Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How Large is the BIas in Self-Reported Disability Status?

A pervasive concern with the use of self-reported health and disability measures in behavioral models is that they are biased and endogenous. A commonly suggested explanation is that survey respondents exaggerate the severity of health problems and incidence of disabilities in order to rationalize labor force non-participation, application for disability benefits and/or receipt of those benefits. This paper re-examines this issue using a self-reported indicator of disability status from the Health and Retirement Survey. Using a bivariate probit model we test and are unable to reject the hypothesis that the self-reported disability measure is an exogenous explanatory variable in a model of individual's decision to apply for DI benefits or Social Security Administration's decision to award benefits. We further study a subsample of individuals who applied for Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA) for whom we can also observe SSA's award/deny decision. For this subsample we test and are unable to reject the hypothesis that self-reported disability is health and socio-economic characteristics similar to the information used by the SSA in making its award decisions. The unbiasedness restriction implies that these two variables have the same conditional probability distributions. Thus, our results indicate that disability applicant do not exaggerate their disability status at least in anonymous surveys such as the HRS. Indeed, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that disability applicants are aware of the criteria and decision rules that SSA uses in making awards and act as if they were applying these same criteria and rules when reporting their own disability status.
Vermont Incarcerated Womens' Initiative Drug Education,

The Vermont Agency of Human Services Incarcerated Women’s Initiative (IWI), constituted in April of 2005, was instrumental in supporting the development and implementation of a pilot project, which encompassed three communities in Vermont. The Pilot programs aimed to reduce and prevent incarceration of women whose criminogenic problems were related to their substance use and abuse. These innovative projects are the subject of this mixed methods evaluative study – to determine the extent to which involvement in this project changed the behaviors leading to incarceration and in effect, succeeded in reducing incarceration and further involvement with the criminal justice system. Qualitative data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with former program participants and staff of the projects. Descriptive data was collected through quarterly reports from the project managers to the Vermont Department of Health, Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs, the funding agency, and the Vermont Department of Corrections. Each of the sites were compared and contrasted to tell the stories of the women who participated, and to gather the wisdom of the people who worked with them. The outcomes of the study supported the continued utilization of the key strategies of the Drug Education, Treatment, Enforcement and Rehabilitation (DETER) projects in facilitating greater engagement and retention in treatment, and reducing further incarceration in the study subjects. Recommendations for policy change include greater access statewide to Dedicated Case Management, Collaborative Inter-disciplinary Team Planning, and Wrap-Around Services for women offenders.
Gun Use by Male Juveniles: Research and Prevention

Many adolescents own and use guns legally for sporting activity, but there is a perception that an increasing number of other adolescents own guns for protection and carry them on the street. In fact, one study of urban juvenile arrestees found that more than two-thirds of the juveniles said their primary reason for owning and carrying a weapon was self-protection; a smaller number also reported using their weapon for drug trafficking or other illegal activity (Decker, Pennel, and Caldwell, 1997; Snyder and Sickmund, 1999). It is illegal gun ownership and use among adolescents that constitute a problem of great concern. Researchers and policymakers have become increasingly interested in understanding patterns of gun ownership and use among adolescents so that programs can be developed to respond to this problem.
Hybrid Curcumin Compounds: A New Strategy for Cancer Treatment

Cancer is a multifactorial disease that requires treatments able to target multiple intracellular components and signaling pathways. The natural compound, curcumin, was already described as a promising anticancer agent due to its multipotent properties and huge amount of molecular targets in vitro. Its translation to the clinic is, however, limited by its reduced solubility and bioavailability in patients. In order to overcome these pharmacokinetic deficits of curcumin, several strategies, such as the design of synthetic analogs, the combination with specific adjuvants or nano-formulations, have been developed. By taking into account the risk-benefit profile of drug combinations, as well as the knowledge about curcumin’s structure-activity relationship, a new concept for the combination of curcumin with scaffolds from different natural products or components has emerged. The concept of a hybrid curcumin molecule is based on the incorporation or combination of curcumin with specific antibodies, adjuvants or other natural products already used or not in conventional chemotherapy, in one single molecule. The high diversity of such conjugations enhances the selectivity and inherent biological activities and properties, as well as the efficacy of the parental compound, with particular emphasis on improving the efficacy of curcumin for future clinical treatments.
Multiple Wnts Redundantly Control Polarity Orientation in Caenorhabditis elegans Epithelial Stem Cells

