Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling the horizon-dependent risk premium in the forex market: evidence from survey data

Using Consensus Economics survey data on experts' expectations, we aim to model the 3- and 12-month ahead ex-ante risk premia on the Yen/USD and the British Pound/USD exchange markets. For each market and at a given horizon, we show that the risk premium is well determined by the conditional expected variance of the change in the real exchange rate, agents' real net market position in assets and a constant composite risk aversion coefficient, as suggested by a two-country portfolio asset pricing model. The expected variance depends on the past values of the observed variance and the unobservable real net market position is estimated as a state variable using the Kalman filter methodology. We found that the trends of our estimated horizon-specific net market positions are consistent with the ones of the observed short term aggregate net market positions calculated using the U.S. Treasury International Capital System dataset. Moreover, we show that the ex-post premia tend to adjust towards the ex-ante values, suggesting that experts' beliefs provide a relevant information to the market. These results bring new responses to the difficulties reported by the widespread ex-post risk premium literature and enhances the usefulness of survey data in modelling the risk premium.
Study of immiscible liquid-liquid microfluidic flow using SPH-based explicit numerical simulation

ii Achievements . iii Acknowledgements . iv List of Figures . vi List of Tables . x Abbreviations . xi Nomenclatures . xii Table of contents . xiv Introduction . 1 Chapter 1: Literature Review.6 Chapter 2: 2.1 Microfluidics . 6 A brief history of microfluidics . 6 2.1. 1 Advanced techniques to make microfluidics . 7 2.1. 2 Brief overview of current microfluidic flows . 7 2.1. 3 2.2 Multiphase microfluidics . 8 2.3 Immiscible Liquid-Liquid Microfluidics . 8 Experimental study of immiscible liquid-liquid microfluidic system . 12 2.3. 1 2.4 Numerical study of immiscible liquid-liquid microfluidic system . 15 2.5 Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) Method . 21 General SPH Formulation . 23 2.5. 1 Neighbour searching algorithm . 25 2.5. 2 SPH Algorithm . 26 2.5. 3 2.6 Conclusion . 26 Modelling of Immiscible Liquid-Liquid Systems by Smoothed Particle Chapter 3: Hydrodynamics . 28 3.
Incidence and recurrence of boils and abscesses within the first year: a cohort study in UK primary care.

BACKGROUND Boils and abscesses are common in primary care but the burden of recurrent infection is unknown. AIM To investigate the incidence of and risk factors for recurrence of boil or abscess for individuals consulting primary care. DESIGN AND SETTING Cohort study using electronic health records from primary care in the UK. METHOD The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database was used to identify patients who had consulted their GP for a boil or abscess. Poisson regression was used to examine the relationship between age, sex, social deprivation, and consultation and to calculate the incidence of, and risk factors for, repeat consultation for a boil or abscess. RESULTS Overall, 164 461 individuals were identified who consulted their GP for a boil or abscess between 1995 and 2010. The incidence of first consultation for a boil or abscess was 512 (95% CI = 509 to 515) per 100 000 person-years in females and 387 (95% CI = 385 to 390) per 100 000 person-years in males. First consultations were most frequent in younger age groups (16-34 years) and those with the greatest levels of social deprivation. The rate of repeat consultation for a new infection during follow up was 107.5 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 105.6 to 109.4) per 1000 person-years. Obesity (relative risk [RR] 1.3, 95% CI = 1.2 to 1.3), diabetes (RR 1.3, 95% CI = 1.2 to 1.3), smoking (RR 1.3, 95% CI = 1.2 to 1.4), age <30 years (RR 1.2, 95% CI = 1.2 to 1.3), and prior antibiotic use (RR 1.4, 95% CI = 1.3-1.4) were all associated with repeat consultation for a boil or abscess. CONCLUSION Ten percent of patients with a boil or abscess develop a repeat boil or abscess within 12 months. Obesity, diabetes, young age, smoking, and prescription of an antibiotic in the 6 months before initial presentation were independently associated with recurrent infection, and may represent options for prevention.
Modelling service excellence : the case of the UK banking sector

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[Beare-Stevenson cutis gyrata syndrome].

