Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The differential diagnosis and surveillance of hereditary gastrointestinal polyposis syndromes.

BACKGROUND Hereditary gastrointestinal polyposis syndromes account for about 1% of all cases of colorectal cancer and are associated with a broad spectrum of extracolonic tumors. The early detection and accurate classification of these syndromes are essential, since effective methods for surveillance and treatment are available. METHODS This review article is based on a selective literature search, the author's own work, and evidence-based guidelines and recommendations. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The diagnosis is initially suspected on the basis of the endoscopic findings and polyp histology. Because different syndromes can resemble each other phenotypically, e.g., autosomal dominant familial adenomatous polyposis and autosomal recessive MUTYH-associated polyposis, molecular genetic studies are important for differential diagnosis and for assessing the risk of recurrence. Identification of the familial mutation in an affected patient is a prerequisite for predictive testing in asymptomatic persons at risk and sometimes enables prognostication. In recent years, the rate of detection of mutations has risen by 10% to 30%, and clinically relevant genotype-phenotype correlations have been described for juvenile polyposis syndrome. Except in cases of mild adenomatous polyposis, phenotypic overlap among the hamartomatous polyposes often causes difficulties in differential diagnosis. Thus, in unclear cases, a pathologist with special expertise in gastrointestinal disorders should be consulted for the evaluation of polyp tissue. Aside from the monogenic polyposes, there are many other types of polyposis that are non-hereditary or of unknown cause, including the hyperplastic and mixed polyposis syndromes. Risk-adapted surveillance programs have been established for the more frequently occurring polyposes.
HIGH-PERFORMANCE INFORMATION PROCESSING IN DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING SYSTEMS

This paper explores distributed computing systems that may be used efficiently in information processing that is frequently needed in electronic, environmental, medical, and biological applications. Three major components of such systems are: 1) data acquisition and preprocessing; 2) transmitting the results of preprocessing to a higher level computing system that is a PC; and 3) post processing in higher level computing system (in the PC). Preprocessing can be done in highly parallel accelerators that are mapped to reconfigurable hardware. The core of an accelerator is a sorting/searching network that is implemented either in an FPGA or in a programmable system-on-chip (such as Zynq devices). Data is transmitted to a PC through a high-bandwidth PCI-express bus. The paper suggests novel solutions for sorting/searching networks that enable the number of data items that can be handled to be significantly increased compared to the best known alternatives, maintaining a very high processing speed that is either similar to, or higher than in the best known alternatives. Preprocessing can also include supplementary tasks, such as extracting the minimum/maximum sorted subsets, finding the most frequently occurring items, and filtering the data. A higher level computing system executes final operations, such as merging the blocks produced by the sorting networks, implementing higher level algorithms that use the results of preprocessing, statistical manipulation, analysis of existing and acquired sets, data mining. It is shown through numerous experiments that the proposed solutions are very effective and enable a more diverse range of problems to be solved with better performance.
Filter Efficiency Measurement with Optical Particle Counters—Limitations and Error Sources

ABSTRACT Filter efficiency determination by means of the optical particle counting technique can yield information about the filter performance from a single set of upstream and downstream measurements. In principle, optical particle counters provide the possibility of a real time determination of particle size distribution and concentration. However, substantial errors in determination of the filtration efficiency may result from the performance characteristics of optical particle counters. This article presents results of a theoretical and experimental study analyzing the effects of variation of particle refractive index and coincidence on the sizing accuracy and counting ability of optical particle counters and the impact on the efficiency determination. Since both parameters, size and count, are critical for the determination of fractional collection efficiency and the most penetrating particle size, exemplary filter efficiency measurements with optical particle counters under various conditions are p.
A Rental-Equivalence Index for Owner-Occupied Housing in West Germany 1985 to 1998

In this paper, we review the German practice of imputing the costs of owner-occupied housing by increasing the relative weight of actual rents in the CPI. As the structure of owner-occupied housing differs substantially from that of rental housing, this variant of the imputation method may cause a bias in the German CPI. For assessing the appropriateness of the German imputation method, we estimate alternative rental equivalent indices based on the GSOEP. We find some evidence of an understatement of the "true" rate of price increase, which is, however, not directly related to the imputation method.
Preliminary Work Not For Distribution Optimal Investing and Consumption for the Long Run

Abstract: A new method is provided for finding the optimal consumption and investment decision of an investor in the presence of time varying expected return on stocks using continuous time stochastic control. Although our method works for any state variable, such as dividend-price ratio, cay, or productive shocks, we demonstrate the method using the model of Campbell et. al. (2004). Expanding on our earlier work, the lifetime utility of the investor is an analytic function within a region large enough to cover all relevant values of the state variable. Subsequently, a computer algorithm for calculating a high order polynomial approximation is developed. Based on analyticity of the lifetime utility, an uniform bound is found on the error in the numerical procedure. As a result, we can quickly find a solution to the investor’s problem to any degree of accuracy desired by the investor. The true optimal investment decision is radically different from that found in Campbell et. al. which demonstrates the benefit of finding an accurate solution to the investor’s problem. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: G12, G13, C63, D51
Takehara Efficacy and Stability of Ceramic Powder to Inactivate Avian Influenza Virus

