Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effectiveness of Financial Incentives for Health Behaviour Change: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background Financial incentive interventions have been suggested as one method of promoting healthy behaviour change. Objectives To conduct a systematic review of the effectiveness of financial incentive interventions for encouraging healthy behaviour change; to explore whether effects vary according to the type of behaviour incentivised, post-intervention follow-up time, or incentive value. Data Sources Searches were of relevant electronic databases, research registers, www.google. com, and the reference lists of previous reviews; and requests for information sent to relevant mailing lists. Eligibility Criteria Controlled evaluations of the effectiveness of financial incentive interventions, compared to no intervention or usual care, to encourage healthy behaviour change, in non-clinical adult populations, living in high-income countries, were included. Study Appraisal and Synthesis The Cochrane Risk of Bias tool was used to assess all included studies. Meta-analysis was used to explore the effect of financial incentive interventions within groups of similar behaviours and overall. Meta-regression was used to determine if effect varied according to post-intervention follow up time, or incentive value. Results Seventeen papers reporting on 16 studies on smoking cessation (n = 10), attendance for vaccination or screening (n = 5), and physical activity (n = 1) were included. In meta-analyses, the average effect of incentive interventions was greater than control for short-term (≤six months) smoking cessation (relative risk (95% confidence intervals): 2.48 (1.77 to 3.46); long-term (>six months) smoking cessation (1.50 (1.05 to 2.14)); attendance for vaccination or screening (1.92 (1.46 to 2.53)); and for all behaviours combined (1.62 (1.38 to 1.91)). There was not convincing evidence that effects were different between different groups of behaviours. Meta-regression found some, limited, evidence that effect sizes decreased as post-intervention follow-up period and incentive value increased. However, the latter effect may be confounded by the former. Conclusions The available evidence suggests that financial incentive interventions are more effective than usual care or no intervention for encouraging healthy behaviour change. Trial Registration PROSPERO CRD42012002393
On the Evaluation of Powers and Monomials

Let $y_1 , \cdots ,y_p $ be monomials over the indeterminates $x_1 , \cdots ,x_q $. For every $y = (y_1 , \cdots ,y_p )$ there is some minimum number $L(y)$ of multiplications sufficient to compute $y_1 , \cdots ,y_p $ from $x_1 , \cdots ,x_q $ and the identity 1. Let $L(p,q,N)$ denote the maximum of $L(y)$ over all y for which the exponent of any indeterminate in any monomial is at most N. We show that if $p = (N + 1^{o(q)} )$ and $q = (N + 1^{o(p)} )$, then $L(p,q,N) = \min \{ p,q\} \log N + H/\log H + o(H /\log H)$, where $H = pq\log (N + 1)$ and all logarithms have base 2.
Use of Functional Assessment and a Self-Management System to Increase Academic Engagement and Work Completion

This study investigates whether a functional relationship exists between self-monitoring with self-recruited reinforcement and an increase in both on-task behavior and assignment completion. The study further assesses whether self-monitoring with self-recruited reinforcement is associated with generalization of performance gains to untrained settings. Training in self-management procedures included systematic instruction of behavior and general case programming to promote generalization of skills. An ABCAC design was used to assess the effects of self-management procedures in the training setting, and a multiple-baseline-across-settings design was used to assess generalization effects. The results demonstrated that a functional relationship existed between self-monitoring with self-recruited reinforcement and an increase in on-task behavior and assignment completion. Generalization of self-management skills to novel school contexts varied. The role of self-management procedures in promoting generalization is discussed.
Visual place recognition for multi-robots maps merging

This paper presents a new approach allowing to a group of robots team to merge their individual maps without any a priori knowledge about their relative positions. While moving, each robot acquires laser data and a video stream. The first data are used to create individual maps (SLAM), while images sequences are used to derive invariant visual descriptions of the visited places. The later are then exchanged between robots to determine a probability of being close to each other and sharing a common place in order to initiate a map merging process. In such a way, ambiguous situations that usually occur when a single sensor is used are reduced. We present the solution we developed in order to extract a compact visual description that remains constant regardless to the actual pose of the robots. Two or more robots having such description can verify if they are or not present at the same place, before merging their respective individual maps. This scheme, e.g. the fusion of laser-range data and visual information enhances and accelerates the construction of the global map and consequently disambiguate individual maps. The validation of the approach has been performed on various indoor environments mainly, office-like spaces and houses.
Considering the Importance of Individual Differences in Human Factors Research: No Longer Simply Confounding Noise

