Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Competitive Screening Under Heterogeneous Information

We study the interplay between informational frictions and second-degree price discrimination. Our theory recognizes that consumers differ in their tastes for quality as well as in the information they possess about available offers, which leads to dispersion over price–quality menus in equilibrium. While firms are ex ante identical, we show that their menus are ordered so that more generous menus leave more surplus to consumers of all valuations. We explore the cross-section of equilibrium menus and variations in market conditions to generate empirical predictions on prices, qualities, and markups across firms, and within a firm’s product line. For instance, more competition may raise prices for low-quality goods; yet, consumers are better off, as the qualities they receive also increase. The predictions of our model illuminate empirical findings in many markets, such as those for cell phone plans, yellow-pages advertising, cable TV, and air travel.
GUARDS - Innovative Application of Game Theory for National Airport Security

We describe an innovative application of a novel game-theoretic approach for a national scale security deployment. Working with the United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA), we have developed a new application called GUARDS to allocate the TSA’s limited resources across hundreds of security activities to provide protection at over 400 United States airports. Similar security applications (e.g., ARMOR and IRIS) have focused on one-off tailored applications and one security activity (e.g. checkpoints) per application, GUARDS on the other hand faces three new key issues: (i) reasoning about hundreds of heterogeneous security activities; (ii) reasoning over diverse potential threats; (iii) developing a system designed for hundreds of end-users. Since a national deployment precludes tailoring to specific airports, our key ideas are: (i) creating a new game-theoretic framework that allows for heterogeneous defender activities and compact modeling of a large number of threats; (ii) developing an efficient solution technique based on general purpose Stackelberg game solvers; (iii) taking a partially centralized approach for knowledge acquisition. The scheduling assistant has been delivered to the TSA and is currently undergoing evaluation for scheduling practices at an undisclosed airport. If successful, the TSA intends to incorporate the system into their unpredictable scheduling practices nationwide.
Relative Clause Ambiguity Resolution in L1 and L2: Are Processing Strategies Transferred?

This study aims at investigating whether Persian native speakers highly advanced in English as a second language (L2ers) can switch to optimal processing strategies in the languages they know and whether working memory capacity (WMC) plays a role in this respect. To this end, using a self-paced reading task, we examined the processing strategies 62 Persian speaking proficient L2ers used to read sentences containing ambiguous relative clauses in their L1 and L2. The results showed that L2ers adopt the same strategy as that used by English native speakers in both of their languages, indicating a target-language like parsing pattern in their L2 and an attrition of L1 parsing routine. Additionally, their attachment preferences were not modulated by WMC in L2. This result highlights the “skill-through-experience” position adopted by researchers who question the role of WMC in L2 syntactic parsing. However, high-capacity L2ers' preferences in L1 had attrited (becoming English-like), and low-capacity ones had no preference. This modulation, too, can bear out the above position owing to the observation that L2ers failed to differentiate between their L1 and L2, and particularly that their differing WMCs did not contribute to native-like performance in their L1.
Formal verification of a realistic compiler

This paper reports on the development and formal verification (proof of semantic preservation) of CompCert, a compiler from Clight (a large subset of the C programming language) to PowerPC assembly code, using the Coq proof assistant both for programming the compiler and for proving its correctness. Such a verified compiler is useful in the context of critical software and its formal verification: the verification of the compiler guarantees that the safety properties proved on the source code hold for the executable compiled code as well.
The Effects of Acute Running Induced Neuronal Activation on Cerebral GLUT1 and Vascular Plasticity

Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge and thank my thesis supervisor, Dr. Claude Messier, for his support, guidance, encouragement and training that allowed me to develop my research skills. I am also like to thank my family for their continued support during my years in Ottawa. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and fellow graduate students who, in a variety of ways, have supported me throughout my graduate study.
A Multiclass Machine Learning Approach to Credit Rating Prediction

Corporate credit ratings are important financial indicators of investment risks. Traditional credit rating models employ classical econometrics methods with heteroscedasticity adjustments across various industries. In this paper, we propose using machine learning techniques in predicting corporate ratings and demonstrate, empirically, that multiclass machine learning algorithms outperform traditional econometrics models in exact, 1-notch, or 2-notch away rating predictions. We use three years of CompuStat data from four very different industries and compare corporate credit rating prediction tasks across linear regression, ordered probit model, bagged decision tree with Laplace smoothing, multiclass support vector machines (SVM), and multiclass proximal support vector machines (PSVM). Our findings show that with the proper multiclass and heteroscedasticity adjustments, the computationally inexpensive multiclass PSVM can be utilized in making viable automated corporate credit rating systems for todaypsilas vast marketplace.
Hardware Support For Serializable Transactions : A Study of Feasibility and Performance