During development, cell polarization is often coordinated to harmonize tissue patterning and morphogenesis. However, how extrinsic signals synchronize cell polarization is not understood. In Caenorhabditis elegans, most mitotic cells are polarized along the anterior-posterior axis and divide asymmetrically. Although this process is regulated by a Wnt-signaling pathway, Wnts functioning in cell polarity have been demonstrated in only a few cells. We analyzed how Wnts control cell polarity, using compound Wnt mutants, including animals with mutations in all five Wnt genes. We found that somatic gonadal precursor cells (SGPs) are properly polarized and oriented in quintuple Wnt mutants, suggesting Wnts are dispensable for the SGPs' polarity, which instead requires signals from the germ cells. Thus, signals from the germ cells organize the C. elegans somatic gonad. In contrast, in compound but not single Wnt mutants, most of the six seam cells, V1–V6 (which are epithelial stem cells), retain their polarization, but their polar orientation becomes random, indicating that it is redundantly regulated by multiple Wnt genes. In contrast, in animals in which the functions of three Wnt receptors (LIN-17, MOM-5, and CAM-1) are disrupted—the stem cells are not polarized and divide symmetrically—suggesting that the Wnt receptors are essential for generating polarity and that they function even in the absence of Wnts. All the seam cells except V5 were polarized properly by a single Wnt gene expressed at the cell's anterior or posterior. The ectopic expression of posteriorly expressed Wnts in an anterior region and vice versa rescued polarity defects in compound Wnt mutants, raising two possibilities: one, Wnts permissively control the orientation of polarity; or two, Wnt functions are instructive, but which orientation they specify is determined by the cells that express them. Our results provide a paradigm for understanding how cell polarity is coordinated by extrinsic signals.
A Laboratory Evaluation of Medicinal Herbs Used in China for the Treatment of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) and coxsackievirus A16 (CVA16) are the causative agents of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD). During recent epidemics of HFMD in China, medicinal herbals and preparations containing herbal extracts have demonstrated therapeutic efficacy with relative safety profiles. There have been no microbiological studies to validate their usefulness for HFMD. We selected 12 commonly used herbs for HFMD from government recommended guidelines as well as published reports and tested for their antiviral activity and anti-inflammatory activity. A water extract of Houttuynia cordata Thunb. (HCT) inhibited EV71 infection significantly and was marginally active against CVA16 infection. The IC50 (concentration to have 50% inhibitory effect) values of HCT against a Fuyang strain and a BrCr strain of EV71 were determined at 8.9 μg/mL and 20.6 μg/mL, respectively. Mentha haplocalyx Briq. (MHB) water extract was active against CVA16, with an IC50 value of 70.3 μg/mL. The extract did not exhibit activity against EV71 infection. Although the majority of the extracts showed no activity against viral infection, several extracts demonstrated activity in blocking proinflammatory response by viral infection. This study therefore validates the effectiveness of Chinese herbs for HFMD since some formulations containing the correct combination of the herbs can block viral replication as well as proinflammatory response of HFMD.
Detail-Preserving 3D Shape Modeling from Raw Volumetric Dataset via Hessian-Constrained Local Implicit Surfaces Optimization

Massive routinely-acquired raw volumetric datasets are hard to be deeply exploited by cyber worlds related downstream applications due to the challenges in accurate and efficient shape modeling. This paper systematically advocates an interactive 3D shape modeling framework for raw volumetric datasets by iteratively optimizing Hessian-constrained local implicit surfaces. The key idea is to incorporate contour based interactive segmentation into the generalized local implicit surface reconstruction. Our framework allows a user to flexibly define derivative constraints up to the second order via intuitively placing contours on the cross sections of volumetric images and fine-tuning the eigenvector frame of Hessian matrix. It enables detail-preserving local implicit representation while combating certain difficulties due to ambiguous image regions, low-quality irregular data, close sheets, and massive coefficients involved extra computing burden. Moreover, we conduct extensive experiments on some volumetric images with blurry object boundaries, and make comprehensive, quantitative performance evaluation between our method and the state-of-the-art radial basis function based techniques. All the results demonstrate our method's advantages in the accuracy, detail-preserving, efficiency, and versatility of shape modeling.
Building a Semantic Classification of Image Database from Patterns of Relevance Feedback

The representation of human perception has become one of the most active research topics in image retrieval. This paper proposes a novel search result clustering based relevance feedback mechanism for image retrieval, in which the value of image co-occurrence is used for mining the association of images and then the tolerance rough class is adapt to capturing the relationship among images in image database. Experimental results show that the performance of the retrieval is greatly improved and it is feasible to discover the knowledge in data obtained from relevance feedback by applying the rough set theory.
Spelling Correction of User Search Queries through Statistical Machine Translation

