Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adaptation to climate change: contrasting patterns of thermal-reaction-norm evolution in Pacific versus Atlantic silversides

How organisms may adapt to rising global temperatures is uncertain, but concepts can emerge from studying adaptive physiological trait variations across existing spatial climate gradients. Many ectotherms, particularly fish, have evolved increasing genetic growth capacities with latitude (i.e. countergradient variation (CnGV) in growth), which are thought to be an adaptation primarily to strong gradients in seasonality. In contrast, evolutionary responses to gradients in mean temperature are often assumed to involve an alternative mode, ‘thermal adaptation’. We measured thermal growth reaction norms in Pacific silverside populations (Atherinops affinis) occurring across a weak latitudinal temperature gradient with invariant seasonality along the North American Pacific coast. Instead of thermal adaptation, we found novel evidence for CnGV in growth, suggesting that CnGV is a ubiquitous mode of reaction-norm evolution in ectotherms even in response to weak spatial and, by inference, temporal climate gradients. A novel, large-scale comparison between ecologically equivalent Pacific versus Atlantic silversides (Menidia menidia) revealed how closely growth CnGV patterns reflect their respective climate gradients. While steep growth reaction norms and increasing growth plasticity with latitude in M. menidia mimicked the strong, highly seasonal Atlantic coastal gradient, shallow reaction norms and much smaller, latitude-independent growth plasticity in A. affinis resembled the weak Pacific latitudinal temperature gradient.
Continuous positive airway pressure treatment of sleepy patients with milder obstructive sleep apnea: results of the CPAP Apnea Trial North American Program (CATNAP) randomized clinical trial.

RATIONALE Twenty-eight percent of people with mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea experience daytime sleepiness, which interferes with daily functioning. It remains unclear whether treatment with continuous positive airway pressure improves daytime function in these patients. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the efficacy of continuous positive airway pressure treatment to improve functional status in sleepy patients with mild and moderate obstructive sleep apnea. METHODS Patients with self-reported daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale score >10) and an apnea-hypopnea index with 3% desaturation and from 5 to 30 events per hour were randomized to 8 weeks of active or sham continuous positive airway pressure treatment. After the 8-week intervention, participants in the sham arm received 8 weeks of active continuous positive airway pressure treatment. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The Total score on the Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire was the primary outcome measure. The adjusted mean change in the Total score after the first 8-week intervention was 0.89 for the active group (n = 113) and -0.06 for the placebo group (n = 110) (P = 0.006). The group difference in mean change corresponded to an effect size of 0.41 (95% confidence interval, 0.14-0.67). The mean (SD) improvement in Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire Total score from the beginning to the end of the crossover phase (n = 91) was 1.73 ± 2.50 (t[90] = 6.59; P < 0.00001) with an effect size of 0.69. CONCLUSIONS Continuous positive airway pressure treatment improves the functional outcome of sleepy patients with mild and moderate obstructive sleep apnea.
PROGRAM ON HOUSING AND URBAN POLICY WORKING PAPER SERIES CAN BOOSTING MINORITY CAR-OWNERSHIP RATES NARROW INTER-RACIAL EMPLOYMENT GAPS?

In this paper, we assess whether boosting minority car-ownership rates would narrow inter-racial employment rate differentials. We pursue two empirical strategies. First, we explore whether the effect of auto ownership on the probability of being employed is greater for more segregated groups of workers. Exploiting the fact that African-Americans are considerably more segregated from whites than are Latinos, we estimate car-employment effects for blacks, Latinos, and whites and test whether these effects are largest for more segregated groups. Second, we use data at the level of the metropolitan area to test whether the car-employment effect for blacks relative to that for whites increases with the degree of black relative isolation from employment opportunities. We find the strongest car effects for blacks, followed by Latinos, and then whites. Moreover, this ordering is statistically significant. We also find that the relative car-employment effect for blacks is largest in metropolitan areas where the relative isolation of blacks from employment opportunities is the most severe. Our empirical estimates indicate that raising minority car-ownership rates to the white car ownership rate would eliminate 45 percent of the black-white employment rate differential and 17 percent of the comparable Latinbo-white differential.
Credit Cycles

