Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Value of a Large Customer Base in Markets with Consumer Switching Costs

It is usually acknowledged that firms benefit from a large customer base when consumers face costs of switching the supplier. Klemperer (1995) points out that this may not be true if an increase in the size of a firm’s customer base induces fiercer price competition, possibly making the firm worse off. This paper shows that such an outcome is not a mere theoretical possibility but may be empirically relevant. It is shown to be obtained under plausible conditions, in particular homogeneous goods and dispersed switching costs. The prediction that switching costs make markets less competitive is stronger than previously shown.
Revisiting Family Leisure Research and Critical Reflections on the Future of Family-Centered Scholarship

ABSTRACT In this special issue of Leisure Sciences, we examine the progress made and challenges ahead in research on leisure and families—20 years revisited. We consider what advancements have been made in family leisure research and potential new directions that family-centered scholars can look towards. We also consider the dominance of particular theoretical perspectives and methodological designs, and the limitations and consequences of such perspectives, to understand the complexities, diversity, and richness of the lived family experience. Emphasis is placed on the need for scholarship that explores diverse constructions of family and to provide a call to action for family-centered scholars to engage with broader global social issues.
Wheeling: A diagrammatic analogue of the Duflo isomorphism

We construct and prove a diagrammatic version of the Duflo isomorphism between the invariant subalgebra of the symmetric algebra of a Lie algebra and the center of the universal enveloping algebra. This version implies the original for metrized Lie algebras (Lie algebras with an invariant non-degenerate bilinear form). As an application of this isomorphism, we will compute the Kontsevich integral of the unknot and the Hopf link to all orders. At the core of the proof, we use an elementary property of the Hopf link which can be summarized by the equation ``1+1=2'' in abacus arithmetic: doubling one component of the Hopf link is equivalent to taking the connected sum of two Hopf links. This property of the Hopf link turns out, when suitably interpreted, to be exactly the property required for the Duflo map to be multiplicative. To compute the Kontsevich integral of the unknot, we use a property of the unknot that can be summarized by ``n * 0 = 0'': the n-fold connected cabling of the unknot is again an unknot.
Predicting Reaching Targets from Human EEG

Extracting reach information from brain signals is of great interest to the fields of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and human motor control. To date, most work in this area has focused on invasive intracranial recordings; however, successful decoding of reach targets from noninvasive electroencephalogram (EEG) signals would be of great interest. In this article, we show that EEG signals contain sufficient information to decode target location during a reach (Experiment 1) and during the planning period before a reach (Experiment 2). We discuss the application of independent component analysis and dipole fitting for removing movement artifacts. With this technique we get similar classification accuracy for classifying EEG signals during a reach (Experiment 1) and during the planning period before a reach (Experiment 2). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of decoding (planned) reach targets from EEG. These results lay the foundation for future EEG-based BCIs based on decoding of planned reaches.
ADAP and SKAP55 deficiency suppresses PD-1 expression in CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes for enhanced anti-tumor immunotherapy

PD‐1 negatively regulates CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) cytotoxicity and anti‐tumor immunity. However, it is not fully understood how PD‐1 expression on CD8+ CTL is regulated during anti‐tumor immunotherapy. In this study, we have identified that the ADAP‐SKAP55 signaling module reduced CD8+ CTL cytotoxicity and enhanced PD‐1 expression in a Fyn‐, Ca2+‐, and NFATc1‐dependent manner. In DC vaccine‐based tumor prevention and therapeutic models, knockout of SKAP55 or ADAP showed a heightened protection from tumor formation or metastases in mice and reduced PD‐1 expression in CD8+ effector cells. Interestingly, CTLA‐4 levels and the percentages of tumor infiltrating CD4+Foxp3+ Tregs remained unchanged. Furthermore, adoptive transfer of SKAP55‐deficient or ADAP‐deficient CD8+ CTLs significantly blocked tumor growth and increased anti‐tumor immunity. Pretreatment of wild‐type CD8+ CTLs with the NFATc1 inhibitor CsA could also downregulate PD‐1 expression and enhance anti‐tumor therapeutic efficacy. Together, we propose that targeting the unrecognized ADAP‐SKAP55‐NFATc1‐PD‐1 pathway might increase efficacy of anti‐tumor immunotherapy.
Estimating three-dimensional motion parameters of a rigid planar patch, II: Singular value decomposition

We show that the three-dimensional (3-D) motion parameters of a rigid planar patch can be determined by computing the singular value decomposition (SVD) of a 3 × 3 matrix containing the eight so called "pure parameters. " Furthermore, aside from a scale factor for the translation parameters, the number of solutions is either one or two, depending on the multiplicity of the singular values of the matrix.
A Review of the Mechanisms of Ventricular Arrhythmia in Brugada Syndrome

