Application of support vector machines on the basis of the first Hungarian bankruptcy model

In our study we rely on a data mining procedure known as support vector machine (SVM) on the database of the first Hungarian bankruptcy model. The models constructed are then contrasted with the results of earlier bankruptcy models with the use of classification accuracy and the area under the ROC curve. In using the SVM technique, in addition to conventional kernel functions, we also examine the possibilities of applying the ANOVA kernel function and take a detailed look at data preparation tasks recommended in using the SVM method (handling of outliers). The results of the models assembled suggest that a significant improvement of classification accuracy can be achieved on the database of the first Hungarian bankruptcy model when using the SVM method as opposed to neural networks

Vörs-Máriaasszonysziget őskori lelőhely interdiszciplináris feldolgozása = Vörs-Máriaasszonysziget - an interdisciplinary study of the prehistoric site

Az OTKA T-046297 program a Vörs-Máriaasszonysziget, többperiódusú lelőhely őskori anyagának régészeti, térinformatikai és természettudományos feldolgozását végezte el. Kiemelkedő jelentőségű a koraneolitikus leletanyag (Starčevo kultúra). A területen további 7 régészeti korszak emlékanyaga is előkerült. Elkészült a lelőhely régészeti, környezetrégészeti és archeometriai feldolgozása. Az adatokat térinformatikai alapú rendszerbe rögzítettük. A kerámia leletekről rajzok és fotók készültek, összesen 230 db A3 fotomontázs táblán elhelyezve. Dokumentáltuk a készítéstechnikát, kísérletekkel alátámasztva. A kerámia anyagon részletes petroarcheológiai vizsgálatok készültek. További petroarcheológiai vizsgálatok készültek a paticsokon és a kőanyagon. Elkészült a lelőhely környezet-régészeti feldolgozása. A lelőhely objektumaiból 77 zsák mintát iszapoltunk le (1389 l). A lelőhelyen és környezetében talajtani/palinológiai sekély fúrásokat mélyítettünk (összesen 17 fúrás). A mintákon palinológiai, szedimentológiai, mikro- és makrobotanikai, malakológiai és archeozoológiai vizsgálatok készültek. A lelőhelyről két neolit korú temetkezés került elő, a csontvázakon antropológiai, DNA és C-14 vizsgálatok készültek. További, összesen 12 C-14 vizsgálat készült a lelőhely zárt objektumaiból származó állatcsont és faszén maradványokon. A beérkezett jelentéseket (összesen 15 jelentés) monografikus formában, angol nyelven, a dokumentációs anyagot DVD-n jelentetjük meg, várhatóan 2009-ben | The OTKA T-046297 program has accomplished the archaeological and natural scientific elaboration of the prehistoric material from Vörs-Máriaasszonysziget multi-period site. Outstanding part of the material is the legacy of the Early Neolithic Starčevo culture. Apart from the Early Neolithic, remains of 7 archaeological cultures have been documented. Archaeological, environmental archaeological and archaeometrical investigation of the site was accomplished. Data were registered in a GIS system. The pottery was consered and presented on drawings and photos. Altogether 230 A3 size photo-montage plates were compiled. Production techniques were also investigated supported by experimental archaeology approach. Detailed petroarcheological research was performed on the pottery, daub and the lithic finds. Environmental archaeological study of the site was made on 77 sacks of silted soil samples (1389 l) and 17 shallow (hand) boreholes for sedimentological and palinological analysis. Palinological, sedimentological, micro- and macrobotanical, malacological and archaeozoological investigations were carried out. Two Neolithic burials were found on the site, the skeletons were submitted to anthropological, DNA and C-14 studies. Further 12 C-14 studies were made on bone and charcoal samples of the closed features. We are planning to publish results in English in monographic form with a DVD attached on the documentation and illustrations, probably in 2009

Bridge Decomposition of Restriction Measures

Motivated by Kesten's bridge decomposition for two-dimensional self-avoiding walks in the upper half plane, we show that the conjectured scaling limit of the half-plane SAW, the SLE(8/3) process, also has an appropriately defined bridge decomposition. This continuum decomposition turns out to entirely be a consequence of the restriction property of SLE(8/3), and as a result can be generalized to the wider class of restriction measures. Specifically we show that the restriction hulls with index less than one can be decomposed into a Poisson Point Process of irreducible bridges in a way that is similar to Ito's excursion decomposition of a Brownian motion according to its zeros.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures. Final version incorporates minor revisions suggested by the referee, to appear in Jour. Stat. Phy