Many of the characteristic facial features of Beare-Stevenson cutis gyrata syndrome result from the premature fusion of the skull bones. The head is unable to grow normally, which leads to a cloverleaf-shaped skull, wide-set and bulging eyes, ear abnormalities, and an underdeveloped upper jaw. Early fusion of the skull bones also affects the growth of the brain, causing delayed development and intellectual disability.
Use of Markov Chains for Modeling Processes of Strategic Planning of Innovative Activity of the Enterprise

The article investigates the processes of strategic planning of innovative activity of the enterprise as an activity to determine the directions of enterprise innovative activity (strategy), which would be consistent with the available resource provision, innovative potential of the enterprise and meet the needs of the market and have a reasonable use of the mathematical apparatus of Markov chains for its modeling. The article gives examples of practical use of Markov chains in the management of innovative projects, forecasting the structure of the existing land fund of Ukraine, in the tasks of buying and selling shares, allocation of financial resources between executors of investment projects in a closed system, etc. Markov chain is used to model strategic planning of innovative activity of the enterprise.
Insights into the Single-Cell Reproduction Cycle of Members of the Family Bromoviridae: Lessons from the Use of Protoplast Systems

The development of single-cell protoplast systems is certainly one of the milestones in the history of plant virology, allowing for the analysis of viral molecular processes at the cellular level. The use of plant cell-based systems in the study of the Bromoviridae family of multipartite single-stranded plant RNA viruses facilitated the discovery and dissection of viral processes engaged in the single-cell reproduction cycle: replication, transcription, protein synthesis, movement, virion assembly, and RNA recombination. This review summarizes the application of protoplast systems to the analysis of consecutive steps of the bromovirus life cycle, emphasizing their temporal and spatial patterns during virus multiplication. Our knowledge of viral infection at the individual cell level
Differentiation between electron transport sensing and proton motive force sensing by the Aer and Tsr receptors for aerotaxis

Aerotaxis (oxygen‐seeking) behaviour in Escherichia coli is a response to changes in the electron transport system and not oxygen per se. Because changes in proton motive force (PMF) are coupled to respiratory electron transport, it is difficult to differentiate between PMF, electron transport or redox, all primary candidates for the signal sensed by the aerotaxis receptors, Aer and Tsr. We constructed electron transport mutants that produced different respiratory H+/e– stoichiometries. These strains expressed binary combinations of one NADH dehydrogenase and one quinol oxidase. We then introduced either an aer or tsr mutation into each mutant to create two sets of electron transport mutants. In vivo H+/e– ratios for strains grown in glycerol medium ranged from 1.46 ± 0.18–3.04 ± 0.47, but rates of respiration and growth were similar. The PMF jump in response to oxygen was proportional to the H+/e– ratio in each set of mutants (r2 = 0.986–0.996). The length of Tsr‐mediated aerotaxis responses increased with the PMF jump (r2 = 0.988), but Aer‐mediated responses did not correlate with either PMF changes (r2 = 0.297) or the rate of electron transport (r2 = 0.066). Aer‐mediated responses were linked to NADH dehydrogenase I, although there was no absolute requirement. The data indicate that Tsr responds to changes in PMF, but strong Aer responses to oxygen are associated with redox changes in NADH dehydrogenase I.
Gold nanorod coating influence on effectiveness and safety in photoacoustic applications

