Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Screening of different thermal receipt papers for their potential endocrine activity

Screening of different thermal receipt papers for their potential endocrine activity Hye Soo Shin Department of Environmental Health Sciences Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University Bisphenol A (BPA), a weak estrogenic chemical, is still widely used in industrial and consumer applications. Oral ingestion of BPA via contaminated food results in major BPA exposure for the most part, however contact to thermal receipt papers contributes to major non-dietary exposure to this important chemical. BPA is used as a color developer on a thermal receipt paper in color development process. BPA has endocrine disruptive effects; therefore, structural or functional alternatives to BPA have been replaced and manufactured. However, we have limited information on their potential adverse effects. In this study, we obtained three kinds of thermal receipt papers, i.e., BPA, BPA free, non-bisphenol thermal receipt papers, and screened for their potential endocrine effects. The extracts of three receipt papers were performed on GH3 and H295R cell lines to investigate their possible disruptive effects in thyroid or sex hormone systems. The amount of color developer on thermal receipt paper is equivalent to 1 % of total receipt paper weight. Both cell lines were exposed to the extracts with 0, 0.0015, 0.005, 0.015, 0.05, or 0.15 mg developer/g receipt paper in 0.1 % ethanol of cell medium. In GH3 cells, BPA and BPA free thermal receipt extracts reduced thyroid stimulating hormone (Tsh) gene expression level significantly. However, other thyroid hormone related genes such as Trα, Trβ, Dio1, and Dio2 did not showed any downor up-regulations after the exposure. Those two extracts also reduced transcriptional levels in follicular stimulating hormone (Fsh), estrogen receptor α (Erα), and β (Erβ). Nonbisphenol thermal receipt paper extract did not show any alteration in both thyroid and gonad axis related genes. In H295R cell lines, all three thermal receipt paper extracts increased in production of 17β-estradiol at their highest concentrations (0.05 and 0.15 mg/g receipt paper). However, they did not lead to any changes in testosterone level and related gene transcription levels. In this study, all three investigated thermal receipt papers showed endocrine disruption potential on either thyroid or sex hormone system. The results of this study shows that BPA free and non-bisphenol thermal receipt papers may not be safer alternatives to BPA thermal receipt paper. This study showed possible toxic effects from all three extracts of thermal receipt papers. Further studies should follow to evaluate the toxicities of BPA free receipt paper in vivo to develop better substituting chemicals for color development process in receipt paper.
Massively Parallel Architectures and Algorithms for Time Series Analysis

With the recent development of massively parallel computing(cid:2) ex(cid:3) tremely large amounts of processing power and memory capacity are available for the analysis of complex data sets(cid:4) At the same time(cid:2) the complexity and size of these data sets has been increasing(cid:4) Both of these trends are expected to continue for the foreseeable future(cid:4) This paper will provide a general overview of massively parallel architectures and algo(cid:3) rithms for the analysis of time series data(cid:4) Two distinct approaches to this problem(cid:2) computational and memory(cid:3)based(cid:2) will be described(cid:4) (cid:0)
SIGHTING DEVICE-AIDED INERTIAL NAVIGATION : FUSION WITH ADAPTATIVE KALMAN FILTERING TECHNIQUES

It is well-known that stand-alone Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) are certain to have their errors diverging with time. The traditional approach for solving such inconvenience is to use Global Positioning System (GPS) as an aiding device. This paper, on the other hand, investigates the feasibility of computer vision-aided INS by means of fusion with a sighting device (SD). The traditional fusion approach with INS and an auxiliary aiding device is the Kalman filter. Under certain conditions, the Kalman filter is the optimum estimation filter under any reasonable criteria. One of these conditions is the restriction that the filter should be correctly tuned. Here, an adaptive technique is tested to tune the Kalman filter used for INS/SD fusion. Results are obtained by computer simulation. In the simulation, an UAV flies a known trajectory with inertial sensor measurements corrupted by a random constant stochastic model. The INS is periodically updated by measurement data from the sighting device. Position and velocity errors, misalignment, accelerometer bias and rate-gyro drift errors with respect to ground-truth are estimated.
Resolving Source Geometry of the 24 August 2016 Amatrice , Central Italy , Earthquake from InSAR Data and 3 D Finite-Element Modeling by Sui Tung

