Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How well do you blend into the crowd? - d-convergence: Assessing identifiability and linkability in large-scale, open web settings

Privacy in open settings such as the Internet is a very different problem than privacy in closed settings such as statistical databases: there is no a-priori classification of data into key- and sensitive information, user's disseminate information over many different data sources, and we can not globally sanitize disseminated information to achieve privacy. In this paper, we take a first step in developing a user-centric privacy model in large-scale, open web environments that exhibit rapid dissemination of unstructured, heterogeneous data: we propose the d-convergence model, which allows for the assessment of identity disclosure risks by measuring the similarity of identities within and across different online platforms. We demonstrate the applicability of the d-convergence model on a collection of 40 million comments collected from the Online Social Network Reddit, which we stripped down to 15 million comments for our evaluation on two Dell PowerEdge R820 with 64 virtual cores each. Our evaluation confirms hypotheses about the identifiability of entities in our dataset and provides deeper insights into its structure.
A novel phenotype-genotype relationship with a TGFBI exon 14 mutation in a pedigree with a unique corneal dystrophy of Bowman’s layer

Purpose Corneal dystrophy of Bowman’s layer (CDB) belongs to a group of dystrophies associated with mutations in the transforming growth factor-beta-induced (TGFBI) gene. CDB is further divided into a geographic variant (CDB1/Reis Bücklers, RBCD), and a honeycomb variant (CDB2/Thiel Behnke, TBCD). We undertook mutational analysis of TGFBI in a family with an unusual CDB variant and describe a novel phenotype-genotype association. Methods Individuals from a pedigree with CDB underwent extensive phenotyping, including laser scanning in vivo confocal microscopy, and histological examination of four corneal buttons obtained at penetrating keratoplasty. Transmission electron microscopy of an excised allograft cornea from one affected individual was also performed. Following informed consent, DNA samples were collected. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing of all coding exons of TGFBI was performed. Family members were recruited with subsequent phenotyping and genotyping, and paternity testing. Results Clinical examination and other phenotypic information confirmed a diagnosis of CDB, with various features either more suggestive of CDB1 or of CDB2. A mutation in exon 14, H626P, segregated with the disease in this pedigree. This mutation was confirmed with NlaIII restriction enzyme digest, and was not seen in 100 control chromosomes. Conclusions Within this pedigree, CDB segregates with an H626P mutation, which is previously described occurring in lattice corneal dystrophy. The majority of mutations in TGFBI previously described segregating with CDB1 and CDB2 are R124L and R555Q, respectively. Although a Bowman’s layer dystrophy, the phenotype in this pedigree does not closely conform to the classical diagnostic criteria for either CDB1 or CDB2, and therefore represents a novel phenotype-genotype correlation.
The Need for a Neutral Speaking Period in Psychosocial Stress Testing

Abstract. Tasks such as the Trier Social Stress Test, narrative recall, and some cognitive challenges require participants to speak in order to measure acute physiological responses to induced stress. Typically, the physiological measures during the stressed state are compared to a silent baseline period. This does not differentiate between stress that is induced by emotion and stress due to the physical act of vocalization. We modified a psychosocial stress task for 41 participants to add a period of neutral speaking. We hypothesized that there would be significant differences in physiological measures between the silent baseline and neutral speaking periods, and that these differences would explain a substantial proportion of the stress response traditionally attributed to emotion. Blood pressure, skin conductance level, respiration rate, salivary alpha-amylase, and high frequency heart rate variability showed significant changes during the neutral speaking period compared to a silent baseline, demonstrating the need for this control. Of the magnitude of physiological response which would have typically been attributed to emotion, 36–77% was due to vocalization alone. In stress-inducing tasks that require speaking, care should be taken in study design to account for the physiological impact of speech.
Modelling of how lotto players select their number combinations dynamically