Too often, individual differences are treated as a nuisance variable, and are either controlled in the study or covaried out in the statistical analyses of the results. Yet, to truly generate sound and useful human factors guidelines to facilitate the interaction between humans and systems, we need to fully understand how individual differences in aptitudes interact with the varying circumstances found in today’s complex technological environments. As the title of this session indicates, this panel is organized specifically to highlight the importance of individual differences in human factors research. To address this issue, this panel draws upon the knowledge and experience of a representative sample of professionals from both industry and academia that have investigated the role of individual differences across a variety of domains. Panel Organizer and Co-Chair
A synthesized integral sliding mode controller for an underactuated unicycle

In this paper we present a synthesized integral sliding mode controller (ISMC) that can stabilize an underactuated unicycle system. The unicycle consists of a wheel and a saddle that is modeled as an inverse pendulum. The only driving force is the torque applied to the shaft of the wheel, hence it is underactuated. Based on a linear approximation model, a linear controller using LQR method is designed. The control error bound achieved by the linear controller is derived for the unicycle. Next, the matched system nonlinearity of the unicycle is compensated, hence the error bound is reduced. The proposed synthesized ISMC consists of the linear controller, nonlinear compensation, a switching term, and an integral sliding surface. The synthesized ISMC can effectively reject the matched disturbance, and minimize the influence from unmatched disturbances, thus yielding a further reduced error bound.
Novel modulator for endothelial adhesion molecules: adipocyte-derived plasma protein adiponectin.

BACKGROUND Among the many adipocyte-derived endocrine factors, we recently found an adipocyte-specific secretory protein, adiponectin, which was decreased in obesity. Although obesity is associated with increased cardiovascular mortality and morbidity, the molecular basis for the link between obesity and vascular disease has not been fully clarified. The present study investigated whether adiponectin could modulate endothelial function and relate to coronary disease. METHODS AND RESULTS For the in vitro study, human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) were preincubated for 18 hours with the indicated amount of adiponectin, then exposed to tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) (10 U/mL) or vehicle for the times indicated. The adhesion of human monocytic cell line THP-1 cells to HAECs was determined by adhesion assay. The surface expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), endothelial-leukocyte adhesion molecule-1 (E-selectin), and intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) was measured by cell ELISA. Physiological concentrations of adiponectin dose-dependently inhibited TNF-alpha-induced THP-1 adhesion and expression of VCAM-1, E-selectin, and ICAM-1 on HAECs. For the in vivo study, the concentrations of adiponectin in human plasma were determined by a sandwich ELISA system that we recently developed. Plasma adiponectin concentrations were significantly lower in patients with coronary artery disease than those in age- and body mass index-adjusted control subjects. CONCLUSIONS These observations suggest that adiponectin modulates endothelial inflammatory response and that the measurement of plasma adiponectin levels may be helpful in assessment of CAD risk.
Inferential SQL Injection Attacks

This paper describes a class of SQL injection attacks (SQLIA) where attackers can deduce information from the back-end database management system (DBMS) without transferring actual data. Instead, by using pre-determined diﬀerentiation mechanism, information is being inferred piece by piece. Because of its widespread success, particularly in diﬃcult situations where other SQLIA classes fail, understanding of this subject is of great importance for successful mitigation of this type of attacks.
Nonvisual Photoreceptors in Arthropods with Emphasis on Their Putative Role as Receptors of Natural Zeitgeber Stimuli

In various insect and arachnid species, three different types of photoreceptors that do not serve image processing have been discovered and analyzed by means of neurobiological methods: They can be found for example: (1) as lamina and lobula organs (LaOs and LoOs) next to the optic neuropils in the optic lobes of holo‐ and hemimetabolous insects; (2) inside the last ganglia of the cord of the scorpion and a marine midge; and (3) as modified visual photoreceptors in metamorphosized larval stemmata and the lateral eyes of scorpions, which have been compound eyes in fossil scorpion relatives. Immunocytology with various antibodies against proteins of the phototransduction cascade, the rhabdom turnover cycle and neurotransmitters of afferent and efferent pathways, was combined with light‐ and ultrastructural investigations in well‐defined adaptational states, in order to study their photoreceptive function and neuronal wiring. Pilot chronobiological experiments with a newly developed twilight simulating lamp, behavioral studies, and model calculations provide evidence that these photoreceptors may well serve a role in the complex task of detecting time cues out of natural dawn and dusk. “…Clearly more work will be necessary before truly informed judgements can be made about the functional significance of the diversity in photoreception for entrainment. A first step will be the precise identification of photoreceptors and investigations of the mechanisms of transduction, processing and transmission of temporal information provided by the daily light cycle. …” ()
Predictors of Violence and Lethality Among Latina Immigrants: Implications for Assessment and Treatment

