Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
State Preferences and the Provision of Public Goods / Staatspräferenzen und die Bereitstellung öffentlicher Güter

Summary Countries differ substantially in the emphasis on the public sector and the ratio between state consumption and provision of public goods. It seems that these differences are often not well explained by only assuming a heterogeneous population. In this paper, I take differing state preferences as given and investigate how changes in state preferences affect the provision of a public good. The provision of the public good is modelled as a two-stage game with the state and the citizens as players. I find that the Nash equilibrium provision of the public good is independent of a so-called "welfare state" parameter. In contrast, an increase in a parameter measuring the relative importance of public good provision vs. state consumption leads to an increase in the overall public good provision, while private provision declines. Zusammenfassung Unterschiedliche Länder differieren stark in der relativen Größe des öffentlichen Sektors und dem Verhältnis von Staatsverbrauch zu Bereitstellung öffentlicher Güter. Diese Unterschiede scheinen oft durch die Annahme einer heterogenen Bevölkerung nur unzureichend erklärt. In diesem Artikel nehme ich unterschiedliche Staatspräferenzen als gegeben an und untersuche, wie eine Änderung dieser Präferenzen die Bereitstellung eines öffentlichen Gutes beeinflusst. Die Bereitstellung des öffentlichen Gutes wird als zweistufiges Spiel mit Staat und Bürgern als Spielern modelliert. Es zeigt sich, dass die Nash-gleichgewichtige Bereitstellung des öffentlichen Gutes unabhängig von einem sogenannten Wohlfahrtsstaat-Parameter ist. Dagegen führt die Zunahme eines Parameters, der die relative Wichtigkeit der Versorgung mit dem öffentlichen Gut verglichen zum Staatskonsum misst, zu einer erhöhten Bereitstellung des öffentlichen Gutes, während private Beiträge zum öffentlichen Gut zurückgehen.
Neandertals and moderns mixed, and it matters

Twenty‐five years ago, the Middle‐to‐Upper Paleolithic transition in Europe could be represented as a straightforward process subsuming both the emergence of symbolic behavior and the replacement of Neandertals by modern humans. The Aurignacian was a proxy for the latter, during which enhanced cognitive capabilities explained ornaments and art. The few instances of Neandertal symbolism were deemed to long postdate contact and dismissed as “imitation without understanding,” if not geological contamination. Such views were strengthened by the recent finding that, in southern Africa, several features of the European Upper Paleolithic, including bone tools, ornaments, and microliths, emerged much earlier. Coupled with genetic suggestions of a recent African origin for extant humans, fossil discoveries bridging the transition between “archaics” and “moderns” in the realm of anatomy (Omo‐Kibish, Herto) seemingly closed the case. Over the last decade, however, taphonomic critiques of the archeology of the transition have made it clear that, in Europe, fully symbolic sapiens behavior predates both the Aurignacian and moderns. And, in line with evidence from the nuclear genome rejecting strict replacement models based on mtDNA alone, the small number of early modern specimens that passed the test of direct dating present archaic features unknown in the African lineage, suggesting admixture at the time of contact.
On the necessary conditions for bursts of convection within the rapidly rotating cylindrical annulus

Zonal flows are often found in rotating convective systems. Not only are these jet-flows driven by the convection, they can also have a profound effect on the nature of the convection. In this work the cylindrical annulus geometry is exploited in order to perform nonlinear simulations seeking to produce strong zonal flows and multiple jets. The parameter regime is extended to Prandtl numbers that are not unity. Multiple jets are found to be spaced according to a Rhines scaling based on the zonal flow speed, not the convective velocity speed. Under certain conditions the nonlinear convection appears in quasi-periodic bursts. A mean field stability analysis is performed around a basic state containing both the zonal flow and the mean temperature gradient found from the nonlinear simulations. The convective growth rates are found to fluctuate with both of these mean quantities suggesting that both are necessary in order for the bursting phenomenon to occur.
A 90-nm CMOS 144 GHz Injection Locked Frequency Divider with Inductive Feedback

This paper presents a 144 GHz divide-by-2 injection locked frequency divider (ILFD) with inductive feedback developed in a commercial 90-nm Si RFCMOS technology. It was demonstrated that division-by-2 operation is achieved with input power down to -12 dBm, with measured locking range of 0.96 GHz (144.18 - 145.14 GHz) at input power of -3 dBm. To the authors' best knowledge, this is the highest operation frequency for ILFD based on a 90- nm CMOS technology. From supply voltage of 1.8 V, the circuit draws 5.7 mA including both core and buffer. The fabricated chip occupies 0.54 mm × 0.69 mm including the DC and RF pads.
Vitamin D deficiency.