We use character-based statistical machine translation in order to correct user search queries in the e-commerce domain. The training data is automatically extracted from event logs where users re-issue their search queries with potentially corrected spelling within the same session. We show results on a test set which was annotated by humans and compare against online autocorrection capabilities of three additional web sites. Overall, the methods presented in this paper outperform fully productized spellchecking and autocorrection services in terms of accuracy and F1 score. We also propose novel evaluation steps based on retrieved search results of the corrected queries in terms of quantity and relevance.
Towards a dynamic computational model of visual attention

One way to improve the design and diagnosis of HMIs is to use a cognitive model of human operators (e.g. aircraft pilots). Such a model is also intended to attend human operators on-line by anticipating the occurrence of errors. In this framework, an issue consists in defining a dynamic computational model of visual attention. The computational model proposed in this paper aims at reproducing the cognitive mechanisms of selection/filtering of visual information. These mechanisms have been widely highlighted by cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists. In this paper, the original model of Itti [1] is improved: temporal dynamics is considered. Moreover top-down mechanisms are introduced to deal with aware search of complex information. Experiments with an eyetracker are planned in a micro-world environment close to pilots’ HMIs: they will help us assessing and refining the model.
The Application of Mathematical Morphology and Pattern Recognition to Building Polygon Simplification

The simplification of inhabited map area, especially simplifying the urban inhabited map area, is a difficult problem of automatic map generalization all along. There are many research results about this item in recent years, most of them are vector-based algorithms, and the others are raster-based. There is no perfect method which can make satisfactory generalization of inhabited map area yet. The main reason of this status is that it is difficult to get and use the semantic and spatial information of inhabited map area. In this paper, we present an approach to simplifying building polygon-one aspect of the simplification of inhabited map area, which is supported by a data model combining the raster and the vector model and adopt the methods of mathematical morphology and pattern recognition assisted by Neural Network. A system based on this method is carried out in the environment of Visual C~(++), the results of test prove that the method is in evidence on preserving the shape characters of urban blocks. This approach, integrating the knowledge of map generalization into the simplification of graph, is an attempt on intellectualizing automatic map generalization.
The Impact of Intangibles on Value Creation: Comparative Analysis of the Gu&Lev Methodology for the United States Software and Hardware Sector

The aim of this paper was to analyze the contribution of intangible assets in the value creation of companies, using the methodology proposed by Gu and Lev (2003, 2011). The database used was collected in Datastream with information covering the period from 2001 to 2010. The main results indicate that: (i) the variables RD and SGA and RD, SGA and CAPEX represent intangibility proxies for the software and hardware sector, respectively; (ii) comprehensive value explains the market value for the two sectors; and (iii) the intangibility indices ICBV and RI and MtCV, ICM and RI present a positive and significant relationship with shareholder return for the software and hardware sector, respectively. The principal implication of the paper is having found a positive and significant relationship between comprehensive value and market value. Accordingly, if this variable really explains the market value, it is a solution to a problem that afflicts accountants, which is how to account for intangibles in the balance sheet. / El objetivo de este trabajo fue analizar la contribucion de los activos intangibles en la creacion de valor de las empresas utilizando la metodologia propuesta por Gu y Lev (2003, 2011). La base de datos utilizada fue recogida en Datastream con informacion que abarca el periodo de 2001-2010. Los principales resultados indican que: (i) las variables RD y SGA y RD, SGA y CAPEX representan proxies de intangibilidad para el sector del software y hardware, respectivamente; (ii) el comprehensive value explica el valor de mercado para los dos sectores, y (iii) los indices de intangibilidad ICBV y RI y MtCV, ICM y RI presentan una relacion positiva y significativa con el rendimiento para los accionistas en el sector del software y hardware, respectivamente. La principal consecuencia de este articulo fue obtener una relacion positiva y significativa entre el comprehensive value y su valor de mercado. Si esta variable realmente explica el valor de mercado, se trata de una solucion a un problema que afecta a los contables, que es como contabilizar los activos intangibles en el balance general.
Pitch continuity and speech source attribution

Two experiments showed that continuity of the pitch contour is an important perceptual indicator that a formant pattern comes from a single speech source. Subjects listened to repeatedly played formant patterns that changed smoothly between two vowels. When the pitch was a monotone, these patterns were heard as containing semivowels and liquid consonants; but when a discontinuous, steplike pitch contour was imposed on the patterns, they divided into two perceptually distinct speech sources, and the phonemic percept changed to a predominance of stop consonants. In the second experiment, this effect was shown to be due to changes in pitch itself, rather than to concomitant changes in amplitude or energy. Earlier suggestions that continuity of both formant structure and pitch contour are important for the perceptual coherence of speech were borne out.
Wideband Speech Coding Advances in VMR-WB Standard

