enhance expressiveness of the virtual world. We will describe theoretical and practical aspects of the algorithm and our implementation, which is accelerated by current graphics hardware.
Telling apart friend from foe: discriminating between commensals and pathogens at mucosal sites

From the moment we are born, we are exposed to a vast variety of microbes. The intestine in particular is perhaps inhabited by the largest number of microbes, consisting of both established commensals as well as sporadic pathogens. Mucosal surfaces form an important barrier against microbial invasion. Together with the physical barrier that they provide, mucosal surfaces also rely on innate immune functions to sense luminal microbes and signal accordingly to generate protective immune responses. However, since innate immune recognition is microbial specific and antigen-independent, the contact with both beneficial commensals and harmful pathogens creates the need for discrimination between the two. The mechanisms governing the ability of the mucosal immune system to discriminate between commensals and pathogens have long been unclear; however, recent discoveries have shed some light on this distinction. This review will summarize the current theories put forth to explain how the mucosal immune system maintains tolerance towards commensals while retaining the ability to mount inflammatory responses against pathogens.
Patently Wrong ? Firm Strategy and the Decision to Disband Technological Assets February 2006

Considerable research in strategy and innovation has been devoted to examining when and how firms accumulate resources. Yet, little empirical work has focused on when firms disband resources and how this decision to disband resources is affected by firm strategy. This oversight is surprising since theoretical work has highlighted the importance of knowing which assets to grow and which assets to trim. This paper shows that firms’ decisions to disband assets are significantly influenced by earlier strategic choices, and the effects are distributed non-uniformly across firms in the industry. These results suggest that empirical research that ignores disbanded assets, and firms’ reasons for disbanding those assets, can lead to biased measurements and conclusions on the value of pursuing particular strategies. To test our hypotheses, we examine how the R&D strategy that a pharmaceutical firm chooses —exploratory versus exploitative—influences the likelihood that the firm disband their patents: specifically, not to renew the patent and allow the intellectual property right to expire before the end of the patent term.
Attributions and Perceptions of Efficacy during Self-Regulated Learning by Remedial Readers.

This article addresses the role of perceived self-efficacy during selfregulated learning. Self-efficacy refers to personal beliefs about one's capabilities to behave in ways necessary to attain desired performances. A central premise is that attributions (perceived causes of academic successes and failures) are important cues used by students to assess self-efficacy for learning. A theoretical overview of self-efficacy and attribution theory is given, along with a model highlighting their role during learning. Research evidence is presented on how providing students with attributional feedback affects their self-efficacy and achievement. The importance of self-efficacy and attributions during learning is highlighted with research on comprehension strategy instruction with remedial readers. The use of learning strategies is a key feature of self-regulated learners, and evidence suggests that strategy instruction promotes self-efficacy and achievement in part through its effects on attributions. The article concludes with implications of attributional feedback and strategy instruction for self-regulated learning.
Generalized slowing is not that general in older adults: evidence from a tracing task.

One of the fundamental concomitants of aging is generalized slowing of almost all motor and mental functions. The present study aimed to elucidate the generality of slowing across different sensorimotor tasks. Results show that although slowing can be found in many tasks, older adults perform faster in a tracing task compared to their younger counterparts. Potential explanations of these findings are discussed with respect to biological changes in the course of aging and with respect to cultural and technological developments during the last decades.
Distilling the Knowledge in a Neural Network

A very simple way to improve the performance of almost any machine learning algorithm is to train many different models on the same data and then to average their predictions. Unfortunately, making predictions using a whole ensemble of models is cumbersome and may be too computationally expensive to allow deployment to a large number of users, especially if the individual models are large neural nets. Caruana and his collaborators have shown that it is possible to compress the knowledge in an ensemble into a single model which is much easier to deploy and we develop this approach further using a different compression technique. We achieve some surprising results on MNIST and we show that we can significantly improve the acoustic model of a heavily used commercial system by distilling the knowledge in an ensemble of models into a single model. We also introduce a new type of ensemble composed of one or more full models and many specialist models which learn to distinguish fine-grained classes that the full models confuse. Unlike a mixture of experts, these specialist models can be trained rapidly and in parallel.
Validating Community-Led Forest Biomass Assessments

