Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computationally efficient approximation for the double bootstrap mean bias correction

We propose a computationally efficient approximation for the double bootstrap bias adjustment factor without using the inner bootstrap loop. The approximation converges in probability to the population bias correction factor. We study the finite sample properties of the approximation in the context of a linear instrumental variable model. In identified versions of the model considered in our Monte Carlo experiments, the proposed approximation leads to estimators with lower variance than those based on the double bootstrap and, lower adjusted mean-squared error than estimators based on the single bootstrap. Evidence from the experiments we consider suggests that the bootstrap is less effective in reducing the bias when the instrumental variable is weak and endogeneity is strong.
Countertransference in Swedish psychotherapists: testing the factor structure of the Therapist Response Questionnaire

Questionnaires need testing of reliability and factor structure before clinical use or research in new languages or cultures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the Therapist Response Questionnaire (TRQ) in Sweden compared to corresponding factor analyses in USA and Italy. A national sample of psychotherapists (N=242) registered their countertransference with a single client using TRQ. The data were analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test factor structures from previous studies, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The CFA did not verify the factor structure from the previous studies. The EFA extracted seven factors as the best solution: Helpless/Inadequate, Overwhelmed/Disorganized, Hostile/Angry, Parental/Protective, Disengaged, Special/Overinvolved, Sexualized. Analysis of convergent validity indicated that five of these could be considered equivalent to factors in the previous studies, and the remaining two were conceptually related to corresponding factors. Even though the factor structure was not confirmed by the CFA, the concordance was large, indicating a reliable self-report instrument with promising validity for measurement of complex aspects of countertransference. Common countertransference themes can inform psychotherapy supervision and education, give feedback to the therapist, and lay ground for a taxonomy for therapist reactions and feelings.
A Validation Study of the Japanese Version of the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised

The aim of this study was to validate the Japanese version of the Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) [Mori: Japanese Edition of Hodges JR’s Cognitive Assessment for Clinicians, 2010] designed to detect dementia, and to compare its diagnostic accuracy with that of the Mini-Mental State Examination. The ACE-R was administered to 85 healthy individuals and 126 patients with dementia. The reliability assessment revealed a strong correlation in both groups. The internal consistency was excellent (α-coefficient = 0.88). Correlation with the Clinical Dementia Rating sum of boxes score was significant (rs = –0.61, p < 0.001). The area under the curve was 0.98 for the ACE-R and 0.96 for the Mini-Mental State Examination. The cut-off score of 80 showed a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 94%. Like the original ACE-R and the versions designed for other languages, the Japanese version of the ACE-R is a reliable and valid test for the detection of dementia.
Marea: A Semi-Automatic Decision Support System for Breaking Dependency Cycles

Dependency cycles are commonly recognized as one of the most critical quality anti-patterns. Cycles compromise the modularity of a system, prevent proper reuse and increase the cost of maintenance and testing. Many tools are capable of detecting and visualizing package cycles existing within software projects. Unfortunately, detecting cycles is only half of the work. Once detected, cycles need to be removed and this typically results in a complex process that is only partially supported by current tools. We propose a tool that offers an intelligent guidance mechanism to support developers in removing package cycles. Our tool, Marea, simulates different refactoring strategies and suggests the most cost-effective sequence of refactoring operations that will break the cycle. The optimal refactoring strategy is determined based on a custom profit function. Our approach has been validated on multiple projects and executes in linear time.
Hyaluronic acid: A key molecule in skin aging

Skin aging is a multifactorial process consisting of two distinct and independent mechanisms: intrinsic and extrinsic aging. Youthful skin retains its turgor, resilience and pliability, among others, due to its high content of water. Daily external injury, in addition to the normal process of aging, causes loss of moisture. The key molecule involved in skin moisture is hyaluronic acid (HA) that has unique capacity in retaining water. There are multiple sites for the control of HA synthesis, deposition, cell and protein association and degradation, reflecting the complexity of HA metabolism. The enzymes that synthesize or catabolize HA and HA receptors responsible for many of the functions of HA are all multigene families with distinct patterns of tissue expression. Understanding the metabolism of HA in the different layers of the skin and the interactions of HA with other skin components will facilitate the ability to modulate skin moisture in a rational manner.
A soft deformable tissue-equivalent phantom for diffuse optical tomography

