Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preference Elicitation for Single Crossing Domain

Eliciting the preferences of a set of agents over a set of alternatives is a problem of fundamental importance in social choice theory. Prior work on this problem has studied the query complexity of preference elicitation for the unrestricted domain and for the domain of single peaked preferences. In this paper, we consider the domain of single crossing preference profiles and study the query complexity of preference elicitation under various settings. We consider two distinct situations: when an ordering of the voters with respect to which the profile is single crossing is known versus when it is unknown. We also consider different access models: when the votes can be accessed at random, as opposed to when they are coming in a pre-defined sequence. In the sequential access model, we distinguish two cases when the ordering is known: the first is that sequence in which the votes appear is also a single-crossing order, versus when it is not. The main contribution of our work is to provide polynomial time algorithms with low query complexity for preference elicitation in all the above six cases. Further, we show that the query complexities of our algorithms are optimal up to constant factors for all but one of the above six cases. We then present preference elicitation algorithms for profiles which are close to being single crossing under various notions of closeness, for example, single crossing width, minimum number of candidates | voters whose deletion makes a profile single crossing.
Polynomial bounds for rings of invariants

Hilbert proved that invariant rings are (cid:12)nitely generated for linearly reductive groups acting rationally on a (cid:12)nite dimensional vector space. Popov gave an explicit upper bound for the smallest integer d such that the invariants of degree (cid:20) d generate the invariant ring. This bound has factorial growth. In this paper we will give a bound which depends only polynomially on the input data.
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adolescent Delinquency in a High-Risk Sample

Research shows that adverse events experienced during childhood (i.e., adverse childhood experiences [ACEs]) are problematic, but few studies have examined race differences in the prevalence and impact of ACEs on delinquency. This study investigated these relationships using prospective data from approximately 600 high-risk families in the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect. Ten ACEs were measured, five types of child maltreatment and five types of household dysfunction. White youth experienced a significantly greater number of ACEs (4.08) compared to Black youth (2.90) and a greater prevalence of seven individual ACEs. According to logistic regression analyses, the number of ACEs significantly increased the likelihood of self-reported alcohol use, marijuana use, violence (in some models), and arrest at age 16 among Blacks but not Whites; race differences were statistically significant for alcohol use, marijuana use, and arrest. The findings support the need for juvenile justice officials to recognize the trauma histories of youth offenders when determining appropriate treatment and sanctions.
Too Much of a Good Thing? Self-Esteem and Latinx Immigrant Youth Academic Achievement

Self-esteem is often invoked in scholarly literature and popular belief alike as contributing positively to academic achievement in immigrant youth. Yet, research exploring this link is sparse and findings are mixed. This article reports on a 5-year-long ethnographic case study exploring the educational path of a college-bound Latino adolescent in one southeastern U.S. new immigrant community in which the student’s high self-esteem appeared to have a negative influence on academic achievement. The study traces how high self-esteem caused the student to disregard negative feedback regarding his academic performance and focus his attention instead on excelling in extracurricular pursuits, particularly athletics. The study also finds that educators gave mixed messages about achievement that reinforced the student’s high self-esteem but contributed to low academic expectations and outcomes. In all, it suggests the need to reexamine the assumed link between high self-esteem and academic achievement in immigrant youth and to consider individual differences.
Address generator realization using completely-specified Boolean functions

We are proposing a cost-efficient realization scheme for completely-specified logic functions characterized by a huge disproportion. The functions described contain millions of input words but only few of them can give us information. An appropriate method of logic synthesis for identifying mentioned vectors (registered vectors) has been developed. In this method logic functions are implemented using both embedded memory blocks and LUT-based programmable logic blocks available in today’s FPGAs. The paper presents the results of our research. In comparison with the classical logic synthesis methods and other dedicated methods we have obtained extremely encouraging results: with a comparable number of EMBs, the number of logic cells has been reduced by 95%. The investigation has been implemented using Altera’s Stratix devices.
The Role of the Membrane-Initiated Heat Shock Response in Cancer

