Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CSI feedback scaling rate vs multiplexing gain tradeoff for DPC-based transmission in the Gaussian MIMO broadcast channel

The operation of the multiple input multiple output (MIMO) Gaussian broadcast channel (BC) with K transmit antennas and K over r users with r receive antennas each is analyzed when channel state information (CSI) is obtained at the transmitter from the i<sup>th</sup> user via finite-rate feedback link of capacity B<inf>i</inf> bits. It is proved that if B<inf>i</inf> is scaled at the rate of α<inf>i</inf>r(K - r) log<inf>2</inf> P, where P is the transmit power and α ∈ [0, 1], then using dirty paper coding (DPC), the multiplexing gain of α<inf>i</inf>r can be achieved for user i. This result on the feedback scaling rate rests on an elegant achievability scheme, the construction of which brings to light several new insights on the manner in which DPC achieves the complete multiplexing gain in the perfect-CSIT case.
Partial deafness cochlear implantation provides benefit to a new population of individuals with hearing loss

Conclusion. Partial deafness cochlear implantation (PDCI) is a feasible means of treating individuals who have good low frequency hearing, but a severe to profound hearing loss in the mid to high frequencies. The individuals have benefit in noise and show significant benefit in a number of difficult listening conditions, when compared with their acoustic-only hearing prior to implantation. This benefit is maintained over time. Objectives. PDCI using the round window surgical technique is one means of treating individuals with a ‘ski-slope’ hearing loss, who gain minimal benefit from amplification with conventional hearing instruments. This paper aims to demonstrate the benefit that PDCI provides these individuals. Patients and methods. Ten subjects received a partial insertion of a standard MED-EL electrode, using the round window approach. Pure tone audiometry and monosyllable testing in quiet and noise were conducted preoperatively, at implant fitting and then at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after initial device fitting. The APHAB questionnaire was completed by subjects preoperatively and then at 6 and 12 months after receiving their cochlear implant. Results. Hearing was preserved in 9 of 10 cases. One subject uses a hearing aid to amplify low frequency hearing, the remainder use natural low frequency hearing. Improvements in monosyllabic scores over time in both quiet and noise were significant, particularly within the first 3 months of PDCI use.
Optical and near-infrared spectroscopy of nova V1494 Aquilae 1999 no. 2

Optical and near-infrared spectroscopic observations of the fast nova V1494 Aquilae 1999 no. 2 covering various phases - early decline, transition and nebular - during the first 18 months of its post-outburst evolution are presented in this paper. During this period, the nova evolved in the P fe P o fe C o spectral sequence. The transition from an optically thick wind to a polar blob-equatorial ring geometry is seen in the evolution of the spectral line profiles. There is evidence of density and temperature stratification in the ejecta. Physical conditions in the ejecta have been estimated based on our observations.
Recursive conflict resolution for cooperative motion planning in dynamic highway traffic

Automated driving with human-like driving behavior requires the capability of cooperative decision making. In this paper, we present a novel method of cooperative decision making in dynamic and structured environments such as highways. Other motorists' intentions are deduced and integrated into a planning framework that allows for reasonable cooperative decision making without the need of inter-vehicle communication. Therefore, and to reduce computational complexity, we assume that following vehicles' actions are dominated by their predecessors and use the assumption to formulate a recursive conflict resolution algorithm. Results from simulations and real-world experiments show the functionality of the presented approach.
Rational Choice and Political Power

Rational Choice and Political Power is a classic text republished with two new chapters. It critiques the three dimensions of power showing that we can explain everything the dimensions are designed to highlight using the tools of rational choice theory. It argues power is best seen as a property of agents, and can be measured by looking at their relative resources. Breaking down power resources into five abstract categories we can see why groups of individuals can fail to secure their best interests due to the collective action problem. We can also define objective interests in through the lens of collective action. Despite power being seen as a property of agents rational choice models of power provide structural Explanation. The power and luck structure is the relationship in agential resource-holding given agents preferences. The book explains the difference between power and systematic luck – the latter is where groups, including powerful ones – can get what they want without doing anything simply because of their social location in the power and luck structure. The book engages with some feminist critiques of seeing power in rational choice terms and includes some methodological discussion of the relationship of methodological individualism and structuralism and then that the concept of power is essentially contested. This book’s unique interaction with both classical and contemporary debates makes it an essential resource for anyone teaching or studying power in the disciplines of sociology, philosophy, politics or international relations.
Income related inequality in financial inclusion and role of banks: Evidence on financial exclusion in India

