Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Information Content Of Analyst Recommendations: Evidence From The Danish Biotechnology Sector

The purpose of this paper is to document the performance of analyst recommendations for biotechnology firms listed at the Copenhagen Stock Exchange during the period between 2001 and 2010. Our results show that analysts are able to reveal value relevant information via their recommendations. We report that buy recommendations are followed by significantly positive returns and sell recommendations are followed by significantly negative returns. However, we also show that performance of analyst recommendations is not uniform across all firms. It depends on the extent of information asymmetries present within firms. We show that analyst recommendations contain no value for firms with the least level of transparency (lowest intellectual capital disclosure, lowest analyst coverage, and lowest frequency of recommendations). However, as information environment improves, value of analyst recommendations also goes up. We recommend biotechnology firms to improve on their disclosure levels.
Performance Measures and Job Satisfaction: The Role of Fairness

Employees tend to be more focus on a company's performance evaluation process, including the types of performance measures used by the company to measure its' employees performance. This is because the performance evaluation affects reward and compensation systems. The use of proper performance measures in the performance evaluation process would affect employees' performance, which in turn increasing the company's performance as a whole. It is expected that the use of financial and non-financial performance measures would affect job satisfaction. However, it is not clear whether this relationship is direct or not. The objective of this study is to investigate the mediating role of procedural and distributive fairness in the relationship between financial and non-financial performance measures and job satisfaction in the service industry. The data were collected from employees of accounting firms in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, and Serang. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. The results show that while the relationship between financial performance measures and job satisfaction is direct, the distributive fairness has a role in fully mediating the relationship between non-financial performance measures and job satisfaction in the service industry.
Recent Advances in Application of Landau-Ginzburg Theory for Ferroelectric Superlattices

Ferroelectric superlattices with polarization perpendicular to the surface or interface are studied within the framework of the Landau-Ginzburg theory. An interface energy is introduced in the free energy to describe the effect of mixing and local polarization coupling at interface. Internal electric field is considered in the model. For superlattices grown on substrate, the influence of substrate on the properties of ferroelectric superlattices is required. This brief review is a sequel to the previous review article [1], which summarizes the recent development in Landau-Ginzburg theory developed for studying ferroelectric superlattices over approximately the last three years.
Observation and simulation of lake‐air heat and water transfer processes in a high‐altitude shallow lake on the Tibetan Plateau

Lakes are an important part of the landscape on the Tibetan Plateau. Most of the Plateau lakes' area has been expanding in recent years, but lake‐atmosphere energy and water interaction is poorly understood because of a lack of observational data and adequate modeling systems. Based on the eddy covariance observation over a high‐altitude shallow and small lake (the small Nam Co Lake) during an ice‐free period from 10 April to 30 August 2012, this study analyzes the lake‐air heat and water vapor turbulent transfer processes and evaluates two popular lake‐air exchange models: a bulk aerodynamic transfer model (B model) and a multilayer model (M model). Our main results are as follows: (1) observations show that the bulk transfer coefficient (CE) and roughness length (zoq) for water are higher than those for heat (CH and z0h), especially under low wind speed; (2) both models underestimate turbulent fluxes due to inaccurate values of the Charnock coefficient (α) and the roughness Reynolds number (Rr) which are both important parameters for calculating the roughness length for momentum (z0m) over water; (3) α within a reasonable range of 0.013–0.035 for rough flow and Rr for smooth flow (Rr = 0.11) are 0.031 and 0.54, respectively, by our observation. The wave pattern of shorter wavelength gives a larger z0m in the small and shallow lake; and (4) the B model and the M model gave consistent results, and both models are more suitable for simulation of turbulent flux exchange after z0m optimization.
Impact of ROS-Induced Damage of TCA Cycle Enzymes on Metabolism and Virulence of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (STM) is exposed to reactive oxygen species (ROS) originating from aerobic respiration, antibiotic treatment, and the oxidative burst occurring inside the Salmonella-containing vacuole (SCV) within host cells. ROS damage cellular compounds, thereby impairing bacterial viability and inducing cell death. Proteins containing iron–sulfur (Fe–S) clusters are particularly sensitive and become non-functional upon oxidation. Comprising five enzymes with Fe–S clusters, the TCA cycle is a pathway most sensitive toward ROS. To test the impact of ROS-mediated metabolic perturbations on bacterial physiology, we analyzed the proteomic and metabolic profile of STM deficient in both cytosolic superoxide dismutases (ΔsodAB). Incapable of detoxifying superoxide anions (SOA), endogenously generated SOA accumulate during growth. ΔsodAB showed reduced abundance of aconitases, leading to a metabolic profile similar to that of an aconitase-deficient strain (ΔacnAB). Furthermore, we determined a decreased expression of acnA in STM ΔsodAB. While intracellular proliferation in RAW264.7 macrophages and survival of methyl viologen treatment were not reduced for STM ΔacnAB, proteomic profiling revealed enhanced stress response. We conclude that ROS-mediated reduced expression and damage of aconitase does not impair bacterial viability or virulence, but might increase ROS amounts in STM, which reinforces the bactericidal effects of antibiotic treatment and immune responses of the host.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Candlestick Analysis in Forecasting U.S. Stock Market

