Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accuracy and precision of gravitational-wave models of inspiraling neutron star-black hole binaries with spin: Comparison with matter-free numerical relativity in the low-frequency regime

Coalescing binaries of neutron stars and black holes are one of the most important sources of gravitational waves for the upcoming network of ground-based detectors. Detection and extraction of astrophysical information from gravitational-wave signals requires accurate waveform models. The effective-one-body and other phenomenological models interpolate between analytic results and numerical relativity simulations, that typically span O(10) orbits before coalescence. In this paper we study the faithfulness of these models for neutron star-black hole binaries. We investigate their accuracy using new numerical relativity (NR) simulations that span 36–88 orbits, with mass ratios q and black hole spins χ_(BH) of (q,χ_(BH))=(7,±0.4),(7,±0.6), and (5,−0.9). These simulations were performed treating the neutron star as a low-mass black hole, ignoring its matter effects. We find that (i) the recently published SEOBNRv1 and SEOBNRv2 models of the effective-one-body family disagree with each other (mismatches of a few percent) for black hole spins χ_(BH)≥0.5 or χ_(BH)≤−0.3, with waveform mismatch accumulating during early inspiral; (ii) comparison with numerical waveforms indicates that this disagreement is due to phasing errors of SEOBNRv1, with SEOBNRv2 in good agreement with all of our simulations; (iii) phenomenological waveforms agree with SEOBNRv2 only for comparable-mass low-spin binaries, with overlaps below 0.7 elsewhere in the neutron star-black hole binary parameter space; (iv) comparison with numerical waveforms shows that most of this model’s dephasing accumulates near the frequency interval where it switches to a phenomenological phasing prescription; and finally (v) both SEOBNR and post-Newtonian models are effectual for neutron star-black hole systems, but post-Newtonian waveforms will give a significant bias in parameter recovery. Our results suggest that future gravitational-wave detection searches and parameter estimation efforts would benefit from using SEOBNRv2 waveform templates when focused on neutron star-black hole systems with q≲7 and χ_(BH)≈[−0.9,+0.6]. For larger black hole spins and/or binary mass ratios, we recommend the models be further investigated as NR simulations in that region of the parameter space become available.
Effective Design and Use of Requirements Engineering Training Games

Games may be fun to play, but do they help students learn? In this position paper, the authors argue that games are an effective mechanism to achieve deep learning and help students retain information, but only if those games are designed appropriately. To support this position, the paper provides a short overview of game-based learning theory, followed by three example training games with which the authors have had success.
Information‐centered representation of retrievals with limited degrees of freedom for signal: Application to methane from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer

[1] Remote measurements of trace gas profiles from nadir-viewing instruments are often retrieved and/or reported on a fine grid containing more levels than the number of independent pieces of information in the measurement. Such profiles contain a priori information, which complicates interpretation. For scientific analyses of these data it is desirable to move to a representation in which measurement information is dominant and the influence of a priori information is minimal. Presented here is a postprocessing approach using a simple algorithm to transform each retrieved profile to an appropriate, geographically varying coarse grid. The representation is chosen such that the averaging kernel is close to unity for regions of the atmosphere where the retrieval has most information. The approach takes advantage of the sensitivity characterization allowed by retrieval on a fine grid, while reducing the influence of the a priori, accounting for spatial and temporal variations in the sensitivity of the measurement to the true atmosphere, and preserving obvious physical meaning in the end product. The example used to demonstrate the approach is the methane product from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES), which contains 0.5–2.0 degrees of freedom for signal, depending on season and location. The TES methane has been postprocessed, and the end product has been compared with results from GEOS-Chem, a global chemical model. Results show realistic latitudinal gradients from the TES data. Model/measurement differences also show large-scale features over Indonesia that we attribute to tropical biomass burning in the summer/fall.
Traffic sign detection by ROI extraction and histogram features-based recognition

We present a traffic sign detection model consisting of two modules. The first module is for ROI (region of interest) extraction. By supervised learning, it transforms the color images to gray images such that the characteristic colors for the traffic signs are more distinguishable in the gray images. It follows shape template matching, where a set of templates for each target category of signs are designed. After that, a set of ROIs are generated. The second module is for recognition. It validates if an ROI belongs to a target category of traffic signs by supervised learning. Local shape and color features are extracted. The supervised learning methods used in the model are SVMs. The overall model is applied on the GTSDB benchmark and achieves 100%, 98.85% and 92.00% AUC (area under the precision-recall curve) for Prohibitory, Danger and Mandatory signs, respectively. The testing speed is 0.4-1.0 second per image on a mainstream PC, which demonstrates the great potential of the proposed model in real-time applications.
Melanoma Vaccines and Modulation of the Immune System in the Clinical Setting: Building from New Realities