The heat shock response (HSR) is a cellular response to diverse environmental and physiological stressors resulting in the induction of genes encoding molecular chaperones, proteases, and other proteins that are essential for protection and recovery from cellular damage. Since different perturbations cause accumulation of misfolded proteins, cells frequently encounter fluctuations in the environment which alter proteostasis. Since tumor cells use their natural adaptive mechanism of coping with stress and misfolded proteins, in recent years, the proteostasis network became a promising target for anti-tumor therapy. The membrane is the first to be affected by heat shock and therefore may be the first one to sense heat shock. The membrane also connects between the extracellular and the intracellular signals. Hence, there is a “cross talk” between the HSR and the membranes since heat shock can induce changes in the fluidity of membranes, leading to membrane lipid remodeling that occurs in several diseases such as cancer. During the last decade, a new possible therapy has emerged in which an external molecule is used that could induce membrane lipid re-organization. Since at the moment there are very few substances that regulate the HSR effectively, an alternative way has been searched to modulate chaperone activities through the plasma membrane. Recently, we suggested that the use of the membrane Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid-1 (TRPV1) modulators regulated the HSR in cancer cells. However, the primary targets of the signal transduction pathway are yet un-known. This review provides an overview of the current literature regarding the role of HSR in membrane remodeling in cancer since a deep understanding of the membrane biology in cancer and the membrane heat sensing pathway is essential to design novel efficient therapies.
Dementia and Depression with Ischemic Heart Disease: A Population-Based Longitudinal Study Comparing Interventional Approaches to Medical Management

Background We compared the proportion of ischemic heart disease (IHD) patients newly diagnosed with dementia and depression across three treatment groups: percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and medical management alone (IHD-medical). Methods and Findings De-identified, individual-level administrative records of health service use for the population of Manitoba, Canada (approximately 1.1 million) were examined. From April 1, 1993 to March 31, 1998, patients were identified with a diagnosis of IHD (ICD-9-CM codes). Index events of CABG or PCI were identified from April 1, 1998 to March 31, 2003. Outcomes were depression or dementia after the index event. Patients were followed forward to March 31, 2006 or until censored. Proportional hazards regression analysis was undertaken. Independent variables examined were age, sex, diabetes, hypertension and income quintile, medical management alone for IHD, or intervention by PCI or CABG. Age, sex, diabetes, and presence of hypertension were all strongly associated with the diagnosis of depression and dementia. There was no association with income quintile. Dementia was less frequent with PCI compared to medical management; (HR = 0.65; p = 0.017). CABG did not provide the same protective effect compared to medical management (HR = 0.90; p = 0.372). New diagnosis depression was more frequent with interventional approaches: PCI (n = 626; hazard ratio = 1.25; p = 0.028) and CABG (n = 1124, HR = 1.32; p = 0.0001) than non-interventional patients (n = 34,508). Subsequent CABG was nearly 16-fold higher (p<0.0001) and subsequent PCI was 22-fold higher (p<0.0001) for PCI-managed than CABG-managed patients. Conclusions Patients managed with PCI had the lowest likelihood of dementia—only 65% of the risk for medical management alone. Both interventional approaches were associated with a higher risk of new diagnosed depression compared to medical management. Long-term myocardial revascularization was superior with CABG. These findings suggest that PCI may confer a long-term protective effect from dementia. The mechanism(s) of dementia protection requires elucidation.
Victimization-Precipitated Residential Mobility Among Women Offenders

Victims of crime are likely to move residence following their victimization. However, the reasons for and the outcomes of victimization-precipitated moves remain unclear. The current study uses life event calendar data on jailed women to test two potential mechanisms: relationship dissolution and perceptions of neighborhood safety. In addition, this study seeks to understand how the safety of women’s residential contexts is affected by their past victimizations and residential mobility. Results show that intimate partner victimization is associated with increased odds of moving, and this relationship is partially mediated by relationship dissolution. Furthermore, moving and nonpartner victimization interact in their effects on neighborhood safety, such that moves following higher levels of victimization lead women into more dangerous neighborhoods.
Phase Segregation for Binary Mixtures of Bose-Einstein Condensates

We study the strong segregation limit for mixtures of Bose-Einstein condensates modelled by a Gross-Pitaievskii functional. Our first main result is that in presence of a trapping potential, for different intracomponent strengths, the Thomas-Fermi limit is sufficient to determine the shape of the minimizers. Our second main result is that for asymptotically equal intracomponent strengths, one needs to go to the next order. The relevant limit is a weighted isoperimetric problem. We then study the minimizers of this limit problem, proving radial symmetry or symmetry breaking for different values of the parameters. We finally show that in the absence of a confining potential, even for non-equal intracomponent strengths, one needs to study a related isoperimetric problem to gain information about the shape of the minimizers.
PROBING THE EPOCH OF REIONIZATION WITH THE Lyα FOREST AT z ∼ 4–5

