Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Social interactions in virtual reality exposure therapy: A proof-of-concept pilot study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Research on virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) has demonstrated good treatment efficacy with regards to several anxiety disorders. Yet, there is lack of knowledge about the value of integrating interaction between clients and virtual humans in VRET. Such interaction might prove effective in treating psychological complaints that involve social interactions, such as social anxiety. METHODS A VRET system specifically designed to expose clients with social anxiety disorder to anxiety provoking social situations was applied to 16 and 18 individuals with high and low levels of social anxiety, respectively. Participants engaged in two exposure sessions in several free speech dialogues with virtual humans while being monitored by a therapist. RESULTS Participants with high levels of social anxiety reported significantly lower levels of social anxiety three months after exposure to two virtual reality interaction sessions than before treatment (p < 0.01). In the group with low levels of social anxiety, no significant change of social anxiety was reported between pre-treatment and follow-up. Additionally, participants in both groups reported higher self-efficacy three months after treatment than before treatment (ps ≤ 0.001). CONCLUSION These findings indicate that virtual reality technology that incorporates social interactions may be successfully applied for therapeutic purposes.
Prediction of Protein Solubility using Primary Structure Compositional Features: A Machine Learning Perspective

It is a recurring limiting factor to obtain sufficient concentrations of soluble proteins using in vitro methodologies. Solubility is an independent characteristic of a protein which can be determined using amino acid compositions under specific experimental conditions. The present study aims at the prediction of protein solubility by adapting machine learning based approaches using the primary structure information. The features involve amino acid compositional features as well as the physiochemical properties of the amino acids i.e. canonical value, hydrophobicity, solubility index and solubility score. For a dataset of 6372 protein sequences (4850 soluble protein sequences and 1522 insoluble protein sequences), all the four features were calculated. Using the calculated values, four different prediction models were developed based on Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Random Forest (RF), Decision Tree (DT), and Naive Bayes Classifier (NBC). For performance evaluation, MCC, F-measure, accuracy, precision and recall rate are determined. Among all the four prediction models, MLP has been observed to be the most accurate model for the prediction of protein solubility with an accuracy rate of 95.92%, followed by RF and NBC. The proposed model, based on MLP, can be used for predicting protein solubility as a preprocess of experimental predictions. The method is resource and time efficient, and can help in predicting solubility of proteins instead of laborious and hectic experimental work.
Testing the Existence of Herd Instinct: An Empirical Study on BSE Sectoral Indices

Being a social creature, the herd instinct pushes individuals to imitate and ape the mental actions of surroundings. Similarly, the investors gravitate themselves with the behavioral pattern of environs which instigates the herding behavior. The research piece of work is exploring the prominent herding behavior amongst the 13 sectoral indices of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), starting from the period of January 2006 to December 2013. The abnormal returns of BSE sectoral indices have been calculated and the methodology of CH (1995) and CHK (2000) is being used for evidencing the existence or non-existence of herding behavior in BSE sectoral indices. The paper is an attempt to come across the herding behavior in bull and bear phases. To test the presence of herd instinct, a linear regression model has been applied. The result of the paper is endorsing the fact about BSE sectoral indices’ efficiency or inefficiency as some of the sectors are significantlyevidenced with the notion of herd instinct existence.
Design of a Noninvasive System for the Evaluation of Collagen Scaffolds Using MRI

Collagen implants are widely used in clinical practice and are an active area of research. The continued development of collagen-based implants often relies on histological techniques to fully evaluate the host response post implantation. These destructive, end-point analyses limit the rate that data can be obtained from samples. Magnetic resonance imaging has the potential to non-invasively monitor the remodeling of collagen scaffolds. In this study, scaffolds prepared from insoluble bovine collagen, with varied and predictable tissue responses were implanted in rats and evaluated using both histological and MRI techniques. Treatment of scaffolds with a carbodiimide crosslinker was found to slow the degradation and cellular infiltration into the scaffolds compared to uncrosslinked scaffolds. Angiogenesis was observed in core regions of crosslinked scaffolds, but not uncrosslinked scaffolds. Conjugation of chondroitin sulfate to the collagen scaffolds in combination with crosslinking improved both the cellular infiltration and angiogenesis compared to uncrosslinked and crosslinked scaffolds. Correlations between histology and MRI analyses showed that statistically significant relationships existed between cellular density, void area, T2 and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements demonstrating that MRI is sensitive to specific remodeling parameters. Understanding the relationship between histology and MRI parameters may be used to help guide the interpretation of MRI data as well as to reliably detect changes within the implants using the MRI data alone, reducing the need for scaffold harvesting and destructive testing.
Self-represented witnessing: the use of social media by asylum seekers in Australia’s offshore immigration detention centres

