Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Personality Trait Predictors of Brand Loyalty

The study provides empirical support for the 3M Personality Theory which postulates that elemental traits (which are the most abstract traits of the individual’s personality) can directly predict surface traits – the most concrete and tangible levels of personality. Further, the void in the marketing literature for providing a parsimonious model of personality trait predictors was also filled by this study. Using structural equation modeling and data collected from 152 university students, the results show that conscientiousness and agreeableness were positively related to brand loyalty while introversion was negatively related. No evidence was found for a relationship between emotional instability or materialism on brand loyalty. With the study providing evidence of the personality traits that are likely to impact brand loyalty, marketers can more meaningfully segment their markets on personality related loyalty segments and target loyal customers on this basis. Other implications for marketers, limitations and opportunity for further research are also discussed.
Towards human-machine dialog in Slovak

Spoken dialog represents a comfortable way of the human-machine cooperation. Dialogue technology is language-dependent due to its relationship to the natural language processing. For a long time, there did not exist any resources for designing advanced dialogue interaction in the Slovak language. Therefore, the new corpus of human-human dialogues started to be prepared. Suitable dialogue interactions from several TV shows were identified and processed. The corpus contains annotations of dialogue acts (DA) and transcriptions of the spoken content. Dialogue act classification plays an important role in advanced dialogue management systems. They represent the intention of the dialogue participant in the particular part of the dialogue. New simplified annotation schema was designed and used for labeling the corpus with 13 DA labels. Bigram models of DA classes and dialogue grammar were trained on the corpus. The HMM-based approach was applied to perform DA classification of utterances in the Slovak language. The paper also summarizes the state-of-the-art in the area of the human-machine spoken dialog in the Slovak language.
Therapeutically targeting guanylate cyclase‐C: computational modeling of plecanatide, a uroguanylin analog

Plecanatide is a recently developed guanylate cyclase‐C (GC‐C) agonist and the first uroguanylin analog designed to treat chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) and irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS‐C). GC‐C receptors are found across the length of the intestines and are thought to play a key role in fluid regulation and electrolyte balance. Ligands of the GC‐C receptor include endogenous agonists, uroguanylin and guanylin, as well as diarrheagenic, Escherichia coli heat‐stable enterotoxins (ST). Plecanatide mimics uroguanylin in its 2 disulfide‐bond structure and in its ability to activate GC‐Cs in a pH‐dependent manner, a feature associated with the presence of acid‐sensing residues (Asp2 and Glu3). Linaclotide, a synthetic analog of STh (a 19 amino acid member of ST family), contains the enterotoxin's key structural elements, including the presence of three disulfide bonds. Linaclotide, like STh, activates GC‐Cs in a pH‐independent manner due to the absence of pH‐sensing residues. In this study, molecular dynamics simulations compared the stability of plecanatide and linaclotide to STh. Three‐dimensional structures of plecanatide at various protonation states (pH 2.0, 5.0, and 7.0) were simulated with GROMACS software. Deviations from ideal binding conformations were quantified using root mean square deviation values. Simulations of linaclotide revealed a rigid conformer most similar to STh. Plecanatide simulations retained the flexible, pH‐dependent structure of uroguanylin. The most active conformers of plecanatide were found at pH 5.0, which is the pH found in the proximal small intestine. GC‐C receptor activation in this region would stimulate intraluminal fluid secretion, potentially relieving symptoms associated with CIC and IBS‐C.
Functional modeling of the face during speech production

We describe a functional modeling of face movements during speech. The data consist of face marker positions in 3D coordinates measured while a speaker read a corpus. An arbitrary orthogonal factor analysis followed by a principal component analysis on the data resulted in a set of five interpretable factors that explains 87% of variance. The first factor that account for the vertical jaw motion dominate open/close movement of the lips. Two principal factors describe, in out interpretation, the two intrinsic lip gestures, one specifies horizontal dimension, spread vs. round, and the other vertical dimension, open with rotation vs. close. Both the (horizontal) rounding and (vertical) opening contribute to the lip protrusion, which appear plausible from a biomechanical point of view.
Asymptotic behavior of a fourth order mean field equation with Dirichlet boundary condition

We consider asymptotic behavior of the following fourth order equation ∇ 2 u = ρ e u /∫ Ω e u d x in Ω, u= δvU = 0 on δΩ Δ 2 u = ρ e u /∫ Ω e u dx in Ω, u = δ v u = 0 On δΩ where Q is a smooth oriented bounded domain in Ρ 4 . Assuming that 0 < p ≤ C, we completely characterize the asymptotic behavior of the unbounded solutions.
Has the bug really been fixed?

