Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simulations of Trade Wind Cumuli under a Strong Inversion

The fifth intercomparison of the Global Water and Energy Experiment Cloud System Studies Working Group 1 is used as a vehicle for better understanding the dynamics of trade wind cumuli capped by a strong inversion. The basis of the intercomparison is 10 simulations by 7 groups. These simulations are supplemented by many further sensitivity studies, including some with very refined grid meshes. The simulations help illustrate the turbulent dynamics of trade cumuli in such a regime. In many respects the dynamics are similar to those found in many previous simulations of trade cumuli capped by weaker inversions. The principal differences are the extent to which the cloud layer is quasi-steady in the current simulations, evidence of weak countergradient momentum transport within the cloud layer, and the development and influence of an incipient stratiform cloud layer at the top of the cloud layer. Although many elements of the turbulent structure (including the wind profiles, the evolution of cloud-base height, the statistics of the subcloud layer, and the nature of mixing in the lower and middle parts of the cloud layer) are robustly predicted, the representation of the stratiform cloud amount by the different simulations is remarkably sensitive to a number of factors. Chief among these are differences between numerical algorithms. These sensitivities persist even among simulations on relatively refined grid meshes. Part of this sensitivity is attributed to a physically realistic positive radiative feedback, whereby a propensity toward higher cloud fractions in any given simulation is amplified by longwave radiative cooling. The simulations also provide new insight into the dynamics of the transition layer at cloud base. In accord with observations, the simulations predict that this layer is most identifiable in terms of moisture variances and gradients. The simulations help illustrate the highly variable (in both height and thickness) nature of the transition layer, and we speculate that this variability helps regulate convection. Lastly the simulations are used to help evaluate simple models of trade wind boundary layers. In accord with previous studies, mass-flux models well represent the dynamics of the cloud layer, while mixing-length models well represent the subcloud layer. The development of the stratiform cloud layer is not, however, captured by the mass-flux models. The simulations indicate that future theoretical research needs to focus on interface rules, whereby the cloud layer is coupled to the subcloud layer below and the free atmosphere above. Future observational studies of this regime would be of most benefit if they could provide robust cloud statistics as a function of mean environmental conditions.
A model 450 million years in the making: zebrafish and vertebrate immunity

Since its first splash 30 years ago, the use of the zebrafish model has been extended from a tool for genetic dissection of early vertebrate development to the functional interrogation of organogenesis and disease processes such as infection and cancer. In particular, there is recent and growing attention in the scientific community directed at the immune systems of zebrafish. This development is based on the ability to image cell movements and organogenesis in an entire vertebrate organism, complemented by increasing recognition that zebrafish and vertebrate immunity have many aspects in common. Here, we review zebrafish immunity with a particular focus on recent studies that exploit the unique genetic and in vivo imaging advantages available for this organism. These unique advantages are driving forward our study of vertebrate immunity in general, with important consequences for the understanding of mammalian immune function and its role in disease pathogenesis.
When to use which heuristic: A rational solution to the strategy selection problem

The human mind appears to be equipped with a toolbox full of cognitive strategies, but how do people decide when to use which strategy? We leverage rational metareasoning to derive a rational solution to this problem and apply it to decision making under uncertainty. The resulting theory reconciles the two poles of the debate about human rationality by proposing that people gradually learn to make rational use of fallible heuristics. We evaluate this theory against empirical data and existing accounts of strategy selection (i.e. SSL and RELACS). Our results suggest that while SSL and RELACS can explain people’s ability to adapt to homogeneous environments in which all decision problems are of the same type, rational metareasoning can additionally explain people’s ability to adapt to heterogeneous environments and flexibly switch strategies from one decision to the next.
Independent Evolution of Transcriptional Inactivation on Sex Chromosomes in Birds and Mammals

X chromosome inactivation in eutherian mammals has been thought to be tightly controlled, as expected from a mechanism that compensates for the different dosage of X-borne genes in XX females and XY males. However, many X genes escape inactivation in humans, inactivation of the X in marsupials is partial, and the unrelated sex chromosomes of monotreme mammals have incomplete and gene-specific inactivation of X-linked genes. The bird ZW sex chromosome system represents a third independently evolved amniote sex chromosome system with dosage compensation, albeit partial and gene-specific, via an unknown mechanism (i.e. upregulation of the single Z in females, down regulation of one or both Zs in males, or a combination). We used RNA-fluorescent in situ hybridization (RNA-FISH) to demonstrate, on individual fibroblast cells, inactivation of 11 genes on the chicken Z and 28 genes on the X chromosomes of platypus. Each gene displayed a reproducible frequency of 1Z/1X-active and 2Z/2X-active cells in the homogametic sex. Our results indicate that the probability of inactivation is controlled on a gene-by-gene basis (or small domains) on the chicken Z and platypus X chromosomes. This regulatory mechanism must have been exapted independently to the non-homologous sex chromosomes in birds and mammals in response to an over-expressed Z or X in the homogametic sex, highlighting the universal importance that (at least partial) silencing plays in the evolution on amniote dosage compensation and, therefore, the differentiation of sex chromosomes.
Image Retrieval with Deep Local Features and Attention-based Keypoints

