Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Connection between MP and DPP for stochastic recursive optimal control problems: Viscosity solution framework in local case

This paper deals with a nonsmooth version of the connection between the maximum principle and dynamic programming principle, for the stochastic recursive control problem when the control domain is convex. By employing the notions of sub- and super-jets, the set inclusions are derived among the value function and the adjoint processes. The general case for non-convex control domain is open.
Plant species discrimination using spectral / spatial descriptive statistics

It has been observed that point-measurement reflectance data collected from plant leaves of the same species and grown side-by-side were not necessarily normally distributed and that the nature of the distribution varied with species and wavelength. The hypothesis tested in this research is that these deviations in the data distributions are species, wavelength, and maturity dependant. Spectral image data (57 wavebands over 400-1000 nm) were collected from 13 species of juvenile crops and weeds at five maturity levels. Distribution normality was tested using the Anderson-Darling statistic. Descriptive statistics (mean, median, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis) were calculated at each waveband for random sub-samples of the vegetation pixels for each plant image. The majority of normally-distributed data were found in the visible wavelengths, and were concentrated in a few species. While not strongly separable, the distribution statistic data provided some ability to distinguish between species. It is hypothesized that identification features based on distribution statistics might be more stable over a greater range of environmental conditions as compared to features based more directly on reflectance values.
Prenatal diagnosis and perinatal outcome of 38 cases with congenital diaphragmatic hernia: 8-year experience of a tertiary Brazilian center.

PURPOSE To evaluate the perinatal results for neonates with congenital diaphragmatic hernia diagnosed prenatally. METHOD We reviewed data from 38 cases of congenital diaphragmatic hernia diagnosed prenatally from January 1995 to December 2003 in the Fetal Medicine Unit of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, São Paulo University Medical School. The main data analyzed were gestational age at diagnosis, fetal karyotyping, side of diaphragmatic defect, presence of associated structural malformations, hepatic herniation, and severe mediastinal shift. Perinatal outcomes were obtained by reviewing hospital documents or by directly calling the patients' immediate relatives. RESULTS Mean gestational age at diagnosis was 29 weeks (range, 16-37 weeks). Thirty (79%) cases had a left diaphragmatic defect and 8 (21%) had a right lesion. Associated structural malformations were observed in 21 (55%) cases, in which 12 fetuses had a normal karyotype and 9 had chromosomal abnormalities. Isolated congenital diaphragmatic hernia was confirmed in 17 (45%) cases. The overall perinatal mortality rate was 92%. Rates of fetal deaths, early neonatal deaths, late neonatal deaths, and survival were 42%, 50%, 0%, and 8%, respectively, in cases with associated structural malformations but normal karyotyping; 56%, 44%, 0%, and 0% for cases with chromosomal abnormalities; and, 0%, 76%, 12%, and 12% in cases with isolated congenital diaphragmatic hernia. The neonatal mortality rate was 89% in cases with isolated congenital diaphragmatic hernia. CONCLUSION Perinatal mortality was very high in prenatally diagnosed cases of congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Earlier perinatal deaths are associated with the presence of other structural defects or chromosomal abnormalities. In cases of isolated congenital diaphragmatic hernia, mortality is related to the presence of herniated liver, right-sided lesion, and major mediastinal shift.
Investing In Lagging Regions Is Efficient: A Local Multipliers Analysis Of U.S. Cities

