Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Errors in housing unit listing and their effects on survey estimates

Title of dissertation: ERRORS IN HOUSING UNIT LISTING AND THEIR EFFECTS ON SURVEY ESTIMATES Stephanie Eckman, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Frauke Kreuter Joint Program in Survey Methodology In the absence of a national population or housing register, field work organizations in many countries use in-field housing unit listings to create a sampling frame for in-person household surveys. Survey designers select small geographic clusters called segments and specially trained listers are sent to the segments to record the address and/or description of every housing unit. These frames are then returned to the central office where statisticians select a sample of units for the survey. The quality of these frames is critically important for the overall survey quality. A well designed and executed sample, efforts to reduce nonresponse and measurement error, and high quality data editing and analysis cannot make up for errors of undercoverage and overcoverage on the survey frame. Previous work on housing unit frame quality has focused largely on estimating net coverage rates and identifying the types of units and segments that are vulnerable to undercoverage. This dissertation advances our understanding of the listing process, using sociological and psychological theories to derive hypotheses about lister behavior and frame coverage. Two multiple-listing datasets support tests of these hypotheses. Chapter 1 demonstrates that two well-trained and experienced listers produce different housing unit frames in the same segments. Chapter 2 considers listing as a principal-agent interaction, but finds limited support for the ability of this perspective to explain undercoverage in traditional listing. Chapter 3 has more success explaining the mechanisms of error in dependent listing. Listers tend not to correct the errors of inclusion and exclusion on the frame they update, leading to undercoverage and overcoverage. Chapter 4 tests for bias due to the observed undercoverage, but finds little evidence that lister error would lead to substantial changes in survey estimates. Housing unit listing is a complex task that deserves more research in the survey methods literature. This work fills in some of the gaps in our understanding of the listing process, but also raises many questions. The good news for survey researchers is that the listers’ errors appear to be somewhat random with respect to the household and person characteristics, at least for the variables and datasets studied in this work. ERRORS IN HOUSING UNIT LISTING AND THEIR EFFECTS ON SURVEY ESTIMATES
ASR for low-resourced languages: Building a phonetically balanced Romanian speech corpus

The construction of automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems is fundamentally dependent on the speech corpus used to train the acoustic models. The speech corpus should be phonetically balanced to assure that the acoustic models are properly trained. This paper presents the design and development of the first phonetically balanced Romanian speech corpus. It describes all the language processing steps taken in order to obtain a proper set of phrases, discusses some important aspects regarding Romanian phonetics and emphasizes the phrase selection mechanism.
Motor Neuron Disease in Mice Expressing the Wild Type-Like D90A Mutant Superoxide Dismutase-1

Mutant human CuZn-superoxide dismutases (hSOD1s) cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The most common mutation is the wild type-like D90A and to explore its properties, transgenic mice were generated and compared with mice expressing wild-type hSOD1. D90A hSOD1 was both in vivo in mice and in vitro under denaturing conditions nearly as stable as the wild-type human enzyme. It appeared less toxic than other tested mutants, but mice homozygous for the transgene insertion developed a fatal motor neuron disease. In these mice, the disease progression was slow and there were bladder disturbances similar to what is found in human ALS cases homozygous for the D90A mutation. The homozygous D90A mice accumulated detergent-resistant hSOD1 aggregates in spinal cords, and abundant hSOD1 inclusions and vacuoles were seen in the ventral horns. Mice expressing wild-type hSOD1 at a comparable rate showed similar pathologic changes but less and later. Hemizygous D90A mice showed even milder alterations. At 600 days, the wild-type hSOD1 transgenic mice had lost more ventral horn neurons than hemizygous D90A mice (38% vs 31% p < 0.01). Thus, wild-type hSOD1 shows a significant neurotoxicity in the spinal cord, that is less than equal but more than half as large as that of D90A mutant enzyme.
Colouring random geometric graphs