We introduce a local feature descriptor for large-scale image retrieval applications, called DELF (DEep Local Feature). The new feature is based on convolutional neural networks, which are trained without objectand patch-level annotations on a landmark image dataset. To enhance DELF’s image retrieval performance, we also propose an attention mechanism for keypoint selection, which shares most network layers with the descriptor. This new framework can be used in image retrieval as a drop-in replacement for other keypoint detectors and descriptors, enabling more accurate feature matching and geometric verification. Our technique is particularly useful for the large-scale setting, where a system must operate with high precision. In this case, our system produces reliable confidence scores to reject false positives effectively—in particular, our system is robust against queries that have no correct match in the database. We present an evaluation methodology for this challenging retrieval setting, using standard and large-scale datasets. We show that recently proposed methods do not perform well in this setup; DELF outperforms several recent global and local descriptors by substantial margins.
Discovering Gender-Specific Knowledge from Finnish Basic Education using PISA Scale Indices

The Programme for International Student Assessment, PISA, is a worldwide study to assess knowledge and skills of 15year-old students. Results of the latest PISA survey conducted in 2012 were published in December 2013. According to the results, Finland is one of the few countries where girls performed better in mathematics than boys. The purpose of this work is to refine the analysis of this observation by using education data mining techniques. More precisely, as part of standard PISA preprocessing phase certain scale indices are constructed based on information gathered from the background questionnaire of each participating student. The indices describe, e.g., students’ engagement, drive and self-beliefs, especially related to mathematics, the main assessment area in PISA 2012. However, around 30% of the scale indices are missing so that a nonstructured sparsity pattern must be dealt with. We handle this using a special, robust clustering technique, which is then applied to Finnish subset of PISA data. Already direct interpretation of the created clusters reveals interesting patterns. Clusterwise analysis through relationship mining refines the confidence on our final conclusion that attitudes towards mathematics which are often gender-specific are the most important factors to explain the performance in mathematics.
Information, Competition, and Markets

One of the dominant characteristics of modern capitalist economies is the important role played by competition: not the peculiar static form of pure price competition embodied in the Arrow-Debreu model, but rather a dynamic competition, more akin to the kind of competition represented by sports contests and other races (including patent races). In recent years, there have been several attempts to explain why firms often base the pay of their workers and managers on relative performance. (See, for example, Edward Lazear and Sherwin Rosen, 1981.) Such compensation schemes become desirable when three conditions are satisfied: (a) The input (effort) of workers (managers) must not be directly observable, at least without cost. Thus firms must either expend resources to monitor inputs or devise reward structures in which compensation is a function of variables (such as output or profits) which are themselves functions of inputs but are less costly to observe. (b) The relationship between input and output must be stochastic, so that by observing output, one cannot perfectly infer what the input was. (c) Finally, the stochastic disturbances which affect the relationship between input and output of different firms must be correlated. By looking at the performance of one worker relative to that of others, one can make better inferences about his effort than one can make without using this information. Not only can competition provide a basis of comparison, which enables the design of reward structures that can simultaneously provide a high level of incentives with relatively low level risk; but compensation schemes based on relative performance have the further advantage of automatically adjusting incentives to changes in the economic environment. (We refer to this as "built-in flexibility.") In a first best world, with perfect information concerning the nature of the technology (but where it is still costly to monitor individuals' activities), the compensation scheme would vary from time to time as the environment changed. Such changes in the compensation scheme are costly to implement and the information required to do so is seldom available. When a task is easier, the individual's rewards for performing the task should be reduced. If pay is based on relative performance, although all individuals perform better (when they exert the same level of effort), their compensation is automatically adjusted. Thus, teachers frequently grade on the curve and a significant fraction of the pay of successful salesmen often consists of bonuses based on relative performance.
GA-based floorplan-aware topology synthesis of application-specific network-on-chip

