Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do Job Security Guarantees Work

We investigate the effect of employer job security guarantees on employee perceptions of job security. Using linked employer-employee data from the 1998 British Workplace Employee Relations Survey, we find job security guarantees reduce employee perceptions of job insecurity. This finding is robust to endogenous selection of job security guarantees by employers engaging in organisational change and workforce reductions. Furthermore, there is no evidence that increased job security through job guarantees results in greater work intensification, stress, or lower job satisfaction.
Synapsin Function in GABA-ergic Interneurons Is Required for Short-Term Olfactory Habituation

In Drosophila, short-term (STH) and long-term habituation (LTH) of olfactory avoidance behavior are believed to arise from the selective potentiation of GABAergic synapses between multiglomerular local circuit interneurons (LNs) and projection neurons in the antennal lobe. However, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we show that synapsin (syn) function is necessary for STH and that syn97-null mutant defects in STH can be rescued by syn+ cDNA expression solely in the LN1 subset of GABAergic local interneurons. As synapsin is a synaptic vesicle-clustering phosphoprotein, these observations identify a presynaptic mechanism for STH as well as the inhibitory interneurons in which this mechanism is deployed. Serine residues 6 and/or 533, potential kinase target sites of synapsin, are necessary for synapsin function suggesting that synapsin phosphorylation is essential for STH. Consistently, biochemical analyses using a phospho-synapsin-specific antiserum show that synapsin is a target of Ca2+ calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CaMKII) phosphorylation in vivo. Additional behavioral and genetic observations demonstrate that CaMKII function is necessary in LNs for STH. Together, these data support a model in which CaMKII-mediated synapsin phosphorylation in LNs induces synaptic vesicle mobilization and thereby presynaptic facilitation of GABA release that underlies olfactory STH. Finally, the striking observation that LTH occurs normally in syn97 mutants indicates that signaling pathways for STH and LTH diverge upstream of synapsin function in GABAergic interneurons.
Cell chirality: emergence of asymmetry from cell culture

Increasing evidence suggests that intrinsic cell chirality significantly contributes to the left–right (LR) asymmetry in embryonic development, which is a well-conserved characteristic of living organisms. With animal embryos, several theories have been established, but there are still controversies regarding mechanisms associated with embryonic LR symmetry breaking and the formation of asymmetric internal organs. Recently, in vitro systems have been developed to determine cell chirality and to recapitulate multicellular chiral morphogenesis on a chip. These studies demonstrate that chirality is indeed a universal property of the cell that can be observed with well-controlled experiments such as micropatterning. In this paper, we discuss the possible benefits of these in vitro systems to research in LR asymmetry, categorize available platforms for single-cell chirality and multicellular chiral morphogenesis, and review mathematical models used for in vitro cell chirality and its applications in in vivo embryonic development. These recent developments enable the interrogation of the intracellular machinery in LR axis establishment and accelerate research in birth defects in laterality. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Provocative questions in left–right asymmetry’.
On caption bias in interleaving experiments

Information retrieval evaluation most often involves manually assessing the relevance of particular query-document pairs. In cases where this is difficult (such as personalized search), interleaved comparison methods are becoming increasingly common. These methods compare pairs of ranking functions based on user clicks on search results, thus better reflecting true user preferences. However, by depending on clicks, there is a potential for bias. For example, users have been previously shown to be more likely to click on results with attractive titles and snippets. An interleaving evaluation where one ranker tends to generate results that attract more clicks (without being more relevant) may thus be biased. We present an approach for detecting and compensating for this type of bias in interleaving evaluations. Introducing a new model of caption bias, we propose features that model bias based on (1) per-document effects, and (2) the (pairwise) relationships between a document and surrounding documents. We show that our model can effectively capture click behavior, with best results achieved by a model that combines both per-document and pairwise features. Applying this model to re-weight observed user clicks, we find a small overall effect on real interleaving comparisons, but also identify a case where initially detected preferences vanish after caption bias re-weighting is applied. Our results indicate that our model of caption bias is effective and can successfully identify interleaving experiments affected by caption bias.
Quality of Service - An Overview

This chapter explains quality of service (QoS) and the service models that embody it. It also suggests benefits that you can gain from implementing Cisco IOS XE QoS in your network. Then it describes the Cisco IOS XE QoS feature categories. This chapter contains the following sections: • What Is Quality of Service? , page 1 • About QoS Architecture, page 2 • Who Could Benefit from Using QoS? , page 2 • Why Deploy QoS? , page 3 • End-to-End QoS Models, page 3
Stationary and moving breathers in a simplified model of curved alpha--helix proteins

