Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
School Funding Equalization and Residential Location for the Young and the Elderly

State educational spending policies strongly impact the funding of local schools. While some US states have removed school spending authority from local residents, others continue to encourage local control. In this paper we explore the effects of changes in state educational spending policies on Tiebout sorting by examining the location choice of young and elderly households, both within and across states. We argue that states with local control and limited redistribution are attractive for middle and high income households but not for low income households. However, in states with significant redistribution mechanisms, non-poor households with children and elderly have fewer incentives to avoid low-income places, leading to less concentration of poor households and a smaller degree of separation of the young and elderly. We present empirical evidence that is consistent with these predictions and show that private school enrollment is less common in places with redistribution mechanisms. We conclude that school services do matter for residential location choices and thus Tiebout sorting may present a partial solution to the potential risk that a growing number of elderly voters pose to continued political support for public schools.
Visual Search for Features and Conjunctions Following Declines in the Useful Field of View

Background/Study Context: Typical measures for assessing the useful field (UFOV) of view involve many components of attention. The objective of the current experiment was to examine differences in visual search efficiency for older individuals with and without UFOV impairment. Methods: The authors used a computerized screening instrument to assess the useful field of view and to characterize participants as having an impaired or normal UFOV. Participants also performed two visual search tasks, a feature search (e.g., search for a green target among red distractors) or a conjunction search (e.g., a green target with a gap on its left or right side among red distractors with gaps on the left or right and green distractors with gaps on the top or bottom). Results: Visual search performance did not differ between UFOV impaired and unimpaired individuals when searching for a basic feature. However, search efficiency was lower for impaired individuals than unimpaired individuals when searching for a conjunction of features. Conclusion: The results suggest that UFOV decline in normal aging is associated with conjunction search. This finding suggests that the underlying cause of UFOV decline may arise from an overall decline in attentional efficiency. Because the useful field of view is a reliable predictor of driving safety, the results suggest that decline in the everyday visual behavior of older adults might arise from attentional declines.
Building Resilience in Social Workers: An Exploratory Study on the Impacts of a Mindfulness-based Intervention

ABSTRACT Burnout is a frequent and well-documented consequence of social work practice. The literature suggests that mindfulness-based interventions might help develop the mental states and emotional skills that are indicators of resilience. This mixed-methods, non-randomised controlled, exploratory study with 14 social workers in Canada investigated differences in social workers’ levels of stress, resilience, and burnout after a mindfulness-based intervention, compared to a waitlist group. The intervention group was also interviewed about changes in their relationships within the workplace, their perceived sense of mental health, and wellbeing. Results suggested that the mindfulness-based intervention significantly decreased the treatment group’s perceived stress compared to those on the waitlist and continued to decline for 26 weeks post-intervention. Intervention participants reported positive changes in attitudes, perspectives, behaviours, and energy in relation to their workplace relationships with peers and supervisors. Mindfulness-based interventions for reducing stress and building resilience to burnout in social workers and other helping professionals hold promise, and invite further research.
A comparison principle for state-constrained differential inequalities and its application to time-optimal control

In this paper, we present a comparison principle that characterizes the maximal solutions of state-constrained differential inequalities in terms of solutions of certain differential equations with discontinuous right-hand sides. For the sake of completeness, we show through some set-valued analysis that the differential equations determining the maximal solutions have the unique solutions in the Carathe/spl acute/odory sense, in spite of discontinuity of their right-hand sides. We apply our comparison principle to the explicit characterization of the solution to a time-optimal control problem for a class of state-constrained second-order systems which includes the dynamic equations of robotic manipulators with geometric path constraints as well as single-degree-of-freedom mechanical systems with friction. Specifically, we show that the time-optimal trajectory is uniquely determined by two curves that can be constructed by solving two scalar ordinary differential equations with continuous right-hand sides. Hence, the time-optimal trajectory can be found in a computationally efficient way through the direct use of the well-known Euler or Runge-Kutta methods. Another interesting feature is that our method to solve the time-optimal control problem works even when there exist an infinite number of switching points. Finally, some simulation results using a two-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) robotic manipulator are presented to demonstrate the practical use of our complete characterization of the time-optimal solution.
HFO-1336mzz-Z: High Temperature Chemical Stability and Use as A Working Fluid in Organic Rankine Cycles

