bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Metric Learning Based Rolling Bearing Faults Diagnosis with Curvelet Transform
Authors: Lu Ziming , Xiao Jiang-Wen , Huang Zhengyi
Published: May 2019

Rolling bearing faults are among the primary causes of breakdown in mechanical equipment. Aiming at the vibration signals of rolling bearing which are non-stationary and easy to be disturbed by noise, a novel fault diagnosis method based on curvelet transform and metric learning is proposed. This method consists of 3 parts. The first one is feature engineering which includes reshaping the original timing features of rolling bearings, employing curvelet transform to transform reshaped features and making its coefficients as the new features. Curvelet transform can analyse the original signal from many angles. The second one is employing metric learning to map these new features into special embedding space. The last one is applying KNN classifier to detect the rolling bearing faults. Metric learning can effectively improve the performance of KNN by learning a mapping matrix to modify the distribution of samples. The proposed method overcomes the problems such as the subjectivity and blindness of manual feature extraction, poor coupling in each stage and sensitive to the effect of noise. Extensive simulations based on several data-sets show that the our method has better performance on bearing fault diagnosis than traditional methods.
Iterative Relation Reasoning for Multiple Object Recognition
Authors: Zhou Tianyu , Miao Zhenjiang
Published: May 2019

We present a novel model for multiple object recognition. Our model combines current deep learning recognition systems with object category relation information. This model is mainly inspired by spatial memory network [1], which treats multiple object recognition task as an iterative process, reusing some region feature as context information. We extend this work by presenting a statistical-based category relation model to measure object category semantic relevance. With the spatial memory and category relation model as relation reasoning modules, our model takes in context information. Our model achieves 4.4% per-instance and 4.9% per-class absolute improvement of average classification accuracy over plain convolutional neural networks on ADE dataset.
A Dimensionality Reduction Model for Complex Data Grouping
Authors: Yang Xiang , Xiaojun Chen , cheng Luo
Published: May 2019

Given the existing packet dimensionality reduction model, the simple distance hypothesis is only used as a simple assumption that there is a certain relationship between packet data. This document proposes to share information between packet data with relevant random measures as a priori. We explicitly calculated the Lévy measure of the mixed random measure and offered the inference steps of detailed parameter a posteriori. Compared with the traditional method, the grouping dimensionality reduction model can achieve faster convergence and can well maintain the original information of data. The experimental results on the public dataset show that the grouping dimensionality reduction model is an effective dimensionality reduction algorithm and can be employed to extract characteristics on big data.
Sentiment Classification of Reviews Based on BiGRU Neural Network and Fine-grained Attention
Authors: Feng Xuanzhen , Liu Xiaohong
Published: May 2019

Text sentiment analysis is part and parcel of natural language processing. The task of sentiment classification is actually the process of feature extraction through models. The comment text of commodities is very different from the ordinary text. The comment text has no fixed grammar and writing format and the sentiment feature information is scattered in various places of text. Due to these factors, model learning of sentiment classification is becoming increasingly complex. The paper aims at establishing a fine-grained feature extraction model based on BiGRU and attention. Firstly, the vocabulary is vectorized by means of the skip-gram model. Then, according to the pre-trained word vector, the sentiment words list can be reached and noise filtering would be conducted by Naive Bayes algorithm. Finally, the model extracts features using BiGRU and fine-grained attentions. Based on the hypothesis that a long review may lead to feature differentiation, a fine-grained attention model is proposed. In this model, the attention layer is design to focus on the feature in different level such as word level, sentence level and paragraph level. This paper validate the proposed model on two sentiment corpus JD reviews and IMDB. Empirical results show that the FGAtten-BiGRU model achieves state of the art results on sentiment analysis tasks.
A Hybrid Key Pre-distribution Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Xiong Chao , Li Shuquan , Liu Lei , Li Rui , Jin Yanjiao
Published: May 2019

Key management in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is the basic service for deploying security policies. In this paper, we combine q-composite scheme with polynomial scheme to propose a hybrid key pre-distribution scheme for WSNs. The characteristic of the scheme is that a partial polynomial is preloaded for each sensor node, and then a polynomial share stored by each node is used to generate a corresponding key pool. Perform the corresponding hash operation on the generated keys to hide part of the key information of the nodes. Then select the corresponding number of processed generation keys to distribute to each node. The scheme introduces a random key method, which avoids the "t-secure" problem faced by the conventional polynomial scheme and achieves the significant improvement of network security. The corresponding key is generated using the polynomial share preloaded on the sensor node, which has a higher connectivity than the polynomial scheme. Theoretical and simulation results show that the propose scheme not only enhances the network secure connectivity, but also improves the node’s anti-capture attack capability when compared to other schemes.
The Interactive Simulation of the Liquid in the Container with Spring-mass Model
Authors: Guo Peishan , Zhu Qing , Zhu Wenzhe
Published: May 2019