To endow the immune system with the capacity to fight cancer has always attracted attention, although the clinical results obtained have been until recently disappointing. Cutaneous melanoma is a highly immunogenic tumor; therefore most of the attempts to produce cancer vaccines have been addressed to this disease. New advances in the comprehension of the mechanisms of antigen presentation by dendritic cells, in the immune responses triggered by adjuvants, as well as the understanding of the role of immunosuppressor molecules such as cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4), which led to the recent approval of the anti-CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody ipilimumab, have opened new hopes about the installment of immunotherapy as a new modality to treat cancer.
Theory of Mind in Men Who Have Sexually Offended Against Children: A U.K. Comparison Study Between Child Sex Offenders and Nonoffender Controls

Child sex offenders are typically characterized by empathy problems, cognitive distortions, and social skills deficits. It has been proposed that these characteristics may be attributable to an underlying impairment in the ability to attribute mental states to others (i.e., theory of mind). This study compared a group of nonincarcerated child sex offenders (n = 46) with a group of community controls ( n = 46) matched for age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and status as a parent. Both groups completed two measures of theory of mind: one that measures the ability to infer the mental states of adults and another that measures the ability to infer the mental states of children. Offenders were significantly worse than controls at inferring the mental states of adults. In contrast, there were no differences between offenders and controls in their ability to infer the mental states of children. The results are discussed with regard to psychological theory, clinical work, and future research.
A Study on the Model of Mobile P2P File-Sharing System in 3G Network

The current 2/2.5G mobile communication network are short of support to P2P application, and the appearance of 3G network and the development of mobile terminal equipment make an access to analysis and application of mobile P2P file-sharing. Beset by such limitations as the imperfectness of mobile communication network and the dissatisfactory computing storage capacity of mobile terminal equipment, the mechanism of P2P file-sharing system of traditional fixed networks (such as BitTorrent, eMule, etc.) can not be directly applied to the cellular network. Therefore, in this paper, based on extensive analysis and assimilation of comparable studies of the present architecture of P2P system, we introduce a model of mobile P2P file-sharing system in 3G network. An experimental evaluation is also presented, which proves the feasibility and effectiveness of this model.
Evaluation of Lentiviral-Mediated Expression of Sodium Iodide Symporter in Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer and the Efficacy of In Vivo Imaging and Therapy

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is one of the most deadly cancers. With intensive multimodalities of treatment, the survival remains low. ATC is not sensitive to 131I therapy due to loss of sodium iodide symporter (NIS) gene expression. We have previously generated a stable human NIS-expressing ATC cell line, ARO, and the ability of iodide accumulation was restored. To make NIS-mediated gene therapy more applicable, this study aimed to establish a lentiviral system for transferring hNIS gene to cells and to evaluate the efficacy of in vitro and in vivo radioiodide accumulation for imaging and therapy. Lentivirus containing hNIS cDNA were produced to transduce ARO cells which do not concentrate iodide. Gene expression, cell function, radioiodide imaging and treatment were evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Results showed that the transduced cells were restored to express hNIS and accumulated higher amount of radioiodide than parental cells. Therapeutic dose of 131I effectively inhibited the tumor growth derived from transduced cells as compared to saline-treated mice. Our results suggest that the lentiviral system efficiently transferred and expressed hNIS gene in ATC cells. The transduced cells showed a promising result of tumor imaging and therapy.
Average-Value Model of Electric Vehicle Chargers

Analysis of voltage regulation impacts on distribution circuits due to electric vehicle (EV) battery loads requires accurate representation of the charging system. An EV charger consists of power electronic switches with PWM control to achieve desired charging characteristics while minimizing harmonic injections to the secondary service entrance. A detailed device-level model is accurate but it requires a significant amount of time to run due to the high switching frequency of the converter. For this reason, a novel and generic model of EV battery chargers is proposed and developed for evaluating distribution voltage regulation issues. The proposed model is developed based on the average-value modeling (AVM) approach. It includes a rectifier circuit along with PWM control, boost converter and battery banks. Average dynamics of the switching circuit are obtained by averaging the effects of fast switching in the device that occur within a prototypical switching interval. The proposed AVM is validated against a switching model and the actual measurements taken at an EV charging facility and is found to be very accurate in approximating EV charger behavior.
Applying egocentric betweenness measure in vehicular ad hoc networks

Ego-network concept has been systematically studied, since this kind of network employs only locally available information to analyze its structure. Degree, closeness, and betweenness are widely studied centrality measures. Among the three measures presented, betweenness centrality in ego-networks is the most used in several fields such as Wireless Mesh Networks, Wireless Sensor Networks, and Delay Tolerant Networks. However, surprisingly, that measure has not been largely investigated in Vehicular ad hoc Networks (VANETs). In this paper, we contribute to filling this gap by designing and implementing the egocentric betweenness measure in VANETs, besides we compare it to the sociocentric betweenness measure.
Reliability of a structured interview scoring instrument for a Canadian postgraduate emergency medicine training program.

