Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Skill Transferability, Migration, and Development: Evidence from Population Resettlement in Indonesia

We use a natural experiment in Indonesia to provide causal evidence on the role of location-specific human capital and skill transferability in shaping the spatial distribution of productivity. From 1979-1988, the Transmigration Program relocated two million migrants from rural Java and Bali to new rural settlements in the Outer Islands. Villages assigned migrants from regions with more similar agroclimatic endowments exhibit higher rice productivity and nighttime light intensity one to two decades later. We find some evidence of migrants' adaptation to agroclimatic change. Overall, our results suggest that regional productivity differences may overstate the potential gains from migration.
Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities in inclusive higher education: perceptions of stakeholders in a first-year experience

ABSTRACT Post-secondary education and students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) have not historically been viewed as compatible. In recent years, a growing number of colleges have offered opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities to take part in inclusive post-secondary education. This qualitative study was conducted on the performance of a first-year, post-secondary inclusive education programme in a university in the United States to (a) better understand each stakeholder group’s perspectives regarding both social and academic inclusion of students with ID/DD in post-secondary education, (b) identify barriers, challenges, strengths and needs of the programme through the first-year experiences and, (c) report on the successful inclusion of students in an inclusive post-secondary environment. Recommendations and learned strategies are also discussed.
Linear Element-Independent Meiotic Recombination in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Most organisms form protein-rich, linear, ladder-like structures associated with chromosomes during early meiosis, the synaptonemal complex. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, linear elements (LinEs) are thread-like, proteinacious chromosome-associated structures that form during early meiosis. LinEs are related to axial elements, the synaptonemal complex precursors of other organisms. Previous studies have led to the suggestion that axial structures are essential to mediate meiotic recombination. Rec10 protein is a major component of S. pombe LinEs and is required for their development. In this report we study recombination in a number of rec10 mutants, one of which (rec10-155) does not form LinEs, but is predicted to encode a truncated Rec10 protein. This mutant has levels of crossing over and gene conversion substantially higher than a rec10 null mutant (rec10-175) and forms cytologically detectable Rad51 foci indicative of meiotic recombination intermediates. These data demonstrate that while Rec10 is required for meiotic recombination, substantial meiotic recombination can occur in rec10 mutants that do not form LinEs, indicating that LinEs per se are not essential for all meiotic recombination.
Towards High Resolution Identification of Variety-seeking Behavior

With the pervasive availability of smart phones it becomes for the first time economically feasible to operationalize personalized marketing measures also for physical grocery retailing. A particularly interesting and high value target group in this domain is the one of variety seeking, since this group is most likely to respond positively to new offers and recommendations. However, present methods in identifying variety seekers rely on questionnaires and ignores that variety seeking may differ between product categories. In this paper, we present a model for measuring variety seeking behavior on a high level of granularity, based on a consumer’s purchases in individual product categories. Our study has three main contributions. Firstly, we contribute to the customer segmentation research stream by providing a novel way for identifying customers’ overall extent of variety seeking as well as their specific variety seeking at a category level. Second, for the most important retail categories we characterize the extent of variety seeking and provide a data-driven approach that is easy to operationalize by practitioners – especially for deploying large-scale personalized marketing measures in social or mobile commerce in physical stores. Finally, we provide a method to reconcile the highly granular category-level results with existing per person typologies.
Bilateral Trade Flows: One Prediction of Several Theories Estimated in Nine Thousand and Two Samples

Re-sampling techniques and theoretically-motivated extraneous information are used to revisit Hummels and Levinsohn's (1995) analysis of the testable implication of the monopolistic competition trade theory for bilateral trade volumes. Confronting this implication with data from over nine-thousand samples, we find a robust relationship between the estimated parameter and the summary statistics of the samples. Using this information, which is extraneous to the estimating equation, we rank the samples according to the likely share of monopolistic competition-inspired trade in total trade volumes. We then conduct a consistency check: to examine whether this testable implication is less refuted in samples where the production structures are more conducive to generating large shares of monopolistic competition-inspired trade. The monopolistic competition trade theory passes this consistency check. Next, we recognize that other trade theories can generate the same estimating equation. We argue that the assumptions, unrelated to these models' production structure, are unlikely to account for the differences in the estimated parameter across the samples. Our estimation results imply that the testable implication performed worse in samples where factor-endowment based trade is more likely to predominate. These findings indicate that the empirical performance of the trade volume predictions of the Helpman- Krugman monopolistic competition trade theory is much better than suggested by previous research.
Hierarchical Recurrent Neural Network for Document Modeling

