Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Order Imbalance and Individual Stock Returns

This paper studies the relation between order imbalances and daily returns of individual stocks. Our tests are motivated by a model which explicitly considers how market makers dynamically accommodate autocorrelated imbalances emanating from large traders who optimally choose to split their orders. Price pressures caused by autocorrelated imbalances cause a positive relation between lagged imbalances and returns, which reverses sign after controlling for the current imbalance. We find empirical evidence consistent with these implications. We also find that imbalance-based trading strategies yield statistically significant returns. Our results shed light on the role of inventory eﬀects in daily stock price movements.
Factores de riesgo asociados a la tripanosomosis bovina en explotaciones ganaderas de Venezuela

The aim of this study was to identify the risk factors associated with bovine tripanosomosis in cattle ranches in Venezuela. There were processed a total of 1.675 blood samples for active infection study and 1.572 for serology, collected in 49 cattle herds from livestock farms scattered in nine states of the country and 4 different geographical regions: east and west plains, south lake, central-west, and andean. Microcentrifugation technique was used to detect active infection by Trypanosoma vivax, while seropositivity to this hemoprotozoan was detected by both the indirect immunofluorescence technique and the ELISA immunosorbent assay. Through an epidemiological survey, information on the racial, age, gender, purpose, management, and tripanocidal treatment (active ingredient
Gazing and frowning as a new human--computer interaction technique

The present aim was to study a new technique for human--computer interaction. It combined the use of two modalities, voluntary gaze direction and voluntary facial muscle activation for object pointing and selection. Fourteen subjects performed a series of pointing tasks with the new technique and with a mouse. At short distances the mouse was significantly faster than the new technique. However, there were no statistically significant differences at medium and long distances between the techniques. Fitts' law analyses were performed both by using only error-free trials and using also data including error trials (i.e., effective target width). In all cases both techniques seemed to follow Fitts' law, although for the new technique the effective target width correlation coefficient was smaller R = 0.776 than for the mouse R = 0.991. The regression slopes suggested that at very long distances (i.e., beyond 800 pixels) the new technique might be faster than the mouse. The new technique showed promising results already after a short practice and in the future it could be useful especially for physically challenged persons.
Dietary Protein to Support Anabolism with Resistance Exercise in Young Men

Resistance exercise is fundamentally anabolic and as such stimulates the process of skeletal muscle protein synthesis (MPS) in an absolute sense and relative to skeletal muscle protein breakdown (MPB). However, the net effect of resistance exercise is to shift net protein balance (NPB = MPS − MPB) to a more positive value; however, in the absence of feeding NPB remains negative. Feeding stimulates MPS to an extent where NPB becomes positive, for a transient time. When combined, resistance exercise and feeding synergistically interact to result in NPB being greater than with feeding alone. This feeding- and exercise-induced stimulation of NPB is what, albeit slowly, results in muscle hypertrophy. With this rudimentary knowledge we are now at the point where we can manipulate variables within the system to see what impact these interventions have on the processes of MPS, MPB, and NPB and ultimately and perhaps most importantly, muscle hypertrophy and strength. We used established models of skeletal muscle amino acid turnover to examine how protein source (milk versus soy) acutely affects the processes of MPS and MPB after resistance exercise. Our findings revealed that even when balanced quantities of total protein and energy are consumed that milk proteins are more effective in stimulating amino acid uptake and net protein deposition in skeletal muscle after resistance exercise than are hydrolyzed soy proteins. Importantly, the finding of increased amino acid uptake would be independent of the differences in amino acid composition of the two proteins. We propose that the improved net protein deposition with milk protein consumption is also not due to differences in amino acid composition, but is due to a different pattern of amino acid delivery associated with milk versus hydrolyzed soy proteins. If our acute findings are accurate then we hypothesized that chronically the greater net protein deposition associated with milk protein consumption post-resistance exercise would eventually lead to greater net protein accretion (i.e., muscle fiber hypertrophy), over a longer time period. In young men completing 12 weeks of resistance training (5d/wk) we observed a tendency (P = 0.11) for greater gains in whole body lean mass and whole as greater muscle fiber hypertrophy with consumption of milk. While strength gains were not different between the soy and milk-supplemented groups we would argue that the true significance of a greater increase in lean mass that we observed with milk consumption may be more important in groups of persons with lower initial lean mass and strength such as the elderly.
Queensland Plateau and Coral Sea Basin: Structural and Time- Stratigraphic Patterns

