Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Benefits of Learning with Strongly Convex Approximate Inference

We explore the benefits of strongly convex free energies in variational inference, providing both theoretical motivation and a new meta-algorithm. Using the duality between strong convexity and stability, we prove a high-probability bound on the error of learned marginals that is inversely proportional to the modulus of convexity of the free energy, thereby motivating free energies whose moduli are constant with respect to the size of the graph. We identify sufficient conditions for Ω(1)-strong convexity in two popular variational techniques: tree-reweighted and counting number entropies. Our insights for the latter suggest a novel counting number optimization framework, which guarantees strong convexity for any given modulus. Our experiments demonstrate that learning with a strongly convex free energy, using our optimization framework to guarantee a given modulus, results in substantially more accurate marginal probabilities, thereby validating our theoretical claims and the effectiveness of our framework.
Optimal fixed and scalable energy management for wireless networks

In many devices, wireless network interfaces consume upwards of 30% of scarce portable system energy. Extending the system lifetime by minimizing communication power consumption has therefore become a priority. Conventional energy management techniques focus independently on minimizing the fixed energy consumption of the transceiver circuit or on scalable transmission control. Fixed energy consumption is reduced by maximizing the transceiver shutdown interval. In contrast, variable transmission rate, coding and power can be leveraged to minimize energy costs. These two energy management approaches present a tradeoff in minimizing the overall system energy. For example, variable energy costs are minimized by transmitting at a lower modulation rate and transmission power, but this also shortens the sleep duration thereby increasing fixed energy consumption. We present a methodology for energy-efficient resource allocation across the physical layer, communications layer and link layer. Our methodology is aimed at providing QoS for multiple users with bursty MPEG-4 video over a time-varying channel. We evaluate our scheme by exploiting control knobs of actual RF components over a modified IEEE 802.11 MAC. Our results indicate that the system lifetime is increased by a factor of 2 to 5 compared to the gains of conventional techniques.
P Providing Quality of Service for Wireless Links : Wireless / Wired Networks

increasingly being required to provide support for traffic types such as voice, video, and other kinds of interactive data. These traffic types, generally called real-time, require performance guarantees in terms of throughput, end-to-end delay, and packet loss rate statistics. Most of the research on quality of service (QoS) in wired packet-switching networks has focused on resource reservation and scheduling within switches, without much concern for the bit error rate of the links since it is generally very small and predictable. However, wireless links have a relatively large and time-varying bit error rate due to impairments that are difficult to predict. How to properly integrate wireless links within a wired network that supports QoS guarantees is an important question. We have developed a new link-access scheme, remotequeuing multiple access (RQMA), that supports packet transmission over wireless links, allowing the use of scheduling disciplines that have been proposed for wired networks. Importantly, RQMA can be used with deadline-ordered [1] scheduling disciplines such as Delay Earliest-Due-Date (Delay-EDD) [2], Jitter Earliest-Due-Date (Jitter-EDD) [3], VirtualClock [4], Leave-in-Time [5], and Rate-Function Scheduling (RFS) [6]. The end result is that RQMA allows a wireless link to be seamlessly integrated with a wired network that supports QoS guarantees, as illustrated in Fig. 1. RQMA assumes a microcell with one base station, called the base, and a number of mobile stations, called the mobiles. All communications are between a mobile and the base (mobiles do not communicate directly with other mobiles). Mobiles send information to the base about real-time packets that have arrived recently. Enough information is sent, in an efficient and reliable way, so that a scheduling discipline executed by the base can establish a transmission schedule in accordance with a QoS provision (e.g., delay bounds). The base then sends transmission permits to mobiles according to this schedule. Packets that are destined for mobiles within its cell are simply broadcast by the base. To counteract the wireless link’s channel errors, RQMA allows some portion of the link bandwidth to be reserved for the retransmission of real-time packets that are not transmitted correctly. Real-time packets are retransmitted until either: • They are received correctly • Their deadlines are violated • There is not enough link capacity to keep trying more retransmissions This error control is in addition to the use of forward error correction (FEC), which by itself (using even more FEC bits) is significantly less effective than their combination. The remainder of this article is organized as follows. The following section describes the basic algorithms of RQMA.
Integrated Agricultural Production Systems for the Poor and Vulnerable in Dry Areas