With the development of the virtual reality industry, the demand for performance of virtual simulation is increasing. In the field of virtual simulation, fluid simulation has become one of the most challenging research directions in computer graphics. High-performance fluid simulation methods are still a problem which is worth studying.This paper presents a method based on grid and Spring-mass model interactions for simulate liquid in the container. Firstly, the mass-spring model is introduced to simulate the water surface. Create a flat grid, then add physical properties to the point on the triangular grid. Grids are used to connect the water proton. Secondly, change the current height of the particle through calculating the particle density on the surface of liquid to simulate the fluctuations of the water.Finally realize the calculation method in unity, prove that the method has both performance and sense of reality and better than previous methods.
Deeper Time Delay Neural Networks for Effective Acoustic Modelling
Authors: Huang Xiaorong , Zhang Weibin , Xu Xiangmin , Yin Ruixiang , Chen Dongpeng
Published: May 2019

Time delay neural networks (TDNNs) have been shown to be an efficient network architecture for modelling long temporal contexts in speech recognition. Meanwhile, the training times of TDNNs are much less, compared with other long temporal contexts models based on recurrent neural networks. In this paper, we propose deeper architectures to improve the modelling power of TDNNs. At each TDNN layer that needs spliced input, we increase the number of transforms so that the lower layers can provide more salient features for upper layers. Dropout is found to be an effective way to prevent the model from overfitting once the depth of the model is substantially increased. The proposed architectures significantly improvements the recognition accuracy in Switchboard and AMI.
A Comparison of Features for Replay Attack Detection
Authors: Xie Zhifeng , Zhang Weibin , Chen Zhuxin , Xu Xiangmin
Published: May 2019

Speaker verification (ASV) systems are still vulnerable to different kinds of spoofing attacks, especially replay attack due to high-quality playback devices. Many countermeasures have been developed recently. Most of the efforts focus on the search for more salient features and many new features have been proposed. Five kinds of features, namely Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs), linear frequency cepstral coefficients (LFCCs), inverted Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (IMFCCs), constant Q cepstral coefficients (CQCCs) and bottleneck features were compared on the public ASVspoof 2017 and BTAS 2016 datasets in this paper. Our experimental results show that MFCCs and bottleneck features yield comparable results. Both of them significantly outperform others (including the recently proposed CQCCs). However, the number of filters and cepstral bins are essential to the success of MFCCs.
An Argumentation-Based Approach for Computing Inconsistency Degree in Possibilistic Lightweight Ontologies
Authors: Boutouhami Khaoula , Musa Ibrahim Hussein
Published: May 2019

Reasoning with inconsistent ontologies plays an important role in Semantic Web applications. An important feature of argument theory is that it is able to naturally handle inconsistencies in ontologies and allows a user to represent information in the form of an argument. In argumentation, given an inconsistent knowledge base, arguments compete to decide which are the accepted consequences. In this paper, we are interested in using the argumentation for the inconsistency degree of uncertain knowledge bases expressed in possibilistic DL-Lite (the key notion in reasoning from a possibilistic DL-Lite knowledge base) without going through the negative closure. In the present work, the terminological base is assumed to be fully certain and the uncertainty is only considered on the assertion based. We proved that it is coherent and feasible to use Dung’s abstract argumentation theory to compute the inconsistency degree and how argumentation semantics relate to the state of the art of handling inconsistency.
Minimal genus four-manifolds
Authors: Aranda Cuevas José Román
Published: May 2019

In 2018, M. Chu and S. Tillmann gave a lower bound for the trisection genus of a closed 4-manifold in terms of the Euler characteristic of

M
M

and the rank of its fundamental group. We show that given a group

G
G

, there exists a 4-manifold

M
M

with fundamental group

G
G

with trisection genus achieving Chu-Tillmann’s lower bound.
Spline characterizations of the Radon-Nikodým property
Authors: Passenbrunner Markus
Published: May 2019

We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a Banach space

X
X

having the Radon-Nikodým property in terms of polynomial spline sequences.
On the geometric Mumford-Tate conjecture for subvarieties of Shimura varieties
Authors: Baldi Gregorio
Published: May 2019

We study the image of

ℓ
\ell

-adic representations attached to subvarieties of Shimura varieties

Sh
K

⁡
(
G
,
X
)

\operatorname {Sh}_K(G,X)

that are not contained in a smaller Shimura subvariety and have no isotrivial components. We show that for

ℓ
\ell

large enough (depending on the Shimura datum

(
G
,
X
)

(G,X)

and the subvariety), such image contains the

Z

ℓ

\mathbb {Z}_\ell

-points coming from the simply connected cover of the derived subgroup of

G
G

. This can be regarded as a geometric version of the integral

ℓ
\ell

-adic Mumford-Tate conjecture.
Rational points of universal curves in positive characteristics
Authors: Watanabe Tatsunari
Published: May 2019

