Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Some Considerations on the Partial Credit Model.

The Partial Credit Model (PCM) is sometimes interpreted as a model for stepwise solution of polytomously scored items, where the item parameters are interpreted as difculties of the steps. It is argued that this interpretation is not justi ed. A model for stepwise solution is discussed. It is shown that the PCM is suited to model sums of binary responses which are not supposed to be stochastically independent. As a practical result, a statistical test of stochastic independence in the Rasch model is derived.
The semigroup structure of Gaussian channels

We investigate the semigroup structure of bosonic Gaussian quantum channels. Particular focus lies on the sets of channels which are divisible, idempotent or Markovian (in the sense of either belonging to one-parameter semigroups or being infinitesimal divisible). We show that the non-compactness of the set of Gaussian channels allows for remarkable differences when comparing the semigroup structure with that of finite dimensional quantum channels. For instance, every irreversible Gaussian channel is shown to be divisible in spite of the existence of Gaussian channels which are not infinitesimal divisible. A simpler and known consequence of non-compactness is the lack of generators for certain reversible channels. Along the way we provide new representations for classes of Gaussian channels: as matrix semigroup, complex valued positive matrices or in terms of a simple form describing almost all one-parameter semigroups.
Productivity, Human Capital Formation Policy, and Redistribution: Do Government Policies Promote Productivity?

Productivity is a most important determinant of national wealth and standards of living. Scholars have shown that different welfare production regimes pursue distinct human capital formation policies to promote productivity. But do those government policies actually promote the productivity of the economy? This paper analyzes whether such policies improve multifactor productivity in industrial democracies, after briefly presenting a human capital investment explanation for why they should help productivity. It finds that family and education policies promote productivity. Evidence of pro-productivity effects of ALMP is not detected. While the provision of public services with redistributive effects is productivity-enhancing, direct redistribution with taxes and transfers itself does not improve productivity, once other human capital formation policies are controlled for. Thus, the analysis finds good reason for governments to pursue human capital policies to promote productivity and ultimately standards of living, but they should do so selectively by choosing appropriate policy tools.
Quantifying organization during atrial fibrillation based on order statistics correlation coefficient

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a type of abnormal heart rhythm exhibiting rapid and irregular patterns. Quantifying the extent of organization (regularity) is of great clinical importance for assessing the effectiveness of antiarrhythmic drugs as well as AF detection. In this paper we propose an organization index (OIX) that quantifies AF organization based on the order statistics correlation coefficient (OSCC) previously developed by the present authors. For comparison, we also construct another similar index (OIP ) based on the classical Pearsonpsilas product-moment correlation coefficient (PPMCC). Statistical evidences suggest that (a) OIX is capable of distinguishing fibrillatory rhythms (AF) from nonfibrillatory rhythms, such as Atrial flutter (AFL); (b) OIX can reflect the effectiveness of adenosine, a drug commonly used during electrophysiological procedures; and (c) OIX performs better than OIP .
Enhancing privacy while preserving the accuracy of collaborative filtering

1 University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel 2 ITC-irst, Trento, Italy Abstract. Collaborative Filtering (CF) is considered a powerful technique for generating personalized recommendations. Centralized storage of user profiles in CF systems presents a privacy breach, since the profiles are available to other users. Recent works proposed enhancing the privacy of the CF by distributing the profiles between multiple repositories. This work investigates how a decentralized distributed storage of user profiles combined with data perturbation techniques mitigates the privacy issues. Experiments, conducted on three datasets, show that relatively large parts of the profiles can be perturbed without hampering the accuracy of the CF. The experiments also allow conclusion to be drawn regarding the specific users and parts of the profiles that are valuable for generating accurate CF predictions.
On the Design of Scalable Peer-to-Peer Video Caching

Peer-to-Peer(P2P)video caching is a promising approach to accommodate asynchronous requests from cached content at individual peers. However, coherently managing a distributed, heterogeneous, dynamic and potentially large scale cache space is a challenging task. In particular, a key challenge is to effectively control the number of cached copies for popular streams in order to accommodate their concurrent requests with minimum thrashing in the cached content. A few prior studies on P2P video caching rely on the global cache state in order to achieve this goal and, therefore, exhibit limited scalability. This paper examines key issues in the design of a scalable P2P video caching mechanism that can effectively control the number of cached copies for popular streams by only leveraging the local information at each peer.We argue that the local notion of popularity can serve a sane effective measure to perform cache replacement at individual peers. We sketch two straw-man P2P video caching techniques that rely on the trends in the popularity of individual streams to control the required number of copies in a reactive or proactive fashion. Using simulation, we examine the performance of the proposed mechanisms along with the distributed(and uncoordinated) version of LRU and LFU mechanisms that only use local work load at each peer.Our results show that distributed and uncoordinated P2P video caching generally exhibit good performance across a wide range of scenarios.
Performance Evaluation of SPEC OMP Benchmarks on the InfiniBand-Based Cluster System

