Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scattered Trust - Did the 2007-08 Financial Crisis Change Risk Perceptions?

The paper investigates whether the financial crisis did affect risk perceptions, and, hence, change structural parameters. By decomposing credit spreads of US corporate bonds into the contributions by credit, equity, and liquidity risk factors as well as structural change, the relative contribution of the change in risk perceptions can be measured. We show that this increase is mostly due to aversion to default risk for high-yield bonds. For low-yield bonds, the increase is mostly due to liquidity related factors. By means of counterfactual analysis we find that the financial crisis shifted the distribution of bond spreads almost uniformly. This evidence is consistent with changing risk perceptions as predicted by theories of ambiguity aversion or social learning in the case of rare events.
Phenotypic features associated with mosaic tetrasomy 9p in a 20-year-old female patient include autism spectrum disorder.

The 20-year-old female patient was the third child of non-consanguineous and healthy parents. When she was born, her mother was 33 years old and her father 34 years old. There was no family history of congenital malformations or autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). She was delivered at 40 weeks of gestation with a birth weight of 2,600 g. She was found to have 43 . 1 % (22/5 1 ) mosaicism for tetrasomy 9p in the peripheral blood at the age of 6 years because of developmental delay and facial dysmorphism. Her menarche was 15 years of age. When examined at 20 years of age, she presented with a body weight of 42 Kg ( Tetrasomy 9p, or supernumerary isochromosome 9p, results from a supernumerary isochromosome consisting of the entire short arm of chromosome 9, the entire short arm and part of the heterochromatic region of the long arm of chromosome 9, or the entire short arm and part of the long arm extending to the euchromatic region of chromosome 9. The phenotypic severity of mosaic tetrasomy 9p is influenced by the degree of mosaicism, the size of the isochromosome involved and the presence of tissue-limited mosaicism. Tetrasomy 9p is characterized by developmental delay, hypertelorism, micrognathia, ear malformations, joint dislocations, hypoplasia of the digits and nails, cleft lip and palate, urogenital abnormalities, congenital heart defects, a bulbous/beaked nose, intrauterine growth restriction, ventriculomegaly and Dandy-Walker malformation (3). Trisomy 9p, or 9p duplication syndrome, may present distinct phenotypic features of psychomotor and growth retardations, microcephaly, down-slanting palpebral fissures, hypertelorism, a bulbous nose, down-turned corners of the mouth, low-set ears, short fingers and toes, hypoplastic phalanges of the fifth fingers, hypoplastic nails and genital hypoplasia (5, 9, 12). Fryns (6) suggested that there is no major phenotypic difference between the patients with tetrasomy 9p and the patients with trisomy 9p. The peculiar aspect of the present case is the association of ASD. The spectrum of ASDs includes autism, pervasive developmental disorders-not otherwise specified and Asperger's disorder (8). ASDs have three main characteristics such as impairments of reciprocal social interactions, problems in communications, and repetitive and restrictive interests and behaviors (8). The difference between autism and Asperger's disorder is that patients with Asperger's disorder do not have clinically significant cognitive and language delay. Veitia et al. (10) reported two patients with 46,XY gonadal dysgenesis, microdeletion of 9p24, affective disorders and disruptive behavior. Vinci el a/. ( 1 1 ) reported 46,XY partial gonadal dysgenesis and ASD in an 11 - year-7-month-old boy with a de novo deletion of 9p24, and suggested that gonadal dysgenesis and ASD may be caused by a single gene at 9p24. Autism Genome Project Consortium (2) suggested a potential locus of ASD at 9p24. …
Mobile Money in developing markets : What should Mobile Money providers consider when trying to drive activity from the already registered user base?

For the past decade, there has been many innovations made to the mobile phone and new features such as payments have been added to the mobile phone’s capabilities. East Africa is the region with the fastest uptake and highest adoption rates of mobile money in the world. Despite the success, the amount of active users of mobile money is still low in comparison to the number of registered users. The purpose of this master thesis is to analyze what mobile money providers should consider when trying to drive activity from the already registered user base.The main theoretical concept that was used is resource-based view and the analytical framework is an importance-effort matrix. The empirical study consisted of in-depth interviews with key experts and stakeholders from the mobile money industry. Most of the interviews were face-to-face interviews during a research trip to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The findings were then reviewed during the Mobile Money Africa 2014 conference in South Africa.This thesis has identified a number of reasons for low user activity of the registered user base together with strategies that has the potential to tackle them. In order to drive activity, it is important for the service provider to understand and consider what that is desired and required to possess in terms of tangible, intangible and human resources to be able to successfully implement and run the identified strategies. The study concludes that tangible resources (physical and financial resources) are of great important for enabling success of most of the identified strategies whereas intangible (intellectual property, reputation and culture) and human (skills and knowledge, communication and interaction, and motivation) resources have great variance of importance.
A feature fusion based optical character recognition of Bangla characters using support vector machine