ABSTRACT By examining a unique dataset, the authors build a time series model that can describe the dynamics of lotto players’ betting behaviour. The results are derived from a database maintained by a lottery operator in Taiwan, which consists of number combinations selected by players for 203 consecutive draws in 2 years, including those placed through certain systematic schemes. The dynamic models that the authors established show that the players’ number selection over time is influenced by three factors: the numbers that they chose in the last draw, the winning numbers of the previous draw and the numbers with the highest observed winning frequencies in the past. The first factor reflects the mean-reverting nature of the lotto players’ selection behaviour. The second reaffirms the well-known gambler’s fallacy in which players believe that they can improve their chances of winning by avoiding numbers that recently won. The third exhibits the players’ bias towards certain numbers with an above-average probability to be drawn. The two latter types of misconceptions are found to be more predominant in systematic betters, which suggests that the extent of the lotto players’ behavioural biases may vary according to how they place their bets.
Risk and performance optimization for portfolios of bonds and stocks

We explain how to optimize portfolios of bonds and stocks with respect to the Expected Shortfall (ES), respectively RORC or RORAC based on ES. In a pragmatic approach we combine and correlate a stock market model with geometric brownian motions with a two-factor Cox-Ingersoll-Ross (CIR-2) model for the interest rates/bonds. We use recent results from the theory of risk capital allocation, performance measurement and Swarm Intelligence for optimization. Examples for German market data as well as an analysis of the scalability of the solution to assure fast run-times on clusters of computers for large real-life portfolios are given. JEL: G11, G31
Dopamine treatment in brain‐dead rats mediates anti‐inflammatory effects: the role of hemodynamic stabilization and D‐receptor stimulation

Brain death (BD) is associated with profound inflammation in end‐organs. Dopamine (DA) treatment reduces this inflammatory response, but the underlying mechanisms remain thus far largely unknown. In this study, we investigated if the anti‐inflammatory effect of DA was related to hemodynamic stabilization and by which receptors it was mediated. BD was induced in F344 donor rats. DA was given either before BD for 24 h or after BD induction during a definite time. Adrenergic or D‐receptor blockers were administered to inhibit the receptor stimulation mediated by DA. Hemodynamic changes were recorded and kidneys were harvested after 6 h of BD. Mean arterial pressure was completely normalized by DA treatment. DA pretreatment before BD induction and treatment during BD both significantly inhibited the monocyte infiltration. The anti‐inflammatory as well as its blood pressure stabilizing effect was abrogated by concomitant application of adrenergic receptor blockers. In contrast, concomitant application of D‐receptor blockers only abrogated the anti‐inflammatory effect, but did not affect blood pressure stabilization. In contrast, pergolide and adrenergic receptor blockers completely normalized the blood pressure, but did not affect renal inflammation. Hence, DA might reduce BD‐induced monocyte infiltration possibly by hemodynamic stabilization, D‐receptor activation, or a combination of both.
Pronunciation learning strategies that improve ESL learners’ linking

This study explores the long-term effects of empowering 38 international graduate students with pronunciation learning strategies that they can use to improve their ability to link sounds within and across words. The effects of instruction are investigated through a mixed-method analysis that triangulates data from (a) a read-aloud test administered and recorded twice during the course, and again five months to two years after the course ended; (b) the same read-aloud test administered nine months after the testing in (a) to 23 of the 38 participants; (c) learners’ responses to two questionnaires and a survey; and (d) the researcher’s notes. The results reveal that students maintain a significant improvement over time regardless of their native language, gender, and length of stay in the US prior to instruction. There are, however, other learner characteristics and factors that seem to contribute to greater or lesser improvement over time. This paper identifies the pronunciation learning strategies taught for improving students’ ability to link sounds, analyzes the factors contributing to lesser or greater improvement over time, and discusses the results and pedagogical implications of the study.
Cohomological classification of Ann-functors

Regular Ann-functor classification problem has been solved with Shukla cohomology. In this paper, we would like to present a solution to the above problem in the general case and in the case of strong Ann-functors with, respectively, Mac Lane cohomology and Hochschild cohomology.
UNDERSTANDING THE DRIVERS OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICTs) ADOPTION BY KENYAN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SMES) .