Regulation of unbalanced redox homeostasis induced by the expression of wild-type HIV-1 viral protein R (NL4-3Vpr) in fission yeast

The wild-type viral protein R (Vpr) of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 exerts multiple effects on cellular activities during infection, including the induction of cell cycle G2 arrest and the death of human cells and cells of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. In this study, wild-type Vpr (NL4-3Vpr) integrated as a single copy gene in S. pombe chromosome was used to investigate the molecular impact of Vpr on cellular oxidative stress. NL4-3Vpr triggered an atypical response in early (14-h), and a wellregulated oxidative stress response in late (35-h) log-phase cultures. Specifically, NL4-3Vpr expression induced oxidative stress in the 14-h cultures leading, to decreased levels of superoxide anion (O2·−), hydroxyl radical (·OH) and glutathione (GSH), and significantly decreased activities of catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and glutathione S-transferase. In the 35-h cultures, elevated levels of O2·− and peroxides were accompanied by increased activities of most antioxidant enzymes, suggesting that the Vpr-induced unbalanced redox state of the cells might contribute to the adverse effects in HIV-infected patients

Zeros of the i.i.d. Gaussian power series: a conformally invariant determinantal process

Consider the zero set of the random power series f(z)=sum a_n z^n with i.i.d. complex Gaussian coefficients a_n. We show that these zeros form a determinantal process: more precisely, their joint intensity can be written as a minor of the Bergman kernel. We show that the number of zeros of f in a disk of radius r about the origin has the same distribution as the sum of independent {0,1}-valued random variables X_k, where P(X_k=1)=r^{2k}. Moreover, the set of absolute values of the zeros of f has the same distribution as the set {U_k^{1/2k}} where the U_k are i.i.d. random variables uniform in [0,1]. The repulsion between zeros can be studied via a dynamic version where the coefficients perform Brownian motion; we show that this dynamics is conformally invariant.Comment: 37 pages, 2 figures, updated proof

A systematic review of the evidence on decoupling of GDP, resource use and GHG emissions, part I: bibliometric and conceptual mapping

As long as economic growth is a major political goal, decoupling growth from resource use and emissions is a prerequisite for a sustainable net-zero emissions future. However, empirical evidence for absolute decoupling, i.e., decreasing resource use and emissions at the required scale despite continued economic growth, is scarce and scattered across different research streams. In this two-part systematic review, we assess how and to what extent decoupling has been observed and what can be learnt for addressing the sustainability and climate crisis. Based on a transparent approach, we systematically identify and screen more than 11,500 scientific papers, eventually analyzing full texts of 835 empirical studies on the relationship between economic growth (GDP), resource use (materials and energy) and greenhouse gas emissions. Part I of the review examines how decoupling has been investigated across three research streams: energy, materials and energy, and emissions. Part II synthesizes the empirical evidence and policy implications (Haberl et al. part II, in review). In part I, we examine the topical, temporal and geographical scopes, methods of analysis, institutional networks and prevalent conceptual angles. We find that in this rapidly growing literature, the vast majority of studies – decomposition, 'causality' and Environmental Kuznets Curve analysis – approach the topic from a statistical-econometric point of view, while hardly acknowledging thermodynamic principles on the role of energy and materials for socio-economic activities. A potentially fundamental incompatibility between economic growth and systemic societal changes to address the climate crisis is rarely considered. We conclude that the existing wealth of empirical evidence merits braver conceptual advances than we have seen thus far. Future work should focus on comprehensive multi-indicator long-term analyses, conceptually grounded on the fundamental biophysical basis of socio-economic activities, incorporating the role of global supply chains as well as the wider societal role and preconditions of economic growth

A systematic review of the evidence on decoupling of GDP, resource use and GHG emissions, part II: synthesizing the insights

