Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Disc instability models for X‐ray transients: evidence for evaporation and low α‐viscosity?

We construct time-dependent models of accretion discs around black holes and neutron stars. We investigate the effect of evaporating the disc inner regions during quiescence on the predictions of the Disc Instability Model (DIM) for these systems. We do not include irradiation of the disc in the models. Removing the inner, most unstable parts of the accretion disc increases the predicted recurrence times. However, DIMs with values of the viscosity parameter alpha_hot ~ 0.1 and alpha_cold ~ 0.02 (typical of applications of the DIM to standard dwarf nova outbursts) fail to reproduce the long recurrence times of SXTs (unless we resort to fine-tuning of the parameters) independent of the evaporation strength. We show that models with evaporation and a smaller value of alpha_cold (~ 0.005) do reproduce the long recurrence times and the accretion rates at the level of the Eddington rate observed in outburst. The large difference between the values of alpha_hot and alpha_cold, if confirmed when disc irradiation is included, suggests that several viscosity mechanisms operate in these accretion discs. For some choices of parameters our models predict reflares during the decline from outburst. They are a physical property of the model and result from a heating front forming in the wake of an initial cooling front and subsequent, multiple front reflections. The reflares disappear in low-alpha models where front reflection can not occur.
Local Acceptance of a High‐Level Nuclear Waste Repository

The siting of nuclear waste facilities has been very difficult in all countries. Recent experience in Sweden indicates, however, that it may be possible, under certain circumstances, to gain local support for the siting of a high‐level nuclear waste (HLNW) repository. The article reports on a study of attitudes and risk perceptions of people living in four municipalities in Sweden where HLNW siting was being intensely discussed at the political level, in media, and among the public. Data showed a relatively high level of consensus on acceptability of at least further investigation of the issue; in two cases local councils have since voted in favor of a go‐ahead, and in one case only a very small majority defeated the issue. Models of policy attitudes showed that these were related to attitude to nuclear power, attributes of the perceived HLNW risk, and trust. Factors responsible for acceptance are discussed at several levels. One is the attitude to nuclear power, which is becoming more positive, probably because no viable alternatives are in sight. Other factors have to do with the extensive information programs conducted in these municipalities, and with the logical nature of the conclusion that they would be good candidates for hosting the national HLNW repository.
Behavioural flexibility predicts invasion success in birds introduced to New Zealand

A fundamental question in ecology is whether there are evolutionary characteristics of species that make some better than others at invading new communities. In birds, nesting habits, sexually selected traits, migration, clutch size and body mass have been suggested as important variables, but behavioural flexibility is another obvious trait that has received little attention. Behavioural flexibility allows animals to respond more rapidly to environmental changes and can therefore be advantageous when invading novel habitats. Behavioural flexibility is linked to relative brain size and, for foraging, has been operationalised as the number of innovations per taxon reported in the short note sections of ornithology journals. Here, we use data on avian species introduced to New Zealand and test the link between forebrain size, feeding innovation frequency and invasion success. Relative brain size was, as expected, a significant predictor of introduction success, after removing the effect of introduction effort. Species with relatively larger brains tended to be better invaders than species with smaller ones. Introduction effort, migratory strategy and mode of juvenile development were also significant in the models. Pair-wise comparisons of closely related species indicate that successful invaders also showed a higher frequency of foraging innovations in their region of origin. This study provides the first evidence in vertebrates of a general set of traits, behavioural flexibility, that can potentially favour invasion success.
The Words for Disgust in English, Korean, and Malayalam Question Its Homogeneity

Native speakers of English, Korean, and Malayalam (N = 30 in each group) rated their emotional reactions to stories describing events leading to anger, fear, sadness, and disgust. Speaker’s language had no significant effect for anger, fear, and sadness stories, but did for disgust stories. The category named by the English word disgust includes emotional reactions to distaste, pathogen-containing substances, blood, sex, and moral violations. The category named by disgust’s translations into Korean and Malayalam were narrower, a result that challenges translation equivalence. Lack of equivalence across languages is consistent with the argument that the English word disgust refers to a heterogeneous mix of similar but different emotional reactions.
Budget Support Versus Project Aid: A Theoretical Appraisal

Should donors interested in the effectiveness of developmental programmes rely on conditional budget support or on project aid? To answer this question, we present a model in which only a subset of developmental expenditures can be subject to conditionality. We show that budget support is preferable to project aid when the preferences of donors and recipients are aligned, and when assistance is small relative to the recipients' own resources. Furthermore, when donors cannot observe the recipient's type, they may impose higher levels of conditionality to separate committed governments from uncommitted ones. Copyright International Monetary Fund. Journal compilation Royal Economic Society 2007.
Disrupting LIN28 in atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors reveals the importance of the mitogen activated protein kinase pathway as a therapeutic target

Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (AT/RT) is among the most fatal of all pediatric brain tumors. Aside from loss of function mutations in the SMARCB1 (BAF47/INI1/SNF5) chromatin remodeling gene, little is known of other molecular drivers of AT/RT. LIN28A and LIN28B are stem cell factors that regulate thousands of RNAs and are expressed in aggressive cancers. We identified high-levels of LIN28A and LIN28B in AT/RT primary tumors and cell lines, with corresponding low levels of the LIN28-regulated microRNAs of the let-7 family. Knockdown of LIN28A by lentiviral shRNA in the AT/RT cell lines CHLA-06-ATRT and BT37 inhibited growth, cell proliferation and colony formation and induced apoptosis. Suppression of LIN28A in orthotopic xenograft models led to a more than doubling of median survival compared to empty vector controls (48 vs 115 days). LIN28A knockdown led to increased expression of let-7b and let-7g microRNAs and a down-regulation of KRAS mRNA. AT/RT primary tumors expressed increased mitogen activated protein (MAP) kinase pathway activity, and the MEK inhibitor selumetinib (AZD6244) decreased AT/RT growth and increased apoptosis. These data implicate LIN28/RAS/MAP kinase as key drivers of AT/RT tumorigenesis and indicate that targeting this pathway may be a therapeutic option in this aggressive pediatric malignancy.
The Gender Regime of Political Parties: Feedback Effects between “Supply” and “Demand”

Is women's chronic minority status worldwide explained by a lack of women wishing to stand for political office or by party selectors’ disinterest in selecting women candidates? This debate continues among gender politics scholars; however, an increasing number of studies highlight the need to further investigate how the demands of party selectors might shape the supply of women candidates, especially in strong parliamentary democracies where political parties are the key gatekeepers (Kenny 2013; Murray 2010). This concern was already present in Norris and Lovenduski's (1995) original model, which called for a deeper examination of the “interaction effects” between “supply” and “demand. ” In engaging with this call, I argue that the constraining effects of supply are reinforced not only by the demands of party selectors, but also by the everyday (gendered) functioning of political parties, which helps us understand the differential chances of women and men eventually becoming candidates.
Fusing multi-modal features for gesture recognition

This paper proposes a novel multi-modal gesture recognition framework and introduces its application to continuous sign language recognition. A Hidden Markov Model is used to construct the audio feature classifier. A skeleton feature classifier is trained to provided complementary information based on the Dynamic Time Warping model. The confidence scores generated by two classifiers are firstly normalized and then combined to produce a weighted sum for the final recognition. Experimental results have shown that the precision and recall scores for 20 classes of our multi-modal recognition framework can achieve 0.8829 and 0.8890 respectively, which proves that our method is able to correctly reject false detection caused by single classifier. Our approach scored 0.12756 in mean Levenshtein distance and was ranked 1st in the Multi-modal Gesture Recognition Challenge in 2013.
Angiopoietin-1 Modified Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy for Endotoxin-Induced Acute Lung Injury in Rats

Purpose Angiopoietin-1 (Ang1) is a critical factor for vascular stabilization and endothelial survival via inhibition of endothelial permeability and leukocyte- endothelium interactions. Hence, we hypothesized that treatment with umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSCs) carrying the Ang1 gene (UCMSCs-Ang1) might be a potential approach for acute lung injury (ALI) induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Materials and Methods UCMSCs with or without transfection with the human Ang1 gene were delivered intravenously into rats one hour after intra-abdominal instillation of LPS to induce ALI. After the rats were sacrificed at 6 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, 8 days, and 15 days post-injection of LPS, the serum, the lung tissues, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were harvested for analysis, respectively. Results Administration of fluorescence microscope confirmed the increased presence of UCMSCs in the injured lungs. The evaluation of UCMSCs and UCMSCs-Ang1 actions revealed that Ang1 overexpression further decreased the levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, TGF-β1, and IL-6 and increased the expression of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 in the injured lungs. This synergy caused a substantial decrease in lung airspace inflammation and vascular leakage, characterized by significant reductions in wet/dry ratio, differential neutrophil counts, myeloperoxidase activity, and BALF. The rats treated by UCMSCs-Ang1 showed improved survival and lower ALI scores. Conclusion UCMSCs-Ang1 could improve both systemic inflammation and alveolar permeability in ALI. UC-derived MSCs-based Ang1 gene therapy may be developed as a potential novel strategy for the treatment of ALI.
The Influence of Mobile Self-Efficacy on Attitude towards Mobile Advertising

