Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conditional Value at Risk Asset AllocationA Copula Based Approach

The title of this thesis is Conditional Value at Risk Asset Allocation, A Copula Based Method, and it is written by Hamed Naeini. The thesis supervisor is Professor Thomas J. Walker. Using a non-parametric bootstrapping method, we allocate funds to eleven preselected asset classes based on a series of conditional value at risk and variance criteria. Next, we employ copulas to model the data and build our comparison portfolios. We compare the results of the two methods during both bull and bear markets conditions. We find that model-based asset allocation significantly improves the performance of portfolios during financial crises. Under normal market conditions, the two methods result in comparable performance. We conclude that our optimization procedure provides asset allocation strategies that result in portfolios that perform at least as well as portfolios constructed based on the commonly used bootstrapping method and significantly better during periods of financial turmoil.
Poverty disparities in small large female and male-headed households in rural Tanzania: a case study of Mbeya region.

It is argued that the more people reproduce the poorer they become and that female-headed households and women in general are the poorest of the poor. However these arguments are not always true. Therefore in order to generate empirical information on which family planning with regard to household size and poverty alleviation strategies might be based a research was conducted in Rural Mbeya Region in December 1997 and January 1998 to find household composition poverty/well-being levels and poverty incidence among small large female-headed households (FHHs) and male-headed households (MHHs). Poverty was defined in terms of low net household products (NHPs) per adult equivalent per year and its alleviation was taken to be an increase in the NHP. Total NHP was compared with two poverty lines of Tsh 103657/ = (US$ 168) and Tsh 69594/ = (US$ 113) per adult equivalent in 1997 prices. Results showed that small households and FHHs were poorer than large and MHHs households respectively. However the poverty/well-being levels did not differ significantly between small and large households (p = 0.747) while they did between FHHs and MHHs (p = 0.000). Accordingly it is concluded that small and large households have almost the same poverty/well-being levels while FHHs are poorer than MHHs. Women are not the poorest of the poor but the majority of the very poor. Therefore it is recommended that the culture of having many children in rural areas should be dealt with through bottom-up approaches and that more efforts should be made to help the very poor without discrimination of the gender of household heads in order to help many FHHs rid themselves of poverty. (authors)
Development and Validation of a Predicting Model of All-Cause Mortality in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE To develop and validate a parsimonious model for predicting short-term all-cause mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Two cohorts of patients with T2DM were investigated. The Gargano Mortality Study (GMS, n = 679 patients) was the training set and the Foggia Mortality Study (FMS, n = 936 patients) represented the validation sample. GMS and FMS cohorts were prospectively followed up for 7.40 ± 2.15 and 4.51 ± 1.69 years, respectively, and all-cause mortality was registered. A new forward variable selection within a multivariate Cox regression was implemented. Starting from the empty model, each step selected the predictor that, once included into the multivariate Cox model, yielded the maximum continuous net reclassification improvement (cNRI). The selection procedure stopped when no further statistically significant cNRI increase was detected. RESULTS Nine variables (age, BMI, diastolic blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, and antihypertensive and insulin therapy) were included in the final predictive model with a C statistic of 0.88 (95% CI 0.82–0.94) in the GMS and 0.82 (0.76–0.87) in the FMS. Finally, we used a recursive partition and amalgamation algorithm to identify patients at intermediate and high mortality risk (hazard ratio 7.0 and 24.4, respectively, as compared with those at low risk). A web-based risk calculator was also developed. CONCLUSIONS We developed and validated a parsimonious all-cause mortality equation in T2DM, providing also a user-friendly web-based risk calculator. Our model may help prioritize the use of available resources for targeting aggressive preventive and treatment strategies in a subset of very high-risk individuals.
Relationship of serum paraoxonase enzyme activity and thermal burn injury.

