Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Economist Petitions: Ideology Revealed

We report on 35 US-based economist petitions from 1994 to 2009, featuring 10,792 signatures and 6,030 signatories. We separate the 35 petitions into three categories: 15 liberty-augmenting (or liberal) petitions, 13 liberty-reducing (or interventionist) petitions, and 7 in a category called other. We analyze the data by individual, school, state, and gender. The most remarkable finding is how little crossover there is by individual between liberal and interventionist signing activity: Almost all active petition signers lean heavily toward either liberalism or interventionism. The economists most active in signing liberal petitions include Vernon L. Smith, David R. Henderson and Mark J. Perry. Those most active in signing interventionist petitions include Henry Aaron, Eileen Applebaum, Dean Baker, Peter Dorman, James K. Galbraith, Michael Perelman, Michael Reich, David Terkla, Christopher Tilly, and Thomas E. Weisskopf. We present information on many notable economists, including Nobel laureates. The schools that show the most signatures are George Mason University, University of Chicago, Stanford University, and Harvard University. We find a large difference by gender: Among men the ratio of liberal to interventionist signatures is much higher than it is among women. Note: The article PDF is rather large at 1.68MB.
Context modeling and entropy coding of wavelet coefficients for image compression

In this paper we study the problem of context modeling and entropy coding of the symbol streams generated by the well-known EZW image coder (embedded image coding using zerotrees of wavelet coefficients). We present some simple context modeling techniques that can squeeze out more statistical redundancy in the wavelet coefficients of EZW-type image coders and hence lead to improved coding efficiency.
Signatures of positive selection: from selective sweeps at individual loci to subtle allele frequency changes in polygenic adaptation

In the past 15 years, numerous methods have been developed to detect selective sweeps underlying adaptations. These methods are based on relatively simple population genetic models, including one or two loci at which positive directional selection occurs, and one or two marker loci at which the impact of selection on linked neutral variation is quantified. Information about the phenotype under selection is not included in these models (except for fitness). In contrast, in the quantitative genetic models of adaptation, selection acts on one or more phenotypic traits, such that a genotype–phenotype map is required to bridge the gap to population genetics theory. Here I describe the range of population genetic models from selective sweeps in a panmictic population of constant size to evolutionary traffic when simultaneous sweeps at multiple loci interfere, and I also consider the case of polygenic selection characterized by subtle allele frequency shifts at many loci. Furthermore, I present an overview of the statistical tests that have been proposed based on these population genetics models to detect evidence for positive selection in the genome.
Parameterized Block-Based Non-Gaussian Variational Gate Timing Analysis

As technology scales down, timing verification of digital integrated circuits becomes an extremely difficult task due to the gate and wire variability. Therefore, statistical timing analysis (denoted by σTA) is becoming unavoidable. In this paper, two new approaches for doing statistical gate timing analysis for Gaussian and non-Gaussian sources of variation in block-based σTA are presented. To start, a variational RC-π load is approximated by using a canonical first-order model. Next, an accurate variational gate timing analysis (VGTA) technique, which accounts for variational RC-π loads, statistical input transitions, and a variation-aware gate library, is introduced. The proposed method relies on a novel static effective capacitance calculation method and its variational form. Experimental results demonstrate that VGTA exhibits an average error of only 4% for gate delay and output transition time with respect to the Monte Carlo simulation with 10 samples. Next, a more efficient variational gate timing analysis (called F-VGTA) based on a single-iteration variational effective capacitance calculation is presented. Experimental results show F-VGTA achieves an average error of 7% for gate delay and output slew time with respect to the Monte Carlo simulation with 10 samples, but with runtimes that are about two times faster than VGTA. * This paper combines and extends results of our works, which were presented at the 2005 International Conference on Computer Design and the 2006 Asia-South Pacific Design Automation Conference.
The effect of computerized provider order entry on medical student clerkship experiences.

OBJECTIVE To describe medical students' attitudes toward placing orders during training, and the effect of computerized provider order entry (CPOE) on their learning experiences. DESIGN Prospective, controlled study of all 143 Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine students who began the Basic Medicine clerkship between March 2003 and April 2004 at one of three teaching hospitals: one using CPOE, one paper orders, and one that began using CPOE midway through this study. MEASUREMENTS Survey of students at the start and after the first month of the clerkship. RESULTS Ninety-six percent of students responded. Students expressed a desire to place 100% of orders for their patients. Ninety-five percent of students believed that placing orders helps students learn what tests and treatments patients need. Eighty-four percent reported that being unavailable due to conferences and teaching sessions was a significant barrier to participating in the ordering process. Students at hospitals using CPOE reported placing significantly fewer of their patients' follow-up orders compared to students at hospitals using paper orders (25% vs. 50%, p < 0.01) and were more likely to report that their resident or intern did not want them to enter orders (40% vs. 16%, p < 0.01). Comparisons of students at hospitals using CPOE to each other showed that these differences were attributable to one of the hospitals. Thirty-two percent of students at both hospitals using CPOE reported that the extra length of time required for housestaff to review their orders in the computer was a significant barrier. CONCLUSION Hospitals need to ensure that the educational potential of medical students' clinical experiences is maximized when implementing CPOE.
Girls’ education: The power of policy discourse

