Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Threshold cointegration : overview and implementation in R Matthieu Stigler

Purpose of this paper is twofold. It is first to offer a rough overview on the field of threshold cointegration, from the seminal paper of Balke and Fomby (1997) to the recent developments. Simultaneously, it is to describe the implementation of the main functionalities for the modeling in the open-source package tsDyn. It provides hence a unique way to get an introduction on the threshold cointegration field allowing in the same time to conduct its own analysis. Introduced by Engle and Granger (1987), the concept of cointegration became a indispensable step in the analysis of non stationary time series. The underlying idea is that even if two variables (or more) are non-stationary, there can exist a combination of them which is stationary. This definition leads to interesting interpretations as the variables can then be interepreted to have a stable relationship (a long-run equilibrium), can be represented in an vector error-correction model, and share a common stochastic trend. However, implicit in the definition is the idea that every small deviation from the long-run equilibrium will lead instantaneously to error correction mechanisms. Threshold cointegration extends the linear cointegration case by allowing the adjustment to occur only after the deviation exceed some critical threshold , thus taking into account possibly transaction costs or stickiness of the prices. Furthermore, it allows to capture asymmetries in the adjustment, where positive or negative deviations won’t be corrected in the same manner.
Modulation of Hepatitis C Virus NS5A Hyperphosphorylation by Nonstructural Proteins NS3, NS4A, and NS4B

ABSTRACT NS5A of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a highly phosphorylated protein involved in resistance against interferon and required most likely for replication of the viral genome. Phosphorylation of this protein is mediated by a cellular kinase(s) generating multiple proteins with different electrophoretic mobilities. In the case of the genotype 1b isolate HCV-J, in addition to the basal phosphorylated NS5A (designated pp56), a hyperphosphorylated form (pp58) was found on coexpression of NS4A (T. Kaneko, Y. Tanji, S. Satoh, M. Hijikata, S. Asabe, K. Kimura, and K. Shimotohno, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 205:320–326, 1994). Using a comparative analysis of two full-length genomes of genotype 1b, competent or defective for NS5A hyperphosphorylation, we investigated the requirements for this NS5A modification. We found that hyperphosphorylation occurs when NS5A is expressed as part of a continuous NS3-5A polyprotein but not when it is expressed on its own or trans complemented with one or several other viral proteins. Results obtained with chimeras of both genomes show that single amino acid substitutions within NS3 that do not affect polyprotein cleavage can enhance or reduce NS5A hyperphosphorylation. Furthermore, mutations in the central or carboxy-terminal NS4A domain as well as small deletions in NS4B can also reduce or block hyperphosphorylation without affecting polyprotein processing. These requirements most likely reflect the formation of a highly ordered NS3-5A multisubunit complex responsible for the differential phosphorylation of NS5A and probably also for modulation of its biological activities.
The effect of graded hypothermia (36 degrees C-32 degrees C) on hemostasis in anesthetized patients without surgical trauma.

UNLABELLED The isolated effects of hypothermia on hemostasis have not been investigated in healthy humans. We cooled 16 anesthetized patients scheduled for elective intracranial surgery to 32 degrees C body core temperature and assessed prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time, thrombelastogram (TEG), closure time, and platelet count at 36 degrees C, 34 degrees C, and 32 degrees C body core temperature after the induction of anesthesia but before surgical intervention. Activated partial thromboplastin time, hematocrit, and closure time did not change, whereas PT and platelet count decreased during cooling. Platelet count decreased without a decrease in hematocrit; hence, a dilution by administered fluids seemed unlikely. The small decrease of platelet count is probably clinically irrelevant in patients with normal platelet count and function. The small decrease in PT indicates an alteration of the extrinsic pathway of coagulation. TEG measurements showed a delay of clot formation in temperature-adjusted measurements but showed no change if the test temperature was 37 degrees C. This indicates that hypothermia reduces plasmatic coagulation and platelet reactivity. However, the clot strength is not altered by hypothermia. All coagulation variables remained within the normal ranges. Our results may indicate that moderate short-term (4-h) hypothermia has only minor adverse effects in healthy humans. We can make no statement about the effects of hypothermia of longer duration. IMPLICATIONS This study investigated the isolated effects of hypothermia in healthy anesthetized humans. We found only minor effects of body temperature reduction to 32 degrees C on assessed coagulation variables, indicating only minor effects in otherwise healthy humans.
Gestion et suivi de projets d'étudiants. Vers un système de médiation

