Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sector identification in a set of stock return time series traded at the London Stock Exchange

We compare some methods recently used in the literature to detect the existence of a certain degree of common behavior of stock returns belonging to the same economic sector. Specifically, we discuss methods based on random matrix theory and hierarchical clustering techniques. We apply these methods to a portfolio of stocks traded at the London Stock Exchange. The investigated time series are recorded both at a daily time horizon and at a 5-minute time horizon. The correlation coefficient matrix is very different at different time horizons confirming that more structured correlation coefficient matrices are observed for long time horizons. All the considered methods are able to detect economic information and the presence of clusters characterized by the economic sector of stocks. However different methods present a different degree of sensitivity with respect to different sectors. Our comparative analysis suggests that the application of just a single method could not be able to extract all the economic information present in the correlation coefficient matrix of a stock portfolio.
A Population-based Screening of Type 2 Diabetes in High-risk Population of Yasuj, Iran

ABSTRACT Complications associated with diabetes can be prevented by early diagnostics. A high-risk population was screened for diabetes, and the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes mellitus (DM) and impaired fasting glucose (IFG) were used for examining the impacts of lifestyle, social and anthropometric features, and other risk factors. The target population comprised 30-65 years old residents from the western suburbs of Yasuj. Homes were approached, and a standard questionnaire was used for collecting information on sex, blood pressure, weight, height, and BMI for each participant. The high-risk participants were recognized according to the National Diabetes Prevention and Control Committee criteria and were introduced to an assigned laboratory. Blood samples were collected after 12-hour fasting for the measurement of total cholesterol, triglycerides and fasting glucose levels. The statistical analysis was performed with the SPSS statistical package, using a logistic regression model. Out of 2,569 individuals, 1,336 (52%) were with high-risk diabetes, 71.5% were female, and 28.5% were male. Of 191 (7.4%) individuals with known diabetes, 5 (2.6%) had type 1 diabetes; 881 (66.9%) out of 1,336 high-risk individuals were referred to assigned laboratory. Of 881 high-risk individuals, 157 (17.8%) had fasting blood sugar (FBS) ≥126 mg/dL and 118 (13.4%) had FBS between110 and 125 mg/dL. Percentages of participants with triglyceride ≥150 mg/dL and cholesterol ≥200 mg/dL were 298 (33.8%) and 207 (23.5%) respectively. Diabetes was associated with ageing, dyslipidaemia, family history of diabetes, lower physical activity on occupation, intake of lower dietary fibre, and non-literacy in the sampled population. This study suggests that diabetes is a common health problem in this area. Furthermore, considerable rate of newly-diagnosed diabetes signifies the importance of the screening programme.
Comparative Triceps Surae Morphology in Primates: A Review

Primate locomotor evolution, particularly the evolution of bipedalism, is often examined through morphological studies. Many of these studies have examined the uniqueness of the primate forelimb, and others have examined the primate hip and thigh. Few data exist, however, regarding the myology and function of the leg muscles, even though the ankle plantar flexors are highly important during human bipedalism. In this paper, we draw together data on the fiber type and muscle mass variation in the ankle plantar flexors of primates and make comparisons to other mammals. The data suggest that great apes, atelines, and lorisines exhibit similarity in the mass distribution of the triceps surae. We conclude that variation in triceps surae may be related to the shared locomotor mode exhibited by these groups and that triceps surae morphology, which approaches that of humans, may be related to frequent use of semiplantigrade locomotion and vertical climbing.
Criminal Recidivism of Illegal Pornography Offenders in the Overall Population —A National Cohort Study of 4612 Offenders in Switzerland

Convictions for taking, possessing and distributing pornographic photographs of children have increased with the growing use of the Internet. Previous studies of any progression to contact offences have been small scale and only a few of these have included an investigation of subsequent reconvictions for use of illegal and especially of child pornography. The aims of the present study are to compare reconviction rates among illegal pornography offenders with and without previous child contact offences. The former are referred to as “dual offenders”. This study is a national cohort study of all individuals in Switzerland convicted of an illegal pornography offence since 1973 and was followed-up until 1st November 2008. Reconvictions were ascertained using criminal records from the Federal Office of Justice of Switzerland, leading to a total of 4612 offenders, consisting of 4249 illegal pornography offenders and 363 dual offenders. Comparison of 3-year reconviction rates showed that only 0.2% of the illegal pornography offenders were convicted of contact child sex offences, whereas 2.6% of the dual offenders were reconvicted. The illegal pornography offenders were also significantly less likely to be convicted of further pornography offences, or indeed other sexual offences. The very low “progression rate” among illegal pornography offenders to contact child sexual offences, and their low rate of even repeat pornography offences suggests that community sentences remain appropriate. It is important, however, to bear in mind that conviction rates tend to underestimate the true offending rates, and that with greater access to the Internet, characteristics of pornography users may change over time.
A Saddlepoint Approximation to the Limiting Distribution of a k -sample Baumgartner Statistic

