Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A fast-weighted Bayesian bootstrap filter for nonlinear model state estimation

In discrete-time system analysis, nonlinear recursive state estimation is often addressed by a Bayesian approach using a resampling technique called the weighted bootstrap. Bayesian bootstrap filtering is a very powerful technique since it is not restricted by model assumptions of linearity and/or Gaussian noise. The standard implementation of the bootstrap filter, however, is not time efficient for large sample sizes, which often precludes its utilization. We propose an approach that dramatically decreases the computation time of the standard bootstrap filter and at the same time preserves its excellent performance. The time decrease is realized by resampling the prior into the posterior distribution at time instant k by using sampling blocks of varying size, rather than a sample at a time as in the standard approach. The size of each block resampled into the posterior in the algorithm proposed here depends on the product of the normalized weight determined by the likelihood function for each prior sample and the sample size N under consideration.
Anti-HIV-1 integrase compounds from Dioscorea bulbifera and molecular docking study

Abstract Context Dioscorea bulbifera L. (Dioscoreaceae) has been used in a traditional Thai longevity medicine preparation. Isolation of inhibitors from natural products is a potential source for continuous development of new HIV-1 integrase (IN) inhibitors. Objective The objective of this study is to isolate the compounds and evaluate their anti-HIV-1 IN activity, as well as to predict the potential interactions of the compounds with an IN. Materials and methods The ethyl acetate and water fractions (1–100 μg/mL) of Dioscorea bulbifera bulbils were isolated and tested for their anti-HIV-1 IN activity using the multiplate integration assay (MIA). The interactions of the active compounds with IN were investigated using a molecular docking method. Results and discussions The ethyl acetate and water fractions of Dioscorea bulbifera bulbils afforded seven compounds. Among these, allantoin (1), 2,4,3′,5′-tetrahydroxybibenzyl (2), and 5,7,4′-trihydroxy-2-styrylchromone (5) were isolated for the first time from this plant. Myricetin (4) exhibited the most potent activity with an IC50 value of 3.15 μM, followed by 2,4,6,7-tetrahydroxy-9,10-dihydrophenanthrene (3, IC50 value= 14.20 μM), quercetin-3-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (6, IC50 value = 19.39 μM) and quercetin-3-O-β-d-galactopyranoside (7, IC50 value = 21.80 μM). Potential interactions of the active compounds (3, 4, 6, and 7) with the IN active site were additionally investigated. Compound 4 showed the best binding affinity to IN and formed strong interactions with various amino acid residues. These compounds interacted with Asp64, Thr66, His67, Glu92, Asp116, Gln148, Glu152, Asn155, and Lys159, which are involved in both the 3′-processing and strand transfer reactions of IN. In particular, galloyl, catechol, and sugar moieties were successful inhibitors for HIV-1 IN.
Dividend discount models

In the strictest sense, the only cash flow you receive from a firm when you buy publicly traded stock in it is a dividend. The simplest model for valuing equity is the dividend discount model—the value of a stock is the present value of expected dividends on it. While many analysts have turned away from the dividend discount model and view it as outmoded, much of the intuition that drives discounted cash flow valuation stems from the dividend discount model. In fact, there are companies where the dividend discount model remains a useful tool for estimating value. This chapter explores the general model as well as specific versions of it tailored for different assumptions about future growth. It also examines issues in using the dividend discount model and the results of studies that have looked at its efficacy.
4-[(4-Chlorophenyl)(phenyl)methyl]piperazin-1-ium picrate monohydrate

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C17H20ClN2 +·C6H2N3O7 −·H2O, contains a piperazin-1-ium cation, a picrate anion and one solvent water molecule. The piperazene ring is protonated at one N atom and adopts a highly distorted chair conformation with the chloropheny(phenyl)methyl substituent on the second N atom in an equatorial position. The crystal structure is stabilized by O—H⋯O, N—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds.
Noninvasive ventilation in acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in patients with and without home noninvasive ventilation

