Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Why Do Option Introductions Depress Stock Prices? A Study of Diminishing Short Sale Constraints

Abstract Early studies find that option introductions tend to raise the price of underlying stocks. More recent research indicates that post-1980 option introductions are associated with negative abnormal returns in underlying stocks. Other studies document increased short sale activities following option listing. This paper provides evidence that the documented abnormal returns and changes in short interest around option listings are consistent with the mitigation of short sale constraints resulting from the option introduction, and that both the abnormal returns and short interest changes around listing dates can be predicted using ex ante characteristics of the underlying stock.
Activation of iGluR5 kainate receptors inhibits neurogenic dural vasodilatation in an animal model of trigeminovascular activation

Background and purpose: Migraine is a disabling neurological disorder involving activation, or the perception of activation, of trigeminovascular afferents containing calcitonin gene‐related peptide (CGRP). Released CGRP from peripheral trigeminal afferents causes dilatation of dural blood vessel, and this is used to measure trigeminal nerve activation. Kainate receptors with the GluR5 subunit (iGluR5, ionotropic glutamate receptor) are present in the trigeminal ganglion and may be involved in nociception. We investigated the possible involvement of prejunctional iGluR5 kainate receptors on CGRP release from trigeminal afferents.
Locally Linear Salient Coding for image classification

Representing images with their descriptive features is the fundamental problem in CBIR. Feature coding as a key-step in feature description has attracted the attentions in recent years. Among the proposed coding strategies, Bag-of-Words (BoW) is the most widely used model. Recently saliency has been mentioned as the fundamental characteristic of BoW. Base on this idea, Salient Coding (SaC) has been introduced. Empirical studies show that SaC is not able to represent the global structure of data with small number of codewords. In this paper, we remedy this limitation by introducing Locally Linear Salient Coding (LLSaC). This method discovers the global structure of the data by exploiting the local linear reconstructions of the data points. This knowledge in addition to the salient responses, provided by SaC, helps to describe the structure of the data even with a few codewords. Experimental results show that LLSaC obtains state-of-the-art results on various data types such as multimedia and Earth Observation.
A GIS-based moving window analysis of landscape pattern in the Beijing metropolitan area, China

Quantifying landscape pattern and its change is essential for monitoring and assessment of ecological consequences of urbanization. Using the GIS-based land-use data for 2002, we combined moving window analysis along an urban-rural gradient and around the urban centre with landscape metrics to quantify the spatial pattern of urbanization in Beijing. The results of moving window analysis along the urban-rural gradient indicated that, for class-level metrics, the spatial pattern of urbanization could be quantified using landscape metrics, different land-use types exhibited distinctive spatial signatures, and, for landscape-level metrics, the increase in urbanization in the metropolitan Beijing region has resulted in dramatic increases in patch density (PD), edge density (ED), and patch and landscape shape complexity, and sharp decreases in the largest and mean patch size (MPS), agriculture land-use type, and landscape connectivity. The results of moving window analysis around the urban centre showed that the direction of urbanization could be quantified using the class-level metrics, and landscape-level metrics indicated similar results to gradient analysis. In general, moving window analysis showed that the increasingly urbanized landscape became compositionally more diverse, geometrically more complex, and ecologically more fragmented.
ÍNDICES DE PRECIOS HEDÓNICOS PARA ORDENADORES PERSONALES EN ESPAÑA