Girls’ education has been a focus of international development policy for several decades. The discursive framing of international organizations’ policy initiatives relating to girls’ education, however, limits the potential for discussing complex gender issues that affect the possibilities for gender equity. Because discourse shapes our understanding of reality, the emphases and omissions of policy language can affect our understanding of complex issues such as the challenges of girls’ education in international development. Using feminist critical policy discourse analysis, this study analyzes 300 policy documents, published between 1995 and 2008, that represent the ‘public face’ of 14 organizations active in the field of international development education. We examine three types of discursive arguments given in the documents for educating girls: justice arguments, utility arguments, and empowerment arguments. We show that the robustness of ‘gender’, and related concepts such as equity and equality as theoretical constructs, are limited, which is a factor constraining what can be understood as important in gender equity in education. Policy remains focused on girls and not gender (or boys), and on easily measurable indicators (counting boys and girls in school). This policy discourse does little to recognize that gender as a social process reproduces – or has the potential to challenge – social inequities.
On the fate of tachyonic quivers

We study gauge theories on the world-volume of D3-branes probing singularities. Seiberg duality can be realized as a sequence of Picard-Lefschetz monodromies on 3-cycles in the mirror manifold. In previous work, the precise meaning of gauge theories obtained by monodromies that do not correspond to Seiberg duality was unclear. Recently, it was pointed out that these theories contain tachyons, suggesting that the collection of branes at the singularity is unstable. We address this problem using (p,q) web techniques. It is shown that theories with tachyons appear whenever the (p,q) web contains crossing legs. A recent study of these theories with tachyons using exceptional collections proposed the notion of ``well split condition. '' We show the equivalence between the well split condition and the absence of crossing legs in the (p,q) web. The (p,q) web has a natural resolution of crossing legs wich was first studied in the construction of five dimensional fixed points using branes. Exploiting this result, we develop a generic procedure which we propose determines the quiver that corresponds to the stable bound state of D-branes that live on the singularity after the monodromy. This set is generically larger than the original set, meaning that there are extra massless gauge fields and matter fields in the quiver. Alternatively, one can argue that since these gauge and matter fields are initially assumed to be absent, the theory exhibits tachyonic excitations. We illustrate our ideas in an explicit example for D3-branes on a complex cone over dP1, computing both the quiver and the superpotential.
Quantum circuits of T-depth one

We give a Clifford+T representation of the Toffoli gate of T-depth 1, using four ancillas. More generally, we describe a class of circuits whose T-depth can be reduced to 1 by using sufficiently many ancillas. We show that the cost of adding an additional control to any controlled gate is at most 8 additional T-gates, and T-depth 2. We also show that the circuit THT does not possess a T-depth 1 representation with an arbitrary number of ancillas initialized to 0.
Can Problem Solving Therapy Solve the Problem of Late Life Depression? A Systematic Review of Randomized Trials

Clinical depression affects approximately a fifth of older adults. It is important to assess the efficacy of psychological interventions in older adults because extant research indicates that treating depression with medication becomes complicated in later life. The current study evaluates the efficacy and long term effects of problem solving therapy (PST) by systematically reviewing randomized trials of PST. A systematic search was undertaken of three computerised databases and six studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies indicated that PST was more effective than control conditions. However, the direct and long term effect of PST on depressive symptoms remains difficult to establish due to methodological issues.
The State‐of‐the‐Art of Set Visualization

Sets comprise a generic data model that has been used in a variety of data analysis problems. Such problems involve analysing and visualizing set relations between multiple sets defined over the same collection of elements. However, visualizing sets is a non‐trivial problem due to the large number of possible relations between them. We provide a systematic overview of state‐of‐the‐art techniques for visualizing different kinds of set relations. We classify these techniques into six main categories according to the visual representations they use and the tasks they support. We compare the categories to provide guidance for choosing an appropriate technique for a given problem. Finally, we identify challenges in this area that need further research and propose possible directions to address these challenges. Further resources on set visualization are available at http://www.setviz. net.
C. A. Bowers, The cultural dimensions of educational computing . New York: Teachers College Press, 1988. Pp. x + 152.