Objective The frequency of home ventilation has increased greatly. The objective of the study was, first, to compare the outcome of episodes of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease treated with mask intermittent positive-pressure ventilation (MIPPV) in patients with home MIPPV and in patients without home ventilatory support and, second, for each category of patients, to compare patients successfully ventilated with MIPPV with those who failed with MIPPV. Design Prospective, controlled, nonrandomized clinical study. Setting Medical intensive care unit of a university hospital. Patients In the groups with and without home MIPPV, respectively, 31 and 78 episodes of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were studied. Interventions MIPPV was performed in a sequential mode and delivered through a full-face mask with a bilevel positive airway pressure system. Measurements and Main Results The clinical and functional characteristics of the two groups, at admission, were similar. In groups with and without home ventilation, respectively, success rates were 68% and 72% (p = .68), length of intensive care unit stay was 8 ± 6 and 10 ± 4 days (p = .02), and intensive care unit deaths were 13% and 8% (p = .30). In survivors and in groups with and without home ventilation, respectively, the total time of ventilatory assistance in intensive care unit was 5 ± 4 and 8 ± 4 days (p = .004), and the length of intensive care unit stay was 7 ± 5 and 10 ± 4 days (p = .003). A greater correction of pH, after 45 mins of MIPPV with optimal settings, was recorded in the success patients than in the failure patients, respectively; in the group with home MIPPV, the pH after 45 mins was 7.34 ± 0.04 vs. 7.31 ± 0.04 (p = .06), and in the group without home MIPPV, pH was 7.34 ± 0.04 vs. 7.30 ± 0.04 (p = .001). Conclusion MIPPV may also be favorable during episodes of acute exacerbations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Experience with MIPPV could benefit selected patients in the management of acute respiratory failure.
Not Being at Odds with a Class: A New Way of Exploiting Neighbors for Classification

Classiﬁcation can be viewed as a matter of associating a new item with the class where it is the least at odds w.r. t. the other elements. A recently proposed oddness index applied to pairs or triples (rather than larger subsets of elements in a class), when summed up over all such subsets, provides an accurate estimate of a global odd-ness of an item w.r. t. a class. Rather than considering all pairs in a class, one can only deal with pairs containing one of the nearest neighbors of the item in the target class. Taking a step further, we choose the second element in the pair as another nearest neighbor in the class. The oddness w.r. t. a class computed on the basis of pairs made of two nearest neighbors leads to low complexity classiﬁers, still competitive in terms of accuracy w.r. t. classical approaches.
Identification and relative quantification of adenosine to inosine editing in serotonin 2c receptor mRNA by CE

A new method has been developed allowing the identification and relative quantification of different forms of mRNA after RNA editing. This method was applied to the serotonin 2c receptor mRNA that potentially exhibits 32 different forms after adenosine to inosine editing at five different sites located in a row of 13 nucleotides. CE was used to characterize fluorescently labeled ssDNA molecules on the basis of their conformational polymorphism. The relative amount of these 32 mRNA forms has been estimated by measuring the fluorescence intensity of each individual DNA strand. Accuracy of quantification was established by diluting one form into another or into a mixture of cDNA, showing linear and precise proportion of each form (0.06
Studies in Labor Economics, Organizational Economics, and Development

The first chapter in this dissertation discusses the results of a field experiment that lasted three weeks at a firm in Saudi Arabia where we randomized an attention to variability or mindfulness training program. We conducted a baseline and endline survey 3 months post training, collecting measures on non-cognitive skills, beliefs, affect, and employee performance and productivity. The training program was incentivized as managers’ reports on employees’ performance get reflected in future raises and bonus pay. We converted the measures to z-scores (unit standard deviation, mean zero) to standardize the scaling across measures. We found that mindfulness improved by 0.485 standard deviations in the treatment group. This effect is mediated by an increase in employees’ engagement. The extent to which locus of control is internal improved by 0.344 standard deviations, meaning that employees who took the training gave a greater weight to effort verses luck in determining their life outcomes. On the other hand, we found that work locus of control became more external by 0.646 standard deviations, and that employees perceived a greater degree of ethnic discrimination. On average, employees’ performance improved by about 0.5 standard deviations as measured
Contribution of the Src family of kinases to the appearance of malignant phenotypes in renal cancer cells