Software has bugs, and fixing those bugs pervades the software engineering process. It is folklore that bug fixes are often buggy themselves, resulting in bad fixes, either failing to fix a bug or creating new bugs. To confirm this folklore, we explored bug databases of the Ant, AspectJ, and Rhino projects, and found that bad fixes comprise as much as 9% of all bugs. Thus, detecting and correcting bad fixes is important for improving the quality and reliability of software. However, no prior work has systematically considered this bad fix problem, which this paper introduces and formalizes. In particular, the paper formalizes two criteria to determine whether a fix resolves a bug: coverage and disruption. The coverage of a fix measures the extent to which the fix correctly handles all inputs that may trigger a bug, while disruption measures the deviations from the program's intended behavior after the application of a fix. This paper also introduces a novel notion of distance-bounded weakest precondition as the basis for the developed practical techniques to compute the coverage and disruption of a fix. To validate our approach, we implemented Fixation, a prototype that automatically detects bad fixes for Java programs. When it detects a bad fix, Fixation returns an input that still triggers the bug or reports a newly introduced bug. Programmers can then use that bug-triggering input to refine or reformulate their fix. We manually extracted fixes drawn from real-world projects and evaluated Fixation against them: Fixation successfully detected the extracted bad fixes.
Numerical and arithmetical deficits in learning-disabled children: Relation to dyscalculia and dyslexia

Cognitive research on the number, counting, and arithmetic competencies of children with a learning disability in arithmetic (AD) is reviewed, and similarities between the associated deficits of AD children and the deficits of individuals afflicted with dyscalculia are highlighted. It is concluded that the defining features of AD and most dyscalculias are difficulties with the procedural features associated with the solving of complex arithmetic problems and difficulties in remembering basic arithmetic facts. The procedural deficits and one form of retrieval deficit appear to be associated with functioning of the prefrontal cortex, while a second form of retrieval deficit appears to be associated with the functioning of the left parieto-occipito-temporal areas and several subcortical structures. The review ends with a discussion of the potential relation between this second form of retrieval deficit and dyslexia.
Microprogrammed implementation of a single chip microprocessor

This paper considers microprogramming as a tool for implementing large scale integration, single-chip microprocessors. Design trade-offs for microprogrammed control are discussed in the context of semiconductor design constraints which limit the size, speed, complexity and pin-out of circuits. Aspects of the control unit of a new generation microprocessor, which has a two level microprogrammed structure, are presented.
Monte-Carlo Estimations of the Downside Risk of Derivatives Portfolios

We simulate the performances of a standard derivatives portfolio to evaluate the relevance of benchmarking in terms of downside risk reduction. The simulation shows that benchmarking always leads to significantly more severe losses in average than those generated by letting the portfolio reach the end of a given horizon. Moreover, switching from a 0-correlation across underlyings to a very mild form of correlation significantly increases the probability of reaching the downside benchmark before maturity, whereas adding more correlation does not significantly increase this figure.
Comparison of frequency of insulin resistance in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with normal controls

Objective: To compare mean homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in patients with and without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: A Case control analytic study was conducted in medical outpatient department of Medial Unit-II of Dow University of Health Sciences from April 2013 to September 2013. All patients with the diagnosis of COPD were included as cases. Controls were age match healthy individuals with minor illnesses. Age, weight, height and forced expiratory volume in one second to forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) ratio were documented. Fasting blood glucose and fasting insulin levels were done. Body mass index (BMI) and IR was calculated using the formulas. HOMA-IR was compared between cases and controls. Results: Forty COPD patients were compared with thirty five age match controls. HOMA-IR was found to be higher in cases as compared to controls (2.85 v/s 2.00) with a p value <0.000. Conclusion: COPD is one of the chronic debilitating diseases in our region with various extra-pulmonary complications. We found IR to be present higher in COPD patients compared with healthy controls. Evaluating the pulmonary function as well as systemic metabolic parameters, may contribute to minimizing mortality and morbidity.
Differential Stabilities of Phosphorylated Response Regulator Domains Reflect Functional Roles of the Yeast Osmoregulatory SLN1 and SSK1 Proteins

ABSTRACT Osmoregulation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae involves a multistep phosphorelay system requiring three proteins, SLN1, YPD1, and SSK1, that are related to bacterial two-component signaling proteins, in particular, those involved in regulating sporulation inBacillus subtilis and anaerobic respiration inEscherichia coli. The SLN1-YPD1-SSK1 phosphorelay regulates a downstream mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade which ultimately controls the concentration of glycerol within the cell under hyperosmotic stress conditions. The C-terminal response regulator domains of SLN1 and SSK1 and full-length YPD1 have been overexpressed and purified from E. coli. A heterologous system consisting of acetyl phosphate, the bacterial chemotaxis response regulator CheY, and YPD1 has been developed as an efficient means of phosphorylating SLN1 and SSK1 in vitro. The homologous regulatory domains of SLN1 and SSK1 exhibit remarkably different phosphorylated half-lives, a finding that provides insight into the distinct roles that these phosphorylation-dependent regulatory domains play in the yeast osmosensory signal transduction pathway.
X-ray spectra from protons illuminating a neutron star

