Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tight extended formulations for independent set ∗

This paper describes tight extended formulations for independent set. The first formulation is for arbitrary independence systems and has size O(n+ μ), where μ denotes the number of inclusion-wise maximal independent sets. Consequently, the extension complexity of the independent set polytope of graphs is O(1.4423). The size O(2n) of the second extended formulation depends on the treewidth tw of the graph, which is a common measure of how tree-like it is. This improves upon the size O(n) extended formulations implied by the Sherali-Adams reformulation procedure (as shown by Bienstock and Ozbay). This implies size O(n) extended formulations for outerplanar, series-parallel, and Halin graphs; size 2 √ n) extended formulations for planar graphs; and size O(1.2247) extended formulations for graphs of maximum degree three.
Explaining the Sources of IncomeRelated Inequality in Health Care Utilization in Denmark

Objectives with the health care system often include equity considerations. One objective is equal treatment for equal need. In this paper we explain the sources of income-related inequality in utilization of health care services in Funen County, Denmark, by linking survey data to register based data. A decomposition of the concentration index was used to explain the sources of overall income-related inequality in utilization. The decomposition approach suggests that health care is in general equally distributed in Denmark when need based variables are controlled for. However, this overall result is a consequence of a number of off-setting effects from different types of health care and a complicated pattern of various explanatory variables.
Distributional Similarity of Multi-Word Expressions

Most existing systems for automatically extracting lexical-semantic resources neglect multi-word expressions (MWEs), even though approximately 30% of gold-standard thesauri entries are MWEs. We present a distributional similarity system that identifies synonyms for MWEs. We extend Grefenstette’s SEXTANT shallow parser to first identify bigram MWEs using collocation statistics from the Google WEB1T corpus. We extract contexts from WEB1T to increase coverage on the sparser bigrams.
Episodic Memory: Foundation of Explainable Autonomy

In recent years, the inner workings of many intelligent agents have become opaque to users who wish to manage and collaborate with them. This lack of transparency makes it difficult for human users to understand and predict the behavior of such agents. In this paper, we present a theory of episodic memory that enables intelligent agents to remember their personal experience and make known their internal decision making process to the users. We describe an implementation of this theory in a cognitive architecture and present some initial results. We also discuss related work in episodic memory and explainable autonomy and propose directions for future research.
Heterogeneous Technologies in the Turkish Banking : 1990-2000

We model unobserved heterogeneity in banking technologies as a mixture model and investigate the efficiencies of 53 Turkish banks using likelihood-based stochastic frontier analysis for the 1990-2000 period. The measure of “inefficiency” may be corrupted due to unobserved heterogeneity in banking technology. Therefore we estimate a mixture model using the EC (Estimation-Classification) estimator, and its companion EC-algorithm, which were first introduced in El-Gamal and Grether (1995), to obtain data-driven classification and estimation of banking technologies. In contrast to previous efficiency studies which tend to draw conclusions on the pooled estimates or estimates based on a priori classifications, the data-driven EC estimates point mainly to distinctions between small and foreign banks vs. large and domestic ones, respectively. We then investigate the inefficiency scores with respect to the two different cost frontiers recovered by EC. Surprisingly, we do not find evidence of heterogeneity between state and private banks. Moreover, contrary to common wisdom, we find that state banks are not significantly less efficient than private banks, and "special finance houses" seem indistinguishable from conventional banks. * Mahmoud A. El-Gamal is a Professor of Economics and Statistics at Rice University, where Hulusi Inanoglu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Economics Department. Correspondence: Mahmoud El-Gamal, Dept. of Economics – MS 22, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005. Emails: elgamal@rice.edu , hulusi@rice.edu
Depression in Multiple Sclerosis: A Review of Assessment and Treatment Approaches in Adult and Pediatric Populations

