Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endogenous Variety and the Gains from Trade

We explore the implications of models with increasing returns, endogenous variety and firm-level heterogeneity for the quantification of the gains from trade. We first focus on the impact of trade liberalization on imported variety by analyzing the experience of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1992. We find that although liberalization triggered a sizable increase in variety, the resulting welfare gains were small because of strong heterogeneity across imported goods. Upon trade liberalization, the new varieties are imported in small quantities, and hence contribute little to welfare. We then present a model with firm-level increasing returns, differentiated goods, monopolistic competition, endogenous variety and free entry to show that total variety (domestic plus imported) can either increase, decrease or remain constant with trade liberalization. More importantly, the gains from trade do not depend on what happens to total variety. In fact, we find that, conditional on the estimated elasticities of trade with respect to trade costs, models with increasing returns, endogenous variety, free or restricted entry, and firm-level heterogeneity have exactly the same implications for welfare gains from trade liberalization as traditional models.
Interactions for Seamlessly Coupled Exploration of High-Dimensional Images and Hierarchical Embeddings

High-dimensional images (i.e., with many attributes per pixel) are commonly acquired in many domains, such as geosciences or systems biology. The spatial and attribute information of such data are typically explored separately, e.g., by using coordinated views of an image representation and a low-dimensional embedding of the high-dimensional attribute data. Facing ever growing image data sets, hierarchical dimensionality reduction techniques lend themselves to overcome scalability issues. However, current embedding methods do not provide suitable interactions to reflect image space exploration. Specifically, it is not possible to adjust the level of detail in the embedding hierarchy to reflect changing level of detail in image space stemming from navigation such as zooming and panning. In this paper, we propose such a mapping from image navigation interactions to embedding space adjustments. We show how our mapping applies the "overview first, details-on-demand" characteristic inherent to image exploration in the high-dimensional attribute space. We compare our strategy with regular hierarchical embedding technique interactions and demonstrate the advantages of linking image and embedding interactions through a representative use case.
Emotional Development, Shame, and Adaptation to Child Maltreatment

The adverse effects of maltreatment on children’s development are well documented, as is substantial variation in individual outcomes among children who are maltreated (e.g., Ackerman, Newton, McPherson, Jones, & Dykman, 1998; Kendall-Tackett, Williams, & Finkelhor, 1993; Widom, 1999). To better understand which children are most at risk, researchers and clinicians have become increasingly interested in moderators and mediators that explain when and how children who are maltreated develop adjustment problems. Emotional processes have emerged as central for elucidating how the experiences of child maltreatment affect the development of psychological distress and behavioral problems. Considerable evidence supports the negative effect of maltreatment on children’s emotional processes and development, including problems with emotion expression, communication, and regulation (Alessandri & Lewis, 1996; Beeghly & Cicchetti, 1994; Maughan & Cicchetti, 2002; Pollak, Cicchetti, Hornung, & Reed, 2000; Shipman, Zeman, Penza, & Champion, 2000). Shame has recently received increased attention by researchers and clinicians as a means for understanding how children who are maltreated become at risk for poor adjustment. The goal of this issue is to look more closely at the emotion of shame and its role in adaptation to experiences of child maltreatment. The five articles in this special section present theory and findings from scholars in the areas of emotion and maltreatment. They provide innovative information on conceptualizing, measuring, and treating shame across multiple forms of maltreatment. Emotion is the process of marking the significance of events in terms of how individuals assign meaning to them (Campos, Frankel, & Camaras, 2004). The nature of the emotion is a function of the event’s construed significance, with greater significance related to greater magnitude of emotional response. According to this view, the assignment of significance to experiences of maltreatment determines the nature of emotions (Campos et al., 2004; Scherer, Schorr, & Johnstone, 2001). Such an approach to defining emotions fits well with the generally held view of maltreatment researchers and clinicians that the evaluation of events rather than the events themselves are key to an individual’s adjustment following trauma (e.g., Cohen & Mannarino, 2002; Ferguson, 2005 [this issue]; Spaccarelli, 1994).
Comparison of the refined analytic and the Burghelea-Haller torsions

