Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Appoximation-assisted [sic] estimation of eigenvectors under quadratic loss

Improved estimation of eigen vector of covariance matrix is considered under uncertain prior information (UPI) regarding the parameter vector. Like statistical models underlying the statistical inferences to be made, the prior information will be susceptible to uncertainty and the practitioners may be reluctant to impose the additional information regarding parameters in the estimation process. A very large gain in precision may be achieved by judiciously exploiting the information about the parameters which in practice will be available in any realistic problem. Several estimators based on preliminary test and the Stein-type shrinkage rules are constructed. The expressions for the bias and risk of the proposed estimators are derived and compared with the usual estimators. We demonstrate that how the classical large sample theory of the conventional estimator can be extended to shrinkage and preliminary test estimators for the eigenvector of a covariance matrix. It is established that shrinkage estimators are asymptotically superior to the usual sample estimators. For illustration purposes, the method is applied to three datasets.
Loophole-free Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen experiment via quantum steering

Tests of the predictions of quantum mechanics for entangled systems have provided increasing evidence against local realistic theories. However, there remains the crucial challenge of simultaneously closing all major loopholes—the locality, freedom-of-choice and detection loopholes—in a single experiment. An important sub-class of local realistic theories can be tested with the concept of ‘steering’. The term ‘steering’ was introduced by Schrödinger in 1935 for the fact that entanglement would seem to allow an experimenter to remotely steer the state of a distant system as in the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) argument. Einstein called this ‘spooky action at a distance’. EPR-steering has recently been rigorously formulated as a quantum information task opening it up to new experimental tests. Here, we present the first loophole-free demonstration of EPR-steering by violating three-setting quadratic steering inequality, tested with polarization-entangled photons shared between two distant laboratories. Our experiment demonstrates this effect while simultaneously closing all loopholes: both the locality loophole and a specific form of the freedom-of-choice loophole are closed by having a large separation of the parties and using fast quantum random number generators, and the fair-sampling loophole is closed by having high overall detection efficiency. Thereby, we exclude—for the first time loophole-free—an important class of local realistic theories considered by EPR. Besides its foundational importance, loophole-free steering also allows the distribution of quantum entanglement secure event in the presence of an untrusted party.
Declining Volatility in the U.S. Automobile Industry

This paper documents the dramatic changes in volatility that occurred in the U.S. auto industry in the early 1980s. Namely, output volatility declined significantly, the covariance of inventory investment and sales became much more negative, and adjustments to output, which in earlier decades stemmed primarily from plants hiring and laying off workers, were more often accomplished with changes in average hours per worker after the mid 1980s. Building on the work of Blanchard (1983), we show how all of these changes could have stemmed from one underlying factor%u2014a decline in the persistence of motor vehicle sales. We use both industry-level data as well as micro data on production schedules from 103 assembly plants in the United States and Canada to document the developments in the early 1980s. We then use the original Holt, Modigliani, Muth and Simon (1960) linear quadratic inventory model to show how a decline in the persistence of sales leads to all of the changes noted above, including the propensity to use intensive margins of adjustment over extensive labor margins, even in the absence of technological change.
Transferrin Iron, Chelatable Iron and Ferritin in Idiopathic Haemochromatosis

Summary. In 12 patients with idiopathic haemochromatosis and varying degrees of iron overload the serum ferritin concentration was related to the amount of iron mobilized by venesection. There was no correlation between iron load and chelatable iron. In 25 patients with normal iron stores following venesection therapy, both transferrin iron and chelatable iron was pathologically increased.
Encoding of Arbitrary Curves Based on the Chain Code Representation

An efficient encoding scheme for arbitrary curves, based on the chain code representation, has been proposed. The encoding scheme takes advantage of the property that a curve with gentle curvature is divided into somewhat long curve sections (segments), each of which is represented by a sequence of two adjacent-direction chain codes. The coding efficiency of the scheme becomes higher as the segments become longer, while a variable-length coding technique makes it possible to encode short segments without an extreme increase in code amount. An experiment with complicated curves obtained from geographic maps has shown a high data compression rate of the proposed scheme, whose code amount is about 50-60 percent of that required for the conventional chain encoding scheme.
Ventricular pacing or dual-chamber pacing for sinus-node dysfunction.