Regulatory pressure has been mounting globally to address the issue of climate change. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) with high global warming potentials (GWPs), used as working fluids across many applications, are coming under increasing scrutiny because they are forecast to become significant contributors to global warming in the future. Therefore, there is a need for low GWP working fluids for many applications for which HFCs have been historically preferred. This paper evaluates a new developmental refrigerant, Hydro-Fluoro-Olefin HFO-1336mzz-Z (cisCF3CH=CHCF3), as a potential working fluid for Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC). It has a favorable toxicity profile based on testing to date and it is non-flammable at both 60 o C and 100 o C. It offers both non-flammability and a very low one-hundred year GWP of 2, thus discrediting an early stereotype about fluids based on HFOs. Even more surprisingly, HFO-1336mzz-Z remained chemically stable in the presence of carbon steel, copper, aluminum, air and moisture up to the maximum temperature tested of 250oC despite its unsaturated chemical nature. It also remained stable to stereo-isomerization in the presence of carbon steel, copper and aluminum at 250oC despite the thermodynamic driving force for isomerization to the more energetically favored HFO-133mzz-E isomer. The stability of HFO-1336mzz-Z was found to be significantly higher than other saturated and unsaturated working fluids. HFO-1336mzz-Z has a normal boiling point of 33.4oC and a relatively high critical temperature of 171.3 oC, which result in relatively low vapor pressures and high cycle energy efficiencies. The performance of HFO1336mzz-Z in subcritical and transcritical power cycles at conditions representative of potential applications was evaluated through computational modeling. Subcritical Rankine cycles with recuperators operating between an evaporating temperature of 160 oC and a condensing temperature of 25 oC with HFO-1336mzz-Z could reach net cycle efficiencies of 25%. HFO-1336mzz-Z could enable more environmentally sustainable ORC platforms to generate power from available heat at higher temperatures and with higher energy efficiencies than incumbent working fluids.
TNF-α enhances the effect of TGF-β on Gli2 expression in the KG-1 leukemic cell line

The Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway regulates a variety of tumor-related diseases, including leukemia. The present study aimed to determine whether there was an interaction between the Hh signaling pathway and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β in the KG-1 cell line. KG-1 cells were treated with TGF-β, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and specific inhibitor of smad3 (SIS3). The expression level of Gli family zinc finger 2 (Gli2) was detected by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and western blot analyses. The results revealed that TGF-β significantly decreased the expression level of Gli2 in KG-1 cells, and that TNF-α and TGF-β together further reduced Gli2 expression in KG-1 cells. SIS3 inhibited the effect of TGF-β. These results suggest that Gli2 expression in KG-1 cells is suppressed by TGF-β in a Smad3-dependent manner, TNF-α can enhance the effect of TGF-β on Gli2 expression and that this occurs independently of Hh receptor signaling.
Innovation and ownership variety

The role of ownership heterogeneity in influencing the extent and nature of innovation has been neglected but is an important omission as ownership differences can influence the goals, time horizons, and governance mechanisms relating to innovation. In this article I develop a novel framework that explores the potential impact and future research avenues in firms with a variety of ownership forms based on whether the organizational form in which innovation takes place is either a new venture or an existing business, and whether ownership involves new independent owners or existing independent owners of the organization. With respect to organizational form, new ventures are effectively locked into innovation by definition, while existing businesses may find a balance between investing in innovation and exploiting previous innovations, and engaging in more incremental innovation. Existing independent owners may be expected to take a more sustained view of innovation over time while new owners may be time delimited in their innovation. On the basis of this framework I analyze the following ownership types: academic spin-offs, private equity backed management buyouts, family firms and firms owned by habitual entrepreneurs. I identify the need for research to explore other ownership forms and the interaction between ownership types and different contexts.
China’s rise as a major contributor to science and technology

Significance New data reveal that in the past three decades, China has become a major contributor to science and technology. Four factors favor China’s continuing rise in science: a large population and human capital base, a labor market favoring academic meritocracy, a large diaspora of Chinese-origin scientists, and a centralized government willing to invest in science. These factors may serve as an example to other nations aspiring to advance their standing in science. However, China’s science also faces potential difficulties due to political interference and scientific fraud. In the past three decades, China has become a major contributor to science and technology. China now employs an increasingly large labor force of scientists and engineers at relatively high earnings and produces more science and engineering degrees than the United States at all levels, particularly bachelor’s. China’s research and development expenditure has been rising. Research output in China has been sharply increasing since 2002, making China the second largest producer of scientific papers after the United States. The quality of research by Chinese scientists has also been improving steadily. However, China’s rise in science also faces serious difficulties, partly attributable to its rigid, top–down administrative system, with allegations of scientific misconduct trending upward.
Estimating Blood Loss: Can Teaching Significantly Improve Visual Estimation?