Predicting the stock market trend has drawn wide attention from the public, industry, and academia. There are various strategies for investment, ranging from the buy-and-hold strategy that let time makes money to high-frequency trading based on complicated models of machine learning. For the general public, the candlestick analysis is a simple and straightforward way to predict the market trend and help make decisions on buy and sell. However, the general effectiveness and validity of such methodology are understudied, and many previous guidebooks on candlestick analysis were based on specific cases and the summary of prior experiences, but lack unbiased and rigorous confirmation. Here, we aim at evaluating the effectiveness of multiple famous candlestick patterns based on recent data of 20 U.S. stocks. By estimating the fraction of correct guesses and expected return, we were able to show that three of the four patterns under scrutiny were not effective in generating profitable outcomes, but one of them do provide valuable information on market trend reversal. Although testing more candlestick patterns and using more test data may lead to the discoveries of more patterns being significantly profitable, our results call for scrutiny and scientific guidance for the general public when applying the candlestick analysis, and questions the general validity and applicability of such analyses.
Transgene-product expression levels in genetically engineered breeding stacks are equivalent to those of the single events

ABSTRACT Transgene product expression levels are measured in genetically engineered (GE) crops containing single transformation events and the measured expression levels are then utilized in food, feed, and environmental safety assessments as part of the requirements for de-regulation of the event. Many countries also require measurement of expression levels and safety assessments for GE breeding stacks, even though the breeding stacks are composed of single events that have been previously assessed. Transgene product expression levels were measured in tissues of maize, soybean, and cotton breeding stacks and each of their component single events. Expression levels in the breeding stacks were plotted against expression levels in the single events to quantify the ability of the single events to predict transgene product expression levels in the breeding stacks. These results indicate that transgene product expression levels in single events are a reliable indicator of expression levels in breeding stacks. Based on these results it is concluded that safety assessments for breeding stacks can be conducted using transgene product expression levels from single events.
A Facial-Action Imposter: How Head Tilt Influences Perceptions of Dominance From a Neutral Face

Research on face perception tends to focus on facial morphology and the activation of facial muscles while ignoring any impact of head position. We raise questions about this approach by demonstrating that head movements can dramatically shift the appearance of the face to shape social judgments without engaging facial musculature. In five studies (total N = 1,517), we found that when eye gaze was directed forward, tilting one’s head downward (compared with a neutral angle) increased perceptions of dominance, and this effect was due to the illusory appearance of lowered and V-shaped eyebrows caused by a downward head tilt. Tilting one’s head downward therefore functions as an action-unit imposter, creating the artificial appearance of a facial action unit that has a strong effect on social perception. Social judgments about faces are therefore driven not only by facial shape and musculature but also by movements in the face’s physical foundation: the head.
Orthotopic Patient-Derived Xenografts of Gastric Cancer to Decipher Drugs Effects on Cancer Stem Cells and Metastatic Dissemination

Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Cancer stem cells (CSC) are at the origin of tumor initiation, chemoresistance, and the formation of metastases. However, there is a lack of mouse models enabling the study of the metastatic process in gastric adenocarcinoma (GC). The aims of this study were to develop original mouse models of patient-derived primary GC orthotopic xenografts (PDOX) allowing the development of distant metastases as preclinical models to study the anti-metastatic efficiency of drugs such as the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor Buparlisib (BKM120). Luciferase-encoding cells generated from primary GC were injected into the stomach wall of immunocompromised mice; gastric tumor and metastases development were followed by bioluminescence imaging. The anti-CSC properties of BKM120 were evaluated on the GC cells’ phenotype (CD44 expression) and tumorigenic properties in vitro and in vivo on BKM120-treated mice. After eight weeks, PDOX mice formed tumors in the stomach as well as distant metastases, that were enriched in CSC, in the liver, the lung, and the peritoneal cavity. BKM120 treatment significantly inhibited the CSC properties in vitro and reduced the number of distant metastases in mice. These new preclinical models offer the opportunity to study the anti-metastatic efficiency of new CSC-based therapeutic strategies.
Changes in Bench Press Velocity and Power After 8 Weeks of High-Load Cluster- or Traditional-Set Structures.