Although the constitute activation of the Src family of kinases (Src) has been established as a poor prognostic factor in several types of cancer, the role of Src in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has not been defined. This study aimed to determine whether Src could contribute to the appearance of malignant phenotypes in RCC. The role of Src in the appearance of malignant phenotypes in RCC was examined in two human renal cancer cell lines, Caki‐1 from human metastatic RCC and ACHN from human primary RCC. Src activity in Caki‐1 cells was higher than that in ACHN cells, and this difference corresponded to the difference of PP1 (a Src family inhibitor)‐induced cytotoxicity on the two cells. The difference in cytotoxicity between the cells did not depend on cell cycle regulation but on the induction of apoptosis, and the difference in apoptosis particularly related to the reduction of the Bcl‐xL level. Furthermore, in Caki‐1 cells with higher Src activity, Src stimulated the production of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), partially via the activation of Stat3, and the inhibition of Src activity caused a reduction of the VEGF level in serum, angiogenesis, and tumor development in a xenograft model. These results suggested that Src contributed to the appearance of malignant phenotypes in renal cancer cells, particularly due to the resistance against apoptosis by Bcl‐xL and angiogenesis stimulated by Src‐Stat3‐VEGF signaling. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Validity of Long-run Purchasing Power Parity in the South Asian Countries*

The paper examines the validity of long-run Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and the so-called Generalized Purchasing Power Parity (G-PPP) in five South Asian countries, using the relatively new Johansen cointegration approach. It has been demonstrated that weak-form PPP finds considerable support from data, while the strong-form version of the hypothesis does not, irrespective of whether the official or the parallel market exchange rates are used in the analysis. Moreover, G-PPP seems to hold among these countries. The major policy implication of the findings of the paper is that if the monetary authorities in the South Asian countries wish to stabilize domestic prices or reduce persistent balance of payments deficits they must try to lower the external value of their currencies. These countries can also reap the benefits of co-operation in the core areas of trade, manufactures and services through elimination of various restrictions on regional trade.
Nonvirus-associated antigens in virus-induced mouse mammary tumors.

Summary Common, cross-reacting virus-associated tumor antigens have been demonstrated by many workers in most virus-induced experimental tumor systems, including mammary tumors induced by the mouse mammary tumor virus (MTV). By the use of mice neonatally infected with the MTV and therefore immunologically tolerant of this virus and its associated antigens, other antigens have now been detected in MTV-induced tumors which do not cross-react and which, accordingly, are probably not related directly to the inducing virus. The immunogenicity of 23 spontaneous mouse mammary carcinomas was tested in MTV-infected C3H hosts. The immunization procedure consisted of subcutaneous implantation of living tumor tissue. The challenge was with suspensions of living tumor cells at the time of removal of the immunizing grafts. Immunity was manifested by rejection of the challenge implants by a high proportion of the presensitized hosts. Of the 23 tumors, 5 were found to induce high resistance to challenge in repeated tests. It is concluded that nonvirusassociated antigens are found in some C3H mammary carcinomas. Histologic studies showed that presensitization resulted in lymphocytic invasion of challenge implants of tumor tissue. Immunity to tumor-cell implants was adoptively transferred to C3H recipients with lymphocytes from sensitized C3Hf donors. Four of the immunogenic tumors were tested for cross-immunization in C3H mice. In one test reciprocal cross-reactivity was found between two tumors. In 3 tests involving the remaining two and one of the former tumors, no cross-reactivity was detected. All 4 tumors cross-reacted in MTV-free C3Hf mice. These findings, together with other evidence, show that mouse mammary tumors contain a common component which is immunogenic in the MTV-free C3Hf mice but not in the MTV-infected C3H mice. In addition, some tumors contain tumor-specific antigens which are unrelated to the MTV and which make them immunogenic in the MTV-infected C3H mice.
Corporate Dividends and Target Payout Ratios in the Indian Cotton Textile Industry: 1946-63