The inhomogeneous cosmological reionization process leaves tangible imprints in the intergalactic medium (IGM) down to z ∼ 4–5. The Lyα forest flux power spectrum provides a potentially powerful probe of the epoch of reionization. With the existing Sloan Digital Sky Survey I/II quasar sample, we show that two cosmological reionization scenarios, one completing reionization at z = 6 and the other at z = 9, can be distinguished at ∼7σ level by utilizing Lyα forest absorption spectra at z = 3.9–4.1 in the absence of other physical processes that may also affect the Lyα flux power spectrum. The difference may not be distinguishable at such high significance after marginalization over other effects, but, in any case, one will need to consider this effect in order to correctly interpret the power spectrum in this redshift range. The redshift range z = 4–5 may provide the best window because there are still enough transmitted flux and quasars to measure precise statistics of the flux fluctuations, and the IGM still retains a significant amount of memory of reionization.
Bacterial Extracellular Polysaccharides Involved in Biofilm Formation

Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) produced by microorganisms are a complex mixture of biopolymers primarily consisting of polysaccharides, as well as proteins, nucleic acids, lipids and humic substances. EPS make up the intercellular space of microbial aggregates and form the structure and architecture of the biofilm matrix. The key functions of EPS comprise the mediation of the initial attachment of cells to different substrata and protection against environmental stress and dehydration. The aim of this review is to present a summary of the current status of the research into the role of EPS in bacterial attachment followed by biofilm formation. The latter has a profound impact on an array of biomedical, biotechnology and industrial fields including pharmaceutical and surgical applications, food engineering, bioremediation and biohydrometallurgy. The diverse structural variations of EPS produced by bacteria of different taxonomic lineages, together with examples of biotechnological applications, are discussed. Finally, a range of novel techniques that can be used in studies involving biofilm-specific polysaccharides is discussed.
Tax Progressivity and Income Inequality

This paper examines whether income inequality is affected by the structural progressivity of national income tax systems. Using detailed personal income tax schedules for a large panel of countries, we develop and estimate comprehensive, time-varying measures of structural progressivity of national income tax systems over the 1981-2005 period. We find that while progressivity reduces observed inequality in reported gross and net income, it has a significantly smaller impact on true inequality, approximated by consumption-based measures of Gini. We show theoretically and empirically that, under specific conditions, tax progressivity may increase actual inequality, especially in countries with weak law and order and a large informal nontaxable sector. The paper discusses implications of these results for increasingly popular flat tax policies. The Kuznets hypothesis is also supported by the estimates.
Is there a latitudinal gradient in seed production

We compiled data from seed rain studies at 33 sites from around the world to determine whether the greater mean seed mass of tropical plants is associated with production of fewer seeds per square meter of ground. We found no significant linear relationship between latitude and annual seed rain density, but found some evidence for a mid-latitude peak in seed rain density (quadratic relationship, p =0.018; R 2 =0.23). Combining seed rain data with seed mass data suggests that vegetation at the equator produces between 19 and 128 times more total mass of seed per year than does vegetation at 60°. This gradient in seed production would far outweigh the doubling in net primary productivity (NPP) over the same range of latitudes. Thus, our (admittedly small) dataset suggests that tropical vegetation allocates a much greater proportion of NPP to reproduction. This raises two important questions for the future: 1) why might tropical vegetation commit more energy to seed production than vegetation further from the equator? 2) What aspect of plant growth might receive proportionally less energy in tropical ecosystems?
A dynamic mechanism for LQG power networks with random type parameters and pricing delay

We consider a dynamic game model of power networks with generators and/or consumers, called agents, and one public commission, called utility; a game with a prescribed dynamic mechanism is performed such that each agent decides a private control to minimize its own cost functional, and the utility manages information transmissions between the utility and agents and decides command signals, called prices, to minimize a public cost functional. We discuss designs of the mechanism that integrates strategic determinations of private controls by the agents into the optimal public controls that achieve the optimal social welfare and rational agents can accept. The model of this paper is a generic linear Gaussian model of power networks, which is motivated by so-called average system frequency models; in each model of the agents, we includes the type parameter presenting each agent's private information; we also consider the time delay in calculation of prices by utility. Assuming that each private cost functional as well as the public cost functional is quadratic, we derive formulas of the pricing schemes, and the incentive cost, inspired by the pivot function in the mechanism design theory literate from economics, that characterize our mechanism design in both formulations of the fixed horizon control and the receding horizon control cases.
Longitudinal study of associations between perceived health status and self reported diseases in the French Gazel cohort