This paper illustrates the effect of employment in the tradable sector on employment in the non-tradable sector in the same city with a simple model. The model predicts a significant positive local employment multiplier that increases in size with the unemployment rate. It also predicts that the share of newly created jobs fulfilled by current inhabitants of a city increases with the unemployment rate. I test this model with data from the United States census between 1980 and 2000. I estimate that an additional 100 jobs in the tradable sector will increase employment in the non-tradable sector in the same city by employing an additional 81 current residents and 28 workers that move from other regions. I find that in a city with 3.7% unemployment the average local employment multiplier is 0.91 for current inhabitants and 0.60 for migrants. And in a city with 8.4% unemployment the average local employment multiplier is 1.82 for current inhabitants and 0.23 for migrants. These estimates are all consistent with the model and quantify the size of the effect. Finally a nonparametric estimation of the effect of the unemployment rate on the size of the local employment multiplier shows a neat fit to the functional form predicted by the model for both the increasing trend for current inhabitants and the decreasing trend for migrants. Governments can efficiently promote economic growth in cities by providing tax benefits to firms in the tradable sector that locate new plants or expand existing plants in cities with a high unemployment rate. This will increase growth of the tradable sector in cities with a high unemployment rate, which maximizes the positive impact of tradable sector growth on employment in the non-tradable sector. This can be a successful policy to stimulate growth in low growth regions, because cities in these regions tend to have higher unemployment rates. Governments already know that attracting tradable firm can benefit the local economy, for example: U.S. counties give tax cuts to attract tradable firms. Greenstone and Moretti [NBER (2003)] show this is not efficient and could result into all the rents being accrued by the firm, because counties bid against each other. The only gain for the winning county is based on private information, resulting in the firm going to the county that would benefit the most. The efficiency of attracting tradable firms can be increased if a more central government knows which regions would benefit the most from attracting tradable firms and would regulate the tax cuts offered based on this. As a result more benefits would go to the regions instead of the firms. The results from this paper could provide governments with the information needed to achieve this.
Cysteine Is Exported from the Escherichia coliCytoplasm by CydDC, an ATP-binding Cassette-type Transporter Required for Cytochrome Assembly*

Assembly of Escherichia colicytochrome bd and periplasmic cytochromes requires the ATP-binding cassette transporter CydDC, whose substrate is unknown. Two-dimensional SDS-PAGE comparison of periplasm from wild-type andcydD mutant strains revealed that the latter was deficient in several periplasmic transport binding proteins, but no single major protein was missing in the cydD periplasm. Instead, CydDC exports from cytoplasm to periplasm the amino acid cysteine, demonstrated using everted membrane vesicles that transported radiolabeled cysteine inward in an ATP-dependent, uncoupler-independent manner. New pleiotropic cydDphenotypes are reported, including sensitivity to benzylpenicillin and dithiothreitol, and loss of motility, consistent with periplasmic defects in disulfide bond formation. Exogenous cysteine reversed these phenotypes and affected levels of periplasmic c-type cytochromes in cydD and wild-type strains but did not restore cytochrome d. Consistent with CydDC being a cysteine exporter, cydD mutant growth was hypersensitive to high cysteine concentrations and accumulated higher cytoplasmic cysteine levels, as did a mutant defective inorf299, encoding a transporter of the major facilitator superfamily. A cydD orf299 double mutant was extremely cysteine-sensitive and had higher cytoplasmic cysteine levels, whereas CydDC overexpression conferred resistance to high extracellular cysteine concentrations. We propose that CydDC exports cysteine, crucial for redox homeostasis in the periplasm.
“You Tweet Like a Girl!”

We investigate the Twitter activity of all congressional candidates leading up to the 2012 U.S. House elections to assess whether there are significant differences in the tone and content of the tweets from male and female candidates. We argue that the electoral environment will have a significant effect over whether candidates engage in negative tweeting, address political issues, and discuss so-called “women’s issues” on Twitter. We find that gender has both a direct and contextual effect on candidates’ communication style on Twitter. Female candidates tweet significantly more “attack-style” messages than their male counterparts, discuss policy issues at a significantly higher rate, and women representatives focus more on “women’s issues. ” We also find strong contextual effects in races with more female candidates: There is significantly more tweeting about political issues as well as significantly more negative attack-style tweets. However, with more female candidates, the number of tweets about “women’s issues” declines.
Assessing reporting quality of randomized controlled trial abstracts in psychiatry: Adherence to CONSORT for abstracts: A systematic review

