Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ninomiya–Victoir scheme: Strong convergence, antithetic version and application to multilevel estimators

Abstract In this paper, we are interested in the strong convergence properties of the Ninomiya–Victoir scheme which is known to exhibit weak convergence with order 2. We prove strong convergence with order 1 / 2 ${1/2}$ . This study is aimed at analysing the use of this scheme either at each level or only at the finest level of a multilevel Monte Carlo estimator: indeed, the variance of a multilevel Monte Carlo estimator is related to the strong error between the two schemes used on the coarse and fine grids at each level. Recently, Giles and Szpruch proposed a scheme permitting to construct a multilevel Monte Carlo estimator achieving the optimal complexity O ⁢ ( ϵ - 2 ) ${O(\epsilon^{-2})}$ for the precision ϵ. In the same spirit, we propose a modified Ninomiya–Victoir scheme, which may be strongly coupled with order 1 to the Giles–Szpruch scheme at the finest level of a multilevel Monte Carlo estimator. Numerical experiments show that this choice improves the efficiency, since the order 2 of weak convergence of the Ninomiya–Victoir scheme permits to reduce the number of discretisation levels.
Extracorporeal photopheresis: Technique, established and novel indications

Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) has had a major impact in the treatment of various conditions in the past 25 years. Although it was initially developed for the treatment of patients with resistant cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL), this therapy was later used to treat recipients of solid organs and stem cell transplants with rejection or graft‐versus‐host disease (GVHD), respectively. A significant number of patients with CTCL can achieve long term remission with ECP therapy. Those patients with heart or lung transplants may experience fewer or shorter rejection episodes following ECP. Furthermore, patients that respond to ECP can generally reduce the dose of immunosuppression medication, thus minimizing the morbidity caused by drugs such as corticosteroids and calcineurin inhibitors. While the exact mechanism of action of ECP is not well‐understood, evidence suggests that reinfusion of the patient's apoptotic white blood cells, the ultimate product of ECP, promotes immunomodulatory events that are beneficial in patients with CTCL, transplant rejection, GVHD, and possibly other inflammatory conditions. J. Clin. Apheresis 29:228–234, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The role of fibroblast growth factor 23 in sepsis.

Critical Care Medicine www.ccmjournal. org e539 Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany; Ole Bayer, MD, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany; Christiane S. Hartog, MD, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany, and Center for Sepsis Control and Care, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany
Self-Monitoring and Conformity: A Comparison of Self-Report and Behavioral Measures

This study investigated the role of self-monitoring in relation to self-reported and behavioral conformity. Ninety-three female undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory to psychology course were administered a questionnaire packet consisting of the Lennox and Wolfe Revised Self-Monitoring Scale (RSMS), a self-reported measure of conformity, and a series of vignettes, both designed by the authors. A tertiary split was performed to yield groups of high and low selfmonitors, resulting in 31 participants for a behavioral measure of conformity. For the behavioral measure, which took place approximately six weeks after the initial questionnaire, each participant and three confederates were given six decision-making vignettes, three of which were included in the initial questionnaire. The confederates answered uniformly on the previously seen vignettes, opposite of what the participant had originally answered. Confederates split their answers on the “new” vignettes in order to disguise the purpose of the study. The behavioral conformity score was determined by the number of times the participant answered uniformly with the confederates despite their original answers. Findings suggest that there is a significant relationship between self-monitoring and behavioral conformity. No significant relationship exists between selfmonitoring and self-reported conformity. Additional studies should be conducted using larger, gender balanced, and more ethnically diverse samples.
Deep Learning for Identifying Potential Conceptual Shifts for Co-creative Drawing

We present a system for identifying conceptual shifts between visual categories, which will form the basis for a co-creative drawing system to help users draw more creative sketches. The system recognizes human sketches and matches them to structurally similar sketches from categories to which they do not belong. This would allow a co-creative drawing system to produce an ambiguous sketch that blends features from both categories.
Reduced top-down influences in contour detection in schizophrenia