Once foods in the United States were fortified with vitamin D, rickets appeared to have been conquered, and many considered major health problems from vitamin D deficiency resolved. But vitamin D deficiency is common. This review considers the role of vitamin D in skeletal and nonskeletal health and suggests strategies for the prevention and treatment of vitamin D deficiency.
M2BenchMatch: An assisting tool for metamodel matching

Benchmarking remains an important area for several computer science domains. In this paper, we present a benchmarking software tool called M2BenchMatch (MetaModel Benchmark Matching); it is intended to assist the expert to select a metamodel matching technique for a given couple of metamodels to be matched. It produces values for quality metrics. These values are very useful to evaluate and compare the quality of results produced by metamodel matching techniques and then to assist the user during new matching by recommending an appropriate technique.
A New Adaptive Sensing Scheme for Low SNR and Random Arrival of PU Environment

Cognitive radio (CR) networks facing with difficulties caused by the low SNR environment and the random arrival of primary users (PUs) application traffic. The existing studies focus on the unilateral processing on weak PU signal or random departure/arrival of PU problems. In this paper, we propose an adaptive sensing scheme which is applicable under certain adverse conditions by jointly optimize sensing and transmission period. At first the adaptive sensing state model is established. On this basis, secondary users (SUs) perform collaborative detection in the sensing period and an optimal sensing duration is determined to obtain adaptability and detection reliability. At the end of each period, a decision-making system predicts PU’s activity based on the previous observations and adaptively chooses whether to perform spectrum sensing, data transmission or channel switching. Both the impact of non-ideal sensing and the imperfect ACK/NACK feedback are being fully considered when designing the decision-making algorithm. Numerical results show that our optimal scheme significantly increases SU utility while avoiding interference to PU in the adverse environment, and it reduces detection difficulty and computational complexity.
Ultra low-power bulk and gate-driven, class AB, sub-threshold transconductor

Operational Transconductance Amplifier (OTA), is a main building block of analog signal systems. This paper presents a novel low-voltage and low-power rail-to-rail wide linear range OTA, operating in weak inversion region. The bulk and source-degenerated input stage provides, rail-to-rail input and output signal swings, whereas the class AB flipped voltage follower generates the bias current for the input stage. To enhance the current drive capability, a positive feedback has been employed at gates of input transistors. The OTA uses a single 0.5 V supply and dissipates 32 nW power to provide 38 dB gain and 50 kHz gain bandwidth product. The Cadence VIRTUOSO environment using UMC 0.18 μm CMOS process technology has been used to simulate the proposed circuit. Simulation results showed that the circuit exhibits less than -52 dB total harmonic distortions, for 100 mV(p-p) signal at 200 Hz frequency in its unity gain configuration.
Rapid Invasion of Indo-Pacific Lionfishes ( Pterois Volitans and Pterois Miles ) in the Florida Keys, USA: Evidence from Multiple Pre- and Post-Invasion Data Sets

Over the past decade, Indo-Pacific lionfishes, Pterois volitans (Linnaeus, 1758) and Pterois miles (Bennett, 1828), venomous members of the scorpionfish family (Scorpaenidae), have invaded and spread throughout much of the tropical and subtropical northwestern Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. These species are generalist predators of fishes and invertebrates with the potential to disrupt the ecology of the invaded range. Lionfishes have been present in low numbers along the east coast of Florida since the 1980s, but were not reported in the Florida Keys until 2009. We document the appearance and rapid spread of lionfishes in the Florida Keys using multiple long-term data sets that include both pre- and post-invasion sampling. Our results are the first to quantify the invasion of lionfishes in a new area using multiple independent, ongoing monitoring data sets, two of which have explicit estimates of sampling effort. Between 2009 and 2011, lionfish frequency of occurrence, abundance, and biomass increased rapidly, increasing three- to six-fold between 2010 and 2011 alone. In addition, individuals were detected on a variety of reef and non-reef habitats throughout the Florida Keys. Because lionfish occurrence, abundance, and impacts are expected to continue to increase throughout the region, monitoring programs like those used in this study will be essential to document ecosystem changes that may result from this invasion.
Validation of the Network-based Dictionary Attack Detection

This paper presents a study of successful dictionary attacks against a SSH server and their network-based detection. On the basis of experience in the protection of university network we developed a detection algorithm based on a generic SSH authentication pattern. Thanks to the network-based approach, the detection algorithm is host independent and highly scalable. We deployed a high-interaction honeypot based on VMware to validate the SSH dictionary attack pattern that is able to recognize a successful attack. The honeypot provides several user accounts secured by both weak and strong passwords. All the communication between the honeypot and other hosts was logged at the host and even network layer (the relevant NetFlow data were stored too). After successful or unsuccessful break-in attempt, we could reliably determine detection accuracy (the false positive and negative rate). The pattern was implemented using a dynamic decision tree technique, so we can propose some modifications of its parameters based on the results. In addition, we could validate the improved pattern because the detection relies only on the NetFlow data. This study also discusses the performance details of detection method and reveals methods and behaviour of present successful attackers. Next, these findings are compared to the conclusions of the previous study. In our future work, we will focus on an extension of the detection method to other network services and protocols than SSH. Further, the method should also provide some reasons for the decision that the attack occurred (e. g., distributed dictionary attack).
Hybrid electroglottograph and speech signal based algorithm for pitch marking

