Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrating Electronic Market Models Problems of and Solutions for Parallel Markets

Electronic markets facilitate the trade of various products between individual traders. Both, the products’ individual characteristics and the market participants preferences make specific demands on the market model. This results in trading identical products in different markets. The concept of combining market models allows the traders to participate in many markets parallel and/or sequential, and therefore, provides more options for the traders without splitting liquidity between many markets. In this paper market combinations are presented and discussed. Additionally, we introduce the concept of the intelligent order leading to an integration of the affected markets. The order of an investor can exist in multiple markets synchronously but the execution of one order is restricted to exactly one market. In the context of parallel markets, arising problems like the symmetric and asymmetric deadlock scenario are discussed. To solve these problems we study market phase and introduce stringent and non-stringent phases.
Effects of dalfampridine and its metabolites on cloned human potassium channels Kv 1.1, Kv 1.2, and Kv 1.4 expressed in human embryonic kidney cells

Abstract Background: Dalfampridine (4-aminopyridine; 4-AP) is a potassium channel blocker that has been available in the United States as a treatment to improve walking in patients with multiple sclerosis. 4-AP is well-characterized in vitro with regard to inhibition of neuronal potassium channels, but the potential contribution of its metabolites to clinical activity has not been determined. This study evaluated the concentration–response of 4-AP and its two primary metabolites, 3-hydroxy-4-aminopyridine and 3-hydroxy-4-aminopyridine sulfate, for inhibition of the potassium channels Kv 1.1, Kv 1.2, and Kv 1.4, which are considered candidates for mediating effects of 4-AP on action potential conduction because of their presence in axonal membranes. Methods: Stable transfection of cDNA for Kv 1.1, Kv 1.2, and Kv 1.4 was performed into HEK293 cells, and colonies of cells containing each channel were selected and maintained under appropriate cell culture conditions. Electrophysiological measurements were performed using a patch-clamp technique in at least three cells for each concentration (50, 500, 5000, and 50,000 μM) of 4-AP and the two metabolites, with each cell acting as its own control. Concentration–response curves were constructed for 4-AP and each metabolite. Data were analyzed using nonlinear least-squares fit, and concentrations inhibiting the channels by 50% (IC50) were estimated. Results: 4-AP induced similar concentration-dependent inhibition profiles of all three potassium channels, resulting in a narrow range of IC50 values across channels (242 µM to 399 µM). Across the three channels, the IC50 values of 3-hydroxy-4-aminopyridine and 3-hydroxy-4-aminopyridine sulfate were 1–2 orders of magnitude higher (less potent) than those of 4-AP. Conclusions: 3-Hydroxy-4-aminopyridine and 3-hydroxy-4-aminopyridine sulfate demonstrated low in vitro potency for Kv 1.1, Kv 1.2, and Kv 1.4 inhibition, suggesting that these metabolites are unlikely to contribute to the positive pharmacodynamic effects of 4-AP. A limitation of this study is that while the metabolites were substantially less active at these representative potassium channels in vitro, the untested possibility exists that they may be active at one or more of the many other channel types that occur in vivo.
Effect of Gastrointestinal Surgical Manipulation on Metabolic Syndrome: A Focus on Metabolic Surgery

Metabolic syndrome is strictly associated with morbid obesity and leads to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and related mortality. Bariatric surgery is considered an effective option for the management of these patients. We searched MEDLINE, Current Contents, and the Cochrane Library for papers published on bariatric surgery outcomes in English from 1 January 1990 to 20 July 2012. We reported the effect of gastrointestinal manipulation on metabolic syndrome after bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery determines an important resolution rate of major obesity-related comorbidities. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and biliopancreatic diversion appear to be more effective than adjustable gastric banding in terms of weight loss and comorbidities resolution. However, the results obtained in terms of weight loss and resolution of comorbidities after a “new bariatric procedure” (sleeve gastrectomy) encouraged and stimulated the diffusion of this operation.
Application Research on Support Vector Machine in Image Watermarking