Introduction. Chronic schizophrenia patients have previously demonstrated performance deficits in contour integration tasks. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether schizophrenia patients, spanning a range of illness severity, would demonstrate responsiveness to manipulations that recruit top-down processing strategies involving learning and sequencing effects in a contour integration task. Methods. We administered a contour integration test over four consecutive days and in two different presentation conditions each day. In one condition, the stimuli were administered in order of increasing difficulty, and in the other they were presented in random order. The order in which these two conditions were presented was counterbalanced across days and participants. In addition, a nonschizophrenia psychotic disorders control group was included to determine if past findings of a contour integration deficit in schizophrenia could be replicated in the presence of a symptomatically similar control group. Results. All groups demonstrated similar learning curves across the four days and generally similar overall levels of performance, with the exception of the group of the most chronic schizophrenia patients. In addition, the order in which the stimuli were presented to subjects affected their performance, with higher scores achieved for all groups in the condition where the stimuli were presented in increasing order of difficulty. Interaction effects revealed that the effects of order presentation were greater for nonpatient than for psychotic patients. Conclusions. These data are further evidence that perceptual organization impairments in schizophrenia are illness severity-related, and that schizophrenia patients as a whole are less sensitive to top-down manipulations in this type of task.
ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKAEMIA IN BUTCHERS AND ABATTOIR WORKERS

of an HLA-identical sibling, this treatment may help to improve survival during the time needed to search a n HLAmatched unrelated donor, with reduction of the morbidity due to precocious infection. reticulocytes 1 x 10q/l. WBC 0.8 x 10y/l (96% lymphocytes, 4% neutrophils) and platelets 10 x 109/l. Bone marrow biopsy showed severe hypocellularity. Treatment with ALG and high-dose methyl prednisolone was commenced. There was no response after 3 months and the same combination of cyclosporine A and rh-GCSF was begun as described for the first patient. The girl required respectively 10 and 17 transfusions of RBC and platelets between September 1990 and February 1991. The response was obtained after a few weeks of treatment (Fig 1) . Repeat marrow examination has shown an increase in cellularity with normal myelopoiesis, normal erythroblasts and again decreased megakaryocytes. The Hb is 1 1.4 g/dl. reticulocytes 83 x 10q/l, WBC 9.9 x loq/ I (54% neutrophils) and platelets 4 3 x 1 Oq/L A recent study indicates that rh-GCSF is useful in stimulating granulopoiesis in children with SAA, but that the response is transient (Kojima et al, 1991). However, rh-GCSF is effective in the treatment of bacterial or fungal infections. Our tentative purpose was to combine precocious but transient effect of rh-GCSF on the granulopoiesis with the late immunological effect of cyclosporine A in SAA. Our results show that some patients who have not responded to conventional immunosuppressive therapy may be treated with the addition of rh-GCSF. The initial rise in neutrophil count was rapidly observed, particularly in the first case, and the patients were discharged from the hospital. In both patients the transfusions were interrupted 6 weeks after the initiation of the rh-GCSF. A multilineage response to rh-GCSF could be speculated. The use of such an association of rhGCSF and cyclosporine A in patients with SAA appears to be of interest because of the poor prognosis of the disease. Some patients will probably be cured. For the others, in the absence ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Adaptive Predictive Controller for a Servo Drive - Actuator/Sensor Failure Study Experiments

The paper considers the problem of predictive control with actuator or sensor failures. The problem is to show in what configuration (i.e. for what prediction horizons) the adaptive generalized predictive control can tolerate these failures, assuring similar performance in comparison with the case without failures. The results are shown on the basis of experiments conducted on the laboratory stand with a servo drive coupled with a mechanical backlash module to mimic actuator/sensor failures, and with a magnetic brake, to show the performance in the case of occurrence of an unexpected load.
Evolutionary significance of self‐acylation property in acyl carrier proteins