We consider the interaction of a slowly rotating unmagnetized neutron star with a hot (ion supported, ADAF) accretion flow. The virialized protons of the ADAF penetrate into the neutron star atmosphere, heating a surface layer. Detailed calculations are presented of the equilibrium between heating by the protons, electron thermal conduction, bremsstrahlung and multiple Compton scattering in this layer. Its temperature is of the order 40{70 keV. Its optical depth increases with the incident proton energy flux, and is of the order unity for accretion at 10 2 {10 1 of the Eddington rate. At these rates, the X-ray spectrum produced by the layer has a hard tail extending to 100 keV, and is similar to the observed spectra of accreting neutron stars in their hard states. The steep gradient at the base of the heated layer gives rise to an excess of photons at the soft end of the spectrum (compared to a blackbody) through an \inverse photosphere eect". The dierences with respect to previous studies of similar problems are discussed, they are due mostly to a more accurate treatment of the proton penetration process and the vertical structure of the heated layer.
Clinical Utility of a Coronary Heart Disease Risk Prediction Gene Score in UK Healthy Middle Aged Men and in the Pakistani Population

Background Numerous risk prediction algorithms based on conventional risk factors for Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) are available but provide only modest discrimination. The inclusion of genetic information may improve clinical utility. Methods We tested the use of two gene scores (GS) in the prospective second Northwick Park Heart Study (NPHSII) of 2775 healthy UK men (284 cases), and Pakistani case-control studies from Islamabad/Rawalpindi (321 cases/228 controls) and Lahore (414 cases/219 controls). The 19-SNP GS included SNPs in loci identified by GWAS and candidate gene studies, while the 13-SNP GS only included SNPs in loci identified by the CARDIoGRAMplusC4D consortium. Results In NPHSII, the mean of both gene scores was higher in those who went on to develop CHD over 13.5 years of follow-up (19-SNP p=0.01, 13-SNP p=7x10-3). In combination with the Framingham algorithm the GSs appeared to show improvement in discrimination (increase in area under the ROC curve, 19-SNP p=0.48, 13-SNP p=0.82) and risk classification (net reclassification improvement (NRI), 19-SNP p=0.28, 13-SNP p=0.42) compared to the Framingham algorithm alone, but these were not statistically significant. When considering only individuals who moved up a risk category with inclusion of the GS, the improvement in risk classification was statistically significant (19-SNP p=0.01, 13-SNP p=0.04). In the Pakistani samples, risk allele frequencies were significantly lower compared to NPHSII for 13/19 SNPs. In the Islamabad study, the mean gene score was higher in cases than controls only for the 13-SNP GS (2.24 v 2.34, p=0.04). There was no association with CHD and either score in the Lahore study. Conclusion The performance of both GSs showed potential clinical utility in European men but much less utility in subjects from Pakistan, suggesting that a different set of risk loci or SNPs may be required for risk prediction in the South Asian population.
Families of Divisors on T-Varieties and Exceptional Sequences on C*-Surfaces

We show how one-parameter homogeneous deformations of rational T -varieties induce maps from a subgroup of the Picard group of any fiber of the deformation to the Picard group of the special fiber. If the special fiber is complete, this map preserves Euler characteristic and intersection numbers, and if the deformation is locally trivial, then this map is an isomorphism. We offer a simple description of this map for smooth, complete rational C∗-surfaces. These results are then applied to analyze the behaviour of exceptional sequences of lines bundles on rational C∗-surfaces under deformation and degeneration. We also show that all rational C∗-surfaces of fixed Picard number can be connected by homogeneous deformations.
Corticostriatal-limbic gray matter morphology in adolescents with self-reported exposure to childhood maltreatment.

