Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Candidate Pre-Main-Sequence F Stars with Circumstellar Dust Identified Using Combined 2MASS and uvby Data

We propose a method that uses near-infrared plus uvby photometry to identify potentially extensive circumstellar dusty environments around F and A stars. The method has been applied to a sample of ~900 metal-rich reddened F stars with 2 Micron All Sky Survey and uvby data, suggesting the presence of circumstellar dust emitting in the near-infrared for ~70 stars. The log Te-MV diagram suggests that most, if not all, are likely pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars. They seem to be a continuation of the class of Herbig Ae/Be PMS stars in the spectral type F. Their number drops sharply downward of log Te ~ 3.84 (spectral types later than ~F5), which may provide new clues to the PMS evolution of 1-2 M☉ stars. We present a list of 21 of the most conspicuous candidate stars with circumstellar dust. About half of them are associated with the extended star-forming region around ρ Ophiuchi. The brightest of these 21 stars, with V ≲ 7.5, turn out to be IRAS sources, suggesting the presence of heated dust emitting in the far-infrared. Also in this list, HD 81270 is reported as a very unusual star moving away from the Galactic plane at a projected speed of 70 km s-1.
Anti-TNF-Mediated Modulation of Prohepcidin Improves Iron Availability in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, in an IL-6-Mediated Fashion

Background. Anaemia is common in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), frequently resulting from a combination of iron deficiency and of anaemia of chronic disease (ACD). ACD is characterized by macrophage iron retention induced by proinflammatory cytokines. Hepcidin is the master inducer of iron accumulation during ACD, and its production is mainly regulated by IL-6 and the novel erythroid hormone erythroferrone (ERFE). This study evaluates whether anti-TNF monoclonal antibodies therapy modurates hepcidin production and the levels of its main regulators, leading to a restoration of iron homeostasis. Methods. Sera were collected from 21 IBD patients, before each anti-TNF administration, for the first 6 weeks of therapy. Prohepcidin, erythropoietin, erythroferrone, C reactive protein, interleukin-6, iron markers, and haemoglobin levels were measured and clinical activity indexes were evaluated. Results. Serum prohepcidin, IL-6, CRP, and ferritin were significantly reduced after 6-week treatment; an increase in serum iron and total transferrin was observed. No changes in the EPO-ERFE axis were found. Remarkably, haemoglobin was significantly increased. Conclusions. Anti-TNF therapy improves iron metabolism and, subsequently, anaemia in IBD. This effect appears to be related to the modulation of the cytokine network and specifically IL-6 leading to a relevant decrease of hepcidin, a master regulator of ACD.
Active Deep Networks for Semi-Supervised Sentiment Classification

This paper presents a novel semi-supervised learning algorithm called Active Deep Networks (ADN), to address the semi-supervised sentiment classification problem with active learning. First, we propose the semi-supervised learning method of ADN. ADN is constructed by Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBM) with unsupervised learning using labeled data and abundant of unlabeled data. Then the constructed structure is fine-tuned by gradient-descent based supervised learning with an exponential loss function. Second, we apply active learning in the semi-supervised learning framework to identify reviews that should be labeled as training data. Then ADN architecture is trained by the selected labeled data and all unlabeled data. Experiments on five sentiment classification datasets show that ADN outperforms the semi-supervised learning algorithm and deep learning techniques applied for sentiment classification.
Mental Health and Cannabis Abusers of Kashmir Valley

The present study is carried out to explore the Mental Health of the Cannabis Abusers and Non Abuser of Kashmir valley. The sample consisted of 100 male respondents; of these 50 were cannabis abusers and 50 nonabusers were taken into consideration. The results of study showed that the two groups significantly differed on all the sub scales of mental health. Cannabis abusers showed higher level of anxiety, depression, and loss of behavioural/emotional control, psychological distress, and have showed lower levels of life satisfaction and mental health index scores in comparison with non-cannabis abusers.
Empirical Comparison between Hierarchical Fragments Based and Standard Model Based Object Recognition Systems

The fragment-based architecture of Ullman’s group [16, 12] which resulted in the recent work of Epshtein and Ullman [4] is a biologically motivated object recognition framework which bears similarities to the model of visual cortex developed in our lab [2, 14]. The fragment based method holds several advantages over our standard model approach such a top down part localization mechanism, minimal construction etc that are not currently available within the standard model. However, as far as we know, it has not been evaluated on standard datasets, nor compared to other existing systems. Also, there is no publicly available implementation of fragment based algorithms. Here, we provide such an implementation and compare the current instantiations of the two frameworks with regards to recognition capabilities on publicly available datasets. This work is not meant to capture the full potential of the two research directions. Rather, it is meant as a snapshot in time of their current capabilities with respect to their performance in object classification tasks.
Building personal resilience in paramedic students

