Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimation of an Education Production Function under Random Assignment with Selection

This paper estimates an education production function using data on the College Scholastic Ability Test score and high school characteristics from Seoul, Korea, where, on entering high school, students are randomly assigned to schools within each school district. We derive a school production function by aggregating the individuals' potential outcomes under the random assignment and no cohort effect assumption. We find that the school production function coefficients differ between districts and that the single-sex school effect estimate is much larger than that found in previous studies.
ROS-based localization of a race vehicle at high-speed using LIDAR

An approach for LIDAR-based localization at high speeds is presented. In the proposed framework, the laser pose estimation is treated as a parallel redundant information, which is fused in an adjacent Kalman filter. The measurement and motion update step of the ROS-based adaptive Monte Carlo localization package is modified, in order to meet the requirements of a high-speed race scenario. Thereby, the key focus is on computational efficiency and the adaptation to characteristics arising at high speeds and at the limits of handling. An introspective performance evaluation monitors the position estimation process and labels generated outputs for adjacent components accordingly. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is illustrated in a real world high-speed experiment, autonomously driving a race vehicle – the DevBot – in a typical race environment.
Loss of Notch Activity in the Developing Central Nervous System Leads to Increased Cell Death

Many cells in the mammalian brain undergo apoptosis as a normal and critical part of development but the signals that regulate the survival and death of neural progenitor cells and the neurons they produce are not well understood. The Notch signaling pathway is involved in multiple decision points during development and has been proposed to regulate the survival and apoptosis of neural progenitor cells in the developing brain; however, previous experiments have not resolved whether Notch activity is pro- or anti-apoptotic. To elucidate the function of Notch signaling in the survival and death of cells in the nervous system, we have produced single and compound Notch conditional mutants in which Notch1 and Notch3 are removed at different times during brain development and in different populations of cells. We show here that a large number of neural progenitor cells, as well as differentiating neurons, undergo apoptosis in the absence of Notch1 and Notch3, suggesting that Notch activity promotes the survival of both progenitors and newly differentiating cells in the developing nervous system. Finally, we show that postmitotic neurons do not require Notch activity indefinitely to regulate their survival since elevated levels of cell death are observed only during embryogenesis in the Notch mutants and are not detected in neonates.
The Influence of Sex Difference on Self-Reference Effects in a Male-Dominated Culture

52 secondary school students from the Chaoshan, China, area, where males are highly valued, were examined for self-reference, mother-reference, and father-reference effects. Because the father is the primary role model in Chaoshan culture, it was predicted that male participants would demonstrate a father-reference effect while females would show a mother-reference effect. The results confirmed that females showed significant self-, mother-, and father-reference effects in terms of memory performance, while males showed only a significant father-reference effect and a marginally significant self-reference effect. This study highlights the importance of researching subcultures such as the Chaoshan subculture to gain a comprehensive understanding of self-construct.
Environmental impact analysis of smartwatch using SimaPro8 tools and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) technique

Smartwatch is wearable electronic device that widely used all around the world, with multiple functions, such as heart rate monitoring, sleeping monitoring, sport monitoring and so on. It is extremely valuable to find out the environmental impacts of this new generation product. This paper aims to present environmental impact analysis using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with SimaPro8 tools, and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) of smartwatch. Further, for green electronics applications, it is meaningful and mandatory to find out whether or not this powerful and widely used device really fulfils the relevant green regulations (such as Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) compliance) for sustainable development. [1] The LCA data collected by using the said software tools were analysed to quantify the key six environmental impacts on global warming, ozone layer depletion, acidification, etc. The data could be well used for better product design, sustainability, as well as generating environmental product declarations, accurate carbon footprints. The EDX data on the device further elucidated the satisfaction of meeting the RoHS requirements, and fulfilling the WEEE compliance. In summary, the results have clearly demonstrated the crucial and underlying importance of combined studies of LCA and EDX on the green compliance and sustainability of wearable smartwatches as a case, thus leading to various proposals for improving the design of greener smartwatches and more sustainable wearable devices in general. For example, the avoidance and minimization of using plastic and toxic materials in the constituent components of the smartwatch is suggested to create a most feasible method for greener wearable electronic devices in terms of optimizing its carbon foot-print and recyclability, thus effectively achieving the ultimate goal of green electronics for the future.
Postsynatpic population potentials recorded from ventral roots perfused with isotonic sucrose: connections of groups Ia and II spindle afferent fibers with large populations of motoneurons.

