Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
joint application of the put-call-parity and importance sampling to variance reduced option pricingA

Pricing derivatives with Monte-Carlo simulations involves standard errors that typically decrease at a rate proportional to N^−0.5 where N is the sample size. Several approaches have been discussed to reduce empirical variance for a given sample size. This paper analyzes the joint application of the put-call-parity approach and importance sampling to non-path-dependent and path-dependent options. Significant variance reduction is observed for in-the-money European and Arithmetic Asian options. For put options, synergies are realized in the sense that the total variance reduction effect achieved by the combined approach is higher than the effect explained by the two standalone approaches.
Identification and molecular phylogeny of agriculturally important spider mites ( Acari : Tetranychidae ) based on mitochondrial and nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences , with an emphasis on Tetranychus

Tetranychid mites are serious agricultural pests. Identification of species in the Tetranychidae is hampered by their close morphological similarities, especially for species within the genus Tetranychus. In this study, we examined the relationships of nine agriculturally important species in the Tetranychidae from China based on mitochondrial (cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1) and nuclear (internal transcribed spacer 1 and 2 of ribosomal RNA gene) sequences. The results confirm the monophyly of the morphologically defined Tetranychus, Panonychus, Amphitetranychus and Petrobia. However the position of Amphitetranychus viennensis within the Tetranychidae needs to be confirmed. The genetic distances between Tetranychus truncatus, T. turkestani and T. urticae that their taxonomy needs revision. In particular, both cytochrome oxidase 1 and the internal transcribed spacers 1 and 2 of rDNA sequences showed large geographical differences within T. cinnabarinus, suggesting the existence of cryptic species within this species.
Aalen’s additive Hazard model: an application in analyzing job tenure factors in private and public companies in Albania

There are several statistical methods for time to event analysis, among which is the Cox proportional hazards model, that is most commonly used. In this model, the effect of the covariates is assumed to act multiplicatively on the baseline hazard rate and the ratio of the hazards is constant over survival time. However, when the proportionality assumption for the Cox proportional hazards model is not satisfied, an additive hazard regression model may be more appropriate. In this study, we give an overview of this approach and then apply Aalen’s additive hazard regression model to a data set which contain the job tenure for Albanian employees and variables that are thought of as important factors in the job tenure. The Aalen model allows for time-varying covariate effects and is used to assess the impact that age of the employee, the age at which he started the job, salary, gender, position and years of work in front of the current position may have in job termination.
Empirical modified Mercalli intensity site corrections for towns in eastern North America

Modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) assignments for earthquakes in eastern North America (ENA) were used by Bakun et al. (2003) and Bakun and Hopper (in press) to develop models for estimating the location and moment magnitude M of earthquakes in ENA from MMI observations. The MMI empirical site corrections developed and used by Bakun et al. (2003) and Bakun and Hopper (in press) are listed in this Open-file
Antioxidant Activity, Molecular Docking and Quantum Studies of New Bis‐Schiff Bases Based on Benzyl Phenyl Ketone Moiety

In the current research work novel bis‐Schiff base products of benzyl phenyl ketone nucleus were synthesized via two step reactions in excellent yields. Using FTIR, EI‐MS and 1H‐NMR spectroscopic procedures, the structures of synthesized derivatives were confirmed and finally evaluated them for DPPH free radical scavenging activity. In the synthetic series, compounds 2 c (IC50=26.11±0.12 μM), 2 b (IC50=30.33±0.22 μM), 2 d (IC50=38.19±0.65 μM), and 2 a (IC50=40.12±0.42 μM) exhibited excellent activity better than standard drug ascorbic acid (IC50=44.01±1.41 μM) while the rest of derivatives revealed good to moderate activity. Frontier molecular orbitals, like HOMO and LUMO, which show charge transfer from molecule to biological transfer, and MEP maps, which show the chemically reactive zone suited for drug action, are calculated using DFT study. Non bonding orbitals (NBO), the electron localization function (ELF) and atoms in molecule (AIM) charges is also calculated. Strong hydrogen bonding interactions with crucial amino acid residues of the peroxidase structure are revealed by the molecular docking analysis of the drug with DPPH for efficient inhibition.
New high-brilliance small angle x-ray scattering beamline, BL-15A2 at the photon factory