La torsion analytique raffinee, associee a un fibre vectoriel plat sur une variete fermee et orientee (le dimension impaire, definit d'une maniere canonique une forme quadratique T sur le deteminant de la cohomologie. La torsion introduite par Burghelea et Haller et la forme quadratique τ sont des concepts raffines de la torsion analytique de Ray-Singer. On demontre que dans le cas ou la torsion de Burghelea-Haller est definie, elle est identique a ±T. Comme application, on obtient des resultats nouveaux pour la torsion de Burghelea-Haller. En particulier, on demontre une version faible de la conjecture de Burghelea-Haller concernant leur torsion et le carre de la torsion combinatoire de Farber-Turaev.
The use of videoconferencing to support multimodal interaction in an online language classroom

Abstract The introduction of virtual learning environments has made new tools available that have the potential to support learner communication and interaction, thus aiding second language acquisition both from a psycholinguistic and a sociocultural point of view. This article focuses on the use of videoconferencing in the context of a larger exploratory study to find out how interaction was influenced by the affordances of the environment. Taking a mainly qualitative approach, the authors analysed the written and spoken interaction in recorded videoconferencing sessions, alongside examining some quantitative data to reveal participation patterns. Exploring language learning interaction in a synchronous online medium allows us to show how this is a process mediated by interaction with experts and peers as well as by the artefacts used (e.g., technology) and how learners use and combine multiple modes to make meaning. Our findings illustrate how an online videoconferencing environment with its multiple modalities can be used in language teaching, how teachers and learners adapt to the multimodal online environment and how new patterns of communication emerge in the process.
Modification of Talc and Mechanical Properties of Polypropylene-Modified Talc Composite Drawn Fibers

: A large amount of the polypropylene (PP) produced worldwide is used in the form of fibers. In this work, a new modification route for talc and PP is investigated, which is based on the in situ polymerization of a silane–siloxane monomer mixture on the surface of talc particles or PP pellets, respectively. The obtained modified talc and PP samples were used for the development of PP-talc composite drawn fibers. Tensile tests, thermogravimetry (TGA), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used for the characterization of the materials. It was observed that such a modification procedure resulted in the exfoliation of some talc particles. Enhanced tensile strength was observed for composite drawn fibers of a low talc content (1% with respect to PP) and a low modifier content (2% with respect to talc), while co-aggregation of talc and silicone may occur at high silicone and talc contents, resulting in the inferior mechanical performance of the corresponding composites. It was concluded that the produced silicone polymer simultaneously acts as a modifier, antioxidant, and compatibilizer. The proposed modification route is promising and should be further optimized.
Electronic cigarettes in the USA: a summary of available toxicology data and suggestions for the future

Objective To review the available evidence evaluating the toxicological profiles of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) in order to understand the potential impact of e-cigarettes on individual users and the public health. Methods Systematic literature searches were conducted between October 2012 and October 2013 using five electronic databases. Search terms such as ‘e-cigarettes’ and ‘electronic delivery devices’ were used to identify the toxicology information for e-cigarettes. Results As of October 2013, the scientific literature contains very limited information regarding the toxicity of e-cigarettes commercially available in the USA. While some preliminary toxicology data suggests that e-cigarette users are exposed to lower levels of toxicants relative to cigarette smokers, the data available is extremely limited at this time. At present, there is insufficient toxicological data available to perform thorough risk assessment analyses for e-cigarettes; few toxicology studies evaluating e-cigarettes have been conducted to date, and standard toxicological testing paradigms have not been developed for comparing disparate types of tobacco products such as e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes. Conclusions Overall, the limited toxicology data on e-cigarettes in the public domain is insufficient to allow a thorough toxicological evaluation of this new type of tobacco product. In the future, the acquisition of scientific datasets that are derived from scientifically robust standard testing paradigms, include comprehensive chemical characterisation of the aerosol, provide information on users’ toxicant exposure levels, and from studies replicated by independent researchers will improve the scientific community's ability to perform robust toxicological evaluations of e-cigarettes.
Stabilization of Dry Mammalian Cells: Lessons from Nature1