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a major role in developing and developed economies in job creation and diversification of economic activities. Despite all these, SMEs are faced with many challenges such as non-adoption of information communication technologies (ICTs), poor infrastructure and inaccessibility to credit facilities. This notwithstanding, many studies have been done on ICTs adoption by SMEs but mainly on the importance of ICTs on enterprise competitiveness. Understanding the drivers, barriers and strategies to ICTs adoption by SMEs especially in the less developed countries, and in particular by Kenyan SMEs, have not been addressed. To fill this gap, this paper will address the drivers and ICTs tools used by Kenyan SMEs. To achieve this, a stratified random sample of 380 owner/managers of SMEs in three provinces in Kenya was selected for the study, namely Nairobi, Rift Valley and Nyanza provinces.
Associations between asthma and bronchial hyper-responsiveness with allergy and atopy phenotypes in urban black South African teenagers.

OBJECTIVES To determine asthma and allergy phenotypes in unselected urban black teenagers and to associate bronchial hyper-responsiveness (BHR) with asthma, other atopic diseases and allergen sensitisation. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study of 211 urban high-school black children of Xhosa ethnicity. Modified ISAAC questionnaires regarding asthma, eczema and rhinitis were administered. BHR was assessed by methacholine challenge using hand-held nebulisers. Skinprick tests (SPTs) were performed for 8 aeroallergens and 4 food allergens. RESULTS Asthma was reported in 9%, and 16 % demonstrated BHR. Rhinitis was reported in 48% and eczema in 19%. Asthma was strongly associated with BHR. Asthma was associated with eczema whereas BHR was associated with rhinitis. SPTs were positive in 34% of subjects, aeroallergens in 32%, and food allergens in 5%. The most common sensitivities were to house dust mites (HDM) and German cockroach. BHR was associated with sensitivity to any aeroallergen, cat, HDM, cockroach and bermuda grass. The number of positive SPTs was associated with asthma and BHR. With each level of SPT positivity, there was 40% increased prevalence of asthma and 70% increased prevalence of BHR. The rate of allergen sensitisation in subjects with BHR (72%) was much higher than those without BHR (28%); house dust mite sensitivity was 69% in subjects with BHR and 18% in those without. CONCLUSIONS These are the highest rates of allergen sensitisation in subjects with BHR documented in an African setting and the widest difference in sensitisation rates between subjects with and without BHR.
Visual perception system for a social robot

This paper describes a visual perception system which allows a social robot to conduct several tasks. The central part of this system is an artificial attention mechanism which is able to discriminate the most relevant information from all the visual information perceived by the robot. This attention mechanism is composed by three modules or stages. At the preattentive stage, a set of uniforms blobs or 'pre-attentive objects' is obtained [1]. Once the most salient objects are obtained, the semiattentive stage identifies and tracks some of them according to the tasks to accomplish. This tracking process allows to implement the ‘inhibition of return’, avoiding revisiting an attended object. Finally, the attentive stage also fixes the field of attention to the most relevant object depending on the behaviours to accomplish. Three behaviours have been implemented which allow the robot to detect visual landmarks in an initially unknown environment and to recognize and capture the upper-body motion of people interested in interact with it.
The E2-Like Conjugation Enzyme Atg3 Promotes Binding of IRG and Gbp Proteins to Chlamydia- and Toxoplasma-Containing Vacuoles and Host Resistance

