Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neurobehavioral disinhibition in childhood predicts early age at onset of substance use disorder.

OBJECTIVE This longitudinal study had three aims: 1) determine the extent to which boys at high average risk and low average risk for substance use disorder differ on a construct of neurobehavioral disinhibition, 2) evaluate the capacity of neurobehavioral disinhibition to predict substance use frequency at age 16, and 3) demonstrate the utility of neurobehavioral disinhibition in predicting substance use disorder. METHOD The authors derived an index of neurobehavioral disinhibition from measures of affect, behavior, and cognition. The neurobehavioral disinhibition score was used to discriminate youth at high and low average risk for substance use disorder and to predict substance use frequency after 4-6 years and substance use disorder after 7-9 years. RESULTS The neurobehavioral disorder score significantly discriminated boys at high average risk from those at low average risk at ages 10-12. Neurobehavioral disinhibition at age 16, in conjunction with substance use frequency and risk status group, predicted substance use disorder at age 19 with 85% accuracy and accounted for 50% of the variance in Drug Use Screening Inventory overall problem density score. Neurobehavioral disinhibition was a stronger predictor of substance use disorder (odds ratio=6.83) than substance consumption frequency (odds ratio=3.19). CONCLUSIONS Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses indicated that neurobehavioral disinhibition is a component of the liability to early age at onset of substance use disorder.
Poverty of Children in Germany and its Impact on Children's Health and Educational Outcomes

This chapter offers a descriptive portrait of rela tive income poverty among children in Germany between the early 1980s and 2004, with a focus on developments since reunification (from 1991 on). Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel are used to estimate poverty rates, rates of entry to and exit from poverty, and the duration of time spent in and out of poverty. The analysis focuses upon co mparisons between East and West Germany, by family structure, and citizenship statu s. Child poverty rates have drifted upward since 1991, and have been increasing more than the ra es for the overall population since the mid-1990s. In part these changes are due to increas ing poverty among children from households headed by non-citizens but also by a wor sening of the situation of all children living in two adult households. By all accounts chi ldren in single parent households face the most precarious circumstances by all means. There a r also differences in the incidence of child poverty and its dynamics between East and Wes t G rmany. A preliminary version of this chapter has been circ ulated as RWI Discussion Paper No. 33, Innocenti Wo rking Paper No. 2005-03 and IZA Discussion Paper No. 1528 .
Ecological Interface Design of a Tactical Airborne Separation Assistance Tool

In a free-flight airspace environment, pilots have more freedom to choose user-preferred trajectories. An onboard pilot support system is needed that exploits travel freedom while maintaining spatial separation with other traffic. Ecological interface design is used to design an interface tool that assists pilots with the tactical planning of efficient conflict-free trajectories toward their destination. Desired pilot actions emerge from the visualization of workspace affordances in terms of a suitable description of aircraft (loco)motion. Traditional models and descriptions for aircraft motion cannot be applied efficiently for this purpose. Through functional modeling, more suitable locomotion models for trajectory planning are analyzed. As a result, a novel interface, the state vector envelope, is presented that is intended to provide the pilot with both low-level information, allowing direct action, and high-level information, allowing conflict understanding and situation awareness.
Characterization of the microloading effect in deep reactive ion etching of silicon

Knowledge of the magnitude and characteristic length scales of chip-scale process variations due to varying substrate pattern density is essential if compensation measures, such as incorporation of dummy structures, are to be taken during mask layout. Effects of variations in local pattern density on a deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) process have been investigated, and a decrease of the etch rate with increasing local pattern density within a characteristic radius of approximately 4.5 mm has been found. Analytical and numerical calculations confirm the existence of a similar depletion radius under the experimental conditions used.
Toward an Energy-Proportional Building prospect: Evaluation and analysis of the energy consumption in a green building testbed

