Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How "big vs" dominate chinese microblog: a comparison of verified and unverified users on sina weibo

Sina Weibo has become the most popular microblogging platform in the Chinese-speaking community. Verification scheme is a distinctive element of Weibo with an aim to help the public to identify genuine accounts and select trustworthy information sources. Verified users are also known as "Big Vs", who are identified by a verification badge, a capitalised letter "V" added alongside account name. By comparing statistical characteristics of both verified and unverified users, this paper presents that a minority of verified users are largely consider as influentials, who tend to be more central in the networks and play vital roles in keeping connectivity as well as network robustness. Although the verification scheme is likely to draw more users to become influentials, user behaviours are still considerably more influenced by user roles rather than by verification scheme.
Cosmological landscape from nothing: some like it hot

We suggest a novel picture of the quantum Universe—its creation is described through the density matrix defined by the Euclidean path integral. This yields an ensemble of universes—a cosmological landscape—in a mixed state which is shown to be dynamically preferable to the pure quantum state of the Hartle–Hawking type. The latter is dynamically suppressed by the infinitely large positive action of its instanton, generated by the conformal anomaly of quantum fields within the cosmological bootstrap (the self-consistent back-reaction of hot matter). This bootstrap suggests a solution to the problem of boundedness of the on-shell cosmological action and eliminates the infrared catastrophe of a small cosmological constant in Euclidean quantum gravity. The cosmological landscape turns out to be limited to a bounded range of the cosmological constant Λmin≤Λ≤Λmax. The domain Λ<Λmin is ruled out by the back-reaction effect which we analyse by solving effective Euclidean equations of motion. The upper cut-off is enforced by the quantum effects of vacuum energy and the conformal anomaly mediated by a special ghost-avoidance renormalization of the effective action. They establish a new quantum scale Λmax which is determined by the coefficient of the topological Gauss–Bonnet term in the conformal anomaly. This scale is realized as the upper bound—the limiting point of an infinite sequence of garland-type instantons which constitute the full cosmological landscape. The dependence of the cosmological constant range on particle phenomenology suggests a possible dynamical selection mechanism for the landscape of string vacua.
Adaptive Newton-based multivariate smoothed functional algorithms for simulation optimization

In this article, we present three smoothed functional (SF) algorithms for simulation optimization. While one of these estimates only the gradient by using a finite difference approximation with two parallel simulations, the other two are adaptive Newton-based stochastic approximation algorithms that estimate both the gradient and Hessian. One of the Newton-based algorithms uses only one simulation and has a one-sided estimate in both the gradient and Hessian, while the other uses two-sided estimates in both quantities and requires two simulations. For obtaining gradient and Hessian estimates, we perturb each parameter component randomly using independent and identically distributed (i.i.d) Gaussian random variates. The earlier SF algorithms in the literature only estimate the gradient of the objective function. Using similar techniques, we derive two unbiased SF-based estimators for the Hessian and develop suitable three-timescale stochastic approximation procedures for simulation optimization. We present a detailed convergence analysis of our algorithms and show numerical experiments with parameters of dimension 50 on a setting involving a network of M/G/1 queues with feedback. We compare the performance of our algorithms with related algorithms in the literature. While our two-simulation Newton-based algorithm shows the best results overall, our one-simulation algorithm shows better performance compared to other one-simulation algorithms.
Fasting Enhances the Response of Glioma to Chemo- and Radiotherapy