Abstract The Center for Biostabilization at UC Davis is attempting to stabilize mammalian cells in the dry state. We review here some of the lessons from nature that we have been applying to this enterprise, including the use of trehalose, a disaccharide found at high concentrations in many anhydrobiotic organisms, to stabilize biological structures, both in vitro and in vivo. Trehalose has useful properties for this purpose and in at least in one case—human blood platelets—introducing this sugar may be sufficient to achieve useful stabilization. Nucleated cells, however, are stabilized by trehalose only during the initial stages of dehydration. Introduction of a stress protein obtained from an anhydrobiotic organism, Artemia, improves the stability markedly, both during the dehydration event and following rehydration. Thus, it appears that the stabilization will require multiple adaptations, many of which we propose to apply from studies on anhydrobiosis.
The FBK Participation in the WMT15 Automatic Post-editing Shared Task

In this paper, we describe the “FBK EnglishSpanish Automatic Post-editing (APE)” systems submitted to the APE shared task at the WMT 2015. We explore the most widely used statistical APE technique (monolingual) and its most significant variant (context-aware). In this exploration, we introduce some novel task-specific dense features through which we observe improvements over the default setup of these approaches. We show these features are useful to prune the phrase table in order to remove unreliable rules and help the decoder to select useful translation options during decoding. Our primary APE system submitted at this shared task performs significantly better than the standard APE baseline.
Efficient Reductions for Imitation Learning Supplementary Material

Let i = Es∼di π∗ [eπ̂(s)] for i = 1, 2, . , T the expected 0-1 loss at time i of π̂, such that = 1 T ∑T i=1 i. Note that t corresponds to the probability that π̂ makes a mistake under distribution dπ∗ . Let pt represent the probability π̂ hasn’t made a mistake (w.r.t. π∗) in the first tstep, and dt the distribution of state π̂ is in at time t conditioned on the fact it hasn’t made a mistake so far. If dt represents the distribution of states at time t obtained by following π∗ but conditioned on the fact that π̂ made at least one mistake in the first t − 1 visited states. Then dπ∗ = pt−1dt + (1 − pt−1)dt. Now at time t, the expected cost of π̂ is at most 1 if it has made a mistake so far, or Es∼dt(Cπ̂(s)) if it hasn’t make a mistake yet. So J(π̂) ≤ ∑T t=1[pt−1Es∼dt(Cπ̂(s))+(1−pt−1)]. Let et and et represent the probability of mistake of π̂ in distribution dt and dt. Then Es∼dt(Cπ̂(s)) ≤ Es∼dt(Cπ∗(s))+et, and since t = pt−1et + (1− pt−1)et, then pt−1et ≤ t. Additionnally since pt = (1 − et)pt−1, pt ≥ pt−1 − t ≥ 1 − ∑t i=1 i, i.e. 1− pt ≤ ∑t i=1 i. Finally note that J(π ∗) = ∑T t=1[pt−1Es∼dt(Cπ∗(s))+(1−pt−1)Es∼d′t(Cπ∗(s))], so that ∑T t=1 pt−1Es∼dt(Cπ∗(s)) ≤ J(π∗). Using these facts we obtain: J(π̂)≤ ∑T t=1[pt−1Es∼dt(Cπ̂(s)) + (1− pt−1)] ≤ ∑T t=1[pt−1Es∼dt(Cπ∗(s)) + pt−1et + (1− pt−1)] ≤ J(π∗) + ∑T t=1 ∑t i=1 i ≤ J(π∗) + T ∑T t=1 t = J(π∗) + T 2
Fair Distributed Cooperative Bandit Learning on Networks for Intelligent Internet of Things Systems (Technical Report)