As the good learning ability and generalization capacity, support vector machine (SVM) which based on the statistical learning theory is increasingly noticed by many researchers. Although SVM has many prominent theoretical advantages, its application still drops behind. In this paper, a new application of SVM is studied. Firstly, the strategy of embedding and extracting watermark using support vector regression (SVR) from a digital image is given. Then, the influences of SVR-learning parameters on the watermarking performance are analyzed, and the ideal values range of SVR-learning parameters for different images is given respectively. Finally, the results are validated with other images and compared with the similar method. Experimental results show that SVM can be successfully fused with conventional watermarking technique to improve the robustness and imperceptibility of watermark with the help of sound SVR-learning parameters
Shifting the Bioinformatics Computing Paradigm : A Case Study using Genome Annotation

Next generation sequencing technologies have enabled various entities, ranging from large sequencing centers to individual laboratories, to sequence organisms of choice and analyze them on demand. Sequencing and analysis, however, is only part of the equation: to learn about a certain organism, scientists need to annotate it. Each of these problems is highly parallel at a basic level of computation; however, only a few applications support even a single parallelization framework such as MPI. Ideally, because of overall increasing demand for computational analysis and the inherent parallelism available in these problems, applications should utilize a generic parallel framework to take advantage of a large variety of computing systems; this would enable labs of various sizes to harness the computing power available to them without forcing them to invest in a particular type of batch system. Here we describe modifications made to one particular tool, MAKER. MAKER is a tool for genome annotation that is provided as both a serial application and as an MPI application. We make modifications to enable it to run without MPI and to utilize a wide variety of distributed computing platforms. Furthermore, our proposed parallel framework allows for easy explicit data transfer, which helps overcome a major limitation of bioinformatics tools that generally rely on a shared filesystem. The distributed computing framework we choose to utilize can be used, even during early stages of development, to run bioinformatics tools on clusters, grids, and clouds. Keywords-Distributed computing; Bioinformatics
SMoFinder: A System for Querying Complex Human Motions Using a Kinematic Approach

Recently there has arisen concern in both the database community and the graphics society about data retrieval from large motion databases because the high dimensionality of motion data implies high costs. It is a challenging problem to find an effective distance measure and an efficient query processing method for such data. In this paper, we present an elaborate motion query processing system, SMoFinder (Similar Motion Finder), which incorporates a novel kinematic distance measure.
Modeling the Emergence and Evolutionary History of Semiotic Systems and Processes

The emergence and evolutionary history of semiotic systems and processes are among the topics that attract the most remarkable number of researchers in a variety of theoretical and experimental fields. As 'behavior associated with the language does not fossilize' (Hauser et al., 2000), the most important developments are theoretical, comparative and computational modeling (Christiansen & Kirby, 2003). The computational approaches are dedicated to the building of artificial (virtual and embodied) creatures and environments through which one can simulate the minimum requirements to observe the emergence and evolution of semiotic systems. Neuroethology, cognitive science, evolutionary biology and behavioral ecology are some of the areas that provide the most robust gathering of empirical and theoretical strategies to computationally test hypotheses about the emergence and evolutionary history of many semiotic systems, processes and properties. Approaches work in different descriptive levels (e.g., synthax, morphology, social communication and interaction) (Steels, 2003; Cangelosi & Parisi, 2002). Depending on the theoretical framework, and computational tools, one can test a range of factors that affect the philo/ontogeny of many processes, such as the adaptive role of compositional structures, the benefits arising from the emergence of symbolic processes, the presumed biological substrates responsible for the evolution of these processes, the decisive role of cognitive artifacts and technologies. In theoretical and philosophical terms, the constraints derived from Jakob von Uexkull's biosemiotics, and the pragmatic semiotics of Charles S. Peirce, have provided various subsidies and a collection of restriction to conceive, adjust and regulate the simulations and experimental protocols (Ziemke & Sharkey, 2001; Queiroz & Merrell, 2009). These authors have 'inspired' computational strategies with principles related to autonomy, embedded and situated semiotic systems, and self-organization processes with emerging qualitative properties. The International Journal of Signs and Semiotic Systems (IJSSS) is the first journal profoundly devoted to the modeling of semi-otic systems and process. The journal offers a space of intense collaboration from empirical studies and theoretical frameworks toward a deeper understanding of semiotic process and an integrated vision of its synthesis in artificial systems. In establishing this journal, we
Influence of Large-Scale Advective Cooling and Moistening Effects on the Quasi-Equilibrium Behavior of Explicitly Simulated Cumulus Ensembles