The conflict-serializability consistency model can reduce abort rates and improve performance in software transactional me mory (TM) systems. We discuss how this model can be supported o n hardware-based TM systems. We consider a hybrid implementa tio where serializability is implemented as a software layer on top of a base hardware TM system. We also extend the base hardware TM system to fully support serializability in hardware with mi nimal compiler support. We implement and evaluate the hybrid syst em and an ideal version of the full hardware system. Our evaluat ion using two typical benchmarks shows that support for seriali zability in hardware-based TM systems results in reduced conflict s. However, the overhead of software in the hybrid implementat ion eliminates any benefits; performance is 2-5 times slower com pared to the base hardware system. In contrast, the ideal hardware syst m improves performance by up to 23.2%, because of the reduction in the aborts. We conclude that with efficient implementatio ns in hardware, conflict-serializability can improve performan ce, especially for applications with high cost of aborts.
Urinary iodine concentration (UIC) could be a promising biomarker for predicting goiter among school-age children: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives To evaluate whether urinary iodine concentration (UIC) can predict goiter among school-age children, and to assess the association between UIC and goiter prevalence. Methods We searched the MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews), Web of Science, CNKI, VIP, and Wan Fang databases for relevant reports in both English and Chinese up to August 25, 2016. The mean differences (MD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for the UIC and goiter prevalence assessments. Pooled odds ratios and 95% CIs were used to compare the prevalences of goiter in the different UIC groups. Results We identified 11 case-control studies, and found that children with goiter had lower UIC values, compared to children without goiter (MD: –1.82, 95% CI: –3.24, –0.40, p < 0.05). An increased risk of goiter was associated with UIC values of < 20 μg/L or > 200 μg/L. Conclusion The results of our meta-analysis suggest that lower UIC values were associated with an increased risk of goiter, and that iodine deficiency may lead to an increased risk of goiter. Furthermore, we observed U-shaped relationships between UIC and the prevalence of goiter, which suggests that both severe iodine deficiency and excessive iodine intake may lead to increased risks of goiter.
Gender contrasts in partner supply: marriage market estimates and their implications

Marriage market estimates by sex and single years of age are made for the US and England and Wales in 1990-1991, using explicit data on age preferences. Availability is strongly differentiated by age and sex, being inversely associated with female age and positively with male age. Decomposition shows that young women are advantaged largely by age preferences while older men are advantaged by population age-sex and marital status structure. Most men marry at ages when partners are in short supply; this finding is examined in detail. Some implications for gender power relations through the life course are considered.
“Now I feel much better than in my previous life”: Narratives of occupational transitions in young transgender adults

ABSTRACT Research indicates that the life courses of transgender people are accompanied by occupational transitions, defined as specific moments in life at which occupations change in favour of alternative occupations due to reactions to life events. This study used a narrative approach to gain a better understanding of the occupational transitions experienced by four German transgender adults during the development of their gender identity from early childhood to early adulthood. The participants were aged between 19 and 25. Data were collected through narrative interviews and resulted in four stories developed using narrative analysis. The participants underwent a variety of occupational transitions. These started in their earliest childhood, when they acted like members of their felt gender for the first time. The occupations performed by the participants during the development of their transgender identity changed to specific occupations related to gender transition and finally resulted in the occupational life of their felt gender. The stories give an insight into numerous issues related to occupational performance and occupational transitions in childhood, puberty and early adulthood. Sometimes the participants experienced occupational losses. At other times, their occupational identities were positively affected by their gender transitions, with the result that they were able to live their lives more in keeping with their gender identities. The researchers concluded that studies with transgender people will contribute to a better understanding of the interaction of gender and the performance of occupations.
Radiative effect of cirrus with different optical properties over the tropics in MODIS and CERES observations

The radiative effects of cirrus clouds are evaluated based on observations extending over a period of six years (2000–2005) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) over the Tropics (25°S–25°N). The cloud radiative effect (CRE) shows a positive sign for optically thin cirrus (total‐column cloud optical depth: τ < 10) and a negative sign for thicker clouds (τ ≥ 10), regardless of the region and season. Since a considerable portion of tropical ice clouds consists in thin cirrus clouds (>60%), their net effective CRE (net CRE × cloud amount) is roughly twice as strong as that of thicker clouds; the modulation of the net radiative flux by variations in thin cirrus (particularly with 1 ≤ τ < 9) dominates—up to 15 W m−2—that by thicker clouds. These results suggest that thin cirrus has a significant effect on the tropical energy balance.
An exact method for computing the frustration index in signed networks using binary programming

