Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Noisy Channel Coding via Privacy Amplification and Information Reconciliation

We show that optimal protocols for noisy channel coding of public or private information over either classical or quantum channels can be directly constructed from two more primitive information-theoretic protocols: privacy amplification and information reconciliation, also known as data compression with side information. We do this in the one-shot scenario of structureless resources, and formulate our results in terms of the smooth min- and max-entropy. In the context of classical information theory, this shows that essentially all two-terminal protocols can be reduced to these two primitives, which are in turn governed by the smooth min- and max-entropies, respectively. In the context of quantum information theory, the recently-established duality of these two protocols means essentially all two-terminal protocols can be constructed using just a single primitive. As an illustration, we show how optimal noisy channel coding protocols can be constructed solely from privacy amplification.
Intrinsic Motivation, Discrimination and the Child Labor-Schooling Trade-Off: Some Empirical Findings

By explicitly taking the interdependence of the decisions over children’s labor and school attendance into account, we jointly estimate a two-equation system applying a bivariate probit model to data from Uganda. We argue that the correlation coecient of the equations’ error terms can be interpreted as the decision trade-o between child labor and schooling, and through a novel methodological approach we obtain evidence for substantial dierences across a number of comparison groups; in particular, we detect a gender, age and relationship bias. We add proxies to control for parental preferences based on self-reported answers from the survey data and find that intrinsic motivation can neither explain the gender nor the age bias implying that parents do not discriminate against their daughters or older children other than for mere economic reasons. The age bias seems mainly driven by cost-related factors and parents’ cost-sensitivity. We do, however, find conclusive evidence for discrimination against children who are not related to the household head, since the observed relationship bias is to some extent driven by parents’ intrinsic motivation.
List recall performance in adults with language learning disability

This thesis is a pilot study of ongoing research concerning the nature of impairments in adults with language learning disorders. The current study assessed lexical-semantic organization in14 adults with language learning disorders (LLD), ages 18;9 to 24;3 and 14 adults with no history of language impairment (TD) matched for age, gender, and education with a list recall task adapted from Watson, Balota, and Roediger (2001). All adults were enrolled in a four-year university. No significant differences were found on accuracy of list recall in LLD and TD. Similar to previous research, list recall for semantically- related words was higher in accuracy than for phonologically- related words for both LLD and TD participants. All participants were more likely to accurately recall the words at the beginning and at end of the lists. The LLD group showed a
Towards Reliable Data Analyses for Smart Cities

As cities are becoming green and smart, public information systems are being revamped to adopt digital technologies. There are several sources (official or not) that can provide information related to a city. The availability of multiple sources enables the design of advanced analyses for offering valuable services to both citizens and municipalities. However, such analyses would fail if the considered data were affected by errors and uncertainties: Data Quality is one of the main requirements for the successful exploitation of the available information. This paper highlights the importance of the Data Quality evaluation in the context of geographical data sources. Moreover, we describe how the Entity Matching task can provide additional information to refine the quality assessment and, consequently, obtain a better evaluation of the reliability data sources. Data gathered from the public transportation and urban areas of Curitiba, Brazil, are used to show the strengths and effectiveness of the presented approach.
Recreational exposure to sunlight and lack of information as risk factors for cutaneous malignant melanoma. Results of an European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) case-control study in Belgium, France and Germany

This study addressed the impact of exposure to ultraviolet radiation on the risk of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM), as well as the behavioural components at stake in its occurrence. We performed a one-to-one unmatched case-control study among subjects aged 20 years or more with naturally non-pigmented skin in Germany, France and Belgium. Fourhundred and twenty consecutive patients with CMM diagnosed from 1 January 1991 on were derived from hospital registries; 447 controls were chosen ramdomly in the same municipality as cases. Subjects unaware of the dangers of exaggerated exposure to sunlight display an estimated CMM risk of 3.72 (95% confidence interval 2.63-5.26). The number of holiday weeks spent annually in sunny resorts and sunbathing during the hot hours of the day are strong risk factors in the three countries, but not the number of years spent outdoors, as farmers or building workers. Multiple logistic adjustments on the host characteristics increases the CMM risk associated with recreational exposure to sunlight, as well as the adjustment on the unawareness of the dangers of exaggerated exposure to sunlight. Recreational exposure to sunlight and sunburn early in life seem capable of fostering the proliferation of pigmented lesions of the skin. Our data support the hypothesis that most CMM develop from pigmented lesions of the skin containing initiated melanocytes, and that the cell proliferation due to brutal, intermittent exposures to solar radiation amplifies the likelihood of a melanocyte entering into a malignant process. These results reinforce the conviction that for controlling the rising incidence of CMM, information about the CMM risk must be widely disseminated, mainly through recommending a prudent attitude towards exposure to sunlight.
Isolation and characterization of Kluyvera georgiana strain with the potential for acrylamide biodegradation

