Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence of Primordial Clustering around the QSO SDSS J1030+0524 at z = 6.28

We present tentative evidence of primordial clustering, manifested as an excess of color-selected objects in the field of the QSO SDSS J1030+0524 at redshift z = 6.28. We have selected objects red in i775 - z850 on the basis of Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys imaging of a field centered on the QSO. Compared to data at comparable depth obtained by the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, we find an excess of objects with i775 - z850 ≥ 1.5 in the QSO field. The significance of the detection is estimated to be ~97% on the basis of the counts alone and increases to 99.4% if one takes into account the color distribution. If confirmed, this would represent the highest redshift example of galaxy clustering and would have implications on models for the growth of structure. Bias-driven clustering of first luminous objects forming in the highest peaks of the primordial density field is expected in most models of early structure formation. The redshift of one of the candidates has been found to be z = 5.970 by our spectroscopy with the Keck I Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer, confirming the validity of our color selection.
The impact of developer team sizes on the structural attributes of software

It is established that the internal quality of software is a key determinant of the total cost of ownership of that software. The objective of this research is to determine the impact that the development team’s size has on the internal structural attributes of a codebase and, in doing so, we consider the impact that the team’s size may have on the internal quality of the software that they produce. In this paper we leverage the wealth of data available in the open-source domain by mining detailed data from 1000 projects in GoogleCode and, coupled with one of the most established of object-oriented metric suites, we isolate and identify the effect that the development team size has on internal structural attributes of the software produced. We will find that some measures of functional decomposition are enhanced when we compare projects authored by fewer developers against those authored by a larger number of developers while measures of cohesion and complexity are degraded.
“My lecturer’s expressionless face kills me!” An evaluation of learning process of German language class in Indonesia

This qualitative study aimed at evaluating the circumstances in plenary class that provoke learners’ speaking anxiety. To meet the objectives, this study investigated students of German as a Foreign Language (GFL) course who were experiencing speaking anxiety symptoms in the plenary class. The research was a narrative qualitative study, and the data were collected through observation and interview. The result of this study reveals that learners’ speaking anxiety occurred in particular circumstances of the plenary class, such as unfamiliar topic, still class, students’ unpreparedness for spontaneous speaking, expressionless face of the lecturer, and students’ fear of native speaker lecturers.
Do Highlights Affect Comprehension?: Lessons from a User Study

A largely unquestioned assumption in social reading is that publicly shared annotations improve reading outcomes. In this study, we explore the specific assumption that relevant and irrelevant passive highlighting affects comprehension. Participants were divided by cognitive style based on their degree of Field Dependence-Independence [20]. We found that irrelevant highlights had significant negative effects on reading comprehension for Field Independents (FIs), but not Field Dependents (FDs). This is a surprising result because FDs typically rely on external cues to structure and help process information, whereas FIs use internal cues. This suggests that highlighting cues information but does not structure it.
A new approach to measuring competition in the loan markets of the euro area

This article is the first that applies a new measure of competition, the Boone indicator, to the banking industry. This approach is able to measure competition of bank market segments, such as the loan market, whereas many well-known measures of competition can consider the entire banking market only. Like most other model-based measures, this approach ignores differences in bank product quality and design, as well as the attractiveness of innovations. We measure competition on the lending markets in the five major EU countries as well as, for comparison, the UK, the US and Japan. Our findings indicate that over the period 1994–2004 the US had the most competitive loan market, whereas overall loan markets in Germany and Spain were among the best competitive in the EU. The Netherlands occupied a more intermediate position, whereas in Italy competition declined significantly over time. The French, Japanese and UK loan markets were generally less competitive.
Spike-Driven Synaptic Dynamics Generating Working Memory States

