Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
It’s All in the Timing: Simple Active Portfolio Strategies that Outperform Naïve Diversification

Abstract DeMiguel, Garlappi, and Uppal (2009) report that naïve diversification dominates mean-variance optimization in out-of-sample asset allocation tests. Our analysis suggests that this is largely due to their research design, which focuses on portfolios that are subject to high estimation risk and extreme turnover. We find that mean-variance optimization often outperforms naïve diversification, but turnover can erode its advantage in the presence of transaction costs. To address this issue, we develop 2 new methods of mean-variance portfolio selection (volatility timing and reward-to-risk timing) that deliver portfolios characterized by low turnover. These timing strategies outperform naïve diversification even in the presence of high transaction costs.
Visual Short-term Memory Load Reduces Retinotopic Cortex Response to Contrast

Load Theory of attention suggests that high perceptual load in a task leads to reduced sensory visual cortex response to task-unrelated stimuli resulting in “load-induced blindness” [e.g., Lavie, N. Attention, distraction and cognitive control under load. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19, 143–148, 2010; Lavie, N. Distracted and confused? : Selective attention under load. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 75–82, 2005]. Consideration of the findings that visual STM (VSTM) involves sensory recruitment [e.g., Pasternak, T. , & Greenlee, M. Working memory in primate sensory systems. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 6, 97–107, 2005] within Load Theory led us to a new hypothesis regarding the effects of VSTM load on visual processing. If VSTM load draws on sensory visual capacity, then similar to perceptual load, high VSTM load should also reduce visual cortex response to incoming stimuli leading to a failure to detect them. We tested this hypothesis with fMRI and behavioral measures of visual detection sensitivity. Participants detected the presence of a contrast increment during the maintenance delay in a VSTM task requiring maintenance of color and position. Increased VSTM load (manipulated by increased set size) led to reduced retinotopic visual cortex (V1–V3) responses to contrast as well as reduced detection sensitivity, as we predicted. Additional visual detection experiments established a clear tradeoff between the amount of information maintained in VSTM and detection sensitivity, while ruling out alternative accounts for the effects of VSTM load in terms of differential spatial allocation strategies or task difficulty. These findings extend Load Theory to demonstrate a new form of competitive interactions between early visual cortex processing and visual representations held in memory under load and provide a novel line of support for the sensory recruitment hypothesis of VSTM.
I find you attractive but I don’t trust you: the case of language attitudes in Iran

ABSTRACT Although Article 15 of the Iranian constitution endorses non-Persian Languages, speakers of these minority languages are latently obligated to speak Persian, the majority language, in most social settings. Consequently, these Iranian L2 speakers of Persian give rise to certain attitudes towards their accented speech, particularly from speakers of the standard variety. This study investigated these underresearched attitudes about accented Persian. Utilising the verbal-guise technique, participants born and raised in Tehran (where the standard variety is spoken) were interviewed to express their attitudes towards five identical-in-content guises (from different L1s including Arabic, Gilaki, Azeri Turkic, Mazandarani, and Kurdish). The findings revealed that the less the Tehrani interviewees were able to recognise an accent, the more they associated the speakers of that accent with positive traits. Furthermore, most of the evaluations linked the accented speakers with lower social and education levels. Overall, Gilaki and Azeri Turkic were associated with negative attributes, whereas Arabic and Kurdish evoked positive attitudes.
Abnormal Anatomical Connectivity between the Amygdala and Orbitofrontal Cortex in Conduct Disorder

Objective Previous research suggested that structural and functional abnormalities within the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex contribute to the pathophysiology of Conduct Disorder (CD). Here, we investigated whether the integrity of the white-matter pathways connecting these regions is abnormal and thus may represent a putative neurobiological marker for CD. Methods Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) was used to investigate white-matter microstructural integrity in male adolescents with childhood-onset CD, compared with healthy controls matched in age, sex, intelligence, and socioeconomic status. Two approaches were employed to analyze DTI data: voxel-based morphometry of fractional anisotropy (FA), an index of white-matter integrity, and virtual dissection of white-matter pathways using tractography. Results Adolescents with CD displayed higher FA within the right external capsule relative to controls (T = 6.08, P<0.05, Family-Wise Error, whole-brain correction). Tractography analyses showed that FA values within the uncinate fascicle (connecting the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex) were abnormally increased in individuals with CD relative to controls. This was in contrast with the inferior frontal-occipital fascicle, which showed no significant group differences in FA. The finding of increased FA in the uncinate fascicle remained significant when factoring out the contribution of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. There were no group differences in the number of streamlines in either of these anatomical tracts. Conclusions These results provide evidence that CD is associated with white-matter microstructural abnormalities in the anatomical tract that connects the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex, the uncinate fascicle. These results implicate abnormal maturation of white-matter pathways which are fundamental in the regulation of emotional behavior in CD.
Scanning the IPv6 Internet: Towards a Comprehensive Hitlist