OBJECTIVE: Visually estimated blood loss has long been known to be imprecise, inaccurate, and often underestimated, which may lead to delayed diagnosis and treatment. Our purpose is to determine whether a brief didactic course can improve visually estimated blood loss and whether prior clinical experience influences estimation of blood loss. METHODS: Reconstituted whole blood was obtained from the blood bank, and simulated scenarios with known measured blood loss were created using common surgical materials. Visually estimated blood loss was performed by medical personnel before and after a 20-minute didactic session. Percent errors of estimated blood loss were calculated and comparisons were made before and after the lecture. The effects of actual blood volume and clinical experience on estimation of blood loss were assessed. RESULTS: A total of 53 participants assessed 7 scenarios. There were significant reductions in error for all scenarios. Median percent error in estimated blood loss was not influenced by clinical experience, either before or after the didactic session. Blood loss tends to be overestimated at low volumes and underestimated at high volumes. CONCLUSION: Error in estimating blood loss is dependent on actual blood loss volume. Medical students and experienced faculty demonstrate similar errors, and both can be improved significantly with limited instruction. This educational process may assist clinicians in everyday practice to more accurately estimate blood loss and recognize patients at risk for hemorrhage-related complications. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II-3
Why explain visual experience in terms of content

The standard arguments for explaining visual experience in terms of intentional content are based on the transparency observation, physicalism about the mind, or the analysis of statements describing how things look. Recently, some have questioned these standard arguments for the intentional view of visual experience. I agree with the critics that the standard arguments fail. In my view, there is no quick and easy argument for the intentional view. 1 Nevertheless, there is an argument to be made for the intentional view of visual experience. It takes the form of an inference to the best explanation. Both veridical and nonveridical visual experiences can ground the capacity to have beliefs about the external world. Visual experiences, like standard intentional states, can be indeterminate and depict impossible 10
Early Start of Dialysis Has No Survival Benefit in End-Stage Renal Disease Patients

The timing for dialysis initiationis still debated. The aim of this study was to compare mortality rates, using a propensity-score approach, in dialysis patients with early or late starts. From January 2000 to June 2009, incident adult patients (n = 836) starting dialysis for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) were enrolled. The patients were assigned to either an early- or late-start group depending on the initiation time of the dialysis. After propensity-score-basedmatching, 450 patients remained. At the initiation of dialysis, the mean estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was 11.1 mL/min/1.73 m2 in the early-start group compared with 6.1 mL/min/1.73 m2 in the late-start group. There were no significant differences in survival between the patients in the early- and late-start groups (Log rank tests P = 0.172). A higher overall mortality risk was observed in the early-start group than in the late-start group for the patients aged ≥ 70 yr (hazard ratio [HR]: 3.29; P = 0.048) and/or who had albumin levels ≥ 3.5 g/dL (HR: 2.53; P = 0.046). The survival of the ESRD patients was comparable between the patients in the early and late-start groups. The time to initiate dialysis should be determined based on clinical findings as well as the eGFR.
Jacobian Conditioning Analysis for Model Validation

Our aim is to stress the importance of Jacobian matrix conditioning for model validation. We also comment on Monari and Dreyfus (2002), where, following Rivals and Personnaz (2000), it is proposed to discard neural candidates that are likely to overfit and/or for which quantities of interest such as confidence intervals cannot be computed accurately. In Rivals and Personnaz (2000), we argued that such models are to be discarded on the basis of the condition number of their Jacobian matrix. But Monari and Dreyfus (2002) suggest making the decision on the basis of the computed values of the leverages, the diagonal elements of the projection matrix on the range of the Jacobian, or hat matrix: they propose to discard a model if computed leverages are outside some theoretical bounds, pretending that it is the symptom of the Jacobian rank deficiency. We question this proposition because, theoretically, the hat matrix is defined whatever the rank of the Jacobian and because, in practice, the computed leverages of very ill-conditioned networks may respect their theoretical bounds while confidence intervals cannot be estimated accurately enough, two facts that have escaped Monari and Dreyfus's attention. We also recall the most accurate way to estimate the leverages and the properties of these estimations. Finally, we make an additional comment concerning the performance estimation in Monari and Dreyfus (2002).
The Personalization of Clopidogrel Antiplatelet Therapy: The Role of Integrative Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacometabolomics

Dual antiplatelet therapy of aspirin and clopidogrel is pivotal for patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. However, the variable platelets reactivity response to clopidogrel may lead to outcome failure and recurrence of cardiovascular events. Although many genetic and nongenetic factors are known, great portion of clopidogrel variable platelets reactivity remain unexplained which challenges the personalization of clopidogrel therapy. Current methods for clopidogrel personalization include CYP2C19 genotyping, pharmacokinetics, and platelets function testing. However, these methods lack precise prediction of clopidogrel outcome, often leading to insufficient prediction. Pharmacometabolomics which is an approach to identify novel biomarkers of drug response or toxicity in biofluids has been investigated to predict drug response. The advantage of pharmacometabolomics is that it does not only predict the response but also provide extensive information on the metabolic pathways implicated with the response. Integrating pharmacogenetics with pharmacometabolomics can give insight on unknown genetic and nongenetic factors associated with the response. This review aimed to review the literature on factors associated with the variable platelets reactivity response to clopidogrel, as well as appraising current methods for the personalization of clopidogrel therapy. We also aimed to review the literature on using pharmacometabolomics approach to predict drug response, as well as discussing the plausibility of using it to predict clopidogrel outcome.
Comparative Research of XML Compression Technologies

XML is a de-facto standard for exchanging and presenting information on the Web. However, XML data is also recognized as verbose since it heavily inflates the size of the data due to the repeated tags and structures. The data verbosity problem gives rise to many challenges of conventional query processing and data exchange. The hindrance is more apparent in bandwidth-and memory-limited devices. Compression techniques are the important way to overcome the verbosity problem. This paper compares and analyzes proposed the state-of-the-art XML-conscious compression technologies, study their pros and cons, then discuss further works.
Financial innovation , bank capital and the bank lending channel : A European empiricist ’ s perspective 1 This version : November 2 , 2009

The period of credit crisis has reminded us of the crucial role performed by banks in supplying lending to the economy especially in situation of high financial distress. The recent literature has highlighted the role of financial innovation, banks’ capital positions and impact of financial markets incentives as major determinants of the supply of bank loans and indicated new dimensions of the transmission of monetary policy to economic activity. This article starts by reviewing the “scant” presence on banking on macroeconomic models, it then proceeds by summarising the new empirical work on the bank lending channel from a European perspective with a particular emphasis on the role of financial innovation. Introduction and the role of the banking sector in macroeconomic models Until recently, macroeconomic literature tended to ignore or overlook the role of banks and financial frictions in the transmission mechanism of monetary policy. The intuition for this was probably a combination of two main factors. First, the impact of financial intermediaries was not expected to have a large macroeconomically relevant impact under most economic conditions. This had partly to do with developments in economic modelling: In the years following the pioneering work of Modigliani 1 We are very grateful to Gabriel Fagan, Juan Angel Garcia, Andres Manzanares, Joe Peek, Martin Scheicher, Frank Smets and Flemming Würtz for useful comments and discussions. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors only and in no way involve the responsibility of the European Central Bank or the Bank for International Settlements. Email addresses: Y.Altunbas@bangor.ac. uk, Leonardo.Gambacorta@bis.org and David.Marques@ecb.int . 2 A good illustration of this is provided by Goodhart (2004) who pointed that in a major text of monetary economics (Woodford, 2003), banks make no appearance in the index.
Neural adaptation to silence in the human auditory cortex: a magnetoencephalographic study

Previous studies demonstrated that a decrement in the N1m response, a major deflection in the auditory evoked response, with sound repetition was mainly caused by bottom‐up driven neural refractory periods following brain activation due to sound stimulations. However, it currently remains unknown whether this decrement occurs with a repetition of silences, which do not induce refractoriness.
Particle Acceleration by Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence

Recent advances in understanding of MHD turbulence call for revisions in the picture of particle acceleration. We make use of the recently established scaling of slow and fast MHD modes in strong and weak MHD turbulence to provide a systematic study of particle acceleration in magnetic pressure-dominated (low β) and gaseous pressure-dominated (high β) plasmas. We consider the acceleration by large-scale compressions in both slow and fast particle diffusion limits. We compare the results with the acceleration rate that arises from resonance scattering and transit-time damping (TTD). We establish that fast modes accelerate particles more efficiently than slow modes. We find that particle acceleration by pitch-angle scattering and TTD dominates acceleration by slow or fast modes when the spatial diffusion rate is small. When the rate of spatial diffusion of particles is high, we establish an enhancement of the efficiency of particle acceleration by slow and fast modes in weak turbulence. We show that highly supersonic turbulence is an efficient agent for particle acceleration. We find that even incompressible turbulence can accelerate particles on the scales comparable with the particle mean free path.
A ug 2 00 7 Colorings of Graphs Power

In this paper some coloring properties of graphs power have been presented. In this regard, the helical graphs have been introduced and it was shown that they are hom-universal with respect to high odd-girth graphs with bounded fractional chromatic number. In the sequel, we have considered pentagon’s problem of Nesetril which this problem is about the existence of high girth cubic graphs which are not homomorphic to the cycle of size five. Several problems which have close connection to Nesetirl’s problem have been introduced and their relevance have been presented.