Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Aspen-Amsterdam void finder comparison project

Despite a history that dates back at least a quarter of a century studies of voids in the large–scale structure of the Universe are bedevilled by a major problem: there exist a large number of quite different void–finding algorithms, a fact that has so far got in the way of groups comparing their results without worrying about whether such a comparison in fact makes sense. Because of the recent increased interest in voids, both in very large galaxy surveys and in detailed simulations of cosmic structure formation, this situation is very unfortunate. We here present the first systematic comparison study of thirteen different void finders constructed using particles, haloes, and semi– analytical model galaxies extracted from a subvolume of the Millennium simulation. The study includes many groups that have studied voids over the past decade. We show their results and discuss their differences and agreements. As it turns out, the basic results of the various methods agree very well with each other in that they all locate a major void near the centre of our volume. Voids have very underdense centres, reaching below 10 percent of the mean cosmic density. In addition, those void finders that allow for void galaxies show that those galaxies follow similar trends. For example, the overdensity of void galaxies brighter than mB = 20 is found to be smaller than about 0.8 by all our void finding algorithms.
Electrophysiological Correlates of Stimulus-driven Reorienting Deficits after Interference with Right Parietal Cortex during a Spatial Attention Task: A TMS-EEG Study

TMS interference over right intraparietal sulcus (IPS) causally disrupts behaviorally and EEG rhythmic correlates of endogenous spatial orienting before visual target presentation [Capotosto, P., Babiloni, C. , Romani, G. L. , & Corbetta, M. Differential contribution of right and left parietal cortex to the control of spatial attention: A simultaneous EEG-rTMS study. Cerebral Cortex, 22, 446–454, 2012; Capotosto, P., Babiloni, C. , Romani, G. L. , & Corbetta, M. Fronto-parietal cortex controls spatial attention through modulation of anticipatory alpha rhythms. Journal of Neuroscience, 29, 5863–5872, 2009]. Here we combine data from our previous studies to examine whether right parietal TMS during spatial orienting also impairs stimulus-driven reorienting or the ability to efficiently process unattended stimuli, that is, stimuli outside the current focus of attention. Healthy volunteers (n = 24) performed a Posner spatial cueing task while their EEG activity was being monitored. Repetitive TMS (rTMS) was applied for 150 msec simultaneously to the presentation of a central arrow directing spatial attention to the location of an upcoming visual target. Right IPS-rTMS impaired target detection, especially for stimuli presented at unattended locations; it also caused a modulation of the amplitude of parieto-occipital positive ERPs peaking at about 480 msec (P3) post-target. The P3 significantly decreased for unattended targets and significantly increased for attended targets after right IPS-rTMS as compared with sham stimulation. Similar effects were obtained for left IPS stimulation albeit in a smaller group of volunteers. We conclude that disruption of anticipatory processes in right IPS has prolonged effects that persist during target processing. The P3 decrement may reflect interference with postdecision processes that are part of stimulus-driven reorienting. Right IPS is a node of functional interaction between endogenous spatial orienting and stimulus-driven reorienting processes in human vision.
SNR estimation based on sounding reference signal in LTE uplink

In this paper, a novel SNR estimation algorithm based on the sounding reference signal (SRS) is proposed. By redefining the noise estimation range and time-domain windowing operation to the channel estimation vector, the influence of signal leakage is effectively reduced which makes the noise estimation is more accurate. Simulation results show that the proposed estimator performs both well in the integer sampling channel and non-integer sampling channel, and the performance is better than Boumard's algorithm and the original IFFT based algorithm, especially in high SNR regions.
The Coalitional Nash Bargaining Solution with Simultaneous Payoff Demands