Theoretical studies have shown that under unorthodox assumptions on preferences and production technologies, collateral constraints can act as a powerful ampliÞcation and propagation mechanism of exogenous shocks. We investigate whether or not this result holds under more standard assumptions. We Þnd that collateral constraints typically generate small output ampliÞcation. Large ampliÞcation is obtained as a knife-edge type of result. JEL classification: E32, E44 Keyworkds: collateral constraints, business cycles, heterogeneous agents. ∗We thank Daniele Coen-Pirani, David DeJong, Narayana Kochelakota, Jack Ochs, three anonymous referees, and participants to seminars at the universities of Texas, Houston, Pittsburgh, Rochester, the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Economics Workshop 2002, the 2003 Midwest Macroeconomics Conference, 2003 SED Conference, 2003 Latin American Meeting of The Econometric Society, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond for useful comments. Usual disclaimer applies.
On approximating rectangle tiling and packing

Our study of tiling and packing with rectangles in two-dimensional regions is strongly motivated by applications in database mining, histogram-based estimation of query sizes, data partitioning, and motion estimation in video compression by block matching, among others. An example of the problems that we tackle is the following: given an n by n array A of positive numbers, find a tiling using at most p rectangles (that is, no two rectangles must overlap, and each array element must fall within some rectangle) that minimizes the maximum weight of any rectangle; here the "weight" of a rectangle is the sum of the array elements that fall within it. If the array A were one-dimensional, this problem could be easily solved by dynamic programming. We prove that in the two-dimensional case it is NP-hard to approximate this problem to within a factor of 1.25. On the other hand, we provide a near-linear time algorithm that returns a solution at most 2.5 times the optimal. Other rectangle tiling and packing problems that we study have similar properties: while it is easy to solve them optimally in one dimension, the two-dimensional versions become NP-hard. We design efficient approximation algorithms for these problems.
Are pricing and reimbursement decision-making criteria aligned with public preferences regarding allocation principles in the Polish healthcare sector?

Given growing interest in multicriteria decision making and multiple cost–effectiveness thresholds’ approach, it was decided to investigate its usefulness in Poland. The pricing and reimbursement (P&R) regulations were reviewed and a cross-sectional survey was conducted amongst nurses. The study investigated whether P&R rules are aligned with the preferences of healthcare professional towards the concept of equity. The references to aversion to inequalities in health and capacity to benefit were recognized as the most and least important principle respectively by the group of nurses. Different weightings of health gain dependent on disease severity were accepted by half of the study’s population. In the review of legal acts, references to capacity to benefit were frequently found. The opposite was registered for other concepts of equity. There is room for further improvement with respect to the alignment between the Polish P&R decision making criteria and public preferences regarding allocation principles.
Cloud and Cache-Aided Wireless Networks: Fundamental Latency Trade-Offs

A cloud and cache-aided wireless network architecture is studied in which edge-nodes (ENs), such as base stations, are connected to a cloud processor via dedicated fronthaul links, while also being endowed with caches. Cloud processing enables the centralized implementation of cooperative transmission strategies at the ENs, albeit at the cost of an increased latency due to fronthaul transfer. In contrast, the proactive caching of popular content at the ENs allows for the low-latency delivery of the cached files, but with generally limited opportunities for cooperative transmission among the ENs. The interplay between cloud processing and edge caching is addressed from an information-theoretic viewpoint by investigating the fundamental limits of a high Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR) metric, termed normalized delivery time (NDT), which captures the worst-case latency for delivering any requested content to the users. The NDT is defined under the assumption of either serial or pipelined fronthaul-edge transmissions, and is studied as a function of fronthaul and cache capacity constraints. Transmission policies that encompass the caching phase as well as the transmission phase across both fronthaul and wireless, or edge, segments are proposed, with the aim of minimizing the NDT for given fronthaul and cache capacity constraints. Informationtheoretic lower bounds on the NDT are also derived. Achievability arguments and lower bounds are leveraged to characterize the minimal NDT in a number of important special cases, including systems with no caching capability, as well as to prove that the proposed schemes achieve optimality within a constant multiplicative factor of 2 for all values of the problem parameters.
Impregnation model and experimental investigation of vegetable insulating oil-paper insulation

