Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
One Smart Agent

This paper proposes an equilibrium concept for a class of games in which players make irreversible costly decisions; these games have been widely used in the recent I.O. literature. The equilibrium concept is defined, not in the space of strategies, but in the space of (observable outcomes). It is weaker than perfect Nash equilibrium, and involves combining a form of ? survivor principle? with an assumption regarding entry. This assumption involves only a very weak rationality requirement: if a profitable opportunity exists in the market, there is ? One smart agent ? who will find it. This weak equilibrium concept is sufficient to imply some empirically interesting regularities in the area of market structure.
Cell Carcinoma Normal Tissue Predicts Relapse of Esophageal Squamous Profiling Gene Expression Ratios of Paired Cancerous and Updated

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma has heterogeneous clinical outcomes that cannot be predicted well using any existing clinical or molecular prognostic factors. Gene expression profiling may enable more precise prediction of the clinical outcome of these patients. We developed a new approach using gene expression ratios of paired cancerous and normal tissue specimens from the same patient to reduce the effects of variation among individuals. Using oligonucleotide microarrays, we analyzed total RNA expression levels corresponding to 12,600 transcript sequences in 24 paired cancerous and normal tissue operative specimens from 12 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Hierarchical clustering analysis using gene expression ratios (cancer:normal) divided the 12 patients into two groups; all 7 patients in the first cluster survived without relapse (median follow-up, 483 days), whereas all 5 patients in the second cluster relapsed (median relapse-free survival time, 280 days; log-rank test, P 0.006). In contrast, clustering either with cancerous tissue alone or with normal tissue alone did not show significant differences in the outcomes. The expressions of a variety of genes related with cell cycle, gene-repair, apoptosis and chemoradiotherpay resistance were up-regulated in the poor prognostic cluster. These results suggest that ratios of paired gene expression profiles may more efficiently predict relapse-free survival of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma than existing prognostic factors or than gene expression profiling with cancerous tissue alone.
Prepartition: Paradigm for the Load Balance of Virtual Machine Allocation in Data Centers

It is significant to apply load-balancing strategy to improve the performance and reliability of resource in data centers. One of the challenging scheduling problems in Cloud data centers is to take the allocation and migration of reconfigurable virtual machines (VMs) as well as the integrated features of hosting physical machines (PMs) into consideration. In the reservation model, the workload of data centers has fixed process interval characteristics. In general, load-balance scheduling is NP-hard problem as proved in many open literatures. Traditionally, for offline load balance without migration, one of the best approaches is LPT (Longest Process Time first), which is well known to have approximation ratio 4/3. With virtualization, reactive (post) migration of VMs after allocation is one popular way for load balance and traffic consolidation. However, reactive migration has difficulty to reach predefined load balance objectives, and may cause interruption and instability of service and other associated costs. In view of this, we propose a new paradigm, called Prepartition, it proactively sets process-time bound for each request on each PM and prepares in advance to migrate VMs to achieve the predefined balance goal. Prepartition can reduce process time by preparing VM migration in advance and therefore reduce instability and achieve better load balance as desired. We also apply the Prepartition to online (PrepartitionOn) load balance and compare it with existing online scheduling algorithms. Both theoretical and experimental results are provided.
What can genetics tell us about population connectivity?

Genetic data are often used to assess ‘population connectivity’ because it is difficult to measure dispersal directly at large spatial scales. Genetic connectivity, however, depends primarily on the absolute number of dispersers among populations, whereas demographic connectivity depends on the relative contributions to population growth rates of dispersal vs. local recruitment (i.e. survival and reproduction of residents). Although many questions are best answered with data on genetic connectivity, genetic data alone provide little information on demographic connectivity. The importance of demographic connectivity is clear when the elimination of immigration results in a shift from stable or positive population growth to negative population growth. Otherwise, the amount of dispersal required for demographic connectivity depends on the context (e.g. conservation or harvest management), and even high dispersal rates may not indicate demographic interdependence. Therefore, it is risky to infer the importance of demographic connectivity without information on local demographic rates and how those rates vary over time. Genetic methods can provide insight on demographic connectivity when combined with these local demographic rates, data on movement behaviour, or estimates of reproductive success of immigrants and residents. We also consider the strengths and limitations of genetic measures of connectivity and discuss three concepts of genetic connectivity that depend upon the evolutionary criteria of interest: inbreeding connectivity, drift connectivity, and adaptive connectivity. To conclude, we describe alternative approaches for assessing population connectivity, highlighting the value of combining genetic data with capture‐mark‐recapture methods or other direct measures of movement to elucidate the complex role of dispersal in natural populations.
Who benefits from which reading intervention in the primary years? Match the intervention with the reading profile

