Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Debate on Water Policies: Evidence from Drought in Spain

Water scarcity is a critical environmental issue worldwide, especially in arid and semiarid regions. In those regions, climate change projections suggest further reductions in freshwater supplies and increases of the recurrence, longevity and intensity of drought events. At present, one important question for policy debate is the identification of water management policies that could address the mounting water scarcity problems. Suitable policies should improve economic efficiency, achieve environmental sustainability, and meet equity needs. This paper applies an integrated hydro-economic model that links a reduced form hydrological component, with economic and environmental components to such issues. The model is used to make a direct comparison of three water management alternatives, water markets, water pricing and institutional policies, based on their economic, environmental and equity outcomes. The analysis is performed in the Jucar Basin of Spain, which is a good natural experiment for studying the policies to confront water scarcity and climate change. Results indicate that both institutional and water market policies are good instruments to smooth the economic damage costs of droughts, achieving almost the same social benefits. However, the environmental effects of water markets are worrying. Another important finding is that water pricing is the worst policy option not only in terms of private and environmental benefits but also in terms of equity.
Awareness Becomes Necessary Between Adaptive Pattern Coding of Open and Closed Curvatures

Visual pattern processing becomes increasingly complex along the ventral pathway, from the low-level coding of local orientation in the primary visual cortex to the high-level coding of face identity in temporal visual areas. Previous research using pattern aftereffects as a psychophysical tool to measure activation of adaptive feature coding has suggested that awareness is relatively unimportant for the coding of orientation, but awareness is crucial for the coding of face identity. We investigated where along the ventral visual pathway awareness becomes crucial for pattern coding. Monoptic masking, which interferes with neural spiking activity in low-level processing while preserving awareness of the adaptor, eliminated open-curvature aftereffects but preserved closed-curvature aftereffects. In contrast, dichoptic masking, which spares spiking activity in low-level processing while wiping out awareness, preserved open-curvature aftereffects but eliminated closed-curvature aftereffects. This double dissociation suggests that adaptive coding of open and closed curvatures straddles the divide between weakly and strongly awareness-dependent pattern coding.
How valuable is the Knowledge of Finance in Diversification Decisions ?

We investigate the role of financial education in household portfolio allocation decisions using data from a survey of 1,382 professors at universities across the United States. The results suggest that knowledge of diversification increases the likelihood that an investor will efficiently allocate his investments across the major asset classes as well as invest in foreign assets. However, we find that investors with advanced knowledge of finance still tend to hold undiversified equity portfolios. JEL Classification: G11, D10, D31
Schedulability issues in complex embedded control systems

The design of embedded control systems should be addressed in both the controller definition and its implementation. While the design of the controller is based on control theory, the implementation is designed by assuming the principle that control loops can be modeled and implemented as periodic activities. Periodic activities that can be organise attending to different implementation criteria. Recently, the authors have introduced the concept of control kernel dealing with the essential control activities to guarantee the safe behaviour of the complete system. For this purpose, we propose a control arrangement in different layers. At the level of the OS, activities to closing the loop and driving the system to a safe position should be included. At the top level, the control system may include several on-line controller options as well as supervising and optimising activities. This part should be independent of both the particular implementation and the resources availability. In this paper we propose an implementation and a scheduling scheme to implement complex control applications.
Familial aggregation of cerebral malaria and severe malarial anemia.