The source geometry of the 24 August 2016 Amatrice earthquake is studied with Sentinel 1-A/B and Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS)-2 Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) coseismic observations. Without presetting the fault geometry and location, we allow these geodetic data to constrain a planar fault and a listric dislocation through an innovative nonlinear approach. Finite-element models (FEMs) are built to simulate the earthquake deformation over a domain with a distribution of realistic crustal materials. Optimal fault geometries are resolved with the observed coseismic displacements in both homogeneous (HOM) half-spaces and heterogeneous (HET) FEMs. The HET-computed planar slip is modeled next to the hypocenter and estimated with a very compatible dip (47°) similar to the moment tensor solution, while that of the HOM solution is offset by ∼14°. Meanwhile, the former recovers the coseismic displacements significantly better than the latter at 95% confidence. This indicates that the inverse solutions of source analysis are sensitive to the presence of nonuniform rock materials in the elastic domain. Though abundant fault detachments are documented within the epicentral area, the slip distributions derived along optimized listric faults do not improve the prediction of surface movements estimated by the rectangular sources. This implies that a planar fault geometry is sufficient to describe the rupture of the Amatrice earthquake. The corresponding slip distribution reveals a maximum slip of ∼1 m at 7 km depth, beneath a lithological boundary between the shallow weaker units and the underlying stronger Dolomite. A significant correlation is found between the slip magnitude and subsurface rock stiffness where stress is being accumulated, implying a possible structural control on the earthquake nucleation and propagation.
Corporate governance and bank profitability : empirical evidence from the Italian experience

Beginning in the early nineties the vast majority of Italian hanks have been affected by a fall in profit margins. A decline in net income from traditional banking business, downward rigidity of operating costs and an increasing share of gross income offset by loan losses have been system-wide trends due in part to structural and external factors. Tendencies, similar in nature if different in timing, emerged in the banking systems of most major countries as a consequence of liberalisation and deregulation. The magnitude of the profit reduction and the persistence of poor profitability nevertheless suggest that the problems of Italian banks stemmed not only from structural factors but also from significant inefficiencies in management. It has been argued that, in the years preceding the profit decline, public ownership of a very large part of the banking system had weakened incentives for the efficient use of real and financial resources. The structurally high profit margins of that era may have enabled banks to compensate for their inefficiencies despite intensifying competition. In short, the adjustment of the Italian banking system could have been hindered by problems of corporate governance, some of them a legacy of the past.
Spillovers : Evidence from Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions

We test the hypothesis that foreign direct investment promotes corporate governance spillovers in the host country. Using firm-level data from 64 countries during the period 2005–2014, we find that cross-border M&A activity is associated with subsequent improvements in the governance of nontarget firms when the acquirer country has stronger investor protection than the target country. The effect is more pronounced when the target industry is more competitive. Cross-border M&As are also associated with increases in investment and valuation of nontarget firms. Alternative explanations, such as access to global financial markets and cultural similarities, do not appear to explain our findings. (JEL G32, G34, G38)
Characterization and visualization of reflective properties of surfaces

Images play a vital role in several fields of natural science research, including biology, physics, astrophysics, and computer science. In the natural sciences, images are commonly used in measurements or documentation; such applications include images made with telescopes, optical microscopes, or electron microscopes. In the humanities, images also play an important role in research. In art history, for example, many different types of images, from photos of small objects to three-dimensional reconstructions of buildings, help art historians to develop theories, to discuss them with other scholars, and to document the current state of artworks, e.g. in the process of restoration. This is particularly useful if the object is not easily accessible, in which case a common solution is to work with photographs. Digital photography has simplified the process of visual representation, because digital images can be easily shared and made accessible. However, when it comes to more complex kinds of artworks like mosaics, these static and two-dimensional images are not able to reproduce the actual visual impression of the object. Similar considerations apply to a variety of other artifacts, such as early prints, books, parchments, and textiles. The challenge in the digitization of of these objects lies in their complex surface properties and reflection behavior. A promising way to solve those limitations is the use of Reflectance Transformation Imaging. RTI is a set of computational photographic methods that capture a subject’s surface shape and color, making it possible to interactively re-light the subject from any direction by means of a mathematical model. The major drawback of RTI is the limitation of the applied mathematical model. Other drawbacks are the RTI imaging workflow and the fact that display of RTI requires a particular stand-alone application. In this thesis, the author developed a data-driven scientific approach to reproduce surfaces composed of lambertian and glossy materials using the RTI technique with as few parameters as possible. This new approach has been called eRTI (enhanced Reflection Transformation Imaging). Furthermore the hardware needed to acquire RTI and eRTI has been improved, by collaborating with a local Swiss firm to develop a novel solution for image acquisition. Lastly a web-based viewer has been developed, to render eRTI images in any standard web browser, even on most mobile devices. The qualities of eRTI have been tested using a novel approach that includes a quantitative and a qualitative method. The results show agreement between the techniques.
A Chebyshev Inequality Based on Bounded Support and Mean Absolute Deviation

