Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Statistical identification with hidden Markov models of large order splitting strategies in an equity market

Large trades in a financial market are usually split into smaller parts and traded incrementally over extended periods of time. We address these large trades as hidden orders. In order to identify and characterize hidden orders, we fit hidden Markov models to the time series of the sign of the tick-by-tick inventory variation of market members of the Spanish Stock Exchange. Our methodology probabilistically detects trading sequences, which are characterized by a significant majority of buy or sell transactions. We interpret these patches of sequential buying or selling transactions as proxies of the traded hidden orders. We find that the time, volume and number of transaction size distributions of these patches are fat tailed. Long patches are characterized by a large fraction of market orders and a low participation rate, while short patches have a large fraction of limit orders and a high participation rate. We observe the existence of a buy–sell asymmetry in the number, average length, average fraction of market orders and average participation rate of the detected patches. The detected asymmetry is clearly dependent on the local market trend. We also compare the hidden Markov model patches with those obtained with the segmentation method used in Vaglica et al (2008 Phys. Rev. E 77 036110), and we conclude that the former ones can be interpreted as a partition of the latter ones.
Validation of quantitative polymerase chain reaction with Southern blot method for telomere length analysis

Aim: Telomere length (TL) measurement by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been widely accepted, but limited information regarding its validation with a gold-standard technique is available. Materials & methods: We measured TL by Southern blot and monochrome multiplex quantitative PCR (MMqPCR) and validated the results of TL in leukocytes of 94 participants with mean age 43.2 years, BMI 19–41 (mean 27.8 ± 4.3) kg/m2. Results: A significant positive correlation was observed between TL measured by MMqPCR and Southern blot assay (correlation coefficient r = +0.896, p < 0.0001). The inter- and intra-assay CVs of the MMqPCR assay were 5.3 and 4.07%, respectively. Conclusion: We observed that experimental discrepancies have an impact on TL analysis and there is a need to improve the optimum conditions.
The Effects of Auditory Stimulation on the Arithmetic Performance of Children with ADHD and Nondisabled Children

This study evaluated the impact of extra-task stimulation on the academic task performance of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Twenty boys with ADHD and 20 nondisabled boys worked on an arithmetic task during high stimulation (music), low stimulation (speech), and no stimulation (silence). The music “distractors' were individualized for each child, and the arithmetic problems were at each child's ability level. A significant Group x Condition interaction was found for number of correct answers. Specifically, the nondisabled youngsters performed similarly under all three auditory conditions. In contrast, the children with ADHD did significantly better under the music condition than speech or silence conditions. However, a significant Group x Order interaction indicated that arithmetic performance was enhanced only for those children with ADHD who received music as the first condition. The facilitative effects of salient auditory stimulation on the arithmetic performance of the children with ADHD provide some support for the underarousal/optimal stimulation theory of ADHD.
Development of the wireless ultra-miniaturized inertial measurement unit WB-4: Preliminary performance evaluation

This paper presents the preliminary performance evaluation of our new wireless ultra-miniaturized inertial measurement unit (IMU) WB-4 by compared with the Vicon motion capture system. The WB-4 IMU primarily contains a mother board for motion sensing, a Bluetooth module for wireless data transmission with PC, and a Li-Polymer battery for power supply. The mother board is provided with a microcontroller and 9-axis inertial sensors (miniaturized MEMS accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer) to measure orientation. A quaternion-based extended Kalman filter (EKF) integrated with an R-Adaptive algorithm for automatic estimation of the measurement covariance matrix is implemented for the sensor fusion to retrieve the attitude. The experimental results showed that the wireless ultra-miniaturized WB-4 IMU could provide high accuracy performance at the angles of roll and pitch. The yaw angle which has reasonable performance needs to be further evaluated.
Mechanisms Determining Bacterial Biofilm Resistance to Antimicrobial Factors