Let

K
K

be the function field of the moduli stack

M

g
,
n

/

F

p

{\mathcal M}_{g,n/{\mathbb F}_p}

of curves over

Spec

F

p

\text {Spec}{\mathbb F}_p

, and let

C

/

K

C/K

be the restriction of the universal curve to

Spec
K

\text {Spec} K

. We show that if

g
≥
3

g\geq 3

, then the only

K
K

-rational points of

C
C

are its

n
n

tautological points. Furthermore, we show that if

g
≥
4

g\geq 4

and

n
=
0

n=0

, then Grothendieck’s section conjecture holds for

C
C

over

K
K

. This extends Hain’s work in characteristic

0
0

to positive characteristics.
Rsp5 and Mdm30 reshape the mitochondrial network in response to age-induced vacuole stress
Authors: Goodrum Jenna M. , Lever Austin R. , Coody Troy K. , Gottschling Daniel E. , Hughes Adam L.
Published: May 2019

Mitochondrial decline is a hallmark of aging, and cells are equipped with many systems to regulate mitochondrial structure and function in response to stress and metabolic alterations. Here, using budding yeast, we identify a proteolytic pathway that contributes to alterations in mitochondrial structure in aged cells through control of the mitochondrial fusion GTPase Fzo1. We show that mitochondrial fragmentation in old cells correlates with reduced abundance of Fzo1, which is triggered by functional alterations in the vacuole, a known early event in aging. Fzo1 degradation is mediated by a proteolytic cascade consisting of the E3 ubiquitin ligases SCFMdm30and Rsp5, and the Cdc48 cofactor Doa1. Fzo1 proteolysis is activated by metabolic stress that arises from vacuole impairment, and loss of Fzo1 degradation severely impairs mitochondrial structure and function. Together, these studies identify a new mechanism for stress-responsive regulation of mitochondrial structure that is activated during cellular aging.
Methylated metabolite of arsenite blocks glycerol production in yeast by inhibition of glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase
Authors: Lee Jongmin , Levin David E.
Published: May 2019

The yeast high-osmolarity glycerol (HOG) stress-activated protein kinase Hog1 is activated in response to hyperosmotic stress, inducing the production and retention of glycerol to restore osmotic balance. Hog1 promotes retention of glycerol through closure of the plasma-membrane glycerol channel Fps1. Treatment of yeast with the toxic trivalent metalloid arsenite (As(III)) also activates Hog1 as part of a protective response in which Hog1 closes Fps1, the main entry port for As(III). In this study, we investigated how cells treated with As(III) avoid creating a new stress caused by the accumulation of glycerol in the absence of hyperosmotic stress conditions. We found that As(III) treatment did not induce glycerol accumulation and, in fact, blocked the accumulation of glycerol induced by constitutive Hog1 activity. We demonstrated that As(III) blocks glycerol production indirectly after its metabolic activation to methylarsenite (MAs(III)), which is a potent inhibitor of glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Finally, we used a biotinylated arsenic probe to establish that Cys306 of yeast Gpd1, a highly conserved residue within the active site, is the key target of MAs(III). Conservative mutations at this residue greatly diminished Gpd1 activity. This study offers insight into mechanisms by which SAPK outputs are tailored to specific stressors.
Composition and physicochemical properties of outer mucilage from seeds of Arabidopsis natural accessions
Authors: Poulain Damien , Botran Lucy , North Helen M , Ralet Marie-Christine
Published: May 2019

Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) seeds are myxospermous and release two layers of mucilage on imbibition. The outer layer can be extracted with water facilitating the analysis of its major constituent, polysaccharides. The composition and properties of outer mucilage have been determined for 306 natural accessions and six control genotypes to generate a data set comprising six traits measured in four biological replicates for each. Future exploitation of this data is possible in a range of analyses and should yield information concerning genetic diversity, underlying genetic factors and the biological function of mucilage as an adaptive trait.
Child Care and Human Development: Insights from Jewish History in Central and Eastern Europe, 1500–1930*
Authors: Botticini Maristella , Eckstein Zvi , Vaturi Anat
Published: May 2019

Economists increasingly highlight the role that human capital formation, institutions and cultural transmission may play in shaping health, knowledge and wealth. We study one of the most remarkable instances in which religious norms and childcare practices had a major impact: the history of the Jews in central and eastern Europe from 1500 to 1930. We show that while birth rates were about the same, infant and child mortality among Jews was much lower and accounted for the main difference in Jewish versus non-Jewish natural population growth. Jewish families routinely adopted childcare practices that recent medical research has shown as enhancing children's well-being.
Increase rate of light-induced stomatal conductance is related to stomatal size in the genus Oryza
Authors: Zhang Qiangqiang , Peng Shaobing , Li Yong
Published: May 2019