The Chebyshev inequality is one of the most well-known results in classical probability theory. This inequality provides an upper bound on the tail probability of a random variable based on the first two moments of its distribution. While this upper bound is tight, it has been criticized for only being attained by pathological distributions that abuse the unboundedness of the underlying support and are not considered realistic in many applications. In this paper, we provide an alternative tight lower and upper bound on the tail probability given a bounded support, mean and mean absolute deviation of the random variable. This result allows us to find convex reformulations of single and joint ambiguous chance constraints with right-hand side uncertainty, and left-hand side uncertainty with specific structural properties as well as safe approximations to a wider class of ambiguous chance constraints. Applications of such ambiguous chance constraints include radiation therapy and inventory control problems, both of which we illustrate numerically.
Higher-Order Conditional Moment Tests : A Simple Robust Approach

In this paper, we propose a simple approach to purge the estimation uncertainty effect on the higher-order conditional moment (CM) tests for checking the standardized error distributions of the GARCH-type models. Our approach is different from the Newey (1985)Tauchen (1985) and Wooldridge (1990) approaches in both the ideas and results. By utilizing the sample mean and variance of the standardized residuals, we establish a class of higher-order CM tests that are free of the estimation uncertainty and robust to the √ T consistent estimators of the partially specified (conditional mean and variance) models. Importantly, our test statistics do not depend on the conditional mean and variance derivatives and hence they are model-invariant. This is a very attractive property in view of practical applications. As demonstrative examples, we apply our approach to generating some simple tests for the predictability of asymmetry and for the symmetry, normality, and some non-Gaussian distributions of standardized errors. Our approach encompasses the skewness-kurtosis-based normality test of Kiefer and Salmon (1983).
THE COMPLEMENT-ADJUNCT DISTINCTION

We present a novel gradient blend analysis for the complement-adjunct distinction, the nondichotomous properties of which have been a longstanding problem in linguistic theory. We use English prepositional phrases as a testing ground, where the nondichotomy is especially salient. We make a typological argument that gradience (scalar activation) and blendedness (simultaneous activations of discrete structures) are crucial in explaining the conflicts among traditionally accepted diagnostic tests. Furthermore, we provide empirical support to this claim by collecting gradient complementadjuncthood judgments and showing that modeling [V PP] constructions as gradient blends of two discrete structures (proto-complement and proto-adjunct) offers a coherent explanation to the connection between gradient complement-adjuncthood and diagnostic acceptability.
A Context Aware Recommendation System for movies

People like to watch movies, but they do not always know what they want to see. Although there exist applications that helps people solve this issue, they are not being used very often (see Appendix A). People tend to do their own research to decide what to wach. This thesis will be looking into this issue and provide a proof of concept prototype. Not only does the prototype recommend movies, but it also introduces an social feature that can be extended to so much more. This feature were found by doing a round of interviews, while trying to find the cause of why people do not use the recommendation systems. The thesis describes some of the state of the art approaches to recommendation system algorithms and the implementation of the prototype. The prototype was evaluated by its accuracy and speed using data sets from Movielens. The results show that the chosen approach to recommendation systems is viable, and that the accuracy of the recommendation is not the only reason that recommendation systems are not being used that much. The results show that a social feature might increase the use of recommendation systems.
Stock Market Forecasting Using ant Colony Optimization Based Algorithm

Due to the importance of forecasting the capital market earnings in finance, recently the aspect of stock market prediction has been a major research area that has generated a lot of attention involving various machine learning algorithms. In the recent presentations, it has been indicated that neural networks have some drawbacks in learning the data patterns or that they may perform inconsistently and unpredictable because of the complexity of the stock market data. However, due to the distributive nature of the capital market, a computational intelligence technique called Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) which is suitable for solving distributed control problem was applied in this paper, to get the most optimal solution from three technical analysis strategies. The obtained optimal prediction of the next day closing stock price the ACO algorithm performs better than the other three approaches (Price Momentum Oscillator, Stochastic and Moving Average). Our algorithm (ACO based) was evaluated to have the accuracy of 0.812500, Sensitivity of 0.907407 and Specificity of 0.690476. The ACO based technique have the highest accuracy, Sensitivity and Specificity than the other three (3) technical indicators in predicting the next day closing stock price. Therefore, the optimal prediction of our ACO Agent provides a better forecast than the three initial strategies.
Impact of Individual Teachers on Student National College Entrance Exam Performance : Empirical Evidence from China

