Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Systematic scenario selection: stress testing and the nature of uncertainty

We present a technique for selecting multidimensional shock scenarios for use in financial stress testing. The methodology systematically enforces internal consistency among the shock dimensions by sampling points of arbitrary severity from a plausible joint probability distribution. The approach involves a grid search of sparse, well distributed, stress-test scenarios, which we regard as a middle ground between traditional stress testing and reverse stress testing. Choosing scenarios in this way reduces the danger of ‘blind spots’ in stress testing. We suggest extensions to address the issues of non-monotonic loss functions and univariate shocks. We provide tested and commented source code in Matlab®.
Title Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy ( MBCT ) versus the health-enhancement program ( HEP ) for adults with treatment-resistant depression : A randomized control trial study protocol

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability in the developed world, yet broadly effective treatments remain elusive. Up to 40% of patients with depression are unresponsive to at least two trials of antidepressant medication and thus have “treatment-resistant depression” (TRD). There is an urgent need for cost-effective, non-pharmacologic, evidence-based treatments for TRD. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is an effective treatment for relapse prevention and residual depression in major depression, but has not been previously studied in patients with TRD in a large randomized trial. Methods/Design: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether MBCT is an effective augmentation of antidepressants for adults with MDD who failed to respond to standard pharmacotherapy. MBCT was compared to an active control condition, the Health-Enhancement Program (HEP), which incorporates physical activity, functional movement, music therapy and nutritional advice. HEP was designed as a comparator condition for mindfulness-based interventions to control for non-specific effects. Originally investigated in a non-clinical sample to promote stress reduction, HEP was adapted for a depressed population for this study. Individuals age 18 and older with moderate to severe TRD, who failed to respond to at least two trials of antidepressants in the current episode, were recruited to participate. All participants were taking antidepressants (Treatment as usual; TAU) at the time of enrollment. After signing an informed consent, participants were randomly assigned to either MBCT or HEP condition. Participants were followed for 1 year and assessed at weeks 1–7, 8, 24, 36, and 52. Change in depression severity, rate of treatment response and remission after 8 weeks were the primary outcomes measured by the clinician-rated Hamilton Depression Severity Rating (HAM-D) 17-item scale. The participant-rated Quick Inventory of Depression Symptomology (QIDS-SR) 16-item scale was the secondary outcome measure of depression severity, response, and remission. Discussion: Treatment-resistant depression entails significant morbidity and has few effective treatments. We studied the effect of augmenting antidepressant medication with MBCT, compared with a HEP control, for patients with TRD. Analyses will focus on clinician and patient assessment of depression, participants’ clinical global impression change, employment and social functioning scores and quality of life and satisfaction ratings. Trial registration: ClincalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01021254
North Sea offshore grid development: combined optimisation of grid and generation investments towards 2050

The North Sea region offers large amounts of investable offshore wind generation and several interconnection lines are located in the area, with more planned. Optimal transmission and generation investments are modelled in the region towards 2050. A project-based scenario, where each offshore wind power plant is connected individually, is first analysed. Then, an integrated offshore grid is modelled to investigate the viability of connecting future transmission and offshore wind generation investments. These two scenarios are then compared. It is shown that going towards an integrated solution can increase offshore wind investments by several GWs, with Germany seeing the biggest difference between the two scenarios. It is shown that the integrated solution leads to overall cost minimisation and shows somewhat higher variable renewable energy generation by 2050 compared to the project-based scenario.
Classification of isolates from locations in Austria and Yellowstone National Park as Geobacillus tepidamans sp . nov

Two moderately thermophilic, Gram-positive, spore-forming bacteria were isolated from different geographical locations and sources; strain GS5-97 from a beet sugar factory in Leopoldsdorf, Lower Austria, and strain YNP10 from a geothermally heated soil, Yellowstone National Park, USA. The sequences of their 16S rRNA genes were found to be 99? 8% identical, and DNA–DNA hybridization experiments revealed that strains GS5-97 and YNP10 share 89? 9 mol% similarity to each other, but only 34? 3 and 39? 2 mol% similarity, respectively, to Geobacillus caldoxylosilyticus DSM 12041, which is their closest related type strain. A polyphasic analysis showed that these two isolates were more similar to each other than to other characterized geobacilli. Their DNA G+C content was 43? 2 and 42? 4 mol%, respectively, and they were identical with respect to many phenotypic features (e.g. Topt 55 6C; pHopt 7? 0). Both strains clearly displayed best growth when cultured aerobically. They differed slightly in their cellular fatty acid profiles and polar lipid pattern, and genotypically they could also be distinguished based on randomly amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprints and internal transcribed spacer analysis. Freeze-etching experiments revealed oblique surface layer (S-layer) lattices in both strains, and biochemical analyses of the purified S-layer proteins indicated the occurrence of glycosylation. Based on the properties of these organisms relative to those currently documented for the genus Geobacillus and for the various sister genera in the Bacillus radiation, a novel species is proposed, Geobacillus tepidamans sp. nov., with GS5-97 (=ATCC BAA-942=DSM 16325) as the type strain. Strain YNP10 has been deposited in the American Type Culture Collection as ATCC BAA-943.
Political cultures: measuring values heterogeneity