This paper introduces a feature fusion based optical Bangla character recognition approach using Support Vector Machine (SVM) including the feature extraction method named Zoning and Gabor Filter. Optical character recognition (OCR) is mostly dependent on the features extracted from characters which highly influences the classification and recognition accuracy. This paper emphasizes on the feature fusion of two different feature vectors obtained by Zoning and Gabor filter of suitable frequencies and orientations along with finding the recognition rate by passing the features into a well-developed classifier, Support Vector Machine (SVM) for classification. Here, a comparison has also been made among the recognition accuracy by individual features and by feature fusion which reveals that feature fusion based method performs better (92.99%) than a single feature extraction method (68.15% for Zoning, 89.73% for Gabor filter) during classification.
RESOLVING THE DELTA ANDROMEDAE SPECTROSCOPIC BINARY WITH DIRECT IMAGING

We present a direct image of the innermost companion to the red giant δ Andromedae using the Stellar Double Coronagraph at the Palomar Observatory. We use a Markov Chain Monte Carlo based algorithm to simultaneously reduce the data and perform astrometry and photometry of the companion. We determine that the companion is most likely a main sequence K-type star and is certainly not the previously hypothesized white dwarf.
Formulations and Approximation Algorithms for Multilevel Uncapacitated Facility Location

This paper studies multilevel uncapacitated p-location problems, a general class of facility location problems. We use a combinatorial representation of the general problem where the objective function satisfies the submodular property, and we exploit this characterization to derive worst-case bounds for a greedy heuristic. We also obtain sharper bounds when the setup cost for opening facilities is zero and the allocation profits are nonnegative. Moreover, we introduce a mixed integer linear programming formulation for the problem based on the submodularity property. We present results of computational experiments to assess the performance of the greedy heuristic and that of the formulation. We compare the models with previously studied formulations. The online supplement and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2017. 0757.
Loci Contributing to Adult Height and Body Mass Index in African American Families Ascertained for Type 2 Diabetes

Height and body mass index (BMI) have high heritability in most studies. High BMI and reduced height are well‐recognized as important risk factors for a number of cardiovascular diseases. We investigated these phenotypes in African American families originally ascertained for studies of linkage with type 2 diabetes using self‐reported height and weight. We conducted a genome wide scan in 221 families containing 580 individuals and 672 relative pairs of African American descent. Estimates of heritability and support for linkage were assessed by genetic variance component analyses using SOLAR software. The estimated heritabilities for height and BMI were 0.43 and 0.64, respectively. We have identified major loci contributing to variation in height on chromosomes 15 (LOD = 2.61 at 35 cM, p = 0.0004), 3 (LOD = 1.82 at 84 cM, p = 0.0029), 8 (LOD = 1.92 at 135 cM, p = 0.0024) and 17 (LOD = 1.70 at 110 cM, p = 0.0044). A broad region on chromosome 4 supported evidence of linkage to variation in BMI, with the highest LOD = 2.66 at 168 cM (p = 0.0005). Two height loci and two BMI loci appear to confirm the existence of quantitative trait loci previously identified by other studies, providing important replicative data to allow further resolution of linkage regions suitable for positional cloning of these cardiovascular disease risk loci.
Diabetic flies? Using Drosophila melanogaster to understand the causes of monogenic and genetically complex diseases

Approximately three‐quarters of human disease loci have counterparts in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. This model organism is therefore extremely valuable for using to understand the role of these loci in normal development, and for unravelling genetic pathways in which these loci take part. Important advantages for Drosophila in such studies are its completed genome, the unparalleled collection of mutations already in existence, the relative ease in which new mutations can be generated, the existence of convenient techniques for inactivating or overexpressing genes in dispensable tissues that are easily observed and measured, and the ability to readily carry out second‐site modifier genetics. Recent work in Drosophila on the insulin‐signaling pathway, a pathway of profound clinical importance, is reviewed as an illustration of how such research can provide fundamental insights into the functions of this pathway in regulating growth and development. Moreover, Drosophila research is now identifying heretofore unknown regulators of insulin signaling, as well as indicating novel functions for this pathway in suppressing benign tumor formation and regulating life span.
The role of private institutional investors for the development of urban infrastructure assets

