Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Political Competition: Theory and Applications

Political Competition: Theory and Applications. By John E. Roemer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001. 352p. $60.00. John Roemer sets out to slaughter a golden calf of positive political theory: the Downsian model of electoral competition and its famous implication, the median voter theorem. Roemer contends that not only is the premise of the Downsian model—political parties seeking election without policy objectives of their own—historically incorrect, but it also leads to implausible predictions. Throughout political history, he postulates, parties have represented disparate interests and have advocated divergent policies; thus, a model that is premised on the opposite and predicts convergence as the only equilibrium—provided an equilibrium even exists—cannot be the right tool for analyzing politics.
Managing Testing Complexity in Dynamically Adaptive Systems: A Model-Driven Approach

Autonomous systems are increasingly conceived as a means to allow operation in changeable or poorly understood environments. However, granting a system autonomy over its operation removes the ability of the developer to be completely sure of the system's behaviour under all operating contexts. This combination of environmental and behavioural uncertainty makes the achievement of assurance through testing very problematic. This paper focuses on a class of system, called an m-DAS, that uses run-time models to drive run-time adaptations in changing environmental conditions. We propose a testing approach which is itself model-driven, using model analysis to significantly reduce the set of test cases needed to test for emergent behaviour. Limited testing resources may therefore be prioritised for the most likely scenarios in which emergent behaviour may be observed.
Evolution Metrics

Since the famous statement “What is not measurable make measurable” of Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) it has been a major goal in science to quantify observations as a way to understand and control the underlying causes. With the growing awareness that evolution is a key aspect of software, an increasing number of computer scientists is investigating how metrics can be applied to evolving software artifacts. This paper provides a classification of the various approaches that use metrics to understand and control the software evolution process, gives concrete examples for each of the approaches, and identifies topics that require further research. As such, we expect that this paper will stimulate this emerging research area.
Policy Monitorhow Us Government Agencies Value Mortality Risk Reductions

One challenging task faced by US government agencies is determining whether the benefits of their proposed regulations justify the costs. For benefits associated with reducing the risks of premature mortality, they rely on an analytic construct—the value per statistical life (VSL)—which aggregates the value of small changes in mortality risk across a large population; it is not the value of saving a particular person's life. Empirical research suggests that this value ranges from roughly $1 million to $10 million per statistical life. While federal agencies usually apply values from within this range, they vary in the exact estimates used.The research literature generally addresses mortality risks and populations that differ in some significant respects from those addressed by most major regulations. A particularly contentious issue has been whether to adjust the estimates to reflect age differences. One approach involves translating VSL estimates into a value per statistical life year (VSLY) to take into account the number of years of life extension. Because the years of life extension are closely related to age, the use of a VSLY approach generally results in lower values for older individuals. However, the relationship of the VSL to age or life expectancy is complex, and such adjustments have raised significant concerns about the equitable treatment of individuals of different ages in the development of federal policy. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.
Distribution and Development of Peripheral Glial Cells in the Human Fetal Cochlea

The adult human cochlea contains various types of peripheral glial cells that envelop or myelinate the three different domains of the spiral ganglion neurons: the central processes in the cochlear nerve, the cell bodies in the spiral ganglia, and the peripheral processes in the osseous spiral lamina. Little is known about the distribution, lineage separation and maturation of these peripheral glial cells in the human fetal cochlea. In the current study, we observed peripheral glial cells expressing SOX10, SOX9 and S100B as early as 9 weeks of gestation (W9) in all three neuronal domains. We propose that these cells are the common precursor to both mature Schwann cells and satellite glial cells. Additionally, the peripheral glial cells located along the peripheral processes expressed NGFR, indicating a phenotype distinct from the peripheral glial cells located along the central processes. From W12, the spiral ganglion was gradually populated by satellite glial cells in a spatiotemporal gradient. In the cochlear nerve, radial sorting was accomplished by W22 and myelination started prior to myelination of the peripheral processes. The developmental dynamics of the peripheral glial cells in the human fetal cochlea is in support of a neural crest origin. Our study provides the first overview of the distribution and maturation of peripheral glial cells in the human fetal cochlea from W9 to W22.
The Early Screening Project for Young Children with Behavior Problems