OBJECTIVES To determine the reliability of scores assigned to interviews of medical students applying to an emergency medicine program. METHODS A scoring instrument was derived based on faculty and resident input, institutional and national documents, and previous application procedures. Candidates were interviewed by four pairs of interviewers. Interviewers were asked to score the candidates on five visual analog scales (VASs) with objective anchors. Each interview assessed a unique candidate characteristic. All interviewers were given explicit instructions on scoring procedures and instrument use. The data were entered into an Excel database and transferred to SPSS, and reliabilities were measured with a two-way mixed-effect Cronbach's alpha. RESULTS Forty applications were received for the 2002 residency entry year. Thirty-eight application packages were complete, and 16 candidates were interviewed. Data collection was complete for all 16. The average measure intraclass correlations for each individual interviewer across the five VASs ranged from 0.72 to 0.92 (mean, 0.85). The interrater reliability within the four interviews (personal characteristics, trainability, suitability for emergency medicine, and suitability for the specific training program) were low at 0.36, 0.59, 0.69, and 0.49. The overall reliability of the four interview scores was 0.83, and for the eight interviewer scores it was 0.86. CONCLUSIONS The reliability of the overall interview scores was very high. The intraclass correlations for each interviewer's VAS scores were also high, but interrater correlations within interview teams were moderate and not higher than those across interview teams. This study suggests that an interview assessment instrument can be highly reliable overall and that interviewers base scores on an overall global impression.
Improved gap repair cloning in yeast: treatment of the gapped vector with Taq DNA polymerase avoids vector self‐ligation

Gap repair is a fast and efficient method for assembling recombinant DNA molecules in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This method produces a circular DNA molecule by homologous recombination between two or more linear DNA fragments, one of which is typically a vector carrying replicative sequences and a selective marker. This technique avoids laborious and costly in vitro purification and ligation of DNA. The DNA repair machinery can also close and ligate the linear vector by mechanisms other than homologous recombination, resulting in an empty vector. The frequency of these unwanted events can be lowered by removing the 5′‐phosphate groups using phosphatase, which is the standard method used for in vitro ligation. However, phosphatase treatment is less effective for gap repair cloning than for in vitro ligation, presumably due to the ability of the S. cerevisiae DNA repair machinery to efficiently repair the missing phosphate group to allow religation. We have developed a more efficient method to prevent vector religation, based on treatment of the vector fragment with Taq DNA polymerase and dATP. This procedure prevents vector recircularization almost completely, facilitating the screening for true recombinant clones. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effects of Preconceptional Ethanol Consumption on ADHD-Like Symptoms in Sprague-Dawley Rat Offsprings

Ethanol exposure during gestational period is related to growth retardation, morphological abnormality, and even in neurological abnormalities including attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-like behaviors on offspring. However, relatively little is known about the effects of maternal ethanol consumption prior to conception on their offspring. In this study, we investi-gated whether maternal ethanol administration during preconceptional phase produces ADHD-like behaviors in the rat offspring. Sprague-Dawley (SD) female rats were administrated ethanol via intragastric intubation with dosing regimen of 6 g/kg daily for 10 consecutive days and treated female rats then mated with non-treated male SD rats after 8 weeks. Another group subjected to the same procedure as those conducted on ethanol treated group except the saline administration instead of ethanol. Offspring was tested for their ADHD-like behaviors using open field test, Y maze test and impulsivity test that is performed in the aversive electronic foot shock paradigm. Offspring of preconceptional ethanol treated (EtOH) group showed hyperlocomotive activity, attention deficit and impulsivity. And reduction of striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) level was observed by Western blot in the EtOH group, compared to control (Con) group, while the immunohistochemical analysis exhibited increased expression of norepinephrine transporter (NET) in the frontal cortex. These results suggest that maternal ethanol consumption in the preconceptional phase induces ADHD-like behaviors in offspring that might be related to the abnormal expression of DAT and NET in rat.
Managing Earnings for My Boss? Financial Reporting and the Balance of Power between CEOs and CFOs