The collective behavior of a network, modeling a cortical module of spiking neurons connected by plastic synapses is studied. A detailed spike-driven synaptic dynamics is simulated in a large network of spiking neurons, implementing the full double dynamics of neurons and synapses. The repeated presentation of a set of external stimuli is shown to structure the network to the point of sustaining working memory (selective delay activity). When the synaptic dynamics is analyzed as a function of pre- and postsynaptic spike rates in functionally defined populations, it reveals a novel variation of the Hebbian plasticity paradigm: in any functional set of synapses between pairs of neurons (e.g., stimulatedstimulated, stimulateddelay, stimulatedspontaneous), there is a finite probability of potentiation as well as of depression. This leads to a saturation of potentiation or depression at the level of the ratio of the two probabilities. When one of the two probabilities is very high relative to the other, the familiar Hebbian mechanism is recovered. But where correlated working memory is formed, it prevents overlearning. Constraints relevant to the stability of the acquired synaptic structure and the regimes of global activity allowing for structuring are expressed in terms of the parameters describing the single-synapse dynamics. The synaptic dynamics is discussed in the light of experiments observing precise spike timing effects and related issues of biological plausibility.
Surgical Outcome of Medial Rectus Resection in Recurrent Exotropia: A Novel Surgical Formula

Purpose. To evaluate the surgical outcomes of unilateral or bilateral medial rectus (MR) muscle resection for recurrent exotropia after bilateral lateral rectus (BLR) muscle recession based on a novel surgical formula. Methods. Forty-one consecutive patients with unilateral or bilateral MR muscle resection for recurrent exotropia after BLR muscle recession were included in this retrospective study. All surgeries were performed according to the formula: 1.0 mm MR muscle resection for every 5 prism dioptres (PD) of exotropia, with an addition of 0.5 mm to each MR muscle operated on. Results. The mean recurrent exotropia distant deviation was 28 PD ± 11.2 (range 14 to 55 PD). Overall at postoperative 1 month, 36 (88%) achieved successful outcomes, 4 (10%) had undercorrection, and 1 (2%) had overcorrection. At postoperative 6 months, 29 (71%) achieved successful outcomes, 12 (29%) had undercorrection, and none had overcorrection. Subgroup analysis showed no statistically significant difference in success rates between unilateral and bilateral MR groups. Conclusion. Unilateral or bilateral MR muscle resection using our surgical formula is a safe and effective method for calculating the amount of MR resection in moderate to large angle recurrent exotropia, with a low overcorrection rate.
Multi-Functional OCT Enables Longitudinal Study of Retinal Changes in a VLDLR Knockout Mouse Model

We present a multi-functional optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging approach to study retinal changes in the very-low-density-lipoprotein-receptor (VLDLR) knockout mouse model with a threefold contrast. In the retinas of VLDLR knockout mice spontaneous retinal-chorodoidal neovascularizations form, having an appearance similar to choroidal and retinal neovascularizations (CNV and RNV) in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or retinal angiomatous proliferation (RAP). For this longitudinal study, the mice were imaged every 4 to 6 weeks starting with an age of 4 weeks and following up to the age of 11 months. Significant retinal changes were identified by the multi-functional imaging approach offering a threefold contrast: reflectivity, polarization sensitivity (PS) and motion contrast based OCT angiography (OCTA). By use of this intrinsic contrast, the long-term development of neovascularizations was studied and associated processes, such as the migration of melanin pigments or retinal-choroidal anastomosis, were assessed in vivo. Furthermore, the in vivo imaging results were validated with histological sections at the endpoint of the experiment. Multi-functional OCT proves as a powerful tool for longitudinal retinal studies in preclinical research of ophthalmic diseases. Intrinsic contrast offered by the functional extensions of OCT might help to describe regulative processes in genetic animal models and potentially deepen the understanding of the pathogenesis of retinal diseases such as wet AMD.
The Induced Affect Response: 10-Week-Old Infants' Responses to Three Emotion Expressions.

Responses to mothers' presentations of happy, sad, and angry faces were studied in a sample of 12 infants, 6 boys and 6 girls at age 10 weeks _+ 5 days. Each infant's mother displayed noncontingent, practiced facial and vocal expressions of the three emotions. Each expression occurred four times, with a 20-s head-turn-away between presentations. The orders of presentation were randomly assigned within sex of infant. Mothers' and infants' facial behaviors were coded using the Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System. The data indicated that (a) the infants discriminated each emotion, (b) apparent matching responses may occur under some conditions but not all, and (c) these apparent matching responses were only a part of nonrandom behavior patterns indicating induced emotional or affective responses of infants to mothers' alfective expressions.
Stability of Nonlinear Ar-Garch Models

