Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gradient phonological relationships: Evidence from vowels in French

The dichotomy of contrastive and allophonic phonological relationships has a long-standing tradition in phonology, but there is growing research that points to phonological relationships that fall between contrastive and allophonic. Measures of lexical distinction (minimal pair counts) and predictability of distribution were applied to Laurentian French vowels to quantify three degrees of contrast between pairs: high, mid, and low contrast. According to traditional definitions, both the high and mid contrast pairs are classified as phonologically contrastive, and low contrast pairs as allophonic. As such, a binary view of contrast (contrastive vs. non-contrastive) predicted that high and mid contrast pairs would pattern together on tasks of speech perception, and low contrast pairs would show a different pattern. The gradient view predicted all vowel pairs would fall along a continuum. Thirty-two speakers of Laurentian French participated in two experiments: an AX task and a similarity rating task. The results did not support a strict binary interpretation of contrast, since the high, mid, and low contrast vowel pairs pattern differently across the experiments. Instead, the results support a gradient view of phonological relationships. This article is part of the special collection: Marginal Contrasts
Optimal Monetary Policy at the Zero Lower Bound

We study optimal monetary policy at the zero lower bound. The macroeconomy we study has considerable income inequality which gives rise to a large private sector credit market. Households participating in this market use non-state contingent nominal contracts (NSCNC). A second, small group of households only uses cash and cannot participate in the credit market. The monetary authority supplies currency to cash-using households in a way that changes the price level to provide for optimal risk-sharing in the private credit market and thus to overcome the NSCNC friction. For sufficiently large and persistent negative shocks the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates may threaten to bind. The monetary authority may credibly promise to increase the price level in this situation to maintain a smoothly functioning (complete) credit market. The optimal monetary policy in this model can be broadly viewed as a version of nominal GDP targeting.
DAMPs, PAMPs and alarmins: all we need to know about danger

Multicellular animals detect pathogens via a set of receptors that recognize pathogen‐associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). However, pathogens are not the only causative agents of tissue and cell damage: trauma is another one. Evidence is accumulating that trauma and its associated tissue damage are recognized at the cell level via receptor‐mediated detection of intracellular proteins released by the dead cells. The term “alarmin” is proposed to categorize such endogenous molecules that signal tissue and cell damage. Intriguingly, effector cells of innate and adaptive immunity can secrete alarmins via nonclassical pathways and often do so when they are activated by PAMPs or other alarmins. Endogenous alarmins and exogenous PAMPs therefore convey a similar message and elicit similar responses; they can be considered subgroups of a larger set, the damage‐associated molecular patterns (DAMPs).
Disaster Myths Among Disaster Response Professionals and the Source of Such Misconceptions

This study examined how pervasive disaster myths would be among disaster response professionals (n&#160;=&#160;401) compared to lay people (n&#160;=&#160;600), as well as sources of disaster myths among them. Results revealed that both of the groups believed five common disaster myths to some extent. Moreover, the mass media had a positive association with only one myth among these professionals, while the media was positively associated with all the five myths among lay people. In summary, the present findings indicated that disaster response professionals were not more insightful into all the myths than lay people, and that the mass media and popular culture were not the principal sources of the disaster myths among these professionals.
Development of a design performance measurement matrixfor improving collaborative design during a design process

Purpose of this paper: the purpose of this paper is to investigate how to measure collaborative design performance and, in turn, improve the final design output during a design process, with a clear objective to develop a Design Performance Measurement (DPM) matrix to measure design project team members¹ design collaboration performances. Design/methodology/approach: the methodology adopted in this research uses critical literature reviews, in-depth focus groups interviews and a questionnaire survey. Findings: the main finding of this study is a DPM matrix that addresses five DPM indicators: efficiency, effectiveness, collaboration, management skill, and innovation, and 25 detailed DPM criteria. It was found that decision-making efficiency is the most important DPM criteria for collaborative design efficiency; plus delivering to the brief for effectiveness; clear team goal/objectives for collaboration; decision-making ability for management skill; and competitive advantage for innovation. Research limitations/implications: as the present study was focused on exploring DPM during a design process, some key DPM criteria, which are not measurable during a design development process, were not included in this study. The proposed multi-feedback approach for DPM matrix implementation needs to be validated in future research. Practical implications: the DPM matrix can be applied to support a design manager in measuring and improving collaborative design performance during a design process, by reviewing and modifying collaborative design development, identifying the design team strengths and weaknesses, improving team communication, and suggesting suitable responsive actions. Original/values: the major contribution of this study is the investigation and development of a DPM matrix to measure collaborative design performance during a design process
Language and Identity in Online Gamer Community

