Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ungdom och familj - Samband mellan ungdomens självskattade mående och dennes syn på sin familj

The aim for this study was to examine how adolescents well-being influences their self-report of different family issues. The empirical material was based upon a study including 88 adolescents in a Swedish upper level lower secondary school that took part in autumn 2014. The theoretical approach was logical positivism with a hypothetic-deductive method where a survey consisting of psychometric measures was used. The measures used in this study were the Swedish version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Swedish version of the Family Environment Scale (FiS). The study showed that there was a correlation between adolescents self-reported emotional problems, as well as hyperactivity, and cohesion in their family. There was also a correlation between adolescents self-reported conduct problems and conflict in their family, although this correlation was not as strong as the first one. The results were discussed based on an individual and systemic perspective using the family life cycle model taking the individual development during adolescents into consideration. The study concluded that adolescents can not be fully understood without taking family issues into consideration although other factors are important for their well-being as well. (Less)
Efficient and Robust Fitting of Lognormal Distributions

Abstract In parametric modeling of loss distributions in actuarial science, a versatile choice with intermediate tail weight is the lognormal distribution. Surprisingly, however, the fitting of this model using estimators that are at once efficient and robust has not been seriously addressed in the extensive literature. Consequently, typical estimators of the lognormal mean and variance fail to be both efficient and robust. In particular, the highly efficient maximum likelihood estimators lack robustness because of their limited sensitivity to outliers in the sample. For the two-parameter lognormal estimation problem, the author considers the problem of efficient and robust joint estimation of the mean and variance of a normal model. He introduces generalized-median-type estimators that yield efficient and robust estimators of various parameters of interest in the lognormal model. The paper provides detailed treatment of the lognormal mean and discusses extension of the approach to the much more complicated problem of estimation for the three-parameter lognormal model.
Asymmetric price adjustment in the small $ Haipeng (

Analyses of a large retail scanner price data set reveal a new and surprising regularity – small price increases occur more frequently than small price decreases for price changes of up to 10b. That is, we find asymmetric price adjustment ‘‘in the small. ’’ Furthermore, it turns out that inflation offers only a partial explanation for the finding. Indeed, substantial proportion of the asymmetry remains unexplained, even after accounting for the inflation. For example, the asymmetry holds also after excluding periods of inflation from the data, and even for products whose price had not increased. The findings hold for different aggregate and disaggregate measures of inflation and also after allowing for lagged price adjustments. & 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. editor Robert King for constructive comments and suggestions. In addition, we thank the participants and vember 2004 NBER Monetary Economics Program meeting and Judith Chevalier at the January 2002 North ul and constructive comments. We are grateful also to Gershon Alperovich, Ignazio Angeloni, Larry Ball, Bob Eichenbaum, Ben Friedman, Xavier Gabaix, Vitor Gaspar, Wolter Hassink, Peter Karadi, Anil Kashyap, Miles eahy, Dongwon Lee, Andy Levin, Igal Milchtaich, Benoı̂t Mojon, Georg Müller, Monika Piazzesi, Akshay Rao, er, Stephanie Rosenkranz, Avichai Snir, Bent Sorensen, Yossi Spiegel, Dani Tsiddon, Alex Wolman, Yaron comments and suggestions. In addition we would like to thank the participants at the June 2008 Second Globalized World at Wilfrid Laurier University, June 2007 conference on ‘‘Phillips Curve and Natural Rate y, the May 2006 Second Statistical Challenges in E-Commerce Research Symposium at the University of rence in Memory of Oved Yosha, the August 2005 World Congress of the Econometric Society at University deling Pricing Behavior in Macroeconomic Models at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the December and Behavioral Economics at the University of Valencia, the June 2004 T.C. Koopmans’ First International University, the June 2002 Marketing Science Conference at the University of Alberta, and the June 2001 ichigan, as well as the seminar participants at Bar-Ilan University, Ben-Gurion University, European Central Tel-Aviv University, and the University of Minnesota for comments, suggestions, and advice, and Chetan raj, and Rishi Modh for excellent research assistance. Daniel Levy gratefully acknowledges the financial partment at Bar-Ilan University. All authors contributed equally. We rotate co-authorship. All errors are ours. mics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel. Tel. : +972 3 5318331; fax: +972 3 738 4034.
On the complexity of single machine scheduling problems under scenario-based uncertainty 1

Nous considérons des problèmes d’ordonnancement où certains paramètres des tâches sont incertains. Cette incertitude est modélisée au travers d’un ensemble ﬁni de scénarios bien déﬁnis. Nous cherchons une solution qui soit acceptable pour l’en-semble des scénarios considérés. Plusieurs critères ont été utilisés dans la littérature pour sélectionner la “meilleure” solution. Nous utilisons ici le critère appelé robus-tesse absolue . Nous présentons des résultats algorithmiques et de complexité pour quelques problèmes classiques d’ordonnancement sur une machine.
Terrorism and Crime Related Weblog Social Network: Link, Content Analysis and Information Visualization