BACKGROUND Dual-chamber (atrioventricular) and single-chamber (ventricular) pacing are alternative treatment approaches for sinus-node dysfunction that causes clinically significant bradycardia. However, it is unknown which type of pacing results in the better outcome. METHODS We randomly assigned a total of 2010 patients with sinus-node dysfunction to dual-chamber pacing (1014 patients) or ventricular pacing (996 patients) and followed them for a median of 33.1 months. The primary end point was death from any cause or nonfatal stroke. Secondary end points included the composite of death, stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure; atrial fibrillation; heart-failure score; the pacemaker syndrome; and the quality of life. RESULTS The incidence of the primary end point did not differ significantly between the dual-chamber group (21.5 percent) and the ventricular-paced group (23.0 percent, P=0.48). In patients assigned to dual-chamber pacing, the risk of atrial fibrillation was lower (hazard ratio, 0.79; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.66 to 0.94; P=0.008), and heart-failure scores were better (P<0.001). The differences in the rates of hospitalization for heart failure and of death, stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure were not significant in unadjusted analyses but became marginally significant in adjusted analyses. Dual-chamber pacing resulted in a small but measurable increase in the quality of life, as compared with ventricular pacing. CONCLUSIONS In sinus-node dysfunction, dual-chamber pacing does not improve stroke-free survival, as compared with ventricular pacing. However, dual-chamber pacing reduces the risk of atrial fibrillation, reduces signs and symptoms of heart failure, and slightly improves the quality of life. Overall, dual-chamber pacing offers significant improvement as compared with ventricular pacing.
Disiplinler arası yaklaşıma dayalıyaratıcı problem çözme öğretim programının yaratıcı problem çözme becerisine etkisi

Bu arastirmanin amaci, disiplinlerarasi yaklasima dayali yaratici problem cozme (DYDYPC) ogretim programi ile ogrencilerin yaratici problem cozme becerilerindeki erisilerinde anlamli bir fark olup olmadigini incelemektir. Arastirmaya Ankara ili Namik Kemal Ilkogretim Okulunda 7. sinif duzeyinde 45 ogrenci katilmistir. Bu calismada tek deney deseni ve gozlem teknigi uygulamaya konulmustur. Toplanan verilerin analizinde betimsel istatistiklerin yani sira deneysel islemin etkisini incelemek icin iliskili t-testi kullanilmistir. Arastirmanin bulgulari, yaratici problem cozme erisilerinde deney grubunun lehine anlamli farklar oldugunu ortaya koymustur
The Watching-Eye Effect on Prosocial Lying

Evidence shows that people tend to behave prosocially when they are in the presence of images depicting eyes. There are two proximate causes of the eyes effect. One involves positive motivation to gain future reward and the other involves negative motivation to avoid violating a norm. Although several studies have suggested that positive motivation is a strong candidate, these studies were unable to distinguish between adherence to norms and prosocial behavior. We investigated the watching-eyes effect in an experimental setting to determine whether the tendency of humans to violate norms voluntarily could be understood as prosocial behavior. We compared the tendency to tell “prosocial lies” in the presence of a depiction of stylized eyes (eyes condition) with that involving no such depiction (control condition). Under the control condition, participants tended to tell lies that benefitted others, whereas the tendency toward prosocial lying disappeared under the eyes condition. This suggests that the desire to avoid violating norms by being honest is stronger than the desire to pursue a good reputation by demonstrating generosity when such violation might lead to serious costs.
Prss16 Is Not Required for T-Cell Development

ABSTRACT PRSS16 is a serine protease expressed exclusively in cortical thymic epithelial cells (cTEC) of the thymus, suggesting that it plays a role in the processing of peptide antigens during the positive selection of T cells. Moreover, the human PRSS16 gene is encoded in a region near the class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) that has been linked to type 1 diabetes mellitus susceptibility. The mouse orthologue Prss16 is conserved in genetic structure, sequence, and pattern of expression. To study the role of Prss16 in thymic development, we generated a deletion mutant of Prss16 and characterized T-lymphocyte populations and MHC class II expression on cortical thymic epithelial cells. Prss16-deficient mice develop normally, are fertile, and show normal thymic morphology, cellularity, and anatomy. The total numbers and frequencies of thymocytes and splenic T-cell populations did not differ from those of wild-type controls. Surface expression of MHC class II on cTEC was also similar in homozygous mutant and wild-type animals, and invariant chain degradation was not impaired by deletion of Prss16. These findings suggest that Prss16 is not required for quantitatively normal T-cell development.
Mitigating the adversities of social media through real time tweet extraction system

Our web application aims and successfully extracts all currently trending tweets from Twitter and thereby displays them all at a time on the basis of topics and categories selected by the user. Any user in our web application will be provided with a wide range of categories namely sports, entertainment, technology and also leading celebrities, wherein the user can select a category and access all the recently trending tweets and topics under them. This does away with the threats posed by social networking and behaves like a news media providing only the advantages of a social network like Twitter. The main objective of our system is to provide all Internet users irrespective of whether they have Twitter accounts, the mere scope to access all that is trending now, at this particular moment, through a common platform. At the same time it is also been our aim to cater to the specific interests of users with unique choices, which has been carried out by providing them the option to access only those trending tweets which belong to their area of interest or tweets from celebrities and icons who are trending or being talked about at the moment.
Analyzing and Presenting Interaction Data : A Teacher

