Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential Income Advantages in the U . S . Market for Physicians : Male vs . Female returns to Board-Certification

*An honors thesis submitted to the Department of Economics in fulfillment of the Stanford University honors program. Previous studies have shown that minorities benefit more from market signals than majorities do. Other studies have applied this to the medical field and have proven that female physicians benefit more from board-certification than male physicians. This study examines whether this result is still true, as females have become less of a minority in the medical field. I find the greater relative advantage from board-certification that females used to enjoy over the advantage males used to enjoy no longer exists. Using data from the Practice Patterns of Young Physicians Survey, I find that male and female physicians enjoy equal economic advantages over their non-certified counterparts. Introduction Board-certification trends and incentives are topics that have received considerable attention in economic literature. Board-certification, overseen by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and its twenty-four approved member boards, is not a degree. Certification does not bestow any legal licenses to practice, nor does it impose any limitations on the practice of a licensed physician (Langwell 1979). There are, however, several advantages associated with certification. For example, Wilensky and Rossiter found that after controlling for age, region, and specialty, board-certification increased a physician's annual income by $13,000. The authors also argued that in addition to income advantages, board-certified physicians enjoy advantages such as enhanced standing in the medical community, an increase in patient referrals, wider hospital staffing privileges and membership into various professional societies. Physicians may also be certified in more than one area, leading to even more staffing privileges and societal memberships (Wilensky and Rossiter 1983). In the medical field, board-certification can serve as an important market signal because it is likely to be less costly to obtain by a more highly skilled physician than one who is less skilled. Board-certification offers a type of quality assurance, because being certified means that the physician has successfully passed a thorough evaluation of his or her skills and experience in his or her specialty. For example, while some patients may have a bias against a female physician because she is a minority, a patient may be more likely to overcome this bias if he or she can be assured of the quality of the female physician's services. Board-certification offers this type of assurance and lets the patient know that the female physician is at least as skilled …
Structure of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase and Its Complex with a Template-Primer RNA*

Genome replication in picornaviruses is catalyzed by a virally encoded RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, termed 3D. The enzyme performs this operation, together with other viral and probably host proteins, in the cytoplasm of their host cells. The crystal structure of the 3D polymerase of foot-and-mouth disease virus, one of the most important animal pathogens, has been determined unliganded and bound to a template-primer RNA decanucleotide. The enzyme folds in the characteristic fingers, palm and thumb subdomains, with the presence of an NH2-terminal segment that encircles the active site. In the complex, several conserved amino acid side chains bind to the template-primer, likely mediating the initiation of RNA synthesis. The structure provides essential information for studies on RNA replication and the design of antiviral compounds.
CleanBGP: verifying the consistency of BGP data

BGP data contains artifacts introduced by the measurement infrastructure which can substantially affect analysis. This is especially important in operational systems where ldquocrying wolfrdquo will result in an operator ignoring alarms. In this paper, we investigate the causes of measurement artifacts in BGP data - cross-checking and using properties of the data to infer the presence of an artifact and minimize its impact. We have developed a prototype tool, CleanBGP, which detects and corrects the effects of artifacts in BGP data, which we believe should be used prior to the analysis of such data. CleanBGP provides the user with an understanding of the artifacts present, a mechanism to remove their effects, and consequently the limitations of results can be fully quantified.
A Novel Structural-Description Approach for Image Retrieval

We tested our image classification methodology in the photo-annotation task of the ImageCLEF competition [Nowak, 2010] using a visual-only approach performing automated labeling. Our labeling process consisted of three phases: 1) feature extraction using color histogramming and using a novel method of structural description, that was exploited in a statistical manner only; 2) classification using Linear Discriminant (LD) or Average-Retrieval Rank (ARR) methods that provided the confidence (scalar) values, which were then thresholded to obtain the binary values; 3) eliminating labels (setting binary values to 0) on the testing set thereby exploiting the calculated joint-probabilities for pairs of concepts from the training set. The results show that our present system performs better on ’whole-image’ labels than on object labels.
Etude de la contamination par les métaux et métalloïdes d’origine minière sur le bassin des Gardons : approche élémentaire (As, Cd, Hg, Pb, Sb, Tl, Zn) et isotopique (Sb, Zn)

