Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Forecasting sovereign CDS VOLATILITY: A comparison of univariate GARCH-class models

Initially overlooked by investors, the sovereign credit risk has been reassessed upwards since the 2000's which has contributed to awaken the interest of speculators in sovereign CDS. The growing need of accurate forecasting models has led us to fill the gap in the literature by studying the predictability of sovereign CDS volatility, using both linear and non-linear GARCH-class models. This paper uses data from 38 worldwide countries, ranging from January 2006 to March 2017. Results show that the CDS markets are subject to periods of volatility clustering, nonlinearity, asym-metric leverage effects and long-memory behavior. Using 7 heteroskedastic and no heteroskedastic-robust statistic criteria, results show that the fractionally-integrated models outperform the basic GARCH-class models in terms of forecasting ability and that allowing flexibility regarding the persistence degree of variance shocks significantly improves the model's suitability to data. Despite the divergence in the economic status and geographical positions of the countries composing our sample, the FIGARCH and FIEGARCH models are mainly found to be the most accurate models in predicting credit market volatility. JEL Classification: G15, G17, C58.
Prostate contours delineation using interactive directional active contours model and parametric shape prior model

Prostate contours delineation on Magnetic Resonance (MR) images is a challenging and important task in medical imaging with applications of guiding biopsy, surgery and therapy. While a fully automated method is highly desired for this application, it can be a very difficult task due to the structure and surrounding tissues of the prostate gland. Traditional active contours‐based delineation algorithms are typically quite successful for piecewise constant images. Nevertheless, when MR images have diffuse edges or multiple similar objects (e.g. bladder close to prostate) within close proximity, such approaches have proven to be unsuccessful. In order to mitigate these problems, we proposed a new framework for bi‐stage contours delineation algorithm based on directional active contours (DAC) incorporating prior knowledge of the prostate shape. We first explicitly addressed the prostate contour delineation problem based on fast globally DAC that incorporates both statistical and parametric shape prior model. In doing so, we were able to exploit the global aspects of contour delineation problem by incorporating a user feedback in contours delineation process where it is shown that only a small amount of user input can sometimes resolve ambiguous scenarios raised by DAC. In addition, once the prostate contours have been delineated, a cost functional is designed to incorporate both user feedback interaction and the parametric shape prior model. Using data from publicly available prostate MR datasets, which includes several challenging clinical datasets, we highlighted the effectiveness and the capability of the proposed algorithm. Besides, the algorithm has been compared with several state‐of‐the‐art methods. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Comprehending CSR messages: applying the elaboration likelihood model

Purpose Using the elaboration likelihood model as a framework, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of cause involvement, ability to process, and motivation to process on consumer judgments of organizational image following exposure to a corporate social responsibility (CSR) message. Design/methodology/approach This study relies upon an experimental manipulation of message complexity and uses quantitative survey data. The data were analyzed via tests of means differences, hierarchical multiple OLS regression, and mediation analysis. Findings The authors found that CSR’s influence on image is unaffected by message complexity – at least directly. However, CSR’s influence on image is intensified by greater cause involvement and information processing ability, which indicates that central route processing is more likely to move the needle on such assessments. Additionally, involvement serves as an important mediator on the effects that ability and motivation to process have on ratings of organizational image. Originality/value The findings suggest the necessity for communicators of CSR to foster cause involvement in consumers if social responsibility efforts are to resonate and garner positive results. Additionally, should organizations wish to create deeper elaboration about CSR messages among consumers, simple, straightforward messaging appears most effective. Complex messages can, however, serve as valuable peripheral cues among certain audiences.
A Novel Bioreactor Microcarrier Cell Culture System for High Yields of Proliferating Autologous Human Keratinocytes

