PREDICTING COMPANY REVENUE TREND USING FINANCIAL NEWS

Text data analysis has found its way in many applications, and our study focuses on the financial fields. Previous studies in financial indicator prediction are mostly based on econometric models. In recent years, with the advance of text mining techniques, more and more studies employ financial news as the data source for analysis. Most studies, however, aim to predict stock prices, identify the trend of stock market, and detect company bankruptcy or company fraud. We observe that company’ revenue, which can imply the company\u27s cash flow and market share, is indeed an important financial indicator. In our study, we identify a few features that potentially impact company’s revenue and further propose an approach to deriving feature values from financial news data. Specifically, we develop a lexicon-based method that involves the automatic expansion of existing financial sentiment dictionary and the aggregation of sentiment values. Preliminary experimental results show that we are able to predict the revenue trend through the news articles in the last quarter with the accuracy up to 80%

Continuous purification of monoclonal antibody using periodic counter-current chromatography

Integrated and continuous processing of antibody drugs offers several advantages over traditional batch processing in the biotechnology industry. The flexibility of periodic counter-current (PCC) design is performed in the selection of residence time and column numbers on the capture process. In this study, we investigated the association of residence time and product recovery in the downstream PCC purification. A practical operation of PCC as a continuous capture purification step has been applied to 5L perfusion culture, 5L concentrated fed-batch culture, and 50L fed-bath culture. Using an empirical model for the protein breakthrough curve, residence time (RT) was evaluated and the loading flow rate was adjusted to achieve a target RT of 2.25 minutes for monoclonal antibody (mAb). The sample load volume for each column switching was set on 50 and 58% breakthrough curves, mAb recovery was 88 .4% and 88.9%, and buffer consumption was decreased to under half that of the batch process. Overall, more than 40 grams of purified antibody is obtained in 24 hours using a PCC purification system. Comparison of qualities of mAb analyzed by UPLC and reverse phase chromatography show that glycan profiles and purity are quite similar between antibodies obtained from PCC and batch purification, whereas the acidic variants of mAb purified by PCC is higher than that purified by batch mode. The advantages of a continuous downstream capture step are highlighted for our case study in comparison with the existing batch chromatography processes

Periodic counter-current chromatography for continuous purification of monoclonal antibody

Integrated and continuous processing of antibody drugs offers several advantages over traditional batch processing in the biotechnology industry. The flexibility of periodic counter-current (PCC) design is performed in the selection of residence time and column numbers on the capture process. In this study, we investigate the association of residence time and product recovery in the downstream PCC purification. A practical operation of PCC as a continuous capture purification step has been applied to 50L feed-bath culture, 5L perfusion culture and 5L concentrated feed-batch culture. Protein breakthrough curve was determined for the appropriate column switching strategy. Using an empirical model for the protein breakthrough curve, residence time (RT) was evaluated and the loading flow rate was adjusted to achieve a target RT of 2.25 minutes for monoclonal antibody (mAb). The sample load volume for each column switching was set on 50-58% breakthrough curves, mAb recovery was 83-92%, and buffer consumption was decreased to under half that of the batch process. Overall, 1.0 to 1.5 gram mAb was obtained for per milliliter resin in 24 hours using a PCC purification system. We used size exclusion-high performance liquid chromatography to confirm composition and masses of our fragment samples. Comparison of qualities of mAb analyzed by UPLC and reverse phase chromatography show that glycan profiles and purity are quite similar between PCC and Avant purification, whereas that for acidic variants are different, the acidic variants of mAb purified by PCC is higher than that purified by Avant. The advantages of a continuous downstream capture step are highlighted for our case study in comparison with the existing batch chromatography processes. The use of PCC improves the higher resin capacity utilization and lower buffer consumption

Phishing detection via identification of website identity

In this paper, we propose an anti-phishing method to protect Internet users from the phishing attacks. The scope of our study is on the Internet phishing, particularly focusing on the detection of phishing website. In order to do that, our proposed method will render a screenshot of the webpage and segment the region of interest, which consists of the website logo. Next, we will utilize Google image database to identify the website identity based on the segmented website logo. During the identification process, we employ the content-based image retrieval mechanism provided in Google Image Search engine to locate the most similar logo from Google image database. The returned results will reveal the real identity of the website. With the real identity, we can differentiate a phishing website from the legitimate website by assessing the domain name of the query website. The conducted experiments show promising results and our findings prove that we can effectively detect a phishing website when we manage to determine the real identity of a websit

Quantitative detection and characterization of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 and non-O157 in raw vegetables by MPN-PCR in Malaysia

Foodborne diseases are mainly caused by bacterial contamination which can lead to severe diarrhea. This study aimed to detect the presence of Shiga toxin-Producing Escherichia coli O157, Escherichia coli non-O157 and virulence gene in raw vegetables. The samples were purchased from wet market and hypermarket in Selangor. The detections were carried out by using the combination methods of Most Probable Number-Polymerase Chain Reaction (MPN- PCR). A total of 37(18.5%) samples were found to be contaminated by STEC. Out of these 37 isolates, four (10.8%) of the isolates were E. coli O157 while 33(89.2%) were E. coli non- O157. However, there was no E. coli O157:H7 detected in all the samples. The occurrence of Shiga toxin-Producing E. coli in edible raw vegetables samples suggests the importance of this pathogen in vegetables. Therefore, more studies are required to remove this pathogen from vegetables

