Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CDO pricing with nested Archimedean copulas

Companies in the same industry sector are usually more correlated than firms in different sectors, as they are similarly affected by macroeconomic effects, political decisions, and consumer trends. Despite the many stock return models taking this fact into account, there are only a few credit default models that take it into consideration. In this paper we present a default model based on nested Archimedean copulas that is able to capture hierarchical dependence structures among the obligors in a credit portfolio. Nested Archimedean copulas have a surprisingly simple and intuitive interpretation. The dependence among all companies in the same sector is described by an inner copula and the sectors are then coupled via an outer copula. Consequently, our model implies a larger default correlation for companies in the same industry sector than for companies in different sectors. A calibration to CDO tranche spreads of the European iTraxx portfolio is performed to demonstrate the fitting capability of the model. This portfolio consists of CDS on 125 companies from six different industry sectors and is therefore an excellent portfolio for a comparison of our generalized model with a traditional copula model of the same family that does not take different sectors into account.
Negotiating the occupational landscape : the career trajectories of ex-teachers and ex-engineers in Singapore

The central focus of this thesis is how professionals in Singapore negotiate occupational mobility in their career life-course. The research seeks to understand the factors that underpin and guide individual aspiration and motivations when making occupational moves within career trajectories. Occupational mobility is fast becoming the norm among the international skilled labour force, creating a need to understand how such flexibility can be used advantageously, at the national level, for workforce management. The approach taken in this study conceptualises the career landscape as a field, and analyses mobility at the political, social and individual levels. It examines the power that is enacted by government on its citizens and the reflexive meaning making of individuals participating in occupational mobility. The empirical work consists of interviews with ex-teachers and ex-engineers in Singapore. The thesis presents an analysis of their narratives and identifies generic skills acquired in pre-employment training and in employment as a key to understanding how professional individuals are negotiating occupational fields. Amongst the achievements of the research is the understanding of what happens when individuals move from one occupation to the next. The research attempts to humanise the 'human resource' and present, through individual narratives, the individual's perspective on the changing nature of work, the need to participate in boundaryless work contexts and their involvement in occupational mobility. The thesis further illustrates the complexities that surround mobile behaviours of workers within an Asian context, and presents ways of understanding the needs of such professional workers so that they can negotiate the contemporary advanced economy landscape more effectively. The resulting conceptual framework attempts to explain how mobile Asian professional workers negotiate occupational mobility within a context that is influenced by conservative Confucian ideologies that place nation before self, and community before family. The research further emphasises the role that state-initiated lifelong learning structures play in creating the mobile worker and explores how generic skills facilitate occupational movements. It discusses the importance of contextualised skill acquisition and practice for subsequent recontextualisation in a new occupation and also aligns current career discourses to the perceptions that these individuals have of their occupations. Finally, the role that lifelong learning is perceived to play when considering the need for career adaptability competences, the space for recontextualisation of skills and the ideologies that influence individual occupational mobility are presented. By looking at those who have participated in it themselves, this research explores how individuals engage in occupational mobility and explains how control can be maintained over people's personal aspirations in the grand occupational mobility scheme.
Incremental Active Learning for Optimal Generalization

The problem of designing input signals for optimal generalization is called active learning. In this article, we give a two-stage sampling scheme for reducing both the bias and variance, and based on this scheme, we propose two active learning methods. One is the multipoint search method applicable to arbitrary models. The effectiveness of this method is shown through computer simulations. The other is the optimal sampling method in trigonometric polynomial models. This method precisely specifies the optimal sampling locations.
Characterization of in vitro expanded bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells from patients with multiple sclerosis

Recent studies have investigated the potential of autologous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as a therapy for multiple sclerosis. Whether MSCs from individuals with multiple sclerosis are functionally and/or phenotypically abnormal has received less attention. Through our Phase I clinical trial, SIAMMS, we were able to isolate and characterize MSCs from individuals with multiple sclerosis. The objective of the study was to demonstrate that MSCs from individuals with multiple sclerosis show no significant differences from MSCs derived from individuals without multiple sclerosis. MSCs were isolated from bone marrow aspirates from four SIAMMS participants. We were also able to isolate MSCs from bone marrow obtained during a total hip replacement operation on an individual with multiple sclerosis. Control MSCs were isolated from bone marrow acquired during total hip replacement operations on five individuals without MS. MSCs were characterized using standard criteria: plastic adherence, differentiation along adipogenic/osteogenic/chondrogenic lineages, and expression of specific cell surface antigens. We also determined their proliferation potential. MSCs from individuals with multiple sclerosis and individuals without multiple sclerosis were similar in proliferation, differentiation potential and cell surface antigen expression. This has relevance to scientific studies investigating the therapeutic potential of autologous MSCs which primarily utilize MSCs from individuals without multiple sclerosis, and relevance to clinical studies extrapolating from these scientific findings.
Web-Based Hybrid Mobile Apps: State of the Practice and Research Opportunities

