Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scalable parallelism using dataflow programming

gram level. Many forms of computation are well suited to dataflow description and implementation. Some common examples include complex media coding, network processing, imaging and digital signal processing, and em bedded control. Digital radio is one application domain that can be successfully modeled using data flows. Dataflow modeling facilitates component isolation and “pluggable” processing chains. Performance-enhancing functionality, such as hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), can be implemented as an optional plugin. Given that each new generation of mobile terminals is expected to support a larger number of radio standards, more functionality is being implemented in software or programmable hardware. Building a processing chain from pluggable modules – either standard-specific or universal with parameters – is therefore an attractive proposition. Dataflow modeling is not only a means of creating transceiver implementations. The use of dataflow modeling can also reveal bottlenecks from a lack of parallelism inherent in a radio standard. This is especially useful when developing new standards. To support a wider range of maximum communication speeds, next genera tion radio standards will be scalable in terms of capacity and processing requirements. Ideally, it should be possible to build a high-capacity transceiver by duplicating the hardware of a baseline transceiver. To do this, the potential parallelism should scale in a linear way with processing requirements. Parallel programming is not a new proposition or challenge. At the end of the 1960s, researchers were struggling to make the transition to paralDataflow programming was invented to address the issue of parallel computing. Dataflow models are well suited to describe many forms of computation, particularly in the area of digital signal processing. This article presents case studies about an MPEG-4 video decoder and a multi-standard OFDM receiver. Hardware and software have been synthesized from the dataflow models, and experimental results are presented.
Information infrastructures and public goods: Analytical and practical implications for SDI

Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) are envisioned to increase efficiency, transparency and equity, but realising this potential has proven problematic. We argue that insights from studies of large-scale, integrated but distributed information systems, dubbed “information infrastructures” are applicable. This perspective may help address an important dimension of SDIs: their character of being public goods rather than private assets. We identify and illustrate four key aspects of information infrastructures that underpin such a public good's focus. First, we advocate the necessity of deploying a socio-technical rather than a limited technical perspective. We further argue that the notion of installed base is central, that it is important to be aware of the “politics of representation” and to accept the unavoidable “messines” of reality. We illustrate these concepts through examples from health care in developing countries, an area particularly concerned with the potential to increase equity. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The great moderation Icelandic style

Reduction in the volatility in macroeconomic time series has been documented for a number of countries. This paper documents similar reduction for the Icelandic economy. The paper estimates the timing of the breakpoint and/or a trend in the variance of the series. The paper finds that the reduction in the variance in changes in Gross National Income (GNI) is larger than the reduction in the variance in the changes in GDP, both because of a reduction in the volatility in terms of trade and because of a reduction in the correlation between changes in GDP and changes in terms of trade. The largest contribution to the decline in the volatility in GNI comes though from the reduction in the volatility in GDP. The paper finds that the volatility in GDP has declined more than the volatility of its components, except export where the decline is greater. The main reason for the decline in the volatility in export is a decline in the volatility in fishing and fish processing. The paper finds that there is a strong relationship between the volatility in export and the volatility in GDP.
Career-Technical Education and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from California Community Colleges. A CAPSEE Working Paper.

This paper estimates the earnings returns to vocational, or career-technical, education programs in the nation’s largest community college system. While career-technical education (CTE) programs have often been mentioned as an attractive alternative to four-year colleges for some students, very little systematic evidence exists on the returns to specific vocational certificates and degrees. Using administrative data covering the entire California Community Colleges system and linked administrative earnings records, this study estimates returns to CTE education. We use rich pre-enrollment earnings data and estimation approaches including individual fixed-effects and individual trends, and find average returns to CTE certificate and degrees that range from 12 to 23 percent. The largest returns are for programs in the healthcare sector; among non-health related CTE programs estimated returns range from 5 to 10 percent.
Survivin is an independent prognostic marker for risk stratification of breast cancer patients.

