Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Social Capital and Institutional Transition: Regional Context for Network Use in Job Search in Russia, 1985-2001

Current research on network use in the labor market focuses primarily on network morphology. In this dissertation, I use hierarchical regression to examine the influence of macro-level context on network use in job search. This study relies on a unique data set that combines individual job history data for years 1985 through 2001 collected by the Survey of Social Dynamics and Migration in Russia (SSMDR) in 40 regions in 2001-2002 and corresponding regional macroeconomic data published by Goskomstat, the State Statistical Committee of the Russian Federation. The first question of this study focuses on what accounts for the temporal and regional variation in personal network use in the Russian labor market. I find that, for the post-Soviet period, increase in network use in job search can be attributed to the growth of the private sector: Russian employers are becoming “social capitalists” who take advantage of the resources personal connections can offer. I also find that the chances of finding a new job through personal ties are higher in the regions with larger small business sectors and in the regions with lower economic performance. Next I examine how regional economic performance and unemployment affect workers’ chances of getting new jobs in the private sector and in smaller size organizations by means of personal networks. The analysis shows that social networks do lead to employment in the private sector and that this relationship is positively affected by regional economic performance, but not by unemployment rate. I also find here that social ties are likely to lead to new jobs in small organizations, but that this relationship
Democratization of Nanoscale Imaging and Sensing Tools Using Photonics

Providing means for researchers and citizen scientists in the developing world to perform advanced measurements with nanoscale precision can help to accelerate the rate of discovery and invention as well as improve higher education and the training of the next generation of scientists and engineers worldwide. Here, we review some of the recent progress toward making optical nanoscale measurement tools more cost-effective, field-portable, and accessible to a significantly larger group of researchers and educators. We divide our review into two main sections: label-based nanoscale imaging and sensing tools, which primarily involve fluorescent approaches, and label-free nanoscale measurement tools, which include light scattering sensors, interferometric methods, photonic crystal sensors, and plasmonic sensors. For each of these areas, we have primarily focused on approaches that have either demonstrated operation outside of a traditional laboratory setting, including for example integration with mobile phones, or exhibited the potential for such operation in the near future.
Throughput analysis of Go-Back-N ARQ in Markov channels with unreliable feedback

In this paper, an ARQ Go-Back-N protocol with unreliable feedback and time-out mechanism is considered. Both the forward and the reverse channels are subjected to a Markovian error structure. Based on a Markov chain approach, a theory is developed which enables us to extend past results, and to exactly evaluate the throughput performance of this protocol, for which only approximate or simulation approaches are available in the literature. Simulation checks are performed, which confirm the goodness of our analysis. Results are given, and the trade-off involved in the choice of the time-out parameter is identified and discussed. An example of application to mobile radio is also presented.
Application of CO2 waveform in the alveolar recruitment maneuvers of hypoxemic patients during one-lung ventilation

AbstractDeterioration of gas exchange during one-lung ventilation (OLV) is caused by both total collapse of the nondependent lung and partial collapse of the dependent lung. Alveolar recruitment maneuver improves lung function during general anesthesia. The objective of this study was to investigate whether there is an indirect relationship between the changes of CO2 expirogram and the selective lung recruitment. To further improve the oxygenation and gas exchange, we compare adjust setting of ventilated parameters based on CO2 expirogram and a preset setting of ventilated parameters during OLV in patients undergoing right-side thoracic surgery.Thirty patients met the requirements criteria that were studied at 3 time points: during two-lung ventilation (TLV), during OLV with preset ventilation parameters (OLV-PP), and during OLV with adjustable ventilation parameters (OLV-AP) that are in accordance with CO2 expirogram. Adjustable ventilation parameters such as tidal volume (VT), respiratory rate (RR), positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP), and the ratio of inspiratory to expiratory were adjusted by utilizing the phase III slopes of CO2 expirogram, which together with the relationship between the changes of CO2 expirogram and the selective lung recruitment.During OLV, the phase III slopes of CO2 expirogram in patients with pulse oxymetry (SpO2) decreased less than 93% after the OLV-PP, and were absolutely different from that during TLV. After OLV-AP, the phase III slopes of CO2 expirogram and SpO2 were similar to those during TLV. During OLV, however, parameters of ventilation setting in both OLV-PP and OLV-AP are obviously different.This study indicates that alveolar recruitment by utilizing CO2 expirogram probably improves SpO2 level during one-lung ventilation.
The evaluation of e-business related technologies in the railway industry