Recently many advanced hardware-based interconnection schemes to connect physically distributed processing nodes have been developed to overcome performance limitation of networks, and one of them is the InfiniBand Architecture (IBA) which supports shared-memory programming semantics by means of remote direct-memory access (RDMA) and atomic operations. In this paper, we evaluate performance of SPEC OMP benchmarks on the InfiniBandbased Distributed Virtual Shared-Memory (DVSM) system in detail. Our research helps the system and application developers to estimate the applicability of the OpenMP applications on a commodity cluster of workstations to use the state-of-the-art interconnection networks for the next
New Frontiers in the Intrarenal Renin-Angiotensin System: A Critical Review of Classical and New Paradigms

The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is well-recognized as one of the oldest and most important regulators of arterial blood pressure, cardiovascular, and renal function. New frontiers have recently emerged in the RAS research well beyond its classic paradigm as a potent vasoconstrictor, an aldosterone release stimulator, or a sodium-retaining hormone. First, two new members of the RAS have been uncovered, which include the renin/(Pro)renin receptor (PRR) and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Recent studies suggest that prorenin may act on the PRR independent of the classical ACE/ANG II/AT1 receptor axis, whereas ACE2 may degrade ANG II to generate ANG (1–7), which activates the Mas receptor. Second, there is increasing evidence that ANG II may function as an intracellular peptide to activate intracellular and/or nuclear receptors. Third, currently there is a debate on the relative contribution of systemic versus intrarenal RAS to the physiological regulation of blood pressure and the development of hypertension. The objectives of this article are to review and discuss the new insights and perspectives derived from recent studies using novel transgenic mice that either overexpress or are deficient of one key enzyme, ANG peptide, or receptor of the RAS. This information may help us better understand how ANG II acts, both independently or through interactions with other members of the system, to regulate the kidney function and blood pressure in health and disease.
AN EFFECTIVE CROSS RATE PACKET AGGREGATION SCHEME FOR VIRTUALIZED NETWORK CLOUD COMPUTING

Virtualization enables the cloud computing. The bottleneck of transferring packets from driver domain to Virtual Machines (VMs) in I/O channel was eliminated by Basic Aggregation and Destination based Aggregation scheme, but it is limited to aggregating packets for a particular destination and missing out more effective packet combinations. This can cause significant loss in capacity as packets on high quality links get demoted to low transmission rates. In this paper, using a new packet aggregation scheme, the network performance is improved. The proposed scheme aggregate the packet based on data rate dynamically on the I/O channel characteristic and it achieves better communication in cloud network, it balance the data rate between wired and wireless. The proposed model named as Cross Data Rate based Aggregation (CDRA) divides packet in MAC queue into groups based on the data rate, packets are to be transmitted at driver domain to VM. The algorithm aggregates packets in the same group and broadcasts the aggregated frame at the data rate of that group. CDRA aggregates packets for all links that have varying data rate and able to transmit packets out of order. The experimental evaluation shows that selectively demoting packets can further improve performance.
Efficient Removal of Points with Smallest Crowding Distance in Two-dimensional Incremental Non-dominated Sorting

Many evolutionary multi-objective algorithms rely heavily on non-dominated sorting, the procedure of assigning ranks to individuals according to Pareto domination relation. The steady-state versions of these algorithms need efficient implementations of incremental non-dominated sorting, an algorithm or data structure which supports efficient addition of a new individual and deletion of the worst individual. Recent research brought new advanced algorithms, but none of them can be cheaply adapted to sublinear location of the point having the smallest crowding distance, a measure used in the NSGA-II algorithm. In this paper we address this issue by reducing it to a series of extreme point queries to certain convex polygons. We present theoretical estimation of the worst-case running time, as well as experimental results which show that the proposed modifications reduce the running time significantly on benchmark problems for large population sizes.
Single Chain Variable Fragment Against Aβ Expressed in Baculovirus Inhibits Abeta Fibril Elongation and Promotes its Disaggregation

