Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On Combining Forecasts: Some Extensions and Results

This paper is about the motivation, methodology, and evaluation of combining the forecasts from two or more different models in a "combined" forecast. Granger and Newbold Granger, C. , P. Newbold. 1977. Forecasting Economic Time Series. Academic Press, New York. have presented this method as one whereby an "optimal" forecast can be obtained. Makridakis and Winkler 1966 and Winkler and Makridakis Winkler, R. , S. Makridakis. 1983. The combination of forecasts: some empirical results. J. Roy. Statist. Soc. , Ser. A146 150-157. have presented results to support this claim and Mahmoud Mahmoud, Essam. 1984. Accuracy in forecasting: a survey. J. Forecasting3 139-159. has reviewed over 20 articles all claiming that combined forecasts out perform single model forecasts. This paper extends this topic in a number of directions. First a section on motivation provides additional reasons for combining forecasts. Combination problems are then discussed in i¾§2, observations and evaluations of the problem presented are discussed in i¾§3 and concluding remarks are contained in i¾§4.
Secure genomic data evaluation in cloud environments

Security in clouds often focuses on preventing unauthorized access to confidential information. However, cloud providers might also be a source for loss of confidentiality and are generally considered in risk models as honest but curious (HBC). The wide availability and high volume of genomic data improves advances in biomedical research, but outsourcing genomic data processing to cloud providers presents new challenges and risks due to the confidentiality of such data and the critical consequences of a possible loss. We present techniques to securely delegate Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) data into clouds using encrypted data. The protocol is based on homomorphic properties of well known encryption algorithms. The protocol can also be used to amend existing applications by software patches of binaries. In the present paper we introduce some practical extensions to our algorithm to improve its efficiency. Additionally we extend the algorithm to support novel optimizations, including Single Operation Multiple Data (SIMD) while preserving its homomorphic properties. We evaluate the protocol by a proof-of-concept implementation of minor allele frequency and chi-squared statistics computations on real-life genomic data to investigate practicability, and discuss variants and extensions to increase the prototype's efficiency.
Functional near-infrared neuroimaging

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIR) is a neroimaging modality that enables continuous, noninvasive, and portable monitoring of changes in blood oxygenation and blood volume related to human brain function. Over the last decade, studies in the laboratory have established that fNIR spectroscopy provides a veridical measure of oxygenation and blood flow in the brain. Our recent findings indicate that fNIR can effectively monitor cognitive tasks such as attention, working memory, target categorization, and problem solving. These experimental outcomes compare favorably with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, and in particular, with the blood oxygenation level dependent signal. Since fNIR can be implemented in the form of a wearable and minimally intrusive device, it has the capacity to monitor brain activity under real life conditions and in everyday environments. Moreover, the fNIR system is amenable to integration with other established physiological and neurobehavioral measures, including electroencephalogram, eye tracking, pupil reflex, heart rate variability, respiration, and electrodermal activity.
Validation of novel promoter sequences derived from two endogenous ubiquitin genes in transgenic Aedes aegypti

To date, only a limited number of promoter sequences have been described to drive transgene expression in the disease vector Aedes aegypti. We sought to increase this repertoire by characterizing the ability of upstream sequences derived from the Ae. aegypti UbL40 and polyubiquitin genes to drive the expression of marker proteins. Both genomic fragments were able to drive robust expression of luciferase in cultured mosquito cells. Following Mos1‐transformation, the UbL40 promoter drove strong expression of a fluorescent marker in early larvae and in ovaries, while the polyubiquitin promoter drove robust EGFP expression in all stages of development, including constitutive expression throughout the midgut. These promoter fragments provide two new expression profiles for future Ae. aegypti genetic experiments.
Outsourcing implications on companies’ profitability and liquidity: a sample of UK companies