1. A method is described that makes it possible to record a composite of all the individual EPSPs elicited monosynaptically in a large population of motoneurons by impulses in single Ia or spindle group II fibers. 2. By infiltrating a ventral root with an isotonic sucrose solution so that its extracellular resistance is extremely high, the interiors of its axons can be used as wick electrodes to record voltage changes in all the motoneurons of that spinal segment. With an averaging computer, triggered by the action potentials from a single, functionally isolated but intact afferent, the synaptic effect of a la or group II impulse on the whole population of motoneurons can be extracted from the physiological and electrical noise, Potentials with the general waveform of EPSPs can be recorded under these conditions. These responses are designated postsynaptic population potentials (PSPPs). 3. The general appearance of 230 PSPPs, elicited by impulses in 176 Ia, 52 spindle group II fibers, and 6 Ib fibers from medial gastrocnemius (MG) and lateral gastrocnemiussoleus (LG-S) muscles was studied. The PSPPs were recorded from the first sacral ventral root or a caudal part of the seventh lumbar ventral root in cats anesthetized with a-chloralose. 4. The latencies of PSPPs were widely distributed. The mean latencies were 0.85 + 0 27 ms for Ia responses and 1.19 -+ 0.41 . ms for group II PSPPs. This difference was attributed chiefly to slower intraspinal conduction in group II fibers. Peripheral and intraspinal conduction velocities were positively correlated, 5. Latency measurements led to the conclusion that both Ia and group II PSPPs were evoked monosynaptically, but polysynaptic effects were not excluded. 6. The rate of rise of the PSPPs showed a weak, but significant positive correlation with the conduction velocities of the afferent fibers, the mean rise time for Ia PSPPs being 2.54 t 1.05 ms, that for group II PSPPs being 3.1 t 1.2 ms. This correlation was taken as evidence that the distribution of the active terminals of group Ia and group II spindle fibers on the surface of motoneurons is governed in part by the size of the afferent fiber. The more distally located synapses from the group II fibers, generating slower EPSPs, might be chiefly responsible for the maintenance and regulation of the general excitatory state of the motoneuron pool. They would be well suited to process input from secondary endings, which are most sensitive to the static length of the muscle. In contrast, the more proximally located input would be more apt to cause rapid triggering of reflex discharges. This would be an appropriate response to input from primary receptors, which are most sensitive to rapid changes in muscle length. The sustained activity in the more distal dendrites produced by input from secondary endings may, therefore, modify the effectiveness of the input from primary endings. 7. The amplitudes of the PSPPs were positively correlated with the conduction
SURF and RANSAC: A Conglomerative Approach to Object Recognition

In this paper, an object recognition system [7] has been developed that uses SURF(Speeded-Up Robust Features) and RANSAC(Random Sample Consensus) algorithms to identify a series of real-life objects in a given scene using their 2-D images. SURF algorithm has been used for feature detection, extraction and matching. The features are invariant to image scaling, translation, and rotation, and partially invariant to illumination changes and affine or 3D projection[2]. RANSAC algorithm has been used to filter out the results obtained by the SURF algorithm and remove the outliers. Ten different objects have been successfully recognized using this system.
Matrix-Based Discriminant Subspace Ensemble for Hyperspectral Image Spatial–Spectral Feature Fusion

Spatial-spectral feature fusion is well acknowledged as an effective method for hyperspectral (HS) image classification. Many previous studies have been devoted to this subject. However, these methods often regard the spatial-spectral high-dimensional data as 1-D vector and then extract informative features for classification. In this paper, we propose a new HS image classification method. Specifically, matrix-based spatial-spectral feature representation is designed for each pixel to capture the local spatial contextual and the spectral information of all the bands, which can well preserve the spatial-spectral correlation. Then, matrix-based discriminant analysis is adopted to learn the discriminative feature subspace for classification. To further improve the performance of discriminative subspace, a random sampling technique is used to produce a subspace ensemble for final HS image classification. Experiments are conducted on three HS remote sensing data sets acquired by different sensors, and experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method.
Surveillance for traumatic brain injury-related deaths--United States, 1997-2007.