Brugada syndrome (BrS) is characterised by the triad of coved ST elevation, lethal ventricular arrhythmia in an apparently structurally normal heart. The precise mechanisms responsible for the coved ST elevation and ventricular arrhythmias in this disease have been debated since its initial description in 1992. Indeed the recent recognition of early repolarisation J wave disorders linked to primary VF broadens the mechanistic importance of BrS in sudden cardiac death. It may lie on a spectrum of early repolarisation pathology which is becoming increasingly recognised as a marker of premature cardiovascular death. Mechanistically, abnormalities of both depolarisation and repolarisation in the right ventricular outflow tract, and heterogeneities of conduction between the endocardium and epicardium have been implicated in the electrographic manifestations of BrS and arrhythmogenesis. The initial belief of BrS as a single autosomal dominant ion channel disorder has been challenged. It has become apparent that sodium channel mutations only account for a maximum of 30% of cases and structural myocardial abnormalities have now been described in what was previously thought to be a purely functional condition. It is highly probable that BrS is an umbrella diagnosis for a number of conduction and repolarisation abnormalities which manifest as this syndrome and the coved ST elevation represents the final common pathway of both ion channel and structural derangements. This review will discuss the issues surrounding the mechanisms of lethal arrhythmia in BrS and summarise both basic science and clinical research findings.
Inter-temporal Accrual Persistence and Accrual Anomaly

Prior accounting research argues that diminishing marginal returns on new investments drive lower persistence of accruals relative to cash flows. Macroeconomic research documents that marginal profitability is counter-cyclical, which implies that diminishing marginal returns on new investments are more pronounced during periods of expansions than recessions. Linking the cyclicality of diminishing returns on investments with the argument that diminishing returns to investments contribute to lower persistence of accruals relative to cash flows, this paper predicts that the differential persistence of accruals is greater during expansionary periods than recessionary periods. Using a U.S. sample from 1972 to 2003, I find that the differential persistence of accruals is greater during economic expansions than recessions. When I focus on the components of accruals, I find that depreciation, change in accounts receivable, change in raw materials, and change in finished goods are the main drivers of cyclical differential accrual persistence. These findings are robust to alternative conditioning sets, estimation procedures, and measures of the business cycle. I also find that investors are unable to assess the cyclical differential persistence of accruals, leading to higher returns (both raw and abnormal returns) from an accrual-based trading strategy during expansionary periods.
Examining the Role of Immigration in Crime Decline Across United States Cities

Despite previous research in this area, the relationship between immigration and crime in the United States remains ambiguous and surrounded by misconceptions. However, recently, scholars have suggested that, despite the claims of policy-makers and popularized sociological theories, large immigrant concentrations may be linked with lower as opposed to higher crime rates. In the past, research in this area has been imprecise due to it its implementation of cross-sectional analyses for a limited selection of geographic regions. However, through the implementation of time-series procedures and the use of annual data for metropolitan statistical areas during the 2005–2010 periods, the present study evaluates the impact of changes in immigration concentration on changes in crime rates, both violent and non-violent. These multivariate analyses specify that violent and property crime rates generally decreased as metropolitan areas experienced increases in their proportion of immigrants. These results confirm the hypothesis that the recent decline in crime is partially due to increases in the concentration of foreign-born individuals.
ADMS-AIRPORT: MODEL INTER-COMPARISIONS AND MODEL VALIDATION

The functionality of ADMS-Airport and details of its use in the Model Inter-comparison Study of the Project for the Sustainable Development of Heathrow Airport (PSDH) have previously been presented, Carruthers et al (2007). A distinguishing feature is the treatment of jet engine emissions as moving jet sources rather than averaging these emissions into volume sources as is the case in some other models. In this presentation two further studies are presented which each contribute to the overall evaluation of the model. In the Heathrow study on adding capacity (third runway) further comparisons have been made between the measured NOx, NO2 and PM10 concentrations from the large number of automatic monitoring sites located in the neighbourhood of Heathrow Airport and the ADMS-Airport predictions. A range of tools is employed with which to present the comparisons including the BOOT validation toolkit and concentration wind roses. In the CAEPport study a fictional but realistic airport was ‘constructed’ for a model inter-comparison study the purposes of which were (i) to determine that air quality airport models put forward for CAEP (ICAO’s Committee on Environmental Aviation Protection) analysis are ‘sufficiently robust, rigorous and transparent’ for forthcoming CAEP analyses and (ii) to explain differences in the models. The study included consideration of both emissions and air pollution concentrations however the focus here will be on the modelled concentrations. Results for ADMS-Airport from this study will be presented along with those of the other participating models – EDMS, LASPORT and ALAQS.
Predictive Validation of an Influenza Spread Model

