Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Closed Systems of Invertible Maps

We generalise clones, which are sets of functions $f:A^n \rightarrow A$, to sets of mappings $f:A^n \rightarrow A^m$. We formalise this and develop language that we can use to speak about it. We then look at bijective mappings, which have connections to reversible computation, which is important for physical (e.g. quantum computation) as well as engineering (e.g. heat dissipation) reasons. We generalise Toffoli's seminal work on reversible computation to arbitrary arity logics. In particular, we show that some restrictions he found for reversible computation on alphabets of order 2 do not apply for odd order alphabets. For $A$ odd, we can create all invertible mappings from the Toffoli 1- and 2-gates, demonstrating that we can realise all reversible mappings from four generators. We discuss various forms of closure, corresponding to various systems of permitted manipulations. These correspond, amongst other things, to discussions about ancilla bits in quantum computation.
MicroRNA-302a suppresses influenza A virus–stimulated interferon regulatory factor-5 expression and cytokine storm induction

During influenza A virus (IAV) infection, cytokine storms play a vital and critical role in clinical outcomes. We have previously reported that microRNA (miR)-302c regulates IAV-induced IFN expression by targeting the 3′-UTR of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB)–inducing kinase. In the current study, we found that miR-302a, another member of the miR-302 cluster, controls the IAV-induced cytokine storm. According to results from cell-based and knockout mouse models, IAV induces a cytokine storm via interferon regulatory factor-5 (IRF-5). We also found that IAV infection up-regulates IRF-5 expression and that IRF-5 in turn promotes IAV replication. Furthermore, we observed that IRF-5 is a direct target of miR-302a, which down-regulated IRF-5 expression by binding its 3′-UTR. Moreover, IAV increased IRF-5 expression by down-regulating miR-302a expression. Interestingly, miR-302a inhibited IAV replication. In IAV-infected patients, miR-302a expression was down-regulated, whereas IRF-5 expression was up-regulated. Taken together, our work uncovers and defines a signaling pathway implicated in an IAV-induced cytokine storm.
Small Negative Earnings Surprises and Transient Institutions’ Trading Behavior

We use a proprietary database of institutional investors’ daily stock transactions to test the validity of a common managerial perception that transient institutions sell their stock ownership indiscriminately upon announcements of small negative earnings surprises, resulting in unwarranted drops in stock prices. Consistent with the managerial perception, we find economically significant selling by transient institutions in response to small negative earnings surprises that is even larger than transient institutions’ selling in response to large negative earnings surprises. Transient institutions’ selling in response to small negative earnings surprises is also accompanied with significant contemporaneous stock price declines. However, transient institutions’ trading in response to small negative earnings surprises is positively associated with the abnormal returns subsequent to the earnings announcements, suggesting that their trading response is informative. Overall, our results refute the managerial perception.
Left ventricular dysfunction in patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection

 A Valdés Martín ICCCV Calle 17 No 702 El Vedado, Plaza CP 10400 La Habana, Cuba. E-mail address: avaldes@infomed.sld. cu ABSTRACT Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus is a major cause of acquired heart disease, especially symptomatic left ventricular dysfunction. A literature review was conducted to deepen the understanding of the various clinical, pathophysiological and diagnostic aspects that characterize these patients. The pathogenesis of left ventricular dysfunction is related to various causative agents such as: myocardial infection by the virus itself, opportunistic infections or by other viruses, autoimmune mechanisms, nutritional deficiencies, overexpression of cytokines and drug induced toxicity. Symptomatic systolic dysfunction is a late manifestation of cardiac involvement, while a significant proportion of patients have clinically silent abnormalities. Diastolic dysfunction presents with early alterations in myocardial relaxation and in left ventricular filling dynamics. Echocardiography is useful for its diagnosis. Current antiretroviral therapy increases the survival of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus, which presumably would lead to an increase in the prevalence of cardiac complications. New prospective observational studies to determine the susceptibility of developing symptomatic heart disease in patients infected with this virus are required.
Hidden Benefits of Equal Weighting: The Case for Hedge Fund Indices

In this paper we study statistical properties of equal-weighted indices of hedge funds. We find that aside from diversification benefits, 1/N naive equal-weighting possesses some additional attractive relative performance properties. We show that subject to certain assumptions, such an index outperforms more than half of its constituencies and provides lower risk and better risk-adjusted performance characteristics than the majority of them as well. We find that similar properties hold for equities and, to a lesser degree, for mutual funds. We relate these properties to the skewness of cross-sectional distributions of hedge fund returns. We also briefly discuss efficient implementations of the equal-weighted indices of hedge funds.
Vaginal paravaginal repair: one-year outcomes.