Active network measurements constitute an impor- tant part in gaining a better understanding of the Internet. Although IPv4-wide scans are now easily possible, random active probing is infeasible in the IPv6 Internet. Therefore, we propose a hybrid approach to generate a hitlist of IPv6 addresses for scanning: First, we extract IPv6 addresses from passive flow data. Second, we leverage publicly available resources such as rDNS data to gather further IPv6 addresses. Third, we conduct traceroute measurements from several vantage points to obtain additional addresses. We perform multiple active measurements on gathered IPv6 addresses and evaluate response rates over time. We extensively compare all IPv6 address sources. In total we found 150M unique IPv6 addresses over the course of four weeks. Our hitlist covers 72% of announced prefixes and 84% of Autonomous Systems. Finally, we give concrete recommendations to maximize source efficiency for different scan types.
Capacity-constrained point distributions: a variant of Lloyd's method

We present a new general-purpose method for optimizing existing point sets. The resulting distributions possess high-quality blue noise characteristics and adapt precisely to given density functions. Our method is similar to the commonly used Lloyd's method while avoiding its drawbacks. We achieve our results by utilizing the concept of capacity, which for each point is determined by the area of its Voronoi region weighted with an underlying density function. We demand that each point has the same capacity. In combination with a dedicated optimization algorithm, this capacity constraint enforces that each point obtains equal importance in the distribution. Our method can be used as a drop-in replacement for Lloyd's method, and combines enhancement of blue noise characteristics and density function adaptation in one operation.
The thermal history of the intergalactic medium

At redshifts z≳2, most of the baryons reside in the smooth intergalactic medium which is responsible for the low column density Lyα forest. This photoheated gas follows a tight temperature–density relation which introduces a cut-off in the distribution of widths of the Lyα absorption lines (b-parameters) as a function of column density. We have measured this cut-off in a sample of nine high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio quasar spectra and determined the thermal evolution of the intergalactic medium in the redshift range 2.0–4.5. At a redshift z∼3, the temperature at the mean density shows a peak and the gas becomes nearly isothermal. We interpret this as evidence for the reionization of He ii.
Wnt Proteins Induce Dishevelled Phosphorylation via an LRP5/6- Independent Mechanism, Irrespective of Their Ability To Stabilize β-Catenin

ABSTRACT Wnt glycoproteins play essential roles in the development of metazoan organisms. Many Wnt proteins, such as Wnt1, activate the well-conserved canonical Wnt signaling pathway, which results in accumulation of β-catenin in the cytosol and nucleus. Other Wnts, such as Wnt5a, activate signaling mechanisms which do not involve β-catenin and are less well characterized. Dishevelled (Dvl) is a key component of Wnt/β-catenin signaling and becomes phosphorylated upon activation of this pathway. In addition to Wnt1, we show that several Wnt proteins, including Wnt5a, trigger phosphorylation of mammalian Dvl proteins and that this occurs within 20 to 30 min. Unlike the effects of Wnt1, phosphorylation of Dvl in response to Wnt5a is not concomitant with β-catenin stabilization, indicating that Dvl phosphorylation is not sufficient to activate canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Moreover, neither Dickkopf1, which inhibits Wnt/β-catenin signaling by binding the Wnt coreceptors LRP5 and -6, nor dominant-negative LRP5/6 constructs could block Wnt-mediated Dvl phosphorylation. We conclude that Wnt-induced phosphorylation of Dvl is independent of LRP5/6 receptors and that canonical Wnts can elicit both LRP-dependent (to β-catenin) and LRP-independent (to Dvl) signals. Our data also present Dvl phosphorylation as a general biochemical assay for Wnt protein function, including those Wnts that do not activate the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.
Cheyne-Stokes Respiration in Patients with First-Ever Lacunar Stroke

The aim of this single-center prospective study was to assess the presence of Cheyne-Stokes respiration (CSR) and CSR-related variables in 68 consecutive patients with radiologically proven first-ever lacunar stroke undergoing a respiratory sleep study using a portable respiratory polygraph within the first 48 hours of stroke onset. CSR was diagnosed in 14 patients (20.6%). Patients with CSR as compared with those without CSR showed a significantly higher mean (standard deviation, SD) apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) (34.9 (21.7) versus 18.5 (14.4), P = 0.001) and central apnea index (13.1 (13.8) versus 1.8 (3.4), P = 0.0001) as well as higher scores of the Barthel index and the Canadian Neurological scale as a measure of stroke severity, and longer hospital stay. CSR was present in one of each five patients with lacunar stroke. The presence of CSR was associated with a trend towards a higher functional stroke severity and worse prognosis.
Plaque composition in plexogenic and thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension: the critical role of thrombotic material in pultaceous core formation

