Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Model for Labor Migration and Urban Unemployment in Less Developed Countries

An economic behavioral model of rural urban migration is formulated which represents a realistic modification and extension of the simple wage differential approach commonly found in the literature and this probablistic approach is incorporated into a rigorous model of the determinants of urban labor demand and supply which when given values for the crucial parameters can be used among other things to estimate the equilibrium proportion of the urban labor force that is not absorbed by the modern industrial economy. Additionally the model will provide a convenient framework for analyzing the implications of alternative policies designed to alleviate unemployment by varying 1 or more of the principal parameters. A more realistic picture of labor migration in less developed nations would be one that views migration as a 2 stage phenomenon: in the 1st stage the unskilled rural worker migrates to an urban area and spends a certain period of time in the "urban traditional" sector; and the 2nd stage is reached with the eventual attainment of a more permanent modern sector job. This 2 stage process allows one to ask some basic questions concerning the decision to migrate the proportionate size of the urban traditional sector and the implications of accelerated industrial growth and/or alternative rural urban real income differentials on labor participation in the modern economy. In the model the decision to migrate from rural to urban areas is functionally related to 2 principal variables: the urban rural real income differential and the probability of obtaining an urban job. To understand better the nature of the supply function to be used in the overall model of the determinants of urban unemployment it is helpful to state the underlying behavioral assumptions of the model of rural urban migration: it is assumed that the percentage change in the urban labor force as a result of migration during any period is governed by the differential between the discounted streams of expected urban and rural real income expressed as percentage of the discounted stream of expected rural real income; the planning horizon for each worker is identical; the fixed costs of migration are identical for all workers; and the discount factor is constant over the planning horizon and identical for all potential migrants. The model demonstrates the overall net impact of allowing these parameters to vary over time and/or choosing alternative values. It underlines in a simple and plausible way the interdependent effects of industrial expansion productivity growth and the differential expected real earnings capacity of urban versus rural activities on the size and rate of increase in labor migration and therefore ultimately on the occupational distribution of the urban labor force. Possibly the most significant policy implication that emerged from the model is the great difficulty of substantially reducing the size of the urban traditional sector without a concentrated effort at making rural life more attractive.
Efficient induction of productive Cre-mediated recombination in retinal pigment epithelium

Purpose To dissect gene functions in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), we previously generated a tetracycline-inducible RPE-specific Cre mouse line. Although this Cre mouse line was useful for several conditional gene targeting studies that were conducted by different laboratories, its potential has not been fully exploited, presumably due to a lack of knowledge or procedure for inducing Cre expression appropriately in this mouse line. The goal of the current study is to establish a procedure that will improve the reproducibility of Cre-mediated recombination in this mouse line. Methods Analysis of Cre expression and function was performed in double transgenic mice derived from inducible RPE-specific Cre and Cre-activatable ROSA26 lacZ reporter mice. A tetracycline derivative, doxycycline, was supplied to mice intravitreally to induce Cre expression. Cre expression and function were examined with reverse transcription–PCR, immunoblotting, immunostaining, and in situ enzymatic assay for β-galactosidase. Retinal integrity was examined with electroretinography and morphometry. Results Intravitreal Dox injection elevated Cre expression significantly and resulted in productive Cre-mediated recombination in approximately 60% of the RPE cells in this mouse line with no apparent change in retinal integrity. Conclusions Our results suggest that productive Cre-mediated recombination in this mouse line can be induced efficiently with intravitreal Dox delivery, with no apparent Dox or Cre toxicity. Therefore, our inducible RPE-specific Cre mice are suitable for Cre/lox-based gene activation and inactivation in adult RPE, which is critical to the effectiveness and suitability of this Cre mouse line in long-term studies requiring conditional gene targeting.
User Analysis Based on Fuzzy Clustering

In order to solve the problem of user-classification to reflect the features of web users inflexible, a novel user classification model was presented in this paper. By introducing the concept of time discretization and applying fuzzy equivalence relation clustering to classify web users, the model can rationally solve the user classification problems. Empirical results showed that the output of user classification was not unique and the parameter δ should be adjusted based on applications. Compared to those hard clustering, this model is proved to be more effective to classify web users.
Luxembourg SUMO Traffic (LuST) Scenario: 24 hours of mobility for vehicular networking research