OBJECTIVE This study investigated changes in serum oxidative stress parameters in burn cases compared to healthy controls. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was performed in 41 burn patients with mild to severe thermal burn injuries and 38 healthy volunteers. The burn cases were selected from patients who were hospitalized in the burn unit for the treatment of second- and third-degree burns. Malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and PON-1 paraoxonase and arylesterase activities were measured in patient serum samples. RESULTS PON-1 paraoxonase activity and MDA levels in patients with major thermal burn injury were significantly higher than healthy controls, but PON-1 arylesterase activities were lower. A significant negative correlation was observed between the burn percentage of the total body surface area and the PON-1 arylesterase activities in patients. CONCLUSION Human thermal burn injury was associated with an increase in MDA production and a decrease in PON-1 arylesterase activity, which was proportional to the percentage of total burned surface area.
Country Default Probabilities: Assessing and Backtesting

We address the problem how to estimate default probabilities for sovereign countries based on market data of traded debt. A structural Merton-type model is applied to a sample of emerging market and transition countries. In this context, only few and heterogeneous default probabilities are derived, which is problematic for backtesting. To deal with this problem, we construct likelihood ratio test statistics and quick backtesting procedures.
Soybean Disease Monitoring with Leaf Reflectance

Crop disease detection with remote sensing is a challenging area that can have significant economic and environmental impact on crop disease management. Spectroscopic remote sensing in the visible and near-infrared (NIR) region has the potential to detect crop changes due to diseases. Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) and sudden death syndrome (SDS) are two common soybean diseases that are extremely difficult to detect in the early stages under mild to moderate infestation levels. The objective of this research study was to relate leaf reflectance to disease conditions and to identify wavebands that best discriminated these crop diseases. A microplot experiment was conducted. Data collected included 800 leaf spectra, corresponding leaf chlorophyll content and disease rating of four soybean cultivars grown under different disease conditions. Disease conditions were created by introducing four disease treatments of control (no disease), SCN, SDS, and SCN+SDS. Crop data were collected on a weekly basis over a 10-week period, starting from 71 days after planting (DAP). The correlation between disease rating and selected vegetation indices (VI) were evaluated. Wavebands with the most disease discrimination capability were identified with stepwise linear discriminant analysis (LDA), logistic discriminant analysis (LgDA) and linear correlation analysis of pooled data. The identified band combinations were used to develop a classification function to identify plant disease condition. The best correlation (>0.8) between disease rating and VI occurred during 112 DAP. Both LDA and LgDA identified several bands in the NIR, red, green and blue regions as critical for disease discrimination. The discriminant models were able to detect over 80% of the healthy plants accurately under cross-validation but showed poor accuracy in discriminating individual diseases. A two-class discriminant model was able to identify 97% of the healthy plants and 58% of the infested plants as having some disease from the plant spectra.
Effective replica allocation in ad hoc networks for improving data accessibility

The advances in computer and wireless communication technologies have led to an increasing interest in ad hoc networks which are temporarily constructed by only mobile hosts. In ad hoc networks, since mobile hosts move freely, disconnections occur frequently, and this causes frequent network division. Consequently, data accessibility in ad hoc networks is lower than that in the conventional fixed networks. We propose three replica allocation methods to improve data accessibility by replicating data items on mobile hosts. In these three methods, we take into account the access frequency from mobile hosts to each data item and the status of the network connection. We also show the results of simulation experiments regarding the performance evaluation of our proposed methods.
New Technologies and Screening Strategies for Hepatotoxicity: Use of In Vitro Models

Hepatotoxicity remains a significant cause for drug failures during clinical trials. This is due, in part, to the idiosyncratic nature of toxicity in humans and inherent physiological differences between humans and preclinical species leading to limited correct prediction of adverse responses in humans. To address this issue, robust screening assays are being developed, which have heightened predictive capacity for human hepatotoxicity, and may be utilized throughout the discovery and development phases in conjunction with traditional in vivo methods, for decision making during drug selection and risk assessment. This manuscript describes an example application of in vitro-based strategies using human hepatocyte cultures in lead optimization screening in conjunction with ADME profiling, for evaluation of compound-associated CYP450 induction potential, and the identification of potentially useful biomarkers as predictors of hepatotoxicity for use in vitro, and in preclinical species and humans.
Aetiology of suppurative corneal ulcers in Ghana and south India, and epidemiology of fungal keratitis

