Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On an adaptive test of time-varying effects in Cox regression

Cox’s proportional hazards model is routinely used in many applied fields, especially in bio–medical research. A common phenomenon in medical settings is the presence of a time–dependency in the effect of one or more explanatory variables. It is then crucial to decide whether a covariate effect is constant, as prescribed by the standard Cox regression model, or not. Although several proposal appeared in literature to estimate a time depending effect in Cox model, the problem of testing the null hypothesis of a proportional hazard against different possible alternatives has received less attention. The main point of the present work is to introduce a new test for time–varying effects in the proportional hazards model having power that adapts to the smoothness of the underlying function. Working on the Schoenfeld residuals our procedure is an adaptation to the present setting of a multiple testing technique introduced by Fromont and Laurent in 2006. The results are illustrated with the well-known Mayo liver disease data.
Unemployment Benefits vs. Unemployment Accounts: A Quantitative Exploration

We use a dynamic equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents to assess the quantitative effects of switching from the typical unemployment insurance programs to a system of mandatory unemployment accounts. In such a system, workers contribute to a personal account from which they can withdraw, in a controlled fashion, once unemployed or retired. One of the promises of this alternative approach to unemployment benefits is its effect on moral hazard and shirking as workers are personally affected when they turn down offers. However, the account system may lead to new distortions. Calibrating the model to Oregon, we answer the following questions: 1) What scheme specification would be optimal from a social planner’s perspective? 2) How does such an optimal scheme compare to current unemployment insurance programs? 3) How can things go wrong in a poorly tuned system? Previous versions of this paper benefited from comments from seminar participants at the 2007 SED meeting in Prague, 2007 SCE meeting in Montreal, 2008 Midwest Macro Meetings at UPenn, Universite du Maine, Universite d’Aix-Marseille, OECD, IZA, Humboldt Universitat Berlin, University of Connecticut, Rimini Center, University of Saskatchewan, University of Waterloo and Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. This work was partially sponsored by the Cascade Policy Institute. We thank the Institute for giving us complete liberty in the conduct of this research. The views expressed are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Federal Reserve System, or the Board of Governors.
Temporal binding of sound emerges out of anatomical structure and synaptic dynamics of auditory cortex

The ability to represent and recognize naturally occuring sounds such as speech depends not only on spectral analysis carried out by the subcortical auditory system but also on the ability of the cortex to bind spectral information over time. In primates, these temporal binding processes are mirrored as selective responsiveness of neurons to species-specific vocalizations. Here, we used computational modeling of auditory cortex to investigate how selectivity to spectrally and temporally complex stimuli is achieved. A set of 208 microcolumns were arranged in a serial core-belt-parabelt structure documented in both humans and animals. Stimulus material comprised multiple consonant-vowel (CV) pseudowords. Selectivity to the spectral structure of the sounds was commonly found in all regions of the model (N = 122 columns out of 208), and this selectivity was only weakly affected by manipulating the structure and dynamics of the model. In contrast, temporal binding was rarer (N = 39), found mostly in the belt and parabelt regions. Thus, the serial core-belt-parabelt structure of auditory cortex is necessary for temporal binding. Further, adaptation due to synaptic depression—rendering the cortical network malleable by stimulus history—was crucial for the emergence of neurons sensitive to the temporal structure of the stimuli. Both spectral selectivity and temporal binding required that a sufficient proportion of the columns interacted in an inhibitory manner. The model and its structural modifications had a small-world structure (i.e., columns formed clusters and were within short node-to-node distances from each other). However, simulations showed that a small-world structure is not a necessary condition for spectral selectivity and temporal binding to emerge. In summary, this study suggests that temporal binding arises out of (1) the serial structure typical to the auditory cortex, (2) synaptic adaptation, and (3) inhibitory interactions between microcolumns.
Organizational Change and Innovation: Psychological Perspectives and Practices in Europe

Organizational change and innovation have received much attention in recent management literature, which has in the main been informed by debates in organizational behaviour, human resource management and strategic management. Given the important and logical impacts of change, this major contribution from work and organizational psychologists is welcome. The psychology of how people in organizations adapt to and manage change is key to our understanding of the processes by which such changes can occur successfully. "Organizational Change and Innovation" brings together contributions from leading European work and organizational psychologists, who take stock of existing theories about organizational change in the light of new research and practical developments. Their findings, from a range of cultural and national contexts, challenge some previously accepted models and set a new agenda for future research. In particular, the volume provides new perspectives on the person-organization relationship and a state-of-the-art review in the areas of strategic change, innovation, technological change and change in research methodology. This book should be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers in occupational psychology and organizational behaviour.
Data resources in the Department of Veterans Affairs.