This paper describes the contents of a tutorial on web-based hybrid mobile apps. Nowadays millions of mobile apps are downloaded and used all over the world. Mobile apps are distributed via different app stores like Google Play Store, the Apple App Store, the Windows Phone Store. One of the most intriguing challenges in mobile apps development is its fragmentation with respect to mobile platforms (e.g., Android, Apple iOS, Windows Phone). Recently, companies like IBM and Adobe and a growing community of developers advocate web-based hybrid mobile apps development as a possible solution to mobile platforms fragmentation. Web-based hybrid mobile apps are consistent across platforms and built on web standards like HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript. This tutorial provides a state of the art overview of the solutions, technologies, and research opportunities related to the development of web-based hybrid mobile apps. Apache Cordova is presented as one of the possible technologies for hybrid apps development. The results of two empirical studies performed on real hybrid mobile apps are presented as an up-to-date snapshot of the state of the practice in the field. Research opportunities and an open discussion close the tutorial.
Microsatellite Markers for the Chameleon Grasshopper (Kosciuscola tristis) (Orthoptera: Acrididae), an Australian Alpine Specialist

A set of polymorphic loci was characterised using an enrichment library for the Australian alpine specialist, the chameleon grasshopper (Kosciuscola tristis), an atypical grasshopper known for its remarkable temperature-controlled colour change. The number of alleles per locus ranged from three to 20 and observed heterozygosity from 0.16 to 0.76. These are the first microsatellite markers for a non-endangered Australian alpine animal and will inform questions of gene flow across the sky islands of this unique and threatened region.
Role of chromatic and luminance contrast in inferring structure from motion.

We measured the ability to infer structure from motion (SFM) in several directions in three-dimensional color space. Only motion cues are useful to subjects in performing this three-dimensional shape-identification task. We report the following results: (1) SFM performance is at chance for equiluminant stimuli that isolate short-wavelength-sensitive cones. Hence the short-wavelength-sensitive-cone input to SFM is negligible. (2) SFM performance increases with the magnitude of delta L - delta M signal when delta L + delta M = 0 (i.e., only chromatic and no luminance contrast is available). We reject the hypothesis that SFM obtains input from a single chromatic mechanism combining the long- and medium-wavelength-sensitive cones linearly. Our data are compatible with SFM that uses the output of two mechanisms, one taking the difference between the long- and medium-wavelength-sensitive-cone signals and the other taking the respective sum. We reject the particular hypothesis that SFM utilizes only the magnitude and not the sign of the long- and medium-wavelength-sensitive-cone signal. (3) We compare SFM performance with threshold performance for velocity and motion discrimination. Stimuli with luminance contrast yield SFM performance that is superior to stimuli without luminance contrast when they are expressed as multiples of velocity discrimination threshold. This superiority is even greater when SFM performance is compared with motion-direction discrimination thresholds.
BIOLOGICAL BRAIN‐INSPIRED GENETIC COMPLEMENTARY LEARNING FOR STOCK MARKET AND BANK FAILURE PREDICTION 1

Genetic complementary learning (GCL) is a biological brain‐inspired learning system based on human pattern recognition, and genes selection process. It is a confluence of the hippocampal complementary learning and the evolutionary genetic algorithm. With genetic algorithm providing the possibility of optimal solution, and complementary learning providing the efficient pattern recognition, GCL may offer superior performance. In contrast to other computational finance tools such as neural network and statistical methods, GCL provides greater interpretability and it does not rely on the assumption of the underlying data distribution. It is an evolving and autonomous system that avoids the time‐consuming process of manual rule construction or modeling. This is highly favorable especially in financial world where data is ever changing, and requires frequent update. The feasibility of GCL as stock market predictor, and bank failure early warning system is investigated. The experimental results show that GCL is a competent computational finance tools for stock market prediction and bank failure early warning system.
Mobbing experiences of instructors: causes, results, and solution suggestions

In this study, it was aimed to investigate possible mobbing problems in universities, their causes and results, and to attract attention to precautions that can be taken. Phenomenology as one of the qualitative research methods was used in the study. Sample group of the study was selected through the criteria sampling method and eight instructors with a title of professors, associate and assistant professors and assistants were included. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews. Study results indicated that instructors were exposed to attacks related to their job performances, communications and relationships with their colleagues, characteristic features and values, threatening and violent behaviors and it was established that various features of the instructors mobbing and being exposed to it and organizational factors led up to the mobbing. It was observed that mobbing affected victims psychologically, physically, and economically and posed problems in terms of job performances and family life. The views on preventing mobbing were examined within the frame of ethics institutions, rectorship election system, authority of rectorship, and training of instructors. Language: en
Boosting the Hodrick-Prescott Filter