The Western Coral Sea region contains one major and three minor marginal plateaux, partly surrounding a deep abyssal plain. The Coral Sea Abyssal Plain is underlain by about 1km sediment and oceanic crust generated by an early Eocene seafloor spreading phase. The large Queensland Plateau consists of subsided continental crust with basement rocks of Palaeozoic age which are tectonically part of the onshore Tasman Geosyncline. Graben, or continental rift features occur beneath the Queensland Trough, and beneath the plateau/basin margin. Here 1-3 kms of probable Upper Cretaceous "rift valley" sediments overlie basement. Subsidence of the plateaux followed seafloor spreading in the basin and marked the onset of "post-breakup" sedimentation. Lows in the plateau basement are infilled by Eocene sediments, while changing ocean current patterns gave rise to an Oligocene depositional break. Residual plateau highs along old Palaeozoic trends subsided in the early Miocene and are locally capped by modern coral reefs.
Assessing Tumor Oxygenation for Predicting Outcome in Radiation Oncology: A Review of Studies Correlating Tumor Hypoxic Status and Outcome in the Preclinical and Clinical Settings

Tumor hypoxia is recognized as a limiting factor for the efficacy of radiotherapy, because it enhances tumor radioresistance. It is strongly suggested that assessing tumor oxygenation could help to predict the outcome of cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy. Strategies have also been developed to alleviate tumor hypoxia in order to radiosensitize tumors. In addition, oxygen mapping is critically needed for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), in which the most hypoxic regions require higher radiation doses and the most oxygenated regions require lower radiation doses. However, the assessment of tumor oxygenation is not yet included in day-to-day clinical practice. This is due to the lack of a method for the quantitative and non-invasive mapping of tumor oxygenation. To fully integrate tumor hypoxia parameters into effective improvements of the individually tailored radiation therapy protocols in cancer patients, methods allowing non-invasively repeated, safe, and robust mapping of changes in tissue oxygenation are required. In this review, non-invasive methods dedicated to assessing tumor oxygenation with the ultimate goal of predicting outcome in radiation oncology are presented, including positron emission tomography used with nitroimidazole tracers, magnetic resonance methods using endogenous contrasts (R1 and R2*-based methods), and electron paramagnetic resonance oximetry; the goal is to highlight results of studies establishing correlations between tumor hypoxic status and patients’ outcome in the preclinical and clinical settings.
XPlainer: Visual Explanations of XPath Queries

The popularity of XML has motivated the development of novel XML processing tools many of which embed the XPath language for XML querying, transformation, constraint specification, etc. XPath developers (as well as less technical users) have access to commercial tools to help them use the language effectively. Example tools include debuggers that return the result of XPath subexpressions visualized in the context of the input XML document. This paper introduces XPlainer, a language that provides explanations of why XPath expressions return a specific answer. An explanation returns precisely the nodes in the input XML document that contribute to the answer. We provide a complete formalization for explanation queries based on the semantics of XPath. This enables the use of XPath engines for the evaluation of explanation queries. We describe a tool that uses XPlainer queries to provide visual explanations. The XPlainer-Eclipse tool is built on an extensible development environment that includes editors for visualizing both XML documents and XPath expressions as trees together with the explanation of the answers.
Ca2+-independent Phospholipase A2 Is a Novel Determinant of Store-operated Ca2+ Entry*