This article investigates the business performance of a sample of companies announcing outsourcing contracts. Performance effects are investigated by measures including operating profit, earnings margin, return on shareholders’ capital, reduction in employment cost and research and development expenditure prior to and subsequent to the outsourcing announcement. The conclusion is that outsourcing companies’ profitability and liquidity decrease in years in which outsourcing announcements occur, and tend to increase in the subsequent year. Also, it is possible that the short‐term and long‐term financial structure of outsourcing companies is altered.
Architecture design of variable lengths instructions expansion for VLIW

In current Instruction set architecture(ISA) design, fixed length instructions are benefit for improving the efficiency of instruction dispatching. But in embeded computers where memory is limited, variable lengths instructions are much better in memory cost. In this VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) architecture, a two-staged pipeline is used to expand and dispatch the variable lengths instructions. When CPU receives a packet of instructions, a fixed number of instructions expand in the first pipeline phase. In the second pipeline phase, CPU dispatch instructions which execute in the same pipeline cycle.
A community-based screening initiative to identify mothers at risk for postpartum depression.

OBJECTIVES To conduct a community-based, postpartum depression (PPD) screening initiative, and recommend PPD screening practices. DESIGN Descriptive correlational. SETTINGS Two academic medical centers, a university research office, and participants' homes. PARTICIPANTS Five thousand one hundred and sixty-nine postpartum women age 14 to 49 years. METHODS The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) framework was implemented by identifying a cohort of mothers and conducting PPD screening followed by diagnostic evaluation of those with positive screens. Mothers in the postpartum period were recruited from two academic medical centers and screened for PPD at 4 to 6 weeks postpartum by telephone or mail using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Mothers with EPDS scores ≥10 were invited to participate in the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM IV (SCID) to confirm PPD. RESULTS Six hundred and seventy-four (13%) women had EPDS scores ≥10; 185 women with elevated EPDS scores agreed to have a SCID diagnostic interview, and 144 were diagnosed with minor or major depression. A significantly higher percentage of women who self-administered and mailed in the EPDS than women who were screened via telephone had scores ≥10. Elevated PPD scores were not associated with age or parity. Race/ethnicity identification other than White and having less than high school education were associated with higher PPD scores. CONCLUSIONS The AHRQ framework was effective in guiding a large-scale PPD screening initiative by identifying mothers at risk for PPD. Results support previous findings regarding prevalence, selected risk factors, and continued use of the EPDS with SCID confirmation.
Relative efficacy of organizational support and personality traits in predicting service recovery and job performances: a study of frontline employees in Turkey

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative efficacies of a set of organizational support mechanisms and personality traits in predicting frontline employees' service recovery and job performances.Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered through self‐administered questionnaires. A sample of 723 frontline hotel employees in Turkey serves as the study setting.Findings – The study results show that organizational support is more effective in differentiating between high‐ and low‐performing frontline employees in the case of service recovery performance. However, job performance overall is more susceptible to the influences of personality traits.Research limitations/implications – Replication studies in other regions of Turkey and other countries among frontline employees in the hotel industry as well as other service settings would broaden the database for further generalizations. Including other organizational support mechanisms (e.g. technology support) and personality traits (e.
Retrieving scientific abstracts iteratively: MedIER at TREC 2018 Precision Medicine Track

This paper describes the approach developed by the MedIER team – a collaboration between the University of Michigan and the University of Cincinnati – for the TREC 2018 Precision Medicine Track. We implement an iterative approach of document retrieval with modiﬁed queries, and combine the results by formulating re-ranking as a text classiﬁcation task. We evaluate our proposed framework to retrieve biomedical research abstracts. Our experiments show that the iterative re-retrieval approach is effective in retrieving higher number of relevant scientiﬁc abstracts.
Pricing Skewness and Kurtosis Risk on the Swedish Stock Market

