Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Universal Semi-Constant Rebalanced Portfolios

In this paper, we investigate investment strategies that can rebalance their target portfolio vectors at arbitrary investment periods. These strategies are called semi-constant rebalanced portfolios in Blum and Kalai (1998), Helmbold et al. (1998). Unlike a constant rebalanced portfolio, which must rebalance at every investment interval, a semi-constant rebalanced portfolio rebalances its portfolio only on selected instants. Hence, a semi-constant rebalanced portfolio may avoid rebalancing if the transaction costs outweigh the benefits of rebalancing. In a competitive algorithm framework, we compete against all such semi-constant portfolios with an arbitrary number of rebalancings and corresponding rebalancing instants. We investigate this framework with and without transaction costs and demonstrate sequential portfolios that asymptotically achieve the wealth of the best semi-constant rebalanced portfolios whose number of rebalancings and instants of rebalancings are tuned to the individual sequence of price relatives.
Building salutogenic capacity: a year of experience from a salutogenic talk-therapy group

Abstract The primary aim of this paper was to explore and increase knowledge about health-promoting processes among individuals participating in a salutogenic talk-therapy group using a qualitative explorative design. Data were collected through 11 individual interviews and one focus group interview. The informants were five women and two men participating in a salutogenic talk-therapy group over a period of one year. A general structure was identified as ‘A richer life’, which consisted of three main analysis-derived themes: ‘A well-functioning group’, ‘Who am I? ’, ‘A community of like-minded individuals’. The main impression provided by these data is that although participants expressed their suffering and struggles with mental health problems, attending the group positively affected their lives and well-being. A good salutogenic group climate with high quality of social support, a redefinition of tension, and active participation seem crucial for initiating and promoting salutogenic processes.
Shortwave forcing of the Earth’s climate: Modern and historical variations in the Sun’s irradiance and the Earth’s reflectance

Changes in the Earth’s radiation budget are driven by changes in the balance between the thermal emission from the top of the atmosphere and the net sunlight absorbed. The shortwave radiation entering the climate system depends on the Sun’s irradiance and the Earth’s reflectance. Often, studies replace the net sunlight by proxy measures of solar irradiance, which is an oversimplification used in efforts to probe the Sun’s role in past climate change. With new helioseismic data and new measures of the Earth’s reflectance, we can usefully separate and constrain the relative roles of the net sunlight’s two components, while probing the degree of their linkage. First, this is possible because helioseismic data provide the most precise measure ever of the solar cycle, which ultimately yields more profound physical limits on past irradiance variations. Since irradiance variations are apparently minimal, changes in the Earth’s climate that seem to be associated with changes in the level of solar activity—the Maunder Minimum and the Little Ice age for example— would then seem to be due to terrestrial responses to more subtle changes in the Sun’s spectrum of radiative output. This leads naturally to a linkage with terrestrial reflectance, the second component of the net sunlight, as the carrier of the terrestrial amplification of the Sun’s varying output. Much progress has also been made in determining this difficult to measure, and not-so-well-known quantity. We review our understanding of these two closely linked, fundamental drivers of climate. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Nicotinic acetylcholine currents of cultured Kenyon cells from the mushroom bodies of the honey bee Apis mellifera

1 Acetylcholine‐induced currents of mushroom body Kenyon cells from the honey bee Apis mellifera were studied using the whole‐cell configuration of the patch clamp technique. Pressure application of 1 mM acetylcholine (ACh) induced inward currents with amplitudes between ‐5 and ‐500 pA. 2 The cholinergic agonists ACh and carbamylcholine had almost equal potencies of current activation at concentrations between 0·01 and 1 mM; nicotine was less potent. The muscarinic agonist oxotremorine did not elicit any currents. 3 Approximately 80 % of the ACh‐induced current was irreversibly blocked by 1 μM α‐bungarotoxin. Atropine (1 mM) did not block the ACh‐induced current. 4 Upon prolonged ACh application the current desensitized with a time course that could be approximated by the sum of two exponentials (τ1= 276 ± 45 ms (mean ± s.e.m.) for the fast component and τ2= 2·4 ± 0·7 s for the slow component). 5 Noise analyses of whole‐cell currents yielded elementary conductances of 19·5 ± 2·4 pS for ACh and 23·7 ± 5·0 pS for nicotine. The channel lifetimes, calculated from the frequency spectra, were τo= 1·8 ms for ACh and τo= 2·5 ms for nicotine. 6 Raising the external calcium concentration from 5 to 50 mM shifted the reversal potential of the ACh‐induced current from +4·6 ± 0·9 to +37·3 ± 1·3 mV. The calcium‐to‐sodium permeability ratio (PCa : PNa) was 6·4. 7 In high external calcium solution (50 mM) the ACh‐induced current rectified in an outward direction at positive membrane potentials. 8 We conclude that Kenyon cells express nicotinic ACh receptors with functional profiles reminiscent of the vertebrate neuronal nicotinic ACh receptor subtype.
Self-compassion and Recovery from Sexual Assault