We consider a standard coalitional bargaining game where once a coalition forms it exits as in Okada (2011), however, instead of alternating offers, we have simultaneous payoff demands. We focus in the producer game he studies. Each player is chosen with equal probability. If that is the case, she can choose any coalition she belongs to. However, a coalition can form if an only if payoff demands are feasible as in the Nash (1953) demand game. After smoothing the game (as in Van Damme (1991)), when the noise vanishes, when the discount factor is close to 1, and as in Okada's (2011), the coalitional Nash bargaining solution is the unique stationary subgameperfect equilibrium.
OPTIMAL ALARM SYSTEMS FOR FIAPARCH PROCESSES

• In this work, an optimal alarm system is developed to predict whether a financial time series modeled via Fractionally Integrated Asymmetric Power ARCH (FIAPARCH) models, up/downcrosses some particular level and give an alarm whenever this crossing is predicted. The paper presents classical and Bayesian methodology for producing optimal alarm systems. Both methodologies are illustrated and their performance compared through a simulation study. The work finishes with an empirical application .
Merit Recruitment in 19th and Early 20th Century European Bureaucracies

Methods of bureaucratic recruitment are widely viewed as having a critical effect on governance outcomes. Yet the literature – particularly the empirical literature – on bureaucratic recruitment has not substantially expanded beyond examinations of the US Federal Government and the Pendleton Act. In this paper, I examine the determinants of merit reforms more generally. I argue that governments trade off the gains from patronage – in terms of in-kind and monetary payments from seekers after posts – against the costs patronage imposes in terms of bureaucratic quality. These costs emerge because those most able to 'pay' for office under patronage may not be those best suited for administrative service. I test this claim, taking advantage of the rich temporal and cross-sectional variation in bureaucratic regimes in late 19th and early 20th century Europe. As is consistent with theoretical expectations, I find that governments are more likely to adopt merit reforms as education becomes more widespread. This is particularly true for regimes in which the politically advantaged class is small – i.e., in more autocratic regimes.
Evidence for Positive Selection in Putative Virulence Factors within the Paracoccidioides brasiliensis Species Complex

Paracoccidioides brasiliensis is a dimorphic fungus that is the causative agent of paracoccidioidomycosis, the most important prevalent systemic mycosis in Latin America. Recently, the existence of three genetically isolated groups in P. brasiliensis was demonstrated, enabling comparative studies of molecular evolution among P. brasiliensis lineages. Thirty-two gene sequences coding for putative virulence factors were analyzed to determine whether they were under positive selection. Our maximum likelihood–based approach yielded evidence for selection in 12 genes that are involved in different cellular processes. An in-depth analysis of four of these genes showed them to be either antigenic or involved in pathogenesis. Here, we present evidence indicating that several replacement mutations in gp43 are under positive balancing selection. The other three genes (fks, cdc42 and p27) show very little variation among the P. brasiliensis lineages and appear to be under positive directional selection. Our results are consistent with the more general observations that selective constraints are variable across the genome, and that even in the genes under positive selection, only a few sites are altered. We present our results within an evolutionary framework that may be applicable for studying adaptation and pathogenesis in P. brasiliensis and other pathogenic fungi.
Lensing, reddening and extinction effects of Mg ii absorbers from z= 0.4 to 2

Using a sample of almost 7000 strong Mg II absorbers with W 0 > 1 A and 0.4 < z < 2.2 detected in the SDSS DR4 data set, we investigate the gravitational lensing and dust extinction effects they induce on background quasars. After carefully quantifying several selection biases, we isolate the reddening effects as a function of redshift and absorber rest equivalent width, W 0 . We find the amount of dust to increase with cosmic time as τ(z) α(1 I + z)- 1.1± 0.4, following the evolution of cosmic star density or integrated star formation rate. We measure the reddening effects over a factor of 30 in E(B - V) and we find that r α (W 0 ) 1.9+0.1 , providing us with an important scaling for theoretical modelling of metal absorbers. We also measure the dust-to-metal ratio and find it similar to that of the Milky Way. In contrast to previous studies, we do not detect any gravitational magnification by Mg II systems. We measure the upper limit μ < 1.10 and discuss the origin of the discrepancy. Finally, we estimate the fraction of absorbers missed due to extinction effects and show that it rises from 1 to 50 per cent in the range 1 < W 0 < 6 A. We parametrize this effect and provide a correction for recovering the intrinsic ∂N/bw 0 distribution.
Evidence-based recommendations for the management of ankylosing spondylitis: systematic literature search of the 3E Initiative in Rheumatology involving a broad panel of experts and practising rheumatologists.