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic demyelinating disease affecting one million people worldwide, with a significant burden of psychiatric comorbidity. Depression is the commonest psychiatric manifestation but still remains largely underdiagnosed and undertreated. The present work reviews current knowledge on diagnosis, assessment, and somatic and psychotherapeutic treatment interventions for depression in adult and pediatric populations of patients with multiple sclerosis.
Implementation of Secure Hash Algorithm-1 using FPGA

Hash functions play a significant role in today's cryptographic applications. SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm) is a famous message compress standard used in computer cryptography, it can compress a long message to become a short message abstract. In this paper, SHA1 is implemented using Verilog HDL (Hardware Description Language). The SHA-1 Verilog source code is divided into three modules, namely Initial, Round and Top module. The Verilog code is synthesized on Virtex5 FPGA using Xilinx ISE 14.2 software tool. The test vectors have been applied to verify the correctness of the SHA-1 functionality. A comparison between the proposed SHA-1 hash function implementation with other related works shows that it achieves a higher throughput and also higher clock frequency.
Expression of Mitochondrial Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) Is Modulated by High Risk Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Oncogenes

Background: Antisense mitochondrial ncRNAs are down-regulated during oncogenesis by unknown mechanisms. Results: High risk HPV E2 oncogene induces down-regulation of the antisense transcripts. Additionally, E6 and E7 induce expression of a new sense mitochondrial ncRNA. Conclusion: HPV oncogenes modulate expression of mitochondrial ncRNAs. Significance: During non-viral oncogenesis, cellular factor(s), analogously to E2, could induce down-regulation of the antisense mitochondrial ncRNAs. The study of RNA and DNA oncogenic viruses has proved invaluable in the discovery of key cellular pathways that are rendered dysfunctional during cancer progression. An example is high risk human papillomavirus (HPV), the etiological agent of cervical cancer. The role of HPV oncogenes in cellular immortalization and transformation has been extensively investigated. We reported the differential expression of a family of human mitochondrial non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) between normal and cancer cells. Normal cells express a sense mitochondrial ncRNA (SncmtRNA) that seems to be required for cell proliferation and two antisense transcripts (ASncmtRNAs). In contrast, the ASncmtRNAs are down-regulated in cancer cells. To shed some light on the mechanisms that trigger down-regulation of the ASncmtRNAs, we studied human keratinocytes (HFK) immortalized with HPV. Here we show that immortalization of HFK with HPV-16 or 18 causes down-regulation of the ASncmtRNAs and induces the expression of a new sense transcript named SncmtRNA-2. Transduction of HFK with both E6 and E7 is sufficient to induce expression of SncmtRNA-2. Moreover, E2 oncogene is involved in down-regulation of the ASncmtRNAs. Knockdown of E2 in immortalized cells reestablishes in a reversible manner the expression of the ASncmtRNAs, suggesting that endogenous cellular factors(s) could play functions analogous to E2 during non-HPV-induced oncogenesis.
A numerical study of the validity of Shallow Ice Approximations

Improving numerical ice sheet models is a very active field of research. In part, this is because ice sheet modelling has gained societal relevance in the context of predictions of future sea level rise. Ice sheet modelling is however also a challenging mathematical and computational subject. Since the exact equations governing ice dynamics, the full Stokes equations, are computationally expensive to solve, approximations are crucially needed for many problems. Shallow ice approximations are a family of approximations derived by asymptotic expansion of the exact equations in terms of the aspect ratio, . Retaining only the zeroth order terms in this expansion yields the by far most frequently used approximation; the Shallow Ice Approximation (SIA). Including terms up to second order yields the Second Order Shallow Ice Approximation (SOSIA), which is a so-called higher order model. Here, we study the validity and accuracy of shallow ice approximations beyond previous analyses of the SIA. We perform a detailed analysis of the assumptions behind shallow ice approximations, i.e. of the order of magnitude of field variables. We do this by using a numerical solution of the exact equations for ice flow over a sloping, undulating bed. We also construct analytical solutions for the SIA and SOSIA and numerically compute the accuracy for varying by comparing to the exact solution. We find that the assumptions underlying shallow ice approximations are not entirely appropriate since they do not account for a high viscosity boundary layer developing near the ice surface as soon as small bumps are introduced at the ice base. This boundary layer is thick and has no distinct border. Other existing theories which do incorporate the boundary layer are in better, but not full, agreement with our numerical results. Our results reveal that neither the SIA nor the SOSIA is as accurate as suggested by the asymptotic expansion approach. Also, in SOSIA the ice rheology needs to be altered to avoid infinite viscosity, though both our analytical and numerical solutions show that, especially for high bump amplitudes, the accuracy of the SOSIA is highly sensitive to this alternation. However, by updating the SOSIA solution in an iterative manner, we obtain a model which utilises the advantages of shallow ice approximations, while reducing the disadvantages. 2 j. ahlkrona, n. kirchner and p. lotstedt
Effects of Hsp 90 inhibitors , geldanamycin and its analog , on ceramide metabolism and cytotoxicity in PC 12 cells

