Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The blessing of transitivity in sparse and stochastic networks

The interaction between transitivity and sparsity, two common features in empirical networks, implies that there are local regions of large sparse networks that are dense. We call this the blessing of transitivity and it has consequences for both modeling and inference. Extant research suggests that statistical inference for the Stochastic Blockmodel is more difficult when the edges are sparse. However, this conclusion is confounded by the fact that the asymptotic limit in all of the previous studies is not merely sparse, but also non-transitive. To retain transitivity, the blocks cannot grow faster than the expected degree. Thus, in sparse models, the blocks must remain asymptotically small. \n Previous algorithmic research demonstrates that small "local" clusters are more amenable to computation, visualization, and interpretation when compared to "global" graph partitions. This paper provides the first statistical results that demonstrate how these small transitive clusters are also more amenable to statistical estimation. Theorem 2 shows that a "local" clustering algorithm can, with high probability, detect a transitive stochastic block of a fixed size (e.g. 30 nodes) embedded in a large graph. The only constraint on the ambient graph is that it is large and sparse--it could be generated at random or by an adversary--suggesting a theoretical explanation for the robust empirical performance of local clustering algorithms.
Preventing Illiteracy: Improving the Practice of Selecting Reading Assessments or Early Learners

The inability to read well is associated with social ills such as dropping out of school, delinquency, inadequate health care, unwanted pregnancy, and chronic underemployment (Moats & Tolman, 2009). Inadequate reading skills are especially prevalent in urban schools. Teachers utilize many tools to combat illiteracy to include instruction and assessment. It is important for teachers to have a thorough understanding of the nature of young children’s learning and development as well as an understanding of what research tells us about the purpose and methods of assessments with young children (Howard, Cooke, Agnamba & Bornfreund, 2014).
Acceleration of a High Order Finite-Difference WENO Scheme for Large-Scale Cosmological Simulations on GPU

In this work, we present our implementation of a three-dimensional 5th order finite-difference weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme in double precision on CPU/GPU clusters, which targets on large-scale cosmological hydrodynamic flow simulations involving both shocks and complicated smooth solution structures. In the level of MPI parallelization, we subdivided the domain along each of three axial directions. Then on each process, we ported the WENO computation to GPU. This method is memory-bound derived from the calculations of the weights and it becomes a greater challenge for a 3D high order problem in double precision. To make full use of impressive computing power of GPU and avoid its memory limitation, we performed a series of optimizations that are focused on memory accessing mode at all levels. We subjected this code to a number of typical tests for the evaluation of effectiveness and efficiency. Our tests indicate that, in a mono-thread Fortran code reference, the GPU version achieves a 12~19 speed-up and about 19~36 in the computation part. We analyzed the results on both Fermi and Kepler GPUs. We also outlined what is needed to further increase the speed by reducing the time spent on the communications part and other future work.
Nonlinear evolution of parallel propagating Alfven waves: Vlasov - MHD simulation

Nonlinear evolution of circularly polarized Alfv\'en waves are discussed by using the recently developed Vlasov-MHD code, which is a generalized Landau-fluid model. The numerical results indicate that as far as the nonlinearity in the system is not so large, the Vlasov-MHD model can validly solve time evolution of the Alfv\'enic turbulence both in the linear and nonlinear stages. The present Vlasov-MHD model is proper to discuss the solar coronal heating and solar wind acceleration by Alfve\'n waves propagating from the photosphere.
Simulation and analysis of network on chip architectures: ring, spidergon and 2D mesh

NoC architectures can be adopted to support general communications among multiple IPs over multi-processor systems on chip (SoCs). In this work we illustrate the modeling and simulation-based analysis of some recent architectures for network on chip (NoC). Specifically, the ring, spidergon and 2D mesh NoC topologies have been compared, both under uniform load and under more realistic load assumptions in the SoC domain. The main performance indexes considered are NoC throughput and latency, as a function of variable data-injection rates, source and destination distributions, and variable number of nodes. Results show that the spidergon topology is a good trade-off between performance, scalability of the most efficient architectures inherited from the parallel computing systems design, constraints about simple management, and small energy and area requirements for SoCs
Inhaled carbon monoxide increases retinal and choroidal blood flow in healthy humans.