In most natural environments, the process of bacterial surface association is prevailing cells lifestyle. The tendency of bacteria to colonize solid materials is advantageous from an ecological standpoint. This mechanism allows bacteria the colonization of a nutritionally favorable new niche and encouraging symbiotic relationships between the cells. Sessile mode of growth provides also some level of protection from external stresses (Costerton et al., 1995; Dunne, 2002; Russell, 2002). Anchored bacteria are being linked to common human diseases ranging from tooth decay and paradontose to nosocomial infections and both biliary tract and kidney infections (Costerton et al., 1999; Potera, 1999). According to Russell (1999) and Wood et al. (2011) 80% of bacterial chronic inflammatory and infectious human diseases involve biofilm. In industrial environments surface-bound bacteria are the potential source of contamination of processed material that in consequence may lead to spoilage or transmission of pathogens (Bower et al., 1996; Gunduz & Tuncel, 2006; Myszka & Czaczyk, 2011).
The Bacillus subtilis germinant receptor GerA triggers premature germination in response to morphological defects during sporulation

During sporulation in Bacillus subtilis, germinant receptors assemble in the inner membrane of the developing spore. In response to specific nutrients, these receptors trigger germination and outgrowth. In a transposon‐sequencing screen, we serendipitously discovered that loss of function mutations in the gerA receptor partially suppress the phenotypes of > 25 sporulation mutants. Most of these mutants have modest defects in the assembly of the spore protective layers that are exacerbated in the presence of a functional GerA receptor. Several lines of evidence indicate that these mutants inappropriately trigger the activation of GerA during sporulation resulting in premature germination. These findings led us to discover that up to 8% of wild‐type sporulating cells trigger premature germination during differentiation in a GerA‐dependent manner. This phenomenon was observed in domesticated and undomesticated wild‐type strains sporulating in liquid and on solid media. Our data indicate that the GerA receptor is poised on a knife's edge during spore development. We propose that this sensitized state ensures a rapid response to nutrient availability and also elicits premature germination of spores with improperly assembled protective layers resulting in the elimination of even mildly defective individuals from the population.
Proactive Botnet Countermeasures – An Offensive Approache

Botnets, consisting of thousands of interconnected remote-controlled computers, pose a big threat against the Internet. We have witnessed the involvement of such malicious infrastructures in politically motivated attacks in more than once recent years. Classical countermeasures are mostly reactive and conducted as part of incident response actions. This is often not sufficient. We argue that proactive measures are necessary to mitigate the threat posed by botnets and demonstrate techniques based on a formalized view of botnet infrastructures. However, while being technically feasible, such actions raise legal and ethical questions. We would like to initiate a more acute discussion and point out the
Development of a Tool for Temperature Estimation From Microstructural Condition of a NiCoCrAlY+Re Coating Applied on the Surface of Gas Turbine Hot Components

The hot gas path components of gas turbines have to withstand to severe conditions in terms of high temperature oxidation, hot corrosion and creep-fatigue phenomena. The evaluation of components residual life is an important matter for gas turbines producers and the estimation of service temperatures is a key tool for this evaluation.The most diffused methods to estimate service temperatures of gas turbines blades and vanes in Ni based superalloys are related to the microstructural evolution of the dispersed intermetallic phase γ′, Ni3Al. The aim of this work has been the determination of a tool to estimate service temperature on the basis of the microstructural evolutions of a NiCoCrAlY+Re coating. In order to obtain a deep characterisation of the coating after exposure at different durations and temperatures, an extensive experimental test program has been planned.Samples of Ni based superalloys, covered by the investigated coating, have been aged in chamber furnaces in the temperature range 700°C – 1000°C with durations up to 20000 hours.The microstructure of this coating is characterised by β phase, NiAl, which is the Al reservoir, embedded in the matrix, that is constituted by γ′ phase at low temperature and by γ phase over 900°C. Moreover, electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements on samples have revealed three classes of secondary phases: the first one has been identified as σ-Cr2Re3, the second one as Cr carbide-Cr23C6 and the third one as α-Cr. σ phase is very abundant at the lower temperatures while it disappears after long exposures at temperatures higher than 900°C. The σ phase composition is different at different temperatures and the Re content in particular increases with the temperature.Starting from the σ phase composition determined at different temperatures, a tool has been constructed that relates the service temperature to the Re content in the same phase. The new tool has been applied to the analyses of different components.The results of the new method have been compared to those ones obtained with the method based on γ′ features, developed in the past through huge experimental campaigns. The agreement between the two methods is generally good, they can be used in a complementary way due to the fact that the γ′ one seems to be more suitable for high temperature ranges (T>900°C) where it gives a reliable estimation, while the sigma method is more suitable in the temperature range 700°C – 900°C.Copyright © 2013 by ASME
Fabrication of multiphasic and regio-specifically functionalized PRINT® particles of controlled size and shape