BACKGROUND Results in previous qualitative studies of the association of the apoptosis inhibitor survivin with prognosis of breast cancer patients have been contradictory. METHODS Survivin mRNA was measured by quantitative TaqMan reverse transcription-PCR in 275 breast cancer tissues from patients with operable tumors and was correlated with established clinicopathologic factors, relapse-free survival [(RFS); 102 events], and overall survival [(OS); 81 events]. RESULTS High survivin mRNA concentrations were found mainly in tissues from younger patients and in high-grade cancer tissues. High survivin concentrations were most strongly associated with estrogen receptor- or progesterone receptor-negative tumors. In univariate Cox regression analysis for RFS, survivin concentrations were significantly associated with poor prognosis with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.99 (95% confidence interval, 1.31-3.02; P = 0.001) for every 10-fold increase in expression. For OS, a significant contribution of survivin to poor prognosis was found with a HR of 2.76 (1.67-4.55; P <0.001). Multivariate analyses were performed including established clinicopathologic factors. For RFS, age (P = 0.027), nodal category (P <0.001), and survivin [HR = 1.78 (1.18-2.68); P = 0.006] contributed significantly to the model. For OS, only nodal category (P <0.001) and survivin [HR = 3.05 (1.83-5.10); P <0.001] were significant. CONCLUSION Survivin demonstrates a strong, independent, association with poor prognosis. Survivin might be used as a new marker to stratify breast cancer patients for more optimal treatment modalities, or it could be a promising new target for therapy.
Solving Constrained Combinatorial Optimisation Problems via MAP Inference without High-Order Penalties

Solving constrained combinatorial optimisation problems via MAP inference is often achieved by introducing extra potential functions for each constraint. This can result in very high order potentials, e.g. a 2nd-order objective with pairwise potentials and a quadratic constraint over all N variables would correspond to an unconstrained objective with an order-N potential. This limits the practicality of such an approach, since inference with high order potentials is tractable only for a few special classes of functions. We propose an approach which is able to solve constrained combinatorial problems using belief propagation without increasing the order. For example, in our scheme the 2nd-order problem above remains order 2 instead of order N. Experiments on applications ranging from foreground detection, image reconstruction, quadratic knapsack, and the M-best solutions problem demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our method. Moreover, we show several situations in which our approach outperforms commercial solvers like CPLEX and others designed for specific constrained MAP inference problems.
An Empirical Investigation of the Exchange Rate Pass-Through to Inflation in Tanzania

The paper examines the effect of exchange rate changes on consumer prices in Tanzania using structural vector autoregression (VAR) models. Using a data set covering the period 1990-2005, we find that the exchange rate pass-through to inflation declined in the late 1990s despite the depreciation of the currency. This could be partly attributed to the macroeconomic and structural reforms that were implemented during this period. The decline in the pass-through does not necessarily imply that exchange rate fluctuations are less significant in explaining macroeconomic fluctuations. The recent increase in the share of imports in the economy suggests that the pass-through could rise over the medium term. The findings imply that the authorities should remain vigilant in assessing the potential impact of foreign prices on the dynamics of inflation in Tanzania. In this regard, the authorities should seek to maintain low and stable inflation and continue the ongoing structural reforms designed to improve efficiency and increase competition.
Estimating the Welfare Effects of Digital Infrastructure

While much economic policy presumes that more information infrastructure yields higher economic returns, little empirical work measures the magnitudes of these returns. We examine investment by local exchange telephone companies in fiber optic cable, ISDN lines and signal seven software, infrastructure which plays an essential role in bringing digital technology to local telephone networks. We estimate the elasticity of the derived demand for infrastructure investment faced by local exchange companies, controlling for factors such as local economic activity and the political disposition of state regulators. Our model postulates a regulated profit maximizing local exchange firm and a regulatory agency with predetermined political leanings in favor of consumer prices or firm profits. The model accounts for variation in state regulation and local economic conditions. In all our estimates we find that consumer demand is sensitive to investment in modern infrastructure, particularly as represented by fiber optic cable. Our estimates imply that infrastructure investment is responsible for a substantial fraction of the recent growth in consumer surplus and business revenue in local telecommunication services.
A GEOMETRIC APPROACH TO CONSTRAINED MOLECULAR DYNAMICS AND FREE ENERGY

We consider a molecule constrained to a hypersurface § in the conflguration space R m . In order to derive an expression for the mean force acting along the constrained coordinate we decompose the molecular vector fleld, and single out the direction of the respective coordinate utilising the structure of a-ne connections. By these means we reconsider the well-known results derived by Sprik et al. (1) and Darve et al. (2); we gain concise geometrical insight into the difierent contributions to the force in terms of molecular potential, mean curvature, and the connection 1- form of the normal bundle over the submanifold §. Our approach gives rise to a Hybrid Monte-Carlo based algorithm that can be used to compute the averaged force acting on selected coordinates in the context of thermodynamic free energy statistics.
Measuring test anxiety in children: Scale development and internal construct validation