Abstract Reading difficulties may have multiple causes. Effective approaches to reading intervention need to target the specific causes for individual readers. The Early Reading Intervention Knowledge program comprises three intervention pathways: a phonological-phonemic pathway, a phonic-orthographic pathway, and an oral language pathway. This study examines the effectiveness of each pathway for 902 underachieving students in their second to fifth years of primary education. The students differed in their reading profiles. The interventions were implemented in a regular school context. Intervention in the three pathways improved reading accuracy and comprehension for both the younger (Years 2 and 3) and older (Years 4 and 5) age groups. The pattern in accuracy gains across the three pathways was similar for each group, with the older students making smaller gains. Reading profiles influenced the rate or amount of gain. For comprehension, the phonological and oral language pathways yielded higher gains for both age groups than the orthographic pathway. The most at-risk students showed the highest gains. The implications for intervention are discussed.
Insect Inspired Robots

Insect behaviour has been a rich source of inspiration for the field of robotics as the perception and navigation problems encountered by autonomous robots are faced also by insects. In this paper, we introduce a research platform, the Insectbot, that was built as a testbed for new biologically-inspired, vision-based algorithms and systems. The Insectbot is a groundbased robot but it is capable of simulating conditions of free flight. It is a robust testbed for flight navigation algorithms that offers advantages over other platforms such as helicopters, blimps and other air vehicles. We present the navigational behaviours currently implemented on this robot. Major subsytems include the well-known bee-inspired, corridor-centring behaviour, a flow-based docking algorithm and feature detection algorithms.
Using case studies in business education to promote networked thinking: findings of an intervention study

ABSTRACT Case studies are central to the way management is currently taught at universities. Among other benefits attributed to the case study method is that it promotes networked thinking by learners. Networked thinking takes account of interactions and repercussions, making it crucial to decision-making within the complex system of rules that shapes current business reality. However, there is virtually no empirical evidence of the extent to which the case study method actually delivers the advantages attributed to it. This paper aims to remedy that gap in the literature. The paper considers the extent to which the case study method promotes networked thinking on the part of students on business and management courses. The research is designed as an intervention study involving pre- and post-testing. The study finds that students who have worked on a case study correctly identify more interactions in post-testing than in pre-testing.
Market Failures and Market Framings: Can a market be transformed from the inside?

How do actors innovate markets in cases of perceived market failures? This paper’s aim is to examine what happens when a market is innovated or, as we call it, ‘redevised’ in situations where public and commercial interests significantly diverge. Market devices can serve an important function in such attempts to innovate markets: they are material and/or social arrangements that are put into place to shape the market in question in certain ways. But can such devices really transform a market from within? To examine this question we trace the history of the Geneva Medicines Patent Pool, a civil society initiative introduced to change pharmaceutical firms’ licensing and collaboration practices in the market for HIV/AIDS medicines. Our empirical results indicate that redevising a market in response to market failures can shift the market’s frames and contribute to altering its practices, but that this is a pragmatic and often lengthy process that is never fully predictable in advance. By attending to the intended and unintended consequences - or misfires - of redevising a market, our study raises important questions around acting in and on the market, market innovation’s’ ontological impact, zooming in and zooming out when studying redevising, and attending to the temporality of market innovation.
Astrometry of Galactic Star-Forming Region Sharpless 269 with VERA : Parallax Measurements and Constraint on Outer Rotation Curve

We have performed high-precision astrometry of H2O maser sources in the Galactic star-forming region Sharpless 269 (S269) with VERA. We successfully detected a trigonometric parallax of 189 ˙ 8� as, corresponding to a source distance of 5:28 +0:24 � 0:22 kpc. This is the smallest parallax ever measured, and the first one detected beyond 5 kpc. The source distance as well as the proper motions were used to constrain the outer rotation curve of the Galaxy, demonstrating that the difference of rotation velocities at the Sun and at S269 (which is 13.1 kpc away from the Galaxy’s center) is less than 3%. This gives the strongest constraint on the flatness of the outer rotation curve, and provides a direct confirmation of the existence of a large amount of dark matter in the Galaxy’s outer disk.
Magnetic resonance imaging of brain function and neurochemistry