Testing hypothesis is one of the most important problems in a nonparametric statistic. Various nonparametric test statistics have been proposed and discussed for a long time. We use the exact critical value for testing hypothesis when the sample sizes are small. However, for large sample sizes, it is very difficult to evaluate the exact critical value. Therefore, the limiting distributions of nonparametric tests are needed for testing the hypothesis. The purpose of this paper is to derive the limiting distribution of a k-sample Baumgartner test proposed by Murakami (2006). At first we consider a two-sample problem, which is one of the most common types of statistical problems. Let X = (X1, . . . , Xn) and Y = (Y1, . . . , Ym) be two random samples of size n and m independent observations, each of which has a continuous distribution described as F (x) and G(y), respectively. Let R1 < · · · < Rn and H1 < · · · < Hm denote the combined-samples ranks of the X-value and Y -value in increasing order of magnitude, respectively. One of the problems is to test the hypothesis H0 : F = G against H1 : not H0. Baumgartner et al. (1998) defined a novel nonparametric two-sample statistic for the hypothesis as
An imaging survey of a uniform sample of brightest cluster galaxies and intracluster light

We present deep, large-area B and r' imaging for a sample of 49 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs). The clusters were selected by their X-ray luminosity and redshift to form two volume-limited samples, one with (z) ∼ 0.07 and the other at (z) ∼ 0.17. For each cluster, the data cover 41 × 41 arcmin 2 . We discuss our data-reduction techniques in detail, and show that we can reliably measure the surface brightness at the levels of μ B ∼ 29 and μ r' ∼ 28. For each galaxy, we present the B and r' images together with the surface brightness profile, B - r' colour, eccentricity and position angle as a function of radius. We investigate the distribution of positional offsets between the optical centroid of the BCG and the centre of the X-ray emission, and conclude that the mass profiles are cuspy, and do not have extended cores. We also introduce a method to objectively identify the transition from BCG to extended envelope of intracluster light, using the Petrosian index as a function of radius.
A simple PK/PD model identification procedure for controller design in anesthesia

In this paper a new estimation procedure for the parameters of the PK/PD model for the simultaneous administration of propofol and remifentanil introduced in [1] is presented. This model has the advantage of being parsimoniously parameterized, which allows a simple parameter estimation procedure, based on the patient's step response. It is shown that the parameter estimates obtained in this way provide good results when used to tune the positive control law introduced in [2].
Interruptions in gene expression drive highly expressed operons to the leading strand of DNA replication

In bacteria, most genes are on the leading strand of replication, a phenomenon attributed to collisions between the DNA and RNA polymerases. In Escherichia coli, these collisions slow the movement of the replication fork through actively transcribed genes only if they are coded on the lagging strand. For genes on both strands, however, these collisions sever nascent transcripts and interrupt gene expression. Based on these observations, we propose a new theory to explain strand bias: genes whose expression is important for fitness are selected to the leading strand because this reduces the duration of these interruptions. Our theory predicts that multi-gene operons, which are subject to longer interruptions, should be more strongly selected to the leading strand than singleton transcripts. We show that this is true even after controlling for the tendency for essential genes, which are strongly biased to the leading strand, to occur in operons. Our theory also predicts that other factors that are associated with strand bias should have stronger effects for genes that are in operons. We find that expression level and phylogenetic ubiquity are correlated with strand bias for both essential and non-essential genes, but only for genes in operons.
Morality’s Centrality to Liking, Respecting, and Understanding Others

We examine morality’s relationship to three distinct dimensions of social perception: liking, respecting, and knowing a person. Participants completed two independent tasks. First, they rated acquaintances’ morality, competence, and sociability, and how much they liked, respected, and knew those acquaintances. In the second task, they rated a variety of moral and competence traits on their importance to liking, respecting, and knowing a person. Several findings emerged. First, morality was the most important factor to liking, respecting, and knowing a person but relatively more important to liking and respecting than to knowing; this finding replicated across tasks. Second, certain moral traits were more important than others, especially honesty, compassion, and fairness. Third, these traits were considered important because they were seen as potentially beneficial to the social perceiver. This research reveals morality’s centrality to evaluating and understanding others.
From High-Throughput Microarray-Based Screening to Clinical Application: The Development of a Second Generation Multigene Test for Breast Cancer Prognosis

