Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interdependent Utilities, Preference Indeterminacy, and Social Networks

Interdependent utilities constitute the only model of interdependent preferences in which agents truly respect the others’ preferences. I identify and analyze two consequences of this respect: preference indeterminacy and social network e¤ects. Suppose that the utility of Juliet depends on the utility of Romeo. If the utility of Romeo depends on the utility of Juliet as well, utilities become recursively de.ned. I show how multiple utilities and misery traps can emerge from such feedback loops. If Juliet likes her father, but her father does not like Romeo, this creates a negative indirect tie from Juliet to Romeo. Juliet lives an internal con‡ict between her primary love to Romeo and the disliking to him induced by her love to her father. I investigate how the social links between agents are modi.ed when they consider how the others are themselves connected to others. Multiple utilities and indirect links correspond to important aspects of real situations in which agents’ interests are entangled and yet, have been overlooked by the literature on interdependent preferences. THEMA, Universite of Paris X-Nanterre and Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 2200 Symons Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. Email: bramoulle@arec.umd. edu ¤I would like to thank Antoni Calvo-Armengol and Marc Nerlove for their early encouragement and comments, Robert Chambers and Rachel Kranton for numerous discussions, and Gary Becker for his electronic, yet invaluable support. I gratefully acknowledge . nancial support from the French Ministry of Agriculture and the University of Maryland.
The role of social capital in racial differences in lawyer success

The problem of the black-white gross earnings gap is near its largest amongst lawyers; blacks earn a significantly lower income than whites (Dinovitzer et al. 2004; Grodsky and Pager 2001). There is also a white advantage in overall job satisfaction amongst lawyers (Payne-Pikus et al. 2010; Dau-Schmidt and Mukhopadhaya 1999). This study examines how social capital contributes to racial differences in these two aspects of overall job success. Social capital theories hypothesize that more social capital leads to increased job status attainment (Lin et al. 1981; Lin 2001). Blacks receive fewer and lower paying jobs than whites, perhaps in part because of a lack of social capital in their lower status and segregated social networks (Braddock and McPartland 1987; Elliot 1999; although see Mouw (2003) for a challenge which showed little to no effect of the use of contacts on earnings). Similarly, Ducharme and Martin (2000) found that social relationships with co-workers increase overall job satisfaction. This project specifically examines social capital in the attorney job market, because this is a specific job market in which there are strong theoretical reasons to expect social capital to affect wages and job satisfaction. Using Portes' (1998) definition of social capital, the ability to secure benefits from one's social networks, I distinguish between three major social networks (professional, non-professional, and kinship), and then derive hypotheses about their effect on earnings and job satisfaction. The main hypothesis is that black and white differences in professional and non-professional networks account for part of the earnings and job satisfaction inequality between blacks and whites. The study also develops competing hypotheses to test the effect of kinship networks on job satisfaction. This study takes a mixed methods approach. Nationally representative longitudinal data from the After the Juris Doctorate Survey (AJD) test the hypotheses to see if there is an effect of social capital on earnings and satisfaction. Qualitative interviews seek to further investigate these relationships and look for emerging themes for racial differences in earnings and job satisfaction. The interviews take place with nine black and white lawyers in Chicago. The survey results reveal the significance of professional social capital networks in obtaining a higher salary among private firm attorneys. The effects of social capital do not vary across race. However, there are some black-white differences in the types of social capital used. The interview results reveal the significance of social capital in acquiring clients in small private firms, and of…
Oxidative Stress in Patients With Acne Vulgaris

Acne vulgaris is one of the common dermatological diseases and its pathogenesis is multifactorial. In this study, we aim to determine the effects of oxidative stress in acne vulgaris. Forty-three consecutive acne patients and 46 controls were enrolled. The parameters of oxidative stress such as catalase (CAT), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and malondialdehyde (MDA) in the venous blood of cases were measured spectrophotometrically. The values compared with control group, the relation between the severity and distribution of acne, and the correlation of each enzyme level were researched. CAT and G6PD levels in patients were found to be statistically decreased, and SOD and MDA levels were found to be statistically increased (P < .001). However, any statistical difference and correlation could not be found between the severity and distribution of lesions and the mean levels of enzymes. In addition, we found that each enzyme is correlated with one another. Our findings show that oxidative stress exists in the acne patients. It will be useful to apply at least one antioxidant featured drug along with the combined acne treatment.
Effectiveness of cervical cancer screening over cervical cancer mortality among Japanese women.