A random geometric graph $G_n$ is obtained as follows. We take $X_1, X_2, \ldots, X_n ∈\mathbb{R}^d$ at random (i.i.d. according to some probability distribution ν on $\mathbb{R}^d$). For $i ≠j$ we join $X_i$ and $X_j$ by an edge if $║X_i - X_j ║< r(n)$. We study the properties of the chromatic number $χ _n$ and clique number $ω _n$ of this graph as n becomes large, where we assume that $r(n) →0$. We allow any choice $ν$ that has a bounded density function and $║. ║$ may be any norm on $ℝ^d$. Depending on the choice of $r(n)$, qualitatively different types of behaviour can be observed. We distinguish three main cases, in terms of the key quantity $n r^d$ (which is a measure of the average degree). If $r(n)$ is such that $\frac{nr^d}{ln n} →0$ as $n →∞$ then $\frac{χ _n}{ ω _n} →1$ almost surely. If n $\frac{r^d }{\ln n} →∞$ then $\frac{χ _n }{ ω _n} →1 / δ$ almost surely, where $δ$ is the (translational) packing density of the unit ball $B := \{ x ∈ℝ^d: ║x║< 1 \}$ (i.e. $δ$ is the proportion of $d$-space that can be filled with disjoint translates of $B$). If $\frac{n r^d }{\ln n} →t ∈(0,∞)$ then $\frac{χ _n }{ ω _n}$ tends almost surely to a constant that can be bounded in terms of $δ$ and $t$. These results extend earlier work of McDiarmid and Penrose. The proofs in fact yield separate expressions for $χ _n$ and $ω _n$. We are also able to prove a conjecture by Penrose. This states that when $\frac{n r^d }{ln n} →0$ then the clique number becomes focussed on two adjacent integers, meaning that there exists a sequence $k(n)$ such that $\mathbb{P}( ω _n ∈\{k(n), k(n)+1\}) →1$ as $n →∞$. The analogous result holds for the chromatic number (and for the maximum degree, as was already shown by Penrose in the uniform case).
Endogenous Versus Exogenous Growth Facing a Fertility Shock

This paper simulates the impact of a permanent fertility shock on economic growth, using endogenous versus exogenous growth OLG models. An endogenous growth model, with education as the engine of growth, dampens the negative impact of a decline in fertility on growth when compared with an exogenous growth model. This result stems from the rise in education levels brought about by the expectation of an increase in the discounted value of labour earnings.
Youth Empowerment in Sex Education

Sex education in public high schools is a critical topic in women and gender studies because sex education content impacts young people’s experiences with and understandings of sex, gender, relationships, and behaviors that impact health and quality of life. This paper critiques the sex education policy and practice in Colorado in order to increase opportunities for youth empowerment. The methods utilized in this paper are critical historical analysis of sex education policy development in the United States, critical discourse analysis of a sex education curriculum that is recommended by the Colorado policy, case studies of sex education extracurricular leadership programs, and interviews with high school-aged leaders in the extracurricular programs. Evidence is presented that the sex education policy in Colorado focuses too strongly on narrow outcomes, including increasing condom use, delaying sexual debut, and reducing a student’s number of sexual partners. The conclusion suggests that increasing the critical thinking opportunities in sex education design will support student learning and agency within sexual experiences and relationships. The paper calls on policy makers to involve sexual health community leaders and youth perspectives in future policy development.
Explaining the Effects of Psychological Factors: Trauma Exposure, Dissociation, Emotion Dysregulation and Alexithymia on Deliberate Self-harm with the Mediating Roles of Dissociation and Emotion Dysregulation