Energy efficiency for the buildings is vital for the environment and sustainability. Buildings are responsible for significant energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. Using a LEED-gold-certified green office building we built a unique experimental testbed for a multi-disciplinary research project on energy efficiency. We collected the building energy data for almost a year's period through a networked metering infrastructure. In this paper, we systematically evaluate and analyze this data. The findings show that due to the centrally controlled Heating, Ventilation, Air-conditioning, and Cooling (HAVC) systems, the total energy consumption in large office buildings of this type is not proportional to the actual usage and occupancy. Even correlation to outside weather is low. Through the lessons learned from energy saving efforts in computer industry, we envision an Energy-Proportional Building design in future. The energy consumption of such buildings would be proportional to the actual usage and occupancy. We also discuss the key ideas we learned from computer industry for such buildings.
Anopheles gambiae s.s. breeding in polluted water bodies in urban Lagos, southwestern Nigeria.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Urban malaria is on the rise in Nigeria due to rapid industrialisation and developmental activities. A study was undertaken in Lagos, Nigeria to study the Anopheles breeding in polluted water bodies. METHODS Anopheles larval breeding habitats were surveyed and water samples from 24 larval breeding sites from four strategic areas in urban Lagos were analysed. The relationship between eight abiotic variables (pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, hardness, nitrate, total dissolved solids, turbidity and oil) and density of Anopheles larvae were investigated. The levels of heavy metals (Zn, Co, Cu, Pb, Mn, Fe, Hg and Ni) pollution were analysed by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry. RESULTS Morphological and PCR analysis of 2358 anopheline larvae revealed only the presence of two members of the Anopheles gambiae complex consisting of 93.1% Anopheles gambiae s.s. and 6.9% An. arabiensis. Multiple regression analysis revealed a significant association between occurrence of An. arabiensis larvae and two independent variables: pH and turbidity but not for An. gambiae s.s. The levels of three heavy metals: Fe, Cu and Pb from more than half of the sites surveyed were three times higher than the values obtained in natural breeding sites of An. gambiae s.s. from a rural area of Lagos. Over 85% of An. gambiae s.s. larvae were found in water bodies characterised by low dissolved oxygen (<3 mg/L), high conductivity (>900 uS/cm), turbidity (>180 FAU), oil (>11 mg/L) and heavy metals: Fe, Cu, and Pb (>0.4 mg/L). INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION These results indicate that An. gambiae s.s. is adapting to a wide range of water pollution in this urban area. The survival of the mosquito in widespread polluted water bodies across Lagos metropolis could be responsible for the rise in the incidence of malaria.
Dark matter haloes within clusters

We examine the properties of dark matter haloes within a rich galaxy cluster using a high-resolution simulation that captures the cosmological context of a cold dark matter universe. The mass and force resolution permit the resolution of 150 haloes with circular velocities larger than 80 km s−1 within the cluster virial radius of 2 Mpc (with Hubble constant H0 = 50 km s−1 Mpc−1). This enables an unprecedented study of the statistical properties of a large sample of dark matter haloes evolving in a dense environment. The cumulative fraction of mass attached to these haloes varies from close to zero per cent at 200 kpc to 13 per cent at the virial radius. Even at this resolution the overmerging problem persists; haloes that pass within 100–200 kpc of the cluster centre are tidally disrupted. Additional substructure is lost at earlier epochs within the massive progenitor haloes. The median ratio of apocentric to pericentric radii is 6:1, so that the orbital distribution is close to isotropic, circular orbits are rare and radial orbits are common. The orbits of haloes are unbiased with respect to both position within the cluster and the orbits of the smooth dark matter background, and no velocity bias is detected. The tidal radii of surviving haloes are generally well-fitted using the simple analytic prediction applied to their orbital pericentres. Haloes within clusters have higher concentrations than those in the field. Within the cluster, halo density profiles can be modified by tidal forces and individual encounters with other haloes that cause significant mass loss —‘galaxy harassment’. Mergers between haloes do not occur inside the cluster virial radius.
Binaral interaction and centrifugal input enhances spatial contrast in olfactory bulb activation

We used paired‐pulse odorant stimulation, with a conditioning stimulus delivered either ipsilateral or contralateral to a test stimulus, to unmask the effects of centrifugal feedback on olfactory bulb responses. In reptiles and mammals there are no direct connections between the paired olfactory bulbs, and thus all information transfer between the olfactory bulbs depends on feedback from retrobulbar structures. We measured odor‐induced activity in the turtle olfactory bulb using a voltage‐sensitive dye and a 464‐element photodiode array, which allowed us to monitor the spatial variation in activation of the olfactory bulb. We found that both contralateral and ipsilateral conditioning stimuli evoked long‐lasting inhibition of olfactory bulb activation. In contrast to previous studies using local field potential recording to monitor activity at a single site, we found that this inhibition increased contrast in the spatial patterning of activation over the dorsal surface of the olfactory bulb. Inhibition was also increased when different odorants were used as conditioning and test stimuli, suggesting a role for centrifugal feedback in olfactory discrimination. These results highlight the functional importance of centrifugal feedback and information processing in a broadly distributed olfactory network.
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Research Department Boomerang Kids : Labor Market Dynamics and Moving Back Home