STUDY OBJECTIVE Although perceived health status is an indicator widely used in epidemiological studies, its relation to various diseases is not well known. The objective of this study is to examine these relations in detail. DESIGN Marginal models used for a longitudinal study of the association between three health scales and 47 diseases among 12 164 men and 44 diseases among 4415 women. SETTING French Gazel cohort during the period from 1991 to 1996. MAIN RESULTS The general health status scale was significantly associated with 43 diseases among men, and 31 among women. Some of these significantly associated diseases were physical (for example, cancer and cerebrovascular accident) and others, psychological (for example, depression). The mental fatigue scale was more specifically associated with psychological disorders, including sleep problems, depression, and nervous diseases. Moreover, modifications in subjects' assessment of their health from one year to the next were generally associated with modifications in reported diseases. CONCLUSION Although the mechanism that relates the presence of a disease to perceived health status remains in question, these results show clearly that there is a close association between these two domains that justifies the use of perceived health as a proxy for self reported diseases.
Speaking for Purpose: A Case Study of Bilingual Immersion Pedagogy Within the Chinese EFL Context

The objective of this international case study is to explore the beliefs and practices of two Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and two Chinese pre-service teachers of English teaching within the EFL program in China. Working in partnership with the Reciprocal Learning Program, part of the SSHRC Partnership Grant Project, the study was able to conduct research at Southwest University in Chongqing, China. Through a qualitative case study framework, the study has implemented a narrative inquiry methodology using observations, interviews, and a document analysis as the primary data collection methods. Observations in two Southwestern Chinese EFL school classrooms were conducted in order to gauge the teaching practice and implementation of bilingual education and language immersion within the classroom. Interviews were conducted with each of the Chinese EFL school teachers and university pre-service teacher candidates in order to capture their teaching beliefs, lived experiences, thoughts, and stories within their lives and the English language learning program. A document analysis was conducted for EFL teaching materials and resources in order to gauge their support of the EFL learning environment. The findings of the study provide insight into the fundamental objectives of the Chinese English as a Foreign Language program, developing English teacher pedagogy, and international language teaching practices. The particular study supports future international education implementing cross-cultural learning where both Canada and China may learn cooperatively together.
Optimized feature selection towards functional and non-functional requirements in Software Product Lines

As an important research issue in software product line, feature selection is extensively studied. Besides the basic functional requirements (FRs), the non-functional requirements (NFRs) are also critical during feature selection. Some NFRs have numerical constraints, while some have not. Without clear criteria, the latter are always expected to be the best possible. However, most existing selection methods ignore the combination of constrained and unconstrained NFRs and FRs. Meanwhile, the complex constraints and dependencies among features are perpetual challenges for feature selection. To this end, this paper proposes a multi-objective optimization algorithm IVEA to optimize the selection of features with NFRs and FRs by considering the relations among these features. Particularly, we first propose a two-dimensional fitness function. One dimension is to optimize the NFRs without quantitative constraints. The other one is to assure the selected features satisfy the FRs, and conform to the relations among features. Second, we propose a violation-dominance principle, which guides the optimization under FRs and the relations among features. We conducted comprehensive experiments on two feature models with different sizes to evaluate IVEA with state-of-the-art multi-objective optimization algorithms, including IBEAHD, IBEAε+, NSGA-II and SPEA2. The results showed that the IVEA significantly outperforms the above baselines in the NFRs optimization. Meanwhile, our algorithm needs less time to generate a solution that meets the FRs and the constraints on NFRs and fully conforms to the feature model.
The influence of acculturation on parental expectations and parental strategies among Japanese mothers

-,, Previous cross-cultural studies(Hess et al, 1980: Goodnowet al, 1984)suggest that parental expectations and parental practices seem to be derived from cultural and social expectations. Less clear is what happens to individuals who come to a foreign country and are exposed to different cultural values and ideas. The researcher collected data on Japanese mothers who are first generation in the U.S. and Caucasian American mothers in order to see if there are differences in maternal expectations toward their children's developmentand parenting practices. It is hypothesized that the more acculturated the Japanese mothers, the more they share American mothers'expectation and strategies toward their children. Specifically, acculturated Japanese mothers are more likely to expect children to be independent and verbally assertive, and have social skills. Also acculturated Japanese mothers are more likely to use"Power-oriented" strategies. The results ofthe study show that Japanese mothers have significantly earlier expectations for emotional maturity and independence whereas American mothers have significantly earlier expectations for social skills and verbal assertiveness. Japanese mothers are more likely to perform "Love­ oriented"control strategy whereas American mothers are more likely to use "Power-oriented"strategy. The level of acculturation among Japanese mothers affects their parental expectations toward children but not their parental control