Mobile advertising employs mobile devices such ascell phones and PDAs to transmit advertisinginformation to users. The chief difference betweenmobile advertising and traditional advertising is thatmobile advertising must employ wireless networks andmobile devices; as a consequence, apart fromadvertisement content, the factors affecting attitudetowards mobile advertising may also includeconsumers' mobile technology use self-efficacy.This study develops and validates a mobile selfefficacyconstruct assessment method, and alsoexplores the effect of user mobile self-efficacy onattitude towards mobile advertising. The resultsindicate that mobile self-efficacy has very highconstruct reliability, convergent validity anddiscriminant validity, and has a significant influenceon attitude towards mobile advertising.
Tamoxifen therapy for breast cancer and endometrial cancer risk.

BACKGROUND Tamoxifen is effective in treating breast cancer, reduces breast cancer incidence among high-risk women, and is associated with increased endometrial cancer risk. This study was designed to examine the possible modifying effects of endometrial cancer risk factors on the tamoxifen-endometrial cancer association. METHODS We conducted a case-control study of endometrial cancer (324 case patients and 671 individually matched control subjects) nested within a population-based cohort of patients with breast cancer diagnosed from 1978 through 1992 within four regions of the United States. We obtained information on breast cancer treatment and endometrial cancer risk factors through interviews and reviews of medical records. All P values reported are two-sided. RESULTS Endometrial cancer risk was associated with tamoxifen therapy for breast cancer (odds ratio = 1.52; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1. 07-2.17). Risk increased with duration of tamoxifen use (P for trend =.0002). Women with more than 5 years of exposure to tamoxifen had 4. 06-fold greater odds of developing endometrial cancer than nonusers (95% CI = 1.74-9.47). Prior use of estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) increased risk associated with tamoxifen use (P for homogeneity of trends <.0001). Risk associated with tamoxifen use was stronger among heavier women than among thinner women, although trends did not differ statistically (P =.10). Tamoxifen dose-response effects were more pronounced among women with both previous ERT exposure and higher body mass index than among women in other risk groups. CONCLUSIONS ERT use and obesity, both established endometrial cancer risk factors and markers of estrogen exposure, substantially modify the association between tamoxifen use and endometrial cancer risk among patients with breast cancer. Women with positive ERT histories and those who are obese, when prescribed tamoxifen, may warrant closer surveillance for endometrial cancer than women without such histories.
Adjustable multiple relay selection for cooperative communication

In this paper, an adjustable multiple relay selection (MRS) scheme for cooperative communication with amplify-and-forward (AF) relay under frequency selective channels is proposed. In the proposed scheme, the relays are ordered firstly by the end-to-end SNR, then the relays are sequentially selected out from N relays and the number of cooperating relays is adjusted dynamically according to the current channel state information. The aim of this work is to dynamically estimate the optimum number of cooperating relays. `Optimum' means the minimum number of cooperating relays achieving the maximum level of combined SNR. Numerical results verify the analyses and show that the scheme can adaptively adjust the number of cooperating relays, and outperform conventional relay selection schemes. Hence, the proposed scheme provides better tradeoff between BER performance and spectral efficiency and to save more energy in cooperative wireless networks.
Power Enhancement in High Dimensional Cross-Sectional Tests

We propose a novel technique to boost the power of testing a high-dimensional vector H : θ = 0 against sparse alternatives where the null hypothesis is violated only by a couple of components. Existing tests based on quadratic forms such as the Wald statistic often suffer from low powers due to the accumulation of errors in estimating high-dimensional parameters. More powerful tests for sparse alternatives such as thresholding and extreme-value tests, on the other hand, require either stringent conditions or bootstrap to derive the null distribution and often suffer from size distortions due to the slow convergence. Based on a screening technique, we introduce a "power enhancement component", which is zero under the null hypothesis with high probability, but diverges quickly under sparse alternatives. The proposed test statistic combines the power enhancement component with an asymptotically pivotal statistic, and strengthens the power under sparse alternatives. The null distribution does not require stringent regularity conditions, and is completely determined by that of the pivotal statistic. As specific applications, the proposed methods are applied to testing the factor pricing models and validating the cross-sectional independence in panel data models.
DEVELOPING A ‘RICHNESS-FREE’ STATISTIC FOR MEASURING ECOSYSTEM DIVERSITY IN LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT DECISION SUPPORT

