Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reciprocal tutoring using cognitive tools

Reciprocal tutoring, where peers take turns to tutor each other, is an interesting style of social learning. In the Reciprocal Tutoring System (RTS), three computational cognitive tools were designed to facilitate reciprocal tutoring of Lisp programming on the network. The first is a Petal-style of code-chunk interface, with which a tutee can enter Lisp code without making syntactic errors. The second tool is Diagnosis- Hint Tree, with which a tutor can diagnose and comment on the errors in the tutee's program. The third one is a list of dialogue templates, with which the tutee and the tutor can communicate during the tutoring process. A three-phase experiment was conducted, with each phase using different cognitive tools. In addition, with the help of the cognitive tools, RTS provides a virtual learning companion that can play tutor or tutee. Evaluation results reveal both the strengths and weaknesses of peer-based learning and intelligent tutoring, with supports of different cognitive tools. Peer-based learning supported by cognitive tools is a practical and attractive alternative to intelligent tutoring systems. Exactly which type of tutor is preferred depends on the tutee's cognitive, communication, and emotional needs in the tutorial context.
Penalized Regression with Ordinal Predictors

Ordered categorial predictors are a common case in regression modelling. In contrast to the case of ordinal response variables, ordinal predictors have been largely neglected in the literature. In this paper, existing methods are reviewed and the use of penalized regression techniques is proposed. Based on dummy coding two types of penalization are explicitly developed; the first imposes a difference penalty, the second is a ridge type refitting procedure. Also a Bayesian motivation is provided. The concept is generalized to the case of non‐normal outcomes within the framework of generalized linear models by applying penalized likelihood estimation. Simulation studies and real world data serve for illustration and to compare the approaches to methods often seen in practice, namely simple linear regression on the group labels and pure dummy coding. Especially the proposed difference penalty turns out to be highly competitive.
Instantons and BPS Wilson loops

The one-instanton contribution to a circular BPS Wilson loop in N=4 SU(2) Yang--Mills theory is evaluated in semiclassical approximation. This article amplifies part of a talk given by MBG at the Strings 2001 conference, Mumbai, India (January 5-10, 2001). The results are preliminary and a more complete exposition will be contained in a forthcoming paper.
Differential Performance in High vs. Low Stakes Tests: Evidence from the GRE Test

We study how different demographic groups respond to incentives by comparing their performance in ‘high’ and ‘low’ stakes situations. The high stakes situation is the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), and the low stakes situation is a voluntary experimental section of the GRE. We find that males exhibit a larger drop in performance between the high and low stakes examinations than females, and that whites exhibit a larger drop in performance than minorities. Differences between high and low stakes tests are partly explained by the fact that males and whites exert lower effort in low stakes tests compared with females and minorities.
The Value of Corporate Control: Evidence from China's Distressed Firms

This paper hypothesizes that the threat of losing listing status in China's distressed ST (special treatment) firms initiates a corporate control market that does not exist otherwise. The incumbent controlling shareholder, facing the possibility of losing control right, is forced to 'tunnel back' the value he has extracted from the firm before to boost the distressed firm's operating performance. This part of value is captured by the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) surrounding ST announcement. We further argue that CAR is an alternative measure of private benefits of control, in contrast with the ones used in Barclay and Holderness (1989) and Nenova (2000). Using the sample of 66 listing companies that had become ST between 1998 and 2000 in China's stock market, we find that the 22-month cumulative abnormal returns are as high as 29% on average. Our game theoretic model shows that the control value released through the contest for corporate control is positively related to the largest shareholder's shareholding percentage and concentration of shares held by other largest shareholders, but negatively correlated with the firm's leverage ratio. The empirical evidence confirms these predictions.
Reconceptualizing Political Knowledge: Race, Ethnicity, and Carceral Violence

What is political knowledge? We argue that the traditional measure of political knowledge is limited, as it represents one domain of facts that people should know about American politics. This domain of knowledge is rooted in the liberal-democratic face of the state and neglects other political knowledge generated from the carceral face of the state. We argue that knowledge of carceral violence, especially against African Americans, represents a separate domain of knowledge that is particularly relevant to marginalized communities, especially black youth. Once we include carceral violence in our measures of political knowledge, established patterns of whites having more political knowledge than Blacks are reversed. Using a novel measurement strategy and based on a nationally representative survey of over 2,000 young people, we find that knowledge of carceral violence is distinct from measures of what has been called general political knowledge. Finally, we find that knowledge of carceral violence has distinct correlates from the standard knowledge battery and its relationship to political participation varies by racial group but tends to depress the political participation of African Americans. Our findings raise the question of what comprises relevant and important political knowledge today and for which communities.
Operational profiling of temperature using ground-based microwave radiometry at Payerne: prospects and challenges