Acyl carrier protein is an integral component of many cellular metabolic processes. A number of studies have reported self‐acylation behavior in acyl carrier proteins. Although ACPs exhibit high levels of similarity in their primary and tertiary structures, self‐acylation behavior is restricted to only some ACPs that can be classified into two major families based on their function. The first family of ACPs is involved in polyketide biosynthesis, whereas the second family participates in fatty acid synthesis. Facilitated by the growing number of genome sequences available for analyses, large‐scale phylogenetic studies were used in these studies to uncover as to how self‐acylation behavior of acyl carrier proteins is linked with the evolution of metabolic pathways in organisms. These studies show that self‐acylation behavior in acyl carrier proteins was lost during the course of evolution, with certain organisms and organelles viz. plastids, retaining it for specified functions. © 2009 IUBMB IUBMB Life, 61(8): 853–859, 2009
Role of SGP 2 , a Suppressor of a gpal Mutation , in the Mating-Factor Signaling Pathway of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Loss of function of GPAI, which encodes a guanine-nucleotide-binding protein, arrests the cell at the Gl phase and aliows it to mate, suggesting that the gpal mutation spontaneously exerts an intracellular signal that mimics the action of mating factor. We have cloned the SGP2 gene, which was first identified as a secondary mutation that allowed a gpal::HIS3 mutant to grow and to show a non-cell-type-specific sterile phenotype. Disruption of SGP2 confers temperature-sensitive growth and a-specific sterile phenotypes, characteristics similar to those conferred by the dprl (ram) mutation, a suppressor of RAS2Va'-l9. The following observations indicate that SGP2 and DPRI are in fact identical. (i) The cloned SGP2 complements both the temperaturesensitive growth and the a-specific sterility of the dprl mutant and can be integrated into the chromosomal DPRI locus. (ii) The cloned DPRI, in turn, complements the ability of sgp2 to suppress the lethality of gpal::HIS3. (iii) The dprl mutation suppresses the growth defect ofgpal::HIS3, and the dprl gpal::HIS3 strain shows a non-cell-type-specific sterile phenotype. (iv) sgp2 is closely linked to the dprl locus. The DPRI product has been shown to be responsible for processing and fatty acid acylation of a-factor and RAS proteins at their carboxyl termini. Therefore, the SGP2 (DPRI) product may be involved in membrane localization of an essential component in the mating-factor signaling pathway.
An Examination of the Value Relevance of Intellectual Capital: The Case of Banking Industry

This study examines the value relevance of intellectual capital (IC) to investors. In this respect, associations of IC with contemporaneous market valuation, stock returns, excess returns and share prices are initially tested. In addition, associations for current IC and future data of the above stock performance indicators are estimated to investigate whether the selected performance indicators have delayed response to IC. Pulic’s VAICTM method is selected to measure IC and fixed effects panel regressions are used to analyse data of 191 NYSE listed banking sector firms over 2000-2011. Results of contemporaneous analysis fail to establish conclusive associations between IC and selected stock performance indicators. Analyses to test the delayed reactions evident that contemporaneous IC relates significantly negatively with market valuation and stock returns, and significantly positively with excess returns and stock prices. This suggests that investors perceive IC as firm-specific risk related investments which account for uncertain future benefits. Evidence for investor relevance based on adopted stock performance indicators in this study, and delayed reaction analysis add new attributes to extant IC performance literature.
Develop Long-Term Competitiveness through IT Assets