The lack of capacity to monitor forest carbon stocks in developing countries is undermining global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Involving local people in monitoring forest carbon stocks could potentially address this capacity gap. This study conducts a complete expert remeasurement of community-led biomass inventories in remote tropical forests of Papua New Guinea. By fully remeasuring and isolating the effects of 4,481 field measurements, we demonstrate that programmes employing local people (non-experts) can produce forest monitoring data as reliable as those produced by scientists (experts). Overall, non-experts reported lower biomass estimates by an average of 9.1%, equivalent to 55.2 fewer tonnes of biomass ha-1, which could have important financial implications for communities. However, there were no significant differences between forest biomass estimates of expert and non-expert, nor were there significant differences in some of the components used to calculate these estimates, such as tree diameter at breast height (DBH), tree counts and plot surface area, but were significant differences between tree heights. At the landscape level, the greatest biomass discrepancies resulted from height measurements (41%) and, unexpectedly, a few large missing trees contributing to a third of the overall discrepancies. We show that 85% of the biomass discrepancies at the tree level were caused by measurement taken on large trees (DBH ≥50cm), even though they consisted of only 14% of the stems. We demonstrate that programmes that engage local people can provide high-quality forest carbon data that could help overcome barriers to reducing forest carbon emissions in developing countries. Nonetheless, community-based monitoring programmes should prioritise reducing errors in the field that lead to the most important discrepancies, notably; overcoming challenges to accurately measure large trees.
Self-Organization of Binocular Disparity Tuning by Reciprocal Corticogeniculate Interactions

This article develops a neural model of how sharp disparity tuning can arise through experience-dependent development of cortical complex cells. This learning process clarifies how complex cells can binocularly match left and right eye image features with the same contrast polarity, yet also pool signals with opposite contrast polarities. Antagonistic rebounds between LGN ON and OFF cells and cortical simple cells sensitive to opposite contrast polarities enable anticorrelated simple cells to learn to activate a shared set of complex cells. Feedback from binocularly tuned cortical cells to monocular LGN cells is proposed to carry out a matching process that dynamically stabilizes the learning process. This feedback represents a type of matching process that is elaborated at higher visual processing areas into a volitionally controllable type of attention. We show stable learning when both of these properties hold. Learning adjusts the initially coarsely tuned disparity preference to match the disparities present in the environment, and the tuning width decreases to yield high disparity selectivity, which enables the model to quickly detect image disparities. Learning is impaired in the absence of either antagonistic rebounds or corticogeniculate feedback. The model also helps to explain psychophysical and neurobiological data about adult 3-D vision.
ALS lymphoblastoid cell lines as a considerable model to understand disease mechanisms

New evidences switch the hypothesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) from a “neurocentric” to a “multisystemic” or “non-neurocentric” point of view. From 2006, we focused on the study of non-neural cells, patients’ peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PMBCs) and lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs). Here, we characterized LCLs of sporadic ALS and patients carrying SOD1, TARDBP and FUS mutations to identify ALS biologically relevant signature, and whether and how mutations differentially affect ALS-linked pathways. Although LCLs are different from motor neurons (MNs), in LCLs we find out some features typical of degenerating MNs in ALS, i.e. protein aggregation and mitochondrial dysfunction. Moreover, different gene mutations otherwise affect ALS cellular mechanisms. TARDBP and FUS mutations imbalance mitochondrial dynamism toward an increased fusion, while sALS and SOD1 mutations mainly affect fission. As regard protein aggregation and/or mislocalization, TARDBP and SOD1 mutations show the presence of aggregates, while FUS mutation does not induce protein aggregation and/or mislocalization. Finally, all LCLs, independently from mutation, are not able to work in a condition of excessive energy request, suggesting that mitochondria from ALS patients are characterized by a significant metabolic defect. Taken together these data indicate that LCLs could be indicated as a valid cellular model in ALS research to study specific pathological pathways or to identify new ones. D is ea se M o de ls & M ec ha ni sm s • D M M • A cc ep te d m an us cr ip t
The Dudley colectomy in urgent and emergent situations: a 10 patient case series

Abstract Left-sided colon pathology that needs to be treated in an emergency situation usually requires a partial colectomy and colostomy with a Hartmann’s pouch. Primary anastomosis is avoided with an unprepped left colon due to the risk of post-operative anastomotic leakage. In this series, 10 patients were treated with on-table lavage to wash out the colon, and left colectomy with primary anastomosis in urgent and emergent situations without a protective ileostomy (the Dudley colectomy). All patients acutely recovered and none had an anastomotic leak. There was a single superficial wound infection, and a single late mortality due to heart failure. On-table colonic lavage and left colectomy with primary anastomosis without a protective ileostomy is a safe and effective way to treat left-sided colon emergencies without a protective ileostomy.
Unimodal statistical learning produces multimodal object-like representations

