Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unfair fights: Power asymmetry, nascent nuclear capability, and preventive conflict

Scholars have long recognized that imminent shifts in relative power may motivate declining states to initiate conflict. But what conditions exacerbate the risk posed by these anticipated power shifts? Building upon existing bargaining models of war, I show that larger initial power asymmetries increase the probability of preventive conflict. Theoretical extensions that account for certainty effects and variable costs of war, both of which are linked to initial dyadic power balances, drive this relationship. It follows that looming power transitions in which rising states approach and surpass parity, long considered war-prone scenarios, are not particularly problematic. Instead, the risk of conflict is greatest when preponderant powers confront conventionally weak but rising states. I test the theoretical predictions in the context of anticipated power shifts due to rivals pursuing nuclear weapons. Extensive empirical tests that relax assumptions employed in prior analyses of preventive conflict offer strong support for this contention. These results shed light on the underpinnings of many pressing contemporary interstate security issues.
Estimating Stochastic Volatility Diffusion Using Conditional Moments of Integrated Volatility

We exploit the distributional information contained in high-frequency intraday data in constructing a simple conditional moment estimator for stochastic volatility diffusions. The estimator is based on the analytical solutions of the first two conditional moments for the latent integrated volatility, the realization of which is effectively approximated by the sum of the squared high-frequency increments of the process. Our simulation evidence indicates that the resulting GMM estimator is highly reliable and accurate. Our empirical implementation based on high-frequency five-minute foreign exchange returns suggests the presence of multiple latent stochastic volatility factors and possible jumps.
Marijuana effects on the endocrine and reproductive systems. Discussion and recommendations.

NIDA Research Monographs are prepared by the research divisions of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and published by its Office of Science. The primary objective of the scenes is to provide critical reviews of research problem areas and techniques. the content of state of-the-art conferences , Integrative research reviews and signifigant original research Its dual publication emphasis IS rapid and targeted dissemination to the scientific and professional community The National Institute on Drug Abuse has obtained permission from the copyright holders to reproduce certain previously published material as noted in the text. Further reproduction of this material is prohibited without specific permission of the copyright holders. All other material in this volume except quoted passages from copyrighted sources is in the public domain and may be used or reproduced without permission from the Institute or the authors. Citation of the source is appreciated. Opinions expressed in this volume are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or official policy of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or any other part of the U.S. The U.S. Government does not endorse or favor any specific commercial product or commodity. Trade or proprietary names appearing in this publication are used only because they are considered essential in the context of the studies reported herein. Preface The Research Analysis and Utilization System (RAUS) is designed to serve four functions: Collect and systematically classify the findings of all intramural and extramural research supported by the hational institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA); Evaluate the findings in selected areas of particular interest and formulate a state-of-the-art review by a panel of scientific peers; Disseminate findings to researchers in the field and to administrators, planners, instructors, and other interested persons; Provide a feedback mechanism to NIDA staff and planners so that the administration and monitoring of the NIDA research program reflect the very latest knowledge gleaned from research in the field. Since there is a limit to the number of reseach findings that can be intensively reviewed annually, four subject areas are chosen each year to undergo a thorough examination. Distinguished scientists in the selected field are provided with copies of reports from NIDA-funded research and invited to add any information derived from the literature and from their own research in order to formulate a comprehensive vick of the field. Each reviewer is charged with writing a state-of-the-art paper in his or her …
A Feedback Passivation Design for DC Microgrid and Its DC/DC Converters

There are difficulties in analyzing the stability of microgrids since they are located on various network structures. However, considering that the network often consists of passive elements, the passivity theory is applied in this paper to solve the above-mentioned problem. It has been formerly shown that when the network is weakly strictly positive real (WSPR), the DC microgrid is stable if all interfaces between the microgrid and converters are made to be passive, which is called interface passivity. Then, the feedback passivation method is proposed for the controller design of various DC–DC converters to achieve the interface passivity. The interface passivity is different from the passivity of closed-loop systems on which the passivity based control (PBC) concentrates. The feedback passivation design is detailed for typical buck converters and boost converters in terms of conditions that the controller parameters should satisfy. The theoretical results are verified by a hardware-in-loop real-time labotray (RTLab) simulation of a DC microgrid with four generators.
Validation of Dynamic Behavior in UML Using Colored Petri Nets

This paper describes an approach for modeling the behavioral characteristics of concurrent objectoriented designs using the Petri net formalism. Specifically, this paper describes an approach for integrating colored Petri nets with concurrent object architecture designs created with the COMET method and specified in the Unified Modeling Language (UML). This work is part of an on-going effort to automate the behavioral analysis of concurrent and real-time object-oriented software designs.
To help, or not to help, that is not the only question:An investigation of the interplay of different factors to predict helping behavior in an accurateand effective way.

