Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantitative Evaluation of Risk for Investment Ecient Strategies in Cybersecurity: The QuERIES Methodology

Methods are disclosed for mounting an undercounter sink provided with a flange by means of a removable metal collar, which is used: to precisely locate and position the sink beneath a laminated countertop: and to finish cut at the installation site the countertop aperture and the top impervious surface of the countertop to form a flush, watertight seal.
An Opposite Pattern to the Conventional Thermal Hypothesis: Temperature-Dependent Variation in Coloration of Adults of Saccharosydne procerus (Homoptera: Delphacidae)

Melanism is a common polymorphism in many insect species that also influences immune function. According to the thermal melanin hypothesis, ectothermic individuals from cooler environments have darker cuticles and higher polyphenol oxidase (PO) levels, which represent a better immunocompetence. In this study, the links among environmental temperature, melanism, and PO activity of Saccharosydne procerus (Matsumura) were examined. Most S. procerus have a black spot on their forewings at high temperatures in the field and in the laboratory. In PO activity assay, a positive association between PO level and temperature was found. Our results showed that a diversification of melanism occurred under different temperatures and that melanism in S. procerus presented an opposite pattern to the one proposed by the thermal hypothesis.
Short‐term Changes in Ambient Particulate Matter and Risk of Stroke: A Systematic Review and Meta‐analysis

Background Stroke is a leading cause of death and long‐term disability in the United States. There is a well‐documented association between ambient particulate matter air pollution (PM) and cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality. Given the pathophysiologic mechanisms of these effects, short‐term elevations in PM may also increase the risk of ischemic and/or hemorrhagic stroke morbidity and mortality, but the evidence has not been systematically reviewed. Methods and Results We provide a comprehensive review of all observational human studies (January 1966 to January 2014) on the association between short‐term changes in ambient PM levels and cerebrovascular events. We also performed meta‐analyses to evaluate the evidence for an association between each PM size fraction (PM2.5, PM10, PM2.5‐10) and each outcome (total cerebrovascular disease, ischemic stroke/transient ischemic attack, hemorrhagic stroke) separately for mortality and hospital admission. We used a random‐effects model to estimate the summary percent change in relative risk of the outcome per 10‐μg/m3 increase in PM. Conclusions We found that PM2.5 and PM10 are associated with a 1.4% (95% CI 0.9% to 1.9%) and 0.5% (95% CI 0.3% to 0.7%) higher total cerebrovascular disease mortality, respectively, with evidence of inconsistent, nonsignificant associations for hospital admission for total cerebrovascular disease or ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. Current limited evidence does not suggest an association between PM2.5‐10 and cerebrovascular mortality or morbidity. We discuss the potential sources of variability in results across studies, highlight some observations, and identify gaps in literature and make recommendations for future studies.
Direct Impairment of Vascular Function by Diesel Exhaust Particulate through Reduced Bioavailability of Endothelium-Derived Nitric Oxide Induced by Superoxide Free Radicals

Background Diesel exhaust particulate (DEP) is a key arbiter of the adverse cardiovascular effects of air pollution. Objectives We assessed the in vitro effects of DEP on vascular function, nitric oxide (NO) availability, and the generation of oxygen-centered free radicals. Methods We assessed the direct vascular effects of DEP (10–100 μg/mL) in isolated rat aortic rings using myography. We investigated NO scavenging and oxygen-centered free radical generation using an NO electrode and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) with the Tempone-H (1-hydroxyl-2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-oxo-piperidine) spin trap, respectively. Results Acetylcholine-induced relaxation was attenuated by DEP (maximum relaxation reduced from 91 ± 4% to 49 ± 6% with 100 μg/mL DEP; p < 0.001) but was restored by superoxide dismutase (SOD; maximum relaxation, 73 ± 6%; p < 0.001). DEP caused a modest inhibition of relaxation to NO donor drugs, an effect that could be reversed by SOD (p < 0.01). At 10 μg/mL, DEP did not affect verapamil-induced relaxation (p = 0.73), but at 100 μg/mL DEP inhibited relaxation (p < 0.001) by a mechanism independent of SOD. NO concentrations generated by 2-(N,N-diethylamino)-diazenolate-2-oxide (DEA/NO; 10 μM) were reduced by DEP (100 μg/mL; from 5.2 ± 0.4 to 3.3 ± 0.4 μM; p = 0.002). Free radical generation was increased by DEP (10 μg/mL; 9-fold increase in EPR spectra; p = 0.004) in a manner that could be attenuated by SOD (p = 0.015). Conclusions DEP caused oxidative stress through the generation of oxygen-centered free radicals that reduced the bioavailability of endothelium-derived NO without prior interaction with the lung or vascular tissue. These findings provide a mechanism for the adverse cardiovascular effects of particulate air pollution.
Braneworld black hole gravitational lens: Strong field limit analysis

