Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Outsourcing punishment to God: beliefs in divine control reduce earthly punishment

The sanctioning of norm-transgressors is a necessary—though often costly—task for maintaining a well-functioning society. Prior to effective and reliable secular institutions for punishment, large-scale societies depended on individuals engaging in ‘altruistic punishment’—bearing the costs of punishment individually, for the benefit of society. Evolutionary approaches to religion suggest that beliefs in powerful, moralizing Gods, who can distribute rewards and punishments, emerged as a way to augment earthly punishment in large societies that could not effectively monitor norm violations. In five studies, we investigate whether such beliefs in God can replace people's motivation to engage in altruistic punishment, and their support for state-sponsored punishment. Results show that, although religiosity generally predicts higher levels of punishment, the specific belief in powerful, intervening Gods reduces altruistic punishment and support for state-sponsored punishment. Moreover, these effects are specifically owing to differences in people's perceptions that humans are responsible for punishing wrongdoers.
Metrology with entangled states

It is well known that classical states of light exhibit shot noise, characteristic of independent or uncorrelated particles. For phase estimation problems, this leads to a shot-noise limited uncertainty of 1/sqrt[N], where N is the number of particles detected. It is also well known that the shot-noise limit is not fundamental: squeezed states and entangled states can be used for sub-shot-noise phase measurements. The uncertainty principle sets a fundamental limit of 1/N, known as the "Heisenberg" limit. We have recently demonstrated a method, using parametric downconversion and post-selection, to generate entangled "NOON" states suitable for sub-shot-noise phase measurements [M.W. Mitchell et al, Nature 429, 161 (2004)]. We generated a three-photon NOON state and demonstrated three-fold improvement in phase resolution with this state. The relationship between phase resolution and phase uncertainty depends on prior information about the phase being estimated. As in the case of phase measurements with squeezed states, extra precision in one dimension is gained at the cost of reduced precision in other dimensions. Only when prior information is incorporated can entangled-state metrology be applied to beat the shot-noise limit. We illustrate this relationship and discuss adaptive strategies for phase estimation and the possibility of reaching the Heisenberg limit.
Fusion of Random Projection, Multi-Resolution Features and Distance Weighted K Nearest Neighbor for Masses Detection in Mammographic Images

Breast cancer is the top cancer in women both in the developed and the developing world. For early detection of the disease, mammography is still the most effective method beside ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging. Computer Aided Detection systems have been developed to aid radiologists in diagnosing breast cancer. Different methods were proposed to overcome the main drawback of producing large number of False Positives. In this paper, we presented a novel method for masses detection in mammograms. To describe masses, multi-resolution features were utilized. In feature extraction step, we calculated multi-resolution Block Difference Inverse Probability features and multi-resolution statistical features. Once the descriptors were extracted, we deployed random projection and distance weighted K Nearest Neighbor to classify the detected masses. The result is quite sanguine with sensitivity, false positive reduction and time for carrying out the algorithm
Perceived Risks and Benefits in a Text Message Study of Substance Abuse and Sexual Behavior

To inform ethical procedures for human subjects research using mobile health (mHealth), we examined perceived risks and benefits of study participation among emerging adults (N = 54) with drug use who completed text message assessments of substance use and sexual behaviors. Most participants reported comfort with participation and some reported perceived benefits, such as improved relationships. Perceived risks were infrequently reported, including negative emotions and legal or financial concerns. In conclusion, participants from a vulnerable population reported few perceived harms of participation in longitudinal mHealth assessments of sensitive behaviors. Researchers should continue characterizing participants’ perspectives on ethical aspects of mHealth research.
The Impossible Sustainability of the Bay of Brest? Fifty Years of Ecosystem Changes, Interdisciplinary Knowledge Construction and Key Questions at the Science-Policy-Community Interface