This paper investigates the role of higher moments on the Swedish stock market 1979-2004 using the asset pricing framework developed in Fang & Lai (1997). The models are estimated using a two-step ordinary least squares procedure and, in addition, an instrumental variables approach to account for the potential problem of errors in variables. Estimations have been made on the full period and in two sub-periods. The results show that the asset pricing performance improves when augmenting the standard capital asset pricing model with third (skewness) and fourth (kurtosis) moments. Further, we find that both skewness and kurtosis risk carries statistically significant risk premiums. Our results are in line with the results of Fang & Lai (1997) and other surveys covering the similiar area, like Kraus & Litzenberger (1976). The results presented in this survey can further be used by investors on the Swedish stock market, to make asset management even more effective by take into account the effect of skewness and kurtosis in asset return distribution.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Characterization of Hemorrhagic Transformation of Embolic Stroke in the Rat

Intracranial hemorrhage is a critical factor when considering efficacy and safety of thrombolytic intervention after thromboembolic stroke. This study tested whether magnetic resonance imaging could identify tissue for hemorrhagic transformation after the onset of embolic stroke. Rats subjected to embolic stroke with and without recombinant tissue-type plasmogen activator (rt-PA) treatment were followed-up with magnetic resonance imaging using the inverse of the apparent forward transfer rate for magnetization transfer (kinv), gadolinium-chelate contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, and diffusion-, perfusion-, and T2-weighted imaging. Rats with embolic stroke either were treated with rt-PA 1 (n = 16) or 4 hours (n = 13) after stroke onset or were not treated (n = 15). From these groups, at total of 17 rats had intracerebral hemorrhage. Tissue progressing to hemorrhage and adjacent to the site of hemorrhage was analyzed to identify magnetic resonance imaging markers that characterize hemorrhagic transformation. The parameter maps of kinv and contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging showed greater sensitivity in the detection of tissue destined for hemorrhagic transformation compared with the apparent diffusion coefficient of water (ADCw) and CBF. In tissue not destined to undergo hemorrhagic transformation, kinv maps and contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging exhibited small increases in kinv and contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging signal intensity in the area encompassing the territory supplied by the middle cerebral artery. In contrast, large increases in kinv and in signal intensity in the contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance images were detected in the region where gross hemorrhage was confirmed histologically. The values of kinv, T2, and signal intensity in the contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance images were significantly higher in the region destined for hemorrhagic transformation (kinv, P ⩽ 0.033 3–24 hours after embolization; T2, P ⩽ 0.037 24–48 hours; contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, P < 0.05 4–7 hours) compared with the nonhemorrhagic transformation ischemic region or in the contralateral homologous regions after onset of ischemia. Of these methods, kinv shows the most sensitivity in the detection of hemorrhagic transformation soon after embolization. The authors' data suggest that kinv and contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging are potentially important methodologies for detecting tissue destined for hemorrhagic transformation.
Tooth eruption into the newly generated bone induced by recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to observe tooth eruption pattern into the newly generated bone induced by recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2). METHOD Three 12-week-old beagle dogs were used. Following wound healing of the extracted maxillary third deciduous incisor at the age of 13 weeks, a resection of maxillary alveolar bone (8 mm by 8 mm by 8 mm) was carried out, accompanied by extraction of the maxillary second incisor tooth germ. The rhBMP-2 (5 microgram/100 microL or 10 microgram/100 microL) was implanted in the resected area. A group that was not implanted after resection and a nonresected group were used as controls. Serial changes of the eruption pattern of the maxillary third incisor in the implanted area were observed radiographically. Oxytetracycline and calcein were employed as bone markers. Nine weeks after the implantation, the animals were sacrificed. The samples were observed histologically and analyzed using peripheral quantitative computerized tomography to acquire the bone mineral density (BMD). RESULTS In the rhBMP-2 (5 microgram/100 microL)-treated group, histological findings and the BMD of the newly generated bone were almost same as in the nonresected group. The maxillary third incisor erupted through the implanted area. However, in the rhBMP-2 (10 microgram/100 microL)-treated group, more osteoinductive activity and significantly higher BMD were observed in the newly generated bone. The maxillary third incisor erupted mesially so as to avoid this implanted area. CONCLUSION Results showed that bone remodeling and tooth eruption through the newly generated bone appear to be dose dependent. Accordingly, proper dosage of rhBMP-2 should be determined for successful clinical application.
Oxidative Stress Effects of Soluble Sulfide on Human Hepatocyte Cell Line LO2