This paper studies the stability of nonlinear autoregressive models with conditionally heteroskedastic errors. We consider a nonlinear autoregression of order p (AR(p)) with the conditional variance specified as a nonlinear first order generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH(1,1)) model. Conditions under which the model is stable in the sense that its Markov chain representation is geometrically ergodic are provided. This implies the existence of an initial distribution such that the process is strictly stationary and &#946;-mixing. Conditions under which the stationary distribution has finite moments are also given. The results cover several nonlinear specifications recently proposed for both the conditional mean and conditional variance.
Analysis of CMOS Photodiodes. I. Quantum efficiency

An improved one-dimensional (1-D) analysis of the CMOS photodiode has been derived in which the effect of the substrate, which forms a high-low junction with the epitaxial layer, has been included. The analytical solution was verified with numerical simulations based on parameters extracted from a standard 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS process. Two empirical parameters are suggested to offset the unavoidable inaccuracies in the extracted parameter values. The derived semiempirical expression exhibits a good agreement with the measured spectral response. In Part II of this paper, a three-dimensional (3-D) analysis of lateral photoresponse in CMOS photodiode arrays is presented along with an empirical modeling method utilizing test linear photodiode arrays.
Visual masking: past accomplishments, present status, future developments

Visual masking, throughout its history, has been used as an investigative tool in exploring the temporal dynamics of visual perception, beginning with retinal processes and ending in cortical processes concerned with the conscious registration of stimuli. However, visual masking also has been a phenomenon deemed worthy of study in its own right. Most of the recent uses of visual masking have focused on the study of central processes, particularly those involved in feature, object and scene representations, in attentional control mechanisms, and in phenomenal awareness. In recent years our understanding of the phenomenon and cortical mechanisms of visual masking also has benefited from several brain imaging techniques and from a number of sophisticated and neurophysiologically plausible neural network models. Key issues and problems are discussed with the aim of guiding future empirical and theoretical research.
QUIP: A Protocol For Securing Content in Peer-To-Peer Publish/Subscribe Overlay Networks

Publish/subscribe networks provide an interface for publishers to perform many-to-many communication to subscribers without the inefficiencies of broadcasting. Each subscriber submits a description of the sort of content they are interested in, then the publish/subscribe system delivers any appropriate messages as they are published. Although publish/subscribe networks offer advantages over traditional web-based content delivery, they also introduce security issues. The two security problems that we solve are: ensuring that subscribers can authenticate the messages they receive from publishers, and ensuring that publishers can control who receives their content. We propose QUIP, a protocol which adds efficient authentication and encryption mechanisms to existing publish/subscribe overlay networks. The idea is to combine an efficient traitor-tracing scheme (by Tzeng and Tzeng (2001)) with a secure key management protocol. This allows publishers to restrict their messages to authorised subscribers and to add and remove subscribers without affecting the keys held by the other subscribers.
Agenda Control in the German Bundestag, 1980-2002

UC-BERKELEY Center on Institutions and Governance Working Paper No. 18 Agenda Control in the German Bundestag, 1980-2002 William Chandler, Gary W. Cox, and Mathew D. McCubbins Institute of Governmental Studies University of California, Berkeley March 2006 This paper can be downloaded without charge at: Center for Institutions and Governance Working Papers Series: http://igov.berkeley. edu/workingpapers/index.html
Modeling QoS Parameters in Component-Based Systems

Abstract : Current trends in the software development are focused on creating systems by integrating previously developed software components. This approach aids in the reusability of the code and helps to reduce the cost of software development. In addition to the functionality a component offers, it may contain the necessary code for measuring how well the functionality will be achieved during the execution. This gives rise to the notion of quality of service (QoS) offered by a component -- latency, throughput, capacity, precision, etc., are a few examples of QoS parameters. Many applications, such as multi-media, emphasize and require a certain level of the QoS offered by components. Thus, it is critical to model the QoS, at an appropriate level of an abstraction, during the modeling of component-based systems. Such a modeling will not only assist the component developers but also emphasize the need for integrating the QoS during the development and implementation phases of the software design. In this thesis, an approach based on a unified framework (UniFrame) is proposed to model the QoS parameters in component-based systems. The approach involves QoS concepts relevant for specifying QoS, a UML profile for representing the concepts, integrating the QoS specification with the functional specification and mapping the specification manually onto the code of the component.
Resuscitation with 100% O2 does not protect the myocardium in hypoxic newborn piglets