The inhibitors of heat shock protein-90 (Hsp90), geldanamycin (GA) and 17-(allylamino)17-desmethoxygeldanamycin, show various cellular effects including destabilization of Hsp90 clients and expression of other chaperones, etc. and modulate cytotoxicity depending on cell types and stimuli. In this study, we investigated the effects of Hsp90 inhibitors on survival of PC12 cells with and without cytotoxic stimuli including orthovanadate, Na3VO4. Treatment with Hsp90 inhibitors at 2 μM for 16 hr did not cause cell detachment and leakage of lactate dehydrogenase, and at concentrations greater than 5 μM resulted in cytotoxicity. The inhibitors at 2 μM enhanced the cytotoxicity of 1 mM Na3VO4, and did not protect PC12 cells at any concentrations against Na3VO4. Next, the effects of Hsp90 inhibitors on the intracellular metabolism of ceramide and arachidonic acid (AA) were examined, since these processes also regulate cytotoxicity. In cells treated with 4-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole (NBD)-labeled C6-ceramide, Hsp90 inhibitors reduced the formation of NBD-glucosylceramide and Na3VO4-induced formation of NBD-caproic acid, a counterpart of sphingosine, without affecting other metabolites including NBDsphingomyelin. GA treatment did not change the amounts of AA released in PC12 cells with and without Na3VO4. In HeLa cells, however, GA treatment decreased the release of AA via cytosolic phospholipase A2α’s activation probably because of dysfunctional Hsp90 clients. Our results suggest the possible involvement of ceramide metabolism, not AA release, in GA-induced cytotoxicity in PC12 cells.
Pulse-density-modulated power control of a 4 kW, 450 kHz voltage-source inverter for induction melting applications

This paper presents a 4 kW, 450 kHz voltage-source inverter with a series resonant circuit for induction melting applications, which is characterized by the power control based on pulse density modulation (PDM). The pulse-density-modulated inverter makes an induction melting system simple and compact, thus leading to higher efficiency. A modulation strategy is proposed to realize the induction melting system capable of operation at the frequency and power level of interest. Some interesting experimental results are shown to verify the validity of the concept.
Autonomously vascularized cellular constructs in tissue engineering: opening a new perspective for biomedical science

• Introduction • Cellular homeostasis and vascularization • Importance of vascularization: historical review • Multicellular implants in vivo • Models of axial vascular induction • Development of the AV loop model • Angiogenesis in multicellular implants in vivo: authors' experience – Surgical technique – Chamber – Soft matrices – Modulation – Solid matrices – Cell seeding – Evaluation methods • Physiology of angiogenesis in the AV loop – Flow dynamics and morphology – Molecular biology of angiogenesis in the loop • Axially vascularized constructs as tools for research – Application in basic biomedical science Recombinant cell populations Modulation of angiogenesis Hematogenous metastasis of tumours Recombinant cell populations Modulation of angiogenesis Hematogenous metastasis of tumours Hematogenous metastasis of tumours – Applications in reparative medicine Multicellular implants Vascular grafts and bio‐artificial vessels Multicellular implants Vascular grafts and bio‐artificial vessels • Conclusion
Blueprint for implementing USP chapter 797 for compounding sterile preparations.

