Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Operator weak values and black hole complementarity

In conventional field theories, the emission of Hawking radiation in the background of a collapsing star requires transplanckian energy fluctuations. These fluctuations are encoded in the weak values of the energy-momentum operator constructed from matrix elements between both -in and -out states. It is argued that taming of these weak values by back-reaction may lead to geometrical backgrounds which are also build from weak values of the gravitational field operators. This leads to different causal histories of the black hole as reconstructed by observers crossing the horizon at different times but reduces, in accordance with the equivalence principle, to the classical description of the collapse for the proper history of the star as recorded by an observer comoving with it. For observers never crossing the horizon, the evaporation would be interpreted within a topologically trivial ``achronon geometry" void of horizon and singularity: after the initial ignition of the radiation from pair creation out of the vacuum of the collapsing star of mass M, as in the conventional theory, the source of the thermal radiation would shift gradually to the star itself in a time at least of order $4M\ln 2M$. The burning of the star could be consistent with a quantum unitary evolution along the lines suggested by 't Hooft. A provisional formal expression of general black hole complementarity is proposed and its possible relevance for testing features of a theory of quantum gravity is suggested.
Testing Multilevel Mediation Using Hierarchical Linear Models

Testing multilevel mediation using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) has gained tremendous popularity in recent years. However, potential confounding in multilevel mediation effect estimates can arise in these models when within-group effects differ from between-group effects. This study summarizes three types of HLM-based multilevel mediation models, and then explains that in two types of these models confounding can be produced and erroneous conclusions may be derived when using popularly recommended procedures. A Monte Carlo simulation study illustrates that these procedures can underestimate or overestimate true mediation effects. Recommendations are provided for appropriately testing multilevel mediation and for differentiating within-group versus between-group effects in multilevel settings.
A Comparison of PCFG Models

In this paper, we compare three different approaches to build a probabilistic context-free grammar for natural language parsing from a tree bank corpus: 1) a model that simply extracts the rules contained in the corpus and counts the number of occurrences of each rule 2) a model that also stores information about the parent node's category and, 3) a model that estimates the probabilities according to a generalized k-gram scheme with k = 3. The last one allows for a faster parsing and decreases the perplexity of test samples.
Semiparametric Inference of the Complier Average Causal Effect with Nonignorable Missing Outcomes

Noncompliance and missing data often occur in randomized trials, which complicate the inference of causal effects. When both noncompliance and missing data are present, previous papers proposed moment and maximum likelihood estimators for binary and normally distributed continuous outcomes under the latent ignorable missing data mechanism. However, the latent ignorable missing data mechanism may be violated in practice, because the missing data mechanism may depend directly on the missing outcome itself. Under noncompliance and an outcome-dependent nonignorable missing data mechanism, previous studies showed the identifiability of complier average causal effect for discrete outcomes. In this article, we study the semiparametric identifiability and estimation of complier average causal effect in randomized clinical trials with both all-or-none noncompliance and outcome-dependent nonignorable missing continuous outcomes, and propose a two-step maximum likelihood estimator in order to eliminate the infinite dimensional nuisance parameter. Our method does not need to specify a parametric form for the missing data mechanism. We also evaluate the finite sample property of our method via extensive simulation studies and sensitivity analysis, with an application to a double-blinded psychiatric clinical trial.
THE ROLE OF INTERPERSONAL INFLUENCE IN COUNTERBALANCING PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITY TRAIT FACETS AT WORK NORA SCHÜTTE AND GERHARD BLICKLE