OBJECTIVE Recommendations and/or guidelines represent a popular way of integrating evidence-based medicine into clinical practice. The 3E Initiatives is a multi-national effort to develop recommendations for the management of rheumatic diseases, which involves a large number of experts combined with practising rheumatologists addressing specific questions relevant to clinical practice. METHODS Ten countries participated in three rounds of discussions and votes concerning the management of AS. A set of nine questions was formulated in the domains of diagnosis, monitoring and treatment, after a Delphi procedure. A literature search in MedLine was conducted. Predefined outcome parameters for the domains of diagnosis, monitoring and treatment were assessed. The evidence to support each proposition was evaluated and scored. After discussion and votes, the final recommendations were presented using brief statements by each national group, following which the final international recommendations were formulated. RESULTS A total of 2699 papers were found and 467 were selected for analysis. Twelve key recommendations were developed: three in the domain of diagnosis addressing general diagnostic considerations, early AS diagnosis and general practitioners' referral recommendations; three concerning monitoring of AS disease activity, severity and prognosis; six concerning pharmacological treatment (except biologics): non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs/COX-II inhibitors, bisphosphonates and treatment of enthesitis. The compiled agreement among experts ranged from 72% to 93%. CONCLUSION Recommendations for the management of AS were developed using an evidence-based approach followed by expert/physician consensus with high level of agreement. Involvement of a larger and more representative group of rheumatologists may improve their dissemination and implementation in daily clinical practice.
C-fiber depletion alters response properties of neurons in trigeminal nucleus principalis.

The effects of C-fiber depletion induced by neonatal capsaicin treatment on the functional properties of vibrissa-sensitive low-threshold mechanoreceptive (LTM) neurons in the rat trigeminal nucleus principalis were examined in adult rats. Neonatal rats were injected either with capsaicin or its vehicle within 48 h of birth. The depletion of unmyelinated afferents was confirmed by the significant decrease in plasma extravasation of Evan's blue dye induced in the hindlimb skin of capsaicin-treated rats by cutaneous application of mustard oil and by the significant decrease of unmyelinated fibers in both the sciatic and infraorbital nerves. The mechanoreceptive field (RF) and response properties of 31 vibrissa-sensitive neurons in capsaicin-treated rats were compared with those of 32 vibrissa-sensitive neurons in control (untreated or vehicle-treated) rats. The use of electronically controlled mechanical stimuli allowed quantitative analysis of response properties of vibrissa-sensitive neurons; these included the number of center- and surround-RF vibrissae within the RF (i.e., those vibrissae which when stimulated elicited >/=1 and <1 action potential per stimulus, respectively), the response magnitude and latency, and the selectivity of responses to stimulation of vibrissae in different directions with emphasis on combining both the response magnitude and direction of vibrissal deflection in a vector analysis. Neonatal capsaicin treatment was associated with significant increases in the total number of vibrissae, in the number of center-RF vibrissae per neuronal RF, and in the percentage of vibrissa-sensitive neurons that also responded to stimulation of other types of orofacial tissues. Compared with control rats, capsaicin-treated rats showed significant increases in the response magnitude to stimulation of surround-RF vibrissae as well as in response latency variability to stimulation of both center- and surround-RF vibrissae. C-fiber depletion also significantly altered the directional selectivity of responses to stimulation of vibrissae. For neurons with multiple center-RF vibrissae, the proportion of center-RF vibrissae with net vector responses oriented toward the same quadrant was significantly less in capsaicin-treated compared with control rats. These changes in the functional properties of principalis vibrissa-sensitive neurons associated with marked depletion of C-fiber afferents are consistent with similarly induced alterations in LTM neurons studied at other levels of the rodent somatosensory system, and indeed may contribute to alterations previously described in the somatosensory cortex of adult rodents. Furthermore, these results provide additional support to the view that C fibers may have an important role in shaping the functional properties of LTM neurons in central somatosensory pathways.
Physical Properties of Trans-Neptunian Object (20000) Varuna

