Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Psychosocial Test of the Maturity Gap Thesis

Previous tests of the maturity gap thesis incorporated one-dimensional autonomy-based measures of social maturity. We present the first test of the maturity gap thesis to incorporate psychosocial measures (i.e., temperance, responsibility, and perspective). Four delinquency and substance abuse variables from Wave 2 of the Add Health data were regressed on the following variables developed from Wave 1: relative pubertal development, relative psychosocial maturity, personal autonomy, and interactions among each (n = 4,530 participants younger than 18 and 294 older than 18). Personal autonomy lost significance when psychosocial maturity, personal autonomy, and pubertal development were included in the same model. However, psychosocial maturity did not clearly interact with either personal autonomy or pubertal development. Psychosocial maturity was associated with deviant behaviors for both males and females, above and below age 18.
Genome-wide and single-base resolution DNA methylomes of the Sea Lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) Reveal Gradual Transition of the Genomic Methylation Pattern in Early Vertebrates

In eukaryotes, cytosine methylation is a primary heritable epigenetic modification of the genome that regulates many cellular processes. While the whole-genome methylation pattern has been generally conserved in different eukaryotic groups, invertebrates and vertebrates exhibit two distinct patterns. Whereas almost all CpG sites are methylated in most vertebrates, with the exception of short unmethylated regions call CpG islands, the most frequent pattern in invertebrate animals is ‘mosaic methylation’, comprising domains of heavily methylated DNA interspersed with domains that are methylation free. The mechanism by which the genome methylation pattern transited from a mosaic to a global pattern and the role of the one or two-round whole-genome duplication in this transition remain largely elusive, partly owing to the lack of methylome data from early vertebrates. In this study, we used the whole-genome bisulfite-sequencing technology to investigate the genome-wide methylation in three tissues (heart, muscle, and sperm) from the sea lamprey, an extant Agarthan vertebrate. Analyses of methylation level and the extent of CpG dinucleotide depletion of geneencoding, intergenic and promoter regions revealed a gradual increase in the methylation level from invertebrates to vertebrates, with the sea lamprey exhibiting an intermediate position. In addition, the methylation level of the majority of CpGs was intermediate in each sea lamprey tissue, indicating a high level of heterogeneity of methylation status between individual cells. In this regard, we defined the genomic methylation pattern of sea lamprey as “global genomic DNA intermediate methylation”. The methylation features in different genomic regions, such as the transcription start site (TSS) region of the gene body, exon-intron boundaries, transposons, as well as genes grouping with different expression levels, supported the gradual methylation transition hypothesis. We further discussed that the copy number difference in DNA methylation transferases and the loss of the PWWP domain and/or DNTase domain in DNMT3 sub-family enzymes may have contributed to the methylation pattern transition in early vertebrates. These findings demonstrate an intermediate genomic methylation pattern between invertebrates and jawed vertebrates, providing evidence that supports the hypothesis that methylation patterns underwent a gradual transition from invertebrates (mosaic) to vertebrates (global).
Power Simulation for Categorical Data Using the RANTBL Function

Increases in computing power have enabled Monte Carlo simulations to become increasingly common in contemporary statistical practice. Some applications require specialized statistical software while others can be implemented with general multipurpose statistical programs. Simulations of the power of statistical tests—the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is false—are among those applications that can be implemented in programs like SAS. This article will demonstrate how the SAS program, and in particular, its RANTBL function can be used to simulate the power of many statistical tests for categorical data. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages will be described of simulating random variables from a probability distribution defined by a table of values rather than by the parameters of a probability mass function. Code will be provided for simulating the power of the Kendall Tau-b correlation coefficient. The reason for simulating the power of the Kendall statistic is that there is no widely used power/ sample size formula for accomplishing this task. Code will also be given for simulating the power of the main predictor of a logistic regression model with a single covariate. For logistic regression models there are such formulas but they do not satisfactorily take into account the impact of covariates and this can be done in the simulation approach. Finally, guidance will be offered regarding the circumstances in which using the noncentral chi-square approach to power calculations might be easier to implement than Monte Carol simulations.
Measuring Nightmare Frequency: Retrospective Questionnaires Versus Prospective Logs

Retrospective measurements underestimate nightmare frequency, but little is known about how retrospective duration and attention for nightmares may affect this process. This study evaluates the differences between two retrospec- tive durations, a prospective log, and a retrospective estimate after keeping this log. Forty-nine participants completed the SLEEP-50, kept a nightmare log, and estimated their nightmares after keeping a log. Paired t-tests showed that estimates of nightmare frequencies differed significantly from each other according to measurement type (p < .05). Prospective logs are the most accurate way of estimating nightmare frequency, possibly due to simply forgetting over time. For treatment studies relying solely on retrospective measurements, a short duration is recommended.
Novelty-Knowledge Alignment: A Theory of Design Convergence in Systems Development