BACKGROUND The predominant manifestations of severe malaria in African children are cerebral malaria (CM) and severe malarial anemia (SMA). As a first step toward a family-based approach to identify the environmental and genetic pathways that contribute to severe malaria, we tested whether it aggregates within families. METHODS Family history of severe malaria was explored during face-to-face interviews with parents. Logistic regression was used to determine whether CM and SMA aggregate within individuals and within families. The pattern of familial aggregation was then expressed as familial odds ratios that were adjusted for relevant risk factors. RESULTS This study was of 2811 inhabitants of Bamako, Mali, clustered in 407 nuclear families. The probands were 136 children with severe malaria and 271 healthy children from the community. Within-person association of CM and SMA was significant (odds ratio, 6.15 [95% confidence interval (CI), 2.62-14.41]). Over a lifetime, with each additional affected relative, the odds of a person contracting CM increased by 1.98 times (95% CI, 1.59-2.45), and the odds of having SMA increased by 1.91 times (95% CI, 1.05-3.47). Over a lifetime, for a child whose sibling had a history of CM, the odds of having CM were 2.49 times greater (95% CI, 1.51-4.10) than the odds for a child whose sibling had no such history; for a child whose sibling had a history of SMA, the odds of having SMA were 4.92 times greater (95% CI, 1.21-19.9) than the odds for a child whose sibling had no such history. CONCLUSION Our data suggest strong familial aggregation of CM and SMA.
Alu Elements in ANRIL Non-Coding RNA at Chromosome 9p21 Modulate Atherogenic Cell Functions through Trans-Regulation of Gene Networks

The chromosome 9p21 (Chr9p21) locus of coronary artery disease has been identified in the first surge of genome-wide association and is the strongest genetic factor of atherosclerosis known today. Chr9p21 encodes the long non-coding RNA (ncRNA) antisense non-coding RNA in the INK4 locus (ANRIL). ANRIL expression is associated with the Chr9p21 genotype and correlated with atherosclerosis severity. Here, we report on the molecular mechanisms through which ANRIL regulates target-genes in trans, leading to increased cell proliferation, increased cell adhesion and decreased apoptosis, which are all essential mechanisms of atherogenesis. Importantly, trans-regulation was dependent on Alu motifs, which marked the promoters of ANRIL target genes and were mirrored in ANRIL RNA transcripts. ANRIL bound Polycomb group proteins that were highly enriched in the proximity of Alu motifs across the genome and were recruited to promoters of target genes upon ANRIL over-expression. The functional relevance of Alu motifs in ANRIL was confirmed by deletion and mutagenesis, reversing trans-regulation and atherogenic cell functions. ANRIL-regulated networks were confirmed in 2280 individuals with and without coronary artery disease and functionally validated in primary cells from patients carrying the Chr9p21 risk allele. Our study provides a molecular mechanism for pro-atherogenic effects of ANRIL at Chr9p21 and suggests a novel role for Alu elements in epigenetic gene regulation by long ncRNAs.
Attenuating the Impact of Integrity Attacks on Real-Time Pricing in Smart Grids

The vulnerability of false data injection attacks on real-time electricity pricing for the power grid market has been recently explored. Previous work has focused on the impact caused by attackers that compromise pricing signals and send false prices to a subset of consumers. In this paper we extend previous work by considering a more powerful and general adversary model, a new analysis method based on sensitivity functions, and by proposing several countermeasures that can mitigate the negative impact of these attacks. Countermeasures include adding a low-pass filter to the pricing signals, selecting the time interval between price updates, selecting parameters of the controller, designing robust control algorithms, and by detecting anomalies in the behavior of the system.
Diagnostic and Prognostic Impact of Circulating YKL-40, IL-6, and CA 19.9 in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer

Purpose We tested the hypothesis that high plasma YKL-40 and IL-6 associate with pancreatic cancer and short overall survival. Patients and Methods In all, 559 patients with pancreatic cancer from prospective biomarker studies from Denmark (n = 448) and Germany (n = 111) were studied. Plasma YKL-40 and IL-6 were determined by ELISAs and serum CA 19.9 by chemiluminescent immunometric assay. Results Odds ratios (ORs) for prediction of pancreatic cancer were significant for all biomarkers, with CA 19.9 having the highest AUC (CA 19.9: OR = 2.28, 95% CI 1.97 to 2.68, p<0.0001, AUC = 0.94; YKL-40: OR = 4.50, 3.99 to 5.08, p<0.0001, AUC = 0.87; IL-6: OR = 3.68, 3.08 to 4.44, p<0.0001, AUC = 0.87). Multivariate Cox analysis (YKL-40, IL-6, CA 19.9, age, stage, gender) in patients operated on showed that high preoperative IL-6 and CA 19.9 (dichotomized according to normal values) were independently associated with short overall survival (CA 19.9: HR = 2.51, 1.22–5.15, p = 0.013; IL-6: HR = 2.03, 1.11 to 3.70, p = 0.021). Multivariate Cox analysis of non-operable patients (Stage IIB-IV) showed that high pre-treatment levels of each biomarker were independently associated with short overall survival (YKL-40: HR = 1.30, 1.03 to 1.64, p = 0.029; IL-6: HR = 1.71, 1.33 to 2.20, p<0.0001; CA 19.9: HR = 1.54, 1.06 to 2.24, p = 0.022). Patients with preoperative elevation of both IL-6 and CA 19.9 had shorter overall survival (p<0.005) compared to patients with normal levels of both biomarkers (45% vs. 92% alive after 12 months). Conclusions Plasma YKL-40 and IL-6 had less diagnostic impact than CA 19.9. Combination of pretreatment YKL-40, IL-6, and CA 19.9 may have clinical value to identify pancreatic cancer patients with the poorest prognosis.
Evaluation of Attention Guiding Techniques for Augmented Reality-based Assistance in Picking and Assembly Tasks

Intelligent personal assistance systems for manual tasks may support users on multiple levels. A general function is guiding the visual attention of the user towards the item relevant for the next action. This is a challenging task, as the user may be in arbitrary positions and orientations relative to the target. Optical see-through head-mounted-displays (HMDs) present an additional challenge, as the target may be already visible for the user but lie outside the field-of-view of the augmented reality (AR) display. In the context of a smart glasses-based assistance system for a manual assembly station, we evaluated five different visual attention guidance techniques for optical see-through devices. We found that combined directional and positional in-situ guidance performs best overall, but that performance depends on target location. The study is our first realization of a simulated AR methodology in which we create a repeatable and highly-controlled experimental design using a virtual reality (VR) HMD setup.
Harmonic Bandwidth Companding for Separation of Overlapping Harmonics in Pitched Signals

We present a novel approach to separating pitched signals from single-channel mixtures by harmonic bandwidth companding. Recalling that in a short analysis window the harmonic waveform envelope conveys information about approximate amplitude and frequency time variations, we show that proper linear waveform envelope smoothing reduces frequency spread around the harmonics and thus compresses the harmonic bandwidth. Such an action largely relaxes worst-case separation scenarios, which are caused by large proportions of overlapped harmonics. The distortion in separated signals due to harmonic bandwidth compression is compensated by an inverse system-the harmonic bandwidth expander. The benefit of such an approach is that explicit classification in overlapped and non-overlapped harmonics is no longer needed. Moreover, the underlying signal model is linear-in-parameters which allows for an efficient estimation via linear least-squares. The results show that harmonic bandwidth companding significantly outperforms two state-of-the-art separation methods.
What Are the Important Mentor Roles: Perceptions of Participants in a State-Mandated Mentoring Program. (Draft).

This study focuses on participants in a state-mandated mentoring program for beginning school teachers, counselors, and librarians during their first year of teaching. Participants included 13 mentor teachers, 1 mentor school counselor, 13 beginning teachers, and 2 beginning librarians. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. In general, participants supported the provision of assistance to beginning teachers, counselors, and librarians in the form of mentoring programs pairing beginners with experienced colleagues. However, it appears that little guidance was provided to them about what mentoring involved and about the various roles mentors can play. Participants consistently emphasized the need for more guidance, in the form of written guidelines, orientations, or brief training sessions for mentors. Most participants defined the primary roles of a mentor as a provider of emotional support and of assistance with logistical matters. (IM) *********************************************************W************* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** What are the Important Mentor Roles: Perceptions of Participants in a State-Mandated Mentoring Program
A study on using spectral saliency detection approaches for image quality assessment