BACKGROUND Various studies have revealed that cervical cancer (CC) screening significantly reduces both CC incidence and mortality in developed countries. Although Japan introduced a nationwide government funded annual CC screening for the women aged 30+ in 1982, the effectiveness of CC screening on CC mortality has not yet been evaluated by any prospective cohort study. Therefore, the present study evaluated the association of CC mortality with self-reported CC screening and some other factors by a nationwide cohort study. METHODS Baseline survey of the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study for the enrollment of subjects was completed during 1988-90 and followed until 2003. This study only analyzed 63,541 women, aged 30-79 years, who were free from any cancer history at enrollment. RESULTS During the follow-up period, 38 CC deaths were identified. The mean age at mortality was 67.0 years, with a mortality rate of 4.2 per 100,000 person-years. Participation rate in CC screening was 46.9%. Age-adjusted Cox model indicated significantly lower CC mortality [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.30, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.12-0.74] due to CC screening. Protectiveness remained almost the same (HR = 0.30, 95% CI = 0.12-0.76) when adjusted for age, body mass index and number of deliveries. The results also revealed that CC screening could reduce at least 50% of CC deaths even after excluding the effect of possible self-selection bias. CONCLUSIONS CC screening in Japan may reduce CC mortality significantly for women aged 30-79 years. However, further studies with more CC deaths and increased statistical power are needed to validate the findings.
A strategy, implementation and results of a flexible competency based curriculum

Computer science education faces two major problems -- the continuous evolvement of the discipline itself and the issue of appropriate employment of graduating students. Instructors and educators need to periodically reinvent and restructure their curriculum to keep their learners abreast. The question is, therefore: How do we design a curriculum that is flexible, yet targeted towards the learner acquiring the necessary knowledge and skill set to make him/her "employable"? An effective approach is to structure the curriculum by defining the requisite competencies as the instructional goals and subsequently defining the conceptual requirements to achieve these goals. The results of the effectiveness of this strategy are analyzed in the paper.
Expectation and satisfaction of HIV/AIDS patients toward the pharmaceutical care provided at Gondar University Referral Hospital, Northwestern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Purpose Measurements of patient satisfaction help to assess the performance of health service provision and predict treatment adherence and outcomes. This study aimed to assess human HIV/AIDS patients’ expectation of and satisfaction with the pharmaceutical service delivered at Gondar University Referral Hospital, Ethiopia. Patients and methods An institution-based cross-sectional study was performed from May 11 to 25, 2015. A total of 291 patients living with HIV/AIDS were included using a simple random sampling method. Data were collected using structured questionnaires measuring expectation and satisfaction of respondents using a Likert scale of 1–5 through face-to-face interviews. The data collected were entered into and analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences. Comparison was made between those respondents who lived in and outside the town. Results The overall mean expectation and satisfaction of respondents toward pharmacy setting and services were 3.62 and 3.13, respectively. More than half (56.1%) of the participants were dissatisfied with the comfort and convenience of waiting area and private counseling room. Similarly, 69.3% of the respondents claimed that pharmacy professionals did not give information about side effects and drug–drug and drug–food interactions of antiretroviral medications. There was a statistically significant difference between respondents who live in and outside Gondar town in overall expectation (t=3.415, P=0.001) with the pharmacy setting and services. Conclusion In this study, the overall satisfaction level of respondents with pharmaceutical service (pharmacy setting and services) provided at Gondar University Referral Hospital was found to be low, while the overall respondents’ expectation from the pharmaceutical services were exceedingly high. The hospital should implement good dispensing practice systems in relation to the services and continuing professional development to professionals in order to improve the satisfaction of patients.
THE INVESTIGATION AND ANALYSIS IMPACT OF BRAND DIMENSIONS ON SERVICES QUALITY AND CUSTOMERS SATISFACTION IN NEW ENTERPRISES OF IRAN

The objective of this paper is to test a general framework for building customer-brand relationship from an experiential view, which aims to describe the extent to which customer intention to repurchase a brand is influenced by brand relationship quality (brand satisfaction, trust, and commitment), service quality and brand experiences. The study was conducted on 258 respondents in Tehran, Iran and research results are analyzed by using structural equation modeling. As a result of this study, brand experiences, satisfaction, trust have positively effects brand loyalty. The research findings indicate that brand experience appears to be far more salient than brand constructs in shaping and building meaningful and long-lasting relationship with consumers.
ANN models for coplanar strip line analysis and synthesis

Neural networks recently gained attention as fast and flexible vehicles to microwave modeling, simulation and optimization. After learning and abstracting from microwave data, through a process called training, neural network models are used during microwave design to provide instant answers to the task learned. This paper presents simple and accurate ANN models for the analysis and synthesis of CPS structures to very accurately compute the characteristic parameters and the physical dimensions respectively for the required design specifications.
Spectroscopic observation of RNA chaperone activities of Hfq in post-transcriptional regulation by a small non-coding RNA

