Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bayesian modeling of human sequential decision-making on the multi-armed bandit problem

In this paper we investigate human exploration/exploitation behavior in sequential-decision making tasks. Previous studies have suggested that people are suboptimal at scheduling exploration, and heuristic decision strategies are better predictors of human choices than the optimal model. By incorporating more realistic assumptions about subject’s knowledge and limitations into models of belief updating, we show that Bayesian models of human behavior for the Multi-Armed Bandit Problem (MAB) on experimental data perform better than previous accounts.
Uniform Spatial Pricing

Uniform spatial pricing means that a firm delivers its product to any customer at a fixed price, independent of location. Economic theory explains the use of uniform pricing by the added profit generated by absorbing freight charges of distant customers. I extend this insight by demonstrating that when demand elasticity and transportation cost are positively enough correlated, uniform pricing generates higher profits than mill pricing. I show that this result can better explain observed patterns of price policy choice by mail order and web firms. A second result is application of this idea to firms with many shipping facilities.
Cacao as a Globalised Functional Food: Review on Cardiovascular Effects of Chocolate Consumption

Polyphenols have increasingly been studied for their influence on cardiometabolic health. Since cacao and chocolate can be a rich source of polyphenols, they too have been investigated for their supposed health benefits. In the first part of this paper the history of the food and medicinal uses of the cacao plant was briefly examined. A particular emphasis has been placed on the analysis of the process of transformation of the cacao seed into chocolate, since many of the processing steps involved have important consequences on the final product’s content in polyphenols and flavanols, and hence on the purported beneficial activity of chocolate. This evaluation is also of great importance in interpreting the results of the epidemiological and clinical studies. The relevant literature was surveyed in the second part of the paper, and the results for the consumption of polyphenol-rich chocolate are that it is well correlated to a reduction of the overall cardiovascular risk, and of arterial blood pressure in hypertensive subjects. Less corroborated are the positive effects on vascular endothelial health, on blood lipids and on lipid peroxidation. There are also preliminary but promising results for a positive action on insulin sensitivity, platelet function and inflammation. It remains to be seen whether and how these results can be translated into pragmatic guidelines on the health benefits of the consumption of commercial chocolate bars or products.
Are Iraq and Afghanistan veterans using mental health services? New data from a national random-sample survey.

OBJECTIVE This study analyzed data from a national survey of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to improve understanding of mental health services use and perceived barriers. METHODS The National Post-Deployment Adjustment Survey randomly sampled post-9/11 veterans separated from active duty or in the Reserves or National Guard. The corrected response rate was 56% (N=1,388). RESULTS Forty-three percent screened positive for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depression, or alcohol misuse. Past-year psychiatric treatment was reported by 69% of the PTSD group, 67% of the depression group, and 45% of those with alcohol misuse. Most received care at Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities, although women were more likely than men to seek non-VA services. Veterans with more severe symptoms reported greater treatment utilization. Eighteen percent saw a pastoral counselor (chaplain) in the past year. Veterans with mental health needs who did not access treatment were more likely to believe that they had to solve problems themselves and that medications would not help. Those who had accessed treatment were more likely to express concern about being seen as weak by others. CONCLUSIONS Veterans in greatest need were more likely to access services. More than two-thirds with probable PTSD obtained past-year treatment, mostly at VA facilities. Treatment for veterans may be improved by increasing awareness of gender differences, integrating mental health and pastoral services, and recognizing that alcohol misuse may reduce utilization. Veterans who had and had not used services endorsed different perceptions about treatment, indicating that barriers to accessing care may be distinct from barriers to engaging in care.
The Temporal Winner-Take-All Readout

How can the central nervous system make accurate decisions about external stimuli at short times on the basis of the noisy responses of nerve cell populations? It has been suggested that spike time latency is the source of fast decisions. Here, we propose a simple and fast readout mechanism, the temporal Winner-Take-All (tWTA), and undertake a study of its accuracy. The tWTA is studied in the framework of a statistical model for the dynamic response of a nerve cell population to an external stimulus. Each cell is characterized by a preferred stimulus, a unique value of the external stimulus for which it responds fastest. The tWTA estimate for the stimulus is the preferred stimulus of the cell that fired the first spike in the entire population. We then pose the questions: How accurate is the tWTA readout? What are the parameters that govern this accuracy? What are the effects of noise correlations and baseline firing? We find that tWTA sensitivity to the stimulus grows algebraically fast with the number of cells in the population, N, in contrast to the logarithmic slow scaling of the conventional rate-WTA sensitivity with N. Noise correlations in first-spike times of different cells can limit the accuracy of the tWTA readout, even in the limit of large N, similar to the effect that has been observed in population coding theory. We show that baseline firing also has a detrimental effect on tWTA accuracy. We suggest a generalization of the tWTA, the n-tWTA, which estimates the stimulus by the identity of the group of cells firing the first n spikes and show how this simple generalization can overcome the detrimental effect of baseline firing. Thus, the tWTA can provide fast and accurate responses discriminating between a small number of alternatives. High accuracy in estimation of a continuous stimulus can be obtained using the n-tWTA.
Flow experience and continuance intention toward online learning: An integrated framework