Recent developments in the field of full reference image quality assessment (FR-IQA) have witnessed the use of spectral residual (SR) based index as a fast measure with high accuracy. Following SR, several variants of spectral measures for visual saliency have come up. These new measures differ in their computational times as well as in performances and have established themselves better than or competitive with SR as measures of visual saliency. The effectiveness of these measures in FR-IQA is still an open question. In this paper, a study to evaluate the performance of the recent spectral approaches for visual saliency (hence spectral saliency) for FR-IQA is presented. We have fixed a framework for FR-IQA to maintain uniformity in the evaluation process. Also, the parameters required by the framework are chosen to bring out the best potential of each measure. Our experiments on six benchmark databases reveal some insightful details about the usage of these measures to form an FR-IQA measure.
Resolve of Overlapped Voltammetric Peaks in Using a Wavelet Packet Transform Based Radial Basis Function Network

A novel method named WPTRBF is presented in this paper. This method is based on radial basis function neural network (RBFN) with wavelet packet transform (WPT) as a pre-processing tool for the simultaneous differential pulse stripping voltammetric determination of Pb(II), Ni(II) and Cd(II). Wavelet packet representations of signals provide a local time-frequency description, thus in the wavelet packet domain, the quality of noise removal can be improved. Radial basis function network was applied for overcoming the convergence problem met in back propagation training and for facilitating nonlinear calculation. In this case, through optimization, the number of wavelet function, decomposition level, the number of hidden nodes and the width (sigma) of RBFN for the WPTRBFN method were selected as Daubechies 4, 3, 8 and 0.7 respectively. The relative standard errors of prediction for all elements with WPTRBFN and RBFN were 5.8% and 6.89% respectively.
From news blogs to news on Twitter: gatewatching and collaborative news curation

This chapter, explores the role of the second tier of independent news blogs as it developed in the years following the Seattle WTO protests in 1999, and outlines the practice of gatewatching as a key element of news bloggers’ activities. We critique perceptions of the news blogosphere as an echo chamber or filter bubble whose discussions about current events are detached from journalistic coverage, and demonstrate instead the close interconnections between independent news bloggers and professional journalists in the wider media ecology. Finally, we sketch the gradual transition and broadening of gatewatching practices in the news blogosphere towards the collaborative curation of news sharing in contemporary social media spaces, and outline the further research questions which emerge from such transformations of the flows of news and discussion.
A GENETIC ALGORITHM FOR SOLVING SINGLE LEVEL LOT- SIZING PROBLEMS

Masalah pensaizan lot satu aras timbul apabila suatu syarikat pengeluar ingin menjanakan perancangan pengeluaran terperinci bagi produk berpandukan suatu perancangan agregat. Walaupun masalah ini telah dikaji dengan meluas, hanya pendekatan pengaturcaraan dinamik dapat menjamin penyelesaian yang minimum secara global. Maka heuristik-heuristik stokastik yang mampu melepasi minimum tempatan adalah diperlukan. Kajian ini mencadangkan kaedah algoritma genetik untuk menyelesaikan masalah-masalah pensaizan lot satu aras, serta membincangkan beberapa contoh aplikasi kaedah tersebut. Dalam pelaksanaan kaedah ini, heuristik penjanaan populasi pensaizan lot yang dapat menjanakan populasi awal digunakan untuk menyediakan kromosom. Kromosom ini digunakan sebagai input untuk algoritma genetik dengan operator-operator yang khusus bagi masalah pensaizan lot. Gabungan heuristik penjanaan populasi dengan algoritma genetik menghasilkan penumpuan yang lebih pantas dalam proses mendapatkan skim pensaizan lot yang optimum disebabkan oleh ketersauran populasi awal yang digunakan. Kata kunci: ALgorithm Genetik; Pensaizan lot The single level lot-sizing problem arises whenever a manufacturing company wishes to translate an aggregate plan for production of an end item into a detailed planning of its production. Although the cost driven problem is widely studied in the literature, only laborious dynamic programming approaches are known to guarantee global minimum. Thus, stochastically-based heuristics that have the mechanism to escape from local minimum are needed. In this paper a genetic algorithm for solving single level lot-sizing problems is proposed and the results of applying the algorithm to example problems are discussed. In our implementation, a lot-sizing population-generating heuristic is used to feed chromosomes to a genetic algorithm with operators specially designed for lot-sizing problems. The combination of the population-generating heuristic with genetic algorithm results in a faster convergence in finding the optimal lot-sizing scheme due to the guaranteed feasibility of the initial population. Key words: Genetic Algorithm; Lot-sizing
Delay- and Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN): An Alternative Solution for Future Satellite Networking Applications

