Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The worst-case risk of a portfolio

We show how to compute in a numerically efficient way the maximum risk of a portfolio, given uncertainty in the means and covariances of asset returns. This is a semidefinite programming problem, and is readily solved by interior-point methods for convex optimization developed in recent years. While not as general, this approach is more accurate and much faster than Monte Carlo methods. The computational effort required grows gracefully, so that very large problems can be handled. The proposed approach is extended to portfolio selection, allowing for the design of portfolios which are robust with respect to model uncertainty. • Contact: mlobo@duke.edu • First draft: February 1999; Second draft: August 1999; This version: September 2000 • Research supported in part by NSF Grant ECS-9707111, by AFOSR Grant F4962098-1-0147, by MURI Grant 49620-95-1-0525, and by the Portuguese Government under Praxis XXI
Multicenter development and validation of a risk stratification tool for ward patients.

RATIONALE Most ward risk scores were created using subjective opinion in individual hospitals and only use vital signs. OBJECTIVES To develop and validate a risk score using commonly collected electronic health record data. METHODS All patients hospitalized on the wards in five hospitals were included in this observational cohort study. Discrete-time survival analysis was used to predict the combined outcome of cardiac arrest (CA), intensive care unit (ICU) transfer, or death on the wards. Laboratory results, vital signs, and demographics were used as predictor variables. The model was developed in the first 60% of the data at each hospital and then validated in the remaining 40%. The final model was compared with the Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and the net reclassification index (NRI). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS A total of 269,999 patient admissions were included, with 424 CAs, 13,188 ICU transfers, and 2,840 deaths occurring during the study period. The derived model was more accurate than the MEWS in the validation dataset for all outcomes (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.83 vs. 0.71 for CA; 0.75 vs. 0.68 for ICU transfer; 0.93 vs. 0.88 for death; and 0.77 vs. 0.70 for the combined outcome; P value < 0.01 for all comparisons). This accuracy improvement was seen across all hospitals. The NRI for the electronic Cardiac Arrest Risk Triage compared with the MEWS was 0.28 (0.18-0.38), with a positive NRI of 0.19 (0.09-0.29) and a negative NRI of 0.09 (0.09-0.09). CONCLUSIONS We developed an accurate ward risk stratification tool using commonly collected electronic health record variables in a large multicenter dataset. Further study is needed to determine whether implementation in real-time would improve patient outcomes.
Getting Carried Away in Auctions as Imperfect Value Discovery

Bidders have to decide whether and when to incur the cost of estimating their own values in auctions. This can explain why people seem to get carried away, bidding higher than they had planned before the auction and then finding they had paid more than the object was worth to them. Even when such behavior is rational, ex ante, it may be perceived as irrational if one ignores other situations in which people revise their bid ceilings upwards and are happy when that enables them to win the auction.
Stress-induced hyperthermia in the rat: comparison of classical and novel recording methods

Stress causes a rise in body temperature in laboratory animals (stress-induced hyperthermia). However, the direct effect of common stressors in animal research, i.e. transportation between holding and test rooms or isolation of animals, on body temperature has not been investigated to its full extent. To address this question, it is important to have a reliable and simple monitoring technique, which does not induce stress itself. In the present study, we investigated stress-related changes in body temperature of F344/Hw rats after (1) moving the cage within the holding room, (2) moving the cage from the holding room to another test room and (3) social deprivation (isolation). A combination of two different body temperature recording methods was used to clarify their accuracy and stress-inductive character: rectal temperature recording and peritoneal implanted temperature sensors (Thermochron iButtons). The results demonstrate that (1) different stressors induce a significant rise in body temperature, (2) which is detectable for more than 60 min and (3) it is of importance to standardize temperature recording methods in order to avoid confounding effects of the recording method itself. Furthermore, Thermochron iButtons are more accurate and reliable for body temperature studies than rectal recordings.
Polar lattices for strong secrecy over the mod-Λ Gaussian wiretap channel

Polar lattices, which are constructed from polar codes, are provably good for the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. In this work, we propose a new polar lattice construction that achieves the secrecy capacity under the strong secrecy criterion over the mod-Λ Gaussian wiretap channel. This construction leads to an AWGN-good lattice and a secrecy-good lattice simultaneously. The design methodology is mainly based on the equivalence in terms of polarization between the Λ/Λ' channel in lattice coding and the equivalent channel derived from the chain rule of mutual information in multilevel coding.
QRP: An improved secure authentication method using QR codes

It seems quite obvious that any online service that aims to be secure nowadays should seriously consider implementing a strong authentication method. This paper presents the design and implementation of QRP, an open source, proof-of-concept authentication system that uses a two-factor authentication by combining a password and a camera-equipped mobile phone, acting as an authentication token. QRP is extremely secure as all the sensitive information stored and transmitted is encrypted, but it is also an easy to use and cost-efficient solution. QRP is portable and can be used securely in untrusted computers. Finally, QRP is able to successfully authenticate even when the phone is offline.
Towards a Fully Abstract Semantics for Object-Oriented Program Components Preliminary Version Arnd

