Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On Monopoly Insurance Pricing when Agents Differ in Risk Aversion

The paper analyzes a monopolistic insurer’s pricing strategies when potential customers differ in risk aversion and their type cannot be observed by the insurer. Our model builds on Schlesinger (1983), who derived optimal nonlinear pricing strategies for competitive and monopolistic insurance markets. While Schlesinger assumed existence, we are concerned with conditions under which optimal strategies may exist. We introduce a general model framework for continuous but not necessarily differentiable utility functions and derive conditions for existence of optimal insurance pricing strategies. An important application of our findings is “kinked” utility functions, which are found to offer a better match of actual decision making. Both fixed and proportionate premium loadings (relative to expected loss) are considered.
Measuring Video QoE from Encrypted Traffic

Tracking and maintaining satisfactory QoE for video streaming services is becoming a greater challenge for mobile network operators than ever before. Downloading and watching video content on mobile devices is currently a growing trend among users, that is causing a demand for higher bandwidth and better provisioning throughout the network infrastructure. At the same time, popular demand for privacy has led many online streaming services to adopt end-to-end encryption, leaving providers with only a handful of indicators for identifying QoE issues. In order to address these challenges, we propose a novel methodology for detecting video streaming QoE issues from encrypted traffic. We develop predictive models for detecting different levels of QoE degradation that is caused by three key influence factors, i.e. stalling, the average video quality and the quality variations. The models are then evaluated on the production network of a large scale mobile operator, where we show that despite encryption our methodology is able to accurately detect QoE problems with 72\%-92\% accuracy, while even higher performance is achieved when dealing with cleartext traffic
A single-loop approach to SIMD parallelization of 2D wavelet lifting

Widespread use of wavelet transforms as in JPEG2000 demands efficient implementations on general purpose computers as well as dedicated hardware. The increasing availability of SIMD technologies is a great challenge since efficient SIMD parallelizations are not trivial. This work presents a parallelized 2D wavelet transform following a single-loop approach, i.e. a loop fusion of the lifting steps of horizontal filtering, and interleaving horizontal and vertical filtering for optimal temporal locality. In this way, each input value is read only once and each output value is written once without subsequent updates. Such an approach turns out to be a necessary basis for an efficient SIMD parallelization. Results are obtained on a general purpose processor with a 4-fold single-precision SIMD extension. Speedups of about 3.7 due to the use of SIMD, 2.55 due to the single-loop approach and up to 6 due to cache effects for pathologic data sizes are obtained, giving total speedups of up to 56.
A Methodology for Building Application-Specific Visualizations of Parallel Programs

Abstract An application-specific visualization of a parallel program presents the inherent application domain, semantics, and data being manipulated by the program in a manner natural to one′s understanding of the program. In this paper we discuss why application-specific views are necessary for program debugging, and we list several requirements and challenges that a system for application-specific viewing should meet. We also introduce an animation methodology particularly well-suited for application-specific visualizations, and we describe program animations developed using the methodology.
The Effects of Chili Pepper on Reaction to Ostracism

Functional magnetic resonance imaging research has shown that ostracism and physical pain share a common neurological basis in the anterior cingulate cortex. This evidence supports the idea that the sensations of social and physical pain overlap and interact [1]. We evaluated this relationship in human subjects by having 90 psychology students consume spicy tomato soup (the spice used is Capsaicin) to trigger physical pain, and by having them play Cyberball immediately after (Cyberball is an online-ball toss game that is used to manipulate whether the participant is included or ostracized to trigger social pain [2]). Our hypothesis is two-tailed: that chili pepper consumption may increase or decrease feelings of ostracism. To test our hypothesis, we randomized 90 subjects to receive 1 of 4 manipulations: spicy soup and excluded-inCyberball, spicy soup and included-in-Cyberball, mild soup and excluded-in-Cyberball, or mild soup and included-in-Cyberball. After these manipulations, the subjects had to answer a validated retrospective needs satisfaction index. This validated index was used to determine the effect of soup and Cyberball on the participant's feelings of social pain. To analyze our results, we used repeated measures ANOVA and then conducted post-hoc analysis with the Tukey HSD to compare multiple least square means. The results show that there was a significant time and group interaction on feelings of belonging, control, self-esteem and meaning existence (P=0.0024). The results suggest that chili-pepper might have a distracting or analgesic effect on social pain.
The role of force feedback in surgery: analysis of blunt dissection

