Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Title : Behavior of Fast Consistency Algorithms in Large Decentralized Systems

Information replication is a major technique for improving the efficiency and autonomy of many distributed applications. Weak consistency algorithms allow us to propagate changes in an arbitrary, changing storage network in a self-organizing way. The weak consistency algorithms generate very little traffic overhead; they have low latency and are scalable, in addition to being fault tolerant. In this paper we evaluate our own weak consistency algorithm, which is called the “Fast Consistency Algorithm", and whose main aim is the propagation of changes with preference for nodes and zones of the network which have greatest demand. The algorithm has been simulated over ns-2, and evaluated with several topologies: linear, ring, random and grid, and several distributions of demand: constant, one region of high demand, two regions, and self-similar fractal mountains of demand. The impulse response of the algorithm has been characterized: the time it takes for all the network to become consistent; i.e. measuring the speed with which each node receives all events introduced at t=0 in the rest of the nodes. Employing, among other the economic concept of an utility function, we show that our “fast consistency” algorithm, interconnecting high demand zones by means of a logical topology, optimizes the distribution of changes by prioritizing the nodes with greatest demand, independently of demand distribution. In other words, it satisfies the greatest demand in the shortest amount of time.
Peer Group Composition, Peer Performance Aggregation, and Detecting Relative Performance Evaluation

We study S&P 500 firms’ disclosure of relative performance evaluation (RPE) details in their first proxy statement filing after the effective date of an SEC rule mandating expanded executive compensation disclosures. Using theoretically-developed implicit techniques to detect RPE use, we compare inferences from the explicit disclosures with inferences from the implicit tests. In our hand collection of each firm’s first proxy statement after the expanded disclosure mandate, we identify 17.32% of the S&P 500 firms as explicit RPE disclosers. In the subsample of RPE disclosers, we find consistent implicit evidence of RPE as long as the peer group is composed either of firms in the same industry/size quartile or of firms named as peers in the explicit RPE disclosures. More importantly, in the subsample of explicit RPE non-disclosers, we also detect the use of RPE, using industry/size peer groups and weighting each peer’s performance by each peer’s correlation with systematic risk relative to each peer’s idiosyncratic risk. Our inferences depend on assumptions about the choice of peers and the weights on those peers, suggesting important implications for RPE researchers. These findings also imply that relying on explicit mandated disclosures of RPE may understate the prevalence of RPE in practice.
The Interrelatedness of Adverse Childhood Experiences Among High-Risk Juvenile Offenders

The interrelatedness of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in 64,329 juvenile offenders was examined. ACEs include childhood abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual), neglect (physical and emotional), and household dysfunction (family violence, family substance use, family mental illness, separation/divorce, and family incarceration). Prevalence ranged from 12% to 82% for each ACE. Of youth experiencing one ACE 67.5% reported four or more additional exposures and 24.5% exposure to six or more additional ACEs. Females have higher prevalence and multiple exposures. ACEs are interrelated, necessitating assessment of multiple ACEs rather than one or a few. ACE exposure differs by gender and race/ethnicity.
Early Determinants of Maternal and Paternal Harsh Discipline: The Generation R Study

Research described risk factors for maternal use of harsh discipline, but knowledge about determinants of paternal harsh discipline is lacking. This study aimed to identify determinants of harsh discipline and whether this differed between mothers and fathers. Harsh disciplining practices were self-reported by Dutch parents of 3-year-old children. Data were available for 3,756 children and both parents. Younger parental age, non-Western national origin, family dysfunction, psychopathology, and delinquency history were independently associated with an increased risk of maternal and paternal harsh discipline. Indicators of socioeconomic status (e.g., financial difficulties and educational level) were also associated with harsh discipline, but in mothers only. Our results suggest that preventive interventions should ideally be applied early in children's lives or even before birth, given the prevalence of parental harsh discipline in young children. These interventions should have a special focus on socially disadvantaged families and on parents with psychopathology and family stress.
The Expression of HAK-Type K+ Transporters Is Regulated in Response to Salinity Stress in Common Ice Plant1