This experiment aims to demonstrate the efficacy of ceramic powder derived from various sources to inactivate avian influenza virus and its possibility to use in the environment. The ceramics used in the present experiment were derived from chicken feces (CF), scallop shell (SS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and soybean (SB). All ceramics were mixed with low pathogenic AIV (LPAIV) H7N1, and then kept at room temperature. The recovered virus was titrated onto Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells. All ceramics were assessed the inactivation stability in the environment by keeping under sunlight and under wet-dry condition until reached 7 week or 7 resuspension times respectively. The results indicate that all ceramics have excellent efficacy to inactivate LPAIV. This efficacy can be maintained under the simulated condition. The ceramics are expected to be the good materials for application in the biosecurity system at farms. Keywords—Avian Influenza, Ceramics, Efficacy, Stability.
Empirical Model for Predicting Financial Failure

From year to year, strong attention has been paid to the study of the problems of predicting firms’ bankruptcy. Bankruptcy prediction is an essential issue in finance especially in emerging economics. Predicting future financial situations of individual corporate entities is even more significant. Regression analysis is used to develop a prediction model on 22 bankrupt and nonbankrupt Jordanian public listed companies for the period 2000 until 2003. The results show that working capital to total assets, current asset to current liabilities, market value of equity to book value of debt, retained earnings to total asset, and sales to total asset are significant and good indicators of the probability of bankruptcy in Jordan.
Dictyoglomus thermophilum gen . nov . , sp . nov . , a Chemoorganotrophic , Anaerobic , Thermophilic Bacterium

We describe a new caldoactive bacterium, Dictyoglomus thermophilum, which was isolated from a slightly alkaline hot spring. This organism is a nonsporeforming, nonmotile, obligately anaerobic rod-shaped bacterium that stains gram negative and occurs singly, in pairs, in filaments, in bundles, and as spherical bodies. The cell surface structure is of the complex gram-negative type. Large spherical bodies are formed by associations of separate rods in numbers ranging from a few to perhaps as many as 100; these spherical bodies are surrounded by common outer wall membrane. The temperature range for growth is between 50 and 80°C, with optimum growth at 78°C; the pH range for growth is between 5.9 and 8.3. The doubling time at 73°C and pH 7.2 is about 2.5 h. Growth is inhibited by streptomycin, tetracycline, neomycin, chloramphenicol, vancomycin, tunicamycin, and sodium dodecyl sulfate. The deoxyribonucleic acid base composition is 29 mol % guanosine plus cytosine. The type strain is strain ATCC 35947.
Breaking the Glass Ceiling: The Effects of Sex Ratios and Work-Life Programs on Female Leadership at the Top

Data, at the level of the corporation, revealed that the percentage of lower-level managerial positions held by women in the 1980s and early 1990s was positively associated with the number of work-life human resource practices provided in 1994 and with the percentage of senior management positions held by women in 1999. In turn, the number of work-life human resource practices provided in 1994 was positively associated with the percentage of senior management positions held by women in 1999 and partially mediated the effect of lower-level female representation on senior level female representation. These results support the blending of a social contact theory perspective and a strategic human resource management perspective when explaining the glass-ceiling phenomenon, and have important implications for managing human resources and individual careers.
The traumagenic neurodevelopmental model of psychosis revisited

Evidence that childhood adversities are risk factors for psychosis has accumulated rapidly. Research into the mechanisms underlying these relationships has focused, productively, on psychological processes, including cognition, attachment and dissociation. In 2001, the traumagenic neurodevelopmental model sought to integrate biological and psychological research by highlighting the similarities between the structural and functional abnormalities in the brains of abused children and adults diagnosed with ‘schizophrenia’. No review of relevant literature has subsequently been published. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to summarize the literature on biological mechanisms underlying the relationship between childhood trauma and psychosis published since 2001. A comprehensive search for relevant papers was undertaken via Medline, PubMed and psycINFO. In total, 125 papers were identified, with a range of methodologies, and provided both indirect support for and direct confirmation of the traumagenic neurodevelopmental model. Integrating our growing understanding of the biological sequelae of early adversity with our knowledge of the psychological processes linking early adversity to psychosis is valuable both theoretically and clinically.
Debt , recovery rates and the Greek dilemma

