Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variance Risk Premium Dynamics Job Market Paper

This paper uses high-frequency S&P 500 index futures data and data on the VIX index to provide an arbitrage-free explanation of the variance risk premium and its dynamics. Using the high-frequency data only, I select a semiparametric two-factor stochastic volatility model, containing jumps in the price and the stochastic variance. For this model I derive prices of diffusive and jump risk that determine the variance risk premium. Unlike other studies of the variance risk premium, this study allows compensation for both stochastic volatility and jumps to be reflected in the variance risk premium. The price of jump risk considered here is novel and allows the jump risk premium to depend on the level of past price jumps. Using the selected stochastic volatility model and the prices of risk, I conduct a joint inference and detect a non-trivial variance risk premium. The estimation results show that the variance risk premium varies significantly over time. It increases in periods of high volatility and straight after big jumps. The empirical findings of this paper suggest habit persistence in investors’ fear of jumps, i.e., after a market crash investors are willing to pay more to protect themselves from future market drops.
Fast covariance recovery in incremental nonlinear least square solvers

Many estimation problems in robotics rely on efficiently solving nonlinear least squares (NLS). For example, it is well known that the simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) problem can be formulated as a maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and solved using NLS, yielding a mean state vector. However, for many applications recovering only the mean vector is not enough. Data association, active decisions, next best view, are only few of the applications that require fast state covariance recovery. The problem is not simple since, in general, the covariance is obtained by inverting the system matrix and the result is dense. The main contribution of this paper is a novel algorithm for fast incremental covariance update, complemented by a highly efficient implementation of the covariance recovery. This combination yields to two orders of magnitude reduction in computation time, compared to the other state of the art solutions. The proposed algorithm is applicable to any NLS solver implementation, and does not depend on incremental strategies described in our previous papers, which are not a subject of this paper.
Selection and Characterization of Hepatitis C Virus Replicons Dually Resistant to the Polymerase and Protease Inhibitors HCV-796 and Boceprevir (SCH 503034)

ABSTRACT HCV-796 is a nonnucleoside inhibitor of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) nonstructural protein 5B (NS5B) polymerase, and boceprevir is an inhibitor of the NS3 serine protease. The emergence of replicon variants resistant to the combination of HCV-796 and boceprevir was evaluated. Combining the inhibitors greatly reduced the frequency with which resistant colonies arose; however, some resistant replicon cells could be isolated by the use of low inhibitor concentrations. These replicons were approximately 1,000-fold less susceptible to HCV-796 and 9-fold less susceptible to boceprevir. They also exhibited resistance to anthranilate nonnucleoside inhibitors of NS5B but were fully sensitive to inhibitors of different mechanisms: a pyranoindole, Hsp90 inhibitors, an NS5B nucleoside inhibitor, and pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN). The replicon was cleared from the combination-resistant cells by extended treatment with Peg-IFN. Mutations known to confer resistance to HCV-796 (NS5B C316Y) and boceprevir (NS3 V170A) were present in the combination-resistant replicons. These changes could be selected together and coexist in the same genome. The replicon bearing both changes exhibited reduced sensitivity to inhibition by HCV-796 and boceprevir but had a reduced replicative capacity.
Voices of the "Othermothers": Reconsidering Black Professors' Relationships with Black Students as a Form of Social Exchange

Abstract:This qualitative study of 28 Black faculties across two institutions explores how professors perceived their unique relationships with Black students. Participants noted the challenging and beneficial aspects of their relationships in ways consistent with othermothering frameworks, noting their close relationships based on similar experiences in the academy, commitments to community uplift, and high expectations. While there were time and energy costs, participants also cited personal and professional benefits associated with student interaction, including social support, research insights, and connecting them to their communities in meaningful ways.
Differential regulation of tropomyosin isoform organization and gene expression in response to altered actin gene expression