Behavioral problems among preschool-age children have become a priority for early childhood educators. Factors such as the exponential rise in childcare utilization and increasing poverty and incidences of child abuse have made the establishment of procedures for the early identification and remediation of problem behaviors among preschool children imperative. Screening is an initial step in identifying those who exhibit a certain disorder, problem, or disability. The goal of the current research was to study the effectiveness of a functional screening and identification system for behavior problems among preschool children ages 3 to 5 years. This research focused on the development of the Early Screening Project (ESP), a multiple-gated screening system adapted from the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders. Data were collected over 32 months, from September 1991 through June 1994. Participants were 2,853 children, ages 3 to 6 years, enrolled in typical and special education preschool and kindergarten classrooms in Oregon, California, Texas, Utah, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Nebraska, and Louisiana. Concurrent validity was assessed by administering the Behar Preschool Behavior Questionnaire, the Conners' Teacher Rating Scale, and Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist measures. Results demonstrated significant reliability and validity coefficients. The ESP procedure provides reliable, cost-effective, and accurate screening of preschool-age children to facilitate early remediation of behavior problems.
Formulation of Indomethacin Colon Targeted Delivery Systems Using Polysaccharides as Carriers by Applying Liquisolid Technique

The present study aimed at the formulation of matrix tablets for colon-specific drug delivery (CSDD) system of indomethacin (IDM) by applying liquisolid (LS) technique. A CSDD system based on time-dependent polymethacrylates and enzyme degradable polysaccharides was established. Eudragit RL 100 (E-RL 100) was employed as time-dependent polymer, whereas bacterial degradable polysaccharides were presented as LS systems loaded with the drug. Indomethacin-loaded LS systems were prepared using different polysaccharides, namely, guar gum (GG), pectin (PEC), and chitosan (CH), as carriers separately or in mixtures of different ratios of 1 : 3, 1 : 1, and 3 : 1. Liquisolid systems that displayed promising results concerning drug release rate in both pH 1.2 and pH 6.8 were compressed into tablets after the addition of the calculated amount of E-RL 100 and lubrication with magnesium stearate and talc in the ratio of 1 : 9. It was found that E-RL 100 improved the flowability and compressibility of all LS formulations. The release data revealed that all formulations succeeded to sustain drug release over a period of 24 hours. Stability study indicated that PEC-based LS system as well as its matrix tablets was stable over the period of storage (one year) and could provide a minimum shelf life of two years.
An efficient strategy for TALEN-mediated genome engineering in Drosophila

In reverse genetics, a gene’s function is elucidated through targeted modifications in the coding region or associated DNA cis-regulatory elements. To this purpose, recently developed customizable transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) have proven an invaluable tool, allowing introduction of double-strand breaks at predetermined sites in the genome. Here we describe a practical and efficient method for the targeted genome engineering in Drosophila. We demonstrate TALEN-mediated targeted gene integration and efficient identification of mutant flies using a traceable marker phenotype. Furthermore, we developed an easy TALEN assembly (easyT) method relying on simultaneous reactions of DNA Bae I digestion and ligation, enabling construction of complete TALENs from a monomer unit library in a single day. Taken together, our strategy with easyT and TALEN-plasmid microinjection simplifies mutant generation and enables isolation of desired mutant fly lines in the F1 generation.
Residual self-interference in full-duplex MIMO relays after null-space projection and cancellation

Practical full-duplex MIMO relays require efficient mitigation of the relay self-interference signal propagating from the transmit antenna array to the receive antenna array; this paper concentrates on time-domain cancellation (TDC) and spatialdomain suppression by null-space projection (NSP). Both schemes can eliminate all self-interference in the idealistic case where the relay has perfect side information on the self-interference channel and signal. Thus, it is of practical interest to analyze their performance in more realistic cases where the side information is non-ideal. In particular, our contribution is to evaluate the additional isolation given by the mitigation schemes w.r. t. natural isolation between spatially separated antenna arrays. We also show how NSP (as opposed to TDC) can be made immune to errors in information on the self-interference signal.
Grieving Online: Newcomers’ Constructions of Grief in an Online Support Group

Research into peer conversations in online grief support groups remains scarce. The authors used discourse analysis to examine 107 initial posts to one such group to examine how newcomers constructed their initial posts to display their eligibility for membership. The authors identified three discursive features: formulating unusual stories of loss, describing uncontrollable emotional and physical states, and engaging in “troubles telling. ” These discursive patterns illustrate how grief is constructed in ways that may simultaneously conform to and resist norms around grief that exist offline. Implications for practitioners include the need to support individuals through validation of their “nonnormal” grief.
Telomerase activity, MIB‐1, PCNA, HPV 16 and p53 as diagnostic markers for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia Note