The concept of objects is fundamental to cognition and is defined by a consistent set of sensory properties and physical affordances. Although it is unknown how the abstract concept of an object emerges, most accounts assume that visual or haptic boundaries are crucial in this process. Here, we tested an alternative hypothesis that boundaries are not essential but simply reflect a more fundamental principle: consistent visual or haptic statistical properties. Using a novel visuo-haptic statistical learning paradigm, we familiarised participants with objects defined solely by across-scene statistics provided either visually or through physical interactions. We then tested them on both a visual familiarity and a haptic pulling task, thus measuring both within-modality learning and across-modality generalisation. Participants showed strong within-modality learning and ‘zero-shot’ across-modality generalisation which were highly correlated. Our results demonstrate that humans can segment scenes into objects, without any explicit boundary cues, using purely statistical information.
Purified human brain calmodulin does not alter the bicarbonate permeability of the ANO1/TMEM16A channel

[Jung and Lee][1] have responded in this issue to our recent paper ([Yu et al., 2014b][2]) in which we concluded that calmodulin (CaM) does not alter anion permeability of the mouse ANO1/TMEM16A Ca2+-activated Cl− channel. In our paper, we suspected that the Ca2+-CaM (abbreviated as CaM) effect
Translation and Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of the Dialysis Symptom Index in Hemodialysis Patients

Background: Hemodialysis patients have a high physical and psychosocial symptom burden. There is no valid and reliable tool for assessing symptoms of hemodialysis patients in Iran. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine psychometric properties of the Persian version of the dialysis symptom index (DSI). Patients and Methods: The forward-backward procedure was applied to translate the DSI from English into Persian (Iranian language). The scale (Persian Version) was tested with a convenience sample of 95 patients with end-stage renal disease referred to main hemodialysis centers from December 2012 to June 2013. Validity was assessed using content, face and convergent validity. To test reliability, the kappa values were calculated for test-retest stability and the Cronbach alpha coefficients were also calculated for internal consistency. Results: The mean age of patients was 50.4 (SD = 15.72) years and % 61.1 of patients were male. The most commonly reported symptoms were fatigue, being irritable and nervous. Divergent validity was mostly supported by the pattern of association between DSI and SF-36 (r = -0.18– -0.48, P< 0.05). Cronbach’s alpha of the DSI was 0.90 and the weighted kappa ranged from 0.21 to 0.93, and it was greater than 0.4 for 25 of the 30 items. Conclusions: The Iranian version of the DSI had good psychometric properties and can be used to assess symptoms of hemodialysis patients.
“Inside the bubble”: a look at the experiences of student-athletes in revenue-producing sports during college and beyond

This phenomenological study sought to address the overarching research questions: What are the costs and benefits of participation in Division I college sports? How does participation in Division I college sports prepare student-athletes for life after college? A qualitative methodology was selected to provide richer data than that which could be collected via surveys. The researcher interviewed 15 former student-athletes, each of whom participated in either football or men‟s basketball at one Division I institution. According to the study participants, having a strong support system, including a career networking system and gaining positive attributes were the benefits of the experience. The heavy time commitment, the perceptions of others outside of athletics, and health challenges were all cited as costs of the experience. For the most part, participants of the study believed their college experience prepared them for life after college by providing career networking opportunities as well as attributes that are valuable in their work and personal lives. Four recommendations for practice were revealed from this study. First, athletic department personnel, campus administrators, and student service unit across campus, should help student-athletes understand and market attributes they are gaining in their roles as athletes and students. Second, campus professionals can help these young adults deal with the negative perceptions and treatment they receive from others on campus. In addition, campus administrators should act to minimize negative stereotypes by speaking out against them and emphasizing the positive examples that are sure to exist on campus. Finally, these professional can learn more about the long-term mental and physical health concerns associated with participation in high-stress, physical college sports and educate participants on preventing or minimizing the potential health consequences of their participation. INSIDE THE BUBBLE: A LOOK AT THE EXPERIENCES OF STUDENTATHLETES IN REVENUE-PRODUCING SPORTS DURING COLLEGE AND BEYOND