Background: A multicentre study was carried out in Ghana and southern India to determine the aetiology of suppurative keratitis in two regions located at similar tropical latitudes. Studies of fungal keratitis from the literature were reviewed. Methods: Patients presenting at rural and urban eye units with suspected microbial keratitis were recruited to the study. Corneal ulceration was defined as loss of corneal epithelium with clinical evidence of infection with or without hypopyon. Microscopy and culture were performed on all corneal specimens obtained. Results: 1090 patients were recruited with suspected microbial keratitis between June 1999 and May 2001. Overall the principal causative micro-organisms in both regions were filamentous fungi (42%): Fusarium species and Aspergillus species were the commonest fungal isolates. Pseudomonas species were most frequently isolated from cases of bacterial keratitis in Ghana but in India the commonest bacterial isolates were streptococci. Conclusion: Infections of the cornea due to filamentous fungi are a frequent cause of corneal damage in developing countries in the tropics and are difficult to treat. Microscopy is an essential tool in the diagnosis of these infections. A knowledge of the “local” aetiology within a region is of value in the management of suppurative keratitis in the event that microscopy cannot be performed.
Comparison of Machine Learning algorithms performance in detecting network intrusion

Organization has come to realize that network security technology has become very important in protecting its information. With tremendous growth of internet, attack cases are increasing each day along with the modern attack method. One of the solutions to this problem is by using Intrusion Detection System (IDS). Machine Learning is one of the methods used in the IDS. In recent years, Machine Learning Intrusion Detection system has been giving high accuracy and good detection on novel attacks. In this paper the performance of a Machine Learning algorithm called Decision Tree (J48) is evaluated and compared with two other Machine Learning algorithms namely Neural Network and Support Vector Machines which has been conducted by A. Osareh [1] for detecting intrusion. The algorithms were tested based on accuracy, detection rate, false alarm rate and accuracy of four categories of attacks. From the experiments conducted, it was found that the Decision tree (J48) algorithm outperformed the other two algorithms.
Anti-obesity effect of fish oil and fish oil-fenofibrate combination in female KK mice.

AIM The aim of our study is to elucidate the effects of EPA- or DHA-rich fish oil, and of the latter plus fenofibrate, on lipid metabolism in female KK mice. METHODS Female KK mice were fed purified experimental diets containing lard/safflower oil (4:6, Lard/SO), EPA-rich fish oil (EPA), DHA-rich fish oil (DHA), or DHA-rich fish oil plus 0.2% (w/w) fenofibrate (DHA+FF) for 8 weeks. At the end of the experiments, we measured levels of plasma lipids, hepatic triglycerides, and cholesterol, as well as the hepatic mRNA expression of lipogenic and lipidolytic genes. RESULTS The final body weight of EPA- and DHA-fed groups was significantly lower than that of the Lard/SO-fed group, and that of the DHA+FF-fed group was the lowest. All three fish oil treatments significantly reduced plasma insulin levels. Hepatic lipid levels significantly decreased in all three of these groups compared with the Lard/SO-fed group. Plasma adiponectin increased in both the EPA-and DHA-fed groups, but the increase was suppressed in the DHA+FF-fed group. Hepatocytes of Lard/SO-fed mice were filled with numerous fat droplets, but fat accumulation was inhibited in both EPA- and DHA-fed mice and was significantly prevented by fenofibrate treatment. SREBP-1c mRNA levels were decreased by about half in EPA- and DHA-fed mice compared with Lard/SO-fed mice. FAS, Insig-1, HMG-CoA reductase, and LDL-receptor mRNA levels also markedly decreased in both EPA- and DHA-fed mice, but there was no additional decrease in DHA+FF fed mice. Fenofibrate treatment significantly induced mRNA expression of AOX and UCP-2, but not of PPARalpha. CONCLUSION These data suggest that fish oil inhibited body weight gain and exhibited an anti-obesity effect through the inhibition of lipid synthesis in female KK mice. Furthermore, fenofibrate treatment markedly inhibited body weight gain by the induction of fatty acid oxidation. Plasma adiponectin levels did not increase in mice fed DHA-rich fish oil with fenofibrate, although white adipose tissue (WAT) weight significantly decreased. We considered that adiponectin sensitivity increased more in mice fed DHA-rich fish oil with fenofibrate than in mice fed DHA-rich fish oil alone.
Benefit Entitlement and the Labor Market: Evidence from a Large-Scale Policy Change