We study the existence, stability and movability of breathers in a model for alpha–helix proteins. This model basically consists of a chain of dipole moments parallel to it. The existence of localized linear modes means that the system has a characteristic frequency, which depends on the curvature of the chain. Hard breathers are stable, while soft breathers experience subharmonic instabilities that are preserved, whatever the localization. Moving breathers can travel across the bending point for small curvature and are reflected when it is increased. No trapping of breathers takes place.
A Localization Algorithm for Nonuniform Propagation Environments in Sensor Networks

Target localization is one of the interesting appli- cations of sensor networks. Localization algorithms that use received signal strength (RSS) measurements at individual sensor nodes have been proposed. The maximum likelihood (ML) algorithm is known as a popular algorithm for target localization. In uniform propagation environments, the ML algorithm has high accuracy to estimate a target location. Meanwhile, in nonuniform propagation environments, the ML algorithm has low accuracy, because this algorithm uses RSS from all the sensor nodes equivalently. The residual weighting (RWGH) algorithm has been proposed to reduce the effect of nonuniform propagation environments. This algorithm first sets subsets of sensor nodes. The target location is estimated using the sensor nodes in each subset. The final estimated result is the averaged value of the estimated results of all the subsets weighted by their reliabilities. The reliability of each subset is the residual error of the distances between the target and each sensor node estimated by two ways. In the RWGH algorithm, there may be a case that the reliability of each subset is high although the estimation error of the subset is large. This degrades the final estimated result. In this paper, we propose a localization algorithm to reduce the effect of the subsets that have large errors. The proposed algorithm tries to detect the area where the density of the estimated results of subsets is high and reflect this information to the final estimated result. In this algorithm, the sensor field is split into cells. Each subset votes its reliability for a cell that includes the estimated location with the subset and the reliability of the subset is added to the cumulative reliability of the voted subsets. The cumulative reliabilities of cells are used to calculate the final estimated result. We show that the proposed algorithm has higher localization accuracy than the ML and RWGH algorithms by computer simulation.
Polyhymnia: An Automatic Piano Performance System with Statistical Modeling of Polyphonic Expression and Musical Symbol Interpretation

We developed an automatic piano performance system called Polyhymnia that is able to generate expressive polyphonic piano performances with music scores so that it can be used as a computer-based tool for an expressive performance. The system automatically renders expressive piano music by means of automatic musical symbol interpretation and statistical models of structure-expression relations regarding polyphonic features of piano performance. Experimental results indicate that the generated performances of various piano pieces with diverse trained models had polyphonic expression and sounded expressively. In addition, the models trained with different performance styles reflected the styles observed in the training performances, and they were well distinguishable by human listeners. Polyhymnia won the first prize in the autonomous section of the Performance Rendering Contest for Computer Systems (Rencon) 2010.
Distributed Data Deluge (D3): Efficient state management for virtualized Network Functions

The advent of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) opens up new opportunities for scaling out network function (NF) instances to meet evolving demands. However, dynamic NF scaling in conjunction with the highly unbalanced Internet traffic can induce a high degree of processing load imbalance among the NF instances. In this respect, we present Distributed Data Deluge (D3) for the distribution of processing load among the virtualized NF instances. D3 uses forwarding and NF internal state distribution to achieve load balancing and further retain it upon NF instance scale in/out or NF state corruption. To this end, D3 leverages on Distributed Hash Tables (DHT) for state distribution. Since DHT cannot cope with the unbalanced Internet traffic, we augment DHT with redundancy and a flow handover mechanism. We further discuss techniques for detection and recovery from NF state corruption. Finally, we assess the load balancing efficiency of D3, using trace-driven simulations.
Multicast-based inference of network-internal delay performance using the method of moment

Packet delay has an important influence on the overall performance of network in applications, therefore, it is very necessary to measure internal-network delay performance for network administrators to manage their network well. Existing methods, largely based on end-to-end measurement with discrete delay model, can be applied to infer delay performance of internal links, such as Maximum Likelihood Estimate (MLE) and EM-MLE (Expectation Maximum) algorithm, however, their computational complexity caused by the iterative inference is still a problem for practical use, especially, it is more complex in computation when the number of bins is more or the size of network topology is larger. In this paper, we show how to infer the delay performance of internal network using the method of moment. In contrast to other methods, its most advantage is simple in computational complexity, and for the large network topology, it has more advantage in computational complexity than other methods.
Prevalence of Abnormalities in Vestibular Function and Balance among HIV-Seropositive and HIV-Seronegative Women and Men