OBJECTIVE To provide an overview of databases that are maintained by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and are of relevance to investigators involved in epidemiologic, clinical, and health services research. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We reviewed both national and local VA databases and identified their strengths and limitations. We also referenced specific studies that have assessed the validity and reliability of VA databases. RESULTS There are numerous national databases housed at the Austin Automation Center in Austin, Texas. These include the Patient Treatment File (hospital abstracts), the Outpatient Care File, the Beneficiary Identification Record Locator System death file for assessing vital status, and the Decision Support System, which provides integrated clinical and financial information for managerial decision making. The major limitation of these databases is that clinical detail below the level of ICD-9-CM diagnosis and procedure codes is not uniformly available nationally. These databases offer an excellent opportunity to monitor the health of veterans over time because they track all inpatient and outpatient utilization in the VA. However, at the local or medical center level, the Veterans Health Information and Systems and Technology Architecture contains extensive clinical information, but has fewer patients, varies in format across medical centers, and poses difficulties with data extraction for statistical analysis. CONCLUSIONS Both local and national VA databases are valuable resources for investigators who have interests in a wide array of research topics, including diabetes. The potential for investigating important scientific questions with VA databases becomes greater as communications and database management technologies improve.
Molecular cloning of chicken IL-7 and characterization of its antiviral activity against IBDV in vivo

Mammalian interleukin-7 (IL-7) is able to stimulate lymphocyte proliferation and maturation, and reverse immunosuppression. However, whether poultry IL-7 has similar functions remains unclear. Chicken infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) causes serious immunosuppression in chicken due to virus-induced immune disorder. Whether chicken IL-7 (chIL-7) has the ability to restore the immunity during IBDV-induced immunosuppression is not clear. To test this, we amplified chIL-7 gene by RT-PCR, prepared recombinant chIL-7 using HEK293T cells and treated the chicken with the chIL-7 prior to IBDV infection. Our results indicate that chIL-7 promoted mouse B cell proliferation in vitro, and significantly reduced virus titer in bursal tissue and chicken morbidity of IBDV-infected chicken. Mechanically, chIL-7 induced chicken lymphocyte proliferation and interferon-γ production, but down-regulated TGF-β expression, suggesting that chIL-7 has the ability to reverse IBDV-induced immunosuppression and might be a potential therapeutic agent for prevention and treatment of infectious bursal disease.
Biological Diversity Conservation and the Law: Legal Mechanisms For Conserving Species And Ecosystems

Covers the full spectrum of legal mechanisms available for conserving biodiversity. Part 1 discusses the scope of state powers to conserve wild species and habitats, legal mechanisms for controlling taking, procedures for listing species in need of conservation measures, mechanisms for controlling trade and the challenges of enforcement. Part 2 covers area-based conservation at local and national level, as well as in transfrontier protected areas and areas beyond national jurisdiction. It discusses public ownership, voluntary agreements, and regulatory measures and looks at a number of innovative instruments, planning controls, incentives and disincentives.
Factors affecting degree of foreign accent in an L2: a review

Abstract This article had two aims: to provide a thorough review of the existing literature examining overall degree of foreign accent in a second language (L2), and to present a new foreign accent experiment. The literature review suggested that a wide variety of variables influence degree of foreign accent. These variables include age of L2 learning, length of residence in an L2-speaking country, gender, formal instruction, motivation, language learning aptitude and amount of native language (L1) use. Age of L2 learning appears to be the most important predictor of degree of foreign accent. However, the relative importance of the other variables is uncertain. This is because many variables relating to subject characteristics tend to be confounded, and because of lack of adequate experimental control in some studies. The experiment presented here examined the influence of Italian-English bilinguals' age of L2 learning, length of residence in an L2-speaking environment (Canada), gender, amount of continued L1 (Italian) use and self-estimated L1 ability on degree of L2 foreign accent. As expected from the literature review, both age of L2 learning and amount of continued L1 use were found to affect degree of foreign accent. Gender, length of residence in an L2-speaking country and self-estimated L1 ability, on the other hand, were not found to have a significant, independent effect on overall L2 pronunciation accuracy.
In vivo muscle activity in the hindlimb of the arboreal lizard, Chamaeleo calyptratus: general patterns and the effects of incline