The new high-brilliance small angle X-ray scattering beamline BL-15A2 at the Photon Factory has been operational since late 2014. BL-15A2 has a short-gap undulator, which can produce high brilliance X-rays ranging from 2.1 keV to 15 keV. The experimental hutch in BL-15A2 contains two types of diffractometers. One diffractometer is for grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering using tender X-rays and the other is for standard SAXS utilizing hard X-rays. Here the beam performance and the diffractometer using hard X-rays in BL-15A2 are reported. The photon flux at the sample position with a size definition slit of H 0.6 mm × V 0.6 mm is 2.03×1011 photons/sec at an X-ray energy of 10.2 keV, which is the 7th harmonic of the short-gap undulator. The beam size at the sample position is H 0.55 mm × V 0.09 mm (FWHM) at a camera length of 150 cm. The camera length can be changed from 25 cm to 350 cm. Simultaneous SAXS/WAXS experiments can be also conducted in BL-15A2. The hybrid pixel detector PILATUS3 2M is installed for SAXS, while PILATUS3 300 k-W can be used as a WAXS detector. The small-angle resolution at a camera length of 350 cm and an X-ray energy of 5.7 keV is 483 nm. Thus, the large hierarchical and seamless structural analysis from the sub-micrometer to angstrom order can be performed in BL-15A2.The new high-brilliance small angle X-ray scattering beamline BL-15A2 at the Photon Factory has been operational since late 2014. BL-15A2 has a short-gap undulator, which can produce high brilliance X-rays ranging from 2.1 keV to 15 keV. The experimental hutch in BL-15A2 contains two types of diffractometers. One diffractometer is for grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering using tender X-rays and the other is for standard SAXS utilizing hard X-rays. Here the beam performance and the diffractometer using hard X-rays in BL-15A2 are reported. The photon flux at the sample position with a size definition slit of H 0.6 mm × V 0.6 mm is 2.03×1011 photons/sec at an X-ray energy of 10.2 keV, which is the 7th harmonic of the short-gap undulator. The beam size at the sample position is H 0.55 mm × V 0.09 mm (FWHM) at a camera length of 150 cm. The camera length can be changed from 25 cm to 350 cm. Simultaneous SAXS/WAXS experiments can be also conducted in BL-15A2. The hybrid pixel detector PILATUS3 2M is i.
A Collaborative Filtering Algorithm Based on Sentiment Analysis in Review Texts

: To improve the performance of collaborative filtering algorithm, a collaborative filtering algorithm based on sentiment analysis in review texts (CF_SA) is proposed in this paper. First, LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) is used to form the user topic feature matrix and calculate user review similarity. Secondly, the ALBERT(A Lite Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformers) model and BiLSTM(Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory) neural network are used to mine users' emotional tendencies in item review texts, improve the user rating table, and calculate user rating similarity. Next, the user review similarity and user rating similarity are combined to obtain the final user similarity and predict the user's rating for the item. Finally, experiments were conducted on the Douban Film Review dataset. Compared with classic recommendation algorithms, the results show that the proposed algorithm has good recommendation performance.
Exponential Dispersion Process for Degradation Analysis

The methods for analyzing degradation data are usually based on a specific degradation model. However, this may result in a large bias to estimate the reliability of the product when the assumed model is wrong. In this paper, a new stochastic process, called exponential dispersion process, is developed to describe the degradation path of the product's physical or chemical characteristics. Exponential dispersion process includes the most used degradation models (Wiener process, gamma process, inverse Gaussian process, and compound Poisson process) as special cases. Thus, it is useful for suggesting an appropriate degradation model for a specific dataset. We investigate the exponential dispersion model with nonlinear degradation path, and use approximated maximum likelihood method and bootstrap approach to obtain the point and confidence interval estimates of the unknown model parameters. Furthermore, exponential dispersion process models with acceleration factors and random effects are also explored. The developed methodologies are then applied to real data analysis.
On the concept of Raga parentage in Carnatic music