Different research communities varying from telecommunication to traffic engineering are working on problems related to vehicular traffic congestion, intelligent transportation systems, and mobility patterns using information collected from a variety of sensors. To test the solutions, the first step is to use a vehicular traffic simulator with an appropriate scenario in order to reproduce realistic mobility patterns. Many mobility simulators are available, and the choice is usually done based on the size and type of simulation required, but a common problem is to find a realistic traffic scenario. In order to evaluate and compare new communication protocols for vehicular networks, it is necessary to use a wireless network simulator in combination with a vehicular traffic simulator. This additional step introduces further requirements for the scenario. The aim of this work is to provide a scenario able to meet all the common requirements in terms of size, realism and duration, in order to have a common basis for the evaluations. In the interest of building a realistic scenario, we decided to start from a real city with a standard topology common in mid-size European cities, and real information concerning traffic demands and mobility patterns. In this paper we show the process used to build the Luxembourg SUMO Traffic (LuST) Scenario, and present a summary of its characteristics together with an overview of its possible use cases.
Surfaces of Al-based complex metallic alloys: atomic structure, thin film growth and reactivity

Abstract We present a review on recent work performed on periodic complex metallic alloy (CMA) surfaces. The electronic and crystallographic structures of clean pseudo-tenfold, pseudo-twofold, sixfold surfaces will be presented along with the recent findings on CMA of lower structural complexity, i.e. with a smaller unit cell. The use of CMA surfaces as templates for thin film growth and the formation of surface alloy will also be introduced. The reactivity of these complex surfaces and their impact in the field of heterogeneous catalysis will be discussed. Finally, common trends among these systems will be highlighted when possible and future challenges will be examined.
Coronary heart disease Complement factor H ( Y 402 H ) polymorphism and risk of coronary heart disease in US men and women

Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Kresge 9th Floor, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; and Cardiology Division, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Early Childhood Obesity is Associated With Compromised Cerebellar Development

As part of a study investigating commonalities between Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS—a genetic imprinting disorder) and early-onset obesity of unknown etiology (EMO) we measured total cerebral and cerebellar volume on volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images. Individuals with PWS (n = 16) and EMO (n = 12) had smaller cerebellar volumes than a control group of 15 siblings (p = .02 control vs. EMO; p = .0005 control vs. PWS), although there was no difference among the groups in cerebral volume. Individuals with PWS and EMO also had impaired cognitive function: general intellectual ability (GIA): PWS 65 ± 25; EMO 81 ± 19; and Controls 112 ± 13 (p < .0001 controls vs. PWS and controls vs. EMO). As both conditions are characterized by early-onset obesity and slowed cognitive development, these results raise the possibility that early childhood obesity retards both cerebellar and cognitive development.
Higher-Order Minimum Cost Lifted Multicuts for Motion Segmentation

Most state-of-the-art motion segmentation algorithms draw their potential from modeling motion differences of local entities such as point trajectories in terms of pairwise potentials in graphical models. Inference in instances of minimum cost multicut problems defined on such graphs allows to optimize the number of the resulting segments along with the segment assignment. However, pairwise potentials limit the discriminative power of the employed motion models to translational differences. More complex models such as Euclidean or affine transformations call for higher-order potentials and a tractable inference in the resulting higher-order graphical models. In this paper, we (1) introduce a generalization of the minimum cost lifted multicut problem to hypergraphs, and (2) propose a simple primal feasible heuristic that allows for a reasonably efficient inference in instances of higher-order lifted multicut problem instances defined on point trajectory hypergraphs for motion segmentation. The resulting motion segmentations improve over the state-of-the-art on the FBMS-59 dataset.
Online optimization and fair costing for dynamic data sharing in a cloud data market

The data markets are emerging to address many organizations' need to find more useful external data sets for deeper insights. Existing data markets have two main limitations. First, they either sell a whole data set or some fixed views, but do not allow arbitrary ad-hoc queries. Second, they only sell static data, but not data that are frequently updated. While there exist proposed solutions for selling ad-hoc queries, it is an open question what mechanism should be used to sell ad-hoc queries on dynamic data. In this paper, we study a data market framework that enables the sale or sharing of dynamic data, where each sharing is specified by an ad-hoc query. To keep the shared data up-to-date, the service provider should create a view of the shared data and maintain the view for the data buyer. We provide solutions to two important problems in this framework: how to efficiently maintain the views, and how to fairly determine the cost each sharing incurs for its view to be created and maintained by the service provider. Both problems are challenging since in the first problem, different sharings with the same operations in their plans may reuse these operations, and each sharing plan must be generated online. In the second problem, there are several factors that impact the fairness of a costing function and a straightforward mechanism won't work. We propose an intuitive online algorithm for sharing plan selection, as well as a set of fair costing criteria and an algorithm that maximizes the fairness.
Proteomics-Driven Analysis of Ovine Whey Colostrum