Using Particle Replication In Nonwetting Templates (PRINT®) technology, multiphasic and regio-specifically functionalized shape-controlled particles have been fabricated that include end-labeled particles via post-functionalization; biphasic Janus particles that integrate two compositionally different chemistries into a single particle; and more complex multiphasic shape-specific particles. Controlling the anisotropic distribution of matter within a particle creates an extra parameter in the colloidal particle design, providing opportunities to generate advanced particles with versatile and tunable compositions, properties, and thus functionalities. Owing to their robust characteristics, these multiphasic and regio-specifically functionalized PRINT particles should be promising platforms for applications in life science and materials science.
Evaluation of Engraftment of Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide-Labeled Mesenchymal Stem Cells Using Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Photothrombotic Cerebral Infarction Models of Rats

Objective To evaluate engraftment by visualizing the location of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs) three-dimensionally in photothrombotic cerebral infarction (PTCI) models of rats. Materials and Methods Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of an agarose block containing superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO)-labeled hBM-MSCs was performed using a 3.0-T MRI, T2-(T2WI), T2*-(T2*WI), and susceptibility-weighted images (SWI). PTCI was induced in 6 rats, and 2.5 × 105 SPIO-labeled hBM-MSCs were infused through the ipsilateral internal carotid artery (ICA group) or tail vein (IV group). MRI was performed on days 1, 3, 7, and 14 after stem cell injection. Dark signal regions were confirmed using histology. Three-dimensional MRI reconstruction was performed using the clinical workflow solution to evaluate the engraftment of hBM-MSCs. Volumetric analysis of the engraftment was also performed. Results The volumes of SPIO-labeled hBM-MSCs in the phantom MRI were 129.3, 68.4, and 25.9 µL using SWI, T2*WI, and T2WI, respectively. SPIO-labeled hBM-MSCs appeared on day 1 after injection, encircling the cerebral infarction from the ventral side. Dark signal regions matched iron positive cells and human origin (positive) cells. The volume of the engraftment was larger in the ICA group on days 1, 3, and 7, after stem cell injection (p < 0.05 on SWI). SWI was the most sensitive MRI pulse sequence (p < 0.05). The volume of infarction decreased until day 14. Conclusion The engraftment of SPIO-labeled hBM-MSCs can be visualized and evaluated three-dimensionally in PTCI models of rats. The engraftment volume was larger in the ICA group than IV group on early stage within one week.
An Investigation of Gene Action on Different Traits of Barley (Hordeum Vulgare L.)Using Partial Diallel Crosses System