In this contribution, the study of the Bay of Brest ecosystem changes over the past 50 years is used to explore the construction of interdisciplinary knowledge and raise key questions that now need to be tackled at the science-policy-communities interface. The Bay of Brest is subject to a combination of several aspects of global change, including excessive nutrient inputs from watersheds and the proliferation of invasive species. These perturbations strongly interact, affecting positively or negatively the ecosystem functioning, with important impacts on human activities. We first relate a cascade of events over these five decades, linking farming activities, nitrogen and silicon biogeochemical cycles, hydrodynamics of the Bay, the proliferation of an exotic benthic suspension feeder, the development of the Great scallop fisheries and the high biodiversity in maerl beds. The cascade leads to today’s situation where toxic phytoplankton blooms become recurrent in the Bay, preventing the fishery of the great scallop and forcing the fishermen community to switch pray and alter the maerl habitat and the benthic biodiversity it hosts, despite the many scientific alerts and the protection of this habitat. In the second section, we relate the construction of the interdisciplinary knowledge without which scientists would never have been able to describe these changes in the Bay. Interdisciplinarity, first among natural sciences (NS) and then, between natural sciences and human and social sciences (HSS). We finally ask key questions at the science-policy interface regarding this unsustainable trend of the Bay: How is this possible, despite decades of joint work between scientists and fishermen? Is adaptive co-management a sufficient condition for a sustainable management of an ecosystem? How do the different groups (i.e. farmers, fishermen, scientists, environmentalists), with their diverse interests, take charge of this situation? What is the role of power in this difficult transformation to sustainability? Combining natural sciences with political science, anthropology and the political sociology of science, we hope to improve the contribution of HSS to integrated studies of social-ecological systems, creating the conditions to address these key questions at the science-policy interface to facilitate the transformation of the Bay of Brest ecosystem towards sustainability.
Review: divergent selection for residual feed intake in the growing pig

This review summarizes the results from the INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique) divergent selection experiment on residual feed intake (RFI) in growing Large White pigs during nine generations of selection. It discusses the remaining challenges and perspectives for the improvement of feed efficiency in growing pigs. The impacts on growing pigs raised under standard conditions and in alternative situations such as heat stress, inflammatory challenges or lactation have been studied. After nine generations of selection, the divergent selection for RFI led to highly significant (P<0.001) line differences for RFI (−165 g/day in the low RFI (LRFI) line compared with high RFI line) and daily feed intake (−270 g/day). Low responses were observed on growth rate (−12.8 g/day, P<0.05) and body composition (+0.9 mm backfat thickness, P=0.57; −2.64% lean meat content, P<0.001) with a marked response on feed conversion ratio (−0.32 kg feed/kg gain, P<0.001). Reduced ultimate pH and increased lightness of the meat (P<0.001) were observed in LRFI pigs with minor impact on the sensory quality of the meat. These changes in meat quality were associated with changes of the muscular energy metabolism. Reduced maintenance energy requirements (−10% after five generations of selection) and activity (−21% of time standing after six generations of selection) of LRFI pigs greatly contributed to the gain in energy efficiency. However, the impact of selection for RFI on the protein metabolism of the pig remains unclear. Digestibility of energy and nutrients was not affected by selection, neither for pigs fed conventional diets nor for pigs fed high-fibre diets. A significant improvement of digestive efficiency could likely be achieved by selecting pigs on fibre diets. No convincing genetic or blood biomarker has been identified for explaining the differences in RFI, suggesting that pigs have various ways to achieve an efficient use of feed. No deleterious impact of the selection on the sow reproduction performance was observed. The resource allocation theory states that low RFI may reduce the ability to cope with stressors, via the reduction of a buffer compartment dedicated to responses to stress. None of the experiments focussed on the response of pigs to stress or challenges could confirm this theory. Understanding the relationships between RFI and responses to stress and energy demanding processes, as such immunity and lactation, remains a major challenge for a better understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms of the trait and to reconcile the experimental results with the resource allocation theory.
Multiple-response regression analysis links magnetic resonance imaging features to de-regulated protein expression and pathway activity in lower grade glioma

Background and Purpose Lower grade gliomas (LGGs), lesions of WHO grades II and III, comprise 10-15% of primary brain tumors. In this first-of-a-kind study, we aim to carry out a radioproteomic characterization of LGGs using proteomics data from the TCGA and imaging data from the TCIA cohorts, to obtain an association between tumor MRI characteristics and protein measurements. The availability of linked imaging and molecular data permits the assessment of relationships between tumor genomic/proteomic measurements with phenotypic features. Materials and Methods Multiple-response regression of the image-derived, radiologist scored features with reverse-phase protein array (RPPA) expression levels generated correlation coefficients for each combination of image-feature and protein or phospho-protein in the RPPA dataset. Significantly-associated proteins for VASARI features were analyzed with Ingenuity Pathway Analysis software. Hierarchical clustering of the results of the pathway analysis was used to determine which feature groups were most strongly correlated with pathway activity and cellular functions. Results The multiple-response regression approach identified multiple proteins associated with each VASARI imaging feature. VASARI features were found to be correlated with expression of IL8, PTEN, PI3K/Akt, Neuregulin, ERK/MAPK, p70S6K and EGF signaling pathways. Conclusion Radioproteomics analysis might enable an insight into the phenotypic consequences of molecular aberrations in LGGs.
Impact of Mandatory IFRS Adoption on Conditional Conservatism in Europe