OBJECTIVE This study was carried out to determine the efficacy and safety of the vaginal approach to paravaginal repair of symptomatic paravaginal defect cystocele. METHODS This study is an observational case series of 100 consecutive women, referred from December 1996 to August 2000, with symptomatic grade II to IV paravaginal defect cystocele. Preoperative and postoperative pelvic evaluations were performed with the Baden-Walker halfway system. The same surgeon performed all repairs. Fourteen patients had prior anterior repairs, and 530 concomitant procedures were performed. The vaginal approach consisted of a thorough entry from the vesicovaginal space under the inferior pubic ramus into the retropubic space, widely exposing the area of the arcus tendineus. A repair was done bilaterally in 95 patients and unilaterally in 5. Between 1 and 6 Gore-tex CV-0 sutures (W. L. Gore and Associates, Inc, Elkton, Md) were placed widely around the arcus tendineus on either side and fixed to appropriate locations on the bladder fascia and anterior vaginal walls. Tying these sutures resulted in dramatic elevation of the lateral superior sulci. Patients were followed up for 1 to 36 months, with a mean of 10.6 months. Criteria for objective cure were defined as the lateral sulci of the anterior vaginal walls being at grade 0 and firmly apposed to the lateral pelvic sidewalls. RESULTS Of the 100 patients, 34 had grade II, 54 had grade III, and 12 had grade IV paravaginal defect cystocele. Patients were followed up postoperatively for 1 to 36 months: 84 for more than 6 weeks and 55 for 1 year or longer. Our objective cure rate was 98%. Two asymptomatic patients had a unilateral grade I or a bilateral grade II paravaginal defect cystocele. A recurrent midline cystocele occurred in 22 patients between 3 and 11 months after the operation. Twenty-one patients were asymptomatic and one was symptomatic. Twenty-one patients had grade I-II cystocele and one had grade III cystocele. There were 3 major intraoperative hemorrhagic complications; one of the operations was converted to an anterior colporrhaphy. There were a total of 21 major and 14 minor inpatient complications. Twenty-five subsequent complications included various urinary symptoms in 14 patients, long-term lower extremity neuropathy in 2, bloody discharge from intravaginal sutures in 3, absent coital sensation in 1, and recurrent pelvic organ prolapse in 5, all of which included grade III enterocele between 3 and 25 months. CONCLUSIONS The vaginal approach to the correction of paravaginal defect cystocele is highly effective in our population at a mean of 11 months after the operation. Frequent complications do occur but are largely manageable.
ON SOME LIMITING FACTORS IN THE USE OF SATURATED PETROLEUM OILS AS INSECTICIDES.

Owing to the increased use of saturated petroleum oils (i.e., petroleum oils from which all, or nearly all unsaturated hydrocarbons have been removed, usually 98 per cent, or more) as insecticides when applied to foliage-bearing fruit-trees, it has become important to study the effects thus produced on the host plant. The insecticidal efficacy has already been established by de Ong and the two senior authors of this paper (2). It was noted that these oils apparently produce some adverse physiological effects on citrus trees, but this phase of the problem was not especially investigated. The general nature of the deleterious effects accompanying the use of heavy, white-oil sprays has recently been described by Woglum, La Follette and Landon (6) as follows: "The bad effects which have been noted on oranges in some degree since highly refined heavy oil sprays have been used are numerous. They include retarding of blossoming; reduction of blossoming; reduction of crop ; retarding fruit coloration ; interfering with normal sweat room coloring; drop of immature fruit; drop of mature fruit; roughened texture; mummifying of fruit; increasing crystallization; producing insipid flavor;
Long-Run Convergence in Manufacturing and Innovation-Based Models

Abstract Most studies of comparative productivities fail to find evidence of convergence in OECD manufacturing despite major economic growth theories predicting convergence. Using manufacturing data for nineteen OECD countries over the period from 1870 to 2006, this study finds strong evidence of unconditional β-convergence as well as σ-convergence. Panel data estimates suggest that the convergence has been driven by domestic R&D, international R&D spillovers, and financial development as predicted by Schumpeterian growth theories.
SME's e-readiness for e-government services in Egypt

Many developing countries have introduced egovernment projects to facilitate government services for business. However, due to the lack of appropriate ICT infrastructure and digital illiteracy among SMEs, e-Government projects are abundant. This is an empirical research that closely investigates the e-readiness of SMEs to adopt e-government services. A conceptual model is proposed based on reviewing the all ereadiness assessments and relevant adoption literature. The Egyptian e-government project is selected as an example of e-government services offered for SMEs in developing countries. Surveying SMEs in Egypt confirmed the importance of the e-readiness factors as the first step in adoption. However, being e-ready is not enough for adoption. Other factors including benefits of using e-government services should be in place.
Bioenergetic Shifts during Transitions between Stem Cell States (2013 Grover Conference Series)