Abstract. The motivation of this study is to verify theoretical expectations placed on ground-based microwave radiometer (MWR) techniques and to confirm whether they are suitable for supporting key missions of national weather services, such as timely and accurate weather advisories and warnings. We evaluate reliability and accuracy of atmospheric temperature profiles retrieved continuously by the microwave profiler system HATPRO (Humidity And Temperature PROfiler) operated at the aerological station of Payerne (MeteoSwiss) in the time period August 2006–December 2009. Assessment is performed by comparing temperatures from the radiometer against temperature measurements from a radiosonde accounting for a total of 2107 quality-controlled all-season cases. In the evaluated time period, the MWR delivered reliable temperature profiles in 86% of all-weather conditions on a temporal resolution of 12–13 min. Random differences between MWR and radiosonde are down to 0.5 K in the lower boundary layer and increase to 1.7 K at 4 km height. The differences observed between MWR and radiosonde in the lower boundary layer are similar to the differences observed between the radiosonde and another in-situ sensor located on a close-by 30 m tower. Temperature retrievals from above 4 km contain less than 5% of the total information content of the measurements, which makes clear that this technique is mainly suited for continuous observations in the boundary layer. Systematic temperature differences are also observed throughout the retrieved profile and can account for up to ±0.5 K. These errors are due to offsets in the measurements of the microwave radiances that have been corrected for in data post-processing and lead to nearly bias-free overall temperature retrievals. Different reasons for the radiance offsets are discussed, but cannot be unambiguously determined retrospectively. Monitoring and, if necessary, corrections for radiance offsets as well as a real-time rigorous automated data quality control are mandatory for microwave profiler systems that are designated for operational temperature profiling. In the analysis of a subset of different atmospheric situations, it is shown that lifted inversions and data quality during precipitation present the largest challenges for operational MWR temperature profiling.
Sudden Stops, the Real Exchange Rate, and Fiscal Sustainability: Argentina's Lessons

We offer an alternative explanation for the fall of Argentina's Convertibility Program based on the country's vulnerability to Sudden Stops in capital flows. Sudden Stops are typically accompanied by a substantial increase in the real exchange rate that breaks havoc in countries that are heavily dollarized in their liabilities, turning otherwise sustainable fiscal and corporate sector positions into unsustainable ones. In particular, we stress that the required change in relative prices is larger the more closed an economy is in terms of its supply of tradable goods. By contrasting Argentina's performance relative to other Latin American countries that were also subject to the Sudden Stop triggered by the Russian crisis of 1998, we identify key vulnerability indicators that separated Argentina from its piers. We also provide an explanation for the political maelstrom that ensued after the Sudden Stop, based on a War of Attrition argument related to the wealth redistribution conflict triggered by the Sudden Stop and fiscal collapse. This framework also provides elements to rationalize the banking crisis that accompanied the fall of Convertibility.
Markets with Search Frictions ∗

This technical background paper is prepared by the Economic Sciences Prize Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, for bringing out the main contributions made by the distinguished recipients of the Nobel Prize, in the year 2010. The Nobel Prize was shared by three eminent scholars, viz., Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides, who have made fundamental contributions to the innovative theme of search and matching theory, including the analysis of price dispersion and efficiency in economies with search and matching frictions as well as the development of what has come to be known as the modern search and matching theory of unemployment. The process of ‘search and matching’, that constantly takes place between the buyers and the sellers, is found to be creating some ‘frictions’, which influence the market functioning, price determination, price dispersion, efficiency in economies and government intervention. These seminal contributions have also led to the formulation of what has come to be known as the ‘search and matching theory of unemployment’. The paper also brings out as to how the original formulation of the search and matching theory has inspired many applications, in a variety of fields, such as, issues in monetary theory, public finance, housing markets, financial economics, urban markets and even in the unusual field of marriage markets.
ApoA-IV phenotype affects diet-induced plasma LDL cholesterol lowering.

The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) recommends that dietary total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol intake be reduced to < or = 30% of calories, < 10% of calories, and < 300 mg/d, respectively (step 1 diet), in the general population to reduce plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels and heart disease risk. We examined the LDL-C-lowering response to such a diet (26% fat, 8% saturated fat, and 201 mg/d cholesterol) compared with an average American diet (39% fat, 15% saturated fat, and 435 mg cholesterol/d) in 153 subjects using diet periods of 4 through 24 weeks for each diet phase. The mean LDL-C reduction was 13% in men (n = 93) and 7% in postmenopausal women (n = 60). The effect of apolipoprotein (apo) A-IV phenotype on responsiveness was examined. LDL-C lowering in men was significantly (P < .005) less (7%) for 17 apoA-IV (1/2) subjects than for 76 apoA-IV (1/1) subjects (16%). In women, 7% lowering was observed in both 12 apoA-IV (1/2) subjects and 48 apoA-IV (1/1) subjects. ApoA-IV phenotype had a significant effect on plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels during both dietary periods; women carrying the apoA-IV-2 allele had higher levels than those homozygous for the apoA-IV-1 allele. The opposite was true for triglyceride levels, but only during the period when the subjects consumed the high-fat, high-cholesterol diet. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Kin Recognition in a Clonal Fish, Poecilia formosa