PURPOSE It has been hypothesized that carbon monoxide (CO) acts as an important vascular paracrine factor and plays a role in blood flow regulation in several tissues. The present study investigated the effect of inhaled CO on retinal and choroidal blood flow. METHODS Fifteen healthy male volunteers were studied in a randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled design with washout periods of at least 1 week between study days. CO in a dose of 500 ppm or placebo (synthetic air without CO) was inhaled for 60 minutes. Ocular hemodynamics were measured at baseline and at 30 and 60 minutes after start of inhalation. Retinal vessel diameters were measured with a retinal vessel analyzer. RBC velocity was assessed using bidirectional laser Doppler velocimetry. Retinal blood flow was calculated based on retinal vessel diameters and RBC velocity. Fundus pulsation amplitude (FPA) was measured using laser interferometry, and submacular choroidal blood flow using laser Doppler flowmetry. RESULTS Breathing of CO significantly increased carboxyhemoglobine, from 1.2 +/- 0.5% to 8.5 +/- 0.9% and 9.4 +/- 0.6% at the two time points, respectively (P < 0.01). The diameter of retinal arteries increased by +3.5 +/- 3.8% and +4.2 +/- 3.9% (P < 0.01) in response to CO inhalation. In retinal veins, CO also induced an increase in diameter of +4.3 +/- 3.0% and +4.8 +/- 5.0%, respectively (P < 0.01). By contrast, placebo did not influence retinal vessel diameter. RBC velocity tended to increase during CO inhalation (+8 +/- 22%), but this effect did not reach the level of significance (P = 0.1). Calculated retinal blood flow increased significantly by +12 +/- 5% (P < 0.02). FPA increased after breathing CO by +20 +/- 20% and +26 +/- 21% at the two time points, respectively (P < 0.01). Subfoveal choroidal blood flow increased by +14 +/- 9% and +15 +/- 9% during breathing of CO (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS This experiment demonstrated that retinal and choroidal blood flow increase during inhalation of CO. Whether this increase is caused by tissue hypoxia or a yet unknown mechanism has to be clarified.
Toward Simulation-Free Estimation of Critical Clearing Time

Contingency screening for transient stability of large-scale, strongly nonlinear, interconnected power systems is one of the most computationally challenging parts of Dynamic Security Assessment and requires huge resources to perform time-domain simulations-based assessment. To reduce computational cost of time-domain simulations, direct energy methods have been extensively developed. However, these methods, as well as other existing methods, still rely on time-consuming numerical integration of the fault-on dynamics. This task is computationally hard, since possibly thousands of contingencies need to be scanned and thousands of accompanied fault-on dynamics simulations need to be performed and stored on a regular basis. In this paper, we introduce a novel framework to eliminate the need for fault-on dynamics simulations in contingency screening. This simulation-free framework is based on bounding the fault-on dynamics and extending the recently introduced Lyapunov Function Family approach for transient stability analysis of structure-preserving model. In turn, a lower bound of the critical clearing time is obtained by solving convex optimization problems without relying on any time-domain simulations. A comprehensive analysis is carried out to validate this novel technique on a number of IEEE test cases.
Why is it worth flying at dusk for aquatic insects? Polarotactic water detection is easiest at low solar elevations

SUMMARY Using 180° field-of-view imaging polarimetry, we measured the reflection-polarization patterns of two artificial surfaces (water-dummies) in the red, green and blue spectral ranges under clear and partly cloudy skies at different solar elevations. The dummies consisted of a horizontal glass pane with a matt black or matt light grey cloth underneath, imitating a dark or bright water body, respectively. Assuming that polarotactic water insects interpret a surface as representing water if the degree of linear polarization of reflected light is higher than a threshold and the deviation of the direction of polarization from the horizontal is lower than a threshold, we calculated the proportion, P, of the artificial surfaces detected polarotactically as water. We found that at sunrise and sunset P is maximal for both water-dummies and their reflection-polarizational characteristics are most similar. From this, we conclude that polarotactic water detection is easiest at low solar elevations, because the risk that a polarotactic insect will be unable to recognize the surface of a dark or bright water body is minimal. This partly explains why many aquatic insect species usually fly en masse at dusk. The daily change in the reflection-polarization pattern of water surfaces is an important visual ecological factor that may contribute to the preference of the twilight period for habitat searching by polarotactic water insects. Air temperature at sunrise is generally low, so dusk is the optimal period for polarotactic aquatic insects to seek new habitats.
The Genomic Diversity and Phylogenetic Relationship in the Family Iridoviridae

The Iridoviridae family are large viruses (∼120–200 nm) that contain a linear double-stranded DNA genome. The genomic size of Iridoviridae family members range from 105,903 bases encoding 97 open reading frames (ORFs) for frog virus 3 to 212,482 bases encoding 211 ORFs for Chilo iridescent virus. The family Iridoviridae is currently subdivided into five genera: Chloriridovirus, Iridovirus, Lymphocystivirus, Megalocytivirus, and Ranavirus. Iridoviruses have been found to infect invertebrates and poikilothermic vertebrates, including amphibians, reptiles, and fish. With such a diverse array of hosts, there is great diversity in gene content between different genera. To understand the origin of iridoviruses, we explored the phylogenetic relationship between individual iridoviruses and defined the core-set of genes shared by all members of the family. In order to further explore the evolutionary relationship between the Iridoviridae family repetitive sequences were identified and compared. Each genome was found to contain a set of unique repetitive sequences that could be used in future virus identification. Repeats common to more than one virus were also identified and changes in copy number between these repeats may provide a simple method to differentiate between very closely related virus strains. The results of this paper will be useful in identifying new iridoviruses and determining their relationship to other members of the family.
The effects of job crafting on subjective well-being amongst South African high school teachers