Phenotypically altered C2 myoblast cells, generated by the stable transfection of human nonmuscle actin genes (Schevzov, G., C. Lloyd, and P. Gunning. 1992. J. Cell Biol. 117:775-786), exhibit a differential pattern of tropomyosin cellular organization and isoform gene expression. The beta-actin transfectants displaying a threefold increase in the cell surface area, showed no significant changes in the pattern of organization of the high M(r) tropomyosin isoform, Tm 2, or the low M(r) tropomyosin isoform, Tm 5. In contrast, the gamma- and beta sm-actin gene transfectants, exhibiting a twofold decrease in the cell surface area, had an altered organization of Tm 2 but not Tm 5. In these actin transfectants, Tm 2 did not preferentially segregate into stress fiber-like structures and the intensity of staining was greatly diminished. Conversely, a well-defined stress fiber-like organization of Tm 5 was observed. The pattern of organization of these tropomyosin isoforms correlated with their expression such that a profound decrease in Tm 2 expression was observed both at the transcript and protein levels, whereas Tm 5 remained relatively unchanged. These results suggest that relative changes in nonmuscle actin gene expression can affect the organization and expression of tropomyosin in an isoform specific manner. Furthermore, this apparent direct link observed between actin and tropomyosin expression suggests that nonpharmacological signals originating in the cytoskeleton can regulate cytoarchitectural gene expression.
Reutilization of mango byproducts: study of the effect of extraction solvent and temperature on their antioxidant properties.

UNLABELLED Mango biowastes, obtained after processing, contain large amounts of compounds with antioxidant activity that can be reused to reduce their environmental impact. The present study evaluates the effect of solvent (methanol, ethanol, acetone, water, methanol:water [1:1], ethanol:water [1:1], and acetone:water [1:1]), and temperature (25, 50, and 75 °C) on the efficiency of the extraction of antioxidants from mango peel and seed. Among the factors optimized, extraction solvent was the most important. The solvents that best obtained extracts with high antioxidant capacity were methanol, methanol:water, ethanol:water, and acetone:water (β-carotene test, antioxidant activity coefficient 173 to 926; thiobarbituric acid reactive substances test, inhibition ratio 15% to 89%; 2,2'-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline)-6-sulfonic acid ABTS(·+); and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl DPPH· scavenging, 7 to 22 and 8 to 28 g trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity [TE] per 100 g mango biowaste on a dry matter basis [DW]). Similarly, the flavonoid (0.21 to 1.4 g (+)-catechin equivalents per 100 g DW), tannin (3.8 to 14 g tannic acid equivalents per 100 g DW), and proanthocyanidin (0.23 to 7.8 g leucoanthocyanidin equivalents per 100 g DW) content was highest in the peel extracts obtained with methanol, ethanol:water, or acetone:water and in the seed extracts obtained with methanol or acetone:water. From the perspective of food security, it is advisable to choose ethanol (which also has a notable antioxidant content), ethanol:water, or acetone:water, as they are all solvents that can be used in compliance with good manufacturing practice. In general, increasing temperature improves the capacity of the extracts obtained from mango peel and seed to inhibit lipid peroxidation; however, its effect on the extraction of phytochemical compounds or on the capacity of the extracts to scavenge free radicals was negligible in comparison to that of the solvent. PRACTICAL APPLICATION There are many antioxidant compounds in mango peel and seed, and they could be used as a natural and very inexpensive alternative to synthetic food additives. However, the conditions in which the antioxidants are extracted must be optimized. This work proves that conditions such as extraction solvent or temperature have a crucial impact on obtaining extracts rich in antioxidants from mango biowastes.
Possible clinical outcome measures for clinical trials in patients with multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease with both clinical and pathological heterogeneity. The complexity of the MS population has offered challenges to the measurement of MS disease progression in therapeutic trials. The current standard clinical outcome measures are relapse rate, Expanded Disability Severity Scale (EDSS), and the MS Functional Composite (MSFC). These measures each have strengths and some weakness. Two additional measures, the six-minute walk and accelerometry, show promise in augmenting current measures. MS therapeutics is a quickly advancing field which requires sensitive clinical outcome measures that can detect small changes in disability that reliably reflect long-term changes in sustained disease progression in a complex population. A single clinical outcome measure of sustained disease progression may remain elusive. Rather, an integration of current and new outcome measures may be most appropriate and utilization of different measures depending on the MS population and stage of the disease may be preferred.
A query interface for an event gazetteer