We present new time-resolved photometric observations of the bright trans-Neptunian object (20000) Varuna and use them to study the rotation period, shape, and color. In observations from 2001 February and April, we find a best-fit two-peaked light curve with period 6.3442 ± 0.0002 hr. The peak-to-peak photometric range in the R band is 0.42 ± 0.02 mag. We find no rotational variation in colors over the 0.45 μm ≤ λ ≤ 0.85 μm wavelength range. From the short, double-peaked period and large amplitude, we suggest that Varuna is an elongated, body, perhaps close in shape to one of the Jacobi ellipsoids. If so, the ratio of the axes projected into the plane of the sky is 1.5:1 and the density is near 1000 kg m-3. Varuna may be a rotationally distorted rubble pile, with a weak internal constitution due to fracturing by past impacts. The high specific angular momentum implied by our observations and recent detections of binary trans-Neptunian objects both point to an early, intense collisional epoch in which large trans-Neptunian objects were ∼100 times more abundant than now. In order to maintain a cosmochemically plausible rock : ice mass ratio of ∼0.5, Varuna must be internally porous.
LEVERAGE, MATURITIES OF DEBT AND STOCK PERFORMANCE

We add to the prior literature that test the influence of total leverage on stock returns by focusing on an extended ratio, namely, ‘Total Debt to (Total Capital + Long Term Debt)’, TD/(TC+LTD)’, the ratio henceforth.Further, and in contrast with others, we account for different maturities of debt. The link between this ratio and stock returns for periods of one to sixty months are considered for Germany, the UK and the US. We control for beta and form quintiles based on the ratio to compute mean returns. Our findings indicate a robust negative relation between the ratio and returns for Germany and the UK. In these two markets, the lowest ratioquintile performs better than the highest ratio-quintile for all the periods studied. Interestingly, the results for the United States are less clear. Due to a number of known factors, market efficiency might be higher in the US than in the other two markets.
Does immigration raise house prices? A question of correlation and causation

EcoNZ@Otago February 2009 International migration is an important socio-economic phenomenon for most countries. A large body of research has focused on immigrant outcomes – what happens to migrants in their new countries? How long do they settle? Are they ‘better off ’ socially and economically? One stream of migration research at Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, led by Steven Stillman and David C. Mare, focuses on the impact of immigration on the New Zealand born population and on earlier migrants. This work has explored whether immigration affects where New Zealanders choose to live, and whether it reduces employment opportunities or wages for New Zealanders. In both cases, it appears that immigration has little impact. This article focuses on immigration and house prices. For this question, it takes a little longer to untangle the factors involved. Does immigration raise house prices? A question of correlation and causation
The many levels of inquiry

Elementary teachers often struggle with how to design and implement inquiry instruction with their students. For many, just understanding what inquiry is can be difficult--let alone designing activities that support high levels of inquiry. In this article, the authors present a continuum by which to evaluate an activity's level of inquiry. Then, using a fifth-grade unit exploring sinking and floating, they describe examples of each type of inquiry from low-level structured inquiry to high-level open inquiry. (Contains 1 figure and lists 1 online resource.) (http://www.nsta.org/publications/browse_journals.aspx? action=issue&thetype=all&id=10.2505/3/sc08_046_02)
Passivity-based dynamic visual feedback control of manipulators with kinematic redundancy