Relatedness strongly influences social behaviors in a wide variety of species. For most species, the highest typical degree of relatedness is between full siblings with 50% shared genes. However, this is poorly understood in species with unusually high relatedness between individuals: clonal organisms. Although there has been some investigation into clonal invertebrates and yeast, nothing is known about kin selection in clonal vertebrates. We show that a clonal fish, the Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa), can distinguish between different clonal lineages, associating with genetically identical, sister clonals, and use multiple sensory modalities. Also, they scale their aggressive behaviors according to the relatedness to other females: they are more aggressive to non-related clones. Our results demonstrate that even in species with very small genetic differences between individuals, kin recognition can be adaptive. Their discriminatory abilities and regulation of costly behaviors provides a powerful example of natural selection in species with limited genetic diversity.
Structural Derivative Model for Tissue Radiation Response

By means of a recently-proposed metric or structural derivative, called scale-q-derivative approach, we formulate differential equation that models the cell death by a radiation exposure in tumor treatments. The considered independent variable here is the absorbed radiation dose D instead of usual time. The survival factor, Fs, for radiation damaged cell obtained here is in agreement with the literature on the maximum entropy principle, as it was recently shown and also exhibits an excellent agreement with the experimental data. Moreover, the well-known linear and quadratic models are obtained. With this approach, we give a step forward and suggest other expressions for survival factors that are dependent on the complex tumor structure.
Active Learning of Halfspaces under a Margin Assumption

We derive and analyze a new, efficient, pool-based active learning algorithm for halfspaces, called ALuMA. Most previous algorithms show exponential improvement in the label complexity assuming that the distribution over the instance space is close to uniform. This assumption rarely holds in practical applications. Instead, we study the label complexity under a large-margin assumption -- a much more realistic condition, as evident by the success of margin-based algorithms such as SVM. Our algorithm is computationally efficient and comes with formal guarantees on its label complexity. It also naturally extends to the non-separable case and to non-linear kernels. Experiments illustrate the clear advantage of ALuMA over other active learning algorithms.
, in trachomaChlamydia trachomatis nucleic acid amplification test for the detection of Comparison of an rRNA-based and DNA-based

service Email alerting top right corner of the article Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article-sign up in the box at the Background/Aim: The World Health Organisation (WHO) hopes to achieve global elimination of trachoma, still the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide, in part through mass antibiotic treatment. DNA-based nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) are currently used to evaluate the success of treatment programmes by measuring the prevalence of C trachomatis infection. Some believe that newer ribosomal RNA (rRNA)-based tests may be much more sensitive since bacterial rRNA is present in amounts up to 10 000 times that of genomic DNA. Others believe that rRNA-based tests are instead less sensitive but more specific, due to the presence of dead or subviable organisms that the test may not detect. This study compares an rRNA-based test to a DNA-based test for the detection of ocular C trachomatis infection in children living in trachoma-endemic villages. Methods: An rRNA-based amplification test and DNA-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were performed on swab specimens taken from the right upper tarsal conjunctiva of 56 children aged 0–10 years living in two villages in Amhara, Ethiopia. Results: The rRNA-based test detected ocular C trachomatis infection in 35 (63%) subjects compared with 22 (39%) detected by PCR (McNemar's test, p = 0.0002). The rRNA-based test gave positive results for all subjects that were positive by PCR, and also detected infection in 13 (23%) additional subjects. Conclusion: The rRNA-based test appears to have significantly greater sensitivity than PCR for the detection of ocular chlamydial infection in children in trachoma-endemic villages. Using the rRNA-based test, we may be able to detect infection that was previously missed with PCR. Past studies using DNA-based tests to assess prevalence of infectious trachoma following antibiotic treatment may have underestimated the true prevalence of infection.
Embedded fall detection with a neural network and bio-inspired stereo vision