Background Modeling plays a critical role in mitigating impacts of seasonal influenza epidemics. Complex simulation models are currently at the forefront of evaluating optimal mitigation strategies at multiple scales and levels of organization. Given their evaluative role, these models remain limited in their ability to predict and forecast future epidemics leading some researchers and public-health practitioners to question their usefulness. The objective of this study is to evaluate the predictive ability of an existing complex simulation model of influenza spread. Methods and Findings We used extensive data on past epidemics to demonstrate the process of predictive validation. This involved generalizing an individual-based model for influenza spread and fitting it to laboratory-confirmed influenza infection data from a single observed epidemic (1998–1999). Next, we used the fitted model and modified two of its parameters based on data on real-world perturbations (vaccination coverage by age group and strain type). Simulating epidemics under these changes allowed us to estimate the deviation/error between the expected epidemic curve under perturbation and observed epidemics taking place from 1999 to 2006. Our model was able to forecast absolute intensity and epidemic peak week several weeks earlier with reasonable reliability and depended on the method of forecasting-static or dynamic. Conclusions Good predictive ability of influenza epidemics is critical for implementing mitigation strategies in an effective and timely manner. Through the process of predictive validation applied to a current complex simulation model of influenza spread, we provided users of the model (e.g. public-health officials and policy-makers) with quantitative metrics and practical recommendations on mitigating impacts of seasonal influenza epidemics. This methodology may be applied to other models of communicable infectious diseases to test and potentially improve their predictive ability.
Repulsive Mixtures

Discrete mixtures are used routinely in broad sweeping applications ranging from unsupervised settings to fully supervised multi-task learning. Indeed, finite mixtures and infinite mixtures, relying on Dirichlet processes and modifications, have become a standard tool. One important issue that arises in using discrete mixtures is low separation in the components; in particular, different components can be introduced that are very similar and hence redundant. Such redundancy leads to too many clusters that are too similar, degrading performance in unsupervised learning and leading to computational problems and an unnecessarily complex model in supervised settings. Redundancy can arise in the absence of a penalty on components placed close together even when a Bayesian approach is used to learn the number of components. To solve this problem, we propose a novel prior that generates components from a repulsive process, automatically penalizing redundant components. We characterize this repulsive prior theoretically and propose a Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling algorithm for posterior computation. The methods are illustrated using synthetic examples and an iris data set.
Additivity and Complementarity in External Technology Sourcing: The Added Value of Corporate Venture Capital Investments

Innovating firms often invest in a number of different technology projects, in different stages of development, using a wide range of distinct technology sourcing modes, such as strategic alliances, joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions. Recently, firms have also gained an increasing awareness of the potential benefits of corporate venture capital investments. This paper investigates the particular role of corporate venture capital investments in the technology sourcing portfolio of firms. More specifically, we focus on the extent to which corporate venture capital investments are additive or complementary to other modes of technology sourcing when explaining the innovative performance of firms. The results indicate that corporate venture capital investments are particularly beneficial for the innovative performance of firms when they are used in combination with other technology sourcing modes.
Saldırganlık: Kişilerarası İlişki Tarzları ve Empati Açısından Bir İnceleme

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship of aggression with interpersonal styles and empathy. The results revealed that interpersonal styles and empathy were related with aggression types. For example, empathic tendency and contemptuous interpersonal style were found to be predictive of both destructive aggression and passive aggression. Assertiveness, on the other hand, was predicted by explicit and egocentric relationship styles. The findings also indicated that females had higher scores on empathic tendency, explicit and respectful interpersonal styles, assertiveness; and lower scores on egocentric and contemptuous interpersonal style, destructive and passive aggression than did males. The results were discussed within the framework of the related literature.
Television, Interpersonal Communication, and College Students’ Attitudes Toward Mental Health