Due to the fact that the viscosity of vegetable insulating oil is greater than that of mineral insulating oil, it is necessary to investigate the impregnation characteristics of vegetable insulating oil in transformer boards. The impregnation mechanism was studied using an analytical model and the impact of oil-paper insulation impregnated with the process of the main factors was discussed. The impregnation characteristics of rapeseed insulating oil were obtained by testing and compared with that of mineral insulating oil. The results show that rapeseed insulating oil-paper insulation impregnated can reach the standards of mineral insulating oil by increasing the impregnation temperature.
Calcium transients during mitosis: observations in flux

Mini-synthese des problemes de mesure de concentration de calcium intracellulaire dans des cellules en division chez des invertebres (oursin Lytechinus, Hemicentrotus), chez des mammiferes (rat-kangourou, cellules 3T3) et chez les vegetaux (Haemanthus et Tradescantia) par differentes techniques, les unes utilisant l'ester de fura-2, des indicateurs fluorescents comme le quine, l'aequorine, le BAPTA ou des indicateurs colores comme l'arsenazo III, et des mesures par iontophorese
Favouritism in the motor system: social interaction modulates action simulation

The ability to anticipate others' actions is crucial for social interaction. It has been shown that this ability relies on motor areas of the human brain that are not only active during action execution and action observation, but also during anticipation of another person's action. Recording electroencephalograms during a triadic social interaction, we assessed whether activation of motor areas pertaining to the human mirror-neuron system prior to action observation depends on the social relationship between the actor and the observer. Anticipatory motor activation was stronger when participants expected an interaction partner to perform a particular action than when they anticipated that the same action would be performed by a third person they did not interact with. These results demonstrate that social interaction modulates action simulation.
Epidural Analgesia With Bupivacaine and Fentanyl Versus Ropivacaine and Fentanyl for Pain Relief in Labor

Abstract The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of the combinational use of bupivacaine and fentanyl versus ropivacaine and fentanyl in epidural analgesia for labor. Multiple electronic databases were searched by using appropriate MeSH terms, and keywords for original research papers published before October 2014. Meta-analyses were based on mean differences between the groups as well as odds ratios. Statistical heterogeneity was tested by I2 index. Fifteen randomized controlled trials, recruiting 2097 parturient mothers overall, were selected for the meta-analyses. Concentrations of the preparations used (weight/volume; mean and standard deviations) were bupivacaine 0.1023% ± 0.0375%, ropivacaine 0.1095% ± 0.042%, and fentanyl 0.00021% ± 0.000089%. There were no statistically significant differences between both the combinations in the mean change in Visual Analog Score for pain during labor, incidence of instrumental or cesarean delivery, neonate Apgar score of <7, maternal satisfaction, duration of either first or second stage of labor, oxytocin use for induction, onset of analgesia, and duration of analgesia. Women who received ropivacaine and fentanyl had significantly lower incidence of motor blocks (odds ratio [95% CI] = 0.38 [0.30, 0.48] P < 0.00001, fixed effect and 0.38 [0.27, 0.54] P < 0.0001, random effects I2 30%) when compared with women who received bupivacaine and fentanyl. Incidence of side effects was similar for both the combinations. Analgesia with ropivacaine in combination with fentanyl at 0.1%:0.0002% ratio for labor pain relief is associated with lower incidence of motor blocks in comparison with analgesia with bupivacaine and fentanyl at similar ratio (0.1%: 0.0002%).
Early impairment of renal hemodynamic reserve in patients with asymptomatic heart failure is restored by angiotensin II antagonism.