The Hodrick-Prescott (HP) filter is one of the most widely used econometric methods in applied macroeconomic research. The technique is nonparametric and seeks to decompose a time series into a trend and a cyclical component unaided by economic theory or prior trend specification. Like all nonparametric methods, the HP filter depends critically on a tuning parameter that controls the degree of smoothing. Yet in contrast to modern nonparametric methods and applied work with these procedures, empirical practice with the HP filter almost universally relies on standard settings for the tuning parameter that have been suggested largely by experimentation with macroeconomic data and heuristic reasoning about the form of economic cycles and trends. As recent research has shown, standard settings may not be adequate in removing trends, particularly stochastic trends, in economic data. This paper proposes an easy-to-implement practical procedure of iterating the HP smoother that is intended to make the filter a smarter smoothing device for trend estimation and trend elimination. We call this iterated HP technique the boosted HP filter in view of its connection to L_2-boosting in machine learning. The paper develops limit theory to show that the boosted HP filter asymptotically recovers trend mechanisms that involve unit root processes, deterministic polynomial drifts, and polynomial drifts with structural breaks – the most common trends that appear in macroeconomic data and current modeling methodology. In doing so, the boosted filter provides a new mechanism for consistently estimating multiple structural breaks. A stopping criterion is used to automate the iterative HP algorithm, making it a data-determined method that is ready for modern data-rich environments in economic research. The methodology is illustrated using three real data examples that highlight the differences between simple HP filtering, the data-determined boosted filter, and an alternative autoregressive approach. These examples show that the boosted HP filter is helpful in analyzing a large collection of heterogeneous macroeconomic time series that manifest various degrees of persistence, trend behavior, and volatility.
Self-Disclosure of HPV Infection to Sexual Partners

Disclosure decisions of persons with genital HPV infection were examined. The research questions focused on relationships among knowledge of transmission, beliefs about the obligation to disclose knowledge of HPV infection to sexual partners, factors that influence the disclosure decision, and evaluations of the decision. Participants were 92 persons diagnosed with HPV 6 months prior to data collection. Sixty-three women and 29 men whose average age was 23.1 years constituted the sample. A subset of 48 persons provided detailed information about their reasons for disclosing or not disclosing knowledge of HPV and subsequent evaluation of their behavior. Knowledge of HPV transmission was adequate; however, there was no relationship between transmission knowledge and disclosure beliefs. Participants tended to disclose the presence of HPV to partners at point of diagnosis, but not to new partners 6 months later. Both disclosers and nondisclosers felt positively about their decision. Possible changes in clinical interventions for persons with HPV infection are discussed.
The Genomic Signature of Human Rhinoviruses A, B and C

Human rhinoviruses are single stranded positive sense RNA viruses that are presented in more than 50% of acute upper respiratory tract infections. Despite extensive studies on the genetic diversity of the virus, little is known about the forces driving it. In order to explain this diversity, many research groups have focused on protein sequence requirements for viable, functional and transmissible virus but have missed out an important aspect of viral evolution such as the genomic ontology of the virus. This study presents for the first time the genomic signature of 111 fully sequenced HRV strains from all three groups HRV-A, HRV-B and HRV-C. We observed an HRV genome tendency to eliminate CpG and UpA dinucleotides, coupling with over-representation of UpG and CpA. We propose a specific mechanism which describes how rapid changes in the HRV genomic sequence can take place under the strict control of conservation of the polypeptide backbone. Moreover, the distribution of the observed under- and over-represented dinucleotides along the HRV genome is presented. Distance matrice tables based on CpG and UpA odds ratios were constructed and viewed as heatmaps and distance trees. None of the suppressions can be attributed to codon usage or in RNA secondary structure requirements. Since viral recognition is dependent on RNA motifs rich in CpG and UpA, it is possible that the overall described genome evolution mechanism acts in order to protect the virus from host recognition.
Crystallographic and SAXS studies of S-adenosyl-l-homocysteine hydrolase from Bradyrhizobium elkanii

Tetrameric S-adenosyl-l-homocysteine hydrolase from a nitrogen-fixing bacterium was crystallized in complexes with four different ligands. The crystal structures reveal that there is no simple correlation between the cargo molecule in the active site and the open/closed subunit conformation or the open/shut state of the active-site access gate.
An improved epsilon constraint handling method embedded in MOEA/D for constrained multi-objective optimization problems

This paper proposes an improved epsilon constraint handling method embedded in the multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D) to solve constrained multi-objective optimization problems (CMOPs). More specifically, it dynamically adjusts the epsilon level, which is a critical parameter in the epsilon constraint method, according to the feasible ratio of solutions in the current population. In order to verify the effect of the improved epsilon constraint handling method, three algorithms - MOEA/D-CDP, MOEA/D-Epsilon, and MOEA/D-IEpsilon (MOEA/D with the improved epsilon constraint handling mechanism) are tested on nine CMOPs (CMOP1-CMOP9). The comprehensive experimental results indicate that the proposed epsilon constraint handling method is very effective on the performance of both convergence and diversity.
Severe pneumonia due to adenovirus serotype 14: a new respiratory threat?