This paper analyzes the impact of the Austrian Regional Extended Benefit Program (REBP) on the labor market outcomes for elderly workers in Austria. The REBP extended entitlement to regular unemployment benefits from 30 weeks to a maximum of 209 weeks for elderly individuals in certain regions. This policy change created a large-scale quasi-experimental situation from which a lot can be learned about the impact of unemployment insurance rules on the dynamics of employment, unemployment, and wages. We find that the REBP led to a tremendous increase in unemployment, which was due to both an increase in the inflow to and the outflow from unemployment. The REBP also induced a strong increase in early retirement and in many cases, in particular for steel workers, entering unemployment meant withdrawal from the labor force. Finally, we show that there were also non-negligible effects of extended benefits on the level and the distribution of wages.
Predicting durability in DHTs using Markov chains

We consider the problem of data durability in low-bandwidth large-scale distributed storage systems. Given the limited bandwidth between replicas, these systems suffer from long repair times after a hard disk crash, making them vulnerable to data loss when several replicas fail within a short period of time. Recent work has suggested that the probability of data loss can be predicted by modeling the number of live replicas using a Markov chain. This, in turn, can then be used to determine the number of replicas necessary to keep the loss probability under a given desired value. Previous authors have suggested that the model parameters can be estimated using an expression that is constant or linear on the number of replicas. Our simulations, however, show that neither is correct, as these parameter values grow sublinearly with the number of replicas. Moreover, we show that using a linear expression will result in the probability of data loss being underestimated, while the constant expression will produce a significant overestimation. Finally, we provide an empirical expression that yields a good approximation of the sublinear parameter values. Our work can be viewed as a first step towards finding more accurate models to predict the durability of this type of systems.
Analysis of Immunoglobulin Transcripts in the Ostrich Struthio camelus, a Primitive Avian Species

Previous studies on the immunoglobulin (Ig) genes in avian species are limited (mainly to galliformes and anseriformes) but have revealed several interesting features, including the absence of the IgD and Igκ encoding genes, inversion of the IgA encoding gene and the use of gene conversion as the primary mechanism to generate an antibody repertoire. To better understand the Ig genes and their evolutionary development in birds, we analyzed the Ig genes in the ostrich (Struthio camelus), which is one of the most primitive birds. Similar to the chicken and duck, the ostrich expressed only three IgH chain isotypes (IgM, IgA and IgY) and λ light chains. The IgM and IgY constant domains are similar to their counterparts described in other vertebrates. Although conventional IgM, IgA and IgY cDNAs were identified in the ostrich, we also detected a transcript encoding a short membrane-bound form of IgA (lacking the last two CH exons) that was undetectable at the protein level. No IgD or κ encoding genes were identified. The presence of a single leader peptide in the expressed heavy chain and light chain V regions indicates that gene conversion also plays a major role in the generation of antibody diversity in the ostrich. Because the ostrich is one of the most primitive living aves, this study suggests that the distinct features of the bird Ig genes appeared very early during the divergence of the avian species and are thus shared by most, if not all, avian species.
The Role of Vegetation in Mitigating Urban Land Surface Temperatures: A Case Study of Munich, Germany during the Warm Season