The concept of rāga in Carnatic music is based on an ordered set of notes in an octave. Historically rāgas are broadly classified into two sets, namely Janaka (root/parent) and Janya (derived/offspring) rāgas. Every janya rāga is derived from a unique parent. We examine this classification critically and attempt to provide a quantitative basis for such a classification by defining a ‘distance’ between rāgas. The shortest identifies the parentage. Each rāga is defined by a pitch histogram vector in a 12-dimensional space. To achieve consensus, different distance metrics are used in the multi-dimensional space. Using a standard data set (refer to section 4.4), we carry out the distance analysis using entire compositions, which we subsequently fine-tune using only the parts of compositions that contain all the features of the rāga. We also perform an independent analysis for comparing the motif sequences in rāgas. We find that while the conventional method (refer to section 3) is fairly robust, there are exceptions, especially with pentatonic rāgas, and that these exceptions are actively debated in the public domain. Since quantitative methods find it difficult to achieve consensus, we conclude that while a rāga belongs to a family, it does not necessarily belong to a unique parent.
The instantaneous structure of secondary flows in turbulent boundary layers

Secondary flows can develop in turbulent boundary layers that grow over surfaces with spanwise inhomogeneities. In this article, we demonstrate the formation of secondary flows in both experimental and numerical tests and dissect the instantaneous structure and topology of these secondary motions. We show that the formation of secondary flows is not very sensitive to the Reynolds number range investigated, and direct numerical simulations and experiments produce similar results in the mean flow as well as the dispersive and turbulent stress distributions. The numerical methods capture time-resolved features of the instantaneous flow and provide insight into the near-wall flow structures, that were previously obscured in the experimental measurements. Proper orthogonal decomposition was shown to capture the essence of the secondary flows in relatively few modes and to be useful as a filter to analyse the instantaneous flow patterns. The secondary flows are found to create extended regions of high Reynolds stress away from the wall that comprise predominantly sweeps similar to what one would expect to see near the wall and which are comparable in magnitude to the near-wall stress. Analysis of the instantaneous flow patterns reveals that the secondary flows are the result of a non-homogeneous distribution of mid-size vortices.
National guideline for the management of donovanosis ( granuloma inguinale ) Clinical Effectiveness Group ( Association for Genitourinary Medicine and the Medical Society for the Study of Venereal Diseases )

Donovanosis is a sexually transmitted infection that usually manifests itself as genital ulceration. It is seen chiefly in small endemic foci in tropical countries. Active foci of disease in recent years have been described in India, Papua New Guinea, the Caribbean, Brazil, the Guyanas, South Africa, Zambia, Vietnam, and in Australian aboriginals. The causative organism formerly, Calymmatobacterium granulomatis has recently been officially redesignated Klebsiella granulomatis [1-3].
Plasma and thermal ALD of Al2O3 in a commercial 200 mm ALD reactor

The deposition of Al 2 O 3 by remote plasma atomic layer deposition (ALD) in the Oxford Instruments FlexAL reactor was studied and compared with results from thermal ALD in the same reactor. Trimethylaluminum [Al(CH 3 ) 3 ] was used as the metal precursor and O 2 plasma and H 2 O were used as oxidizing agents for the plasma and thermal processes, respectively. For remote plasma ALD with a total cycle time of 4 s, the growth per cycle decreased monotonically with substrate temperature, from 1.7 A/cycle at 25°C to 1.0 A/cycle at 300°C. This growth per cycle was consistently higher than that obtained for thermal ALD. For the latter a maximum growth per cycle of ∼ 1.0 A/cycle was found at 200°C. The film properties investigated were nearly independent of oxidant source for temperatures between 100 and 300°C, with a slightly higher mass density for the remote plasma ALD Al 2 O 3 films. Films deposited at 200 and 300°C were stoichiometric with a mass density of 3.0 g/cm 3 and low C (< 1 atom %) and H (<3 atom %) contents. At lower substrate temperatures, oxygen-rich films were obtained with a lower mass density and higher H-content. Remote plasma ALD produced uniform Al 2 O 3 films with nonuniformities of less than ±2% over 200 mm diam substrates. Excellent conformality was obtained for films deposited in macropores with an aspect ratio of ∼8 (2.0-2.5 μm diam). Preliminary results on electrical properties of remote plasma deposited films showed high dielectric constants of 7.8 and 8.9 for as-deposited and forming gas annealed Al 2 O 3 , respectively.
Approximation by the bivariate complex Baskakov-Stancu operators

