Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Controlled surface-induced flows from the motion of self-assembled colloidal walkers

Biological flows at the microscopic scale are important for the transport of nutrients, locomotion, and differentiation. Here, we present a unique approach for creating controlled, surface-induced flows inspired by a ubiquitous biological system, cilia. Our design is based on a collection of self-assembled colloidal rotors that “walk” along surfaces in the presence of a rotating magnetic field. These rotors are held together solely by magnetic forces that allow for reversible assembly and disassembly of the chains. Furthermore, rotation of the magnetic field allows for straightforward manipulation of the shape and motion of these chains. This system offers a simple and versatile approach for designing microfluidic devices as well as for studying fundamental questions in cooperative-driven motion and transport at the microscopic level.
Understanding the Demographics of Twitter Users

Every second, the thoughts and feelings of millions of people across the world are recorded in the form of 140-character tweets using Twitter. However, despite the enormous potential presented by this remarkable data source, we still do not have an understanding of the Twitter population itself: Who are the Twitter users? How representative of the overall population are they? In this paper, we take the first steps towards answering these questions by analyzing data on a set of Twitter users representing over 1% of the U.S. population. We develop techniques that allow us to compare the Twitter population to the U.S. population along three axes (geography, gender, and race/ethnicity), and find that the Twitter population is a highly non-uniform sample of the population.
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES THE BEHAVIORALIST AS TAX COLLECTOR: USING NATURAL FIELD EXPERIMENTS TO ENHANCE TAX COMPLIANCE

Tax collection problems date back to the earliest recorded history of mankind. This paper begins with a simple theoretical construct of paying (rather than declaring) taxes, which we argue has been an overlooked aspect of tax compliance. This construct is then tested in two large natural field experiments. Using administrative data from more than 200,000 individuals in the UK, we show that including social norms and public goods messages in standard tax payment reminder letters considerably enhances tax compliance. The field experiments increased taxes collected by the Government in the sample period and were cost-free to implement, demonstrating the potential importance of such interventions in increasing tax compliance. Michael Hallsworth Imperial College London The Behavioural Insights Team m.hallsworth11@imperial.ac. uk John A. List Department of Economics University of Chicago 1126 East 59th Chicago, IL 60637 and NBER jlist@uchicago.edu Robert D. Metcalfe University of Chicago metcalfe@uchicago.edu Ivo Vlaev Imperial College London i.vlaev@imperial.ac. uk
Interspecific coordination and intraspecific plasticity of fine root traits in North American temperate tree species

Fine roots play an important role in nutrient and water absorption and hence overall tree performance. However, current understanding of the ecological role of belowground traits lags considerably behind those of aboveground traits. In this study, we used data on specific root length (SRL), fine root diameter (D) and branching intensity (BI) of two datasets to examine interspecific trait coordination as well as intraspecific trait variation across ontogenetic stage and soil conditions (i.e., plasticity). The first dataset included saplings of 12 North American temperate tree species grown in monocultures in a common garden experiment to examine interspecific trait coordination. The second dataset included adult and juvenile individuals of four species (present in both datasets) co-occurring in natural forests on contrasting soils (i.e., humid organic, mesic, and xeric podzolic). The three fine root traits investigated were strongly coordinated, with high SRL being related to low D and high BI. Fine root traits and aboveground life-strategies (i.e., relative growth rate) were weakly coordinated and never significant. Intraspecific responses to changes in ontogenetic stage or soil conditions were trait dependent. SRL was significantly higher in juveniles compared to adults for Abies balsamea and Acer rubrum, but did not vary with soil condition. BI did not vary significantly with either ontogeny or soil conditions, while D was generally significantly lower in juveniles and higher in humid organic soils. D also had the least total variability most of which was due to changes in the environment (plasticity). This study brings support for the emerging evidence for interspecific root trait coordination in trees. It also indicates that intraspecific responses to both ontogeny and soil conditions are trait dependent and less concerted. D appears to be a better indicator of environmental change than SRL and BI.
Real Time Video Processing on FPGA Using on the Fly Partial Reconfiguration

The development of Field programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) had tremendous improvement in last few years. FPGA based solutions have shown significant speedups compared with software and DSP based approaches for several application domains such as signal and image processing, graph algorithms, genetic algorithms and cryptography among others. Runtime Partial reconfiguration of FPGA is an attractive feature which offers countless benefits across multiple industries. Xilinx has supported partial reconfiguration for many generations of devices. This can be taken advantage of to substitute inactive parts of a hardware systems and adapt the complete chip to a different requirement of an application. This paper describes the implementation of mean and median filters for real time video signal on Virtex-4 FPGA using Partial reconfiguration. The considerable savings in device resources, bit stream size and configuration time is observed and tabulated in this paper.
Entrepreneurship and the Process of Firms' Entry, Survival and Growth