Soluble sulfide is well known for its toxicity and corrosion for hundreds of years. However, recent studies have demonstrated that hydrogen sulfide (H2S)—a novel gasotransmitter—supports a critical role during neuromodulation, cell proliferation, and cardioprotection for organisms. In particular, soluble sulfide plays multifaceted signaling functions in mammals during oxidative stress processes. However, the specific molecular regulation of soluble sulfide during oxidative stress remains unclear. In this study, Na2S was implemented as a soluble sulfide donor to expose LO2 cells. The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl-2),-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, hydroxyl radical assay, superoxide dismutase (SOD) assay, and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) assay were applied to analyze cytotoxicity, hydroxyl radical levels, SOD and GSH-Px activities, respectively. Soluble sulfide at a concentration 0.01–1.0 mM/L resulted in a marked and concentration-dependent reduction of LO2 cell viability. At low concentrations, sulfide solutions increased SOD activity and GSH-Px activity of LO2 after 24 h exposure, exhibiting a clear hormesis-effect and indicating the protective ability of soluble sulfide against oxidative stress. The decline in SOD and GSH-Px and the increase in hydroxyl radical (0.08–1.0 mM/L) suggested that oxidative damage could be a possible mechanism for sulfide-induced cytotoxicity.
Trec-CAR 2018: A Simple Unsupervised Semantic Query Expansion Model

In this summary we present a simple and unsupervised Semantic Query Expansion model (SemQueryExp) for Complex Answer Retrieval (CAR). TREC CAR is a large-scale information retrieval shared evaluation task based on Wikipedia content. We have participated in the Passage Ranking Task of TREC CAR. Queries are provided as hierarchical section outlines and the goal is to retrieve the relevant paragraph, i.e., the original Wikipedia paragraphs of the respective section. The queries consist of the page title in which the section appears, the name of the main section and one or more sub-level sections (e.g., Thompson Capper // Early career // South African service). A section in turn contains a number of terms that we want to use in order to expand the query with semantically related terms. Here we rely on 300-dimensional GloVe [1] word embeddings, pre-trained on Wikipedia. For each word in the query we lookup its embedding, search for the k-nearest-neighbors and add the corresponding words to the query. Distances between word embeddings are measured with the cosine similarity. The final query consists now of its original query terms as well as the words added during query expansion. We assume that words appearing in lower sub-section levels, i.e. more specific sections, capture more relevance for the query than words appearing on higher levels such as the page title, which only describe the surrounding theme. This is encoded by assigning each query term a weight according to it’s level in the hierarchical outline. If a word is in the title it receives a weight of 1, if it is in the main section it receives a weight of 2, etc. Expanded query terms are assumed to be noisy and scored with a value ranging between 0 and 1, depending on their cosine similarity. The final query consists of the union of all terms appearing in the outline and the expanded query terms, coupled with respective weights. All data is normalized by removing stop words and applying lemmatization. We execute the query on a Lucene index as a BoostedQuery using the BM25 retrieval model. We used no external data and we tuned the value of the parameter k on the benchmarkY1-train portion of the TREC CAR dataset.
Is There Endogenous Long-Run Growth? Evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom.

The key feature of endogenous growth models is that they imply that perrnanent changes in government policy can have permanent effects on growth rates. In this paper we develop and implement an empirical framework to test this implication. In a regression of growth rates on current and lagged policy variables the sum of the slope coefficients for each policy variable should be nonzero (zero) for endogenous (exogenous) growth models. In our estimation we use time series data spanning up to 100 years for the United States and 160 years for the United Kingdom. We find that the implication for exogenous growth is usually rejected when both a tax variable and a public capital variable are included in the regression; failing to include both variables biases the results in favor of exogenous growth models. Our findings show that it is possible to have endogenous growth even when U.S. and U.K. GDP growth rates appear to be stable over time. We conclude that at the aggregate level, the production function appears to exhibit constant returns to scale in reproducible inputs.
Determination of the true congruent composition for LiTaO/sub 3/ single crystals using the LFB ultrasonic material characterization system