This paper presents novel techniques for source-controlled variable-rate wideband speech coding. These techniques have been used in the variable-rate multimode wideband (VMR-WB) speech codec recently selected by the Third-Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) for wideband (WB) speech telephony, streaming, and multimedia messaging services in the cdma2000 third-generation wireless system. The codec utilizes efficient coding modes optimized for different classes of speech signal including generic coding based on AMR-WB for transients and onsets, voiced coding optimized for stable voiced signals, unvoiced coding optimized for unvoiced segments, and comfort noise generation for inactive segments. Several innovations enable very good performance at average bit rates below 8 kb/s for active speech coding. The article presents an overview of the codec and describes in detail some of the codec novel features: Robust pitch tracking algorithm, coding-mode dependent prediction of linear prediction (LP) filter quantization, and novel frame erasure concealment techniques including supplementary information for reconstruction of lost onsets and improving decoder convergence. Selected results from the Selection and Characterization tests of the codec illustrate its performance
bicoid mRNA localises to the Drosophila oocyte anterior by random Dynein-mediated transport and anchoring

bicoid mRNA localises to the Drosophila oocyte anterior from stage 9 of oogenesis onwards to provide a local source for Bicoid protein for embryonic patterning. Live imaging at stage 9 reveals that bicoid mRNA particles undergo rapid Dynein-dependent movements near the oocyte anterior, but with no directional bias. Furthermore, bicoid mRNA localises normally in shot2A2, which abolishes the polarised microtubule organisation. FRAP and photo-conversion experiments demonstrate that the RNA is stably anchored at the anterior, independently of microtubules. Thus, bicoid mRNA is localised by random active transport and anterior anchoring. Super-resolution imaging reveals that bicoid mRNA forms 110–120 nm particles with variable RNA content, but constant size. These particles appear to be well-defined structures that package the RNA for transport and anchoring. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.17537. 001
DNA barcoding and morphology reveal two common species in one: Pimpla molesta stat. rev. separated from P. croceipes (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae)

Abstract Correct species identification is the basis of ecological studies. Nevertheless, morphological examination alone may not be enough to tell species apart. Here, our integrated molecular and morphological studies demonstrate that the relatively widespread and common neotropical parasitoid wasp Pimpla croceipes Cresson, 1874 (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Pimplinae) actually consists of two distinct species. The name Pimpla molesta (Smith, 1879), stat. rev. is available for the second species. The two species were identified by DNA barcoding and minor differences in morphology and colouration. Our results support the previous notions that DNA barcoding can complement morphological identification and aid the discovery of cryptic species complexes.
IMAGE: a language for the interactive manipulation of a graphics environment

This paper addresses itself to the problems involved in programming an interactive computer graphics display. A list of graphical programming facilities considered necessary for an interactive graphic programming language is presented. An examination of several application programs, written in a variety of existing languages, revealed that many of these facilities are usually lacking.This paper presents the design of a new interactive graphics language 'IMAGE', developed specifically to satisfy the above criteria. The language places particular emphasis on providing a graphics application programmer the ability to program graphical interaction. The 'IMAGE' language utilizes the better features of several current graphic languages and combines these features with a unique interaction control structure. This OBJECT / ACTION control structure, the display picture description syntax and the hardware independent handling of input devices are the main features of the language, providing excellent graphical input response and drawing facilities. The device independent input / output structure permits the implementation of a portable language syntax, since there are no references to display hardware devices. All display references are performed through a virtual terminal. This paper contains a detailed description of the main features of the language and these features are illustrated in an example 'IMAGE' program.
Auction-based task allocation scheme for dynamic coalition formations in limited robotic swarms with heterogeneous capabilities

Task allocation is one of the main issues to be addressed in the domain of multi-robot systems, in which it is determined which robot(s) should execute which task(s) so that overall system goal is achieved. Such collective decision making process is of great significance during complex task execution by swarm of simple robots with heterogeneous capabilities. This work targets the issue of coalition formations in a limited swarm of robots to perform a task requiring multiple single-task robots (ST-MR-IA) depending upon their heterogeneous capability conditions. Capabilities of individual robots may vary to different certain levels in a dynamic environment during task execution which can further affect the coalition formed to execute a specific complex task requiring certain level of collective/group capability. This study aims to suggest an algorithm for task allocations through auction mechanism to form a new or modify a coalition underway, where individual robots may gain or lose their task capabilities at certain time instants. Effectiveness of proposed algorithm in terms of task-execution time and utility of coalitions is analyzed through simulations.