Background Reporting quality of randomized controlled trial (RCT) abstracts is important as readers often make their first judgments based on the abstracts. This study aims to assess the reporting quality of psychiatry RCT abstracts published before and after the release of Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials for Abstracts (CONSORT-A) guidelines. Methods MEDLINE/PubMed search was conducted to identify psychiatric RCTs published during 2005–2007 (pre-CONSORT) and 2012–2014 (post-CONSORT). Two independent reviewers assessed abstracts using a 18-point overall quality score (OQS) based on the CONSORT-A guidelines. Linear regression analysis was conducted to analyze factors associated with reporting quality. Results Among 1,927 relevant articles, 285 pre-CONSORT and 214 post-CONSORT psychiatric RCT abstracts were included for analysis. The mean OQS improved from 6.9 (range: 3–13; 95% confidence interval (CI): 6.7–7.2) to 8.2 (range: 4–16; 95% CI: 7.8–8.5) after the CONSORT-A guidelines. Despite improvement, methods of randomization, allocation concealment, and funding source remained to be insufficiently reported (<5%) even after the release of CONSORT-A. High-impact general medical journals, multicenter design, positive outcome, and structured abstracts were associated with better reporting quality. Conclusions The reporting quality in psychiatric RCT abstracts, although improved, remains suboptimal. To improve reporting quality of psychiatry RCT abstracts, greater efforts by both investigators and journal editors are required to enhance better adherence to the CONSORT-A guidelines.
Secure, privacy-preserving, distributed motor vehicle event data recorder

Similar to flight data recorder (”blackbox”), motor vehicle event data recorder (MVEDR) is a device installed on a vehicle to record information related to the vehicle's conditions. This information is useful for accident investigation but there are cases of loss or complete destruction of MVEDRs after serious accidents. On the other hand, Vehicular Ad-hoc NETwork (VANET) is an emerging infrastructure with roadside units (RSUs) installed along the roads to communicate with the vehicles. This triggers our idea of virtual distributed MVEDRs using VANET. Conceptually, event data is transmitted to RSUs as vehicles pass by. Like other VANET-based applications, security and privacy are two major concerns of drivers. In addition, volume/frequency of data to be transmitted to and stored at RSUs may be an issue. In this paper, we propose a secure and privacy-preserving scheme for vehicle-RSU communications so that event data and driver identities can only be revealed by authorized personnel. We show that our idea is feasible, through simulations, in terms of transmission overhead due to extra security controls with different data uploading intervals.
Behavior of Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus SP17 cells during initiation of biofilm formation at the alkane–water interface

Hexadecane assimilation by Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus SP17 occurs through the formation of a biofilm at the alkane–water interface. In this study we focused on the interactions of cells with the alkane–water interface occurring during initiation of biofilm development. The behavior of cells at the interface was apprehended by investigating alterations of the mechanical properties of the interface during cell adsorption, using dynamic drop tensiometry measurements. It was found that after having reached the hexadecane–water interface, by a purely thermal diffusion process, cells released surface‐active compounds (SACs) resulting in the formation of an interfacial visco‐elastic film. Release of SACs was an active process requiring protein synthesis. This initial interaction occurred on metabolizable as well as non‐metabolizable alkanes, indicating that at this stage cells are not affected by the nature of the alkane forming the interface. In contrast, at a later stage, the nature of the interface turned out to exert control over the behavior of the cells. The availability of a metabolizable alkane at the interface influenced cell activity, as revealed by cell cluster formation and differences in the interfacial elasticity. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2010; 105: 461–468. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
B Lymphocyte–Specific Loss of Ric-8A Results in a Gα Protein Deficit and Severe Humoral Immunodeficiency