Satellite communications are characterized by long delays, packet losses, and sometimes intermittent connectivity and link disruptions. The TCP/IP stack is ineffective against these impairments and even dedicated solutions, such as performance enhancing proxies (PEPs), can hardly tackle the most challenging environments, and create compatibility issues with current security protocols. An alternative solution arises from the delay- and disruption-tolerant networking (DTN) architecture, which specifies an overlay protocol, called bundle protocol (BP), on top of either transport protocols (TCP, UDP, etc.), or of lower layer protocols (Bluetooth, Ethernet, etc.). The DTN architecture provides long-term information storage on intermediate nodes, suitable for coping with disrupted links, long delays, and intermittent connectivity. By dividing the end-to-end path into multiple DTN hops, in a way that actually extends the TCP-splitting concept exploited in most PEPs, DTN allows the use of specialized protocols on the satellite (or space) links. This paper discusses the prospects for use of DTN in future satellite networks. We present a broad DTN overview, to make the reader familiar with the characteristics that differentiate DTN from ordinary TCP/IP networking, compare the DTN and PEP architectures and stacks, as a preliminary step for the subsequent DTN performance assessment carried out in practical LEO/GEO satellite scenarios. DTN security is studied next, examining the advantages over present satellite architectures, the threats faced in satellite scenarios, and also open issues. Finally, the relation between DTN and quality of service (QoS) is investigated, by focusing on QoS architectures and QoS tools and by discussing the state of the art of DTN research activity in modeling, routing, and congestion control.
Hand-printed Character Recognition By Neural Networks.

Two-layer networks with sigmoidal hidden units can approximate arbitrarily well any functional continuos mapping from one finite-dimensional space to another, provided the number of hidden units is sufficiently large [1]. Network complexity, its generalization ability, and learning time depend on each other. This is of particular importance when intrinsic dimensionality of data vectors are high. In a practical problem of handprinted characters recognition the number of hidden units is restricted and cannot be chosen arbitrarily large. We propose a method of pre-processing of input data, which allows us to use larger neural networks without loss in generalization ability and learning time. The problem we wish to address is that of a recognition of handprinted digits and alphabetic characters. Example of the form is shown on Fig. 1.
Dynamic tree isomorphism via first-order updates to a relational database

In databases, as in other computational settings, one would like to efficiently update answers to queries while minor changes are being made to the data. Dynamic complexity asks what resources are required to perform such updates. In this paper our main focus will be a particular dynamic graph problem, tree isomorphism, and the efficiency of our update scheme will be measured in terms of how expressive a query language is required to express our update. Working in the framework developed by [DS93, PI971 for dynamic query evaluation, we show that dynamic tree isomorphism can be performed via first-order updates to a relational database (in [DS93] this framework is called a first-order incremental ed u&ion JUstem, and in [PI971 it is called Dyn-FO). In (EI96] it was shown that tree-isomorphism can not be expressed in first-order logic augmented with a transitive closure operator and counting, (8’0 + TC + COUNT) (but without ordering). We thus obtain a Rrst example of a graph problem in Dyn-FO that is not oxpressible in this logic. Part of our proof shows how to build and maintain arithmetic predicates on a relevant part of the universe, from which we obtain a direct correspondence between Dyn-FO and dynamic constant parallel time. This provides some explanation for why it is so difficult to prove lower bounds for Dyn-FO.