A recipe is presented for the manufacture of highly compressible phantoms for diffuse optical tomography. The recipe is based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) slime, a viscoelastic fluid which readily deforms under moderate pressure. Scattering particles and absorbing compounds can be added to provide a uniform material with stable and reproducible optical properties. A linear relationship between the concentration of scattering particles (either titanium dioxide or microspheres) and the transport scatter coefficient is demonstrated. Phantoms of an arbitrary size and shape may be produced by containing the slime within a thin latex shell, and a stability over a period of at least 3 months has been established. The deformable phantoms may be used to test and calibrate optical tomography systems designed for use on patients with irregular or variable geometries.
Session Title : Functional neuroimaging within hours and days after stroke or brain injury Facilitators :

Questions for Discussion: What limitations and opportunities are posed by neural, metabolic, and blood flow/volume factors? Can fMRI, TMS, NIRS, etc complement the assessment of diffusion-perfusion MR imaging, DTI or spectroscopy for viable tissue that may be available to subserve later recovery? What would be a set of standard activation paradigms to test for this possibility? Limitations & opportunities re: blood flow, etc. Hemodynamic Changes in Subacute and Acute Poststroke Stages It is important to consider issues related to hemodynamic changes in the hours and days after stroke or brain injury. Acute stroke is an evolving event in which there may be opportunities to intervene over several days following the insult. Dysfunctional regions within the ischemic penumbra may include viable tissue, but how long it will survive without intervention is unknown. Hypoperfusion and Reperfusion Restoration of blood flow is an important mechanism supporting recovery of function in the acute stage. This mechanism can be studied pre-and post-intervention using MR perfusion weighted imaging (PWI) to assess severity of hypoperfusion, diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) to assess extent of lesion, and language or other functional testing. Reperfusion of hypoperfused regions that correlate with improvements in language performance in acute aphasia patients can also provide evidence of regions that are essential to linguistic functions (Hillis et al., 2006). For example, Hillis et al. (2001) performed detailed single subject studies on six patients who had small infarcts surrounded by larger regions of hypoperfusion including BA 22 and BA 37. Patients were tested daily on oral naming and spoken comprehension and scanned pre-and post-intervention to pharmacologically improve blood pressure. Time-to-peak (TTP) was measured and compared with TTP in the contralateral (right) hemisphere in these two regions. Improvement in naming in the first 2-3 days poststroke was correlated with improved blood flow (to less than 2.5s delay relative to normal hemisphere) in all six patients. Use of serial PWI to assess temporarily dysfunctional tissue in acute stroke also provides converging evidence of brain/behavior relationships prior to functional reorganization, in this case demonstrating that BA 22 is essential to oral naming and comprehension. More recently, in a study of 50 patients, Kannan, Kleinman, et al. (2007) demonstrated that deficits in word comprehension were most strongly associated with abnormal diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) or perfusion weighted imaging (PWI) in posterior superior temporal (BA 22) and parietal cortex (BA40), where blood flow was at least 4s delayed compared to homologous …
Multimodal Pattern Recognition Through Particle Swarm Optimization

—In this paper we introduce the idea of descriptor combination by Particle Swarm Optimization and its applications for classiﬁcation purposes using a recently pattern recognition technique called Optimum-Path Forest (OPF), which interprets the samples of the dataset as the nodes of a given graph, and each arc is weighted by the distance between the corresponding nodes. The method combines different color descriptors for classiﬁcation in the COREL dataset to further weight the OPF graph arcs by these combined similarities. We show that our proposed approach can provides better accuracies than the individual ones obtained by each descriptor.
Collection Selection Based on Historical Performance for Efficient Processing

A Grid Information Retrieval (GIR) simulation was used to process the TREC Million Query Track queries. The GOV2 collection was partitioned by hostname and the aggregate performance of each host, as measured by qrel counts from the past TREC Terabyte Tracks, was used to rank the hosts in order of quality. Only the highest quality hosts were included in the Grid IR simulation; the hosts selected represent less than 20% of all GOV2 documents. The IR performance of the GIR simulation, as measured by the topic-averaged AP, b-pref, and Rel@10 over the TREC Terabyte-Track topics is within one standard deviation of the respective topic-averaged TREC Million Query participant median scores. Estimated AP of the Million Query topic results is comparable to the topic-averaged AP of the Terabyte topic results.
Tidal torques and the clusters of galaxies evolution