Hfq protein is vital for the function of many non-coding small (s)RNAs in bacteria but the mechanism by which Hfq facilitates the function of sRNA is still debated. We developed a fluorescence resonance energy transfer assay to probe how Hfq modulates the interaction between a sRNA, DsrA, and its regulatory target mRNA, rpoS. The relevant RNA fragments were labelled so that changes in intra- and intermolecular RNA structures can be monitored in real time. Our data show that Hfq promotes the strand exchange reaction in which the internal structure of rpoS is replaced by pairing with DsrA such that the Shine-Dalgarno sequence of the mRNA becomes exposed. Hfq appears to carry out strand exchange by inducing rapid association of DsrA and a premelted rpoS and by aiding in the slow disruption of the rpoS secondary structure. Unexpectedly, Hfq also disrupts a preformed complex between rpoS and DsrA. While it may not be a frequent event in vivo, this melting activity may have implications in the reversal of sRNA-based regulation. Overall, our data suggests that Hfq not only promotes strand exchange by binding rapidly to both DsrA and rpoS but also possesses RNA chaperoning properties that facilitates dynamic RNA–RNA interactions.
Finite Element Modelling of Titanium Foam Behaviour for Dental Application

use of titanium foam (Ti-foam) as an implant material has gained a lot of interest recently due to its good biocompatibility as well as stable fixation between implant and human bone. A finite element model is required in order to effectively design appropriate implants. Accurate finite element analyses rely on accuracy and efficiency of the applied material models. Mechanical behaviour of the Ti-foam under loadings are different from the solid titanium therefore an appropriate metal foam constitutive model is needed. In this paper, the Deshpande and Fleck model which is available as the crushable foam model in the ABAQUS finite element software has been employed together with appropriate material parameters to describe the deformation behaviour of the Ti-foam with various porosity levels under compressive and bending loads. The simulation results have been compared against recently published data. Good comparisons have been seen. This validated Ti-foam material model has been employed to study stress distributions on the Ti-foam dental implant system.
Ubiquitination of ERMES components by the E3 ligase Rsp5 is involved in mitophagy

ABSTRACT Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that undergo permanent fission and fusion events. These processes play an essential role in maintaining normal cellular function. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondrial encounter structure (ERMES) is a marker of sites of mitochondrial division, but it is also involved in a plethora of other mitochondrial functions. However, it remains unclear how these different functions are regulated. We show here that Mdm34 and Mdm12, 2 components of ERMES, are ubiquitinated by the E3 ligase Rsp5. This ubiquitination is not involved in mitochondrial dynamics or in the distribution and turnover of ERMES. Nevertheless, the ubiquitination of Mdm34 and Mdm12 was required for efficient mitophagy. We thus report here the first identification of ubiquitinated substrates participating in yeast mitophagy.
Thermodynamics of two flavor QCD to sixth order in quark chemical potential

We present results of a simulation of two flavor QCD on a 16{sup 3}x4 lattice using p4-improved staggered fermions with bare quark mass m/T=0.4. Derivatives of the thermodynamic grand canonical partition function Z(V,T,{mu}{sub u},{mu}{sub d}) with respect to chemical potentials {mu}{sub u,d} for different quark flavors are calculated up to sixth order, enabling estimates of the pressure and the quark number density as well as the chiral condensate and various susceptibilities as functions of {mu}{sub q}=({mu}{sub u}+{mu}{sub d})/2 via Taylor series expansion. Furthermore, we analyze baryon as well as isospin fluctuations and discuss the relation between the radius of convergence of the Taylor series and the chiral critical point in the QCD phase diagram. We argue that bulk thermodynamic observables do not, at present, provide direct evidence for the existence of a chiral critical point in the QCD phase diagram. Results are compared to high temperature perturbation theory as well as a hadron resonance gas model.
The impact of prior online shopping experience on future purchasing channel choice

This paper discusses the direct and indirect effects of online shopping experience on selecting and the intention to select the Internet as the purchasing channel. The theoretical approach is based on the technology acceptance model and media appropriateness theory. The data was collected with a Web survey from 2479 visitors at the web site of a passenger cruise company. Prior online shopping experience was found to have a very significant effect on the purchasing channel choice both directly as well as indirectly, and even more on the intention to select the Internet as the purchasing channel. In addition, the perceived ease-ofuse and usefulness as well as the perceived appropriateness of the Internet as a purchasing channel were found to have an important impact on the choice. Preferring conversation with customer service personnel had the most influential effect on intention and behaviour, which can be explained by satisfaction with traditional channels as well as distrust of one's own skills with the electronic commerce system.
Surgical management of male infertility: an update

