Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hedge fund performance and managerial social capital

Purpose - This article seeks to explain and empirically test the relationship between managerial social capital and hedge fund performance. Design/methodology/approach - This article uses a capital asset pricing model (CAPM)-style five factor model to estimate excess returns for the top 25 hedge funds. Findings - The results show that hedge funds managers with more affiliation diversity have higher annualised rate of return. This result seems to suggest managers with more social networks and affiliation have access to market niche of wealthy investors to increase their investor base. Hedge fund managers' prior skills sets and repertoire of knowledge significantly influence their risk taking attitude. Research limitations/implications - The sample consists of the top 25 hedge funds. Originality/value - The article discusses the role and implications of managerial social capital in hedge fund marketing and performance.
An Overview of Inventory Management with Some Suggested Research Topics

This paper presents an overview of inventory management. This includes a categorization, by a number of dimensions, of inventory problems and associated models. Relevant literature references are provided within the dimensions. The paper points out the continuing gap between theory and practice, followed by a number of suggested research topics to help bridge the gap.
Voxel-based irregularity age map (IAM) for brain's white matter hyperintensities in MRI

In this paper, we propose a novel way to produce voxel-based irregularity age map (IAM) for brain magnetic resonance image (MRI) to identify white matter hyperintensities (WMH) on scans with mild vascular pathology. Age map is a term used in computer graphic field that reveals age/progression of defected areas in images' texture. In this work, age map is used to reveal the age of irregularity of brain tissue (i.e., hyperintensities). Age map of WMH is useful because it shows not only the probability of voxels to be WMH but also the scale in the progression of voxels to become WMH. Our approach is fully automatic and unsupervised with little to none human interaction. We evaluated our approach using brain MRI data obtained from the Alzheimers Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database and visually compared the results with those obtained from the public toolbox Lesion Segmentation Toolbox (LST). We also evaluated our proposed approach on images from 10 different subjects using Dice similarity coefficient (DSC).
RNA interference against interleukin-5 attenuates airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness in an asthma model

Interleukin-5 (IL-5) accompanies the development of airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness through the activation of eosinophils. Therefore, interference of IL-5 expression in lung tissue seems to be an accepted approach in asthma therapy. In this study, we designed a small interfering RNA (siRNA) to inhibit the expression of IL-5. The siRNAs against IL-5 were constructed in a lentivirus expressing system, and 1.5×106 IFU (inclusion-forming unit) lentiviruses were administered intratracheally to ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized murine asthmatic models. Our results show that lentivirus-delivered siRNA against IL-5 efficiently inhibited the IL-5 messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression and significantly attenuated the inflammation in lung tissue. Significant decrease of eosinophils and inflammatory cells were found in peripheral blood, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), and lung tissue. In addition, significant inhibition of airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) was found in the mice treated with siRNA against IL-5. These observations demonstrate that siRNA delivered by means of the lentivirus system is possibly an efficacious therapeutic approach for asthma.
Incomplete International Cooperation to Reduce CO2 Emissions: Alternative Policies

Abstract As a first step toward a global treaty to control CO2 emissions, individual countries contemplate unilateral reductions in their fuel use. Such actions, if significant, would reduce world-market fuel prices, thereby stimulating fuel use elsewhere and causing problems for exporting countries, possibly jeopardizing this policy initiative. Among the policy alternatives for mitigating the price effects of reduced demand, reduced fuel consumption combined with buying or leasing fuel deposits to achieve a reduced supply is discussed in particular. This policy, which at first seems prohibitively costly, is shown to dominate the original policy approach under a fairly wide set of circumstances.
Women and Retirement Incomes in Australia: A Review

More than 60 per cent of age pensioners in Australia are women. Although public policy encourages private saving for retirement through compulsory superannuation, projections of women's superannuation accumulations predict that women will continue to rely heavily on government and private transfers in retirement. This review synthesises the outcomes from existing research to show that expectations about the level and source of women's retirement incomes are clearly linked with low earnings. This occurs in combination with both attitudinal and institutional barriers to active retirement planning.
[Identification of differentially expressed genes in myocardium of patients with heart failure by human whole genomic oligonucleotide microarray-assisted pathways analysis].

