Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RACISMO, DOMINANCIA SOCIAL Y ATRIBUCIONES CAUSALES DE LA POBREZA DE LOS INMIGRANTES MAGREBÍES

This paper analyzes the relation between the racist prejudices and the ideological self-positioning, social dominance and causal attributions about the poverty in North African immigrants. Three hundred people have participated (175 females and 125 males). Using Pettigrew and Meertens´(1995) typology, we found significant differences among egalitarian, subtle and blatant subjects in ideological self-positioning, social dominance and causal attributions about the poverty. In this research, 60.9% of the subjects (40.6% blatant racists and 20.3% subtle racists) were classified as racists. Blatant racists were right wing, scored higher on social dominance and attributed greater poverty of North African immigrants to personal reasons. Egalitarian subjects were left wing and attributed greater poverty to structural reasons.
SS-SVD: Spread spectrum data hiding scheme based on Singular Value Decomposition

In recent years, the necessity to protect multimedia content from illegal copying has been made more critical by the advent of digital technology. Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) received much attention from the watermarking community due to its appealing properties, such as the invariance of singular values (SVs) to common image processing operations and geometric transforms, like rotation, translation and scaling. However, most of watermarking schemes require a lot of prior information to detect the watermark and in addition they are not secure. In this paper we investigate the efficiency of optimal decoding schemes for the watermark inserted into the SVD domain of the host images using an additive spread spectrum (SS) embedding framework. In order to use the singular values (SVs) with the SS embedding we adopt several restrictions that ensure that the values of the SVs remain real, positive and sorted. For both the optimal maximum likelihood decoder and sub-optimal decoders we assume that the PDF of SVs can be modeled by the Weibull distribution. Furthermore, we investigate the error probability behavior, i.e., the probability of detection and the probability of false detection, for the applied optimal decoders. By taking into account the efficiency and the necessary auxiliary information for decoding the watermark, we discuss the suitable decoder for various operating situations.
Asymptotic expansions in n−1 for percolation critical values on the n‐Cube and ℤn

We use the lace expansion to prove that the critical values for nearest‐neighbor bond percolation on the n‐cube {0, 1}n and on the integer lattice ℤn have asymptotic expansions, with rational coefficients, to all orders in powers of n−1. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. , 2005
Two algorithms for Network Security Gradient marking

Attack graph increasingly becomes a key technique for network security analysis, however, the prevalent Attacker's Ability Monotonic Assumption (AAMA) constraint for attack graph generation could not make full use of the direction of network attack and the hierarchy of defence. As a result, using AAMA is not efficient enough in the process of attack graph generation, especially for large-scale complicated network. With the aim of improving the efficiency of attack graph generation and reducing attack graph's complexity, we proposed the concept of Network Security Gradient (NSG) to reflect the hierarchy of network defence, and the Gradient Attack Assumption (GAA) based on NSG to constraint the process of attack graph generation. To make our theory of NSG more sound and reasonable, we proposed two NSG marking algorithms, respectively from static analysis of network topology and dynamic analysis of network access flow, to rank network nodes automatically. Experiment results showed that both of the two algorithms can mark NSG for network correctly and rationally.
Parallel interacting Markov adaptive importance sampling

Monte Carlo (MC) methods are widely used for statistical inference in signal processing applications. A well-known class of MC methods is importance sampling (IS) and its adaptive extensions. In this work, we introduce an iterated importance sampler using a population of proposal densities, which are adapted according to an MCMC technique over the population of location parameters. The novel algorithm provides a global estimation of the variables of interest iteratively, using all the samples weighted according to the deterministic mixture scheme. Numerical results, on a multi-modal example and a localization problem in wireless sensor networks, show the advantages of the proposed schemes.
To tune or not to tune: Recommending when to adjust SVM hyper-parameters via meta-learning

Many classification algorithms, such as Neural Networks and Support Vector Machines, have a range of hyper-parameters that may strongly affect the predictive performance of the models induced by them. Hence, it is recommended to define the values of these hyper-parameters using optimization techniques. While these techniques usually converge to a good set of values, they typically have a high computational cost, because many candidate sets of values are evaluated during the optimization process. It is often not clear whether this will result in parameter settings that are significantly better than the default settings. When training time is limited, it may help to know when these parameters should definitely be tuned. In this study, we use meta-learning to predict when optimization techniques are expected to lead to models whose predictive performance is better than those obtained by using default parameter settings. Hence, we can choose to employ optimization techniques only when they are expected to improve performance, thus reducing the overall computational cost. We evaluate these meta-learning techniques on more than one hundred data sets. The experimental results show that it is possible to accurately predict when optimization techniques should be used instead of default values suggested by some machine learning libraries.
[Homocysteine lowering with folic acid and B vitamins in vascular disease].

