Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Validating Administrative Data in Stroke Research

Background and Purpose— Research based on administrative data has advantages, including large numbers, consistent data, and low cost. This study was designed to compare different methods of stroke classification using administrative data. Methods— Administrative hospital discharge data and medical record review of 206 patients were used to evaluate 3 algorithms for classifying stroke patients. These algorithms were based on all (algorithm 1), the first 2 (algorithm 2), or the primary (algorithm 3) administrative discharge diagnosis code(s). The diagnoses after review of medical record data were considered the gold standard. Then, using a large administrative data set, we compared patients with a primary discharge diagnosis of stroke with patients with their stroke discharge diagnosis code in a nonprimary position. Results— Compared with the gold standard, algorithm 1 had the highest &kgr; for classifying ischemic stroke, with a sensitivity of 86%, specificity of 95%, positive predictive value of 90%, and &kgr;=0.82. Algorithm 3 had the highest &kgr; values for intracerebral hemorrhage and subarachnoid hemorrhage. For intracerebral hemorrhage, the sensitivity was 85%, specificity was 96%, positive predictive value was 89%, and &kgr;=0.82. For subarachnoid hemorrhage, those values were 90%, 97%, 94%, and 0.88, respectively. Nonprimary position ischemic stroke patients had significantly greater comorbidity and 30-day mortality (odds ratio, 3.2) than primary position ischemic stroke patients. Conclusions— Stroke classification in these administrative data were optimal using all discharge diagnoses for ischemic stroke and primary discharge diagnosis only for intracerebral and subarachnoid hemorrhage. Selecting ischemic stroke patients on the basis of primary discharge diagnosis may bias administrative samples toward more benign, unrepresentative outcomes and should be avoided.
Volatility Markets: Consistent Modelling, Hedging and Practical Implementation (Dissertation)

This is the revised version of my dissertation. The dissertation covers pricing and hedging of volatiluty derivatives, but also a few other topics. It contains extended material on consistent variance curves, a proof that "smooth" diffusion markets are always complete, comments on pricing in local martingale models, fitting models to the market (general, Bergomi, Dupire, Heston), Heston-type models with semi-closed forms, algorithms to perform parameter hedging with linear programming, computation of variance, gamma and entropy swaps, expensive martingales, and the implementation of a particular four-factor variance curve model. This updated version of the dissertation incorporates further results presented since the publication of the thesis itself, in particular on the subject of "fitted models".
The Effects of Inside and Outside Money on Industrial Production across Spectral Frequency Bands

This paper examines money-income causality using band spectral filtering techniques. The paper's central finding is that relatively low frequency movements in outside money are responsible for the relationship between money and economic activity. This result is inconsistent with theoretical models in which unanticipated changes in money are responsible for movements in real activity. Reverse causality is also examined. The results are not supportive of a strong feedback relationship from income to inside money. However, there is evidence of strong feedback from income to outside money.
PROTEIN AND NUCLEOTIDE DAMAGE BY GLYOXAL AND METHYLGLYOXAL IN PHYSIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS - ROLE IN AGEING AND DISEASE

Glycation of proteins, nucleotides and basic phospholipids by glyoxal and methylglyoxal--physiological substrates of glyoxalase 1--is potentially damaging to the proteome, genome and lipidome. Glyoxalase 1 suppresses glycation by these alpha-oxoaldehyde metabolites and thereby represents part of the enzymatic defence against glycation. Albert Szent-Györgyi pioneered and struggled to understand the physiological function of methylglyoxal and the glyoxalase system. We now appreciate that glyoxalase 1 protects against dicarbonyl modifications of the proteome, genome and lipome. Latest research suggests there are functional modifications of this process--implying a role in cell signalling, ageing and disease.
Long-run determinant of Korean economic growth: empirical evidence from manufacturing

This paper challenges the recent contrarian view that the phenomenal growth of East Asian NICs is fuelled mainly by the accumulation of production inputs not by TFP growth. To appraise this view, we investigated and re-evaluated South Korean manufacturing growth (1973(Q1)-1993(Q4)). Using Johansen's cointegrating analysis, our results show that South Korean manufacturing appears to have increasing returns to scale in production technology. The 'learning by doing' effect defined by Lucas (1988) is empirically supported. This effect appears to be observed as a long-run determinant of South Korean manufacturing growth. Consequently, South Korean manufacturing growth can be described by an endogenous economic growth model, such as the Lucas (1988) model, contradicting the contrarian view.
A reformulated asset pricing model based on contrarian strategies