The topic of infrastructure investment has emerged as a critical public policy issue over the last thirty years as governments grapple with an infrastructure deficit that has become one of the great global challenges of our time. Through the simultaneous processes of neo-liberalisation and globalisation, the urban infrastructure landscape has emerged as an attractive investment area for large financial institutions. With the recent Global Financial Crisis further exacerbating both the funding and growth lifting needs of nations, the urgency of linking institutional investors with urban infrastructure assets is more apparent than ever. This thesis looks at the evolving dynamics associated with the growing involvement of the financial industry in the provision of urban infrastructure assets. This is achieved by using a relational perspective, studying the interactions of financial actors, while simultaneously being aware that these decisions are made within a larger political economic context. It is argued that the complex, heterogeneous and long-term nature of institutional infrastructure investing requires a multi-disciplinary relational economic geography framework. Specifically, relational theory is used to explore the informational content and geographical structure of the infrastructure financial product, the influence of government decision-making, the corporate governance of infrastructure investments and the investment relationship between investors and financial intermediaries. Despite exponential growth in the field over the last decade, the infrastructure financial product has a level of sophistication and obscurity that prohibits it from being classed a transparent investment area, highlighting the importance of a relational approach to investments. From the case study on Auckland International Airport Ltd., it is shown that through a relational form of light-handed regulatory contract, the government plays a central role in affecting the favourable performance of an economically significant asset. The explication of the Spanish-led ADI consortium acquisition of UK airport operating company BAA illustrates the need for ‘glocal’ infrastructure governance to incorporate a wider stakeholder perspective as well as an appropriate shareholder wealth maximisation strategy. And finally, through analysing the relationships between investment partners for the infrastructure investment process, investment consultants are playing a crucial role to help align interests and promote the long-term relational approach to investing for the infrastructure asset class. In an age where infrastructure investment has been recognised by many nations around the world as the most important growth lifting strategy, this thesis provides a deeper understanding of how a relational approach can facilitate successful private institutional infrastructure investment.
DNA packaging and ejection forces in bacteriophage

We calculate the forces required to package (or, equivalently, acting to eject) DNA into (from) a bacteriophage capsid, as a function of the loaded (ejected) length, under conditions for which the DNA is either self-repelling or self-attracting. Through computer simulation and analytical theory, we find the loading force to increase more than 10-fold (to tens of piconewtons) during the final third of the loading process; correspondingly, the internal pressure drops 10-fold to a few atmospheres (matching the osmotic pressure in the cell) upon ejection of just a small fraction of the phage genome. We also determine an evolution of the arrangement of packaged DNA from toroidal to spool-like structures.
Group Differences in the Relationship Between Apathy and Depression

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the discriminability of apathy and depression by determining whether the relationship of these two dimensions of behavior varies in different diagnostic groups. Using the authors' Apathy Evaluation Scale and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, we rated 123 subjects, mean age 72 years, who met research criteria for healthy elderly controls, left or right hemisphere stroke, probable Alzheimer's disease, and major depression. Elevated apathy scores unassociated with elevated depression were most frequent in Alzheimer's disease and right hemisphere stroke, and also occurred in a small number of left hemisphere stroke and normal subjects. In major depression, apathy was associated with high depression scores, although a substantial number of major depressives showed elevated depression without elevated apathy. In left hemisphere stroke, probable Alzheimer's disease, and major depression, there were significant positive correlations between apathy and depression. The slope of the regression of apathy on depression was greatest in probable Alzheimer's disease and major depression. These results indicate that the relationship between apathy and depression differs across diagnostic groups and, thus, support the discriminability of apathy and depression.
Theoretical framework for ICT implementation in the Malaysian construction industry: Issues and challenges

This paper presents a literature review on the issues and challenges of ICT implementation in the construction industry. The objectives of this study are identification of the current types of ICT application used in the construction industry, Analysis of ICT training programs and identification of benefits, weaknesses and challenges against ICT implementation in construction industry. The study identified 17 types of ICT application identified for use during overall construction process, for example an e-tendering system used by contractors to find opens tenders electronically. In addition, three ICT training characteristic were found: Training company support, ICT training mode preferences, and ICT competences expectation. Eventually only seven weaknesses were identified: for example some of the software is too expensive. This research also aims to understand the trends and issues in current ICT usage in the Malaysian construction industry.
Presynaptic Morphological Changes Associated with Long-Term Synaptic Facilitation Are Triggered by Actin Polymerization at Preexisting Varicositis

Morphological changes are thought to contribute to the expression of long-term synaptic plasticity, a cellular basis for learning and memory. The mechanisms mediating the initiation and maintenance of the morphological changes are poorly understood. We repeatedly imaged the axonal arbors of mechanosensory neurons of Aplysia as they formed new synaptic varicosities and axonal branches after applications of serotonin that cause long-term synaptic facilitation. New varicosities formed exclusively from preexisting varicosities, by splitting or branch outgrowth. These changes were prevented by cytochalasin D, which blocks actin polymerization and the turnover of actin filaments. The suppression of the morphological changes by cytochalasin D did not impair their expression when cytochalasin D was removed 24 hr after exposure to serotonin. These results imply that serotonin induces persistent effects at preexisting presynaptic varicosities, which enhance actin polymerization, and that this is essential for presynaptic morphological changes of long-term facilitation.
Tissue selectivity of murine leukemia virus infection is determined by long terminal repeat sequences