In the past decade, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research has been focused on the acquisition of physiological and biochemical information noninvasively. Probably the most notable accomplishment in this general effort has been the introduction of the MR approaches to map brain function. This capability, often referred to as functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, is based on the sensitivity of MR signals to secondary metabolic and hemodynamic responses that accompany increased neuronal activity. Despite this indirect link to neurotransmission, recent studies demonstrate that under appropriate conditions, these fMRI maps have accuracy at the scale of submillimeter neuronal organizations such as the orientation columns of the visual cortex, and are directly proportional in magnitude to electrical signals generated by the neurons. High magnetic fields have been critical in achieving such specificity in functional maps because they provide advantages through increased signal-to-noise ratio, diminishing blood-related contributions to mapping signals, and enhanced sensitivity to microvasculature. Equally important is MR spectroscopy studies, which, at high magnetic fields, provide for the first time the opportunity to measure local metabolic correlates of human brain function and neurotransmission rates. Together, these MR methods provide a complementary set of approaches for probing important aspects of the nervous system.
The Impact of Uncertainties in African Biomass Burning Emission Estimates on Modeling Global Air Quality, Long Range Transport and Tropospheric Chemical Lifetimes

The chemical composition of the troposphere in the tropics and Southern Hemisphere (SH) is significantly influenced by gaseous emissions released from African biomass burning (BB). Here we investigate how various emission estimates given in bottom-up BB inventories (GFEDv2, GFEDv3, AMMABB) affect simulations of global tropospheric composition using the TM4 chemistry transport model. The application of various model parameterizations for introducing such emissions is also investigated. There are perturbations in near-surface ozone (O3) and carbon monoxide (CO) of ~60–90% in the tropics and ~5–10% in the SH between different inventories. Increasing the update frequency of the temporal distribution to eight days generally results in decreases of between ~5 and 10% in near-surface mixing ratios throughout the tropics, which is larger than the influence of increasing the injection heights at which BB emissions are introduced. There are also associated differences in the long range transport of pollutants throughout the SH, where the composition of the free troposphere in the SH is sensitive to the chosen BB inventory. Analysis of the chemical budget terms reveals that the influence of increasing the tropospheric CO burden due to BB on oxidative capacity of the troposphere is mitigated by the associated increase in NOx emissions (and thus O3) with the variations in the CO/N ratio between inventories being low. For all inventories there is a decrease in the tropospheric chemical lifetime of methane of between 0.4 and 0.8% regardless of the CO emitted from African BB. This has implications for assessing the effect of inter-annual variability in BB on the annual growth rate of methane.
A pattern language for developing privacy enhancing technologies

A privacy enhancing technology (PET) is an application or a mechanism that allows users to protect the privacy of their personally identifiable information. Early PETs were about enabling anonymous mailing and anonymous browsing, but lately, there have been active research and development efforts in many other problem domains. This paper describes the first pattern language for developing PETs. Currently, it contains 12 patterns. These privacy patterns are not limited to a specific problem domain; they can be applied to design anonymity systems for various types of online communication, online data sharing, location monitoring, voting, and electronic cash management. The pattern language guides a developer when he or she is designing a PET for an existing problem or innovating a solution for a new problem. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Testing Dynamic Decision Making Under Real-Time Pressure : A Scuba Diving Simulator

Experimental dynamic decision making studies are typically carried out in environments where subjects have plentiful time before making decisions. In this research, a scuba diving simulator is developed for experimental analysis of decision making under real-time pressure, in dynamic feedback environment. In our clock-driven scuba diving simulator, subjects make decisions in real-time, continuously, which enables us to study effect of game speed (time pressure) on performance and on learning. Results show that game speed has significant effect on subjects’ performances. Material and information delays are further incorporated to evaluate effects of delays on performance and learning. Both information and material delays are found significantly influential on performance. However, performance differences between delay and no-delay games decrease with practice. Since games attempt to simulate experiential learning, subjects having real diving experience may be expected to perform better than inexperienced ones. Interestingly, no statistically significant difference is found between those with scuba-diving experience and those without. An interesting feature of the game is the fact that the control problem that subjects face is under strong influence of a positive feedback loop. Combined with delays and nonlinearity, the game illustrates how complex the dynamic control problem can become even for a small, three-stock model. Performances of subjects in most trials are unstable and strongly oscillatory. 1 Supported by Bogazici University Research Grant no. 02R102.
Mass Rearing History and Irradiation Affect Mating Performance of the Male Fruit Fly, Anastrepha obliqua

Abstract As an initial step to improve the efficiency of the sterile insect technique applied to eradicate, suppress, and control wild Anastrepha obliqua (Macquart) (Diptera: Tephritidae) in mango producing areas of Mexico, the effect of radiation dose and mass rearing history on male mating performance was examined. Field cage tests in which both male and female laboratory flies were irradiated at different doses (0, 40, and 80 Gy) were released with cohorts of wild flies of both sexes, revealing that both mass rearing history and irradiation affected male mating performance. Laboratory males were accepted for copulation by wild females less frequently than wild males. Copulations involving laboratory males were shorter than those involving wild males. Irradiated males mated less frequently with wild females than wild males, and irradiated females appeared to be less able to reject courting males of both origins. High levels of fertility for untreated laboratory females crossed with males irradiated at different doses may reflect problems in mass rearing affecting homogeneity of pupal age before irradiation, and possibly masked a dose effect. Proposed remedial measures to improve male mating performance are discussed.
Aging enhances liver fibrotic response in mice through hampering extracellular matrix remodeling

