Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Resolution enhancement of low-quality videos using a high-resolution frame

This paper proposes an example-based Super-Resolution (SR) algorithm of compressed videos in the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) domain. Input to the system is a Low-Resolution (LR) compressed video together with a High-Resolution (HR) still image of similar content. Using a training set of corresponding LR-HR pairs of image patches from the HR still image, high-frequency details are transferred from the HR source to the LR video. The DCT-domain algorithm is much faster than example-based SR in spatial domain6 because of a reduction in search dimensionality, which is a direct result of the compact and uncorrelated DCT representation. Fast searching techniques like tree-structure vector quantization16 and coherence search1 are also key to the improved efficiency. Preliminary results on MJPEG sequence show promising result of the DCT-domain SR synthesis approach.
Plasma Levels of MicroRNA-499 Provide an Early Indication of Perioperative Myocardial Infarction in Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Patients

Background Recent studies indicated that microRNAs (miRNAs, miRs) were important for many biological and pathological processes, and they might be potential biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases. The present study aims to determine the release patterns of miRNAs in cardiac surgery and to analyze the ability of miRs to provide early prediction of perioperative myocardial infarction (PMI) in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Methodology/Principal Findings Thirty on-pump CABG patients were recruited in this study; and miR-499, miR-133a and miR-133b, cardiac troponin I (cTnI) were selected for measurement. Serial plasma samples were collected at seven perioperative time points (preoperatively, and 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, and 48 hours after declamping) and were tested for cTnI and miRs levels. Importantly, miR levels peaked as early as 1–3 hours, whereas cTnI levels peaked at 6 hours after declamping. Peak plasma concentrations of miRs correlated significantly with cTnI (miR-499, r = 0.583, P = 0.001; miR-133a, r = 0.514, P = 0.006; miR-133b, r = 0.437, P = 0.05), indicating the degree of myocardial damage. In addition, 30 off-pump CABG patients were recruited; miR-499 and miR-133a levels were tested, which were significantly lower in off-pump group than in on-pump group. A prospective cohort of CABG patients (n = 120) was recruited to study the predictive power of miRs for PMI. The diagnosis of PMI strictly adhered to the principles of universal definition of myocardial infarction. The data analysis revealed that miR-499 had higher sensitivity and specificity than cTnI, and indicated that miR-499 could be an independent risk factor for PMI. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that circulating miR-499 is a novel, early biomarker for identifying perioperative myocardial infarction in cardiac surgery.
An Improved K-Nearest-Neighbor Indoor Localization Method Based on Spearman Distance

Indoor localization based on existing Wi-Fi Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) is attractive since it can reuse the existing Wi-Fi infrastructure. However, it suffers from dramatic performance degradation due to multipath signal attenuation and environmental changes. To improve the localization accuracy under the above-mentioned circumstances, an improved Spearman-distance-based K-Nearest-Neighbor (KNN) scheme is proposed. Simulation results demonstrate that our improved method outperforms the original KNN method under the indoor environment with severe multipath fading and temporal dynamics.
The Pipeline of Online Participation Inequalities: The Case of Wikipedia Editing

Digital inequalities undermine the democratizing potential of the Internet. While many people engage in public discourse through participatory media, knowledge gaps limit engagement in the networked public sphere. Participatory web platforms have unique potential to facilitate a more equitable production of knowledge. This paper conceptualizes a pipeline of online participation and models the awareness and behaviors necessary to become a contributor to the networked public sphere. We test the theory with the case of Wikipedia editing, relying on survey data from a diverse, national sample of U.S. adults. Our findings underscore the multidimensionality of digital inequalities and suggest new pathways toward closing knowledge gaps by highlighting the importance of education and Internet skills for online stratification processes.
What Makes Inheritance Fair in Stepfamilies? Examining Perceptions and Complexities

ABSTRACT This article examines the complexity of fairness in the inheritance process within the context of divorce, remarriage, and stepchildren. Interpersonal social justice theory and qualitative vignette methods were used to explore family members' perceptions of fair inheritance outcomes and processes for financial assets and personal possessions. Findings identify decision rules for determining fair outcomes, including treating biological and stepchildren equally and differently. Who participates, what structures are relied upon, the role of information, and ethical interpersonal treatment were identified as key factors when determining fair processes. Understanding fairness provides a sound basis for helping stepfamily members navigate unavoidable inheritance decisions.
Who does what: Collaboration patterns in the wikipedia and their impact on article quality