This paper proposes a novel hierarchical recurrent neural network language model (HRNNLM) for document modeling. After establishing a RNN to capture the coherence between sentences in a document, HRNNLM integrates it as the sentence history information into the word level RNN to predict the word sequence with cross-sentence contextual information. A two-step training approach is designed, in which sentence-level and word-level language models are approximated for the convergence in a pipeline style. Examined by the standard sentence reordering scenario, HRNNLM is proved for its better accuracy in modeling the sentence coherence. And at the word level, experimental results also indicate a significant lower model perplexity, followed by a practical better translation result when applied to a Chinese-English document translation reranking task.
The Role of CD4 T Cells in the Pathogenesis of Murine AIDS

ABSTRACT LP-BM5, a retroviral isolate, induces a disease featuring retrovirus-induced immunodeficiency, designated murine AIDS (MAIDS). Many of the features of the LP-BM5-induced syndrome are shared with human immunodeficiency virus-induced disease. For example, CD4 T cells are critical to the development of MAIDS. In vivo depletion of CD4 T cells before LP-BM5 infection rendered genetically susceptible B6 mice MAIDS resistant. Similarly, MAIDS did not develop in B6.nude mice. However, if reconstituted with CD4 T cells, B6.nude mice develop full-blown MAIDS. Our laboratory has shown that the interaction of B and CD4 T cells that is central to MAIDS pathogenesis requires ligation of CD154 on CD4 T cells with CD40 on B cells. However, it is not clear which additional characteristics of the phenotypically and functionally heterogeneous CD4 T-cell compartment are required. Here, in vivo adoptive transfer experiments using B6.nude recipients are employed to compare the pathogenic abilities of CD4 T-cell subsets defined on the basis of cell surface phenotypic or functional differences. Th1 and Th2 CD4 T cells equally supported MAIDS induction. The rare Thy1.2− CD4 subset that expands upon LP-BM5 infection was not necessary for MAIDS. Interestingly, CD45RBlow CD4 T cells supported significantly less disease than CD45RBhigh CD4 T cells. Because the decreased MAIDS pathogenesis could not be attributed to inhibition by CD45RBlow CD25+ natural T-regulatory cells, an intrinsic property of the CD45RBlow cells appeared responsible. Similarly, there was no evidence that natural T-regulatory cells played a role in LP-BM5-induced pathogenesis in the context of the intact CD4 T-cell population.
Neck circumference as a new anthropometric indicator for prediction of insulin resistance and components of metabolic syndrome in adolescents: Brazilian Metabolic Syndrome Study

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the correlation between neck circumference and insulin resistance and components of metabolic syndrome in adolescents with different adiposity levels and pubertal stages, as well as to determine the usefulness of neck circumference to predict insulin resistance in adolescents. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with 388 adolescents of both genders from ten to 19 years old. The adolescents underwent anthropometric and body composition assessment, including neck and waist circumferences, and biochemical evaluation. The pubertal stage was obtained by self-assessment, and the blood pressure, by auscultation. Insulin resistance was evaluated by the Homeostasis Model Assessment-Insulin Resistance. The correlation between two variables was evaluated by partial correlation coefficient adjusted for the percentage of body fat and pubertal stage. The performance of neck circumference to identify insulin resistance was tested by Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve. RESULTS: After the adjustment for percentage body fat and pubertal stage, neck circumference correlated with waist circumference, blood pressure, triglycerides and markers of insulin resistance in both genders. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that the neck circumference is a useful tool for the detection of insulin resistance and changes in the indicators of metabolic syndrome in adolescents. The easiness of application and low cost of this measure may allow its use in Public Health services.
Behavioral and emotional symptoms of post-institutionalized children in middle childhood.

BACKGROUND Experience in institutional/orphanage care has been linked to increased mental health problems. Research suggests that children adopted from institutions experience specific difficulties related to inattention/overactivity. Evidence of internalizing and conduct problems relative to non-adopted peers has been found in early childhood and early adolescence, but problems may not differ from other adopted children. This study clarifies the understanding of behavioral and emotional symptoms of post-institutionalized (PI) children during middle childhood. METHODS Eight- to eleven-year-old PI children (n=68) and two comparison groups, children internationally adopted from foster care (n=74) and non-adopted children (n=76), and their parents completed the MacArthur Health and Behavior Questionnaire related to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), externalizing, and internalizing symptoms. Group means for symptom level and number of children with symptoms above clinical cutoffs were compared. RESULTS PI children displayed an increased level of ADHD symptoms per parent report. PI child and parent report indicated a higher number of PI children above clinical ADHD cutoff. Both groups of internationally adopted (IA) children had higher levels of externalizing symptoms relative to non-adopted children, with parent report indicating higher numbers of IA children above the externalizing clinical threshold. Informants differed in their report of internalizing symptoms. Parents indicated that both IA groups displayed increased internalizing symptom levels and greater numbers above clinical threshold; however, children reported this to be true only for the PI group. CONCLUSIONS PI children differ from non-adopted peers across symptom domains in middle childhood. Whether these concerns were more broadly associated with international adoption rather than institutional care depended on symptom domain and informant. An understanding of this variability may be beneficial for treatment and intervention.
New magnetic-field-induced macroscopic quantum phenomenon in a superconductor with gap nodes