Rapid and efficient resurfacing of various skin defects by autologous keratinocyte transplantation is significant in skin wound healing. We developed a novel bioreactor microcarrier cell culture system (Bio-MCCS) to produce autologous human keratinocytes on a large scale. In this Bio-MCCS we used porcine gelatin microbeads as microcarriers for autolgous keratinocytes and spinning bottles as fermentation tanks. First, the microbeads were modified by culturing them with autologous dermal fibroblasts that were subsequently killed when they proliferated to confluence on the microbeads. We then performed the Bio-MCCS by expanding ketatinocytes on the microbeads in spinning bottles at 37°C, 5% CO2. Our results showed that keratinocytes rapidly attached to and actively proliferated on the modified microbeads in the Bio-MCCS, achieving high cell densities on the modified microbeads (MTT assay and PI staining). Keratinocytes cultured on the modified microbeads in the Bio-MCCS remained proliferating potentials as shown by positive PCNA staining and BrdU labeling. In contrast, keratinocytes cultured on nonmodified microbeads in the Bio-MCCS proliferated slowly, rapidly ceased to proliferate, and finally dislodged from the microbeads. When removed from the Bio-MCCS and cultured under static conditions, keratinocytes were able to leave the modified microbeads and formed a multilayered epidermal equivalent on the culture surfaces. While stored at room temperature, keratinocytes remained at higher viabilities on the modified microbeads when compared to those on nonmodified microbeads. The achievement of high yields of proliferating autologous keratinocytes by this Bio-MCCS offers a practical potential of resurfacing various skin defects by direct administration of autologous keratinocyte microbeads on various skin defects.
Land use changes in the EU: Policy and macro impact analysis

This paper analyses the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and macroeconomy on land use changes in the EU. Three scenarios are simulated up to 2030: baseline, macro scenario and policy scenario. Simulation results indicate that GDP leads to a stronger effect on land use changes than the CAP. Stronger changes in land use are observed at the crop disaggregated level than at the aggregated level for the total agricultural area, arable land, grassland and permanent crops.
Hybrid multiband excitation multiecho acquisition for hyperpolarized 13C spectroscopic imaging

Fast dynamic imaging of hyperpolarized 13C‐labeled pyruvate and its downstream metabolites shows great potential for probing metabolic changes in the heart. Sequences that allow for fast encoding of the spectral and spatial information of the myocardial metabolism and optimal signal excitation are usually limited by gradient performance, especially at high magnetic fields. Here we propose a combination of a spectral‐spatial multiband excitation and multiecho readout to overcome these limitations.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF CD4+ CD25+ T-REGULATORY-CELLS TO IMMUNE SUPPRESSION IN SEPSIS

Studies have indicated that there is a development of generalized immune dysfunction after septic insult. However, the mechanisms responsible for these changes remain unclear. Recently, accumulating evidence shows that several lymphocyte subpopulations such as NKT-, CD4+-Th2-T-, CD8+-T-, &ggr;&dgr;-T-, and CD4+CD25+ T regulatory cells are capable of actively contributing to the induction of septic immune suppression. Thus, our aim was to investigate the contribution of CD4+CD25+ cells to the immune dysfunction seen in sepsis. To study this, C57BL/6J, C57BL/6-Il6tm1Kopf (interleukin [IL] 6 −/−), and C57BL/6−Il10tm1Cgn (IL-10 −/−) mice were subjected to cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) or sham operations. Twenty-four hours later, blood was collected, and splenocytes were isolated. Phenotypic expression of CD4/CD25 (by fluorescence-activated cell sorter), cell proliferation (presented as proliferation index = [with anti-CD3]/[without anti-CD3]), and immune suppressive capacity (by in vitro add-back experiments) were assessed. The results indicate a marked elevation in CD4+CD25+ cell levels and their proliferation index after sepsis in background mice. CD4+CD25− cells from sham and CLP mice proliferated equally. However, coculture of CD4+CD25− with CD4+CD25+ cells suppressed their proliferation in both sham and CLP mice. Depletion of CD25+ cells in vivo before CLP markedly restored CD4+CD25− proliferative capacity and Th1 cytokine release while not altering plasma proinflammatory cytokine levels. Subsequently, IL−6 −/− and IL-10 −/− mice were used to elucidate the possible mediator(s) regulating the changes seen after sepsis. Although CD4+CD25+ cells increased after septic insult in both C57BL/6J and IL-6 −/− mice, this was not observed in IL-10 −/− mice. Similarly, in vitro proliferation studies showed that proliferation index increased in CD4+CD25+ cells from septic C57BL/6J and IL6 −/− mice, but it remained the same in IL-10 −/− mice. Surprisingly, depletion of CD25+ cells before inducing sepsis did not alter septic mortality. Together, these findings suggest that although CD4+CD25+ T regulatory cells induced by IL-10 seem to contribute to aspects of sepsis-induced lymphoid immune suppression, the oblation of CD25+ cells does not provide a survival advantage or disadvantage.
Low contribution of rice and vegetables to the daily intake of selenium in Japan