Despite concerted efforts to eradicate violence against women and challenge victim-blaming attitudes towards survivors of sexual assault, women continue to be sexually victimized and encounter negative and accusatory reactions by family, friends, and society at large. For many survivors, the consequences are internalizing blame and feelings of shame, which has been shown to be related to increased psychological distress, self-destructive coping mechanisms, depression, generalized anxiety, and posttraumatic stress (Arata, 1999; Davis & Breslau, 1994; Feiring, Taska, & Lewis, 2002; Frazier, 1990, 2000; Frazier & Schauben, 1994; Wyatt et al., 1990). New research in the area of self-compassion suggests that this way of self-relating can counter shame (Gilbert, 2005) and serve as a resiliency factor for coping with daily stressors (Leary, Tate, Adams, Allen, & Hancock, 2007) and contribute to well-being (Neff, 2003a). No study has yet empirically evaluated self-compassion among survivors of trauma, nor more specifically, victims of sexual assault. The present study investigated the relationships between self-compassion and various indicators of psychological health that have been associated with posttrauma adjustment. One hundred and forty-one women in North America who experienced a sexual assault in the past 5 years (aged 18 to 61, M age = 27 years) completed measures assessing trauma history (sexual trauma history, childhood trauma and stressful life experiences), posttrauma adjustment (psychological
The relationships among self-compassion, perfectionism, rumination and depression.

Objective: Self-compassion,perfectionism and rumination,which belong to individual cognitive category,are important factors related to depression among college students. Methods: Two hundred and sixty-seven nonclinical participants completed measures of self-compassion,rumination,perfectionism and depression. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships among these variables. Results: Self-compassion and positive perfectionism were negatively associated with depression,whereas negative perfectionism was positively associated with depression. Self-compassion served as a partial mediator in the relationship between negative perfectionism and depression. Moreover,self-compassion and perfectionism had negative and positive effects on rumination perspectively. Conclusion: Self-compassion,perfectionism and rumination have different effects on depression,which need further study in clinical application.
Do health literacy and patient empowerment affect self-care behaviour? A survey study among Turkish patients with diabetes

Objective This study aimed to assess the impact of health literacy and patient empowerment on diabetes self-care behaviour in patients in metropolitan Turkish diabetes centres. The conceptual background is provided by the psychological health empowerment model, which holds that health literacy without patient empowerment comes down to wasting health resources, while empowerment without health literacy can lead to dangerous or suboptimal health behaviour. Design, setting and participants A cross-sectional study was conducted with 167 patients over the age of 18 from one of two diabetes clinics in a major Turkish City. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to eligible outpatients who had an appointment in one of the clinics. Health literacy was measured by a newly translated Turkish version of the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S-TOFHLA) and the Chew self-report scale. Patient empowerment was measured by a 12-item scale based on Spreitzer's conceptualisation of psychological empowerment in the workplace. Self-care behaviour was measured by the Self-care behaviours were measured by the Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities Measure (SDSCA). Level of diabetes knowledge was measured by Diabetes Knowledge Test. Results Two subscales of empowerment, impact and self-determination, predicted self-reported frequency of self-care behaviours. Neither health literacy nor diabetes knowledge had an effect on self-care behaviours. Conclusions Health literacy might be more effective in clinical decisions while empowerment might exert a stronger influence on habitual health behaviours.
The effect of auditory and visual distracters on the useful field of view: implications for the driving task.

PURPOSE The driving environment is becoming increasingly complex, including both visual and auditory distractions within the in-vehicle and external driving environments. This study was designed to investigate the effect of visual and auditory distractions on a performance measure that has been shown to be related to driving safety, the useful field of view. METHODS A laboratory study recorded the useful field of view in 28 young visually normal adults (mean 22.6 +/- 2.2 years). The useful field of view was measured in the presence and absence of visual distracters (of the same angular subtense as the target) and with three levels of auditory distraction (none, listening only, listening and responding). RESULTS Central errors increased significantly (P < 0.05) in the presence of auditory but not visual distracters, while peripheral errors increased in the presence of both visual and auditory distracters. Peripheral errors increased with eccentricity and were greatest in the inferior region in the presence of distracters. CONCLUSIONS Visual and auditory distracters reduce the extent of the useful field of view, and these effects are exacerbated in inferior and peripheral locations. This result has significant ramifications for road safety in an increasingly complex in-vehicle and driving environment.
An Improved Approximation Algorithm for the Traveling Tournament Problem with Maximum Trip Length Two