Here we show that the tissue specificity of murine retrovirus infections is determined by the long terminal repeat (LTR) of an otherwise isogenic set of viruses. The isogenic viruses used for this study contain the coding gag, pol, and env genes of the avirulent Akv virus. Recombinant viruses that contain the LTR of a virus that induces T-cell leukemia lymphoma preferentially infect T lymphocytes. Viruses that carry the LTR of a virus that induces erythroleukemia preferentially infect non-T lymphoblastoid cell lines in the marrow and spleen. The Akv virus itself displays no tissue preference for hematopoietic cells. These experiments suggest that retroviruses that carry appropriate enhancer-promoters can be used to infect selectively specific target cells in animals.
An efficient test relaxation technique for synchronous sequential circuits

Testing systems-on-a-chip involves applying huge amounts of test data, which is stored in the tester memory and then transferred to the circuit under test during test application. Therefore, practical techniques, such as test compression and compaction, are required to reduce the amount of test data in order to reduce both the total testing time and the memory requirements for the tester. Test-set relaxation can improve the efficiency of both test compression and test compaction. In addition, the relaxation process can identify self-initializing test sequences for synchronous sequential circuits. In this paper, we propose an efficient test-relaxation technique for synchronous sequential circuits that maximizes the number of unspecified bits while maintaining the same fault coverage as the original test set.
Face identification using a 3D gray-scale image-a method for lessening restrictions on facial directions

We propose a method to identify the human face using a 3D gray scale image which combines a 3D image with a gray scale image. The proposed method can identify facial images which face in various directions. First, 3D positions, where the eyes and the tip of the nose are located, are estimated in the acquired 3D gray scale image. Next, the calibration of facial directions and brightness is performed. Due to facial images facing more to the right or the left, some parts of the calibrated data are lost by occlusion. Thus, we assume that a human face is almost symmetrical, and the side of the facial image without any loss of data is regarded as the region for identification. Feature vectors which reflect individuality are extracted from this region. The identification procedure is conducted using the subspace method. In order to demonstrate the efficiency of this method, the experiment used 3D gray scale images of 24 people.
DOMINANCE AND DISTRIBUTION OF TREE SPECIES IN UPPER AMAZONIAN TERRA FIRME FORESTS

Amazonian forests are the largest and most diverse in the tropics, and much of the mystery surrounding their ecology can be traced to attempts to understand them through tiny local inventories. In this paper we bring together a large number of such inventories scattered across immense areas of western Amazonia in order to address simple questions about the distribution and abundance of tropical tree species in lowland terra firme forests there. The goal is to describe patterns of commonness and rarity at local (1 ha), landscape (∼104 km2), and regional (>106 km2) scales, and to fuse the results into a more complete picture of how tropical tree communities are structured. We present estimates of landscape-scale densities for ∼1400 taxa, based on data from tree plots scattered over large tracts of terra firme forest in eastern Ecuador and southeastern Peru. A database of morphological, ecological, and other traits of >1000 of these species compiled from the taxonomic literature is then used to explore how species that are common in the inventories differ from species that are rare. Although most species show landscape-scale densities of <1 individual/ha, most trees in both forests belong to a small set of ubiquitous common species. These common species combine high frequency with high local abundance, forming predictable oligarchies that dominate several thousand square kilometers of forest at each site. The common species comprising these oligarchies are a nonrandom subset of the two floras. At both sites a disproportionate number of common species are concentrated in the families Arecaceae, Moraceae, Myristicaceae, and Violaceae, and large-statured tree species are more likely to be common than small ones. Nearly a third of the 150 most common tree species in the Ecuadorean forest are also found among the 150 most common tree species in the Peruvian forest. For the 254 tree species shared by the two data sets, abundance in Ecuador is positively and significantly correlated with abundance ∼1400 km away in Peru. These findings challenge popular depictions of Amazonian vegetation as a small-scale mosaic of unpredictable composition and structure. Instead, they provide additional evidence that tropical tree communities are not qualitatively different from their temperate counterparts, where a few common species concentrated in a few higher taxa can dominate immense areas of forest. We hypothesize that most Amazonian forests are dominated at large scales by oligarchies similar in nature to the ones observed in Ecuador and Peru, and we argue that the patterns are more indicative of regulation of relative abundances by ecological factors than of nonequilibrium chance-based dynamics. The paper concludes with a discussion of the practical applications of predictable oligarchies over large areas of unexplored forest.