This survey paper aims at critically discussing the recent literature on firm formation and survival and the growth of new-born firms. The basic purpose is to single out the microeconomic entrepreneurial foundations of industrial dynamics (entry and exit) and to characterise the founder’s ex-ante features in terms of likely ex-post business performance. The main conclusion is that entry of new firms is heterogeneous with innovative entrepreneurs being found together with passive followers, over-optimist gamblers and even escapees from unemployment. Since founders are heterogeneous and may make “entry mistakes”, policy incentives should be highly selective, favouring nascent entrepreneurs endowed with progressive motivation and promising predictors of better business performance. This would lead to the least distortion in the post-entry market selection of efficient entrepreneurs.
Effects of Individual Tree Detection Error Sources on Forest Management Planning Calculations

Abstract: The objective was to investigate the error sources of the airborne laser scanning based individual tree detection (ITD), and its effects on forest management planning calculations. The investigated error sources were detection of trees ( e td ), error in tree height prediction ( e h ) and error in tree diameter prediction ( e d ). The effects of errors were analyzed with Monte Carlo simulations. e td was modeled empirically based on a tree’s relative size. A total of five different tree detection scenarios were tested. Effect of e h was investigated using 5% and 0% and effect of e d using 20%, 15%, 10%, 5%, 0% error levels, respectively. The research material comprised 15 forest stands located in Southern Finland. Measurements of 5,300 trees and their timber assortments were utilized as a starting point for the Monte Carlo simulated ITD inventories. ITD carried out for the same study area provided a starting point (Scenario 1) for e td . In Scenario 1, 60.2% from stem number and 75.9% from total volume (V
CrossNets: High‐Performance Neuromorphic Architectures for CMOL Circuits

Abstract: The exponential, Moore's Law, progress of electronics may be continued beyond the 10‐nm frontier if the currently dominant CMOS technology is replaced by hybrid CMOL circuits combining a silicon MOSFET stack and a few layers of parallel nanowires connected by self‐assembled molecular electronic devices. Such hybrids promise unparalleled performance for advanced information processing, but require special architectures to compensate for specific features of the molecular devices, including low voltage gain and possible high fraction of faulty components. Neuromorphic networks with their defect tolerance seem the most natural way to address these problems. Such circuits may be trained to perform advanced information processing including (at least) effective pattern recognition and classification. We are developing a family of distributed crossbar network (CrossNet) architectures that permit the combination of high connectivity neuromorphic circuits with high component density. Preliminary estimates show that this approach may eventually allow us to place a cortex‐scale circuit with about 1010 neurons and about 1014 synapses on an approximately 10 × 10 cm2 silicon wafer. Such systems may provide an average cell‐to‐cell latency of about 20 nsec and, thus, perform information processing and system training (possibly including self‐evolution after initial training) at a speed that is approximately six orders of magnitude higher than in its biological prototype and at acceptable power dissipation.
Fusion of Carsharing and Charging Station Data to Analyze Behavior of Free-Floating Carsharing BEVs

Although in the last years many models of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) were launched into the market, electric mobility in the car sector is still no mass market. Beside other reasons one problem is the small range of BEVs. To overcome this fear of customers a sufficiently sized public charging infrastructure is necessary. Unfortunately, operating charging stations is not profitable at the moment because of the small number of existing BEVs and the high investment costs. This problem is called the "chicken-egg-problem" of electric mobility. An often mentioned sector which could guarantee at least a basic utilization of charging stations to a public charging infrastructure provider is the electric free-floating carsharing. In this paper booking data of BEVs in a free-floating carsharing fleet as well as charging stations data is evaluated to analyze to which extent free-floating carsharing BEVs are relevant for the utilization of public charging stations. Furthermore charging behavior of different user groups of a free-floating carsharing fleet is analyzed. Also areas are identified which are preferred for the installation of public charging stations based on electric free-floating carsharing. Due to these results the requirements on a public charging infrastructure in terms of size, type and layout are identified from the perspective of a free-floating carsharing provider as well as from the perspective of a public charging infrastructure provider.
Complexity of the frog intracardiac neurons. Intracellular injection study

The goal of this study was to determine the structure of intracardiac neurons in the frog Rana temporaria . Fifty-six intracardiac neurons from 8 animals were labelled ionophoretically by the intracellular markers AlexaFluor 586 and Lucifer Yellow CH. Among the labelled neurons, we found the cells of unipolar, bipolar, multipolar and pseudounipolar types. Multiple neuronal processes originated from the soma, the axon hillock and the initial segment of axon. With respect to the soma, the neuron contained (Mean ± SE) 3.5 ± 0.3 long and 5.5 ± 0.6 short processes. Most neurons had the spine, the bubble or the flake like extensions on their soma surface and were classified as Golgi I typeneurons. Few Golgi II type neurons, the presumptive interneurons, were also found. Our findings contradict to a general view that the frog intracardiac ganglia contain only the adendritic neurons of the unipolar type. Our findings demonstrate that the frog intracardiac neurons are structurally complex and diverse. This diversity may account for the complicated integrative functions of the frog intrinsic cardiac ganglia.
Cognitive and Emotional Engagement for Students with Severe Intellectual Disability Defined by the Scholars with Expertise in the Field