En este articulo se estiman regresiones hedonicas y se construyen los correspondientes indices hedonicos de precios para ordenadores de sobremesa y portatiles vendidos en Espana durante la decada de los anos 90. Los resultados indican que estos indices de precios muestran reducciones de precios muy notables, del 38 por 100 en media anual entre 1990 y 2000, habiendose intensificado las caidas en la segunda mitad de la decada. Al comparar esta evolucion con la serie del IPC de ordenadores se estima anualmente un sesgo de calidad de 26 puntos porcentuales durante el periodo 1992-2000. (Copyright: Fundacion SEPI)
Impact of computed tomography of the abdomen on clinical outcomes in patients with acute right lower quadrant pain: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Clinical evaluation alone is still considered adequate by many clinicians who treat patients with appendicitis. The impact of computed tomography (CT) on clinical outcomes remains unclear, and there is no consensus regarding the appropriate use of CT in these patients. We sought to evaluate the impact of abdominal CT on the clinical outcomes of patients presenting with suspected appendicitis. METHODS We conducted a systematic review of the literature to identify studies that examined clinical outcomes related to the use of abdominal CT in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Inclusion criteria were studies of adult patients with suspected appendicitis that evaluated the impact of abdominal CT on negative appendectomy rates, perforation rates or time to surgery. Two independent investigators reviewed all titles and abstracts and extracted data from 28 full-text articles. Statistical analysis was conducted using Review Manager 5.0. 10 software. RESULTS The negative appendectomy rate was 8.7% when using CT compared with 16.7% when using clinical evaluation alone (p < 0.001). There was also a significantly lower negative appendectomy rate during the CT era compared with the pre-CT era (10.0% v. 21.5%, p < 0.001). Time to surgery was evaluated in 10 of the 28 studies, 5 of which demonstrated a significant increase in the time to surgery with the use of CT. Appendiceal perforation rates were unchanged by the use of CT (23.4% in the CT group v. 16.7% in the clinical evaluation group, p = 0.15). Similarly, the perforation rate during the CT era was not significantly different than that during the pre-CT era (20.0% v. 19.6%, p = 0.74). CONCLUSION This meta-analysis supports the hypothesis that the use of preoperative abdominal CT is associated with lower negative appendectomy rates. The use of CT in the absence of an expedited imaging protocol may delay surgery, but this delay is not associated with increased appendiceal perforation rates. Routine CT in all patients presenting with suspected appendicitis could reduce the rate of unnecessary surgery without increasing morbidity.
Measuring Quality of Life in Pediatric Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Psychometric and Clinical Characteristics

Objective: To extend development of a pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measure by determining its factor structure and associations of factors with generic HRQoL measures and clinical variables. Patients and Methods: Cross-sectional survey of children and adolescents ages 8 years to 18 years and their parents attending any of 6 US IBD centers, recruited from either existing registry of age-eligible subjects or visits to participating centers. The survey included generic (Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory) and IBD-specific (Impact Questionnaire) quality of life measures, disease activity, and other clinical indicators. We carried out factor analysis of Impact responses, comparing resulting factors with results on the generic HRQoL and the clinical measures. Results: We included 220 subjects (161 with Crohn disease and 59 with ulcerative colitis). Initial confirmatory factor analysis did not support the 6 proposed Impact domains. Exploratory factor analysis indicated 4 factors with good to excellent reliability for IBD responses: general well-being and symptoms, emotional functioning, social interactions, and body image. Two items did not load well on any factor. The 4 factors correlated well with the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory and subscales. Children with higher disease activity scores and other indicators of clinical activity reported lower HRQoL. Conclusions: This study provides further characteristics of a HRQoL measure specific to pediatric IBD and indicates ways to score the measure based on the resulting factor structure. The measure correlates appropriately with generic HRQoL measures and clinical severity indicators.
EFFECTS OF RAINFALL, HOST DEMOGRAPHY, AND MUSTH ON STRONGYLE FECAL EGG COUNTS IN AFRICAN ELEPHANTS (LOXODONTA AFRICANA) IN NAMIBIA

Wild African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are commonly infected with intestinal strongyle parasites. Our objective was to determine baseline fecal strongyle egg counts for elephants in the northeast region of Etosha National Park, Namibia and determine if these numbers were affected by annual rainfall, elephant demography (age of individuals and composition of groups), and hormonal state of males. We found that matriarchal family group members have significantly higher fecal egg counts than male elephants (bulls). Among family group members, strongyle egg counts increased with age, whereas among bulls, strongyle egg counts decreased with age. Years of higher rainfall were correlated with decreased numbers of strongyle eggs among bulls. Finally, bulls were not affected by their physiologic (hormonal) status (musth vs. nonmusth). These results suggest that infection by strongyle parasites in Namibian African elephants is a dynamic process affected by intrinsic and extrinsic factors including host demography and rainfall.
Near optimal solutions for product line design and selection: beam search heuristics