Several multigene tests have been developed for breast cancer patients to predict the individual risk of recurrence. Most of the first generation tests rely on proliferation-associated genes and are commonly carried out in central reference laboratories. Here, we describe the development of a second generation multigene assay, the EndoPredict test, a prognostic multigene expression test for estrogen receptor (ER) positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2) negative (ER+/HER2−) breast cancer patients. The EndoPredict gene signature was initially established in a large high-throughput microarray-based screening study. The key steps for biomarker identification are discussed in detail, in comparison to the establishment of other multigene signatures. After biomarker selection, genes and algorithms were transferred to a diagnostic platform (reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR)) to allow for assaying formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples. A comprehensive analytical validation was performed and a prospective proficiency testing study with seven pathological laboratories finally proved that EndoPredict can be reliably used in the decentralized setting. Three independent large clinical validation studies (n = 2,257) demonstrated that EndoPredict offers independent prognostic information beyond current clinicopathological parameters and clinical guidelines. The review article summarizes several important steps that should be considered for the development process of a second generation multigene test and offers a means for transferring a microarray signature from the research laboratory to clinical practice.
Lead Us Not into Tanktation: A Simulation Modelling Approach to Gain Insights into Incentives for Sporting Teams to Tank

Annual draft systems are the principal method used by teams in major sporting leagues to recruit amateur players. These draft systems frequently take one of three forms: a lottery style draft, a weighted draft, or a reverse-order draft. Reverse-order drafts can create incentives for teams to deliberately under-perform, or tank, due to the perceived gain from obtaining quality players at higher draft picks. This paper uses a dynamic simulation model that captures the key components of a win-maximising sporting league, including the amateur player draft, draft choice error, player productivity, and between-team competition, to explore how competitive balance and incentives to under-perform vary according to league characteristics. We find reverse-order drafts can lead to some teams cycling between success and failure and to other teams being stuck in mid-ranking positions for extended periods of time. We also find that an incentive for teams to tank exists, but that this incentive decreases (i) as uncertainty in the ability to determine quality players in the draft increases, (ii) as the number of teams in the league reduces, (iii) as team size decreases, and (iv) as the number of teams adopting a tanking strategy increases. Simulation models can be used to explore complex stochastic dynamic systems such as sports leagues, where managers face difficult decisions regarding the structure of their league and the desire to maintain competitive balance.
Adiponectin-coated nanoparticles for enhanced imaging of atherosclerotic plaques

Background: Atherosclerosis is a leading cause of mortality in the Western world, and plaque diagnosis is still a challenge in cardiovascular medicine. The main focus of this study was to make atherosclerotic plaques visible using targeted nanoparticles for improved imaging. Today various biomarkers are known to be involved in the pathophysiologic scenario of atherosclerotic plaques. One promising new candidate is the globular domain of the adipocytokine adiponectin (gAd), which was used as a targeting sequence in this study. Methods: gAd was coupled to two different types of nanoparticles, namely protamine-oligonucleotide nanoparticles, known as proticles, and sterically stabilized liposomes. Both gAd-targeted nanoparticles were investigated for their potency to characterize critical scenarios within early and advanced atherosclerotic plaque lesions using an atherosclerotic mouse model. Aortic tissue from wild type and apolipoprotein E-deficient mice, both fed a high-fat diet, were stained with either fluorescent-labeled gAd or gAd-coupled nanoparticles. Ex vivo imaging was performed using confocal laser scanning microscopy. Results: gAd-targeted sterically stabilized liposomes generated a strong signal by accumulating at the surface of atherosclerotic plaques, while gAd-targeted proticles became internalized and showed more spotted plaque staining. Conclusion: Our results offer a promising perspective for enhanced in vivo imaging using gAd-targeted nanoparticles. By means of nanoparticles, a higher payload of signal emitting molecules could be transported to atherosclerotic plaques. Additionally, the opportunity is opened up to visualize different regions in the plaque scenario, depending on the nature of the nanoparticle used.
A Machine Reading System for Assembling Synthetic Paleontological Databases

Many aspects of macroevolutionary theory and our understanding of biotic responses to global environmental change derive from literature-based compilations of paleontological data. Existing manually assembled databases are, however, incomplete and difficult to assess and enhance with new data types. Here, we develop and validate the quality of a machine reading system, PaleoDeepDive, that automatically locates and extracts data from heterogeneous text, tables, and figures in publications. PaleoDeepDive performs comparably to humans in several complex data extraction and inference tasks and generates congruent synthetic results that describe the geological history of taxonomic diversity and genus-level rates of origination and extinction. Unlike traditional databases, PaleoDeepDive produces a probabilistic database that systematically improves as information is added. We show that the system can readily accommodate sophisticated data types, such as morphological data in biological illustrations and associated textual descriptions. Our machine reading approach to scientific data integration and synthesis brings within reach many questions that are currently underdetermined and does so in ways that may stimulate entirely new modes of inquiry.
A Model-Driven Approach for the Improvement of Web Applications ’ Navigability