Application-specific SoC requires an efficient interconnection topology which does not necessarily conform to regular topologies such as mesh etc. As NoC topology synthesis is an NP-hard problem, we present a genetic-algorithm (GA) based technique to synthesize application-specific NoC topology with system-level floorplan aware. The technique minimizes the power consumption and router resources while satisfying latency and bandwidth performance constraints. We validate our technique by showing the results of several benchmark applications. The proposed technique generates optimal topology within few minutes.
On the relationship between galaxy formation and quasar evolution

We compare the evolution with cosmic time of the star formation rate per comoving volume in galaxies and of the volume emissivity due to active galactic nuclei, in an attempt to understand the relationship between black hole accretion and the formation of the surrounding structure. We find an interesting similarity between the evolution rates for the total populations of galaxies and AGN, which indicates that, on average, the history of black hole accretion follows that of stellar formation in the host galaxies. Similarly, the evolution of luminous quasars parallels that of the stellar populations in massive spheroidal galaxies, in keeping with the locally established association of supermassive black holes and galactic bulges. We finally comment on our finding that high-luminosity, high-mass systems evolve on a shorter cosmic time-scale than lower mass ones; to explain this, theories of structure formation based on the gravitational collapse of dark matter haloes must be complemented with a detailed description of the dynamical processes in the baryonic component, which dominate the formation and evolution in high-density environments.
Frogs, mice and mixed electoral institutions: party discipline in Italy's XIV Chamber of Deputies1

Through the analysis of nearly 5,700 electronic votes cast by members of the Italian lower house, this article focuses on the electoral incentives shaping legislative behaviour in assemblies elected under mixed electoral rules. The study finds that the incentives indirectly engendered by the interaction between the majoritarian and proportional components of the Italian mixed system strengthen party discipline, which is high for every legislator type regardless of mandate and specialisation. Legislators elected in single-member districts are equally, if not more, susceptible to pressures to stick to the party line as their colleagues elected from a party list. Moreover, indicators of ‘electoral path’, like relative seat safety and dual candidacy, matter to party discipline more than simple seat type.
Importance of relationship quality and communication on foodservice for the elderly

In order to promote foodservice for the elderly, foodservice managers in Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) must identify the main factors to enhance the satisfaction and behavioral intentions with food service. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between relationship quality (consisting of trust, commitment, and satisfaction) and communication in the formation of elderly's behavioral intentions with food services at CCRCs. A survey was administered to residents in two CCRCs and a total of 327 residents participated. A tested structural equation model exhibited good model fit and explanatory power of the study construct. Satisfaction directly influenced word-of-mouth and service quality has an influence on commitment. Commitment was a significant determinant of behavioral intentions to eat more often in the dining room. Also, communication showed positive association with trust. The results provided strong evidence for the importance of satisfaction and communication as a consequence of relationship marketing efforts. Suggestions for future research to better understand the elderly' behavioral intention judgments were given.
Politically Exposed Persons: Preventive Measures for the Banking Sector

The paper is focused on the banking sector, not on other financial and nonfinancial sectors vulnerable to the laundering of corrupt funds. These other sectors may find the recommendations and good practices provided in this paper relevant, but should analyze the findings of this paper in light of their particular circumstances and specific features. The paper includes a number of practical tools to help guide banks, regulators, and other public authorities. The paper is organized into four major parts: the remainder of this part (part one) sets out some of the main observations and trends in politically exposed person (PEPs) compliance and an analysis of the principal reasons for poor compliance and overall ineffectiveness of systems to detect and monitor PEPs. Part two focuses on the implementation of PEP measures by regulatory authorities and banks. Part three reviews the roles of the public authorities that are primarily involved in preventing abuse by corrupt PEPs. These authorities include the regulatory authority, which is responsible for providing guidance to banks and enforcing compliance, as well as the financial intelligence unit (FIU), which has a role in the context of suspicious transaction reports (STRs) on PEPs. Finally, part four considers some of the cross-cutting issues national cooperation, training, and resources that must be addressed by all stakeholders.
The Value of Wildlife Watching Recreation and Techniques for Addressing Nonresponse in Nonmarket Valuation Surveys