Given the increased testing of school-aged children in the United States there is a need for a current and valid scale to measure the effects of test anxiety in children. The domain of children's test anxiety was theorized to be comprised of three dimensions: thoughts, autonomic reactions, and off-task behaviors. Four stages are described in the evolution of the Children's Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS): planning, construction, quantitative evaluation, and validation. A 50-item scale was administered to a development sample (N=230) of children in grades 3–6 to obtain item analysis and reliability estimates which resulted in a refined 30-item scale. The reduced scale was administered to a validation sample (N=261) to obtain construct validity evidence. A three-factor structure fit the data reasonably well. Recommendations for future research with the scale are described.
Poland's Accession to EMU - Choosing the Exchange Rate Parity

As its monetary and exchange rate framework for Euroarea accession, Poland, after some indecision (see Vinhas de Souza and Ledrut, 2002), has finally chosen a free floating exchange rate regime and DIT. These arrangements seem to be fixed until accession to the Euroarea, despite some proposals of unilateral euroization or introduction of a currency board arrangement (Bratkowski and Rostowski, 2001; Rostowski, 2001). Thus, Poland is expected to follow a standard path of joining EMU and it will have to stay in ERM II for at least two years. The core principle of the standard ERM II is the maintenance of the exchange rate within the ±15 per cent fluctuation band without devaluation of the central parity. In this case, a nominal zloty-euro parity will have to be chosen upon entry to ERM II and then the Euroarea. The initial ERM II parity may be the irrevocable exchange rate for entry into EMU, although changes, after a multilateral decision process, are possible.
Social and Psychological Influences on Computer User Frustration (Newhagen book chapter)

As computer usage has proliferated, so has user frustration. Even devoted and knowledgeable users encounter annoying delays, incomprehensible messages, incompatible files, and indecipherable menus. The frustration generated by these problems can be personally disturbing and socially disruptive. Psychological and social perspectives on frustration may clarify the relationships among variables such as personality types, cultural factors, goal attainment, workplace anger, and computer anxiety. These perspectives may also help designers, managers, and users understand the range of responses to frustration, which could lead to effective interventions such as redesign of software, improved training, better online help, user discipline, and even resetting of national research priorities.
Pif1 regulates telomere length by preferentially removing telomerase from long telomere ends

Telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein complex, is responsible for maintaining the telomere length at chromosome ends. Using its RNA component as a template, telomerase uses its reverse transcriptase activity to extend the 3′-end single-stranded, repetitive telomeric DNA sequence. Pif1, a 5′-to-3′ helicase, has been suggested to regulate telomerase activity. We used single-molecule experiments to directly show that Pif1 helicase regulates telomerase activity by removing telomerase from telomere ends, allowing the cycling of the telomerase for additional extension processes. This telomerase removal efficiency increases at longer ssDNA gaps and at higher Pif1 concentrations. The enhanced telomerase removal efficiency by Pif1 at the longer single-stranded telomeric DNA suggests a way of how Pif1 regulates telomerase activity and maintains telomere length.
Competitive Campaigns and the Responsiveness of Collective Choice

We analyze a model of direct legislation to identify conditions under which competition in the provision of campaign information can affect the responsiveness of electoral outcomes to the preferences that a voter (or set of voters) would express if she (they) knew everything there was to know about the consequences associated with her electoral alternatives. The basic intuition underlying the model is that a voter's ability use campaign information to form accurate inferences about the consequences of competing electoral alternatives can be affected by information provider attributes. We show that competition in the provision of campaign information increases the responsiveness of electoral outcomes only if competition produces these attributes.
A SPECIALIZED INTERIOR-POINT ALGORITHM FOR MULTICOMMODITY NETWORK FLOWS∗

Despite the eﬃciency shown by interior-point methods in large-scale linear programming, they usually perform poorly when applied to multicommodity ﬂow problems. The new specialized interior-point algorithm presented here overcomes this drawback. This specialization uses both a preconditioned conjugate gradient solver and a sparse Cholesky factorization to solve a linear system of equations at each iteration of the algorithm. The ad hoc preconditioner developed by exploiting the structure of the problem is instrumental in ensuring the eﬃciency of the method. An implementation of the algorithm is compared to state-of-the-art packages for multicommodity ﬂows. The computational experiments were carried out using an extensive set of test problems, with sizes of up to 700,000 variables and 150,000 constraints. The results show the eﬀectiveness of the algorithm.
Semantic Interactions in Multi-level Objects Segmentation