This paper examines the relationship between the dynamics of parent-youth living arrangements and labor market outcomes for youths who do not go to college in the United States. The data come from a newly constructed panel data set based on retrospective monthly coresidence questions in the NLSY97. This is the first data set containing information on the labor market circumstances of youths at the time of movements in and out of the parental home. Based on estimates from duration models that allow for unobserved heterogeneity, I find that moving from employment to non-employment increases the hazard of moving back home in a given month by 64% for males and 71% for females. These results suggest that labor market factors play an important role in determining the dynamics of parent-youth living arrangements and that coresidence may be an important way in which insurance against labor market shocks takes place within the family. ∗Kaplan: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, New York University, and University of Pennsylvania; email: gregkaplan@nyu.edu. The views expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis or the Federal Reserve System.
Robust Multiple Kernel K-means Using L21-Norm

The k-means algorithm is one of the most often used method for data clustering. However, the standard k-means can only be applied in the original feature space. The kernel k-means, which extends k-means into the kernel space, can be used to capture the non-linear structure and identify arbitrarily shaped clusters. Since both the standard k-means and kernel k-means apply the squared error to measure the distances between data points and cluster centers, a few outliers will cause large errors and dominate the objection function. Besides, the performance of kernel method is largely determined by the choice of kernel. Unfortunately, the most suitable kernel for a particular task is often unknown in advance. In this paper, we first present a robust k-means using l2,1-norm in the feature space and then extend it to the kernel space. To recap the powerfulness of kernel methods, we further propose a novel robust multiple kernel k-means (RMKKM) algorithm that simultaneously finds the best clustering label, the cluster membership and the optimal combination of multiple kernels. An alternating iterative schema is developed to find the optimal value. Extensive experiments well demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.
Sparse Compositional Metric Learning

We propose a new approach for metric learning by framing it as learning a sparse combination of locally discriminative metrics that are inexpensive to generate from the training data. This flexible framework allows us to naturally derive formulations for global, multi-task and local metric learning. The resulting algorithms have several advantages over existing methods in the literature: a much smaller number of parameters to be estimated and a principled way to generalize learned metrics to new testing data points. To analyze the approach theoretically, we derive a generalization bound that justifies the sparse combination. Empirically, we evaluate our algorithms on several datasets against state-of-the-art metric learning methods. The results are consistent with our theoretical findings and demonstrate the superiority of our approach in terms of classification performance and scalability.
Differences in Muscle Strength in Parkinsonian Patients Affected on the Right and Left Side

Background Muscular weakness is a frequent cause of instability that contributes to falls in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Isokinetic dynamometry is a method of muscle assessment useful to measure the muscular strength giving a quantification of the weakness, but only few studies about isokinetic assessment were performed in PD. The aims of the study were to evaluate the muscle strength in PD and to investigate the differences in patients affected on the right and left side. Methods Knee flexor and extensor muscles strength was assessed using an isokinetic dynamometer in 25 patients in stage 3 H&Y and in 15 healthy controls. Subjects were tested in both legs at three fixed angular velocities: 90°/s, 120°/s, 180°/s. Results Considering the whole population of Parkinsonians, no difference in strength was observed with respect to controls. Considering the side, patients affected on the right side showed a clear tendency to be weaker than patients affected on the left side and controls. Conclusions PD patients affected on the right side, but not those affected on the left side, had a reduction in muscle strength as compared to controls. We postulate a central origin deficit in muscle strength in PD. It is known that dopamine transporter binding is more severely reduced in the left posterior putamen and our results suggest that the control of the muscle strength in PD is linked to the right–left hemispheric asymmetry of the functional organization of basal ganglia and with their connections to cortical motor and pre-motor areas.
DIAMETER AND LENGTH EFFECT ON DIFFUSIVE-BALLISTIC PHONON TRANSPORT IN A CARBON NANOTUBE

We report a non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) study on heat conduction of finite-length single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). The length and diameter dependences of the thermal conductivity are quantified for a range of nanotube-lengths up to a micrometer at room temperature using two different temperature control techniques. A thorough investigation was carried out on the influence of intrinsic thermal boundary resistance between the temperature-controlled layers and the rest of the SWNT. The trend of length effect indicates a gradual transition from nearly pure ballistic phonon transport to diffusive-ballistic phonon transport. The nearly pure ballistic phonon transport was also confirmed by the minor diameter-dependence of thermal conductivity for short SWNTs. For longer SWNTs with stronger diffusive effect, the thermal conductivity is larger for SWNTs with smaller diameters.Copyright © 2007 by ASME
The Autonomic Nervous System and Emotion

In many evolutionary/functionalist theories, emotions organize the activity of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and other physiological systems. Two kinds of patterned activity are discussed: (a) coherence (i.e., emotions organize and coordinate activity within the ANS, and between the ANS and other response systems such as facial expression and subjective experience), and (b) specificity (i.e., emotions activate different patterns of ANS response for different emotions). For each kind of patterning, significant methodological obstacles are considered that need to be overcome before empirical studies can adequately test theories and resolve controversies. Finally, links that coherence and specificity have with health and well-being are considered.
Group Analysis of Variable Coefficient Diffusion-Convection Equations. II. Contractions and Exact Solutions