Store-operated cation (SOC) channels and capacitative Ca2+ entry (CCE) play very important role in cellular function, but the mechanism of their activation remains one of the most intriguing and long lasting mysteries in the field of Ca2+ signaling. Here, we present the first evidence that Ca2+-independent phospholipase A2(iPLA2) is a crucial molecular determinant in activation of SOC channels and store-operated Ca2+ entry pathway. Using molecular, imaging, and electrophysiological techniques, we show that directed molecular or pharmacological impairment of the functional activity of iPLA2 leads to irreversible inhibition of CCE mediated by nonselective SOC channels and by Ca2+-release-activated Ca2+ (CRAC) channels. Transfection of vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC) with antisense, but not sense, oligonucleotides for iPLA2 impaired thapsigargin (TG)-induced activation of iPLA2 and TG-induced Ca2+ and Mn2+ influx. Identical inhibition of TG-induced Ca2+ and Mn2+ influx (but not Ca2+ release) was observed in SMC, human platelets, and Jurkat T-lymphocytes when functional activity of iPLA2 was inhibited by its mechanism-based suicidal substrate, bromoenol lactone (BEL). Moreover, irreversible inhibition of iPLA2impaired TG-induced activation of single nonselective SOC channels in SMC and BAPTA (1,2-bis(2-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N′,N′-tetraacetic acid)-induced activation of whole-cell CRAC current in rat basophilic leukemia cells. Thus, functional iPLA2 is required for activation of store-operated channels and capacitative Ca2+influx in wide variety of cell types.
Heritability of blood pressure in Nigerian families

Objectives There are few studies of familial aggregation of blood pressure in African populations. This study was undertaken to provide estimates of heritability for four blood pressure phenotypes: systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP) and pulse pressure. Methods A population-based sample of 528 pedigrees or extended families, comprising 1825 measured individuals, was studied in a poor urban community in Ibadan, Nigeria. Results The mean SBP was 121.7 (SD 22.6) mmHg for men and 120.7 (SD 26.8) mmHg for women, while the mean DBP was 74.6 (SD 14.1) mmHg for men and 75.5 (SD 15.2) mmHg for women. The study sample was lean [mean body mass index (BMI) approximately 21 kg/m2]. Maximum-likelihood heritability estimates were obtained under a polygenic model with simultaneous estimation of household effects using a variance components method, as implemented in the SOLAR software package. Heritability estimates of the traits were 34% for SBP, 29% for DBP, 36% for MAP and 13% for pulse pressure. Household effects were statistically significant for DBP (7.1%) and MAP (4.5%). Measured covariates (age, sex and BMI) accounted for 25, 24, 26 and 16% of the total variance, respectively, for SBP, DBP, MAP and pulse pressure. Conclusions These figures suggest that, similar to that reported in other populations, blood pressure is a heritable trait. Studies similar to this are needed to describe the familial aggregation of other complex traits in sub-Saharan African populations and to serve as a prelude to the identification of susceptibility genes involved in the pathophysiology of common complex diseases, including blood pressure and hypertension.
Authentication of moving kNN queries

A moving kNN query continuously reports the k nearest neighbors of a moving query point. In addition to the query result, a service provider that evaluates moving queries often returns mobile clients a safe region that bounds the validity of query results to minimize the communication cost between the two parties. However, when a service provider is not trustworthy, it may send inaccurate query results or incorrect safe regions to clients. In this paper, we present a framework and algorithms to authenticate results and safe regions of moving kNN queries. Extensive experiments on both real and synthetic datasets show that our methods are efficient in terms of both computation time and communication costs.
Basic Wavefront Aberration Theory for Optical Metrology

VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. Sign Conventions Aberration-Free Image Spherical Wavefront, Defocus, and Lateral Shift Angular, Transverse, and Longitudinal Aberration Seidel Aberrations A. Spherical Aberration B. Coma C. Astigmatism D. Field Curvature E. Distortion Zernike Polynomials Relationship between Zernike Polynomials and Third-Order Aberrations Peak-to-Valley and RMS Wavefront Aberration Strehl Ratio Chromatic Aberrations Aberrations Introduced by Plane Parallel Plates Aberrations of Simple Thin Lenses 2 4 9 12 15 18 22 24 26 28 28
When is the Right Time to Inject an Error ?