Purpose – Researchers have proposed characteristics-based pricing models as an alternative to risk-based pricing models. While supported empirically, these characteristic-based models lack theoretical support. This paper seeks to reformulate an asset-pricing model (RAPM) to demonstrate why firm characteristics help to explain stock returns. Design/methodology/approach – The RAPM is grounded in an economic setting where two groups of agents hold different beliefs about firm fundamental values, and the more sophisticated group (rationals) adopts contrarian strategies against the naive group (quasis). The model is derived in a static equilibrium within the consumption-investment framework with heterogeneous agents. Findings – The key theoretical result is a parsimonious equation of cross-sectional expected returns that not only are specified by the traditional risk-return relation, but also are determined by contrarian adjustments at both market-wide and firm-specific levels. When the model is taken to empirical specifications, it leads to consistent explanations for the behaviors of growth and value stocks, and for size and book-to-market effects. Research limitations/implications – The RAPM is a one-period model that assumes that “rationals” have perfect knowledge about “quasis” sentiment parameter and their relative market weights. In future research, it is planned to extend this static model to multiple periods to incorporate a learning process by which “rationals” learn these parameters over time. Practical implications – The RAPM clearly identifies four criteria for implementing arbitrage opportunities in investments. These criteria formalize the common practices in the mutual/hedge fund industry. Originality/value – The paper develops an original framework that formally supports the characteristics-based models. It offers insights for researchers in behavioral finance and guidelines for investment practitioners.
Life History Implications of rRNA Gene Copy Number in Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT The role of the rRNA gene copy number as a central component of bacterial life histories was studied by using strains of Escherichia coli in which one or two of the seven rRNA operons (rrnA and/or rrnB) were deleted. The relative fitness of these strains was determined in competition experiments in both batch and chemostat cultures. In batch cultures, the decrease in relative fitness corresponded to the number of rRNA operons deleted, which could be accounted for completely by increased lag times and decreased growth rates. The magnitude of the deleterious effect varied with the environment in which fitness was measured: the negative consequences of rRNA operon deletions increased under culture conditions permitting more-rapid growth. The rRNA operon deletion strains were not more effective competitors under the regimen of constant, limited resources provided in chemostat cultures. Enhanced fitness in chemostat cultures would have suggested a simple tradeoff in which deletion strains grew faster (due to more efficient resource utilization) under resource limitation. The contributions of growth rate, lag time, Ks, and death rate to the fitness of each strain were verified through mathematical simulation of competition experiments. These data support the hypothesis that multiple rRNA operons are a component of bacterial life history and that they confer a selective advantage permitting microbes to respond quickly and grow rapidly in environments characterized by fluctuations in resource availability.
Serine/threonine kinase gene Stpk-V, a key member of powdery mildew resistance gene Pm21, confers powdery mildew resistance in wheat

Powdery mildew resistance gene Pm21, located on the chromosome 6V short arm of Haynaldia villosa and transferred to wheat as a 6VS·6AL translocation (T6VS·6AL), confers durable and broad-spectrum resistance to wheat powdery mildew. Pm21 has become a key gene resource for powdery mildew resistance breeding all over the world. In China, 12 wheat varieties containing Pm21 have been planted on more than 3.4 million hectares since 2002. Pm21 has been intractable to molecular genetic mapping because the 6VS does not pair and recombine with the 6AS. Moreover, all known accessions of H. villosa are immune to powdery mildew fungus. Pm21 is still defined by cytogenetics as a locus. In the present study, a putative serine and threonine protein kinase gene Stpk-V was cloned and characterized with an integrative strategy of molecular and cytogenetic techniques. Stpk-V is located on the Pm21 locus. The results of a single cell transient expression assay showed that Stpk-V could decrease the haustorium index dramatically. After the Stpk-V was transformed into a susceptible wheat variety Yangmai158, the characterized transgenic plants showed high and broad-spectrum powdery mildew resistance similar to T6VS·6AL. Silencing of the Stpk-V by virus-induced gene silencing in both T6VS·6AL and H. villosa resulted in their increased susceptibility. Stpk-V could be induced by Bgt and exogenous H2O2, but it also mediated the increase of endogenous H2O2, leading to cell death and plant resistance when the plant was attacked by Bgt.
How to Compute Equilibrium Prices in 1891

Irving Fisher's Ph.D. thesis, submitted to Yale University in 1891, contains a fully articulated general equilibrium model presented with the broad scope and formal mathematical clarity associated with Walras and his successors. In addition, Fisher presents a remarkable hydraulic apparatus for calculating equilibrium prices and the resulting distribution of society's endowments among the agents in the economy. In this paper we provide an analytical description of Fisher's apparatus, and report the results of simulating the mechanical/hydraulic "machine," illustrating the ability of the apparatus to "compute" equilibrium prices and also to find multiple equilibria.
Correction for Zanotto and Fokin, Recent studies of internal and surface nucleation in silicate glasses

