Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimable Demand System for a Large Auction Platform

: Economists have developed a range of empirically tractable demand systems for fixed price markets. But auction mechanisms also play an important part in allocating goods, and yet existing empirical auction techniques treat each auction in isolation, obscuring market interactions. Here we provide a framework for estimating a demand system in a large auction platform market with a dynamic population of buyers, heterogeneous objects and unit demand. We construct a model of repeated second-price auctions in which bidders have multidimensional private valuations, developing an equilibrium concept under which strategies reflect option values. We prove existence of this equilibrium and characterize the ergodic distribution of types. Having developed a demand system, we show that it is non-parametrically identified from panel data. Relatively simple nonparametric and semiparametric estimation procedures are proposed and tested by Monte Carlo simulation. Our analysis highlights the importance of both dynamic bidding strategies and panel data sample selection issues when analyzing these markets. Abstract Economists have developed a range of empirically tractable demand systems for ﬁxed price markets. But auction mechanisms also play an important part in allocating goods, and yet existing empirical auction techniques treat each auction in isolation, obscuring market interactions. Here we provide a framework for estimating a demand system in a large auction platform market with a dynamic population of buyers, heterogeneous objects and unit demand. We construct a model of repeated second-price auctions in which bidders have multidimensional private valuations, developing an equilibrium concept under which strategies reﬂect option values. We prove existence of this equilibrium and characterize the ergodic distribution of types. Having developed a demand system, we show that it is non-parametrically identiﬁed from panel data. Relatively simple nonparametric and semiparametric estimation procedures are proposed and tested by Monte Carlo simulation. Our analysis highlights the importance of both dynamic bidding strategies and panel data sample selection issues when analyzing these markets.
Efficacy of Recycled Concrete Aggregate for Removal Phosphorus in Synthetic Wastewater with Different pH Value

: Phosphorus (P) is the main nutrient element for plant growth in the natural water system. However, unnecessary phosphorus loads in water bodies from industrial, agricultural and household wastes may cause the overgrowth of aquatic plants or algae which accelerates the depletion of dissolved oxygen (DO) in water, thereby leading to serious eutrophication problems. Nevertheless, existing conventional wastewater treatment systems for removing phosphorus are expensive and complex. Recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) may be an alternative solution for phosphorus removal. It can reduce pollution and landfill disposal by converting construction waste into valuable products. This study aims to investigate the percentage of phosphorus removal using three different sizes of RCA with different pH of synthetic wastewater. A total of four vertical laboratory-scale RCA filters were designed with four different concentrations of synthetic wastewater which is pH3, pH7, pH9 and distilled water were prepared. The pH and the percentage of phosphorus removal (%) were tested and analysed on both untreated and treated sample. RCA was analysed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) to determine its chemical composition. The results show that RCA has a high content of aluminium, calcium and magnesium that enhances phosphorus adsorption. The pH values are substantially higher for RCA size 5 mm to 10 mm compared to RCA size 10 mm to 15 mm, and 15 mm to 20 mm. Moreover, it was shown that the higher the pH, which is at pH 9 and the smaller size of RCA, the higher the efficiency of phosphorus removal, which is 96% of removal. In conclusion, RCA has the potential to remove phosphorus, particularly in low concentrations of synthetic wastewater and high pH conditions .
Francisella tularensis subsp. tularensis Schu S4 Disulﬁde Bond Formation Protein B, but Not an RND-Type Efﬂux Pump, Is Required for Virulence (cid:1)

Francisella tularensis subsp. tularensis is a highly virulent bacterium that is a CDC select agent. Despite advance-ments in the understanding of its biology, details pertaining to virulence are poorly understood. In previous work, we identiﬁed a transposon insertion mutant in the FTT0107c locus that was defective in intracellular survival in HepG2 and J77A.1 cells. Here, we report that this mutant was also highly attenuated in vivo. The FTT0107c locus is predicted to encode an ortholog of the disulﬁde bond formation B protein (DsbB). This designation was conﬁrmed by complementation of an Escherichia coli dsbB mutant. This dsbB mutant of Schu S4 was highly attenuated in mice, but unlike what has been reported for Francisella novicida , intranasal immunization with a sublethal dose did not induce protection against wild-type challenge. dsbB was found to be transcribed in an operon with acrA and acrB , which encode an RND-type efﬂux pump. However, this pump did not make a signiﬁcant contribution to virulence because strains with nonpolar deletions in acrA and acrB behaved like wild-type strain Schu S4 with respect to intracellular growth and in vivo virulence. This result is in contrast to a report that an acrB mutant of a live vaccine strain of F. tularensis has decreased virulence in mice. Overall, these results demonstrate key differences between the virulence requirements of Schu S4 and less virulent subspecies of Francisella . We have shown that DsbB is a key participant in intracellular growth and virulence, and our results suggest that there are critical virulence factors that contain disulﬁde bonds.
Candidate high-z proto-clusters among the Planck compact sources, as revealed