Resistance to inhibitors of cholinesterase 8A (Ric-8A) is a highly evolutionarily conserved cytosolic protein initially identified in Caenorhabditis elegans, where it was assigned a regulatory role in asymmetric cell divisions. It functions as a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for Gαi, Gαq, and Gα12/13 and as a molecular chaperone required for the initial association of nascent Gα subunits with cellular membranes in embryonic stem cell lines. To test its role in hematopoiesis and B lymphocytes specifically, we generated ric8fl/flvav1-cre and ric8fl/flmb1-cre mice. The major hematopoietic cell lineages developed in the ric8fl/flvav1-cre mice, notwithstanding severe reduction in Gαi2/3, Gαq, and Gα13 proteins. B lymphocyte–specific loss of Ric-8A did not compromise bone marrow B lymphopoiesis, but splenic marginal zone B cell development failed, and B cells underpopulated lymphoid organs. The ric8fl/flmb1-cre B cells exhibited poor responses to chemokines, abnormal trafficking, improper in situ positioning, and loss of polarity components during B cell differentiation. The ric8fl/flmb1-cre mice had a severely disrupted lymphoid architecture and poor primary and secondary Ab responses. In B lymphocytes, Ric-8A is essential for normal Gα protein levels and is required for B cell differentiation, trafficking, and Ab responses.
[Synthesis and release of pulmonary tissue adrenomedullin on hypoxic pulmonary hypertension in rats and its significance].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the synthesis and release of adrenomedullin (AM) of lung tissue in rats on hypoxic pulmonary hypertension (HPH) and study its mechanism and significance in the pathogenesis process of HPH. METHODS 54 Wistar rats were divided into hypoxia 10 d (n = 12), 20 d (n = 12), 30 d (n = 12) groups and control group (n = 18). The rats of hypoxia groups were exposed to chronic hypobaric hypoxia environment at high 5 km to establish HPH models. The expression of pulmonary cell AM protein, the content of plasma AM and bronchial alveolar lavage fluid (BALF) AM were determined by optical microscopy, immunohistochemistry and radio-immunoassay. RESULTS AM was widely distributed in lung tissue. There was positive of AM in intraplasma of vascular endothelial cells (EC), vascular and bronchial smooth muscular cells (SMC), bronchial epithelial cells, macrophages (M phi) and type II alveolar epithelial cells in every groups. After hypoxia, the expression of AM in above cells, especially EC, SMC and M phi, increased more than control group. Plasma AM contents of hypoxia groups were higher than control group(P < 0.01). 20 d after hypoxia, the AM content was twice as control group. At 10 d to 20 d after hypoxia, BALF AM content was increased more than control group (P < 0.01). But at 30 d the content was decreased near to normal. CONCLUSIONS Hypoxia is effective in promoting AM synthesis and release in pulmonary tissue and suggestes that AM as a peptide plays an important regulating role on pulmonary circulation, exchange of air and pulmonary vascular structural remodeling in the pathophysiological process of HPH.
Interannual variability of vertical particle fluxes in the Ross Sea (Antarctica)

This study presents new data on biogenic and terrigenous particle fluxes collected by an oceanographic mooring (Mooring A) deployed in the south-western Ross Sea (Antarctica) in the frame of the Italian Long-Term Ecological Research network (LTER-Italy). Results from the years 2005 and 2008 document high mass fluxes during the summer and early autumn seasons, not coincident with the algal bloom. Downward particle fluxes exhibit a high inter-annual variability of both particulate fluxes and composition that seem related to the different factors as the phytoplankton increases, occurring between the beginning of February and the end of March, to the variations in the sea ice extent and to the resuspension and/or lateral advection processes. The flux variability may have been influenced by Iceberg B-15 that resided in the investigated area between 2000 and 2005. The decoupling of biogenic silica and organic carbon cycles is documented by differences in the rates of their respective key processes: biogenic silica dissolution and organic carbon degradation.
Shortfall minimization and the Naive (1/N) portfolio: an out-of-sample comparison

ABSTRACT Naive portfolio selection, wherein an investor allocates an equal portion of their wealth to the field of candidate assets, is a simple ad-hoc way to create a portfolio. Naive portfolio selection contrasts to the many sophisticated portfolio selection rules that are optimal with respect to a specific portfolio allocation objective and which often perform well in sample. However, some recent research finds that many of these ‘optimal’ portfolio allocation mechanisms perform no better than naive diversification in out-of-sample data. This paper extends this line of inquiry by comparing the out-of-sample performance of naive portfolio selection to several recently developed shortfall-minimizing portfolio selection methods. The results corroborate the prior findings that optimal portfolio methods struggle to beat the naive portfolio in out-of-sample environments.
Psychophysiological baselines as a function of race and ethnic origin.

