Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Labor Statistics Office of Prices and Living Conditions Extended Yule-Walker Identification of Varma Models with Single-or Mixed-Frequency Data

Chen and Zadrozny (1998) developed the linear extended Yule-Walker (XYW) method for determining the parameters of a vector autoregressive (VAR) model with available covariances of mixed-frequency observations on the variables of the model. If the parameters are determined uniquely for available population covariances, then, the VAR model is identified. The present paper extends the original XYW method to an extended XYW method for determining all ARMA parameters of a vector autoregressive moving-average (VARMA) model with available covariances of singleor mixed-frequency observations on the variables of the model. The paper proves that under conditions of stationarity, regularity, miniphaseness, controllability, observability, and diagonalizability on the parameters of the model, the parameters are determined uniquely with available population covariances of singleor mixed-frequency observations on the variables of the model, so that the VARMA model is identified with the singleor mixed-frequency covariances. * *The paper represents the author's views and does not necessarily represent any official positions of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The paper was presented at the following conferences and seminars: NBER-NSF Time Series, Washington, Sep. 2013; (EC)2 on "Mixed-Frequency Econometrics," Nicosia, Dec. 2013; SNDE, New York City, Apr. 2014; CEF, Oslo, June 2014; JSM, Boston, Aug. 2014; KOF, Zurich, Dec. 2014; CFE, Pisa, Dec. 2014; NBP on "Identification in Macroeconomics," Warsaw, Dec. 2014. Affiliated as Research Fellow with the Center for Financial Studies (CFS), Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, and with the Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research (CESifo), Munich, Germany. The paper has benefitted from comments by Manfred Deistler, Eric Ghysels, Roderick McCrorie, Tucker McElroy, and anonymous referees. Forthcoming in Journal of Econometrics issue on "Econometric Analysis of Mixed Frequency Data Sampling. "
A Geometrical Study of Matching Pursuit Parametrization

This paper studies the effect of discretizing the parametrization of a dictionary used for matching pursuit (MP) decompositions of signals. Our approach relies on viewing the continuously parametrized dictionary as an embedded manifold in the signal space on which the tools of differential (Riemannian) geometry can be applied. The main contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we prove that if a discrete dictionary reaches a minimal density criterion, then the corresponding discrete MP (dMP) is equivalent in terms of convergence to a weakened hypothetical continuous MP. Interestingly, the corresponding weakness factor depends on a density measure of the discrete dictionary. Second, we show that the insertion of a simple geometric gradient ascent optimization on the atom dMP selection maintains the previous comparison but with a weakness factor at least two times closer to unity than without optimization. Finally, we present numerical experiments confirming our theoretical predictions for decomposition of signals and images on regular discretizations of dictionary parametrizations.
Fatigue of aluminium—lithium alloys

Abstract Aluminium-lithium alloys are a class of low density, high strength, high stiffness monolithic metallic materials that have been identified as prime candidates for replacing 2000 and 7000 series aluminium alloys currently used in commercial and military aircraft. In this review, the cyclic fatigue strength and fatigue crack propagation characteristics of aluminium-lithium alloys are reviewed in detail with emphasis on the underlying micromechanisms associated with crack advance and their implications to damage tolerant design and lifetime computations. Compared with traditional aerospace aluminium alloys, results on the fatigue of binary Al-Li, experimental Al-Li-Cu, and near commercial Al-Li-Cu-Zr and Al-Li-Cu-Mg-Zr systems indicate that alloying with Li degrades the lowcycle fatigue resistance, though high-cycle fatigue behaviour remains comparable. The alloys, however, display superior (long crack) fatigue crack growth properties, resulting from a prominent role of crack tip shielding, principa.
Research and applications: The intended and unintended consequences of communication systems on general internal medicine inpatient care delivery: a prospective observational case study of five teaching hospitals

BACKGROUND Effective clinical communication is critical to providing high-quality patient care. Hospitals have used different types of interventions to improve communication between care teams, but there have been few studies of their effectiveness. OBJECTIVES To describe the effects of different communication interventions and their problems. DESIGN Prospective observational case study using a mixed methods approach of quantitative and qualitative methods. SETTING General internal medicine (GIM) inpatient wards at five tertiary care academic teaching hospitals. PARTICIPANTS Clinicians consisting of residents, attending physicians, nurses, and allied health (AH) staff working on the GIM wards. METHODS Ethnographic methods and interviews with clinical staff (doctors, nurses, medical students, and AH professionals) were conducted over a 16-month period from 2009 to 2010. RESULTS We identified four categories that described the intended and unintended consequences of communication interventions: impacts on senders, receivers, interprofessional collaboration, and the use of informal communication processes. The use of alphanumeric pagers, smartphones, and web-based communication systems had positive effects for senders and receivers, but unintended consequences were seen with all interventions in all four categories. CONCLUSIONS Interventions that aimed to improve clinical communications solved some but not all problems, and unintended effects were seen with all systems.
Symbols and synergy in a neural code