Statistics estimate that 1 in 5 American adults struggle with mental health challenges, but only about one-third of college students who experience mental health challenges seek help (National Alliance on Mental Illness, n.d.). With increases in the severity and prevalence of mental illness among college students (Daddona, 2011; Hefner & Eisenberg, 2009), it is important to understand what attitudes about mental illness are present among college students and what shapes those attitudes. From a cultivation analysis perspective (Morgan, Signorielli, & Shanahan, 2009), this study explores the relationship between college students’ television viewing habits and their attitudes toward mental illness, building on prior research suggesting that heavy television viewers hold more negative views of mental illness and the individuals experiencing them (Diefenbach & West, 2009), and that television portrayals of mental illness are stigmatizing and misleading (Klin & Lemish, 2008; Parrott & Parrott, 2015). The present study also looks at the possible associations between college students’ personal experiences with and interpersonal communication about mental health challenges and attitudes toward mental illness. Data were collected using an online survey distributed to undergraduate students at the University of Maine. The survey included questions about television viewing habits, experiences and communication about mental health challenges, attitudes toward mental illness, and students’ knowledge of campus support services. It was found that the relationship between interpersonal communication about mental illness and attitudes toward mental health was statistically significant among the sample. This finding has implications for mental health support services and peer-to-peer programs on college campuses
Temporal properties of the timed d-graphs of distributed processes

Some concepts and tools used to verify the time boundaries of sequential software for hard-real-time applications are based on program control flow and the execution time of instructions or blocks. The paper extends a structural approach from sequential to distributed software. It is conceptually and practically based on timed Concurrent Graphs, TCGs, which extend the concept of sequential program d-graphs. The properties of the concurrent exploration of a 'system' of timed concurrent d-graphs are considered, and TCGs are shown to be useful tools for predicting the initial and the steady state worst temporal behaviours of life-time critical distributed static or dynamic systems of messaging only processes, in the maximum pure parallel model. The semantics of Ada-like tasking and communication models are considered. Also, obstacles to predictability are identified and predictable solutions are provided. The proposed approach holds for different tasking and communication models, as shown by an included CSP-like case-study. <<ETX>>
Mixture Item Response Models for Inattentive Responding Behavior

Inattentive responses can threaten measurement quality, yet they are common in rating- or Likert-scale data. In this study, we proposed a new mixture item response theory model to distinguish inattentive responses from normal responses so that test validity can be ascertained. Simulation studies demonstrated that the parameters of the new model were recovered fairly well using the Bayesian methods implemented in the freeware WinBUGS, and fitting the new model to data that lacked inattentive responses did not result in severely biased parameter estimates. In contrast, ignoring inattentive responses by fitting standard item response theory models to data containing inattentive responses yielded seriously biased parameter estimates and a failure to distinguish inattentive participants from normal participants; the person-fit statistic lz was also unsatisfactory in identifying inattentive responses. Two empirical examples demonstrate the applications of the new model.
Opposite Neural Signatures of Motion-Induced Blindness in Human Dorsal and Ventral Visual Cortex

Motion-induced blindness (MIB) is a visual phenomenon in which a salient static target spontaneously fluctuates in and out of visual awareness when surrounded by a moving mask pattern. It has been hypothesized that MIB reflects an antagonistic interplay between cortical representations of the static target and moving mask. Here, we report evidence for such antagonism between human ventral and dorsal visual cortex during MIB. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses in ventral visual area V4 decreased with the subjective disappearance of the target. These response decreases were specific for the cortical subregion corresponding retinotopically to the target, occurred early in time with respect to the perceptual report, and could not be explained by shifts of attention in reaction to target disappearance. At the same time, responses increased in mask-specific subregions in dorsal visual areas in and around the intraparietal sulcus. These opposite responses in ventral and dorsal visual areas occurred only during subjective target disappearance, not when the target was physically removed. Perceptual reports of target disappearance were furthermore associated with a “global” modulation of activity, which was delayed in time, and evident throughout early visual cortex, for both subjective target disappearance and physical target removal. We conclude that awareness of the target is tightly linked to the strength of its representation in ventral visual cortex, and that the mask representation in dorsal visual cortex plays a crucial role in the spontaneous suppression of the target representation during MIB.
Zero-Forcing Beamforming with Limited Feedback in Coordinated Multi-Point Transmission

Coordinated Multi-Point transmission and reception (CoMP) technique is a new promising scheme which has been adopted in LTE-Advanced. For the next generation of wireless communication networks, CoMP is mostly required to reduce the inter-cell interference (ICI). It also increases the cell edge user throughput and improves the coverage. Recently, most research work based on precoding with feedback schemes mainly focuses on explicit feedback in the downlink CoMP. However the feedback type needs a high overhead, resulting in large information exchanged between the eNodeB and the users. In order to solve this problem, implicit feedback which denotes the limited feedback starts to attract much attention. In this paper, we propose a zero-forcing beamforming (ZFBF) scheme with limited feedback to multiple cells in downlink CoMP system combined with antenna selection at UE. The simulation results indicate that the proposed ZFBF scheme with user scheduling leads to significant sum-rate gain and there is still much to research for improvement.