PURPOSE Guidelines for adopting and successfully implementing the requirements of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) chapter 797 for compounding sterile preparations are presented. SUMMARY The quality of a compounded sterile preparation (CSP) is directly related to the methods used to ensure that the CSP achieves the desired goal of purity, potency, and sterility. A properly designed, constructed, and maintained cleanroom contributes to the quality of CSPs. Design criteria of a sample clean-room are supplied, as are a summary and comparison of the liquid disinfectants that can be used to clean and sanitize the facility and maintain environmental controls. All activities associated with cleaning the cleanroom, including air and surface sampling, must be properly documented in logs, examples of which are provided. A robust employee-training program for properly teaching aseptic technique and a method to verify that personnel have successfully completed the program are integral to compliance with chapter 797 and thoroughly discussed herein. Emerging compounding and testing technology is also discussed. CONCLUSION Although the task of compliance with the requirements of USP chapter 797 may appear overwhelming, complicated, expensive, and even unattainable, quality can be established via a methodical and organized approach. After the systems have been implemented, maintaining them requires vigilance and follow-up. Compliance with chapter 797 involves up-front and ongoing costs associated with establishing these systems, but the time, energy, and cost required to maintain them are far less than those of retrospective or manual systems of collecting, reviewing, and collating quality assurance data on a monthly basis.
Tiptop: Hardware Performance Counters for the Masses

Hardware performance monitoring counters have recently received a lot of attention. They have been used by diverse communities to understand and improve the quality of computing systems: for example, architects use them to extract application characteristics and propose new hardware mechanisms, compiler writers study how generated code behaves on particular hardware, software developers identify critical regions of their applications and evaluate design choices to select the best performing implementation. In this paper, we propose that counters be used by all categories of users, in particular non-experts, and we advocate that a few simple metrics derived from these counters are relevant and useful. For example, a low IPC (number of executed instructions per cycle) indicates that the hardware is not performing at its best, a high cache miss ratio can suggest several causes, such as conflicts between processes in a multicore environment. We also introduce a new simple and flexible user-level tool that collects these data on Linux platforms, and we illustrate its practical benefits through several use cases.
Online Reliability Estimates for Individual Predictions in Data Streams

Several predictive systems are nowadays vital for operations and decision support. The quality of these systems is most of the time defined by their average accuracy which has low or no information at all about the estimated error of each individual prediction. In many sensitive applications, users should be allowed to associate a measure of reliability to each prediction. In the case of batch systems, reliability measures have already been defined, mostly empirical measures as the estimation using the local sensitivity analysis. However, with the advent of data streams, these reliability estimates should also be computed online, based only on available data and current model's state. In this paper we define empirical measures to perform online estimation of reliability of individual predictions when made in the context of online learning systems. We present preliminary results and evaluate the estimators in two different problems.
Corporate tax-mix and firm performance. A comprehensive assessment for Romanian listed companies

Abstract The paper investigates the impact of overall firm-specific tax-mix on firm performance for Romanian listed companies during the 2000–2011 period. By overall tax-mix, we mean all public finance-related liabilities borne by a company, thus including not only profit taxes, but also non-profit taxes (i.e., real-estate taxes) and labour-related taxes (social security charges borne by companies). Developed around the corresponding tax wedge, the variable of interest is a firm-specific effective tax rate that aggregates all public finance liabilities, based on a unique set of hand-collected data from publicly available corporate reports. Using a fixed-effect model, the results show that one percentage point increase in overall firm-specific tax rate triggers 0.15 percentage points decrease in return on assets. Moreover, tangibles, leverage and size have a negative effect on Romanian listed companies’ performance, while liquidity, growth and lagged profitability have a positive effect.
Market Power Effects of Supply Control and Dairy Market Deregulation