The proposal for CRP 1.1 on Drylands has been revised by the ICARDA-led partnership to address the changes requested by the Fund Council for its full endorsement. The ISPC has considered the revised proposal against these requirements and provides summary comments and recommendation below, followed by a table with detailed ISPC comments on each of the ―must have‖ elements. Summary Comments The ISPC believes progress has been made in response to the challenge of trying to define the dryland areas of the world on which the CRP will target attention. The characterization uses four quantitative variables (aridity index, length of growing season, environmental risk, and market access), plus one qualitative variable (land degradation), which allows explicit mapping of the regions in the SAT that are the focus of SRT2 and SRT3. These maps are already a product of the CRP and could indeed be considered an IPG if they were published in a peer-reviewed journal article (currently they are only published on ICRISAT's website). The ISPC encourages further improvements because the current framework is only a broad brush beginning. There is much more to be done before the background analysis is sufficient to support strategic planning and prioritization of research activities. Greater clarity needs to be achieved as the CRP is implemented. The four strategic research themes (SRTs) are maintained and appear to address appropriate research and development challenges (reducing vulnerability and enhancing sustainable productivity) for the dry areas. Principles for engagement and criteria for site selection are given. Gender, for instance, is given prominent consideration in the participatory approaches and the roles of women farmers/herders/fishers and entrepreneurs are appropriately described in the overall research program. Research hypotheses are presented in the new draft, but these are too general to be useful in providing a foundation from which clear researchable questions can be formulated. An example of what was expected is the text on possible outcomes from the implementation of index-based livestock insurance (IBLI; P88, para 4), which provides some very specific testable hypotheses although they are not categorised as such. The plan for the CRP is to define many of its elements through an implementation phase using participatory processes to engage many different stakeholder groups. As such, the revision offers virtually no concrete activities at this stage of proposal development. On P11 it states that the proposal does not describe specific activities in detail (i.e., the next level below …
Prototype Modeling from Sketched Silhouettes based on Convolution Surfaces

This paper presents a hybrid method for creating three‐dimensional shapes by sketching silhouette curves. Given a silhouette curve, we approximate its medial axis as a set of line segments, and convolve a linearly weighted kernel along each segment. By summing the fields of all segments, an analytical convolution surface is obtained. The resulting generic shape has circular cross‐section, but can be conveniently modified via sketched profile or shape parameters of a spatial transform. New components can be similarly designed by sketching on different projection planes. The convolution surface model lends itself to smooth merging between the overlapping components. Our method overcomes several limitations of previous sketched‐based systems, including designing objects of arbitrary genus, objects with semi‐sharp features, and the ability to easily generate variants of shapes.
Understanding How Programs Work to Prevent Overt Aggressive Behaviors: A Meta-analysis of Mediators of Elementary School–Based Programs

Several recent meta-analyses of universal school-based violence prevention studies indicate the overall positive impacts of these approaches on aggression. These studies, however, assess impacts on broadly defined measures of aggression. Furthermore, little research has analyzed the mechanisms through which these programs attempt to reduce overt aggressive behavior. The current study analyzed overall impacts on a more narrowly defined outcome—overt aggressive behavior—and identified associated mediators in 36 universal prevention studies conducted with kindergarten through fifth-grade students. Programs were associated with a significant, although small, reduction in overt aggression behavior. Three types of mediators were identified: measures of skill acquisition, social-cognitive processes, and classroom characteristics. Using MacKinnon's joint significance test to test for mediation, four measures of skill acquisition, two measures of social cognitive, and one measure of classroom characteristics were identified as significant mediating variables. Implications for the design of effective violence prevention programs and mediators to assess in future research are discussed.
CARDIAC CLASSICAL CONDITIONING AND REVERSAL IN THE MONGOLOID, ENCEPHALOPATHIC, AND NORMAL CHILD

BLOCR, JAMES D. , SERSEN, EUGENE A. , and WORTIS, JOSEPH. Cardiac Classical Conditioning and Reversal in the Mongoloid, Encephalopathic, and Normal Child. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1970, 41, 771-785. Classically conditioned cardiac discrimination and reversal was observed in retarded and normal children. During initial conditioning (10 stimulus pairs) only the oldest normal group (6-11 yrs) evidenced significant stimulus discrimination. During subsequent reversal (10 stimulus pairs), both the oldest and an intermediate normal group (4-6 yrs) evidenced significant discrimination. Mongoloid children (4-11 yrs) and the youngest Normal group (2-4 yrs) evidenced no consistent cardiac discrimination. Encephalopathic children (6-11 yrs) evidenced significant discrimination during reversal, but in a manner inappropriate to the reinforcement contingencies. This behavior, unique in both CA and MA comparisons of encephalopathics with mongoloids and normals, may be related to a somewhat impaired conditioning and a more greatly impaired extinction process, or to a deficit in the Pavlovian postulated process of CNS mobility.
The Impact of Ethical Tools on Aggressiveness in Financial Reporting