PROBLEM/CONDITION Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability in the United States. Approximately 53,000 persons die from TBI-related injuries annually. During 1989-1998, TBI-related death rates decreased 11.4%, from 21.9 to 19.4 per 100,000 population. This report describes the epidemiology and annual rates of TBI-related deaths during 1997-2007. REPORTING PERIOD January 1, 1997-December 31, 2007. DESCRIPTION OF SYSTEM Data were analyzed from the CDC multiple-cause-of-death public-use data files, which contain death certificate data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. RESULTS During 1997-2007, an annual average of 53,014 deaths (18.4 per 100,000 population; range: 17.8-19.3) among U.S. residents were associated with TBIs. During this period, death rates decreased 8.2%, from 19.3 to 17.8 per 100,000 population (p = 0.001). TBI-related death rates decreased significantly among persons aged 0-44 years and increased significantly among those aged ≥75 years. The rate of TBI deaths was three times higher among males (28.8 per 100,000 population) than among females (9.1). Among males, rates were highest among non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Natives (41.3 per 100,000 population) and lowest among Hispanics (22.7). Firearm- (34.8%), motor-vehicle- (31.4%), and fall-related TBIs (16.7%) were the leading causes of TBI-related death. Firearm-related death rates were highest among persons aged 15-34 years (8.5 per 100,000 population) and ≥75 years (10.5). Motor vehicle-related death rates were highest among those aged 15-24 years (11.9 per 100,000 population). Fall-related death rates were highest among adults aged ≥75 years (29.8 per 100,000 population). Overall, the rates for all causes except falls decreased. INTERPRETATION Although the overall rate of TBI-related deaths decreased during 1997-2007, TBI remains a public health problem; approximately 580,000 persons died with TBI-related diagnoses during this reporting period in the United States. Rates of TBI-related deaths were higher among young and older adults and certain minority populations. The leading external causes of this condition were incidents related to firearms, motor vehicle traffic, and falls. PUBLIC HEALTH ACTIONS Accurate, timely, and comprehensive surveillance data are necessary to better understand and prevent TBI-related deaths in the United States. CDC multiple-cause-of-death public-use data files can be used to monitor the incidence of TBI-related deaths and assist public health practitioners and partners in the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs and policies to reduce and prevent TBI-related deaths in the United States. Rates of TBI-related deaths are higher in certain population groups and are primarily related to specific external causes. Better enforcement of existing seat belt laws, implementation and increased coverage of more stringent helmet laws, and the implementation of existing evidence-based fall-related prevention interventions are examples of interventions that can reduce the incidence of TBI in the United States.
Biomarker discovery in microarray gene expression data with Gaussian processes

MOTIVATION In clinical practice, pathological phenotypes are often labelled with ordinal scales rather than binary, e.g. the Gleason grading system for tumour cell differentiation. However, in the literature of microarray analysis, these ordinal labels have been rarely treated in a principled way. This paper describes a gene selection algorithm based on Gaussian processes to discover consistent gene expression patterns associated with ordinal clinical phenotypes. The technique of automatic relevance determination is applied to represent the significance level of the genes in a Bayesian inference framework. RESULTS The usefulness of the proposed algorithm for ordinal labels is demonstrated by the gene expression signature associated with the Gleason score for prostate cancer data. Our results demonstrate how multi-gene markers that may be initially developed with a diagnostic or prognostic application in mind are also useful as an investigative tool to reveal associations between specific molecular and cellular events and features of tumour physiology. Our algorithm can also be applied to microarray data with binary labels with results comparable to other methods in the literature.
Usability Evaluations – User Experiences – Usability Evidence

In this paper, we elaborate and reflect on usability evaluations and the applicability of results for other projects. Usability evaluations are based on different user’s experiences and assessments on how well the buildings perform. Evaluations are based on different methods and aspects, depending on objective, purpose, focus, competence and resources. Usability is defined as “the extent, to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use. ” (NS-EN ISO 9241/1998). The paper is based on theory on evaluations methods and qualitative research. The empirical data is mainly from several case studies mainly from two Norwegian usability projects undertaken in the last 8 years. The case studies have covered a broad range of methods used in order to test their suitability related to the concept of usability and within a common methodological framework USEtool. The paper argues that usability evidence must be related to contextual understanding. Usability evaluations have to look on the interaction between architecture, technology and organisation. Previous studies have shown that in order to assess usability one has to focus on the effect of the building on the user organizations fulfilment of goals, as well as the end users satisfaction and experience. Theory affirms that contextdependent knowledge from case studies is not less valid than general theoretical (and contextindependent) knowledge. Usability evaluations give feedback on user experiences of their workplace. The value of such evaluations for feed forward to new projects or improving existing facilities mainly lies in the ability to understand the user experiences and to translate those into adequate products and solutions. Consequently, the results of research into evaluation needs to be translated into a form which will be quickly and easily accessible to clients, designers, decision makers and others involved in the building process.
Secure Transmission and Self-Energy Recycling With Partial Eavesdropper CSI

