A cascaded approach to normalising gene mentions in biomedical literature

Linking gene and protein names mentioned in the literature to unique identifiers in referent genomic databases is an essential step in accessing and integrating knowledge in the biomedical domain. However, it remains a challenging task due to lexical and terminological variation, and ambiguity of gene name mentions in documents. We present a generic and effective rule-based approach to link gene mentions in the literature to referent genomic databases, where pre-processing of both gene synonyms in the databases and gene mentions in text are first applied. The mapping method employs a cascaded approach, which combines exact, exact-like and token-based approximate matching by using flexible representations of a gene synonym dictionary and gene mentions generated during the pre-processing phase. We also consider multi-gene name mentions and permutation of components in gene names. A systematic evaluation of the suggested methods has identified steps that are beneficial for improving either precision or recall in gene name identification. The results of the experiments on the BioCreAtIvE2 data sets (identification of human gene names) demonstrated that our methods achieved highly encouraging results with F-measure of up to 81.20%

High Frequency Trading and Mini Flash Crashes

We analyse all Mini Flash Crashes (or Flash Equity Failures) in the US equity markets in the four most volatile months during 2006-2011. In contrast to previous studies, we find that Mini Flash Crashes are the result of regulation framework and market fragmentation, in particular due to the aggressive use of Intermarket Sweep Orders and Regulation NMS protecting only Top of the Book. We find strong evidence that Mini Flash Crashes have an adverse impact on market liquidity and are associated with Fleeting Liquidity

Quantum democracy: notes on rethinking territory in contemporary democratic politics

Las crisis políticas suelen describirse como súbitos puntos de inflexión, momentos de dramatismo extremo, puntos críticos en los que todo está en juego, en los que se necesitan juicios y decisiones audaces. Sin embargo, sabemos por arqueólogos, paleontólogos, historiadores y otros expertos que la transformación y/o el derrumbe de los órdenes antiguos y su sustitución por nuevas organizaciones de poder suelen producirse con lentitud. Su ritmo es el de la larga duración, lo que significa que sus consecuencias radicales requieren tiempo para materializarse. Las rupturas que se producen lentamente son mucho más difíciles de detectar, y aún más de analizar, pero deben ser una parte central del análisis de la democracia contemporánea y de su futuro incierto, o al menos eso es lo que argumenta el proyecto de la democracia cuántica.Political crises are normally described as sudden turning points, moments of gripping drama, flashpoints when everything is up for grabs, when bold judgments and decisions become necessary. But we know from archaeologists, paleontologists, historians and others that the radical transformation and/or ruination of old orders and their replacement by new power arrangements often happen slowly. Their rhythm is that of the longue durée, and that means their radical consequences take time to materialise. Slow-motion ruptures are much harder to spot, let alone to analyse, but they must be central to the analysis of contemporary democracy and its uncertain future, or so the Quantum Democracy project argues

Mixture of normals probit models

This paper generalizes the normal probit model of dichotomous choice by introducing mixtures of normals distributions for the disturbance term. By mixing on both the mean and variance parameters and by increasing the number of distributions in the mixture these models effectively remove the normality assumption and are much closer to semiparametric models. When a Bayesian approach is taken, there is an exact finite-sample distribution theory for the choice probability conditional on the covariates. The paper uses artificial data to show how posterior odds ratios can discriminate between normal and nonnormal distributions in probit models. The method is also applied to female labor force participation decisions in a sample with 1,555 observations from the PSID. In this application, Bayes factors strongly favor mixture of normals probit models over the conventional probit model, and the most favored models have mixtures of four normal distributions for the disturbance term.Econometric models

Media and the Public Spheres –European Idea and Ideal

The present decline of public service broadcasting is related to the transformation of the public sphere driven by the new galaxy of communication. The traditional argument of scarcity no longer applies in times of media and information abundance, and public service broadcasting loses its privileged place of the keeper of the public space. The transformation of the public sphere that is linked to the new media abundance is evidenced by the fragmentation and modularisation of publics served by different types of media. At the micro public level, the local and community media create virtual spaces of the public, at the mezzo level the national media facilitate mezzo publics, and the World Wide Web, faxes and the whole galaxy of communication enable the appearance of the macro publics at the global level. Even though the concept of public service media in its traditional sense is no longer viable, the concept of public spheres remains very important to democracy, as an original

A productive challenge: unelected representatives can enrich democracy

"Persönlichkeiten des öffentlichen Lebens, die keine politische Funktion (mehr) haben, können auf Grund ihrer persönlichen Autorität, ihres öffentlichen Rufs und ihrer (politischen) Erfahrung eine wichtige Rolle in der repräsentativen Demokratie spielen, besonders in Zeiten der Politikverdrossenheit. Ihre politische Unabhängigkeit gibt ihnen die Möglichkeit, auf Missstände und Versäumnisse der Regierungen und Behörden hinzuweisen und so als Korrektiv wirken." (Autorenreferat)"Unelected representatives can play important roles in the age of monitory democracy, especially in times when elected representatives lose credibility. Even though they are not formally elected, these public figures can do good works for democracy. Their personal or group authority enables them to draw attention to the violation of public standards by governments, highlight their policy failures, and serve as correctives to the undue dominance of state-centred definitions of leadership." (author's abstract

Nations, Nationalism and the European Citizen

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The Role of the G.A.A. in Creating, Maintaining and Reinforcing Senses of Place and Identity

What we have here is a tentative attempt to investigate the role the G. A. A. plays in creating, reinforcing and maintaining senses of place in Borrisoleigh, Co. Tipperary. The G.A.A. itself is an organisation of over one million members, its strength comes from the two opposite notions of rivalry and comradery. It is this rivalry that is the core of identity and sense ofplace in areas where hurling and the G.A.A. are strong. The study indicates that hurling and the hurling club reinforces the boundaries geographers place around places, creating an inside and an outside - a "them " and "us". Senses of place if anything are stronger for players involved now than for those of the past in these times o f time-space compression, the links with home are strengthening. Even the space in which games are played takes on a symbolic importance as a focal point for the community. Contrast this to the urban clubs, where no parish rule exists and essentially no sense of place. Thus the role the local G.A.A. club plays in creating, maintaining and reinforcing senses of place becomes more obvious