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is based on the detection of ultrasound signals emitted by physiological targets that underwent a pulsed laser irradiation. Gold nanoparticles are being currently studied by several research groups as potential molecular contrast agents for PA imaging. Aim of this paper was to test whether a highly biocompatible PEG (polyethylene glycol) coating can improve the stability of gold nanorods (GNRs) under laser irradiation and their effectiveness as contrast agents for PA imaging with respect to uncoated GNRs. Uncoated GNRs and PEG-coated GNRs were synthesized with the same size (48 × 7 nm) and very similar absorption spectra (main peak at 1055 nm). GNR stability was evaluated as a function of both laser fluence (range 40-100 mJ/cm2) and exposure duration (30-60 s), monitoring optical and morphological GNR changes. PA effectiveness was then tested using a custom-designed phantom which allowed laser irradiation of GNR solutions of variable concentration contained in a tissue-mimicking hydrogel and acquisition of the corresponding PA signals through a clinically-available ultrasound device. Obtained results showed that absorption spectrum of uncoated GNRs was significantly deteriorated after laser exposure already in the mildest adopted conditions (30-s exposure to 40-mJ/cm2 laser), while PEG-coated GNRs always resulted much more stable, with negligible peak intensity decrements in the mildest irradiation conditions. TEM analysis confirmed the higher morphological stability of PEGcoated GNRs, which also resulted more effective as PA contrast enhancers, since their PA signal intensity was always significantly higher than the corresponding value measured for uncoated GNRs.
Reengineering a Software Review Process with the Functions Based Process Analysis (FPA) Method

With the current popularity and success of the World Wide Web, the question. How can the WWW technology improve existing processes, is in the forefront of many managers' mind. This paper examines this question in the context of the software review process and proposes a method that helps us systematically answer it. The method, Function-based Process Analysis (FPA), represents a process as a function lattice, in which the functions that the process is to serve together with the subfunctions that implement these functions form a lattice. In FPA a technology like the WWW is also represented as a function lattice. FPA then exploits the uniform representation of both a process and a technology to help us systematically identify and examine the aspects of the process that can benefit most from the given technology. The paper illustrates these claims by applying the method and generating WWW-based alternatives to a software review process currently employed at a major company. More valuable than the specific alternatives generated, however, is the systematic way that the method provides for examining the relation between a process and a technology as well as the framework in which the relevant issues can be placed.
Psychiatric comorbidity in a girl with Saethre-Chotzen syndrome.

Department of Pediatrics, North Dakota Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Center, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Medical Genetics and Department of Neuroscience, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, North Dakota, USA Correspondence to Larry Burd, PhD, North Dakota Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Center, 501 North Columbia Road, Stop 9037, Grand Forks, ND 58202, USA Tel: + 1 701 777 3683; fax: + 1 701 777 4474; e-mail: laburd@medicine.nodak. edu
Why and How TQM Leads to Performance Improvements

Evidence shows that total quality management (TQM) improves organizational performance, but researchers disagree on why and how such improvements occur and on who really benefits (shareholders, employees, customers, society). This study tests hypotheses relating to TQM adoption and the path from wealth creation to wealth appropriation, making a distinction between shareholders' profit maximization and stakeholders' wealth maximization as drivers of the adoption. The authors estimate a model of the direct and indirect consequences of TQM adoption on organizational performance, and then test for a normative versus instrumental motivation driving the TQM adoption decision. They test their hypotheses using a sample of 208 Spanish firms analyzed with structural equation modeling. The results indicate that TQM improves operational performance and all stakeholders share the benefits of this improvement. The authors explain the path from TQM adoption to firm performance, clarify the goals firms may be pursuing when adopting organizational innovations such as TQM, and identify who the beneficiaries are and why and how they benefit from TQM adoption.
AKING THE TECHNOLOGY FIT THE PEDAGOGY

In this paper we explore whether technology provides the teaching profession with a new form of pedagogy, often referred to as ‘e-learning’, or is merely an attempt to ‘reinvent the wheel’. Salmon’s e-tivities, Laurillard’s conversational framework and others have helped to further the case in favour of a new pedagogy. Distance learning particularly has been has able to derive considerable benefit from the opportunities involved. However, is ‘the Internet’ nothing more than an all-embracing metaphor for a multitude of traditional teaching locations, for example the classroom, campus and the lecture theatre? We find these ‘learning environments’ can exist wherever we want them, as virtual, mobile, personal or even real locations. Has the online world bridged the gap for distance teaching, drawing it closer to traditional forms of teaching, and therefore traditional pedagogy? Does it mean that there are more opportunities for HEIs to move into distance learning provision?
An Investigative Laboratory Exercise Examining the Cell Signaling and Regulatory Properties of Neurons in the Regenerating Forelimbs of the Axolotl Ambystoma mexicanum