By determining the nature of all the Planck compact sources within 808.4 deg 2 of large Herschel surveys, we have identiﬁed 27 candidate protoclusters of dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) that are at least 3 σ overdense in either 250, 350, or 500 µ m sources. We ﬁnd roughly half of all the Planck compact sources are resolved by Herschel into multiple discrete objects, with the other half remaining unresolved by Herschel . We ﬁnd a signiﬁcant difference between versions of the Planck catalogues, with earlier releases hosting a larger fraction of candidate protoclusters and Galactic cirrus than later releases, which we ascribe to a difference in the ﬁlters used in the creation of the three catalogues. We ﬁnd a surface density of DSFG candidate protoclusters of (3.3 ± 0.7) × 10 − 2 sources deg − 2 , in good agreement with previous similar studies. We ﬁnd that a Planck colour selection of S 857 / S 545 < 2 works well to select candidate protoclusters, but can miss protoclusters at z < 2. The Herschel colours of individual candidate protocluster members indicate our candidate protoclusters all likely all lie at z > 1. Our candidate protoclusters are a factor of 5 times brighter at 353 GHz than expected from simulations, even in the most conservative estimates. Further observations are needed to conﬁrm whether these candidate protoclusters are physical clusters, multiple protoclusters along the line of sight, or chance alignments of unassociated sources.
QED VACUUM BETWEEN A CONDUCTING AND A PERMEABLE PLATE

We consider the photon field between an unusual configuration of infinite parallel plates, namely: a perfectly conducting plate () and an infinitely permeable one (µ). After quantizing the vector potential in the Coulomb gauge, we obtain explicit expressions for the vacuum expectation values of field operators of the form EiEj0 and BiBj0. These field correlators allow us to re-obtain the Casimir effect for this set-up and to discuss the light velocity shift caused by the presence of plates (Scharnhorst effect: Scharnhorst (1990 Phys. Lett. B 236 354), Barton (1990 Phys. Lett. B 237 559), Barton and Scharnhorst (1993 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 26 2037)) for both scalar and spinor QED.
INFLUENCE OF THYMOL AND CARVACROL ОN INITIAL CELL ATTACHMENT AND BIOFILM OF Candida albicans

: Microorganisms within a biofilm have a distinct phenotype from planktonic cells and generally show higher tolerance to antimicrobial agents. Due to these properties of biofilm-associated cells there is a great interest for finding substances, which inhibit specific processes in the initial phase of biofilm formation and therefore prevent the formation of mature biofilms. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine the influence of thymol and carvacrol on the planktonic population, initial adhesion and preformed Candida albicans biofilms, in vitro . Results for antifungal activity of essential oil components (EOC’s) against planctonic population of C. albicans were identical for both tested EOC’s (MIC/MFC=0.156/0.3125 μL/mL). In order to understand the anti-biofilm action of EOC’s, their effect was tested on both the initial cell attachment by planktonic cells as well as on preformed biofilms. Obtained results indicated that the effect of EOC’s on initial cell attachment was dose dependent manner, although even at 1×MIC biomass attachment was reduced by 61.3% for thymol and 58.9% for carvacrol. Using 2×MIC, biomass attachment was reduced for 81.7% for thymol and 80.9% for carvacrol. When the same EOC’s were tested against a preformed biofilm, their inhibitory effect was reduced greatly.
Anthropometric Survey of US Army Personnel (1988): Correlation Coefficients and Regression Equations. Part 4. Bivariate Regression Tables

Abstract : The tables in this volume contain the simple bivariate regression results, firstly for the males and secondly for the females. A separate listing is provided for each dependent variable. For each dependent variable, all bivariate regressions associated with correlations greater than 0.50 (or coefficients of determination greater than 0.25) are listed. Others, while statistically significant, are considered unreliable for dependent variable value prediction and are therefore not included. All of the regressions reported are statistically significant at the 0.001 level. All variables were analyzed on the millimeter scale, except for weight which is measured to the nearest 0.1 kilogram, so that the constant and standard error of the estimate are given in millimeters.
University of Birmingham Thermonuclease test accuracy is preserved in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates

Introduction. The nuc gene encodes a thermonuclease which is present in Staphylococcus aureus but not in coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) and is the target of the rapid phenotypic thermonuclease test. The effect of nuc gene variation in methicillin- resistant S. aureus (MRSA) on the performance of PCR testing has been noted, although there are no reports about the effect of MRSA on the activity of the thermonuclease enzyme. Aim. Our goals were to examine the sensitivity and specificity of the thermonuclease test used to distinguish S. aureus from CoNS cultured from blood. In addition, we aimed to assess differences in the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the thermonuclease test between methicillin- sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) and MRSA isolates. Methodology. We performed a retrospective analysis of 1404 isolates. Each isolate from a positive blood culture was identified as a Gram- positive coccus by microscopy then analysed with the thermonuclease test (Southern Group Laboratory) prior to confirmatory identification using VITEK microbial identification platforms (bioMérieux) and cefoxitin disc diffusion testing. Results. Of 1331 samples included in the final analysis, 189 were thermonuclease- positive, of which 176 were identified as S. aureus . Of the 1142 thermonuclease- negative samples, 13 were finally identified as S. aureus , giving a sensitivity of 93.1 % (95 % confidence interval [CI] 88.5–96.3) and specificity of 98.9 % (95 % CI 98.1–99.4). Of the nine proven MRSA samples, eight were thermonuclease- positive, giving a sensitivity of 88.9 % (95 % CI 51.8–99.7). Thermonuclease test accuracy for MSSA and MRSA isolates was 98.1 % (95 % CI 97.2–98.8) versus 98.8 % (95 % CI 98.0–99.3), respectively. Conclusions. In the era of increasing use of molecular- based microbiology assays, the thermonuclease test remains a simple, inexpensive and robust test for the presumptive identification of S. aureus cultured from blood, irrespective of methicillin sensitivity.
Circular RNA ITCH Suppresses Cell Proliferation but Induces Apoptosis in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma by Regulating miR-421/PDCD4 Axis

Background: Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a group of covalently closed non-coding RNAs, serve critical regulatory roles in many human cancers, including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The purpose of this study was to investigate the functional role of circular RNA ITCH (circ-ITCH) in OSCC and the underlying mechanisms. Methods: RT-qPCR analysis was applied to detect the expression levels of circ-ITCH in OSCC tissues and cell lines. MTT assay and ﬂ ow cytometer analysis were used to evaluate the effects of circ-ITCH overexpression on the proliferation and apoptosis of OSCC cells. Bioinformatics analysis and dual-luciferase reporter assay were applied to determine the binding relation between circ-ITCH and miR-421 as well as PDCD4 mRNA and miR-421. Results: Our results showed that circ-ITCH expression was remarkably decreased in OSCC tissues and cell lines. Low circ-ITCH expression was strongly associated with adverse clinicopathological characteristics of OSCC patients. Moreover, functional assays demonstrated that circ-ITCH overexpression signi ﬁ cantly inhibited OSCC cell proliferation and induced cell apoptosis. Our data further uncovered that circ-ITCH could bind directly to and block its repression on PDCD4 in OSCC. MiR-421 expression was signi ﬁ cantly increased in OSCC tissues and was inversely correlated with circ-ITCH expression. Notably, miR-421 restoration blocked the tumor-suppressive role of circ-ITCH in OSCC cells. Conclusion: In conclusion, our study reveals that circ-ITCH serves as a tumor suppressor in OSCC partly by regulating miR-421/PDCD4 axis.
Machine Learning in Textual Data of Cardiovascular Disease via Phrase Mining and Network Embedding

The Medline Database comprises a treasure trove of over 2.2 million cardiovascular-related scientiﬁc articles, which are largely in unstructured data, making it a formidable challenge to identify datasets and to comprehend information. We aim to address this big data challenge by developing novel text-mining and machine-learning techniques to dissect textual data, to identify patterns in datasets
Rapid Interferon (cid:103) –dependent Clearance of Inﬂuenza A Virus and Protection from Consolidating Pneumonitis in Nitric Oxide Synthase 2–deﬁcient Mice

Viral infection often activates the interferon (IFN)- (cid:103) –inducible gene, nitric oxide synthase 2 ( NOS2 ). Expression of NOS2 can limit viral growth but may also suppress the immune system and damage tissue. This study assessed each of these effects in genetically deficient NOS2 (cid:50) / (cid:50) mice after infection with influenza A, a virus against which IFN- (cid:103) has no known activity. At inocula sufficient to cause consolidating pneumonitis and death in wild-type control mice, NOS2 (cid:50) / (cid:50) hosts survived with little histopathologic evidence of pneumonitis. Moreover, they cleared influenza A virus from their lungs by an IFN- (cid:103) –dependent mechanism that was not ev-ident in wild-type mice. Even when the IFN- (cid:103) –mediated antiviral activity was blocked in NOS2 (cid:50) / (cid:50) mice with anti–IFN- (cid:103) mAb, such mice failed to succumb to disease. Further evidence that this protection was independent of viral load was provided by treating NOS2 (cid:49) / (cid:49) mice with the NOS inhibitor, N (cid:118) -methyl- l -arginine ( l -NMA). l -NMA prevented mortality without affecting viral growth. Thus, host NOS2 seems to contribute more significantly to the development of influenza pneumonitis in mice than the cytopathic effects of viral replication. Although NOS2 mediates some antiviral effects of IFN- (cid:103) , during influenza infection it can suppress another IFN- (cid:103) –dependent antiviral mechanism. This mechanism was observed only in the complete absence of NOS2 activity and appeared sufficient to control influenza A virus growth in the absence of changes in cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity.
Rate Adaptation for Slepian-Wolf Coding in Presence of Uncertain Side Information