Students‘ actions within a CSCL environment are recorded and stored as interaction data. The availability of such data offers new opportunities for support: the data can be accessed and analyzed automatically. Teachers, students and researchers may benefit from such an analysis. They have access to information about students‘ performance in the CSCL environment. The support gives teachers and students immediate feedback about performance indicators and it can help researchers to identify meaningful patterns in the interaction data. In the symposium we explore three issues with regard to this kind of support: 1) how can we extract meaningful information from the interaction data, 2) how can this information be used in practice, and 3) how should this information be presented to the user? We examine these issues from three perspectives, that of the teacher, the student and the researcher.
Transformation of 3‐D prestack data by azimuth moveout (AMO)

We introduce a new partial-migration operator, named Azimuth Moveout (AMO), that rotates the azimuth and modifies the offset of 3-D prestack data. AMO can be effectively applied to improve the accuracy and to reduce the computational cost of 3-D prestack imaging. For example, a 3-D prestack dataset can be drastically reduced in size by coherent partial-stacking after AMO. The reduced dataset can be then imaged by prestack depth migration, a process that would have been too expensive to apply to the original dataset. AMO can also be effectively used for regularizing data geometries (e.g. correct for cable feather) and for interpolating unevenly sampled data. AMO is defined as the cascade of DMO and inverse DMO at different offsets and azimuths. We derive the time-space domain formulation of the AMO operator by first deriving its Fourier domain representation, and then analytically evaluating the stationaryphase approximation. The impulse response of AMO is a surface in the time-midpoint space; the shape of the surface is a skewed saddle, and its spatial extent is determined by the amount of azimuth rotation and offset continuation to be applied to the data. When the azimuth rotation is small ( ≤ 20), the AMO operator is compact and inexpensive to apply in the time-space domain. We successfully tested AMO by coherently stacking traces with similar offsets and azimuths from a synthetic land survey.
9. Emotions in human-computer interaction

Overview: Human–computer interaction (HCI) may be significantly improved by incorporating social and emotional processes. Developing appropriate technologies is only one side of the problem. It is also vital to investigate how synthesized emotional information might affect human behavior in the context of information technology. Despite previous suggestions that people treat computers as social actors, we still know relatively little about the possible and supposedly positive effects of utilizing any kind of emotional cues or messages in human–technology interaction. The aim of the present chapter is to provide a theoretical and empirical basis for integrating emotions into the study of HCI. We will first argue and show evidence in favor of the use of virtual emotions in HCI. We will then proceed by studying the possibilities of a computer for analyzing human emotion-related processes and consider some physiological measures used for this purpose in more detail. In this context, we will also briefly describe some new technological prototypes for measuring computer users' behavior. The chapter ends with a discussion summarizing the findings and addressing the advantages of studying emotions in the context of present-day technology. Introduction The qualitative improvement and facilitation of human–computer interaction (HCI) has become a central research issue in computer science. Traditionally, attempts to improve HCI have centered on making computers more user-friendly along technical dimensions. In this line of work, perhaps still the most visible milestone for an ordinary user has been the development of a graphical, mouse-driven user interface.
Speak the Language of Leadership

Success as a project management professional requires a balance of subject matter competence, interpersonal skills, and conceptual abilities that produce an expected result. Business executive’s expectations regarding a project management professional’s competencies have evolved with increasing emphasis on leadership. Understanding the role of a leader and the importance of leadership communication skills are the prime factors for achieving the right organizational results. Unfortunately, most project management oriented publications do not explain interpersonal skill development with the same clarity used to describe project management processes. A leaders ability to influence, inspire, and motive directly correlates to interpersonal skill proficiency. The first section of this paper presents the importance of leadership on achieving results and the difference between managers and leaders. The second section reviews situational leadership and emotional intelligence as frameworks for the language of leadership. The third section explores how leaders can develop influence skills using NeuroLinguistic Programming (NLP), Dominance, Influencing, Steadiness, Compliance (DISC) communication assessment, and their “Way of Being. ”
Willingness to Pay: Australian Consumers and “On the Farm” Welfare