For the purposes of this paper, e-business is defined as: "the performance, automisation and organisation of transactions, or chains of them, and the gathering and publishing of data, electronically over a communication protocol" Little research has been conducted either into how e-business technology can be successfully evaluated, or into the associated costs and benefits specifically related to the transportation and railway industries. Based upon a review of the current literature and a series of interviews held with railway operators, track managers and transportation customers from the Australian Fortune 100, the paper puts forward a framework for the evaluation of e-business investments within the railway industry. The research reported here is aimed at developing a flexible interface that enables the decision maker to assess and evaluate a wide variety of complex interacting variables. The proposed approach uses a variety of evaluation methods, as opposed to searching for a single "best" approach. Additionally, an attempt is being made to include the complex interaction between the implementation of the new technology and the changing organisational setting. A model is proposed using fuzzy logic to handle incomplete and uncertain knowledge; as well as to combine criteria within a conceptual model from which "real-worth" evaluations can be performed. This model provides a systematic approach to guide the decision maker in the deployment of e-business and emerging technologies in the industry. After discussing the main findings from a literature review on the use of evaluation frameworks in IT related projects, the paper deals with the proposed framework in detail. The use of empirical data, which was obtained transportation customers to help define the main framework factors, is also discussed. Finally, the paper summarises the main implications for rail freight of customers’s perceptions and stated needs in the e-business domain.
Tickle: a surface-independent interaction technique for grasp interfaces

We present a wearable interface that consists of motion sensors. As the interface can be worn on the user's fingers (as a ring) or fixed to it (with nail polish), the device controlled by finger gestures can be any generic object, provided they have an interface for receiving the sensor's signal. We implemented four gestures: tap, release, swipe, and pitch, all of which can be executed with a finger of the hand holding the device. In a user study we tested gesture appropriateness for the index finger at the back of a handheld tablet that offered three different form factors on its rear: flat, convex, and concave (undercut). For all three shapes, the gesture performance was equally good, however pitch performed better on all surfaces than swipe. The proposed interface is an example towards the idea of ubiquitous computing and the vision of seamless interactions with grasped objects. As an initial application scenario we implemented a camera control that allows the brightness to be configured using our tested gestures on a common SLR device.
Welfare Capitalism, Union Power, and the Great Crash of 1929: Toward a Neoclassical Explanation of the Great Depression

Explanations for the 1929 stock market crash have mostly been behavioral, while a more neoclassical approach has argued for tax wedges and adverse productivity shocks rather than stock market anomalies in explaining the slump. The present paper examines welfare capitalism and trade union policies between World War I and the New Deal in a framework of monopolistic product market competition with search frictions and bargaining in the labor market. The persistence of wartime pro-union legislation contributed to the depression of 1920, while tough anti-union policy enabled a major rise in corporate profits and stock market valuations throughout the 1920s. Landmark court decisions in favor of trade unions in the late 1920s, as well as political pressure on firms to adopt the welfare capitalism model of high wages, made the economy increasingly susceptible to collapsing profit expectations. We model this as an equilibrium switch from individual wage bargaining to (actual or mimicked) collective wage bargaining. The general equilibrium effects of this equilibrium switch are consistent with a decrease in output, employment, and stock prices of 30-50%. The New Deal cast the pro-union court rulings of the late 1920s and early 1930s into law, and thus contributed to the persistence of high unemployment i n the 1930s as analyzed by Cole and Ohanian (2005).
Silencing dopamine D3‐receptors in the nucleus accumbens shell in vivo induces changes in cocaine‐induced hyperlocomotion

The dopamine D3 receptor (D3R) is an important pharmacotherapeutic target for its potential role in psychiatric disorders and drug dependence. To further explore its function in rats, a regulatable lentivirus, Lenti‐D3, holding the rat D3R cDNA, has been constructed as well as three nonregulatable lentiviruses, Lenti‐D3‐siRNA1, Lenti‐D3‐siRNA2 and Lenti‐D3‐siRNA3, expressing small hairpin RNAs, aimed at silencing D3R expression and specifically targeted against different regions of the D3R mRNA. In vitro, Lenti‐D3 expressed D3R and could efficiently be blocked with Lenti‐D3‐Sils. These viruses were stereotaxically injected into the shell part of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and effects of passive cocaine delivery on locomotor activity were assessed. Manipulations of D3R levels induced changes in the locomotor stimulant effects of cocaine as compared to control treatment. Suppression of dopamine (DA) D3R in the NAcc by means of local knockdown (with Lenti‐D3‐Sils) increased locomotor stimulant effects, whereas its overexpression with Lenti‐D3 drastically reduced them. The latter effects could be reversed when animals were fed doxycycline, which prevented lentiviral‐mediated DA D3R overexpression in the NAcc. Gene expression assessed by quantitative RT‐PCR confirmed very efficient gene knockdown in vivo in animals treated with Lenti‐D3‐Sils (> 93% silencing of D3R gene). Thus D3R expression significantly contributes to behavioural changes associated with chronic cocaine delivery.
The Comparative Research on Image Segmentation Algorithms