Most discussions of the Greek debt overhang have focussed on the implications for Greece. We show that when additional funds released to the debtor (Greece), via debt restructuring, are used efficiently in pursuit of a practicable business plan, then both debtor and creditor can benefit. We examine a dynamic two country model calibrated to Greek and German economies and support two-steady states, one with endogenous default and one without, depending on creditors’ expectations. In the default steady state, debt forgiveness lowers the volatility of both German and Greek consumption whereas demanding higher recovery rates has the opposite effect. In a second order approximation of the model, conditional welfare analysis shows that a policy of immediate leniency followed by harsher terms as the economy grows is beneficial to both creditors and debtors. © 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.
The Vacuum State of Primordial Fluctuations in Hybrid Loop Quantum Cosmology

We investigate the role played by the vacuum of the primordial fluctuations in hybrid Loop Quantum Cosmology. We consider scenarios where the inflaton potential is a mass term and the unperturbed quantum geometry is governed by the effective dynamics of Loop Quantum Cosmology. In this situation, the phenomenologically interesting solutions have a preinflationary regime where the kinetic energy of the inflaton dominates over the potential. For these kind of solutions, we show that the primordial power spectra depend strongly on the choice of vacuum. We study in detail the case of adiabatic states of low order and the non-oscillating vacuum introduced by Martín de Blas and Olmedo, all imposed at the bounce. The adiabatic spectra are typically suppressed at large scales, and display rapid oscillations with an increase of power at intermediate scales. In the non-oscillating vacuum, there is power suppression for large scales, but the rapid oscillations are absent. We argue that the oscillations are due to the imposition of initial adiabatic conditions in the region of kinetic dominance, and that they would also be present in General Relativity. Finally, we discuss the sensitivity of our results to changes of the initial time and other data of the model.
Easy Email Encryption with Easy Key Management CUCS-004-18

Email privacy is of crucial importance. Existing email encryption approaches are comprehensive but seldom used due to their complexity and inconvenience. We take a new approach to simplify email encryption and improve its usability by implementing receiver-controlled encryption: newly received messages are transparently downloaded and encrypted to a locally-generated key; the original message is then replaced. To avoid the problem of users having to move a single private key between devices, we implement per-device key pairs: only public keys need be synchronized to a single device. Compromising an email account or server only provides access to encrypted emails. We have implemented this scheme for both Android and as a standalone daemon; we show that it works with both PGP and S/MIME, is compatible with widely used mail clients and email services including Gmail and Yahoo! Mail, has acceptable overhead, and that users consider it intuitive and easy to use. CCS Concepts •Security and privacy→ Key management; Public key encryption; Usability in security and privacy; Web application security;
Galerkin BEM with Direct Evaluation of Hypersingular Integrals

In this paper a new general algorithm is presented for the direct evaluation of all singular double integrals arising in the 2D Galerkin BEM, including those with hypersingular kernels. A distinguishing feature of the proposed method is that double singular integrals are treated as a whole, that is not as inner integrals followed by outer ones. Therefore, when applied to the symmetric Galerkin BEM, the proposed technique is strictly symmetry preserving. Moreover, a careful analysis of the limiting process is performed which shows that some new free terms may arise.
Estimation in real data set by Split-ARCH model

Famous models of conditional heteroscedasticity describe various eects of behavior of the financial markets. In this paper, we investigate the related model, called Split‐ARCH, in some of its stochastic aspects, as the necessary and sucient conditions of the strong stationarity and the estimation procedure. The basic asymptotic properties of those estimates are described, too. The most important segment of our work is dedicated to the practical issue of Split‐ARCH model in analysis of the dynamics of the real data. We compared the Split‐ ARCH with standard models of ARCH type and showed that it was better stochastic model for the explanation of the world market prices of some precious metals.
What Drives Acquisitions in the EU Banking Industry? The Role of Bank Regulation and Supervision Framework, Bank Specific and Market Specific Factors

We investigate the determinants of commercial bank acquisitions in the former fifteen countries of the European Union by evaluating the impact of bank-specific measures, such as size, growth and efficiency of banks, and external influences reflecting industry level differences in the regulatory and supervision framework, market environment and economic conditions. Our empirical analysis involves multinomial logit estimation at various levels in order to identify those characteristics that most consistently predict targets and acquirers from a sample of over 1400 commercial banks. The overall results indicate that, relative to banks that were not involved in the acquisitions, (i) targets and acquirers were significantly larger, less well capitalized and less cost efficient, (ii) targets were less profitable with lower growth prospects, and acquirers more profitable with higher growth prospects, (iii) external factors have affected targets and acquirers differently, and their effects have not been consistent or robust to sample size changes. © 2011 New York University Salomon Center and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Does the Law of One Price Hold for South African Exchange Traded Funds