The success of welfare legislation for nonhuman animals rests upon primary producer compliance that, in turn, is affected by public willingness to pay (WTP) for such initiatives. Although the topic of the welfare of animals on farms (and relevant legislation) is becoming increasingly important to the Australian public, there remain relatively few recent assessments of the variables that may affect WTP and, therefore, support initiatives aimed at improving the welfare of animals living on farms. This study surveyed 1,224 community members in Queensland, Australia. The study assessed respondents' self-rated knowledge of, and concern regarding, farm animal welfare. In addition, the survey asked respondents how much more they would be prepared to pay for animal-based products to ensure that they came from a source where the Five Freedoms were met. Although self-rated knowledge and level of concern were found to affect WTP, the study found only concern for farm animal welfare actually predicted consumer behavior. Further analyses showed a potential confound between knowledge levels and locality. This article discusses the implications of this for future initiatives to increase WTP.
A digital watermarking for audio data using band division based on QMF bank

In the watermarking techniques for audio are required quality, security and robustness. This paper presents method that improves security and robustness, besides restricting the noise. Special attention is given to band-division by using filter bank based on the QMF that several audio compression standards adopt. First, divides time-domain data into several subbands and select the sub band to embed the watermarking. Then, we spread the signal included in the selected sub band using Direct Spectrum Spreading(DSS) that is the one of the spectrum spreading methods, and embed the watermarking in the frequency-domain data. Finally, we reconstruct the signal by synthesizing whole subbands. By this method, we can reduce the noise and improve security and robustness against MPEG1 Audio Layer3 compression. Experimental results will show good robustness of the approach against some signal processing manipulations. Quality and robustness are evaluated by computer simulation.
Advances in the Diagnosis of Human Schistosomiasis

SUMMARY Schistosomiasis is a major neglected tropical disease that afflicts more than 240 million people, including many children and young adults, in the tropics and subtropics. The disease is characterized by chronic infections with significant residual morbidity and is of considerable public health importance, with substantial socioeconomic impacts on impoverished communities. Morbidity reduction and eventual elimination through integrated intervention measures are the focuses of current schistosomiasis control programs. Precise diagnosis of schistosome infections, in both mammalian and snail intermediate hosts, will play a pivotal role in achieving these goals. Nevertheless, despite extensive efforts over several decades, the search for sensitive and specific diagnostics for schistosomiasis is ongoing. Here we review the area, paying attention to earlier approaches but emphasizing recent developments in the search for new diagnostics for schistosomiasis with practical applications in the research laboratory, the clinic, and the field. Careful and rigorous validation of these assays and their cost-effectiveness will be needed, however, prior to their adoption in support of policy decisions for national public health programs aimed at the control and elimination of schistosomiasis.
Incidence de certains facteurs sur l’issue d’une psychothérapie dans un essai clinique randomisé auprès de patients avec trouble de personnalité limite (TPL)

Au Personality Disorders Institute, nous avons etudie l’efficacite de la psychotherapie focalisee sur le transfert (PFT), une psychotherapie psychodynamique manualisee qui se deroule deux fois par semaine a l’intention de personnes souffrant de troubles de personnalite limite (TPL). Nous avons compare la PFT a la therapie dialectique comportementale (TDC) et a la psychotherapie psychodynamique de soutien (PPS) dans un essai clinique randomise aupres de 90 patients ayant un TPL. Dans un premier temps, nous presentons certains fondements a l’origine du developpement des TPL, suivis d’une discussion des bases theoriques de la PFT. Nous abordons ensuite les caracteristiques des patients qui influent sur les resultats du traitement. Nous presentons des donnees a la fois cliniques et empiriques dans une discussion de cas individuels representatifs de l’echantillon de patients borderline traites en PFT.
Community effects on the risk of HIV infection in rural Tanzania

Objectives: To investigate the effect of community characteristics on HIV prevalence and incidence. Methods: Data from an open cohort study with demographic surveillance, epidemiological surveys, and qualitative research were used to examine the association between individual and community risk factors with HIV prevalence in 1994–5 and incidence between 1994–5 and 1996–7 among men (n=2271) and women (n=2752) living in a rural area in northwest Tanzania. Using subvillages as the unit of analysis, community factors investigated were level of social and economic activity, ratio of bar workers per male population aged 18–59, level of community mobility, and distance to the nearest town. Logistic and Cox regression models were estimated to assess community effects, controlling for multiple individual factors. Results: All four community factors had strong effects on HIV transmission. Men who lived in subvillages with the highest level of social and economic activity had an odds of being HIV positive that was about five times higher (OR=4.71, 95% CI=2.89 to 6.71) than those in places with low levels of activity; women in these subvillages had an odds that was twice as high (OR=1.92, 95% CI=1.27 to 2.92). After controlling for community effects, the effects of some individual factors on the risk of HIV—education, male circumcision, type of work, and number of household assets—changed notably. The association between HIV incidence and community factors was in the expected direction, but did not reach statistical significance (RR=2.07, p=0.10). Conclusions: Results suggest that community characteristics play an important part in the spread of HIV in rural Tanzania. Community effects need both to be considered in individual risk factor analyses and be given more attention in intervention programmes.