The present investigation evaluated the relationship between dysplasia of the uterine cervix and telomerase activity, expression of p53, MIB‐1 and PCNA. Telomerase activity was measured on cervical cytobrush material from 126 women suspected of having dysplasia and 61 controls using the telomeric repeat amplification protocol. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the tumor suppressor protein p53 and cell proliferation, the latter by MIB‐1 and PCNA expression. Infection with human papillomavirus 16 was detected by PCR amplification and Southern blot hybridization of DNA extracted from the same brush material. Positive telomerase activity was found in 5 of 43 (11.6%) normal samples, 12 of 57 (21.1%) samples with inflammation or koilocytosis, 7 of 17 (41.2%) CIN 1 (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, grade 1), 8 of 20 (40.0%) CIN 2, and 25 of 42 (59.5%) CIN 3/CIS. Telomerase activity was significantly related to the level of dysplasia (p<0.001) and proliferation measured by MIB‐1 (p=0.019), but not to the level of PCNA (p=0.445), HPV 16 status (p=0.098) or staining for p53 (p=0.271). Dysplasia was also related to PCNA, MIB1, p53, and presence of HPV 16. A sequential increase in the examined parameters, paralleling the progression of abnormality, was observed. PCNA and telomerase showed an increase in CIN 1, MIB‐1 and HPV16 in CIN 2, and finally p53 in CIN 3/CIS.
Evaluating probabilities under high-dimensional latent variable models

We present a simple new Monte Carlo algorithm for evaluating probabilities of observations in complex latent variable models, such as Deep Belief Networks. While the method is based on Markov chains, estimates based on short runs are formally unbiased. In expectation, the log probability of a test set will be underestimated, and this could form the basis of a probabilistic bound. The method is much cheaper than gold-standard annealing-based methods and only slightly more expensive than the cheapest Monte Carlo methods. We give examples of the new method substantially improving simple variational bounds at modest extra cost.
Graphical visualization of compiler optimizations

This paper describesxvpodb, a visualization tool developed to support the analysis of optimizations performed by the vpo optimizer. The tool is a graphical optimization viewer that can display the state of the program representation bef ore and after sequences of changes, r eferred to as transf ormations, that results in semantically equi valent (and usually improved) code. The information and insight such visualization provides can simplify the debugging of pr oblems with the optimizer. Unique features ofxvpodbinclude rev erse viewing (or undoing) of transf ormations and the ability to stop at breakpoints associated with the generated instructions. The viewer facilitates the r targeting of vpo to a new machine, supports experimentation with new optimizations, and has been used as a teaching aid in compiler classes.
Everyday Problem Solving among Four Groups of Individuals with Cognitive Impairments: Examination of the Discriminant Validity of the Observed Tasks of Daily Living—Revised

To examine the discriminant validity of the Observed Tasks of Daily Living—Revised (OTDL-R) assessment test, performance was compared across four groups of participants (N = 140) expected to have different problem-solving skills and everyday competencies (community-dwelling older adults, older adults living in nursing homes or assisted living facilities, individuals with schizophrenia, and individuals with brain injuries). Analysis of variance with covariates (age and education) was used to examine differences in total OTDL-R scores across the four groups. OTDL-R performance was significantly better for community-dwelling older adults and significantly worse for participants with schizophrenia than for all other groups. No statistically significant differences were found for older adults living in nursing homes or assisted living facilities or participants with brain injuries after controlling for age and education. The OTDL-R was found to be a sensitive performance-based assessment tool of potential importance for occupational therapists in assessing instrumental activities of daily living and problem-solving skills. Additional research is needed to more fully characterize the psychometric value of the OTDL-R for appropriate use by clinicians and researchers.
Activities of daily living and falls recognition and classification from the wearable sensors data

The increasing percentage in population of the elderly and of the chronically diseased requires new solutions for tele-medicine and the continuous real-time remote health status monitoring. The present paper presents a comparison study of various machine learning and deep learning techniques for cross-person prediction of both activities of daily living and falling down. The experiments are performed on the smartphone's raw accelerometer data from the publicly available UniMiB SHAR dataset. Different cross-validation methods are tested and the performance of each classifier discussed. Deep learning method outperforms the other classifiers in many configurations, performed on the different subsets.
The Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale: Psychometric data

Reports normative, reliability, and validity data for the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (MARS), a measure of mathematics anxiety for use in treatment and research. Normative data were collected on a sample of 397 undergraduates. The instrument has high test-retest and internal consistency reliability. Evidence for validity comes from 3 studies in which MARS scores showed expected decreases following behavior therapy for mathematics anxiety, and a separate validity study in which MARS scores were found to correlate negatively with scores on a mathematics test. Possible uses of the instrument in treatment and research are discussed. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)
Lifetime victimization among Spanish adolescents