Basic skin conductance and pulse rate measurements were obtained from groups differing in race and ethnic origin in Israel. The results suggest higher skin conductance in Caucasians than in Negroes, and in Bedouins than in non-Bedouins. There is some suggestion of an interaction between race and ethnic origin in relation to skin conductance. Both Caucasian and Negroid Bedouin tend to have lower pulse rates than the Jewish sample.
The Impact of Go‐Shop Provisions in Merger Agreements

Go-shop provisions in merger agreements significantly alter the selling process by allowing active solicitation of new bids after a merger agreement is signed with a particular bidder. Using a large sample of merger agreements from 2003 to 2012, we examine whether go-shops are used to benefit target shareholders or for agency/entrenchment reasons. We find that go-shop provisions are more likely in deals involving negotiation selling method, financial buyers and all cash financing, and in targets with less valuation uncertainty, higher prior stock returns and higher institutional ownership. We find that go-shops have a positive association with the initial offer premium. We also find deals with go-shop provisions are more likely to have a competing bid and an upward revision of the initial offer premium, resulting in higher final target premiums, particularly for negotiation deals. Collectively, our results indicate that go-shops are effective contractual devices used to further target shareholder interests.
Distributed Cardinality Estimation of Set Operations with Differential Privacy

In this paper we study the problem of estimating the cardinality of pairwise set operations (union and intersection) over sets possessed by different data owners, while preserving differential privacy. In our problem setting, a data owner could only communicate with an untrusted server, and thus have to perturb its set data for privacy protection before sharing them with the server. This problem setting is relevant to diverse applications in practice, including sensor-based traffic monitoring, cross-domain data integration, and combining findings from multiple surveys. To tackle this problem, we first adopt existing randomized response technique to perturb the bit vector (to achieve differential privacy) and develop tools which the server can use to derive the cardinality of set operations from the randomized bit vectors. However, the variance of the union/intersection estimator grows linearly with the universe (bit-vector) size which is impractical for large universes. To keep the variance low we in addition propose to resort to Bloom filters instead of high-dimensional bit vectors to share set data with the server. The key insight is that in spite of inevitable collisions in BF by keeping its size small we can bound the variance of the union/intersection cardinality estimators. Finally, we show that investing a small part of the privacy budget into reporting (obfuscated) set cardinality can further reduce the estimator errors for up to 20%. Our empirical analysis reveals the impact of various parameters including privacy budget and Bloom filter size on the overall accuracy of the approach and demonstrates the utility of the proposed solution.
Progress in the genetics of common obesity and type 2 diabetes

The prevalence of obesity and diabetes, which are heritable traits that arise from the interactions of multiple genes and lifestyle factors, continues to rise worldwide, causing serious health problems and imposing a substantial economic burden on societies. For the past 15 years, candidate gene and genome-wide linkage studies have been the main genetic epidemiological approaches to identify genetic loci for obesity and diabetes, yet progress has been slow and success limited. The genome-wide association approach, which has become available in recent years, has dramatically changed the pace of gene discoveries. Genome-wide association is a hypothesis-generating approach that aims to identify new loci associated with the disease or trait of interest. So far, three waves of large-scale genome-wide association studies have identified 19 loci for common obesity and 18 for common type 2 diabetes. Although the combined contribution of these loci to the variation in obesity and diabetes risk is small and their predictive value is typically low, these recently identified loci are set to substantially improve our insights into the pathophysiology of obesity and diabetes. This will require integration of genetic epidemiological methods with functional genomics and proteomics. However, the use of these novel insights for genetic screening and personalised treatment lies some way off in the future.