The proposed adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in the United States has ignited a debate as to whether the principles‐based nature of these standards better serves the interests of investors. While it is argued that these principled‐based standards will encourage more transparent financial reporting than the current rules‐based U.S. standards, critics argue that IFRS will invite more aggressive financial reporting through the liberal exercising of professional judgment. This empirical study aims to understand what individual and organizational factors may affect aggressiveness when making accounting judgments. In particular, we examine the influence that prior ethics training, codes of ethics and an individual's predominant moral reasoning schema have on adherence to company policy in an accounting‐related (depreciation) judgment. Results of the study show that respondents with prior ethics training are more likely to adhere to company accounting policy than those who have not had formal ethics education. Respondents presented with a company ethics code also were less aggressive in their accounting judgments than those who were not presented with a code prior to reading the scenario. Finally, decision aggressiveness was moderated by individuals who used conventional moral reasoning schemas.
Comparing DISC-IV and clinician diagnoses among youths receiving public mental health services.

OBJECTIVES To compare the prevalence and agreement of diagnoses based on Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children Version IV (DISC-IV) and clinician assignment for youths receiving public mental health services between 1996 and 1997 and to examine potential predictors of diagnostic agreement. METHOD Participants included 240 youths aged 6-18 years. Past-year prevalence rates and kappa statistics were calculated for four diagnostic categories: anxiety, mood, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and disruptive behavior disorders (DBD). Potential predictors of diagnostic agreement were examined with logistic regression analysis. RESULTS The prevalence of ADHD, DBD, and anxiety disorders was significantly higher based on the DISC-IV, while the prevalence of mood disorders was significantly higher based on clinician assignment. Diagnostic agreement was poor overall. The kappa values ranged from -0.04 for anxiety disorders to 0.22 for ADHD. Significant predictors of agreement varied by diagnosis and included symptom severity, comorbidity, youth age and gender, and school-based problem identification. CONCLUSIONS Consistent with previous findings of poor diagnostic agreement between structured interviews and clinicians, these results call for a better understanding of factors affecting diagnostic assignment across different methods. This is especially important if researchers continue to use structured interviews to determine prevalence, establish diagnosis-based treatment guidelines, and disseminate evidence-based treatments to community mental health settings.
Preschool Children's Interpretation of Facial Expressions of Emotion

A structural model of emotions was used to reveal patterns in how children interpret the emotional facial expressions of others. Three-, four-, five-year-olds, and adults (n = 38 in each group) were asked to match 15 emotion-descriptive words (happy, excited, surprised, afraid, scared, angry, mad, disgusted, miserable, sad, sleepy, calm, relaxed, wide awake, and, as a check on response bias, insipid) with still photographs of actors showing different facial expressions. Whereas prior research had indicated that preschool-aged children are "inaccurate" in associating labels with faces, our results indicated that that research may have severely underestimated children's knowledge of emotions. In this study children used terms systematically to refer to a specifiable range of expressions, centered around a focal point. Multidimensional scaling of the word/facial expression associations yielded a two-dimensional structure able to account for the interrelationships among emotions, and this structure was the same for all age groups. The nature of this structure, the blurry boundaries between emotion words, and developmental shifts in the referents of emotion words suggested the primacy of two dimensions, pleasure-displeasure and arousal-sleep, in children's interpretation of emotion.
Implicit Bias and the Illusion of Conscious Ill Will

Implicit bias is defined, in part, by a lack of intent. Yet the implicit attitudes literature has made little contact with research on the experience of conscious will, which suggests that the feeling of conscious intent is an inference rather than a direct report of how actions are caused. We tested the hypothesis that inferences about one’s intentions shape whether an automatically activated attitude is endorsed explicitly. In a first study, individuals who perceived their attitudes toward gay men to be intended showed stronger implicit–explicit correspondence. In a second study, we manipulated perceptions of intent. Inferences that implicit bias was intended caused participants to express those biases on an explicit measure. A third study replicated the experimental effects and found that metacognitions of intent were especially influential among individuals who were motivated to be unprejudiced. Results suggest that metacognitive inferences about intent can shape whether automatically activated bias becomes explicitly endorsed prejudice.
“If Lehman Brothers Had Been Lehman Sisters...”: Gender and Myth in the Aftermath of the Financial Crisis