This paper analyzes income related inequality in financial inclusion in India using a representative household level survey data, linked to State-level factors. It shows that (a) the extent of financial exclusion is quite severe among households across all income groups, (b) income related inequality in financial inclusion varies widely across sub-national regions in India, but it is quite high in most of the cases, (c) income related inequality in financial inclusion cannot be considered as synonymous to income inequality. A notable result is that greater availability of banking services fosters financial inclusion, particularly among the poor. This paper also provides estimates of the effects of various socio, economic and demographic characteristics of households on propensity of a household to use formal financial services, and compare that for rural and urban sectors.
Fatigue is a reliable, sensitive and unique outcome measure in rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE Fatigue is an important symptom in patients with RA. Measurement of fatigue in clinical trials and in clinical practice requires scales that are reproducible, sensitive to change and practical. This study examined the reliability and sensitivity to change of fatigue and its relative independence as an outcome measure in RA. METHODS Successive patients referred to the rheumatology clinic at St Vincent's University Hospital and Our Lady's Hospice were evaluated. Clinical assessments were undertaken at baseline and 3 months after commencing TNF-alpha blockade. Fatigue was measured using an 11-point numeric rating scale (NRS). Sensitivity to change when compared with current core set outcome measures was determined by calculation of the standardized response mean (SRM). Multiple regression analysis was employed to determine the independent variance of fatigue scores relative to the core set. RESULTS Forty-nine patients were evaluated. At baseline, mean (s.d.) fatigue scores were 6.7 +/- 2.1. At 3 months, fatigue scores had fallen to 4.3 +/- 2.6 (P < 0.001). Test-retest intraclass correlation coefficient for the NRS was 0.79 (P < 0.008). Fatigue was ranked third for relative sensitivity to change as shown by SRM: pain, 1.37; tender joint count (TJC), 1.09; fatigue, 0.92; swollen joint count (SJC), 0.86; HAQ, 0.82; CRP, 0.69; and patient global health (GH), 0.25. The relative independent variance in fatigue of 22% was higher than that of the core set: TJC, 20%; pain, 19%; SJC, 16%; GH, 8%; HAQ, 7%; and CRP, 8%. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates that measures of fatigue are reliable and sensitive to change, and should be considered for inclusion as a core outcome measure in RA.
Tobacco Smoking in HIV-Infected versus General Population in France: Heterogeneity across the Various Groups of People Living with HIV

Background Although the various groups of people living with HIV (PLWHIV) considerably differ regarding socioeconomic and behavioral characteristics, their specificities regarding tobacco smoking have been poorly investigated. We aimed to assess patterns of tobacco consumption across the various groups of PLWHIV and to compare them to the general population, accounting for the specific socioeconomic profile of PLWHIV. Methods We used data of the ANRS-Vespa2 study, a national representative survey on PLWHIV conducted in France in 2011. Prevalence of past and current tobacco consumption, heavy smoking and strong nicotine dependence were assessed among the various groups of PLWHIV as defined by transmission category, gender and geographic origin, and compared to the French general population using direct standardization and multivariate Poisson regression models, accounting for gender, age, education and geographic origin. Results Among the 3,019 participants aged 18–85 years (median time since HIV diagnosis: 12 years), 37.5% were current smokers and 22.1% were past smokers, with marked differences across the various groups of PLWHIV. Compared to the general population, the prevalence of regular smoking was increased among HIV-infected men who have sex with men (MSM) (adjusted prevalence rate ratio (aPRR): 1.19, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.07–1.32), French-native women (aPRR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.10–1.57), and heterosexual French-native men (although not significantly, aPRR: 1.19, 95% CI: 0.98–1.45). Additionally, HIV-infected MSM were significantly less likely to be ex-smokers (aPRR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.64–0.82) than the general population and similar trends were observed among heterosexual French-native men (aPRR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.78–1.02) and women (aPRR: 0.84, 95% CI: 0.70–1.01). HIV-infected sub-Saharan African migrants were less likely to be regular smokers than the general population. Conclusions Smoking constitutes a major concern in various groups of PLWHIV in France including MSM and heterosexual French-natives, probably resulting from PLWHIV being less likely to quit smoking than their counterparts in the general population.
Audit Pricing Semiosis: A Case for an Alternative View to Audit Pricing