Correction for ‘Recent studies of internal and surface nucleation in silicate glasses’ by E. D. Zanotto and V. M. Fokin (Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A 361, 591–613. (doi: 10.1098/rsta.2002.1150)). The following is the correct form of the first sentence of §3a.
The Microfoundations of the Social Investment Function

TN SOME theoretical discussions of the determinants of the rate of investment, emphasis has been placed on a continuous function relating the rate of investment of a firm to alternative levels of the rate of interest. From this view the Keynesian investment function is derived by a quite unspecified process of aggregation from the micro-investment functions. Such a view is questionable. Quite apart from the difficulties of aggregation, for example, the use of consistent assumptions as to the ceteris paribus conditions, the continuous function relating the rate of investment to the rate of interest at the micro level has no foundation in the ordinary theory of the firm. The reason for this is quite simple. The firm's demand is for the services of the capital goods it acquires. To maximize profits over a specified time interval it must secure at particular dates a specified flow of services of capital goods, and to secure these services, it must acquire the capital goods. Thus derived from its demands for a flow of capital services is a demand for a stock of capital goods and not for a continuous flow of these goods. Once the firm has acquired its optimal flow of capital goods' services, its capital stock will not be augmented by new investment. Its net investment will remain equal to zero in the absence of a change
Study on self-optimizing system of key parameters for complex machine products

Modeling and FEA (finite element analysis) are required to be done over again after changing the key parameters. Thus, this paper constructs a distributed system which can change parameters of product, model and do FEA automatically. And it obtains the optimizing parameters at last. This system running on intranet bases on genetic algorithm and CATIA/CAA. Every client reads key parameters from the database in the server, drives the CATIA three-dimensional model by CATIA/CAA and the key parameters, and does FEA. After the result of FEA was sent to the database, the server evaluates the result of FEA and sends the evaluation to the database. Then, the server creates new key parameters using genetic algorithm; the system goes to next circle. The parameters, whose evaluation is the best, are the last result. Based on this system, the self-optimizing of key parameters for TBM (tunnel boring machine) is realized and accelerates the design process
Communication breakdown: How working teens' perceptions of their supervisors impact safety and injury.

BACKGROUND Every nine minutes a young worker is injured on the job. Adult supervision is recommended to prevent injury among teen workers, yet limited research exists on supervision or the supervisor-teen relationship. OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study were to: (a) explore teens' perceptions of supervision and supervisors, (b) characterize teen-supervisor communication, and (c) investigate the role of communication in injury and workplace safety. METHODS In spring 2010, focus groups and interviews were conducted with working teenagers, 15-19 years old. RESULTS Fifty-two percent of teens were injured at work and most did not report their injuries to their supervisors. The majority of teenagers perceived supervision as "being watched" to make sure you are "staying on task. " Teens viewed their supervisors as uninterested and uncaring, which greatly impacted communication. As one 15-year old female who was severely burned stated: "they don't care. " Self-blame after teens sustained an injury further complicated the teen-supervisor relationship and communication. CONCLUSIONS Working teenagers have complicated relationships with their supervisors. Many liked their supervisors, but felt their supervisors were apathetic towards them. Supervisors who engage teens in a mentoring relationship may be successful in resolving uncomfortable power dynamics which may increase communication and; therefore, safety for working teens.
One more queue is enough: Minimizing flow completion time with explicit priority notification

Ideally, minimizing the flow completion time (FCT) requires millions of priorities supported by the underlying network so that each flow has its unique priority. However, in production datacenters, the available switch priority queues for flow scheduling are very limited (merely 2 or 3). This practical constraint seriously degrades the performance of previous approaches. In this paper, we introduce Explicit Priority Notification (EPN), a novel scheduling mechanism which emulates fine-grained priorities (i.e., desired priorities or DP) using only two switch priority queues. EPN can support various flow scheduling disciplines with or without flow size information. We have implemented EPN on commodity switches and evaluated its performance with both testbed experiments and extensive simulations. Our results show that, with flow size information, EPN achieves comparable FCT as pFabric that requires clean-slate switch hardware. And EPN also outperforms TCP by up to 60.5% if it bins the traffic into two priority queues according to flow size. In information-agnostic setting, EPN outperforms PIAS with two priority queues by up to 37.7%. To the best of our knowledge, EPN is the first system that provides millions of priorities for flow scheduling with commodity switches.
ADAM15 Protein Amplifies Focal Adhesion Kinase Phosphorylation under Genotoxic Stress Conditions*