L'objectif general de cette these est de mieux comprendre l'influence d'anciens sites miniers sur la contamination en metaux (Cd, Hg, Tl, Pb, Zn) et metalloides (As, Sb) de l'hydrosysteme aval. Une attention particuliere a ete portee a l'antimoine (Sb), dont le comportement dans les cours d'eau contamines par les drainages miniers reste mal connu et dont la signature isotopique pourrait permettre de tracer differentes sources et processus. Le site d'etude est le bassin des Gardons dans le Gard ; ce cours d'eau Cevenol draine de nombreux sites miniers abandonnes (Pb, Zn, Sb, charbon). L'enrichissement en metaux et metalloides a ete etudie dans les sediments actuels et anciens du bassin des Gardons. Un historique de la contamination metallique a ete reconstitue a l'aide d'une archive sedimentaire. Les sources preponderantes de metaux et metalloides dans les sediments ont ete determinees ainsi que la mobilite potentielle de ces elements vers la phase aqueuse. En complement, les variations de concentrations en metaux et metalloides dans les phases dissoute et particulaire ont ete etudiees lors d'un episode de crue grâce a un echantillonnage a haute resolution temporelle. Dans leur ensemble, les resultats montrent que les anciennes mines du bassin des Gardons contribuent a l'enrichissement en metaux et metalloides du cours d'eau aval, particulierement en periode de crue. Plus specifiquement, le comportement de l'antimoine a ete etudie dans un affluent du Gardon impacte par du drainage minier acide en aval de l'ancienne mine de Carnoules et la composition isotopique de l'antimoine a ete determinee dans des eaux prelevees sur le bassin des Gardons et de l'Orb amont, apres mise au point d'un protocole de purification/pre-concentration de Sb. Les resultats mettent en evidence le potentiel des isotopes de l'antimoine pour tracer l'origine de cet element et les processus qu'il subit au cours de son transfert dans les cours d'eau impactes par du drainage de mine.
Fast Mixing of Parallel Glauber Dynamics and Low-Delay CSMA Scheduling

Glauber dynamics is a powerful tool to generate randomized, approximate solutions to combinatorially difficult problems. It has been recently used to design distributed carrier-sense multiple-access (CSMA) scheduling algorithms for multihop wireless networks. In this paper, we derive bounds on the mixing time of a generalization of Glauber dynamics where multiple links update their states in parallel and the fugacity of each link can be different. The results are used to prove that the average queue length (and hence, the delay) under the parallel-Glauber-dynamics-based CSMA grows polynomially in the number of links for wireless networks with bounded-degree interference graphs when the arrival rate lies in a fraction of the capacity region. Other versions of adaptive CSMA can be analyzed similarly. We also show that in specific network topologies, the low-delay capacity region can be further improved.
Analysis of Student Understanding of Basic AC Concepts

Abstract : This project began with a study on student understanding of the basic concepts of voltage, current, and power in DC and AC circuits. Protocol studies revealed that beginning student knowledge of the domain is "in pieces". Students had difficulty in differentiating key concepts such as voltage and current, lacked the ability to map from physical processes to abstract notation, and experienced problems because they had incomplete mappings for metaphors and analogies. Because of "invisible nature" of electricity, students had very few preconceived notions about the domain and most of what they learned was gained through instruction. In the second phase of the project, our emphasis shifted to a study on how to prepare students to learn difficult DC and AC circuit concepts, and to assess how instruction in these topics improved problem solving behavior. This led to our framework for Assessment of Domain Learnability (ADL) and the implementation of a computer environment, STAR-Legacy, that integrates instruction with dynamic assessment. Preliminary studies demonstrated improved student understanding and problem solving capability in the DC circuit domain. We also extended our AC protocol studies to characterize student understanding of more advanced AC concepts using problems dealing with voltage regulators and filter circuits.
Electron microscopic characterization of chick embryonic skeletal muscle proteoglycans

In this article, proteoglycans from embryonic chick leg muscle are quantitatively and qualitatively compared with day 8 high density cell culture cartilage proteoglycans by electron microscopy of proteoglycan- cytochrome c monolayers. The visualized proteoglycan profiles were separated into four categories according to shape, size, and complexity. The two major categories were further characterized by lengths of core proteins, lengths of side projections, and distance between side projections. Two large proteoglycans are identifiable in spread leg muscle preparations. One group has a core protein (mean length of 205 nm) from which extend long thin side projections that we interpret to be groups of chondroitin sulfate glycosaminoglycans with a mean length of 79 nm. This large chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan is the only type found in muscle cultures as determined both biochemically in the past and now by electron microscopy and is referred to as muscle proteoglycan. The second large proteoglycan has a mean core protein length of 250 nm and side projections that are visibly shorter (mean length of 38 nm) and thicker than those of the muscle proteoglycan. This group is referred to as the mesenchymal proteoglycan since its biosynthetic origin is still uncertain. We compare these two profiles with the chick cartilage chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan that has a mean core protein length of 202 nm and side projections with a mean length of 50 nm. The data presented here substantiate the earlier biochemical characterization of these noncartilage proteoglycans and establish the unique structural features of the muscle proteoglycan as compared with the similar profiles of the cartilage and mesenchymal proteoglycans.
On the Use of Skeletons when Learning in Bayesian Networks