The Writing Group (Eva Lonn, M.D., and Salim Yusuf, D.Phil., M.B., B.S., Population Health Research Institute, McMaster University, and the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, Ont.; Malcolm J. Arnold, M.D., Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Western Ontario, London; Patrick Sheridan, M.Sc., Janice Pogue, M.Sc., and Mary Micks, C.T.R.C., Population Health Research Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont.; Matthew J. McQueen, M.D., Ph.D., Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont.; Jeffrey Probstfield, M.D., University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle; George Fodor, M.D., Ph.D., University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa; Claes Held, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Cardiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm; and Jacques Genest, Jr., M.D., Division of Cardiology, McGill University Health Center and Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal) assumes responsibility for the overall content and integrity of the manuscript. Address reprint requests to Dr. Lonn at the Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton General Hospital, 237 Barton St. East, Hamilton, ON L8L 2X2, Canada, or at lonnem@mcmaster.ca.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EVOLUTIONARY THEORY AND PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS

The relationship between phylogenetic reconstruction and evolutionary theory is reassessed. It is argued here that phylogenies, and evolutionary principles, should be analysed initially as independently from each other as possible. Only then can they be used to test one another. If the phylogenies and evolutionary principles are totally consistent with one another, this consilience of independent lines of evidence increases confidence in both. If, however, there is a conflict, then one should assess the relative support for each hypothesis, and tentatively accept the more strongly supported one. We review examples where the phylogenetic hypothesis is preferred over the evolutionary principle, and vice versa, and instances where the conflict cannot be readily resolved. Because the analyses of pattern and process must initially be kept separate, the temporal order in which they are performed is unimportant. Therefore, the widespread methodology of always proceeding from cladogram to evolutionary ‘scenario’ cannot be justified philosophically. Such an approach means that cladograms cannot be properly tested against evolutionary principles, and that evolutionary ‘scenarios’ have no independent standing. Instead, we propose the ‘consilience’ approach where phylogenetic and evolutionary hypotheses are formulated independently from each other and then examined for agreement.
Learning impedance control of antagonistic systems based on stochastic optimization principles

Novel anthropomorphic robotic systems increasingly employ variable impedance actuation with a view to achieving robustness against uncertainty, superior agility and improved efficiency that are hallmarks of biological systems. Controlling and modulating impedance profiles such that they are optimally tuned to the controlled plant is crucial in realizing these benefits. In this work, we propose a methodology to generate optimal control commands for variable impedance actuators under a prescribed tradeoff of task accuracy and energy cost. We employ a supervised learning paradigm to acquire both the plant dynamics and its stochastic properties. This enables us to prescribe an optimal impedance and command profile (i) tuned to the hard-to-model plant noise characteristics and (ii) adaptable to systematic changes. To evaluate the scalability of our framework to real hardware, we designed and built a novel antagonistic series elastic actuator (SEA) characterized by a simple mechanical architecture and we ran several evaluations on a variety of reach and hold tasks. These results highlight, for the first time on real hardware, how impedance modulation profiles tuned to the plant dynamics emerge from the first principles of stochastic optimization, achieving clear performance gains over classical methods that ignore or are incapable of incorporating stochastic information.
Alteration of Ryanodine-receptors in Cultured Rat Aortic Smooth Muscle Cells

Vascular smooth muscle cells can obtain a proliferative function in environments such as atherosclerosis in vivo or primary culture in vitro. Proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells is accompanied by changes in ryanodine receptors (RyRs). In several studies, the cytosolic Ca2+ response to caffeine is decreased during smooth muscle cell culture. Although caffeine is commonly used to investigate RyR function because it is difficult to measure Ca2+ release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) directly, caffeine has additional off-target effects, including blocking inositol trisphosphate receptors and store-operated Ca2+ entry. Using freshly dissociated rat aortic smooth muscle cells (RASMCs) and cultured RASMCs, we sought to provide direct evidence for the operation of RyRs through the Ca2+- induced Ca2+-release pathway by directly measuring Ca2+ release from SR in permeabilized cells. An additional goal was to elucidate alterations of RyRs that occurred during culture. Perfusion of permeabilized, freshly dissociated RASMCs with Ca2+ stimulated Ca2+ release from the SR. Caffeine and ryanodine also induced Ca2+ release from the SR in dissociated RASMCs. In contrast, ryanodine, caffeine and Ca2+ failed to trigger Ca2+ release in cultured RASMCs. These results are consistent with results obtained by immunocytochemistry, which showed that RyRs were expressed in dissociated RASMCs, but not in cultured RASMCs. This study is the first to demonstrate Ca2+ release from the SR by cytosolic Ca2+ elevation in vascular smooth muscle cells, and also supports previous studies on the alterations of RyRs in vascular smooth muscle cells associated with culture.
Comparison of roflumilast, an oral anti‐inflammatory, with beclomethasone dipropionate in the treatment of persistent asthma