Four transcripts homologous to K+ transporters of the HAK/KT/KUP family have been characterized from the common ice plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum). We report tissue-specific expression of McHAK1 andMcHAK4 transcripts abundant in roots, leaves, and stems.McHAK2 was predominantly present in stems andMcHAK3 in root tissues. By in situ hybridizations, the McHAKs showed signals in the leaf vascular bundles, mesophyll, and epidermal cells as well as in epidermal bladder cells. In mature roots, transcripts were mainly localized to the vasculature, and in differentiated root tips, the strongest signals were obtained from the epidermis. Expression of McHAK1, McHAK2, and McHAK4 complemented a yeast mutant defective in low- and high-affinity K+ uptake. Growth of the yeast mutant was restored at low-millimolar K+ concentrations and was inhibited by Rb+ and Cs+ but was not affected by Na+. Transcript levels of McHAK1 andMcHAK4 increased by K+ starvation and by salt stress of 400 mm NaCl in leaves and roots. Expression of McHAK2 and McHAK3 was stimulated in leaves and was transiently induced in roots in response to high salinity with prestress transcript levels restored in salt-adapted plants. We discuss possible roles for such transporters in ion homeostasis at high salinity.
Dual PI3K/AKT/mTOR Inhibitor BEZ235 Synergistically Enhances the Activity of JAK2 Inhibitor against Cultured and Primary Human Myeloproliferative Neoplasm Cells

Hemopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) from myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) such as myelofibrosis commonly express mutant JAK2-V617F or other mutations that are associated with increased activities of JAK-STAT5/3, RAS/RAF/MAPK, and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways. This confers proliferative and survival advantage on the MPN HPCs. Treatment with JAK tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), for example, TG101209, TG101348 (SAR302503), or INCB018424 (ruxolitinib), inhibits mutant JAK2-mediated signaling. Although effective in reducing constitutional symptoms and splenomegaly, treatment with JAK-TKI does not ameliorate myelofibrosis or significantly improve survival of patients with advanced myelofibrosis. Here, we show that treatment with the dual phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT and mTOR inhibitor BEZ235 attenuated PI3K/AKT and mTOR signaling, as well as induced cell-cycle growth arrest and apoptosis of the cultured human JAK2-V617F-expressing HEL92.1. 7 (HEL), UKE1 cells, and primary CD34+ myelofibrosis (MF)-MPN cells. Treatment with BEZ235 also induced significant apoptosis of the JAK2-TKI resistant HEL/TGR cells that were selected for resistance against JAK-TKI. Cotreatment with BEZ235 and JAK2-TKI (TG101209 and SAR302503) synergistically induced lethal activity against the cultured and primary CD34+ MPN cells while relatively sparing the normal CD34+ HPCs. These findings create a compelling rationale to determine the in vivo activity of dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitors in combination with JAK inhibitors against myelofibrosis HPCs. Mol Cancer Ther; 12(5); 577–88. ©2013 AACR.
A multi-layered reflection model of natural human skin

The reflection model of human skin depends on the optical properties of its structural components, including a layer of naturally secreted sebum. Sebum is found over most parts of the body, causing skin to look more specular, depending on the viewing conditions. To capture the differences in appearance caused by the presence of sebum on skin surface, we have developed a three-layer simulation model. The resultant reflection model consists of the specular reflection due to the Fresnel effect, as well as the diffuse reflection from subsurface scattering. Optical and geometric properties are used as control parameters to influence the surface reflection and subsurface scattering of light within the three layers. The bi-directional reflectance distribution function obtained from the simulation is verified experimentally and used to render the natural appearance of human skin.
The good, the bad, and the muffled: the impact of different degradations on Internet speech