Background Most HIV-seropositive subjects in western countries receive highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Although many aspects of their health have been studied, little is known about their vestibular and balance function. The goals of this study were to determine the prevalences of vestibular and balance impairments among HIV-seropositive and comparable seronegative men and women and to determine if those groups differed. Methods Standard screening tests of vestibular and balance function, including head thrusts, Dix-Hallpike maneuvers, and Romberg balance tests on compliant foam were performed during semiannual study visits of participants who were enrolled in the Baltimore and Washington, D. C. sites of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study and the Women's Interagency HIV Study. Results No significant differences by HIV status were found on most tests, but HIV-seropositive subjects who were using HAART had a lower frequency of abnormal Dix-Hallpike nystagmus than HIV-seronegative subjects. A significant number of nonclassical Dix-Hallpike responses were found. Age was associated with Romberg scores on foam with eyes closed. Sex was not associated with any of the test scores. Conclusion These findings suggest that HAART-treated HIV infection has no harmful association with vestibular function in community-dwelling, ambulatory men and women. The association with age was expected, but the lack of association with sex was unexpected. The presence of nonclassical Dix-Hallpike responses might be consistent with central nervous system lesions.
Role of central preprogramming in dynamic visual acuity with vestibular loss.

OBJECTIVE To determine the contribution of central preprogramming of eye movements to dynamic visual acuity (DVA) during head movement in patients with vestibular hypofunction. STUDY DESIGN Prospective, clinical study. SETTING Tertiary care, academic hospitals. PARTICIPANTS Twenty-six healthy subjects and 20 patients with unilateral (UVL) and 7 with bilateral vestibular loss (BVL) (age range, 20-86 years). INTERVENTIONS Diagnostic interventions, including caloric and rotational chair testing. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Measurements of DVA during predictable (DVA-predictable) and unpredictable (DVA-unpredictable) head movements using a computerized test. RESULTS There was a difference between DVA-predictable and DVA-unpredictable scores in all groups (P<.02). The difference between DVA-predictable and DVA-unpredictable scores for the BVL group was significantly greater than that for the other groups (P<.005). Age was a significant factor in DVA-unpredictable scores for the healthy subjects (P<.001) and UVL group (P<.02). Comparisons of DVA between groups were significant (P<.03), with the following exceptions: UVL group for head movements toward the unaffected side for DVA-predictable and DVA-unpredictable scores, compared with healthy subjects, and UVL group for head movements toward the affected side for DVA-predictable scores, compared with the BVL group. CONCLUSIONS Unpredictable head movements cause a greater decrement in visual acuity than do predictable head movements. This suggests that central programming of eye movements and/or efference copy contributes to gaze stability during predictable head movements in healthy subjects and patients with vestibular hypofunction. Patients with BVL use central programming of eye movements to maintain gaze stability more than do healthy subjects or patients with UVL.
Large Eddy Simulation of Turbulent Flow in a T-Junction

A large eddy simulation at the conditions of experiments by Vattenfall [1] was performed in order to investigate the phenomenon of turbulent mixing affecting the thermal fatigue in a T-junction. In the present LES based on the dynamic Vreman model, mean velocity, turbulence intensity, and Reynolds shear stress profiles show good agreement with those measured in the Vattenfall experiment. With the present LES results verified, the characteristics of vortical structures in terms of turbulent mixing resulting in thermal fatigue was investigated. The energy spectra are shown to have a dominant frequency of around St = 0.5 agreeing with the value reported in experiments. On the other hand, the dominant frequency near the wall is different from that reported at the centerline (St ∼ 1), meaning that the thermal fatigue may not result from the wake structure, and is affected by the vortical structures existing near the wall. This result is consistent with one stated by Muramatsu [2] that the frequency characteristics near the wall are closely associated with arched vortices. In addition, the present LES results are used to provide useful insights in predicting this kind of flow using RANS computations.
Realistic evaluation of Situation Awareness for Everyone (SAFE) on paediatric wards: study protocol

Introduction Evidence suggests that health outcomes for hospitalised children in the UK are worse than other countries in Europe, with an estimated 1500 preventable deaths in hospital each year. It is presumed that some of these deaths are due to unanticipated deterioration, which could have been prevented by earlier intervention, for example, sepsis. The Situation Awareness For Everyone (SAFE) intervention aims to redirect the ‘clinical gaze’ to encompass a range of prospective indicators of risk or deterioration, including clinical indicators and staff concerns, so that professionals can review relevant information for any given situation. Implementing the routine use of huddles is central to increasing situation awareness in SAFE. Methods and analysis In this article, we describe the realistic evaluation framework within which we are evaluating the SAFE programme. Multiple methods and data sources are used to help provide a comprehensive understanding of what mechanisms for change are triggered by an intervention and how they have an impact on the existing social processes sustaining the behaviour or circumstances that are being targeted for change. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval was obtained from London—Dulwich Research Ethics Committee (14/LO/0875). It is anticipated that the findings will enable us to understand what the important elements of SAFE and the huddle are, the processes by which they might be effective and—given the short timeframes of the project—initial effects of the intervention on outcomes. The present research will add to the extant literature by providing the first evidence of implementation of SAFE and huddles in paediatric wards in the UK.
A novel region-based image retrieval method using relevance feedback