Intimate partner violence (IPV) among Latinos is related to economic problems, acculturation stress, alcohol use, impulsivity, and trauma. Little is known of the role of abusive tactics to explain more severe acts of violence. This study, conducted with 73 Latina victims, aims to describe the role of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse on the escalation of violence, and find indicators to predict severe IPV and lethality. Analyses included bivariate correlations, multiple regressions, and analyses of variance (ANOVAs). Results indicate that emotional IPV is the gateway to more severe abuse (physical and sexual). Victims of sexual abuse are at higher risk. Victims' fear of a partner is a useful indicator to assess the severity of IPV and the risk of lethality.
The World Bank Policies: damned if you do, damned if you don't

To some, the World Bank is the all-powerful arm of imperialism. Others regret that it is powerless, incapable of influencing policies in the countries in which it operates. This paper discusses these issues, as seen by the author, a former employee both of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, as well as a civil servant and consultant at the receiving end of the loans. This experience provides an inside view but the reader has to be warned of the biases that might have resulted from it.
FloDB: Unlocking Memory in Persistent Key-Value Stores

Log-structured merge (LSM) data stores enable to store and process large volumes of data while maintaining good performance. They mitigate the I/O bottleneck by absorbing updates in a memory layer and transferring them to the disk layer in sequential batches. Yet, the LSM architecture fundamentally requires elements to be in sorted order. As the amount of data in memory grows, maintaining this sorted order becomes increasingly costly. Contrary to intuition, existing LSM systems could actually lose throughput with larger memory components. In this paper, we introduce FloDB, an LSM memory component architecture which allows throughput to scale on modern multicore machines with ample memory sizes. The main idea underlying FloDB is essentially to bootstrap the traditional LSM architecture by adding a small in-memory buffer layer on top of the memory component. This buffer offers low-latency operations, masking the write latency of the sorted memory component. Integrating this buffer in the classic LSM memory component to obtain FloDB is not trivial and requires revisiting the algorithms of the user-facing LSM operations (search, update, scan). FloDB's two layers can be implemented with state-of-the-art, highly-concurrent data structures. This way, as we show in the paper, FloDB eliminates significant synchronization bottlenecks in classic LSM designs, while offering a rich LSM API. We implement FloDB as an extension of LevelDB, Google's popular LSM key-value store. We compare FloDB's performance to that of state-of-the-art LSMs. In short, FloDB's performance is up to one order of magnitude higher than that of the next best-performing competitor in a wide range of multi-threaded workloads.
The Determinants of International News Flow

This research examines the structure of international news flow and its determinants, using network analysis. International newspaper and periodicals trade data in Commodity Trade Statistics published by the United Nations are used to describe the international news flow network. NEGOPY reveals the inequality of international news flow between the core and the periphery. The Western industrialized countries are at the center, dominating international news flow. Cluster analysis reveals that the international news flow network is also structured into eight geographical-linguistic groups. In sum, the periphery is not only dominated by the unequal vertical news exchange between it and the core, but also marginalized by the news exchange among the core. Regression analysis indicates that the structure of international news flow is influenced by a country's economic development, the language(s) its people speak, its physical location, political freedom, and population. Among them, economic development is the most important factor.
Design and realization of autonomous power CMOS single phase inverter and rectifier for low power conditioning applications

This paper deals with the design, the realization and the characterization of an integrated converter for low voltage and low power, isolated applications (3.3 V, 1 W). It is based on the association of two generic silicon dies performing DC to AC and AC to DC operations. The power dies are designed in CMOS technology and operate at high frequency (1 MHz) and high efficiency. This high power density realization includes the power circuit and the control electronic. The integrated conversion structure can operate as an inverter or as a rectifier in a wide range of power flows and input voltages. Three important issues are addressed in this paper: design of the power part at high efficiency, reduced consumption of the control electronic and the gate drivers, and implementation with reduced parasitic behavior. The practical implementation and characterization are also addressed in a second part. First tests are carried out with packaged dies on PCB boards, in order to simplify the implementation. The efficiency of the inverter reaches up to 92% as a function of input voltage with these conditions. The second experimental investigation is a full DC to DC converter implemented with two CMOS power dies (one inverter and one rectifier) together with an HF transformer and an output LC filter. This article ends with the study of the packaging in order to minimize parasitics elements, such as resistances and inductances, which can be very harmful for the global efficiency of our micro-converter.
Towards a synergy-based approach to measuring information modification