This paper focuses on the secure transmission of wireless-powered relay systems with the imperfect eavesdropper channel state information. For efficient energy transfer and information relaying, a novel two-phase protocol is proposed, in which the relay operates in a full-duplex (FD) mode to achieve the simultaneous wireless power and information transmission. Compared with those existing protocols, the proposed design possesses two main advantages: 1) it fully exploits the available hardware resource (antenna element) of relay and can offer a higher secrecy rate and 2) it enables the self-energy recycling (S-ER) at relay, in which the loopback interference generated by the FD operation is harvested and reused for information relaying. To maximize the worst-case secrecy rate (WCSR) through jointly designing the source and relay beamformers coupled with the power allocation ratio, an optimization problem is formulated. This formulated problem is proved to be non-convex and the challenge to solve it is how to concurrently solve out the beamformers and the power allocation ratio. To cope with this difficulty, an alternative approach is proposed by converting the original problem into three subproblems. By solving these subproblems iteratively, the closed-form solutions of robust beamformers and power allocation ratio for the original problem are achieved. Simulations are done and results reveal that the proposed S-ER -based secure transmission scheme outperforms the traditional time-switching based relaying scheme at a maximum WCSR gain of 80%. Results also demonstrate that the WCSR performance of the scheme reusing all antennas for information reception is much better than that of schemes exploiting only one antenna.
A wideband doubly-sparse approach for MITO sparse filter estimation

We propose an approach for the estimation of sparse filters from a convolutive mixture of sources, exploiting the time-domain sparsity of the mixing filters and the sparsity of the sources in the time-frequency (TF) domain. The proposed approach is based on a wideband formulation of the cross-relation (CR) in the TF domain and on a framework including two steps: (a) a clustering step, to determine the TF points where the CR is valid; (b) a filter estimation step, to recover the set of filters associated with each source. We propose for the first time a method to blindly perform the clustering step (a) and we show that the proposed approach based on the wideband CR outperforms the narrowband approach and the GCC-PHAT approach by between 5 dB and 20 dB.
Ethical Issues in the Conduct of Research at a Multidisciplinary Clinic

We describe the process our interdisciplinary clinic used to create an institutional policy regarding research participant recruitment from among our client base. We demonstrate how certain elements of the client-clinician relationship can lead to inadvertent ethical quandaries in research recruitment, including implicit coercion and fostering of "therapeutic misconception. " Our internal policy deliberations focused on five central dilemmas, each requiring a careful evaluation of ethical principles. Interpersonal and cross-disciplinary differences of opinion required a delicate balance among competing priorities. The final policy represents our attempt to resolve these ethical paradoxes in a way that allows us to support and pursue valuable clinician-researcher partnerships while prioritizing both our clients' clinical care and their rights to autonomy and fully informed consent.
Seizing the Opportunity: Exploiting Web Aggregation

This paper examines the development of web aggregators, entities that collect information from a wide range of sources, with or without prior arrangements, and add value through post-aggregation services. New Web-page extraction tools, context sensitive mediators, and agent technologies have greatly reduced the barriers to constructing aggregators. We predict that aggregators will soon emerge in industries where they were not formerly present. Through studying over a hundred existing and emerging aggregators, we present a model for understanding the aggregator's strategic interaction with existing organizations. We also suggest different ways that businesses can take advantage of the new opportunities presented. Finally, we provide valuable insights to all organizations concerning the issues, impacts, and actions required as aggregators become increasingly present.
Origin of plasma fatty acids in lactating cows fed high grain or high fat diets.

Abstract Palmitate-1- 14 C was given to lactating cows in 20 trials involving four dietary treatments and two different routes of tracer administration. The specific activitytime curve of 14 -C activity in milk fat was resolved by curve analysis into two components, a rapid-turnover component attributed to exogenous (dietary) fatty acid and a slower turnover component attributed to adipose tissue. Administration of palmitate-1- 14 C abomasally or orally gave greater (P Low fat and high grain restricted roughage diets reduced plasma free fatty acids (P
CFAR Thresholding in Weibull Background

It is well known that the Cell Average Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) processor is optimal when applied on a radar return that contains independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) samples in exponential background. When applied on nonhomogeneous clutter background, the Cell Average presents serious difficulties, for this reason, other CFAR detectors where proposed by several authors, one of the most popular is the Order Statistic CFAR scheme. The main objective of this work is to compare the Order Statistic CFAR processor performance to the Cell Average under Weibull distributed clutter instead of the Exponential one, and to compare both CFAR methods operation in the case of nonhomogeneous radar return. Keywords— Detection, threshold, CFAR, clutter, statistics.