Force feedback is widely assumed to enhance performance in robotic surgery, but its benefits have not yet been systematically assessed. In this study we examine the effects of force feedback on a blunt dissection task. Subjects used a telerobotic system to expose an artery in a synthetic model while viewing the operative site with a video laparoscope. Performance was compared between force feedback gains of 75% and 150% and no force feedback. The absence of force feedback increased the average force magnitude applied to the tissue by at least 50%, and increased the peak force magnitude by at least a factor of 2. The number of errors that damage tissue increased by over a factor 3. The rate and precision of dissection were not significantly enhanced with force feedback. We hypothesize that force feedback is helpful in this blunt dissection task because the artery is stiffer than the surrounding tissue. This mechanical contrast serves to constrain the subjects' hand from commanding inappropriate motions that generate large forces.
Sentence completion task using web-scale data

We propose a method to automatically answer SAT-style sentence completion questions using web-scale data. Web-scale da-ta have been used in many language studies and have been found to be a very useful resource for improving accuracy in sentence completion task. Our method employs assorted N-gram probability information for each candidate word. We also proposed back-off strategy was used to remove zero probabilities. We found that the accuracy of our proposed method improved by 52-87% over the current state-of-the-art.
Regulation of Glutamate Transport in Developing Rat Oligodendrocytes

Glutamate released from synaptic vesicles mediates excitatory neurotransmission by stimulating glutamate receptors. Glutamate transporters maintain low synaptic glutamate levels critical for this process, a role primarily attributed to astrocytes. Recently, vesicular release of glutamate from unmyelinated axons in the rat corpus callosum has been shown to elicit AMPA receptor-mediated currents in glial progenitor cells. Glutamate transporters are the only mechanism of glutamate clearance, yet very little is known about the role of glutamate transporters in normal development of oligodendrocytes (OLs) or in excitotoxic injury to OLs. We found that OLs in culture are capable of sodium-dependent glutamate uptake with a Km of 10 ± 2 μm and a Vmax of 2.6, 5.0, and 3.8 nmol · min−1 · mg−1 for preoligodendrocytes, immature, and mature OLs, respectively. Surprisingly, EAAC1, thought to be exclusively a neuronal transporter, contributes more to [3H]l-glutamate uptake in OLs than GLT1 or GLAST. These data suggest that glutamate transporters on oligodendrocytes may serve a critical role in maintaining glutamate homeostasis at a time when unmyelinated callosal axons are engaging in glutamatergic signaling with glial progenitors. Furthermore, GLT1 was significantly increased in cultured mature OLs contrary to in vivo data in which we have shown that, although GLT1 is present on developing OLs when unmyelinated axons are prevalent in the developing rat corpus callosum, after myelination, GLT1 is not expressed on mature OLs. The absence of GLT1 in mature OLs in the rat corpus callosum and its presence in mature rat cultured OLs may indicate that a signaling process in vivo is not activated in vitro.
Control of a nonholonomic mobile robot: backstepping kinematics into dynamics

A dynamical extension that makes possible the integration of a kinematic controller and a torque controller for nonholonomic mobile robots is presented. A combined kinematic/torque control law is developed using backstepping and asymptotic stability is guaranteed by Lyapunov theory. Moreover, this control algorithm can be applied to the three basic nonholonomic navigation problems: tracking a reference trajectory, path following and stabilization about a desired posture. A general structure for controlling a mobile robot results that can accommodate different control techniques ranging from a conventional computed-torque controller, when all dynamics are known, to adaptive controllers.
Mobile location with bias tracking in non-line-of-sight

The main impairment for the location of terminals in a wireless communications system is the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) condition which is mainly due to blocking of the transmitted signal by obstacles. It is well known that NLOS biases time-of-arrival (TOA) and time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) estimates, therefore providing a biased position. The paper analyzes the improvements in positioning accuracy by tracking the bias of the time measures with the Kalman filter proposed for location estimation. The evaluation of the approach has been carried out with measures taken in real scenarios, for positioning techniques based on TDOA and TOA+AOA (angle of arrival) measurements.
Application of the Extended Theory of Planned Behavior to Intention to Travel to Japan Among Taiwanese Youth: Investigating the Moderating Effect of Past Visit Experience

ABSTRACT This study examines the extended Theory of Planned Behavior in the context of young Taiwanese' travel intentions to Japan. Analyses indicate that perceived risks negatively impact attitudes, while attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control positively impact behavioral intentions. Contrary to the hypothesized direct effect, attitudes fully mediate the perceived risks and behavioral intentions relationship. A novel contribution of this study is the examination of the moderating effect of past visit experience, revealing significant moderation of the paths from attitudes to behavioral intentions, and from perceived behavioral control to behavioral intentions, with stronger effects for experienced visitors over novices.
Comparison of Various AVEIR Visual Concept Detectors with an Index of Carefulness