The act of witnessing connects audiences with distant suffering. But what happens when bearing witness becomes severely restricted? External parties, including the mainstream news media, are constrained from accessing Australia’s offshore immigration detention centres. The effect is that people seeking asylum are hidden from the public and excluded from national debates. Some detainees have adopted social media as a platform to communicate their stories of flight, and their experiences of immigration detention, to a wider audience. This article examines the ways in which social media, and particularly Facebook, has facilitated what we call self-represented witnessing. We analyse two public Facebook pages to assess how detainees use such social media networks to document their experiences, and we observe the interaction between detainees, other social media users and mainstream media. Significantly, these social media networks enable detained asylum seekers to conduct an unmediated form of self-represented witnessing that exposes human rights abuses and documents justice claims.
Self-Reported Adherence after Overnight Switching from Immediate- to Extended-Release Pramipexole in Parkinson’s Disease

Background: Drug adherence decreased in patients with Parkinson' s disease (PD) because of tak- ing many different types of drugs. We evaluated drug adherence after switching from imme- diate-release (IR) to once-daily extended-release (ER) pramipexole (PPX) in PD. Methods: This study included 35 PD patients (20 men, 15 women); 10 were taking oral PPX alone, and 25 were also using another anti-PD drug. PPX-IR was switched overnight to PPX-ER without gradual taper- ing. One month after switching, improvement in timing adherence and reduction in medication burden were evaluated by a questionnaire using a visual analog scale (VAS) (0: No change; 10: Better). Motor function was assessed using part III of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). Results: The VAS score for improvement in timing adherence was 8.1 ± 0.5 (mean ± standard error), and that for reduction in medication burden was 7.3 ± 0.6. There was a significant negative correlation (ρ = −0.43, p = 0.01) between the VAS score and number of types of medica- tions. The UPDRS part III score improved significantly after switching (p < 0.01). Only one patient discontinued PPX-ER after switching. Conclusion: Switching from PPX-IR to once-daily PPX-ER is safe and improves motor function in patients by improving timing adherence and reducing medi- cation burden.
Monotone Instrumental Variables with an Application to the Returns to Schooling

Econometric analyses of treatment response commonly use instrumental variable (IV) assumptions to identify treatment effects. Yet the credibility of IV assumptions is often a matter of considerable disagreement, with much debate about whether some covariate is or is not a "valid instrument" in an application of interest. There is therefore good reason to consider weaker but more credible assumptions. assumptions. To this end, we introduce monotone instrumental variable (MIV) A particularly interesting special case of an MIV assumption is monotone treatment selection (MTS). IV and MIV assumptions may be imposed alone or in combination with other assumptions. We study the identifying power of MIV assumptions in three informational settings: MIV alone; MIV combined with the classical linear response assumption; MIV combined with the monotone treatment response (MTR) assumption. We apply the results to the problem of inference on the returns to schooling. We analyze wage data reported by white male respondents to the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and use the respondent's AFQT score as an MIV. We find that this MIV assumption has little identifying power when imposed alone. However combining the MIV assumption with the MTR and MTS assumptions yields fairly tight bounds on two distinct measures of the returns to schooling.
Facts about Formulaic Value Investing

The term “value investing” is increasingly being adopted by quantitative investment strategies that use ratios of common fundamental metrics (e.g., book value, earnings) to market price. A hallmark of such strategies is that they do not involve a comprehensive effort to determine the intrinsic value of the underlying securities. We document two facts about such strategies. First, there is little compelling evidence that these strategies deliver superior investment performance for US equities. Second, instead of identifying undervalued securities, these strategies systematically identify companies with temporarily inflated accounting numbers. We argue that these strategies should not be confused with value strategies that use a comprehensive approach in determining the intrinsic value of the underlying securities. A practitioner's perspective on this article is provided in the In Practice piece "Value Investing: Do Quant Strategies Measure Up? " by Phil Davis, online 6 March 2017. Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Victory Capital Management, Arch Mortgage Insurance Company, or their affiliates or employees. U-Wen Kok is an employee of RS Investments, an investment franchise of Victory Capital Management. Jason Ribando was an employee of RS Investments during the research and writing phases of this article. Richard Sloan has served as a paid consultant for RS Investments. RS Investments provided access to resources used to conduct this research. Editor’s note: This article was reviewed via our double-blind peer-review process. When the article was accepted for publication, the authors thanked the reviewers in their acknowledgments. Tim Loughran, CFA, and Allen Michel were the reviewers for this article. Submitted 17 May 2016 Accepted 19 October 2016 by Stephen J. Brown
Characterizing Sovereign Credit Risk Interdependencies: Evidence from the Credit Default Swap Market