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) is the phenomenon of altered increased temperatures in urban areas compared to their rural surroundings. UHIs grow and intensify under extreme hot periods, such as during heat waves, which can affect human health and also increase the demand for energy for cooling. This study applies remote sensing and land use/land cover (LULC) data to assess the cooling effect of varying urban vegetation cover, especially during extreme warm periods, in the city of Munich, Germany. To compute the relationship between Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Land Use Land Cover (LULC), MODIS eight-day interval LST data for the months of June, July and August from 2002 to 2012 and the Corine Land Cover (CLC) database were used. Due to similarities in the behavior of surface temperature of different CLCs, some classes were reclassified and combined to form two major, rather simplified, homogenized classes: one of built-up area and one of urban vegetation. The homogenized map was merged with the MODIS eight-day interval LST data to compute the relationship between them. The results revealed that (i) the cooling effect accrued from urban vegetation tended to be non-linear; and (ii) a remarkable and stronger cooling effect in terms of LST was identified in regions where the proportion of vegetation cover was between seventy and almost eighty percent per square kilometer. The results also demonstrated that LST within urban vegetation was affected by the temperature of the surrounding built-up and that during the well-known European 2003 heat wave, suburb areas were cooler from the core of the urbanized region. This study concluded that the optimum green space for obtaining the lowest temperature is a non-linear trend. This could support urban planning strategies to facilitate appropriate applications to mitigate heat-stress in urban area.
Investigation of hormonal male contraception in African men: suppression of spermatogenesis by oral desogestrel with depot testosterone.

BACKGROUND Suppression of spermatogenesis to azoospermia is required for effective hormonal male contraception, but the degree of suppression varies between ethnic groups. We here report the first study of hormonal suppression of spermatogenesis in two African centres using a regimen of oral progestogen with depot testosterone. METHODS A total of 31 healthy men (21 black) were recruited in Cape Town and 21 men in Sagamu, Nigeria. Subjects were randomized to take either 150 or 300 micro g desogestrel daily p.o. with testosterone pellets. In Cape Town, desogestrel was administered for 24 weeks with 400 mg testosterone re-administered 12 weekly. In Sagamu, desogestrel was administered for 52 weeks with 200 mg testosterone (later increased to 400 mg) re-administered 12-weekly. RESULTS In Cape Town, 22 men completed at least 20 weeks treatment. Azoospermia was achieved in 8/10 and 8/12 men in the 150 micro g and 300 micro g desogestrel groups. Four men in Sagamu withdrew. Azoospermia was achieved in all 17 men in the two groups. There were no significant changes in lipoprotein or haemoglobin concentrations in any group. CONCLUSION These data demonstrate that the combination of oral desogestrel with depot testosterone is an effective regimen for suppression of spermatogenesis in African as in Caucasian and Chinese men, with azoospermia achieved in a total of 83/98 (85%) men.
Building Genre Knowledge

Building Genre Knowledge traces the writing of four multilingual graduate students in engineering and computer sciences over time, offering a window into the writers’ processes in developing increasingly sophisticated knowledge of academic and professional genres. The writers’ texts, interview discussions, professors’ feedback, and classroom experiences together construct a rich picture of the conflicts that they encounter and the learning resources available to them in different settings over time. Through close examination of the stories of these writers, Building Genre Knowledge articulates a theory of genre knowledge development that allows for complexity across individuals, communities, and tasks. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, Building Genre Knowledge provides a unique look into the processes of building genre knowledge while offering a dynamic theory of those processes that is inclusive of both monolingual and multilingual writers. It will be of great interest to researchers and practitioners in both first and second language writing studies.