Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Jet–disc coupling through a common energy reservoir in the black hole XTE J1118+480

We interpret the rapid correlated ultraviolet/optical/X-ray variability of XTE J1118+480 as a signature of the coupling between the X-ray corona and a jet emitting synchrotron radiation in the optical band. We propose a scenario in which the jet and the X-ray corona are fed by the same energy reservoir where large amounts of accretion power are stored before being channelled into either the jet or the high-energy radiation. This time-dependent model reproduces the main features of the rapid multiwavelength variability of XTE J1118+480. Assuming that the energy is stored in the form of a magnetic field, we find that the required values of the model parameters are compatible with both a patchy corona atop a cold accretion disc and a hot thick inner disc geometry. The range of variability time-scales for the X-ray emitting plasma is consistent with the dynamical times of an accretion flow between 10 and 100 Schwarzschild radii. On the other hand, the derived range of time-scales associated with the dissipation in the jet extends to time-scales more than 10 times larger, confirming the suggestion that the generation of a powerful outflow requires large-scale coherent poloidal field structures. A strong requirement of the model is that the total jet power should be at least a few times larger
Spindle Cell Carcinoma of the Tongue: A Rare Tumor in an Unusual Location

Spindle cell carcinoma is a rare biphasic tumor consisting of epithelial and mesenchymal components. Presence of this tumor type in the tongue has rarely been reported. Herein, a case of 55-year-old woman who presented with a polypoid lesion at her tongue has been reported. Surgery was performed and pathologic examination revealed a spindle cell carcinoma. We present this rare tumor with an unusual location to contribute in part to the better understanding and awareness of this rare malignancy.
Methods for Identifying SNP Interactions: A Review on Variations of Logic Regression, Random Forest and Bayesian Logistic Regression

Due to advancements in computational ability, enhanced technology and a reduction in the price of genotyping, more data are being generated for understanding genetic associations with diseases and disorders. However, with the availability of large data sets comes the inherent challenges of new methods of statistical analysis and modeling. Considering a complex phenotype may be the effect of a combination of multiple loci, various statistical methods have been developed for identifying genetic epistasis effects. Among these methods, logic regression (LR) is an intriguing approach incorporating tree-like structures. Various methods have built on the original LR to improve different aspects of the model. In this study, we review four variations of LR, namely Logic Feature Selection, Monte Carlo Logic Regression, Genetic Programming for Association Studies, and Modified Logic Regression-Gene Expression Programming, and investigate the performance of each method using simulated and real genotype data. We contrast these with another tree-like approach, namely Random Forests, and a Bayesian logistic regression with stochastic search variable selection.
Crowdsourced Delivery - A Dynamic Pickup and Delivery Problem with Ad Hoc Drivers

The trend towards shorter delivery lead-times reduces operational efficiency and increases transportation costs for internet retailers. Mobile technology, however, creates new opportunities to organize the last-mile. In this paper, we study the concept of crowdsourced delivery that aims to use excess capacity on journeys that already take place to make deliveries. We consider a peer-to-peer platform that automatically creates matches between parcel delivery tasks and ad-hoc drivers. The platform also operates a fleet of backup vehicles to serve the tasks that cannot be served by the ad-hoc drivers. The matching of tasks, drivers and backup vehicles gives rise to a new variant of the dynamic pick-up and delivery problem. We propose a rolling horizon framework and develop an exact solution approach to solve the various subproblems. In order to investigate the potential benefit of crowdsourced delivery, we conduct a wide range of computational experiments. The experiments provide insights into the viability of crowdsourced delivery under various assumptions about the environment and the behavior of the ad-hoc drivers. The results suggest that the use of ad-hoc drivers has the potential to make the last-mile more cost-efficient and can reduce the system-wide vehicle-miles.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports Exchange Rate Pass-through, Markups, and Inventories

paper presents preliminary findings and is being distributed to economists and other interested readers solely to stimulate discussion and elicit comments. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and are not necessarily reflective of views at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors.
Scalability of Sustainable Business Models in Hybrid Organizations