The rapid response of stomatal conductance (gs) to fluctuating irradiance is of great importance to maximize carbon assimilation while minimizing water loss. Smaller stomata have been proven to have a faster response rate than larger ones, but most of these studies have been conducted with forest trees. In the present study, the effects of stomatal anatomy on the kinetics of gs and photosynthesis were investigated in 16 Oryza genotypes. Light-induced stomatal opening includes an initial time lag (λ) followed by an exponential increase. Smaller stomata had a larger maximum stomatal conductance increase rate (Slmax) during the exponential increase phase, but showed a longer time lag and a lower initial stomatal conductance (gs,initial) at low light. Stomatal size was, surprisingly, negatively correlated with the time required to reach 50% of maximum gs and photosynthesis (T50%gs and T50%A), which was shown to be positively correlated with λ and negatively correlated with gs,initial. With a lower gs,initial and a larger λ, small stomata showed a faster decrease of intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci) during the induction process, which may have led to a slower apparent Rubisco activation rate. Therefore, smaller stomata do not always benefit photosynthesis as reported before; the influence of stomatal size on dynamic photosynthesis is also correlated with λ and gs,initial.
Efficacy of ruthenium coordination complex–based Rutherrin in a preclinical rat glioblastoma model
Authors: Munegowda Manjunatha Akathatti , Fisher Carl , Molehuis Daniel , Foltz Warren , Roufaiel Mark , Bassan Jay , Nitz Mark , Mandel Arkady , Lilge Lothar
Published: May 2019

Background

Glioblastoma is an aggressive brain cancer in adults with a grave prognosis, aggressive radio and chemotherapy provide only a 15 months median survival.

Methods

We evaluated the tolerability and efficacy of the Ruthenium-based photosensitizer TLD-1433 with apo-Transferrin (Rutherrin) in the rat glioma 2 (RG-2) model. The specific tumor uptake ratio and photodynamic therapy (PDT) threshold of the rat glioblastoma and normal brain were determined, survival and CD8+T-cell infiltration post-therapy were analyzed. Results were compared with those obtained for 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA)-induced Protoporphyrin IX (PpIX)-mediated photodynamic therapy in the same animal model. As both photosensitizers have different photophysical properties, the number of absorbed photons required to achieve an equal cell kill was determined for in vitro and in vivo studies.

Results

A significantly lower absorbed energy was sufficient to achieve LD50 with Rutherrin versus PpIX-mediated PDT. Rutherrin provides a higher specific uptake ratio (SUR) >20 in tumors versus normal brain, whereas the SUR for ALA-induced PpIX was 10.6. To evaluate the short-term tissue response in vivo, enhanced T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provided the spatial extent of edema, post PpIX-PDT at twice the cross-section versus Rutherrin-PDT suggesting reduced nonspecific damage, typically associated with a secondary wave of neuronal damage. Following a single therapy, a significant survival increase was observed in rats bearing glioma for PDT mediated by Rutherrin versus PpIX for the selected treatment conditions. Rutherrin-PDT also demonstrated an increased CD8+T-cell infiltration in the tumors.

Conclusion

Rutherrin-PDT was well tolerated providing a safe and effective treatment of RG-2 glioma.
Evaluate Penicillin Allergy Before Deciding Against Penicillin Use
Authors: Rosenberg Karen
Published: May 2019

According to this study:

Although many patients report having an allergy to penicillin, few have clinically significant immunoglobulin-mediated or T lymphocyte–mediated penicillin hypersensitivity.

Clinicians should evaluate penicillin allergy before ruling out the use of penicillin or other beta-lactam antibiotics.
Another Day in the OR
Authors: Fitzgerald Laura
Published: May 2019

Collapsing the insulating distance of global health.
Genomic reconstruction of 100 000-year grassland history in a forested country: population dynamics of specialist forbs
Authors: Yamaura Yuichi , Narita Ayu , Kusumoto Yoshinobu , Nagano Atsushi J. , Tezuka Ayumi , Okamoto Toru , Takahara Hikaru , Nakamura Futoshi , Isagi Yuji , Lindenmayer David
Published: May 2019

Grassland ecosystems worldwide have been extensively converted to other land uses and are globally imperiled. Because many grasslands have been maintained by human activities, understanding their origin and history is fundamentally important to better contemporary management. However, existing methods to reconstruct past vegetation can produce contrasting views on grassland history. Here, we inferred demographic histories of 40 populations of four grassland forb species throughout Japan using high-resolution genome sequences and model-flexible demographic simulation based on the site frequency spectrum. Although two species showed a slight decline in population size between 100 000–10 000 years ago, our results suggest that population sizes of studied species have been maintained within the range of 0.5–2.0 times the most recent estimates for at least 100 000 years across Japan. Our results suggest that greater than 90% declines in Japanese grasslands and subsequent losses of grassland species in the last 100 years are geologically and biologically important and will have substantial consequences for Japanese biota and culture. People have had critical roles in maintaining disturbance-dependent grassland ecosystems and biota in this warm and wet forested country. In these contexts, disturbances associated with forest harvesting and traditional extensive farming have the potential to maintain grassland ecosystems and can provide important opportunities to reconcile resource production and conservation of grassland biodiversity.
Evolutionary shifts in extant mustelid (Mustelidae: Carnivora) cranial shape, body size and body shape coincide with the Mid-Miocene Climate Transition
Authors: Law Chris J.
Published: May 2019