—In this paper, a rate adaptation framework is proposed to address the problem of Slepian-Wolf coding with uncertain side information at the encoder. The uncertainty arises due to the time-varying nature of the correlation be-tween source and side information in settings such as wireless sensor networks and distributed video coding. The proposed framework is set up based on a multi-mode Slepian-Wolf coding scheme which is designed to minimize the average rate. The presented solution utilizes the feedback channel judiciously to select the best encoder mode and substantially reduces the delay and decoding complexity compared to the previous methods which rely on frequent retransmissions for successful decoding. The designs based on both practical and ideal Slepian-Wolf codes are considered, where the latter serves as the corresponding theoretical performance bound. Simulation results based on LDPC codes show that by using sufﬁcient number of modes, a desirably small average rate gap from the theoretical bound with no uncertainty can be achieved.
Supplementary material to ‘Exploring the clustering eﬀect of the frailty survival model by means of the Brier score.’

An adaptation of the Brier score to frailty models is proposed, resulting in a conditional Brier score BS C ( t ) and a marginal Brier score BS M ( t ). In this document, the interrelation of BS C ( t ) and BS M ( t ) is shown as well as the procedure of calculating a credible/conﬁdence interval based on the BC a non-parametric bootstrap technique. Further, a simulation study and its results are described in which the properties the properties of the Bayesian/likelihood point estimates and the percentile and BC a credible/conﬁdence intervals of BS C ( t ) and BS M ( t ) for the parametric and the semi-parametric survival model are investigated. Finally, a simulation study is shown which investigates the eﬀect of misspecifying the frailty distribution and the censoring model on the estimation properties of both measures for the parametric survival model.
Analysis of optical Fe II emission in a sample of AGN spectra

We present a study of optical Fe II emission in 302 AGNs selected from the SDSS. We group the strongest Fe II multiplets into three groups according to the lower term of the transition (b 4 F , a 6 S and a 4 G terms). These correspond approximately to the blue, central, and red part respectively of the “iron shelf” around H β . We calculate an Fe II template which takes into account transitions into these three terms and an additional group of lines, based on a reconstruction of the spectrum of I Zw 1. This Fe II template gives a more precise ﬁt of the Fe II lines in broad-line AGNs than other templates. We extract Fe II , H α , H β , [O III ] and [N II ] emission parameters and investigate correlations between them. We ﬁnd that Fe II lines probably originate in an Intermediate Line Region. We notice that the blue, red, and central parts of the iron shelf have diﬀerent relative intensities in diﬀerent objects. Their ratios depend on continuum luminosity, FWHM H β , the velocity shift of Fe II , and the H α /H β ﬂux ratio. We examine the dependence of the well-known anti-correlation between the equivalent widths of Fe II and [O III ] on continuum luminosity. We ﬁnd that there is a Baldwin eﬀect for [O III ] but an inverse Baldwin eﬀect for the Fe II emission. The [O III ]/Fe II ratio thus decreases with L λ 5100 . Since the ratio is a major component of the Boroson and Green eigenvector 1, this implies a connection between the Baldwin eﬀect and eigenvector 1, and could be connected with AGN evolution. We ﬁnd that spectra are diﬀerent for H β FWHMs greater and less than ∼ 3000 kms − 1 , and that there are diﬀerent correlation coeﬃcients between the parameters.
RANKL Produced by Osteocytes is Required for the Increase in B Cells and Bone Loss Caused by Estrogen Deficiency in Mice

The cytokine receptor activator of NF  B ligand (RANKL) produced by osteocytes is essential for osteoclast formation in cancellous bone under physiological conditions and RANKL production by B lymphocytes is required for the bone loss caused by estrogen deficiency. Here, we examined whether RANKL produced by osteocytes is also required for the bone loss caused by estrogen deficiency. Mice lacking RANKL in osteocytes were protected from the increase in osteoclast number and the bone loss caused by ovariectomy. Moreover, these mice did not exhibit the increase in bone marrow B lymphocytes caused by ovariectomy that occurred in control littermates. Deletion of estrogen receptor α from B cells did not alter B cell number or bone mass and did not alter the response to ovariectomy. In addition, lineage-tracing studies demonstrated that B cells do not act as osteoclast progenitors in estrogen-replete