THE purpose of this paper is to estimate the longrun desired dividend payout ratios in the Indian Cotton Textile Industry using the Lintner Dividend Model.1 Professor Lintner concludes, after an analysis of balance sheets and interviews with corporate officials at several levels, that corporate financial policy is dividend-oriented and companies want to pay out a fixed proportion (Target Payout Ratio) of their net income as dividends to their shareholders; but in view of their well-known preference for stable dividend rates (as percentages of nominal values of shares) they make only a partial adjustment of dividend rates whenever profits change. This he concisely expresses thus:
Investigate automatic speech recognition and keyword search for very low-resource language

In this paper, pronunciation lexicon, multi-lingual bottleneck features, semi-supervised learning, and data selection are investigated to help to improve the performance of automatic speech recognition (ASR) and keyword search (KWS) under very low-resource condition. For very low-resource condition, it is just about 3 hours of transcribed speech data, and there is no manual pronunciation for words in the transcription. According to our experiments on OpenKWS15 surprise language Swahili, some significant results can conclude. (1) Pronunciation lexicon has great influence on the performance of keyword search system at very limited language package (VLLP) condition when comparing with full language package (FLP) condition. (2) Multi-lingual bottleneck features (BNF) can improve the performance of ASR and KWS, and when combining with semi-supervised learning, the performance further improve. (3) Using large scale text corpus to train language model (LM), it can greatly improve the performance of KWS system and corresponding underlying ASR. When extending vocabulary size for keyword search, it can reduce out-of-vocabulary in keyword list, and thus slightly improve the performance of KWS system. (4) Initial transcription data selection is important to improve the performance of KWS and underlying ASR system.
Supratentorial Pilocytic Astrocytomas, Astrocytomas, Anaplastic Astrocytomas and Glioblastomas are Characterized by a Differential Expression of S100 Proteins

The levels of expression of the S100A1, S100A2, S100A3, S100A4, S100A5, S100A6 and S100B proteins were immunohistochemically assayed and quantitatively determined in a series of 95 astrocytic tumors including 26 World Health Organization (WHO) grade I (pilocytic astrocytomas), 23 WHO grade II (astrocytomas), 25 WHO grade III (anaplastic astrocytomas) and 21 WHO grade IV (glioblastomas) cases. The level of the immunohistochemical expression of the S100 proteins was quantitatively determined in the solid tumor tissue (tumor mass). In addition twenty blood vessel walls and their corresponding perivascular tumor astrocytes were also immunohistochemically assayed for 10 cases chosen at random from each of the four histopathological groups. The data showed modifications in the level of S100A3 protein expression; these modifications clearly identified the pilocytic astrocytomas from WHO grade II‐IV astrocytic tumors as a distinct biological group. Modifications in the level of S100A6 protein expression enabled a clear distinction to be made between low (WHO grade I and II) and high (WHO grade III and IV) grade astrocytic tumors. Very significant modifications occurred in the level of S100A1 protein expression (and, to a lesser extent, in their of the S100A4 and S100B proteins) in relation to the increasing levels of malignancy. While the S100A5 protein was significantly expressed in all the astrocytic tumors (but without any significant modifications in the levels of malignancy), the S100A2 protein was never expressed in these tumors. These data thus indicate that several S100 proteins play major biological roles in human astrocytic tumors.
Reactive Power Optimization for distribution systems based on Dual Population Ant Colony Optimization