Background Glioma, including anaplastic astrocytoma and glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) are among the most commonly diagnosed malignant adult brain tumors. GBM is a highly invasive and angiogenic tumor, resulting in a 12 to 15 months median survival. The treatment of GBM is multimodal and includes surgical resection, followed by adjuvant radio-and chemotherapy. We have previously reported that short-term starvation (STS) enhances the therapeutic index of chemo-treatments by differentially protecting normal cells against and/or sensitizing tumor cells to chemotoxicity. Methodology and Principal Findings To test the effect of starvation on glioma cells in vitro, we treated primary mouse glia, murine GL26, rat C6 and human U251, LN229 and A172 glioma cells with Temozolomide in ad lib and STS mimicking conditions. In vivo, mice with subcutaneous or intracranial models of GL26 glioma were starved for 48 hours prior to radio- or chemotherapy and the effects on tumor progression and survival were measured. Starvation-mimicking conditions sensitized murine, rat and human glioma cells, but not primary mixed glia, to chemotherapy. In vivo, starvation for 48 hours, which causes a significant reduction in blood glucose and circulating insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels, sensitized both subcutaneous and intracranial glioma models to radio-and chemotherapy. Conclusion Starvation-induced cancer sensitization to radio- or chemotherapy leads to extended survival in the in vivo glioma models tested. These results indicate that fasting and fasting-mimicking interventions could enhance the efficacy of existing cancer treatments against aggressive glioma in patients.
Leadership Styles and Work Attitudes: Does Age Moderate their Relationship?

The current study was conducted among employees in several organizations (N = 260). We investigated the relationships between the two leadership styles (the predictors) and several individual and organizational work outcomes among two age categories. For the young-to-adults age group, both transformational and transactional leadership associated positively with organizational justice; organizational justice associated positively with work commitment and work motivation; both transformational and transactional leadership associated positively with work motivation; and only transformational leadership associated positively with work commitment. Transactional leadership and work commitment were not significantly correlated. For the older group, transformational leadership associated positively with organizational justice; however, transactional leadership linked to it negatively. Organizational justice associated positively only with work commitment. Organizational justice and work motivation were not significantly related. Important implications are discussed.
Bankruptcy Prediction for Large and Small Firms in Asia: A Comparison of Ohlson and Altman

This paper reports the results of a research study examining the comparative ability of Ohlson's Logit model and Altman's four-variance model for predicting bankruptcy of large and small firms in Thailand. A matched pair sample of 60 bankrupt and 60 nonbankrupt firms were examined over the years 1998 to 2003. The study concludes that while each of the two methods have predictive ability when applied to Thai firms, there is no significant difference in their respective predictive abilities for either large asset or small asset Thai firms.
Query Expansion by Local Context Analysis

Query expansion (QE) aims at improving information retrieval (IR) effectiveness by enhancing the query formulation. Because users' queries are generally short and because of the language ambiguity, some information needs are difficult to answer. Query reformulation and QE methods have been developed to face this issue. Relevance feedback (RF) is one of the most popular QE techniques. In its manual version, the system uses the information on the relevance -manually judged- of retrieved documents in order to expand the initial query. Rather than using users' judgment on the document relevance, blind RF considers the first retrieved documents as relevant. Generally speaking, RF methods consider the terms that cooccur with query terms within positive feedback documents as candidates for the expansion. Rather than considering feedback documents in their all, it is possible to analyze local information. This paper presents a new method that uses local context from feedback documents for QE. The method uses POS information as well as the remoteness from query terms within feedback documents. We show that the method significantly improves precision on TREC collections.
Universality of Baysian mixture predictors

The problem is that of sequential probability forecasting for finite-valued time series. The data is generated by an unknown probability distribution over the space of all one-way infinite sequences. It is known that this measure belongs to a given set C, but the latter is completely arbitrary (uncountably infinite, without any structure given). The performance is measured with asymptotic average log loss. In this work it is shown that the minimax asymptotic performance is always attainable, and it is attained by a convex combination of a countably many measures from the set C (a Bayesian mixture). This was previously only known for the case when the best achievable asymptotic error is 0. This also contrasts previous results that show that in the non-realizable case all Bayesian mixtures may be suboptimal, while there is a predictor that achieves the optimal performance.
Single-Surgeon Experience With Robot-Assisted Ureteroneocystostomy for Distal Ureteral Pathologies in Adults