In this paper we study the approximation properties of the Stancu type bivariate generalization of the complex Baskakov operators. We obtain a Voronovskaja type result with quantitative estimates for bivariate complex Baskakov-Stancu operators attached to analytic functions having suitable exponential growth on compact polydisks. Also we give the exact order of approximation.
A comprehensive 1000 Genomes-based genome-wide association meta-analysis of coronary artery disease

Citation for published version (APA): Nikpay, M. , Goel, A. , Won, H-H. , Hall, L. M. , Willenborg, C. , Kanoni, S. , Saleheen, D. , Kyriakou, T. , Nelson, C. P., Hopewell, J. C. , Webb, T. R. , Zeng, L. , Dehghan, A. , Elver, M. , Armasu, S. M. , Auro, K. , Bjonnes, A. , Chasman, D. I. , Chen, S. , . Farrall, M. (2015). A comprehensive 1000 Genomes-based genome-wide association meta-analysis of coronary artery disease. Nature Genetics, 47(10), 1121-1130. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3396
Dynamic Performance Analysis of Long-distance Power Transmission System with DC Superconducting Cable from Large Photovoltaic Generation

This paper proposes a new long-distance power transmission system with superconducting cable from large-scale photovoltaic (PV) power generation along with the dynamic performance analysis. The advantage of the proposed system is the reduction in the ac/dc conversion steps compared with the conventional one. As is well known, long-distance power transmission requires a dc system, and conventional dc power transmission system requires high dc voltage with low current to reduce losses. Such a high voltage has been achieved by dc/ac conversion with a boost chopper and an inverter from PV, and ac/dc conversion by a rectifier to dc cable. On the other hand, superconducting cable can transmit power with a lower voltage and higher current compared with conventional cable. This enables us to convert the dc voltage from PV plant to dc voltage to superconducting cable directly. Furthermore, the capacitance of the superconducting cable could be used for stable dc operation. In this paper, the system configuration, operation steps, controls, and characteristics verified by computer simulation are presented; eXpandable Transient Analysis Program (XTAP) is used for the simulation.
Exploring the potential mechanisms of luteolin against ulcerative colitis and colorectal cancer via network pharmacology and molecular docking

Background : Patients diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC) are known to have an increased susceptibility to colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the shared underlying mechanisms between UC and CRC remain unclear. Given the therapeutic potential of luteolin in both UC and CRC, this study aims to elucidate the molecular targets and mechanisms through which luteolin exerts its effects against these diseases. Methods : The GeneCards database, DisGENet database, and Gene Expression Omnibus database were utilized to analyze the targets associated with UC and CRC. Subsequently, the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology and SwissTargetPrediction databases were employed to identify luteolin-related targets. The identified luteolin-related targets were then mapped to official gene symbols using the UniProt database. The Cytoscape 3.9. 0 software was utilized to construct a network of luteolin-associated targets. Venn diagram analysis was performed to identify common targets among UC, CRC, and luteolin. The common targets were further analyzed using the STRING database to construct a protein-protein interaction network. The “cytoHubba” plugin in Cytoscape 3.9. 0 was employed to identify hub targets within the PPI network. Gene Ontology functional analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis were conducted on the hub targets. Finally, molecular docking using AutoDock and PyMOL software was performed to assess the binding affinity between luteolin and the hub targets. Results : Luteolin was found to interact with a total of 149 pharmacological targets, while UC and CRC were associated with 1232 and 3278 targets, respectively. Forty-six common targets were identified among luteolin, UC, and CRC. Through the application of seven different algorithms, seven hub targets were identified, TP53, AKT1, TNF, SRC, EGFR, and MMP9. Bioinformatics enrichment analysis revealed 49 enriched pathways through Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis, while Gene Ontology analysis yielded a total of 245 biological processes, 4 cellular components, and 7 molecular functions. Molecular docking simulations demonstrated a good binding affinity between luteolin and the hub targets. Conclusion : This study identified multiple potential pharmacological targets and elucidated various biological pathways through which luteolin may exert its therapeutic effects in the treatment of UC and CRC. These findings provide a solid theoretical foundation for further experimental investigations in the treatment of UC and CRC.
Focus groups of value concepts of organic producers and other stakeholders