The growing interest in the prevention role of selenium in certain degenerative diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease has fostered research on natural sources of selenium. In this research, total selenium concentrations in over 120 items of selected Japanese foods were determined. The selenium concentration was measured fluorometrically by measurement of the fluorescence of piazselenol resulting from the reaction of selenite with 2, 3-diaminonaphtalene. The selenium level in rice, which is the staple food consumed in Japan, is lower than the other countries. But the mean levels of selenium in meat and fish products are among the highest values reported in other countries. Although the numbers of samples of selected foods analyzed are small, the results describe the picture of the selenium level of Japanese foods.
An islanding detection based on virtual impedance and phase-locked loop

Synchronous reference frame Phase-locked loops (PLL) are widely used in three-phase DG (Distributed Generation) systems, and the PLL behaviors always affected by the grid and local load. When DG is at the grid-connected condition, the output of PLL always stays at power frequency, while islanding occurs, the output of PLL would jump to the resonant frequency of local load. However, we cannot identify whether islanding happens if the resonant frequency is almost equal to power frequency. To overcome this problem, we introduce virtual impedance in the control channel of the DG system to periodically change the output impedance so as to change the resonant frequency. We can use it to eliminate None Detected Zone (NDZ) of the passive method to detect islanding.
Tests for the Weights of the Global Minimum Variance Portfolio in a High-Dimensional Setting

In this paper, we construct two tests for the weights of the global minimum variance portfolio (GMVP) in a high-dimensional setting, namely, when the number of assets <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p$</tex-math></inline-formula> depends on the sample size <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$</tex-math></inline-formula> such that <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\frac{p}{n}\rightarrow c \in (0,1)$</tex-math></inline-formula> as <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$</tex-math></inline-formula> tends to infinity. In the case of a singular covariance matrix with rank equal to <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$q$</tex-math></inline-formula> we assume that <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$q/n\rightarrow \tilde{c}\in (0, 1)$</tex-math></inline-formula> as <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n\rightarrow \infty$</tex-math></inline-formula>. The considered tests are based on the sample estimator and on the shrinkage estimator of the GMVP weights. We derive the asymptotic distributions of the test statistics under the null and alternative hypotheses. Moreover, we provide a simulation study where the power functions and the receiver operating characteristic curves of the proposed tests are compared with other existing approaches. We observe that the test based on the shrinkage estimator performs well even for values of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$c$</tex-math></inline-formula> close to one.
Efficient constrained finite element solution for electromagnetic eigenvalue problems with lossy anisotropic materials