Navigability in use, defined as the efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction with which a user navigates through the system in order to fulfil her goals under specific conditions, has a definite impact on the overall success of Web applications. This quality attribute can be measured based on the navigational model provided by Web Engineering methodologies. Most of the measures currently defined for navigational models are tightly coupled with particular Web Engineering methodologies, however. Furthermore, modifications to the design of the navigational model, carried out with the aim of improving navigability, are performed manually. Both practices have seriously hampered the reusability and adoption of proposed navigability measures and improvement techniques. In this paper we present a Model-Driven Engineering approach to solving these problems. On the one hand, we propose a generic approach for the definition of navigability measurement models that can be integrated into any Web Engineering methodology. On the other hand, we present a model-driven improvement process for the navigational model design which incurs no increase in costs or in time-to-market of Web applications. This process is divided into two phases: evaluation (i.e. assessment of the model through objective measures) and evolution (i.e. transformation of the model when the measurement results do not fall inside the boundaries set by certain quality decision criteria that have been defined previously). Introduction
Adoption of Internet Banking: An Integrated Model

Banking sector in China has been substantially influenced by the development of the Internet. As more and more financial institutions launch their Internet banking services, examinations of factors critical to customer adoption decisions become increasingly important. Based on the UTAUT model, the D&M model, and the concept of trust, a comprehensive research model was developed and empirically examined, using responses from 313 intended users of Internet banking. Results of the data analysis generally support the model as well as nine of the eleven proposed hypotheses. Several implications for practice have emerged and are discussed.
Light Nuclei as Quantized Skyrmions: Energy Spectra and Form Factors

We review the SU(2) Skyrme model and describe its topological soliton solutions, which are called Skyrmions. Skyrmions provide a model of nuclei in which the conserved topological charge is identied with the baryon number of a nucleus. The semiclassical quantum theory of Skyrmions, in which they are treated as rigid bodies spinning in space and isospace, is described. We derive the energy spectra corresponding to various light nuclei, and predict a few new states. We also calculate the electromagnetic form factors describing the structure of the -particle and lithium-6. Our recent reparametrization of the model gives results that are in reasonable quantitative agreement with experiment.
Association between Serum Bilirubin and Acute Intraoperative Hyperglycemia Induced by Prolonged Intermittent Hepatic Inflow Occlusion in Living Liver Donors

Background Intermittent hepatic inflow occlusion (IHIO) is associated with acute hyperglycemia during living donor hepatectomy when the ischemia is prolonged. Bilirubin is a potent antioxidant to play an important role for maintaining insulin sensitivity and preventing hyperglycemia. Thus, we aimed to test whether serum bilirubin level is associated with prolonged IHIO-induced intraoperative hyperglycemia. Methods Seventy-five living liver donors who underwent a prolonged IHIO with a >30 minute cumulative ischemia were included. The association between preoperative serum bilirubin concentrations and the risk of intraoperative hyperglycemia (blood glucose concentration >180 mg/dl) was analyzed using binary logistic regression with adjusting for potential confounders including age and steatosis. Results The number of donors who underwent 3, 4, 5, and 6 rounds of IHIO was 41, 22, 7, and 5, respectively. Twenty-nine (35%) donors developed intraoperative hyperglycemia. Total bilirubin concentration was inversely associated with hyperglycemia risk (odds ratio [OR] 0.033, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.004–0.313, P = 0.003). There was an interaction between age and total bilirubin concentration: the effect of lower serum total bilirubin (≤0.7 mg/dl) on the development of hyperglycemia was greater in older donors (>40 years) than in younger donors (P = 0.0.028 versus P = 0.212). Both conjugated bilirubin (OR 0.001 95% CI 0.001–0.684) and unconjugated bilirubin (OR 0.011 95% CI 0.001–0.246) showed an independent association with hyperglycemia risk. Conclusions Lower preoperative serum bilirubin was associated with greater risk of prolonged IHIO-induced hyperglycemia during living donor hepatectomy particularly in older donors. Thus, more meticulous glycemic management is recommended when prolonged IHIO is necessary for surgical purposes in old living donors with lower serum bilirubin levels.
Simultaneous multislice imaging with slice‐multiplexed RF pulses

A method for simultaneous multislice imaging is presented that uses a multislice RF pulse that imparts a different linear phase profile to each slice. During readout, slices are unaliased by using extra slice‐select gradient lobes, which rephase and dephase individual slices one at a time. Compared to other simultaneous slice methods, this method avoids distortion by slice‐select gradients, and does not require extra views or additional hardware. However, because one echo per slice is required, the method requires a longer read period. This can cause non‐ideal rephasing of the individual slices due to susceptibility gradients, which manifests itself as crosstalk between slices. There is also a concomitant increase in the minimum TR of the sequence. The method is demonstrated with phantom and in vivo images using gradient‐echo and spin‐echo versions. Magn Reson Med, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.