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of two facets of psychopathic personality (i.e., self-centered impulsivity, fearless dominance) with counterproductive work behavior (CWB-I) and contextual performance (CP). Consistent with research on psychopathy, we suggested that self-centered impulsivity (i.e., behavioral impulsivity characterized by disregard for rules and responsibilities) would be positively related to CWBI and negatively related to CP. Underpinned by socioanalytic theory, we further suggested that fearless dominance (i.e., an egotistical personal style characterized by self-promotion and prioritization of one’s own needs before those of others) would only be negatively associated with interpersonal performance (i.e., high CWB-I and low CP) when individuals indicated low levels of interpersonal influence (i.e., a dimension of political skill reflecting an ability to adapt one’s behavior in subtle, sophisticated, and situationally effective ways). Results provided strong support for the differential relations of the psychopathic personality dimensions with the criteria of interest. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are provided in light of a number of notable strengths and limitations.
Asymptotics of the invariant measure in mean field models with jumps

We consider the asymptotics of the invariant measure for the process of spatial distribution of N coupled Markov chains in the limit of a large number of chains. Each chain reflects the stochastic evolution of one particle. The chains are coupled through the dependence of transition rates on the spatial distribution of particles in the various states. Our model is a caricature for medium access interactions in wireless local area networks. Our model is also applicable in the study of spread of epidemics in a network. The limiting process satisfies a deterministic ordinary differential equation called the McKean-Vlasov equation. When this differential equation has a unique globally asymptotically stable equilibrium, the spatial distribution converges weakly to this equilibrium. Using a control-theoretic approach, we examine the question of a large deviation from this equilibrium.
Distal enlargement of the optic nerve sheath in the hyperacute stage of intracerebral haemorrhage

Aims Optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) enlargement is detectable in patients with increased intracranial pressure. The aim was to detect an enlargement of the ONSD using optic nerve sonography in patients with acute intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) within 6 h of the onset of symptoms. Methods Thirty-one acute ICH patients, 15 age-matched acute ischaemic stroke patients and 16 age-matched healthy volunteers were enrolled consecutively in this prospective bi-centre observational study. All acute stroke patients underwent brain CT, optic nerve sonography and transcranial colour-coded duplex sonography (TCCS) at admission within 6 h of stroke onset. The ONSD both 3.0 and 12.0 mm behind the globe using optic nerve sonography were recorded and statistically evaluated, as were age, sex, haemorrhage volume and midline shift measured by CT, and blood flow velocities in both middle cerebral arteries using TCCS. Results In acute ICH patients, a significant enlargement of ONSD was detected (p<0.0083). The best cut-off point to predict ICH volume >2.5 cm3 was the relative ONSD enlargement of >0.66 mm (>21 %), with 90.3% accuracy and kappa coefficient 0.760 (95% CI 0.509 to 1.000). Conclusions Sonographically measured enlargement of the ONSD may already be detectable in the hyperacute stage of increased intracranial pressure.
The Power of Rankings : Quantifying the

Online search intermediaries, such as Amazon or Expedia, use rankings (ordered lists) to present third party sellers’ products to consumers. These rankings decrease consumer search costs and increase the probability of a match with a seller, ultimately increasing consumer welfare. Constructing relevant rankings requires understanding their causal effect on consumer choices. However, this is challenging since rankings are endogenous: highly ranked products are also the most relevant ones for consumers. In this paper, I use the first data set with experimental variation in the ranking from a field experiment at Expedia to identify the causal effect of rankings. Using this data set, I make three contributions. First, I show that rankings affect what consumers search, but conditional on search, do not affect purchases. I also exploit a feature of the data set (opaque offers), to show that rankings lower search costs, instead of affecting consumer expectations or utility. Second, I quantify the effect of rankings using a sequential search model and find an average position effect of $2.64, lower than previous estimates in the literature obtained without experimental variation. Finally, I show that a utility-based ranking built on this model’s estimates leads to an almost twofold increase in consumer welfare, while also increasing transactions and revenue for the search intermediary.
Architectural remodeling of the tonoplast during fluid-phase endocytosis