Worldwide contamination by acrylamide, a neurotoxicant and carcinogen in animals, is becoming a significant problem. We isolated three novel acrylamide-degrading bacteria from domestic wastewater in Chonburi, Thailand. Using biochemical characteristics and 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the strains were identified as Klebsiella pneumoniae, Kluyvera georgiana and Enterococcus faecalis. K. georgiana strain No. 2 was selected for further characterization due to its degradation potential of high concentrations of acrylamide at the mesophilic temperatures. The strain grew well in the presence of acrylamide at concentrations to 0.5 % (w/v), pH 5.0 to 7.0 and 37°C. Degradation of acrylamide to acrylic acid began after 30 min of cultivation as a biomass-dependent manner. Mass balance analysis revealed 92.3 % conversion of acrylamide to acrylic acid and two lower polarity compounds. Strain No. 2 degraded many aliphatic amides but not iodoacetamide and thioacetamide. High degradation level (>80 %) was found with propionamide, cyanoacetamide and acetamide. Moderate degradation was obtained in the order of formamide > butyramide > lactamide > urea while sodium azide provided 34 % degradation. These findings render this novel bacterium attractive for biodegradation of acrylamide and other aliphatic amides in the environment.
Distributionally Robust Stochastic Knapsack Problem

This paper considers a distributionally robust version of a quadratic knapsack problem. In this model, a subsets of items is selected to maximizes the total profit while requiring that a set of knapsack constraints be satisfied with high probability. In contrast to the stochastic programming version of this problem, we assume that only part of the information on random data is known, i.e., the first and second moment of the random variables, their joint support, and possibly an independence assumption. As for the binary constraints, special interest is given to the corresponding semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation. While in the case that the model only has a single knapsack constraint we present an SDP reformulation for this relaxation, the case of multiple knapsack constraints is more challenging. Instead, two tractable methods are presented for providing upper and lower bounds (with its associated conservative solution) on the SDP relaxation. An extensive computational study is given to illustrate.
Optimal bit allocation for fine-grained scalable video sequences in distributed streaming environments

We present optimal schemes for allocating bits of fine-grained scalable video sequences among multiple senders streaming to a single receiver. This allocation problem is critical in optimizing the perceived quality in peer-to-peer and distributed multi-server streaming environments. Senders in such environments are heterogeneous in their outgoing bandwidth and they hold different portions of the video stream. We formulate the allocation problem as an optimization problem, which is nonlinear in general. We use rate-distortion models in the formulation to achieve the minimum distortion in the rendered video, constrained by the outgoing bandwidth of senders, availability of video data at senders, and incoming bandwidth of receiver. We show how the adopted rate-distortion models transform the nonlinear problem to an integer linear programming (ILP) problem. We then design a simple rounding scheme that transforms the ILP problem to a linear programming (LP) one, which can be solved efficiently using common optimization techniques such as the Simplex method. We prove that our rounding scheme always produces a feasible solution, and the solution is within a negligible margin from the optimal solution. We also propose a new algorithm (FGSAssign) for the allocation problem that runs in O(n log n) steps, where n is the number of senders. We prove that FGSAssign is optimal. Because of its short running time, FGSAssign can be used in real time during the streaming session. Our experimental study validates our analytical analysis and shows the effectiveness of our allocation algorithm in improving the video quality.
The Effectiveness of an Individualized, Home-Based Functional Exercise Program for Patients With Sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis

Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate the effects of a functional exercise program on muscle strength and mobility in a group of patients with sporadic inclusion body myositis (IBM). Methods and Materials: Seven patients with sporadic IBM were tested for muscle strength and functional capacities before and after a 16-week, patient-specific, home-based exercise program involving mild, daily, functional exercises. Results: Significant improvements in isometric strength were demonstrated in all muscle groups tested and were maximal in the hip flexor muscles. In addition, walking and stair climbing times improved in all patients. The exercise program was well-tolerated, and there was no significant change in the serum creatine kinase level following the exercise period. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that an individually prescribed home exercise program can be safely implemented and can result not only in significant gains in muscle strength but also in useful improvements in functional capabilities and is therefore beneficial in the management of patients with IBM.
Automatic auditory off‐response in humans: an MEG study