Environmental changes can lead to evolutionary shifts in phenotypic traits, which in turn facilitate the exploitation of novel adaptive landscapes and lineage diversification. The global cooling, increased aridity and expansion of open grasslands during the past 50 Myr are prime examples of new adaptive landscapes that spurred lineage and ecomorphological diversity of several mammalian lineages such as rodents and large herbivorous megafauna. However, whether these environmental changes facilitated evolutionary shifts in small- to mid-sized predator morphology is unknown. Here, I used a complete cranial and body morphological dataset to examine the timing of evolutionary shifts in cranial shape, body size and body shape within extant mustelids (martens, otters, polecats and weasels) during the climatic and environmental changes of the Cenozoic. I found that evolutionary shifts in all three traits occurred within extant mustelid subclades just after the onset of the Mid-Miocene Climate Transition. These mustelid subclades first shifted towards more elongate body plans followed by concurrent shifts towards smaller body sizes and more robust crania. I hypothesize that these cranial and body morphological shifts enabled mustelids to exploit novel adaptive zones associated with the climatic and environmental changes of the Mid to Late Miocene, which facilitated significant increases in clade carrying capacity.
Coral degradation alters predator odour signatures and influences prey learning and survival
Authors: Chivers D. P. , McCormick M. I. , Fakan E. P. , Barry R. P. , Edmiston J. W. , Ferrari M. C. O.
Published: May 2019

Habitat degradation is a key factor leading to the global loss of biodiversity. This problem is particularly acute in coral reef ecosystems. We investigated whether recognition of predator odours by damselfish was influenced by coral degradation and whether these changes altered survival in the wild. We taught whitespot damselfish to recognize the odour of a predator in the presence of live/healthy coral or dead/degraded coral. Fish were tested for a response to predator odours in environments that matched their conditioning environment or in environments that were mismatched. Next, we taught blue damselfish to recognize the odour of three common reef predators in live and degraded coral environments and then stocked them onto live or degraded patch reefs, where we monitored their subsequent response to predator odour along with their survival. Damselfish learned to recognize predator odours in both coral environments, but the intensity of their antipredator response was much greater when the conditioning and test environments matched. Fish released on degraded coral had about 50% higher survival if they had been trained in the presence of degraded coral rather than live coral. Altering the intensity of antipredator responses could have rather profound consequences on population growth.
Failure to detect synergy between variants in transferrin and hemochromatosis and Alzheimer’s disease in large cohort
Authors: Vance Elizabeth , Gonzalez Josue , Miller Justin B. ,   Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC), Staley Lindsey , Crane Paul K. , Mukherjee Shubhabrata , Kauwe John S.K.
Published: May 2019

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and, despite decades of effort, there is no effective treatment. In the last decade, many association studies have identified genetic markers that are associated with AD status. Two of these studies suggest that an epistatic interaction between variants rs1049296 in the Transferrin (TF) gene and rs1800562 in the Homeostatic Iron Regulator (HFE) gene, commonly known as “the hemochromatosis gene”, is in genetic association with AD. TF and HFE are involved in the transport and regulation of iron in the brain, and disrupting these processes exacerbates AD pathology through increased neurodegeneration and oxidative stress. However, by using a significantly larger dataset from the Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC), we fail to detect an association between TF rs1049296 or HFE rs1800562 with AD risk (TF rs1049296 p=0.38 and HFE rs1800562 p=0.40). In addition, logistic regression with an interaction term and a Synergy Factor Analysis (SFA) both failed to detect epistasis between TF rs1049296 and HFE rs1800562 (SF=0.94; p=0.48) in AD cases. Each of these analyses had sufficient statistical power (Power>0.99), suggesting that previously-reported associations may be the result of more complex epistatic interactions, genetic heterogeneity, or were false-positive associations due to limited sample sizes.
CoMM-S2: a collaborative mixed model using summary statistics in transcriptome-wide association studies
Authors: Yang Yi , Shi Xingjie , Jiao Yuling , Huang Jian , Chen Min , Zhou Xiang , Sun Lei , Lin Xinyi , Yang Can , Liu Jin
Published: May 2019

Motivation

Although genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have deepened our understanding of the genetic architecture of complex traits, the mechanistic links that underlie how genetic variants cause complex traits remains elusive. To advance our understanding of the underlying mechanistic links, various consortia have collected a vast volume of genomic data that enable us to investigate the role that genetic variants play in gene expression regulation. Recently, a collaborative mixed model (CoMM) [42] was proposed to jointly interrogate genome on complex traits by integrating both the GWAS dataset and the expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) dataset. Although CoMM is a powerful approach that leverages regulatory information while accounting for the uncertainty in using an eQTL dataset, it requires individual-level GWAS data and cannot fully make use of widely available GWAS summary statistics. Therefore, statistically efficient methods that leverages transcriptome information using only summary statistics information from GWAS data are required.