Background: Roflumilast is an oral, once‐daily phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor with anti‐inflammatory activity in development for the treatment of asthma. Roflumilast was compared with inhaled beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) in patients with asthma.
On the stiffness of three/four degree-of-freedom parallel pick-and-place robots with four identical limbs

This paper presents stiffness analysis of a family of three/four degree-of-freedom pick-and-place robots with four identical limbs. The Cartesian stiffness matrix of the robots is modeled with the virtual spring approach. By means of a nondimensionalization of the stiffness matrix, the 6 × 6 inhomogeneous stiffness matrix is decomposed into two homogeneous sub-matrices, of which two performance indices, corresponding to the translational and rotational stiffnesses, are defined to evaluate the stiffness behaviors of the manipulators. A comparative study among the robot counterparts is carried out with respect to the elasto-static performance.
A case of pancreatic cancer invading the superior mesenteric artery causing extensive intestinal necrosis that was successfully treated by surgery

Abstract Introduction Pancreatic cancer often invades major arteries. However, there are few reports about extensive bowl necrosis caused by superior mesenteric artery (SMA) occlusion associated with pancreatic cancer invasion. Case report A 73-year-old woman who was receiving chemotherapy for locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) was referred to our hospital for abdominal swelling and vomiting that had persisted for 2 days. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography revealed occlusion of the SMA by pancreatic cancer, which had invaded the whole circumference of the SMA. On emergency laparotomy, a large amount of necrotic and ischemic intestine was resected, preserving approximately 100 cm of the ileum. Gastroileostomy was also performed. She had an uneventful postoperative course. Conclusions Surgical treatment is a good option for acute SMA occlusion due to invasion by LAPC.
Twenty dirty tricks to train software engineers

Many employers find that graduates and sandwich students come to them poorly prepared for the every day problems encountered at the workplace. Although many university students undertake team projects at their institutions, an educational environment has limitations that prevent the participants experiencing the full range of problems encountered in the real world. To overcome this, action was taken on courses at the Plessey Telecommunications company and Loughborough University to disrupt the students' software development progress. These actions appear mean and vindictive, and are labeled 'dirty tricks' in the paper, but their value has been appreciated by both the students and their employers. The experiences and learning provided by twenty 'dirty tricks' are described and their contribution towards teaching. Essential workplace skills are identified. The feedback from both students and employers has been mostly informal but the universally favourable comments received give strong indications that the courses achieved their aim of preparing the students for the workplace. The paper identifies some limitations on the number and types of 'dirty tricks' that can be employed at a university and concludes that companies would benefit if such dirty tricks were employed in company graduate induction programmes, as well as in university courses.
Vaccines and febrile seizures

Vaccine administration is the second leading cause of febrile seizures (FS). FS occurrence in children is a serious concern because it leads to public apprehension of vaccinations. This review discusses the clinical implications of FS, its potential link to vaccinations and its impact on official recommendations for vaccinations in children. Vaccines such as the pertussis antigen-containing vaccine, the measles-containing vaccine and the influenza vaccine have been linked to FS. However, FS events are very rare and are not usually associated with downstream complications or severe neurologic diseases. Considering their significant health benefits, vaccinations have not been restricted in the pediatric population. Nevertheless, vaccine-induced FS could be a problem, particularly in genetically predisposed children. Therefore, post-marketing surveillance studies are required to accurately assess the incidence of FS and identify individuals who are particularly susceptible to FS after vaccination.
A New Strongly Polynomial Algorithm for Computing Fisher Market Equilibria with Spending Constraint Utilities

This thesis develops and analyzes an algorithm to compute equilibrium prices for a Fisher market in which the buyer utilities are given by spending constraint functions, utility functions originally defined by Devanur and Vazirani [5]. Vazirani gave a weakly polynomial time algorithm to compute the equilibrium prices [10]. More recently Végh gave a strongly polynomial algorithm [11]. Here we provide another strongly polynomial algorithm, which arguably is conceptually simpler, although the running time is not always better.
Los barrios informales del Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires: evolución y crecimiento en las últimas décadas