This paper presents an experiment comparing the relative impact of different types of degradation on subjective quality ratings of interactive speech transmitted over packet-switched networks. The experiment was inspired by observations made during a large-scale, long-term field trial of multicast conferencing. We observed that user reports of unsatisfactory speech quality were rarely due to network effects such as packet loss and jitter. A subsequent analysis of conference recordings found that in most cases, the impairment was caused by end-system hardware, equipment setup or user behavior. The results from the experiment confirm that the effects of volume differences, echo and bad microphones are rated worse than the level of packet loss most users are likely to experience on the Internet today, provided that a simple repair mechanism is used. Consequently, anyone designing or deploying network speech applications and services ought to consider the addition of diagnostics and tutorials to ensure acceptable speech quality.
Performance measures for video object segmentation and tracking

We propose measures to evaluate quantitatively the performance of video object segmentation and tracking methods without ground-truth (GT) segmentation maps. The proposed measures are based on spatial differences of color and motion along the boundary of the estimated video object plane and temporal differences between the color histogram of the current object plane and its predecessors. They can be used to localize (spatially and/or temporally) regions where segmentation results are good or bad; and/or they can be combined to yield a single numerical measure to indicate the goodness of the boundary segmentation and tracking results over a sequence. The validity of the proposed performance measures without GT have been demonstrated by canonical correlation analysis with another set of measures with GT on a set of sequences (where GT information is available). Experimental results are presented to evaluate the segmentation maps obtained from various sequences using different segmentation approaches.
Frequency of the apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 allele in a case-control study of early onset Parkinson's disease.

OBJECTIVES: It has been suggested that Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease may share a common or at least overlapping aetiology. The prevalence of dementia among cases of Parkinson's disease is known to be greater than expected in the general population. The frequency of the apolipoprotein epsilon 4 allele in a large case-control study of early onset Parkinson's disease has been examined. METHODS: 215 patients and 212 population based controls were recruited from the Republic of Ireland between 1992 and 1994. Cases had to have disease onset at 55 years or younger and be born after 1925. RESULTS: The frequency of the epsilon 4 allele was almost identical between cases of Parkinson's disease (14.6%) and healthy controls (13.3%). There was no relation between epsilon 4 status and disease onset, disease duration, Hoehn and Yahr score, and disease progression. The frequency of the epsilon 4 allele was not increased among 10 patients with Parkinson's disease with dementia (10.0%) compared with the other patients without dementia (14.8%). There was no association between epsilon 4 allele status and either a history of smoking, family history of dementia, or Parkinson's disease, or being born in a rural area. The odds ratio for the ApoE epsilon 4 allele associated with Parkinson's disease was 1.10 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.68-1.79), adjusting for age group, sex, and residential status. The pooled odds ratio from a meta-analysis of six studies of ApoE epsilon 4 status and Parkinson's disease was 0.94 (95% CI 0.69-1.27). CONCLUSIONS: The results from our study as well as the pooled meta-analysis exclude any important role for ApoE epsilon 4 status in the development of Parkinson's disease. Our results similarly do not support its role either in dementia associated with Parkinson's disease or disease prognosis.
Claimed Effects, Outcome Variables and Methods of Measurement for Health Claims Proposed Under European Community Regulation 1924/2006 in the Framework of Maintenance of Skin Function

Evidence suggests a protective role for several nutrients and foods in the maintenance of skin function. Nevertheless, all the requests for authorization to use health claims under Article 13(5) in the framework of maintenance of skin function presented to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have received a negative opinion. Reasons for such failures are mainly due to an insufficient substantiation of the claimed effects, including the choice of inappropriate outcome variables (OVs) and methods of measurement (MMs). The present paper reports the results of an investigation aimed at collecting, collating and critically analyzing the information with relation to claimed effects (CEs), OVs and MMs related to skin health compliance with Regulation 1924/2006. CEs, OVs and MMs were collected from both the EFSA Guidance document and from the authorization requests of health claims under Article 13(5). The critical analysis of OVs and MMs was based on a literature review, and was aimed at defining their appropriateness (alone or in combination with others) in the context of a specific CE. The results highlight the importance of an adequate choice of OVs and MMs for an effective substantiation of the claims.
Public vs. Private Prison Management: A Case Comparison