BACKGROUND The early/asymptomatic stages of heart failure (HF) are characterized by sodium retention secondary to derangement of sodium reabsorption at the proximal nephron level. Because this phenomenon is reversed by ACE inhibition, abnormalities of renal sodium handling may depend on intrarenal changes of angiotensin II (AII)/nitric oxide (NO) levels. Renal hemodynamic reserve (ie, the glomerular vasodilatory response to amino acid infusion) has been proposed as a reliable test to assess in vivo AII/NO balance. METHODS AND RESULTS In this study, the effects of 6 weeks of treatment with 5 mg/d of enalapril or with 50 mg/d of losartan on systemic hemodynamics and renal function were assessed, at baseline and after amino acid infusion (AA), in patients with mild HF (NYHA class I) and in healthy volunteers. Untreated HF patients showed a basal renal function comparable to that of healthy subjects. After AA, glomerular filtration rate and renal plasma flow significantly increased in healthy subjects (+29.0% and +30.4%, respectively), whereas no vasodilatory response was observed in HF. Although they did not affect basal renal hemodynamics, both enalapril and losartan restored a normal response to AA in HF patients. Blood pressure and heart rate were comparable in HF subjects and healthy subjects at baseline and were not modified by either treatment. Left ventricular ejection fraction was depressed in HF but did not change after either drug. Urinary excretions of cGMP and nitrate (indexes of NO activity in the kidney), comparable in healthy subjects and in HF patients, were unchanged by either enalapril or losartan and did not correlate with renal reserve. CONCLUSIONS (1) Renal functional reserve is absent in patients with early/asymptomatic HF and normal renal function and (2) both enalapril and losartan restore a normal vasodilatory response to AA in these patients without affecting basal systemic and renal hemodynamics. These data suggest a major role of AII in the development of early abnormalities in patients with HF.
Modeling Semantic Compositionality of Croatian Multiword Expressions

A distinguishing feature of many multiword expressions (MWEs) is their semantic non-compositionality. Determining the semantic compositionality of MWEs is important for many natural language processing tasks. We address the task of modeling semantic compositionality of Croatian MWEs. We adopt a composition-based approach within the distributional semantics framework. We build and evaluate models based on Latent Semantic Analysis and the recently proposed neural network-based Skip-gram model, and experiment with different composition functions. We show that the compositionality scores predicted by the Skip-gram additive models correlate well with human judgments (=0.50). When framed as a classification task, the model achieves an accuracy of 0.64.
Dynamic Redesign of a Flow Control Servo-Valve Using a Pressure Control Pilot

In this paper, the dynamic performance of an unconventional two-spool flow control servo valve using a pressure control pilot is analyzed. Such valves are less expensive than typical servo-valves but also tend to be limited in their dynamic performance. Based on a previously developed eight state nonlinear model, we develop a simplified linear model which is able to capture the essential dynamics of the valve. Using root locus analysis method, the limitation in dynamic performance is shown to be due to a “zero” introduced by the structure of the interconnection of the subsystems. Design parameters that move the “zero” further to the left half plane, and do not adversely affect other steady state criteria are identified. The effectiveness of these parameters to improve the dynamic performance is demonstrated.
Subspace-Based Blind Channel Identification for Cyclic Prefix Systems Using Few Received Blocks

In this paper, a novel generalization of subspace-based blind channel identification methods in cyclic prefix (CP) systems is proposed. For the generalization, a new system parameter called repetition index is introduced whose value is unity for previously reported special cases. By choosing a repetition index larger than unity, the number of received blocks needed for blind identification is significantly reduced compared to all previously reported methods. This feature makes the method more realistic especially in wireless environments where the channel state is usually fast-varying. Given the number of received blocks available, the minimum value of repetition index is derived. Theoretical limit allows the proposed method to perform blind identification using only three received blocks in absence of noise. In practice, the number of received blocks needed to yield a satisfactory bit-error-rate (BER) performance is usually on the order of half the block size. Simulation results not only demonstrate the capability of the algorithm to perform blind identification using fewer received blocks, but also show that in some cases system performance can be improved by choosing a repetition index larger than needed. Simulation of the proposed method over time-varying channels clearly demonstrates the improvement over previously reported methods.
The Sequence of Swallowing Events During the Chin-Down Posture.