Los cambios estructurales de las ultimas tres decadas han redefi nido la relacion entre economia, sociedad y espacio. La caida del salario real y un nuevo orden urbanistico, contribuyeron -entre otros factores- a obstaculizar el acceso al suelo de los sectores populares. Tras el redireccionamiento del mercado inmobiliario a los sectores de ingresos medios-altos y altos y frente a un Estado con baja capacidad de respuesta a las necesidades habitacionales, la consecuencia esperable es el incremento de la informalidad urbana. Bajo esta hipotesis nos proponemos determinar el universo actual de los barrios informales en el Area Metropolitana de Buenos Aires (AMBA) y analizar su evolucion, intentando superar el notable sub-registro ofi cial. Para cuantifi car la magnitud del fenomeno se analizan el conjunto de fuente ofi ciales disponibles y un relevamiento propio que contribuye a consolidar un inventario mas acabado, imprescindible para visibilizar areas de intervencion en el marco de la actual politica de vivienda. Buscamos demostrar que el crecimiento urbano de la region en la ultima decada esta estrechamente vinculado a la expansion de las modalidades de informalidad urbana estudiadas y, por lo tanto, debe ser mirado con atencion por parte de los decisores de politica urbana y habitacional.
Factors Influencing Consumer Intentions to Purchase Seasonally Discounted Athletic Footwear in Thailand Dr

Sales promotions are a key promotional strategy that companies worldwide have used to stimulate consumers’ behavioral responses. A more detailed understanding of the influence that both demographic and psychographic consumer characteristics along with normative influencing factors have on responses to sales promotion is needed at both the product category and the individual brand level in order to better develop effective sales promotional programs. This study examines how these factors influence consumer intentions to purchase seasonally discounted athletic footwear in the Thai market. It was found that demographics were not significant as either direct or mediating variables in the purchase intentions of buyers, whilst five specific psychographic and normative influencing characteristics were found to be significant. These were: deal proneness; value consciousness, price consciousness; quality consciousness and attitudes of reference groups. Introduction Sales promotion is a key element of the marketing mix for many consumer products worldwide in an attempt to stimulate consumer purchases (Schultz, Robinson & Petrison 1998). The increasing use of sales promotions has influenced consumers to become more deal prone, and this in turn has forced marketers to rely more on sales promotions in order to respond to this trend, and to keep their consumers from competitors’ products (Lichtenstein & Burton 1997; Stafford & Stafford 2000). In Thailand, sales promotion is a key marketing activity used to maintain sales volumes during economic fluctuation periods (Thai Farmers Research Center 2003). As a result, Thai consumers have become very price conscious (U.S. Embassy in Thailand 2000) and the retail sector in Thailand has increasingly become very competitive. Leading retail businesses in Thailand generally use discounting campaigns in conjunction with other sales promotional strategies, such as marketing events, store renovations (Jitpleecheep 2001), and extensions of opening hours (Jitpleecheep 2003; Thai Farmers Research Center 2003) to maintain their sales volumes (Thai Farmers Research Center 2000). To be able to develop and target an appropriate sales promotional program, a company needs to identify its target audience and understand why they respond to sales promotions (Schultz et al. 1998; Wakefield & Bush 1998). Thus an understanding of consumer characteristics and how these characteristics influence consumer responses to products promoted through sales promotional programs is needed at both the product category and the individual brand levels (Schultz et al. 1998). This research was conducted in Thailand attempting to develop a better understanding of the influence of key consumer characteristics on consumer intentions to purchase seasonally discounted Reebok athletic footwear. The findings of this research will help Thai companies to better understand how consumer characteristics impact purchase intentions and in particular will assist those manufacturers of athletic shoes in this regard.
Implementing Retry - Featuring AOP

Everyday experience tells us that some errors are transient, but also that some can be handled simply by “retrying” the failed operation. For instance, a glitch on the network might turn a resource unreachable for a short period of time; or a sudden peak of work on a server can cause a momentary denial of service. In many occasions, without other kind of specialized recovery code, it is possible to keep a program running only by retrying a failed operation. Unfortunately, retry is not explicitly available on many platforms or programming languages and, even if it were, it could not be blindly used for dealing with every abnormal situation. On languages like C# or Java, or even on languages that offer the retry construct such as Smalltalk and Eiffel, where errors are represented and communicated through exceptions, there is no simple way to clear the effects of a failed operation and, thus, re-attempt its execution. Programmers have to explicitly write sometimes complex and error-prone code to repair the state of a program and the execution context. In this paper, we propose an AOP technique for implementing “retry” on systems lacking such a feature without using any language extensions for AOP or imposing modifications to the development language. Our approach eliminates the need for programmers to write “state-cleaning” code for normal objects by means of a transparent transactional mechanism and provides the means to identify non-idempotent operations on the code. In our evaluation we show that a relevant number of application failures can be masked using this approach.