The dynamics of change in modern business create new mechanisms for company management to determine their pursuit and the achievement of their high performance. This performance maintained over a long period of time becomes a source of ensuring business continuity by companies. An ontological being enabling the adoption of such assumptions is such a business model that has the ability to generate results in every possible market situation and, moreover, it has the features of permanent adaptability. A feature that describes the adaptability of the business model is its scalability. Being a factor ensuring more work and more efficient work with an increasing number of components, scalability can be applied to the concept of business models as the company’s ability to maintain similar or higher performance through it. Ensuring the company’s performance in the long term helps to build the so-called sustainable business model that often balances the objectives of stakeholders and shareholders, and that is created by the implemented principles of value-based management and corporate social responsibility. This perception of business paves the way for building hybrid organizations that integrate business activities with pro-social ones. The combination of an approach typical of hybrid organizations in designing and implementing sustainable business models pursuant to the scalability criterion seems interesting from the cognitive point of view. Today, hybrid organizations are great spaces for building effective and efficient mechanisms for dialogue between business and society. This requires the appropriate business model. The purpose of the paper is to present the conceptualization and operationalization of scalability of sustainable business models that determine the performance of a hybrid organization in the network environment. The paper presents the original concept of applying scalability in sustainable business models with detailed interpretation. The paper and its findings are based on longitudinal research with participant observation, bibliographic research and the author’s own experience in the processes of building and implementing business models in the years 2005–2015. At the time, the author observed the conceptualization and operationalization of several business models of companies operating in the Polish market.
Evolution of Bower Complexity and Cerebellum Size in Bowerbirds

To entice females to mate, male bowerbirds build elaborate displays (bowers). Among species, bowers range in complexity from simple arenas decorated with leaves to complex twig or grass structures decorated with myriad colored objects. To investigate the neural underpinnings of bower building, we examined the contribution of variation in volume estimates of whole brain (WB), telencephalon minus hippocampus (TH), hippocampus (Hp) and cerebellum (Cb) to explain differences in complexity of bowers among 5 species. Using independent contrasts, we found a significant relationship between bower complexity and Cb size. We did not find support for correlated evolution between bower complexity and WB, TH, or Hp volume. These results suggest that skills supported by the cerebellum (e.g., procedural learning, motor planning) contribute to explaining the variation in bower complexity across species. Given that male mating success is in part determined by female choice for bower design, our data are consistent with the hypothesis that sexual selection has driven enlargement of the cerebellum in bowerbirds.
Weber B Fracture of the Lateral Malleolus with Concomitant Anterior Talofibular Ligament Injury following an Ankle Supination Injury

The Lauge-Hansen (LH) classification attempts to predict patterns of ankle injuries based upon the preceding mechanism of injury. Although it is widely used in clinical practice, it has been criticized mainly due to numerous reports of cases conflicting the prediction system. Here, we report a case of a 32-year-old male who sustained a Weber B fracture of the lateral malleolus following a supination ankle injury, which was treated conservatively, following which the patient presented with ankle instability and was found to have concurrent anterior talofibular ligament tear. Critical review of the LH classification along with its shortcomings is discussed.
Food Safety Training Is Associated with Improved Knowledge and Behaviours among Foodservice Establishments' Workers

Though several studies have evaluated the association between food safety training and behavior, little has investigated different training components in association with food handlers' performance. Foodservice workers (N = 211) with at least two years' experience were willing to participate and were selected from major foodservice establishments in Ibadan, southwestern Nigeria, and completed a survey to evaluate the association between training, training area, duration, and refresher training and food safety knowledge and practices. We observed an association between training and knowledge (P = 0.000) as well as practices (P = 0.05) of food safety while different training areas contributed similarly to food handlers' knowledge (P = 0.17) and practices (P = 0.08). However, there was a significant decline in knowledge (P = 0.01) and practices (P = 0.001) with an increase in training duration. Furthermore, foodservice employees with refresher training demonstrated significantly higher knowledge (P = 0.000) and practice (P = 0.003) levels than those without, being about 45 and 14 times more likely to, respectively, improve their knowledge (OR = 45; 95% CI: 3.47–584.34) and practice (OR = 13.5; 95% CI: 2.01–90.69). Researchers should always consider varying training components before making assertions regarding effectiveness of training on foodservice workers' behaviour.
Determinants of disability in osteoarthritis of the knee.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the influences of radiographic severity, quadriceps strength, knee pain, age, and gender on functional ability in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. METHODS: Equal numbers of knee pain positive and negative respondents to a survey of registrants aged more than 55 years at a general practice were invited to attend for knee radiographs and quadriceps femoris isometric strength estimations. Disability was measured using the Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire. RESULTS: Complete data were available on 70 men (mean age 72.7 years) and 89 women (mean age 68.1 years); 44% reported knee pain, 48% had radiographic features of osteoarthritis, and 32% reported some degree of disability. Significant correlations were observed between disability and radiographic score, quadriceps strength, and knee pain. Logistic regression analysis, however, showed significant independent contributions from quadriceps strength (odds ratio 0.84 kgF), knee pain (odds ratio 1.67), and age (odds ratio 1.06 per year) only; the radiographic score had no influence on the model. These results were not influenced by confining the analysis to the group with radiographic features of osteoarthritis. CONCLUSIONS: Quadriceps strength, knee pain, and age are more important determinants of functional impairment in elderly subjects than the severity of knee osteoarthritis as assessed radiographically. Strategies designed to optimise muscle strength may have the potential to reduce a vast burden of disability, dependency, and cost.
Abundance of Common Aerobic Anoxygenic Phototrophic Bacteria in a Coastal Aquaculture Area

Aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria (AAnPB) rely on not only heterotrophic but also phototrophic energy gain. AAnPB are known to have high abundance in oligotrophic waters and are the major portion of the bacterial carbon stock in the environment. In a yearlong study in an aquaculture area in the Uwa Sea, Japan, AAnPB, accounted for 4.7 to 24% of the total bacteria by count. Since the cell volume of AAnPB is 2.23 ± 0.674 times larger than the mean for total bacteria, AAnPB biomass is estimated to account for 10–53% of the total bacterial assemblage. By examining pufM gene sequence, a common phylogenetic AAnPB species was found in all sampling sites through the year. The common species and other season-specific species were phylogenetically close to unculturable clones recorded in the Sargasso Sea and Pacific Ocean. The present study suggests that the common species may be a cosmopolitan species with worldwide distribution that is abundant not only in the oligotrophic open ocean but also in eutrophic aquaculture areas.
On EM algorithms and their proximal generalizations

In this paper, we analyze the celebrated EM algorithm from the point of view of proximal point algorithms. More precisely, we study a new type of generalization of the EM procedure introduced in [Chretien and Hero (1998)] and called Kullback-proximal algorithms. The proximal framework allows us to prove new results concerning the cluster points. An essential contribution is a detailed analysis of the case where some cluster points lie on the boundary of the parameter space.
Cluster observes the Earth’s magnetopause: coordinated four-point magnetic field measurements

Abstract. The four-spacecraft Cluster mission has provided high-time resolution measurements of the magnetic field from closely maintained separation distances (200–600 km). Four-point coverage of the Earth’s magnetopause began on the 9 and 10 November 2000 when all spacecraft first exited the dusk-side magnetosphere at about 19:00 LT, providing extensive coverage of the near flank magnetosheath and magnetopause boundary layer on re-entry to the magnetosphere. The traversals on this occasion were caused by the arrival of an intense CME at the Earth, which produced a large compression of the magnetopause and high magnetic activity. The magnetopause traversals represent an unprecedented data set, allowing detailed analysis of the local magnetic structure (gradients) and dynamics of the magnetopause boundary. By performing minimum variance analysis (MVA) on the magnetic field data from all four spacecraft, we demonstrate that the magnetopause was planar on the scale of the spacecraft separation scales and that the transverse scale size of the magnetopause boundary layer was 1000–1100 km. We also show that the motion of the boundary (defined by the magnetic shear at the current layer), is changing over the sequence of spacecraft crossings so that acceleration of the magnetopause can be very high in this region of the magnetosphere. Indeed, the magnetopause speed reaches the order of 300 km/s in response to the arrival of the interplanetary shock. Using MVA coordinates, we have identified a number of magnetospheric and magnetosheath FTE signatures, which are sampled simultaneously by all spacecraft at different distances from and on either side of the magnetopause. The signatures show a variation of scale with distance from the boundary. Key words. Magnetospheric physics (magnetopause, cusp and boundary layers) Space plasma physics (discontinuities; magnetic reconnection)
Vancomycin Dosing Practices, Trough Concentrations, and Predicted Area Under the Curve in Children With Suspected Invasive Staphylococcal Infections.

To the Editor—I read with interest the article by Dr Chhim and colleagues [1] on vancomycin dosing in pediatric patients. Their experience with vancomycin dosing and exposure is valuable, and I agree that the optimal therapeutic measure to guide vancomycin therapy in children is still unknown. Maximizing achievement of the target that is associated with the best outcomes in adults (ie, vancomycin area-under-the-curve [AUC]/minimum inhibitory concentration ratio >400) is a rational approach given the absence of pediatric data. Along these lines, Chhim and colleagues [1] predicted AUC (= vancomycin daily dose/ vancomycin clearance) in children who received the current recommended vancomycin starting dose of 60 mg/kg per day. However, it is important to point out some areas of potential bias in their methodology. To predict vancomycin clearance, Chhim and colleagues [1] used a model published by Chang [2].
User in the Loop: Adaptive Smart Homes Exploiting User Feedback - State of the Art and Future Directions