We study the effect of tidal torques on the collapse of density peaks through the equations of motion of a shell of barionic matter falling into the central regions of a cluster of galaxies. We calculate the time of collapse of the pertur- bation taking into account the gravitational interaction of the quadrupole moment of the system with the tidal field of the matter of the neighbouring proto-clusters. We show that within high-density environments, such as rich clusters of galaxies, tidal torques slow down the collapse of low- peaks producing an observable variation in the time of collapse of the shell and, as a consequence, a reduction in the mass bound to the collapsed perturbation. Moreover, the delay of the collapse produces a ten- dency for less dense regions to accrete less mass, with respect to a classical spherical model, inducing a biasing of over-dense regions toward higher mass. Finally we calculate the bias co- efficient using a selection function properly defined showing that for a Standard Cold Dark Matter (SCDM) model thisbias can account for a substantial part of the total bias required by observations on cluster scales.
Income distribution, socioeconomic status, and self rated health in the United States: multilevel analysis

Abstract Objective: To determine the effect of inequalities in income within a state on self rated health status while controlling for individual characteristics such as socioeconomic status. Design: Cross sectional multilevel study. Data were collected on income distribution in each of the 50 states in the United States. The Gini coefficient was used to measure statewide inequalities in income. Random probability samples of individuals in each state were collected by the 1993 and 1994 behavioural risk factor surveillance system, a random digit telephone survey. The survey collects information on an individual's income, education, self rated health and other health risk factors. Setting: All 50 states. Subjects: Civilian, non-institutionalised (that is, non-incarcerated and non-hospitalised) US residents aged 18 years or older. Main outcome measure: Self rated health status. Results: When personal characteristics and household income were controlled for, individuals living in states with the greatest inequalities in income were 30% more likely to report their health as fair or poor than individuals living in states with the smallest inequalities in income. Conclusions: Inequality in the distribution of income was associated with an adverse impact on health independent of the effect of household income.
Approximating the minimum bisection size (extended abstract)

A bisection of a graph with n vertices is a partit ion of its vertices into two sets, each of size n/2. The bisection size is the number of edges connecting the two sets. Finding the bisection of minimum size is NP-hard. We present an algorithm that finds a bisection that is within O(v/-nlogn) of optimal. No sublinear approximation ratio for bisection was previously known.
Profiles of Violence and Use of Alcohol and Tobacco in Relation to the Impulsivity: Sustainable Consumption in Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to identify different adolescent profiles identified by their use tobacco/alcohol and violent behavior repertoires as well as to analyze the extent to which they show impulsivity traits. Participants were selected by cluster random sampling. There was a total of 822 high school students in the sample aged 13 to 18 years with a mean of 14.84 (SD=.87). A cluster analysis with the following variables was done to form the groups: Use of tobacco, Use of alcohol, Physical aggression, Verbal aggression, Anger and Hostility. Three groups of adolescents resulted from these five variables. The multivariate comparison demonstrated the existence of significant between-group differences, and individual analysis for each of the dependent variables (impulsivity dimensions) showed that the relationship was statistically significant in all cases. In conclusion, analysis of factors possibly associated with adolescent’s risk behavior makes possible and orients intervention in different stages of development for sustainable consumption in adolescents.
A Novel Dual-Frequency Multiple Access Relay Transmission Scheme

As data rates are increasing continuously in wireless networks, additional ways of improving system performance and providing higher rates is needed. One scheme that has recently attracted a lot of attention, is using relays in order to provide additional diversity, especially in scenarios that use of multiple antennas may not be practical at transmit or receive sites. In this paper, we will present a novel channel assignment scheme at the relay which will provide full diversity for the case in which two non-cooperative independent users communicate with their destination through a single relay and by using only two frequency channels. As the simulation results show, through use of this approach, significant performance improvement is achieved in comparison with the case in which each user and its corresponding relay use an independent channel for transmission. In addition, the proposed scheme is applied to two main relay-based transmission systems, namely amplify and forward (AF) and decode and forward (DF). As the results show, the performance of DF algorithms is especially superior in scenarios in which the relay is closer to the receiver.
THE EFFECT OF STATE AND LOCAL TAX INCENTIVE PROGRAMS ON JOB GROWTH