Prugl, Elisabeth. (2012) “If Lehman Brothers Had Been Lehman Sisters…”: Gender and Myth in the Aftermath of the Financial Crisis. International Political Sociology , doi: 10.1111/j.1749-5687.2011. 00149.x © 2012 International Studies Association In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008/09, there was a remarkable preoccupation in the English-language press with gender relations in finance. Articles adduced masculinity as a variable that may have caused the crisis, speculated about the more prudent investment styles of women, and predicted the fall of macho and the end of men. Drawing on the work of Roland Barthes and Simone de Beauvoir, I argue that this discourse amounted to an exercise in meaning making through the construction of a myth of woman as financially responsible and men as reckless. I interpret the deployment of this myth in the press as a morality play of fall, rise, and redemption. The play provides a narrative that explains the unfamiliar of the crisis, offers a correcting mechanism in the form of prudent woman, and re-assembles a bourgeois worldview of social and economic harmony by advocating more gender diversity in finance.
Questioning the Suitability of Traditional Self-Report Family Functioning Measures for Single-Parent Families with Young Children

Family functioning is a common interest of social science and health researchers. Most often, well-established self-report instruments are used to measure family functioning. Although these instruments have been used with families of diverse compositions, our experiences using one of the commonly used instruments, the McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD), suggest that it is not appropriate for single-parent families with young children. In addition to describing the difficulties we encountered with the FAD, we discuss our experiences in relation to current research findings about the processes and effectiveness of family functioning in single-parent families. As well, we examine other frequently used self-report family functioning instruments, the results of which lead us to question the suitability of any of the commonly used self-report family functioning instruments for single-parent families with young children. We conclude by arguing for the development of family functioning instruments that are appropriate for diverse family structures and compositions.
Leading professionals: A science, a philosophy and a way of working

This paper argues that complexity theory provides some unique insights into the management and leadership of professionals and other knowledge workers. It explains how the philosophy of servant-leadership, based on the writing of Robert K. Greenleaf, is particularly appropriate in the context of professional services firms. It considers some of the practical tools for managers and leaders found in the work of Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. Finally, it examines how a number of these principles have been applied in one part of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the author's own firm.
Expression of an immunogenic Ebola immune complex in Nicotiana benthamiana.

Filoviruses (Ebola and Marburg viruses) cause severe and often fatal haemorrhagic fever in humans and non-human primates. The US Centers for Disease Control identifies Ebola and Marburg viruses as 'category A' pathogens (defined as posing a risk to national security as bioterrorism agents), which has lead to a search for vaccines that could prevent the disease. Because the use of such vaccines would be in the service of public health, the cost of production is an important component of their development. The use of plant biotechnology is one possible way to cost-effectively produce subunit vaccines. In this work, a geminiviral replicon system was used to produce an Ebola immune complex (EIC) in Nicotiana benthamiana. Ebola glycoprotein (GP1) was fused at the C-terminus of the heavy chain of humanized 6D8 IgG monoclonal antibody, which specifically binds to a linear epitope on GP1. Co-expression of the GP1-heavy chain fusion and the 6D8 light chain using a geminiviral vector in leaves of N. benthamiana produced assembled immunoglobulin, which was purified by ammonium sulphate precipitation and protein G affinity chromatography. Immune complex formation was confirmed by assays to show that the recombinant protein bound the complement factor C1q. Size measurements of purified recombinant protein by dynamic light scattering and size-exclusion chromatography also indicated complex formation. Subcutaneous immunization of BALB/C mice with purified EIC resulted in anti-Ebola virus antibody production at levels comparable to those obtained with a GP1 virus-like particle. These results show excellent potential for a plant-expressed EIC as a human vaccine.
Vitamin B12 among Vegetarians: Status, Assessment and Supplementation

Cobalamin is an essential molecule for humans. It acts as a cofactor in one-carbon transfers through methylation and molecular rearrangement. These functions take place in fatty acid, amino acid and nucleic acid metabolic pathways. The deficiency of vitamin B12 is clinically manifested in the blood and nervous system where the cobalamin plays a key role in cell replication and in fatty acid metabolism. Hypovitaminosis arises from inadequate absorption, from genetic defects that alter transport through the body, or from inadequate intake as a result of diet. With the growing adoption of vegetarian eating styles in Western countries, there is growing focus on whether diets that exclude animal foods are adequate. Since food availability in these countries is not a problem, and therefore plant foods are sufficiently adequate, the most delicate issue remains the contribution of cobalamin, which is poorly represented in plants. In this review, we will discuss the status of vitamin B12 among vegetarians, the diagnostic markers for the detection of cobalamin deficiency and appropriate sources for sufficient intake, through the description of the features and functions of vitamin B12 and its absorption mechanism.