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of age-related dementia, and the most urgent problem is that it is currently incurable. Amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide is believed to play a major role in the pathogenesis of AD. We previously reported that an Aβ N-terminal amino acid targeting monoclonal antibody (MAb), A8, inhibits Aβ fibril formation and has potential as an immunotherapy for AD based on a mouse model. To further study the underlying mechanisms, we tested our hypothesis that the single chain fragment variable (scFv) without the Fc fragment is capable of regulating either Aβ aggregation or disaggregation in vitro. Here, a model of cell-free Aβ “on-pathway” aggregation was established and identified using PCR, Western blot, ELISA, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and thioflavin T (ThT) binding analyses. His-tagged A8 scFvs was cloned and solubly expressed in baculovirus. Our data demonstrated that the Ni-NTA agarose affinity-purified A8 scFv inhibited the forward reaction of “on-pathway” aggregation and Aβ fibril maturation. The effect of A8 scFv on Aβ fibrillogenesis was markedly more significant when administered at the start of the Aβ folding reaction. Furthermore, the results also showed that pre-formed Aβ fibrils could be disaggregated via incubation with purified A8 scFv, which suggested that A8 scFv is involved in the reverse reaction of Aβ aggregation. Therefore, A8 scFv was capable of both inhibiting fibrillogenesis and disaggregating matured fibrils. Our present study provides valuable insight into the regulators of ultrastructural dynamics of cell-free “on-pathway” Aβ aggregation and will assist in the development of therapeutic strategies for AD.
INTEGRATION OF THE PRIMITIVE BAROTROPIC MODEL OVER A SPHERICAL GEODESIC GRID

Abstract Conservative finite-difference approximations are developed for the primitive barotropic model over a spherical geodesic grid. Truncation error considerations show that the grid resolution must be at least as fine as 2½° in order for the error not to dominate the mass flux calculations. When the fine resolution is used, the approximations are seen to be quite good. Comparisons are made with schemes in use today with approximately the same resolution applied to the same initial condition.
Paranode Abnormalities and Oxidative Stress in Optic Nerve Vulnerable to Secondary Degeneration: Modulation by 670 nm Light Treatment

Secondary degeneration of nerve tissue adjacent to a traumatic injury results in further loss of neurons, glia and function, via mechanisms that may involve oxidative stress. However, changes in indicators of oxidative stress have not yet been demonstrated in oligodendrocytes vulnerable to secondary degeneration in vivo. We show increases in the oxidative stress indicator carboxymethyl lysine at days 1 and 3 after injury in oligodendrocytes vulnerable to secondary degeneration. Dihydroethidium staining for superoxide is reduced, indicating endogenous control of this particular reactive species after injury. Concurrently, node of Ranvier/paranode complexes are altered, with significant lengthening of the paranodal gap and paranode as well as paranode disorganisation. Therapeutic administration of 670 nm light is thought to improve oxidative metabolism via mechanisms that may include increased activity of cytochrome c oxidase. Here, we show that light at 670 nm, delivered for 30 minutes per day, results in in vivo increases in cytochrome c oxidase activity co-localised with oligodendrocytes. Short term (1 day) 670 nm light treatment is associated with reductions in reactive species at the injury site. In optic nerve vulnerable to secondary degeneration superoxide in oligodendrocytes is reduced relative to handling controls, and is associated with reduced paranode abnormalities. Long term (3 month) administration of 670 nm light preserves retinal ganglion cells vulnerable to secondary degeneration and maintains visual function, as assessed by the optokinetic nystagmus visual reflex. Light at a wavelength of 670 nm may serve as a therapeutic intervention for treatment of secondary degeneration following neurotrauma.
Medium-/Long-Term Effects of a Specific Exercise Protocol Combined with Patient Education on Spine Mobility, Chronic Fatigue, Pain, Aerobic Fitness and Level of Disability in Fibromyalgia

Objective. To propose a rehabilitation protocol able to produce immediate and long-term beneficial effects on level of disability and overall performance in ADLs. Materials and Methods. Forty-one FM patients were randomized to an exercise and educational-behavioral programme group (experimental group, EG = 21) or to a control group (CG = 20). Each subject was evaluated before, at the end (T1), and after 6 months (T6) from the conclusion of the rehabilitation treatment using the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), the visual analogue scale (VAS), the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), the fatigue severity scale (FSS), the 6-minute walking test (6MWT), tender points count (TPC), and spinal active range of motion. The exercise protocol included 20 sessions consisting in self-awareness, stretching, strengthening, spine flexibility, and aerobic exercises, which patients were subsequently educated to perform at home. Results. The two groups were comparable at baseline. At T1, the EG showed a positive trend in FIQ, VAS, HAQ, and FSS scales and significant improvement in 6MWT and in most spinal active range of motion measurements (P between 0.001 and 0.04). The positive results were maintained at the follow-up. Conclusion. The proposed programme was well tolerated and produced immediate and medium-term beneficial effects improving function and strain endurance. This trial is registered with DRKS00005071 on DRKS.
Estimates of Food Consumption by Marine Mammals in the Eastern