Due to the decrease of sensor and actuator prices and their ease of installation, smart homes and smart environments are more and more exploited in automation and health applications. In these applications, activity recognition has an important place. This article presents a general architecture that is responsible for adapting automation for the different users of the smart home while recognizing their activities. For that, semi-supervised learning algorithms and Markov-based models are used to determine the preferences of the user considering a combination of: (1) observations of the data that have been acquired since the start of the experiment and (2) feedback of the users on decisions that have been taken by the automation. We present preliminarily simulated experimental results regarding the determination of preferences for a user.
College Academic Engagement and First-Year Students' Intention to Persist

iv Dedication v Acknowledgments vi List of Tables ix List of Figures x Chapter One: Introduction 1 Problem Statement 3 Purpose 4 Research Questions 5 Defining Academic Engagement 5 Measuring Academic Engagement 7 Significance 9 Summary 11 Chapter 2: Literature Review 13 Theories of College Engagement and Persistence 13 Conceptual Model 18 Factors Influencing Student Persistence 21 Student-Faculty Interactions and Persistence 23 Learning Strategies and Persistence 24 Collaborative Learning and Persistence 27 Summary of Academic Engagement and Persistence 29 Limitations of Previous Literature 31 Summary 35 Chapter 3: Research Design and Methodology 37 Problem Statement 37 Purpose 37 Research Questions 38 Conceptual Model 38 Data Sources 39 Rationale for Data Sources 42 Validity and Reliability 43 Data Collection 44 Population and Sampling Frame 45 Variables for the Model 48
Regular Graphs are Antimagic

An undirected simple graph $G=(V,E)$ is called antimagic if there exists an injective function $f:E\rightarrow\{1,\dots,|E|\}$ such that $\sum_{e\in E(u)} f(e)\neq\sum_{e\in E(v)} f(e)$ for any pair of different nodes $u,v\in V$. In this note we prove — with a slight modification of an argument of Cranston et al. — that $k$-regular graphs are antimagic for $k\ge 2$.
First On-orbit Measurements of the WFC3-IR Count-rate Non-Linearity

Previous HgCdTe detectors on HST have suffered from a count-rate dependent non-linearity, motivating an investigation of a similar effect on the WFC3-IR detector. An initial measurement of this effect was made by comparing the photometry of star clusters observed over a wide dynamic range and at overlapping wavelengths in WFC3-IR and NICMOS and/or ACS-WFC. Utilizing a color term to account for differences in the observed bandpasses, we find a significant detection of a non-linearity in WFC3-IR photometry which is in the same direction but a few times smaller than that of NICMOS. From 235 stars in 47Tuc observed with WFC3-IR in F110W and F160W and in similar bandpasses in NICMOS Camera 2, we measure a non-linearity of WFC3-IR of 0.011+/0.0023 and 0.010+/-0.0025 mag per dex, respectively, over a range of 10 magnitudes (4 dex). An independent measurement utilizes 1390 stars in NGC 3603 observed with ACS-WFC F850LP and WFC3-IR F098M and yields a very similar result, 0.010 +/- 0.0033 mag/dex. The consistency of this measurement from two different comparison detectors of different technology indicates this result is robust. The impact of this non-linearity is that photometry of faint (i.e., sky dominated) sources calibrated with WFC3-IR zeropoints will appear 0.04 +/-0.01 mag too faint.
Competition between movement plans increases motor variability: evidence of a shared resource for movement planning

Various lines of evidence indicate that multiple movements can be prepared in parallel. Here, we show that preparing more than one movement comes with a cost: a movement plan is more variable if it is prepared simultaneously with another plan. This suggests that the representations of movement plans share a common neural resource and implies that the number of alternative plans is constrained by noise.
Association of Hormone Receptor Expression with Survival in Ovarian Endometrioid Carcinoma: Biological Validation and Clinical Implications

This paper aims to validate whether hormone receptor expression is associated with longer survival among women diagnosed with ovarian endometrioid carcinoma (EC), and whether it identifies patients with stage IC/II tumors with excellent outcome that could be spared from toxic chemotherapy. Expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) was assessed on 182 EC samples represented on tissue microarrays using the Alberta Ovarian Tumor Type (AOVT) cohort. Statistical analyses were performed to test for associations with ovarian cancer specific survival. ER or PR expression was present in 87.3% and 86.7% of cases, respectively, with co-expression present in 83.0%. Expression of each of the hormonal receptors was significantly higher in low-grade tumors and tumors with squamous differentiation. Expression of ER (Hazard Ratio (HR) = 0.18, 95% confidence interval 0.08–0.42, p = 0.0002) and of PR (HR = 0.22, 95% confidence interval 0.10–0.53, p = 0.0011) were significantly associated with longer ovarian cancer specific survival adjusted for age, grade, treatment center, stage, and residual disease. However, the five-year ovarian cancer specific survival among women with ER positive stage IC/II EC was 89.0% (standard error 3.3%) and for PR positive tumors 89.9% (standard error 3.2%), robustly below the 95% threshold where adjuvant therapy could be avoided. We validated the association of hormone receptor expression with ovarian cancer specific survival independent of standard predictors in an independent sample set of EC. The high ER/PR co-expression frequency and the survival difference support further testing of the efficacy of hormonal therapy in hormone receptor-positive ovarian EC. The clinical utility to identify a group of women diagnosed with EC at stage IC/II that could be spared from adjuvant therapy is limited.