OBJECTIVE To identify the differentially expressed gene profiles in myocardium of patients with heart failure using human whole genomic oligonucleotide microarray-assisted pathway analysis. METHODS Phalanx whole genomic oligonucleotide microarrays were used to detect the gene expression profiles of myocardium in four patients died of heart failure and 4 brain died patients without heart diseases. The microarray findings were confirmed by real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. The genes with a threshold of 1.2 times fold-change were selected and BioCarta Pathway and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway databases were used to identify functionally related gene pathways. RESULTS A total of 2806 genes with differentially expression were detected between the failing and non-failing heart samples, expression changes of 399 genes were more than 2-folds. Eleven pathways were identified by BioCarta pathway database and sixteen pathways were identified by KEGG PATHWAY Database. CONCLUSION Genomic microarray-assisted pathway analysis could help to identify gene expression profiles in failing heart.
Oxidative stress pathways in noncancerous human liver tissue to predict hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence: A prospective, multicenter study

The prediction of cancer recurrence holds the key to improvement of the postoperative prognosis of patients. In this study, the recurrence of early‐stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after curative hepatectomy was analyzed by the genome‐wide gene‐expression profiling on cancer tissue and the noncancerous liver tissue. Using the training set of 78 cases, the cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2) gene in noncancerous liver tissue was identified as the predictive candidate for postoperative recurrence (hazard ratio [HR], 0.447; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.249‐0.808; P = 0.010). Multivariate analysis revealed the statistically significant advantage of CYP1A2 down‐regulation to predict recurrence (odds ratio, 0.534; 95% CI, 0.276‐0.916; P = 0.036), and the expression of CYP1A2 protein was confirmed immunohistochemically. An independently multi‐institutional cohort of 211 patients, using tissue microarrays, validated that loss of expression of CYP1A2 in noncancerous liver tissue as the only predictive factor of recurrence after curative hepatectomy for early‐stage HCC (HR, 0.480; 95% CI, 0.256‐0.902; P = 0.038). Gene set‐enrichment analysis revealed close association of CYP1A2 down‐regulation with oxidative stress pathways in liver tissue (P < 0.001, false discovery rate [FDR] = 0.042; P = 0.006, FDR = 0.035). Our results indicate these pathways as the molecular targets to prevent recurrence, as well as the potential prediction of the super high‐risk population of HCC using liver tissue. (HEPATOLOGY 2011;54:1273–1281)
T‐Cell Receptor Repertoire Selection by Mouse Mammary Tumor Viruses and MHC Molecules

Selection of the functional T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire from the initial pool of rearranged âff helerodimers expressed by immature thymocytes demands that T cells expressing self-reactive receptors are deleted (negative selection) while those with the potential to recognize foreign peptide/MHC complexes at an appropriate affinity for responsiveness are positively selected. T-cell repertoire selection was initially studied by analysis of specific TCR V^-associated selection events conlroiled by endogenous ligands associated with MHC molecules in experimentally unmanipulated hosts. The initial work of Marrack & Kappler in this area followed the generation of the first TCR V^-specific monoclonal antibody, against \jii\l^. They showed that in H-2E-positive TCR V^ mice, thymic deletion of V^lV-expressingT cells occurred al the late CD4^8'^ (double-positive) stage, so that V^17^^ CD4'^ and CD8^ single-positive thymocytes were absent (Kappler et al. 1987). That the H-2E molecule was not the complete ligand recognized by V^l 7""̂ T cells was shown by experiments with V^l7^+ hybridomas which could be stimulated with H-2E^ B lymphocytes but not by macrophages or H-2Etransfected fibroblasts. Subsequently, negative selection of TCR Vy? 8"̂ and Vp(>'^ cells was also shown to be dependent on an endogenous ligand which could associate with both H-2A and H-2H molecules, but whose expression was polymorphic between inbred mouse strains. The ligand in question was the Mls^ alloantigen, shown nearly two decades previously to stimulate strong proliferative responses in primary mixed lymphocyte cultures between certain H-2-matched mouse strains (Festenstein 1973). Such a response implied a high precursor frequency of Mls '̂-reactive T cells
Reinforcement Mechanism Design for Fraudulent Behaviour in e-Commerce