In intelligent Internet of Things (IoT) systems, edge servers within a network exchange information with their neighbors and collect data from sensors to complete delivered tasks. In this paper, we propose a multiplayer multi-armed bandit model for intelligent IoT systems to facilitate data collection and incorporate fairness considerations. In our model, we establish an effective communication protocol that helps servers cooperate with their neighbors. Then we design a distributed cooperative bandit algorithm, DC-ULCB, enabling servers to collaboratively select sensors to maximize data rates while maintaining fairness in their choices. We conduct an analysis of the reward regret and fairness regret of DC-ULCB, and prove that both regrets have logarithmic instance-dependent upper bounds. Additionally, through extensive simulations, we validate that DC-ULCB outperforms existing algorithms in maximizing reward and ensuring fairness.
FedFisher: Leveraging Fisher Information for One-Shot Federated Learning

Standard federated learning (FL) algorithms typically require multiple rounds of communication between the server and the clients, which has several drawbacks, including requiring constant network connectivity, repeated investment of computational resources, and susceptibility to privacy attacks. One-Shot FL is a new paradigm that aims to address this challenge by enabling the server to train a global model in a single round of communication. In this work, we present FedFisher, a novel algorithm for one-shot FL that makes use of Fisher information matrices computed on local client models, motivated by a Bayesian perspective of FL. First, we theoretically analyze FedFisher for two-layer over-parameterized ReLU neural networks and show that the error of our one-shot FedFisher global model becomes vanishingly small as the width of the neural networks and amount of local training at clients increases. Next, we propose practical variants of FedFisher using the diagonal Fisher and K-FAC approximation for the full Fisher and highlight their communication and compute efficiency for FL. Finally, we conduct extensive experiments on various datasets, which show that these variants of FedFisher consistently improve over competing baselines.
Learning General Policies for Classical Planning Domains: Getting Beyond C$_2$

GNN-based approaches for learning general policies across planning domains are limited by the expressive power of $C_2$, namely; first-order logic with two variables and counting. This limitation can be overcomed by transitioning to $k$-GNNs, for $k=3$, wherein object embeddings are substituted with triplet embeddings. Yet, while $3$-GNNs have the expressive power of $C_3$, unlike $1$- and $2$-GNNs that are confined to $C_2$, they require quartic time for message exchange and cubic space for embeddings, rendering them impractical. In this work, we introduce a parameterized version of relational GNNs. When $t$ is infinity, R-GNN[$t$] approximates $3$-GNNs using only quadratic space for embeddings. For lower values of $t$, such as $t=1$ and $t=2$, R-GNN[$t$] achieves a weaker approximation by exchanging fewer messages, yet interestingly, often yield the $C_3$ features required in several planning domains. Furthermore, the new R-GNN[$t$] architecture is the original R-GNN architecture with a suitable transformation applied to the input states only. Experimental results illustrate the clear performance gains of R-GNN[$1$] and R-GNN[$2$] over plain R-GNNs, and also over edge transformers that also approximate $3$-GNNs.
Quantum Coordination Rates in Multi-Partite Networks

The optimal coordination rates are determined in three primary settings of multi-partite quantum networks, thus characterizing the minimal resources required in order to simulate a joint quantum state among multiple parties. We study the following models: (1) a cascade network with limited entanglement, (2) a broadcast network, which consists of a single sender and two receivers, (3) a multiple-access network with two senders and a single receiver. We establish the necessary and sufficient conditions on the asymptotically-achievable communication and entanglement rates in each setting. At last, we show the implications of our results on nonlocal games with quantum strategies.
Polyphenol-Rich Propolis Extracts Strengthen Intestinal Barrier Function by Activating AMPK and ERK Signaling

Propolis has abundant polyphenolic constituents and is used widely as a health/functional food. Here, we investigated the effects of polyphenol-rich propolis extracts (PPE) on intestinal barrier function in human intestinal epithelial Caco-2 cells, as well as in rats. In Caco-2 cells, PPE increased transepithelial electrical resistance and decreased lucifer yellow flux. PPE-treated cells showed increased expression of the tight junction (TJ) loci occludin and zona occludens (ZO)-1. Confocal microscopy showed organized expressions in proteins related to TJ assembly, i.e., occludin and ZO-1, in response to PPE. Furthermore, PPE led to the activation of AMPK, ERK1/2, p38, and Akt. Using selective inhibitors, we found that the positive effects of PPE on barrier function were abolished in cells in which AMPK and ERK1/2 signaling were inhibited. Moreover, rats fed a diet supplemented with PPE (0.3% in the diet) exhibited increased colonic epithelium ZO-1 expression. Overall, these data suggest that PPE strengthens intestinal barrier function by activating AMPK and ERK signaling and provide novel insights into the potential application of propolis for human gut health.
Probabilistic Analysis of Multiparameter Persistence Decompositions