In this paper, we present a heuristic operator which aims at simultaneously optimizing the orientations of all the edges in an intermediate Bayesian network structure during the search process. This is done by alternating between the space of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) and the space of skeletons. The found orientations of the edges are based on a scoring function rather than on induced conditional independences. This operator can be used as an extension to commonly employed search strategies. It is evaluated in experiments with artificial and real-world data.
High-quality memoryless subband coding of impulse responses at 22 bits per frame

A method for efficient quantization of speech spectral models is proposed. The impulse response of the model is coded in two spectral subbands of unequal width. The distortion measure used is a squared error between impulse responses. The quality obtained at 22 bits per frame is as good as that of Split Vector Quantization of Line Spectral Frequencies at 24 bits per frame.
A Generative Blog Post Retrieval Model that Uses Query Expansion based on External Collections

User generated content is characterized by short, noisy documents, with many spelling errors and unexpected language usage. To bridge the vocabulary gap between the user's information need and documents in a specific user generated content environment, the blogosphere, we apply a form of query expansion, i.e., adding and reweighing query terms. Since the blogosphere is noisy, query expansion on the collection itself is rarely effective but external, edited collections are more suitable. We propose a generative model for expanding queries using external collections in which dependencies between queries, documents, and expansion documents are explicitly modeled. Different instantiations of our model are discussed and make different (in)dependence assumptions. Results using two external collections (news and Wikipedia) show that external expansion for retrieval of user generated content is effective; besides, conditioning the external collection on the query is very beneficial, and making candidate expansion terms dependent on just the document seems sufficient.
Importance sampling for reinforcement learning with multiple objectives

This thesis considers three complications that arise from applying reinforcement learning to a real-world application. In the process of using reinforcement learning to build an adaptive electronic market-maker, we find the sparsity of data, the partial observability of the domain, and the multiple objectives of the agent to cause serious problems for existing reinforcement learning algorithms. We employ importance sampling (likelihood ratios) to achieve good performance in partially observable Markov decision processes with few data. Our importance sampling estimator requires no knowledge about the environment and places few restrictions on the method of collecting data. It can be used efficiently with reactive controllers, finite-state controllers, or policies with function approximation. We present theoretical analyses of the estimator and incorporate it into a reinforcement learning algorithm. Additionally, this method provides a complete return surface which can be used to balance multiple objectives dynamically. We demonstrate the need for multiple goals in a variety of applications and natural solutions based on our sampling method. The thesis concludes with example results from employing our algorithm to the domain of automated electronic market-making. Thesis Supervisor: Tomaso Poggio Title: Professor of Brain and Cognitive Science
A fast Evolutionary-based Meta-Modelling Approach for the Calibration of a Rainfall-Runoff Model

Population-based search methods such as evolutionary algorithm, shuffled complex algorithm, simulated annealing and ant colony search are increasing used as automatic calibration methods for a wide range of water and environmental simulation models. However, despite the advances in computer power, it may still be impractical to rely exclusively on computationally expensive (time consuming) simulation for many real world complex problems. This paper proposed the use of meta-models to replace numerical simulation models for the purpose of calibration. Meta-models are essentially “model of the model”. The meta-model used in this study is the artificial neural network and, when coupled with genetic algorithm, forms a fast and effective hybridisation. The proposed evolutionary-based meta-model reduces the number of simulation runs required in the numerical model considerably thus making the automatic calibration of computationally intensive simulation models viable. The new approach was developed and tested in the calibration of a popular rainfall-runoff model, MIKE11/ NAM, applied to the Treggevaede catchment in Denmark. Both the calibration and verification results for single objective calibration indicate that the proposed method is able to achieve the same or better calibration performance compared to published studies using traditional population-based search methods and yet required only about 40% of the simulation runs on average.
Arabidopsis iba response5 Suppressors Separate Responses to Various Hormones

Auxin controls numerous plant growth processes by directing cell division and expansion. Auxin-response mutants, including iba response5 (ibr5), exhibit a long root and decreased lateral root production in response to exogenous auxins. ibr5 also displays resistance to the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA). We found that the sar3 suppressor of auxin resistant1 (axr1) mutant does not suppress ibr5 auxin-response defects, suggesting that screening for ibr5 suppressors might reveal new components important for phytohormone responsiveness. We identified two classes of Arabidopsis thaliana mutants that suppressed ibr5 resistance to indole-3-butyric acid (IBA): those with restored responses to both the auxin precursor IBA and the active auxin indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and those with restored response to IBA but not IAA. Restored IAA sensitivity was accompanied by restored ABA responsiveness, whereas suppressors that remained IAA resistant also remained ABA resistant. Some suppressors restored sensitivity to both natural and synthetic auxins; others restored responsiveness only to auxin precursors. We used positional information to determine that one ibr5 suppressor carried a mutation in PLEIOTROPIC DRUG RESISTANCE9 (PDR9/ABCG37/At3g53480), which encodes an ATP-binding cassette transporter previously implicated in cellular efflux of the synthetic auxin 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth Crust beneath the northwestern Deccan Volcanic Province, India: Evidence for uplift and magmatic underplating