The present study was carried out to investigate the genetic structure of 10 hybrids generated by crossing five cultivars of barley with their first (F1) and Second (F2) progeny in growing season 2011-2012 to evaluate these genotypes under normal (0.0 g l -1 sea salt) and salinity stress (7 g l -1 sea salt) conditions in form of randomized complete block design with three replications in a half diallel fashion. The studied traits included spike length (cm), no. of kernels/spike, no. of spikelets/spike, no. of spikes/plants, chlorophyll a, b contents, calcium and magnesium content. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among genotypes (5 parents + 10 F1's+ 10 F2's) and for all the studied traits, except chlorophyll b. The results showed that components additive and dominance effects of genes were significant for all studied traits. The estimated value of average degree of dominance (H1/D) 0.5 revealed that non-additive genetic effects was more pronounced in the inheritance of the chlorophyll a, b contents, calcium and magnesium in all the two generations (F1 and F2 crosses) and spike length (cm), no. of kernels/spike, no. of spikelets/spike and no. of spikes/plants for F1 crosses. On contrary, additive genetic effects was evident for spike length (cm), no. of kernels/spike, no. of spikelets/spike and no. of spikes/plants for F2 crosses. The traits including, chlorophyll a, b and calcium were controlled by over dominance in all the two generations (F1 and F2 crosses). The traits including spike length (cm), no. of kernels/spike, no. of spikelets/spike and no. of spikes/plants controlled by over dominance in F1 crosses and partial dominance in F2.While, magnesium were controlled by partial dominance effects of genes. The genetic component (H2) was recorded with low magnitude than (H1) for all traits in both F1 and F2 under 0.0 and 7 gl -1 sea salt. The f value was positive for most traits of F1 and F2 generations, while it was negative for magnesium in both of F1 and F2 generations in all cases of sea salt treatments. The narrow sense heritability was high to moderate for most the studied traits. Moreover, the lowest value was also detected in some cases.
Detection and removal of ventricular ectopic beats in atrial fibrillation recordings via principal component analysis

Ectopic beats are early heart beats with remarkable large amplitude that provoke serious disturbances in the analysis of electrocardiograms (ECG). These beats are very common in atrial fibrillation (AF) and are the source of important residua when the QRST is intended to be removed. Given that QRST cancellation is a binding step in the appropriate analysis of atrial activity (AA) in AF, a method for ventricular ectopic beats cancellation is proposed as a previous step to the application of any QRST removal technique. First, the method discriminates between normal and ectopic beats with an accuracy higher than 99% through QRS morphological characterization. Next, the most similar ectopic beats to the one under cancellation are clustered and serve to get their eigenvector matrix by principal component analysis. Finally, the highest variance eigenvector is used as cancellation template. The reduction ectopic rate (RER) has been defined to evaluate the method's performance by using templates generated with 5, 10, 20, 40 or 80 ectopics. Optimal results were reached with the 5 most similar complexes, yielding a RER higher than 5.5. In addition, a decreasing RER trend was noticed as the number of considered ectopics for cancellation increased. As conclusion, given that ectopics presented a remarkable variability in their morphology, the proposed cancellation approach is a robust ectopic remover and can notably facilitate the later application of any QRST cancellation technique to extract the AA in the best conditions.
Automated diagnosis of referable maculopathy in diabetic retinopathy screening

This paper introduces an algorithm for the automated diagnosis of referable maculopathy in retinal images for diabetic retinopathy screening. Referable maculopathy is a potentially sight-threatening condition requiring immediate referral to an ophthalmologist from the screening service, and therefore accurate referral is extremely important. The algorithm uses a pipeline of detection and filtering of “peak points” with strong local contrast, segmentation of candidate lesions, extraction of features and classification by a multilayer perceptron. The optic nerve head and fovea are detected, so that the macula region can be identified and scanned. The algorithm is assessed against a reference standard database drawn from the Birmingham City Hospital (UK) diabetic retinopathy screening programme, against two possible modes of use: independent screening, and pre-filtering to reduce human screener workload.
Hierarchical Recurrent Filtering for Fully Convolutional DenseNets