Managing Earnings for My Boss? Financial Reporting and the Balance of Power between CEOs and CFOs BY Qinxi Wu MAY 3, 2017 Committee Chair: Dr. Mark A. Chen Major Academic Unit: Finance This paper investigates how the use of earnings management and aggressive financial reporting is related to the balance of power between chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief financial officers (CFOs). I use nationwide awards that recognize CFO excellence as exogenous shocks to the CFO job-market status. I find that, compared to their matched non-awardee counterparts, awardee CFOs experience a sharp increase in career opportunities, total compensation, and stock/option grants, as well as a substantial decrease in CEO power over them. Consistent with the view that shifts in bargaining power between the CEO and CFO matter in earnings management, I find that awardees’ firms have a significantly smaller magnitude of discretionary accruals than both non-awardees and pre-award periods. In addition, winning the award has a substantially negative effect on positive accruals, while the positive effect on negative accruals is less significant. Moreover, the award effects on reducing the magnitude of discretionary accruals are significant only when CFOs face powerful CEOs. I also find evidence that earnings restatements among firms with awardees are less common and receive a less negative market reaction. Overall, my findings suggest that the balance of power between CEOs and CFOs plays an important role in the quality of financial reporting. Managing Earnings for My Boss? Financial Reporting and the Balance of Power between CEOs and CFOs
International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing 1

— This paper develops a general, theoretical computational model for discussing synchronization and specification scheme. We analyze the domains of relationships between agents in a coordination system. A set of algorithms is proposed to derive reasonable relations between agents. Possible conflicts in the agent specification are firstly detected and eliminated. The mechanism constructs partial order relations among actions. We also propose a temporal algebra to deal with qualitative and quantitative temporal relationships and to reason about definite and indefinite time. The algebra can also integrate instant points and even intervals. Several computation tables are proposed, and each table include a set of complete logics. The mechanism is efficiently to eliminate conflict specification and to generate synchronization scenarios. The contributions of this paper are using the generic relationship framework to handle synchronization specifications, and to eliminate conflicts in order to satisfy agent request.
Display Factors Influencing Co-located Collaboration

Understanding how various system features, such as input devices and displays, impact teamwork can form a basis to compare different collaborative systems. This paper concentrates on factors of physical display technology that influence co-located collaboration. We present seven such display factors: orientation of display, arrangement of users at the display, size of display, proximity to the display, privacy of the display, superimposition of display space on the input space, and number of displays. To illustrate their impact on teamwork, we describe how the display factors influence the mechanics of collaboration identified by Gutwin and Greenberg [2].
Analyzing Participation of Students in Online Courses Using Social Network Analysis Techniques

There is a growing number of courses delivered using e-learning environments and their online discussions play an important role in collaborative learning of students. Even in courses with a few number of students, there could be thousands of messages generated in a few months within these forums. Manually evaluating the participation of students in such case is a significant challenge, considering the fact that current e-learning environments do not provide much information regarding the structure of interactions between students.There is a recent line of research on applying social network analysis (SNA) techniques to study these interactions. And it is interesting to investigate the practicability of SNA in evaluating participation of students. Here we propose to exploit SNA techniques, including community mining, in order to discover relevant structures in social networks we generate from student communications but also information networks we produce from the content of the exchanged messages. With visualization of these discovered relevant structures and the automated identification of central and peripheral participants, an instructor is provided with better means to assess participation in the online discussions. We implemented these new ideas in a toolbox, named Meerkat-ED. Which prepares and visualizes overall snapshots of the participants in the discussion forums, their interactions, and the leader/peripheral students. Moreover, it creates a hierarchical summarization of the discussed topics, which gives the instructor a quick view of what is under discussion. We believe exploiting the mining abilities of this toolbox would facilitate fair evaluation of students’ participation in online courses.
A computer based simulator for ultrasound guided needle insertion procedures

A system for the simulation of needle insertion procedures under ultrasound guidance is presented. This is a core skill in interventional radiology, currently acquired on an apprenticeship basis. The system is designed to improve the early stages of training, and detect people with poor natural ability. The simulator is based on a volumetric data set which is non-rigidly aligned to a physical mannequin surface. Magnetic 3D position sensors allow the generation of 'virtual ultrasound' images based on the position of a mock ultrasound probe and needle. The calibration procedures required for this are presented. Metrics for skill measurement are presented and evaluated, and it is shown that a set of 10 novice users increase their skill levels after structured practice.