PURPOSE This study investigated the effect of the chin-down posture on the sequence of swallowing events in healthy adults. METHOD Sixteen healthy participants performed 45 5-ml thin liquid swallows during videofluoroscopy: 5 neutral head position, 30 chin-down posture, and then 10 neutral head position. Eight swallowing events were measured: the time of hyoid burst, bolus head in the pharynx, bolus tail in the pharynx, laryngeal vestibule closure (LVC), upper esophageal sphincter (UES) opening, bolus head in the UES, bolus tail exiting the pharynx, and laryngeal vestibule opening (LVO). RESULTS Our key finding is that LVC was one of the first 3 swallowing events in 69% of neutral swallows and in 78% of chin-down swallows (p = .006). Also, LVO occurred last in 14% of chin-down swallows but never occurred last in the preceding neutral swallows (p ≤ .001). Thus, in chin-down swallows, LVC occurred earlier and LVO occurred later. CONCLUSIONS The chin-down posture may be beneficial for individuals with delayed onset of LVC and reduced duration of the LVC. Future studies are needed to examine this effect in individuals with dysphagia.
A Fragile Watermarking Scheme for Image Authentication with Tamper Detection and Localization

In this paper, we develop a watermarking scheme for image authentication and verification. The watermarking scheme for tamper detection of an image is fragile and block-based. Such a scheme has good tamper localization and high tamper detection rate. The security of our scheme depends on a secret key, even though the attacker got the original watermark pattern and watermarking algorithm. The watermark extraction process does not need the original image and original watermark. The proposed scheme provides higher level of security and high performance with low computational complexity. This scheme is secure, fast, and able to detect and localize tampered areas against the well-known vector quantization attack. Experimental results indicate the effectiveness and efficiency of the algorithm.
China’s rapid urban ascent: an examination into the components of urban growth

ABSTRACT Having gone from 11.8% of its population inhabiting urban areas in 1950 to 49.2% by 2010, China represents the most dramatic urban transformation the world has seen. With the contemporary urban narrative presenting new challenges, particularly in terms of its unprecedented pace and scale, this paper conducts an inquiry into the nature and causes of China’s rapid urban ascent. Making use of a new analytical framework, this paper maps out the changing stages of China’s urban transition and examines the components of urban growth underpinning it. It arrives at several notable findings. Rural to urban migration has been the dominant component of urban growth, followed by urban natural population increase and reclassification. Although China’s urban growth rates were high, it is the reduction in rural growth rates that underpinned China’s particularly rapid urbanization rates. China is currently in the latter part of the accelerated stage of its urban transition, and is expected to enter the terminal stage by 2030. In light of China’s ongoing urban transition, this paper concludes with reflections on China’s New-Type Urbanization Plan 2014–2020.
On the relation of Bayes risk, word error, and word posteriors in ASR

In automatic speech recognition, we are faced with a wellknown inconsistency: Bayes decision rule is usually used to minimize sentence (word sequence) error, whereas in practice we want to minimize word error, which also is the usual evaluation measure. Recently, a number of speech recognition approaches to approximate Bayes decision rule with word error (Levenshtein/edit distance) cost were proposed. Nevertheless, experiments show that the decisions often remain the same and that the effect on the word error rate is limited, especially at low error rates. In this work, further analytic evidence for these observations is provided. A set of conditions is presented, for which Bayes decision rule with sentence and word error cost function leads to the same decisions. Furthermore, the case of word error cost is investigated and related to word posterior probabilities. The analytic results are verified experimentally on several large vocabulary speech recognition tasks.