Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
NEAR-INSTANTANEOUSLY ADAPTIVE COOPERATIVE SCHEMES BASED ON MULTI-LAYER SPACE-TIME BLOCK CODES

In this paper we propose two adaptive schemes for improving the achievable throughput of cooperative diversity aided wireless networks. These schemes are capable of accommodating the channel signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) variation of wireless systems by near-instantaneously adapting the uplink transmission configuration. Explicitly, the first adaptive transmission scheme is constituted by a novel reconfigurable multilayered space-time block code (MLSTBC) structure. By contrast, the second adaptive scheme is constituted by a reconfigurable vertical Bell Labs Layered Space Time (VBLAST)-like architecture. Our results demonstrate that significant effective throughput improvements can be achieved by both systems, while maintaining a target bit-error-ratio of 10−3. Explicitly, the first system is capable of attaining an effective throughput varying between 1 bit-per-symbol (BPS) and 8 BPS, while the second has a throughput varying between 2 BPS and 8 BPS.
Birth Order and Sibling Gender Ratio of a Clinical Sample Iranian Medical Students' Perception of Psychiatry: before and after a Psychiatry Clerkship

Several studies indicate a decline in the number of Students who choose psychiatry as a specialty (1-11). However, since 1940, recruitment in psychiatry has been cyclical in the United States (1, 12-15). These studies mostly focus on students' attitude towards psychiatry as a career, and some of which also highlight the factors that affect this attitude (1-11, 16-18). Several studies have been shown that the medical students' attitude toward psychiatry at the end of the psychiatry clerkship is an influential predictor of their decision to choose a career in psychiatry at the future (14, 17, 19) while the current curricula focus more on Objective: We aimed to compare the medical students' attitude towards psychiatry before and after psychiatry clerkship, and to examine the association of choosing psychiatry as a future career with some personal characteristics. Method: In a self-controlled, quasi-experimental study, all of the medical students entering the psychiatry clerkship in three major medical schools of Iran located in Tehran (Tehran, Shahid Beheshti, and Iran University of Medical Sciences) were asked to participate anonymously in the study on the first and the last 3-days of their psychiatry clerkship. From 346 invited 4th-5th year medical students, 225 (65%) completed anonymous self-report questionnaires before and after a 4-week psychiatry clerkship Results: Positive response to choose psychiatry as a career was seen in 13.3 % and 18.3 % before and after psychiatry rotation, respectively. However, the difference was not statistically significant; about one-quarter of the students were turned on to psychiatry and 25% were discouraged during the clerkship. Individual pair wise comparisons revealed significant improvements only in two out of 13 measured aspects of psychiatry. Seventeen out of 38 (47.7%) students who identified psychiatry as the career of choice or strong possibility reported that one of their family members or close friends' mental illness had an impact on their choice. Those students who considered psychiatry as the strong possibility claimed that they are more interested in humanities Conclusion: It may be concluded that exposure to psychiatry clerkship could influence medical students' opinion about psychiatry positively, or negatively. Personal characteristics and individual interests of students may play an important role in choosing psychiatry as their future career.
HI holes and high-velocity clouds in the spiral galaxy NGC 6946

We present a study of the distribution and kinematics of the neutral gas in the low-inclination Scd galaxy NGC 6946. The galaxy has been observed for 192 h at 21-cm with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope. These are among the deepest observations ever obtained for a nearby galaxy. We detect widespread high-velocity HI (up to about 100 km s(-1)) and find 121 HI holes, most of which are located in the inner regions where the gas density and the star formation rate are higher. Much of the high-velocity gas appears to be related to star formation and to be, in some cases, associated with HI holes. The overall kinematics of the high-velocity gas is characterized by a slower rotation as compared with the regular disk rotation. We conclude that the high-velocity gas in NGC 6946 is extra-planar and has the same properties as the gaseous halos observed in other spiral galaxies including the Milky Way. Stellar feedback (galactic fountain) is probably at the origin of most of the high-velocity gas and of the HI holes. There are also indications, especially in the outer regions, -an extended HI plume, velocity anomalies, sharp edges, and large-scale asymmmetries-pointing to tidal encounters and recent gas accretion.
Individual Differences in the Attribution of Incentive Salience to a Pavlovian Alcohol Cue

