Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A unified accretion-ejection paradigm for black hole X-ray binaries

Context. Transient X-ray binaries (XrB) exhibit very different spectral shapes during their evolution. In luminosity-color diagrams, their behavior in X-rays forms q-shaped cycles that remain unexplained. In Paper I, we proposed a framework where the innermost regions of the accretion disk evolve as a response to variations imposed in the outer regions. These variations lead not only to modifications of the inner disk accretion rate ṁin, but also to the evolution of the transition radius rJ between two disk regions. The outermost region is a standard accretion disk (SAD), whereas the innermost region is a jet-emitting disk (JED) where all the disk angular momentum is carried away vertically by two self-confined jets. Aims. In the previous papers of this series, it has been shown that such a JED–SAD disk configuration could reproduce the typical spectral (radio and X-rays) properties of the five canonical XrB states. The aim of this paper is now to replicate all X-ray spectra and radio emission observed during the 2010–2011 outburst of the archetypal object GX 339-4. Methods. We used the two-temperature plasma code presented in two previous papers (Papers II and III) and designed an automatic ad hoc fitting procedure that for any given date calculates the required disk parameters (ṁin,rJ) that fit the observed X-ray spectrum best. We used X-ray data in the 3–40 keV (RXTE/PCA) spread over 438 days of the outburst, together with 35 radio observations at 9 GHz (ATCA) dispersed within the same cycle. Results. We obtain the time distributions of ṁin(t) and rJ(t) that uniquely reproduce the X-ray luminosity and the spectral shape of the whole cycle. In the classical self-absorbed jet synchrotron emission model, the JED–SAD configuration also reproduces the radio properties very satisfactorily, in particular, the switch-off and -on events and the radio-X-ray correlation. Although the model is simplistic and some parts of the evolution still need to be refined, this is to our knowledge the first time that an outburst cycle is reproduced with such a high level of detail. Conclusions. Within the JED–SAD framework, radio and X-rays are so intimately linked that radio emission can be used to constrain the underlying disk configuration, in particular, during faint hard states. If this result is confirmed using other outbursts from GX 339-4 or other X-ray binaries, then radio could be indeed used as another means to indirectly probe disk physics.
Offloading cellular traffic through opportunistic networks: A Stackelberg-game perspective

Mobile data offloading has become a promising approach to alleviate cellular traffic load. To motivate the third-party participants to offload data traffic, there arises a variety of market-based incentive frameworks for analyzing economic benefits. However, existing frameworks are mostly oriented to AP-based offloading through WiFi or femtocells, the economic incentive for opportunistic networks to admit cellular data traffic has drawn little attention. In this paper, we develop an incentive framework to analyze the interactions of different players. Specifically, we model the interaction between the data flow (offloading requester) and the mobile user (offloading helper) as a multi-leader multi-follower Stackelberg game (MLMF-SG), and investigate the case where the caching space of offloading helper is unlimited. For this case, we establish the existence and uniqueness of the equilibrium with respect to the offloading size, and derive the optimal strategy profile by solving a variation of 0-1 knapsack problem. Extensive numerical simulations show that the Stackelberg equilibrium is close to the optimal social utility, and verify the effectiveness of the proposed method for searching the optimal strategy profile.
Infant gaze following and pointing predict accelerated vocabulary growth through two years of age: a longitudinal, growth curve modeling study*

ABSTRACT We found that infant gaze following and pointing predicts subsequent language development. At ages 0 ; 10 or 0 ; 11, infants saw an adult turn to look at an object in an experimental setting. Productive vocabulary was assessed longitudinally through two years of age. Growth curve modeling showed that infants who gaze followed and looked longer at the target object had significantly faster vocabulary growth than infants with shorter looks, even with maternal education controlled; adding infant pointing strengthened the model. We highlight the role of social cognition in word learning and emphasize the communicative-referential functions of early gaze following and pointing.
Dietary Vitamin D Increases Percentages and Function of Regulatory T Cells in the Skin-Draining Lymph Nodes and Suppresses Dermal Inflammation