In large e-commerce websites, sellers have been observed to engage in fraudulent behaviour, faking historical transactions in order to receive favourable treatment from the platforms, specifically through the allocation of additional buyer impressions which results in higher revenue for them, but not for the system as a whole. This emergent phenomenon has attracted considerable attention, with previous approaches focusing on trying to detect illicit practices and to punish the miscreants. In this paper, we employ the principles of reinforcement mechanism design, a framework that combines the fundamental goals of classical mechanism design, i.e. the consideration of agents' incentives and their alignment with the objectives of the designer, with deep reinforcement learning for optimizing the performance based on these incentives. In particular, first we set up a deep-learning framework for predicting the sellers' rationality, based on real data from any allocation algorithm. We use data from one of largest e-commerce platforms worldwide and train a neural network model to predict the extent to which the sellers will engage in fraudulent behaviour. Using this rationality model, we employ an algorithm based on deep reinforcement learning to optimize the objectives and compare its performance against several natural heuristics, including the platform's implementation and incentive-based mechanisms from the related literature.
The underlying pathophysiology and therapeutic approaches for osteoporosis

With an increase in the ageing population worldwide, the prevalence of osteoporosis increases at an alarming rate in both male and female irrespective of their ethnicity. At present, the currently available therapeutic options are mostly limited to either bone resorptive or bone forming efficacies and both approaches are associated with serious side effects. Despite these options, there is still need for newer therapeutics to treat osteoporosis, which can offer beneficial effects for maintaining balanced dynamics between bone formation and bone resorption, devoid of any side effect. The proper understanding of pathophysiology of the disease is essential for designing or investigating an effective and safe anti‐osteoporotic agent. This review represents a discussion around the molecular targets with their implications in disease progression, available therapeutic options, the emerging targets, and the importance of designing an effective anti‐osteoporotic agent.
Compressed Sensing Based Joint Rate Allocation and Routing Design in Wireless Sensor Networks

Compressed sensing for wireless sensor networks has attracted a lot of research attention in the last decade for its advantages in energy saving, robustness, and so on. Nevertheless, existing solutions mostly focus on the data compression performance while neglecting the energy efficiency. In this paper, we first present the joint resource allocation problem formulation based on compressed sensing. Then a distributed algorithm to compute the sampling rate and routes utilizing local network status is proposed. We conduct extensive experiments based on meteorological wireless sensor networks to verify the merit of our mechanism; it is shown that the proposed mechanism is able to achieve very high efficiency in terms of network lifetime and sensing quality compared with existing approaches.
Disruption of Microtubule Organization and Centrosome Function by Expression of Tobacco Mosaic Virus Movement Protein