Behavioral semantics for components abstract from implementation details and describe the components’ behavior independent of the components’ implementations. It provides an important foundation for behavioral substitutability and interface specifications. In this paper, we develop and investigate a behavioral semantics for a sequential class-based object-oriented language with aliasing, subclassing, and dynamic dispatch. The implementation of a component includes an owner class C and the classes and interfaces used by C. A component instance consists of a dynamically evolving set of objects with a clear boundary to the environment. Behavioral semantics is expressed in terms of the messages crossing the boundary. The types of objects that can cross a boundary are described by the component signature. We develop a light-weight object-oriented component model and discuss substitutability. We present an object-oriented core language supporting this model and define its operational semantics in a standard way. As a central step towards a behavioral semantics, we develop a message semantics that assigns to each component its part of the heap and stack, localizes object creation to components, and treats inter-component communication by messages. We show that the message semantics is equivalent to the standard semantics. By abstracting from the component states, we obtain a behavioral semantics. Component behaviors are defined as partial functions from incoming messages to outgoing messages. The semantic domain of these behaviors is independent of possible component environments and implementations. We proof that the behavioral semantics is fully abstract with respect to the operational semantics.
Easy cross parameterization for articulated shapes

This paper presents a novel interactive system for establishing compatible meshes for articulated shapes. Given two mesh surfaces, our system automatically generates both the global level component correspondence and the local level feature correspondence. Users can use some sketch-based tools to specify the correspondence in an intuitive and easy way. Then all the other vertex correspondences could be generated automatically. The cross parameterization preserves both high level and low level features of the shapes. The technique showed in the system benefits various applications in graphics including mesh interpolation, deformation transfer, and texture transfer.
A window-based fast-pacing mice flow transmission mechanism for Virtual Reality Environment

Massive information, Massive users and many network-based information service systems should be the major features of the digital museum in future. Network-based Virtual Reality (VR) in the digital museum systems should generate a huge amounts of mice flows. These mice flows determine the user experence of the VR system. The most important factor which affects the perfomance of interactive applications such as network digital museum is the duration time of mice flow. The researches before did not reveal the nature reasons for the duration time of mice flow: the slow pace of ACK-based transmission and the conservative packet transmission strategy of window-based. This paper proposes a window-based fast-pacing TCP (WF-TCP) transmission mechanism for mice flow. The simulations show that in the condition of network is not busy, the loss rate of flows keep almostly the same, the duration time of mice flow can shorten by WF-TCP up to about 20% at most; in the condition of network is busy, the duriation time can be also shorten obviouly, only little growth is taken to the loss rate.
Silicon complexity for maximum likelihood MIMO detection using spherical decoding

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless systems increase spectral efficiency by transmitting independent signals on multiple transmit antennas in the same channel bandwidth. The key to using MIMO is in building a receiver that can decorrelate the spatial signatures on the receiver antenna array. Original MIMO detection schemes such as the vertical Bell Labs layered space-time (VBLAST) detector use a nulling and cancellation process for detection that is sub-optimal as compared to constrained maximum likelihood (ML) techniques. This paper presents a silicon complexity analysis of ML search techniques for MIMO as applied to the HSDPA extension of UMTS. For MIMO constellations of 4/spl times/4 QPSK or lower, it is possible to perform an exhaustive ML search in today's silicon technologies. When the search complexity exceeds technology limits for high complexity MIMO constellations, it is possible to apply spherical decoding techniques to achieve near-ML performance. The paper presents an architecture for a 4/spl times/4 16QAM MIMO spherical decoder with soft outputs that achieves 38.8 Mb/s over a 5-MHz channel using only approximately 10 mm/sup 2/ in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process.
Communities Evolution Analysis Based on Events in Dynamic Complex Network

In the dynamic complex networks, the community structure is constantly changing, such as generation, maintaining, merger, die, fusion, etc. These changes will lead to the dynamic evolution of the structure and morphology in an entire community. Current static community division methods can not be well used to analyze the dynamic network evolution. In this paper, based on events in the community evolution, firstly three evolutionary relationships are defined, as well as the definition of community aggregation and community divergence. Then based on the idea of time sheet and the overlapping community division algorithm, dynamic complex networks are divided. The whole evolution of the dynamic community is portrayed, through the comprehensive analysis of the evolution relationships of the community on the adjacent time sheet. And according to values of community aggregation and community divergence, a great polymerization or large dispersion will be found in the community evolution process, so major events hidden in the data can be revealed.
Priming, Issue Ownership, and Party Support: The Electoral Gains of an Issue-Friendly Media Agenda