How can firms enhance their competitiveness through information technology? After studying IT management practices in various companies, the authors identify three assets that they see as most important to becoming and staying competitive. The human asset is an IT staff that consistently solves business problems and addresses business opportunities through information technology. IT professionals need up-to-date technical skills; an understanding of the business, which comes from client interaction; and the ability to solve problems. The technology asset ? sharable technical platforms and databases ? is essential to integrating systems and making IT applications cost effective. Firms must specify what kinds of data to share, how to store them, where to locate servers, and how to support applications and technologies. They must also establish standards that limit the range of technologies that the IT staff must support. The relationship asset implies the risk and responsibility for effectively applying IT that business and IT must share. Top management must be involved in establishing IT priorities and forming steering committees that set the tone for a cooperative IT-business relationship. Ross et al. discuss the interdependencies among the three assets, using many examples from their study. They suggest that IT and business executives should constantly assess the status of the IT assets in their firms by using the questionnaire provided. Next they should identify an action plan based on their position ? sinking, drifting, luffing, and cruising ? in relation to the competition. A firm's asset base needs to be carefully balanced; building and leveraging IT assets, according to the authors, is an organizationwide responsibility.
Personal Names of the Pentateuch in the Northwest Semitic Context: A Comparative Study

ABSTRACT The personal names of the Pentateuch (the first 11 chapters excluded) have not very often been under systematic scientific investigations. The topic is interesting from the points of view of linguistics, onomastics, theology and ethnohistory. The anthroponyms of the Pentateuch are compared with personal names found from the 2nd millennium BCE (from Amorite, Ugaritic and Amarna Canaanite sources) and with anthroponyms from extrabiblical and biblical Hebrew sources, as well as with Phoenician sources of the first half of the 1st millennium. The conclusion is that the anthroponyms of the Pentateuch reflect the onomasticon of the second millennium, having slightly modified typological and lexical roots in the same Northwest Semitic entity as Amorite, Amarna Canaanite and Ugaritic personal names.
Co-occurring Words: Finding Information About Alternatives to Animal Testing.

A collection of co-occurring words has been gathered from a small database of abstracts about alternatives to skin irritation testing by using Boolean logic. Words were selected according to a strategy based on methodology. Such words and their co-occurrences may be considered an archival code by which data that describe alternatives to skin irritation testing can be more readily recognised. As such, they can be used to enhance the efficiency with which information about this area of alternatives to animal testing is found in journal articles, databases and Web sites.
Selective Learning‐by‐Exporting: Firm Size and Product Versus Process Innovation

We further examine the ‘learning-by-exporting’ phenomenon, suggesting that firms gain from the learning opportunity of foreign markets, as they make choices that better fit the specific needs of their innovation strategies. We contend that firm size affects these needs, with large firms being more inclined to pursue process innovations, while SMEs focus on product innovations. Using a panel of Spanish firms (1990–2002), we find evidence consistent with our hypotheses. Large firms engage in more process innovation once they enter export markets, with the effect being most pronounced two years after the entry. SMEs, conversely, start pursuing more product innovation before they enter the export markets. This last pattern seems to indicate an ‘innovating-for-export-markets’ relationship.
Reliability functions and optimal decisions using condition data for EDF primary pumps

There are many examples in which proportional hazards modelling (PHM) is used to accurately model the effects of the operating environment on an item's lifetime. Using such techniques it is possible to find an economically optimal moment of replacement based on condition monitoring data. However, in a nuclear power plant, the problem is somewhat different as it is not possible to stop the process and perform preventive maintenance at the most economical moment in time. The problem of interest in such cases has more to do with whether the item will last until the next scheduled plant shutdown or not. This paper presents some developed and implemented theory to calculate the conditional reliability function of an item given the current equipment age and the current values of the condition-monitoring variables. A case study of a shaft seal for a reactor cooling pump (RCP) using data from several French nuclear power plants operated by the Electricite de France (EDF) is also presented
Soft Information and Loan Supply in the Crisis: Evidence from the Credit Files of a Large Bank

Using a large database built from the credit files of UniCredit we focus on loans to small businesses at the peak of the crisis. We study the determinants of the worsening of financial tension up to March 2009 for those customers experiencing (or close to) financial tension already at the end of December 2008. We find that, controlling for internal ratings, financial tension less likely worsened for the customers enjoying a longer-term relationship. This evidence suggests that during the crisis this large bank used soft information to shift its loan supply toward borrowers with lower ex ante asymmetries of information.
Metabolic control of the Escherichia coli universal stress protein response through fructose‐6‐phosphate