Distributed computation in artificial life and complex systems is often described in terms of component operations on information: information storage, transfer and modification. Information modification remains poorly described however, with the popularly-understood examples of glider and particle collisions in cellular automata being only quantitatively identified to date using a heuristic (separable information) rather than a proper information-theoretic measure. We outline how a recently-introduced axiomatic framework for measuring information redundancy and synergy, called partial information decomposition, can be applied to a perspective of distributed computation in order to quantify component operations on information. Using this framework, we propose a new measure of information modification that captures the intuitive understanding of information modification events as those involving interactions between two or more information sources. We also consider how the local dynamics of information modification in space and time could be measured, and suggest a new axiom that redundancy measures would need to meet in order to make such local measurements. Finally, we evaluate the potential for existing redundancy measures to meet this localizability axiom.
Self-Report Assessments of Emotional Competencies

This Special Issue of the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment offers a critical appraisal of the validity, applied utility, and limitations of self-report assessments of emotional competencies. Using self-concept theory as an integrative theoretical framework, this introductory editorial highlights key methodological and validity issues raised in the contributing articles: (a) distinction between emotional competence self-perceptions and objectively measured abilities, (b) effects of response biases and respondents’ age on the psychometric properties of self-reports, (c) importance of adopting a multi-dimensional assessment strategy, and (d) various aspects of construct validity (conceptual definitions and paradigms, gender differences, relationships with basic personality, mechanisms and scope of prediction). The added value of conceptualizing emotional competence self-reports as self-concepts (as proposed in this article) is illustrated in the discussion of practical implications, outstanding questions, and directions for future research on the meaning and uses of these assessments.
Auditory Attention Activates Peripheral Visual Cortex

Background Recent neuroimaging studies have revealed that putatively unimodal regions of visual cortex can be activated during auditory tasks in sighted as well as in blind subjects. However, the task determinants and functional significance of auditory occipital activations (AOAs) remains unclear. Methodology/Principal Findings We examined AOAs in an intermodal selective attention task to distinguish whether they were stimulus-bound or recruited by higher-level cognitive operations associated with auditory attention. Cortical surface mapping showed that auditory occipital activations were localized to retinotopic visual cortex subserving the far peripheral visual field. AOAs depended strictly on the sustained engagement of auditory attention and were enhanced in more difficult listening conditions. In contrast, unattended sounds produced no AOAs regardless of their intensity, spatial location, or frequency. Conclusions/Significance Auditory attention, but not passive exposure to sounds, routinely activated peripheral regions of visual cortex when subjects attended to sound sources outside the visual field. Functional connections between auditory cortex and visual cortex subserving the peripheral visual field appear to underlie the generation of AOAs, which may reflect the priming of visual regions to process soon-to-appear objects associated with unseen sound sources.
Promotional Marketing or Word-of-Mouth? Evidence from Online Restaurant Reviews

The value of promotional marketing and word-of-mouth (WOM) is well recognized, but few studies have compared the effects of these two types of information in online settings. This research examines the effect of marketing efforts and online WOM on product sales by measuring the effects of online coupons, sponsored keyword search, and online reviews. It aims to understand the relationship between firms' promotional marketing and WOM in the context of a third party review platform. Using a three-year panel data set from one of the biggest restaurant review websites in China, the study finds that both online promotional marketing and reviews have a significant impact on product sales, which suggests promotional marketing on third party review platforms is still an effective marketing tool. This research further explores the interaction effects between WOM and promotional marketing when these two types of information coexist. The results demonstrate a substitute relationship between the WOM volume and coupon offerings, but a complementary relationship between WOM volume and keyword advertising.
Integration of Multiple Bilingually-Learned Segmentation Schemes into Statistical Machine Translation

This paper proposes an unsupervised word segmentation algorithm that identifies word boundaries in continuous source language text in order to improve the translation quality of statistical machine translation (SMT) approaches. The method can be applied to any language pair where the source language is unseg-mented and the target language segmentation is known. First, an iterative bootstrap method is applied to learn multiple segmentation schemes that are consistent with the phrasal segmentations of an SMT system trained on the resegmented bitext. In the second step, multiple segmentation schemes are integrated into a single SMT system by characterizing the source language side and merging identical translation pairs of differently segmented SMT models. Experimental results translating five Asian languages into English revealed that the method of integrating multiple segmentation schemes outperforms SMT models trained on any of the learned word segmentations and performs comparably to available state-of-the-art monolingually-built segmentation tools.