Background and aims: Self-Harm, also known as nonsuicidal self-injury or self-mutilation is the intentional, direct act of harming the body tissue without suicidal intentions. Being of a violent and primitive nature, self-harm is a crucial clinical problem which cause great concern among clinicians. This study aims to examine relationship between deliberate selfharm and psychological variables including trauma exposure, dissociation, emotion dysregulation, Alexithymia with the mediating roles of dissociation and emotion dysregulation. Materials and methods: For this purpose, 200 (female 114, male 86) medical students of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, in Tehran, Iran were selected and assessed in terms of deliberate self-harm inventory DSHI, dissociative experiences scale-II DES-II, childhood trauma questionnaire CTQ, Difficulties in emotion regulation scale DERS, and Toronto Alexithymia Scale TAS which were totally 114 items. Data analysis was done based on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling PLS-SEM and the use of Partial Least Squares of software. Results: The results revealed trauma exposure directly affects emotion dysregulation, dissociation, and deliberate self-harm with the Significant t values measures: 10.087, 9.450, 2.075, and β-value: 0.512, 0.564, 0.161 respectively. Moreover, trauma exposure has an indirect effect on deliberate self-harm by mediating role of emotion dysregulation and dissociation with the respectively t values: 2.363, 3.459 and β-value: 0.102, 0.227. In addition, emotion dysregulation and dissociation have a direct effect on deliberate self-harm with the t values: 2.440, 4.035, and β-value: 0.198, 0.403 respectively. Finally, Alexithymia with t value =0.759, and β-value=0.041 do not affect deliberate self-harm significantly. Conclusion: It was predicted that higher exposure to trauma would be related to increased levels of emotion dysregulation, dissociation followed by deliberate self-harm. So the findings of the study at hand provide more evidence on the significant effect of trauma exposure, emotion dysregulation, and dissociation on deliberate self-harm. They also support the mediating role of emotion dysregulation and dissociation as chief functions of deliberate self-harm.
Incorporating the surfing behavior of web users into pagerank

In large-scale commercial web search engines, estimating the importance of a web page is a crucial ingredient in ranking web search results. So far, to assess the importance of web pages, two different types of feedback have been taken into account, independent of each other: the feedback obtained from the hyperlink structure among the web pages (e.g., PageRank) or the web browsing patterns of users (e.g., BrowseRank). Unfortunately, both types of feedback have certain drawbacks. While the former lacks the user preferences and is vulnerable to malicious intent, the latter suffers from sparsity and hence low web coverage. In this work, we combine these two types of feedback under a hybrid page ranking model in order to alleviate the above-mentioned drawbacks. Our empirical results indicate that the proposed model leads to better estimation of page importance according to an evaluation metric that relies on user click feedback obtained from web search query logs. We conduct all of our experiments in a realistic setting, using a very large scale web page collection (around 6.5 billion web pages) and web browsing data (around two billion web page visits).
Difficulty on Perceptual Decision Making by STN Deep Brain Stimulation

Nikos Green,1,2,3,* Rafal Bogacz,4,6 Julius Huebl,5 Ann-Kristin Beyer,2 Andrea A. Kühn,3,5,6 and Hauke R. Heekeren1,2,3,6 1Max Planck Institute for Human Development, 14195 Berlin, Germany 2Affective Neuroscience and Psychology of Emotion, Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany 3Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany 4Department of Computer Science, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UB, UK 5Department of Neurology, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Campus Virchow, 13353 Berlin, Germany
Next‐generation sequencing of miRNAs in clinical samples of Epstein–Barr virus‐associated B‐cell lymphomas

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) encodes 49 microRNAs (miRNAs) in the BART and BHRF1 regions of its genome. Although expression profiles of EBV‐encoded miRNAs have been reported for EBV‐positive cell lines and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, to date there is little information about total miRNA expression, including cellular and viral miRNAs, in the primary tumors of EBV‐associated B‐lymphoproliferative disorders. In this study, next‐generation sequencing and quantitative real‐time reverse transcription‐PCR were used to determine the expression profiles of miRNAs in EBV‐infected cell lines and EBV‐associated B‐cell lymphomas, including AIDS‐related diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL), pyothorax‐associated lymphoma, methotrexate‐associated lymphoproliferative disorder, EBV‐positive DLBCL of the elderly, and Hodgkin lymphoma. Next‐generation sequencing revealed that EBV‐encoded miRNAs accounted for up to 34% of total annotated miRNAs in these cases. Expression of three miR‐BHRF1s was significantly higher in AIDS‐related DLBCL and pyothorax‐associated lymphoma compared with methotrexate‐associated lymphoproliferative disorder and EBV‐positive DLBCL of the elderly, suggesting the association of miR‐BHRF1s expression with latency III EBV infection. Heat map/clustering analysis of expression of all miRNAs, including cellular and EBV miRNAs, by next‐generation sequencing demonstrated that each EBV tumor, except methotrexate‐associated lymphoproliferative disorder, formed an isolated cluster. Principal component analysis based on the EBV‐encoded miRNA expression showed that each EBV tumor formed a distinguished cluster, but AIDS‐related DLBCL and pyothorax‐associated lymphoma formed larger clusters than other tumors. These data suggest that expression of miRNAs, including EBV‐encoded miRNAs, is associated with the tumor type and status of virus infection in these tumors.
Form and metabolic scaling in colonial animals