Male factor infertility is common, affecting 7% of the total population and up to half of couples who are trying to conceive. Various surgical and reconstructive options allow biological paternity depending on the etiology of the male factor issues. This article describes historical treatments and newer approaches, discussing the role for traditional open surgery, microsurgery and robotic surgery, as well as interventional radiologic procedures in the management of male infertility.
Consideraciones sobre la Conducción de la Política Monetaria y el Mecanismo de Transmisión en México

En este trabajo se describe la evolución que ha experimentado el esquema de política monetaria en México de 1995 a la fecha. En el transcurso éste ha pasado de uno sustentado en objetivos cuantitativos de crecimiento de los agregados monetarios a otro en el cual las acciones discrecionales de política monetaria, con el fin de alcanzar los objetivos de inflación, cobraron mayor relevancia. Además se exploran dos temas que han generado dudas respecto a la instrumentación de la política monetaria: el uso del objetivo de saldos acumulados y la efectividad de éste para afectar a la inflación por canales alternativos al del tipo de cambio. Los principales resultados indican que el comportamiento de la tasa de interés real ha sido determinado por las variables tradicionales que guían las acciones discrecionales de cualquier banco central y que dichas tasas han afectado de manera estadísticamente significativa a la demanda agregada y al crédito.
A dynamic in-search data selection method with its applications to acoustic modeling and utterance verification

In this paper, we propose a dynamic in-search data selection method to diagnose competing information automatically from speech data. In our method, the Viterbi beam search is used to decode all training data. During decoding, all partial paths within the beam are examined to identify the so-called competing-token and true-token sets for each individual hidden Markov model (HMM). In this work, the collected data tokens are used for acoustic modeling and utterance verification as two specific examples. In acoustic modeling, the true-token sets are used to adapt HMMs with a sequential maximum a posteriori adaptation method, while a generalized probabilistic descent-based discriminative training method is proposed to improve HMMs based on competing-token sets. In utterance verification, under the framework of likelihood ratio testing, the true-token sets are employed to train positive models for the null hypothesis and the competing-token sets are used to estimate negative models for the alternative hypothesis. All the proposed methods are evaluated in Bell Laboratories communicator system. Experimental results show that the new acoustic modeling method can consistently improve recognition performance over our best maximum likelihood estimation models, roughly 1% absolute reduction in word error rate. The results also show the new verification models can significantly improve the performance of utterance verification over the conventional anti models, almost relatively 30% reduction of equal error rate when identifying misrecognized words from the recognition results.
Retention of Faculty of Color as it Relates to Their Perceptions of the Academic Climate at Four-Year Predominantly White Public Universities in Ohio

Rachel A. Vannatta, Advisor The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationships between demographic characteristics, academic climate perceptions, and retention plans of 103 tenured and tenure-track faculty of color at 11 four-year predominantly White public universities in Ohio. The 59-item Faculty Retention Questionnaire was administered online and assessed perceptions of the academic climate defined by six variables (job satisfaction, social climate, faculty-student relationships, role conflict, role clarity, and retention). Demographic characteristics were also measured (e.g., racial/ethnic background, gender, age, sexual orientation, country of origin, institution type, academic discipline, marital status, with/without children, and tenure status). Likert-type scales, multiple choice, and open-ended questions measured employment values and intent to stay in current position. Of the 725 surveys distributed, 103 were submitted, yielding an overall response rate of 14%. Critical Race Theory (CRT) framed this study. Correlational results indicated that job satisfaction was significantly related to and highly important to the retention variable. Analysis of variance revealed that U. S. born faculty of color are more likely to be retained than non-U. S. born. Forward multiple regression analysis identified job satisfaction as the sole predictor of retention with job satisfaction only accounting for 23% of variance in retention. Further regression analysis identified social climate, role clarity, and role conflict as factors that best predict job satisfaction. Conclusions from the study raised larger questions regarding job satisfaction: (1) Does job satisfaction mean something different to faculty of color than it does to
Exploiting Linguistic Features for Sentence Completion

This paper presents a novel approach to automated sentence completion based on pointwise mutual information (PMI). Feature sets are created by fusing the various types of input provided to other classes of language models, ultimately allowing multiple sources of both local and distant information to be considered. Furthermore, it is shown that additional precision gains may be achieved by incorporating feature sets of higher-order n-grams. Experimental results demonstrate that the PMI model outperforms all prior models and establishes a new state-of-the-art result on the Microsoft Research Sentence Completion Challenge