Pitch marking is very significant in speech signal processing. In a text-to-speech (TTS) system based on the Time-Domain Pitch-Synchronous Overlap-Add (TD-PSOLA) method, robust estimation of pitch marks (PM) is especially important to the modification of the time and pitch scale of a speech signal in order to match it to that of the target speaker. The aim of this paper is to improve the accuracy of automatic Pitch Mark Algorithms (PMA). Therefore, we propose a hybrid method for pitch marking that combines the advantages of the Electroglottograph (EGG) and the speech signals. We evaluate this hybrid algorithm for pitch marking against pitch mark algorithm used by Praat program [1]. The results of the evaluation indicate that the suggested method provides better performance than PMA based on EGG signal or speech signal.
Chain-Based Anonymous Routing for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Wireless ad hoc networks are so vulnerable to passive attacks and eavesdropping adversaries due to their shared medium which makes network traffic easy to capture and analyze. Therefore, security and privacy protections are of extreme importance for protocols and applications in such networks. In this paper, we introduce a new framework for anonymous routing, named chain-based routing, to improve the privacy. In our framework, nodes on a path are virtually bound to each other like a chain. Each node is only aware of its associated links in a flow and does not require any other information about source, destination, or other parts of the chain. Based on this framework, we propose an on-demand routing protocol, called Chain-based Anonymous Routing (CAR), which uses unicast-based broadcast data transfer to fulfill anonymous communication in wireless ad hoc networks. Through hiding identifiers of nodes inside the chain, CAR realizes sender, receiver, and relationship anonymity in addition to untraceability in the network. Moreover, it is resistant to a wide range of passive attacks while adapting to implement other security mechanisms in the presence of active attacks.
Cloning and Nucleotide Sequence Analysis of gyrB ofBacillus cereus, B. thuringiensis,B. mycoides, and B. anthracis and Their Application to the Detection of B. cereus in Rice

ABSTRACT As 16S rRNA sequence analysis has proven inadequate for the differentiation of Bacillus cereus from closely related species, we employed the gyrase B gene (gyrB) as a molecular diagnostic marker. The gyrB genes ofB. cereus JCM 2152T,Bacillus thuringiensis IAM 12077T,Bacillus mycoides ATCC 6462T, andBacillus anthracis Pasteur #2H were cloned and sequenced. Oligonucleotide PCR primer sets were designed from withingyrB sequences of the respective bacteria for the specific amplification and differentiation of B. cereus, B. thuringiensis, andB. anthracis. The results from the amplification of gyrB sequences correlated well with results obtained with the 16S rDNA-based hybridization study but not with the results of their phenotypic characterization. Some of the reference strains of both B. cereus (three serovars) and B. thuringiensis (two serovars) were not positive in PCR amplification assays with gyrB primers. However, complete sequencing of 1.2-kb gyrB fragments of these reference strains showed that these serovars had, in fact, lower homology than their originally designated species. We developed and tested a procedure for the specific detection of the target organism in boiled rice that entailed 15 h of preenrichment followed by PCR amplification of the B. cereus-specific fragment. This method enabled us to detect an initial inoculum of 0.24 CFU of B. cereus cells per g of boiled rice food homogenate without extracting DNA. However, a simple two-step filtration step is required to remove PCR inhibitory substances.
Stress and the Development of Self-Regulation 1 Running head : STRESS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-REGULATION Stress and the Development of Self-Regulation in the Context of Poverty

This paper considers the effects of psychosocial stress on child development and describes mechanisms through which early stress as an aspect of poverty is understood to affect the functioning of neural networks that underlie executive functions (EFs) and self-regulation. Effects of stressful experience on glucocorticoid and catecholamine levels that influence neural activity in areas of the brain associated with EFs, primarily as studied in animal models, is examined. Strengths and limitations of this research, its relevance to understanding stress reactivity from the perspective of biological sensitivity to context, and its implications for the study of risk and resilience processes and early intervention to prevent developmental delays are considered. Stress and the Development of Self-Regulation 3 Stress and the Development of Self-Regulation in the Context of Poverty Stress is a central construct in the study of psychosocial adversity. It is prominent among the several mediating mechanisms through which risk for poor physical and mental health increases in inverse relation to SES 1994). Persistently elevated levels of physiological reactivity to stress have been linked with adverse physical and mental health outcomes across the lifespan (McEwen, 2000) and a number of studies have definitively linked income poverty and low SES to children's health and development stress as an aspect of the link between poverty and child development has been lacking (Evans, 2003). There are many ways in which low SES environments affect child health and development. Stress within the context of poverty is only one of them. Stress is of strong interest for children's development, however, in that alterations to stress response systems resulting from the early rearing environment may have specific effects on aspects of brain development and function that promote or impede the development of reflective and goal-directed self-regulation of behavior. Much of the research linking early environment with alterations to the stress response and with brain development has been conducted using animal models and the purpose of this paper is to briefly review some of this research and consider its implications for child development. As such, at the outset it is important to note that it is only by considering the context in which stress reactivity occurs that implications for child development can be appreciated. High reactivity to stress on its own does not confer risk and may even enhance development in supportive contexts (Boyce & Ellis, 2005). In high risk environments, however, higher reactivity is likely to occur without …
Learning to Select Actions with Spiking Neurons in the Basal Ganglia