The true congruent composition for LiTaO/sub 3/ single crystals was determined by measuring the velocities of leaky surface acoustic waves (LSAWs) with the line-focus-beam ultrasonic material characterization (LFB-UMC) system for two 42/spl deg/YX-LiTaO/sub 3/ crystal ingots. The congruent composition determined here was 48.460 Li/sub 2/O-mol%, corresponding to the LSAW velocity (42/spl deg/YX-LiTaO/sub 3/) of 3125.3 m/s, and the absolute relationship between the LSAW velocity and chemical composition was obtained. Simulations on the variation of the melt and crystal compositions in a mass production of 100 crystals were conducted as a function of the composition of the starting material around the congruent composition. The result showed that the distributions of the melt and crystal compositions within and among the crystals varied largely with the material composition, providing the relationship of the material composition with the maximum composition variation for the 100 crystals. Based on these results, we verified the relationships between the tolerance of the material composition variation and the tolerances for the SH-type SAW velocity, LSAW velocity, and Curie temperature. The material composition needs to be constrained to within /spl plusmn/0.007 Li/sub 2/O-mol% around the congruent composition to mass-produce the crystals with reliable homogeneity, satisfying the tolerance of /spl plusmn/0.01% in the SAW velocity. Furthermore, a guideline for the specification of reliable piezoelectric SAW-device wafer substrates was presented with the accurate interrelationships among the chemical composition ratio, LSAW velocity, and Curie temperature.
Changes of MicroRNA Profile and MicroRNA‐mRNA Regulatory Network in Bones of Ovariectomized Mice

Growing evidence shows the possibility of a role of microRNAs (miRNA) in regulating bone mass. We investigated the change of miRNAs and mRNA expression profiles in bone tissue in an ovariectomized mice model and evaluated the regulatory mechanism of bone mass mediated by miRNAs in an estrogen‐deficiency state. Eight‐week‐old female C3H/HeJ mice underwent ovariectomy (OVX) or sham operation (Sham‐op), and their femur and tibia were harvested to extract total bone RNAs after 4 weeks for microarray analysis. Eight miRNAs (miR‐127, ‐133a, ‐133a*, ‐133b, ‐136, ‐206, ‐378, ‐378*) were identified to be upregulated after OVX, whereas one miRNA (miR‐204) was downregulated. Concomitant analysis of mRNA microarray revealed that 658 genes were differentially expressed between OVX and Sham‐op mice. Target prediction of differentially expressed miRNAs identified potential targets, and integrative analysis using the mRNA microarray results showed that PPARγ and CREB pathways are activated in skeletal tissues after ovariectomy. Among the potential candidates of miRNA, we further studied the role of miR‐127 in vitro, which exhibited the greatest changes after OVX. We also studied the effects of miR‐136, which has not been studied in the context of bone mass regulation. Transfection of miR‐127 inhibitor has enhanced osteoblastic differentiation in UAMS‐32 cells as measured by alkaline phosphatase activities and mRNA expression of osteoblast‐specific genes, whereas miR‐136 precursor has inhibited osteoblastic differentiation. Furthermore, transfection of both miR‐127 and miR‐136 inhibitors enhanced the osteocyte‐like morphological changes and survival in MLO‐Y4 cells, whereas precursors of miR‐127 and ‐136 have aggravated dexamethasone‐induced cell death. Both of the precursors enhanced osteoclastic differentiation in bone marrow macrophages, indicating that both miR‐127 and ‐136 are negatively regulating bone mass. Taken together, these results suggest a novel insight into the association between distinct miRNAs expression and their possible role through regulatory network with mRNAs in the pathogenesis of estrogen deficiency–induced osteoporosis. © 2014 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.