We introduce an event gazetteer which stores and presents "locations in time". Each event is coded with attributes of event type, location, actor, and beginning and ending times. Events can also contain sets of other events. This paper reports the development of an interface for generating searches to these "part-of" relationships. For instance, we can search for all named Battles in the event database which occurred during the Civil War. Ultimately, we envision a flexible, broad-based service that is a resource for users ranging from students to genealogists and researchers interested in historical events.
Phase Ib/II Study of the Safety and Efficacy of Combination Therapy with Multikinase VEGF Inhibitor Pazopanib and MEK Inhibitor Trametinib In Advanced Soft Tissue Sarcoma

Purpose: Pazopanib, a multireceptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting primarily VEGFRs1–3, is approved for advanced soft tissue sarcoma (STS) and renal cell cancer. Downstream of VEGFR, trametinib is an FDA-approved MEK inhibitor used for melanoma. We hypothesized that vertical pathway inhibition using trametinib would synergize with pazopanib in advanced STS. Experimental Design: In an open-label, multicenter, investigator-initiated National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN)-sponsored trial, patients with metastatic or advanced STS received pazopanib 800 mg and 2 mg of trametinib continuously for 28-day cycles. The primary endpoint was 4-month progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary endpoints were overall survival, response rate, and disease control rate. Results: Twenty-five patients were enrolled. The median age was 49 years (range, 22–77 years) and 52% were male. Median PFS was 2.27 months [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.9–3.9], and the 4-month PFS rate was 21.1% (95% CI, 9.7–45.9), which was not an improvement over the hypothesized null 4-month PFS rate of 28.3% (P = 0.79). Median overall survival was 9.0 months (95% CI, 5.7–17.7). A partial response occurred in 2 (8%) of the evaluable patients (95% CI, 1.0–26.0), one with PIK3CA E542K-mutant embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma and another with spindle cell sarcoma. The disease control rate was 14/25 (56%; 95% CI, 34.9–75.6). The most common adverse events were diarrhea (84%), nausea (64%), and fatigue (56%). Conclusions: The combination of pazopanib and trametinib was tolerable without indication of added activity of the combination in STS. Further study may be warranted in RAS/RAF aberrant sarcomas. Clin Cancer Res; 23(15); 4027–34. ©2017 AACR.
Enhanced Risk Assessment in Asymptomatic Individuals With Exercise Testing and Framingham Risk Scores

Background—National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) guidelines recommend the use of Framingham risk scores (FRS) for cardiovascular assessment of asymptomatic individuals. We hypothesized that risk prediction could be improved with 2 non-ECG exercise test measures, exercise capacity (metabolic equivalents, or METs) and heart rate recovery (HRR). Methods and Results—An asymptomatic cohort with baseline treadmill tests (n=6126; 46% women, FRS <20%) was followed up prospectively for 20 years. Individuals with low (median or less) HRR or METs experienced 91% of all cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths (225/246). After FRS adjustment, low HRR and METs individually were highly significant predictors of CVD death, but low HRR and METs together were associated with substantially higher risk (adjusted hazard ratio compared with high HRR/high METs for women 8.51, 95% CI 3.65 to 19.84; for men, 3.53, 95% CI 2.03 to 6.15; P<0.001 for both). At 10-year follow-up, FRS-adjusted CVD death risk associated with low HRR/low METs was less than at 20 years but remained significant (women 3.83, 95% CI 1.09 to 13.47, and men 2.70, 95% CI 1.11 to 6.55). The application of HRR/METs information to FRS assessment identified those at high risk (>0.5% annual CVD mortality) in half of women with FRS 6% to 9% and 10% to 19% and just under half of men with FRS 10% to 19%. Low HRR/low METs was also associated with an increased relative risk of CVD death in individuals with low-risk FRS (FRS <6% in women and <10% in men), but absolute CVD mortality rates were low in this subgroup. Conclusions—Exercise testing may be a useful adjunct for clinical risk assessment in asymptomatic women with FRS 6% to 19% and men with FRS 10% to 19%.
Rumen Bacterial Diversity of 80 to 110-Day-Old Goats Using 16S rRNA Sequencing

