Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Subjective Probability as Sampling Propensity ∗ ( To appear in Review of Philosophy and Psychology )

Subjective probability plays an increasingly important role in many fields concerned with human cognition and behavior. Yet there have been significant criticisms of the idea that probabilities could actually be represented in the mind. This paper presents and elaborates a view of subjective probability as a kind of sampling propensity associated with internally represented generative models. The resulting view answers to some of the most well known criticisms of subjective probability, and is also supported by empirical work in neuroscience and behavioral psychology. The repercussions of the view for how we conceive of many ordinary instances of subjective probability, and how it relates to more traditional conceptions of subjective probability, are discussed in some detail.
Amikacin: a Rapid and Sensitive Radioimmunoassay

A rapid, sensitive, and specific radioimmunoassay has been developed for the measurement of amikacin, a new semisynthetic aminoglycoside antibiotic. Antisera were produced by immunizing rabbits with amikacin conjugated to porcine thyroglobulin. Sera were screened for amikacin antibodies with 3H-labeled amikacin. Free and bound radioactivity were separated by the second antibody method. As little as 5 ng of the antibiotic can be measured in serum, cerebrospinal fluid, and urine. The standard curve is unaffected by pH (5–11), ionic strength (0.01 M to 0.3 M), MgCl2 or CaCl2 (1 to 8 mM/liter), or urea (10–300 mg/100 ml). The antibodies raised to amikacin are not able to distinguish between kanamycin and amikacin. The cross reactivity of all other antibiotics tested was <0.1%. Co-incubation of first and second antibody allows for a 30-min incubation period, making the assay useful for stat determinations. The standard curve is linear on a logit-log plot, allowing for rapid computer analysis of the standard curve, interpolation of sample values, and quality-control monitoring.
Balancing Safety and Exploitability in Opponent Modeling

Opponent modeling is a critical mechanism in repeated games. It allows a player to adapt its strategy in order to better respond to the presumed preferences of his opponents. We introduce a new modeling technique that adaptively balances exploitability and risk reduction. An opponent’s strategy is modeled with a set of possible strategies that contain the actual strategy with a high probability. The algorithm is safe as the expected payoff is above the minimax payoff with a high probability, and can exploit the opponents’ preferences when sufficient observations have been obtained. We apply them to normal-form games and stochastic games with a finite number of stages. The performance of the proposed approach is first demonstrated on repeated rock-paper-scissors games. Subsequently, the approach is evaluated in a human-robot table-tennis setting where the robot player learns to prepare to return a served ball. By modeling the human players, the robot chooses a forehand, backhand or middle preparation pose before they serve. The learned strategies can exploit the opponent’s preferences, leading to a higher rate of successful returns.
Projected clinical benefits and cost-effectiveness of a human papillomavirus 16/18 vaccine.

BACKGROUND Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine may be commercially available in a few years. We explored the clinical benefits and cost-effectiveness of introducing an HPV16/18 vaccine in a population with an organized cervical cancer screening program. METHODS A computer-based model of the natural history of HPV and cervical cancer was used to project cancer incidence and mortality, life expectancy (adjusted and unadjusted for quality of life), lifetime costs, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (i.e., the additional cost of a strategy divided by its additional clinical benefit compared with the next most expensive strategy) associated with different cancer prevention policies, including vaccination (initiated at age 12 years), cytologic screening (initiated at 18, 21, 25, 30, or 35 years), and combined vaccination and screening strategies. We assumed that vaccination was 90% effective in reducing the risk of persistent HPV16/18 infections and evaluated alternative assumptions about vaccine efficacy, waning immunity, and risk of replacement with non-16/18 HPV types. RESULTS Our model showed that the most effective strategy with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of less than 60 dollars-000 per quality-adjusted life year is one combining vaccination at age 12 years with triennial conventional cytologic screening beginning at age 25 years, compared with the next best strategy of vaccination and cytologic screening every 5 years beginning at age 21 years. This triennial strategy would reduce the absolute lifetime risk of cervical cancer by 94% compared with no intervention. These results were sensitive to alternative assumptions about the underlying patterns of cervical cancer screening, duration of vaccine efficacy, and natural history of HPV infection in older women. CONCLUSIONS Our model predicts that a vaccine that prevents persistent HPV16/18 infection will reduce the incidence of HPV16/18-associated cervical cancer, even in a setting of cytologic screening. A program of vaccination that permits a later age of screening initiation and a less frequent screening interval is likely to be a cost-effective use of health care resources.
Numerical Cognition Without Words: Evidence from Amazonia

Members of the Pirahã tribe use a “one-two-many” system of counting. I ask whether speakers of this innumerate language can appreciate larger numerosities without the benefit of words to encode them. This addresses the classic Whorfian question about whether language can determine thought. Results of numerical tasks with varying cognitive demands show that numerical cognition is clearly affected by the lack of a counting system in the language. Performance with quantities greater than three was remarkably poor, but showed a constant coefficient of variation, which is suggestive of an analog estimation process.
Relay selection of nonregenerative secure relay networks