The Traveling Tournament Problem is a complex combinatorial optimization problem in tournament timetabling, which asks a schedule of home/away games meeting specific feasibility requirements, while also minimizing the total distance traveled by all the n teams (n is even). Despite intensive algorithmic research on this problem over the last decade, most instances with more than 10 teams in well-known benchmarks are still unsolved. In this paper, we give a practical approximation algorithm for the problem with constraints such that at most two consecutive home games or away games are allowed. Our algorithm, that generates feasible schedules based on minimum perfect matchings in the underlying graph, not only improves the previous approximation ratio from (1+16/n) to about (1+4/n) but also has very good experimental performances. By applying our schedules on known benchmark sets, we can beat all previously-known results of instances with n being a multiple of 4 by 3% to 10%.
GENETIC DIVERSITY AND LINKAGE DISEQUILIBRIUM IN WILD SOYBEAN, LANDRACES, ANCESTRAL, AND ELITE SOYBEAN POPULATIONS

Title of Dissertation: GENETIC DIVERSITY AND LINKAGE DISEQUILIBRIUM IN WILD SOYBEAN, LANDRACES, ANCESTRAL, AND ELITE SOYBEAN POPULATIONS David Lee Hyten, Jr., Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation Directed By: Associate Professor Jose M. Costa, Department of Natural Resource Sciences and Landscape Architecture Domestication, founder effects, and artificial selection can impact populations by reducing genome diversity and increasing the extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD). To understand the impact of these genetic bottlenecks and selection on sequence diversity and LD within soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ], 111 genes and three chromosomal regions located on linkage groups A2, G, and J were characterized in soybean. Four soybean populations were evaluated: 1) the wild ancestor of soybean (G. soja), 2) the population resulting from domestication (landraces), 3) Asian introductions from which North American cultivars were developed (ancestors), and 4) elite cultivars from the 1980’s (elite). A total of 438 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 58 insertionsdeletions were discovered within the 102 genes. Sequence diversity was lower than expected in G. soja with an overall theta equal to 0.00235, and was less than half that value (theta = 0.00115) in the landraces. Domestication eliminated most unique haplotypes with G. soja containing 240 unique haplotypes while the landraces only contained 42 unique haplotypes. The founder effect of the introduction of soybean to North America followed by intensive artificial selection, resulted in only a 30% decrease in nucleotide diversity. A total of 738 SNPs were discovered and genotyped in the four populations throughout three chromosomal regions. In G. soja LD did not extend past 100 kb while in the three cultivated soybean populations LD extended from 90 kb up to 600+ kb, most likely as a result of increased inbreeding and domestication. The three chromosomal regions varied in the extent of LD within the populations. G. soja is the greatest resource for unique alleles and may be best suited for fine mapping utilizing association analysis. The landraces do not contain much more variability than the elite cultivars but may have enough diversity to facilitate genetic improvement of elite cultivars. Finally, due to the extended levels of LD in the landraces and the elite cultivars, whole genome association analysis may be possible for the discovery of QTL. GENETIC DIVERSITY AND LINKAGE DISEQUILIBRIUM IN WILD SOYBEAN, LANDRACES, ANCESTRAL, AND ELITE SOYBEAN POPULATIONS
Bootstrapping a System for Phoneme Recognition and Keyword Spotting in Unaccompanied Singing

Speech recognition in singing is still a largely unsolved problem. Acoustic models trained on speech usually produce unsatisfactory results when used for phoneme recognition in singing. On the ﬂipside, there is no phonetically annotated singing data set that could be used to train more accurate acoustic models for this task. In this paper, we attempt to solve this problem using the DAMP data set which contains a large number of recordings of amateur singing in good quality. We ﬁrst align them to the matching textual lyrics using an acoustic model trained on speech. We then use the resulting phoneme alignment to train new acoustic models using only subsets of the DAMP singing data. These models are then tested for phoneme recognition and, on top of that, keyword spotting. Evaluation is performed for different subsets of DAMP and for an unrelated set of the vocal tracks of commercial pop songs. Results are compared to those obtained with acoustic models trained on the TIMIT speech data set and on a version of TIMIT augmented for singing. Our new approach shows signiﬁcant improvements over both.
Exploring E-Government Evolution: The Influence of Systems of Rules on Organizational Action

In general terms, e-government can be defined as the use of information and communication technologies in government settings. However, it is neither a homogeneous nor a static phenomenon. In recent years, empirical studies have identified two interesting dynamics in e-government evolution. First, e-government has evolved from its initial presence on the Internet to a more transactional and integrated approach. Second, at the aggregate level and as a general trend, national governments have started adding technological sophistication and have been followed by state and local governments. This paper attempts to explain these two dynamics in the evolution of e-government as a result of pressures from the administrative apparatus of government and from the expectations of stakeholders involved in the policy process such as citizens, politicians, and businesses. Both forces promote change in the system of rules governing the design, implementation, and use of egovernment initiatives. Some policy implications are provided at the end of the paper.
Global Stability Analysis of Coupled-Oscillator Systems

