We construct inner amenable groups$G$with infinite conjugacy classes and such that the associated II_{1}factor has no non-trivial asymptotically central elements, i.e. does not have property Gamma of Murray and von Neumann. This solves a problem posed by Effros in 1975.

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We study $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ -graded identities of simple Lie superalgebras over a field of characteristic zero. We prove the existence of the graded PI-exponent for such algebras.

Portfolio allocation with gross-exposure constraint is an effective method to increase the efficiency and stability of portfolios selection among a vast pool of assets, as demonstrated by Fan, Zhang, and Yu. The required high-dimensional volatility matrix can be estimated by using high-frequency financial data. This enables us to better adapt to the local volatilities and local correlations among a vast number of assets and to increase significantly the sample size for estimating the volatility matrix. This article studies the volatility matrix estimation using high-dimensional, high-frequency data from the perspective of portfolio selection. Specifically, we propose the use of pairwise-refresh time and all-refresh time methods based on the concept of refresh time proposed by Barndorff-Nielsen, Hansen, Lunde, and Shephard for the estimation of vast covariance matrix and compare their merits in the portfolio selection. We

The single-stranded RNA Flavivirus, Zika virus (ZIKV), has recently re-emerged and spread rapidly across the western hemispheres equatorial countries, primarily through Aedes mosquito transmission. While symptoms in adult infections appear to be self-limiting and mild, severe birth defects, such as microcephaly, have been linked to infection during early pregnancy. Recently, Tang et al. (Cell Stem Cell 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2016.02.016 ) demonstrated that ZIKV efficiently infects induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs), resulting in cell cycle abnormalities and apoptosis. Consequently, hNPCs are a suggested ZIKV target. We analyzed the transcriptomic sequencing (RNA-seq) data (GEO: GSE78711) of ZIKV (Strain: MR766) infected hNPCs. For comparison to the ZIKV-infected hNPCs, the expression data from hNPCs infected with human cytomegalovirus (CMV) (Strain: AD169) was used (GEO: GSE35295). Utilizing a combination of Gene Ontology, database of human diseases, and pathway analysis, we generated a putative systemic model of infection supported by known molecular pathways of other highly related viruses. We analyzed RNA-sequencing data for transcript expression alterations in ZIKV-infected hNPCs, and then compared them to expression patterns of iPSC-derived hNPCs infected with CMV, a virus that can also induce severe congenital neurological defects in developing fetuses. We demonstrate for the first time that many of cellular pathways correlate with clinical pathologies following ZIKV infection such as microcephaly, congenital nervous