Many practical product line design problems have large numbers of attributes and levels. In this case, if most attribute level combinations define feasible products, constructing product lines directly from part-worths data is necessary. For three typical formulations of this important problem, Kohli and Sukumar Kohli, R. , R. Sukumar. 1990. Heuristics for product-line design using conjoint analysis. Management Sci.36 1464-1478. present state-of-the-art heuristics to find good solutions. In this paper, we develop improved heuristics based on a beam search approach for solving these problems. In our computations for 435 simulated problems, significant improvements occur in five important performance measures used. Our heuristic solutions are closer to the optimal, have smaller standard deviation over replicates, take less computation time, obtain optimal solutions more often and identify a number of "good" product lines explicitly. Computation times for these problems are no more than 22 seconds on a PC, small enough for adequate sensitivity analysis. We also apply the heuristics to a real data set and clarify computational steps by giving a detailed example.
Structure of Customs Tariffs Worldwide and in the European Community

The Nomenclature that is governed by the Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (Harmonized System Convention, Brussels, 14 June 1983) has resulted in an adjustment of many nomenclatures used worldwide for statistical and customs classifi cation because nomenclatures that are based on the HS nomenclature are accepted in more than 200 countries and economic regions – more than 98 percent of world trade is classified according to the HS nomenclature. However, only the first six digits are uniform (HS-6), and further subdivisions are allowed if the structure of the HS nomenclature is not altered. Basically, most customs tariffs worldwide are uniform and the statistical data are comparable, which is important for economic research and comparability of economic data. However, the European Community (EC) applys a Common Customs Tariff (CCT) that is not uniform, because the EC combined statistical and customs nomenclature (so called Combined Nomenclature – CN) allows a further subdivision of the Integrated Customs Tariff (TARIC, HS-6 + 4) by an 11th digit if there is a national purpose in one of the EC Member States.
Hyperbolic Caching: Flexible Caching for Web Applications

Today's web applications rely heavily on caching to reduce latency and backend load, using services like Redis or Memcached that employ inflexible caching algorithms. But the needs of each application vary, and significant performance gains can be achieved with a tailored strategy, e.g., incorporating cost of fetching, expiration time, and so forth. Existing strategies are fundamentally limited, however, because they rely on data structures to maintain a total ordering of the cached items. Inspired by Redis's use of random sampling for eviction (in lieu of a data structure) and recent theoretical justification for this approach, we design a new caching algorithm for web applications called hyperbolic caching. Unlike prior schemes, hyperbolic caching decays item priorities at variable rates and continuously reorders many items at once. By combining random sampling with lazy evaluation of the hyperbolic priority function, we gain complete flexibility in customizing the function. For example, we describe extensions that incorporate item cost, expiration time, and windowing. We also introduce the notion of a cost class in order to measure the costs and manipulate the priorities of all items belonging to a related group. We design a hyperbolic caching variant for several production systems from leading cloud providers. We implement our scheme in Redis and the Django web framework. Using real and simulated traces, we show that hyperbolic caching reduces miss rates by ∼10-20% over competitive baselines tailored to the application, and improves end-to-end throughput by ∼5-10%.
Study of Core Competence of Logistics Cluster: The Integration and the Extension of Value Chain

This paper focuses on the study of core competence of logistics cluster with the solution in two levels: one is the integration of supply chain, and the other point is the extension of value chain; both of them are based on the measurement of agglomeration level of logistics cluster and association level of cluster external resources. Hereby the MAEI model is proposed which is used to evaluate the agglomeration and association level as well as to enhance the core competence of logistics cluster by the solution of integration and extension of value chain.
Evolution of translation initiation sequences using in vitro yeast ribosome display