In this paper, a braneworld black hole is studied as a gravitational lens, using the strong field limit to obtain the positions and magnifications of the relativistic images. Standard lensing and retrolensing situations are analyzed in a unified setting, and the results are compared with those corresponding to the Schwarzschild black hole lens. The possibility of observing the strong field images is discussed.
Cognitive tests used in chronic adult human randomised controlled trial micronutrient and phytochemical intervention studies

In recent years there has been a rapid growth of interest in exploring the relationship between nutritional therapies and the maintenance of cognitive function in adulthood. Emerging evidence reveals an increasingly complex picture with respect to the benefits of various food constituents on learning, memory and psychomotor function in adults. However, to date, there has been little consensus in human studies on the range of cognitive domains to be tested or the particular tests to be employed. To illustrate the potential difficulties that this poses, we conducted a systematic review of existing human adult randomised controlled trial (RCT) studies that have investigated the effects of 24 d to 36 months of supplementation with flavonoids and micronutrients on cognitive performance. There were thirty-nine studies employing a total of 121 different cognitive tasks that met the criteria for inclusion. Results showed that less than half of these studies reported positive effects of treatment, with some important cognitive domains either under-represented or not explored at all. Although there was some evidence of sensitivity to nutritional supplementation in a number of domains (for example, executive function, spatial working memory), interpretation is currently difficult given the prevailing ‘scattergun approach’ for selecting cognitive tests. Specifically, the practice means that it is often difficult to distinguish between a boundary condition for a particular nutrient and a lack of task sensitivity. We argue that for significant future progress to be made, researchers need to pay much closer attention to existing human RCT and animal data, as well as to more basic issues surrounding task sensitivity, statistical power and type I error.
Adaptive Independent Metropolis–Hastings by Fast Estimation of Mixtures of Normals

Adaptive Metropolis–Hastings samplers use information obtained from previous draws to tune the proposal distribution automatically and repeatedly. Adaptation needs to be done carefully to ensure convergence to the correct target distribution because the resulting chain is not Markovian. We construct an adaptive independent Metropolis–Hastings sampler that uses a mixture of normals as a proposal distribution. To take full advantage of the potential of adaptive sampling our algorithm updates the mixture of normals frequently, starting early in the chain. The algorithm is built for speed and reliability and its sampling performance is evaluated with real and simulated examples. Our article outlines conditions for adaptive sampling to hold. An online supplement to the article gives a proof of convergence and Gauss code to implement the algorithms.
Delay-optimized implementation of IEEE floating-point addition

We present an IEEE floating-point adder (FP-adder) design. The adder accepts normalized numbers, supports all four IEEE rounding modes, and outputs the correctly normalized rounded sum/difference in the format required by the IEEE Standard. The FP-adder design achieves a low latency by combining various optimization techniques such as: a nonstandard separation into two paths, a simple rounding algorithm, unification of rounding cases for addition and subtraction, sign-magnitude computation of a difference based on one's complement subtraction, compound adders, and fast circuits for approximate counting of leading zeros from borrow-save representation. We present technology-independent analysis and optimization of our implementation based on the Logical Effort hardware model and we determine optimal gate sizes and optimal buffer insertion. We estimate the delay of our optimized design at 30.6 FO4 delays for double precision operands (15.3 FO4 delays per stage between latches). We overview other IEEE FP addition algorithms from the literature and compare these algorithms with our algorithm. We conclude that our algorithm has shorter latency (-13 percent) and cycle time (-22 percent) compared to the next fastest algorithm.
Neuroimaging of the joint Simon effect with believed biological and non-biological co-actors

Performing a task alone or together with another agent can produce different outcomes. The current study used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural underpinnings when participants performed a Go/Nogo task alone or complementarily with another co-actor (unseen), whom was believed to be another human or a computer. During both complementary tasks, reaction time data suggested that participants integrated the potential action of their co-actor in their own action planning. Compared to the single-actor task, increased parietal and precentral activity during complementary tasks as shown in the fMRI data further suggested representation of the co-actor’s response. The superior frontal gyrus of the medial prefrontal cortex was differentially activated in the human co-actor condition compared to the computer co-actor condition. The medial prefrontal cortex, involved thinking about the beliefs and intentions of other people, possibly reflects a social-cognitive aspect or self-other discrimination during the joint task when believing a biological co-actor is present. Our results suggest that action co-representation can occur even oﬄine with any agent type given a priori information that they are co-acting; however, additional regions are recruited when participants believe they are task-sharing with another human.
Effects of Religiosity, Forgiveness, and Spousal Empathy on Marital Adjustment