In this paper, we present a bio-inspired, purely passive, and embedded fall detection system for its application towards safety for elderly at home. Bio-inspired means the use of two optical detector chips with event-driven pixels that are sensitive to relative light intensity changes only. The two chips are used as stereo configuration which enables a 3D representation of the observed area with a stereo matching technique. In contrast to conventional digital cameras, this image sensor delivers asynchronous events instead of synchronous intensity or color images, thus, the privacy issue is systematically solved. Another advantage is that stationary installed fall detection systems have a better acceptance for independent living compared to permanently worn devices. The fall detection is done by a trained neural network. First, a meaningful feature vector is calculated from the point clouds, then the neural network classifies the actual event as fall or non-fall. All processing is done on an embedded device consisting of an FPGA for stereo matching and a DSP for neural network calculation achieving several fall evaluations per second. The results evaluation showed that our fall detection system achieves a fall detection rate of more than 96% with false positives below 5% for our prerecorded dataset consisting of 679 fall scenarios.
Intellectual Property Rights, Internalization, and Technology Transfer

Intellectual property protection affects the manner in which multinational enterprises facilitate technology transfer from the innovating North to the developing South. Firms with products that are complex or technologically sophisticated will tend to internalize production through foreign direct investment. Firms that face a lower risk of imitation, or are less technically advanced, will tend to license production to non-affiliated Southern firms. Changes in intellectual property protection affect the level and the composition of technology transfer, depending on the value of the firm's proprietary asset.
Capacity of multivariate channels with multiplicative noise: I.Random matrix techniques and large-N expansions for full transfer matrices

We study memoryless, discrete time, matrix channels with additive white Gaussian noise and input power constraints of the form Yi = P j HijXj + Zi, where Yi ,Xj and Zi are complex, i = 1.m, j = 1.n, and H is a complex m × n matrix with some degree of randomness in its entries. The additive Gaussian noise vector is assumed to have uncorrelated entries. Let H be a full matrix (non-sparse) with pairwise correlations between matrix entries of the form E[HikH ∗ jl ] = 1 n CijDkl, where C,D are positive definite Hermitian matrices. Simplicities arise in the limit of large matrix sizes (the so called large-n limit) which allow us to obtain several exact expressions relating to the channel capacity. We study the probability distribution of the quantity f(H) = log det(1 + P H † SH). S is non-negative definite and hermitian, with T rS = n. Note that the expectation E[f(H)], maximised over S, gives the capacity of the above channel with an input power constraint in the case H is known at the receiver but not at the transmitter. For arbitrary C,D exact expressions are obtained for the expectation and variance of f(H) in the large matrix size limit. For C = D = I, where I is the identity matrix, expressions are in addition obtained for the full moment generating function for arbitrary (finite) matrix size in the large signal to noise limit. Finally, we obtain the channel capacity where the channel matrix is partly known and partly unknown and of the form αI + βH, α, β being known constants and entries of H i.i. d. Gaussian with variance 1/n. Channels of the form described above are of interest for wireless transmission with multiple antennae and receivers.
Belief in Mean Reversion and the Disposition Effect: An Experimental Test

ABSTRACT The disposition effect refers to investors' tendency to disproportionately sell more winning than losing assets. The literature mostly offered indirect evidence regarding its cause. Using a lab experiment, the author directly evaluates the two competing behavioral mechanisms for this effect: belief in mean reversion and dual risk attitudes of prospect theory. The participants were endowed with some hypothetical assets, observed price charts, and made selling decisions. Sixty-one percent of them exhibited significant disposition effect. The author elicited the participants' risk attitude parameters and beliefs about price movements, and found that beliefs, especially those in the loss domain, but not the dual risk attitudes, significantly contributed to the between-subject variation of the disposition effect. The results from a goodness-of-fit test also favor the belief mechanism.
ON THE USE OF THE FISHER INFORMATION IN COMPUTING THE STOCHASTIC COMPLEXITY

Because the evaluation of the stochastic complexity is difficult for most of the models, various approximations have been proposed during the last two decades. In this article, we focus on two approximations that rely on the Fisher information, and we revisit some recent results that demonstrate the estimation performances of the two formulae in solving the following problems: order selection for autoregressive models, estimation of the number of sinewaves in gaussian noise, and order selection for Markov models.
Crossmodal Links between Vision and Touch in Spatial Attention: A Computational Modelling Study

Many studies have revealed that attention operates across different sensory modalities, to facilitate the selection of relevant information in the multimodal situations of every-day life. Cross-modal links have been observed either when attention is directed voluntarily (endogenous) or involuntarily (exogenous). The neural basis of cross-modal attention presents a significant challenge to cognitive neuroscience. Here, we used a neural network model to elucidate the neural correlates of visual-tactile interactions in exogenous and endogenous attention. The model includes two unimodal (visual and tactile) areas connected with a bimodal area in each hemisphere and a competition between the two hemispheres. The model is able to explain cross-modal facilitation both in exogenous and endogenous attention, ascribing it to an advantaged activation of the bimodal area on the attended side (via a top-down or bottom-up biasing), with concomitant inhibition towards the opposite side. The model suggests that a competitive/cooperative interaction with biased competition may mediate both forms of cross-modal attention.