Visual annotation is still an open issue. The Content Based community admits that a plurality of features and systems shall be considered. We present in this paper four very different strategies using not only visual information but also text, to implement ImageCLEF2009 Photo Annotation Task. The visual features are various, such as HSV, Gabor, EDGE, SIFT, and some more recent. Then we study each model performances, and propose a new measure, the Carefulness Index (Q) computed on the histogram of the model? s outputs. Q seems to be correlated with the model performances.
Optimal decompositions of matrices with entries from residuated lattices

We describe optimal decompositions of matrices whose entries are elements of a residuated lattice L, such as L=[0, 1]. Such matrices represent relationships between objects and attributes with the entries representing degrees to which attributes represented by columns apply to objects represented by rows. Given such an n × m object-attribute matrix I, we look for a decomposition of I into a product A ° B of an n × k object-factor matrix A and a k × m factor-attribute matrix B with entries from L with the number k of factors as small as possible. We show that formal concepts of I, which play a central role in the Port-Royal approach to logic and which are the fixpoints of particular Galois connections associated to I, are optimal factors for decomposition of I in that they provide us with decompositions with the smallest number of factors. Moreover, we describe transformations between the space of original attributes and the space of factors induced by a decomposition I = A ° B. The article contains illustrative examples demonstrating the significance of the presented results for factor analysis of relational data. In addition, we present a general framework for a calculus of matrices with entries from residuated lattices in which both the matrix products and decompositions discussed in this article as well as triangular products and decompositions discussed elsewhere can be regarded as two particular cases of a general type of product and decomposition. We present the results for matrices, i.e. for relations between finite sets in terms of relations, but the arguments behind are valid for relations between infinite sets as well.
What Shall We Call Ourselves? Last Names Among Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Couples and Their Adopted Children

ABSTRACT Choices of last names for both adults and children are important family decisions that are often made upon marriage or upon the birth of a child. The gendered nature of such choices among heterosexual populations is well known, but they have not been widely studied among lesbian or gay populations. We studied selection of last names among 106 adoptive families—27 headed by lesbian couples, 29 headed by gay couples, and 50 headed by heterosexual couples—all of whom had adopted children at birth or in the first weeks of life. Whether in selection of last names for adults or for children, we found that heterosexual adoptive couples were more likely than lesbian and gay adoptive couples to follow patronymic conventions. Thus, heterosexual parents and their children were most likely to have identical last names. For lesbian and gay couples, in contrast, the most common scenario was for both adults to retain last names given to them at birth and hyphenate them to create last names for their children. Parents in lesbian and gay couples offered more detailed explanations of their choices than did those in heterosexual couples. Explanations offered by heterosexual parents were most likely to refer to tradition, but those given by same-sex parents were more likely to mention egalitarian or practical considerations. Overall, we found that same-sex and other-sex couples took very different approaches to the problem of naming themselves and their children.
Signal-Mediated Depolymerization of Actin in Pollen during the Self-Incompatibility Response Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.002998.

Signal perception and the integration of signals into networks that effect cellular changes is essential for all cells. The self-incompatibility (SI) response in field poppy pollen triggers a Ca2+-dependent signaling cascade that results in the inhibition of incompatible pollen. SI also stimulates dramatic alterations in the actin cytoskeleton. By measuring the amount of filamentous (F-) actin in pollen before and during the SI response, we demonstrate that SI stimulates a rapid and large reduction in F-actin level that is sustained for at least 1 h. This represents quantitative evidence for stimulus-mediated depolymerization of F-actin in plant cells by a defined biological stimulus. Surprisingly, there are remarkably few examples of sustained reductions in F-actin levels stimulated by a biologically relevant ligand. Actin depolymerization also was achieved in pollen by treatments that increase cytosolic free Ca2+ artificially, providing evidence that actin is a target for the Ca2+ signals triggered by the SI response. By determining the cellular concentrations and binding constants for native profilin from poppy pollen, we show that profilin has Ca2+-dependent monomeric actin-sequestering activity. Although profilin is likely to contribute to stimulus-mediated actin depolymerization, our data suggest a role for additional actin binding proteins. We propose that Ca2+-mediated depolymerization of F-actin may be a mechanism whereby SI-induced tip growth inhibition is achieved.
Genome-wide association analysis by lasso penalized logistic regression