We study a new relay selection scheme in nonregenerative relay networks consisting of a source, a destination, an eavesdropper, and multiple relays, where each terminal has a single antenna and operates in a half duplex mode. In these networks, it is desirable to protect the confidential message from the source to the destination against the eavesdropper with the help of a single selected relay. Specifically, we begin by investigating one scenario: instantaneous signal to noise ratios (SNRs) related to the eavesdropper are available. For the scenario, we propose relay selection to maximize the secrecy capacity of nonregenerative networks with and without direct paths. For networks with direct-paths, we derive a closed-form approximation of the secrecy outage probability. As a special case, for networks without direct-paths, we derive the exact secrecy outage probability expression in integral form and offer as well a closed-form approximation.
Experimental warming decreases arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal colonization in prairie plants along a Mediterranean climate gradient

Background: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) provide numerous services to their plant symbionts. Understanding climate change effects on AMF, and the resulting plant responses, is crucial for predicting ecosystem responses at regional and global scales. We investigated how the effects of climate change on AMF-plant symbioses are mediated by soil water availability, soil nutrient availability, and vegetation dynamics. Methods: We used a combination of a greenhouse experiment and a manipulative climate change experiment embedded within a Mediterranean climate gradient in the Pacific Northwest, USA to examine this question. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to determine the direct and indirect effects of experimental warming on AMF colonization. Results: Warming directly decreased AMF colonization across plant species and across the climate gradient of the study region. Other positive and negative indirect effects of warming, mediated by soil water availability, soil nutrient availability, and vegetation dynamics, canceled each other out. Discussion: A warming-induced decrease in AMF colonization would likely have substantial consequences for plant communities and ecosystem function. Moreover, predicted increases in more intense droughts and heavier rains for this region could shift the balance among indirect causal pathways, and either exacerbate or mitigate the negative, direct effect of increased temperature on AMF colonization.
Global analysis of depletion and recovery of seabed biota after bottom trawling disturbance

Significance Bottom trawling is the most widespread source of physical disturbance to the world’s seabed. Predictions of trawling impacts are needed to underpin risk assessment, and they are relevant for the fishing industry, conservation, management, and certification bodies. We estimate depletion and recovery of seabed biota after trawling by fitting models to data from a global data compilation. Trawl gears removed 6–41% of faunal biomass per pass, and recovery times posttrawling were 1.9–6.4 y depending on fisheries and environmental context. These results allow the estimation of trawling impacts on unprecedented spatial scales and for data poor fisheries and enable an objective analysis of tradeoffs between harvesting fish and the wider ecosystem effects of such activities. Bottom trawling is the most widespread human activity affecting seabed habitats. Here, we collate all available data for experimental and comparative studies of trawling impacts on whole communities of seabed macroinvertebrates on sedimentary habitats and develop widely applicable methods to estimate depletion and recovery rates of biota after trawling. Depletion of biota and trawl penetration into the seabed are highly correlated. Otter trawls caused the least depletion, removing 6% of biota per pass and penetrating the seabed on average down to 2.4 cm, whereas hydraulic dredges caused the most depletion, removing 41% of biota and penetrating the seabed on average 16.1 cm. Median recovery times posttrawling (from 50 to 95% of unimpacted biomass) ranged between 1.9 and 6.4 y. By accounting for the effects of penetration depth, environmental variation, and uncertainty, the models explained much of the variability of depletion and recovery estimates from single studies. Coupled with large-scale, high-resolution maps of trawling frequency and habitat, our estimates of depletion and recovery rates enable the assessment of trawling impacts on unprecedented spatial scales.
Total Security For Wireless Sensor Network Based On Elliptical Curve

WSN collects information, processes locally and transmits it with wireless sensor nodes. A sensor node uses radio frequencies as a communications medium, and is susceptible to active and passive attacks. This paper proposes ‘Total Security Algorithm’ based on Elliptical Curve Diffie Hellman for confidentiality, integrity and data freshness. In TSA, node uses Ex-OR operation to encrypt and decrypt message with the single coordinate of session key generated by ECDH. This strategy of using single coordinate will help node to save bandwidth and transmission power, which results in longer life for the sensor node. The implementation of TSA on 32 bit processor has been demonstrated with NIST recommended P224 Elliptical curve over prime field in C language on MIRACL crypto library (Multiprecision Integer and Rational Arithmetic Cryptographic Library) which is a C software library that is widely reputed as the gold standard open source SDK for elliptic curve cryptography (ECC).
Entity Annotation based on Inverse Index Operations