High-$T_c$ superconductivity is unconventional because the gap is not isotropic as in simple metals but has $d_{x^2-y^2}$ symmetry with lines of nodes. In a fascinating thermal transport experiment on a high-$T_c$ superconductor, Krishana et al \cite{Krishana} have reported mysterious magnetic field induced first order transitions from a superconducting state with gap nodes to a state without gap nodes. We show here that this is an experimental manifestation of a novel {\it macroscopic} quantum phenomenon induced by the magnetic field, qualitatively different from the usual quantum Hall effects. It corresponds to the {\it quantization of the superfluid density} in a superconductor with gap nodes due to the generation of Confined Field Induced Density Waves (CFIDW) in the node regions of the Fermi surface. The Landau numbers $L$ are not sufficient to index these macroscopic quantum states and the addition of a new quantum number $\zeta$ is necessary. Distinct qualitative implications of this non-integer $|L,\zeta>$ quantization are also evident in a number of recent unexplained experimental reports in the cuprates.
Neural Correlates of Woman Face Processing by 2-Month-Old Infants

The age of 2 months marks a turn in the development of face processing in humans with the emergence of recognition based on internal feature configuration. We studied the neural bases of this early cognitive expertise, critical for adaptive behavior in the social world, by mapping with positron emission tomography the brain activity of 2-month-old alert infants while looking at unknown woman faces. We observed the activation of a distributed network of cortical areas that largely overlapped the adult face-processing network, including the so-called fusiform face area. We also evidenced the activation of left superior temporal and inferior frontal gyri, regions associated, in adults, with language processing. These findings demonstrates that cognitive development proceeds early in functionally active interconnected cortical areas despite the fact they have not all yet reached full metabolic maturation.
Nuisance parameters, composite likelihoods and a panel of GARCH models

We investigate the properties of the composite likelihood (CL) method for (T A—N_T ) GARCH panels. The defining feature of a GARCH panel with time series length T is that, while nuisance parameters are allowed to vary across N_T series, other parameters of interest are assumed to be common. CL pools information across the panel instead of using information available in a single series only. Simulations and empirical analysis illustrate that in reasonably large T CL performs well. However, due to the estimation error introduced through nuisance parameter estimation, CL is subject to the â€œincidental parameterâ€ problem for small T .
Machine Learning Algorithms for Choosing Compiler Heuristics

Machine Learning Algorithms for Choosing Compiler Heuristics Gennady G. Pekhimenko Master of Science Graduate Department of Computer Science University of Toronto 2008 During the last several decades compiler developers have invented a set of powerful heuristics to deal with the complexity of the algorithms they have to use. However, this led to a new problem of finding the best values for every heuristic. This paper describes how machine learning techniques, such as logistic regression, can be used to build a framework for the automatic tuning of compiler heuristics. In this paper we were focused on decreasing the compile time for the static commercial compiler called TPO (Toronto Portable Optimizer) while preserving the execution time. Nevertheless, our techniques can also be used for decreasing the execution time and in dynamic behavior. Our experiments showed that we can speedup the compile process by at least a factor of two with almost the same generated code quality on the SPEC2000 benchmark suite, and that our logistic classifier achieves the same prediction quality for non-SPEC benchmarks.
Seeing the Forest through the Trees: Adaptive Local Exploration of Large Graphs

Visualization is a powerful paradigm for exploratory data analysis. Visualizing large graphs, however, often results in a meaningless hairball. In this paper, we propose a different approach that helps the user adaptively explore large million-node graphs from a local perspective. For nodes that the user investigates, we propose to only show the neighbors with the most subjectively interesting neighborhoods. We contribute novel ideas to measure this interestingness in terms of how surprising a neighborhood is given the background distribution, as well as how well it fits the nodes the user chose to explore. We introduce FACETS, a fast and scalable method for visually exploring large graphs. By implementing our above ideas, it allows users to look into the forest through its trees. Empirical evaluation shows that our method works very well in practice, providing rankings of nodes that match interests of users. Moreover, as it scales linearly, FACETS is suited for the exploration of very large graphs.
Volatility Asymmetry in High Frequency Data