OBJECTIVE To study the relationship between self-reported exposure to childhood maltreatment (CM) and cerebral gray matter (GM) morphology in adolescents without psychiatric diagnoses. DESIGN Associations were examined between regional GM morphology and exposure to CM (measured using a childhood trauma self-report questionnaire for physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and for physical and emotional neglect). SETTING University hospital. PARTICIPANTS Forty-two adolescents without psychiatric diagnoses. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Correlations between childhood trauma self-report questionnaire scores and regional GM volume were assessed in voxel-based analyses of structural magnetic resonance images. Relationships among GM volume, subtypes of exposure to CM, and sex were explored. RESULTS Childhood trauma self-report questionnaire total scores correlated negatively (P < .005) with GM volume in prefrontal cortex, striatum, amygdala, sensory association cortices, and cerebellum. Physical abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect were associated with rostral prefrontal reductions. Decreases in dorsolateral and orbitofrontal cortices, insula, and ventral striatum were associated with physical abuse. Decreases in cerebellum were associated with physical neglect. Decreases in dorsolateral, orbitofrontal, and subgenual prefrontal cortices, striatum, amygdala, hippocampus, and cerebellum were associated with emotional neglect. Decreases in the latter emotion regulation regions were also associated with childhood trauma self-report questionnaire scores in girls, while caudate reductions (which may relate to impulse dyscontrol) were seen in boys. CONCLUSIONS Exposure to CM was associated with corticostriatal-limbic GM reductions in adolescents. Even if adolescents reporting exposure to CM do not present with symptoms that meet full criteria for psychiatric disorders, they may have corticostriatal-limbic GM morphologic alterations that place them at risk for behavioral difficulties. Vulnerabilities may be moderated by sex and by subtypes of exposure to CM.
Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper No . 273 ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION , DOMESTIC POLITICS AND INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE DEVELOPED COUNTRIES : A CROSS-NATIONAL ANALYSIS

During the last decade, few issues have generated as much debate among scholars, policy-makers and political activists as the relationship between economic globalization and domestic income inequality in the developed world. The central aim of this paper is to offer an empirical assessment of the impact of economic globalization on the distribution of income generated by the market and the ability and willingness of states to redistribute it. Three basic analyses will be conducted. The first and most extensive is an unbalanced pooled cross-sectional time-series analysis of the international and domestic sources of cross-national variance in income distribution and redistribution for various years between the early 1980s and the early 1990s. This analysis will employ measures of post-government disposable income, pre-government earnings and fiscal redistribution that have been calculated from household-level income surveys available from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), which provides by far the most comprehensive, detailed and accurate cross-national data on income inequality currently available. 1 The second analysis will offer a full-scale pooled cross-sectional time-series analysis of less complete and comparable annual data from non-LIS sources on pre-government wage dispersion between 1970 and 1990. Finally, the paper will examine trends over an even longer period in the distribution of post-government income in a single country, the United States, for which reliable annual figures are available for the period from 1967 to 1996. Among the questions addressed in the paper are the following: Is integration into the world economy systematically related to domestic income inequality across countries or over time? Can any economic dislocation resulting from globalization be ameliorated by the redistributive activities of the state? Are there differences in the impact of the three main modes of international integration, trade, direct foreign investment and global financial flows? To what extent are income distribution and redistribution the product of essentially domestic political variables not directly associated with economic globalization? The Distributive Effect of Economic Globalization As might be imagined, the interaction among global economic integration, income inequality and public social benefit provision has been the subject of widely varying 2 interpretations in the scholarly literature. On the one hand, many commentators have argued that there is a clear positive relationship between economic globalization and market income and Reich, 1992). In this view, the rapidly growing movement of goods and capital throughout the world has driven a wedge into domestic economies, separating those who are well positioned to gain …
CURVED MEMBRANE SOLUTIONS IN D = 11 SUPERGRAVITY

We present a class of static membrane solutions, with nonflat world volume geometry, in the eleven-dimensional supergravity with source terms. This class of solutions contains supersymmetric as well as a large class of nonsupersymmetric configurations. We comment about the near horizon limit and stability of these solutions and point out an interesting relation with a certain two-dimensional dilaton gravity system.
Examination of Bayesian belief network for safety assessment of nuclear computer-based systems

We report here on a continuation of work on the Bayesian Belief Network (BBN)model described in [Fenton, Littlewood et al. 1998]. As explained in the previous deliverable, our model concerns one part of the safety assessment task for computer and software based nuclear systems. We have produced a first complete, functioning version of our BBN model by eliciting a large numerical node probability table (NPT) required for our ‘Design Process Performance’ variable. The requirement for such large numerical NPTs poses some difficult questions about how, in general, large NPTs should be elicited from domain experts. We report about the methods we have devised to support the expert in building and validating a BBN. On the one hand, we have proceeded by eliciting approximate descriptions of the expert’s probabilistic beliefs, in terms of properties like stochastic orderings among distributions; on the other hand, we have explored ways of presenting to the expert visual and algebraic descriptions of relations among variables in the BBN, to assist the expert in an ongoing assessment of the validity of the BBN.