This study considers the validity of the determinants of audit pricing. Audit pricing research has always been approached from the traditional positivist research methodology which yields results that may not give a full account of what determines and influences audit fees. This mainstream approach gives the perception that the actors within the audit pricing discourse are objective and rational by nature during the course of their interactions. In addition, the researcher is also perceived to be unbiased and impartial. Such assumptions are not suitable for social science research, because they tend to oversimplify the way that people and organisations behave. Interpretive and critical paradigms are the traditional alternatives to positivist research. Interpretive researchers seek to reach an understanding of the phenomena being observed. While, critical researchers, in addition to seeking an understanding, may also critique such phenomena in respect to the morality and fair treatment of the parties involved who may have an unequal distribution of power. These traditional alternatives have their limitations and may subject the researcher to being accused of being too subjective or too political. From our research, the interpretive and critical approaches have never been applied to audit pricing research and semiotics is proposed as a viable alternative due to the flexibility offered in using the Peircian model. That is, the researcher can apply a semiotic approach in which they have the freedom to incorporate the key characteristics from both the interpretive and critical paradigms. Semiotics is applied to audit pricing with an objective of shedding new light on what factors determine audit fees. Stamper's Semiotic Framework was deployed in undertaking the analysis using six analytical levels, namely: the physical level, empirics, syntactics, semantics, pragmatics and the social level. The model was further extended through giving greater emphasis to the interactions between the parties. The traditional positivist approach, which explained audit pricing was mainly attributed to the size of the audit client and the audit firm. But an in-depth semiological analysis of the interactions between the parties within the discourse of audit pricing revealed a number of new ideas in addition to the "size" variable. Such ideas include the influence of government intervention in the standard setting process, the audit profession's barriers to entry, risk of litigation from the client and the client's internal control function. These may be used, as the basis for further research into areas previously not considered by past literature.
Chronic but not acute intracerebroventricular administration of amyloid β‐peptide(25–35) decreases somatostatin content, adenylate cyclase activity, somatostatin‐induced inhibition of adenylate cyclase activity, and adenylate cyclase I levels in the rat hippocampus

Although alterations in adenylate cyclase (AC) activity and somatostatin (SRIF) receptor density have been reported in Alzheimer's disease, the effects of amyloid β‐peptide (Aβ) on these parameters in the hippocampus are unknown. Our aim was to investigate whether the peptide fragment Aβ(25–35) can affect the somatostatinergic system in the rat hippocampus. Hence, Aβ(25–35) was injected intracerebroventricularly (i.c.v.) to Wistar rats in a single dose or infused via an osmotic minipump connected to a cannula implanted in the right lateral ventricle during 14 days. The animals were decapitated 7 or 14 days after the single injection and 14 days after chronic infusion of the peptide. Chronic i.c. v. infusion of Aβ(25–35) decreased SRIF‐like immunoreactive content without modifying the SRIF receptor density, SRIF receptor expression, or the Giα1, Giα2, and Giα3 protein levels in the hippocampus. This treatment, however, caused a decrease in basal and forskolin‐stimulated AC activity as well as in the capacity of SRIF to inhibit AC activity. Furthermore, the protein levels of the neural‐specific AC type I were significantly decreased in the hippocampus of the treated rats, whereas an increase in the levels of AC V/VI was found, with no alterations in type VIII AC. A single i.c. v. dose of Aβ(25–35) exerted no effect on SRIF content or SRIF receptors but induced a slight decrease in forskolin‐stimulated AC activity and its inhibition by SRIF. Because chronic Aβ(25–35) infusion impairs learning and memory whereas SRIF facilitates these functions, the alterations described here might be physiologically important given the decreased cognitive behavior previously reported in Aβ‐treated rats. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Functional contributions and interactions between the human hippocampus and subregions of the striatum during arbitrary associative learning and memory

The hippocampus and striatum are thought to have different functional roles in learning and memory. It is unknown under what experimental conditions their contributions are dissimilar or converge, and the extent to which they interact over the course of learning. In order to evaluate both the functional contributions of as well as the interactions between the human hippocampus and striatum, the present study used high‐resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and variations of a conditional visuomotor associative learning task that either taxed arbitrary associative learning (Experiment 1) or stimulus‐response learning (Experiment 2). In the first experiment, we observed changes in activity in the hippocampus and anterior caudate that reflect differences between the two regions consistent with distinct computational principles. In the second experiment, we observed activity in the putamen that reflected content specific representations during the learning of arbitrary conditional visuomotor associations. In both experiments, the hippocampus and ventral striatum demonstrated dynamic functional coupling during the learning of new arbitrary associations, but not during retrieval of well‐learned arbitrary associations using control variants of the tasks that did not preferentially tax one system versus the other. These findings suggest that both the hippocampus and subregions of the dorsal striatum contribute uniquely to the learning of arbitrary associations while the hippocampus and ventral striatum interact over the course of learning. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Synergistic Effects of Two Commonly Contaminating Mycotoxins ( Aflatoxin and T-2 Toxin ) on Biochemical Parameters and Immune Status of Broiler Chickens