The northwestern Deccan Volcanic Province of India and its pericratonic rift basins were reactivated during diﬀerent stages after the breakup of India from the Gondwanaland and collision with the Asian plate. In this study, we present results of crustal thickness and average crustal V p / V s ratios beneath this plume-aﬀected region using common conversion point imaging and H-k stacking analysis of 6893 receiver functions using data from a network comprising 58 broadband seismic stations sited on diverse tectonic terrains. We ﬁnd large variations in crustal thickness, with the Moho depths varying from 28 to 43 km in the Kachchh rift, 28 to 38 km in the Cambay rift, 39.5–41.5 km in the north and eastern parts of the Cambay rift, and 29 to 39 km in the Saurashtra region and South Gujarat. A Moho upwarp of 6 to 7 km in the Saurashtra region can be attributed to positive buoyancy and uplift due to thermal inﬂux aﬀected by the Reunion plume. High crustal V p / V s ratios beneath the Kachchh rift (1.8 to 2.05), coastal areas of Saurashtra (1.75 to 2.06), and North Gujarat (1.81 to 1.85) indicate dominance of a maﬁc/ultramaﬁc crust. High regional heat ﬂow, high electrical conductivity, large intracrustal S wave velocity reduction, and high average crustal Poisson’s ratios are consistent with partial melt related to the process of magmatic underplating in the lower crust. At other stations, the crust appears to be felsic with V p / V s ratios in the range of 1.57 to 1.76.
Development and Evaluation of a Parenting Resilience Elements Questionnaire (PREQ) Measuring Resiliency in Rearing Children with Developmental Disorders

We developed a parenting resilience elements questionnaire (PREQ) measuring the degree to which mothers possess elements that aid in adapting to challenges and difficulties related to children with developmental disorders (DD). A total of 424 parents of children with DD were recruited from five medical institutes. Psychometric properties of PREQ were evaluated using data of 363 mothers of children with DD. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis was performed, predicting depressive symptoms and parenting behavior with PREQ subscales, a general health questionnaire, and the total difficulties score of a strength and difficulties questionnaire. Factor analysis revealed three reliable factors: “knowledge of the child’s characteristics,” “perceived social supports,” and “positive perceptions of parenting. ” Moreover, multiple regression analysis showed that “knowledge of the child’s characteristics” was associated with parenting behavior, whereas “perceived social supports” predicted depressive symptoms; “positive perceptions of parenting” influenced both parenting behavior and depressive symptoms. These findings indicated that the PREQ may be used as a scale measuring resiliency in mothers of children with DD and is useful for evaluating their parenting ability in clinical interventions.
Liquidity Externalities and Adverse Selection: Evidence from Trading after Hours

This paper examines liquidity externalities by analyzing trading costs after hours. There is less than 1/20 as many trades per unit time after hours as during the trading day. The reduced trading activity results in substantially higher trading costs: quoted and effective spreads are three to four times larger than during the trading day. The higher spreads reflect greater adverse selection and order persistence, but not higher dealer profits. Because liquidity provision remains competitive after hours, the greater adverse selection and higher trading costs provide a direct measure of the magnitude of the liquidity externalities generated during the trading day. Copyright 2004 by The American Finance Association.
A tool for visualizing the topology of three-dimensional vector fields

A description is given of a software system, TOPO, that numerically analyzes and graphically displays topological aspects of a three-dimensional vector field, v, to produce a single, relatively simple picture that characterizes v. The topology of v considered consists of its critical points (where v=0), their invariant manifolds, and the integral curves connecting these invariant manifolds. The field in the neighborhood of each critical point is approximated by the Taylor expansion. The coefficients of the first nonzero term of the Taylor expansion around a critical point are the 3*3 matrix Delta v. Critical points are classified by examining Delta v's eigenvalues. The eigenvectors of Delta v span the invariant manifolds of the linearized field around a critical point. Curves integrated from initial points on the eigenvectors a small distance from a critical point connect with other critical points (or the boundary) to complete the topology. One class of critical surfaces that is important in computational fluid dynamics is analyzed. <<ETX>>