Skin inflammatory responses in individuals with allergic dermatitis may be suppressed by dietary vitamin D through induction and upregulation of the suppressive activity of regulatory T (TReg) cells. Vitamin D may also promote TReg cell tropism to dermal sites. In the current study, we examined the capacity of dietary vitamin D3 to modulate skin inflammation and the numbers and activity of TReg cells in skin and other sites including lungs, spleen, and blood. In female BALB/c mice, dietary vitamin D3 suppressed the effector phase of a biphasic ear swelling response induced by dinitrofluorobenzene in comparison vitamin D3-deficient female BALB/c mice. Vitamin D3 increased the percentage of TReg (CD3+CD4+CD25+Foxp3+) cells in the skin-draining lymph nodes (SDLN). The suppressive activity of TReg cells in the SDLN, mesenteric lymph nodes, spleen, and blood was upregulated by vitamin D3. However, there was no difference in the expression of the naturally occurring TReg cell marker, neuropilin, nor the expression of CCR4 or CCR10 (skin-tropic chemokine receptors) on TReg cells in skin, SDLN, lungs, and airway-draining lymph nodes. These data suggest that dietary vitamin D3 increased the percentages and suppressive activity of TReg cells in the SDLN, which are poised to suppress dermal inflammation.
Stochastic Discriminative EM

Stochastic discriminative EM (sdEM) is an online-EM-type algorithm for discriminative training of probabilistic generative models belonging to the natural exponential family. In this work, we introduce and justify this algorithm as a stochastic natural gradient descent method, i.e. a method which accounts for the information geometry in the parameter space of the statistical model. We show how this learning algorithm can be used to train probabilistic generative models by minimizing different discriminative loss functions, such as the negative conditional log-likelihood and the Hinge loss. The resulting models trained by sdEM are always generative (i.e. they define a joint probability distribution) and, in consequence, allows to deal with missing data and latent variables in a principled way either when being learned or when making predictions. The performance of this method is illustrated by several text classification problems for which a multinomial naive Bayes and a latent Dirichlet allocation based classifier are learned using different discriminative loss functions.
Psychodynamic Neurology: Dreams, Consciousness, and Virtual Reality

If you really want to be smarter, reading can be one of the lots ways to evoke and realize. Many people who like reading will have more knowledge and experiences. Reading can be a way to gain information from economics, politics, science, fiction, literature, religion, and many others. As one of the part of book categories, psychodynamic neurology dreams consciousness and virtual reality always becomes the most wanted book. Many people are absolutely searching for this book. It means that many love to read this kind of book.
Sound and complete relevance assessment for XML retrieval

In information retrieval research, comparing retrieval approaches requires test collections consisting of documents, user requests and relevance assessments. Obtaining relevance assessments that are as sound and complete as possible is crucial for the comparison of retrieval approaches. In XML retrieval, the problem of obtaining sound and complete relevance assessments is further complicated by the structural relationships between retrieval results. A major difference between XML retrieval and flat document retrieval is that the relevance of elements (the retrievable units) is not independent of that of related elements. This has major consequences for the gathering of relevance assessments. This article describes investigations into the creation of sound and complete relevance assessments for the evaluation of content-oriented XML retrieval as carried out at INEX, the evaluation campaign for XML retrieval. The campaign, now in its seventh year, has had three substantially different approaches to gather assessments and has finally settled on a highlighting method for marking relevant passages within documents—even though the objective is to collect assessments at element level. The different methods of gathering assessments at INEX are discussed and contrasted. The highlighting method is shown to be the most reliable of the methods.
Fast Computation of the Kinship Coefficients

For families, kinship coefficients are quantifications of the amount of genetic sharing between a pair of individuals. These coefficients are critical for understanding the breeding habits and genetic diversity of diploid populations. Historically, computations of the inbreeding coefficient were used to prohibit inbred marriages and prohibit breeding of some pairs of pedigree animals. Such prohibitions foster genetic diversity and help prevent recessive Mendelian disease at a population level. This paper gives the fastest known algorithms for computing the kinship coefficient of a set of individuals with a known pedigree. The algorithms given here consider the possibility that the founders of the known pedigree may themselves be inbred, and they compute the appropriate inbreeding-adjusted kinship coefficients. The exact kinship algorithm has running-time $O(n^2)$ for an $n$-individual pedigree. The recursive-cut exact kinship algorithm has running time $O(s^2m)$ where $s$ is the number of individuals in the largest segment of the pedigree and $m$ is the number of cuts. The approximate algorithm has running-time $O(n)$ for an $n$-individual pedigree on which to estimate the kinship coefficients of $\sqrt{n}$ individuals from $\sqrt{n}$ founder kinship coefficients.
Fabrication of Monodisperse Thermosensitive Microgels and Gel Capsules in Microfluidic Devices Highlight Www.rsc.org/softmatter | Soft Matter