Benthic colonial organisms exhibit a wide variation in size and shape and provide excellent model systems for testing the predictions of models that describe the scaling of metabolic rate with organism size. We tested the hypothesis that colony form will influence metabolic scaling and its derivatives by characterising metabolic and propagule production rates in three species of freshwater bryozoans that vary in morphology and module organisation and which demonstrate two- and three-dimensional growth forms. The results were evaluated with respect to predictions from two models for metabolic scaling. Isometric metabolic scaling in two-dimensional colonies supported predictions of a model based on dynamic energy budget theory (DEB) and not those of a model based on fractally branching supply networks. This metabolic isometry appears to be achieved by equivalent energy budgets of edge and central modules, in one species (Cristatella mucedo) via linear growth and in a second species (Lophopus crystallinus) by colony fission. Allometric scaling characterised colonies of a three-dimensional species (Fredericella sultana), also providing support for the DEB model. Isometric scaling of propagule production rates for C. mucedo and F. sultana suggests that the number of propagules produced in colonies increases in direct proportion with the number of modules within colonies. Feeding currents generated by bryozoans function in both food capture and respiration, thus linking metabolic scaling with dynamics of self-shading and resource capture. Metabolic rates fundamentally dictate organismal performance (e.g. growth, reproduction) and, as we show here, are linked with colony form. Metabolic profiles and associated variation in colony form should therefore influence the outcome of biotic interactions in habitats dominated by colonial animals and may drive patterns of macroevolution.
Asymptotic flatness and Bondi energy in higher dimensional gravity

We give a general geometric definition of asymptotic flatness at null infinity in d-dimensional general relativity (d even) within the framework of conformal infinity. Our definition is arrived at via an analysis of linear perturbations near null infinity and shown to be stable under such perturbations. The detailed falloff properties of the perturbations, as well as the gauge conditions that need to be imposed to make the perturbations regular at infinity, are qualitatively different in higher dimensions; in particular, the decay rate of a radiating solution at null infinity differs from that of a static solution in higher dimensions. The definition of asymptotic flatness in higher dimensions consequently also differs qualitatively from that in d=4. We then derive an expression for the generator conjugate to an asymptotic time translation symmetry for asymptotically flat space–times in d-dimensional general relativity (d even) within the Hamiltonian framework, making use especially of a formalism develop.
MOIRCS DEEP SURVEY. IV. EVOLUTION OF GALAXY STELLAR MASS FUNCTION BACK TO z ∼ 3

We use very deep near-infrared (NIR) imaging data obtained in MOIRCS Deep Survey (MODS) to investigate the evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function back to z ∼ 3. The MODS data reach J = 24.2, H = 23.1, and K = 23.1 (5σ, Vega magnitude) over 103 arcmin2 (wide) and J = 25.1, H = 23.7, and K = 24.1 over 28 arcmin2 (deep) in the GOODS-North region. The wide and very deep NIR data allow us to measure the number density of galaxies down to low stellar mass (109–1010 M☉) even at high redshift with high statistical accuracy. The normalization of the mass function decreases with redshift, and the integrated stellar mass density becomes ∼8%–18% of the local value at z ∼ 2 and ∼4%–9% at z ∼ 3, which are consistent with results of previous studies in general fields. Furthermore, we found that the low-mass slope becomes steeper with redshift from α ∼ −1.3 at z ∼ 1 to α ∼ −1.6 at z ∼ 3 and that the evolution of the number density of low-mass (109–1010 M☉) galaxies is weaker than that of M* (∼1011 M☉) galaxies. This indicates that the contribution of low-mass galaxies to the total stellar mass density has been significant at high redshift. The steepening of the low-mass slope with redshift is an opposite trend expected from the stellar mass dependence of the specific star formation rate reported in previous studies. The present result suggests that the hierarchical merging process overwhelmed the effect of the stellar mass growth by star formation and was very important for the stellar mass assembly of these galaxies at 1 ≲ z ≲ 3.
Potent Anti-Diabetic Effects of MHY908, a Newly Synthesized PPAR α/γ Dual Agonist in db/db Mice