This study evaluates the private operation of a prison in comparison to its previous operation by a state agency, using a series of management-related performance measures derived from surveys of staff and from institutional records. The results are consistent with prior research in favoring private over public prison management on a majority of quantifiable comparisons. Qualitative data drawn from staff comments and from field observations support the quantitative comparisons and help to interpret them in terms of differences in organizational structure and climate. The private prison's advantages displayed the following pattern: a better designed facility; greater operational and administrative flexibility; decentralized authority and good communications; more performance-based personnel management; higher morale, enthusiasm, and sense of ownership among staff; greater experience and leadership among top administrators; and stricter, "by the book" governance of inmates. These traits may be fostered by the structure, incentives, and environment of private management.
Emotional, physical and sexual violence among Sami and non-Sami populations in Norway: The SAMINOR 2 questionnaire study

Aims: To assess the prevalence and investigate ethnic differences of emotional, physical and sexual violence among a population of both Sami and non-Sami in Norway. Methods: Our study was based on the SAMINOR 2 study, a population-based survey on health and living conditions in multiethnic areas with both Sami and non-Sami populations in Central and Northern Norway. Our study includes a total of 11,296 participants: 2197 (19.4%) Sami respondents and 9099 (80.6 %) non-Sami respondents. Results: Almost half of the Sami female respondents and one-third of the non-Sami female respondents reported any violence (any lifetime experience of violence). Sami women were more likely to report emotional, physical and sexual violence than non-Sami women. More than one-third of the Sami men compared with less than a quarter of non-Sami men reported having experienced any violence in their life. Sami men were more likely to report emotional and physical violence than non-Sami men. However, ethnicity was not significantly different regarding sexual violence experienced among men. Violence was typically reported to have occurred in childhood. Sami participants were more likely to report having experienced violence in the past 12 months. For all types of violence, the perpetrator was typically known to the victim. Conclusions: Regardless of gender, Sami respondents were more likely to report interpersonal violence. The prevalence of any violence was substantial in both ethnic groups and for both genders; it was highest among Sami women.
Prospective Study in a Porcine Model of Sarcoptes scabiei Indicates the Association of Th2 and Th17 Pathways with the Clinical Severity of Scabies

Background Understanding of scabies immunopathology has been hampered by the inability to undertake longitudinal studies in humans. Pigs are a useful animal model for scabies, and show clinical and immunologic changes similar to those in humans. Crusted scabies can be readily established in pigs by treatment with the glucocorticoid dexamethasone (Dex). Methodology/ Principal Findings Prospective study of 24 pigs in four groups: a) Scabies+/Dex+, b) Scabies+/Dex-, c) Scabies-/Dex+ and d) Scabies-/Dex-. Clinical symptoms were monitored. Histological profiling and transcriptional analysis of skin biopsies was undertaken to compare changes in cell infiltrates and representative cytokines. A range of clinical responses to Sarcoptes scabiei were observed in Dex treated and non-immunosuppressed pigs. An association was confirmed between disease severity and transcription of the Th2 cytokines IL-4 and IL-13, and up-regulation of the Th17 cytokines IL-17 and IL-23 in pigs with crusted scabies. Immunohistochemistry revealed marked infiltration of lymphocytes and mast cells, and strong staining for IL-17. Conclusions/ Significance While an allergic Th2 type response to scabies has been previously described, these results suggest that IL-17 related pathways may also contribute to immunopathology of crusted scabies. This may lead to new strategies to protect vulnerable subjects from contracting recurrent crusted scabies.
Moving for Job Reasons