Abstract The influence of large-scale advective cooling and/or moistening on the quasi-equilibrium behavior of simulated, tropical oceanic cumulus ensembles is examined in this study. Two sensitivity simulations are performed by imposing time varying/invariant large-scale advective cooling effects and time invariant/varying large-scale advective moistening effects. The results are compared with a control simulation performed with both large-scale advective cooling and moistening effects that are time varying. It is found that the generalized convective available potential energy (GCAPE) tendency is almost one order of magnitude smaller than the GCAPE production in all simulations. This indicates that the quasi-equilibrium assumption of Arakawa and Schubert is well justified. The higher-order behavior of quasi-equilibrium cumulus ensemble is then examined. It is found that the GCAPE variations are nearly equally contributed by temperature and water vapor variations in the control simulation. In the sensiti.
Activation of NF-kB Pathway by Virus Infection Requires Rb Expression

The retinoblastoma protein Rb is a tumor suppressor involved in cell cycle control, differentiation, and inhibition of oncogenic transformation. Besides these roles, additional functions in the control of immune response have been suggested. In the present study we investigated the consequences of loss of Rb in viral infection. Here we show that virus replication is increased by the absence of Rb, and that Rb is required for the activation of the NF-kB pathway in response to virus infection. These results reveal a novel role for tumor suppressor Rb in viral infection surveillance and further extend the concept of a link between tumor suppressors and antiviral activity.
HIPAA's Effect on Web Site Privacy Policies

Healthcare institutions typically post their privacy practices online as privacy policy documents. We conducted a longitudinal study that examines the effects of HIPAA's enactment on a collection of privacy policy documents for a fixed set of organizations over a four-year period. We present our analysis of 24 healthcare privacy policy documents from nine healthcare Web sites, analyzed using goal mining, a content-analysis method that supports extraction of useful information about institutions' privacy practices from documents. We compare our results to our pre-HIPAA study of these same institutions' online privacy practices and evaluate their evolution in the presence of privacy laws
Periodontitis‐associated pathogens P. gingivalis and A. actinomycetemcomitans activate human CD14+ monocytes leading to enhanced Th17/IL‐17 responses

The Th17/IL‐17 pathway is implicated in the pathogenesis of periodontitis (PD), however the mechanisms are not fully understood. We investigated the mechanism by which the periodontal pathogens Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg) and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) promote a Th17/IL‐17 response in vitro, and studied IL‐17+ CD4+ T‐cell frequencies in gingival tissue and peripheral blood from patients with PD versus periodontally healthy controls. Addition of Pg or Aa to monocyte/CD4+ T‐cell co‐cultures promoted a Th17/IL‐17 response in vitro in a dose‐ and time‐dependent manner. Pg or Aa stimulation of monocytes resulted in increased CD40, CD54 and HLA‐DR expression, and enhanced TNF‐α, IL‐1β, IL‐6 and IL‐23 production. Mechanistically, IL‐17 production in Pg‐stimulated co‐cultures was partially dependent on IL‐1β, IL‐23 and TLR2/TLR4 signalling. Increased frequencies of IL‐17+ cells were observed in gingival tissue from patients with PD compared to healthy subjects. No differences were observed in IL‐17+ CD4+ T‐cell frequencies in peripheral blood. In vitro, Pg induced significantly higher IL‐17 production in anti‐CD3 mAb‐stimulated monocyte/CD4+ T‐cell co‐cultures from patients with PD compared to healthy controls. Our data suggest that periodontal pathogens can activate monocytes, resulting in increased IL‐17 production by human CD4+ T cells, a process that appears enhanced in patients with PD.
Secreted Frizzled Related Proteins Modulate Pathfinding and Fasciculation of Mouse Retina Ganglion Cell Axons by Direct and Indirect Mechanisms