Issue ownership theory posits a positive relationship between electoral support and public attention to issues that a party “owns. ” We investigate this key prediction of the issue ownership theory in a dynamic analysis of 20 years of party support and media coverage across multiple parties and issues. The results provide support for the basic electoral implication of issue ownership theory, showing that increased media attention to owned issues increases support for the issue owners. Furthermore, the article demonstrates that the effect of the ownership mechanism materializes differently for opposition and government parties. Opposition parties benefit from media attention to owned issues without losing ground when news concentrates on issues owned by government parties, while government parties, always struggling with the electoral cost of ruling, lose votes when news about opposition-owned issues increases without gaining support when the media agenda is “issue-friendly. ”
A development-oriented DSS evaluation approach: A case demonstration for conceptual assessment

As a subset of the Information systems (IS) discipline, Decision Support Systems (DSS) development research needs a broader conceptual lens in order to evaluate design qualities specific to DSS. This paper presents a development-oriented approach for evaluating DSS applications. Based on a design science mental model proposed by Peffers, Tuunanen, Rothenberger and Chatterjeea (2008), our study outlines a new application area of this conceptual approach through a case demonstration of DSS development through various design checkpoints. To assess the proposed developmentoriented evaluation strategy the paper also describes a qualitative investigation that has been undertaken to assess the conceptual approach with target industry DSS users and developers. The findings suggest that this strategy is of use for improving the overall design qualities in every phase of DSS development, and could be useful for evaluating DSS design with target users and DSS designers within a socio-technical design context. Keywords: Design Science Research, Evaluation Methods, Decision Support Systems
Game Engine Virtual Reality with CaveUT

CaveUT, an open source freeware project, uses game technology to make projection-based virtual reality affordable and accessible. The CaveUT works well for low-cost displays and supports real-time spatial tracking and stereographic imaging. Computer games with the most advanced simulation and graphics usually employ a game engine, a commercially available software package that handles basic functions. Based on the Unreal Tournament the CaveUT game engine gives developers a high-performance, low-cost VR alternative. VR applications developed with CaveUT inherit all the Unreal Engine's capabilities along with Unreal Tournament's authoring support, open source code, content library, and large user community.
Exploring the Dynamics of Variational Inequality Games with Non-Concave Utilities

Variational inequality (VI) theory has proven useful in modeling and analyzing a variety economic markets. However, in order to ensure the analysis is tractable, models are usually constrained to an unrealistic regime of concave utilities and monotone operators undermining the reliability of real-world conclusions such as the uniqueness and location of equilibria. We argue that machine learning can help address this issue. In this paper, we ignore typical monotonicity requirements and construct a generic, yet more realistic market model possessing several desirable qualities. We then borrow a tool from dynamical systems to cope with our model’s lack of theoretical guarantees. Additionally, in order to handle the large size of standard VI game formulations, we further enhance the tool to accommodate more sophisticated numerical algorithms and propose a heuristic for efficient use of generated trajectories. We illustrate these enhancements by applying the resulting pipeline in the context of cloud services.
Voice call quality using 802.11e on a wireless mesh network

Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) provide an affordable solution for last mile network access. They also allow for extension of a network by configuring a Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) where it may otherwise be physically infeasible or cost prohibitive to do so. With the increasing use of real-time applications such as video conferencing and Voice over IP (VoIP), networks are stressed to guarantee QoS requirements for these applications. Examples of key requirements include bounded delay and packet loss ratios. Addressing this issue in WLANs, the IEEE 802.11e amendment was proposed to provide a QoS mechanism. However, the performance of 802.11e in meshed environments is yet to be studied. In this work, we study VoIP call quality in a meshed environment with provisions for QoS. We study the call quality and throughput of background traffic in an experimental WMN testbed in order to test how well the IEEE 802.11e QoS provisions support voice calls. Call quality is tested in different configurations and scenarios. We study the effect of the number of wireless hops on VoIP call quality. In addition, we investigate the number of VoIP calls that can be supported simultaneously for different numbers of wireless hops. We also study how fairly the network treats different calls in different configurations. Then, we look at how much effective bandwidth a VoIP call uses on the network. Finally, we examine the VoIP call quality of different calls when calls have different QoS parameters and study the effect that a busy central node has on traffic passing through it. We provide suggestions to improve call quality on a WMN and hint at possible future work.
Artificial Intelligent Techniques with Watermarking