Background: Patients with pulmonary hypertension develop intimal plaques in large pulmonary arteries. Objective: To test the hypothesis that the composition of such plaques differs depending on whether the aetiology of the disease is thromboembolic or hypertensive. Design: Chronic thromboembolic and plexogenic pulmonary hypertension (primary and secondary (Eisenmenger syndrome)) were investigated. These are spontaneous human models and were used to examine the independent role of thrombus and hypertension in plaque composition. Setting: A national tertiary referral centre for lung transplantation and pulmonary thromboendoarterectomy. Patients: Thirty nine patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension who had undergone thromboendoarterectomy (n = 32) or lung transplantation (n = 7), 28 with plexogenic diseases (nine primary and 19 Eisenmenger), and three with Eisenmenger syndrome complicated by thromboembolic events. Interventions: The lung and thromboendoarterectomy samples were sectioned, stained with Movat pentachrome, and immunostained with antibodies for fibrin, platelets, inflammatory cells, smooth muscle cells, and erythrocyte membrane glycophorin A. Main outcome measure: Composition of the plaques affecting large pulmonary arteries. Results: Two types of intimal lesion were distinguished in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension: fibrous plaques with angioneogenesis; and core-rich atherosclerotic plaques with pultaceous cores largely consisting of glycophorin immunoreactive material, with cholesterol clefts (61.5%), CD68 positive macrophages (84.6%), T lymphocytes (87%), and calcification (46.1%). The samples from the patients with Eisenmenger syndrome and thromboembolic complications had similar characteristics, whereas those from patients with uncomplicated primary pulmonary hypertension had core-free fibrous plaques, spotted with macrophages and T lymphocytes. Conclusions: Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension is associated with atherosclerotic plaques with glycophorin-rich pultaceous cores, and plexogenic pulmonary hypertension with fibrous plaques. Thromboembolic material thus plays a critical role in the formation of pultaceous cores, of which erythrocyte membrane derived glycophorin is a major component.
Reward Priority of Visual Target Singletons Modulates Event-Related Potential Signatures of Attentional Selection

We examined visual search for color singleton targets, whose shape was discriminated. Critically, we varied the reward priority of singleton colors (correct fast performance was worth more bonus points for red singletons than for green singletons, or vice versa) to test whether event-related potential signatures of visual selection can be affected by distinct reward priorities for different target types, even when every target has to be selected for report. The N2pc component was earlier and larger for high- than for low-reward targets. This influence of reward on the N2pc correlated with the subject-by-subject impact of reward level on efficiency of behavioral performance. Later postselection processing was also affected by reward level. These results demonstrate that visual selection of task-relevant items is rapidly modulated by reward-related priorities, even when every target has to be selected for response.
Flavonoid Intake in European Adults (18 to 64 Years)

Background Flavonoids are a group of phenolic secondary plant metabolites that are ubiquitous in plant-based diets. Data from anthropological, observational and intervention studies have shown that many flavonoids are bioactive. For this reason, there is an increasing interest in investigating the potential health effects of these compounds. The translation of these findings into the context of the health of the general public requires detailed information on habitual dietary intake. However, only limited data are currently available for European populations. Objective The objective of this study is to determine the habitual intake and main sources of anthocyanidins, flavanols, flavanones, flavones, flavonols, proanthocyanidins, theaflavins and thearubigins in the European Union. Design We use food consumption data from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the FLAVIOLA Food Composition Database to estimate intake of flavonoids. Results Mean (±SEM) intake of total flavonoids in Europe was 428±49 mg/d, of which 136±14 mg/d were monomeric compounds. Gallated flavan-3-ols (53±12 mg/d) were the main contributor. The lowest flavonoid intake was observed in Mediterranean countries (monomeric compounds: 95±11 mg/d). The distribution of intake was skewed in many countries, especially in Germany (monomeric flavonoids; mean intake: 181 mg/d; median intake: 3 mg/d). Conclusions The habitual intake of flavonoids in Europe is below the amounts found to have a significant health effect.
Inositol kinase and its product accelerate wound healing by modulating calcium levels, Rho GTPases, and F-actin assembly