A Weblog is a Web site where entries are made in diary style, maintained by its sole author - a blogger, and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Due to the freedom and convenience of publishing in Weblogs, this form of media provides an ideal environment as a propaganda platform for terrorist groups to promote their ideologies and as an operation platform for organizing crimes. In this work, we present a framework to analyze and visualize Weblog social network embedded beneath relevant Weblogs gathered through topic-specific exploration. Link analysis uses the relationships between bloggers to construct the Weblog social network. Content analysis associates similar blog messages to unveil implicit relationships found in the semantics to further improve the Weblog social network analysis. Users can use different interactive information visualization techniques to explore various aspects of the underlying social network at different levels of abstraction. With the capability of analyzing and visualizing Weblog social networks in terrorist and crime related matters, intelligence agencies and law enforcement will be able to have an additional tools and means to ensure the national security.
Stock Investment with Stochastic Programming

In this paper, we propose the stochastic programming (SP) model with risk measure conditional value at risk (CVaR) for investing stocks in Taiwan stock market. In each period of investment, 200 scenarios are generated for solving SP, and the CVaR is utilized to manage the risk. The experiment interval starts from 2005/1/1 and ends on 2013/12/31, which has totally 2235 trading periods. The experimental results show that our method is able to earn positive return. We also perform superior predictive ability test to illustrate that our method can avoid the data snooping problem. Our method achieves the best annualized return 13.26%, which is higher than the buy-and-hold annualized return 12.19%. Keywords-Stock; Stochastic programming; Conditional value at risk; Superior predictive ability.
Nuclear localisation of p65 in sputum macrophages but not in sputum neutrophils during COPD exacerbations.

BACKGROUND Exacerbations represent an important feature of the clinical manifestation and natural history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Nuclear localisation of p65 is a signal of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) activation. A study was undertaken to evaluate whether NF-kappaB activation is modified in sputum cells during COPD exacerbations. METHODS Total and nuclear p65 immunoreactivity was measured by immunocytochemistry in the sputum cells of 11 smokers with moderate COPD during an exacerbation and after 6-8 weeks of clinical stability. RESULTS Total sputum cell count was significantly increased during exacerbations from a median (IQR) of 880 (510-1865) to 1914.5 (1065-3205) x 10(3)/ml (p<0.05). The main inflammatory cells in the sputum were neutrophils (83.2 (75.4-92.3)%) and macrophages (14.7 (2.6-21.6)%) and their relative proportion did not change during exacerbations. Nuclear staining for p65 was absent in sputum neutrophils, both during exacerbations and in the stable phase. In contrast, the percentage of macrophages expressing nuclear p65 increased significantly during exacerbations from a median (IQR) of 16 (7-24)% to 41.4 (6-69)% (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS NF-kappaB appears to be activated in sputum macrophages but not in sputum neutrophils during exacerbations of COPD
ONE-LOOP DIVERGENCES OF QUANTUM GRAVITY USING CONFORMAL PARAMETRIZATION

We calculate the one-loop divergences for quantum gravity with cosmological constant, using new parametrization of quantum metric. The conformal factor of the metric is treated as an independent variable. As a result the theory possesses an additional degeneracy and one needs an extra conformal gauge fixing. We verify the on-shell independence of the divergences from the parameter of the conformal gauge fixing, and find a special conformal gauge in which the divergences coincide with the ones obtained by 't Hooft and Veltman (1974). Using conformal invariance of the counterterms, one can restore the divergences for the conformal metric–scalar gravity.
Chlamydia pneumoniae Antibodies and C-Reactive Protein Levels in Patients with Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms

Introduction. The study aim was to assess the relationship between the presence of antibodies to Chlamydia pneumoniae and abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) incidence. Patients and Methods. Consecutive AAA patients and AAA-free controls were recruited prospectively. Serum samples from both groups were examined to determine Immunoglobulin (Ig) A and IgG titres against Chlamydia pneumoniae by ELISA and C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations. Results were expressed as mean (SD) or median (IQR) and compared using χ 2 and Mann-Whitney U tests. A P value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results. Each study group (AAA/nAAA) comprised 250 patients. 196 (78.7%) AAA patients had positive IgA antichlamydial antibody titres, compared to 181 (72.4%) in the control group (P = 0.008, OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.2–3.5). However, positive IgG antibody titres were similar (191 versus 203; P = 0.222, OR 0.7, 95% CI 0.4–1.3). Average CRP concentrations were higher in AAA individuals. IgA or IgG antibody titres were not related to CRP concentrations. Conclusions. These results demonstrated that the frequent incidence of Chlamydia pneumoniae antibodies within the general population makes it difficult to relate its presence to AAA development, despite the high IgA antibody titres. In addition, raised CRP concentrations in AAA patients are not related to the presence of antichlamydial antibodies.
Multiple Position Room Response Equalization in Frequency Domain