ABSTRACT The movement protein (MP) of Tobacco mosaic virus mediates the cell-to-cell transport of viral RNA through plasmodesmata, cytoplasmic cell wall channels for direct cell-to-cell communication between adjacent cells. Previous in vivo studies demonstrated that the RNA transport function of the protein correlates with its association with microtubules, although the exact role of microtubules in the movement process remains unknown. Since the binding of MP to microtubules is conserved in transfected mammalian cells, we took advantage of available mammalian cell biology reagents and tools to further address the interaction in flat-growing and transparent COS-7 cells. We demonstrate that neither actin, nor endoplasmic reticulum (ER), nor dynein motor complexes are involved in the apparent alignment of MP with microtubules. Together with results of in vitro coprecipitation experiments, these findings indicate that MP binds microtubules directly. Unlike microtubules associated with neuronal MAP2c, MP-associated microtubules are resistant to disruption by microtubule-disrupting agents or cold, suggesting that MP is a specialized microtubule binding protein that forms unusually stable complexes with microtubules. MP-associated microtubules accumulate ER membranes, which is consistent with a proposed role for MP in the recruitment of membranes in infected plant cells and may suggest that microtubules are involved in this process. The ability of MP to interfere with centrosomal γ-tubulin is independent of microtubule association with MP, does not involve the removal of other tested centrosomal markers, and correlates with inhibition of centrosomal microtubule nucleation activity. These observations suggest that the function of MP in viral movement may involve interaction with the microtubule-nucleating machinery.
Variations of fault manifestation during Burn-In — A case study on industrial SRAM test results

Modern microcontroller devices for automotive applications are highly safety critical, and so are their embedded memories. It is necessary to ensure the memories to be fail safe during life time. Hence, the detection of latent faults is a big issue in memory testing, as these faults may remain during life time, but need to be detected early in production. Burn-In makes such faults detectable as they become manifested through high voltage and temperature stress. Faults that are marginal before Burn-In appear clearly after Burn-In, and additional faults occur that have not been detected before. In this paper we present industrial test results of Pre-Burn-In and Post-Burn-In tests, and we describe the variation of fault manifestation and fault distribution due to the effect of stress during Burn-In. We can show that former invisible faults become detectable through Burn-In stress and the manifestation of faults changes from dynamic to static.
Protein Kinase A Rescues Microtubule Affinity-regulating Kinase 2-induced Microtubule Instability and Neurite Disruption by Phosphorylating Serine 409*

Background: MARK2 and PKA are both involved in the regulation of microtubule stability. Results: PKA significantly inhibits MARK2 by phosphorylating serine 409 and rescues MARK2-induced microtubule instability and neurite disruption. Conclusion: PKA functions as an upstream inhibitor of MARK2 by directly interacting and phosphorylating it. Significance: The results identify a novel interaction between PKA and MARK2, providing new insight into the signal networks of both. Microtubule affinity-regulating kinase 2 (MARK2)/PAR-1b and protein kinase A (PKA) are both involved in the regulation of microtubule stability and neurite outgrowth, but whether a direct cross-talk exists between them remains unclear. Here, we found the disruption of microtubule and neurite outgrowth induced by MARK2 overexpression was blocked by active PKA. The interaction between PKA and MARK2 was confirmed by coimmunoprecipitation and immunocytochemistry both in vitro and in vivo. PKA was found to inhibit MARK2 kinase activity by phosphorylating a novel site, serine 409. PKA could not reverse the microtubule disruption effect induced by a serine 409 to alanine (Ala) mutant of MARK2 (MARK2 S409A). In contrast, mutation of MARK2 serine 409 to glutamic acid (Glu) (MARK2 S409E) did not affect microtubule stability and neurite outgrowth. We propose that PKA functions as an upstream inhibitor of MARK2 in regulating microtubule stability and neurite outgrowth by directly interacting and phosphorylating MARK2.
Modeling of Surface Damage Mitigation in Fused Silica With Carbon Dioxide Laser

A model of surface damage mitigation in fused silica irradiated by CO2 laser is built. Temperature distribution and surface morphology are simulated by finite-element method. It is proposed that a Gaussian crater appears in the mitigation site, which width and depth are dependent on the laser parameters. Following, the effects of frequency, duty cycle, and beam diameter on the size of mitigation are also analyzed. For the same laser power, reducing the above three parameters may lead to higher temperature at the spot center. However, the effects on the size of ablation and melting are inconsistent. The results show that a small laser beam is suitable for smaller and deeper defects, whereas a big laser beam is suitable for bigger and shallower defects. In addition, frequency and duty cycle have a significant influence on the ablation. Large duty cycle or high frequency may reduce the ablation, and thereby, the surface of the ablation profile becomes smoother after melted material recondense. Correspondingly, the mitigation process is mainly ablation for low duty cycle or low frequency.
IDENTITY THEFT COMMITTED THROUGH INTERNET