The synergistic effects of two contaminating mycotoxins aflatoxin (AF) and T-2 toxin (T-2) in the feed of poultry on the performance of broiler chickens were studied individually and in combination, by using one hundred and sixty eight day-old commercial broiler chicks obtained from a commercial hatchery and randomly separated into four groups in 2X2 Complete Randomized Design of three replicates and fourteen chicks per replicate, with dietary treatments of 0.0 (control), 0.5μg/g AF, 2.0μg/g T-2 and their combination (0.5 μg/g AF+2.0 μg/g T-2). The chicks were housed in deep litter independent conventional system with feed and water ad libitum throughout the experimental study. The toxin treated birds exhibited a significant (P 0.05) decrease in total serum protein, albumin and uric acid. The serum alanine amino transferase (ALT) levels were decreased and antibody titers against Newcastle disease (ND) and Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) were also decreased significantly (P 0.05). These findings were more severe in the combined group of AF and T-2. Results indicated that the presence of AF and T-2 in the diet may have a very severe synergistic effect on these measured factors of the commercial chicks.
Rival Macroeconomic Models And Australian Stylised Facts

This paper reports the stylised facts resulting from the tests of rival macroeconomic models in explaining the Australian business cycle during the sample period 1966(3)-1995(3). The dominant rival paradigms such as the New Classical, Keynesian the Real Business Cycle theories have been tested using both Granger causality and non-nested testing techniques. The time-series data used for modelling the rival paradigms were processed using unit root and cointegration econometrics to guard against possible spurious regression inferences due to nonstationarity in the data. Parsimonious data congruent models for testing the rival paradigms were derived by the application of the general-to-specific methodology. The problem of non-spherical errors created by the use of generated regressors in the specification of business cycle models was tackled by replacing ordinary least squares by generalised least squares estimates. The empirical results supported the conclusion that hybrid macroeconomic paradigms encompassing both demand and supply side shocks provide more plausible explanations of the Australian business cycle than tests narrowly focussed only on demand side shocks. The study results challenges the narrow view that rival macroeconomic theories would have failed to provide meaningful guidelines to Australian policymakers to implement counter-cyclical policies during the study period.
Mitochondrial connexin 43 impacts on respiratory complex I activity and mitochondrial oxygen consumption

Connexin 43 (Cx43) is present at the sarcolemma and the inner membrane of cardiomyocyte subsarcolemmal mitochondria (SSM). Lack or inhibition of mitochondrial Cx43 is associated with reduced mitochondrial potassium influx, which might affect mitochondrial respiration. Therefore, we analysed the importance of mitochondrial Cx43 for oxygen consumption. Acute inhibition of Cx43 in rat left ventricular (LV) SSM by 18α glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) or Cx43 mimetic peptides (Cx43‐MP) reduced ADP‐stimulated complex I respiration and ATP generation. Chronic reduction of Cx43 in conditional knockout mice (Cx43Cre‐ER(T)/fl + 4‐OHT, 5–10% of Cx43 protein compared with control Cx43fl/fl mitochondria) reduced ADP‐stimulated complex I respiration of LV SSM to 47.8 ± 2.4 nmol O2/min.*mg protein (n = 8) from 61.9 ± 7.4 nmol O2/min.*mg protein in Cx43fl/fl mitochondria (n = 10, P < 0.05), while complex II respiration remained unchanged. The LV complex I activities (% of citrate synthase activity) of Cx43Cre‐ER(T)/fl+4‐OHT mice (16.1 ± 0.9%, n = 9) were lower than in Cx43fl/fl mice (19.8 ± 1.3%, n = 8, P < 0.05); complex II activities were similar between genotypes. Supporting the importance of Cx43 for respiration, in Cx43‐overexpressing HL‐1 cardiomyocytes complex I respiration was increased, whereas complex II respiration remained unaffected. Taken together, mitochondrial Cx43 is required for optimal complex I activity and respiration and thus mitochondrial ATP‐production.
An Adaptive Contextual Recommender System: a Slow Intelligence Perspective

This paper introduces an Adaptive Context Aware Recommender system based on the Slow Intelligence approach. The system is made available to the user as an adaptive mobile application, which allows a high degree of customization in recommending services and resources according to his/her current position and global profile. A case study applied to the town of Pittsburgh has been analyzed considering various users (with different profiles as visitors, students, professors) and an experimental campaign has been conducted obtaining interesting results.
Applying SERVQUAL to Web sites: an exploratory study

In an effort to identify the quality factors perceived to be most important in relation to the use of Web sites, a survey was undertaken. The questionnaire utilized was based on the SERVQUAL instrument that identifies five quality dimensions in service environments. The results indicate that the quality dimensions found applicable in the service sector are also applicable to Web sites. The items that have been identified as most important in relation to the quality of Web sites are tangibles (the appearance of the Web site, navigation, search options, and structure), reliability (the ability to judge the trustworthiness of the offered service and the organization performing the service), responsiveness (the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service), assurance (the ability of the Web site to convey trust and confidence in the organisation behind it with respect to security and privacy), and empathy (the provision of caring, individualized attention to customers, including user recognition and customization).