This is the second part of the series of papers on symmetry properties of a class of variable coefficient (1+1)-dimensional nonlinear diffusion-convection equations of general form $f(x)u_t=(g(x)A(u)u_x)_x+h(x)B(u)u_x$. At first, we review the results of Part 1 of the series on equivalence transformations and group classification of the class under consideration. Investigation of non-trivial limits of parameterized subclasses of equations from the given class, which generate contractions of the corresponding maximal Lie invariance algebras, leads to the natural notion of contractions of systems of differential equations. After a brief discussion on contractions of symmetries, equations and solutions in general case, such types of contractions are studied for diffusion--convection equations. A detailed symmetry analysis of an interesting equation from the class under consideration is performed. Exact solutions of some subclasses of the considered class are also given.
Political power, corruption, and witchcraft in modern Indonesia

This thesis examines the relationships between political power, corruption, and witchcraft in modern Indonesia through an analysis of the discursive construction of these concepts in Indonesian society. The subject is approached through an observation of how public discourses of corruption and sorcery are used by people in an instrumental way to talk about and understand political processes in the country. The central argument of the thesis is that Indonesian society experiences contemporary politics in a context that combines values and practices of political modernity and secular rationality with those of witchcraft, sorcery, and the occult. The thesis demonstrates how Indonesian politics has been transformed into a modern-secular democracy by juxtaposing traditionalism and modernism. Both are interconnected features of contemporary Indonesian modernity. The thesis focuses on corruption and sorcery discourses within the context of the political democracy that has been established in Indonesia following the collapse of the New Order state. There is currently a great deal of expectation that the system of democracy will promote public participation - in the sense that people become involved in political processes, that civil society becomes more effective and that the holders of state powers become more accountable - which should in turn curb corruption. Unfortunately, corruption appears to be pervasive within the new democratic polity, and both corruption and sorcery persist alongside the dynamics of political contestations and power struggles. In the light of continuing corruption practices, many groups of Indonesian society initiate anti-corruption movements by mobilizing social and political resources through collective action. Anti-corruption initiatives are taken by both state institutions and civil society associations, and seek to improve public governance and promote political reform. Nevertheless, non-state actors—NGOs and civil society agencies—appear to have become the major voices of public criticism against corruption and they have taken the lead in promoting anti-corruption reforms. These actors involve educated people from the urban middle classes: social and political activists, intellectuals, artists, poets, journalists, as well as religious leaders associated with Islamic organizations: the Nahdhatul Ulama (NU), the Muhammadiyah, and the Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI). It is argued that the ideas and practices of anti-corruption have found new spaces of expression under the new democratic system, and that Indonesian civil society and NGO activists are determined to continue their struggles to fight corruption for the betterment of the nation despite a great deal of opposition which is mostly political. They believe that the new system of political democracy will be much more beneficial for all Indonesian people if corruption can be eliminated from state agencies and political institutions.
Environmental Health Assessment of Deltamethrin in a Malarious Area of Mexico: Environmental Persistence, Toxicokinetics, and Genotoxicity in Exposed Children

We reported previously that children are exposed to deltamethrin in malarious areas. In the present work we explored the levels of this insecticide in soil samples and also obtained relevant toxico-kinetic data of deltamethrin in exposed children. Results show that, after spraying, indoor levels of deltamethrin in soil samples were higher than outdoor levels. The mean half-life estimated with these data was 15.5 days for outdoor samples and 15.4 days for indoor samples. Children’s exposure to deltamethrin was assessed using as biomarkers the urinary concentrations of the metabolites 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA) and cis-3-(2,2-dibromovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (Br2CA). The mean level of both biomarkers reached a peak within the first 24 hr postexposure; 6 months after the initial exposure, urinary levels of 3-PBA and Br2CA were found at levels observed before exposure. Approximately 91% of the total 3-PBA or Br2CA was excreted during the first 3 days after exposure. Therefore, we estimated a half-life for this period, the values for 3-PBA and Br2CA being almost identical (13.5 vs. 14.5 hr). Finally, considering reports about the genotoxicity of deltamethrin, we assessed DNA damage in children before and 24 hr after indoor spraying of deltamethrin; we found no differences in the comet assay end points. In conclusion, we observed exposure to deltamethrin in children, but we did not find any relationship between soil concentrations of deltamethrin and urinary levels of the metabolites. At least for genotoxicity, the exposed children appeared not to be at risk.