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) α/γ dual agonists have been developed to alleviate metabolic disorders and have the potential to be used as therapeutic agents for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. In this study, we investigated the effects of a newly synthesized PPAR α/γ dual agonist, 2-[4-(5-chlorobenzo [d] thiazol-2-yl) phenoxy]-2-methylpropanoic acid (MHY908) on type 2 diabetes in vitro and in vivo. To obtain initial evidence that MHY908 acts as a PPAR α/γ dual agonist, ChIP and reporter gene assays were conducted in AC2F rat liver cells, and to investigate the anti-diabetic effects and molecular mechanisms, eight-week-old, male db/db mice were allowed to eat ad libitum, placed on calorie restriction, or administered MHY908 (1 mg or 3 mg/kg/day) mixed in food for 4 weeks. Age-matched male db/m lean mice served as non-diabetic controls. It was found that MHY908 enhanced the binding and transcriptional activity of PPAR α and γ in AC2F cells, and it reduced serum glucose, triglyceride, and insulin levels, however increased adiponectin levels without body weight gain. In addition, MHY908 significantly improved hepatic steatosis by enhancing CPT-1 levels. Remarkably, MHY908 reduced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation in the livers of db/db mice, and subsequently reduced insulin resistance. The study shows MHY908 has beneficial effects on type 2 diabetes by simultaneously activating PPAR α/γ and improving ER stress, and suggests that MHY908 could have a potent anti-diabetic effect as a PPAR α/γ dual agonist, and potential for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
On the optimality of treasury bond auctions: the Spanish case

Spanish Treasury bond auctions have two distinctive features. First, the format used is a hybrid system of discriminatory and uniform price auctions. Second, there is uncertainty about the amount to be issued, since the announced target volume is not compulsory and it is established jointly for two different bonds that are auctioned separately. This paper explores Spanish Treasury bond auctions both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective. In the theoretical analysis we present a model to explore the revenue efficiency of Spanish Treasury bond auctions. Given the complexity of the Spanish auction game, the model abstracts from many features of the market, but it captures the two distinctive features of the Spanish auction: the format used and the uncertainty about the amount to be issued. The main result is that there exists for the Spanish auction format a pure strategy Nash equilibrium that maximizes the seller's revenue, which is unique in the sense that each of the equilibria gives the same utility to all players. This result suggests that both the discriminatory and the Spanish auction format behave in a similar way in the model proposed. The empirical analysis uses data of Spanish bond auctions between 1993 and 1997 to test the predictions of the model and to establish the main characteristics of Spanish bond auctions. The main results are as follows. First, as predicted by the model, auction discounts are small in size and not statistically significant for auctions with volume announcements where the bond auctioned is identical to an existing one traded on the secondary market, which we think that the model better characterizes. Second, both participation and competition are significant determinants of the size of auction discounts: participation has a positive effect, since as the number of bidders increases the winner's curse is more severe, and they bid less aggressively. Competition, measured by the cover ratio (volume bid over volume accepted), has a negative effect, as competition reduces the probability of winning and induces bidders to bid more aggressively. Third, variables measuring price and quantity uncertainty faced by bidders also have a positive effect on the size of auction discounts. Although the analysis presented here does not allow for the separation of the effect of price uncertainty from the effect of quantity uncertainty, there is some indication that both sorts of uncertainty matter.
A first-principle computation of the thermodynamics of glasses

We propose a first-principle computation of the equilibrium thermodynamics of simple fragile glasses starting from the two-body interatomic potential. A replica formulation translates this problem into that of a gas of interacting molecules, each molecule being built of m atoms, and having a gyration radius (related to the cage size) which vanishes at zero temperature. We use a small cage expansion, valid at low temperatures, which allows to compute the cage size, the specific heat (which follows the Dulong and Petit law), and the configurational entropy.