We report a novel in vitro yeast ribosome display method based on cell‐free protein synthesis (CFPS) using linear DNA templates. We demonstrate that our platform can enrich a target gene from a model library by 100‐fold per round of selection. We demonstrate the utility of our approach by evolving cap‐independent translation initiation (CITI) sequences, which result in a 13‐fold increase in CFPS yields after four rounds of selection, and a threefold further increase by placing the beneficial short sequences in tandem. We also show that 12 of the selected CITI sequences permit precise control of gene expression in vitro over a range of up to 80‐fold by enhancing translation (and not as cryptic promoters). These 12 sequences are then shown to tune protein expression in vivo, though likely due to a different mechanism. Looking forward, yeast ribosome display holds promise for evolving libraries of proteins and DNA regulatory parts for protein engineering and synthetic biology. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 1777–1786. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Report of Two Fatal Cases of Mycobacterium mucogenicum Central Nervous System Infection in Immunocompetent Patients

ABSTRACT Neurological infections due to rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) have rarely been reported. We recently investigated two unrelated immunocompetent patients, one with community-acquired lymphocytic meningitis and the other with cerebral thrombophlebitis. Mycobacterium mucogenicum was isolated in pure culture and detected by PCR sequencing of cerebrospinal fluid samples. Both patients eventually died. The two isolates exhibited an overlapping antimicrobial susceptibility pattern. They were susceptible in vitro to tetracyclines, macrolides, quinolones, amikacin, imipenem, cefoxitin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and resistant to ceftriaxone. They shared 100% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with M. mucogenicum ATCC 49650T over 1,482 bp. Their partial rpoB sequences shared 97.8% and 98.1% similarity with M. mucogenicum ATCC 49650T, suggesting that the two isolates were representative of two sequevars of M. mucogenicum species. This case report should make clinicians aware that M. mucogenicum, an RGM frequently isolated from tap water or from respiratory specimens and mostly without clinical significance, can even be encountered in the central nervous system of immunocompetent patients.
Local-Manifold-Learning-Based Graph Construction for Semisupervised Hyperspectral Image Classification

Graph construction, which is at the heart of graph-based semisupervised learning (SSL), is investigated by using manifold learning (ML) approaches. Since each ML method can be demonstrated to correspond to a specific graph, we build the relation between ML and SSL via the graph, where ML methods are employed for graph construction. Moreover, sparsity is important for the efficiency of SSL algorithms, and therefore, local ML (LML)-method-based sparse graphs are utilized. The LML-based graphs are able to capture the local geometric properties of hyperspectral data and, thus, are beneficial for classification of data with complex geometry and multiple submanifolds. In experiments with Hyperion and AVIRIS hyperspectral data, graphs constructed by two LML methods, namely, locally linear embedding and local tangent space alignment (LTSA), performed better than several popular graph construction methods, and the highest accuracies were obtained by using graphs provided by LTSA.
A comparative study of the diagnostic accuracy of ELISA systems for the detection of anti-neutrophil cytoplasm antibodies available in Japan and Europe.