This paper uses the Bresnahan-Lau framework to analyze whether policy reforms specifically affecting Swedish dairy cooperatives, i.e. the two-price system (an input quota, 1986-1991) and the general deregulation of dairy policy (1991-1994), had any market power effects on the Swedish butter market. It is hypothesized that the two-price system enhanced market power, while the deregulation, making exports of butter less profitable, led to a lower level of market power exercised by dairy cooperatives. To account for non-stationary variables, a dynamic error correction model is adopted. The results show that the null hypotheses of no market power effect, for either of the two reforms, cannot be rejected at any reasonable significance level.
Using group fine-grained locking scheme in software transactional memory for multiprocessing systems

In a multi-process or multi-thread software trans-actional memory(STM) system, the transactional locking scheme is commonly separated into fine-grained and coarsegrained schemes by protection granularity. In our definition, the protection granularity of fine-grained schemes is varied depending on implementation. Types of protection granularity include per-word, per-object, etc. The coarse-grained scheme is using a global lock for all shared resources. These two types of schemes are preferred under different test environments. The coarse-grained scheme lacks scalability under high contention situation and the fine-grained scheme produces higher overhead than coarse-grained scheme. In this paper, we propose a new type of fine-grained scheme which adds an intermediate locking level. The new scheme separates shared resources into different groups. Groups are organized under the number of executing transactions, and resources are joined to the first accessed transaction group. Thus the overhead of fine-grained scheme is reduced by locking a group of resources. In the experiment of the proposed scheme, the results showed that the new scheme preserves the scalability and reduces the overhead of fine-grained scheme.
An optimal design of coordinated PI based PSS with TCSC controller using modified Teaching Learning based Optimization

This paper deals with an interesting application of recently evolved Teaching Learning based Optimization (TLBO) algorithm in designing coordinated Proportional-Integral (PI) controller based Power System Stabilizer (PSS) for single machine infinite bus power system equipped with Thyristor Controlled Series Compensator (TCSC). As the design is for coordinated system, traditional TLBO results in suboptimal solution and hence we propose a modified TLBO method based on the concept of opposition based learning for designing coordinated controllers. Computer simulations of the proposed approach on various loading conditions reveal the superiority of modified TLBO in designing coordinated controller for enhancing the dynamic stability of power system.
Better Regulation in Europe

"Better Regulation" is afoot in Europe. After several transatlantic conflicts over regulatory topics such as the precautionary principle, genetically modified foods, and climate change, Europe and America now appear to be converging on the analytic basis for regulation. In a process of hybridization, European institutions are borrowing "Better Regulation" reforms from both the US approach to regulatory review using benefit-cost analysis and from European member states' initiatives on administrative costs and simplification; in turn the European Commission is helping to spread these reforms among the member states. In many respects, the Better Regulation initiative promises salutary reforms, such as wider use of regulatory impact assessments and a reduction in unnecessary bureaucracy. In other respects, the European initiative speaks more of Procrustean deregulation than of better regulation. Meanwhile the European Commission still needs to establish the institutional infrastructure needed to succeed. This paper argues that the European program of "Better Regulation" is well-founded but could be even better if it adopted several strategies: enlarging the scope of impact assessment and benefit-cost analysis toward a broader, "warmer" and more evenhanded application of these tools, with greater attention to multiple risks; moving beyond a narrow focus on cutting administrative costs or simplification for their own sake, toward criteria that address benefits as well as costs; centralizing expert oversight so that impact assessments actually influence decisions, both to say 'no' to bad ideas and 'yes' to good ideas; and undertaking ex post evaluation of policies for adaptive policy revision and for improvement of ex ante assessment methods. These reforms would help Better Regulation achieve its true objective: better, not less or more. In turn, the US could study these European innovations and borrow from them where they prove successful.