During fluid phase endocytosis (FPE) in plant storage cells, the vacuole receives a considerable amount of membrane and fluid contents. If allowed to accumulate over a period of time, the enlarging tonoplast and increase in fluids would invariably disrupt the structural equilibrium of the mature cells. Therefore, a membrane retrieval process must exist that will guarantee membrane homeostasis in light of tonoplast expansion by membrane addition during FPE. We examined the morphological changes to the vacuolar structure during endocytosis in red beet hypocotyl tissue using scanning laser confocal microscopy and immunohistochemistry. The heavily pigmented storage vacuole allowed us to visualize all architectural transformations during treatment. When red beet tissue was incubated in 200 mM sucrose, a portion of the sucrose accumulated entered the cell by means of FPE. The accumulation process was accompanied by the development of vacuole-derived vesicles which transiently counterbalanced the addition of surplus endocytic membrane during rapid rates of endocytosis. Topographic fluorescent confocal micrographs showed an ensuing reduction in the size of the vacuole-derived vesicles and further suggest their reincorporation into the vacuole to maintain vacuolar unity and solute concentration.
Explainable Agency for Intelligent Autonomous Systems

As intelligent agents become more autonomous, sophisti- cated, and prevalent, it becomes increasingly important that humans interact with them effectively. Machine learning is now used regularly to acquire expertise, but common techniques produce opaque content whose behavior is difficult to interpret. Before they will be trusted by humans, autonomous agents must be able to explain their decisions and the reasoning that produced their choices. We will refer to this general ability as explainable agency. This capacity for explaining decisions is not an academic exercise. When a self-driving vehicle takes an unfamiliar turn, its passenger may desire to know its reasons. When a synthetic ally in a computer game blocks a player’s path, he may want to understand its purpose. When an autonomous military robot has abandoned a high-priority goal to pursue another one, its commander may request justification. As robots, vehicles, and synthetic characters become more selfreliant, people will require that they explain their behaviors on demand. The more impressive these agents’ abilities, the more essential that we be able to understand them.
Worst-case complexity and empirical evaluation of artificial intelligence methods for unsupervised word sense disambiguation

Word sense disambiguation WSD is a difficult problem for natural language processing. Algorithms that aim to solve the problem focus on the quality of the disambiguation alone and require considerable computational time. In this article, we focus on the study of three unsupervised stochastic algorithms for WSD: a genetic algorithm GA and a simulated annealing algorithm SA from the state of the art and our own ant colony algorithm ACA. The comparison is made both in terms of the worst case computational complexity and of the empirical performance of the algorithms in terms of F1 scores, execution time and evaluation of the semantic relatedness measure. We find that ACA leads to a shorter execution time as well as better results that surpass the first sense baseline and come close to the results of supervised systems on the coarse-grained all words task from Semeval 2007.
Rate of change of angular momentum and balance maintenance of biped robots

In order to engage in useful activities, upright legged creatures must be able to maintain balance. Despite recent advances, the understanding, prediction and control of biped balance in realistic dynamical situations remain an unsolved problem and the subject of much research in robotics and biomechanics. Here we study the fundamental mechanics of the rotational stability of multi-body systems with the goal of identifying a general stability criterion. Our research focuses on H/sub G/, the rate of change of centroidal angular momentum of a robot, as the physical quantity containing its stability information. We propose three control strategies using H/sub G/ that can be used for stability recapture of biped robots. For free walk on horizontal ground, a derived criterion refers to a point on the foot/ground surface of a robot where the total ground reaction force would have to act such that H/sub G/=0. This new criterion generalizes earlier concepts such as GCoM, CoP, ZMP, and FRI point, and extends their applicability.
The Birth Weight Lowering C-Allele of rs900400 Near LEKR1 and CCNL1 Associates with Elevated Insulin Release following an Oral Glucose Challenge