This study integrated the person-artefact-task model (PAT) and value-satisfactionbehavioral intention (V-S-BI) model to examine factors influencing students getting into positive and optimal flow experience in online learning, and flow impacts on students’ continuance intention toward learning online. Results showed that telepresence was a more significant factor getting students into flow experience than clear goals on task, balance between challenges and skills of the task, and perceived ease of use. Concentration on task at hand was found to be the most influential factor of the flow experience, while sense of control was the weakest one. Although flow had a direct impact on satisfaction, the indirect impacts through utilitarian value and hedonic value were stronger. The positive relationship between satisfaction and continuance intention was confirmed in this study. The findings of this study have significant theoretical and practical implications to both researchers and practitioners.
Antecedents of SMMA continuance intention in two culturally diverse countries: An empirical examination

ABSTRACT The use of social media mobile applications (SMMA) in Asian countries has increased remarkably in the last decade, which demands a better understanding of differences in the adoption of SMMA across cultures, beyond the west. Against this backdrop, the present study developed a research model that incorporates Schwartz’s individual-level values, individual contextual factors, perceived risk and perceived value, and applied it to settings China and Pakistan to better understand continuance intention regarding SMMA in Asian countries. This study specifically examines the role of individual-level values and individual contextual factors in explaining users’ risk perception; the effects of risk perception on perceived value; and, finally, the impact of perceived value on continuance intention regarding SMMA. Our research model holds true for both China and Pakistan. The majority of the proposed relationships were supported by our findings, and we also observed some noteworthy differences during model comparison between both samples. The findings offer suggestions to information system (IS) practitioners and social media marketers considering cross-cultural differences through SMMA use. The authors acknowledge limitations and suggest further research directions to IS scholars.
Public Debt and Growth

This paper explores the impact of high public debt on long-run economic growth. The analysis, based on a panel of advanced and emerging economies over almost four decades, takes into account a broad range of determinants of growth as well as various estimation issues including reverse causality and endogeneity. In addition, threshold effects, nonlinearities, and differences between advanced and emerging market economies are examined. The empirical results suggest an inverse relationship between initial debt and subsequent growth, controlling for other determinants of growth: on average, a 10 percentage point increase in the initial debt-to-GDP ratio is associated with a slowdown in annual real per capita GDP growth of around 0.2 percentage points per year, with the impact being somewhat smaller in advanced economies. There is some evidence of nonlinearity with higher levels of initial debt having a proportionately larger negative effect on subsequent growth. Analysis of the components of growth suggests that the adverse effect largely reflects a slowdown in labor productivity growth mainly due to reduced investment and slower growth of capital stock.
Negative Inotropic Effects of Amrinone in the Neonatal Piglet Heart

Cardiac mechanical function and coronary flow (CF) were measured in isovolumically beating hearts from neonatal piglets 0.5 to 12 days of age. The hearts were perfused retrogradely at 70 cm H2O with a recirculating modified Krebs-Henseleit solution containing washed adult pig red cells (hematocrit, 25%). They were electrically paced (180 beats/min), and left ventricular developed pressure (AP), maximum rate of rise of pressure (dP/dt), CF, and myocardial oxygen consumption were measured. These parameters were found to remain stable for at least 60 minutes. In one group, a single dose of amrinone was added to the perfusate to yield a concentration of 50 μg/ml. Within 5 minutes AP decreased from 104.0 ± 7.1 to 65.3 ± 8.6 mm Hg (p<0.001), and dP/dt fell from 1,160 ± 96 to 658 ± 78 mm Hg/sec (p<0.001). In a second group, successive doses of amrinone were added to yield concentrations ranging from 5 to 50 μg/ml. There was a progressive decrease in AP and dP/dt to 66.5 ± 4.2% and 57.6 ± 4.8% of initial values, respectively. CF increased progressively from 3.2 ± 0.2 to 6.8 ± 0.5 ml/min/g. In 3 experiments, amrinone was washed out after achieving the maximum concentration. Depressed mechanical function reversed and AP and dP/dt returned to control values in each heart. Additionally, CF decreased from 7.6 ± 0.3 to 5.0 ± 0.2 ml/min/g. It is concluded that amrinone has concentration-dependent negative inotropic actions in the neonatal piglet heart. Hence, the drug may not be useful in treating heart failure in the human neonate.
The Hispanic Experience in Physical Education Teacher Education Programs: A Qualitative Study