The purpose of this study is to explain the relationship between language, identity, and community within online gamer community. This study specifically aims to explain 1) the difference in choice of words between groups, and 2) the implication of types of post in each group. The data were gathered through participant observation and interview. The groups chosen for this study were 4 Facebook groups from 3 online Japanese mobile games entitled Monster Strike, Puzzle and Dragon, and Brave Frontier due to their similarity. The analysis was done by comparing similar expression such as question and request. It was found that even though the game system is similar, each group has different ways to refers to the same thing, this at the same time also serves as group marker. Another finding is that each group has different perception towards particular element within their respective group and this can be analyzed from how they interact within their own group.
Music Shapelets for Fast Cover Song Recognition

A cover song is a new performance or recording of a previously recorded music by an artist other than the original one. The automatic identiﬁcation of cover songs is useful for a wide range of tasks, from fans looking for new versions of their favorite songs to organizations involved in licensing copyrighted songs. This is a difﬁcult task given that a cover may differ from the original song in key, timbre, tempo, structure, arrangement and even language of the vocals. Cover song identiﬁcation has attracted some attention recently. However, most of the state-of-the-art approaches are based on similarity search, which involves a large number of similarity computations to retrieve potential cover versions for a query recording. In this paper, we adapt the idea of time series shapelets for content-based music retrieval. Our proposal adds a training phase that ﬁnds small excerpts of feature vectors that best describe each song. We demonstrate that we can use such small segments to identify cover songs with higher identi-ﬁcation rates and more than one order of magnitude faster than methods that use features to describe the whole music.
Climate Extremes and Society: An exploration of trends in normalized weather-related catastrophe losses

Condensed summary In order to evaluate potential trends in global natural catastrophe losses, it is important to compensate for changes in asset values and exposures over time. We create a Global Normalized Catastrophe Catalogue covering weather-related catastrophe losses in the principal developed (Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, South Korea, United States) and developing (Caribbean, Central America, China, India, the Philippines) regions of the world. We survey losses from 1950 through 2005, although data availability means that for many regions the record is incomplete for the period before the 1970s even for the largest events. After 1970, when the global record becomes more comprehensive, we find evidence of an annual upward trend for normalized losses of 2% per year. Conclusions are heavily weighted by US losses, and their removal eliminates any statistically significant trend. Large events, such as Hurricane Katrina and China flood losses in the 1990s, also exert a strong impact on trend results. In addition, once national losses are further normalized relative to per capita wealth, the significance of the post-1970 global trend disappears. We find insufficient evidence to claim a statistical relationship between global temperature increase and normalized catastrophe losses. Introduction Economic losses attributed to natural disasters have increased from US$75.5 billion in the 1960s to US$659.9 billion in the 1990s (United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], 2004), for an annual growth rate of approximately 8%. Private sector data also show rising insured losses over a similar period (Munich Re, 2001; Swiss Re, 2005).
Pass-through as an Economic Tool

Pass-through rates play an analogous role in imperfectly competitive markets to elasticities under perfect competition. Log-curvature of demand links the pass-through of cost and production shocks to the division between consumer and producer surplus. Therefore in a wide range of single-product, symmetric multi-product, two-sided markets and merger analysis models knowledge of simple qualitative properties of the passthrough rate sign, and full knowledge of it quanties, many comparative statics. Most functional forms for theoretical and empirical analysis put unjustied ex-ante restric
The role of sedation in endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration: Systematic review