Background: ADAM15 confers apoptosis resistance to chondrocytes upon exposure to genotoxic stress. Results: Apoptosis induction provokes direct ADAM15 binding to focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and an associated enhanced phosphorylation of the FAK-Src complex. Conclusion: ADAM15 interacts with FAK-Src, thereby enhancing survival signals. Significance: The anti-apoptotic ADAM15 signaling has potential relevance to tumorigenesis beyond its impact on chondrocyte survival. ADAM15, a disintegrin and metalloproteinase, is capable of counteracting genotoxic stress-induced apoptosis by the suppression of caspase-3 activation. A cell line expressing the membrane-bound ADAM15 without its cytoplasmic tail, however, lost this anti-apoptotic property, suggesting a crucial role of the intracellular domain as a scaffold for recruitment of survival signal-transducing kinases. Accordingly, an enhanced phosphorylation of FAK at Tyr-397, Tyr-576, and Tyr-861 was detected upon genotoxic stress by camptothecin in ADAM15-transfected T/C28a4 cells, but not in transfectants expressing an ADAM15 mutant without the cytoplasmic tail. Accordingly, a specific binding of the cytoplasmic ADAM15 domain to the C terminus of FAK could be shown by mammalian two-hybrid, pulldown, and far Western studies. In cells expressing full-length ADAM15, a concomitant activation of Src at Tyr-416 was detected upon camptothecin exposure. Cells transfected with a chimeric construct consisting of the extracellular IL-2 receptor α-chain and the cytoplasmic ADAM15 domain were IL-2-stimulated to prove that the ADAM15 tail can transduce a percepted extracellular signal to enhance FAK and Src phosphorylation. Our studies further demonstrate Src binding to FAK but not a direct Src interaction with ADAM15, suggesting FAK as a critical intracellular adaptor for ADAM15-dependent enhancement of FAK/Src activation. Moreover, the apoptosis induction elicited by specific inhibitors (PP2, FAK 14 inhibitor) of FAK/Src signaling was significantly reduced by ADAM15 expression. The newly uncovered counter-regulatory response to genotoxic stress in a chondrocytic survival pathway is potentially also relevant to apoptosis resistance in neoplastic growth.
The quality factor of oscillating bubbles as an indication of gas content with particular reference to methane

There has been much interest in detecting the presence of methane gas in the ocean. Although methane exists predominantly as methane hydrate (a buoyant compound) in the deep ocean, recent computer simulations and anecdotal evidence have reported that these hydrates will decompose to produce methane bubbles in shallower waters. This paper describes how the quality factor Q of oscillating bubbles can be used to distinguish methane bubbles (Q=24) from the air bubbles (Q=34) which are ubiquitous near the ocean surface. Values of Q are reported for bubbles in water at atmospheric pressure containing air, carbon dioxide, argon, helium, methane and butane. Possible acoustic techniques for detecting and sizing methane bubbles in the ocean are discussed briefly
A Review of Psychological and Cultural Effects on Seating Behavior and Their Application to Foodservice Settings

ABSTRACT Creating dining environments that make customers feel comfortable is a key goal of restaurant designers and operators. By applying basic precepts of environmental psychology to restaurant seating configurations, foodservice managers may be able to enhance the guest experience without sacrificing operational efficiency. This paper reviews the environmental psychology literature related to seating behavior, and analyzes the designs of ten representative chain restaurants to determine if these psychological principles appear to be supported in a successful foodservice operation. It also examines the seating behavior of different cultures, and suggests approaches to foodservice design that may appeal to an international market. While environmental psychology literature rarely addresses foodservice environments directly, many of its findings can be applied to restaurant settings. An analysis of the floor plans of five quick service restaurants and five table service restaurants outlines how some operations have provided seating configurations that assist customers in defending personal territory. Research that examines seating behavior in a wide range of foodservice settings and across cultural groups would be a valuable addition to the literature while providing foodservice managers and designers with excellent data for making seating layout decisions.
How to shift the EU's spending priorities? The multi-annual financial framework 2007–13 in perspective

Abstract At the Lisbon European Council in 2000, heads of state and government made strong political commitments to invest in Europe's future, in order to transform its economy into ‘the most competitive knowledge based economy in the world’ by 2010. To what extent were the Lisbon goals translated into a shift in spending priorities during the negotiations on the EU's multi-annual financial framework (2007–13)? Could the stated competitiveness goals be underpinned by a reallocation of scarce financial resources in the EU's budget? This paper starts with theoretical considerations on the odds of shifting financial priorities in the EU's ‘consensus democracy’. Then it gives an overview of the slow pace of change to be found in the new financial perspective which is to be compared to earlier deals on the multi-annual budget since 1988. In order to explain this result, the political context and the sequence of decision-making are examined, looking at the respective roles of the Commission, the European Council, and the European Parliament.