We exploit emerging market sovereign CDS spreads to examine the reaction of sovereign credit risk to changes in country-specific and global financial factors. Utilizing a VAR model fitted with DCC GARCH, we find that comovements of spreads generally exhibit significant time-varying correlations, suggesting that spreads are commonly affected by global financial factors. We construct 19 country-specific commodity price indexes to instrument for country terms of trade, obtaining striking novel results. Our commodity price indexes account for significant variation in CDS spreads, controlling for global financial factors. In addition, sovereign spreads are found to be related to U.S. stock market returns and the VIX volatility risk premium global factors. Notwithstanding, our results suggest that terms of trade and commodity prices have a statistically and economically significant effect on the sovereign credit risk of emerging economies. Our results apply broadly to investors, financial institutions and policy makers motivated to utilize profitable factors in global portfolios.
Effect of Market Structure and Conduct on the Performance of Selected Agro-Based Firms in Nigeria

In this study, the validity of the structure, conduct and performance (SCP) paradigm is tested with view to ascertaining which version of the hypothesis holds sway in Nigeria listed agro-based sector. Data collected from 22 listed agro-based firms for the period 2000-2010 were analyzed using the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression technique as well as granger causality test. The data was first examined for unit roots using the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) and the PhillipsPeron (PP) tests. Result revealed that all the variables were stationary at first difference except market share (MKTS), return on capital employed (ROC) and cost efficiency (CEFF) that were later stationary at first difference. The major determinants of profitability were market share, capital to labour ratio and cost efficiency variables. Surprisingly, total number of firm branches and firm sizes carried the expected positive signs but failed to significantly explain the variation in profit of the sampled agro-based firms. Findings further revealed that the behavior of agro-based firms were consistent with the relative market Power (RMP) and the efficient market (EM) hypothesis, implying that the traditional SCP paradigm is not validated. Result also revealed that granger causality runs uni-directionally from market share, cost efficiency and capital to labour ratio to return on capital employed and from return on capital employed to firm size and from capital to labour ratio to cost efficiency. This, therefore, inform the need to pursue policies that would reduce branch network and focus on few productive branches, increase their market share and enhance their efficiencies as the way out.
A Homotopy Analysis Approach to a Thermoelastic Interactions under the Boundary Condition : Heat Source Varying Exponentially with Time and Zero Stress

In this work, we consider a one-dimensional problem for a half-space in the context of the L-S theory of generalized thermo elasticity with one relaxation time parameter. The surface of the half-space is assumed to be traction free and subjected to the effects of a heat source varying exponentially with time at the boundary. The main objective of this present paper is to study the above problem based on the LS theory with the help of Homotopy analysis method proposed by S.J. Liao (1992). See the Appendix for details. The inversion of the Laplace transform solutions are carried out numerically using Bellman method (Bellman et al., 1966) and the obtained results are presented graphically. The effects of the heat source varying with time and zero traction force are studied on temperature, stress and displacement. Also we see the numerical result with the help of graph.
Deleted in DiGeorge / 22 q 11 . 2 Deletion Syndrome , is a Microcephaly Gene That Selectively Disrupts Layer 2 / 3 Cortical Projection Neuron Generation

Ranbp1, a Ran GTPase-binding protein implicated in nuclear/cytoplasmic trafficking, is included within the DiGeorge/22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11.2 DS) critical region associated with behavioral impairments including autism and schizophrenia. Ranbp1 is highly expressed in the developing forebrain ventricular/subventricular zone but has no known obligate function during brain development. We assessed the role of Ranbp1 in a targeted mouse mutant. Ranbp1 mice are not recovered live at birth, and over 60% of Ranbp1 embryos are exencephalic. Non-exencephalic Ranbp1 embryos are microcephalic, and proliferation of cortical progenitors is altered. At E10.5, radial progenitors divide more slowly in the Ranpb1 dorsal pallium. At E14.5, basal, but not apical/radial glial progenitors, are compromised in the cortex. In both E10.5 apical and E14.5 basal progenitors, M phase of the cell cycle appears selectively retarded by loss of Ranpb1 function. Ranbp1-dependent proliferative deficits substantially diminish the frequency of layer 2/3, but not layer 5/6 cortical projection neurons. Ranbp1 cortical phenotypes parallel less severe alterations in LgDelmice that carry a deletion parallel to many (but not all) 22q11.2 DS patients. Thus, Ranbp1 emerges as a microcephaly gene within the 22q11.2 deleted region that may contribute to altered cortical precursor proliferation and neurogenesis associated with broader 22q11.2 deletion.
A Smart Algorithm for QoS Support in Ad hoc Networks