The present study examined the impact of a 6- to 8-hour, self-paced online resiliency training program to help students training to be Primary Care Paramedics (PCP) mitigate the risks associated with working in a trauma informed work setting. Of the 138 participants, 88 were male and 30 were female, with a mean age of 25.5 years. Of these, 81 students participated in the experimental group (who took the course), and 57 in the control group. Baseline demographic results were examined using bivariate comparisons between the control and experimental, and all were found to be statistically insignificant at p < 0.05 which suggests that there were no differences between the two groups on the pre-test demographic variables. Prior to the intervention there were no significant differences in total resilience or any of the sub-scales (selfreliance, meaningfulness, equanimity, perseverance, and existential aloneness). Following the resiliency training and the practicum experience, the experimental group scored better in total resilience and each of the sub-scores (p < 0.05) except meaningfulness. Results suggest that developing skills to mitigate and manage workplace trauma can reduce or help mitigate the negative impact of exposure to trauma and potentially reduce the risk of developing trauma related mental health problems which may impact the well-being and quality of life of students once employed as a paramedic.
Single Case Study: DSM-III Differential Diagnosis of Munchausen's Syndrome

Patients who have the wish to bo admitted and treated repeatedly in hospitals are a fascinating although still poorly understood group. Those who have no apparent organic basis for their complaints are especially interesting and challenging, since they often demand and sometimes receive potentially dangerous somatic treatments such as operations and medications. Such patients receive a wide range of psychiatric diagnoses, such as hysteria, Briquet's syndrome, factitious illness, Munchausen's syndrome, malingering, and schizophrenia. We recently treated a young woman who had been given most of these diagnoses, whose case history presented us with an opportunity to review problems in differential psychiatric diagnosis as applied to this frequently confused and confusing problem area.
Risky choice in younger versus older adults: Affective context matters

Earlier frameworks have indicated that older adults tend to experience decline in their deliberative decisional capacity, while their affective abilities tend to remain intact (Peters, Hess, Västfjäll, & Auman, 2007). The present study applied this framework to the study of risky decision-making across the lifespan. Two versions of the Columbia Card Task (CCT) were used to trigger either affective decision-making (i.e., the “warm” CCT) or deliberative decision-making (i.e., the “cold” CCT) in a sample of 158 individuals across the lifespan. Overall there were no age differences in risk seeking. However, there was a significant interaction between age and condition, such that older adults were relatively more risk seeking in the cold condition only. In terms of everyday decision-making, context matters and risk propensity may shift within older adults depending upon the context.
The VRIO Framework of Competitive Advantage : Preliminary Research Implications for Organizational Innovations as Drawn from a Project Management Study

Inventions, innovations, and creativity are cornerstones of technology-based industries. Organizations working in technology-intensive industries must constantly balance creativity with order and innovation with efficiency. In this paper, I focus on organizational innovations as potential sources of competitive advantage. Strategic assets can be assessed with the VRIO framework. Strategic assets are “Valuable” (important), “Rare” (unique), “Inimitable” (hard to copy), and involve an “Organizational Focus” (VRIO). I am currently using the VRIO framework to assess project management as a source of competitive advantage. The approach I am using to assess project management can be applied to research on organizational innovations. The paper discusses the appropriate use of innovation dimensions, the use of innovation process performance as the dependent variable, and the selection of independent variables. The paper is relevant to innovation researchers interested in using the Resource Based View lens to study organizational innovations as a source of competitive advantage.
Special effect varieties in higher dimension

Here we introduce the concept of special effect varieties in higher dimension and we generalize to $\mathbb{P}^n, n \geq 3$, the two conjectures given in [2] for the planar case. Finally, we propose some examples on the product of projective spaces and we show how these results fit with the ones of Catalisano, Geramita and Gimigliano
How Discontinuous is Computing Nash Equilibria? (Extended Abstract)

We investigate the degree of discontinuity of several solution concepts from non-cooperative game theory. While the consideration of Nash equilibria forms the core of our work, also pure and correlated equilibria are dealt with. Formally, we restrict the treatment to two player games, but results and proofs extend to the $n$-player case. As a side result, the degree of discontinuity of solving systems of linear inequalities is settled.
Extensive Experimental Validation of a Personalized Approach for Coping with Unfair Ratings in Reputation Systems