We use droplet-based microfluidic techniques to produce monodisperse poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) gel particles in the size range of 10-1000 mm. Our techniques offer exquisite control over both outer dimensions and inner morphology of the particles. We demonstrate this control by fabricating conventional microgels, microgels with embedded materials and voids, and gel microcapsules with single-and multi-phase cores. These techniques should be applicable for the synthesis of particles and capsules of a variety of chemical compositions and for the generation of higher order ''supraparticles'' by directed assembly of colloidal particles in droplets. Stimuli-sensitive microgels are cross-linked polymeric particles that swell or shrink reversibly by absorbing or releasing solvent in response to changes in the surrounding temperature, pH, ionic strength, electromagnetic field, or other conditions. Their responsiveness to the external environment makes them attractive candidates for applications in drug delivery, 2–8 catalysis, 9–12 sensing, 13–18 and photonics. Poly(N-iso-propylacrylamide), PNIPAM, microgels are an example of thermosensitive microgels: their size change is triggered by changes in temperature. The polymer chains forming these microgels contain both hydrophilic amide groups and hydrophobic isopropyl groups. When dispersed in water at low temperatures, generally below 32 C, the amide groups of the microgels interact strongly with water through hydrogen bonding and these strong interactions force water into the microgels causing them to swell. However, at higher temperatures, the hydrogen bonds between water and the amide groups are disrupted causing water to act as a poor solvent. As a result, water is expelled from the microgels, the polymer network collapses, and the particles shrink dramatically. 1 The transition is sharp and occurs at a relatively lower temperature (32 C) compared to other known thermosensitive microgels. 22 Certain applications, such as controlled release of macromolecules, require microgels to have a narrow size distribution since the loading levels and release kinetics are directly affected by the polydispersity of the particles. Common synthesis techniques like emulsion poly-merization 1,23–25 and solvent-free emulsion polymerization 26–29 can produce PNIPAM microgels with low poly-dispersity. However, these microgels are submicron in size. Synthesis of monodisperse PNIPAM microgels with dimensions of the order of several microns is more challenging. One method entails emulsification of monomer mixtures to form pre-microgel drops in David A. Weitz is the Mal-linckrodt Professor of Physics and Applied Physics and the director of the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Harvard University. His current research involves developing new techniques to probe the mechanical properties of …
Democracy and Its Alternatives: Understanding Post-Communist Societies

The collapse of Communism has created the opportunity for democracy to spread from Prague to the Baltic and Black Seas. But the alternatives-dictatorship or totalitarian rule-are more in keeping with the traditions of Central Europe. And for many post-Communist societies, democracy has come to be associated with inflation, unemployment, crime, and corruption. Is it still true, then, as Winston Churchill suggested a half-century ago, that people will accept democracy with all its faults-because it is better than anything else? To find out, political scientists Richard Rose, William Mishler, and Christian Haerpfer examine evidence from post-Communist societies in eastern Europe. Drawing on data from public opinion and exit polls, election results, and interviews, the authors present testable hypotheses regarding regime change, consolidation, and prospects for stabilization. The authors point out that the abrupt transition to democracy in post-Communist countries is normal; gradual evolution in the Anglo-American way is the exception to the rule. While most recent books on democratization focus on Latin America and, to some extent, Asia, the present volume offers a unique look at the process currently under way in nine eastern European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Belarus, and Ukraine. Despite the many problems these post-Communist societies are experiencing in making the transition to a more open and democratic polity, the authors conclude that a little democracy is better than no democracy at all.
Developmental expression of the glycine transporter GLYT2 in the auditory system of rats suggests involvement in synapse maturation

The synaptic action of many neurotransmitters is terminated by specific transporters that remove the molecules from the synaptic cleft and help to replenish the transmitter supply. Here, we have investigated the spatiotemporal distribution of the glycine transporter GLYT2 in the central auditory system of rats, where glycinergic synapses are abundant. In adult rats, GLYT2 immunoreactivity was found at all relay stations, except the auditory cortex. Many immunoreactive puncta surrounded the neuronal somata in the cochlear nuclear complex, the superior olivary complex, and the nuclei of the lateral lemniscus. In contrast, diffuse neuropil labeling was seen in the inferior colliculus and the medial geniculate body. The punctate perisomatic labeling and the diffuse neuropil labeling were very similar to the staining pattern described previously with glycine antibodies in the auditory system, suggesting that GLYT2 is a reliable marker for glycinergic synapses. However, there was a discrepancy between cytoplasmic GLYT2 and glycine labeling, as not all neuron types previously identified with glycine antibodies displayed somatic GLYT2 immunoreactivity. During development, GLYT2 immunoreactivity appeared between embryonic days 18 and 20, i.e., shortly after the time when the earliest functional synapses have been established in the auditory system. Labeling turned from a diffuse pattern to a clustered, punctate appearance. The development was also characterized by an increase of the signal intensity, which generally lasted until about postnatal day 10. Thereafter, a decrease occurred until about postnatal day 21, when the mature pattern was established in most nuclei. Because of the perinatal onset of GLYT2 immunoreactivity, we speculate that the transporter molecules participate in the process of early synapse maturation. J. Comp. Neurol. 412:17–37, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
IPO Underpricing, Wealth Losses and the Curious Role of Venture Capitalists in the Creation of Public Companies