Background: Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) is a minimally invasive procedure that has become an important tool in diagnosis and staging of mediastinal lymph node (LN) lesions in lung cancer. Adequate sedation is an important part of the procedure since it provides patient′s comfort and potentially increases diagnostic yield. We aimed to compare deep sedation (DS) versus moderate sedation (MS) in patients undergoing EBUS-TBNA procedure. Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Cochrane Library were searched for English studies of clinical trials comparing the two different methods of sedations in EBUS-TBNA until December 2015. The overall diagnostic yield, LN size sampling, procedural time, complication, and safety were evaluated. Results: Six studies with 3000 patients which compared two different modalities of sedation in patients performing EBUS-TBNA were included in the study. The overall diagnostic yield of DS method was 52.3%-100% and MS method was 46.1%-85.7%. The overall sensitivity of EBUS-TBNA of DS method was 98.15%-100% as compared with 80%-98.08% in MS method. The overall procedural times were 27.2-50.9 min and 20.6-44.1 min in DS and MS groups, respectively. The numbers of LN sampled were between 1.33-3.20 nodes and 1.36-2.80 nodes in DS and MS groups, respectively. The numbers of passes per LN were 3.21-3.70 passes in DS group as compared to 2.73-3.00 passes in MS group. The mean of LN size was indifferent between two groups. None of the studies included reported serious adverse events. Conclusions: Using MS in EBUS-TBNA has comparable diagnostic yield and safety profile to DS. The decision on the method of sedation for EBUS-TBNA should be individually selected based on operator experience, patient preference, as well as duration of the anticipated procedure.
Risk of cancer in patients with dermatomyositis or polymyositis, and follow-up implications: a Scottish population-based cohort study

We conducted a national, retrospective population-based cohort study of 705 patients hospitalized with a first diagnosis of dermatomyositis (DM) or polymyositis (PM) during 1982–1996 based on linkage of hospital discharge, cancer registration, and death records in Scotland. Risks of cancer were assessed by calculating standardized incidence ratios (SIR). A first malignancy was diagnosed concurrently or subsequently in 50 patients with DM (SIR 7.7, 95% CI 5.7–10.1), and 40 patients with PM (2.1, 1.5–2.9). Significantly elevated risks were observed for lung, cervix uteri, and ovarian cancer in patients with DM, and for Hodgkin's disease in patients with PM. The excess risk of cancer was highest around the time of diagnosis, and for patients with DM remained high for at least 2 years. Risks were elevated for both sexes but only significantly so for females, and were highest in patients aged 45–74 years at the time of diagnosis for DM and 15–44 for PM. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer. com
Shrunken Pore Syndrome is associated with a sharp rise in mortality in patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass grafting

Abstract Shrunken Pore Syndrome was recently suggested for the pathophysiologic state in patients characterized by an estimation of their glomerular filtration rate (GFR) based upon cystatin C, which is lower or equal to 60% of their estimated GFR based upon creatinine, i.e. when eGFRcystatin C ≤ 60% of eGFRcreatinine. Not only the cystatin C level, but also the levels of other low molecular mass proteins are increased in this condition. The preoperative plasma levels of cystatin C and creatinine were measured in 1638 patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass grafting. eGFRcystatin C and eGFRcreatinine were calculated using two pairs of estimating equations, CAPA and LMrev, and CKD-EPIcystatin C and CKD-EPIcreatinine, respectively. The Shrunken Pore Syndrome was present in 2.1% of the patients as defined by the CAPA and LMrev equations and in 5.7% of the patients as defined by the CKD-EPIcystatin C and CKD-EPIcreatinine equations. The patients were studied over a median follow-up time of 3.5 years (2.0–5.0 years) and the mortality determined. Shrunken Pore Syndrome defined by both pairs of equations was a strong, independent, predictor of long-term mortality as evaluated by Cox analysis and as illustrated by Kaplan-Meier curves. Increased mortality was observed also for the subgroups of patients with GFR above or below 60 mL/min/1.73 m2. Changing the cut-off level from 60 to 70% for the CAPA and LMrev equations increased the number of patients with Shrunken Pore Syndrome to 6.5%, still displaying increased mortality.
Adaptively Secure Identity-Based Broadcast Encryption With a Constant-Sized Ciphertext

In this paper, we present an adaptively secure identity-based broadcast encryption system featuring constant sized ciphertext in the standard model. The size of the public key and the private keys of our system are both linear in the maximum number of receivers. In addition, our system is fully collusion-resistant and has stateless receivers. Compared with the state-of-the-art, our scheme is well optimized for the broadcast encryption. The computational complexity of decryption of our scheme depends only on the number of receivers, not the maximum number of receivers of the system. Technically, we employ dual system encryption technique and our proposal offers adaptive security under the general subgroup decisional assumption. Our scheme demonstrates that the adaptive security of the schemes utilizing a composite order group can be proven under the general subgroup decisional assumption, while many existing systems working in a composite order group are secure under multiple subgroup decision assumptions. We note that this finding is of an independent interest, which may be useful in other scenarios.
Wikipedia research and tools: Review and comments

I here give an overview of Wikipedia and wiki research and tools. Well over 1,000 reports have been published in the field and there exist dedicated scientific meetings for Wikipedia research. It is not possible to give a complete review of all material published. This overview serves to describe some key areas of research.The present version is a working draft.
Trait mindfulness may buffer against the deleterious effects of childhood abuse in recurrent depression: A retrospective exploratory study

Background: Individuals with a history of childhood maltreatment are particularly vulnerable to a longer course of depression. Immunisation theories of resilience suggest that resilience and related factors may buffer against the deleterious effects of early childhood adversity. Trait mindfulness is linked to resilience and may be a pathway to cultivating this dynamic process. In this study, we investigated whether trait mindfulness can buffer against the effects of early childhood maltreatment in predicting lifetime number of months depressed. Methods: We recruited 43 previously depressed, currently remitted patients, and retrospectively examined their depression history (using a structured interview, LIFE-SCID (Longitudinal Interval Follow-Up Evaluation— Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV)), their self-reported experience of maltreatment in the first 16 years of life (MOPS (Measure of Parental Style)), and their levels of trait mindfulness (MAAS (Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale)). Results: We found that number of months depressed in a lifetime was positively associated with reported childhood maltreatment, and negatively associated with trait mindfulness. Second, we found evidence that trait mindfulness significantly moderated the relationship of early childhood maltreatment and number of months depressed. Specifically, it appears that individuals who report severe histories of maltreatment are especially vulnerable to recurrent depression if they are also reporting low levels of trait mindfulness. Conclusions: Increasing mindfulness may be warranted among individuals reporting a history of childhood abuse with lower baselines of trait mindfulness; however, results of this retrospective study require replication in a larger, prospective trial.
Presynaptic Calcium Channels : CDNA Cloning 6

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Identification of Protein Domains That Control Proton and Calcium Sensitivity of ASIC1a*

The acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) open in response to extracellular acidic pH, and individual subunits display differential sensitivity to protons and calcium. ASIC1a acts as a high affinity proton sensor, whereas ASIC2a requires substantially greater proton concentrations to activate. Using chimeras composed of ASIC1a and ASIC2a, we determined that two regions of the extracellular domain (residues 87–197 and 323–431) specify the high affinity proton response of ASIC1a. These two regions appear to undergo intersubunit interactions within the multimeric channel to specify proton sensitivity. Single amino acid mutations revealed that amino acids around Asp357 play a prominent role in determining the pH dose response of ASIC1a. Within the same region, mutation F352L abolished PcTx1 modulation of ASIC1a. Surprisingly, we determined that another area of the extracellular domain was required for calcium-dependent regulation of ASIC1a activation, and this region functioned independently of high affinity proton sensing. These results indicate that specific regions play overlapping roles in pH-dependent gating and PcTx1-dependent modulation of ASIC1a activity, whereas a distinct region determines the calcium dependence of ASIC1a activation.
The enemy within: The dangers of Chantal Mouffe’s figure of the adversary to the democratic task of agonistic planning

Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic pluralism calls for the mediation of antagonism. In planning theory, increasingly influential agonistic planning theory has taken inspiration from Mouffe’s neo-Schmittian radical democratic theory and promoted as its democratic task the transformation of antagonistic relation between friends and enemies into agonistic ones between adversaries. To accomplish this democratic task, however, I argue that it is not enough to transform antagonism into agonism and that agonism must also be prevented from transforming into antagonism. To this end, I first consider how Carl Schmitt’s formulation of the political as the friend–enemy concept is presupposed in his understanding of the state and is linked directly to his decisionist theory of sovereignty. Transforming antagonism into agonism could thus potentially compromise the effectiveness of sovereign decisions and the unity of social order, and I argue that the mediation of antagonism should be considered to involve the mediation between friends and enemies as well as the mediation between chaos and order. Yet the Mouffean figure of the adversary cannot adequately address the latter. With Bauman and Norval, I draw attention to Zygmunt Bauman’s figure of the stranger in the mediation between chaos and order and, with Sandercock, to a possible complementarity between Mouffe-inspired agonistic planning theory and Sandercock’s postmodern therapeutic planning theory. This complementarity is then examined through a number of empirical planning literature on agonistic and therapeutic planning practices, and I conclude by calling for the recognition of both the Mouffean figure of the adversary and Bauman’s figure of the stranger in implementing the democratic task of agonistic planning theory.