Computing the frustration index of a signed graph is a key to solving problems in different fields of research including social networks, physics, material science, and biology. In social networks the frustration index determines network distance from a state of structural balance. Although the definition of frustration index goes back to 1960, an exact algorithmic computation method has not yet been proposed. The main reason seems to be the complexity of computing the frustration index which is closely related to well-known NP-hard problems such as MAXCUT. New quadratic and linear binary programming models are developed to compute the frustration index exactly. We introduce several speed-up techniques involving prioritised branching, local search heuristics, and valid inequalities inferred from graph structural properties. The computational improvements achieved by implementing the speed-up techniques allow us to calculate the exact values of the frustration index by running the optimisation models in Gurobi solver. The speed-up techniques make our models capable of processing graphs with thousands of nodes and edges in seconds on inexpensive hardware. The solve time and solution quality comparison against the literature shows the superiority of our models in both random and real signed networks.
Ieee Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering 1 Mining Partially-ordered Sequential Rules Common to Multiple Sequences

—Sequential rule mining is an important data mining problem with multiple applications. An important limitation of algorithms for mining sequential rules common to multiple sequences is that rules are very specific and therefore many similar rules may represent the same situation. This can cause three major problems: (1) similar rules can be rated quite differently, (2) rules may not be found because they are individually considered uninteresting, and (3) rules that are too specific are less likely to be used for making predictions. To address these issues, we explore the idea of mining " partially-ordered sequential rules " (POSR), a more general form of sequential rules such that items in the antecedent and the consequent of each rule are unordered. To mine POSR, we propose the RuleGrowth algorithm, which is efficient and easily extendable. In particular, we present an extension (TRuleGrowth) that accepts a sliding-window constraint to find rules occurring within a maximum amount of time. A performance study with four real-life datasets show that RuleGrowth and TRuleGrowth have excellent performance and scalability compared to baseline algorithms and that the number of rules discovered can be several orders of magnitude smaller when the sliding-window constraint is applied. Furthermore, we also report results from a real application showing that POSR can provide a much higher prediction accuracy than regular sequential rules for sequence prediction.
Architectural aspects in design and analysis of SOT-based memories

Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) is a very promising emerging memory technology because of its various advantages such as non-volatility, high density and scalability. In particular, Spin Orbit Torque (SOT) MRAM is gaining interest as it comes along with all the benefits of its predecessor Spin Transfer Torque (STT) MRAM, but is supposed to eliminate some of its shortcomings. Especially the split of read and write paths in SOT-MRAM promises faster access times and lower energy consumption compared to STT-MRAM. In this work, we provide a very detailed analysis of SOT-MRAM at both circuit- and architecture-level. We present a detailed evaluation of performance and energy related parameters and compare the novel SOT-MRAM with several other memory technologies. Our architecture-level analysis shows that with a hybrid-combination of SRAM for the L1-cache and SOT-MRAM for the L2-cache the energy consumption can be reduced by 63 % in average while the performance can be increased by 1 %. In addition, the memory area is 43% lower compared to an SRAM-only configuration.
GWAS of human bitter taste perception identifies new loci and reveals additional complexity of bitter taste genetics

Human perception of bitterness displays pronounced interindividual variation. This phenotypic variation is mirrored by equally pronounced genetic variation in the family of bitter taste receptor genes. To better understand the effects of common genetic variations on human bitter taste perception, we conducted a genome-wide association study on a discovery panel of 504 subjects and a validation panel of 104 subjects from the general population of São Paulo in Brazil. Correction for general taste-sensitivity allowed us to identify a SNP in the cluster of bitter taste receptors on chr12 (10.88– 11.24 Mb, build 36.1) significantly associated (best SNP: rs2708377, P = 5.31 × 10−13, r2 = 8.9%, β = −0.12, s.e. = 0.016) with the perceived bitterness of caffeine. This association overlaps with—but is statistically distinct from—the previously identified SNP rs10772420 influencing the perception of quinine bitterness that falls in the same bitter taste cluster. We replicated this association to quinine perception (P = 4.97 × 10−37, r2 = 23.2%, β = 0.25, s.e. = 0.020) and additionally found the effect of this genetic locus to be concentration specific with a strong impact on the perception of low, but no impact on the perception of high concentrations of quinine. Our study, thus, furthers our understanding of the complex genetic architecture of bitter taste perception.
Next Generation Sequencing Uncovers Unexpected Bacterial Pathogens in Ticks in Western Europe