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of Hispanic faculty involved in physical education teacher education programs at predominantly White colleges and universities in the United States. The study was positioned in the theoretical framework of organizational socialization. Participants were Hispanic (n = 6) faculty from various kinesiology-based programs in tenure-track positions at institutions of higher education in the United States. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and transcribed, triangulated, and analyzed with constant comparative procedures. We uncovered the following themes: (a) underrepresented, (b) socialized, and (c) cultured and determined. The study’s findings magnify the need for faculty and administrators to heighten their awareness and implement strategies to improve the organizational socialization of Hispanic faculty, particularly at predominantly White doctoral-granting colleges and universities. This means, for instance, identifying strategies to recruit, prepare, retain, and mentor Hispanic faculty at such institutions.
Bagging Support Vector Machines for Leukemia Classification

Leukemia is one of the most common cancer type, and its diagnosis and classification is becoming increasingly complex and important. Here, we used a gene expression dataset and adapted bagging support vector machines (bSVM) for leukemia classification. bSVM trains each SVM seperately using bootstrap technique, then aggregates the performances of each SVM by majority voting. bSVM showed accuracy between 87.5% - 92.5%, area under ROC curve between 98.0% - 99.2%, F-measure between 90.5% - 92.7% and outperformed single SVM and other classification methods. We also compared our results with other study results which used the same dataset for leukemia classification. Experimental results revealed that bSVM showed the best performance and can be used as a biomarker for the diagnose of leukemia disease.
Jokebox: Coordinating Shared Encounters in Public Spaces

Eye contact is crucial to shared encounters in public spaces. However, most urban technologies that aim to foster social interaction' attention towards the device rather than to those with whom the encounter is shared. We present the design and evaluation of the Jokebox, a lightweight technology that requires two passers-by to coordinate actions to hear a joke. In three in the wild studies at different locations we found that our design supported micro-level coordination in a consistent manner: by encouraging people to make eye contact and by using audible jokes, users engaged in interactions that often led to further conversation and laughter. We describe how opportunities for macro-level coordination were key to the success of the installation, but varied by context. Finally, we present design implications for considering both the micro and macro levels of social coordination.
Molecular and Behavioral Interactions Between Central Melanocortins and Cocaine

Behavioral and molecular studies have established a link between drugs of abuse and the central melanocortin system, particularly the melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4-R). The present study expands this line of investigation to characterization of the neurochemical and behavioral interactions between MC4-R and the psychomotor stimulant, cocaine. The results demonstrate that repeated, but not acute, cocaine administration up-regulates MC4-R mRNA expression in the striatum and hippocampus, but not cerebral cortex. Pharmacological studies indicate that the up-regulation of MC4-R expression occurs via dopamine D1 and D2 receptor-dependent mechanisms. The D1/D2 antagonist haloperidol and the D2-selective antagonist eticlopride mimic the effect of cocaine on MC4-R expression. In addition, coadministration of a D1-selective antagonist, SCH 23390 [R-(+)-7-chloro-8-hydroxy-3-methyl-1-phenyl-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-3-benzazepine], completely blocks the up-regulation of MC4 mRNA by cocaine, demonstrating that D1 receptor activation is necessary for this response. Moreover, the results demonstrate that cocaine treatment increases behavioral responses (grooming and locomotor activity) to infusions of a melanocortin agonist, indicating that up-regulation of MC4-R expression results in functional consequences. These data further support a role for the melanocortin-MC4-R neuropeptide system in the biochemical and behavioral effects of cocaine.
SPRIGHT: A Fast and Robust Framework for Sparse Walsh-Hadamard Transform

We consider the problem of computing the Walsh-Hadamard Transform (WHT) of some $N$-length input vector in the presence of noise, where the $N$-point Walsh spectrum is $K$-sparse with $K = {O}(N^{\delta})$ scaling sub-linearly in the input dimension $N$ for some $0<\delta<1$. Over the past decade, there has been a resurgence in research related to the computation of Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) for some length-$N$ input signal that has a $K$-sparse Fourier spectrum. In particular, through a sparse-graph code design, our earlier work on the Fast Fourier Aliasing-based Sparse Transform (FFAST) algorithm computes the $K$-sparse DFT in time ${O}(K\log K)$ by taking ${O}(K)$ noiseless samples. Inspired by the coding-theoretic design framework, Scheibler et al. proposed the Sparse Fast Hadamard Transform (SparseFHT) algorithm that elegantly computes the $K$-sparse WHT in the absence of noise using ${O}(K\log N)$ samples in time ${O}(K\log^2 N)$. However, the SparseFHT algorithm explicitly exploits the noiseless nature of the problem, and is not equipped to deal with scenarios where the observations are corrupted by noise. Therefore, a question of critical interest is whether this coding-theoretic framework can be made robust to noise. Further, if the answer is yes, what is the extra price that needs to be paid for being robust to noise? In this paper, we show, quite interestingly, that there is {\it no extra price} that needs to be paid for being robust to noise other than a constant factor. In other words, we can maintain the same sample complexity ${O}(K\log N)$ and the computational complexity ${O}(K\log^2 N)$ as those of the noiseless case, using our SParse Robust Iterative Graph-based Hadamard Transform (SPRIGHT) algorithm.
Automatic quality evaluation and (semi-) automatic improvement of mixed models for OCR on historical documents