Results

In this study, we propose a novel probabilistic model, CoMM-S2, to examine the mechanistic role that genetic variants play, by using only GWAS summary statistics instead of individual-level GWAS data. Similar to CoMM which uses individual-level GWAS data, CoMM-S2 combines two models: the first model examines the relationship between gene expression and genotype, while the second model examines the relationship between the phenotype and the predicted gene expression from the first model. Distinct from CoMM, CoMM-S2 requires only GWAS summary statistics. Using both simulation studies and real data analysis, we demonstrate that even though CoMM-S2 utilizes GWAS summary statistics, it has comparable performance as CoMM, which uses individual-level GWAS data.

Contact

jin.liu@duke-nus.edu.sg

Availability and implementation

The implement of CoMM-S2 is included in the CoMM package that can be downloaded from https://github.com/gordonliu810822/CoMM.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Does Ramadan influence the returns and volatility? Evidence from Shariah index in India
Authors: Munusamy Dharani
Published: May 2019

Purpose

Muslim’s hope that the holy month of Ramadan will create something more valuable for them. Through fasting and good actions, they can get rewarded twice than they normally can achieve. With this motivation, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the holy month of Ramadan effect on the returns and volatility of the Shariah index in India.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the ordinary least square methods, this paper examines the impact of Ramadan effect on the returns of the Shariah index in India. This paper further investigates the impact of the holy month of Ramadan effect on the volatility of the Shariah index by applying GARCH-modified models. This paper categorizes the Ramadan days into three parts, namely God’s Mercy, God’s Forgiveness and Emancipation from hellfire to examine the relationship between the Ramadan effect and the returns and volatility of the Shariah index in India.

Findings

The results show that the returns during the month of Ramadan as a whole are statistically significant. The results further motivate that its last ten days have high influences than other days over the period. Finally, the study examines the Ramadan effect on volatility by applying GARCH modified models and finds an evidence of Ramadan effect during the first ten days of Ramadan month.

Originality/value

The positive impact of Ramadan increases on the days associated with higher worship intensity. The study provides an important information to the ethical investors to invest in the Shariah stocks during Ramadan days. This information is very useful for the investors to get an abnormal return during the Ramadan days.
Islamic religiosity and Islamic financial asset holdings (IFAH)
Authors: Zainudin Rozaimah , Mahdzan Nurul Shahnaz , Che Hashim Rosmawani , Sulaiman Noor Adwa
Published: May 2019

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the relationship between Islamic religiosity and Islamic financial asset holdings (IFAH) among Muslim individuals in Malaysia.

Design/methodology/approach

Data for this study were collected through a survey questionnaire, and a sample of 751 working Muslims in Kuala Lumpur was obtained. Islamic religiosity was measured via religiosity levels and religiosity dimensions. IFAH was measured as the fraction of Islamic financial assets held in a financial portfolio. A generalized linear model (GLM) was used to estimate the relationships.

Findings

The results show that religiosity level influences the IFAH. Devout Muslims held more Islamic financial assets than casual Muslims. All religiosity dimensions influenced IFAH, with faith having the greatest influence and virtues the least. Educational level strongly influenced IFAH.

Research limitations/implications

The sample consisted of working Muslims in Kuala Lumpur; hence, generalization cannot be made to all Malaysian Muslims. This study only focused on Islamic financial assets and did not consider other types of Islamic financial products, such as financing.

Practical implications

Efforts to encourage Muslims to opt for Islamic financial assets may be more effective if they begin from the core of religious education. Educating individuals on Islamic principles, including the values and concepts of Islamic finance, is important to encourage the Islamic banking industry to prosper among Muslims.

Originality/value

The paper provides an extension of current literature on spirituality and religion by incorporating a comprehensive measure of Islamic religiosity and its relationship with financial asset holdings.
Extending the theory of planned behavior to explain the role of awareness in accepting Islamic health insurance (takaful) by microenterprises in northwestern Nigeria
Authors: Kazaure Mansur Ahmed
Published: May 2019

Purpose

Nigeria is a country with very low health insurance coverage, with only 3 per cent of its population in the public and private sector covered by conventional health insurance. This made it possible for the exploration of alternative methods of insurance in Muslim dominated northwestern Nigeria. Thus, this paper aims to extend the theory of planned behavior to understand the role of awareness in the acceptance of Islamic health insurance (takaful) among microenterprises in northwestern Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology used was a purely quantitative survey with data collected from seven states that form the northwestern Nigeria.

Findings

The findings revealed that attitude, social influence and perceived behavioral control have a significant direct influence on takaful acceptance intention among microenterprises in northwestern Nigeria, while awareness does not. It was also discovered that awareness of takaful moderates the influences of social influence and perceived behavioral control on takaful acceptance intention, but it failed to moderate the influence of attitude on takaful acceptance intention in the same context.