The aim of this study was to shed light in to the complexity of the ovine colostrum proteome, with a specific focus on the low abundance proteins. The ovine colostrum is characterized by a few dominating proteins, as the immunoglobulins, but it also contains less represented protein species, equally important for the correct development of neonates. Ovine colostrum, collected immediately after lambing, was separated by 1D SDS-PAGE. Proteins bands were digested with trypsin and the resulting peptides were analyzed by LC-MS/MS. On the basis of the Swiss-Prot database, a total of 343 unique proteins were identified. To our knowledge, this study represents the most comprehensive analysis of ovine colostrum proteome.
High dynamic range imaging pipeline: perception-motivated representation of visual content

The advances in high dynamic range (HDR) imaging, especially in the display and camera technology, have a significant impact on the existing imaging systems. The assumptions of the traditional low-dynamic range imaging, designed for paper print as a major output medium, are ill suited for the range of visual material that is shown on modern displays. For example, the common assumption that the brightest color in an image is white can be hardly justified for high contrast LCD displays, not to mention next generation HDR displays, that can easily create bright highlights and the impression of self-luminous colors. We argue that high dynamic range representation can encode images regardless of the technology used to create and display them, with the accuracy that is only constrained by the limitations of the human eye and not a particular output medium. To facilitate the research on high dynamic range imaging, we have created a software package (http://pfstools.sourceforge.net/) capable of handling HDR data on all stages of image and video processing. The software package is available as open source under the General Public License and includes solutions for high quality image acquisition from multiple exposures, a range of tone mapping algorithms and a visual difference predictor for HDR images. Examples of shell scripts demonstrate how the software can be used for processing single images as well as video sequences.
Improving Connectivity of Nodes in Mobile WSN

How to measure and maintain connectivity is an important issue in ad hoc networks. A special case of such network is Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), which are often deployed in harsh environments and also susceptible to a number of problems that may negatively affect the connectivity among the nodes. An additional factor that increases the cost of connectivity maintenance in ad hoc networks is when the nodes can move. When it comes to the WSN domain, this aspect is still more problematic, as the often small sensor nodes have in general a limited energy budget, and then should not use too much energy in the management of their connectivity. The goal of this work is to choose a topology for mobile WSN and improve the network connectivity as a whole while considering and influencing the energy consumption among all the nodes in the network. Different network topologies are considered and discussed. After evaluation of the pros and cons of the estimation quality when applied to each studied topology, a clustered hierarchical algorithm was chosen for network deployment. By means of a link estimator and considering different variables, a metric have been defined to estimate the link reliability. As a result, improved network connectivity is reported.
Cryptanalysis of the Cai-Cusick Lattice-based Public-key Cryptosystem

In 1998, Cai and Cusick proposed a lattice-based public-key cryptosystem based on the similar ideas of the Ajtai-Dwork cryptosystem, but with much less data expansion. However, they didn’t give any security proof. In our paper, we present an efficient ciphertext-only attack which runs in polynomial time against the cryptosystem to recover the message, so the Cai-Cusick lattice-based public-key cryptosystem is not secure. We also present two chosen-ciphertext attacks to get a similar private key which acts as the real private key.
Context-aware timeline for entity exploration

With millions of articles in multiple languages, Wikipedia has become the de-facto source of reference on the Internet today. Each article on Wikipedia contains encyclopedic information about various topics (people, events, inventions, etc.) and implicitly represents an entity. Extracting the most important facts about such entity will help users to find desired information more quickly and effectively. However, this task is challenging due to the incomplete and noisy nature of Wikipedia articles. This calls for a mechanism to detect and summarize the most important information about an entity on Wikipedia. This thesis proposes and implements CATE (Context-Aware Timeline for Entity Exploration), a framework that utilizes Wikipedia to summarize and visualize the important aspects of entities in a timeline fashion. Such a system will help users to draw quickly an informative picture of an entity (e.g. life of a person, or evolution of a research topic, etc.). The novelty of CATE lies in seeing the entity in different contexts, synchronous with contemporaneous events. In addition, CATE puts the entity in a relationship with other entities, and thus offers a broader portrait about it. In order to efficiently query and visualize the events related to the entity, a number of techniques have been developed, combining information extraction and information retrieval with a novel ranking model. The thesis also discusses several experiments and evaluation results to show the effectiveness of the methods proposed.
To Liberalize or Not to Liberalize: Political and Economic Factors Affecting the Government’s Decision to Liberalize the Domestic Equity Markets