Use of divergence-free constraint equations to suppress the appearance of suprious modes in the vector FEM modeling of electromagnetic resonators is extended to the case of lossy resonators. Electric field based FEM formulation for lossy Maxwell eigenvalue problem results in a quadaratic eigenvalue problem which can be linearized and cast into a standard eigenvalue problem. When an iterative technique such as the Lanczos/Arnoldi method is used for the eigenvalue solution, non-physical modes which donot satisfy the divergence-free condition of the electric flux appear along with the physical eigenvector solutions. Appearance of such eigenmodes is eliminated by constraining the eigenvector solution to be divergence free in a weak sense. The constraint equation is imposed efficiently by devising a gradient projector operator based on the tree-cotree partitioning of the finite element mesh. Coupling of the constraint equation with ARPACK routines invoked with the shift-and-invert strategy resulting in the eigenvalue solution free of non-physical eigenvalues is demonstrated.
Leveraging Large-Scale Semantic Networks for Adaptive Robot Task Learning and Execution

This work seeks to leverage semantic networks containing millions of entries encoding assertions of commonsense knowledge to enable improvements in robot task execution and learning. The specific application we explore in this project is object substitution in the context of task adaptation. Humans easily adapt their plans to compensate for missing items in day-to-day tasks, substituting a wrap for bread when making a sandwich, or stirring pasta with a fork when out of spoons. Robot plan execution, however, is far less robust, with missing objects typically leading to failure if the robot is not aware of alternatives. In this article, we contribute a context-aware algorithm that leverages the linguistic information embedded in the task description to identify candidate substitution objects without reliance on explicit object affordance information. Specifically, we show that the task context provided by the task labels within the action structure of a task plan can be leveraged to disambiguate information within a noisy large-scale semantic network containing hundreds of potential object candidates to identify successful object substitutions with high accuracy. We present two extensive evaluations of our work on both abstract and real-world robot tasks, showing that the substitutions made by our system are valid, accepted by users, and lead to a statistically significant reduction in robot learning time. In addition, we report the outcomes of testing our approach with a large number of crowd workers interacting with a robot in real time.
Policy for Prevention of Oral Manifestations in HIV/AIDS: The Approach of the WHO Global Oral Health Program

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has become a human and social disaster, particularly affecting the developing countries of Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. By the end of 2004, about 40 million people were estimated to be infected by HIV globally. The health sectors in many affected countries are facing severe shortages of human and financial resources, and are struggling to cope with the growing impact of HIV/AIDS. In most developed countries, the availability of antiretroviral treatment has resulted in a dramatic reduction in HIV/AIDS-related mortality and morbidity. In contrast, in the developing countries, there is little access to treatment, and access to HIV-prevention services is poor. The ’3 by 5′ initiative was launched by the WHO and UNAIDS in 2003 with the aim of providing antiretrovirals to three million people in developing countries by the year 2005. HIV infection has a significant negative impact on oral health, with approximately 40–50% of HIV-positive persons developing oral fungal, bacterial, or viral infections early in the course of the disease. Oral health services and professionals can contribute effectively to the control of HIV/AIDS through health education and health promotion, patient care, effective infection control, and surveillance. The WHO Global Oral Health Program has strengthened its work for prevention of HIV/AIDS-related oral disease. The WHO co-sponsored conference, Oral Health and Disease in AIDS, held in Phuket, Thailand (2004), issued a declaration calling for action by national and international health authorities. The aim is to strengthen oral health promotion and the care of HIV-infected persons, and to encourage research on the impact that HIV/AIDS, public health initiatives, and surveillance have on oral health.
Was it Merely a Coincidence? Towards a Practice-Based Perspective on Early Internationalisation of SMEs

Objective : The aim of this this paper is to analyse the relation between some aspects of reflexive actions and the routinization within the internationalization process. The article provides a new insight into the phenomenon of early internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises. Research Design & Methods : A qualitative research offers an alternative approach to the problem of how enterprises explore foreign opportunities in the realms of daily performed activities. Findings: A qualitative research provides a framework of the relation between various types of reflexive actions, and their routinization, as well as the internationalization of everyday practice. Implications & Recommendations: This work contributes to the deeper understanding of the early internationalization process and that it sheds some new light on its potential explanatory categories. The notion of daily activities may be perceived as important units of analysis in management. Contribution & Value Added: The analysis of everyday activities of early internationalization of SMEs may comprise here a promising research area and therefore, a ‘theoretical bridge’ between the practice-based perspective and IE may develop.
Secure Cooperative Communication with Nth Best Relay Selection