Research limitations/implications

The implication is that despite the acceptance intention more awareness is required to enlarge the takaful market in the region. The study contributes to the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior through the integration of awareness as a moderator.

Originality/value

The work is pioneering, extent literature in the area of takaful failed in investigating the role of awareness as a moderating variables in Nigeria where much awareness of the concept is desirable.
Are non-Muslims willing to patronize Islamic financial services?
Authors: Wan Ahmad Wan Marhaini , Hisham Hanifa Mohamed , Hyo Kang Choong
Published: May 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the awareness of non-Muslims coming from a non-Muslim-majority country regarding Islamic financial services, in particular, the takaful products.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses structured questionnaires to acquire and understand South Korean citizens’ perceptions of Islamic financial services (primarily takaful) to reinforce the scant previous literature in this area of research. The questionnaires are developed and adapted based on a previous study by Htay and Salman (2013). The sample consisted of 121 Korean people who were living in Ampang, a popular suburb for South Koreans in Kuala Lumpur.

Findings

The findings indicate that even South Korean citizens who have dwelled in Malaysia for a significant amount of time had little awareness of Islamic financial services. Upon personal explanation about the product, however, they showed a significant interest to get to know about takaful and a willingness to subscribe to it in the near future.

Research limitations/implications

Respondents are limited to only South Koreans who are residing in Malaysia.

Practical implications

Understanding the level of awareness about Islamic financial services among non-Muslims residing in Muslim-majority country.

Social implications

There is ample scope to penetrate the non-Muslim market for Islamic financial products.

Originality/value

There is a growing concern over the lack of research in the area of perceptions of Islamic financial services among non-Muslims from non-Muslim-majority countries. The lack of study in this area of research has often been overshadowed by research studies on perceptions of Islamic financial services among non-Muslim residents in Muslim-majority countries, which may have led to a dearth of proper strategies in the Islamic financial industry to penetrate non-Muslim-majority markets.
Types of tourism: the travelogue of the greatest traveller
Authors: Aminudin Norliza , A. Jamal Salamiah
Published: May 2019

Purpose

This study is one of the first to address the types of tourism in contemporary standing in relation to the travel chronicle of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Consequently, this paper aims to identify the similarities between contemporary types of tourism and the premodern travelogue of Muhammad. Not many studies have been conducted relating to Islam, Muhammad and tourism.

Design/methodology/approach

Muhammad’s travel chronicle was reviewed through a content analysis of the Qu’ran, Hadith and Sirah. A literature review on contemporary types of tourism was conducted to synchronise the use of terminology from Muhammad’s premodern travels and contemporary types of tourism.

Findings

It is clear that the experiences being narrated in contemporary tourism were also experienced during Muhammad’s time, using different terminology but with similar connotations.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first to address the similarities between Muhammad’s premodern travelling and contemporary types of tourism. It is clear that several types of tourism that exist today were actually experienced and practiced by Muhammad.
TVA investment challenge: an experiential learning program
Authors: Haddad Mahmoud Mustafa , Redman Arnold L. , Gullett Nell S.
Published: May 2019

Purpose

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) provided funds to 25 universities in its service region for the establishment of student-managed investment funds (SMIF). The purpose of this paper is to examine the TVA Investment Challenge Program and its implementation at The University of Tennessee at Martin (UTM).

Design/methodology/approach

Each university has the freedom to structure the process for students to manage its investment fund as it chooses. This paper provides a description of the overall Investment Challenge Program and the specific Program at UTM.

Findings

The Investment Challenge Program is a valuable experiential learning opportunity for finance majors at UTM. Participating students enhance their portfolio management knowledge, their written and oral communication skills, and their employment opportunities.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is limited to TVA Portfolio guidelines and managerial style.

Practical implications

Faculty who supervise similar programs at other universities may be able to replicate some aspects of the program’s design.

Originality/value

The paper describes the TVA Investment Challenge, a unique program of SMIF. TVA provided funds to 25 universities with the stipulation that the student managers adhere to the same guidelines as TVA’s professional money managers. The university is a participant in the Program.
Giant breast masses: A pictorial essay
Authors: Chitty Christopher , Dessauvagie Benjamin , Taylor Donna
Published: May 2019

In this pictorial essay, we showcase the imaging and pathological findings of a variety of giant breast lesions. Some lesions such as lipomas and hamartomas contain fibrous, glandular and lipomatous tissues and can have characteristic mammographic appearances. Other lesions (e.g. simple cysts, fibroepithelial lesions and some malignancies) may be mammographically indistinguishable and ultrasound (US) may be helpful in further characterisation, for example, by demonstrating posterior enhancement with simple cysts, cystic and solid components in papillary lesions, internal septations on haematomas and abscesses, solid homogeneity or heterogeneity in fibroepithelial lesions and increased vascularity in neoplastic, inflammatory or infective lesions. A diagnostic needle biopsy may be performed in some cases; however, with larger and heterogeneous lesions, there is an increased possibility of diagnostic inaccuracy due to limited sampling, such that full excision of the lesion may be advisable to ensure an accurate diagnosis.
The ironic effects of stigmatizing smoking: combining stereotype threat theory with behavioral pharmacology
Authors: Cortland Clarissa I. , Shapiro Jenessa R. , Guzman Iris Y. , Ray Lara A.
Published: May 2019

Aims

Public service announcements often create media messages intended to stigmatize negative behaviors to reduce and prevent these behaviors. Drawing on social and cognitive psychology, we hypothesize that stigmatizing messages can create stereotype threat would be associated with shorter latency to first cigarette in the laboratory compared to the control condition.