Background and Aims Ticks are highly susceptible to global environmental and socio-economical changes. Several tick-borne pathogens have been reported in new geographical regions while new species, strains or genetic variants of tick-borne microorganisms are continually being detected. However, tick-borne pathogens are still poorly understood, and it is estimated that half of all human tick-borne disease has an unknown origin. Therefore in order to prevent these diseases, more effort is required to identify unknown or unexpected tick-borne pathogens. Ixodes ricinus is the vector for a broad range of bacterial pathogens and the most prevalent tick in Europe. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the capability of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to extend the inventory of pathogenic bacteria carried by this species of tick in France. Methods RNA and DNA were extracted from 1450 I. ricinus questing nymphs collected by flagging in Alsace, France. RNA was pooled and used for NGS. Following de novo assembly, bacterial contigs were assigned to the closest known taxonomy. DNA was used for real time PCR to confirm taxonomic species assignment of NGS-derived contigs for the doubtful cases, and for determination of prevalence. Results We have generated a global in-depth picture of tick-borne bacteria. We identified RNA from the main pathogenic bacterial species known to be transmitted by I. ricinus. In addition we also identified unanticipated bacterial species for which we have estimated the prevalence within those ticks inhabiting the studied areas. Conclusions The data obtained from this study has proven that NGS has an enormous potential to detect the unexpected and provides the means to monitor pathogen occurrence.
On the uselessness of the use of the v-gauge concept in classical electrodynamics

In this work we substantiate the applying of the Tikhonov-Samarski vector decomposition theorem (TS-theorem) to vector fields in classical electrodynamics. We show that the standard Helmholtz vector decomposition theorem does not always apply to some vector fields in classical electrodynamics. Using the TS-theorem, within the framework of the so called v-gauge, we show that two kinds of magnetic vector potentials exist: one of them (solenoidal) can act exclusively with the velocity of light c and another one (irrotational) with an arbitrary velocity v, however, we prove that the unique possible value of the “arbitrary” v is exclusively the velocity of light c. I.e. we show that the so called v-gauge has neither mathematical nor physical meaning. PACS numbers 03.50. -z, 03.50. De
Variations of the ionospheric electron density during the Bhuj seismic event

Abstract. Ionospheric perturbations by natural geophysical activity, such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, have been studied since the great Alaskan earthquake in 1964. Measurements made from the ground show a variation of the critical frequency of the ionosphere layers before and after the shock. In this paper, we present an experimental investigation of the electron density variations around the time of the Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat, India. Several experiments have been used to survey the ionosphere. Measurements of fluctuations in the integrated electron density or TEC (Total Electron Content) between three satellites (TOPEX-POSEIDON, SPOT2, SPOT4) and the ground have been done using the DORIS beacons. TEC has been also evaluated from a ground-based station using GPS satellites, and finally, ionospheric data from a classical ionospheric sounder located close to the earthquake epicenter are utilized. Anomalous electron density variations are detected both in day and night times before the quake. The generation mechanism of these perturbations is explained by a modification of the electric field in the global electric circuit induced during the earthquake preparation. Key words. Ionosphere (ionospheric disturbances) – Radio Science (ionospheric physics) – History of geophysics (seismology)
Mobile Aortic Plaques Are a Cause of Multiple Brain Infarcts Seen on Diffusion-Weighted Imaging

Background and Purpose— Multiple brain infarcts are often seen on diffusion-weighted images in cardioembolic stroke patients. Recently, mobile aortic plaques (MAPs) have been proposed as embolic sources. However, the clinical characteristics of patients with MAPs are unclear. Methods— We prospectively studied patients with acute ischemic stroke who underwent transesophageal echocardiography. The patients were classified into 3 groups based on transesophageal echocardiography findings: atheromatous aortic plaques <4 mm, atheromatous aortic plaques ≥4 mm without mobility, and MAPs. Based on their diffusion-weighted image findings, the patients were divided into 3 subgroups: (1) single lesion; (2) multiple lesions in a single vascular territory; and (3) multiple lesions in multiple vascular territories. We assessed the clinical characteristics and the diffusion-weighted image findings of stroke patients with MAPs. Results— One hundred sixty-seven patients (age, 70±12 years; 98 males) were enrolled; 128 (77%) had atheromatous aortic plaques <4 mm, 27 (16%) had atheromatous aortic plaques ≥4 mm, and 12 (7%) had MAPs. Older age, male gender, coronary artery disease, and cerebral arterial stenotic lesions were seen most frequently in patients with MAPs. On diffusion-weighted image findings, patients with MAPs were most frequent in the multiple lesions in multiple vascular territories group (P=0.001). On multiple logistic regression analysis, the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score (OR: 1.11; 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.22; P=0.039), arterial stenotic lesions (OR: 4.71; 95% CI: 1.35 to 16.41; P=0.015), and mobile aortic plaques (OR: 14.44; 95% CI: 2.87 to 72.66; P=0.001) were significantly associated with the multiple lesions in multiple vascular territories group. Conclusions— MAPs were not uncommonly observed in patients with acute ischemic stroke. MAPs could cause multiple brain infarcts on diffusion-weighted images.