Entity annotation involves attaching a label such as 'name' or 'organization' to a sequence of tokens in a document. All the current rule-based and machine learning-based approaches for this task operate at the document level. We present a new and generic approach to entity annotation which uses the inverse index typically created for rapid key-word based searching of a document collection. We define a set of operations on the inverse index that allows us to create annotations defined by cascading regular expressions. The entity annotations for an entire document corpus can be created purely of the index with no need to access the original documents. Experiments on two publicly available data sets show very significant performance improvements over the document-based annotators.
Construction of femininity in Iceland

In this study it is argued that femininity is mediated by historical and cultural factors. I explore how rapid changes in the social structure of Icelandic society have introduced challenges to many cultural constructions. The theoretical framework draws from the work of Michel Foucault, in particular the idea that the individual emerges through the practices and discourses s/he is constituted in, and that these incur power relations. Several entrance points have been selected into the Icelandic culture and its ideas of femininity. One is through a random sample of 209 obituaries, published from 1922 to 1992. The other is through semi-structured interviews with 18 women, aged 16 to 88, conducted in 1992. A discourse analysis reveals two dominant discourses for constituting the "Self', with different implications for men and women respectively. "The discourse of the Chieftain" constructs the "Self' as independent, self-reliant and central. In this discourse, it is argued, the "Self' is a dominantly masculine ideal. In contrast, the "discourse of the Soul" emphasises the individual who puts others before herself, is self-less, obedient, dutiful and loyal. It is argued that these discourses were necessary for maintaining a particular power structure within the pre-modern Icelandic society, and that they portray particular roles as "natural". Changes in modem Icelandic society have caused a rupture in the harmony between these discourses. New discourses have emerged, and women are increasingly putting their own needs and selves before others. The inter and intra-subjective tensions that these changes have incurred are traced. Women's strategies of resistance that have unfolded in response to dominant ideas are outlined. In their different forms of disciplining sons and daughters, women use their position as mothers to encourage societial changes. Implications of these findings for theories of construction of femininity are discussed.
The bone-specific Runx 2P 1 promoter displays conserved three-dimensional chromatin structure with the syntenic Supt 3 h promoter

Three-dimensional organization of chromatin is fundamental for transcriptional regulation. Tissuespecific transcriptional programs are orchestrated by transcription factors and epigenetic regulators. The RUNX2 transcription factor is required for differentiation of precursor cells into mature osteoblasts. Although organization and control of the bone-specific Runx2-P1 promoter have been studied extensively, long-range regulation has not been explored. In this study, we investigated higherorder organization of the Runx2-P1 promoter during osteoblast differentiation. Mining the ENCODE database revealed interactions between Runx2-P1 and Supt3h promoters in several non-mesenchymal human cell lines. Supt3h is a ubiquitously expressed gene located within the first intron of Runx2. These two genes show shared synteny across species from humans to sponges. Chromosome conformation capture analysis in the murine pre-osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cell line revealed increased contact frequency between Runx2-P1 and Supt3h promoters during differentiation. This increase was accompanied by enhanced DNaseI hypersensitivity along with RUNX2 and CTCF binding at the Supt3h promoter. Furthermore, interplasmid-3C and luciferase reporter assays showed that the Supt3h promoter can modulate Runx2-P1 activity via direct association. Taken together, our data demonstrate physical proximity between Runx2-P1 and Supt3h promoters, consistent with their syntenic nature. Importantly, we identify the Supt3h promoter as a potential regulator of the bone-specific Runx2-P1 promoter.
Monitoring the Dynamics of T Cell Clonal Diversity Using Recombinant Peptide:MHC Technology

The capacity to probe antigen specific T cells within the polyclonal repertoire has been revolutionized by the advent of recombinant peptide:MHC (pMHC) technology. Monomers and multimers of pMHC molecules can enrich for and identify antigen specific T cells to elucidate the contributions of T cell frequency, localization, and T cell receptor (TCR) affinity during immune responses. Two-dimensional (2D) measurements of TCR–pMHC interactions are at the forefront of this field because the biological topography is replicated such that TCR and pMHC are membrane anchored on opposing cells, allowing for biologically pertinent measures of TCR antigen specificity and diversity. 2D measurements of TCR-pMHC kinetics have also demonstrated increased fidelity compared to three-dimensional surface plasmon resonance data and are capable of detecting T cell affinities that are below the detection level of most pMHC multimers. Importantly, 2D techniques provide a platform to evaluate T cell affinity and antigen specificity against multiple protein epitopes within the polyclonal repertoire directly ex vivo from sites of ongoing immune responses. This review will discuss how antigen specific pMHC molecules, with a focus on 2D technologies, can be used as effective tools to evaluate the range of TCR affinities that comprise an immune response and more importantly how the breadth of affinities determine functional outcome against a given exposure to antigen.
Spin Needlets Spectral Estimation