In this dissertation, the value of wildlife watching recreation is used as the context for exploring different modeling approaches available for combining data from nonmarket valuation surveys such as the travel cost method (TCM) and contingent valuation method (CVM). Another topic explored in this dissertation is the issue of nonresponse in nonmarket valuation surveys. The results of this dissertation are useful for wildlife and land managers interested in obtaining theoretically consistent values of wildlife watching recreation using a combination of TCM and CVM data. The practical solutions to nonresponse in nonmarket valuation surveys are useful for researchers who wish to implement
Monitoring Pharmacologically Induced Immunosuppression by Immune Repertoire Sequencing to Detect Acute Allograft Rejection in Heart Transplant Patients: A Proof-of-Concept Diagnostic Accuracy Study

Background It remains difficult to predict and to measure the efficacy of pharmacological immunosuppression. We hypothesized that measuring the B-cell repertoire would enable assessment of the overall level of immunosuppression after heart transplantation. Methods and Findings In this proof-of-concept study, we implemented a molecular-barcode-based immune repertoire sequencing assay that sensitively and accurately measures the isotype and clonal composition of the circulating B cell repertoire. We used this assay to measure the temporal response of the B cell repertoire to immunosuppression after heart transplantation. We selected a subset of 12 participants from a larger prospective cohort study (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01985412) that is ongoing at Stanford Medical Center and for which enrollment started in March 2010. This subset of 12 participants was selected to represent post-heart-transplant events, with and without acute rejection (six participants with moderate-to-severe rejection and six without). We analyzed 130 samples from these patients, with an average follow-up period of 15 mo. Immune repertoire sequencing enables the measurement of a patient’s net state of immunosuppression (correlation with tacrolimus level, r = −0.867, 95% CI −0.968 to −0.523, p = 0.0014), as well as the diagnosis of acute allograft rejection, which is preceded by increased immune activity with a sensitivity of 71.4% (95% CI 30.3% to 94.9%) and a specificity of 82.0% (95% CI 72.1% to 89.1%) (cell-free donor-derived DNA as noninvasive gold standard). To illustrate the potential of immune repertoire sequencing to monitor atypical post-transplant trajectories, we analyzed two more patients, one with chronic infections and one with amyloidosis. A larger, prospective study will be needed to validate the power of immune repertoire sequencing to predict rejection events, as this proof-of-concept study is limited to a small number of patients who were selected based on several criteria including the availability of a large number of samples and the absence or presence of rejection events. Conclusions If confirmed in larger, prospective studies, the method described here has potential applications in the tailored management of post-transplant immunosuppression and, more broadly, as a method for assessing the overall activity of the immune system.
Muscle twitch responses for shaping the multi-pad electrode for functional electrical stimulation

In this paper we present a method for optimization of multi-pad electrode spatial selectivity during transcutaneous Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) of hand. The presented method is based on measurement of individual muscle twitch responses during low frequency electrical stimulation via pads within multi-pad electrode. Twitch responses are recorded by Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometers. The aim of this methodology is to substitute bulky sensors, torque sensors and goniometers, in multi-pad electrode optimization algorithm with smaller and lighter sensors; therefore making multi-pad stimulation suitable for daily use. Additionally we present method for minimizing number of MEMS accelerometers, which relies on characteristic waveforms of joint acceleration during wrist or fingers flexion/extension. These signals can be used to train Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to distinguish between different waveform classes and define correlation of each pad and activated muscle beneath. Results presented in this paper show high agreement of goniometers based classification and accelerometers based classification. As for classification with minimized number of sensors (one accelerometer) our ANN backed algorithm achieved high degree of accurate classification in intra-subject testing, but lower performance in inter-subject testing.
Searching for microRNA prostate cancer target genes

MicroRNAs are a class of short, non-coding RNA regulating the expression of genes involved in several biological processes. This paper addresses the computational identification of target genes for microRNAs, in particular those involved in the development of prostate cancer. The available tools, in particular the miRanda program, need to be validated against biological evidence. We identify several refinement of the algorithm, and provide an optimization of the parameters involved, by means of a genetic algorithm, so as to maximize the adherence of results to biological evidence. The increased selectivity of the method may also be used to guide experimental validation in a more focused direction.
Information, Habits, and Consumption Behavior: Evidence from Micro Data

Most of the empirical literature on consumption behaviour over the last decades has focused on estimating Euler equations. However, there is now consensus that data-related problems make this approach unfruitful, especially for answering policy relevant issues. Alternatively, many papers have proposed using the consumption function to forecast behaviour. This paper follows in this tradition, by deriving an analytical consumption function in the presence of intertemporal non-separabilities, superior information, and income shocks of different nature, both transitory and permanent. The results provide evidence for durability, and show that people are relatively better at forecasting short-term rather than long-term shocks.