Orientation: Job crafting can result in a number of positive outcomes for teachers, such as increased meaningfulness and engagement at work. Increased work engagement and psychological meaningfulness may yield positive benefits for the practice of teaching, thus highlighting the pivotal role of job crafting. Research purpose: The study’s aim was to investigate the relationship between job crafting and subjective well-being amongst South African high school teachers. Subjective well-being comprises psychological meaningfulness and work engagement. The potential mediating effect that psychological meaningfulness had on this relationship was further explored. Motivation for the study: Being in a highly stressful occupation, teachers need to continuously find ways to craft their working practices in order to deal effectively with their job demands and to capitalise on their available job resources. Furthermore, South Africa’s current education system calls for serious proactive measures to be taken to improve and rectify the current status, such as job crafting. Research approach, design and method: A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was used and administered to a sample of South African high school teachers situated in Gauteng, South Africa (N = 251). Main findings: A positive relationship was found between job crafting (increasing structural resources and challenging job demands) and work engagement. Furthermore, psychological meaningfulness mediated the relationship between job crafting and work engagement amongst the sampled high school teachers. Practical/managerial implications: Teachers who craft their work to better suit their preferences and needs will obtain greater meaning in their work and experience increased levels of work engagement. Training programmes and/or group-based interventions targeted around job crafting techniques may be particularly useful in the South African teaching context. Contribution/value-add: This study highlights the importance of job crafting to the well-being of teachers. It further contributes to the literature pertaining to job crafting and teaching specifically, as well as to the limited job crafting research that has been conducted in the South African context.
Segmentation precedes face categorization under suboptimal conditions

Both categorization and segmentation processes play a crucial role in face perception. However, the functional relation between these subprocesses is currently unclear. The present study investigates the temporal relation between segmentation-related and category-selective responses in the brain, using electroencephalography (EEG). Surface segmentation and category content were both manipulated using texture-defined objects, including faces. This allowed us to study brain activity related to segmentation and to categorization. In the main experiment, participants viewed texture-defined objects for a duration of 800 ms. EEG results revealed that segmentation-related responses precede category-selective responses. Three additional experiments revealed that the presence and timing of categorization depends on stimulus properties and presentation duration. Photographic objects were presented for a long and short (92 ms) duration and evoked fast category-selective responses in both cases. On the other hand, presentation of texture-defined objects for a short duration only evoked segmentation-related but no category-selective responses. Category-selective responses were much slower when evoked by texture-defined than by photographic objects. We suggest that in case of categorization of objects under suboptimal conditions, such as when low-level stimulus properties are not sufficient for fast object categorization, segmentation facilitates the slower categorization process.
How much do Nepalese mothers know about child development?

ABSTRACT Parental knowledge on child development is important for maximal developmental potential. This study was conducted to assess mothers’ knowledge on child development in Nepal. The Caregivers Knowledge of Child Development Inventory (CKCDI) was used to interview mothers. Total of 1272 mothers were interviewed. Out of the total CKCDI score of 40, mean score (SD) obtained by mothers was 20 (4.8). Mothers’ knowledge on the developmental milestone composite was better than stimulation composite with scores of 11.14 (3.09) and 8.9 (3.17), respectively (p < .005). Few mothers (38%) identified the correct ages of developmental milestones. Although most of the mothers knew about teaching their children to count or name colors, few knew when to start to read with children. With low level of knowledge on child development among Nepalese mothers, early childhood development programmes should be considered integrated with other health care programmes targeting young children and families.
Reduction of experimental diabetic vascular leakage by delivery of angiostatin with a recombinant adeno-associated virus vector