This paper discusses the semantic interactions including affiliations and geometrical interactions of different objects and different parts of one object with a multi-level segmentation framework. We propose four basic semantic relationships between not only two objects in different regions, but also any two of their sub-objects in different semantic levels. Our system obtains the semantic relationships with user interaction and the results of first segmentation. The semantic relationships feed back to the re-segmentation and make the results better. Experiment is performed and presented on different kinds of images. The final sementic hierarchy of objects is looking forward to work effectively in image editing based on objects or parts of bojects.
The ups and downs of temporal orienting: a review of auditory temporal orienting studies and a model associating the heterogeneous findings on the auditory N1 with opposite effects of attention and prediction

The temporal orienting of attention refers to the process of focusing (neural) resources on a particular time point in order to boost the processing of and the responding to sensory events. Temporal attention is manipulated by varying the task-relevance of events at different time points or by inducing expectations that an event occurs at a particular time point. Notably, the electrophysiological correlates of these manipulations at early processing stages are not identical: Auditory studies operationalizing temporal attention through task-relevance consistently found enhancements of early, sensory processing, as shown in the N1 component of the auditory event-related potential (ERP). By contrast, previous work on temporal orienting based on expectations showed mixed results: early, sensory processing was either enhanced or attenuated or not affected at all. In the present work, I will review existing findings on temporal orienting with a special focus on the auditory modality and present a working model to reconcile the previously heterogeneous results. Specifically, I will suggest that when expectations are used to manipulate attention, this will lead both to an orienting of attention and to the generation of precise predictions about the upcoming event. Attention and prediction are assumed to have opposite effects on early auditory processing, with temporal attention increasing and temporal predictions decreasing the associated ERP correlate, the auditory N1. The heterogeneous findings of studies manipulating temporal orienting by inducing expectations may thus be the consequence of differences in the relative contribution of attention and prediction processes. The model's predictions will be discussed in the context of a functional interpretation of the auditory N1 as an attention call signal, as presented in a recent model on auditory processing.
Voting on Thresholds for Public Goods: Experimental Evidence

Introducing a threshold in the sense of a minimal project size transforms a public goods game with an inefficient equilibrium into a coordination game with a set of Pareto-superior equilibria. Thresholds may therefore improve efficiency in the voluntary provision of public goods. In our one-shot experiment, we find that coordination often fails and exogenously imposed thresholds are ineffective at best and often counter-productive. This holds under a range of threshold levels and refund rates. We test if thresholds perform better if they are endogenously chosen, i.e. if a threshold is approved in a referendum, because voting may facilitate coordination due to signaling and commitment effects. We find that voting does have signaling and commitment effects but they are not strong enough to significantly improve the efficiency of thresholds.
Capitalization and Community Size

Studies often show taxes and public services capitalized into house prices, but no one has tested whether the rate of capitalization depends on community size. The theoretical model of Hoyt (Regional Science and Urban Economics, 29, 155-171, 1999) predicts that capitalization occurs, but that the rate of capitalization is weaker in large communities. Hoyt's model is tested empirically using a house price hedonic framework. The tax capitalization results are less clear, but the school quality and crime results firmly support the model's predictions. Using both school districts and municipalities to measure communities, larger communities weaken the rate of capitalization.
Cyclosporine A induces titin expression via MAPK/ERK signalling and improves proliferative and invasive potential of human trophoblast cells.

BACKGROUND Cyclosporin A (CsA) is a powerful immunosuppressive that has been widely used to prevent organ rejection and to treat certain autoimmune diseases. Our previous study showed that CsA at low concentrations could promote proliferation and invasion, and inhibit apoptosis, of human first trimester trophoblasts. In the present study, we further explored the potential mechanism and signal pathway. METHODS After treatment of JAR cells with CsA, we screened the differentially expressed genes by suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH), and characterized the differentially expressed gene, titin, in human first-trimester trophoblasts by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blot. Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activity was evaluated by ELISA. RESULTS CsA stimulated proliferation and invasion of human trophoblasts in a dose-dependent manner, and this appeared to be positive correlated with titin transcription, suggesting that CsA regulates biological functions of human trophoblast by inducing titin expression. Furthermore, the CsA treatment increased the MAPK activity, and blocking of the signaling pathway by Mitogen-activated protein MAPK (MEK) inhibitor, U0126, inhibited CsA-induced titin transcription in trophoblasts. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that titin expression is induced by CsA via activation of MAPK pathways and this may possibly be involved in promoting human trophoblast growth and invasiveness, which is beneficial to embryo viability.