We expand our existing spiking neuron model of decision making in the cortex and basal ganglia to include local learning on the synaptic connections between the cortex and striatum, modulated by a dopaminergic reward signal. We then compare this model to animal data in the bandit task, which is used to test rodent learning in conditions involving forced choice under rewards. Our results indicate a good match in terms of both behavioral learning results and spike patterns in the ventral striatum. The model successfully generalizes to learning the utilities of multiple actions, and can learn to choose different actions in different states. The purpose of our model is to provide both high-level behavioral predictions and low-level spike timing predictions while respecting known neurophysiology and neuroanatomy.
Diagonal Recurrent Neural Network Decoupling Control on the Loopers' Height and Tension System

For improving further automatic gauge control accuracy and quality in hot strip mills, this paper gives appropriate mathematics model and whole transferring functions based on coupling process analysis and practical date in order to complete decoupling control of the loopers' height and tension system. The control strategy based on DRNN is introduced to decouple the looper system. It can cope with changes in rolling conditions by controlling the rotational speed of the main motor in addition to the existing looper motor current. The simulation results have shown the effectiveness of this algorithm and after decoupled, the loopers' control performance gets much better
Outlining Core Pathways of Amyloid Toxicity in Bacteria with the RepA-WH1 Prionoid

The synthetic bacterial prionoid RepA-WH1 causes a vertically transmissible amyloid proteinopathy in Escherichia coli that inhibits growth and eventually kills the cells. Recent in vitro studies show that RepA-WH1 builds pores through model lipid membranes, suggesting a possible mechanism for bacterial cell death. By comparing acutely (A31V) and mildly (ΔN37) cytotoxic mutant variants of the protein, we report here that RepA-WH1(A31V) expression decreases the intracellular osmotic pressure and compromise bacterial viability under either aerobic or anaerobic conditions. Both are effects expected from threatening membrane integrity and are in agreement with findings on the impairment by RepA-WH1(A31V) of the proton motive force (PMF)-dependent transport of ions (Fe3+) and ATP synthesis. Systems approaches reveal that, in aerobiosis, the PMF-independent respiratory dehydrogenase NdhII is induced in response to the reduction in intracellular levels of iron. While NdhII is known to generate H2O2 as a by-product of the autoxidation of its FAD cofactor, key proteins in the defense against oxidative stress (OxyR, KatE), together with other stress-resistance factors, are sequestered by co-aggregation with the RepA-WH1(A31V) amyloid. Our findings suggest a route for RepA-WH1 toxicity in bacteria: a primary hit of damage to the membrane, compromising bionergetics, triggers a stroke of oxidative stress, which is exacerbated due to the aggregation-dependent inactivation of enzymes and transcription factors that enable the cellular response to such injury. The proteinopathy caused by the prion-like protein RepA-WH1 in bacteria recapitulates some of the core hallmarks of human amyloid diseases.
Personalization and Clustering of Similar Web Pages

Over the last decade, we have justly arrived in the cliched information age. There is a vast expansion in the amount of online resources "out there". Moreover, the evolution of the Internet into the Global Information Infrastructure, together with the massive popularity of the Web, has also enabled the ordinary citizen to become not just a consumer of information, but also a part of it. In order to make user trouble free, it is required to save his/her time and effort. So some way is needed to give the relevant information to the user in a quick way and also enables to manage the whole lot of data without troublesome. Through this paper, we are using tf-idf (term frequency inverse document frequency approach) technique along with the concept of web mining to attain the required solution. Web mining is the application of data mining techniques that aims in discovering the patterns from the Web. Among its different ways, like Web usage mining, Web content mining and Web structure mining, here, efforts are only being made in the field of web content mining. In this work, a windows application is developed which act as a data analysis tool. This application is using the API of Bing search engine. The proposed algorithm is applied on the snippets (short description provided below each search result) of web search results to find those web pages that contains maximum number of query words. Moreover, it also aims at managing the information more easily on client's machine by using simple grouping technique.