MOTIVATION In ordinary regression, imposition of a lasso penalty makes continuous model selection straightforward. Lasso penalized regression is particularly advantageous when the number of predictors far exceeds the number of observations. METHOD The present article evaluates the performance of lasso penalized logistic regression in case-control disease gene mapping with a large number of SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) predictors. The strength of the lasso penalty can be tuned to select a predetermined number of the most relevant SNPs and other predictors. For a given value of the tuning constant, the penalized likelihood is quickly maximized by cyclic coordinate ascent. Once the most potent marginal predictors are identified, their two-way and higher order interactions can also be examined by lasso penalized logistic regression. RESULTS This strategy is tested on both simulated and real data. Our findings on coeliac disease replicate the previous SNP results and shed light on possible interactions among the SNPs. AVAILABILITY The software discussed is available in Mendel 9.0 at the UCLA Human Genetics web site. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Ontology Driven Formal Description of Swift Trust and Its Computational Model

This paper builds up an ontology conceptual model for swift trust, which is reasonable when considering the fuzzy nature of trust, as well as the heterogeneity of diverse ontologys developed by various engineers with different knowledge structure. Next, D-S theory is chosen as the reasoning tool for our swift trust, which may be more appropriate than the other uncertain theories including Fuzzy sets theory and Bayesian method. Finally, examples are taken to verify the validity and correctness of our proposed model.
Multi-Objective Optimization in Large Software Product Lines

Finding products that balance multiple competing objectives is a fundamental and difficult optimization problem. Software product lines compound its difficulty as their product spaces are gigantic, sometimes exceeding 1060 distinct configurations. We present new algorithms for (a) true random selection of configurations in gigantic product spaces, (b) discovering the shape of their Pareto fronts, (c) exploring regions of interest on these fronts with greater efficiency than offered by existing algorithms, and (d) using real and previously used systems in our experiments as supporting evidence.
Meeting the ambition of measuring the quality of hospitals' stroke care using routinely collected administrative data: a feasibility study.

OBJECTIVE To examine the potential for using routinely collected administrative data to compare the quality and safety of stroke care at a hospital level, including evaluating any bias due to variations in coding practice. DESIGN A retrospective cohort study of English hospitals' performance against six process and outcome indicators covering the acute care pathway. We used logistic regression to adjust the outcome measures for case mix. SETTING Hospitals in England. PARTICIPANTS Stroke patients (ICD-10 I60-I64) admitted to English National Health Service public acute hospitals between April 2009 and March 2010, accounting for 91 936 admissions. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE The quality and safety were measured using six indicators spanning the hospital care pathway, from timely access to brain scans to emergency readmissions following discharge after stroke. RESULTS There were 182 occurrences of hospitals performing statistically differently from the national average at the 99.8% significance level across the six indicators. Differences in coding practice appeared to only partially explain the variation. CONCLUSIONS Hospital administrative data provide a practical and achievable method for evaluating aspects of stroke care across the acute pathway. However, without improvements in coding and further validation, it is unclear whether the cause of the variation is the quality of care or the result of different local care pathways and data coding accuracy.
Tranquility: A Low Disruptive Alternative to Quiescence for Ensuring Safe Dynamic Updates

This paper revisits a problem that was identified by Kramer and Magee: placing a system in a consistent state before and after runtime changes. We show that their notion of quiescence as a necessary and sufficient condition for safe runtime changes is too strict and results in a significant disruption in the application being updated. In this paper, we introduce a weaker condition: tranquillity. We show that tranquillity is easier to obtain and less disruptive for the running application but still a sufficient condition to ensure application consistency. We present an implementation of our approach on a component middleware platform and experimentally verify the validity and practical applicability of our approach using data retrieved from a case study.
Multiple classifier system for automated quality assessment of marine sensor data

Numerous sources of uncertainty are associated with the data acquisition process in marine sensor networks. It is thus required to assure that the data quality of sensors is fit for the intended purpose. We propose a supervised learning framework to infer the quality of sensor observations online. A problem with using supervised classification in quality assessment is that sensor observations from the class of uncertain data will be far out-weighed by class instances of good data quality. This leads to an imbalanced data set, which can potentially reduce the classification accuracy of uncertain data. A multiple classifier (or ensemble classifier) system is proposed to deal with this problem. Training sets are randomly undersampled to develop training subsets with balanced class membership. The process is repeated to produce multiple balanced training subsets. Individual classifiers are then trained upon each of these balanced data sets. The quality classifications from the individual classifiers are then combined using majority voting. We evaluated the ensemble classifier system using conductivity and temperature sensors from the Tasmanian Marine Analysis Network (TasMAN). Experiments demonstrate that the ensemble classifier balances the classification accuracy of the majority and minority classes, achieving a higher overall classification accuracy than its constituent classifiers.