229 Artificial Intelligent Techniques with Watermarking Nada N. Seleem Baydaa I. Khaleel Nada_N_S@uomosul.edu. iq baydaaibraheem@uomosul.edu. iq Shahbaa I. Khaleel shahbaaibrkh@uomosul.edu. iq College of Computer Sciences and Mathematics University of Mosul Received on: 18/08/2008 Accepted on: 23/11/2008 ABSTRACT This research presents three robust blind watermarking algorithms in the discrete wavelet transform and spatial domain based on neural network and fuzzy logic artificial intelligent techniques. To enhance the performance of the watermarking system the first algorithm is developed by combining Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural network with Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) using (DWT-RBFW) algorithm for embedding and extracting of watermark. The second developed (RBFW) algorithm used RBF neural network for embedding and extracting of watermark based on intensity of whole image. The third developed (FL-EXPW) watermarking method is based on fuzzy logic and expert system techniques and it’s the best algorithm among the three methods. The developed watermarking algorithms are robust against various attacks signal processing operations such as additive noise and jpeg compression, and geometric transformations. Keyword: Watermarking system, Artificial intelligent techniques, Fuzzy logic, Artificial neural network. ةيئاملا ةملاعلا يف يعانطصلاا ءاكذلا تاينقت مادختسا ميلس تمعن ىدن ليلخ ميهاربا ءاديب ليلخ ميهاربا ءابهش تايضايرلاو بوساحلا مولع ةيلك ، لصوملا ةعماج
The Semaphorin 3A Inhibitor SM-345431 Accelerates Peripheral Nerve Regeneration and Sensitivity in a Murine Corneal Transplantation Model

Background Peripheral nerve damage of the cornea is a complication following surgery or infection which may lead to decreased visual function. We examined the efficacy of the semaphorin 3A inhibitor, SM-345431, in promoting regeneration of peripheral nerves in a mouse corneal transplantation model. Methodology/Principal Findings P0-Cre/Floxed-EGFP mice which express EGFP in peripheral nerves cells were used as recipients of corneal transplantation with syngeneic wild-type mouse cornea donors. SM-345431 was administered subconjunctivally every 2 days while control mice received vehicle only. Mice were followed for 3 weeks and the length of regenerating nerves was measured by EGFP fluorescence and immunohistochemistry against βIII tubulin. Cornea sensitivity was also measured by the Cochet-Bonnet esthesiometer. CD31 staining was used to determine corneal neovascularization as a possible side effect of SM-345431. Regeneration of βIII tubulin positive peripheral nerves was significantly higher in SM-345431 treated mice compared to control. Furthermore, corneal sensitivity significantly improved in the SM-345431 group by 3 weeks after transplantation. Neovascularization was limited to the peripheral cornea with no difference between SM-345431 group and control. Conclusions/Significance Subconjunctival injections of SM-345431 promoted a robust network of regenerating nerves as well as functional recovery of corneal sensation in a mouse keratoplasty model, suggesting a novel therapeutic strategy for treating neurotrophic corneal disease.
Suspicious Object Recognition Method in Video Stream Based on Visual Attention

We proposed a state-of-art method for intelligent object recognition and video surveillance based on human visual attention. Bottom-up and top-down attention are applied respectively in the process of acquiring interested object (saliency map) and object recognition. The revision of 4-channel PFT method is proposed in bottom-up attention, which enhances the speed and accuracy. Inhibit of return (IOR) is applied in judging the sequence of saliency object “pop-out”. Considering the basic characters of human vision, we also apply the rule that object looks small in the distance and big on the contrary. Euclidean distance of color distribution, object center coordinates and speed are considered in judging whether the target is match and “suspicious. ” The extensive test on videos and images show that our method in video analysis has high accuracy and fast speed compared with traditional method. The method can be applied into many fields such as video surveillance and security.
T Cell–specific Inactivation of the Interleukin 10 Gene in Mice Results in Enhanced T Cell Responses but Normal Innate Responses to Lipopolysaccharide or Skin Irritation

Interleukin (IL)-10 is a regulator of inflammatory responses and is secreted by a variety of different cell types including T cells. T regulatory cells have been shown to suppress immune responses by IL-10–dependent, but also IL-10–independent, mechanisms. Herein, we address the role of T cell–derived IL-10 in mice with an inactivation of the IL-10 gene restricted to T cells generated by Cre/loxP-mediated targeting of the IL-10 gene. Splenocytes from this T cell–specific mutant secrete increased amounts of proinflammatory cytokines after activation in vitro compared with show enhanced contact hypersensitivity reactions, and succumb to severe immunopathology upon infection with Toxoplasma gondii. Despite intact IL-10 genes in other cell types, the dysregulation of T cell responses observed in the T cell–specific IL-10 mutant closely resembles the phenotype in complete IL-10 deficiency. However, in contrast to complete IL-10 deficiency, sensitivity to endotoxic shock and irritant responses of the skin are not enhanced in the T cell–specific IL-10 mutant. Our data highlight the importance of T cell–derived IL-10 in the regulation of T cell responses and demonstrate that endotoxic shock and the irritant response of the skin are controlled by IL-10 from other cell types.