Purpose To demonstrate our technical approach for robot-assisted ureteroneocystostomy (R-UNC) for benign and malignant distal ureteral pathologies. Materials and Methods Between January 2009 and January 2013, a total of 10 patients underwent R-UNC in the distal ureter by a single surgeon. Indications for R-UNC were as follows: idiopathic (3), fistula (2), iatrogenic (2), malignancy (2), and chronic vesicoureteral reflux (1). Results Tension-free anastomosis was attained in all 10 R-UNC procedures. A psoas hitch was performed in 6/10 cases (60%). Intravesical and extravesical reimplantations were completed in 5/10 (50%) and 5/10 cases (50%), respectively. A nonrefluxing ureter was constructed in 2/10 cases (20%). The patients' mean age was 52.9±16.6 years, their mean body mass index was 30.8±6.3 kg/m2, the mean operative time was 211.7±69.3 minutes, mean estimated blood loss was 102.5±110.8 mL, and mean length of stay was 2.8±2.3 days. There were no intraoperative complications. There was one Clavien-Dindo grade I and one Clavien-Dindo grade II postoperative complication. The mean postoperative follow-up duration was 28.5±15.5 months. Two patients had recurrence of ureteral strictures at 3 months postoperatively and were managed successfully with balloon dilation. Conclusions Our technique for R-UNC demonstrates good perioperative outcomes. However, underlying periureteral inflammation and pelvic adhesions may predispose patients for stricture recurrence after R-UNC.
Observable windows for the QCD axion through N eff

We show that when the QCD axion is directly coupled to quarks with ci/f ∂μa q̄iγγqi, such as in DFSZ models, the dominant production mechanism in the early universe at temperatures 1 GeV . T . 100 GeV is obtained via qiq̄i ↔ ga and qig ↔ qia, where g are gluons. The production of axions through such processes is maximal around T ≈ mi, where mi are the different heavy quark masses. This leads to a relic axion background that decouples at such temperatures, leaving a contribution to the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom, which can be larger than the case of decoupling happens the electroweak phase transition, ∆Neff . 0.027. Our prediction for the t-quark is 0.027 ≤ ∆Neff ≤ 0.036 for 10GeV . f/ct . 4 × 10 GeV and for the b-quark is 0.027 ≤ ∆Neff ≤ 0.047 for 10GeV . f/cb . 3 × 10GeV. For the c-quark the window can only be roughly estimated as 0.027 < ∆Neff . O(0.1), for f/cc . (2 − 3) × 10GeV, since axions can still be partially produced in a regime of strong coupling, when αs & 1. These contributions are comparable to the sensitivity of future CMB S4 experiments, thus opening an alternative window to detect the axion and to test the early universe at such temperatures.
Evidence for systemic oxidative stress in tobacco chewers

Objective. To evaluate erythrocyte malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione reductase (GR) in tobacco chewers, in view of possible oxidative stress in oral smokeless tobacco. Material and methods. Sixty healthy male tobacco chewers, aged 30.6±4.7 years with a 3 to 10‐year (7.37±2.1) history of tobacco chewing, were included in the study. Thirty‐two healthy male volunteers, aged 26.5±4.8 years, served as controls. All the participants were from the same community and of similar dietary habits. Results. The erythrocyte MDA level and activities of erythrocyte SOD and GR were estimated. There was a significant duration‐ (tobacco chewing) dependent increase in erythrocyte MDA levels along with a significant duration‐ (tobacco chewing) dependent decrease in erythrocyte SOD and GR activity. Conclusion. Oral smokeless tobacco causes a duration‐dependent increase in oxidative stress.
Factors Associated with Local Public Health Department Performance: Literature Review

1 The literature related to local public health performance as it pertains to the organization, financing, structure, size and capacity of local health departments (LHDs) continues to grow. Performance has most often been measured by the 10 Essential Public Health Services (EPHS), as self-assessed by LHDs. Recently the literature has examined LHD factors with respect to population health outcomes, such as infectious disease morbidity and mortality associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, influenza and infant death (Erwin 2011, Mays & Smith 2011). Most of the studies reviewed still use the EHS model for performance measures, but it is notable that more recent articles are focusing on indicators of population health to assess LHD performance.
The political construction of homeless identities : discourse and contested definitions of homelessness.