Using a high quality cross-sectional data with rich information in teacher characteristics, this study attempts to identify the effect of individual teacher on student achievement in National College Entrance Exam (NCEE), the most crucial test in China which links basic education with higher education opportunity. In addition to the objective metrics of teacher quality commonly used in previous literatures, this study also includes students’ subjective evaluation of their teachers. Since selection bias is the main challenge in estimating the causal effect of teacher quality on student achievement, this study attempts to address the problem of non-random teacher assignment to students by applying a cross-subject student fixed effects model. The results show that normal college associate degree and bachelor degree, county level teaching award, teachers receiving normal higher education during 1980-96, Communist Party member status, “observe the classes of colleagues”, the role of head teacher, and etc. can significantly improve student’s NCEE scores. This study further reports inconsistency of the indicators of teacher credentials and characteristics in identifying effective teachers between urban and county schools.
Identification and mRNA Expression of Antioxidant Enzyme Genes in the Mud Crab ( Scylla paramamosain ) in Response to Acute Ammonia and Nitrite Exposure

Thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) is a conserved protein that is involved in protecting organisms against various oxidative stresses. In this study, a thioredoxin reductase gene was cloned from the mud crab Scylla paramamosain (SpTrxR). The full-length cDNA of SpTrxR is comprised of 2724 bp with a 1791 bp open reading frame that encodes a putative protein of 596 amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence of SpTrxR contains the typical TrxR domain. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that the SpTrxR mRNA was distributed abundantly in mud crabs, while strong expression was observed mainly in the gills. The expression of antioxidant enzyme genes (SpTrxR, SpTrx, SpSOD, and SpCAT) was measured using quantitative real-time PCR after acute ammonia and nitrite exposure. The results show that antioxidant enzyme genes (SpTrxR, SpTrx, SpSOD, and SpCAT) were modulated by acute ammonia and nitrite exposure. These results suggest that antioxidant enzyme genes play an important role in protecting organisms against oxidative stress. The IJA appears exclusively as a peer-reviewed on-line open-access journal at http://www.siamb. org.il/. To read papers free of charge, please register online at registration form. Sale of IJA papers is strictly forbidden.
Evaluating Globally Normalized Transition Based Neural Networks for Multilingual Natural Language Understanding

We analyze globally normalized transition-based neural network models for dependency parsing on English, German, Spanish, and Catalan. We compare the results with FreeLing, an open source language analysis tool developed at the UPC natural language processing research group. Furthermore we study how the mini-batch size, the number of units in the hidden layers and the beam width affect the performances of the network. Finally we propose a multi-lingual parser with parameters sharing and experiment with German and English obtaining a significant accuracy improvement upon the monolingual parsers. These multi-lingual parsers can be used for low-resource languages of for all the applications with low memory requirements, where having one model per language in intractable.
Do N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide levels determine the prognosis of community acquired pneumonia?

ABSTRACT Objective: Pneumonia is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, especially in the elderly. The use of clinical risk scores to determine prognosis is complex and therefore leads to errors in clinical practice. Pneumonia can cause increases in the levels of cardiac biomarkers such as N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). The prognostic role of the NT-proBNP level in community acquired pneumonia (CAP) remains unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic role of the NT-proBNP level in patients with CAP, as well as its correlation with clinical risk scores. Methods: Consecutive inpatients with CAP were enrolled in the study. At hospital admission, venous blood samples were collected for the evaluation of NT-proBNP levels. The Pneumonia Severity Index (PSI) and the Confusion, Urea, Respiratory rate, Blood pressure, and age ≥ 65 years (CURB-65) score were calculated. The primary outcome of interest was all-cause mortality within the first 30 days after hospital admission, and a secondary outcome was ICU admission. Results: The NT-proBNP level was one of the best predictors of 30-day mortality, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.735 (95% CI: 0.642-0.828; p < 0.001), as was the PSI, which had an AUC of 0.739 (95% CI: 0.634-0.843; p < 0.001), whereas the CURB-65 had an AUC of only 0.659 (95% CI: 0.556-0.763; p = 0.006). The NT-proBNP cut-off level found to be the best predictor of ICU admission and 30-day mortality was 1,434.5 pg/mL. Conclusions: The NT-proBNP level appears to be a good predictor of ICU admission and 30-day mortality among inpatients with CAP, with a predictive value for mortality comparable to that of the PSI and better than that of the CURB-65 score.
DECOMPOSING THE TOURIST SATISFACTION GAP : THE ROLE OF EXPECTATIONS AND COGNITIONS

In this paper we present an empirical methodology that allows decomposing the tourist‟s satisfaction gap between two destinations into two components. One explains the role of differences in observed characteristics of the tourists and the stay (endowments). The other captures the share of the gap due to differences in the utility that tourists derive from those characteristics (cognitive). To illustrate the use of this method, we employ data coming from a sample of tourists visiting two touristic enclaves in Tarragona (Spain). Our results indicates that the cognitive component explain most of or all the satisfaction gap.