A Two-stage Architecture for Stock Price Forecasting by Integrating Self-Organizing Map and Support Vector Regression

Stock price prediction has attracted much attention from both practitioners and researchers. However, most studies in this area ignored the non-stationary nature of stock price series. That is, stock price series do not exhibit identical statistical properties at each point of time. As a result, the relationships between stock price series and their predictors are quite dynamic. It is challenging for any single artificial technique to effectively address this problematic characteristics in stock price series. One potential solution is to hybridize different artificial techniques. Towards this end, this study employs a two-stage architecture for better stock price prediction. Specifically, the self-organizing map (SOM) is first used to decompose the whole input space into regions where data points with similar statistical distributions are grouped together, so as to contain and capture the non-stationary property of financial series. After decomposing heterogeneous data points into several homogenous regions, support vector regression (SVR) is applied to forecast financial indices. The proposed technique is empirically tested using stock price series from seven major financial markets. The results show that the performance of stock price prediction can be significantly enhanced by using the two-stage architecture in comparison with a single SVR model

CR3 and Dectin-1 Collaborate in Macrophage Cytokine Response through Association on Lipid Rafts and Activation of Syk-JNK-AP-1 Pathway

Copyright: © 2015 Huang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited Acknowledgments We are grateful to the Second Core Laboratory of Research Core Facility at the National Taiwan University Hospital for confocal microscopy service and providing ultracentrifuge. We thank Dr. William E. Goldman (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC) for kindly providing WT and ags1-null mutant of H. capsulatum G186A. Funding: This work is supported by research grants 101-2320-B-002-030-MY3 from the Ministry of Science and Technology (http://www.most.gov.tw) and AS-101-TP-B06-3 from Academia Sinica (http://www.sinica.edu.tw) to BAWH. GDB is funded by research grant 102705 from Welcome Trust (http://www.wellcome.ac.uk). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Community-acquired Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Children, Taiwan

Highly virulent community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) with Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) is common worldwide. Using antimicrobial drug susceptibility testing, staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec typing, exotoxin profiling, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis typing, we provide evidence that supports the relationship between nasal strains of PVL-positive MRSA and community-acquired disease

Postchallenge responses of nitrotyrosine and TNF-alpha during 75-g oral glucose tolerance test are associated with the presence of coronary artery diseases in patients with prediabetes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Meta-analysis has demonstrated an exponential relationship between 2-hr postchallenge hyperglycemia and coronary artery disease (CAD). Pulsatile hyperglycemia can acutely increase proinflammatory cytokines by oxidative stress. We hypothesized that postchallenge proinflammatory and nitrosative responses after 75 g oral glucose tolerance tests (75 g-OGTT) might be associated with CAD in patients without previously recognized type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Serial changes of plasma glucose (PG), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and nitrotyrosine levels were analyzed during 75 g-OGTT in 120 patients (81 male; age 62 ± 11 years) before coronary angiography. Patients were classified as normal (NGT; 42%), impaired (IGT; 34%) and diabetic (T2DM; 24%) glucose tolerance by 75 g-OGTT.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Postchallenge hyperglycemia elicited TNF-α, IL-6 and nitrotyrosine levels time-dependently, and 2-hr median levels of TNF-α (7.1 versus 6.4 pg/ml; <it>P </it>< 0.05) and nitrotyrosine (1.01 versus 0.83 <it>μ</it>mol/l; <it>P </it>< 0.05), but not IL-6 or PG, were significantly higher in patients with CAD in either IGT or T2DM groups. After adjusting risk factors and glucose tolerance status, 2-hr nitrotyrosine in highest quartiles (OR: 3.1, <it>P </it>< 0.05) remained an independent predictor of CAD by logistic regression analysis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results highlight postchallenge proinflammatory and nitrosative responses by 75 g-OGTT, rather than hyperglycemia <it>per se</it>, are associated with CAD in patients without previous recognized diabetes.</p

The design of a prospective, randomized, open-labeled study to compare the efficacy of lercanidipine with amlodipine on renal function in hypertensive patients aged at least 55 years (LEADER study)

AbstractBackgroundAlthough all classes of antihypertensive treatment can successfully reduce morbidity and mortality of cardiac pathology, prevention of target organ damages is of great importance beyond blood pressure lowering. Unlike most dihydropyridines, lercanidipine dilates both afferent and the efferent arterioles of nephrons, so it may provide renoprotective effects, which other CCBs may not have. The main purpose of this study is to compare the renoprotective effect of lercanidipine and amlodipine among hypertensive people aged 55years and older with newly diagnosed hypertension or those who were treatment-naïve for one month.MethodsThe study is a prospective, open-labelled, randomized, controlled trial to enrol 232 hypertensive patients aged ≥55 years. Subjects will be randomized into lercanidipine arm (10–20mg/day) and amlodipine arm (5–10mg/day) by 1:1 ratio. The dosage can be up-titrated to 20mg/day (lercanidipine group) and 10mg/day (amlodipine group), respectively, at week 4 or any following visit thereafter. Efficacy and safety data will be collected at week 4, 12 and 24 by evaluating the blood pressure lowering, estimated glomerular filtration rate, creatinine clearance, and urine albumin-creatinine ratio.ConclusionsThe reno-protective effects of new generation of CCBs such as lercanidipine administered to patients with hypertension are not investigated well. After all, this study will bring benefit to older patients who need drugs with both excellent anti-hypertensive and reno-protective efficacy. And the results will be provided for future treatment guideline of elder population in Taiwan