Content-based image retrieval using region segmentation has been an active research area in the past few years. Constrasting to traditional approaches, which compute only global features of images, the region-based methods extract features of the segmented regions and perform similarity comparisons at the granularity of region. In this paper, we propose a novel region-based retrieval method, Self-Learned Region Importance (SLRI). In this method, image similarity measure is based on the region importance learned from users' feedback. The region importance that coincides that human perception con not only be used in a query session, but also be memorized and cumulated for future queries. Experimental results on a database of about 8,600 general-purposed images show the effectiveness of our method using relevance feedback.
Harmonic Elimination of Cascaded Multilevel Inverter using Metaheuristic Optimization Methods

The harmonic elimination of multilevel inverters is a complicated task that includes nonlinear transcendental equations. With the increase in the level of the multilevel inverter, the no of variables of the equation also increases which makes the problem more complicated. Metaheuristic optimization algorithms play an important role in finding out optimum switching angles required for elimination of harmonics in a lesser computational time avoiding multiple local minima. This paper deals with the harmonic elimination of cascaded multilevel inverter using whale optimization algorithm. The whale optimization method has the ability to escape local minima and it takes less time of computation of results. Results are verified theoretically by taking an example of a 15-level cascaded H-bridge inverter fed from equal d.c.sources. The above scheme well minimizes lower order harmonics and gives better output voltage and a low total harmonic distortion.
An Enhanced Global Index for Location-Based Mobile Broadcast Services

This paper proposes a new global index structure and processing for location-dependent queries in mobile broadcast environments. The proposed scheme consists of two essential elements for addressing spatial queries in broadcast databases. These two elements are: (i) determine the client’s location in relevant to the spatial model adopted by the broadcast scheme, and (ii) obtain the required object, which corresponds to the location of the client as determined by the model. The global index’s concept will enhance the efficiency of the model. We explore the effectiveness of the proposed index scheme in single and multi channel environments. Performance comparisons with the earlier work through simulated-experiments have also been carried out and the results found have been promising.
Improving the performance of GIS/spatial analysts though novel applications of the Emotiv EPOC EEG headset

Geospatial information systems are used to analyze spatial data to provide decision makers with relevant, up-to-date, information. The processing time required for this information is a critical component to response time. Despite advances in algorithms and processing power, we still have many “human-in-theloop” factors. Given the limited number of geospatial professionals, analysts using their time effectively is very important. The automation and faster humancomputer interactions of common tasks that will not disrupt their workflow or attention is something that is very desirable. The following research describes a novel approach to increase productivity with a wireless, wearable, electroencephalograph (EEG) headset within the geospatial workflow.
Development of Marker-Free Insect-Resistant Indica Rice by Agrobacterium tumefaciens-Mediated Co-transformation

Agrobacterium-mediated co-transformation is an efficient strategy to generate marker-free transgenic plants. In this study, the vectors pMF-2A∗ containing a synthetic cry2A∗ gene driven by maize ubiquitin promoter and pCAMBIA1301 harboring hygromycin phosphotransferase gene (hpt) were introduced into Minghui86 (Oryza sativa L. ssp. indica), an elite indica restorer line. Two independent transformants containing both the cry2A∗ gene and hpt gene were regenerated. Several homozygous marker-free transgenic progenies were derived from family 2AH2, and three of them were selected for further insect bioassay in the laboratory and field. Insect-resistance assays revealed that all the three transgenic lines were highly resistant to striped stem borer (Chilo suppressalis), yellow stem borer (Tryporyza incertulas) and rice leaf folder (Cnaphalocrocis medinalis). The measurement of Cry2A protein concentration showed that Cry2A protein was stably expressed in leaves and stems of homozygous transgenic lines and their hybrids. The yields of the marker-free homozygous transgenic lines and their hybrids were not significantly different from those of their corresponding controls. Furthermore, the results of flanking sequence isolation showed that the T-DNA in line 8-30 was integrated into the intergenic region of chromosome 2 (between Os02g43680 and Os02g43690). These results indicate that the marker-free transgenic rice has the potential for commercial production.
Women's wages and childbearing decisions: Evidence from Italy

During the early 1990s, Italy became one of the first countries to reach lowest-low fertility. This was also a period in which women´s education and labour force participation increased. We analyze the role of women´s (potential) wages on their fertility decisions by making use of two different surveys. This enables us to apply discrete-time duration models. For first births, we find evidence of non-proportional hazards and of some "recuperation" effects; for second and third births, instead, wage exhibits small intensity although there is a clear division between Northern and Southern Italian regions.