We recorded cortical activities in response to the onset and offset of a pure tone of long duration (LONG) and a train of brief pulses of a pure tone with an interstimulus interval of 50 ms (ISI–50 ms) or 100 ms (ISI–100 ms) by use of magnetoencephalograms in 11 healthy volunteers to clarify temporal and spatial profiles of the auditory on‐ and off‐cortical response. Results showed that a region around the superior temporal gyrus (STG) of both hemispheres responded to both the onset and offset of the stimulus. The location of the source responsible for the main activity (N1m) was not significantly different between the on‐ and off‐responses for any of the three tones. The peak latency of on‐N1m was similar under the three conditions, while the peak latency of off‐N1m was precisely determined by the ISI, which suggested that off‐N1m is based on short‐term memory of the stimulus frequency. In addition, there was a positive correlation of the N1m amplitude of N1m between the on‐ and off‐responses among the subjects. The present results suggested that auditory on‐N1m and off‐N1m have similar physiological significance involved in responding to abrupt changes.
Corporate Historical Responsibility (CHR): Addressing a Corporate Past of Forced Labor at Volkswagen

This article introduces corporate historical responsibility (CHR), a concept that can guide organizations when addressing dark corporate histories. CHR holds that organizations have responsibilities toward victims of past corporate practices and toward present reconciliatory discourse. Volkswagen's discourse about its history of forced labor during WW II serves as an example of CHR. The rhetorical analysis illustrates that CHR hinges on the recognition of the past as a moral issue and on the organization's ability to create historical accountability, take responsibility, make public acknowledgements, and remember its past. It further illustrates that CHR creates sustainable policies that can strengthen corporate citizenship and serve as a means of (re-)legitimation. In order to repair broken relationships, the article concludes, organizational leaders need to overcome primary concerns with liability and invest in a shared and long-term CHR process that creates spaces for ongoing discourse about the past.
“Returning the Dues”

This study uses interviews to explore students’ perspectives of a university path program, one initiative of a university-school partnership. Responses show that the abstraction of the program lives in concrete and personal dimensions for students as they move from high school to university in the same neighborhood. Advanced placement work at the university and the secondment of faculty from the school board blur distinctions between school and university. Most striking is the students’ desire to contribute to the community that has supported them and is most closely associated with their families, the school, and the university that lies, at least geographically, within community bounds.
Hot-Water Treatments for Control of Planococcus ficus (Homoptera: Pseudococcidae) on Dormant Grape Cuttings

Abstract Hot-water immersions were tested for control of mealybug Planococcus ficus (Signoret), on dormant grape cuttings used for nursery stock. A range of hot-water temperatures (47–58°C) were evaluated at immersion periods of 2, 5, 10, or 20 min, by using a total of 353,720 mealybugs across all treatments. A 5-min immersion at 51°C is effective in killing >99% of P. ficus. At or above this immersion period and temperature, there was no difference in mealybug stage mortality. We evaluated a commercial operation, which used a 5-min immersion in each of three water tanks: preheating (30.0 ± 3°C), hot-water (52.8 ± 0.3°C), and cooling (23 ± 3°C). The commercial procedure provided 99.8–100% mealybug control in each of three separate trials.
Reclaiming the disengaged? A Bourdieuian analysis of work-based learning for young people in England

This paper uses Bourdieu's concept of field to analyse findings from an ethnographic study of Entry to Employment (E2E) programmes in England. Entry to Employment is a work-based learning programme which aims to re-engage young people with ‘barriers to learning’ inhibiting access to further education, training or employment. The paper examines field positions associated with E2E, such as learner and tutor, distinguishing between the taking of positions by individual agents and the construction of these positions by dominant institutions. The paper argues that official constructions are based on a discourse which positions E2E learners as a deficit category alongside young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) and separates E2E programmes from those in mainstream educational provision. In consequence, although learners are supported and make individual progress, E2E contributes to the exclusion that Bourdieu identifies as the chief means of social reproduction in the education system.
Metab2MeSH: annotating compounds with medical subject headings

SUMMARY Progress in high-throughput genomic technologies has led to the development of a variety of resources that link genes to functional information contained in the biomedical literature. However, tools attempting to link small molecules to normal and diseased physiology and published data relevant to biologists and clinical investigators, are still lacking. With metabolomics rapidly emerging as a new omics field, the task of annotating small molecule metabolites becomes highly relevant. Our tool Metab2MeSH uses a statistical approach to reliably and automatically annotate compounds with concepts defined in Medical Subject Headings, and the National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary for biomedical concepts. These annotations provide links from compounds to biomedical literature and complement existing resources such as PubChem and the Human Metabolome Database.
Nuclear Factor of Activated T Cells Balances Angiogenesis Activation and Inhibition