ABSTRACT This study focused on married couples in a region of the United States that previous research has identified as having high rates of both religiosity and divorce. As a result, this study was designed to examine the effects of religiosity, forgiveness, and spousal empathy on marital adjustment. To investigate these constructs, married couples in this region were recruited (n = 829) to participate in a cross-sectional, self-report telephone survey. Results indicate that religious service attendance and spousal empathy have direct positive effects on marital adjustment in European American married men; while religious service attendance, forgiveness, and spousal empathy have direct positive effects on marital adjustment in European American married women. Among African-American participants, only spousal empathy had a direct effect on marital adjustment for both men and women. Finally, spousal empathy moderated the association between previous marriage and current marital adjustment among European American married women.
DISCUSSION OF “ ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE — WHY IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER

Andrew Gelman's contribution shifts the focus of " Analysis of Variance " (ANOVA) from the limited sense in which it has been commonly used in classical statistics, as a method of testing, to the broader framework of estimation and inference. The term more commonly used in this sense, " variance components modeling, " also captures the same spirit. The essential idea is that of constructing distributions by using ideas of exchangeability; each variance component corresponds to a collection of exchangeable effects. This extremely powerful approach to linking the scientific structure of a dataset with a model has been and will continue to be widely applicable. The transition from ANOVA to variance components modeling shifts attention from decomposition of the variance of the sample as in classical ANOVA to decomposition of the variance of the population. This shift in focus is appropriate to a world in which scientific questions become increasingly complex and are less frequently answerable through simple designed experiments. As Gelman notes, in a Bayesian framework the estimation of variance components is relatively automatic; attention can be focused on defining sensible models rather than on constructing designs that can be analyzed easily. Finally, Gelman's discussion of the manifold definitions of " fixed and random effects " is itself worth the price of admission. 1. Testing and prior distributions. Gelman reserves the issue of model specification, specifically testing of variance components, to a short section (Section 8.2) toward the end of the article (alluding to it only briefly in Section 3.4). Testing variance components is inherently different from testing a regression coefficient because the null hypothesis σ 2 = 0 is on the boundary of the parameter space. The difficulties this causes for hypothesis testing in the likelihood framework are well known.
Parameter Estimation for a Model with Both Imperfect Test and Repair

We describe estimation of the parameters of a manufacturing test and repair model using data available from that test. The model allows imperfect testing and imperfect repair. The principal problem that we address is of parameter identification, given insufficient data, that we address by making conservative assumptions on the property being measured and the associated parameter values. Several cases of commonly occurring test types, in the manufacture of electronic products, are considered.
Secure Access Node: an FPGA-based Security Architecture for Access Networks

—Providing network security is one of the most important tasks in today’s Internet. Unfortunately, many users are not able to protect themselves and their networks. Therefore, we present a novel security concept to protect users by providing security measures at the Internet Service Provider (ISP) level. Already now, ISP are using different security measures, e.g. Virtual Local Area Network tags, MAC limitation, or MAC address translation. Our approach extends these security measures by a packet ﬁlter ﬁrewall and a deep packet inspection engine. A ﬁrewall and a deep packet inspection system, at the ingress of the network, offers security measures to all connected users, especially to users with limited IT expert knowledge. Adjustments can be made only by the ISP administrator. Consequently, our security system itself is secured against attacks from users and from the network side. Our approach includes a powerful Packet Classiﬁcation Engine, a high speed Rule Set Engine without using Content Addressable Memory and control stages in reconﬁgurable hardware. Our goal is to be able to control network trafﬁc at wire speed.
Objectives and Effects of Diversification in Large-scale Agricultural Businesses : Results of a Mail Survey in Eastern Germany

For purposes of this study, diversification was defined as the economic activity of an agricultural business or company in areas other than livestock and crop production. With the help of empirical evidence gathered from 210 operations in the new German states, it was possible to define the importance of diversification for these businesses. The most important expectations concerning diversification are cost reduction or profit increase, development of new growth markets, risk reduction and job security. Within these four key goals, risk reduction as a means of increasing corporate stability and providing job security as part of a company’s social responsibility towards its employees were mentioned most often by those surveyed. Expectations in the four areas of activity (upstream, downstream, related and other sectors), are met with varying degrees of satisfaction. The most difficult goals to achieve are the ones in the agricultural upstream and downstream sector, because they are directly linked to agriculture. The accomplishment of goals is easier in the related and other sectors that have no direct link to agriculture.
Impact of Treatment on God Image and Personal Adjustment, and Correlations of God Image to Personal Adjustment and Object Relations Development