This paper deals with methods for multiple position room response equalization. Differently from a well-known technique working in the time domain and based on fuzzy c-means clustering, in the proposed approach most of the operations are performed in the frequency domain and, in particular, the fuzzy c-means clustering is applied to the room magnitude responses at different positions. It is shown that working in the frequency domain allows us to obtain equalization performances at least similar to those of the time domain approach with a strongly reduced computational complexity. In addition, different techniques that can replace the fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm in the derivation of the prototype room response equalizer, with additional reduction of the number of operations, are discussed. Finally, the results of three sets of experiments are used to illustrate the performance, the robustness and the quality of the proposed room response equalization method using alternative prototype design strategies applied to different environments.
Data quality issues in implementing an ERP

Data quality is a critical issue during the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Data quality problems can have a significant impact on an organisation’s information system. Therefore, it is essential to understand data quality issues to ensure success in implementing ERP systems. This paper uses SAP as an example of an ERP system and describes a study, which explores data quality problems with existing systems, and identifies critical success factors that impact data quality. The study resulted in the development of a framework for understanding data quality issues in implementing an ERP, and application of this framework in a case study in two large Australian organisations. The findings of the study suggest that the importance of data quality needs to be widely understood in implementing an ERP, as well as providing recommendations that may be useful to practitioners.
Emerging research methods for understanding mobile technology use

Mobile devices, applications and services have become integrated into people's daily lives on a personal and professional level. Although traditional research methods are being used to understand the use of mobile devices and applications, methodological challenges still exist. Researchers have responded to these challenges in a range of ways, with an emphasis on developing methods that enable new ways of accessing, making available and collecting, data about mobile technology use. This paper identifies, defines, describes and presents, a preliminary framework for understanding the methodological responses emerging in current Mobile Human Computer Interaction (Mobile HCI) research.
Use of Online Public Access Catalogue at Annamalai University Library

The patrons in the library can search the bibliographic database and find specific in formation online. The search facility also aprises the user about the availability of each item fo r circulation, including current status of individual copies of a title and reserve status. It also shows titles on order displaying current status in acquisition. This paper examines Online Public Access Catalogue usage by the students, research scholars and faculty of Annamalai University Library. A questionnaire-based survey on use of OPAC was conducted for Annamalai University Library on various categories of users such as faculty members, research scholars and postgraduate students, covering different disciplines such as Arts, Science, Engineering, Medicine and Agriculture sciences. The paper discusses various aspects of OPAC such as frequency of use, purpose, satisfaction level, etc. The results of the study show that only one third of the respondents used OPAC frequently. The study also found that majority of users consulted OPAC to know the availability and location of the requisite documents.
Group A Streptococcus Secreted Esterase Hydrolyzes Platelet-Activating Factor to Impede Neutrophil Recruitment and Facilitate Innate Immune Evasion

The innate immune system is the first line of host defense against invading organisms. Thus, pathogens have developed virulence mechanisms to evade the innate immune system. Here, we report a novel means for inhibition of neutrophil recruitment by Group A Streptococcus (GAS). Deletion of the secreted esterase gene (designated sse) in M1T1 GAS strains with (MGAS5005) and without (MGAS2221) a null covS mutation enhances neutrophil ingress to infection sites in the skin of mice. In trans expression of SsE in MGAS2221 reduces neutrophil recruitment and enhances skin invasion. The sse deletion mutant of MGAS5005 (Δsse MGAS5005) is more efficiently cleared from skin than the parent strain. SsE hydrolyzes the sn-2 ester bond of platelet-activating factor (PAF), converting biologically active PAF into inactive lyso-PAF. KM and k cat of SsE for hydrolysis of 2-thio-PAF were similar to those of the human plasma PAF acetylhydrolase. Treatment of PAF with SsE abolishes the capacity of PAF to induce activation and chemotaxis of human neutrophils. More importantly, PAF receptor-deficient mice significantly reduce neutrophil infiltration to the site of Δsse MGAS5005 infection. These findings identify the first secreted PAF acetylhydrolase of bacterial pathogens and support a novel GAS evasion mechanism that reduces phagocyte recruitment to sites of infection by inactivating PAF, providing a new paradigm for bacterial evasion of neutrophil responses.
Constraints on the Radiatively Inefficient Accretion History of Active Galactic Nuclei from the Hard Cosmological X-Ray Background