Understanding a neural code requires knowledge both of the elementary symbols that transmit information and of the algorithm for translating these symbols into sensory signals or motor actions. We show that these questions can be separated: the information carried by any candidate symbol in the code--- a pattern of spikes across time or across a population of cells---can be measured, independent of assumptions about what these patterns might represent. By comparing the information carried by a compound pattern with the information carried independently by its parts, we measure directly the synergy among these parts. We illustrate the use of these methods by applying them to experiments on the motion sensitive neuron H1 of the fly's visual system, where we confirm that two spikes close together in time carry far more than twice the information carried by a single spike. We analyze the sources of this synergy, and provide evidence that pairs of spikes close together in time may be special symbols in the code of H1.
Expression of the Netrin‐1 receptor, deleted in colorectal cancer (DCC), is largely confined to projecting neurons in the developing forebrain

Axon guidance mechanisms are crucial to the development of an integrated nervous system. One family of molecules that may be important in establishing axonal connectivity in mammals is the Netrins, and their putative receptors DCC (deleted in colorectal cancer), Neogenin, and Unc‐5. Knockout and mutational analyses of some of these genes have shown that they are critically involved in the development of several specific pathways in the developing brain. However, previous expression analyses of these genes have largely been confined to the developing spinal cord. In the present study, we analyzed the expression of DCC in the developing mouse forebrain. We found that DCC protein is expressed in specific axonal populations projecting from the developing olfactory bulb, neocortex, hippocampus, and epithalamus/habenular complex. In the developing olfactory bulb and neocortex, DCC expression is particularly evident during the targeting phase of axon outgrowth and is then rapidly downregulated. As predicted from the knockout and mutational analyses of this gene, DCC is expressed in axonal commissures, in particular the corpus callosum, hippocampal commissure, and the anterior commissure. In addition, we found that DCC is expressed in the habenular commissure, the fasciculus retroflexus, and the stria medularis. Therefore, this analysis implicates a function for DCC in additional axonal guidance systems not predicted from the knockout and mutational analyses. J. Comp. Neurol. 416:201–212, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Autocrine activities of basic fibroblast growth factor: regulation of endothelial cell movement, plasminogen activator synthesis, and DNA synthesis

We have found that the spontaneous migration of bovine aortic endothelial cells from the edge of a denuded area in a confluent monolayer is dependent upon the release of endogenous basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). Cell movement is blocked by purified polyclonal rabbit IgG to bFGF as well as affinity purified anti-bFGF IgG and anti- bFGF F(ab')2 fragments. The inhibitory effect of the immunoglobulins is dependent upon antibody concentration, is reversible, is overcome by the addition of recombinant bFGF, and is removed by affinity chromatography of the antiserum through a column of bFGF-Sepharose. Cell movement is also reversibly inhibited by the addition of protamine sulfate and suramin; two agents reported to block bFGF binding to its receptor. The addition of recombinant bFGF to wounded monolayers accelerates the movement of cells into the denuded area. Transforming growth factor beta which has been shown to antagonize several other effects of bFGF also inhibits cell movement. The anti-bFGF IgG prevents the movement of bovine capillary endothelial cells, BHK-21, NIH 3T3, and human skin fibroblasts into a denuded area. Antibodies to bFGF, as well as suramin and protamine sulfate also suppress the basal levels of plasminogen activator and DNA synthesis in bovine aortic endothelial cells.
Drug interactions between HIV protease inhibitors based on physiologically-based pharmacokinetic model.

A Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PB-PK) model was developed to describe the aspects of pharmacokinetic interactions between five HIV protease inhibitors (ritonavir, amprenavir, nelfinavir, saquinavir, indinavir) in rats. To increase usefulness of this BP-PK model, liver, intestinal tissue and other organ were assumed as compartments in this model. Each compartment was linked with the blood flow and the blood-to-plasma concentration ratios of those drugs, and the absorption process in the intestinal tract was presumed as a first-order kinetics. In addition, this PB-PK model incorporates two elimination processes due to hepatic and intestinal metabolism constructed by in vitro metabolic clearance rates and inhibition constants between HIV protease inhibitors. Excellent agreements were obtained between the predicted and observed concentrations of HIV protease inhibitors in rat plasma after a 20 mg/kg oral dose or co-administration of two kinds of HIV protease inhibitors (amprenavir/indinavir, nelfinavir/amprenavir, saquinavir/amprenavir, amprenavir/ritonavir, indinavir/ritonavir, nelfinavir/ritonavir, and saquinavir/ritonavir) with each 20 mg/kg oral dose. However, underestimates in the predicted plasma concentrations of saquinavir, indinavir and amprenavir were observed during the terminal phase after co-administration with ritonavir or amprenavir, suggesting that a term of other inhibitory process, such as a mechanism-based inhibition, might be incorporated into this PB-PK model. This BP-PK model enables us to know useful information about pharmacokinetic interaction when HIV infected patients would receive double protease therapy.
An effective move set for protein folding simulation