As software (SW) is progressing to play a crucial role in computer systems, its robustness will have a major impact on the system’s overall robustness. Being able to assess and improve SW robustness has been identified as an important field of research. In our research we target robustness evaluation and enhancement of a key component in SW based systems, namely the OS. Many techniques have been developed for this purpose and this paper deals with one of them, namely Fault Injection (FI). In FI the state of a system (memory, registers etc.) is intentionally corrupted and the behavior of the system is observed. Common types of FI include corruptions of memory or control path, corruption of function calls and their parameters. When conducting FI experiments there are many parameters that must be considered properly, such as the error model, the type of injection techniques and the measures that are to be taken. In this paper we focus on another important aspect of FI, namely the instance of injection1. The injection instance clearly plays a major role in the outcome of an experiment. As the state of the system changes over time, different injection instances might lead to injection into different system states. Therefore efforts have been spent on trying to minimize the difference between the states of different injection rounds. The most common approach is to restart the target cleanly before each experiment, e.g., for OSs typically by performing a reboot. Additionally, errors are often injected on first occurrence, i.e., on the first call to a certain function or instruction in the code [1, 2, 3, 5]. This is a reasonable approach to take, as it makes experiments more predictable and repeatable. However, the set of states that can be targeted is only a subset of the total state space, and some states might never be targeted. To get confidence in the experiments, one would like the FI experiment to cover as large part of the system state space as possible. Therefore, we believe that only considering first occurrence is insufficient for achieving high levels of confidence in the results of the experiments. Consequently, this
ANÁLISIS HISTÓRICO DE LA INCIDENCIA DE CIGUATERA EN LAS ISLAS DEL CARIBE DURANTE 31 AÑOS: 1980 - 2010

Ciguatera fish poisoning is a seafood-borne illness caused by the consumption of fish that have accumulated lipid-soluble ciguatoxins, produced by dinoflagellates of the genera Gambierdiscus, Ostreopsis, Coolia and Prorocentrum. The true extent of the disease and its impact on tourism and public health on the Caribbean islands is poorly understood. For this reason, we analyze the incidence of ciguatera in the Caribbean states (CS) and San Andres Island (SAI), seeking spatial and temporal trends. Through epidemiological reports obtained from the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) and the Departmental Health Secretariat of SAI, the per capita incidence of ciguatera has been calculated for the periods 1980 to 2010 and 2007 to 2011, respectively. Subsequently the data were analyzed using t tests, incidence rate ratio and rank correlation. The data show that, over the period 1980-2010, there were 10 710 cases reported from 18 CAREC countries, with an average annual incidence of 42/100 000. There was an increase between the periods 1980-1990 and 2000-2010 with annual averages calculated from reported cases of 34.2 and 45.2 / 100 000 respectively. The island of Montserrat presented the highest incidence in the region, 350 / 100 000 while SAI showed an incidence of 25/100 000 inhabitants, occupying the eighth position among the analyzed islands. The rate ratio (average annual incidence 2000-2010 / average annual incidence 1980-1990) was 1.36, so there was a 32% increase in the average annual incidence among CAREC countries and almost 300% between the two time periods. The ciguatera incidence level in the Caribbean has increased over the last 31 years, mainly in the Eastern Caribbean. The Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda contribute greatly to the reported increase. Considering that the development model of much of the region is based on the tourism industry and that fish is a major protein source for Caribbean communities, it can be concluded that ciguatera is a growing problem which is expected to increase in parallel with environmental change.
Analysis of a time-lens based optical frame synchronizer and retimer for 10G Ethernet aiming at a Tb/s optical router/Switch design