In this study, starting with the presentation of some aspects regarding management of identity in cyberspace, it is carried out the analysis of the offence of identity theft committed through Internet. The term “identity theft” describes the criminal acts through which the offender obtains and uses in a fraudulent manner the identity of other person. These criminal acts may be carried out through the use of information and communication technology, too. The cases of identity theft committed through Internet have a wide spread, being based on sophisticated frauds, creating difficulties for the law enforcement bodies when they investigate such offences. There is no standard definition relating to identity theft. The only element which is found in the definitions regarding identity theft is the fact that it is carried out in several phases, which were extensively analysed in this study. Moreover, in this study are studied the two systematic approaches with a view to incriminating identity theft, existent in the literature: creation of a single provision which incriminates the act of obtaining, possessing and using information regarding identity for criminal purposes; individual incrimination of acts related to obtaining information regarding identity, as well as the acts related to possession and use of such information
Synthesis, physicochemical characterization, and crystallization of a putative retro‐coiled coil

An artificial HIV enhancer‐binding polypeptide has recently been dimerized by covalently linking it to the leucine zipper motif of the yeast transcriptional activator GCN4 (Liu N et al., 1997, Eur Biophys J 25:399‐403). Although it seemed that the dimerization of this peptide could be best achieved by the use of the retro sequence of the leucine zipper, this approach was not implemented in the original construct. As the first step toward the synthesis of a basic region‐retro leucine zipper HIV enhancer‐binding fusion protein, we have now prepared the retro version of the leucine zipper (r‐LZ35) and performed initial physicochemical characterization. Circular dichroism and sedimentation equilibrium studies showed that, at concentrations <100 μ, the retro peptide was an unstructured monomer. At higher concentrations, however, the monomer was in equilibrium with a tetramer and, at 1 mM, the retro peptide was almost fully helical. N‐terminal extension of the retro peptide by the tripeptide Cys‐Gly‐Gly resulted in a 38‐residue polypeptide that could be covalently dimerized by forming a disulfide bond between two chains to give the peptide (r‐LZ38)2. Even in the low micromolar concentration range peptide (r‐LZ38)2 formed a stable, noncovalent, helical dimer as revealed by circular dichroism and sedimentation equilibrium in the presence and absence of guanidinium chloride. (r‐LZ38)2 has been crystallized and X‐ray structural analysis is under way. The disulfide‐crosslinked retro‐leucine zipper may lend itself to interesting protein structural studies, including protein design. The present work also highlights the structural and functional potential of retro proteins in general.
Socioemotional Correlates of Self-Reported Menstrual Cycle Irregularity in Premenopausal Women

Objective Characteristics of menstrual functioning are associated with social rank and corresponding behavioral expression of dominance and subordination in female cynomolgus macaques. Extrapolating from this research, the present study examined socioemotional correlates of menstrual cycle irregularity in premenopausal women by focusing on the dimensions of dominance/submission and hostility/warmth. Materials and Methods Participants were 153 premenopausal women (70 African-Americans, 83 European-Americans) who reported no current use of hormonal contraceptives. All women completed measures of socioemotional traits and reported whether the onset of their menstrual cycles was generally predictable within 4 days over the course of the past year. Results Menstrual cycle irregularity was significantly and positively associated with the socioemotional trait of submission. This association held after adjusting for age and a number of potentially confounding health behaviors. Conclusions Results are consistent with the notion that menstrual functioning is sensitive to socioemotional processes, particularly those pertaining to social hierarchies. Given recent findings linking menstrual cycle irregularity to cardiovascular disease, the results of the present study highlight new biobehavioral pathways to be explored with regard to women’s cardiovascular disease risk.