IN THE PAST SEVERAL DECADES, VARIOUS TAX AND Financial incentives have been offered by state and local governments to stimulate economic development. These programs consume billions of dollars each year in expenditures and forgone tax revenues. Among the most commonly used tax incentives are property tax abatements, enterprise zones (EZ) and tax increment financing (TIF) programs. According to some recent studies, by 1992 at least 31 states had used property tax abatements for economic development (Wassmer, 1992); by 1991 about 37 states and the District of Columbia had established some form of enterprise zone programs (Papke, 1994); and by 1993 nearly 44 states had adopted TIF enabling legislation (Forgey, 1993). Property tax abatements reduce the price of land and capital for industrial and commercial firms by exempting new investment and substantial rehabilitation from property taxation for a period of time. The amount of property tax reduction depends on the duration of the abatement and the percentage reduction in each time period. By offering tax abatements, state and local governments attempt to increase new construction and capital investment in the targeted areas and create more economic opportunities for their residents. Many state and local governments have also targeted certain depressed areas for revitalization by providing a combination of labor and capital tax incentives to firms operating in the designated enterprise zones. Besides property tax abatements and EZs, TIF programs have been used increasingly by state and local governments to finance public investments and infrastructure improvements, such as water and sewer lines, streets, lighting, parking lots, and land procurement, that are deemed necessary to induce private investment expansion or location in a specific geographic area designated as a TIF district. ' While these programs differ in specifics, each offers a tax incentive package devised to induce firms to locate or remain in targeted geographic areas and to enhance job opportunities for residents in the local jurisdiction. Despite the pervasive use of these incentive programs and the commitment of considerable public resources to fund them, information on their effectiveness is scarce. One fundamental question remains: Can state and local tax incentive programs influence a firm's location decision and stimulate local economic development? Recently, a number of studies have focused on the evaluation of specific economic development policies. Anderson (1990) examined the association between property value growth and the establishment of TIF districts. He detected faster economic growth for those jurisdictions that adopt TIF than …
Integrated project based learning in software engineering education

This paper presents an education framework to effectively develop crucial software engineering skills in students of software Engineering major at National Exemplary Software School (NESS), Xiamen University. The goal is to describe a systematic approach towards integrating project based learning in software engineering major, both inside and outside the classroom. An essential part of Software Engineering Education is practical training in principles, methods and procedures under conditions similar to developing real software products. This paper describes the different conventional and traditional approaches at length for Software Engineering Education and proposes integrated project based learning approach is more effective and interesting for teaching and learning SE as compared to the lecture based approach.
Modeling Autonomous Mobile System with an Agent Oriented Approach

Summary This paper focuses on the design of a control architecture, via Internet, of a mobile system. The remote control extends the sensorimotor capacities and the possibilities of actions of a human being in a distant place. The Internet network (network without Quality of Service) limits the quantity of information that can be transmitted (bandwidth) and introduces delays which can make the remote control difficult or impossible. The solution proposed, through this work, to face the limitations of the Internet, is founded on the autonomy and the intelligence, based on multi-agents systems, granted to the mobile system in order to interact with its environment and to collaborate with the remote user. The need that consists in wanting to assign to the mobile system the autonomy and intelligence brought us to examine in the detail the choice of a control architecture. This paper will present the modeling process of an autonomous mobile system with an agent oriented approach.
Scenario-Based Traffic Modeling for Data Emanating from Medical Instruments in Clinical Environment

In this paper, the application of individual scenario-based traffic models in identifying the traffic carrying needs of networks in patient monitoring environments is presented. Since the total number of traffic sources is small for a central limit theorem-like approximation, a simple traffic matrix for each scenario can be used to identify the capacity needed for carrying data. The data traffic is classified into three categories; constant bit rate (CBR), On-Off, and Impulsive. In digital communications, the Impulsive traffic is considered a limiting case of the On-Off traffic. Lack of standard mechanisms for digitization of the patient monitoring data offers a unique challenge for traffic modeling. Sample traffic characteristics in a certain scenario are used to demonstrate that the network does not have to be designed for a very high bit rate even if some sources occasionally generate high data rates. This is due to the fact that a source generating high data rate could do so only for a small fraction of time, which results in smoothing out the data over longer periods of time.
A Bird's-Eye View on Modelling Malleable Multi-cloud Applications

Cloud platforms advances have changed the application development landscape. Cloud platforms abstract the complexity of application delivery to enable rapid development and easy management. This changes the way development teams need to think about and deal with the underlying resources while building and managing their applications. This research describes a new methodology supported by a modeling framework to enable organizations that build cloud applications (e.g., SaaS providers) to unbiasedly exploit the cloud platform building blocks to leverage the flexibility, reliability and scalability that these platforms provide to the application layer.
A field programmable multi-chip module (FPMCM)

Multi-chip module (MCM) packaging can reduce the cost and increase the utility of field programmable systems. We are currently developing a first generation field programmable multi-chip module (FPMCM) as a test vehicle for a particular MCM technology. We present the advantages of MCM for field programmable systems and develop analytical models for estimating the capacity of FPMCM architectures based on Rent's rule. These models are used to generate the architecture of our first generation prototype which employs smaller FPGA die and a mixture of direct and switched interconnect. We conclude with a discussion of the challenges and opportunities that FPMCMs face. <<ETX>>