The quality of Wikipedia articles is debatable. On the one hand, existing research indicates that not only are people willing to contribute articles but the quality of these articles is close to that found in conventional encyclopedias. On the other hand, the public has never stopped criticizing the quality of Wikipedia articles, and critics never have trouble finding low-quality Wikipedia articles. Why do Wikipedia articles vary widely in quality? We investigate the relationship between collaboration and Wikipedia article quality. We show that the quality of Wikipedia articles is not only dependent on the different types of contributors but also on how they collaborate. Based on an empirical study, we classify contributors based on their roles in editing individual Wikipedia articles. We identify various patterns of collaboration based on the provenance or, more specifically, who does what to Wikipedia articles. Our research helps identify collaboration patterns that are preferable or detrimental for article quality, thus providing insights for designing tools and mechanisms to improve the quality of Wikipedia articles.
Symbol grounding in communicative mobile robots

This paper reports on an experiment in which two mobile robots solve the symbol grounding problem in a particular experimental setup. The robots do so by engaging in a series of so-called language games. In a language game the robots try to name an object that is in their environment first by categorizing their sensing, then by naming this categorization. When the robots fail to categorize or name, they can adapt their memory in order to succeed in the future. At the start of each experiment, the robots have no categories or names at all. These are constructed during the experiment. The paper concludes that in the investigated experiment the robots solve the symbol grounding problem as a result of the co-evolution of meaning and lexicon.
Notes on diameters , centers , and approximating trees of δ-hyperbolic geodesic spaces and graphs

We present simple methods for approximating the diameters, radii, and centers of finite sets in δ-hyperbolic geodesic spaces and graphs. We also provide a simple construction of distance approximating trees of δ-hyperbolic graphs G on n vertices with an additive error O(δ log2 n) comparable with that given by M. Gromov.
Why do women doctors in the UK take hormone replacement therapy?

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To ascertain the determinants and experiences of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) use by menopausal women doctors. DESIGN: Postal questionnaire. SETTING: UK. PATIENTS: A randomized stratified sample of women doctors who obtained full registration between 1952 and 1976, taken from the current Principal List of the UK Medical Register. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Current and previous use of HRT; reasons for and against HRT use; menopausal status; hormonal contraceptive use; lifestyle patterns; family and personal history of disease. MAIN RESULTS: While 73.2% of 471 users had started HRT for symptom relief, 60.9% cited prevention of osteoporosis and 32.7 prevention of cardiovascular disease. Altogether 18.7% had started for preventive purposes alone. Significant predisposing factors to starting HRT were the presence and severity of menopausal symptoms, surgical menopause, past use of hormonal contraception, and a family history of osteoporosis. HRT users were also more likely to use skimmed rather than full fat milk, to try to increase their intake of fruit, vegetables, and fibre, and to undertake vigorous physical activity at least once a week. They were less likely to have had breast cancer. Long duration users were more likely than short duration users to be past users of hormonal contraception and to be using HRT for prevention of osteoporosis as well as symptom relief; they were less likely to have experienced side effects. CONCLUSIONS: The high usage of HRT by women doctors reflects the fact that many started HRT on their own initiative and with long term prevention in mind. The results may become generalisable to the wider population as information on the potential benefits of HRT is disseminated and understood. However, HRT users may differ slightly from non-users in health-related behaviour and a substantial minority may never take up HRT, at least until the benefit-risk ratio is more clearly established.
The Topology of Fear

For many years experimental observations have raised questions about the rationality of economic agents--for example, the Allais Paradox or the Equity Premium Puzzle. The problem is a narrow notion of rationality that disregards fear. This article extends the notion of rationality with new axioms of choice under uncertainty and the decision criteria they imply (Chichilnisky, G., 1996a. An axiomatic approach to sustainable development. Social Choice andWelfare 13, 257-321; Chichilnisky, G., 2000. An axiomatic approach to choice under uncertainty with Catastrophic risks. Resource and Energy Economics; Chichilnisky, G., 2002. Catastrophical Risk. Encyclopedia of Environmetrics, vol. 1. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Chicester). In the absence of catastrophes, the old and the new approach coincide, and both lead to standard expected utility. A sharp difference emerges when facing rare events with important consequences, or catastrophes. Theorem 1 establishes that a classic axiom of choice under uncertainty - Arrow's Monotone Continuity axiom, or its relatives introduced by DeGroot, Villegas, Hernstein and Milnor - postulate rational behavior that is [`]insensitive' to rare events as defined in (Chichilnisky, G., 1996a. An axiomatic approach to sustainable development. Social Choice andWelfare 13, 257-321; Chichilnisky, G., 2000. An axiomatic approach to choice under uncertainty with Catastrophic risks. Resource and Energy Economics; Chichilnisky, G., 2002. Catastrophical Risk. Encyclopedia of Environmetrics, vol. 1. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Chicester). Theorem 2 replaces this axiom with another that allows extreme responses to extreme events, and characterizes the implied decision criteria as a combination of expected utility with extremal responses. Theorems 1 and 2 offer a new understanding of rationality consistent with previously unexplained observations about decisions involving rare and catastrophic events, decisions involving fear, the Equity Premium Puzzle, [`]jump diffusion' processes and [`]heavy tails', and it agrees with (Debreu, G., 1953. Valuation equilibrium and Pareto optimum. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 40, 588-592) formulation of market behavior and his proof of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand theorem.
Investigating speech output skills in 3-5 year old Arabic-speaking children : a psycholinguistic approach