Previous research has shown that people’s willingness to help those in need is influenced by a multitude of factors (e.g., perceived dangerousness of a situation, cost-benefit analysis, attributions of responsibility, kinship, status, and culture). However, past research has often focused on single factors to predict helping intentions. Therefore, the present thesis examines the interplay of different factors in order to predict helping intentions in the most accurate and effective way. The present thesis provides an encompassing review of the bystander literature. Furthermore, a series of three studies examined whether helping intentions can be predicted by an interplay between perceptions of a victim’s responsibility for their plight; the type of helping behavior; and the relationship between the helper and the victim. The results show that individuals are more willing to help victims perceived as being innocent for their plight, but only in low-danger situations. In more dangerous scenarios, people’s willingness to intervene increases with the level of perceived danger, regardless of responsibility attributions. This effect is partly driven by people’s accepted costs for helping the person in need. However, only marginal effects for kinship were observed. Moreover, recent research has demonstrated that it is not sufficient to put the focus only on the binary decision to provide help, or not. Thus, the present thesis investigated whether a help seeker’s status affects the type of help (i.e., dependency- or autonomy-oriented) differently in different cultures. The results of three studies showed that help seekers’ status affected the type of provided help in highly individualistic cultures. This effect on help type also occurred in the middle of the individualistic-collectivistic continuum, whereas no such effect occurred in collectivistic cultures. Theoretical and practical implications for helping behavior are discussed.
Dynamics of Small RNA Profiles of Virus and Host Origin in Wheat Cultivars Synergistically Infected by Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus and Triticum Mosaic Virus: Virus Infection Caused a Drastic Shift in the Endogenous Small RNA Profile

Co-infection of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV, a Tritimovirus) and Triticum mosaic virus (TriMV, a Poacevirus) of the family Potyviridae causes synergistic interaction. In this study, the effects of the synergistic interaction between WSMV and TriMV on endogenous and virus-derived small interfering RNAs (vsiRNAs) were examined in susceptible (‘Arapahoe’) and temperature-sensitive resistant (‘Mace’) wheat cultivars at 18°C and 27°C. Single and double infections in wheat caused a shift in the profile of endogenous small RNAs from 24 nt being the most predominant in healthy plants to 21 nt in infected wheat. Massive amounts of 21 and 22 nt vsiRNAs accumulated in singly and doubly infected Arapahoe at both temperatures and in Mace at 27°C but not 18°C. The plus- and minus-sense vsiRNAs were distributed throughout the genomic RNAs in Arapahoe at both temperature regimens and in Mace at 27°C, although some regions served as hot-spots, spawning an excessive number of vsiRNAs. The vsiRNA peaks were conserved among cultivars, suggesting that the Dicer-like enzymes in susceptible and resistant cultivars similarly accessed the genomic RNAs of WSMV or TriMV. Accumulation of large amounts of vsiRNAs in doubly infected plants suggests that the silencing suppressor proteins encoded by TriMV and WSMV do not prevent the formation of vsiRNAs; thus, the synergistic effect observed is independent from RNA-silencing mediated vsiRNA biogenesis. The high-resolution map of endogenous and vsiRNAs from WSMV- and/or TriMV-infected wheat cultivars may form a foundation for understanding the virus-host interactions, the effect of synergistic interactions on host defense, and virus resistance mechanisms in wheat.
Power-Aware and Void-Avoidant Routing Protocol for Reliable Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract - Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSN) are wireless sensor networks which have been exerted to industrial environments such as factories, refineries, power plants and etc for measuring, controlling and monitoring applications. One of the most important issues in these wireless networks is how the deployed nodes can communicate to each other so that appropriate requirements for these situations like optimized energy consumption of nodes, reliable and real time delivery of packets to be satisfied. In this paper we focus on optimizing energy consumption of nodes and reliable delivery of generated packets by source nodes in industrial applications. Thus, for achieving to these desired purposes, we introduce a novel routing protocol which uses geographic algorithm with a optimizing function for selecting the next candidate node and handling encountered voids along routing data packets towards sink where control room is located at there and has the responsibility of controlling and monitoring of data has reached.
A performance study of network operator-friendly P2P traffic control technique

In the network operator-friendly P2P traffic control technique such as P4P, peers are supposed to select their communication partners by following a guidance issued by the network operator. Thus, the guidance has significant impact on the traffic control. However, detailed performance study of available guidances is missing. Most existing work does not show how they affect intra-domain traffic control in detail while mostly focusing on inter-domain traffic control. In this paper, we try to understand how the guidances affect the intra and inter-domain traffic control for better guidance improving the traffic control. Through simulations, we reveal followings. The performance-based guidance reflecting the networking status shows attractive results in distributing the traffic over intra-domain links and in reducing the cross-domain traffic and the charging volume of inter-domain link compared to the distance-based guidance enforcing simple localization. However, the performance-based guidance shows one limitation that can cause unstable traffic control. To overcome the identified limitation, we propose peer-assisted measurement and traffic estimation approach. Then, we verify our approach through simulations.
Community detection algorithms: a comparative analysis: invited presentation, extended abstract