OBJECTIVES Primary systemic vasculitis associated with anti-neutrophil cytoplasm antibodies (ANCA) differs in its frequency and clinical expression between Japan and Europe. We sought to ascertain whether such differences arise from the performance of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) for ANCA. METHODS Plasma samples from 64 consecutive Japanese patients with a clinical and histological diagnosis of primary systemic vasculitis including microscopic polyangiitis (MPA; n=52), Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS; n=1), and Wegener's granulomatosis (WG; n=11), or those from disease controls with non-vasculitic glomerulonephritis (n=54) and healthy controls (n=55) were tested for the presence of myeloperoxidase (MPO) by ELISAs available in Japan (Nipro and MBL) and compared with those in Europe (Wieslab). The sensitivity and specificity were calculated for each ELISA, and its diagnostic performance was assessed by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. RESULTS The sensitivity and specificity of either MPO-ANCA assays for a diagnosis of MPA were 90.4% and 98.2% (Nipro), 88.2% and 96.3% (MBL), and 86.5% and 99.1% (Wieslab). The overall diagnostic performance, assessed as the area under curve of the MPO-ANCA ELISAs for MPA were 0.946+/-0.022 (Nipro), 0.970+/-0.017 (MBL), and 0.971+/-0.017 (Wieslab), while that of PR3-ANCA ELISAs for WG were 0.986+/-0.025 (Nipro), 0.993+/-0.017 (MBL), and 0.916+/-0.059 (Wieslab). CONCLUSIONS The MPO-ANCA ELISAs commercially available in Japan exhibited high sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of ANCA-associated vasculitides and provided similar diagnostic value to those in Europe. These results facilitate further international comparison of ANCA-associated vasculitides between Japanese and European populations.
Widespread hybridization and bidirectional introgression in sympatric species of coral reef fish

Coral reefs are highly diverse ecosystems, where numerous closely related species often coexist. How new species arise and are maintained in these high geneflow environments have been long‐standing conundrums. Hybridization and patterns of introgression between sympatric species provide a unique insight into the mechanisms of speciation and the maintenance of species boundaries. In this study, we investigate the extent of hybridization between two closely related species of coral reef fish: the common coral trout (Plectropomus leopardus) and the bar‐cheek coral trout (Plectropomus maculatus). Using a complementary set of 25 microsatellite loci, we distinguish pure genotype classes from first‐ and later‐generation hybrids, identifying 124 interspecific hybrids from a collection of 2,991 coral trout sampled in inshore and mid‐shelf reefs of the southern Great Barrier Reef. Hybrids were ubiquitous among reefs, fertile and spanned multiple generations suggesting both ecological and evolutionary processes are acting to maintain species barriers. We elaborate on these finding to investigate the extent of genomic introgression and admixture from 2,271 SNP loci recovered from a ddRAD library of pure and hybrid individuals. An analysis of genomic clines on recovered loci indicates that 261 SNP loci deviate from a model of neutral introgression, of which 132 indicate a pattern of introgression consistent with selection favouring both hybrid and parental genotypes. Our findings indicate genome‐wide, bidirectional introgression between two sympatric species of coral reef fishes and provide further support to a growing body of evidence for the role of hybridization in the evolution of coral reef fishes.
Automatic gain control with integrated signal enhancement for specified target and background-noise levels

This paper proposes automatic gain control with integrated signal enhancement for specified target and background-noise levels. The input signal is separated into a target signal and background noise by signal enhancement. The processing gains for the target and the noise are calculated from their estimated magnitudes and desirable output levels. After independent amplification/attenuation of the target signal and the noise, they are summed up to construct the output signal with their specified levels. Because of independent gain control, a more suitable signal for user needs can be obtained. Evaluation results demonstrate that the proposed gain control provides as much as 6 dB better gain than a commercial voice recorder with comparable signal quality.
Membrane glycolipid and phospholipid composition of lipopolysaccharide-responsive and -nonresponsive murine B lymphocytes

Neutral glycolipids, gangliosides, and phospholipids present on membranes of unstimulated or lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated B cells were analyzed in LPS-responsive C3H/HePAS and LPS-nonresponsive C3H/HeJ mice. In the set of neutral glycolipids, asialo GM1 reacted preferentially with galactose oxidase but was not detectable with monospecific antibodies during immunocytofluorescence analysis. Another, more polar, neutral glycolipid appeared exclusively after stimulation of responsive B cells. Among the membrane gangliosides 1 to 5 that were able to react with galactose oxidase on B cells, ganglioside 3 was not detected in the mutant strain, and its absence was counterbalanced by the presence of a larger amount of ganglioside 1. The biosynthesis of total membrane phospholipids and the balance between phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine were significantly different in the two mouse strains examined and were quantitatively and qualitatively modified during the mitogenic response to LPS.