Clinical data identify age as a factor for severe liver fibrosis. We evaluate whether and how aging modulates the fibrotic response in a mouse model. Liver fibrosis was induced by CCl4 injections (thrice weekly for 2 weeks) in 7 weeks- and 15 months-old mice (young and old, respectively). Livers were analyzed for fibrosis, inflammation and remodeling 48 and 96 hours after the last injection. Old mice developed more severe fibrosis compared to young ones as evaluated by sirius red morphometry. Expression of pro-fibrogenic genes was equally induced in the two age-groups but enhanced fibrolysis in young mice was demonstrated by a significantly higher Mmp13 induction and collagenase activity. While fibrosis resolution occurred in young mice within 96 hours, no significant fibrosis attenuation was observed in old mice. Although recruitment of monocytes-derived macrophages was similar in young and old livers, young macrophages had globally a remodeling phenotype while old ones, a pro-fibrogenic phenotype. Moreover, we observed a higher proportion of thick fibers and enhanced expression of enzymes involved in collagen maturation in old mice. Conclusion Impaired fibrolysis of a matrix less prone to remodeling associated with a pro-inflammatory phenotype of infiltrated macrophages contribute to a more severe fibrosis in old mice.
Joint Secure Beamforming Design at the Source and the Relay for an Amplify-and-Forward MIMO Untrusted Relay System

An amplify-and-forward (AF) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay network composed of a source, a relay, and a destination is considered, where transmit beamforming is employed both at the source and at the relay. The relay is a user who is willing to help the communication from the source to the destination. In our paper, however, the relay is untrusted in the sense that it may make a passive security attack; that is, it may decode messages of the source. We consider two ways to transmit confidential information of the source to the destination: noncooperative secure beamforming and cooperative secure beamforming. In the noncooperative scheme, the relay is simply treated as an eavesdropper, and does not participate in communication. In the cooperative scheme, the relay is asked to relay signals from the source to the destination. In this paper, the source and relay beamforming is jointly designed to maximize the secrecy rate in the cooperative scheme. The conditions under which the cooperative scheme achieves a higher secrecy rate than the noncooperative scheme are derived in the low and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regimes of the source-relay and relay-destination links. The performance of the secure beamforming schemes is compared through extensive numerical simulations.
Executive Compensation and Corporate Acquisition Decisions

By examining how executive compensation structure determines corporate acquisition decisions, we document a strong positive relation between acquiring managers' equity-based compensation (EBC) and stock price performance around and following acquisition announcements. This relation is highly robust when we control for acquisition mode (mergers), means of payment, managerial ownership, and previous option grants. Compared to low EBC managers, high EBC managers pay lower acquisition premiums, acquire targets with higher growth opportunities, and make acquisitions engendering larger increases in firm risk. EBC significantly explains postacquisition stock price performance even after controlling for acquisition mode, means of payment, and "glamour" versus "value" acquirers. Copyright The American Finance Association 2001.
Tick Size Reduction and Price Discovery in Option Markets: An Empirical Investigation

We examine the impact of the tick size reduction introduced by the CBOE in 2007 in its second pilot program on the simultaneous price discovery process in the markets for options and their underlying securities. We first document a major dependence in both the Information Shares (IS) and Component Shares (CS) approaches to the estimation of the price discovery metrics on the inversion method of the option value to find the implied stock price. We then introduce a more accurate inversion method that results in a major increase in the information shares of option markets for both IS and CS metrics compared to the dominant Lagged Implied Volatility (LIV) inversion method. In all cases, however, we document a major impact of the tick size reduction in the option market that increases the option market information shares for all metrics and all inversion methods.
A Review of Instruments that Measure LGBTQ Affirmation and Discrimination Constructs in Adults

ABSTRACT In this article, the authors review measures of adult lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) affirmation and discrimination constructs in five categories: counselor competency, attitudes toward LGBTQ, experiences of discrimination, internalized attitudes, and sexual identity. Within each category the authors list scales, scale descriptions, validity, reliability, and normative data. Their aim was not to conduct a systematic review, but rather to provide readers with a sampling of available tools. The authors selected measures for inclusion on the basis of usage (assessed via average annual citation rates) or uniqueness of the construct or population addressed. Finally, the authors conclude with recommendations for future development of measures.