L'utilisation de systemes d'information cooperatifs doit s'accompagner de niveaux suffisants et varies d'assistance. Les systemes multi-agents permettent de coordonner le comportement d'agents interagissant et communiquant dans une societe pour realiser des tâches ou resoudre des problemes. Il nous semble donc bien adaptes pour concevoir une mediation destinee aux utilisateurs de ces systemes complexes – chaque agent representant un niveau d'assistance. Dans l'intention d'illustrer notre approche, nous presenterons un systeme d'assistance integre dans l'environnement d'apprentissage iPedagogique utilise a l'Universite de Technologie de Belfort-Montbeliard. L'enseignement d'unites de valeurs scientifiques ou techniques est largement fonde sur l'acquisition de connaissances conceptuelles et la validation d'un savoir-faire. Au cours d'une formation, l'apprenant et l'enseignant sont engagees dans des activites cooperatives : communication, organisation, evaluation, synchronisation, realisation, etc. Nous detaillerons plus particulierement la gestion et le suivi de projets d'etudiants, particulierement representatifs de ces activites de cooperation.
Adrenergic mechanisms involved in the control of pituitary-adrenal activity in the rat: a beta-adrenergic stimulatory mechanism.

Epinephrine or isoproterenol was infused into a lateral tail vein of female Wistar rats under Nembutal anesthesia. After 20 min of diffusion, trunk blood was collected for the determination of plasma corticosterone (B) and ACTH immunoreactivity (ACTHi). Infusion of l-epinephrine resulted in a dose-related increase in plasma ACTHi and B. Maximal levels were similar to those observed during ether stress. The pituitary-adrenal system appeared more sensitive than the cardiovascular system to epinephrine, since the ED50 values of epinephrine for its effects on ACTHi and heart rate were 165 and 840 ng/kg . min, respectively. The effect of epinephrine on pituitary-adrenal activity could be mimicked by the beta-adrenergic agonist l-isoproterenol and could be blocked by the beta-adrenergic antagonist l-propranolol, whereas d-propranolol was ineffective. The response of the pituitary-adrenal system to epinephrine was not caused by effects on peripheral parameters such as the distribution or clearance of ACTH or B but was mediated by an increase in ACTH release. The pituitary-adrenal response to epinephrine and isoproterenol was not related to changes in heart rate, blood pressure, or vasopressin secretion. Infusion of epinephrine at a dose that induced a maximal increase in plasma ACTHi and B (1000 ng/kg . min) resulted in a circulating epinephrine concentration of 11 pmol/ml, which is within the physiological range. From these data we conclude that 1) circulating epinephrine can stimulate pituitary-adrenocortical activity, 2) this action is mediated by a beta-adrenergic receptor mechanism, and 3) such a mechanism may be involved in the response of the pituitary-adrenal axis during certain forms of stress.
Molecular heterogeneity in very-long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency causing pediatric cardiomyopathy and sudden death.