We study the effect of the mandatory adoption of IFRS in Europe in 2005 on conditional conservatism. To capture conditional conservatism, we use three measures: the Basu (1997) measure, the Khan and Watts (2009) measure, and a measure controlling for potential shifts in unconditional conservatism and cost of capital after the adoption of IFRS. From a sample of 7,251 firm-year observations drawn from 16 European countries, we document an overall decline of the degree of conditional conservatism across our three measures. While there is no change in weak enforcement/governance countries which remain less conditionally conservative than strong enforcement/governance countries, the latter exhibit a significant decrease. Further, we demonstrate that the decline is more significant for firms carrying intangible assets and goodwill in their balance sheets, items for which impairment tests rely on unverifiable fair value estimates. We argue that IFRS are conceptually conditionally conservative but that inappropriate application of conditional conservatism principles may have prevented financial reporting from reaching the level of conservatism targeted by the IASB.
Holistic Conversational Assistants

88 AI MAGAZINE One of the most exciting emerging areas of research in AI today involves the study and development of what I will refer to as holistic systems. These are AI systems that involve an end-to-end integration of many computational elements composing various stages of perception, language, cognition, and action. One, sort of canonical, example of such a holistic system, would be a cognitive robot in which these stages of computation were grounded in the real world (Ortiz 2016). Such holistic systems are to be contrasted with narrower systems that employ a much smaller number of elements (say, a natural language interface to a database) and in which design considerations are not as challenging. As virtual personal assistants (VPAs) become more capable,
Fast Growth of Immature Brood in a Social Parasite Wasp: A Convergent Evolution between Avian and Insect Cuckoos

Studies on avian cuckoos have demonstrated that parasite chicks compete with host fledglings to monopolize food or manipulate the foster parents to increase their provisioning rate. This topic has never been explicitly investigated in insect social parasites, which use the social system of another species to raise their brood. Here we show that the immature brood of the cuckoo wasp Polistes sulcifer grows more rapidly than the host immature brood. Host workers perform more parental care to parasite larvae than to conspecific ones. Thus, the rapid growth of the parasite larvae is evidently due to increased host care, which prolongs the development of host larvae reared in the same colony. We suggest that parasite larvae play an active role in host exploitation through manipulation of host workers, as occurs in parasitic birds.
Do You Know What You Don't Know? Critical Reflection and Concept Mapping in an Information Systems Strategy Course

Mental models are personal tools developed by students to help them apply ideas they have learned to solve problems. If students are not required to reflect on the adequacy of their current mental models, they risk arriving at suboptimal solutions due to knowledge gaps or misapplication of theory. After critically reflecting on the capstone project reports from students in an undergraduate information systems strategy and planning course, we argue that our students require a deeper and broader understanding of alternative management theories in order to become more effective and creative problem solvers. Furthermore, students must be made explicitly aware of the existence of (and adequacy of) their mental models using techniques such as concept mapping and critical reflection. Our solution to the problem of knowledge gaps is not to “push” more content to students, but to enable students to “pull” new ideas into their mental models once they recognize their existing mental models are inadequate. An action learning approach that combines problem-based learning, student-centered inquiry, concept mapping, and critical reflection can help students self-diagnose and treat their knowledge gaps. This in turn helps students develop into more effective, creative, and motivated critical thinkers and problem solvers.
Efficient multi-receiver identity-based signcryption from lattice assumption

Signcryption is a public-key cryptographic primitive which combines the functions of public-key encryption and digital signature into a single logical step at low computational and communication costs. While multi-receiver signcryption is suited for a situation where a sender wants to send a signcrypted message to multiple receivers in a confidential and authenticated way. Due to this attractive property, recently, multi-receiver signcryption plays an important role in some practical applications such as virtual conference as well as authenticated mail transferring. In this paper, we present an efficient multi-receiver identity-based signcryption (MIBSC) scheme from lattice assumption which is believed to resist quantum computer attacks. The proposed scheme is provably secure in the random oracle model, which has the indistinguishability against chosen ciphertext attacks under the hardness of learning with errors (LWE), and existentially unforgeability against chosen message attacks under the small integer solution assumption (SIS). Moreover, we also compare our MIBSC scheme with existing schemes from performance efficiency and security, the result shows that our proposed scheme is more efficient and more secure. In particular, our scheme can be properly applied in the post-quantum communication environments.
5 Type I Diabetes in Children and Adolescents