Background: Perinatal asphyxia is associated with cardiac dysfunction secondary to myocardial ischaemia. Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is a marker of myocardial necrosis. Raised concentrations in the blood are related to perinatal asphyxia and increased morbidity. Objective: To assess porcine myocardial damage from enzyme release during hypoxaemia induced global ischaemia, and subsequent resuscitation with ambient air or 100% O2. To investigate whether CO2 level during resuscitation influences myocardial damage. Design: Newborn piglets (12–36 hours) were exposed to hypoxaemia by ventilation with 8% O2 in nitrogen. When mean arterial blood pressure had fallen to 15 mm Hg, or base excess to < −20 mmol/l, the animals were randomly resuscitated by ventilation with either 21% O2 (group A, n = 29) or 100% O2 (group B, n = 29) for 30 minutes. Afterwards they were observed in ambient air for another 150 minutes. During resuscitation, the two groups were further divided into three subgroups with different CO2 levels. Analysis: Blood samples were analysed for cTnI, myoglobin, and creatine kinase-myocardial band (CK-MB) at baseline and at the end of the study. Results: cTnI increased more than 10-fold (p < 0.001) in all the groups. Myoglobin and CK-MB doubled in concentration. Conclusion: The considerable increase in cTnI indicates seriously affected myocardium. Reoxygenation with 100% oxygen offered no biochemical benefit over ambient air. CK-MB and myoglobin were not reliable markers of myocardial damage. Normoventilation tended to produce better myocardial outcome than hyperventilation or hypoventilation.
Ultra-Rapid Sensory Responses in the Human Frontal Eye Field Region

Most of what we know about the human frontal eye field (FEF) is extrapolated from studies in animals. There is ample evidence that this region is crucial for eye movements. However, evidence is accumulating that this region also plays a role in sensory processing and that it belongs to a “fast brain” system. We set out to investigate these issues in humans, using intracerebral recordings in patients with drug-refractory epilepsy. Event-related potential recordings were obtained from 11 epileptic patients from within the FEF region while they passed a series of visual and auditory perceptual tests. No eye movement was required. Ultra-rapid responses were observed, with mean onset latencies at 24 ms after stimulus to auditory stimuli and 45 ms to visual stimuli. Such early responses were compatible with cortical routes as assessed with simultaneous recordings in primary auditory and visual cortices. Components were modulated very early by the sensory characteristics of the stimuli, in the 30–60 ms period for auditory stimuli and in the 45–60 ms period for visual stimuli. Although the frontal lobes in humans are generally viewed as being involved in high-level cognitive processes, these results indicate that the human FEF is a remarkably quickly activated multimodal region that belongs to a network of low-level neocortical sensory areas.
PEAQ - The ITU Standard for Objective Measurement of Perceived Audio Quality

Perceptual coding of audio signals is increasingly used in the transmission and storage of high-quality digital audio, and there is a strong demand for an acceptable objective method to measure the quality of such signals. A new measurement method is described that combines ideas from several earlier methods. The method should meet the requirements of the user community, and it has been recommended by ITU Radiocommunication study groups.
Corporate Synergy and Strategy Implementation: A Behavioral Simulation Approach

Strategy research has a long-standing interest in the performance consequences of corporate diversification. Although the diversification-performance stream of research has slowed, the matter is far from resolved. In theory, resource sharing should yield economic benefits in related multi-business firms, but the empirical research remains equivocal. While most research in this area has focused on defining and measuring relatedness correctly, this paper takes a fresh look at corporate diversification by exploring the implementation process issues of resource sharing. A mathematical model is developed that integrates content and process issues to simulate the operational consequences of related diversification. The analysis suggests economic gains are not realized simply by adopting product and resource relatedness strategies, but also require the coordinated implementation of resource sharing to extract potential synergies.
Exploiting trustors as well as trustees in trust-based recommendation

In a trust network, two users who are connected by a trust relationship tend to have similar interests. Based on this observation, existing trust-aware recommendation methods predict ratings for a target user on unseen items by referencing to ratings of those users who are reachable from the target user in the forward direction of trustor-trustee relationship through the trust network. However, these methods have overlooked the possibility of utilizing the ratings of those users reachable in the backward direction, which may also have similar interests. In this paper, we investigate this possibility by identifying and adding these users to the existing methods when predicting ratings for the target user. We perform a series of experiments and observe that our approach improves the coverage while preserving the accuracy.