Davies, TB, Halaki, M, Orr, R, Helms, ER, and Hackett, DA. Changes in bench press velocity and power after 8 weeks of high-load cluster- or traditional-set structures. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2019-This study investigated the effects of high-load cluster- vs. traditional-set structures using the bench press on velocity and power. Twenty-one resistance-trained individuals (male = 12, female = 9) performed a 3-week familiarization block followed by randomization into 1 of 2 upper- and lower-body split training routines performed for 8 weeks. The bench press was the only exercise manipulated with subjects using either cluster-set (CLUS, n = 11) or traditional-set (TRAD, n = 10) structures during training sessions. Subjects performed 4 sets of 5 repetitions at 85% 1 repetition maximum (1RM) with CLUS having a 30-second inter-repetition, and 3-minute interset rest while TRAD had a 5-minute interset rest. A load-velocity profile of relative loads derived from a 1RM test was used to assess velocity and power (absolute and relative to body mass) on the bench press. Significant improvements over time were found across various loads ranging from 45 to 75% 1RM for absolute and relative peak power (p = 0.006-0.041), and mean power (p = 0.001-0.032). Significant decreases over time were found at 55% 1RM and 65% 1RM for peak velocity (p = 0.027 and p = 0.012, respectively) and mean velocity (p = 0.047 and p = 0.022, respectively). There were no significant group or group by time interactions found for all outcomes. Within the context of high-load resistance training, set structure seems to be of less importance for changes in bench press velocity and power provided there is an intention to lift with maximal concentric velocity.
From Probiotics to Psychobiotics: Live Beneficial Bacteria Which Act on the Brain-Gut Axis

There is an important relationship between probiotics, psychobiotics and cognitive and behavioral processes, which include neurological, metabolic, hormonal and immunological signaling pathways; the alteration in these systems may cause alterations in behavior (mood) and cognitive level (learning and memory). Psychobiotics have been considered key elements in affective disorders and the immune system, in addition to their effect encompassing the regulation of neuroimmune regulation and control axes (the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis or HPA, the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary axis or SAM and the inflammatory reflex) in diseases of the nervous system. The aim of this review is to summarize the recent findings about psychobiotics, the brain-gut axis and the immune system. The review focuses on a very new and interesting field that relates the microbiota of the intestine with diseases of the nervous system and its possible treatment, in neuroimmunomodulation area. Indeed, although probiotic bacteria will be concentrated after ingestion, mainly in the intestinal epithelium (where they provide the host with essential nutrients and modulation of the immune system), they may also produce neuroactive substances which act on the brain-gut axis.
End-to-end Sleep Staging with Raw Single Channel EEG using Deep Residual ConvNets

Humans approximately spend a third of their life sleeping, which makes monitoring sleep an integral part of well-being. In this paper, a 34-layer deep residual ConvNet architecture for end-to-end sleep staging is proposed. The network takes raw single channel electroencephalogram (Fpz-Cz) signal as input and yields hypnogram annotations for each 30s segments as output. Experiments are carried out for two different scoring standards (5 and 6 stage classification) on the expanded PhysioNet Sleep-EDF dataset, which contains multisource data from hospital and household polysomnography setups. The performance of the proposed network is compared with that of the state-of-the-art algorithms in patient independent validation tasks. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed network compared to the best existing method, providing a relative improvement in epoch-wise average accuracy of 6.8% and 6.3% on the household data and multisource data, respectively. Codes are made publicly available on https://github.com/mHealthBuet/ASSCGithub.
Serum Vitamin D Levels in Patients with Keratoconus

ABSTRACT Purpose: To evaluate serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in patients with keratoconus (KC) and its association with disease severity and to compare vitamin D levels with those of age- and sex-matched healthy individuals. Methods: This study included 100 patients with KC and 100 non-atopic healthy controls. Serum vitamin D levels were measured using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and compared between the study groups. KC severity was graded as mild (K = 43.1–46.9 D), moderate (K = 47–50 D), and severe (K > 50 D). Vitamin D levels were classified as deficient (≤10 ng/mL), insufficient (11–20 ng/mL), and optimal (>20 ng/mL). Results: The mean serum vitamin D level was significantly lower in the KC group than in the control group (12.18 ± 5.05 ng/mL vs 15.18 ± 5.81 ng/mL; p < .001). Vitamin D deficiency (≤10 ng/mL) was observed in 54.0% of the KC patients and 34.0% of the controls (p = .011). Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that having deficient vitamin D level increased the presence of KC 2.9 fold (p = .021, 95% confidence interval, 1.17–6.95). Decreasing serum vitamin D levels were not significantly associated with increasing severity of KC (p = .311). Although the rate of patients with deficient vitamin D was the highest in the severe KC group, distribution of vitamin D levels were not significantly different among KC groups (p = .326). Conclusion: The patients with KC had lower serum vitamin D levels than those of age- and sex-matched healthy controls. The present study could be a valuable entry point for further researches investigating the potential link between vitamin D and KC.
Interleukin-4 and Interleukin-13 Exacerbate Neurotoxicity of Prothrombin Kringle-2 in Cortex In Vivo via Oxidative Stress