Abstract Using data from the World Values Survey, we analyze the extent to which value consensus exists within countries. To do this, we introduce a statistical model which allows us to generate country-level measures of cultural heterogeneity. Our statistical approach models each country as a mixture of subcultures that are shared across the world. Our results demonstrate that value consensus varies substantially across countries and regions.
Digital versus Traditional Workflow for Posterior Maxillary Rehabilitations Supported by One Straight and One Tilted Implant: A 3-Year Prospective Comparative Study

Objectives The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare digital and traditional prosthetic workflow for posterior maxillary restorations supported by an upright and a distally tilted implant at 3-year follow-up. Materials and Methods Twenty-four patients were treated in the posterior maxilla with 24 immediately loaded axial and 24 distally tilted implants supporting 3-unit or 4-unit screw-retained prostheses. Three months after initial loading patients were randomly stratified into two groups: definitive traditional impressions were carried out in the control group, while digital impressions were performed in the test group. The framework-implant connection accuracy was evaluated by means intraoral digital radiographs at 3, 6, 12, and 36 months of follow-up examinations. Outcome considerations comprised implant and prosthetic survival and success rates, marginal bone level changes, and required clinical time to take impressions. Results A total of 24 patients received immediately loaded screw-retained prostheses supported by an upright and a distally tilted implant (total 48 implants). No implant dropouts occurred, showing an overall survival rate of 100% for both groups. None of the 24 fixed prostheses were lost during the observation period (prosthetic survival rate of 100%). No statistically significant differences in marginal bone loss were found between control and test groups. The digital impression procedure required on average less clinical time than the conventional procedure. Conclusions Clinical and radiologic results suggest that digital impression is a predictable procedure for posterior maxillary restorations supported by an upright and a distally tilted implant.
Macroeconomic Impacts of Oil Price Shocks in Venezuela

The paper evaluates the effects of oil price shocks on several macroeconomic variables for the Venezuelan economy during the periods 1921-1970 and 1985-2015. Bivariate vector autoregression models are estimated to examine the links in the causal chain between the real price of oil and the macroeconomic variables of interest through a series of Granger non-causality tests. Similarly, different symmetry slope-based tests are conducted to determine whether or not there is empirical evidence supporting the view that the effects of oil price shocks on macroeconomic aggregates are asymmetric. Finally, the time profile described by an economic variable that has been hit by an oil price shock, and the importance of these shocks as a source of short-run fluctuations are analysed through the estimation of a series of impulse response functions and forecast error variance decompositions, respectively. The main findings in the paper can be summarised as follows: firstly, the predictability from real oil price to real output (and other macroeconomic variables) was found to be not significant in the period 1921-1970 while its importance has increased substantially in more recent years. Secondly, evidence of asymmetric effects of oil price shocks was found only for variables such as real output in the oil sector and investment during the years 1985-2015; unexpected oil price increases are significantly correlated with a rise in the economic variables while oil price decreases show not significant correlation. Thirdly, positive association between oil price movements and most macroeconomic variables as well as the relevance of oil price shocks as an important source of business cycle fluctuations in the economy has been observed; although significant differences are found in the responses of these variables to the shock for different time spans.
Evaluation of Antioxidant Activity of Clove (Syzygium Aromaticum)

Clove (Syzygium aromaticum) is a nutrient dense food rich in beneficial phytochemicals.The objective of this study was to elucidate in detail the antioxidant capacity of Syzygium aromaticum from the different parts of clove including their stem and fruits as determined by total phenol content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). For these purposes, acetone extracts (50%) were prepared. This study showed that the selected parts of the clove plant varied significantly. The results showed that the highest antioxidant activity through TPC and TFC were observed in fruit (247.61 and 141.70 mg/100 dry weight) followed by stem (209.48 and 126.50 mg/100 g), respectively. On the other hand, fruits exhibited a significant higher scavenging effect compared to stem sample. Interestingly, both FRAP and DPPH also showed that fruits samples had the highest antioxidant content (437.29 mg TE/100 g dry weight and 87.50%, respectively). The antioxidant activities of different parts clove extracts indicate that the consumption of the whole fruit and stem supplies the important quantities of numerous necessary nutrients for human diet, which includes vitamins high phenolic compounds content (TPC, TFC) and antioxidant activity (FRAP, DPPH). In brief, when all the parameters measured were taken into account antioxidants were highly remarkable in the sequence of clove fruits > clove stem.
Seasonal sea ice dynamics drive movement and migration of juvenile bearded seals Erignathus barbatus