4 . Acknowledgements . 5 Introduction . 7 Methodology . 12 Overview of the Thesis . 18 Chapter 1Existing Perspectives on Homelessness . 23 Chapter 1Existing Perspectives on Homelessness . 23 Defining Homelessness . 23 Explanations of Homelessness . 29 Theory and Homelessness . 35 Summary . 38 Chapter 2Theories of Identity . 40 Introducing identity . 40 The Implications of `Chosen' Identity . 43 Structural Theories of Identity . 45 The Contingency of Identity . 50 . Chapter 3Radical Democratic Theory . 56 Post-Marxism . 56 Discourse as `Overdetermined' . 64 . Identity and `the Impossibility of Society' . 68 . Radical Democracy . 70 Radical Democratic Citizenship . 74 Criticisms of Radical Democracy . 78 Major Points for the Study of Homelessness . 81 Chapter 4Judgement and Homelessness . 86 Deserving/Undeserving Positions in Discourse . 87 Homelessness, Deviancy and Political Unrest . 91 Homelessness and the Different Contexts of Morality . 95 Summary . 103 Chapter 5Priority Need . 105 The Right to Housing . 106 . The Emergence of Priority Need . 110 . Vulnerability and the Expansion of Priority Need . 115 The Scottish Example . 121 Conclusion . 125 Chapter 6Intentionality . 126 Defining Intentionality . 127 Antagonism and Intentionality . 130 Cultural Norms and Political Exclusion . 132 Intentionality in the Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 . 137 Conclusion . 142 Chapter 7Local Connection . 144 Space, Power and the History of Local Connection . 145 The Constitutive Outside and Local Connection . 149
Coating efficiency of soybean seeds in equipment with spray system

IInstituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS), Campus Ibirubá, 98200-000, Ibirubá, RS, Brasil. E-mail: plmarcos1@yahoo.com. br. Autor para correspondência. IIDepartamento de Fitotecnia, Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), Pelotas, RS, Brasil. IIIDepartamento de Fitotecnia, Centro de Ciências Rurais (CCR), Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), Santa Maria, RS, Brasil. IVFaculdade de Agronomia Eliseu Maciel, UFPel, Pelotas, RS, Brasil.
Extension of the Monte Carlo Coherent Microwave Scattering Model to Full Stage of Rice

The ear layer, which is a component of rice, is crucial to rice monitoring and yield estimation. By adding in the ear layer, we have extended the original coherent microwave scattering model, which is based on both the first-order solution of the radiation transfer equation and Monte Carlo numerical simulation methods, to full stage of rice. The detailed scene generation and the geometrical description of rice elements are presented. The propagation path of scattering in rice canopy is reduced. Two approximation methods are used to fit the curving ear by straight cylinders. Ground truth measurements of rice fields in heading stage, including the curvature of ear, were acquired extensively at Jinhu, Jiangsu in eastern China. Measured parameters are used in the new extended model to calculate the C-band backscattering coefficients of rice field. The simulation results are used for comparison with the backscattering coefficients extracted from RADARSAT-2 images to test the validity of the coherent scattering model with the mean absolute error reaching <; 3.3 dB in the copolarization mode. Theoretical analysis reveals that the ear morphology can largely affect the backscattering behavior of the rice field.
Apathy and Emotional Blunting in Parkinsons Disease

Background: Apathy is common in Parkinson’s disease (PD), even in the absence of dementia. In general, apathy has three key dimensions: emotional blunting, diminished initiative, and diminished interest. The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical profile and impact of apathy in PD with particular emphasis on emotional blunting. Methods: 91 PD participants free of dementia were evaluated with the Apathy Inventory (IA). Those with clinically significant apathy (n=32) were compared to those without apathy (n=59) on clinical variables, level of disability, quality of life and caregiver burden. Within the apathy group, a subsequent comparison of those with apathy and emotional blunting (EB+; n=22) to those with apathy but no blunting (EB-; n=10) was undertaken. Results: In PD, compared to those without apathy, apathy sufferers were significantly more depressed, and had more impaired executive function, quality of life, and greater disability and caregiver burden. The EB+ group had worse quality of life and greater caregiver burden compared to the EB- group despite the EB- group being associated with older age and more advanced disease. Conclusion: In PD without dementia, apathy with emotional blunting has an adverse impact on the affected person and their caregiver than apathy without emotional blunting.
Association of Ultrasonographic Parameters with Subclinical White-Matter Hyperintensities in Hypertensive Patients