Noaf Al-kheraiji University of Sheffield iv ABSTRACT This exploratory study aims to describe the profile of speech processing performance across different speech output tasks in typically developing Arabic-speaking children and chart developmental change by looking at cross-sectional data across different age groups. The speech processing demands required to complete the tasks were interpreted within the psycholinguistic speech-processing model of Stackhouse and Wells (1997). A total of 129 typically developing Saudi Arabic-speaking children were divided into three age groups (3-year olds: 29 children; 4-year olds: 50 children; 5-year olds: 50 children). Children were tested on three speech repetition tasks comprising real words, non-words and syllable sequences. The stimuli of the three tasks were phonetically matched and stimuli items of each task increased in the number of syllables (length). For each task, the children were required to: a) repeat each item once i.e. immediate singleword repetition; with responses being scored for repetition accuracy; and b) repeat each item multiple times consecutively and at speed i.e. speech motor performance; with behavioural measures of accuracy and consistency used to score productions. Single repetitions revealed different performance profiles in different age groups; mainly, there were no differences between real word and non-word repetitions, and developmental progress was not evident. With multiple rapid productions, the processing demands of the tasks and age significantly affected children’s performance. Generally, the effects of increasing item length was not straightforward; as repetition of short real words and non-words was not necessary better than that of longer items. The results of this study show that the Arabic-speaking children’s speech processing profiles, developmental progression on the speech output tasks and effects of length were not entirely in line with cross-linguistic evidence, on both single repetitions and on multiple rapid productions. These results appear to reflect the unique phonetic and phonological properties of the Arabic language, which could have affected children’s performance on the tasks. Therefore, this study has important methodological, theoretical and clinical implications, which will be discussed.
Substance Use: A Meta-Analysis

Sexual minority individuals report greater rates of substance use compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Internalized heterosexism (IH) is one critical factor underlying this disparity. There has been a proliferation of studies examining IH as a correlate of substance use; however, results of these studies have been mixed. The purpose of the current multilevel meta-analysis was to explain these mixed findings by identifying factors that moderate the overall relationship between IH and substance use. Results from the analysis of 49 studies (209 effect sizes and 162,674 participants) demonstrated a positive overall relationship between IH and substance use (r = .065). This relationship was significantly moderated by sexual orientation, gender, and type of substance. Increased IH was linked to increased use of heroin (r = .173), cocaine (r = .135), tobacco (r = .100), and alcohol (r = .070). Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.
To Be Accountable While Showing Care: The Lived Experience of People in a Servant Leadership Organization

Many organizations attribute their success to the use of servant leadership. However, very few studies have been conducted with the emphasis of understanding what it is like for people to work in servant leadership organizations and how it is practiced. Thus, in-depth interviews were conducted and an observation was performed to explore the lived experience of people, both employees and managers, who work within the business sector where servant leadership has been practiced for decades. Two main themes (and a set of subthemes) emerged from the study: “Accountability as an integral part of the practice of servant leadership” and “People show care and help each other out at work. ” During a period with new challenges, the balance between the dimensions of “serving” and “leading” became prominent. The findings indicate that both dimensions are important for the prosperity of the organization, although participants experience the “lead” dimension of servant leadership being practiced more than the “serve” dimension. This is important, as much of current thought considers servant leadership to focus more on the “serve” dimension, and thereby to be soft.
Effects of Cerebral Angiomas on Perifocal and Remote Tissue: A Multivariate Positron Emission Tomography Study