The ability of rumen microorganisms to use fibrous plant matter plays an important role in ruminant animals; however, little information about rumen colonization by microbial populations after weaning has been reported. In this study, high-throughput sequencing was used to investigate the establishment of this microbial population in 80 to 110-day-old goats. Illumina sequencing of goat rumen samples yielded 101,356,610 nucleotides that were assembled into 256,868 reads with an average read length of 394 nucleotides. Taxonomic analysis of metagenomic reads indicated that the predominant phyla were distinct at different growth stages. The phyla Firmicutes and Synergistetes were predominant in samples taken from 80 to 100-day-old goats, but Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes became the most abundant phyla in samples from 110-day-old animals. There was a remarkable variation in the microbial populations with age; Firmicutes and Synergistetes decreased after weaning, but Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria increased from 80 to 110 day of age. These findings suggested that colonization of the rumen by microorganisms is related to their function in the rumen digestive system. These results give a better understanding of the role of rumen microbes and the establishment of the microbial population, which help to maintain the host’s health and improve animal performance.
Lipoprotein Lipase Gene Variation : Association with Ishaemic Heart Disease in Type 2 Diabetes

Lipoprotein lipase, the rate determining enzyme for the hydrolysis and removal of triglycerides from chylomicrons and very low density lipoproteins (VLDL), plays a central role in lipoprotein metabolism. By studying two restriction fragment length polymorphisms at the lipoprotein lipase gene locus, we examined whether variation at this gene may be associated with the presence of ischaemic heart disease in noninsulin dependent diabetic subjects. The frequency of 8.7 kb Hind III homozygous genotype was significantly increased in diabetic subjects with ischaemic heart disease (n=21) at 67% compared to diabetic subjects with out ischaemic heart disease (n=42) at 33% (p < 0.05) and non-diabetic control subjects (n=80) at 36% (p <0.05). There were no differences in the allele frequencies at Pvu II polymorphism between the three groups. There were no significant differences in the levels of triglyceride, cholesterol or high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol between different Hind III genotypes within each of the three subject groups. We conclude that 8.7 kb Hind III homozygous genotype was associated with ischaemic heart disease in non-insulindiabetic subjects with a risk ratio of 4.0 (95% confidence interval 1.3-12.1).
SELF ORGANISING MESH RADIO BASED SOLUTION FOR SMART METERING COMMUNICATION

This paper describes a mesh networking based solution on Routing Protocol for Low power and Lossy network to realize Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) network communication. Automated Metering Infrastructure is expected to facilitate the transport of meter readings from meters to the utility provider and control information in the other direction. The smart meters send the meter data to the concentrators over the mesh link. The concentrators would then send the metering data collected from smart meters to the meter data management system (MDMS). The technology used for this communication is based on IEEE 802.15. 4. The routing protocol enables smart meter nodes augmented with the mesh radio to automatically discover concentrator nodes in the vicinity, setup a link to the best available concentrator. It has self-organizing algorithms to detect the loss of connectivity and automatically reestablish connectivity, to ensure reliable transport of meter data
SHP-2-Dependent Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Activation Regulates EGFRvIII but not Wild-Type Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Phosphorylation and Glioblastoma Cell Survival