In any economy, people are constantly moving around to take new jobs. This process is important to the efficiency of a nation. Yet little is known about it. The paper uses some of the first British panel data to examine the microeconomic determinants of residential mobility for job reasons. Two conclusions stand out. First, there is a marked asymmetry between males and females. When women are in relationships, they are less mobile than men for own job reasons, and more mobile for partner’s job reasons. The most mobile males are those living with a partner who does not work. Second, private rental housing seems to help to foster a more mobile workforce. These effects are robust to controls for both person fixed-effects and potential endogeneity. The paper also studies the effects of IQ, education, and other personal characteristics.
Predictors of Problematic Video Game Usage in Childhood and Adolescence

Aim: The aim of this article is to work out the differential significance of risk factors of media usage, personality and social environment in order to explain problematic video game usage in childhood and adolescence. Method: Data are drawn from the Berlin Longitudinal Study Media, a four-year longitudinal control group study with 1 207 school children. Data from 739 school children who participated at 5 th and 6 th grade were available for analysis. Result: To explain the development of problematic video game usage, all three areas, i. e. specific media usage patterns, certain aspects of personality and certain factors pertaining to social environment, must be taken into consideration. Video game genre, video gaming in reaction to failure in the real world (media usage), the childrens/adolescents� academic self-concept (personality), peer problems and parental care (social environment) are of particular significance. Conclusion: The results of the study emphasize that in future - and above all also longitudinal - studies different factors regarding social environment must also be taken into account with the recorded variables of media usage and personality in order to be able to explain the construct of problematic video game usage. Furthermore, this will open up possibilities for prevention.
Selecting Weighting Factors in Logarithmic Opinion Pools

A simple linear averaging of the outputs of several networks as e.g. in bagging [3], seems to follow naturally from a bias/variance decomposition of the sum-squared error. The sum-squared error of the average model is a quadratic function of the weighting factors assigned to the networks in the ensemble [7], suggesting a quadratic programming algorithm for finding the "optimal" weighting factors. If we interpret the output of a network as a probability statement, the sum-squared error corresponds to minus the loglikelihood or the Kullback-Leibler divergence, and linear averaging of the outputs to logarithmic averaging of the probability statements: the logarithmic opinion pool. The crux of this paper is that this whole story about model averaging, bias/variance decompositions, and quadratic programming to find the optimal weighting factors, is not specific for the sum-squared error, but applies to the combination of probability statements of any kind in a logarithmic opinion pool, as long as the Kullback-Leibler divergence plays the role of the error measure. As examples we treat model averaging for classification models under a cross-entropy error measure and models for estimating variances.
Mice infer probabilistic models for timing

Significance To make optimal decisions in the presence of uncertainty requires the inference of probabilistic models. For example, financial decision theory posits that selection of optimal portfolios requires information about both the mean and variance of expected returns. In the timing literature it is often suggested that rodents learn the delay until reward delivery with a fixed relative uncertainty. However, in a natural environment the timing of events may have an arbitrary uncertainty. Thus, we asked whether mice could infer probabilistic models of timing in highly dynamic environments. Here we have developed a behavioral paradigm to show that mice can accumulate reward timing information over many tens of trials to infer accurate probabilistic models and make optimal decisions. Animals learn both whether and when a reward will occur. Neural models of timing posit that animals learn the mean time until reward perturbed by a fixed relative uncertainty. Nonetheless, animals can learn to perform actions for reward even in highly variable natural environments. Optimal inference in the presence of variable information requires probabilistic models, yet it is unclear whether animals can infer such models for reward timing. Here, we develop a behavioral paradigm in which optimal performance required knowledge of the distribution from which reward delays were chosen. We found that mice were able to accurately adjust their behavior to the SD of the reward delay distribution. Importantly, mice were able to flexibly adjust the amount of prior information used for inference according to the moment-by-moment demands of the task. The ability to infer probabilistic models for timing may allow mice to adapt to complex and dynamic natural environments.