Two defining characteristics of stem cells are their multilineage differentiation potential (multipotency or pluripotency) and their capacity for self-renewal. Growth factors are well-established regulators of stem cell differentiation and self renewal, but less is known about the influence of the metabolic state on stem cell function. Recent studies investigating cellular metabolism during the differentiation of adult stem cells, human embryonic stem cells (ESCs), and induced pluripotent stem cells have demonstrated that activation of specific metabolic pathways depends on the type of stem cells as well as the lineage cells are differentiating into and that these metabolic pathways can influence the differentiation process. However, some common patterns have emerged, suggesting that undifferentiated stem cells primarily rely on glycolysis to meet energy demands. Our own data indicate that undifferentiated ESCs not only exhibit a low mitochondrial membrane potential but also express high levels of the mitochondrial uncoupling protein 2 and of glutamine metabolism regulators when compared with differentiated cells. More importantly, interventions that target stem cell metabolism are able to either prevent or enhance differentiation. These findings suggest that the metabolic state of stem cells is not just a marker of their differentiation status but also plays an active role in regulating stem cell function. Regulatory metabolic pathways in stem cells may thus serve as important checkpoints that can be modulated to direct the regenerative capacity of stem cells.
CAPITAL INTELECTUAL: SEU ENTENDIMENTO E SEUS IMPACTOS NO DESEMPENHO DE GRANDES EMPRESAS BRASILEIRAS

The issue of Intellectual Capital is emerging and raising a discussion about its relevance to the wealth of organizations. Knowledge is accepted as an economic resource that imposes new paradigms on the evaluation of human beings and on the evaluation of companies, for such knowledge has produced intangible benefits that alter their value. The aggregate of such intangible elements has been named Intellectual Capital. This paper examines whether the understanding of the concept of Intellectual Capital by managers has an influence on the economic and financial performance of large Brazilian corporations. The work is based on a sample of 30 companies selected from the industrial, commercial and services sectors. The data were treated through the qualitative (content analysis) and quantitative (cluster analysis and correlation/association analysis) methods. The study concludes that corporate managers understand the concept of Intellectual Capital as it is presented in the literature and that investments have been made in the elements that identify Intellectual Capital. The understanding of the concept has indirectly influenced the performance of the selected companies through actions of investment in human resources. The paper also identifies a gap to be filled by
Empirical Market Microstructure

Books in the area of market microstructure are scarce. Apart from a few collections that cover special issues, there are only two major references: O’Hara (1995) reviews with Market Microstructure Theory really the theoretical literature up to that point in time. This book is worth reading as a basis for a Ph.D. lecture in order to get knowledge of the models and their interrelations. It goes very much into detail but, unfortunately, there is no update to it. Harris (2003) offers with Trading and Exchanges, a book on “Market Microstructure for Practitioners” explaining how state of the art securities markets work and how supply and demand come together. Essentially, that book also covers all the theoretical models but without a single formula. Empirical Market Microstructure by Joel Hasbrouck, who has done research in the subject for decades, now fills the gap. The book covers the empirical specifications used in a wide variety of articles dealing with costs, liquidity, trading strategies, market design, the connection of different markets, and so on. Theory is only presented and explained where necessary, which yields a clear and short overview. The book starts out with a brief list of issues and questions in the field of market microstructure. Chapter 2 gives the necessary overview of trading systems with examples of different exchanges around the world. It should be read in connection with the Appendix on US equity markets that yields a brief history. It helps to understand the main trading structures used throughout the book and in literature. Of course, such a chapter will never cover all securities in all market places. The development of electronic trading systems, consolidation, and internationalization currently change the world of securities markets at an enormous pace. But markets may be categorized according to the main trading mechanisms in order to facilitate the analysis. Chapter 3 covers the Roll model for order handling costs. Chapter 5 deals with sequential
Porcine dermal matrix for covering of recession type defects: a case series.

OBJECTIVE To study the clinical applicability of porcine dermal matrix for treatment of recession type defects. METHOD AND MATERIALS Twenty-eight gingival recessions in six patients were selected for root coverage procedures using a modified tunneling technique and porcine dermal matrix. As primary outcome, depth and width of gingival recession were assessed at baseline and at 6 and 12 months postoperatively. As a secondary outcome, the width of keratinized tissue was studied. RESULTS At 6 and 12 months postoperatively, mean root coverage was 65.52% and 56.82%, respectively. Complete root coverage was achieved in 42.86% of the treated defects. CONCLUSION Porcine dermal matrix may potentially be used as a replacement material for autologous tissue. However, complete root coverage was only achieved in less than half of the studied defects.
Convergence results for tractable inference in α-stable stochastic processes