Effective Interventions and Decline of Antituberculosis Drug Resistance in Eastern Taiwan, 2004–2008

BACKGROUND: The Taiwan health authority recently launched several tuberculosis (TB) control interventions, which may have an impact on the epidemic of drug-resistant TB. We conducted a population-based antituberculosis drug resistance surveillance program in Eastern Taiwan to measure the proportions of notified TB patients with anti-TB drug resistance and the trend from 2004 to 2008. METHODS AND FINDINGS: All culture-positive TB patients were enrolled. Drug susceptibility testing results of the first isolate of each TB patient in each treatment course were analyzed. In total, 2688 patients were included, of which 2176 (81.0%) were new TB cases and 512 (19.0%) were previously treated cases. Among the 2176 new TB cases, 97 (4.5%) were retreated after the first episode of TB treatment within the study period. The proportion of new patients with any resistance, isoniazid resistance but not multidrug-resistant TB (resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampin, MDR-TB), and MDR-TB was 16.4%, 7.5%, and 4.0%, respectively, and that among previously treated cases was 30.9%, 7.9%, and 17.6%, respectively. The combined proportion of any resistance decreased from 23.3% in 2004 to 14.3% in 2008, and that of MDR-TB from 11.5% to 2.4%. CONCLUSIONS: The proportion of TB patients with drug-resistant TB in Eastern Taiwan remains substantial. However, an effective TB control program has successfully driven the proportion of drug resistance among TB patients downward

miRTarBase update 2014: an information resource for experimentally validated miRNA-target interactions

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules capable of negatively regulating gene expression to control many cellular mechanisms. The miRTarBase database (http://mirtarbase.mbc.nctu.edu.tw/) provides the most current and comprehensive information of experimentally validated miRNA-target interactions. The database was launched in 2010 with data sources for >100 published studies in the identification of miRNA targets, molecular networks of miRNA targets and systems biology, and the current release (2013, version 4) includes significant expansions and enhancements over the initial release (2010, version 1). This article reports the current status of and recent improvements to the database, including (i) a 14-fold increase to miRNA-target interaction entries, (ii) a miRNA-target network, (iii) expression profile of miRNA and its target gene, (iv) miRNA target-associated diseases and (v) additional utilities including an upgrade reminder and an error reporting/user feedback system

The newly synthesized 2-(3-hydroxy-5-methoxyphenyl)-6,7-methylenedioxyquinolin-4-one triggers cell apoptosis through induction of oxidative stress and upregulation of the p38 MAPK signaling pathway in HL-60 human leukemia cells

The aim of the present study was to discover the signaling pathways associated with 2-(3-hydroxy-5-methoxy-phenyl)-6,7-methylenedioxyquinolin-4-one (YYK1)-induced apoptosis in HL-60 human leukemia cells. YYK1 induced cytotoxic effects, cell morphological changes, decreased the cell number and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) in HL-60 cells. YYK1-induced apoptosis was confirmed by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining. Results from colorimetric assays and western blot analysis indicated that activities of caspase-7/-3, caspase-8 and caspase-9 were increased in YYK1-treated HL-60 cells. Western blot analysis showed that the protein levels of extrinsic apoptotic proteins (Fas/CD95, FasL and FADD), intrinsic related proteins (cytochrome c, Apaf-1, AIF and Endo G), the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 and phosphorylated p38 MAPK were increased in HL-60 cells after YYK1 treatment. Cell apoptosis was significantly reduced after pre-treatment with N-acetylcysteine (NAC; a ROS scavenger) or diphenyleneiodonium chloride (DPI; a NADPH oxidase inhibitor). Blockage of p38 MAPK signaling by SB202190 abolished YYK1-induced Fas/CD95 upregulation and apoptosis in HL-60 cells. We conclude that YYK1 induces both of extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathways via ROS-mediated activation of p38 MAPK signaling in HL-60 human leukemia cells in vitro

Design and synthesis of new 2-arylnaphthyridin-4-ones as potent antitumor agents targeting tumorigenic cell lines

To develop new anticancer drug candidates from 2-arylnaphthyridin-4-one (AN), we have designed and synthesized a series of 3′-hydroxy and 6-hydroxy derivatives of AN. The results of cytotoxicity screening indicated that the replacement of the 3′-methoxy moiety on the C-ring phenyl group of AN (6a–e) with 3′-hydroxy (7a–e) made no significant effect on the inhibitory activity against HL-60, Hep3B and NCI-H460 cancer cell lines. On the other hand, replacing the 6-methoxy group on the A-ring of AN (6g–i) with a 6-hydroxy group (7g–i) resulted in reduced inhibitory activity against the above three cancer cell lines. Among the above-mentioned target compounds, 2-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-5-methyl-1,8-naphthyridin-4(1H)-one (7a) demonstrated the greatest potency and the best selectivity toward tumorigenic cancer cell lines. In a 7a preliminary mechanism of action study in Hep3B hepatoma cells, 7a showed the effects on microtubules followed by cell cycle arrest and sequentially led to apoptosis