Uncovering the community structure exhibited by real networks is a crucial step toward an understanding of complex systems that goes beyond the local organization of their constituents. Many algorithms have been proposed so far, but none of them has been subjected to strict tests to evaluate their performance. Most of the sporadic tests performed so far involved small networks with known community structure and/or artificial graphs with a simplified structure, which is very uncommon in real systems. Here we test several methods against a recently introduced class of benchmark graphs, with heterogeneous distributions of degree and community size. The methods are also tested against the benchmark by Girvan and Newman [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99, 7821 (2002)] and on random graphs. As a result of our analysis, three recent algorithms introduced by Rosvall and Bergstrom [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104, 7327 (2007); Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105, 1118 (2008)], Blondel [J. Stat. Mech. : Theory Exp. (2008), P10008], and Ronhovde and Nussinov [Phys. Rev. E 80, 016109 (2009)] have an excellent performance, with the additional advantage of low computational complexity, which enables one to analyze large systems.
Local Evaluation Functions and Global Evaluation Functions for Computational Evolution

This paper presents a new look on computational evolution from the aspect of the locality and globality of evaluation functions for solving classical combinatorial problem: the kcoloring Problem (decision problem) and the Minimum Coloring Problem (optimization problem). We first review current algorithms and model the coloring problem as a multi-agent system. We then show that the essential difference between traditional algorithms (Local Search, such as Simulated Annealing) and distributed algorithms (such as the Alife&AER model) lies in the evaluation function: Simulated Annealing uses global information to evaluate the whole system state, which is called the Global Evaluation Function (GEF) method; the Alife&AER model uses local information to evaluate the state of a single agent, which is called the Local Evaluation Function (LEF) method. We compare the performances of LEF and GEF methods for solving the k-coloring Problems and the Minimum Coloring Problems. The computer experimental results show that the LEF is comparable to GEF methods (Simulated Annealing and Greedy), in many problem instances the LEF beats GEF methods. At the same time, we analyze the relationship between GEF and LEF: consistency and inconsistency. The Consistency Theorem shows that Nash Equilibria of an LEF is identical to local optima of a GEF when the LEF is consistent with the GEF. This theorem partly explains why the LEF can lead the system to a global goal. Some rules for constructing a consistent LEF are proposed. In addition to consistency, we give a picture of the LEF and GEF and show their differences in exploration heuristics.
Cardiovascular and Psychiatric Morbidity in Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) with Insomnia (Sleep Apnea Plus) versus Obstructive Sleep Apnea without Insomnia: A Case-Control Study from a Nationally Representative US Sample

Purpose To evaluate cardiovascular and psychiatric morbidity in patient visits with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with insomnia (OSA+Insomnia) versus OSA without insomnia (OSA-Insomnia) in a nationally representative US sample. Methods A retrospective case-control study of epidemiologic databases (National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey) representing an estimated ± standard error (SE) 62,253,910±5,274,747 (unweighted count = 7234) patient visits with diagnosis of OSA from 1995–2010, was conducted. An estimated 3,994,104±791,386 (unweighted count = 658) were classified as OSA+Insomnia and an estimated 58,259,806±4,849,800 (unweighted count = 6576) as OSA-Insomnia. Logistic regression analysis was carried out using OSA+Insomnia versus OSA-Insomnia as the dependent variable, and age (>50 years versus ≤50 years), sex, race (‘White’ versus ‘non-White’), essential hypertension, heart failure, ischemic heart disease, cardiac dysrhythmia, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, hyperlipidemia, depressive, anxiety, and adjustment disorders (includes PTSD), hypersomnia and all medications used as independent variables. All comorbidities were physician diagnosed using the ICD9-CM. Results Among patient visits with OSA, an estimated 6.4%±0.9% also had insomnia. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the OSA+Insomnia group was significantly more likely to have essential hypertension (all ICD9-CM codes 401) (OR = 1.83, 95% CI 1.27–2.65) and provisionally more likely to have cerebrovascular disease (ICD9-CM codes 430–438) (OR = 6.58, 95% CI 1.66–26.08). The significant OR for cerebrovascular disease was considered provisional because the unweighted count was <30. Conclusions In a nationally representative sample, OSA+Insomnia was associated significantly more frequently with essential hypertension than OSA-Insomnia, a finding that has not been previously reported. In contrast to studies that have considered patient self-reports of psychological morbidity, the absence of a significant association with psychiatric disorders in our study may be indicative of the fact that we considered only physician-rated psychiatric syndromes meeting ICD9-CM criteria. Our findings among the OSA+Insomnia group are therefore most likely conservative.
Ollivier-Ricci curvature and the spectrum of the normalized graph Laplace operator