Although a great deal has been written about the complexities of engagement in learning, this is less true for students with severe intellectual disability. The concept of engagement of these students remains strictly behavioral. Engagement as a complex construct, consisting of behavioral, cognitive, and emotional components, must be addressed as conversations continue to grow around instructional practices for these learners. The current study employed phenomenological analysis to examine the perceptions of 23 scholars with expertise in the field of severe disability related to cognitive and emotional components of engagement. The findings demonstrate that the essence of cognitive engagement involves academic responding, meaningful instruction, and learning outcomes, while the essence of emotional engagement consists of both the factors influencing emotional engagement and the variety of means with which to express it. Across both topics, the challenges with defining and measuring engagement remain.
Acoustic Modelling for Croatian Speech Recognition and Synthesis

This paper presents the Croatian context-dependent acoustic modelling used in speech recognition and in speech synthesis. The proposed acoustic model is based on context-dependent triphone hidden Markov models and Croatian phonetic rules. For speech recognition and speech synthesis system modelling and testing the Croatian speech corpus VEPRAD was used. The experiments have shown that Croatian speech corpus, Croatian phonetic rules and hidden Markov models as the modelling formalism can be used to develop speech recognition and speech synthesis systems in parallel for a highly flective and free order language like Croatian. We propose an evaluation procedure for speech synthesis, which combines an objective and a subjective evaluation approach and we present the achieved evaluation results. The proposed procedures for Croatian acoustic modelling were developed as parts of speech interfaces in a spoken dialog system for a limited weather forecast domain.
Thoracic epidural analgesia reduces myocardial injury in ischemic patients undergoing major abdominal cancer surgery

Background and objectives Major abdominal cancer surgeries are associated with significant perioperative mortality and morbidity due to myocardial ischemia and infarction. This study examined the effect of perioperative patient controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) on occurrence of ischemic cardiac injury in ischemic patients undergoing major abdominal cancer surgery. Patients and methods One hundred and twenty patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade II and III) of either sex were scheduled for elective upper gastrointestinal cancer surgeries. Patients were allocated randomly into two groups (60 patients each) to receive, besides general anesthesia: continuous intra and postoperative intravenous (IV) infusion with fentanyl for 72 h postoperatively (patient controlled intravenous analgesia [PCIA] group) or continuous intra and postoperative epidural infusion with bupivacaine 0.125% and fentanyl (PCEA group) for 72 h postoperatively. Perioperative hemodynamics were recorded. Postoperative pain was assessed over 72 h using visual analog scale (VAS). All patients were screened for occurrence of myocardial injury (MI) by electrocardiography, echocardiography, and cardiac troponin I serum level. Other postoperative complications as arrhythmia, deep venous thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, and death were recorded. Results There was a significant reduction in overall adverse cardiac events (myocardial injury, arrhythmias, angina, heart failure and nonfatal cardiac arrest) in PCEA group in comparison to PCIA group. Also, there was a significant reduction in dynamic VAS pain score in group PCEA in comparison to PCIA at all measured time points. Regarding perioperative hemodynamics, there was a significant reduction in intra-operative mean arterial pressure (MAP); and heart rate in PCEA group in comparison to PCIA group at most of measured time points while there was not a significant reduction in postoperative MAP and heart rate in the second and third postoperative days. The incidence of other postoperative complications such as DVT, pneumonia and in hospital mortality were decreased in PCEA group. Conclusion Perioperative thoracic epidural analgesia in patients suffering from coronary artery disease subjected to major abdominal cancer surgery reduced significantly postoperative major adverse cardiac events with better pain control in comparison with perioperative IV analgesia.
Prospective Randomized Trial to Assess Effects of Continuing Hormone Therapy on Cerebral Function in Postmenopausal Women at Risk for Dementia