Recent research emphasizing the need for more business knowledge in information technology (IT) units and more technical knowledge in line functions largely overlooks the question of when maintaining either form of such "peripheral" knowledge—a costly endeavor—is valuable. Further application and process novelty are increasingly unavoidable in systems development projects but remain largely overlooked in theory. It is plausible that one type of peripheral knowledge is valuable under one type of novelty but not the other. I develop the idea that discriminating alignment between project novelty and peripheral knowledge is needed for them to enhance systems development performance. Thus, the valuable type of peripheral knowledge depends on whether a project involves novelty in the project concept or in its development processes. Further, we lack an explanation for how such discriminating alignment translates into improved project performance. I develop and test a middle-range theory built around two ideas to address these gaps. First, alignment between project novelty and peripheral knowledge must be discriminating to enhance systems development performance. Second, such discriminating alignment accelerates design convergence, which in turn enhances systems development performance. Tests using data from 159 projects support the proposed ideas. The primary contribution of this paper is therefore explaining when and how alignment between project novelty and peripheral knowledge in IT and client departments enhances systems development performance. The key implication is that greater application domain knowledge in the IT unit (technical knowledge in the client department) enhances performance in projects involving greater application novelty (process novelty).
The evolution and simulation of the outburst from XZ Tauri - A possible EXor?

Received date ;accepted date Abstract. We report on multi-epoch HST/WFPC2 images of the XZ Tauri binary, and its outflow, covering the period from 1995 to 2001. Data from 1995 to 1998 have already been published in the literature. Additional images, from 1999, 2000 and 2001 are presented here. These reveal not only further dynamical and morphological evolution of the XZ Tauri outflow but also that the suspected outflow source, XZ Tauri North has flar ed in EXor-type fashion. In particular our proper motion studies suggests that the recently discovered bubble-like shock, driven by the the XZ Tauri outflow, is slowing down (its tangent ial velocity decreasing from 146 km s 1 to 117 km s 1 ). We also present simulations of the outflow itself, with pla usible ambient and outflow parameters, that appear to reproduce not only the dynamical evolution of the flow, but also its shape and emissi on line luminosity.
Randomized Convergent Encryption in the Standard Model via UCEs

In this paper, we instantiate random oracle (RO) H in the Randomized Convergent Encryption proposed by Bellare et al. (Eurocrypt 2013) via a universal computation alextractor (UCE). We prove that if H is UCE secure for statistically unpredictable source, then there constructed RCE[H] is PRV$-CDA (Strong Privacy-Chosen Distribution Attacks) secure in the standard model.
Semi-automatic Integration of Knowledge Sources

Integration of knowledge from multiple independent sources presents problems due to their semantic heterogeneity. Careful handling of semantics is important for reliable interaction with autonomous sources. This paper highlights some of the issues involved in automating the process of selective integration and details the techniques to deal with them. The approach taken is semi-automatic in nature focusing on identifying the articulation over two ontologies, i.e., the terms where linkage occurs among the sources. A semantic knowledge articulation tool (SKAT) based on simple lexical and structural matching works well in our experiments and semi-automatically detects the intersection of two web sources. An expert can initially provide both positive and negative matching rules on the basis of which the articulation is to be determined and then override the automatically generated articulation before it is finalized. The articulation may be stored or generated on demand and is used to answer customer queries efficiently.
Orchestra in a Box: A System for Real-Time Musical Accompaniment

We describe a computer system that plays a responsive and sensitive accompaniment to a live musician in a piece of non-improvised music. The system of composed of three components “Listen,” “Anticipate” and “Synthesize. ” Listen analyzes the soloist’s acoustic signal and estimates note onset times using a hidden Markov model. Synthesize plays a prerecorded audio file back at variable rate using a phase vocoder. Anticipate creates a Bayesian network that mediates between Listen and Synthesize. The system has a learning phase, analogous to a series of rehearsals, in which model parameters for the network are estimated from training data. In performance, the system synthesizes the musical score, the training data, and the on-line analysis of the soloist’s acoustic signal using a principled decision-making engine, based on the Bayesian network. A live demonstration will be given using the aria Mi Chiamano Mimi from Puccini’s opera La Bohème.
A Gaussian Mixture Model-based clustering algorithm for image segmentation using dependable spatial constraints

In this paper, a Gaussian Mixture Model-based clustering algorithm using dependable spatial constraints is proposed for image segmentation. In order to enhance the segmentation performance, the proposed algortihm utilizes the consistence between the pixel and its local window to discriminate uncorrupted pixels from corrupted pixels. Then, using these uncorrupted pixels, the dependable spatial constraints are applied to influence the labeling of the pixel. In this way, the spatial information with high reliability is incorporated into the segmentation process, as a result, the segmentation accuracy is guaranteed to a great extent. The extensive segmentation experiments on both synthetic and real images demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Robust Division in Clustering of Streaming Time Series