In human glioblastomas, the most common mutation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is an in-frame deletion of an 801-bp sequence in the extracellular domain of EGFR termed EGFRvIII. The EGFRvIII does not bind ligand EGF but has constitutive tyrosine phosphorylation (pTyr) content and kinase activity that result in enhanced transformation, reduced apoptosis, and resistance to therapy. Here we report that the protein tyrosine phosphatase SHP-2 modulates a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase (MEK)-mediated signaling pathway that regulates EGFRvIII pTyr and cell survival in U87MG.EGFRvIII cells. Overexpression of the phosphatase-inactive form of SHP-2 inhibited EGFRvIII pTyr by decreasing MAPK phosphorylation. Consistent with this, we observed that the MEK inhibitor PD98059, but not the phosphatidylinositol 3′-kinase inhibitor LY294002, inhibited EGFRvIII pTyr. Furthermore, constitutive EGFRvIII pTyr content observed in U87MG, LN229, and U373MG glioblastoma cells, but not in NR6.EGFRvIII fibroblasts, correlated with elevated MAPK levels in these cells. Interestingly, LY294002, but not PD98059, inhibited wild-type EGFR pTyr in response to EGF treatment in U87MG parental cells and in wild-type EGFR-overexpressing U87MG cells. Inhibition of EGFRvIII pTyr by PD98059 was not observed to be phosphorylation site specific. However, LY294002 more specifically inhibited wild-type EGFR pTyr at residues Tyr992 and Tyr1068 in the COOH terminus. Treatment of U87MG.EGFRvIII cells with PD98059, but not LY294002, also resulted in increased cell death in response to cisplatin. Collectively, a distinct MEK-mediated pathway in human glioblastoma cells appears to differentially modulate EGFRvIII and wild-type EGFR pTyr, and inhibition of the MAPK pathway sensitizes EGFRvIII-containing human glioblastoma cells to cisplatin-induced cell death.
Visual fatigue measurement model based on multi-area variance in a stereoscopy

In this paper, we propose a visual fatigue measurement model which based on multi-area variance. Existing visual fatigue measurement model focused at negative area which largely occurred visual fatigue. To make up for previous research, our method uses characteristic of depth-map image that can consider negative area and positive area. Then, we calculate variance ratio and average ratio that located at maximum variance area and minimum variance area in a depth-map image. We obtained correlation index of 87.3% from experimental results which is between Variance based on Visual Fatigue (VVF) model and Mean Opinion Score (MOS).
Pinning Control of Coupled Networks with Time-Delay

This paper studies the global synchronization for undirect and direct coupled networks with delay by employing Lyapunov functional method and Kronecker product technique. A novel pinning scheme is proposed and some sufficient conditions are given to ensure the global synchronization of coupled networks. Finally, an example is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed pinning scheme.
High-Performance Pipelined Architecture of Elliptic Curve Scalar Multiplication Over GF( ${2}^{m}$ )

This paper proposes an efficient pipelined architecture of elliptic curve scalar multiplication (ECSM) over GF(2m). The architecture uses a bit-parallel finite field (FF) multiplier accumulator (MAC) based on the Karatsuba-Ofman algorithm. The Montgomery ladder algorithm is modified for better sharing of execution paths. The data path in the architecture is well designed, so that the critical path contains few extra logic primitives apart from the FF MAC. In order to find the optimal number of pipeline stages, scheduling schemes with different pipeline stages are proposed and the ideal placement of pipeline registers is thoroughly analyzed. We implement ECSM over the five binary fields recommended by the National Institute of Standard and Technology on Xilinx Virtex-4 and Virtex-5 field-programmable gate arrays. The three-stage pipelined architecture is shown to have the best performance, which achieves a scalar multiplication over GF(2163) in 6.1 μs using 7354 Slices on Virtex-4. Using Virtex-5, the scalar multiplication for m = 163, 233, 283, 409, and 571 can be achieved in 4.6, 7.9, 10.9, 19.4, and 36.5 μs, respectively, which are faster than previous results.
Pathologic concentrations of interleukin 6 inhibit T cell responses via induction of activation of TGF‐β

Interleukin 6 levels are increased in a variety of clinical conditions including bacterial and viral infections, HIV infection, autoimmune diseases, certain neoplasias, and traumatic injury. In general, all these conditions are characterized by suppression of one or more manifestations of the immune response. Concentrations of IL 6 comparable to those found in the sera of immunosuppressed, thermally injured patients selectively inhibit T cell proliferative responses. This suppression is independent of IL 2‐mediated responses, is dependent on macrophage activity, and is reversed by antisera specific for transforming growth factor‐β (TGF‐β). —Zhou, D. ; Munster, A. ; Winchurch, R. A. Pathologic demonstrations of interleukin 6 inhibit T cell responses via induction of activation of TGF‐β. FASEB J. 5: 2582‐2585; 1991.