SUMMARY Arboreal animals often move on surfaces with variable and steep inclines, but the changes in hindlimb muscle activity in response to incline are poorly understood. Thus, we studied the hindlimb muscle activity in the arboreal specialist, Chamaeleo calyptratus, moving up and down 45° inclines and on a horizontal surface. We quantified electromyograms (EMGs) from nine hindlimb muscles, and correlated EMGs with three-dimensional hindlimb kinematics. Kinematics changed little with incline, but the EMGs changed substantially. Most of the changes in EMGs were for amplitude rather than timing, and the EMGs of the hip and thigh muscles had more conspicuous changes with incline than those of the lower limb muscles. Unlike most other vertebrates, chameleons flexed the knee substantially during the first half of stance while the foot was anchored to the perch, and the amplitude of two large knee flexors increased when moving uphill compared to level and downhill. Thus, knee flexion in early stance probably contributes significantly to propulsion in C. calyptratus. During stance, the caudofemoralis EMGs of C. calyptratus correlated well with femur retraction, knee flexion and posterior femur rotation, and their amplitudes were higher on uphill and level surfaces than on the downhill surface. During the second half of stance, iliotibialis EMGs correlated well with knee extension, and their amplitude was highest on the uphill surface and lowest on the downhill surface. Many of the muscles in the hindlimb of C. calyptratus changed activity with incline in a manner similar to the propulsive limb muscles in mammals. Although muscle strain often increases when animals need more power to move uphill, the minimal changes in the hindlimb kinematics of C. calyptratus with incline imply little change in muscle strain.
Private API Access and Functional Mocking in Automated Unit Test Generation

Not all object oriented code is easily testable: Dependency objects might be difficult or even impossible to instantiate, and object-oriented encapsulation makes testing potentially simple code difficult if it cannot easily be accessed. When this happens, then developers can resort to mock objects that simulate the complex dependencies, or circumvent object-oriented encapsulation and access private APIs directly through the use of, for example, Java reflection. Can automated unit test generation benefit from these techniques as well? In this paper we investigate this question by extending the EvoSuite unit test generation tool with the ability to directly access private APIs and to create mock objects using the popular Mockito framework. However, care needs to be taken that this does not impact the usefulness of the generated tests: For example, a test accessing a private field could later fail if that field is renamed, even if that renaming is part of a semantics-preserving refactoring. Such a failure would not be revealing a true regression bug, but is a false positive, which wastes the developer's time for investigating and fixing the test. Our experiments on the SF110 and Defects4J benchmarks confirm the anticipated improvements in terms of code coverage and bug finding, but also confirm the existence of false positives. However, by ensuring the test generator only uses mocking and reflection if there is no other way to reach some part of the code, their number remains small.
The effects of central post-stroke pain on quality of life and depression in patients with stroke

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to assess the effects of central poststroke pain on quality of life, functionality, and depression in stroke. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-four patients with stroke having central poststroke pain (a mean age of 60.6±8.5 years; 14 males, 10 females; Group I) and 24 similar age-and gender-matched patients with stroke without central poststroke pain (Group II) were enrolled. Characteristics of pain were recorded in patients with stroke having central poststroke pain. The Visual Analogue Scale and Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs pain scale were used to evaluate pain. The Functional Independence Measure was used to assess functionality, the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey was used to assess quality of life (QoL), and the Beck Depression Inventory was used to assess depression. [Results] There were no significant differences in Functional Independence Measure and Beck Depression Inventory. Some of the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey domains (physical role limitations, pain, and physical scores) in Group II were significantly higher than those in Group I. Additionally, we found that a unit increase in Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs score led to 0.679 decrease in physical score and 0.387 decrease in mental score. [Conclusion] The physical component of the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey is negatively affected in patient with central poststroke pain, but the mood and mental components of the scale unaffected.
Enterprise Application Integration : An Emerging Technology For Integrating ERP And Supply Chains

During the last decade, the adoption of ebusiness applications and practices has transformed enterprises and changed the way of doing business. As a result, the competition among companies has increased and organisations are focusing on supply chain co-ordination and collaboration to increase their business benefits. For many years, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems supported supply chain management. However, the limitations of ERP systems on integrating disparate systems have led organisations to seek for new approaches to integrate their systems and supply chains. Thus, the intention of this paper is to explain why ERP systems have failed to support integrated supply chains and to introduce a new approach on systems integration, which can be adopted by organisations to overcome their integration problems.
The mechanism of locomotion in snakes.