Many students understand the electrical properties of neurons and can adequately describe the creation and transmission of electrical impulses. However, students often have difficulty when it comes to understanding how neurons have an equally important role in cell signaling. This latter function is crucial in the establishment of proper cell fate during regeneration. I have devised a lab that includes in its goals: 1) an investigation into the cell signaling role of neurons, 2) experience with non-lethal invasive surgery, 3) an opportunity for student-collected data, and 4) the chance to work with charismatic animals. In addition, the exercise provides insight into development because development and regeneration follow similar pathways. The lab also introduces the topic of stem cells. Finally, the eventual regeneration of the denervated limb can provide an opportunity to discuss the mechanisms of nerve repair. A critical event in urodele limb regeneration is the formation of a blastema. This event requires an intact nerve supply. Nerves secrete a substance called the neurotrophic growth factor(s) that appear to stimulate the reentry of blastema cells into the cell cycle, through a complex series of signaling events. In this laboratory exercise, students examine this effect by amputating both front limbs, but denervating only one. They then compare limb regeneration under and exempt from nerve control within the same animal. Students control for denervation using a behavioral assay, and monitor limb growth for six weeks. All sixteen of the surgeries were successful, and all showed the expected difference between the denervated and the control limb.
Nuclear factors in human brain cells bind specifically to the JCV regulatory region.

The human polyomavirus, JCV, differs from other papovaviruses in its tissue tropism for human glial cells. Transcription of the early region of the virus, at least in part, contributes to the tissue specificity of JCV. In this study, we have synthesized oligonucleotides which span the JCV 98 bp repeat unit. Using gel mobility shift and UV cross‐linking assays, we have demonstrated that four proteins from a human fetal brain extract interact specifically with the JCV promoter/enhancer. Two proteins of 82 kd and 78/80 kd recognize the 5′‐ and 3′‐terminal regions of the JCV 98 bp repeat sequence, respectively. The mol. wt of these proteins are similar in HeLa and brain extracts. In contrast, the proteins which recognize the central region of the 98 bp enhancer are distinct in HeLa (85 kd) and fetal brain (45 kd) extracts. The possible role of these proteins in tissue‐specific expression of the JCV early promoter in brain cells is discussed.
Identification of a Nuclear Stat 1 Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase

Identification of a Nuclear Stat1 Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Johanna ten Hoeve, Maria de Jesus Ibarra-Sanchez, Yubin Fu, Wei Zhu, Michel Tremblay, Michael David, and Ke Shuai* Department of Medicine and Department of Biological Chemistry, University of California—Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095; Division of Biology, University of California—San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; and McGill Cancer Centre and Department of Biochemistry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1Y6, Canada
AGV Path Planning in Unknown Environment Using Fuzzy Inference Systems

Path planning is one of the most important fields of research in the area of robotics. In this paper, a path planning method for a certain type of wheeled mobile robots called automated guided vehicles (AGVs) is proposed. The proposed model applies fuzzy control techniques to navigate the AGV in an unknown environment to reach a certain destination. In addition, a new method for escaping local minimums, which may be very critical issue faced by an AGV in an unknown environment, is introduced. Simulation results show satisfactory performance of the proposed method
Bis(9-allyl-6-carboxy-9H-carbazole-3-carboxylato-κ2 O 3,O 3′)diaquazinc

In the title compound, [Zn(C17H12NO4)2(H2O)2], the ZnII atom is located on a twofold rotation axis and is six-coordinated by four carboxylate O atoms from two chelating 9-allyl-6-carboxy-9H-carbazole-3-carboxylate ligands and two O atoms from two water molecules. In the crystal, O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the molecules into a layer structure parallel to (-101).
Twenty-four-week follow-up examination of a leukocytapheresis therapy in rheumatoid arthritis