This paper analyzes experimentally and by numerical simulations an optical frame retimer and synchronizer unit for 10 Gbit/s Ethernet input frames. The unit is envisaged to be applied in the design of an optically transparent router for Optical Time Division Multiplexed (OTDM) links, aggregating traffic from several 10 Gbit/s Ethernet (10 GE) links. The scheme is based on time-lenses implemented through a combination of a sinusoidally driven optical phase modulation and linear dispersion. Our analysis extracts the operation range of the scheme used for synchronization and retiming in the context of 10 Gbit/s Ethernet, considering the frequency offset to the local clock within the specified standard tolerance (i.e. ± 1 MHz for 10 Gbit/s Ethernet) and the Ethernet frame size (i.e. up to 1526 bytes). We also provide preliminary design insights to increase the operation range.
Increasing our Understanding of Human Cognition Through the Study of Fragile X Syndrome

Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) is considered the most common form of inherited intellectual disability. It is caused by reductions in the expression level or function of a single protein, the Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein (FMRP), a translational regulator which binds to approximately 4% of brain messenger RNAs. Accumulating evidence suggests that FXS is a complex disorder of cognition, involving interactions between genetic and environmental influences, leading to difficulties in acquiring key life skills including motor skills, language, and proper social behaviors. Since many FXS patients also present with one or more features of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), insights gained from studying the monogenic basis of FXS could pave the way to a greater understanding of underlying features of multigenic ASDs. Here we present an overview of the FXS and FMRP field with the goal of demonstrating how loss of a single protein involved in translational control affects multiple stages of brain development and leads to debilitating consequences on human cognition. We also focus on studies which have rescued or improved FXS symptoms in mice using genetic or therapeutic approaches to reduce protein expression. We end with a brief description of how deficits in translational control are implicated in FXS and certain cases of ASDs, with many recent studies demonstrating that ASDs are likely caused by increases or decreases in the levels of certain key synaptic proteins. The study of FXS and its underlying single genetic cause offers an invaluable opportunity to study how a single gene influences brain development and behavior. © 2013 The Authors. Developmental Neurobiology Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 74: 147–177, 2014
Secondary Plant Products Causing Photosensitization in Grazing Herbivores: Their Structure, Activity and Regulation

Photosensitivity in animals is defined as a severe dermatitis that results from a heightened reactivity of skin cells and associated dermal tissues upon their exposure to sunlight, following ingestion or contact with UV reactive secondary plant products. Photosensitivity occurs in animal cells as a reaction that is mediated by a light absorbing molecule, specifically in this case a plant-produced metabolite that is heterocyclic or polyphenolic. In sensitive animals, this reaction is most severe in non-pigmented skin which has the least protection from UV or visible light exposure. Photosensitization in a biological system such as the epidermis is an oxidative or other chemical change in a molecule in response to light-induced excitation of endogenous or exogenously-delivered molecules within the tissue. Photo-oxidation can also occur in the plant itself, resulting in the generation of reactive oxygen species, free radical damage and eventual DNA degradation. Similar cellular changes occur in affected herbivores and are associated with an accumulation of photodynamic molecules in the affected dermal tissues or circulatory system of the herbivore. Recent advances in our ability to identify and detect secondary products at trace levels in the plant and surrounding environment, or in organisms that ingest plants, have provided additional evidence for the role of secondary metabolites in photosensitization of grazing herbivores. This review outlines the role of unique secondary products produced by higher plants in the animal photosensitization process, describes their chemistry and localization in the plant as well as impacts of the environment upon their production, discusses their direct and indirect effects on associated animal systems and presents several examples of well-characterized plant photosensitization in animal systems.
Situated evaluation for cooperative systems

This paper discusses an evaluation of the MEAD prototype, a multi-user interface generator tool particularly for use in the context of Air Traffic Control (ATC). The procedures we adopted took the form of opportunistic and informal evaluation sessions with small user groups, including Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs). We argue that informal procedures are a powerful and cost effective method for dealing with specific evaluation issues in the context of CSCW but that wider issues are more problematic. Most notably, identifying the “validity” or otherwise of CSCW systems requires that the context of use be taken seriously, necessitating a fundamental re-appraisal of the concept of evaluation.