The present study investigated the effects of activated microglia-derived interleukin-4 (IL-4) and IL-13 on neurodegeneration in prothrombin kringle-2 (pKr-2)-treated rat cortex. pKr-2 was unilaterally injected into the Sprague–Dawley rat cerebral cortex and IL-4 and IL-13 neutralizing antibody was used to block the function of IL-4 and IL-13. Immunohistochemical analysis showed a significant loss of NeuN+ and Nissl+ cells and an increase of OX-42+ cells in the cortex at seven days post pKr-2. The levels of IL-4 and IL-13 expression were upregulated in the activated microglia as early as 12 hours post pKr-2 and sustained up to seven days post pKr-2. Neutralization by IL-4 or IL-13 antibodies (NA) significantly increased neuronal survival in pKr-2-treated rat cortex in vivo by suppressing microglial activation and the production of reactive oxygen species, as analyzed by immunohisotochemistry and hydroethidine histochemistry. These results suggest that IL-4 and IL-13 that were endogenously expressed from reactive microglia may play a critical role on neuronal death by regulating oxidative stress during the neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Exposure to silver nanoparticles induces oxidative stress and memory deficits in laboratory rats

Nanoparticles (NPs) with diameters of less than 100 nm have unique physical and chemical characteristics. Research involving the synthesis and applications of NPs and nanoscale materials have generated a lot of interest on behalf of scientists since the physical properties of these particles are size-dependent. Examples of such properties include optical and magnetic properties, specific heats, melting points and surface reactivity. Tunable size-dependent properties (controllable by using various factors) are believed to be a result of the high ratio of surface to bulk atoms which can be represented by well defined molecular orbitals. Moreover, while standard bulk materials are represented by electronic band structures, nanoparticles exhibit size-dependent broadened energy states [1]. The potential applications of NPs in nanobiotechnology have been demonstrated by a broad variety of emerging uses in the study of cellular and subcellular processes of fundamental importance in biology. Examples include the use of colloidal nanocrystals due to their catalysis features (high surface area, controlled crystal surfaces), and optical properties (useful in fluorescent biological labels, biodetection of pathogens, probing of DNA structure, tumor destruction via heating (hyperthermia), MRI contrast enhancement and sun screen). Nanoparticles also have emerging applications in tissue engineering, separation and purification of biological molecules and cells, drug and gene delivery (for example, inhalation in Cent. Eur. J. Biol.• 6(4) • 2011 • 497-509 DOI: 10.2478/s11535-011-0022-z
Prostaglandin Infusion in Neonate With Severe Coarctation of the Aorta With Closed Ductus Arteriosus—A Case Report and Review of the Literature

We report the case of a premature newborn diagnosed with coarctation of the aorta after spontaneous closure of ductus arteriosus who was successfully managed with prostaglandin E1 infusion until surgical repair could be performed. This case, together with a review of the literature, suggests an important role for prostaglandin in the management of coarctation even in the absence of a patent ductus arteriosus. The putative mechanism for the utility of prostaglandin infusion is that it may relieve the obstruction in neonates with severe coarctation by not only opening of the ductus but, in select cases, relaxing the ductal tissue encircling the aortic isthmus region. We also found a possible dose dependence of the efficacy of the prostaglandin infusion when the ductus is closed.
Market Reaction to Information Shocks – Does the Bloomberg and Briefing.com Survey Matter?

Bloomberg and Briefing.com provide competing forecasts for pre-scheduled macroeconomic announcements. This paper examines the accuracy of these forecasts and market reactions to announcement surprises. Our results show that the Bloomberg survey is slightly more accurate than the Briefing.com survey. More importantly, while announcement surprises based on both surveys have a significant effect on the trading activities and returns of S&P 500 futures contracts, the Bloomberg survey subsumes the explanatory power of the Briefing.com survey. The findings suggest that on average Bloomberg forecasts are more consistent with the market consensus view. In addition, we provide evidence of asymmetric market reactions to positive versus negative announcement surprises. In particular, the market reacts strongly to inflation news in the CPI and PPI announcements and negative shocks in housing price, personal spending, and retail sales.