Wound healing is essential for survival. We took advantage of the Xenopus embryo, which exhibits remarkable capacities to repair wounds quickly and efficiently, to investigate the mechanisms responsible for wound healing. Previous work has shown that injury triggers a rapid calcium response, followed by the activation of Ras homolog (Rho) family guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases), which regulate the formation and contraction of an F-actin purse string around the wound margin. How these processes are coordinated following wounding remained unclear. Here we show that inositol-trisphosphate 3-kinase B (Itpkb) via its enzymatic product inositol 1,3,4,5-tetrakisphosphate (InsP4) plays an essential role during wound healing by modulating the activity of Rho family GTPases and F-actin ring assembly. Furthermore, we show that Itpkb and InsP4 modulate the speed of the calcium wave, which propagates from the site of injury into neighboring uninjured cells. Strikingly, both overexpression of itpkb and exogenous application of InsP4 accelerate the speed of wound closure, a finding that has potential implications in our quest to find treatments that improve wound healing in patients with acute or chronic wounds.
Spatial Support Vector Regression to Detect Silent Errors in the Exascale Era

As the exascale era approaches, the increasing capacity of high-performance computing (HPC) systems with targeted power and energy budget goals introduces significant challenges in reliability. Silent data corruptions (SDCs) or silent errors are one of the major sources that corrupt the executionresults of HPC applications without being detected. In this work, we explore a low-memory-overhead SDC detector, by leveraging epsilon-insensitive support vector machine regression, to detect SDCs that occur in HPC applications that can be characterized by an impact error bound. The key contributions are three fold. (1) Our design takes spatialfeatures (i.e., neighbouring data values for each data point in a snapshot) into training data, such that little memory overhead (less than 1%) is introduced. (2) We provide an in-depth study on the detection ability and performance with different parameters, and we optimize the detection range carefully. (3) Experiments with eight real-world HPC applications show thatour detector can achieve the detection sensitivity (i.e., recall) up to 99% yet suffer a less than 1% of false positive rate for most cases. Our detector incurs low performance overhead, 5% on average, for all benchmarks studied in the paper. Compared with other state-of-the-art techniques, our detector exhibits the best tradeoff considering the detection ability and overheads.
Capital Deepening and Wage Differentials: Germany vs. Us

Wage inequality, investment and skills In flexible labour markets, capital increases the productivity of skilled workers more than that of unskilled workers, and in the US faster investment is associated with wider wage inequality. But labour market institutions that keep unskilled workers' wages high also imply that firms may find it profitable to invest so as to boost those workers' productivity. Our empirical analysis based on industry-level data confirms that a higher capital intensity in Germany is associated with smaller wage differentials and with a larger share of unskilled workers in the labour costs. Changes in capital-labour ratios during the 1980s reduced wage differentials by 5-8% in German industries, while in the US capital deepening in such industries as machinery and retail was accompanied by an increase of wage differentials larger than 7%.
CoRdE: Cosserat rod elements for the dynamic simulation of one-dimensional elastic objects

Simulating one-dimensional elastic objects such as threads, ropes or hair strands is a difficult problem, especially if material torsion is considered. In this paper, we present CoRdE(french 'rope'), a novel deformation model for the dynamic interactive simulation of elastic rods with torsion. We derive continuous energies for a dynamically deforming rod based on the Cosserat theory of elastic rods. We then discretize the rod and compute energies per element by employing finite element methods. Thus, the global dynamic behavior is independent of the discretization. The dynamic evolution of the rod is obtained by numerical integration of the resulting Lagrange equations of motion. We further show how this system of equations can be decoupled and efficiently solved. Since the centerline of the rod is explicitly represented, the deformation model allows for accurate contact and self-contact handling. Thus, we can reproduce many important looping phenomena. Further, a broad variety of different materials can be simulated at interactive rates. Experiments underline the physical plausibility of our deformation model.
A cooperative cache architecture in support of caching multimedia objects in MANETs

This paper presents a cooperative caching architecture suitable for continuous media (CM) proxy caching in MANET environments. The proposed scheme introduces an application manager component, which is interposed between traditional Internet CM applications and the network layer. The application manager transparently performs data location and service migration of active CM streaming sessions so as to exploit nearby data sources based on the dynamic topology of a MANET. We propose two data location schemes - Cache-State - a link-state based scheme and Reactive - an on-demand scheme. Since service migration can occur frequently, the application manager uses soft-state signaling techniques to communicate between remote application managers by translating hard-state application signaling, such as Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) into soft-state messages. The proposed schemes are evaluated through simulation studies using the NS simulator. Simulation studies show that both Cache-State and Reactive schemes demonstrate significant QoS improvements and reduced bandwidth consumption.