Background and Aim The first genome-wide association study on birth weight was recently published and the most significant associated birth weight lowering variant was the rs900400 C-allele located near LEKR1 and CCNL1. We aimed to replicate the association with birth weight in the Danish Inter99 study and furthermore to evaluate associations between rs900400 and indices of insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity obtained by oral glucose tolerance tests in adults from the Danish Inter99 study and the Finnish, Metabolic Syndrome in Men (METSIM) sample. Methods For 4,744 of 6,784 Inter99 participants, midwife journals were traced through the Danish State Archives and association of rs900400 with birth weight was examined. Associations between rs900400 and fasting serum insulin, fasting plasma glucose, insulinogenic index, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and disposition index were studied in 5,484 Danish and 6,915 Finnish non-diabetic individuals and combined in meta-analyses. Results The C-allele of rs900400 was associated with a 22.1 g lower birth weight ([−41.3;−3.0], P = 0.024) per allele. Moreover, in combined analyses of the Danish Inter99 study and the Finnish METSIM study we found that the birth weight lowering allele was associated with increased insulin release measured by the insulinogenic index (β = 2.25% [0.59; 3.91], P = 0.008) and with an increased disposition index (β = 1.76% [0.04; 3.49], P = 0.05). Conclusion The birth weight lowering effect of the C-allele of rs900400 located near LEKR1 and CCNL1 was replicated in the Danish population. Furthermore the C-allele was associated with increased insulin response following oral glucose stimulation in a meta-analysis based on Danish and Finnish non-diabetic individuals.
The reverse Stroop effect in switching between color naming and word reading

Introduction When speakers either name the color or read the word of Stroop stimuli, incongruent words interfere with color naming but incongruent colors do not affect word reading. However, when speakers switch between tasks, incongruent colors interfere with word reading: the reverse Stroop effect. Several models assume that the reverse Stroop effect arises because of “task-set inertia”. After a task switch, the color naming task set is still active on a word reading trial, yielding the interference (Gilbert & Shallice, 2002; Yeung & Monsell, 2003). Alternatively, the reverse Stroop effect arises because of the reading route that is adopted. In the WEAVER++ model (Roelofs, 2003), word reading may include lemma retrieval or not (Fig. 1). Stroop effects occur when lemma retrieval is involved. Methods In each experiment, 16 participants named the color or read aloud the word of color-word Stroop stimuli. The task was cued by the word ‘color’ (color naming) or ‘word’ (word reading). Fig. 2 shows the structure of a trial. The task switched randomly (Exp. 1) or predictably every two trials (Exp. 2). The experiments included incongruent and neutral trials. Results There were Stroop effects (i.e., slower responding on incongruent than neutral trials) for both color naming and word reading (Fig. 3 and Fig. 4). The magnitude of the effects did not differ between switch and repeat trials. Responding was slower on switch than on repeat trials in Exp. 2, but not in Exp. 1. Thus, for random as well as for predictable switches, we observed reverse Stroop effects, regardless of the presence of a switch cost.
Work Ethic among Jews and Muslims

There are no studies that compare the work ethic of Jews and Muslims in and out of Israel. This study examines and compares the work ethic among Jews and Muslims in Israel according to their degree of religiosity. The sample included 898 Jews and 215 Muslims representing the labor force that filled out the Meaning of Work questionnaire. The work ethic dimensions were obligation norms, entitlement norms, and work centrality. Among Jews, the agreement with obligation and entitlement norms was the highest among religious respondents and the lowest among their secular counterparts, while secular Jews have higher work centrality than traditionalists, especially than religious Jews. Muslim society was found to be more homogeneous than Jewish society, as the work ethic dimensions among Muslims are not affected by religiosity degree and, even when it is controlled, the other demographic variables do not generally influence work ethic dimensions. The meaning of the findings and their implications are discussed.
Neuropsychological Effects of Konzo: A Neuromotor Disease Associated With Poorly Processed Cassava