The unfair rating problem exists when a buying agent models the trustworthiness of selling agents by also relying on ratings of the sellers from other buyers in electronic marketplaces, that is in a reputation system. In this article, we first analyze the capabilities of existing approaches for coping with unfair ratings in different challenging scenarios, including ones where the majority of buyers are dishonest, buyers lack personal experience with sellers, sellers may vary their behavior, and buyers may provide a large number of ratings. We then present a personalized modeling approach (PMA) that has all these capabilities. Our approach allows a buyer to model both the private reputation and public reputation of other buyers to determine whether these buyers' ratings are fair. More importantly, in this work, we focus on experimental comparison of our approach with two key models in a simulated dynamic e-marketplace environment. We specifically examine the above mentioned scenarios to confirm our analysis and to demonstrate the capabilities of our approach. Our study thus provides the extensive experimental support for the personalized approach that can be effectively employed by reputation systems to cope with unfair ratings.
Intelligent optimal control

In this chapter we consider nonlinear systems where decisions are made in stages, as is the usual case in feedback control. The outcome of each decision is not fully predictable but can be anticipated to some extent before the next decision is made. Each decision results in some immediate cost but also affects the context in which future decisions are to be made and therefore affects the cost incurred in future stages. We are interested in decision making policies that minimize the total cost over a number of stages. Such problems are challenging primarily because of the trade-off between immediate and future costs.
Cultural heterosexism and silencing sexual diversity: Anoka-Hennepin School District

ABSTRACT In less than 2 years, nine young people within one Minnesota school district committed suicide. As such, the bullying of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth in the Anoka-Hennepin School District continues to be an example of how embedded ideologies of some individuals can substantially impact the treatment of marginalized groups. Using the theory of cultural heterosexism, this paper will look at the ways in which the Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota became a breeding ground for homophobic violence and discrimination. Furthermore, attention will be directed toward how discourses of sexuality, mobilized by conservative Christian groups in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, were used in order to maintain a heteronormative social order.
Differential influences of the facets of religious and spiritual beliefs on Salvation Army officers’ quality of life

ABSTRACT Salvation Army officers often work in stressful situations which are likely to impact on wellbeing. No research has examined the buffering effects of the officers’ strong religious and spiritual beliefs on this relationship. The current study aimed to examine the relationship between quality of life (QoL) and religious and spiritual beliefs among current and retired Salvation Army officers from the Australian Eastern Territory. Two hundred and seventy officers aged between 30 and 93 years (153 males and 102 females) completed the WHOQOL-BREF1 and the WHOQOL-SRPB.2 The results of the analyses revealed positive relationships between religious and spiritual QoL, the eight facets of the WHOQOL-SRPB, overall QoL and each of the four WHOQOL-BREF domains. The results showed that the facets of religious and spiritual QoL made differential contributions to QoL, and the QoL domains. Hope and optimism was the only facet to predict physical and environment QoL in regression analyses. It was also a significant predictor, along with inner peace and meaning and purpose in life, of psychological QoL. Wholeness and integration, spiritual strength and faith significantly predicted the social relationship domain. However, the relationship with spiritual strength and social relationships was mediated by wholeness and integration. Spiritual connection did not significantly predict any of the QoL domains. Religious and spiritual beliefs are important for Salvation Army officers maintaining a high level of QoL in the face of stressful work environments. However, the different facets of religion and spirituality play different roles in this relationship and need to be examined individually. This is particularly important given that religious and spiritual beliefs may help officers cope with stressful work situations.
German Versions of the Nightmare Effects Survey (NES) and the Nightmare Frequency Questionnaire (NFQ): Psychometric Properties in a Sample of Adult Chronic Nightmare Sufferers

The Nightmare Effects Survey (NES) and the Nightmare Frequency Questionnaire (NFQ), 2 widely used questionnaires in nightmare research, were translated into German and tested in a sample of 86 adult chronic nightmare sufferers. Participants completed the questionnaires together with measures of nightmare- and sleep-related factors and psychopathology and kept a nightmare diary for 3 weeks. Psychometric properties were determined: The German NES showed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s &agr; = .898) and split-half reliability (r = .889) and a unifactorial structure (46.33% variance explained). The German NFQ and the prospective nightmare diary yielded similar frequencies for nights with nightmares, a significantly higher value for number of nightmares in the diary, and correlations of . 621 and . 570 between measures of nights with nightmares and number of nightmares, respectively. The 2 scores of the German NFQ were highly intercorrelated (r = .838). Correlations with related constructs were insignificant or low for the German NFQ (between r = .09 and r = .28) and medium for the German NES (between r = .27 and r = .59). The German NFQ and NES proved to be reliable, useful, and efficient to quantify nightmares and their effects. The findings demonstrate the questionnaires’ construct validity and support theories that differentiate between nightmare frequency, nightmare effects, and nightmare distress. German translations are provided as supplemental material.
From GAs to artificial immune systems: improving adaptation in time dependent optimization