Type I Diabetes is characterized by pancreatic failure. Daily exogenous insulin replacement is necessary for the child’s survival. Insulin typically is administered by injections before lunch and dinner. Type I diabetes affects approximately 1 in every 400 to 600 children (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). Rates of Type I diabetes are increasing (Chisholm et al., 2007). This is concerning as this disease has long-term health care consequences including problems with circulation, vision, and cardiovascular issues (Frey et al., 2006). The care of children with Type I diabetes involves complex procedures including daily blood glucose testing, dietary monitoring, intensive insulin therapy, and increased physical activity to maintain metabolic control (Anderson et al., 2007). Several studies have shown that children as well as adolescents have difficulty adhering to diet, exercise, blood glucose testing, and insulin regimens (e.g., Chang et al., 2007; Frey et al., 2006). Patterns of diabetes care are established early in the disease course, and therefore understanding factors related to child adherence is a mechanism for generating strategies to improve diabetes management for children. This, in turn, may positively influence health outcomes in adolescence and adulthood (Bui et al., 2005). Children’s management of their diabetes is often measured by assessment of blood glucose or HbA1c levels (i.e., measure of diabetic control). Monitoring blood glucose levels has become an increasingly important self-management task for children who have diabetes (Bui et al., 2005). Psychosocial factors, such as attitudes about one’s diabetes, support from others, and stress, have been related to HbA1c levels or other factors serving as proxy variables for diabetes management (Chisholm et al., 2007; Nabors et al., 2010). This chapter reviews the relationship between psychosocial factors, chiefly children’s attitudes, support from others, stress, and diabetes management. This chapter will provide suggestions for improving children’s attitudes and reducing their stress to improve their diabetes management. The next section of this chapter reviews ways in which children’s attitudes, namely health locus of control and stress, influence children’s diabetes management.
Semi-Oblivious Traffic Engineering: The Road Not Taken

Networks are expected to provide reliable performance under a wide range of operating conditions, but existing traffic engineering (TE) solutions optimize for performance or robustness, but not both. A key factor that impacts the quality of a TE system is the set of paths used to carry traffic. Some systems rely on shortest paths, which leads to excessive congestion in topologies with bottleneck links, while others use paths that minimize congestion, which are brittle and prone to failure. This paper presents a system that uses a set of paths computed using Räcke’s oblivious routing algorithm, as well as a centralized controller to dynamically adapt sending rates. Although oblivious routing and centralized TE have been studied previously in isolation, their combination is novel and powerful. We built a software framework to model TE solutions and conducted extensive experiments across a large number of topologies and scenarios, including the production backbone of a large content provider and an ISP. Our results show that semi-oblivious routing provides near-optimal performance and is far more robust than state-of-the-art systems.
Functional geometry of protein-protein interaction networks

Motivation: Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are usually modelled as networks. These networks have extensively been studied using graphlets, small induced subgraphs capturing the local wiring patterns around nodes in networks. They revealed that proteins involved in similar functions tend to be similarly wired. However, such simple models can only represent pairwise relationships and cannot fully capture the higher-order organization of protein interactions, including protein complexes. Results: To model the multi-sale organization of these complex biological systems, we utilize simplicial complexes from computational geometry. The question is how to mine these new representations of PPI networks to reveal additional biological information. To address this, we define simplets, a generalization of graphlets to simplicial complexes. By using simplets, we define a sensitive measure of similarity between simplicial complex network representations that allows for clustering them according to their data types better than clustering them by using other state-of-the-art measures, e.g., spectral distance, or facet distribution distance. We model human and baker's yeast PPI networks as simplicial complexes that capture PPIs and protein complexes as simplices. On these models, we show that our newly introduced simplet-based methods cluster proteins by function better than the clustering methods that use the standard PPI networks, uncovering the new underlying functional organization of the cell. We demonstrate the existence of the functional geometry in the PPI data and the superiority of our simplet-based methods to effectively mine for new biological information hidden in the complexity of the higher order organization of PPI networks.
In vivo genome editing thrives with diversified CRISPR technologies

Prokaryotic type II adaptive immune systems have been developed into the versatile CRISPR technology, which has been widely applied in site-specific genome editing and has revolutionized biomedical research due to its superior efficiency and flexibility. Recent studies have greatly diversified CRISPR technologies by coupling it with various DNA repair mechanisms and targeting strategies. These new advances have significantly expanded the generation of genetically modified animal models, either by including species in which targeted genetic modification could not be achieved previously, or through introducing complex genetic modifications that take multiple steps and cost years to achieve using traditional methods. Herein, we review the recent developments and applications of CRISPR-based technology in generating various animal models, and discuss the everlasting impact of this new progress on biomedical research.