1. Of the four main types of locomotion observed in snakes, three (serpentine, concertina and crotaline) can be elicited from the common grass snake ( Tropidonotus natrix ) by appropriate modification of the animal9s environment. 2. Serpentine motion depends on three factors, (i) The body must be thrown into one or more curves each of which exhibits an increase of curvature when measured towards the head of the animal, (ii) Active muscular tension must develop in the axial muscles which lie on the same side of the body as that in which the curvature is increasing, (iii) The body must be subjected to at least three external resistances acting normally to the surface of the body. The propulsive force is the resultant of the reactions exercised by all these external resistances. 3. A snake cannot propel itself by serpentine movement along a straight or circular path. Under such conditions Tropidonotus progresses by concertina movements, the nature of which are described. 4. The muscular cycle of a snake exhibiting ‘crotaline’, or side-winding, movements is essentially the same as that during serpentine motion; the difference in the type of movement relative to the ground is due to a difference in the nature of the external resistances offered by the animal9s environment. The mechanical principle of crotaline movement is, fundamentally, that of a caterpillar tractor. 5. Serpentine, concertina, and crotaline movements do not depend on active movements on the part of the ribs or scales. Rectilinear movement involving these structures has not been observed in Tropidonotus .
Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It

"Cutting the Fuse" offers a wealth of new knowledge about the origins of suicide terrorism and strategies to stop it. Robert A. Pape and James K. Feldman have examined every suicide terrorist attack worldwide from 1980 to 2009, and the insights they have gleaned from that data fundamentally challenge how we understand the root causes of terrorist campaigns today - and reveal why the War on Terror has been ultimately counterproductive. Through a close analysis of suicide campaigns by al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Israel, Chechnya, and Sri Lanka, the authors provide powerful new evidence that, contrary to popular and dangerously mistaken belief, only a tiny minority of these attacks are motivated solely by religion. Instead, the root cause is foreign military occupation, which triggers secular and religious people alike to carry out suicide attacks. "Cutting the Fuse" calls for new, effective solutions that America and its allies can sustain for decades, relying less on ground troops in Muslim countries and more on offshore, over-the-horizon military forces along with political and economic strategies that empower local communities to stop terrorists in their midst.
Crop Yield Assessment from Remote Sensing

Monitoring crop condition and production estimates at the state and county level is of great interest to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducts field interviews with sampled farm operators and obtains crop cuttings to make crop yield estimates at regional and state levels. NASS needs supplemental spatial data that provides timely information on crop condition and potential yields. In this research, the crop model EPIC (Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator) was adapted for simulations at regional scales. Satellite remotely sensed data provide a real-time assessment of the magnitude and variation of crop condition parameters, and this study investigates the use of these parameters as an input to a crop growth model. This investigation was conducted in the semi-arid region of North Dakota in the southeastern part of the state. The primary objective was to evaluate a method of integrating parameters. retrieved from satellite imagery in a crop growth model to simulate spring wheat yields at the sub-county and county levels. The input parameters derived from remotely sensed data provided spatial integrity, as well as a real-time calibration of model simulated parameters during the season, to ensure that the modeled and observed conditions agree. A radiative transfer model, SAIL (Scattered by Arbitrary Inclined Leaves), provided the link between the satellite data and crop model. The model parameters were simulated in a geographic information system grid, which was the platform for aggregating yields at local and regional scales. A model calibration was performed to initialize the model parameters. This calibration was performed using Landsat data over three southeast counties in North Dakota. The model was then used to simulate crop yields for the state of North Dakota with inputs derived from NOAA AVHRR data. The calibration and the state level simulations are compared with spring wheat yields reported by NASS objective yield surveys.
Dynamic simulation model of pneumatic actuator with artificial muscle

Antagonistic actuator with pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) is a kinematic structure that consists of two pneumatic muscles acting in opposition to each other, connected through the chain gear. The resulting position of the actuator can be determined by the angle of arm of the load attached to a shaft. Stiffness position of shaft in the given direction is determined by size of pressure of the relevant pneumatic muscle, which is loaded in tension and rotation (position) of shaft is proportional to pressure difference in individual muscle. The main drawback of this actuator is that its dynamic behavior is highly nonlinear. Due to this knowledge of the muscle properties it is necessary to use the model of the muscle. This muscle model of the system is based on modified Hill's basic model which consists of a variable damper and a variable spring connected in parallel. All the work on dynamic model was created in Matlab/Simulink environment.