The transition of a standard thin disk into a radiatively inefficient accretion flow (RIAF) is expected to occur when its accretion rate is lower than a critical value crit ( = /Edd). RIAFs are very hot, and they radiate mostly in the hard X-ray band (≳100 keV). Assuming that the accretion disk in every bright active galactic nucleus (AGN) will finally undergo an RIAF phase when < crit, we calculate the contribution of the RIAFs in AGNs to the cosmological X-ray background at 10-1000 keV. We find that the timescale tRIAF of an RIAF accreting at ~crit should be shorter than ~10-2tb if crit = 0.01, where tb is the lifetime of bright AGNs; that is, declines from crit to a rate significantly lower than crit within tRIAF. The derived timescale tRIAF is affected by the parameters adopted in the model calculations, which are also discussed.
Basic Instinct Undressed: Early Spatiotemporal Processing for Primary Sexual Characteristics

This study investigates the spatiotemporal dynamics associated with conscious and non-conscious processing of naked and dressed human bodies. To this effect, stimuli of naked men and women with visible primary sexual characteristics, as well as dressed bodies, were presented to 20 heterosexual male and female participants while acquiring high resolution EEG data. The stimuli were either consciously detectable (supraliminal presentations) or were rendered non-conscious through backward masking (subliminal presentations). The N1 event-related potential component was significantly enhanced in participants when they viewed naked compared to dressed bodies under supraliminal viewing conditions. More importantly, naked bodies of the opposite sex produced a significantly greater N1 component compared to dressed bodies during subliminal presentations, when participants were not aware of the stimulus presented. A source localization algorithm computed on the N1 showed that the response for naked bodies in the supraliminal viewing condition was stronger in body processing areas, primary visual areas and additional structures related to emotion processing. By contrast, in the subliminal viewing condition, only visual and body processing areas were found to be activated. These results suggest that naked bodies and primary sexual characteristics are processed early in time (i.e., <200 ms) and activate key brain structures even when they are not consciously detected. It appears that, similarly to what has been reported for emotional faces, sexual features benefit from automatic and rapid processing, most likely due to their high relevance for the individual and their importance for the species in terms of reproductive success.
Salinity-Dependent Shift in the Localization of Three Peptide Transporters along the Intestine of the Mozambique Tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus)

The peptide transporter (PepT) systems are well-known for their importance to protein absorption in all vertebrate species. These symporters use H+ gradient at the apical membrane of the intestinal epithelial cells to mediate the absorption of small peptides. In fish, the intestine is a multifunctional organ, involved in osmoregulation, acid-base regulation, and nutrient absorption. Therefore, we expected environmental stimuli to affect peptide absorption. We examined the effect of three environmental factors; salinity, pH and feeding, on the expression, activity and localization of three PepT transporters (PepT1a, PepT1b, PepT2) along the intestine of the Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus). Quantitative real time PCR (qPCR) analysis demonstrated that the two PepT1 variants are typical to the proximal intestinal section while PepT2 is typical to the distal intestinal sections. Immunofluorescence analysis with custom-made antibodies supported the qPCR results, localized both transporters on the apical membrane of enterocytes and provided the first evidence for the participation of PepT2 in nutrient absorption. This first description of segment-specific expression and localization points to a complementary role of the different peptide transporters, corresponding to the changes in nutrient availability along the intestine. Both gene expression and absorption activity assays showed that an increase in water salinity shifted the localization of the PepT genes transcription and activity down along the intestinal tract. Additionally, an unexpected pH effect was found on the absorption of small peptides, with increased activity at higher pH levels. This work emphasizes the relationships between different functions of the fish intestine and how they are affected by environmental conditions.
Two meanings of “if”? Individual differences in the interpretation of conditionals

This work investigates the nature of two distinct response patterns in a probabilistic truth table evaluation task, in which people estimate the probability of a conditional on the basis of frequencies of the truth table cases. The conditional-probability pattern reflects an interpretation of conditionals as expressing a conditional probability. The conjunctive pattern suggests that some people treat conditionals as conjunctions, in line with a prediction of the mental-model theory. Experiments 1 and 2 rule out two alternative explanations of the conjunctive pattern. It does not arise from people believing that at least one case matching the conjunction of antecedent and consequent must exist for a conditional to be true, and it does not arise from people adding the converse to the given conditional. Experiment 3 establishes that people's response patterns in the probabilistic truth table task are very consistent across different conditionals, and that the two response patterns generalize to conditionals with negated antecedents and consequents. Individual differences in rating the probability of a conditional were loosely correlated with corresponding response patterns in a classical truth table evaluation task, but there was little association with people's evaluation of deductive inferences from conditionals as premises. A theoretical framework is proposed that integrates elements from the conditional-probability view with the theory of mental models.