Lower underpricing amongst venture-backed IPOs has been attributed to a certification role for venture capitalists. We argue that differences in underpricing per se are uninformative and possibly misleading when not controlling for differences in entrepreneursâ€™ incentives to control underpricing. Using 1980s and 1990s data, we show that entrepreneursâ€™ wealth losses, a more suitable measure than underpricing, are unaffected by the presence of venture backers. Thus, we find no evidence of venture certification as far as IPO pricing is concerned. We also find possible evidence of a conflict of interest between venture backers and entrepreneurs which could explain why more prestigious underwriters in the 1990s are associated with higher underpricing.
Remote path planning and motion control of mobile robot within indoor maze environment

The paper proposes a wireless navigation mobile robot system for both path planning and trajectory execution within an indoor maze environment. This system consists of the mobile robot, trajectory planner, motion controller, visual sensor (CCD camera), ZigBee wireless communication device and a maze terrain. The camera is used to capture images of the mobile robot within the maze. Developed image processing and analyzing algorithms determine the robot's position and orientation based on color markers recognition. Markers are mounted on the top of the robot. Based on this data the implemented navigation system calculates a trajectory for the mobile robot from a starting point to a target point. The proposed navigation system is an upgrade to our previously developed system. Maze encryption and motion planning modules have been added to the previous system. Breadth First Search (BFS) and modified Depth First Search (DFS) algorithms were used for the trajectory calculation. A developed control algorithm calculates control signals in real time. These signals are sent to the robot via modules for wireless communication, causing robot motion along the calculated trajectory and eventually, the completion of the trajectory. The whole control system is realized and experimental results have been obtained. The experimental results confirm the robustness and effectiveness of the implemented control system.
Time Preference, Executive Functions, and Ego-Depletion: An Exploratory Study

The present research investigates the ways in which the time preferences of young adults are influenced by the level of their executive cognitive abilities and by situational changes in these abilities. Within the framework of this study, young adults were asked to respond to a questionnaire dealing with their time preferences in light of changing amounts and delay durations. Some were asked to do a Stroop task beforehand, whereas others performed a similar but simpler task. This research assumes that because the Stroop task requires that the individual reach a decision while overcoming an automatic tendency and an ingrained habit, his or her self-control resources are depleted. As such, when an individual is filling out the questionnaire dealing with time preferences after a Stroop task, his or her ability to avoid automatic tendencies is depleted, making it difficult for him/her to reject the receipt of money in the present. The study found that, in general, individuals having good executive cognitive abilities, namely, those who got the highest scores on the Stroop task, were characterized by a lower rate of subjective discounting. In addition, the research showed a marked difference between those individuals who had experienced depletion and those who had not, in that the depleted individuals tended to demand higher discount rates for having postponed the payment. This means that the depletion of executive-ability resources caused a behavior similar to that of those having the lowest executive abilities. This outcome may attest to the fact that a depletion in the available level of executive abilities in an individual reduces the ability of that individual to overcome his or her natural tendency to prefer the present, thus influencing his or her intertemporal choices.
Arsenic Contamination in Food-chain: Transfer of Arsenic into Food Materials through Groundwater Irrigation

Arsenic contamination in groundwater in Bangladesh has become an additional concern vis-à-vis its use for irrigation purposes. Even if arsenic-safe drinking-water is assured, the question of irrigating soils with arsenic-laden groundwater will continue for years to come. Immediate attention should be given to assess the possibility of accumulating arsenic in soils through irrigation-water and its subsequent entry into the food-chain through various food crops and fodders. With this possibility in mind, arsenic content of 2,500 water, soil and vegetable samples from arsenic-affected and arsenic-unaffected areas were analyzed during 1999–2004. Other sources of foods and fodders were also analyzed. Irrigating a rice field with groundwater containing 0.55 mg/L of arsenic with a water requirement of 1,000 mm results in an estimated addition of 5.5 kg of arsenic per ha per annum. Concentration of arsenic as high as 80 mg per kg of soil was found in an area receiving arsenic-contaminated irrigation. A comparison of results from affected and unaffected areas revealed that some commonly-grown vegetables, which would usually be suitable as good sources of nourishment, accumulate substantially-elevated amounts of arsenic. For example, more than 150 mg/kg of arsenic has been found to be accumulated in arum (kochu) vegetable. Implications of arsenic ingested in vegetables and other food materials are discussed in the paper.