BACKGROUND Genetic defects are being increasingly recognized in the etiology of primary cardiomyopathy (CM). Very-long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (VLCAD) catalyzes the first step in the beta-oxidation spiral of fatty acid metabolism, the crucial pathway for cardiac energy production. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied 37 patients with CM, nonketotic hypoglycemia and hepatic dysfunction, skeletal myopathy, or sudden death in infancy with hepatic steatosis, features suggestive of fatty acid oxidation disorders. Single-stranded conformational variance was used to screen genomic DNA. DNA sequencing and mutational analysis revealed 21 different mutations on the VLCAD gene in 18 patients. Of the mutations, 80% were associated with CM. Severe CM in infancy was recognized in most patients (67%) at presentation. Hepatic dysfunction was common (33%). RNA blot analysis and VLCAD enzyme assays showed a severe reduction in VLCAD mRNA in patients with frame-shift or splice-site mutations and absent or severe reduction in enzyme activity in all. CONCLUSIONS Infantile CM is the most common clinical phenotype of VLCAD deficiency. Mutations in the human VLCAD gene are heterogeneous. Although mortality at presentation is high, both the metabolic disorder and cardiomyopathy are reversible.
Speciation, phylogeography and evolution of life history and morphology in plethodontid salamanders of the Eurycea multiplicata complex

Understanding the complex interactions among environment, genotype and ontogeny in determining organismal phenotypes is cental to many biological disciplines. The Eurycea multiplicata complex, endemic to the Interior Highlands (Ozark Plateau and Ouachita Mountains) of eastern North America, comprises a diverse radiation of paedomorphic surface‐dwelling (E. tynerensis), metamorphic surface‐dwelling (E. multiplicata multiplicata and E. m. griseogaster) and metamorphic subterranean (Typhlotriton spelaeus) hemidactyliine plethodontid salamanders. Portions of two mitochondrial genes, cytochrome‐b and NADH dehydrogenase‐4, totalling 1818 base pairs (bp) were sequenced for 70 ingroup individuals plus numerous outgroup taxa, to examine the biogeography and relationships among these morphologically disparate species. Results show the E. multiplicata complex to be monophyletic, with its two most divergent clades corresponding to geography, not morphology or life history. Transforming surface‐dwelling populations from the Ouachitas (E. m. multiplicata) are sister to the Ozark taxa, including paedomorphic surface‐dwelling (E. tynerensis), subterranean (T. spelaeus) and transforming surface‐dwelling salamanders assigned to the ‘subspecies’E. m. griseogaster. Among Ozark taxa T. spelaeus (deeply nested within Eurycea) is sister to a clade that includes E. m. griseogaster and E. tynerensis. Current taxonomy suggests that paedomorphic populations (E. tynerensis) from the western Ozarks are distinct from nearby transforming populations (E. m. griseogaster). However, paedomorphic and transforming salamanders do not form reciprocally monophyletic groups and many populations share almost identical haplotypes. Ancestral state reconstruction of life history traits shows that paedomorphosis arose independently from three to nine times. Most populations are either completely paedomorphic or completely transforming. This suggests that local habitat parameters strongly influence life history mode in this complex, either facultatively or by selection for particular genotypes.
Optic disc size and optic nerve damage in normal pressure glaucoma.

BACKGROUND--Recent reports indicate that eyes with normal pressure glaucoma have larger optic discs than eyes with primary open angle glaucoma or normal eyes. This study was performed to find whether, in normal pressure glaucoma, a large disc is associated with more optic nerve damage than a small disc. METHODS--Colour optic disc photographs of 74 patients with normal pressure glaucoma were assessed morphometrically. RESULTS--Taking the study group as a whole, the optic disc size decreased significantly (p = 0.04) with increasing visual field defect. In an intraindividual bilateral comparison, the side differences in the disc area of the right minus the left eye of the same individual were not significantly correlated with the side differences in the mean visual field defect. CONCLUSIONS--The results indicate that the eye with the larger optic disc, when compared with the contralateral eye with the smaller optic nerve head, showed neither a significantly more marked nor less pronounced glaucomatous optic nerve damage. It suggests that for a given patient the degree of glaucomatous optic nerve atrophy was not markedly associated with the optic disc size. The finding that patients with large visual field defects had smaller discs than patients with moderate perimetric loss may indicate that the results of previous cross sectional studies reporting on an unusually large disc size in normal pressure glaucoma may be due partially to selection.
Exploiting the Operating Point in Sensing-Based Opportunistic Spectrum Access Scenarios