Online learning algorithms which address fast data streams should process examples at the rate they arrive, using a single scan of data and fixed memory, maintaining a decision model at any time and being able to adapt the model to the most recent data. These features yield the necessity of using approximate models. One problem that usually arises with approximate models is the definition of a minimum number of observations necessary to assure convergence, which implies a high risk since the system may have to decide based only on a small subset of the entire data. One approach is to apply techniques based on the Hoeffding bound to enforce decisions with a confidence level. In divisive clustering of time series, the goal is to find clusters of similar time series over time. In online approaches there are two decisions to make: when to split and how to assign variables to new clusters. We can define a confidence level to both the decision of splitting and the assignment of data variables to new clusters. Previous works have already addressed confident decisions on the moment of split. Our proposal is to include a confidence level to the assignment process. When a split point is reported, creating two new clusters, we can directly assign points which are confidently closer to one cluster than the other, having a different strategy for those variables which do not satisfy the confidence level. In this paper we propose to assign the unsure variables to a third cluster. Experimental evaluation is presented in the context of a recently proposed hierarchical algorithm, assessing the advantages of the proposal, revealing also advantages on memory usage reduction and processing speed. Although this proposal is evaluated under the scope of an existent method, it can be generalized to any divisive procedure.
Paninian grammar based hindi dialogue anaphora resolution

In this paper, we present a Paninian grammar based heuristic model1 to resolve entity-pronoun references in Hindi dialogue. We explore the use of Paninian based dependency structures as a source of syntactico-semantic information. Our experiments illustrate that the use of dependency and dialogue structures help to resolve specific types of references. We also show that named entity, discourse information like subtopic boundary and animacy features increase the overall resolution accuracy to 64% for user-user interaction data and 59% for play-story corpora.
Privacy in Multi-Agent Learning: Securely Inducing a Multi-Agent Decision Tree

In this paper we study the problem of how multiple distributed agents can jointly induce a decision tree, such that each of them preserves privacy over its own data and item set and each of them holds a part of the learned tree. Our work is original in the following ways: First of all, we consider agents to maintain data sites and jointly induce a decision tree. This merely reflects reality, as this is unlikely to be done by humans. Secondly, we formalize what is meant by data which is horizontally or vertically distributed in the literature. Thirdly, we show significance of this problem to real world applications by means of a motivating example. Fourthly, we generalize the state of the art to a situation in which we consider data which is as well vertically as horizontally distributed, which we call grid distributed data. We discuss two different evaluation methods for preserving privacy ID3, namely, first merging data horizontally and developing vertically or first merging data vertically and next developing horizontally. Finally, the main contribution of this paper is that we show, by means of a complexity analysis, that the former evaluation method is the more efficient.
Raising motivation in secondary school students: can contextualising mathematical concepts in real world situations improve learning? A preliminary study

This study is a preliminary investigation into whether secondary school students can be motivated by the introduction of material into their maths curriculum which contains skills which are specifically needed for future life and work. The research takes place in a secondary school where motivation is very mixed. The students are divided into a target and a control group, giving one an adapted curriculum where skills for future life and work are specifically included while the other studies a more traditional academic curriculum. The groups study for three weeks and are then reversed so that the target becomes the control for the next topic. Both groups are given a common assessment task and an open-ended task for homework for each topic. The class is evaluated on: attendance, completion of the open-ended tasks, attitude to learning (questionnaires about the learning in the specific topics) and their topic assessment. Each student also completes an attitude questionnaire and is interviewed at the end of each topic. The teachers are also interviewed and the classes observed by an impartial observer on two occasions. The results indicate some evidence of improved performance in the class with the adapted curriculum in: attendance, assessment (number of questions attempted and number of correct answers), attitude to learning (only slight evidence), quality and independence of classwork and quality and quantity of homework. There was, however, no long-term benefit across the subject as a whole in terms of academic achievement. The students were able to identify the value of some of the maths skills for future life and work but the identifying of such skills did necessarily lead to better performance in these topics. There were no student groups which were specifically identified as being influenced to a greater or lesser extent by the change in curriculum.
Guanxi’s Contribution to Commitment and Productive Conflict Between Banks and Small and Medium Enterprises in China