BACKGROUND Adenoviruses are associated with sporadic infection and community and institutional outbreaks; they can cause especially severe disease in infants, young children, immunocompromised persons, and transplant recipients. Fifty-two adenovirus serotypes have been recognized and classified within 7 subgroups or species (A-G), with limited data available on associated clinical syndromes and disease severity in more than one-half of the known serotypes. METHODS We describe the clinical presentation and virologic characterization of 1 adult and 2 pediatric patients admitted to 2 separate hospitals during April-May 2006 with severe acute respiratory tract infection. All patients had underlying chronic pulmonary disease; none were severely immunocompromised. All 3 experienced serious chronic sequelae or died. RESULTS Adenovirus was isolated from all 3 case patients. Adenovirus serotype 14, a subspecies B2 serotype not previously associated with severe clinical illness, was confirmed by neutralization assay and sequencing of the hexon gene. Restriction enzyme analysis with BamHI, BglII, HindIII, and SmaI showed all 3 viruses to be identical and to belong to a new genome type that we have designated "Ad14a. " CONCLUSIONS Our identification of severe respiratory illness due to a previously rarely reported adenovirus serotype may signify the emergence in the United States of a new genomic variant that has the potential to spread globally and cause epidemics. These case reports highlight the need for rapid diagnosis and improved surveillance, with serotyping and molecular characterization, to identify emerging variants of adenovirus, which may assist with targeted development of antiviral agents or type-specific vaccines.
Deletion of Astroglial Dicer Causes Non-Cell-Autonomous Neuronal Dysfunction and Degeneration

The endoribonuclease, Dicer, is indispensable for generating the majority of mature microRNAs (miRNAs), which are posttranscriptional regulators of gene expression involved in a wide range of developmental and pathological processes in the mammalian CNS. Although functions of Dicer-dependent miRNA pathways in neurons and oligodendrocytes have been extensively investigated, little is known about the role of Dicer in astrocytes. Here, we report the effect of Cre-loxP-mediated conditional deletion of Dicer selectively from postnatal astroglia on brain development. Dicer-deficient mice exhibited normal motor development and neurological morphology before postnatal week 5. Thereafter, mutant mice invariably developed a rapidly fulminant neurological decline characterized by ataxia, severe progressive cerebellar degeneration, seizures, uncontrollable movements, and premature death by postnatal week 9–10. Integrated transcription profiling, histological, and functional analyses of cerebella showed that deletion of Dicer in cerebellar astrocytes altered the transcriptome of astrocytes to be more similar to an immature or reactive-like state before the onset of neurological symptoms or morphological changes. As a result, critical and mature astrocytic functions including glutamate uptake and antioxidant pathways were substantially impaired, leading to massive apoptosis of cerebellar granule cells and degeneration of Purkinje cells. Collectively, our study demonstrates the critical involvement of Dicer in normal astrocyte maturation and maintenance. Our findings also reveal non-cell-autonomous roles of astrocytic Dicer-dependent pathways in regulating proper neuronal functions and implicate that loss of or dysregulation of astrocytic Dicer-dependent pathways may be involved in neurodegeneration and other neurological disorders.
Defects in caveolin-1 cause dilated cardiomyopathy and pulmonary hypertension in knockout mice

Caveolins are important components of caveolae, which have been implicated in vesicular trafficking and signal transduction. To investigate the in vivo significance of Caveolins in mammals, we generated mice deficient in the caveolin-1 (cav-1) gene and have shown that, in the absence of Cav-1, no caveolae structures were observed in several nonmuscle cell types. Although cav-1−/− mice are viable, histological examination and echocardiography identified a spectrum of characteristics of dilated cardiomyopathy in the left ventricular chamber of the cav-1-deficient hearts, including an enlarged ventricular chamber diameter, thin posterior wall, and decreased contractility. These animals also have marked right ventricular hypertrophy, suggesting a chronic increase in pulmonary artery pressure. Direct measurement of pulmonary artery pressure and histological analysis revealed that the cav-1−/− mice exhibit pulmonary hypertension, which may contribute to the right ventricle hypertrophy. In addition, the loss of Cav-1 leads to a dramatic increase in systemic NO levels. Our studies provided in vivo evidence that cav-1 is essential for the control of systemic NO levels and normal cardiopulmonary function.