BACKGROUND: Konzo is an irreversible upper-motor neuron disorder affecting children dependent on bitter cassava for food. Although the neuroepidemiology of konzo is well characterized, we report the first neuropsychological findings. METHOD: Children with konzo in the Democratic Republic of Congo (mean age 8.7 years) were compared with children without konzo (mean age 9.1 years) on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, second edition (KABC-II), and the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, second edition (BOT-2). Both groups were also compared with normative KABC measures from earlier studies in a nearby nonkonzo region. RESULTS: Using a Kruskal-Wallis test, children with konzo did worse on the KABC-II simultaneous processing (visual-spatial analysis) (K [1] = 8.78, P = .003) and mental processing index (MPI) (K [1] = 4.56, P = .03) than children without konzo. Both konzo and nonkonzo groups had poorer KABC sequential processing (memory) and MPI relative to the normative group from a nonkonzo region (K [2] = 75.55, P < .001). Children with konzo were lower on BOT-2 total (K [1] = 83.26, P < .001). KABC-II MPI and BOT-2 total were predictive of konzo status in a binary logistic regression model: odds ratio = 1.41, P < . 013; 95% confidence interval 1.13–1.69. CONCLUSIONS: Motor proficiency is dramatically affected, and both children with and without konzo have impaired neurocognition compared with control children from a nonoutbreak area. This may evidence a subclinical neurocognitive form of the disease, extending the human burden of konzo with dramatic public health implications.
Continuous-time discrete-space models for animal movement

The processes influencing animal movement and resource selection are complex and varied. Past efforts to model behavioral changes over time used Bayesian statistical models with variable parameter space, such as reversible-jump Markov chain Monte Carlo approaches, which are computationally demanding and inaccessible to many practitioners. We present a continuous-time discrete-space (CTDS) model of animal movement that can be fit using standard generalized linear modeling (GLM) methods. This CTDS approach allows for the joint modeling of location-based as well as directional drivers of movement. Changing behavior over time is modeled using a varying-coefficient framework which maintains the computational simplicity of a GLM approach, and variable selection is accomplished using a group lasso penalty. We apply our approach to a study of two mountain lions (Puma concolor) in Colorado, USA.
Orthopedia Transcription Factor otpa and otpb Paralogous Genes Function during Dopaminergic and Neuroendocrine Cell Specification in Larval Zebrafish

The homeodomain transcription factor Orthopedia (Otp) is an important regulator for specification of defined subsets of neuroendocrine cells and dopaminergic neurons in vertebrates. In zebrafish, two paralogous otp genes, otpa and otpb, are present in the genome. Neither complete loss of Otp activity nor differential contributions of Otpa and Otpb to specification of defined neuronal populations have been analyzed in detail. We characterized zebrafish embryos and early larvae mutant for null alleles of otpa, otpb, or both genes to determine their individual contributions to the specification of th expressing dopaminergic neuronal populations as well as of crh, oxt, avp, trh or sst1.1 expressing neuroendocrine cells. otpa mutant larvae show an almost complete reduction of ventral diencephalic dopaminergic neurons, as reported previously. A small reduction in the number of trh cells in the preoptic region is detectable in otpa mutants, but no significant loss of crh, oxt and avp preoptic neuroendocrine cells. otpb single mutant larvae do not display a reduction in dopaminergic neurons or neuroendocrine cells in the otp expressing regions. In contrast, in otpa and otpb double mutant larvae specific groups of dopaminergic neurons as well as of crh, oxt, avp, trh and sst1.1-expressing neuroendocrine cells are completely lost. These observations suggest that the requirement for otpa and otpb function during development of the larval diencephalon is partially redundant. During evolutionary diversification of the paralogous otp genes, otpa maintained the prominent role in ventral diencephalic dopaminergic and neuroendocrine cell specification and is capable of partially compensating otpb loss of function. In addition, we identified a role of Otp in the development of a domain of somatostatin1-expressing cells in the rostral hindbrain, a region with strong otp expression but so far uncharacterized Otp function. Otp may thus be crucial for defined neuronal cell types also in the hindbrain.