One important aspect of the management of commercial fisheries in an ecosystem context involves understanding the diet and consumption rates of fish species by their natural predators. Such knowledge allows for comparison of commercial fish catches with consumption through predation by species groups such as marine mammals. For the Bering Sea, the limited data available only allows a preliminary assessment of food consumption by marine mammals. Estimates of food consumption for this study were based on marine mammal population and diet data reported in the literature. Where direct consumption data were not available, consumption was estimated from population data and energy requirements. Food consumption by marine mammals (except walrus) in the eastern Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands region was estimated at 3.21 x 10 metric tons (t) per year. Fish comprised 42% of food consumed, an estimated 1.34 x 10 t of fish eaten per year. Pinnipeds ate 65% of the estimated annual consumption of fish. Marine mammals ate an estimated 3.2% of the standing stock of all fish species occurring in the eastern Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands region. Accounting for variations in population size over time of marine mammals in the Bering Sea, the estimated historical consumption of fish by all marine mammals was 0.44 x 10 t to 3.04 x 10 t, which represents 1.0% to 7.3% of the standing stock of all fish species. Commercial groundfish fisheries during the period 1988-90 caught about 7.1% (1.79 x 10 t) of the stock of commercially important groundfish species each year, whereas, at present, marine mammals annually consume an estimated 2.0% (0.45 x 10 t) of the standing stock of those fish species. This is 75% lower than the average commercial catch. THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
Building Recommender Systems using a Knowledge Base of Product Semantics

Online retailers have access to large amounts of transactional data but current recommender systems tend to be short-sighted in nature and usually focus on the narrow problem of pushing a set of closely related products that try to satisfy the user’s current need. Most ecommerce recommender systems analyze a large amount of transactional data without actually having any idea of what the items in the transactions mean or what they say about the customers who purchased or browsed those items. In this paper, we present a case study of a system that recommends items based on a custom-built knowledge base that consists of products and associated semantic attributes. Our system first extracts semantic features that characterize the domain of interest, apparel products in our case, using text learning techniques and populates a knowledge base with these products and features. The recommender system analyzes descriptions of products that the user browses or buys and automatically infers these semantic attributes to build a model of the user. This abstraction allows us to not only recommend other items in the same class of products that ”match” the user model but also gives us the ability to understand the customer’s ”tastes” and recommend items across categories for which traditional collaborative filtering and contentbased systems are unsuitable. Our approach also allows us to ”explain” the recommendations in terms of qualitative features which, we believe, enhances the user experience and helps build the user’s confidence in the recommendations.
New Arenas for Community Social Work Practice with Urban Youth: Use of the Arts, Humanities, and Sports

This book urges professionals who work with urban youth to develop or rediscover innovative, capacity-enhancing, community-based approaches for engaging young people in activities that systematically build on their talents and energy. Delgado argues that these interventions must be grounded in the community and conceptualized and implemented by the community in order for the youths to become potential community assets rather than a drain on the family and community.
Object agreement and specificity in early Swahili

Schaeffer (1997, 2000) argues that children lack knowledge of specificity because Dutch children omit determiners and fail to scramble pronouns. Avrutin & Brun (2001), however, find that Russian children place arguments correctly according to whether they are specific or non-specific. This paper investigates object agreement and specificity in early Swahili. Object agreement in Swahili is obligatory when the object is specific, but is prohibited when the object is non-specific. Analysis of naturalistic data from four Swahili-speaking children (1;8–3;2) reveals that children overwhelmingly provide object agreement in obligatory contexts (when the object is a personal name, is topicalized, or refers to first/second person). The supply of object agreement cannot be due to a general strategy of overusing agreement, since object agreement does not occur in prohibited contexts such as intransitive clauses. I conclude that object agreement and knowledge of specificity are acquired by Swahili children before the age of two years.
Preparation of Polyphosphazene Hydrogels for Enzyme Immobilization

We report on the synthesis and application of a new hydrogel based on a methacrylate substituted polyphosphazene. Through ring-opening polymerization and nucleophilic substitution, poly[bis(methacrylate)phosphazene] (PBMAP) was successfully synthesized from hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene. By adding PBMAP to methacrylic acid solution and then treating with UV light, we could obtain a cross-linked polyphosphazene network, which showed an ultra-high absorbency for distilled water. Lipase from Candida rugosa was used as the model lipase for entrapment immobilization in the hydrogel. The influence of methacrylic acid concentration on immobilization efficiency was studied. Results showed that enzyme loading reached a maximum of 24.02 mg/g with an activity retention of 67.25% when the methacrylic acid concentration was 20% (w/w).