Background: The damaging effects of direct and indirect experience of interpersonal violence on children's development are widely acknowledged. The objective of the present study was to analyze lifetime victimization among adolescents of a community sample. Method: Participants were 608 adolescents aged 12‐18 from Northern Spain. The Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire was used to measure lifetime victimization. Results: Over 90% of the adolescent population has been exposed to some kind of victimization. Participants reported an average of 5.50 lifetime victimization experiences and 75% of the sample reported the experience of at least two forms of victimization. The 10% most victimized part of the sample, participants reporting 11 or more victimizations, were classified as polyvictims. Conclusions: Victimization is very frequent even among community adolescents, especially peer victimization and witnessing community violence. Resumen Victimización en adolescentes españoles. Antecedentes: está reconocido el efecto negativo en el desarrollo infantil de las experiencias directas o indirectas de violencia interpersonal. El objetivo de este estudio era analizar la victimización a lo largo de su vida en adolescentes de una muestra de la población general. Método: la muestra está conformada por 608 participantes del norte de España de 12 a 18 años de edad. Para medir la victimización a lo largo de la vida se utilizó el Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ). Resultados: más del 90% de esta muestra de adolescentes notificaron haber sido expuestos a algún tipo de victimización. Los participantes notificaron una media de 5.50 experiencias de victimización a lo largo de su vida y un 75% de la muestra notificó haber experimentado al menos dos formas de victimización. A partir del 10% de la muestra que había notificado más experiencias, los participantes con 11 o más victimizaciones fueron clasificados como polivíctimas. Conclusiones: se concluye de los resultados de este estudio que la victimización es frecuente entre adolescentes de la población general, siendo especialmente relevante la producida por “iguales” y la que supone ser testigo de situaciones de violencia.
Childhood Giftedness and Adulthood Genius

Although the association between giftedness and genius has been the subject of several retrospective, longitudinal, and historiometric studies, this research concentrated on majority-culture samples. In the current study, Cox's (1926) findings regarding 301 geniuses were replicated on a sample of 291 eminent African Americans. Relative genius was measured by two archival eminence measures (majority White and minority Black culture) and by scores on the Creative Achievement Scale (Ludwig, 1992). Giftedness was assessed by raters blind to the identity of the individuals being evaluated. Control variables were defined for gender, year of birth, status as a living contemporary, and 18 domains of achievement. Multiple regression analyses indicated that adulthood eminence and creative achievement are positively correlated with early giftedness, with an effect size comparable to that found in the Cox study. Furthermore, this association was not moderated by gender, birth year, or most of the remaining variables. Putting Research to Use: The study provides support for a basic tenet of most gifted and talented programs, namely, that exceptional giftedness in childhood and adolescence is associated with adulthood achievements. Accordingly, education programs designed for these select populations can be legitimately viewed as an investment in the nation's future. The young talents of today are indeed likely to become the high achievers of tomorrow. Furthermore, this developmental continuity is found not just for youths who come from majority-culture backgrounds; the same forecast holds for those who come from minority-culture environments—African Americans in the case of the present study. Moreover, the degree to which childhood giftedness predicts adulthood success is the same for both majority and minority cultures. The longitudinal correspondence also stays the same for both males and females and for the diverse domains of achievement, whether creativity, leadership, entertainment, or sports. However, the long-term connection between early gifts and later achievements presumes a distinct manner of identifying and assessing giftedness. In particular, giftedness must not be evaluated according to a “one-size-fits-all” procedure. On the contrary, the magnitude of giftedness should be assessed according to the occurrence of precocious behaviors that are to a certain extent specific to a given culture and achievement domain. It is for this reason that the 291 African Americans in this study could attain distinction in a remarkable diversity of domains, including domains more characteristic of the minority culture—from gospel and soul musicians to civil rights activists and Black nationalists. This heterogeneity stands in stark contrast to what would have happened if giftedness had been defined in terms of performance on a standard intelligence test.
Combining generative and discriminative models for classifying social images from 101 object categories

In this paper we present a hybrid generative-discriminative approach for image categorization in real-world images, based on Latent Dirichlet Allocation and SVM classifiers. We use SVMs with non-linear kernels on different visual features in a multiple kernel combination framework. A major contribution of our work is also the introduction of a novel dataset, called MICC-Flickr101, based on the popular Caltech101 and collected from Flickr. We demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our method testing it on both datasets, and we evaluate the impact of combining image features and tags for object recognition.