The dual population ant colony optimization (DPACO) was tried to be applied to power system dynamic reactive power optimization. The installation positions of capacitors were taken as obstacles, the capacities of capacitors installed were taken as the paths through which the ants climb over the obstacles and the mathematical models of the reactive power planning under the multiple load state were adopted. In running process, the pheromone was adjusted according to the antpsilas search results and the principle of pheromone modification and the convergence speed was fastened. At the same time, the dual population ant colony optimization (DPACO) avoided trapping in local optimum and increased the precision of reactive power optimization for doing well in global optimization. After optimization, the voltage quality was enhanced obviously and comprehensive fees decrease significantly. The running results show that dual population ant colony optimization (DPACO) applied to power system dynamic reactive power optimization is feasible and effective.
Wi-Fi and Health: Review of Current Status of Research

AbstractThis review summarizes the current state of research on possible health effects of Wi-Fi (a commercial name for IEEE 802.11-compliant wireless networking). In response to public concerns about health effects of Wi-Fi and wireless networks and calls by government agencies for research on possible health and safety issues with the technology, a considerable amount of technology-specific research has been completed. A series of high quality engineering studies have provided a good, but not complete, understanding of the levels of radiofrequency (RF) exposure to individuals from Wi-Fi. The limited number of technology-specific bioeffects studies done to date are very mixed in terms of quality and outcome. Unequivocally, the RF exposures from Wi-Fi and wireless networks are far below U.S. and international exposure limits for RF energy. While several studies report biological effects due to Wi-Fi-type exposures, technical limitations prevent drawing conclusions from them about possible health risks of the technology. The review concludes with suggestions for future research on the topic.
Smoking Processes, Panic, and Depressive Symptoms Among Treatment-Seeking Smokers

Objectives: The present study evaluated the relative contribution of panic and depressive symptoms in relation to past cessation difficulties and smoking motives among treatment-seeking daily smokers. Methods: The sample included 392 treatment-seeking daily smokers (47.07% female; Mage = 35.48; SD = 13.56), who reported smoking an average of 10 or more cigarettes daily for at least one year. Results: Findings indicated that panic and depressive symptoms were significantly associated with quit problems as well as addictive and negative affect motives for smoking. However, depressive symptoms were not associated with habitual smoking motives. Conclusions: Differential patterns of associations with smoking-based processes imply that although panic and depression are related, there are important distinctions. Such data highlight the need for additional research to examine the putative role of panic and depressive symptoms in relation to smoking behaviors to further elucidate the mechanisms through which panic, depression, and smoking impact one another.
A strategy for in vivo screening of subtilisin E reaction specificity in E. coli periplasm.

We developed a protocol for efficient expression of the functional serine protease, subtilisin E, in Escherichia coli periplasm that permits direct in vivo measurement of the enzyme's catalytic activity. Activity assays and SDS-PAGE/Western blot analysis showed that the levels of expressed subtilisin varied and were correlated with both the culture conditions and the induction procedures. The highest level of subtilisin expression was achieved at 0.10-0.15% (w/v) of arabinose as inducer and a temperature of 20-22 degrees C, and was ca. eightfold higher as compared to the expression level at 30 degrees C. Cultivation of bacterial cells to a steady state of balanced growth before induction was required for uniform subtilisin expression in cell cultures growing in wells of microtiter plates. Amidase and esterase cell-based kinetic assays on microtiter plates were developed based on the direct measurement of subtilisin activity in vivo. Intact E. coli cells displaying wild-type, dimethylformamide-resistant, and temperature-resistant subtilisins were assayed on N-succinyl-Ala-Ala-Pro-Phe-p-nitroanilide and N-acetyl-Phe-p-nitrophenyl ester for their amidase and esterase activity, respectively. Additionally, the periplasmic fractions were isolated from the three E. coli strains expressing the respective subtilisins and tested for amidase activity. The amidase activity of the three subtilisins was ca. 15-fold higher than the esterolytic activity when measured in both the intact cells and in the periplasmic fractions. The strategy combining periplasmic expression of subtilisins with two cell-based kinetic assays permits rapid screening of subtilisin mutant libraries for desired activities.