Real-time traffic support is one of the interesting Quality of Service (QoS) issues in Ad hoc networks. The wireless ad hoc networks are severely affected by bandwidth, so, supporting QoS in these networks face problems. In this paper, we have proposed a fully distributed MAC algorithm to support the QoS in ad hoc networks. This algorithm provides delay fairness for real-time flows and services these flows considering current QoS of them. This algorithm could be used in emergency and hospital environments. By simulation, we have shown that our mechanism achieves delay fairness, and functions adequately to support real-time traffic in practical environments where real-time traffic and non-real-time traffic coexist in an identical wireless Ad hoc networks. [Seyed Hossein Hosseini Nazhad Ghazani, R.M. Alguliev. A Smart Algorithm for QoS Support in Ad hoc Networks. Life Sci J 2012;9(3):321-325] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com. 44
Political connections, managerial incentives and auditor choice: evidence from China

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the political connections of firms, managerial incentives and auditor choice. Data from China were used to determine whether managers in firms with political connections are more likely to hire auditors of low quality to help them cover up earnings management and opportunistic behavior. Design/methodology/approach – Cross-sectional analysis was conducted using data covering the period from 2003 to 2009 and the Top 10 auditors were used as a proxy to represent the demand for high-quality auditors. Three proxies were used to measure the political connectedness: state-owned enterprises (SOEs), politically connected CEOs and state ownership. Findings – This paper provides empirical evidence that firms with political connections do not demand stringency in the monitoring and information roles of auditing. Moreover, politically connected firms with high managerial incentives are likely to choose non-Top 10 auditors. Originality/value.
Walking up the Down Escalator

When growth-promoting spending is cut so much that the present value of future government revenues falls by more than the immediate improvement in the cash deficit, fiscal adjustment becomes like walking up the down escalator. Although short-term cash flows matter, too tight a focus on them encourages governments to invest too little. Cash-flow targets also encourage governments to shift investment spending off budget by seeking private investment in public projects, irrespective of its real fiscal or economic benefits. To deal with this problem, some observers have suggested excluding certain investments (such as those undertaken by public enterprises deemed commercial or financed by multilaterals) from cash-flow targets. These stopgap remedies may help protect some investments, but they do not provide a satisfactory solution to the underlying problem. Governments can more effectively reduce the biases created by the focus on short-term cash flows by developing indicators of the long-term fiscal effects .
A multi-state memory device based on the unidirectional spin Hall magnetoresistance

We report on a memory device concept based on the recently discovered unidirectional spin Hall magnetoresistance (USMR), which can store multiple bits of information in a single ferromagnetic heterostructure. We show that the USMR with possible contribution of Joule heating-driven magnetothermal effects in ferromagnet/normal metal/ferromagnet (FM/NM/FM) trilayers gives rise to four different 2nd harmonic resistance levels corresponding to four magnetization states ( ⇉, ⇄, ⇆, ⇇) in which the system can be found. Combined with the possibility of controlling the individual FMs by spin-orbit torques, we propose that it is possible to build an all-electrical lateral two-terminal multi-bit-per-cell memory device.
Analysis of Sources and Concentrations
of Heavy Metal Contents in PM10 over
a Four-Season Cycle in a Heavily
Industrialised City in China

In order to study the sources and concentrations of heavy metals in atmospheric PM10, a total of 144 samples were collected in two areas of Handan, China. The metal contents of Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Cd, and Pb in the sample were analysed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Contamination characteristics and sources were analysed by the geo-accumulation index and the enrichment factor method. Results indicated that heavy metal elements Mn, Cu, and Pb accounted for 96.9% of the total concentration. In addition, the seasonal levels of concentrations of the six elements from high to low were in the order of winter > fall > spring > summer. In both areas, the metal contents of Cd, Pb, and Cu were at levels 6, 4 and 2, respectively. Co and Ni were not considered polluting elements. The element Cd was mainly from anthropogenic sources, while the element Mn was mainly from natural sources. The enrichment factor values of Cu and Pb were between 10 and 100. The study revealed that pollution by heavy metals in industrialised cities is astounding, and leads to serious consequences for human health. Urgent measures are required to reinforce prevention and control of this pollution.