Cell-autonomous immunity to the bacterial pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis and the protozoan pathogen Toxoplasma gondii is controlled by two families of Interferon (IFN)-inducible GTPases: Immunity Related GTPases (IRGs) and Guanylate binding proteins (Gbps). Members of these two GTPase families associate with pathogen-containing vacuoles (PVs) and solicit antimicrobial resistance pathways specifically to the intracellular site of infection. The proper delivery of IRG and Gbp proteins to PVs requires the autophagy factor Atg5. Atg5 is part of a protein complex that facilitates the transfer of the ubiquitin-like protein Atg8 from the E2-like conjugation enzyme Atg3 to the lipid phosphatidylethanolamine. Here, we show that Atg3 expression, similar to Atg5 expression, is required for IRG and Gbp proteins to dock to PVs. We further demonstrate that expression of a dominant-active, GTP-locked IRG protein variant rescues the PV targeting defect of Atg3- and Atg5-deficient cells, suggesting a possible role for Atg proteins in the activation of IRG proteins. Lastly, we show that IFN-induced cell-autonomous resistance to C. trachomatis infections in mouse cells depends not only on Atg5 and IRG proteins, as previously demonstrated, but also requires the expression of Atg3 and Gbp proteins. These findings provide a foundation for a better understanding of IRG- and Gbp-dependent cell-autonomous resistance and its regulation by Atg proteins.
Separate mesolimbic dopaminergic pathways mediate the opposing motivational effects of acute caffeine

Caffeine is the most commonly consumed psychoactive drug in the world, yet little is known about the neural substrates that underlie its rewarding and aversive properties. Using male Wistar rats in a place conditioning procedure, we showed that systemic caffeine at a low intraperitoneal dose of 2 mg/kg (or 100μM injected directly into the rostral, but not caudal, ventral tegmental area) induced reward. By contrast, high doses of systemic caffeine (10 and 30 mg/kg) produced aversions that were not recapitulated by a caffeine analog restricted to the periphery. We demonstrated that pharmacological blockade of dopamine receptors using α-flupenthixol injected into the nucleus accumbens shell, but not core, blocked caffeine reward. Conversely, αflupenthixol injected into the nucleus accumbens core, but not shell, blocked caffeine aversions. Thus, our findings reveal two dopamine-dependent and functionally dissociable mechanisms for processing caffeine motivation that are segregated between nucleus accumbens subregions.
MOTILITAS DAN ABNORMALITAS SPERMATOZOA BANGSA PEJANTAN SETELAH PENYIMPANAN

This research aims to study influence of the breed chicken toward motility, abnormality, and durability of live spermatozoa after storage at a temperature 0f 40C. Cement of chicken that using in this research come from 3 chickens male with the different there are chicken laughing , chicken arab , and chicken burma. The design of this research is laboratories experimentaly by using random design complete steel and torrie ( 1991 ) , consisting of 3 treatment and 6 remedial ( the number of cement). The kinds of male chicken that used : P1 = male of chicken laughing, P2 = male of chicken arab, P3 = male chicken burma. The results of the diversity analysis showed that the chicken laughing and chicken arab have an influence significantly (P<0,01) to motility of progressive spermatozoa( P1 = 79,88 %, P2 = 76,53 %, P3 = 84,25 %), abnormality of spermatozoa (P1=5,00%, P2=5,54%, P3=4,46%), and durability life of spermatozoa (P1=72,67%, P2=70,83%, P3=74,83%). From the results of the research obtained that the burma chicken better in maintaining motility, abnormality, and durabilty of live spermatozoa after storage at the temperature of 40C Penelitian ini bertujuan mempelajari pengaruh bangsa ayam terhadap motilitas dan abnormalitas setelah penyimpanan pada suhu 40C. Semen ayam yang digunakan dalam penetian ini berasal dari 3 ekor ayam jantan dengan bangsa pejantan yang berbeda yaitu ayam ketawa, ayam arab, dan ayam birma. Rancangan penelitian ini adalah ekperimental laboratoris dengan menggunakan Rancangan Acak Lengkap Steel dan Torrie (1991), yang terdiri dari 3 perlakuan dan 6 ulangan (jumlah penampungan semen). Jenis ayam pejantan yang digunakan : P1 = pejantan ayam ketawa, P2 = pejantan ayam arab, P3 = pejantan ayam birma. Hasil analisis keragaman memperlihatkan bahwa bangsa ayam ketawa, ayam arab, dan ayam birma memberikan pengaruh yang sangat nyata (P<0,01) terhadap Motilitas progresif spermatozoa (P1=79,88% , P2=76,53%, P3=84,25%) dan Abnormalitas Spermatozoa (P1=5,00%, P2=5,54%, P3=4,46%). Dari hasil penelitain diperloleh bahwa semen ayam birma lebih baik dalam mempertahankan motilitas dan abnormalitas spermatozoa setelah penyimpanan pada suhu 40C
Replication and Pre-Registration in Comparative Psychology