Guanxi has long been thought to play a critical role in understanding and practicing leadership, teamwork, and organizational partnerships in China. Researchers have argued that guanxi can be usefully understood as a kind of close relationship that obliges partners to assist each other. This study proposes that the theory of cooperation and competition as developed in the West can help us to understand how guanxi affects partner relationships. Findings from data on partnerships between banks and small or medium enterprises in Shanghai support the argument that guanxi strengthens cooperative goals, which in turn results in relationship commitment and productive conflict. Our study’s findings suggest that partners with guanxi interact in mutually beneficial ways that enhance their cooperative goals. Further research is needed to provide a stronger foundation for the causal inferences of these findings, and to investigate whether guanxi as it is known in China can also serve to develop cooperative goals, relationship commitment, and productive conflict among partnerships in other Asian societies and in the West.
Targeting Angiogenesis-Dependent Calcified Neoplasms Using Combined Polymer Therapeutics

Background There is an immense clinical need for novel therapeutics for the treatment of angiogenesis-dependent calcified neoplasms such as osteosarcomas and bone metastases. We developed a new therapeutic strategy to target bone metastases and calcified neoplasms using combined polymer-bound angiogenesis inhibitors. Using an advanced “living polymerization” technique, the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT), we conjugated the aminobisphosphonate alendronate (ALN), and the potent anti-angiogenic agent TNP-470 with N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide (HPMA) copolymer through a Glycine-Glycine-Proline-Norleucine linker, cleaved by cathepsin K, a cysteine protease overexpressed at resorption sites in bone tissues. In this approach, dual targeting is achieved. Passive accumulation is possible due to the increase in molecular weight following polymer conjugation of the drugs, thus extravasating from the tumor leaky vessels and not from normal healthy vessels. Active targeting to the calcified tissues is achieved by ALN's affinity to bone mineral. Methods and Finding The anti-angiogenic and antitumor potency of HPMA copolymer-ALN-TNP-470 conjugate was evaluated both in vitro and in vivo. We show that free and conjugated ALN-TNP-470 have synergistic anti-angiogenic and antitumor activity by inhibiting proliferation, migration and capillary-like tube formation of endothelial and human osteosarcoma cells in vitro. Evaluation of anti-angiogenic, antitumor activity and body distribution of HPMA copolymer-ALN-TNP-470 conjugate was performed on severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) male mice inoculated with mCherry-labeled MG-63-Ras human osteosarcoma and by modified Miles permeability assay. Our targeted bi-specific conjugate reduced VEGF-induced vascular hyperpermeability by 92% and remarkably inhibited osteosarcoma growth in mice by 96%. Conclusions This is the first report to describe a new concept of a narrowly-dispersed combined polymer therapeutic designed to target both tumor and endothelial compartments of bone metastases and calcified neoplasms at a single administration. This new approach of co-delivery of two synergistic drugs may have clinical utility as a potential therapy for angiogenesis-dependent cancers such as osteosarcoma and bone metastases.
A Multi-Agent System for Querying Heterogeneous Data Sources with Ontologies

In this paper we present the SEWASIE system, a multi-level agent-based architecture for querying heterogeneous data sources integrated by means of ontologies. Main features of this system are: two level data integration scheme, a query tool that supports the user in formulating a precise query, integrated tools for negotiation and information monitoring, and an agent infrastructure that provides a unifying framework for the architecture. In this work we focus on the querying process, from the user interfacer to the query answering mechanism. We show how the use of ontologies integrates the user interface with the underlying agent
An alpha-alumina moisture sensor for relative and absolute humidity measurement

A novel humidity sensor using an alpha -alumina porous film has been developed for moisture analysis as well as relative humidity measurement. The humidity sensing dielectric used for the sensor mainly consists of a cylindrical-pore-like alpha -alumina film formed by anodic spark deposition, with a dense amorphous alumina thin barrier layer at the pore base formed by reanodization. The performance characteristics of the sensor, e.g., humidity sensitivity, humidity hysteresis, temperature dependence, response time, reproducibility, and long-term calibration stability, were studied in detail. It was found that the sensor can be used for absolute humidity detection in the range from -80 degrees C to -10 degrees C frost point as well as for relative humidity (RH) measurement from 10% to 100% RH with very stable performance. <<ETX>>
Predicting the masses of heavy hadrons without an explicit Hamiltonian.

There are striking regularities in the masses and mass differences of known hadrons. Some of these regularities can be understood from known general properties of the interactions of quarks without a need to specify the explicit form of the Hamiltonian. The Feynman-Hellmann theorem is one of the tools providing this understanding. If the mass regularities are exploited, predictions can be made of the masses of as yet undiscovered hadrons. In particular, it is found that the mass of the [ital B][sub [ital c]][sup *] is 6320[plus minus]20 MeV. Predictions concerning (i) excited vector mesons, (ii) pseudoscalar mesons, (iii) [ital P]-wave mesons, and (iv) ground-state spin-1/2 and -3/2 baryons are also made.