Background and Purpose. Cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) are regarded as typical MRI expressions of small-vessel disease (SVD) and are common in hypertensive patients. Hypertension induces pathologic changes in macrocirculation and in microcirculation. Changes in microcirculation may lead to SVD of brain and consequently to hypertensive end-organ damage. This damage is regarded the result of interactions between the macrovascular and microvascular levels. We sought to investigate the association of cerebral WMHs with ultrasonographic parameters of cerebral macrocirculation evaluated by carotid duplex ultrasound (CDU) and transcranial doppler (TCD). Subjects and Methods. The study was prospective, cross-sectional and consecutive and included hypertensive patients with brain MRI with WMHs. Patients underwent CDU and TCD. The clinical variables recorded were demographic characteristics (age, gender, race) and vascular risk factors (hypertension, diabetic mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, current smoking, and body mass index). Excluded from the study were patients with history of clinical stroke (including lacunar stroke and hemorrhagic) or transient ischemic attack (either hemispheric or ocular), hemodynamically significant (>50%) extra- or intracranial stenosis, potential sources of cardioembolism, and absent transtemporal windows. WMHs were quantified with the use of a semiquantitative visual rating method. Ultrasound parameters investigated were (1) common carotid artery (CCA) diameter and intima-media thickness, (2) blood flow velocity in the CCA and internal carotid artery (ICA), and (3) blood flow velocity and pulsatility index of middle cerebral artery (MCA). Results. A total of 52 patients fulfilled the study inclusion criteria (mean age 71.4 ± 4.5 years, 54% men, median WMH-score: 20). The only two ultrasound parameters that were independently associated with WMH score in multivariate linear regression models adjusting for demographic characteristics and vascular risk factors were increased mean common carotid artery (CCA) diameter (beta = 0.784, SE = 0.272, P = 0.006, R 2 = 23.9%) and increased middle cerebral artery pulsatility index (MCA-PI; beta = 0.262, SE = 0.110, P = 0.025, R 2 = 9.0%). Among all ultrasound parameters the highest AUC (areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve) were documented for MCA-PI (AUC = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.68−0.95, P < 0.001) and mean CCA diameter (AUC = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.67−0.92, P < 0.001). Conclusions. Our study showed that in hypertensive individuals with brain SVD the extent of structural changes in cerebral microcirculation as reflected by WMHs burden is associated with the following ultrasound parameters of cerebral macrocirculation: CCA diameter and MCA-PI.
Inbreeding, Migration and Age at Marriage in Rural Toledo, Spain

The natural region of the Jara, with an area of 2500 km2 occupies much of the south west of the province of Toledo, and extends into the provinces of Caceres and Ciudad Real. It is situated between the Tajo and Guadiana rivers, south of the town of Talavera de la Reina, the centre of the economic life in this region. Its highlands are covered with xerophytic vegetation, of which the most common plant is the jara (Cistus ladaniferus), from which this zone takes it name, (Fig. 1). It has been occupied from the neolithic period onwards by peoples of different origins, e.g. Romans, Muslims, Jews, Mozarabs (Jimenez de Gregorio, 1959) but the present population derives from settlement from the north of the Tajo river beginning in the 14th century following the upheavals of the Moslem–Christian wars.
Les collections gaies et lesbiennes dans les bibliothèques publiques : miroir de la société québécoise ?

Les collections gaies et lesbiennes dans les bibliotheques publiques sont-elles representatives de la population quebecoise ? Apres avoir presente un survol statistique de ces communautes, cet article decrit la situation dans les bibliotheques quebecoises d’apres l’examen d’un echantillon representatif. Il en resulte une mise en evidence des carences dans le developpement et l’indexation de ces collections. L’auteur formule finalement des correctifs a la situation actuelle.