A Pseudo Nearest-Neighbor Approach for Missing Data Recovery on Gaussian Random Data Sets

Missing data handling is an important preparation step for most data discrimination or mining tasks. Inappropriate treatment of missing data may cause large errors or false results. In this paper, we study the effect of a missing data recovery method, namely the pseudo- nearest neighbor substitution approach, on Gaussian distributed data sets that represent typical cases in data discrimination and data mining applications. The error rate of the proposed recovery method is evaluated by comparing the clustering results of the recovered data sets to the clustering results obtained on the originally complete data sets. The results are also compared with that obtained by applying two other missing data handling methods, the constant default value substitution and the missing data ignorance (non-substitution) methods. The experiment results provided a valuable insight to the improvement of the accuracy for data discrimination and knowledge discovery on large data sets containing missing values

Substitution between CSR Activities: Evidence from Hiring and Mistreating Unauthorized Workers and Pollution

We argue substitution exists among CSR investments and exogenously increasing one CSR investment could lead to a decrease in another CSR investment. We provide evidence using the U.S. states’ staggered adoptions of E-Verify mandates, which curtails a labor-related social bad by reducing the hiring of unauthorized workers and related workplace abuses. We find the mandate leads to an increase in plant-level pollution, an environmental social bad, and the effect is stronger when the mandate applies to more employers, for plants in states with more unauthorized workers in the labor force, and for plants with jobs that are inherently more hazardous

Corporate Labor Misconduct and Government Contract Termination for Convenience

A prominent feature of government contracting is that the federal government has a unilateral right to terminate the contract for convenience as long as the termination is in “the Government’s interest.” We provide the first large sample evidence on government contract termination for convenience and examine whether it can be triggered by contractors’ labor misconduct. We find that when contractors were penalized for serious labor misconduct in the previous year, their government contracts are more likely to be terminated for convenience. The effect is stronger when the misconduct is more severe or recurring, when the contractor receives higher media attention, and when competition for government contracts is more intensive in the industry. In contrast, we find no evidence that contractors’ non-labor misconduct, including environmental and financial misconduct (e.g., accounting fraud), is associated with contract termination for convenience

Comparative transcriptome analysis and simple sequence repeat marker development for two closely related Isodon species used as ‘Xihuangcao’ herbs

Purpose: To facilitate the molecular identification of original plants, resolve taxonomic problems and identify standards for ‘Xihuangcao’-based products on the market.Methods: A transcriptomic analysis of two closely related species, i.e., Isodon serra (Maxim.) (IS) and I. lophanthoides (Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don) Hara, was conducted by using the Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform, and expressed sequence tag-derived simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers were developed based on these transcriptomes.Results: In total, 149,650 and 103,221 contigs were obtained, with N50 values of 1,400 and 1,516, from the IS and I. lophanthoides RNA-Seq datasets, respectively. These contigs were clustered into 107,777 and 68,220 unigenes, which were functionally annotated to identify the genes involved in therapeutic components. In total, 14,138 and 11,756 EST-SSR motifs were identified, and of these motifs, 7,453 and 6,428 were used to design primers for IS and I. lophanthoides, respectively. After PCR verification and fluorescence-based genotyping, 24 SSR markers with bright bands, high polymorphism, and single amplification were obtained and used to identify closely related Isodon species/varieties.Conclusion: These data could help herbal scientists identify high-quality herbal plants and provide a reference for genetic improvement and population genetic and phylogenetic studies investigating ‘Xihuangcao’ herbs.Keywords: Xihuangcao, Transcriptome, EST-SSR, Molecular marker

Origin and tuning of the magnetocaloric effect for the magnetic refrigerant MnFe(P1-xGex)

Neutron diffraction and magnetization measurements of the magneto refrigerant Mn1+yFe1-yP1-xGex reveal that the ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases correspond to two very distinct crystal structures, with the magnetic entropy change as a function of magnetic field or temperature being directly controlled by the phase fraction of this first-order transition. By tuning the physical properties of this system we have achieved a maximum magnetic entropy change exceeding 74 J/Kg K for both increasing and decreasing field, more than twice the value of the previous record.Comment: 6 Figures. One tabl

A benchmark and an algorithm for detecting germline transposon insertions and measuring de novo transposon insertion frequencies

Transposons are genomic parasites, and their new insertions can cause instability and spur the evolution of their host genomes. Rapid accumulation of short-read whole-genome sequencing data provides a great opportunity for studying new transposon insertions and their impacts on the host genome. Although many algorithms are available for detecting transposon insertions, the task remains challenging and existing tools are not designed for identifying de novo insertions. Here, we present a new benchmark fly dataset based on PacBio long-read sequencing and a new method TEMP2 for detecting germline insertions and measuring de novo \u27singleton\u27 insertion frequencies in eukaryotic genomes. TEMP2 achieves high sensitivity and precision for detecting germline insertions when compared with existing tools using both simulated data in fly and experimental data in fly and human. Furthermore, TEMP2 can accurately assess the frequencies of de novo transposon insertions even with high levels of chimeric reads in simulated datasets; such chimeric reads often occur during the construction of short-read sequencing libraries. By applying TEMP2 to published data on hybrid dysgenic flies inflicted by de-repressed P-elements, we confirmed the continuous new insertions of P-elements in dysgenic offspring before they regain piRNAs for P-element repression. TEMP2 is freely available at Github: https://github.com/weng-lab/TEMP2

Calmodulin and PI(3,4,5)P3 cooperatively bind to the Itk pleckstrin homology domain to promote efficient calcium signaling and IL-17A production

Precise regulation of the kinetics and magnitude of Ca2+ signaling enables this signal to mediate diverse responses, such as cell migration, differentiation, vesicular trafficking, and cell death. Here, we showed that the Ca2+-binding protein calmodulin (CaM) acted in a positive feedback loop to potentiate Ca2+ signaling downstream of the Tec kinase family member Itk. Using NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), we mapped CaM binding to two loops adjacent to the lipid-binding pocket within the Itk pleckstrin homology (PH) domain. The Itk PH domain bound synergistically to Ca2+/CaM and the lipid phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate [PI(3,4,5)P3], such that binding to Ca2+/CaM enhanced the binding to PI(3,4,5)P3 and vice versa. Disruption of CaM binding attenuated Itk recruitment to the membrane and diminished release of Ca2+ from the endoplasmic reticulum. Moreover, disruption of this feedback loop abrogated Itk-dependent production of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-17A (interleukin-17A) by CD4+ T cells. Additionally, we found that CaM associated with PH domains from other proteins, indicating that CaM may regulate other PH domain–containing proteins