The bride and bridegroom in Bleak House had high hopes, and perhaps, even probably, those hopes were not as likely to have been realized as their teachers and betters had told them. Perhaps they became socially more docile as they became poorer and older. But there is also an interior dimension to literacy, and that dimension is not in this book. Dickens' characters could, and, being Dickens characters probably did, read or hear the Bible, Foxe's Book of Martyrs, Tales from Shakespeare, and they may well have compensated with an inner life for the outer advantages that Graff convincingly assures us that they certainly did not get.
LES EXPÉRIENCES DE RUBEN ET KAMEN (1941) À TRAVERS LES MANUELS SCOLAIRES

Les experiences de Ruben et Kamen sont evoquees dans la plupart des manuels de biologie des classes de Premiere et de Terminale. A partir d'une etude de la presentation et de l'exploitation de celles-ci a des sns didactiques, nous soulevons les erreurs de contenu et de raisonnement avant de discuter a travers cet exemple d'une meilleure utilisation de l'histoire des sciences dans l'enseignement de la biologie.
Gene expression in Escherichia coli after amino acid, purine, or pyrimidine exhaustion

Three strains of Escherichia coli B auxotrophic for leucine, guanine, or uracil were analyzed after exhaustion of the respective required nutrient from the growth medium. The pattern of transcription was analyzed by ribonucleic acid-deoxyribonucleic acid filter hybridization to specific deoxyribonucleic acid probes, and the pattern of translation was analyzed by autoradiography after the resolution of proteins on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels. The results obtained suggest the following conclusions. (i) Specific regulation of rpoBC transcription occurs at both the promoter (PL10) and the putative attenuator between rplL and rpoB. (ii) The stringent response of ribosomal protein gene expression to amino acid insufficiency is only partially mimicked by purine or pyrimidine insufficiency. (iii) Transcription initiation at PL10 decreases in response to guanine exhaustion, but in contrast increases significantly in response to uracil exhaustion. (iv) The expression of the induced lac operon is severely depressed during any of these exhaustions. These conclusions argue against simple models for regulation of ribonucleic acid polymerase production or promoter choice by the intracellular levels of its substrate nucleotides.
Experience of Caregiving in Schizophrenia: a Study From India

Background: Many studies from India have evaluated the burden of schizophrenia on caregivers. Experience of caregiving, on the contrary, is a broader concept that takes into consideration both negative and positive consequences of the disorder and is influenced by factors like social support and coping of caregivers. Methodology: Fifty caregivers of patients with diagnosis of schizophrenia were assessed on Experience of Caregiving Inventory (ECI), Coping Checklist (CCL), Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ) and General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12). Patients were assessed on Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Results: Maximum ECI score was seen in negative domains of handling the difficult behaviour followed by negative symptoms, loss and dependency. Significant positive correlation was seen between total positive ECI score and the level of education of patients and caregivers. Regression analysis showed that use of problem-focused coping, seeking social support as a coping strategy and education of caregivers explained 30.6% of the variance of ECI positive score. Conclusion: The study showed that education of caregivers, coping strategies used by the caregivers and available social support influence the final appraisal of caregiving.
Blind phase noise estimation and data detection based on SMC technique and unscented filtering

In this paper, a computationally efficient algorithm is presented for tracing phase noise with linear drift and blind data detection jointly, based on a sequential Monte Carlo(SMC) method. Tracing of phase noise is achieved by Kalman filter and the nonlinearity of the observation process is taken care of by unscented filter rather that using extended Kalman technique. On the other hand, SMC method treats the transmitted symbols as “missing data” and draw samples sequentially of them based on the observed signal samples up to time t. This way, the Bayesian estimates of the phase noise and the incoming data are obtained through these samples, sequentially drawn, together with their importance weights. The proposed receiver structure is seen to be ideally suited for high-speed parallel implementation using VLSI technology.
Quantitative clinical assessment in busy rheumatology settings: the value of short patient questionnaires.

No single measure such as blood pressure or serum glucose can serve as a “gold standard” in diagnosis and assessment of every individual patient with most rheumatic diseases. Therefore, quantitative clinical assessment requires an index of several measures. Indices have been developed for many rheumatic diseases, including the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) Core Data Set1, Disease Activity Score (DAS)2, and Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI)3; the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI)4; Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI)5; Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score (BVAS)6; Western Ontario McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC)7; Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ)8; and many others. At this…
Internal Quality Control for Cervical Cytopathology: Comparison of Potential False-Negatives Detected at Rapid Prescreening and at 100% Rapid Review