The paper explores Time Dependent Optimization (Tdo) as a measure of adaptiveness in artificial systems. We first discuss this choice and review classical Tdo models to propose a canonic benchmark. Then we underline the central role of diversity in adaptive dynamics for biological and cybernetic systems and illustrate by a state of the art of evolutionary Tdo (Etdo). A Simple Artificial Immune System (Sais) is then proposed and experimentally compared to Etdo. Encouraging results are explained by strong analogies between Sais and GAs as well as Sais's ability to manage stable heterogeneous populations as a model of Idiotypic Networks. We conclude by discussing the relevance of artificial immune systems as genuinely adaptive artificial systems.
I Am Too Just Like You

Research across various disciplines has demonstrated that social exclusion has devastating psychological, emotional, and behavioral consequences. Excluded individuals are therefore motivated to affiliate with others, even though they may not have the resources, cognitive or otherwise, to do so. The current research explored whether nonconscious mimicry of other individuals—a low-cost, low-risk, automatic behavior—might help excluded individuals address threatened belongingness needs. Experiment 1 demonstrated that excluded people mimic a subsequent interaction partner more than included people do. Experiment 2 showed that individuals excluded by an in-group selectively (and nonconsciously) mimic a confederate who is an in-group member more than a confederate who is an out-group member. The relationship between exclusion and mimicry suggests that there are automatic behaviors people can use to recover from the experience of being excluded. In addition, this research demonstrates that nonconscious mimicry is selective and sensitive to context.
The Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race in American Psychology

The study of culture and related concepts, such as ethnicityand race, in American psychology are examined in thisarticle. First, the conceptual confusion and ways in whichculture, ethnicity, and race are used as explanatory factorsfor intergroup differences in psychological phenomena arediscussed. Second, ways in which to study culture inmainstream psychology and to enhance hypothesis testingand theory in cross-cultural psychology are illustrated. Fi-nally, the importance of examining sociocultural variablesand considering theory in ethnic minority research is ad-dressed. In general, it is proposed that by including theory,conceptualizing, and measuring cultural and related vari-ables, mainstream, cross-cultural, and ethnic research canadvance the understanding of culture in psychology as wellas the generality of principles and the cultural sensitivityof applications.
Dependence and Conditional Independence in Economic Models ∗ ( PRELIMINARY VERSION )

De Finetti’s Theorem asserts that a sequence of exchangeable variables are conditionally independent, that is, dependence under exchangeability is nothing but conditionally independence. However, de Finetti’s theorem is valid only with a infinite number of random variables, which makes this result unsuitable for application in many economic models. In this paper, we prove that dependence is conditionally independence in a completely general setting (even without exchangeability). Moreover, we prove the existence of a minimally informative random variable that makes types conditionally independent. If this variable is known by all privately informed individuals, then all results that are valid under independence are also valid for such a model. JEL Classification Numbers: C62, C72, D44, D82.
Using feedback control of microflows to independently steer multiple particles

In this paper, we show how to combine microfluidics and feedback control to independently steer multiple particles with micrometer accuracy in two spatial dimensions. The particles are steered by creating a fluid flow that carries all the particles from where they are to where they should be at each time step. Our control loop comprises sensing, computation, and actuation to steer particles along user-input trajectories. Particle locations are identified in real-time by an optical system and transferred to a control algorithm that then determines the electrode voltages necessary to create a flow field to carry all the particles to their next desired locations. The process repeats at the next time instant. Our method achieves inexpensive steering of particles by using conventional electroosmotic actuation in microfluidic channels. This type of particle steering does not require optical traps and can noninvasively steer neutral or charged particles and objects that cannot be captured by laser tweezers. (Laser tweezers cannot steer reflective particles, or particles where the index of refraction is lower than (or for more sophisticated optical vortex holographic tweezers does not differ substantially from) that of the surrounding medium. ) We show proof-of-concept PDMS devices, having four and eight electrodes, with control algorithms that can steer one and three particles, respectively. In particular, we demonstrate experimentally that it is possible to use electroosmotic flow to accurately steer and trap multiple particles at once
Landmark Classification for Route Directions

In order for automated navigation systems to operate effectively, the route instructions they produce must be clear, concise and easily understood by users. In order to incorporate a landmark within a coherent sentence, it is necessary to first understand how that landmark is conceptualised by travellers --- whether it is perceived as point-like, line-like or area-like. This paper investigates the viability of automatically classifying the conceptualisation of landmarks relative to a given city context. We use web data to learn the default conceptualisation of those landmarks, crucially analysing preposition and verb collocations in the classification.