Retina ganglion cell (RGC) axons grow along a stereotyped pathway undergoing coordinated rounds of fasciculation and defasciculation, which are critical to establishing proper eye–brain connections. How this coordination is achieved is poorly understood, but shedding of guidance cues by metalloproteinases is emerging as a relevant mechanism. Secreted Frizzled Related Proteins (Sfrps) are multifunctional proteins, which, among others, reorient RGC growth cones by regulating intracellular second messengers, and interact with Tolloid and ADAM metalloproteinases, thereby repressing their activity. Here, we show that the combination of these two functions well explain the axon guidance phenotype observed in Sfrp1 and Sfrp2 single and compound mouse mutant embryos, in which RGC axons make subtle but significant mistakes during their intraretinal growth and inappropriately defasciculate along their pathway. The distribution of Sfrp1 and Sfrp2 in the eye is consistent with the idea that Sfrp1/2 normally constrain axon growth into the fiber layer and the optic disc. Disheveled axon growth instead seems linked to Sfrp-mediated modulation of metalloproteinase activity. Indeed, retinal explants from embryos with different Sfrp-null alleles or explants overexpressing ADAM10 extend axons with a disheveled appearance, which is reverted by the addition of Sfrp1 or an ADAM10-specific inhibitor. This mode of growth is associated with an abnormal proteolytic processing of L1 and N-cadherin, two ADAM10 substrates previously implicated in axon guidance. We thus propose that Sfrps contribute to coordinate visual axon growth with a dual mechanism: by directly signaling at the growth cone and by regulating the processing of other relevant cues.
Do natural killer cells accelerate or prevent autoimmunity in multiple sclerosis?

In an attempt to identify biomarkers, which are able to better characterize the phenotypic heterogeneity of multiple sclerosis, and at the same time dissect disease-relevant mechanisms of this autoimmune disease, de Jager and colleagues (2008) determined flow cytometric profiles of circulating blood cells from untreated patients with clinically isolated demyelinating syndrome (CIS) and relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (RR-MS) in comparison to healthy volunteers. Profiles were generated using a panel of 50 monoclonal antibodies which primarily targeted lymphocyte populations and were distributed amongst 56 pools of four antibodies each. The key finding of this discovery-based study was that a population of CD8dimCD4− cells was reduced in frequency in both RR-MS and CIS patients. Within this population, only the frequency of CD3−CD56+CD8dimCD4− lymphocytes, consistent with the profile of natural killer (NK) cells but not CD8dimCD4− T cells appeared to be lower in multiple sclerosis. Notably, the same NK cell population (CD8dimCD4−) was reported to expand during interleukin-2 (IL-2) receptor α-targeted immunotherapy (daclizumab) in multiple sclerosis. Among these, the expansion of a specific subset of NK cells, namely CD56bright NK cells, was found to correlate with the inhibition of contrast-enhancing lesions on brain MRI during daclizumab treatment (Bielekova et al ., 2006). These findings reinforce the notion that NK cells, …
Doppler-Derived Myocardial Systolic Strain Rate Is a Strong Index of Left Ventricular Contractility