We consider the statistical analysis of random sections of a spin fibre bundle over the sphere. These may be thought of as random fields that at each point p in $S^2$ take as a value a curve (e.g. an ellipse) living in the tangent plane at that point $T_{p}S^2$, rather than a number as in ordinary situations. The analysis of such fields is strongly motivated by applications, for instance polarization experiments in Cosmology. To investigate such fields, spin needlets were recently introduced by Geller and Marinucci (2008) and Geller et al. (2008). We consider the use of spin needlets for spin angular power spectrum estimation, in the presence of noise and missing observations, and we provide Central Limit Theorem results, in the high frequency sense; we discuss also tests for bias and asymmetries with an asymptotic justification.
The Ethics of Inactivity: Human Resource Managers and Quietism

Humanistic notions of work and employment, by proclaiming the centrality of the human being in human resource (HR) management, encourage employees to assert and argue for their personal ethical principles at work. Research into the ethical stances of managers and professionals (Fisher 1999: 240) indicated that they might instead take a position that amounts to saying 'something may be wrong but I am not going to do anything about it'. My interest in this stance began with reflections on ethical critical incidents from my own working life. The following personal example can be used to define the stance.
Planning screw insertion trajectory in lumbar spinal fusion using pre-operative CT images

Spinal fusion permanently connects two or more vertebrae in spine to improve stability, correct a deformity or reduce pain by immobilizing the vertebrae through pedicle screw fixation. Pedicle screws should be inserted very carefully to prevent possible irrecoverable damages to the spinal cord. Surgeons use CT/fluoroscopic images to find how to insert the screws safely. However, there is still human error, as determining precise trajectory in 3D space is difficult because of asymmetric structure of pedicle. In this study we attempt to propose a shape based method to help the surgeons to find the more accurate and safe path for screw insertion that minimizes the risk or invasiveness of the surgery using pre-operative CT images. We extracted two features for insertion paths from CT images, named “safety margin” and “pedicular screw fixation strength”. By using weighted k-means different paths were clustered and compared with each other. Results of comparison between those paths obtained from surgeon's pre-operative planning, intra operative and the proposed method proves a great improvement on the rate of success in reaching a suitable insertion trajectory by using our method. It is observed that the risk of damage in intra operative stage can be potentially high and it can be reduced considerably by using the proposed planning approach.
Library automation using different structures of vision-force robot control and automatic decision system

Most of robot applications require robots to interact with environment, objects or even with human, which need to integrate vision and force information. Generally, there are five types of vision-force control: pure position control, pure force control, traded control, shared control and hybrid control. The important questions here are: How to define the most appropriate control mode for every part of different tasks and when the control system should switch from one control mode to the other. In this work an automatic decision system is suggested to define the most appropriate control mode for successive tasks and to choose the optimal structure of vision/force control without human intervention. This research will focus on the operations of library automation as real application for the proposed control system such as shelving, storage and sorting of inaccurately placed objects.
"About as Solid as a Fish Net": Symbolic Construction of a Legitimate Parental Identity for Nonbiological Lesbian Mothers

Nonbiological lesbian mothers lack not only biological ties to their children, but have no legal ties even if those children are intentionally conceived through donor insemination in the context of a committed relationship. This article explores symbolic attempts to construct the nonbiological mother as a legitimate parent in the absence of such ties. Sixteen families whose children were conceived through donor insemination are analyzed in this study using constructivist grounded theory. Findings suggest that address terms for the nonbiological mother, children's last names, and legal moves are primary symbolic ways lesbian families attempt to construct a legitimate parental identity for the nonbiological mother. These strategies suggest the potential for increased social recognition of nonbiological mothers.
Enhancing Class Monitoring Through Video Analytics and Deep Learning Models

This research paper introduces an innovative solution for enhancing class monitoring by integrating video analytics and advanced deep-learning models for human activity recognition. Through a comparative analysis of two implementation methods, Deep Neural Network (DNN) models emerge as the more efficient and scalable choice, revolutionizing the approach to class monitoring in educational and security contexts. The study evaluates four key deep-learning models, including ConvLSTM, LRCN, and CNN+GRU, highlighting their superior performance over traditional feature-based approaches. Notably, the accuracy metrics for these models are as follows: ConvLSTM achieved an accuracy of 0.62, LRCN exhibited exceptional accuracy at 0.94, and GRU + Convolution Model demonstrated robust accuracy of 0.92. The ultimate goal is the development of an automated monitoring system leveraging deep learning to detect and classify human activities, with significant implications for education and security. These DNN models, known for their cost-effectiveness and adaptability, can be swiftly deployed to monitor classrooms and examination rooms, promptly identifying and reporting suspicious activity. Rigorous performance evaluation using diverse metrics underlines the strengths and weaknesses of these models, marking a significant advancement in automated monitoring systems’ capabilities.