As the premise of feature extraction and pattern recognition, image segmentation is one of the fundamental approaches of digital image processing. This paper enumerates and reviews main image segmentation algorithms, then presents basic evaluation methods for them, finally discusses the prospect of image segmentation. Some valuable characteristics of image segmentation come out after a large number of comparative experiments.
A Strategy with Novel Evolutionary Features for the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma

In recent iterated prisoner's dilemma tournaments, the most successful strategies were those that had identification mechanisms. By playing a predetermined sequence of moves and learning from their opponents' responses, these strategies managed to identify their opponents. We believe that these identification mechanisms may be very useful in evolutionary games. In this paper one such strategy, which we call collective strategy, is analyzed. Collective strategies apply a simple but efficient identification mechanism (that just distinguishes themselves from other strategies), and this mechanism allows them to only cooperate with their group members and defect against any others. In this way, collective strategies are able to maintain a stable population in evolutionary iterated prisoner's dilemma. By means of an invasion barrier, this strategy is compared with other strategies in evolutionary dynamics in order to demonstrate its evolutionary features. We also find that this collective behavior assists the evolution of cooperation in specific evolutionary environments.
BOYD ORR MEMORIAL LECTURE Early nutrition and later achievement

At least two things separate me from previous Boyd Orr lecturers: firstly I am not a nutritionist, and I therefore appear before this Society with unusual humility; and secondly I neither knew, nor even saw Lord Boyd Orr. Reading accounts of his life leaves me with an impression of a large person, both physically and intellectually, and a nutritionist whose prime concern was that his science should contribute to the betterment of mankind, and this at three levels: the international, the national and the personal. The subject of my lecture might well therefore have interested him for a time, since it promises to contain elements bearing on all three of these concerns. Alas, as we shall see, the topic is a great deal more elusive than might appear, and it is likely that it would not have taken Lord Boyd Orr decades of his life, as it has taken me and many others, to discover the hopelessness of resolving the matter in purely nutritional or even scientific terms. I will try to explain this in my present valedictory lecture. We will first try to define, in the sense that Humpty Dumpty used the word, the five terms in our title: Early Nutrition and Later Achievement. “When I use a word”, Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less” (Carroll, 1871). By ‘Early’, I mean from conception into human toddlerhood. This includes the various stages of fetal life which, in physical growth and development, are nearly all imperceptibly continuous with the first two or three postnatal years, the main exceptions being in the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. It is sometimes forgotten that, for most developmental processes, birth is not the revolution that it is for the heart and lungs. By ‘nutrition’ I think I mean food. I shall not be very much concerned primarily with any particular class of dietary constituents, nor with any single one, except to express scepticism, and this is likely to lose me the sympathy of some nutritionists. In this context I shall mainly mean ‘undernutrition’, scarcely a more precise term. The experimental approach to the problem has almost always used undernutrition, meaning a reduced amount of the whole diet, although at a time when it was widely believed that the
Efficient Feature Selection and Classification for Vehicle Detection

The focus of this paper is on the problem of Haar-like feature selection and classification for vehicle detection. Haar-like features are particularly attractive for vehicle detection because they form a compact representation, encode edge and structural information, capture information from multiple scales, and especially can be computed efficiently. Due to the large-scale nature of the Haar-like feature pool, we present a rapid and effective feature selection method via AdaBoost by combining a sample's feature value with its class label. Our approach is analyzed theoretically and empirically to show its efficiency. Then, an improved normalization algorithm for the selected feature values is designed to reduce the intra-class difference, while increasing the inter-class variability. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approaches not only speed up the feature selection process with AdaBoost, but also yield better detection performance than the state-of-the-art methods.
Long-Term Upregulation of Protein Kinase A and Adenylate Cyclase Levels in Human Smokers

Repeated injections of cocaine and morphine in laboratory rats cause a variety of molecular neuroadaptations in the cAMP signaling pathway in nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area. Here we report similar neuroadaptations in postmortem tissue from the brains of human smokers and former smokers. Activity levels of two major components of cAMP signaling, cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) and adenylate cyclase, were abnormally elevated in nucleus accumbens of smokers and in ventral midbrain dopaminergic region of both smokers and former smokers. Protein levels of the catalytic subunit of PKA were correspondingly higher in the ventral midbrain dopaminergic region of both smokers and former smokers. Protein levels of other candidate neuroadaptations, including glutamate receptor subunits, tyrosine hydroxylase, and other protein kinases, were within normal range. These findings extend our understanding of addiction-related neuroadaptations of cAMP signaling to tobacco smoking in human subjects and suggest that smoking-induced brain neuroadaptations can persist for significant periods in former smokers.
A video steganography algorithm for MVC without distortion drift