Individual differences exist in the attribution of incentive salience to conditioned stimuli associated with food. Here, we investigated whether individual differences also manifested with a Pavlovian alcohol conditioned stimulus (CS). We compiled data from five experiments that used a Pavlovian autoshaping paradigm and tests of conditioned reinforcement. In all experiments, male, Long-Evans rats with unrestricted access to food and water were acclimated to 15% ethanol. Next, rats received Pavlovian autoshaping training, in which a 10 s presentation of a retractable lever served as the CS and 0.2 mL of 15% ethanol served as the unconditioned stimulus (US). Finally, rats underwent conditioned reinforcement tests in which nose-pokes to an active aperture led to brief presentations of the lever-CS, but nose-pokes to an inactive aperture had no consequence. Rats were categorized as sign-trackers, goal-trackers and intermediates based on a response bias score that reflected their tendencies to sign-track or goal-track at different times during training. We found that distinct groups of rats either consistently interacted with the lever-CS (“sign-trackers”) or routinely approached the port during the lever-CS (“goal-trackers”) across a majority of the training sessions. However, some individuals (“shifted sign-trackers”) with an early tendency to goal-track later shifted to comparable asymptotic levels of sign-tracking as the group identified as sign-trackers. The lever-CS functioned as a conditioned reinforcer for sign-trackers and shifted sign-trackers, but not for goal-trackers. These results provide evidence of robust individual differences in the extent to which a Pavlovian alcohol cue gains incentive salience and functions as a conditioned reinforcer.
Optimizing the trade‐off between spatial and genetic sampling efforts in patchy populations: towards a better assessment of functional connectivity using an individual‐based sampling scheme

Genetic data are increasingly used in landscape ecology for the indirect assessment of functional connectivity, that is, the permeability of landscape to movements of organisms. Among available tools, matrix correlation analyses (e.g. Mantel tests or mixed models) are commonly used to test for the relationship between pairwise genetic distances and movement costs incurred by dispersing individuals. When organisms are spatially clustered, a population‐based sampling scheme (PSS) is usually performed, so that a large number of genotypes can be used to compute pairwise genetic distances on the basis of allelic frequencies. Because of financial constraints, this kind of sampling scheme implies a drastic reduction in the number of sampled aggregates, thereby reducing sampling coverage at the landscape level. We used matrix correlation analyses on simulated and empirical genetic data sets to investigate the efficiency of an individual‐based sampling scheme (ISS) in detecting isolation‐by‐distance and isolation‐by‐barrier patterns. Provided that pseudo‐replication issues are taken into account (e.g. through restricted permutations in Mantel tests), we showed that the use of interindividual measures of genotypic dissimilarity may efficiently replace interpopulation measures of genetic differentiation: the sampling of only three or four individuals per aggregate may be sufficient to efficiently detect specific genetic patterns in most situations. The ISS proved to be a promising methodological alternative to the more conventional PSS, offering much flexibility in the spatial design of sampling schemes and ensuring an optimal representativeness of landscape heterogeneity in data, with few aggregates left unsampled. Each strategy offering specific advantages, a combined use of both sampling schemes is discussed.
Stock Price Reaction in Stressful Circumstances : An International Comparison