In this paper a passivity-based dynamic visual feedback control system, based on extended task space formulation, is addressed to control the kinematically redundant manipulator. Specifically, we consider the target tracking problem of dynamic visual feedback systems in the 3D-workspace. Firstly the brief summary of the visual feedback system is given with the fundamental representation of a relative rigid body motion. Secondly we derive the passivity of the dynamic visual feedback system by combining the manipulator dynamics (expressed in extended task space) and the visual feedback system. Using the proposed dynamic visual feedback control, one can optimize a performance index while tracking a moving target object. Finally we present simulation results to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed visual feedback control method and to verify the stability of both the end-effector motion and the null-space motion
Clustering of solutions in the random satisfiability problem

Using elementary rigorous methods we prove the existence of a clustered phase in the random K-SAT problem, for K > or = 8. In this phase the solutions are grouped into clusters which are far away from each other. The results are in agreement with previous predictions of the cavity method and give a rigorous confirmation to one of its main building blocks. It can be generalized to other systems of both physical and computational interest.
The Multiple Instances of Node Centrality and their Implications on the Vulnerability of ISP Networks

The position of the nodes within a network topology largely determines the level of their involvement in various networking functions. Yet numerous node centrality indices, proposed to quantify how central individual nodes are in this respect, yield very different views of their relative signi ficance. Our first contribution in this paper is then an exhaustive sur vey and categorization of centrality indices along several att ributes including the type of information (local vs. global) and processing complexity required for their computation. We next study the seven most popular of those indices in the context of Internet vulnerability to address issues that remain under-explored in literature so far. First, we carry out a correlation study to assess the consistency of the node rankings those indices generate over ISP router-level topologies. For each pair of indices, we compute the full ranking correlation, which is the standard choice in literature, and the percentage overlap between the k top nodes. Then, we let these rankings guide the removal of highly central nodes and assess the impact on both the connectivity properties and traffic-carrying capacity of the network. Our results confirm that the top- k overlap predicts the comparative impact of indices on the network vulnerability better than the full-ranking correlation. Importantly, the locally computed degree centrality index approximates closely the global indices with the most dramatic impact on the traffic-carryin g ca- pacity; whereas, its approximative power in terms of connectivity is more topology-dependent. I. I NTRODUCTION networks addressing how the position and power of individual actors relate to their social interconnections and the way t hey interact with the rest of the network. Such sociological stu dies motivated the introduction of various sociological indice s, which sought to quantify the importance of nodes and their re- lationships. Bavela's work appears to be the first to have giv en a formal definition of node centrality in connected graphs as the sum of its own geodesics (shortest-path distances) to al l other nodes. This work triggered a large research thread and a huge number of publications in the area of centrality indices. Many of them proposed new indices (3) or adaptations of existing ones that expanded their applicability in a broader range of
On Monte Carlo algorithms applied to Dirichlet problems for parabolic operators in the setting of time-dependent domains

Abstract Dirichlet problems for second order parabolic operators in space-time domains Ω ⊂ ℝ n+1 are of paramount importance in analysis, partial differential equations and applied mathematics. These problems can be approached in many different ways using techniques from partial differential equations, potential theory, stochastic differential equations, stopped diffusions and Monte Carlo methods. The performance of any technique depends on the structural assumptions on the operator, the geometry and smoothness properties of the space-time domain Ω, the smoothness of the Dirichlet data and the smoothness of the coefficients of the operator under consideration. In this paper, which mainly is of numerical nature, we attempt to further understand how Monte Carlo methods based on the numerical integration of stochastic differential equations perform when applied to Dirichlet problems for uniformly elliptic second order parabolic operators and how their performance vary as the smoothness of the boundary, Dirichlet data and coefficients change from smooth to non-smooth. Our analysis is set in the genuinely parabolic setting of time-dependent domains, which in itself adds interesting features previously only modestly discussed in the literature. The methods evaluated and discussed include elaborations on the non-adaptive method proposed by Gobet [ESAIM: Probability and Statistics 5: 261–297, 2001] based on approximation by half spaces and exit probabilities and the adaptive method proposed in [Lecture Notes in Computational Science and Engineering 44: 59–88, 2005] for weak approximation of stochastic differential equations.