Generating a robust representation of the environment is a crucial ability of learning agents. Deep learning based methods have greatly improved perception systems but still fail in challenging situations. These failures are often not solvable on the basis of a single image. In this work, we present a parameter-efficient temporal filtering concept which extends an existing single-frame segmentation model to work with multiple frames. The resulting recurrent architecture temporally filters representations on all abstraction levels in a hierarchical manner, while decoupling temporal dependencies from scene representation. Using a synthetic dataset, we show the ability of our model to cope with data perturbations and highlight the importance of recurrent and hierarchical filtering.
Automatic fog detection in day and night images to improve highway driving conditions

The RHSMs (Random Hirschman Sensing Matrices) are newly developed sensing structures based on Discrete Hirschman Transform (DHT). The RHSMs are superior in computational efficiency and recovery precision to the other DFT/DFT-like sensing structures. However, the common used DWT sparse basis is highly incoherent with low-frequency transforms especially for DFT based sensing structures. In this paper, we introduce a non-tensor wavelet transform (NWT) as the replacement for DWT. Compare to the traditional DWT-DFT sensing system, the NWT-DHT sensing system has better recovery performance and is more efficient in computation.
Medicated bodies: Mental distress, social media and affect

Social media are increasingly being recruited into care practices in mental health. This article analyses how a major new mental health social media site (www.elefriends.org.uk) is used when trying to manage the impact of psychiatric medication on the body. Drawing on Henri Bergson’s concept of affection, analysis shows that Elefriends is used at particular moments of reconfiguration (e.g. change in dosage and/or medication), periods of self-experimentation (when people tailor their regimen by altering prescriptions or ceasing medication) and when dealing with a present bodily concern (showing how members have a direct, immediate relationship with the site). In addition, the analysis illustrates how users have to structure their communication to try to avoid ‘triggering’ distress in others. The article concludes by pointing to the need to focus on the multiple emerging relationships between bodies and social media in mental health, due to the ways the latter are becoming increasingly prominent technologies through which to experience the body when distressed.
Modeling and Predicting Mobile Phone Touchscreen Transcription Typing Using an Integrated Cognitive Architecture

ABSTRACT Modeling typing performance has values in both the theory and design practice of human–computer interaction. Previous models have simulated desktop keyboard transcription typing performance; however, as the increasing prevalence of smartphones, new models are needed to account for mobile phone touchscreen typing. In the current study, we built a model for mobile phone touchscreen typing in an integrated cognitive architecture and tested the model by comparing simulation results with human results. The results showed that the model could simulate and predict interkey time performance in both number typing (Experiment 1) and sentence typing (Experiment 2) tasks. The model produced results similar to the human data and captured the effects of digit/letter position and interkey distance on interkey time. The current work demonstrated the predictive power of the model without adjusting any parameters to fit human data. The results from this study provide new insights into the mechanism of mobile typing performance and support future work simulating and predicting detailed human performance in more complex mobile interaction tasks.
Racial Disparities in the Incidence of Primary Chronic Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus in the Southeastern US: The Georgia Lupus Registry

Relative to studies of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), epidemiologic studies of chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CCLE) are rare and are limited to populations with no racial diversity. We sought to provide minimum estimates of the incidence of primary CCLE (CCLE in the absence of SLE) in a population comprised predominantly of white individuals and black individuals in the southeastern region of the US.
Extensive Identification and In-depth Validation of Importin 13 Cargoes *

Importin 13 is a member of the importin β family of transport receptors. Unlike most family members, importin 13 mediates both, nuclear protein import and export. To search for novel importin 13 cargoes, we used stable isotope labeling of amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) and mass spectrometry. Using stringent criteria, we identified 255 importin 13 substrates, including the known cargoes Ubc9, Mago and eIF1A, and validate many of them as transport cargoes by extensive biochemical and cell biological characterization. Several novel cargoes can also be transported by the export receptor CRM1, demonstrating a clear redundancy in receptor choice. Using importin 13 mutants, we show that many of the novel substrates contact regions on the transport receptor that are not used by Ubc9, Mago or eIF1A. Together, this study significantly expands the repertoire of importin 13 cargoes and sets the basis for a more detailed characterization of this extremely versatile transport receptor.