The objective of this paper is to document stock price behaviour in the period following sharp price changes. In particular we focus on price behaviour using daily market indexes from 40 stock exchanges over the period 1989 to 1997. Our results are not consistent with the over-reaction hypothesis. We find positive (negative) abnormal price performance in the short-term windows (up to 10 days) following positive (negative) price shocks. Our analysis also highlights some important differences across markets classified as either developed or emerging. While the price shock occurrences are evenly distributed between our two groups of markets, we show that the post-shock abnormal performances are significantly larger for our sample of emerging markets. We find that the incidence of price shocks in both developed and emerging markets are not yearor monthdependent. * We would like to thank Manolis Liodakis for excellent research assistance. The usual disclaimer applies. 242 M. Ameziane Lasfer, Arie Melnik, and Dylan Thomas
An auction/sequential shortest path algorithm for the minimum cost network flow problem

We propose a new algorithm for the solution of the linear minimum cost network flow problem, based on a sequential shortest path augmentation approach. Each shortest path is constructed by means of the recently proposed auction/shortest path algorithm. This approach allows useful information to be passed from one shortest path construction to the next. However, the naive implementation of this approach where the length of each arc is equal to its reduced cost fails because of the presence of zero cost cycles. We overcome this difficulty by using as arc lengths c-perturbations of reduced costs and by using c-complementary slackness conditions in place of the usual complementary slackness conditions. We present several variants of the main algorithm, including one that has proved very efficient for the max-flow problem. We also discuss the possibility of combining the algorithm with the relaxation method and we provide encouraging computational results. 1 Research supported by NSF under Grant CCR-9103804 and Grant 9300494-DMI. 2 Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, M.I. T. , Rm. 35-210, Cambridge, Mass. , 02139. Email: dimitrib@lids.mit. edu 1
1 0 M ay 2 00 7 Eliminating spurious eigenvalues in the analysis of incompressible fluids and other systems of differential-algebraic equations

We describe a general framework for avoiding spurious eigenvalues — unphysical unstable eigenvalues that often occur in hydrodynamic stability problems. In two example problems, we show that when system stability is analyzed numerically using descriptor notation, spurious eigenvalues are eliminated. Descriptor notation is a generalized eigenvalue formulation for differntial-algebraic equations that explicitly retains algebraic constraints. We propose that spurious eigenvalues are likely to occur in the analysis of any set of differential-algebraic equations when the algebraic constraints are used to analytically reduce the number of independent variables before the system is approximated numerically. In contrast, the simple and easily
A Transaction Cost Analysis of IT Outsourcing

This research uses transaction cost theory to investigate IT outsourcing, allowing for intermediate modes of outsourcing. Results suggest that the governance mode chosen by firms to govern their IT activities is guided by cost-minimization considerations. The major transactional determinant of the governance mode choice is the need for technical and/or organization skills. This constitutes a strong endorsement for the Grossman and Hart (1986) proposition. In addition, the measurability of the supplier’s performance is found to be a main driver explaining outsourcing decisions. However, it appears that it is the measurability of supplier performance that is important, rather than the facility to observe and evaluate the process of this work. Finally, results tend to confirm that a high level of asset specificity embedded in human capital will dampen the probability of outsourcing IT activities, while other forms of asset specificity seem to have the opposite effect.
The Patient's Perspective of Compression Textiles for Venous Leg Ulcer Treatment: an in-depth qualitative study

While a good deal is known about the patient’s lived experience of their venous leg ulcer(s), the same cannot be said for the patient’s perspective of the compression textiles used to treat their venous leg ulcers. This under-researched perspective is important in the field because a patient’s adherence to therapy, compliance with health professionals in the management of their chronic condition and the outcome of their leg ulcer journey may depend on their opinion. Exploration of the patient’s views on the products used in their therapy may also inform the future development of improved compression textiles. To explore the patients’ perspective, a phenomenological approach was taken, conducting in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 19 people who had experience of venous leg ulceration currently or within the previous two years. The setting for this study was across two NHS Trusts in Northern England. The transcribed interviews were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Three superordinate themes emerged: faith in compression, living with compression and how life with compression might be better. While some of the findings support previous research in the field (such as the ubiquitous nature of pain in the patient’s experience and narratives), the focus on the patient’s perspective of compression textiles yielded new insights and information. Some of these indicate a need for further research in specific areas. For example, a need to improve our understanding of individual differences in emotional response to compression bandaging. Information emerged that may be useful in guiding future, improved practice in the treatment and management of venous leg ulcers, such as the participants desire for increased autonomy in the management of their ulcerated legs.
PayBreak: Defense Against Cryptographic Ransomware