Design

A double‐blind, randomized, controlled trial in which participants completed two smoking lapse tasks, one at baseline and one post‐intervention/control.

Setting

An experimental psychopharmacology laboratory in the western United States.

Participants

A community sample of non‐treatment‐seeking daily smokers (n = 77) received either a stereotype threat (n = 39) or neutral/control (n = 38) message.

Intervention

Participants received either a stereotype threat message that stigmatized smoking or a control message.

Measurements

The primary outcome measure was participants’ ability to delay smoking during the smoking lapse task in the experimental session

Findings

The difference in delay time during the experimental session at the point where 50% of each group had smoked was 3 minutes. Cox proportional hazard models revealed that participants in the stereotype threat group were significantly less able to delay initiating smoking compared to the control group (hazard ratio = 0.504, P = 0.010, 95% confidence interval = 0.30, 0.85), after controlling for baseline latency to smoke.

Conclusions

Messages that elicit negative stereotypes of smokers operated as ‘smoking‐promoting messages’ in the context of our controlled laboratory investigation.
A systematic review of research on adolescent solitary alcohol and marijuana use in the United States
Authors: Mason W. Alex , Stevens Amy L. , Fleming Charles B.
Published: May 2019

Background and Aims

Alcohol use and marijuana use tend to be social activities among adolescents. Some youth use alcohol or marijuana while alone. This article provides a framework for examining the risk factors for and consequences of solitary alcohol and marijuana use, grounded in a motivational model that emphasizes coping with negative emotions, and provides the first systematic review of research on solitary alcohol and marijuana use among middle school‐ and high school‐aged adolescents in the United States.

Methods

PubMed, PsycINFO and Web of Science were searched. Articles were included if they mention solitary alcohol or marijuana (or illicit drug) use among adolescents aged 12–18 years. Studies on non‐human animals, college students, non‐English language publications and articles exclusively about solitary tobacco or inhalant use were excluded. Overall, 22 articles were selected.

Results

Prevalence of adolescent solitary alcohol and marijuana use was relatively high (e.g. 14% life‐time solitary drinking in the general adolescent population), particularly in high‐risk subgroups (e.g. 38.8% life‐time solitary drinking in a sample of youth recruited from clinical and community settings). Risk factors for solitary alcohol and marijuana use include earlier onset and heavier use, coping motives, negative emotions and positive expectancies about use. Solitary alcohol and marijuana use are prospectively associated with later substance use disorder (SUD) symptoms, diminished academic performance and perceived health.

Conclusions

Approximately 1 in 7 adolescents in the US appear to have engaged in solitary alcohol and marijuana use at some point. It is positively associated with extent of drinking and marijuana use, cop;ing motives, negative emotions, and positive expectancies, as well as subsequent SUD symptoms and poor academic and health‐related outcomes.
Evaluation of covariate effects on pharmacokinetics of monoclonal antibodies in oncology
Authors: Bajaj Gaurav , Suryawanshi Satyendra , Roy Amit , Gupta Manish
Published: May 2019

Aims

The development of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) requires an understanding of the interindividual variability (IIV) in pharmacokinetics (PK) at the population level facilitated by population PK (PopPK) modelling. However, there is no clear rationale for selecting which covariates to screen during PopPK model development. Here, we compare the effect of covariates on PK parameters for mAbs in oncology and identify the most commonly used covariates affecting PK parameters.

Methods

All 25 mAbs approved for therapeutic use in oncology until December 2017 by the Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency were selected for study. Literature searches revealed 23 available PopPK models for these mAbs. To understand the magnitude and types of covariate effect on PK parameters, all covariates included in the final PopPK model for each mAb were summarized.

Results

The most commonly identified covariates were baseline body weight (BW; 17 mAbs), baseline serum albumin (8 mAbs), and sex (7 mAbs) on clearance; and BW (16 mAbs) and sex (12 mAbs) on central volume of distribution. A reduced PopPK model was developed for nivolumab and ipilimumab using these covariates, and the percentage of explained IIV from the reduced model (20.3% and 16.8%, respectively) was compared with that from the full model (24.5% and 27.9%, respectively).

Conclusions

This analysis provides a uniform platform for selecting covariates and suggests that the effect of BW, albumin and sex should be included during the development of PopPK models for mAbs in oncology. The reduced model was able to explain IIV to a similar extent as the full model.