The paper investigates the political and economic factors which affect the government’s decision to allow foreign investors to purchase domestic equity securities. The levels of industrialization and financial development, the quality of investor protection, and the level of the government’s involvement in the economy are closely associated with the stock market liberalization decision. Additionally, the amount of foreign financial aid received by the governments in the emerging market countries is significantly and positively related to the probability of a stock market liberalization. The latter result contributes to the debate about the effectiveness of foreign aid by illustrating that foreign financial aid may indirectly affect economic growth through its influence on the government’s decision to liberalize the national equity markets.
Minimum-Order Kalman Filter With Vector Selector for Accurate Estimation of Human Body Orientation

This paper describes a new quaternion-based Kalman filter (KF) for estimating human body orientation using an inertial/magnetic sensor. The proposed algorithm is comprised of a quaternion measurement step and a KF step that are connected in feedback relationship. This allows the algorithm to have a minimum-order structure (i.e., fourth order) that is computationally very efficient. Furthermore, to offer more reliable information to the quaternion measurement step, a vector selector scheme is adopted, which effectively adds the gyro measurement to the so-called Wahba's problem that conventionally uses only the accelerometer and magnetometer measurements. This protects the algorithm against undesirable conditions such as fast movements and temporary magnetic disturbances, enabling it to compute an accurate orientation estimate. Due to the computational efficiency of the algorithm, it is suitable for real-time ambulatory human motion tracking applications that require multiple and untethered inertial/magnetic sensors with low-cost onboard processing.
Covariation of Depressive Mood and Spontaneous Physical Activity in Major Depressive Disorder: Toward Continuous Monitoring of Depressive Mood

The objective evaluation of depressive mood is considered to be useful for the diagnosis and treatment of depressive disorders. Thus, we investigated psychobehavioral correlates, particularly the statistical associations between momentary depressive mood and behavioral dynamics measured objectively, in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy subjects. Patients with MDD (n = 14) and healthy subjects (n = 43) wore a watch-type computer device and rated their momentary symptoms using ecological momentary assessment. Spontaneous physical activity in daily life, referred to as locomotor activity, was also continuously measured by an activity monitor built into the device. A multilevel modeling approach was used to model the associations between changes in depressive mood scores and the local statistics of locomotor activity simultaneously measured. We further examined the cross validity of such associations across groups. The statistical model established indicated that worsening of the depressive mood was associated with the increased intermittency of locomotor activity, as characterized by a lower mean and higher skewness. The model was cross validated across groups, suggesting that the same psychobehavioral correlates are shared by both healthy subjects and patients, although the latter had significantly higher mean levels of depressive mood scores. Our findings suggest the presence of robust as well as common associations between momentary depressive mood and behavioral dynamics in healthy individuals and patients with depression, which may lead to the continuous monitoring of the pathogenic processes (from healthy states) and pathological states of MDD.
(INVITED) High-performance RF passives using post-CMOS MEMS techniques for RF SoC

Real-world realization of RF SoC has been hindered by the lack of high-performance, compact and tunable RF passive devices that are truly CMOS-compatible. This paper presents advances in low-temperature metal MEMS techniques developed to design and fabricate various high-performance RF passives for post-CMOS integration with RF SoC. Constructed with electroplated metal, the RF MEMS passives are suspended above the low-resistivity silicon substrate to depress both ohmic and substrate losses. The MEMS RF passives presented in this paper include concave-suspended high-Q solenoid inductors and transformers, wide-range tunable capacitors and resonant LC-tanks, etc. Key issues such as electrical, mechanical and reliability performance was discussed. Potential applications in RF mobile devices is outlined.
Arc-Length Continuation and Multigrid Techniques for Nonlinear Elliptic Eigenvalue Problems

We investigate multi-grid methods for solving linear systems arising from arc-length continuation techniques applied to nonlinear elliptic eigenvalue problems. We find that the usual multi-grid methods diverge in the neighborhood of singular points of the solution branches. As a result, the continuation method is unable to continue past a limit point in the Bratu problem. This divergence is analyzed and a modified multi-grid algorithm has been devised based on this analysis. In principle, this new multi-grid algorithm converges for elliptic systems, arbitrarily close to singularity and has been used successfully in conjunction with arc-length continuation procedures on the model problem. In the worst situation, both the storage and the computational work are only about a factor of two more than the unmodified multi-grid methods.