Similar to criminals in the physical world, cyber-criminals use a variety of illegal and immoral means to achieve monetary gains. Recently, malware known as ransomware started to leverage strong cryptographic primitives to hold victims' computer files "hostage" until a ransom is paid. Victims, with no way to defend themselves, are often advised to simply pay. Existing defenses against ransomware rely on ad-hoc mitigations that target the incorrect use of cryptography rather than generic live protection. To fill this gap in the defender's arsenal, we describe the approach, prototype implementation, and evaluation of a novel, automated, and most importantly proactive defense mechanism against ransomware. Our prototype, called PayBreak, effectively combats ransomware, and keeps victims' files safe. PayBreak is based on the insight that secure file encryption relies on hybrid encryption where symmetric session keys are used on the victim computer. PayBreak observes the use of these keys, holds them in escrow, and thus, can decrypt files that would otherwise only be recoverable by paying the ransom. Our prototype leverages low overhead dynamic hooking techniques and asymmetric encryption to realize the key escrow mechanism which allows victims to restore the files encrypted by ransomware. We evaluated PayBreak for its effectiveness against twenty hugely successful families of real-world ransomware, and demonstrate that our system can restore all files that are encrypted by samples from twelve of these families, including the infamous CryptoLocker, and more recent threats such as Locky and SamSam. Finally, PayBreak performs its protection task at negligible performance overhead for common office workloads and is thus ideally suited as a proactive online protection system.
Understanding the link between Sextortion and Suicide

Sextortion is an emerging threat, facilitated by the use of online environments where perpetrators gain the trust of vulnerable individuals in order to obtain sexually explicit material and then use it to coerce victims for the purposes of sexual, personal or financial gain. There is presently no research exploring what may lead a victim of sextortion to choose suicide. The present study examined three cases of sextortion and suicide. A thematic analysis of publicly available online material identified common themes in these cases: fear, helplessness, hopelessness, shame, humiliation, self-blame, general distress, typical antecedents of suicidal behaviour. The implications are discussed. ________________________________________________________________________
Habilidades sociales y consumo de alcohol en adolescentes de un Colegio Nacional de Lima

Objetivo : Determinar la relacion entre habilidades sociales y el consumo de alcohol en los adolescentes del 5to ano de secundaria de un Colegio Nacional de Ate Vitarte – Lima, Peru. Metodologia : estudio de enfoque cuantitativo, diseno no experimental, de corte transversal y de tipo descriptivo correlacional. La muestra estuvo conformada por 170 adolescentes que oscilan entre 15 y 17 anos, los cuales fueron seleccionados por muestreo no probabilistico de tipo intencional. Los instrumentos que se utilizaron fueron: la escala de Habilidades de Gismero y el test de Audit. Resultados : en habilidades sociales, se evidencio que 50,6% presenta nivel medio, 38,2% posee nivel bajo y 11,2% nivel alto. En cuanto al consumo de alcohol se obtuvo que 65,8% tienen consumo de alcohol con y sin riesgo apreciable, 27, 1% no consumen alcohol, 5,3% poseen consumo de alcohol perjudicial y 1,8% consumo severo o presencia de dependencia. Conclusiones : segun la prueba estadistica de Spearman con el 95% de confiabilidad y significancia de p < 0.05 se concluye que existe relacion significativa entre los niveles de habilidades sociales y el consumo de alcohol.
Semiparametric Model Selection in Panel Data Models with Deterministic Trends and Cross-Sectional Dependence By Jia Chen