Objective: To evaluate the performance of rapid prescreening (RPS) and 100% rapid review (RR-100%) as internal quality control (IQC) methods assessed by outcome at colposcopy, histopathology and repeat cytopathology for cases with false-negative results on cervical cytopathology at routine screening (RS). Study Design: Out of 12,208 cytology smears analyzed, 900 were abnormal. Of these, 656 were identified at RS, and 244 were false-negative, with 90.2% identified at RPS and 57.4% at RR-100%. Of the 900 abnormal cases, 436 were submitted for additional testing. Results: Of the 244 women with cytopathological abnormalities identified only by the IQC methods, 114 had supplementary examinations: 35 were submitted for colposcopy, 22 for biopsy and 99 for repeat cytopathology. The sensitivity of RPS for the detection of abnormalities identified on colposcopy, histopathology and repeat cytopathology was 87.5% (95% CI 67.6-97.3), 82.4% (95% CI 56.6-96.2) and 95.7% (95% CI 85.2-99.5), respectively. The sensitivity of RR-100% was 54.2% (95% CI 32.8-74.4), 52.9% (95% CI 27.8-77.0) and 47.8% (95% CI 32.9-63.1), respectively. RPS was more sensitive than RR-100% when compared to the findings on colposcopy (p = 0.011) and repeat cytopathology (p = 0.000). When compared to colposcopy, histopathology and repeat cytopathology, the sensitivity of RS was 83.2% (95% CI 76.1-88.9), 85.7% (95% CI 78.1-91.5) and 73.3% (95% CI 66.0-79.7), respectively. Conclusion: RPS performed better than RR-100% when compared to the results of colposcopy and repeat cytopathology.
A Robust Natural-Frame-Based Interfacing Scheme for Grid-Connected Distributed Generation Inverters

This paper presents a robust natural-frame-based interfacing scheme for grid-connected distributed generation inverters. The control scheme consists of a dead-beat line-voltage sensorless natural-frame current controller, adaptive neural network (NN)-based disturbance estimator, and robust sensorless synchronization loop. The estimated uncertainty dynamics provide the necessary energy shaping in the inverter control voltage to attenuate grid-voltage disturbances and other voltage disturbances caused by interfacing parameter variation. In addition, the predictive nature of the estimator has the necessary phase advance to compensate for system delays. The self-learning feature of the NN adaptation algorithm allows feasible and easy adaptation design at different grid disturbances and operating conditions. The fact that converter synchronization is based on the fundamental grid-voltage facilitates the use of the estimated uncertainty to extract the position of the fundamental grid-voltage vector without using voltage sensors. Theoretical analysis and comparative evaluation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.
Variable Scottish English Consonants: The Cases of /m/ and Non-Prevocalic /r/

Variable Scottish English Consonants: The Cases of /m/ and Non-Prevocalic /r/ In a sample of 27 speakers of Scottish Standard English two notoriously variable consonantal features are investigated: the contrast of /m/ and /w/ and non-prevocalic /r/, the latter both in terms of its presence or absence and the phonetic form it takes, if present. The pattern of realisation of non-prevocalic /r/ largely confirms previously reported findings. But there are a number of surprising results regarding the merger of /m/ and /w/ and the loss of non-prevocalic /r/: While the former is more likely to happen in younger speakers and females, the latter seems more likely in older speakers and males. This is suggestive of change in progress leading to a loss of the /m/ - /w/ contrast, while the variation found in non-prevocalic /r/ follows an almost inverse sociolinguistic pattern that does not suggest any such change and is additionally largely explicable in language-internal terms. One phenomenon requiring further investigation is the curious effect direct contact with Southern English accents seems to have on non-prevocalic /r/: innovation on the structural level (i.e. loss) and conservatism on the realisational level (i.e. increased incidence of [r] and [r]) appear to be conditioned by the same sociolinguistic factors.
Home telehealth for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

We conducted a systematic review of the literature about home telehealth for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) compared with usual care. An electronic literature search identified 6241 citations. From these, nine original studies (10 references) relating to 858 patients were selected for inclusion in the review. Four studies compared home telemonitoring with usual care, and six randomized controlled trials compared telephone support with usual care. Clinical heterogeneity was present in many of the outcomes measured. Home telehealth (home telemonitoring and telephone support) was found to reduce rates of hospitalization and emergency department visits, while findings for hospital bed days of care varied between studies. However, the mortality rate was greater in the telephone-support group compared with usual care (risk ratio = 1.21; 95% CI: 0.84 to 1.75). Home telehealth interventions were similar or better than usual care for quality of life and patient satisfaction outcomes.
Computing hitting times via fluid approximation: application to the coupon collector problem

In this paper, we show how to use stochastic approximation to compute hitting time of a stochastic process, based on the study of the time for a fluid approximation of this process to be at distance 1/N of its fixed point. This approach is developed to study a generalized version of the coupon collector problem. The system is composed by N independent identical Markov chains. At each time step, one Markov chain is picked at random and performs one transition. We show that the time at which all chains have hit the same state is bounded by a N log N + b N log log N + O(N) where a and b are two constants depending on eigenvalues of the Markov chain.