We analyzed how juvenile bearded seals Erignathus barbatus use and move through sea ice and consider how future ice conditions might affect bearded seal distribution and behavior. In October 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2009, we tagged 29 (16 female and 13 male) juvenile (0−2 yr old) bearded seals with Argos satellite transmitters in Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, USA, who then freely moved through the Chukchi and Bering Seas. Movement data were initially analyzed using behavior discriminating state-space models. These results were subsequently analyzed with mixedeffects models to relate inferred behavioral state to environmental variables (sea ice, water depth, season, distance to ice edge) and then with a modified resource selection function using the same environmental variables. Sea ice concentration was highly predictive of use, but had a non-linear effect, with seals preferring intermediate concentrations and areas closer to the ice edge (defined here as 15% sea ice concentration). Behavior was also affected by sea ice and other environmental conditions. When seals were in dense sea ice, they were likely to express an encamped movement pattern; when in open water or sparse ice, they tended to express transiting behavior. The seasonal migratory behavior of bearded seals, at least in juveniles, appears to result from tracking the sea ice edge as it seasonally expands and recedes over the Bering and Chukchi continental shelves. The association with the ice edge suggests that bearded seal habitat will shift as the climate warms.
Identifying Effect Heterogeneity to Improve the Effiency of Job Creation Schemes in Germany?

Previous empirical studies of job creation schemes in Germany have shown that the average effects for the participating individuals are negative. However, we find that this is not true for all strata of the population. Identifying individual characteristics that are responsible for the effect heterogeneity and using this information for a better allocation of individuals therefore bears some scope for improving programme efficiency. We present several stratification strategies and discuss the occurring effect heterogeneity. Our findings show that job creation schemes do neither harm nor improve the labour market chances for most of the groups. Exceptions are long-term unemployed men in West and long-term unemployed women in East and West Germany who benefit from participation in terms of higher employment rates.
Inhomogeneous Structures in Holographic Superfluids

We begin an investigation of inhomogeneous structures in holographic superfluids. As a first example, we study domain wall like defects in the 3+1 dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-Higgs theory, which was developed as a dual model for a holographic superconductor. In [1], we reported on such “dark solitons” in holographic superfluids. In this work, we present an extensive numerical study of their properties, working in the probe limit. We construct dark solitons for two possible condensing operators, and find that both of them share common features with their standard superfluid counterparts. However, both are characterized by two distinct coherence length scales (one for order parameter, one for charge condensate). We study the relative charge depletion factor and find that solitons in the two different condensates have very distinct depletion characteristics. We also study quasiparticle excitations above the holographic superfluid, and find that the scale of the excitations is comparable to the soliton coherence length scales. ville.keranen@helsinki.fi esko.keski-vakkuri@helsinki.fi sean.nowling@helsinki.fi yogendran.kalpat@helsinki.fi
Title Corticospinal Excitability as a Predictor of Functional Gains at the Affected Upper Limb Following Robotic Training in Chronic Stroke

Background—Robotic training can help improve function of a paretic limb following a stroke, but individuals respond differently to the training. A predictor of functional gains might improve the ability to select those individuals more likely to benefit from robot based therapy. Studies evaluating predictors of functional improvement after a robotic training are scarce. One study has found that white matter tract integrity predicts functional gains following a robotic training of the hand and wrist. Objective—Determine the predictive ability of behavioral and brain measures to improve selection of individuals for robotic training. Methods—Twenty subjects with chronic stroke participated in an 8-week course of robotic exoskeletal training for the arm. Before training, a clinical evaluation, fMRI, diffusion tensor imaging, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) were each measured as predictors. Final functional gain was defined as change in the Box and Block Test (BBT). Measures significant in bivariate analysis were fed into a multivariate linear regression model. Results—Training was associated with an average gain of 6±5 blocks on the BBT (p<0.0001). Bivariate analysis revealed that lower baseline motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude on TMS, Author for correspondence: Pr. Marie Hélène Milot, Université de Sherbrooke, Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, École de réadaptation, Centre de recherche sur le vieillissement, 1036 Belvédère sud, Sherbrooke (Québec), J1H 4C4, Telephone: (819) 780-2220 # 45277, marie-helene.milot@USherbrooke.ca. Steven J. Spencer— stespenc0383@gmail.com; Vicky Chan-vchan2@uci.edu; James P. Allington-james.allington@uci.edu; Julius Klein-juliusklein@gmail.com; Cathy Chou-cchou@uci.edu; Kristin Pearson-Furhop--pearsonk@uci.edu; James E. Bobrow-jebobrow@uci.edu; David J. Reinkensmeyer-dreinken@uci.edu; Steven C. Cramer-scramer@uci.edu The terms of these arrangements have been reviewed and approved by the University of California, Irvine, in accordance with its conflict of interest policies. NIH Public Access Author Manuscript Neurorehabil Neural Repair. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2015 November 01. Published in final edited form as: Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2014 November ; 28(9): 819–827. doi:10.1177/1545968314527351. N IH -P A A uhor M anscript N IH -P A A uhor M anscript N IH -P A A uhor M anscript and lower laterality M1 index on fMRI each significantly correlated with greater BBT change. In the multivariate linear regression analysis, baseline MEP magnitude was the only measure that remained significant. Conclusion—Subjects with lower baseline MEP magnitude benefited the most from robotic training of the affected arm. These subjects might have reserve remaining for the training to boost corticospinal excitability, translating into functional gains.
Automated transcription start site prediction for comparative Transcriptomics using the SuperGenome