The report aims to contribute to a better knowledge and understanding of basic ethical values of organic agriculture. It identifies basic values and value differences among a range of stakeholders in Europe and provides some recommendation for further development of the EU regulation 2092/91. A total of 25 focus group discussions of approx. 2 hours with between 4 and 15 participants were held in five European countries. The common discussion guide covered first associations with the word organic, personal involvement with the organic sector, values important for the organic sector now and in the future and value-conflicts. The analysis explored differences between the regions, and between established and more recently converted producers, and contrasted the results with other stakeholders, especially the values of consumers from the OMIaRD project. Unprompted producers associated health, sustainability and professional challenge with organic farming in all countries. In most of the also farming naturally and minimal use of external inputs were mentioned. Producers’ motives for conversion to organic farming were similar to those reported in other studies with mixture of internal and external factors appearing important. The widely held view that new entrants convert only for financial reasons and do not engage with values of organic agriculture could not be confirmed. However, the longer-established producers seemed more familiar with some “organic farming” theories (cylcle of health) suggesting a challenge for the sector that new entrants have access to these ideas. In all countries, food quality and health, environmental protection, and limiting resource use were seen as important values for the organic sector. Economic pressures and a downward trend for organic prices were seen as preventing producers from realising all of their organic values, especially in larger trading structures and globalised markets. Limiting the use of non-renewable resources, particularly energy sources, avoiding contamination with GMOs, fair or cost-covering prices were values expected to be important for organic farming in the future. The report contrast the values identified with the principles of organic agriculture of IFOAM. It is concluded that many stakeholders associate organic farming with health, low residues and healthy products. Environmental and ecological values are important to all stakeholders. Organic farming is associated with sustainability of agriculture, and social justice is likely to become a more important value in the future. Animal health and welfare appeared important to consumer, other stakeholders and recently converted producers. Both producers and consumers preferred regional organic networks for a number of reasons but recognised limitations. For many participants the systems-oriented approach of organic farming represented a fundamental difference to conventional agriculture. The report concludes with a number of recommendations in relation to principles and values for revision of the EU Regulation 2092/91.
Low-Threshold Continuous-Wave Operation of Electrically Pumped 1.55 μm InAs Quantum Dash Microring Lasers

Densely integrated devices on a single chip enable both complex functionality and economy of scale. With a small footprint, microcavities with self-assembled InAs quantum dashes (QDashes) use minimal real estate cost while offering full photonic functionality. Here, the first room-temperature-continuous-wave (CW) operation of electrically pumped InAs QDash microring lasers in the 1.55 μm telecom window is reported. CW lasing up to 55 °C has been achieved with a low threshold current density of 528 A/cm2. The ring laser has only a few unique modes with an extinction ratio over 26 dB for the primary mode. The reduced carrier diffusion length of the QDash active region suppresses the sidewall surface recombination. Feasibility of device miniaturization was demonstrated, with the lowest threshold being 3.5 mA. Since microring cavities do not require feedback mirrors, their compact size and resulting low thresholds make them the ideal candidate for an on-chip light source in optical datacom interconnects.