Spectrum sensing is one key enabler towards opportunistic spectrum access in cognitive radio networks. Such scenarios allow cognitive users (a.k.a. secondary users) to access some licensed spectrum band as long as they do not interfere with the licensed (or primary) users. The main goal is to achieve an efficient and utmost access to the otherwise underutilized spectrum resources while still guaranteeing primary users a non-harmful operation. Spectrum sensing can be then used by secondary users to detect spectrum holes that may be accessed in a non-interfering manner. However, spectrum sensing may be subject to errors in the form of false-alarm and misdetection. False-alarm causes spectrum under-use while misdetection leads to spectrum interference between primary and secondary users. Unfortunately, these two magnitudes pose a trade-off on the sensing mechanism: low misdetection is achieved at the expense of high false alarm and vice versa. Consequently, an adequate operating point of the sensing mechanism should be determined. In this work we evaluate the impact of false-alarm and misdetection errors on the performance of a spectrum sensing scenario.We use a Discrete Time Markov Chain (DTMC) model and we determine the suitable operating point for the sensing mechanism under different traffic load conditions such that some Quality of Service is attained by both primary and secondary users. Performance results reveal that by effectively choosing the operation point bearing in mind the traffic load levels will lead to enhanced perceived quality of service of both primary and secondary users.
Contemporary integration of content based image retrieval

Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) has been a challenging research area among researchers of both industries and academic institutions. Human can judge and respond by memory to obtain and locate the target image and relate it by specific object, but for computer vision it's a challenging issue to retrieve image from complex database that is difficult to balance with an efficient algorithm. Simultaneous situation and complex object has been always a big challenge to retrieve an object from image or query image from database. In this paper, we propose to combine Neural Network to sense a specific objective image that is content based and easily retrieving from complex database.
A study of malware detection and classification by comparing extracted strings

Recently, the number of Malware incidents has been rapidly increasing but we are too short of experts to handle the situation. Fortunately, most Malware instances are a mutation of an existing one, so it might be effective to use an auto-analysis system to observe a specific Malware. The auto-analysis system for Malware uses both the dynamic and static methods, but the latter still has some limitations and accordingly requires further research. However, this study uses the static method, which calculates the similarity between two files to be executed through by comparing character strings to identify and classify Malware. This method, whose performance depends on the number and type of character strings to be compared, requires a process to refine the character strings. In addition, it provides an advanced comparison mechanism that reflects the characteristics of the character strings held by a specific Malware, in the calculation of similarity.
PREDICTION OF IN VIVO DRUG DISPOSITION FROM IN VITRO DATA BASED ON PHYSIOLOGICAL PHARMACOKINETICS

Because of the increasing availability of human liver samples we now have a greater ability to predict in vivo drug disposition and pharmacokinetics in man from in vitro metabolic and binding studies. Firstly, we review several successful attempts to predict in vivo metabolic clearances in experimental animals and humans from in vitro biochemical parameters such as plasma protein binding and hepatic metabolism, based on anatomically and physiologically realistic pharmacokinetic models. Despite the success of this approach, however, there are still some difficulties in predicting in vivo hepatic metabolism in man using in vitro human liver samples due to the large inter‐individual differences arising from polymorphism (intrinsic variability) or differences in enzyme activity (extrinsic variability) due to the conditions under which liver samples have been kept. We propose a possible method to overcome these errors resulting from inter‐individual differences by applying the concept of a scaling factor. In the kinetic models used in prediction, we often make a number of assumptions, e.g. rapid equilibrium between the blood and hepatocytes, availability of only the unbound drug for uptake and elimination, and homogeneous distribution of enzymes along the path taken by the blood in the liver. However, recent evidence suggests that these assumptions are not necessarily valid. As examples involving the first and second assumptions, respectively, there is the plasma‐membrane‐permeability‐limited metabolism of a high‐clearance drug, 4‐methylumbelliferone, and the albumin‐mediated uptake of amphiphatic drugs. The multiple‐indicator dilution method (MID) is useful for estimating the membrane permeability of drugs in liver perfusion systems where the spatial organization and cell polarity of the liver are maintained. If the aforementioned factors are taken into consideration and membrane permeabilities using human hepatocytes and/or subcellular fractions such as microsomes are measured under conditions close to those in vivo, much more reliable predictions of drug hepatic clearance in man may become possible.
Memory operation of AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure FETs with InAs quantum dots in an AlGaAs barrier layer

AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure FETs with InAs quantum dots in an AlGaAs barrier layer have been fabricated. I/sub DS/-V/sub G/ characteristics have shown hysteresis which corresponds to the memory operation. The retention time was more than 60 minutes at 100 K. The behavior of the HFET memory was discussed based on the electron and hole storage in the InAs QDs.
Generalized Portmanteau Tests Based on Subspace Methods

Este articulo trata el problema de la diagnosis residual desde la perspectiva de los metodos de subespacios. Se presentan dos estadisticos y sus distribuciones asintoticas bajo la hipotesis nula. Ambos estadisticos pueden usarse con procesos univariantes o multivariantes, son flexibles y permiten contrastar separadamente las correlaciones regulares y estacionales. El comportamiento en muestras finitas de las dos propuestas se ilustra mediante simulaciones de Monte Carlo y dos ejemplos con datos reales.
Mechanisms of the Proinflammatory Response of Endothelial Cells to Candida albicans Infection

ABSTRACT Endothelial cells can influence significantly the host inflammatory response against blood-borne microbial pathogens. Previously, we found that endothelial cells respond to in vitro infection with Candida albicans by secreting interleukin 8 (IL-8) and expressing E-selectin, intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), and vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1). We have now examined the mechanisms mediating this endothelial cell response. We determined that C. albicans stimulated endothelial cells to synthesize tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), which in turn induced these infected cells to secrete IL-8 and express E-selectin by an autocrine mechanism. Expression of VCAM-1 was mediated not only by TNF-α but also by IL-1α and IL-1β, all of which were synthesized by endothelial cells in response to C. albicans. These three cytokines remained primarily cell associated rather than being secreted. Candidal induction of ICAM-1 expression was independent of TNF-α, IL-1α, and IL-1β. These observations demonstrate that different proinflammatory endothelial cell responses to C. albicans are induced by distinct mechanisms. A clear understanding of these mechanisms is important for therapeutically modulating the endothelial cell response to C. albicans and perhaps other opportunistic pathogens that disseminate hematogenously.
Diversity multiplexing tradeoff of asynchronous cooperative relay networks

The assumption of nodes in a cooperative communication relay network operating in synchronous fashion is often unrealistic. In the present paper we consider two different models of asynchronous operation in cooperative-diversity networks experiencing slow fading and examine the corresponding diversity-multiplexing tradeoffs (DMT). For both models, we propose protocols and distributed space-time codes that asymptotically achieve the transmit diversity bound for all multiplexing gains and for number of relays N ges 2.
A way of being: Bringing mindfulness into individual therapy

Abstract This paper reports a qualitative, idiographic study employing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore the experiences of therapists who have a mindfulness practice, looking at how this is brought into their individual therapeutic work. Findings focus on mindfulness, conceptualized as a way of being, which emerges as a central theme in all accounts. Three “way of being” related themes are used to illustrate therapists’ experiences of mindfulness as part of their personal life and how this is brought into the therapy room both implicitly and explicitly. The application of mindfulness in therapy is discussed while drawing links with the mindfulness literature.