The α-stable distribution is highly intractable for inference because of the lack of a closed form density function in the general case. However, it is well-established that the α-stable distribution admits a Poisson series representation (PSR) in which the terms of the series are a function of the arrival times of a unit rate Poisson process. In our previous work, we have shown how to carry out inference for regression models using this series representation, which leads to a very convenient conditionally Gaussian framework, amenable to tractable Gaussian inference procedures. The PSR has to be truncated to a finite number of terms for practical purposes. The residual error terms have been approximated in our previous work by a Gaussian distribution, and we have recently shown that this approximation can be justified through a Central Limit Theorem (CLT). In this paper we present a new and exact characterisation of the first and second moments of the residual series over finite time intervals for the unit rate Poisson process, correcting a previous version that was only true in the infinite time limit. This enables us to test through simulation the rapid convergence of the residual terms to a Gaussian distribution of the Poisson series residual. We test this convergence using both Q-Q plots and the classical Kolmogorov-Smirnov test of Gaussianity.
An Analysis of the Impact of Public Infrastructure on Productivity Performance of Mexican Industry

It has been frequently quoted in the literature that one decisive cause of the productive performance of an economy might be infrastructure investment. This paper provides a dual profit theoretical framework of measuring the effects of infrastructure on economic performance in terms of gains in profits, cost savings, as well as in terms of productivity growth enhancement. In an empirical application, we opt for Mexican industry data. The results show that returns to infrastructure capital are significant and positive, though some variability across time exists. Moreover, the decomposition of total factor productivity growth reveals that the economic performance could be enhanced by investing in infrastructure capital.
Continuous quality improvement (CQI) implementation in electrical & electronic engineering final year projects

Outcome Based Education (OBE) approach has become a compulsory process in ensuring the quality of undergraduate programs offered in recognized tertiary institutions. It focuses on the measurable outcome of the achievement of the students in terms of the skills and abilities to prepare themselves before embarking upon their career path. The final year project (FYP) is one of the major subjects in an engineering program. It can be considered as a problem based learning (PBL) subject where students need to apply and integrate their theoretical knowledge and skills to solve a given task in two academic semesters. Due to the significant number of credit units allocated for this subject, it has become an essential subject to focus on during the accreditation process. As the accreditation process proceeds and progresses, it should consider the improvised actions that would be necessary to improve the quality of the program, which is the continuous quality improvement (CQI) cycle. This paper focuses on the implementation of the CQI process in an electrical & electronic engineering final year project implementation. It describes the comments and feedbacks from the stakeholders and the implemented CQI actions to address the uprising issues during the accreditation process.
A New Video Bit Rate Estimation Scheme using a Model for IPTV Services

In this paper, we present a model-based video bit rate estimation scheme for reducing the bit rate while maintaining a given target quality in many video streaming services limited by network bandwidth, such as IPTV services. Each item of video content can be stored on a video streaming server and delivered with the estimated bit rate using the proposed scheme, which consists of the following two steps: 1) In the first step, the complexity of each intra-frame in a given item of video content is computed as a frame feature to extract a group of candidate frames with a lot of bits. 2) In the second step, the bit rate of the video content is determined by applying statistical analysis and hypothesis testing to that group. The experimental results show that our scheme can reduce the bit rate by up to 78% with negligible degradation of subjective quality, especially with the low-complexity videos commonly used in IPTV services.
Telangiectatic osteosarcoma: radiologic-pathologic comparison.

PURPOSE To describe the imaging characteristics of a large series of telangiectatic osteosarcomas with pathologic findings for comparison. MATERIALS AND METHODS The authors retrospectively reviewed 40 pathologically confirmed telangiectatic osteosarcomas. Patient demographics and images from radiography (n = 36), bone scintigraphy (n = 17), angiography (n = 4), computed tomography (CT) (n = 25), and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging (n = 27) were evaluated by three authors in consensus for lesion location, size, and intrinsic characteristics. There were 27 men (68%) and 13 women (32%) in the study, with an age range of 4-83 years (mean age, 24 years). RESULTS Lesions frequently affected the femur, tibia, and humerus. Radiographs showed geographic bone lysis, a wide zone of transition, and matrix mineralization. CT demonstrated low attenuation, MR demonstrated high signal intensity on T2-weighted images, and both demonstrated hemorrhage, which simulated the appearance of aneurysmal bone cyst. Viable sarcomatous tissue surrounding hemorrhagic and/or necrotic regions was best seen at contrast material-enhanced CT and MR imaging, with thick peripheral, septal, and nodular enhancement in all cases. Subtle matrix mineralization in this viable tissue was best seen at CT. An associated soft-tissue mass was also seen in 19 of 25 cases (76%) at CT and in 24 of 27 cases (89%) at MR imaging. CONCLUSION CT and MR imaging findings of telangiectatic osteosarcoma often include thick nodular tissue (and matrix mineralization at CT) in a largely hemorrhagic and/or necrotic osseous lesion with an associated soft-tissue mass, which allows distinction from aneurysmal bone cyst.