The universal stress protein (Usp) superfamily encompasses a conserved group of proteins involved in stress resistance, adaptation to energy deficiency, cell motility and adhesion, and is found in all kingdoms of life. The paradigm usp gene, uspA, of Escherichia coli is transcriptionally activated by a large variety of stresses, and the alarmone ppGpp is required for this activation. Here, we show that the uspA gene is also regulated by an intermediate of the glycolytic/gluconeogenic pathways. Specifically, mutations and conditions resulting in fructose‐6‐phosphate (F‐6‐P) accumulation elicit superinduction of uspA upon carbon starvation, whereas genetic manipulations reducing the pool size of F‐6‐P have the opposite effect. This metabolic control of uspA does not act via ppGpp. Other, but not all, usp genes of the usp superfamily are similarly affected by alterations in F‐6‐P levels. We suggest that alterations in the pool size of phosphorylated sugars of the upper glycolytic pathway may ensure accumulation of required survival proteins preceding the complete depletion of the external carbon source. Indeed, we show that uspA is, in fact, induced before the carbon source is depleted from the medium.
An Adjuvant-Free Mouse Model of Tree Nut Allergy Using Hazelnut as a Model Tree Nut

Background: Tree nut allergy, a major group of food allergy, is often linked to fatal or near-fatal systemic anaphylaxis. Currently, an adjuvant-free mouse model to study tree nut hypersensitivity is unavailable. Here we tested the hypothesis that transdermal exposure to hazelnut, a model tree nut, without the use of an adjuvant is sufficient to sensitize mice for immediate hypersensitivity reaction to oral hazelnut challenge. Methods: BALB/c mice were repeatedly exposed to hazelnut protein via the transdermal route and systemic allergic and anaphylactic responses were studied. Results: Transdermal exposure to hazelnut protein elicited robust systemic IgE response in a dose-dependent manner with immunological memory. Oral challenge of transdermally sensitized mice with hazelnut protein resulted in immediate (30 min after the challenge) clinical signs of systemic anaphylaxis as measured by significant clinical scores and drop in rectal temperature. Clinical hypersensitivity reaction was associated with severe pathological changes in the small intestine. Hazelnut-allergic but not control mice exhibited in vivo activation of GATA-3 and hazelnut-driven recall IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13 response by splenocytes, thus elucidating the underlying mechanism of hazelnut allergy development in this model. Conclusions: These data suggest that (1) transdermal exposure to hazelnut protein is sufficient to activate the key immune pathways necessary for sensitizing mice for clinical immediate hypersensitivity reactions and (2) this mouse model may be useful for further basic and applied studies on tree nut allergy, especially because it does not depend on an adjuvant for eliciting immediate hypersensitivity reactions to nut protein.
Aliasing is Good for You: Joint Registration and Reconstruction for Super-Resolution

In many applications, the sampling frequency is limited by the physical characteristics of the components: the pixel pitch, the rate of the A/D converter, etc. A low-pass filter is then often applied before the sampling operation to avoid aliasing. However, when multiple copies are available, it is possible to use the information that is inherently present in the aliasing to reconstruct a higher resolution signal. If the different copies have unknown relative offsets, this is a non-linear problem in the offsets and the signal coefficients. They are not easily separable in the set of equations describing the super-resolution problem. Thus, we perform joint registration and reconstruction from multiple unregistered sets of samples. We give a mathematical formulation for the problem when there are M sets of N samples of a signal that is described by L expansion coefficients. We prove that the solution of the registration and reconstruction problem is generically unique if MN >= L+M-1. We describe two subspace-based methods to compute this solution. Their complexity is analyzed, and some heuristic methods are proposed. Finally, some numerical simulation results on one and two-dimensional signals are given to show the performance of these methods.