Background—Myocardial fiber strain is directly related to left ventricular (LV) contractility. Strain rate can be estimated as the spatial derivative of velocities (dV/ds) obtained by tissue Doppler echocardiography (TDE). The purposes of the study were (1) to determine whether TDE-derived strain rate may be used as a noninvasive, quantitative index of contractility and (2) to compare the relative accuracy of systolic strain rate against TDE velocities alone. Methods and Results—TDE color M-mode images of the interventricular septum were recorded from the apical 4-chamber view in 7 closed-chest anesthetized mongrel dogs during 5 different inotropic stages. Simultaneous LV volume and pressure were obtained with a combined conductance–high-fidelity pressure catheter. Peak elastance (Emax) was determined as the slope of end-systolic pressure-volume relationships during caval occlusion and was used as the gold standard of LV contractility. Peak systolic TDE myocardial velocities (Sm) and peak (&egr;′p) and mean (&egr;′m) strain rates obtained at the basal septum were compared against Emax by linear regression. Emax as well as TDE systolic indices increased during inotropic stimulation with dobutamine and decreased with the infusion of esmolol. A stronger association was found between Emax and &egr;′p (r =0.94, P <0.01, y =0.29 x +0.46) and &egr;′m (r =0.88, P <0.01) than for Sm (r =0.75, P <0.01). Conclusions—TDE-derived &egr;′p and &egr;′m are strong noninvasive indices of LV contractility. These indices appear to be more reliable than Sm, perhaps by eliminating translational artifact.
EVOLUTION OF COALESCENCE TIMES, GENETIC DIVERSITY AND STRUCTURE DURING COLONIZATION

Abstract We consider the impact of a colonization process on the genetic diversity and spatial structure of a geographically subdivided population. A stepping-stone model combined with coalescence theory is used to predict the evolution of sequence divergence and genetic parameters. We first derive analytical results for coalescence times in a population undergoing logistic growth. We next consider a stepping-stone model in which demes are successively colonized, starting from a first deme at one of the borders of the metapopulation. We use recurrence equations to calculate coalescence times for two genes chosen either inside the same deme or in different demes. This allows us to obtain the distribution and the expectation of the coalescence times, and to deduce from them the distribution of the average pairwise differences and the evolution of F st . Our results reflect the impact of the founder effect, which becomes stronger as the distance of the deme from the first deme increases. An increase in migration rate or growth rate generally leads to a decrease of the founder effect. F st (i) increases during the beginning of the colonization, (ii) decreases when migration creates homogenization and (iii) increases again towards an equilibrium value. The distributions of pairwise coalescence times or differences between sequences show a peak corresponding to the colonization period. These results could help detect former colonization events in natural populations.
Models of global gene expression define major domains of cell type and tissue identity

Abstract The current classification of cells in an organism is largely based on their anatomic and developmental origin. Cells types and tissues are traditionally classified into those that arise from the three embryonic germ layers, the ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm, but this model does not take into account the organization of cell type-specific patterns of gene expression. Here, we present computational models for cell type and tissue specification derived from a collection of 921 RNA-sequencing samples from 272 distinct mouse cell types or tissues. In an unbiased fashion, this analysis accurately predicts the three known germ layers. Unexpectedly, this analysis also suggests that in total there are eight major domains of cell type-specification, corresponding to the neurectoderm, neural crest, surface ectoderm, endoderm, mesoderm, blood mesoderm, germ cells and the embryonic domain. Further, we identify putative genes responsible for specifying the domain and the cell type. This model has implications for understanding trans-lineage differentiation for stem cells, developmental cell biology and regenerative medicine.
An Adaptive Diffusion Augmented CLMS Algorithm for Distributed Filtering of Noncircular Complex Signals

An adaptive diffusion augmented complex least mean square (D-ACLMS) algorithm for collaborative processing of the generality of complex signals over distributed networks is proposed. The algorithm enables the estimation of both second order circular (proper) and noncircular (improper) signals within a unified framework of augmented complex statistics. The analysis shows that the performance advantage of the widely linear D-ACLMS over the strictly linear D-CLMS increases with the degree of noncircularity while maintaining similar performance for proper data. Simulations on both synthetic benchmark and real world noncircular data support the approach.
An Operational GIS Expert System for Mapping Forest Soils

The successful integration of a Bayesian expert system with a commercially available geographic information system (GIS) (Genamap) is described. The package mapped forest soils into five soil landscape classes by utilizing a digital terrain model and vegetation map, as well as knowledge provided by a soil scientist. It is concluded that the map produced by the expert system was as accurate as the map drawn by the soil scientist, within a 95 percent confidence interval. An overall mapping accuracy of 69.8 percent was achieved for the soil maps produced by the expert system, while the conventionally derived map had an accuracy of 73.6 percent.