Strategies toward ambitious climate targets usually rely on the concept of "decoupling"; that is, they aim at promoting economic growth while reducing the use of natural resources and GHG emissions. GDP growth coinciding with absolute reductions in emissions or resource use is denoted as "absolute decoupling", as opposed to "relative decoupling", where resource use or emissions increase less so than does GDP. Based on the bibliometric mapping in part I (Wiedenhofer et al., this issue), we synthesize the evidence emerging from the selected 835 peer-reviewed articles. We evaluate empirical studies of decoupling related to final/useful energy, exergy, use of material resources, as well as CO2 and total GHG emissions. We find that relative decoupling is frequent for material use as well as GHG and CO2 emissions but not for useful exergy, a quality-based measure of energy use. Primary energy can be decoupled from GDP largely to the extent to which the conversion of primary energy to useful exergy is improved. Examples of absolute long-term decoupling are rare, but recently some industrialized countries have decoupled GDP from both production- and, weaklier, consumption-based CO2 emissions. We analyze policies or strategies in the decoupling literature by classifying them into three groups: (1) Green growth, if sufficient reductions of resource use or emissions were deemed possible without altering the growth trajectory. (2) Degrowth, if reductions of resource use or emissions were given priority over GDP growth. (3) Others, e.g. if the role of energy for GDP growth was analyzed without reference to climate change mitigation. We conclude that large rapid absolute reductions of resource use and GHG emissions cannot be achieved through observed decoupling rates, hence decoupling needs to be complemented by sufficiency-oriented strategies and strict enforcement of absolute reduction targets. More research is needed on interdependencies between wellbeing, resources and emissions

Diclofenac Prolongs Repolarization in Ventricular Muscle with Impaired Repolarization Reserve

Background: The aim of the present work was to characterize the electrophysiological effects of the non-steroidal anti- inflammatory drug diclofenac and to study the possible proarrhythmic potency of the drug in ventricular muscle. Methods: Ion currents were recorded using voltage clamp technique in canine single ventricular cells and action potentials were obtained from canine ventricular preparations using microelectrodes. The proarrhythmic potency of the drug was investigated in an anaesthetized rabbit proarrhythmia model. Results: Action potentials were slightly lengthened in ventricular muscle but were shortened in Purkinje fibers by diclofenac (20 mM). The maximum upstroke velocity was decreased in both preparations. Larger repolarization prolongation was observed when repolarization reserve was impaired by previous BaCl 2 application. Diclofenac (3 mg/kg) did not prolong while dofetilide (25 mg/kg) significantly lengthened the QT c interval in anaesthetized rabbits. The addition of diclofenac following reduction of repolarization reserve by dofetilide further prolonged QT c . Diclofenac alone did not induce Torsades de Pointes ventricular tachycardia (TdP) while TdP incidence following dofetilide was 20%. However, the combination of diclofenac and dofetilide significantly increased TdP incidence (62%). In single ventricular cells diclofenac (30 mM) decreased the amplitude of rapid (I Kr ) and slow (I Ks ) delayed rectifier currents thereby attenuating repolarization reserve. L-type calcium current (I Ca ) was slightly diminished, but the transient outward (I to ) and inward rectifier (I K1 ) potassium currents were not influenced. Conclusions: Diclofenac at therapeutic concentrations and even at high dose does not prolong repolarization markedly and does not increase the risk of arrhythmia in normal heart. However, high dose diclofenac treatment may lengthen repolarization and enhance proarrhythmic risk in hearts with reduced repolarization reserve

Cysteine perthiosulfenic acid (Cys-SSOH): A novel intermediate in thiol-based redox signaling?

The reversible oxidation of protein cysteine residues (Cys-SH) is a key reaction in cellular redox signaling involving initial formation of sulfenic acids (Cys-SOH), which are commonly detected using selective dimedone-based probes. Here, we report that significant portions of dimedone-tagged proteins are susceptible to cleavage by DTT reflecting the presence of perthiosulfenic acid species (Cys-SSOH) due to similar oxidation of hydropersulfides (Cys-SSH), since Cys-S-dimedone adducts are stable toward DTT. Combined studies using molecular modeling, mass spectrometry, and cell-based experiments indicate that Cys-SSH are readily oxidized to Cys-SSOH, which forms stable adducts with dimedone-based probes. We additionally confirm the presence of Cys-SSH within protein tyrosine kinases such as EGFR, and their apparent oxidation to Cys-SSOH in response NADPH oxidase activation, suggesting that such Cys-SSH oxidation may represent a novel, as yet uncharacterized, event in redox-based signaling