A methodology for the prediction and in-depth understanding of the stability properties of coupled-oscillator systems is presented. Unlike former investigations, all possible combinations of phase-shift values between the oscillator elements are considered. This provides greater insight into the mechanisms leading to instability. The analysis is based on the determination of the bifurcation loci in the space defined by the inter-stage phase shifts, enabling the detection of both ordinary and co-dimension-two bifurcations. The new methodology for bifurcation detection is applicable to any number N of oscillator elements. For illustration, the case of three oscillator elements is considered. This is representative of the behavior for any number N and admits a planar representation of the bifurcation loci. The loci facilitate the comprehension of stability changes commonly observed during the system tuning and enable the evaluation and increase of the stability margins. Using these loci, it is possible to predict and synthesize the stable phase-shift regions, which will have interest in the case of nonconstant distributions used in null formation and other applications. Good agreement has been found between simulations and measurements of a practical coupled-oscillator system at 3.85 GHz.
Optimal Selection of SNP Markers for Disease Association Studies

Genetic association studies with population samples hold the promise of uncovering the susceptibility genes underlying the heritability of complex or common disease. Most association studies rely on the use of surrogate markers, single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) being the most suitable due to their abundance and ease of scoring. SNP marker selection is aimed to increase the chances that at least one typed SNP would be in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with the disease causative variant, while at the same time controlling the cost of the study in terms of the number of markers genotyped and samples. Empirical studies reporting block-like segments in the genome with high LD and low haplotype diversity have motivated a marker selection strategy whereby subsets of SNPs that ‘tag’ the common haplotypes of a region are picked for genotyping, avoiding typing redundant SNPs. Based on these initial observations, a plethora of ‘tagging’ algorithms for selecting minimum informative subsets of SNPs has recently appeared in the literature. These differ mostly in two major aspects: the quality or correlation measure used to define tagging and the algorithm used for the minimization of the final number of tagging SNPs. In this review we describe the available tagging algorithms utilizing a 3-step unifying framework, point out their methodological and conceptual differences, and make an assessment of their assumptions, performance, and scalability.
Human mast cell migration in response to members of the transforming growth factor‐β family

Mast cells are known to accumulate at sites of inflammation, however, the chemotaxins involved remain largely undefined. Transforming growth factor‐β (TGF‐β) isoforms regulate numerous cellular functions, including cell growth and differentiation, formation of extracellular matrix, and the immune response. In this study we have compared the potency of different members of the TGF‐β family as human mast cell chemotaxins, and analyzed the expression of TGF‐β binding proteins on human mast cells. We were able to demonstrate that the maximal chemotactic response was attained at approximately 40 fM for the three TGF‐β isoforms, with TGF‐β3 being more effective than TGF‐β1 and TGF‐β2 at this concentration. This effect was observed in both the HMC‐1 human mast cell line and in cultured primary mast cells. In addition, TGF‐β1, TGF‐β2, and less efficiently, TGF‐β3 inhibited the proliferation of HMC‐1 cells. The migratory response is probably mediated through interaction with the TGF‐β serine/threonine type I and II receptors that were found to be expressed on the cells. No expression of TGF‐β type III receptor, endoglin, or the endothelial TGF‐β type I receptor ALK‐1 could be detected. These results provide evidence that TGF‐β isoforms are highly potent chemotaxins for human mast cells and can play an important role in the recruitment of mast cells in inflammatory reactions. J. Leukoc. Biol. 67: 350–356; 2000.
Middleware for Customizable Multi-staged Dynamic Upgrades of Multi-tenant SaaS Applications

Multi-tenant Software as a Service (SaaS) is the cloud computing delivery model that maximizes resource sharing up to the level of a single application instance servicing many customer organizations (tenants) at once. Due to this scale of delivery, a SaaS offering, once successful, becomes difficult to upgrade and evolve without affecting service continuity and tenant businesses profoundly. However, not all tenants are equal, and to some organizations such disruptions are more costly than to others. To account for such tenant-specific requirements, middleware for upgrading SaaS applications should support tenant-specific enactment of upgrades that allow for a customizable schedule and type of enactment in accordance to the tenant SLA. In this paper, we present our design and implementation of a SaaS middleware that enables run-time adaptation by means of a gradual tenant-by-tenant activation of upgrades. The adaptation mechanism is multi-staged, i.e. supports configuration based on the inputs of the tenant administrator and other stakeholders, and is maximally automated. We have validated the middleware in an OSGi-based prototype implementation and evaluated this prototype, showing negligible performance overhead of the middleware and yet clearly showcasing service continuity improvements in realistic upgrade scenarios.