Background and Purpose Using multitracer positron emission tomography, I investigated regional hemodynamic and metabolic changes in both perifocal and remote tissues of cerebral angiomas, with special reference to steal phenomena. Methods In 22 patients (14 with arteriovenous malformations and eight with cavernomas) cerebral blood flow, cerebral blood volume, mean vascular transit time, cerebral metabolic rate for oxygen, oxygen extraction fraction, cerebral metabolic rate for glucose, and glucose extraction fraction were measured using standard positron emission tomographic methods. Twelve patients also had their cerebral glucose metabolism assessed during psychophysical activation. Regions of interest representing the angioma, perifocal and remote tissues, contralateral mirror regions, and standard brain regions were analyzed. Results There were no significant changes in hemodynamic variables or oxygen metabolism in the ipsilateral cerebral hemisphere, but ipsilateral glucose metabolism was reduced both at rest (p<0.01) and during activation (p<0.05). Glucose (p<0.001) and oxygen (p<0.001) metabolism in regions of perifocal tissue with low blood flow were decreased, with substrate extraction fractions showing no increase to compensate for insufficient blood flow. Functional recruitment of the cortex overlying the angioma beyond its periphery and supplied by the same arterial branches was subnormal (p<0.05) despite relatively unchanged hemodynamics in this tissue compartment. Conclusions These data suggest that dysfunction of the cortex supplied by arterial branches also feeding the vascular malformation is related to neuronal deafferentation, while the proportionate decrease in blood flow and metabolism of perifocal tissue may be ascribed to neuronal loss in chronically hypoperfused areas, rather than to persistent hemodynamic steal effects.
The Revised Learning Transfer System Inventory in Portugal

Although training is critical to leverage performance and competitiveness, it has been reported that only a part of learned skills is transferred to the workplace, reinforcing the need for a deeper understanding of the transfer process. The purpose of this study is to validate the revised learning transfer system inventory (LTSI) in Portugal. LTSI was administrated to 403 participants from five organizations operating in Portugal, upon completion of training programs. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses were used to determine whether or not the new structure was replicated. Results showed a latent structure with 11 factors against the original 16. The study also analyzed LTSI dimensions across some individual and situational variables and revealed that transfer system perceptions are statistically different in several of them. Implications for [human resources] HR and future research directions are presented.
Local employees working in a terrorist region: HR managers’ perceptions

ABSTRACT This study explores the influence of living under ongoing terrorism on employee behaviours. We argue that the context of living under ongoing terrorism, and its influence on local employees is an area which needs further exploration. Set in Pakistan, one of the five worst terrorism-affected countries in the world, we draw on semi-structured interviews to explore the nature of these stressors and their effects on local employee behaviours. Fifteen managers reflected on their workplaces and thematic analysis surfaced three major themes: (1) terrorism stressors, (2) job stressors and (3) employee behaviours. Terrorism stressors were identified using the sub-themes of loss, fear, trauma, risk to life and resilience/habituation. Job stressors reflected factors similar to western research such as workload and time pressures. We find that the stressors often overlap and might interplay with each other. Our final theme relates to how terrorism stressors affect employee behaviours, where three sub-themes emerged, including performance, absenteeism, turnover and voluntary behaviours. These behaviours were both positive and negative. We contribute to the HRM literature by probing an important context for working amidst terrorism and how terrorism and job stressors can affect local employees. Our findings indicate that employees still perform and behave humanely under extreme conditions; implications of the study for organisations and research are discussed.
QUASAR CLUSTERING FROM SDSS DR5: DEPENDENCES ON PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

Using a homogenous sample of 38,208 quasars with a sky coverage of ∼4000 deg2 drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Five quasar catalog, we study the dependence of quasar clustering on luminosity, virial black hole (BH) mass, quasar color, and radio loudness. At z < 2.5, quasar clustering depends weakly on luminosity and virial BH mass, with typical uncertainty levels ∼10% for the measured correlation lengths. These weak dependences are consistent with models in which substantial scatter between quasar luminosity, virial BH mass, and the host dark matter halo mass has diluted any clustering difference, where halo mass is assumed to be the relevant quantity that best correlates with clustering strength. However, the most luminous and most massive quasars are more strongly clustered (at the ∼2σ level) than the remainder of the sample, which we attribute to the rapid increase of the bias factor at the high-mass end of host halos. We do not observe a strong dependence of clustering strength on quasar colors within our sample. On the other hand, radio-loud quasars are more strongly clustered than are radio-quiet quasars matched in redshift and optical luminosity (or virial BH mass), consistent with local observations of radio galaxies and radio-loud type 2 active galactic nuclei. Thus, radio-loud quasars reside in more massive and denser environments in the biased halo clustering picture. Using the Sheth et al. (2001) formula for the linear halo bias, the estimated host halo mass for radio-loud quasars is ∼1013 h−1 M☉, compared to ∼2 × 1012 h−1 M☉ for radio-quiet quasar hosts at z ∼ 1.5.