RNA deep-sequencing (RNA-seq) has been revolutionizing transcriptome analyses. Despite the high-throughput nature of this technology, very often transcriptome features such as transcription start sites (TSS) are still manually annotated. The problem is compounded for comparative transcriptomics of several species. We developed the SuperGenome algorithm, a novel general approach to comparative and integrative analysis of RNA-seq data. The SuperGenome can be utilized for comparative analyses of gene expression data, promoter sequences or SNPs in several species. Furthermore, it can be used for the comparative detection of TSS, for which we developed an automated TSS prediction method for differential RNA-seq experiments.
Psychophysical definition of Scone stimuli in the macaque

We used the perceptual reports of nonhuman primates to perform psychophysical calibrations of S-cone isolating stimuli. S-cone stimuli were calibrated separately at several spatial locations for each monkey. To do this we exploited the effect of transient tritanopia, which causes a selective decrease of sensitivity in the observer’s S-cone channel. At the start of each transient tritanopia trial monkeys were visually adapted to a bright yellow background. This type of adaptation is known to induce transient tritanopia. Calibrated S-cone isolating stimuli were determined by finding a near S-cone stimulus whose detection threshold was maximally elevated during transient tritanopia. At the start of each control trial, monkeys were adapted to a bright white background. In these trials, monkeys’ detection thresholds for near Scone stimuli were unchanged. We found that S-cone isolating stimuli could be determined at most locations tested in each monkey. Calibrated S-cone stimuli were particular to both spatial location and animal. To understand the visual system as a whole in vivo requires physiological methods not possible in human subjects. The present results open the door to novel behavioral and physiological experiments by showing that S-cone isolating stimuli can be calibrated in monkeys.
Duration of the Surgery and Age are Risk Factors for QTc Interval Prolongation under General Anesthesia with Volatile Anesthetics

Background: Prolongation of the QT interval signals disordered cardiac repolarization which poses a significant risk to patients undergoing surgical procedures under anesthesia. Methods: This study analyzed the demographic, clinical, and pharmacological factors in relation to QT interval prolongation under different types of anesthesia. This prospective observational study compared demographic characteristics, clinical and pharmacological factors from patients who demonstrated a prolonged QTc interval under GA (general anesthesia) and in those who had QTc interval prolongation while receiving RA (regional) or MAC (monitored anesthesia care). Results: Duration of surgery correlated strongly with QTc interval prolongation in patients who were exposed to volatile anesthetics (r=.228, p=.010), but not in patients who received RA/MAC (r=.121, p=.444).
The Prolamins of Pearl Millet

THE PROLAMINS OF PEARL MILLET Christian B. Ricks Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences Master of Science Although work on the prolamins of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) has revealed partial amino acid sequences for several alcohol-soluble storage proteins (Marcellino et al. 2002) the genes encoding them have not yet been isolated. We constructed a cDNA library from developing P. glaucum seed tissue and screened it using maize zein gene probes to isolate several α-prolamin-like gene sequences. The proteins encoded by these genes generally fall into two size classes: 20.6kD and 27.1kD, which we call the 21kD and 27kD pennisetins. Both proteins are similar in composition and sequence to α-prolamins from maize, sorghum and Coix. Protein bodies that appear as occlusions within the rough ER of P. glaucum endosperm cells are also very similar in size and shape to maize and sorghum protein bodies. The SDS-PAGE gel of the alcohol soluble protein fraction shows two distinct bands in the region corresponding to the 19kD and 22kD of maize α-zein. Both classes of pennisetins appear to be more similar to the 19kD α-zein of maize than to the 22-kD α-zein judging from sequence homology and maize antibody binding. Phylogenetic reconstruction suggests that P. glaucum may have branched from maize prior to the gene duplication which created the 19kD and 22kD αzein families.