-An improved genetic algorithm applies the optimization procedures of protein folding through defining a new move set in lattice model. The new move set including rotation and mirror reflection is suitable for use in protein folding simulation. Through folding simulation on a simple lattice model it is found that the new move set is dramatically superior to that of the commonly used move set.
An Innovative Rate Adaptation Algorithm for Multicast Transmissions in Wireless LANs

Rate adaptation represents a key functionality of the 802.11 MAC protocol for performance enhancement. Several solutions have been proposed for improving the transmission rate of unicast communications using frame receptions/losses, BER (Bit Error Rate) and SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) measurements. Nevertheless, rate adaptation for multicast transmissions represents a more challenging tasks due to the complexity of estimating the reception correlation of wireless links. This paper presents a novel scheme for selecting the best transmission rate for multicast communications using the packet reception correlation of the links established among the nodes of the multicast group with the access point. The proposed algorithm has been evaluated on a real-life testbed using commercial wireless cards. The results show that our solution accurately estimates the reception correlation of wireless links, thus considerably increasing the performance of multicast transmissions up to 3x and 5x in terms of throughput and delay, respectively.
Robust texture image retrieval using hierarchical correlations of wavelet coefficients

We propose a robust texture image retrieval using hierarchical relations between the decomposed sub-images based on the wavelet transform. The key idea is to use hierarchical correlations between the wavelet coefficients as texture features. We express the pyramidal structure of wavelet coefficients by associating the nodes of a complete quadtree with wavelet coefficients. We define a hierarchical dissimilarity vector between a parent node and his child, to express a hierarchical relation between them. Then, to describe a relation among child nodes, we compute a covariance matrix of dissimilarity vectors. We associate the covariance matrix with the parent node, and call such a quadtree "hierarchical correlation wavelet tree" (HCWT). Finally, to make up an index of database, we calculate the texture feature vectors defined by the diagonal of elements of the covariance matrix of HCWT and the texture feature vectors, and use the discriminant analysis to make an effective index from the texture feature vectors. For retrieving the similar images, we use the k-nearest neighbor search in the index space. Experiments showed a good performance of the proposed retrieval method.
Frequent Hemodialysis: A Critical Review

Conventional, thrice‐weekly hemodialysis (CHD) is the most commonly prescribed dialysis regimen. Despite widespread acceptance of CHD, long‐term analyses of registry data have revealed an increased risk for mortality during the long 2‐day interdialytic interval of thrice‐weekly therapies. High mortality rates during this period suggest that there may be a role for more frequent HD in improving patient outcomes and survival through elimination of the long interdialytic period. Several regimens have been investigated including: short, daily HD, frequent nocturnal HD, and alternate‐day HD. In this review, we provide an in‐depth summary of current data comparing the effects of frequent and CHD modalities on survival, hospitalizations, vascular access complications, burden of therapy, quality of life, residual renal function, cardiovascular parameters, bone mineral metabolism, and anemia. Limitations of the data as well as the role of frequent dialysis in clinical practice are also discussed.
Directing Differentiation of Pluripotent Stem Cells Toward Retinal Pigment Epithelium Lineage

Development of efficient and reproducible conditions for directed differentiation of pluripotent stem cells into specific cell types is important not only to understand early human development but also to enable more practical applications, such as in vitro disease modeling, drug discovery, and cell therapies. The differentiation of stem cells to retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in particular holds promise as a source of cells for therapeutic replacement in age‐related macular degeneration. Here we show development of an efficient method for deriving homogeneous RPE populations in a period of 45 days using an adherent, monolayer system and defined xeno‐free media and matrices. The method utilizes sequential inhibition and activation of the Activin and bone morphogenetic protein signaling pathways and can be applied to both human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells as the starting population. In addition, we use whole genome transcript analysis to characterize cells at different stages of differentiation that provides further understanding of the developmental dynamics and fate specification of RPE. We show that with the described method, RPE develop through stages consistent with their formation during embryonic development. This characterization— together with the absence of steps involving embryoid bodies, three‐dimensional culture, or manual dissections, which are common features of other protocols—makes this process very attractive for use in research as well as for clinical applications. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2017;6:490–501
Tumor Volume Reduction Rate Predicts Pathologic Tumor Response of Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer Treated with Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy alone: Results from a Prospective Trial