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of estrogen-based hormone therapy (HT) on regional cerebral metabolism in postmenopausal women (mean age = 58, SD = 5) at risk for development of dementia. The prospective clinical trial design included pre- and post-intervention neuroimaging of women randomized to continue (HT+) or discontinue (HT−) therapy following an average of 10 years of use. The primary outcome measure was change in brain metabolism during the subsequent two years, as assessed with fluorodeoxyglucose-18 positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). Longitudinal FDG-PET data were available for 45 study completers. Results showed that women randomized to continue HT experienced relative preservation of frontal and parietal cortical metabolism, compared with women randomized to discontinue HT. Women who discontinued 17-β estradiol (17βE)-based HT, as well as women who continued conjugated equine estrogen (CEE)-based HT, exhibited significant decline in metabolism of the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortical (PCC) area. Significant decline in PCC metabolism was additionally seen in women taking concurrent progestins (with either 17βE or CEE). Together, these findings suggest that among postmenopausal subjects at risk for developing dementia, regional cerebral cortical metabolism is relatively preserved for at least two years in women randomized to continue HT, compared with women randomized to discontinue HT. In addition, continuing unopposed 17βE therapy is associated specifically with preservation of metabolism in PCC, known to undergo the most significant decline in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00097058
An Example‐based Procedural System for Element Arrangement

We present a method for synthesizing two dimensional (2D) element arrangements from an example. The main idea is to combine texture synthesis techniques based‐on a local neighborhood comparison and procedural modeling systems based‐on local growth. Given a user‐specified reference pattern, our system analyzes neigh‐borhood information of each element by constructing connectivity. Our synthesis process starts with a single seed and progressively places elements one by one by searching a reference element which has local features that are the most similar to the target place of the synthesized pattern. To support creative design activities, we introduce three types of interaction for controlling global features of the resulting pattern, namely a spray tool, a flow field tool, and a boundary tool. We also introduce a global optimization process that helps to avoid local error concentrations. We illustrate the feasibility of our method by creating several types of 2D patterns.
MIT Sloan School of Management

In the uniform-price auction with adjustable supply, the seller decides how much to sell after receiving the bids so as to maximize its ex post profit. Given N bidders and adjustable supply, all equilibria of the uniform-price auction lead to price on order 1 N3 below the Walrasian price. By contrast, given the usual market-clearing rule it is well-known that the uniform-price auction can lead to equilibrium prices on order 1 N below the Walrasian price.
One size doesn't fit all: diversifying "the user" using personas and emotional scenarios

It is common practice in software engineering to develop a product for the "user". The concepts of users and actors typically oversimplify the variety of people that could use a system in a given scenario. By developing the system for actors, many software engineers effectively develop the system for themselves, embodying the abstract actors with their own personalities - i.e. how would I use the system if I was this actor? A single perspective may be sufficient for situations with a well-defined workflow, however, many systems in the social and domestic domains should consider people's emotional response to systems, which impact product acceptance. To ensure that emotional desires are met and that a product appeals to the intended audience, we advocate the use of personas within emotional scenarios. Personas and scenarios can be used to explore the diversity of people's background, emotions and motivations, and how they would react emotionally to design decisions. We describe our experience using personas and emotional scenarios in three projects related to people's health, where emotions are ever present, in the domains of aged wellbeing and mental health.
HIV prevalence and gender differences among new injection-drug-users in Tallinn, Estonia: A persisting problem in a stable high prevalence epidemic

Introduction New injectors / younger drug users are an important population to target for intervention because they are often at especially high risk of HIV and HCV infection. We examined HIV prevalence and gender differences in HIV prevalence and risk behavior among new injection-drug-users in Tallinn, Estonia. Methods Respondent driven sampling (RDS) interview surveys and HIV testing were conducted in Tallinn in 2009, 2011 and 2013. We classified “new injectors” as persons who reported their first injection as occurring within three years of the study interview. Recruiting trees of the three individual RDS studies were joined to form one RDS dataset and RDS estimates for prevalence and means were derived. Bootstrap tests were used to compare data from men and women, HIV infected and uninfected. Results Among 110 new injectors (34 women and 76 men) the mean age was 24.5 (SD 7.5) years; 63% reported injecting mainly fentanyl, 34% injecting mainly amphetamine, 36% sharing syringes, 89% were sexually active, and, of these, 88% did not always use condoms in the last 6 months. HIV prevalence was 18% (95%CI 8–28%) (41% (95%CI 19–63%) among female and 7% (95%CI 2–12%) among male new injectors). Based on self-reports, 8.1% of all new injectors (and 22% of female new injectors) were HIV positive before starting to inject drugs. 40% of HIV infected reported receiving antiretroviral therapy. In multivariable analysis, gender (male: OR 0.12, 95% CI 0.03–0.45), main drug injected (fentanyl: OR 6.7, 95% CI 1.3–35.7) and syringe sharing (distributive: OR 0.11, 95% CI 0.02–0.55; and receptive: OR 3.7, 95% CI 1.0–13.5) were associated with the HIV seropositivity. Conclusions New injectors exhibit high-risk behavior and correspondingly high HIV prevalence. Sexual transmission of HIV infection, including before injection initiation, is likely to be a significant contributor to HIV risk among female new injectors. This highlights the need to identify and target new injectors and their partners with gender specific interventions in addition to interventions to reduce initiation into injecting and ensuring provision of ART to HIV positive new injectors.