This study examined the effectiveness of a religiously-based, object relations oriented psychotherapy treatment program. Effectiveness was measured by changes in personal adjustment and God image for a group of religious patients. An inpatient sample (N = 99), with the predominant diagnosis of major depression, was followed over the course of inpatient treatment and a year of outpatient treatment following hospitalization. Measures were administered at admission and discharge (N = 99), six months after discharge (n = 67), and 12 months after discharge (n = 30). The correlation of God image to object relations development was also examined. Inpatient treatment was found to have a significant positive impact on personal adjustment and God image. Improvement was maintained over the course of outpatient treatment but no significant further improvement was noted. Significant correlations were found among the measures at all four time points. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Impediments to Financial Trade: Theory and Measurement

We propose a tractable model of an informationally inefficient market. We show the equivalence between our model and a substantially simpler model whereby investors face distortive investment taxes depending both on their identity and the asset class. We use this equivalence to assess existing approaches to inferring whether individual investors have informational advantages. We also develop a methodology of inferring the magnitude of the frictions (implicit taxes) that impede financial trade. We illustrate the methodology by using data on cross-country portfolio holdings and returns to quantify these frictions, and locate the directions in which financial trade seems to be especially impeded. We argue that our measure of frictions contains useful information for the sources of failure of frictionless models, and it helps in studying whether certain factors (such as the size of the financial sector) are associated with lower financial frictions.
Affective commitment to change and work-life balance

Organizational changes are carried-out to increase organizational performance. Nevertheless, and most importantly, they entail changes to an employee’s work experience. Organizational changes have consequences at an individual and organizational level, due to their common increase in work demands, concerns and feelings of uncertainty about one’s work life. Due to the increased permeability of the frontier between work and personal life, these consequences of organizational changes in turn have a strong relationship with employees’ work-life balance. Furthermore, given that the latter in turn has consequences on employees’ job satisfaction, commitment and performance, it is important that managers take into consideration how employees react to change, in order to more effectively manage it and obtain the desired results. In this study, we looked at the relationship between employees’ affective commitment to change and work-life balance, and the mediating role of job security, psychological contract fulfilment, emotional exhaustion and disengagement on this relationship. We asked a sample of 111 employees from different organizations, to complete a questionnaire. We found that affective commitment to change has a positive relationship with employees’ emotional exhaustion, which in turn is positively associated with work-life balance. Building on the uncertainty reduction theory, Job-Demands-Resources model and social exchange theory, our findings contribute to this body of literature by showing the importance of examining what factors are related to employees’ commitment to change and its relationship with work-life balance. For managers it serves as a light into the topic of organizational change management and its consequences.
From multivalued current mode CMOS circuits to efficient voltage mode CMOS arithmetic operators

We show that a 3-valued current mode CMOS 2-input BSC adder can be converted into a CMOS binary 4-2 counter or into a 1-digit Avizienis-like adder using a redundant number representation. Using a current mode algorithm to derive binary CMOS implementations of these arithmetic operators leads to equivalent or faster circuit implementation than the typical implementations that have been used until now.
Ant Colony Algorithm Approach for Solving Traveling Salesman with Multi-agent

Traveling Salesman Problem is a very classical optimization problem in the field of operations research, and often-used benchmark for new optimization techniques. This paper will to bring up multi-agent approach for solving the Traveling Salesman Problem based on data mining algorithm, for the extraction of knowledge from a large set of Traveling Salesman Problem. The proposed approach supports the distributed solving to the Traveling Salesman Problem. It divides into three-tier, the first tier is ant colony optimization agent; the second-tier is genetic algorithm agent; and the third tier is fast local searching agent. In using an Ant Colony Algorithm for the Traveling Salesman Problem, An attribute-oriented induction methodology was used to explore the relationship between an operations' sequence and its attributes and a set of rules has been developed. These rules can duplicate the Ant Colony Algorithm performance on identical problems. Ultimately, the experimental results have shown that the proposed hybrid approach has good performance with respect to the quality of solution and the speed of computation.
The Molecular Assembly of Amyloid Aβ Controls Its Neurotoxicity and Binding to Cellular Proteins

Accumulation of β-sheet-rich peptide (Aβ) is strongly associated with Alzheimer's disease, characterized by reduction in synapse density, structural alterations of dendritic spines, modification of synaptic protein expression, loss of long-term potentiation and neuronal cell death. Aβ species are potent neurotoxins, however the molecular mechanism responsible for Aβ toxicity is still unknown. Numerous mechanisms of toxicity were proposed, although there is no agreement about their relative importance in disease pathogenesis. Here, the toxicity of Aβ 1–40 and Aβ 1–42 monomers, oligomers or fibrils, was evaluated using the N2a cell line. A structure-function relationship between peptide aggregation state and toxic properties was established. Moreover, we demonstrated that Aβ toxic species cross the plasma membrane, accumulate in cells and bind to a variety of internal proteins, especially on the cytoskeleton and in the endoplasmatic reticulum (ER). Based on these data we suggest that numerous proteins act as Aβ receptors in N2a cells, triggering a multi factorial toxicity.