Distortion drift, including intra and inter, is a big problem of data hiding in MVC video streams. Based on the analysis of the coding structure of MVC, we proposed a video steganography algorithm without inter and intra distortion drift. We embed the data in the B4-frame to prevent the inter distortion drift, then modified the QDCT coefficients of all the 4×4 luma blocks and compensated them to prevent intra distortion drift. The algorithm has lower complexity and greater embedding capacity than the current algorithms. Experimental results confirm the embedding capacity and complexity superiority of the proposed algorithm while keeping the similar human visual effect in terms of PSNR and SSIM index.
Low power parallel multiplier with column bypassing

Power management has become a great concern in VLSI design in recent years. In this paper, we present a low power parallel multiplier design, in which some columns in the multiplier array can be turned-off whenever their outputs are known. In this case, the columns are bypassed, and thus the switching power is saved. The advantage of this design is that it maintains the original array structure without introducing extra boundary cells, as did previous designs. Experimental results show that it saves 10% power for random inputs. Higher power reduction can be achieved if the operands contain more 0s than 1s. Compared with row-bypassing multipliers, this approach achieves higher power reduction with smaller area overhead.
Severi varieties and their varieties of reductions

Abstract We study the varieties of reductions associated to the four Severi varieties, the first example of which is the Fano threefold of index 2 and degree 5 studied by Mukai and others. We prove that they are smooth but very special linear sections of Grassmann varieties, and rational Fano manifolds of dimension 3a and index a + 1, for a = 1, 2, 4, 8. We study their maximal linear spaces and prove that through the general point pass exactly three of them, a result we relate to Cartan’s triality principle. We also prove that they are compactifications of affine spaces.
Fusion of Iris and Retina Using Rank-Level Fusion Approach

Personal identification and authentication is difficulty in all the systems. Shared secrets like Personal Identification Numbers or Passwords and key devices such as Smart Cards are not presently sufficient in few situations. These traditional tokens based systems may be easily stolen or lost. Biometrics is the only way of improving the capability to recognize the persons according to the physiological or behavioral features. In many real-world applications, unimodal biometric system suffers from some limitations of noise in sensed data, intra-class variation, inter-class similarities, non-universality and spoof attacks. Multibiometric systems seek to alleviate some of these problems by consolidating the evidence obtained from different sources. These systems help to achieve an increase in performance. This paper focused on developing a multimodal biometrics system, which uses biometrics such as iris and retina. Fusion of biometrics is performed by means of rank level fusion. The ranks of individual matchers are integrated using the borda count, and logistic regression approaches. The developed multimodal biometric system utilize and Fisher’s Linear Discriminant (FLD) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) methods for individual matchers (Iris and Retina) identification. The features from the biometrics are obtained by using the Fisherface. The experimental result shows the performance of the proposed multimodal biometrics system.
Stress-coping skills and neuroticism in apical ballooning syndrome (Takotsubo/stress cardiomyopathy)

Introduction Apical ballooning syndrome (ABS) is typically associated with an antecedent stressful situation. Affected patients have been reported to have higher frequencies of premorbid affective disorders. We hypothesised that patients with ABS would have elevated levels of neuroticism (tendency to experience negative affect) and greater vulnerability to stress. Methods In this cross-sectional study, all active participants in the Mayo Clinic ABS prospective follow-up registry were invited to complete the third edition of the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-3). The NEO-PI-3 is the universally accepted measure of the ‘Five-Factor Model’ of personality. Inventory responses were scored using the NEO-PI-3 computer program and the data were compared with US normative sample used in standardisation of the inventory. Significance was set at 0.0014 to account for multiple comparisons. Results Of 106 registry participants approached, 53 completed the inventory. There was no difference in age, gender, time from ABS diagnosis, type of antecedent stressor (emotional, physical or none) or severity of initial illness between the responders and non-responders. Responders had mean Neuroticism T-scores of 48.0±10.6 (95% CI 45.1 to 50.9); p=0.18, when compared with the normal mean of 50. There was also no significant difference in the facet scale of Vulnerability: 46.9±8.4 (44.6 to 49.2), p=0.038, at α=0.0014. Conclusions Contrary to our hypothesis, patients with ABS do not manifest higher levels of neuroticism and do not have greater vulnerability to stress than the general population. These findings have implications for the clinicians’ perception of, and approach to, patients with ABS.