Department of Geography, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2 Email: djwalkr@cc.umanitoba. ca, g.wiseman@uwinnipeg.ca, baydack@Ms.UManitoba. CA Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, T:(204) 474-6961, F: (204) 474-7699, airwind7@hotmail.com Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation Studies, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB Email: campblm@ms.umanitoba. ca
Light propagation through a coiled optical fiber and Pancharatnam phase

The nature of changes in the interference pattern caused by the presence of polarization-changing elements in one or both beams of an interferometer, in particular those caused by an effective optical activity due to passage of a polarized beam through a coiled optical fiber, are clarified. It is pointed out that, for an incident state that is not circularly polarized so that the two interfering beams go to different polarization states, there is an observable nonzero Pancharatnam phase shift between them that depends on the incident polarization state and on the solid angle subtended by the track of the k→ vector at the center of the sphere of k→ vectors. The behavior of this phase shift is singular when the two interfering states are nearly orthogonal. It is shown that, for zero path difference between the two beams, the amplitude of intensity modulation as a function of optical activity is independent of the incident polarization state.
Where are you from?: confusing location distinction using virtual multipath camouflage

In wireless networks, location distinction aims to detect location changes or facilitate authentication of wireless users. To achieve location distinction, recent research has been focused on investigating the spatial uncorrelation property of wireless channels. Specifically, the differences of wireless channel characteristics are used to distinguish locations or identify location changes. However, we discover a new attack against all existing location distinction approaches that are built on the spatial uncorrelation property of wireless channels. In such an attack, the adversary can easily hide her location changes or impersonate movements by injecting fake wireless channel characteristics into a target receiver. Experimental results on our USRP-based prototype show that the discovered attack can craft any desired channel characteristic with a successful probability of 95.0% to defeat spatial uncorrelation based location distinction schemes. To defend against this attack, we propose a detection technique that utilizes an auxiliary receiver or antenna to identify these fake channel characteristics. Experiments demonstrate that our novel detection method achieves a detection rate higher than 91.2% while maintaining a very low false alarm rate.
Self-image goals in trait perfectionism and perfectionistic self-presentation: Toward a broader understanding of the drives and motives of perfectionists

Abstract The current research extends previous theory and research on perfectionism and motivation by showing that perfectionism involves a propensity to pursue self-image goals. It was shown across three studies that dimensions of trait and self-presentational perfectionism were associated with self-image goals in the areas of academics, friendships, and self-improvement. These associations were not simply a reflection of the variance attributable to constructs associated with perfectionism such as self-silencing or self-consciousness. Further, validation seeking mediated the association between perfectionism and self-image goals. Additionally, self-image goals mediated the associations that perfectionism has with depression and burnout. Our findings suggest that perfectionists operate according to a chronically activated “egosystem” and their preoccupation with self-image concerns is central to understanding the compulsive striving and pressure they experience.
Stroke Surfaces: A Spatio-temporal Framework for Temporally Coherent Non- photorealistic Animations

AbstractThe contribution of this paper is a novel framework for the automated synthesis of non-photorealistic ani-mations from video sequences. Our approach is unique in that we interpret the source video sequence as aspatio-temporal voxel volume, with time as the third dimension. Video frames are segmented into homogeneousregions, and heuristic associations between regions formed over time to produce a collection of conceptuallyhigh level spatio-temporal objects. These objects carve sub-volumes through the video volume delimited bycontinuous isosurface “Stroke Surface” patches. By manipulating objects in this representation we are ableto synthesise a wide gamut of artistic effects, which we allow the user to stylise and inﬂuence through a pa-rameterised “Video Paintbox”. In addition to novel temporal effects unique to our method we demonstratethe extension of ‘traditional’ static NPR styles to video including painterly, sketchy and ’toon shading effects.An application to advanced rotoscoping is also identiﬁed. The high level of analysis afforded by our spatio-temporal approach allows us to maintain a high degree of temporal coherence; a property scarce in currentNPR video techniques all of which process video at a low level (on a per pixel, per frame sequential basis). The paper concludes with a critical appraisal and discussion of future applications for the Stroke Surfacerepresentation, including potential for video compression.Categories and Subject Descriptors
On the Optimum Checkpoint Interval

One of the basic problems related to the efficient and secure operation of a transaction oriented file or database system is the choice of the checkpoint interval In this paper we show that the optimum checkpoint interval (i e the time interval between successive checkpoints which maximizes system avadabihty) is a function of the load of the system We also prove that the total operating time of the system (and not the total real time) between successive checkpoints should be a deterministic quantity in order to maximize the availability An explicit expression for this time interval Is obtained These results are a significant departure from previous work where load independent results have been obtained We also present a rigorous analysis of the queuelng process related to the requests for transaction processing arriving at the system, and prove the ergodiclty conditions for the system