Author(s): Beran, Michael | Abstract: There is growing interest and pressure in the social sciences to find ways to address the so-called “replication crisis” in psychology. This includes increasing transparency and good practices in all areas of experimental research, and in particular to promote attempts at replication. Comparative psychology has a long history of efforts to replicate and extend previous research, but it is often difficult to do this when highly specialized methods or uncommon species are being studied. I propose that comparative researchers make greater use of pre-registration as a way to ensure good practices, and I outline some of the ways in which this can be accomplished.
Generalizable and Robust TV Advertising Effects

We provide generalizable and robust results on the causal sales effect of TV advertising for a large number of products in many categories. Such generalizable results provide a prior distribution that can improve the advertising decisions made by firms and the analysis and recommendations of policy makers. To provide generalizable results, we base our analysis on a large number of products and clearly lay out the research protocol used to select the products. We characterize the distribution of all estimates, irrespective of sign, size, or statistical significance. To ensure generalizability, we document the robustness of the estimates. First, we examine the sensitivity of the results to the assumptions made when constructing the data used in estimation. Second, we document whether the estimated effects are sensitive to the identification strategies that we use to claim causality based on observational data. Our results reveal substantially smaller advertising elasticities compared to the results documented in the extant literature, as well as a sizable percentage of statistically insignificant or negative estimates. Finally, we conduct an analysis of return on investment (ROI). While our results show that many brands perform better with their observed advertising than they would without advertising, we document considerable over-investment in advertising at the margin. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber. org.
Simulating a Volcanic Crisis in the Classroom

Perhaps the most urgent responsibility of volcanologists today is the management of volcanic crises. This complex process, however, is one of the most difficult to convey to students in a classroom setting. We have designed a multi-week, cooperative learning activity for our introductory, undergraduate volcanology class, which culminates in the simulation of a volcanic monitoring crisis. We provide teams of students with regularly updated information about a volcano's increasing activity. The data are drawn from existing archives and consist of seismic, gas composition, deformation, and surficial variations, as well as eyewitness reports. Students must respond in real time to the volcano's changing conditions in a highly interactive, dynamic, and energetic experience. The exercise incorporates the development of skills including interpretation of volcanic data, design of hazard maps and alert-level schemes, analysis of rapidly changing databases, consideration of the human costs of scientific decisions, and management of multiple simultaneous tasks. We believe this activity creates an effective and exciting learning environment in which students have the opportunity to apply theoretical concepts to a more realistic situation than is achieved in conventional classroom exercises. In so doing, we hope to develop students' critical thinking skills as well as to convey the challenges faced by volcanologists in hazards mitigation.
Pervasive Punishment

Despite its dramatic proliferation and diversification in recent decades, supervisory forms of punishment in the community (like probation, parole and unpaid work) have been largely invisible in scholarly and public discussion of criminal justice and its development in late-modern societies. The long-standing pre-occupation with the prison, and more recent concerns about 'mass incarceration' have allowed the emergence of 'mass supervision' to remain in the shadows. Pervasive Punishment insists that we remedy this neglect and exemplifies how we can do so. Drawing on thirty years of personal, practice and research experiences, it offers a compelling and rich account of the scale and social distribution of mass supervision, of the processes by which it has been legitimated, and of how it is experienced by those subject to it. Its innovative approach invites readers to look at, listen to and imagine punishment beyond the prison, through the use of innovative and creative methods including photography, song-writing and story-telling to explore and to represent 'mass supervision'. By so doing, this book offers new insights into how and why combining social science and creative practice can help develop a different kind of democratic dialogue about contentious social issues like crime and punishment. Though focused on the UK and the USA, the methods used in and analysis developed in this book will be of interest to scholars, students and practitioners elsewhere.