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) trade at a market-determined price, which should be equal to their Net Asset Value (NAV) based on the law of one price. This study examines whether a long-run equilibrium relationship between the price and NAV exists for four South African-listed ETFs using Johansen’s cointegration. A common stochastic trend is found between the price and NAV for all the funds; however, this relationship only conforms to the law of one price for three of the four funds. Both the price and NAV are found to correct for the disequilibrium in the long-run relationship which is surprising as if the arbitrage process of creating and deleting units associated with ETFs was the predominant driver of the equilibrium relationship as theory suggests, then it would be expected that only the price would adjust to correct for any disequilibrium. The profile persistence analysis confirms that the deviations from the NAV do not persist. The findings of this study thus suggest that the market for ETFs in South Africa is reasonably efficient and hence retail investors are not likely to be exposed to substantial mispricing which could adversely affect their returns from holding ETFs.
Developing an Intelligent Recommendation System for Course Selectionby Students for Graduate Courses

Choosing a right course in formative years is very important decision as his future depends on this one decision. Student by himself is not mature enough to take right decision in his early life. Selecting wrong courses means mismatch between student aptitude, capability and personal interest. Faculty or parents have neither the required knowledge nor experience. Since there is no other reliable source generally available that can guide the student towards the most suitable direction, recommender system has been evolved to provide him guidance in selecting a right course. Recommender system is a computer programme prepared with the help of experts where the details of background of the students and their aptitudes help finding a course for his future study. This paper proposes feasible predictions for student’s course selection based on their marks and choice of job interest. Clustering technique is used to find structures and relationship within the data. This paper also reveals the research process of preparation of such a recommender system.
Possible countergradient variation in growth of juvenile cod Gadus morhua from the northwest Atlantic

To test the countergradient variation (CnGV) hypothesis and determine any genetic dif- ferences among populations, we conducted an experiment with juvenile cod originating from 3 regions in the NW Atlantic, 3Ps (Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, Canada; 48° N, 54° W), 4T (southern Gulf of St. Lawrence; 46° N, 61° W), and 4X (44° N, 67° W), at 2 temperatures (7 and 11°C) for 15 wk. Results indicated that temperature influenced the growth rates of individuals in all 3 populations, and juveniles reared at 11°C were significantly bigger (length and weight) than those reared at 7°C. No significant differences in growth and food conversion efficiency were found among the 3 populations. Although 3Ps juveniles were significantly smaller in length and lighter in weight than 4T and 4X juveniles at the start of the experiment, length and weight did not differ among populations at the end of the experiment. Survival of both 3Ps and 4T juveniles was significantly higher than that of 4X cod in both high and low water temperature treatments. Although statistical analyses showed no sig- nificant differences in growth and food conversion efficiency among juveniles from the 3 populations, reaction norm analysis showed a strong genotypic influence on growth and survival (no genotype × environment interactions) but a genotypic × environment interaction in food conversion efficiency. Our results suggest that Atlantic cod juveniles from these 3 regions do not show CnGV in growth and food conversion efficiency. However, performance differences among populations may be stage specific, and this may have masked CnGV in traits among Atlantic cod populations in our study.
IL-6-mediated induction of MMP-9 is modulated by JAK-dependent IL-10 expression in macrophages 1

The mechanisms by which IL-6 contributes to the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer are not fully understood. We previously reported that cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2)dependent PGE2 synthesis regulates macrophage matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 expression, an endopeptidase that participates in diverse pathologic processes. In these studies, we determined whether IL-6 regulates the Cox-2→PGE2→MMP-9 pathway in murine macrophages. IL-6 coinduced Cox-2 and microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1 (mPGES-1), and inhibited the expression of 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH), leading to increased levels of PGE2. In addition, IL-6 induced MMP-9 expression, suggesting that the observed proteinase expression was regulated by the synthesis of PGE2. However, inhibition of PGE2 synthesis partially suppressed IL-6–mediated induction of MMP-9. In the canonical model of IL-6-induced signaling, JAK activation triggers STAT and MAPKerk1/2-signaling pathways. Therefore, the ability of structural diverse JAK inhibitors to block IL-6-induced MMP-9 expression was examined. Inhibition of JAK blocked IL-6 induced phosphorylation of STAT3, but failed to block the phosphorylation of MAPKerk1/2, and unexpectedly enhanced MMP-9 expression. In contrast, MEK-1 inhibition blocked IL-6 induced phosphorylation of MAPKerk1/2 and MMP-9 expression without affecting the phosphorylation of STAT3. Thus, IL-6-induced MMP-9 expression is dependent on the activation of MAPKerk1/2 and restrained by a JAK-dependent gene product. Utilizing pharmacologic and genetic approaches, JAK-dependent induction of IL-10 was identified as a potent feedback mechanism controlling IL-6 induced MMP-9 expression. Together, these data reveal that IL-6 induces MMP-9 expression in macrophages via Cox-2-dependent and independent mechanisms, and identifies a potential mechanism linking IL-6 to the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer.