Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nonperturbative studies of fuzzy spheres in a matrix model with the Chern-Simons term

Fuzzy spheres appear as classical solutions in a matrix model obtained via dimensional reduction of 3-dimensional Yang-Mills theory with the Chern-Simons term. Well-defined perturbative expansion around these solutions can be formulated even for finite matrix size, and in the case of k coincident fuzzy spheres it gives rise to a regularized U(k) gauge theory on a noncommutative geometry. Here we study the matrix model nonperturbatively by Monte Carlo simulation. The system undergoes a first order phase transition as we change the coefficient (α) of the Chern-Simons term. In the small α phase, the large-N properties of the system are qualitatively the same as in the pure Yang-Mills model (α = 0), whereas in the large α phase a single fuzzy sphere emerges dynamically. Various `multi fuzzy spheres' are observed as meta-stable states, and we argue in particular that the k coincident fuzzy spheres cannot be realized as the true vacuum in this model even in the large-N limit. We also perform one-loop calculations of various observables for arbitrary k including k = 1. Comparison with our Monte Carlo data suggests that higher order corrections are suppressed in the large-N limit.
Land Cover Change Monitoring Using Landsat MSS/TM Satellite Image Data over West Africa between 1975 and 1990

Monitoring land cover changes from the 1970s in West Africa is important for assessing the dynamics between land cover types and understanding the anthropogenic impact during this period. Given the lack of historical land cover maps over such a large area, Landsat data is a reliable and consistent source of information on land cover dynamics from the 1970s. This study examines land cover changes occurring between 1975 and 1990 in West Africa using a systematic sample of satellite imagery. The primary data sources for the land cover classification were Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) for 1975 and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) for the 1990 period. Dedicated selection of the appropriate image data for land cover change monitoring was performed for the year 1975. Based on this selected dataset, the land cover analysis is based on a systematic sample of 220 suitable Landsat image extracts (out of 246) of 20 km × 20 km at each one degree latitude/longitude intersection. Object-based classification, originally dedicated for Landsat TM land cover change monitoring and adapted for MSS, was used to produce land cover change information for four different land cover classes: dense tree cover, tree cover mosaic, other wooded land and other vegetation cover. Our results reveal that in 1975 about 6% of West Africa was covered by dense tree cover complemented with 12% of tree cover mosaic. Almost half of the area was covered by other wooded land and the remaining 32% was represented by other vegetation cover. Over the 1975–1990 period, the net annual change rate of dense tree cover was estimated at −0.95%, at −0.37% for the other wooded land and very low for tree cover mosaic (−0.05%). On the other side, other vegetation cover increased annually by 0.70%, most probably due to the expansion of agricultural areas. This study demonstrates the potential of Landsat MSS and TM data for large scale land cover change assessment in West Africa and highlights the importance of consistent and systematic data processing methods with targeted image acquisition procedures for long-term monitoring.
Cognitive function in major depre

Summary Forty patients with a major depressive episode were divided into equal endogenous and neurotic sub-groups using the Newcastle scale. They were all rated on the 174tem Hamilton scale and with a variety of neuropsychological tests. They were compared with 20 age- and education-matched control subjects. Both endogenous and neurotic groups had impaired memory function on the auditory verbal learning test: recall and recobnition were equally impaired suggesting that effort was not a major determinant of performance. The endogenous group was more impaired on digit symbol substitution and the Trail making test (A and B). Impairment was correlaied with symptom scores on the Hamilton and Newcastle scales, even after allowing for the effect of age. It is concluded that the conventional distinction between organic and functional impairment breaks down in severe depressive illness. The implications of this for clinical neuropsychological testing and the anatomy of the brain dysfunction in depressive illness are discussed.
A realistic evaluation of iris presentation attack detection

Iris liveness detection methods have been developed to overcome the vulnerability of iris biometric systems to spoofing attacks. In the literature, it is typically assumed that a known attack modality will be perpetrated. Then liveness models are designed using labelled samples from both real/live and fake/spoof distributions, the latter derived from the assumed attack modality. In this work it is argued that a comprehensive modelling of the spoof samples is not possible in a real-world scenario where the attack modality cannot be known with a high degree of certainty. In fact making this assumption will render the liveness detection system more vulnerable to attacks that were not included in the original training. To provide a more realistic evaluation, this work proposes: a) testing the binary models with unknown spoof samples that were not present in the training step; b) the use of a single-class classification designing the classifier by modelling only the distribution of live samples. The results obtained support the assertion that many evaluation methods from the literature are misleading and may lead to optimistic estimates of the robustness of liveness detection in practical use cases.
MapReduce-based similarity join for metric spaces

Cloud enabled systems have become a crucial component to efficiently process and analyze massive amounts of data. One of the key data processing and analysis operations is the Similarity Join, which retrieves all data pairs whose distances are smaller than a predefined threshold ε. Even though multiple algorithms and implementation techniques have been proposed for Similarity Joins, very little work has addressed the study of Similarity Joins for cloud systems. This paper focuses on the study, design and implementation techniques of cloud-based Similarity Joins. We present MRSimJoin, a MapReduce based algorithm to efficiently solve the Similarity Join problem. This algorithm efficiently partitions and distributes the data until the subsets are small enough to be processed in a single node. MRSimJoin is general enough to be used with data that lies in any metric space, thus it can be used with multiple data types and distance functions. We present guidelines to implement the algorithm in Hadoop, an open-source cloud system. The experimental evaluation of MRSimJoin shows that it has very good execution time and scalability properties.
Coefficients and non-triviality of the Jones polynomial

Abstract Using an involved study of the Kauffman bracket, we give formulas for the second and third coefficient of the Jones polynomial in semiadequate diagrams. As applications, we show that several classes of links, including semiadequate links and Whitehead doubles of semiadequate knots, have non-trivial Jones polynomial. We also prove that there are infinitely many positive knots with no positive minimal crossing diagrams. Some relations to the twist number of a link, Mahler measure and the hyperbolic volume are given, for example explicit upper bounds on the volume for Montesinos and 3-braid links in terms of their Jones polynomial.
The disc—jet relation in strong-lined blazars

The relation between emission from the accretion disc (thermal) and the jet (non-thermal) in blazars is still a mystery as, typically, the beamed jet emission swamps the disc emission even in the ultraviolet band where disc emission peaks. In this paper we estimate the accretion disc component for 136 flat-spectrum radio quasars selected from the Deep X-ray Radio Blazar Survey. We do this by deriving the accretion disc spectrum from the mass and accretion rate on to the central black hole for each object, estimated using the emission linewidths and the power emitted from the broad-line region. We find that non-thermal emission dominates the optical/UV band of our sources. The thermal component is in fact on average ∼15 per cent of the total and 90 per cent of the objects in the sample have a thermal component <0.5 of the total luminosity. We then estimate the integrated disc and kinetic jet powers and find that on average the disc luminosity is ∼1 to 20 times the jet power (depending on the uncertainties in the estimation of the latter quantity). A comparison with previous, independent results favours a scenario in which jet and disc powers are of the same order of magnitude. Extraction of energy from a rotating black hole via the ‘Blandford‐Znajek’ mechanism fails to explain the estimated jet power in the majority of our sources. Finally, we find that the typical masses for
Precision Determination of the Top Quark Mass

The CDF and D0 collaborations have updated their measurements of the mass of the top quark using proton-antiproton collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV produced at the Tevatron. The uncertainties in each of the top-antitop decay channels have been reduced. The new Tevatron average for the mass of the top quark based on about 1 fb{sup -1} of data per experiment is 170.9 {+-} 1.8 GeV/c{sup 2}.
Unsupervised Extraction of Attributes and Their Values from Product Description

This paper describes an unsupervised method for extracting product attributes and their values from an e-commerce product page. Previously, distant supervision has been applied for this task, but it is not applicable in domains where no reliable knowledge base (KB) is available. Instead, the proposed method automatically creates a KB from tables and itemizations embedded in the product’s pages. This KB is applied to annotate the pages automatically and the annotated corpus is used to train a model for the extraction. Because of the incompleteness of the KB, the annotated corpus is not as accurate as a manually annotated one. Our method tries to ﬁl-ter out sentences that are likely to include problematic annotations based on statistical measures and morpheme patterns induced from the entries in the KB. The experimental results show that the performance of our method achieves an average F score of approximately 58.2 points and that ﬁlters can improve the performance.
The World Bank Social Development Family Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network March 2000

There is by now a large literature on the importance of social capital in explaining social, political and economic outcomes. What is less well researched, however, is the question of whether development assistance can promote social capital, whether it can interfere with it, and whether projects specifically designed to promote social capital do so. This paper examines the impact of development projects on social capital formation among rural women’s groups and primary schools in western Kenya using the results of a prospective, randomized evaluation. We examine three development projects: two that are designed explicitly to promote social capital and one that is not. The paper finds that outside funding designed to promote organizational capacity and strengthen women’s groups had no clear effect on social capital formation among the women’s groups. A grant program that provided funding to governing committees at primary schools led to increased parental participation in school development projects, but had no other significant effects. A project that provided textbooks to primary schools had largely positive affects on school social capital and organization. Textbook provision increased the participation of parents and school committee officials at school meetings, improved teacher effort in school, and increased the involvement of government “teacher support” personnel. Thus, among these three projects, those which were most participatory and most explicitly designed to build social capital had the least impact on social capital.
Positive Approaches to Optimal Relationship Development

How can we get the most out of our close relationships? Research in the area of personal relationships continues to grow, but most prior work has emphasized how to overcome negative aspects. This volume demonstrates that a good relationship is more than simply the absence of a bad relationship, and that establishing and maintaining optimal relationships entails enacting a set of processes that are distinct from merely avoiding negative or harmful behaviors. Drawing on recent relationship science to explore issues such as intimacy, attachment, passion, sacrifice, and compassionate goals, the essays in this volume emphasize the positive features that allow relationships to flourish. In doing so, they integrate several theoretical perspectives, concepts, and mechanisms that produce optimal relationships. The volume also includes a section on intensive and abbreviated interventions that have been empirically validated to be effective in promoting the positive features of close relationships.
Americas Conference on Information Systems ( AMCIS ) 2008 Trust and Satisfaction as the Relational Outcomes of Perceived Usefulness in B 2 C Online Servive Context

Despite the fact that consumers’ post-purchase behavior has been a focal point of consumer behavior literature for decades, studies investigating online consumer behavior have mostly been focused on exploring the adoption phase, i.e. pre-purchase behavior. Trust plays a pivotal role in both consumers’ adoption decisions, but also in ongoing customer relationships. Thus, we argue that studies investigating both online consumer behavior in the post-adoption context, and the role of trust, are needed. This explorative study presents a research model in which perceived usefulness (PU) is viewed as the antecedent of satisfaction and trust, whereas perceived ease of use (PEOU), online self-efficacy and perceived switching costs are placed as the determinants of PU. We empirically investigate a sample of active users of online services and use structural equation modeling to analyze the data. The findings indicate that as an explanatory factor, perceived usefulness alone is not adequate for explaining trust satisfaction among active users of online services. Moreover, online self-efficacy seems to have a positive influence on both PEOU and PU. Finally, switching costs were, somewhat surprisingly, identified as having a positive influence on PU.
Higher Decorin Levels in Bone Marrow Plasma Are Associated with Superior Treatment Response to Novel Agent-Based Induction in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Myeloma - A Retrospective Study

The growth of myeloma cells depends on bone marrow (BM) stroma consisting of stromal cells, secreted cytokines and the extracellular matrix (ECM). Decorin, a small leucine-rich proteoglycan in the ECM, is a signaling ligand and native anti-tumor agent. However, the role of decorin in patients with myeloma is not clear. We evaluated the correlation between the decorin levels measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in BM plasma from 121 patients with newly diagnosed myeloma based on their clinical features and treatment response. The median decorin levels in the patients and the normal control group were 12.31 ng/mL [standard deviation (SD), 7.50 ng/mL; range, 2.45 to 44.46 ng/mL] and 10.31 ng/mL (SD, 2.42 ng/mL; range, 4.85–15.14 ng/mL), respectively (P < 0.001). Using 15.15 ng/mL as a cut-off, 46 patients (38%) exhibited higher decorin levels (H-DCN), whereas the other patients exhibited normal to lower decorin levels (NL-DCN). Except for the median age, which was significantly younger in the H-DCN than in the NL-DCN group (60.6±14.0 vs. 65.8±12.2 years, respectively; P = 0.034), there were no differences between the two groups. However, in 79 patients who had received novel agent-based induction, the overall response rate was significantly better in the H-DCN than in the NL-DCN (97 vs. 63%, respectively; P < 0.001), as was the depth of responses (P = 0.008), which were not observed in those who had received chemotherapeutic agents alone. Progression-free survival (PFS) was significantly longer in H-DCN than NL-DCN (not reached vs. 19.5 mo, respectively; P = 0.0003). Multivariate analyses indicated that H-DCN, as a significantly independent factor, was associated with better treatment response (odds ratio, 20.014; 95% CI, 2.187–183.150; P = 0.008) and longer PFS (hazard ratio, 0.135; 95% CI, 0.051–0.361; P < 0.001). These findings disclose the potential role of decorin in myeloma and provide a basis for further study on possible synergistic anti-myeloma effects between decorin and the novel agents that target BM stroma.
Monetary Policy and Wage/Price Bargaining: Macro-Institutional Interactions in the Traded, Public, and Sheltered Sectors

* I wish to thank several sources of funding during the development of these ideas from the summer of 1993 to the present: the National Science Foundation, for a graduate student fellowship (1991-4) and for funding through the research training group in positive political economy (1994-5); the Center for European Studies, Harvard, the Wissenschaftszentrum-Berlin, and the NSF for funding during the summer of 1993, the Mellon Foundation for a dissertation completion grant in 1995-6, and the University of Michigan for funding 1996-7. Debts of gratitude for comments, criticisms, and suggestions at various points in the development of these ideas are numerous; thanks are especially due Any remaining shortcomings are my own and somewhat inexcusable given such a wealth of valuable input. 1 Loosely speaking, real economic variables are those adjusted for inflation while nominal variables are unadjusted. Roughly, real variables are quantities–e.g., (un)employment, (adjusted) output, (adjusted) income, etc.–and nominal variables are prices–e.g. inflation, price levels, (unadjusted) wages and interest rates, etc. Relative prices and wages are however real while average price and wage levels are nominal. Abstract: This chapter considers the politico-economic management of unemployment and inflation in developed capitalist democracies, focusing on the institutional and structural features of labor and goods markets and the credibility and conservatism of the monetary-policy authority. It reviews the central-bank-independence (CBI) and coordinated-wage-/price-bargaining (CWB) literatures and then offers a synthesis and extension which emphasizes that the degrees of CBI and CWB interact, with each other and with the sectoral structure of the economy, to structure the incentives facing the politico-economic actors involved in monetary policy and wage/price bargaining. The empirical records of 21 OECD countries in the post-Bretton Woods era are then used to evaluate the emergent hypotheses. The conclusion addresses two questions of pressing intellectual and practical concern: the likely impact of and independent European central bank and the roots of the " collapse " of CWB.
Toward an Economic Theory of Dysfunctional Identity

We advance a novel choice-theoretic model of “identity” based on the notions of categories and narratives. Identity is conceived as a matter of “reflexive perception” — how people understand themselves. Choosing an identity is equivalent to making a generalization about one’s past that highlights the most salient aspects of experience. When many individuals make a common choice in this regard, they embrace a collective identity which is dysfunctional if it is Pareto dominated by an alternative self-classificatory schema. Using a simple multi-stage risk sharing game, we explore conditions under which dysfunctional collective identities might be expected to emerge.
Orthogonal forward selection and backward elimination algorithms for feature subset selection

Sequential forward selection (SFS) and sequential backward elimination (SBE) are two commonly used search methods in feature subset selection. In the present study, we derive an orthogonal forward selection (OFS) and an orthogonal backward elimination (OBE) algorithms for feature subset selection by incorporating Gram-Schmidt and Givens orthogonal transforms into forward selection and backward elimination procedures, respectively. The basic idea of the orthogonal feature subset selection algorithms is to find an orthogonal space in which to express features and to perform feature subset selection. After selection, the physically meaningless features in the orthogonal space are linked back to the same number of input variables in the original measurement space. The strength of employing orthogonal transforms is that features are decorrelated in the orthogonal space, hence individual features can be evaluated and selected independently. The effectiveness of our algorithms to deal with real world problems is finally demonstrated.
Price-Formats as a Source of Price Dispersion: A Study of Online and Offline Prices in the Domestic US Airline Markets

A large body of research in economics, information systems and marketing has sought to understand sources of price dispersion. Previous empirical work has mainly offered consumer and/or product based explanations for this phenomenon. In contrast, our research explores the key role played by vendors’ price-format adoption in explaining price dispersion. We empirically analyze half-million online and offline prices offered by major U.S. airlines in the top 500 domestic markets. Our study shows that a vendor’s price-format remains an important source of price dispersion in both channels even after accounting for other factors known to impact dispersion in airline ticket prices. Importantly, this finding is true for both transacted and posted tickets. We document several other interesting empirical findings. First, the lower variance in the prices of EDLP firms serves to reduce the market-level dispersion in prices when such firms are present. Moreover, the price variance of non-EDLP firms in these markets is also lower than in those markets in which EDLP competitors are absent. Second, we also find that dispersion in offered prices increases closer to the departure date, which is consistent with theoretical assertion that price dispersion increases with reservation prices. Finally, we continue to observe dispersion of online prices even after accounting for vendor strategy and other known sources of dispersion, suggesting that the prices are unlikely to converge even in the presence of sophisticated online search mechanisms.