The paper examines the important stylized fact of asymmetric volatility in high frequency data. It demonstrates that one of the two main factors explaining this phenomenon, the leverage efiect, is measured more precisely using higher frequency data. The paper also examines the lead-lag relation between volatility and returns in high frequency data. The impact of returns shocks on future squared returns is shown to have a mixture of exponential and hyperbolical and remain signiflcant for at least 3 days. A temporal aggregation formula for the correlation between squared returns and lagged returns that permits more accurate measures of the daily correlation using high frequency data is also derived. Lastly, the paper examines the ability of speciflc stochastic volatility models to explain the pattern observed in high frequency data.
Research for Educators

Research for teachers demystifies the research process and helps teachers appreciate that their role requires this understanding for two reasons: first, they need to be reasearchers of their own classroom practice; second, they are consumers or reasearch and need to understand how it works in order to know what to trust. Written in accessible and engaging style, Research for educators is an excellent introduction for teachers to the world of research. Aims to do two things: to emphasise that teachers are consumers of research and therefore need to understand how research is conducted to make more informed decisions about the trustworthiness of research findings, and to emphasise that teachers are researchers in their classroom, operating as reflective practitioners.
Modulation of the Ribonucleotide Reductase-Antimetabolite Drug Interaction in Cancer Cell Lines

RRM1 is a determinant of gemcitabine efficacy in cancer patients. However, the precision of predicting tumor response based on RRM1 levels is not optimal. We used gene-specific overexpression and RNA interference to assess RRM1's impact on different classes of cytotoxic agents, on drug-drug interactions, and the modulating impact of other molecular and cellular parameters. RRM1 was the dominant determinant of gemcitabine efficacy in various cancer cell lines. RRM1 also impacted the efficacy of other antimetabolite agents. It did not disrupt the interaction of two cytotoxic agents when combined. Cell lines with truncation, deletion, and null status of p53 were resistant to gemcitabine without apparent relationship to RRM1 levels. Pemetrexed and carboplatin sensitivity did not appear to be related to p53 mutation status. The impact of p53 mutations in patients treated with gemcitabine should be studied in prospective clinical trials to develop a model with improved precision of predicting drug efficacy.
Radiologists' performance for differentiating benign from malignant lung nodules on high-resolution CT using computer-estimated likelihood of malignancy.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of our study was to evaluate whether a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) scheme can assist radiologists in distinguishing small benign from malignant lung nodules on high-resolution CT (HRCT). MATERIALS AND METHODS We developed an automated computerized scheme for determining the likelihood of malignancy of lung nodules on multiple HRCT slices; the likelihood estimate was obtained from various objective features of the nodules using linear discriminant analysis. The data set used in this observer study consisted of 28 primary lung cancers (6-20 mm) and 28 benign nodules. Cancer cases included nodules with pure ground-glass opacity, mixed ground-glass opacity, and solid opacity. Benign nodules were selected by matching their size and pattern to the malignant nodules. Consecutive region-of-interest images for each nodule on HRCT were displayed for interpretation in stacked mode on a cathode ray tube monitor. The images were presented to 16 radiologists-first without and then with the computer output-who were asked to indicate their confidence level regarding the malignancy of a nodule. Performance was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. RESULTS The area under the ROC curve (Az value) of the CAD scheme alone was 0.831 for distinguishing benign from malignant nodules. The average Az value for radiologists was improved with the aid of the CAD scheme from 0.785 to 0.853 by a statistically significant level (p = 0.016). The radiologists' diagnostic performance with the CAD scheme was more accurate than that of the CAD scheme alone (p < 0.05) and also that of radiologists alone. CONCLUSION CAD has the potential to improve radiologists' diagnostic accuracy in distinguishing small benign nodules from malignant ones on HRCT.
An Extra Year to Learn English? Early Grade Retention and the Human Capital Development of English Learners

In this study, we use microdata from 12 Florida county-level school districts and a regression discontinuity design to examine the effects of early grade retention on the short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes of English learners. We find that retention in the third-grade substantially improves the English skills of these students, reducing the time to proficiency by half and decreasing the likelihood of taking a remedial English course in middle school by one-third. Grade retention also roughly doubles the likelihood of taking an advanced course in math and science in middle school, and more than triples the likelihood of taking college credit-bearing courses in high school for English learners. We also find that these benefits are larger for foreign born students, students with higher latent human capital in third grade as proxied by their math scores, students whose first language is Spanish, and students in lower-poverty elementary schools.