In this paper, we investigate the performance of Nth best relay selection networks with secrecy constraints where several eavesdroppers try to overhear the source message. In order to enhance the network security, a single jammer is introduced to jam the eavesdroppers. In addition, sub-optimal selection strategy is introduced to combat the malicious attempt of eavesdroppers. We derive the exact secrecy performance in terms of probability of the non-zero secrecy capacity and the secrecy outage probability of the proposed relay selection approach. Based on these expressions, the effect of several important network parameters, i.e., the number of relays and the number of eavesdroppers, as well as the quality of the relay links, jammer links, and eavesdroppers links, on the proposed network are analytically characterized.
Cell type-specific targeting dissociates the therapeutic from the adverse effects of protein kinase inhibition in allergic skin disease

The kinase p38α, originally identified because of its endotoxin- and cytokine-inducible activity and affinity for antiinflammatory compounds, has been posited as a promising therapeutic target for various immune-mediated disorders. In clinical trials, however, p38α inhibitors produced adverse skin reactions and other toxic effects that often outweighed their benefits. Such toxicity may arise from a perturbation of physiological functions unrelated to or even protective against the disease being treated. Here, we show that the effect of interfering with p38α signaling can be therapeutic or adverse depending on the targeted cell type. Using a panel of mutant mice devoid of p38α in distinct cell types and an experimental model of allergic skin disease, we find that dendritic cell (DC)-intrinsic p38α function is crucial for both antigen-specific T-cell priming and T-cell–mediated skin inflammation, two independent processes essential for the immunopathogenesis. By contrast, p38α in other cell types serves to prevent excessive inflammation or maintain naïve T-cell pools in the peripheral lymphoid tissues. These findings highlight a dilemma in the clinical use of p38α inhibitors, yet also suggest cell-selective targeting as a potential solution for improving their therapeutic index.
Tunable All-Optical Wavelength Conversion of 160-Gb/s RZ Optical Signals by Cascaded SFG-DFG Generation in PPLN Waveguide

We report, for the first time, tunable all-optical wavelength conversion of 160-Gb/s return-to-zero (RZ) optical signals based on cascaded sum- and difference-frequency generation in a periodically poled LiNbO3 waveguide. The distorted signals due to limited phase-matching bandwidth during conversion were compensated by spectral reshaping. We achieved error-free tunable wavelength conversion with a bit-error rate of less than 10-9 for 160-Gb/s RZ signals in a 23-nm tuning range over the C-band
Haematological and iron metabolism parameters in professional cyclists during the Giro d’Italia 3-weeks stage race

Abstract Background: Haematological assessment is crucial for evaluating athletes healthy status. Professional athletes experience physiological modifications during competitions and over a season: the risk of sports anaemia is high. Few descriptions of haematological parameters behaviour during a 3-weeks cycling stage race have been published. Methods: We studied nine professional cyclists engaged in the 2011 Giro d’Italia stage race. Pre-analytical and analytical phases tightly followed academic and anti-doping authorities’ recommendations. Haematological and iron metabolism parameters were measured days -1 (pre-race), 12 and 22 during the race. Results: Haemoglobin, red blood cells and haematocrit decreased during the race with a stabilisation in the second half, but final values were lower than baseline. Reticulocytes did not modify, whilst the immature reticulocyte fraction increased. No differences were found in red blood cells volume and corpuscular haemoglobin content, neither in iron metabolism markers. The acute phase proteins, haptoglobin and C-reactive protein, both increased over the race, while haemoglobin and haptoglobin were inversely related. Conclusions: These data are important for improving the knowledge of physiological modifications in haematological and iron metabolism parameters of professional athletes during highly demanding competitions. This is the first report, in the ambit of a stage race, in which the pre-analytical phase standardisation has been applied.