Multiparameter persistence modules can be uniquely decomposed into indecomposable summands. Among these indecomposables, intervals stand out for their simplicity, making them preferable for their ease of interpretation in practical applications and their computational efficiency. Empirical observations indicate that modules that decompose into only intervals are rare. To support this observation, we show that for numerous common multiparameter constructions, such as density- or degree-Rips bifiltrations, and across a general category of point samples, the probability of the homology-induced persistence module decomposing into intervals goes to zero as the sample size goes to infinity.
ProgrammableGrass: A Shape-Changing Artificial Grass Display Adapted for Dynamic and Interactive Display Features

There are various proposals for employing grass materials as a green landscape-friendly display. However, it is difficult for current techniques to display smooth animations using 8-bit images and to adjust display resolution, similar to conventional displays. We present ProgrammableGrass, an artificial grass display with scalable resolution, capable of swiftly controlling grass color at 8-bit levels. This grass display can control grass colors linearly at the 8-bit level, similar to an LCD display, and can also display not only 8-bit -based images but also videos. This display enables pixel-by-pixel color transitions from yellow to green using fixed-length yellow and adjustable-length green grass. We designed a grass module that can be connected to other modules. Utilizing a proportional derivative control, the grass colors are manipulated to display animations at approximately 10 [fps]. Since the relationship between grass lengths and colors is nonlinear, we developed a calibration system for ProgrammableGrass. We revealed that this calibration system allows ProgrammableGrass to linearly control grass colors at 8-bit levels through experiments under multiple conditions. Lastly, we demonstrate ProgrammableGrass to show smooth animations with 8-bit grayscale images. Moreover, we show several application examples to illustrate the potential of ProgrammableGrass. With the advancement of this technology, users will be able to treat grass as a green-based interactive display device.
Cell‐type‐specific localization of protocadherin β16 at AMPA and AMPA/kainate receptor‐containing synapses in the primate retina

Protocadherins (Pcdhs) are thought to be key features of cell‐type‐specific synapse formation. Here we analyzed the expression pattern of Pcdh subunit β16 (β16) in the primate retina by applying antibodies against β16, different subunits of ionotropic glutamate receptors (GluRs), and cell‐type‐specific markers as well as by coimmunoprecipitation and Western blots. Immunocytochemical localization was analyzed by confocal microscopy and preembedding electron microscopy. In the outer plexiform layer (OPL) H1, but not H2, horizontal cells expressed β16 as revealed by the strong reduction of β16 at short‐wavelength‐sensitive cones. β16 colocalized with the GluR subunits GluR2–4 at horizontal cell dendritic tips and with GluR2–4 and GluR6/7 at the desmosome‐like junctions. At the latter, these AMPA and kainate receptor subunits were found to be clustered within single synaptic hot spots. Additionally, β16‐labeled dendritic tips of OFF cone bipolar cells appeared in triad‐associated positions at the cone pedicle base, pointing to β16 expression by OFF midget or DB3 bipolar cells. In the inner plexiform layer, β16 was localized also postsynaptically at most of the glutamatergic synapses. Overall, we provide evidence for a cell‐type‐specific localization of β16 together with GluRs at defined postsynaptic sites and a coexistence of AMPA and kainate receptors within single synaptic hot spots. This study supports the hypothesis that β16 plays an important role in the formation and/or stabilization of specific glutamatergic synapses, whereas our in vivo protein biochemical results argue against the existence of protein complexes formed by β16 and GluRs. J. Comp. Neurol. 519:467–479, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.