Purpose: To evaluate tumor volume reduction rate (TVRR) measured by three-dimensional region-of-interest (3D-ROI) magnetic resonance (MR) volumetry in predicting pathological tumor response of preoperative chemotherapy alone for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). Methods: LARC patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy only from a prospective and randomized trial were recruited. Tumor volumes were measured with 3D-ROI MR volumetry. TVRR was determined using the equation TVRR = (VPre-Therapy - VPost-Therapy) / VPre-Therapy ×100%. Correlation between TVRR and clinical or pathological characteristics and predictive value of TVRR for pathological tumor response in terms of Tumor Regression Grade (TRG), T downstage, N downstage and overall downstage were analyzed. Results: 80 eligible cases of LARC were included in our study with TVRR of (51.7±25.1) %. TVRR was higher in well-differentiated tumors compared with poor-differentiated tumors (P=0.040). TVRR was found to be related with TRG (P<0.001), T downstage (P<0.001) and overall downstage (P<0.001). Risk of achieving TRG 2/3 decreased to 57.5% (P=0.002) and odds of achieving overall downstage increase to 179.3% (P<0.001) when TVRR increased by every 10%. A sensitivity of 0.704 and specificity of 0.804 were calculated when ROC curve was constructed to predict TRG using TVRR with a cutoff of 65%. Conclusion: TVRR is correlated with TRG and overall downstage significantly in LARC patients treated with preoperative chemotherapy alone and shows great value in predicting favorable TRG and overall downstage with good sensitivity and specificity. It could be considered as a promising parameter candidate for efficacy evaluation.
Experiment and Thermodynamic Analysis on Mineral Formation of Cement Clinker Cogeneration from Coal in Pulverized Coal Combustion Boiler

Take Changguang high-sulfur coal as experimental coal type; carry out the experiment of mineral formation rule of co-generation cement clicker on two-section multiphase reaction test stand and conduct XRD, SEM and EDS analyses on the mineral composition of the obtained co-generation clicker sample. It can be found from the experimental results that the mineral composition of co-generation clinker presents great difference with the temperature change in the furnace on the test stand; when the temperature in the furnace reaches to 1,330°C, the main mineral species in co-generation clinker sample are 2CaO•SiO2, Q phase and 3CaO•3Al2O3•CaSO4 with excellent hydration activity. Conducted thermodynamic calculation on the mineral formation reaction probably occurring in the chemical compositions of Q-phase cement clinker co-generated from Changguang coal. It is shown in the findings of computational analyses that, according to the chemical composition of clinker, the direct synthesis reaction of 2CaO•Al2O3•SiO2 firstly occurs, followed by the direct synthesis reaction of 2CaO•SiO2, the next is the indirect synthesis reaction of Q-phase mineral, and the last is the indirect synthetic reaction of 3CaO•3Al2 O3•CaSO4; the final main mineral compositions of co-generation clinker should be 2CaO•SiO2, Q phase and 3CaO•3Al2O3•CaSO4. The conclusion of thermodynamic analyses on co-generation clicker mineral formation reaction basically conforms to the mineral composition in experiment of Changguang coal co-generating Q-phase cement clinker.
Design of a low voltage band-gap reference circuit for OLED-On-Silicon

This paper presents a design of low voltage band-gap reference circuit for OLED-on-silicon. In order to make the op-amp working in the high-gain area, the boost technique is used in the amplifier to increase the gate drive ability. The reference source uses first-order temperature compensation design to eliminate the temperature influence to voltage source. Simultaneously, the power dissipation is greatly decrease because the amplifier designed is working in the weak inversion layer. The simulation is conducted in chartered 0.35 um 2-poly 4-metal 3.3 V/18 V high voltage process, and the results show that the proposed design meets the scheduled requirement and realizes the application of source voltage under 1.8 V.
Immunity in taeniasis-cysticercosis I. Vaccination against Taenia taeniaeformis in rats using purified antigen

Artificial immunization of rats against Taenia taeniaeformis was studied using somatic antigen (Som-Ag) and excretory-secretory antigen (ES-Ag). It was found that both Som-Ag and ES-Ag stimulated immediate- type hypersensitivity and delayed-type hypersensitivity reactions of similar levels. Antibody levels rose from the 2nd wk and peaked around the 6th and 7th wk. Both IgM and IgG were detectable from the 2nd wk onwards, with IgG at a considerably higher level compared to IgM. It terms of protection, 90-100% reduction in cyst counts were detected if the rats were challenged 10 days or more after immunization. In all cases, no significant difference was observed between immunization with either Som-Ag or ES-Ag were purified and characterized using Sephadex G- 200 chromatography, double immunodiffusion, and disk acrylamide gel electrophoresis. A purified antigen (mol wt, 140,000 daltons) was obtained, and highly significant protection against infection resulted with injections of 50, 10, or 1 mug doses of this antigen with complete Freund's adjuvant.