It has been demonstrated that vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF) induction of angiogenesis requires activation of the nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT). We show that NFATc2 is also activated by basic fibroblast growth factor and blocked by the inhibitor of angiogenesis pigment epithelial–derived factor (PEDF). This suggests a pivotal role for this transcription factor as a convergence point between stimulatory and inhibitory signals in the regulation of angiogenesis. We identified c-Jun NH2-terminal kinases (JNKs) as essential upstream regulators of NFAT activity in angiogenesis. We distinguished JNK-2 as responsible for NFATc2 cytoplasmic retention by PEDF and JNK-1 and JNK-2 as mediators of PEDF-driven NFAT nuclear export. We identified a novel NFAT target, caspase-8 inhibitor cellular Fas-associated death domain–like interleukin 1β–converting enzyme inhibitory protein (c-FLIP), whose expression was coregulated by VEGF and PEDF. Chromatin immunoprecipitation showed VEGF-dependent increase of NFATc2 binding to the c-FLIP promoter in vivo, which was attenuated by PEDF. We propose that one possible mechanism of concerted angiogenesis regulation by activators and inhibitors may be modulation of the endothelial cell apoptosis via c-FLIP controlled by NFAT and its upstream regulator JNK.
Using 20 years of AVHRR data to assess the impact of the North Atlantic Oscillation on European vegetation

We use Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) retrieved between 1982 and 2001 from the AVHRR instrument. The year-to-year variations of vegetation greenness in Europe were estimated and related the North Atlantic Oscillation NAO. Here, we intend to show the sequence of intermediate relevant physical mechanisms responsible for the changes induced in vegetation by the NAO. Therefore, upper level atmospheric circulation and surface climatic impacts were assessed by computing maps of correlation coefficient between NAO and a number of suitable meteorological variables. The most relevant results observed are obtained for the winter-spring seasons, where the positive phase of winter NAO signal is associated with positive temperature anomalies throughout most of northern Europe while it is associated with negative precipitation anomalies in the western Mediterranean. Naturally, these conditions favor (hinder) vegetation growth above (below) normal green vegetation cover conditions over large regions of northern Europe (Iberia and Northern Africa).
Vitamin D status and its determinants during autumn in children at northern latitudes: a cross-sectional analysis from the optimal well-being, development and health for Danish children through a healthy New Nordic Diet (OPUS) School Meal Study

Abstract Sufficient summer/autumn vitamin D status appears important to mitigate winter nadirs at northern latitudes. We conducted a cross-sectional study to evaluate autumn vitamin D status and its determinants in 782 Danish 8–11-year-old children (55°N) using baseline data from the Optimal well-being, development and health for Danish children through a healthy New Nordic Diet (OPUS) School Meal Study, a large randomised controlled trial. Blood samples and demographic and behavioural data, including 7-d dietary recordings, objectively measured physical activity, and time spent outdoors during school hours, were collected during September–November. Mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) was 60·8 (sd 18·7) nmol/l. Serum 25(OH)D levels ≤50 nmol/l were found in 28·4 % of the children and 2·4 % had concentrations <25 nmol/l. Upon multivariate adjustment, increasing age (per year) (β −2·9; 95 % CI −5·1, −0·7 nmol/l), female sex (β −3·3; 95 % CI −5·9, −0·7 nmol/l), sampling in October (β −5·2; 95 % CI −10·1, −0·4 nmol/l) and November (β −13·3; 95 % CI −17·7, −9·1), and non-white ethnicity (β −5·7; 95 % CI −11·1, −0·3 nmol/l) were negatively associated with 25(OH)D (all P<0·05). Likewise, immigrant/descendant background was negatively associated with 25(OH)D, particularly in females (β −16·3; 95 % CI −21·9, −10·7) (P<0·001) (P interaction=0·003). Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) (min/d) (β 0·06; 95 % CI 0·01, 0·12), outdoor walking during school hours (min/week) (β 0·4; 95 % CI 0·1, 0·6) and intake of vitamin D-containing supplements ≥3 d/week (β 8·7; 95 % CI 6·4, 11·0) were positively associated with 25(OH)D (all P<0·05). The high proportion of children with vitamin D status below the recommended sufficiency level of 50 nmol/l raises concern as levels expectedly drop further during winter months. Frequent intake of vitamin D supplements was strongly associated with status. MVPA and outdoor activity during school hours should be investigated further in interventions to improve autumn vitamin D status in children at northern latitudes.
A Comprehensive Expectancy Motivation Model: Implications for Adult Education and Training

This paper presents a comprehensive expectancy model of motivation and its implications for adult education and training. It traces the origins of valence-instrumentality-expectancy theory from its roots in social learning theory, through its early development and classical forms, to recent, more complex models. The proposed model describes expectancy motivation as part of a larger, dynamic process which includes past experience, motivation, effort, performance, reward, and need satisfaction. This model has significant implications for the design, marketing, and delivery of adult education and training, and for improving the transfer of performance from the classroom or training session to the learners practical situation.