Purpose To evaluate the efficacy of recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vector expressing mouse angiostatin (Kringle domains 1 to 4) in reducing retinal vascular leakage in an experimental diabetic rat model. Methods rAAV-angiostatin was delivered by intravitreal injection to the right eyes of Sprague-Dawley rats. As a control, the contralateral eye received an intravitreal injection of rAAV-lacZ. Gene delivery was confirmed by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Diabetes was induced by intravenous injection of streptozotocin (STZ). Vascular permeability changes were evaluated by extravascular albumin accumulation and leakage of intravenous-injected fluorescein isothiocynate-bovine serum albumin (FITC-BSA). Effects of rAAV-angiostatin on expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), occludin, and phospho-p42/p44 MAP kinase in retina tissue were analyzed by western blotting. Results The rAAV-angiostatin injections led to sustained angiostatin gene expression in retina as confirmed by RT-PCR, and reduced extravascular albumin accumulation in STZ-induced diabetic retina. Further, rAAV-angiostatin significantly decreased intravascularly injected FITC-BSA leakage at 5 days (p=0.001), 10 days (p<0.001), and 15 days (p=0.001) after STZ-induced diabetes, as compared to the control eyes receiving rAAV-lacZ. Expression of VEGF and phosphorylation of p42/p44 MAP kinase in retina was reduced by rAAV-angiostatin at day 1 (p=0.043 for both VEGF and phospho-p42/p44 MAP kinase) after STZ-induced diabetes compared with rAAV-lacZ eyes. rAAV-angiostatin reduced retinal occludin loss at 10 days after STZ-induced diabetes (n=5, p=0.041). There was no significant difference in retinal PEDF expression between eyes injected with rAAV-angiostatin and rAAV-lacZ. Conclusions Intravitreal delivery of rAAV-angiostatin reduces vascular leakage in an STZ-induced diabetic model. This effect is associated with a reduction in the retinal occludin loss induced by diabetes and downregulation of retinal VEGF and phosphor-p42/p44 MAP kinase expression. This gene transfer approach may reduce diabetic macular edema, providing protection in diabetic patients at risk for macular edema.
Message Error Analysis of Loopy Belief Propagation for the Sum-Product Algorithm

Belief propagation is known to perform extremely well in many practical statistical inference and learning problems using graphical models, even in the presence of multiple loops. The iterative use of belief propagation algorithm on loopy graphs is referred to as Loopy Belief Propagation (LBP). Various sufficient conditions for convergence of LBP have been presented; however, general necessary conditions for its convergence to a unique fixed point remain unknown. Because the approximation of beliefs to true marginal probabilities has been shown to relate to the convergence of LBP, several methods have been explored whose aim is to obtain distance bounds on beliefs when LBP fails to converge. In this paper, we derive uniform and non-uniform error bounds on messages, which are tighter than existing ones in literature, and use these bounds to derive sufficient conditions for the convergence of LBP in terms of the sum-product algorithm. We subsequently use these bounds to study the dynamic behavior of the sum-product algorithm, and analyze the relation between convergence of LBP and sparsity and walk-summability of graphical models. We finally use the bounds derived to investigate the accuracy of LBP, as well as the scheduling priority in asynchronous LBP.
Does Individualization Help Productivity of Transition Agriculture

There are large differences across transition countries with respect to agricultural-sector performance and corresponding scope of farm restructuring and shift to individual farming. In this paper we analyze the impact of individualization on productivity growth within an augmented neo-classical growth model framework. This approach allows us to circumvent criticisms on the grounds of lack of theoretical and objective criteria for inclusion of explanatory variables. Furthermore, in the empirical analysis using a panel data covering 15 transition countries over the period 1990-2001 and applying a GMM-IV estimator we are able to control for the impact of various factors and the potential endogeneity of variables. Our estimation results are robust and support the view that the shift to individual farming, as well as the overall economic reforms, have positively contributed to the productivity growth in agriculture during the first decade of transition. Classification-
Gene Expression of Brain Natriuretic Peptide in Isolated Atrial and Ventricular Human Myocardium: Influence of Angiotensin II and Diastolic Fiber Length

Background—We studied the effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) and diastolic overstretch on the induction of cardiac growth in isometrically contracting muscle preparations from human right atria and left ventricles. We used the gene expression of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) as a molecular marker of cardiac hypertrophy. Methods and Results—Northern blot analysis was performed in human atrial muscle preparations, which were either incubated in 10−6 mol/L Ang II for 45 minutes or diastolically stretched to 120% of optimum muscle length. Similar experiments were performed with human left ventricular muscle preparations. Results were as follows: (1) BNP gene expression increased in human atrial myocardium 4-fold when stimulated by Ang II (n=7, P <0.001). (2) Diastolic overstretch increased BNP expression in a time-dependent manner. The linear regression equations for the BNP/GAPDH ratio as a function of time (hours) were y=1.21+0.62x (P <0.001) for overstretched preparations and y=1.07−0.01x (P =NS) for atrial preparations kept at physiological muscle length. (3) In left ventricular human muscle preparations, diastolic overstretch and Ang II increased BNP gene expression as well. (4) In addition, the Ang II subtype 1 receptor blocker losartan was able to block the effects of Ang II and diastolic overstretch. Conclusions—Cardiac hypertrophy can be induced in isolated human atrial and left ventricular intact myocardium by Ang II and diastolic overstretch but not by isometric afterload. The fact that the induction of cardiac growth is inhibited by the blockade of Ang II subtype 1 receptors is of scientific and clinical importance.