Detection of Klebsiella pneumoniae in raw vegetables using most probable number-polymerase chain reaction (MPN-PCR)

Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) is one of the most important members of Klebsiella genus in Enterobacteriacae family, which is responsible for pneumonia (the destructive lung inflammation disease). Vegetables are known as source of contamination with K. pneumonia. Raw vegetables are usually consumed in salads and other dishes. The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of K. pneumoniae in raw vegetables marketed in Malaysia. Two hundred commonly used salad vegetables (lettuces, parsley, cucumber, tomato and carrot) from hypermarkets and wet markets were investigated for presence of K. pneumoniae using Most Probable Number-Polymerase Chain Reaction (MPN-PCR). K. pneumoniae was found to be significantly more frequent (100%) and (82.5%) in lettuce and cucumbers, respectively. K. pneumoniae contamination was lowest in carrot samples (30%). All samples were contaminated with K. pneumoniae ranging from <3 to 1100 MPN/g. Results showed the high health risk associated with consumption of raw vegetables

Risk of Escherichia coli O157:H7 transmission linked to the consumption of raw milk

E. coli O157:H7 is associated with life threatening diseases such as hemorrhagic colitis (HC), hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). Raw milk is considered a high risk food as it is highly nutritious and serves as an ideal medium for bacterial growth. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 in raw cow, goat and buffalo milk samples. MPN-PCR method targeting the major virulence rfbE gene and fliCH 7 gene of E. coli O157:H7 was used. Total of 177 raw milk samples were collected from local dairy farms in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The highest prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 was found in raw cow milk (8.75%) followed by raw goat milk (7.32%) and raw buffalo milk (1.79%). The estimated quantity of E. coli O157:H7 in raw cow, goat and buffalo milk ranged from <30 MPN/g to 120 MPN/g. In raw cow and goat milk samples examined contain E. coli O157:H7 microbial load ranged from 30 to 120 MPN/g and 30 to 36 MPN/g, respectively. E. coli O157:H7 microbial load in buffalo milk samples was found to be the lowest, only 30 MPN/g. Results of this research provide useful information on biosafety of E. coli O157:H7 in raw milk marketed in Malaysia

Risk assessment of acquiring listeriosis from consumption of chicken offal in Selangor, Malaysia

Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) is an important foodborne pathogen which can cause foodborne listeriosis with high mortality rates especially in susceptible population groups such as pregnant women, elderly and immunocompromised individuals. The biosafety level of L. monocytogenes in chicken offal has becomes a great concern as chicken offal is a cheap source of protein and it is often served as side dishes in South East Asian countries. In Malaysia, the consumption of chicken offal has almost doubled from 5 g per capita per day in the early 1980s to 9 g per capita per day in 2009. In this study, risk assessment was conducted to estimate the risk of acquiring listeriosis from consumption of chicken offal in Malaysia. A microbial survey on the prevalence and concentration of L. monocytogenes in chicken offal were carried out in Selangor, Malaysia over a one-year period (November 2010 to October 2011). It was assumed that there were no seasonal changes in the prevalence and consumption pattern all year round. Assuming that 5.6 million people in Selangor, Malaysia consume a single serving (125 g) of chicken offal per week, it is estimated that in a year there could be 0.61 cases and 1.98 × 10-4 cases of listeriosis per 100,000 population of pregnant woman and immunocompromised individual, respectively. However, the potential for getting listeriosis among the healthy population was very low, only 1.39 × 10-8 cases per 100,000 population. This study demonstrated risk assessment model not only used as a tool to estimate the risk of acquiring illness but it can influence public health surveillance and providing data in setting appropriate level of protection

Quantification and antibiotic susceptibility of Salmonella spp., Salmonella enteritidis and Salmonella typhimurium in raw vegetables (ulam)

Salmonella has been reported to be presence both in raw and processed foods worldwide. In this study, the prevalence, quantification and antibiotic susceptibility of Salmonella isolated from raw vegetables or locally known as ulam such as asiatic pennywort (Centella asiatica (L) Urb), water dropwort (Oenanthe javanica (Blume) DC), long bean (Vigna sinensis EndL), and winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (L) DC) obtained from retail markets in Selangor, Malaysia were carried out. From 96 samples tested, the overall prevalence of Salmonella spp. was 97.9%, Salmonella Enteritidis was 54.2% and Salmonella Typhimurium was 82.3% respectively. Samples were contaminated with Salmonella ranging from <3 to 2400 MPN/g. Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium isolates obtained from the raw vegetables (ulam) were found to exhibit high resistance against ampicillin (100%), erythromycin (100%), amoxicillin/clavunic acid (81.3%), cephalothin (75%), streptomycin (50%) and ciprofloxacin (50%). All Salmonella isolates showed multi drug resistant (MDR) profile with each isolate being resistant to 3 or more antibiotics. The multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index of Salmonella isolates ranged from 0.27 to 0.55 for Salmonella Enteritidis and 0.27 to 0.82 for Salmonella Typhimurium. The presence of Salmonella on raw vegetables (ulam) and high antibiotic resistance isolates indicated that raw vegetables could be contaminated and thus imposes possible health risk to local consumers