Several clinical trials have demonstrated that leukocytapheresis (LCAP) is a safe and effective therapy for patients with refractory rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, most of those reports were limited to short-term clinical observation. We have treated 11 RA patients with LCAP and observed them for 24 weeks after the final administration. The 11 cases included 3 diabetes patients, 2 patients with interstitial pneumonia, 1 patient with diffuse panbronchiolitis, and 1 patient with old pulmonary tuberculosis. Alternative therapies for all of these patients were considered difficult. Once-a-week LCAP administration was added for 5 weeks to the previous therapeutic regime in all patients, and the treatment efficacy was prospectively qualified. At 4 weeks after the final LCAP therapy, 8 of the 11 patients (73%) had achieved an American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 20% response, and 3 of the 11 (27%) had achieved both ACR 50% and ACR 70% responses. Although the efficacy decreased after the observation periods, an ACR 20% response was maintained in 5 patients (45%) at 24 weeks. Although only a limited number of patients were examined in this study, the results suggested that LCAP therapy will be beneficial to RA patients, including patients who cannot be treated with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors or conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.
Familial horizontal gaze palsy with progressive scoliosis maps to chromosome 11q23-25

Abstract—Horizontal gaze palsy with progressive scoliosis (HGPS) is a rare, autosomal recessive disorder characterized by a congenital absence of conjugate horizontal eye movement, with progressive scoliosis developing in childhood or adolescence. The authors identified two unrelated consanguineous families with HGPS. Genomewide homozygosity mapping and linkage analysis mapped the disease locus to a 30-cM interval on chromosome 11q23-25 (combined maximum multipoint lod score Z = 5.46).
The effect of DPP‐4 inhibition with sitagliptin on incretin secretion and on fasting and postprandial glucose turnover in subjects with impaired fasting glucose

Objective Low glucagon‐like peptide‐1 (GLP‐1) concentrations have been observed in impaired fasting glucose (IFG). It is uncertain whether these abnormalities contribute directly to the pathogenesis of IFG and impaired glucose tolerance. Dipeptidyl peptidase‐4 (DPP‐4) inhibitors raise incretin hormone concentrations enabling an examination of their effects on glucose turnover in IFG.
Analysis of the murine ecotropic leukemia virus receptor reveals a common biochemical determinant on diverse cell surface receptors that is essential to retrovirus entry

Two residues, tyrosine 235 and glutamic acid 237, of the ecotropic murine leukemia virus receptor (ATRC1) have been shown to be essential for receptor-mediated virus envelope binding and entry. We performed genetic analyses to examine the biochemical contribution of these residues in a productive virus-receptor interaction. Altered ATRC1 receptors bearing either a phenylalanine, a tryptophan, a histidine, or a methionine at position 235 mediated ecotropic virus entry comparable to that mediated by ATRC1. In contrast, altered ATRC1 receptors bearing alanine, threonine, serine, or proline at position 235 exhibited a 300- to 10,000-fold decrease in receptor capability. Furthermore, substitution of tyrosine or phenylalanine into the corresponding position (242) of the homologous human protein that lacks ecotropic virus receptor capability resulted in acquisition of ecotropic virus receptor function comparable to that of ATRC1. Substitution of a tryptophan or a histidine at that position of the human protein, however, resulted in a much-reduced receptor capability, suggesting a preference for a benzene ring in the hydrophobic side chain. A similar analysis of proteins substituted at position 237 revealed that aspartic acid, but not arginine or lysine, can functionally substitute for glutamic acid 237 in ATRC1 or at the corresponding position in the human protein. These results suggest a requirement for an acidic and a nearby hydrophobic amino acid for efficient ecotropic virus entry. Similar motifs have been identified in the virus binding sites of other retrovirus receptors, suggesting that the initial step of retrovirus entry may be governed by a common mechanism.