We prove the following estimate for the spectrum of the normalized Laplace operator $\Delta$ on a finite graph $G$, \begin{equation*}1- (1- k[t])^{\frac{1}{t}}\leq \lambda_1 \leq \cdots \leq \lambda_{N-1}\leq 1+ (1- k[t])^{\frac{1}{t}}, \,\forall \,\,\text{integers}\,\, t\geq 1. \end{equation*} Here $k[t]$ is a lower bound for the Ollivier-Ricci curvature on the neighborhood graph $G[t]$, which was introduced by Bauer-Jost. In particular, when $t=1$ this is Ollivier's estimates $k\leq \lambda_1\leq \ldots \leq \lambda_{N-1}\leq 2-k$. For sufficiently large $t$ we show that, unless $G$ is bipartite, our estimates for $\lambda_1$ and $\lambda_{N-1}$ are always nontrivial and improve Ollivier's estimates for all graphs with $k\leq 0$. By definition neighborhood graphs are weighted graphs which may have loops. To understand the Ollivier-Ricci curvature on neighborhood graphs, we generalize a sharp estimate of the Ricci curvature given by Jost-Liu to weighted graphs with loops and relate it to the relative local frequency of triangles and loops.
Both p110α and p110β isoforms of PI3K can modulate the impact of loss-of-function of the PTEN tumour suppressor

The PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase) pathway is commonly activated in cancer as a consequence of inactivation of the tumour suppressor PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10), a major negative regulator of PI3K signalling. In line with this important role of PTEN, mice that are heterozygous for a PTEN-null allele (PTEN+/− mice) spontaneously develop a variety of tumours in multiple organs. PTEN is a phosphatase with selectivity for PtdIns(3,4,5)P3, which is produced by the class I isoforms of PI3K (p110α, p110β, p110γ and p110δ). Previous studies indicated that PTEN-deficient cancer cell lines mainly depend on p110β, and that p110β, but not p110α, controls mouse prostate cancer development driven by PTEN loss. In the present study, we investigated whether the ubiquitously expressed p110α can also functionally interact with PTEN in cancer. Using genetic mouse models that mimic systemic administration of p110α- or p110β-selective inhibitors, we confirm that inactivation of p110β, but not p110α, inhibits prostate cancer development in PTEN+/− mice, but also find that p110α inactivation protects from glomerulonephritis, pheochromocytoma and thyroid cancer induced by PTEN loss. This indicates that p110α can modulate the impact of PTEN loss in disease and tumourigenesis. In primary and immortalized mouse fibroblast cell lines, both p110α and p110β controlled steady-state PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 levels and Akt signalling induced by heterozygous PTEN loss. In contrast, no correlation was found in primary mouse tissues between PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 levels, PI3K/PTEN genotype and cancer development. Taken together, our results from the present study show that inactivation of either p110α or p110β can counteract the impact of PTEN inactivation. The potential implications of these findings for PI3K-targeted therapy of cancer are discussed.
Phase I trial of combination chemotherapy with docetaxel, cisplatin and S-1 (TPS) in patients with locally advanced or recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer.

BACKGROUND we investigated the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of combination therapy with docetaxel, cisplatin, and S-1 (TPS) in patients with locally advanced or recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer (HNC). PATIENTS AND METHODS treatment consisted of docetaxel (Taxotere) at doses of 50, 60, and 70 mg/m(2); cisplatin at 70 mg·m(2)/day on day 1; and S-1 twice daily on days 1-14 at doses of 40, 60, and 80 mg·m(2)/day, repeated every 3 or 4 weeks. RESULTS forty patients were enrolled. MTD was not reached until level 4. Subjects at expanded dose were limited to patients with locally advanced disease. Two dose-limiting toxic effects (DLTs) were observed at dose level 5 (TPS: 70/70/80 mg·m(2)/day, every 3 weeks), namely one grade 3 infection and one grade 3 hyperbilirubinemia, establishing this as the MTD. Of 12 patients treated at dose level 6 (TPS: 70/70/60 mg·m(2)/day, every 3 weeks), 2 DLTs were seen. Six achieved a complete response and 22 a partial response, giving a response rate of 70%. CONCLUSIONS TPS was well tolerated. The recommended phase II dose as induction chemotherapy for locally advanced HNC was determined as 70/70/60 mg·m(2)/day every 3 weeks. Antitumor activity was highly promising and warrants further investigation.