In this paper, we consider a model selection issue in semiparametric panel data models with fixed effects. The modelling framework under investigation can accommodate both nonlinear deterministic trends and cross-sectional dependence. And we consider the so-called “large panels” where both the time series and cross sectional sizes are very large. A penalised profile least squares method with first-stage local linear smoothing is developed to select the significant covariates and estimate the regression coefficients simultaneously. The convergence rate and the oracle property of the resulting semiparametric estimator are established by the joint limit approach. The developed semiparametric model selection methodology is illustrated by two Monte-Carlo simulation studies, where we compare the performance in model selection and estimation of three penalties, i.e., the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), the smoothly clipped absolute deviation (SCAD), and the minimax concave penalty (MCP). JEL classification: C13, C14, C23.
Variants from GIPR, TCF7L2, DGKB, MADD, CRY2, GLIS3, PROX1, SLC30A8 and IGF1 Are Associated with Glucose Metabolism in the Chinese

Background Recent meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in European descent samples identified novel loci influencing glucose and insulin related traits. In the current study, we aimed to evaluate the association between these loci and traits related to glucose metabolism in the Chinese. Methods/Principal Findings We genotyped seventeen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from fifteen loci including GIPR, ADCY5, TCF7L2, VPS13C, DGKB, MADD, ADRA2A, FADS1, CRY2, SLC2A2, GLIS3, PROX1, C2CD4B, SLC30A8 and IGF1 in 6,822 Shanghai Chinese Hans comprising 3,410 type 2 diabetic patients and 3,412 normal glucose regulation subjects. MADD rs7944584 showed strong association to type 2 diabetes (p = 3.5×10−6, empirical p = 0.0002) which was not observed in the European descent populations. SNPs from GIPR, TCF7L2, CRY2, GLIS3 and SLC30A8 were also associated with type 2 diabetes (p = 0.0487∼2.0×10−8). Further adjusting age, gender and BMI as confounders found PROX1 rs340874 was associated with type 2 diabetes (p = 0.0391). SNPs from DGKB, MADD and SLC30A8 were associated with fasting glucose while PROX1 rs340874 was significantly associated with OGTT 2-h glucose (p = 0.0392∼0.0014, adjusted for age, gender and BMI), the glucose-raising allele also showed association to lower insulin secretion. IGF1 rs35767 showed significant association to both fasting and 2-h insulin levels as well as insulin secretion and sensitivity indices (p = 0.0160∼0.0035, adjusted for age, gender and BMI). Conclusions/Significance Our results indicated that SNPs from GIPR, TCF7L2, DGKB, MADD, CRY2, GLIS3, PROX1, SLC30A8 and IGF1 were associated with traits related to glucose metabolism in the Chinese population.
Joint Pricing and Capacity Planning in the IaaS Cloud Market

In the cloud context, pricing and capacity planning are two important factors to the profit of the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) providers. This paper investigates the problem of joint pricing and capacity planning in the IaaS provider market with a set of software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers, where each SaaS provider leases the virtual machines (VMs) from the IaaS providers to provide cloud-based application services to its end-users. We study two market models, one with a monopoly IaaS provider market, the other with multiple-IaaS-provider market. For the monopoly IaaS provider market, we first study the SaaS providers’ optimal decisions in terms of the amount of end-user requests to admit and the number of VMs to lease, given the resource price charged by the IaaS provider. Based on the best responses of the SaaS providers, we then derive the optimal solution to the problem of joint pricing and capacity planning to maximize the IaaS provider's profit. Next, for the market with multiple IaaS providers, we formulate the pricing and capacity planning competition among the IaaS providers as a three-stage Stackelberg game. We explore the existence and uniqueness of Nash equilibrium, and derive the conditions under which there exists a unique Nash equilibrium. Finally, we develop an iterative algorithm to achieve the Nash equilibrium.