Good OCR results on historical documents rely on diplomatic transcriptions of printed material as ground truth which is both a scarce resource and time-consuming to generate. A strategy is proposed which starts from a mixed model trained on already available transcriptions from different centuries giving accuracies over 90% on a test set from the same period of time, overcoming the typography barrier of having to train individual models separately for each historical typeface. It is shown that both mean character confidence (as output by the OCR engine OCRopus) and lexicality (a measure of correctness of OCR tokens compared to a lexicon of modern wordforms taking historical spelling patterns into account, which can be calculated for any OCR engine) correlate with true accuracy determined from a comparison of OCR results with ground truth. These measures are then used to guide the training of new individual OCR models either using OCR prediction as pseudo ground truth (fully automatic method) or choosing a minimum set of hand-corrected lines as training material (manual method). Already 40-80 hand- corrected lines lead to OCR results with character error rates of only a few percent. This procedure minimizes the amount of ground truth production and does not depend on the previous construction of a specific typographic model.
Dopamine and serotonin transporter genotypes moderate sensitivity to maternal expressed emotion: the case of conduct and emotional problems in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

BACKGROUND Mothers' positive emotions expressed about their children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are associated with a reduced likelihood of comorbid conduct problems (CP). We examined whether this association with CP, and one with emotional problems (EMO), is moderated by variants within three genes, previously reported to be associated with ADHD and to moderate the impact of environmental risks on conduct and/or emotional problems; the dopamine transporter gene (SLC6A3/DAT1), the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) and the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4/5HTT). METHODS Seven hundred and twenty-eight males between the ages of 5 and 17 with a DSM-IV research diagnosis of combined type ADHD were included in these analyses. Parents and teachers rated children's conduct and emotional problems. Positive maternal expressed emotion (PMEE) was coded by independent observers on comments made during a clinical assessment with the mother based on current or recent medication-free periods. RESULTS Sensitivity to the effects of PMEE on CP was moderated by variants of the DAT1 and 5HTT genes. Only children who did not carry the DAT1 10R/10R or the 5HTT l/l genotypes showed altered levels of CP when exposed to PMEE. The effect was most marked where the child with ADHD had both these genotypes. For EMO, sensitivity to PMEE was found only with those who carried the DAT1 9R/9R. There was no effect of DRD4 on CP or EMO. CONCLUSION The gene-environment interactions observed suggested that genetic make-up can alter the degree of sensitivity an ADHD patients has to their family environment. Further research should focus on distinguishing general sensitivity genotypes from those conferring risk or protective qualities.
Theta Phase Precession in Rat Ventral Striatum Links Place and Reward Information

A functional interaction between the hippocampal formation and the ventral striatum is thought to contribute to the learning and expression of associations between places and rewards. However, the mechanism of how such associations may be learned and used is currently unknown. We recorded neural ensembles and local field potentials from the ventral striatum and CA1 simultaneously as rats ran a modified T-maze. Theta-modulated cells in ventral striatum almost invariably showed firing phase precession relative to the hippocampal theta rhythm. Across the population of ventral striatal cells, phase precession was preferentially associated with an anticipatory ramping of activity up to the reward sites. In contrast, CA1 population activity and phase precession were distributed more uniformly. Ventral striatal phase precession was stronger to hippocampal than ventral striatal theta and was accompanied by increased theta coherence with hippocampus, suggesting that this effect is hippocampally derived. These results suggest that the firing phase of ventral striatal neurons contains motivationally relevant information and that phase precession serves to bind hippocampal place representations to ventral striatal representations of reward.
The Effect of Politicians’ Personality on Their Media Visibility

While being frequently covered in the news media is key to political success, previous research demonstrates that some politicians are systematically more visible in the media than others. The current study advances our understanding of which politicians gain higher media visibility by exploring the effects of their personality traits. Utilizing a unique sample of 339 incumbent politicians in three countries, we find that the two personality traits that speak directly to one’s interpersonal orientation—agreeableness and extraversion—affect visibility, with less agreeable and more extraverted politicians appearing more frequently in the news. We also find that open to experience and emotionally stable politicians get covered more frequently and that being highly conscientious predicts media visibility in some cases, but not in others. Politicians high on these traits, we argue, enjoy an inherent advantage in the competition for the media’s attention.