Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regional variation in sentencing: The incarceration of aggravated drink drivers in the New Zealand District Courts

Consistency of sentencing outcomes is a key aspect of the achievement of justice. There is uncertainty and disagreement about whether consistency of sentencing outcomes is achieved between locations in New Zealand. This study uses administrative data to examine the degree to which similar offenders convicted of aggravated drink driving receive similar sentences for similar offending in the different circuits of the New Zealand District Courts. Logistic regression is used to control for offence seriousness, criminal history and offender demographics in order to isolate as far as possible the influence of location on sentencing decisions. Results show that while offence seriousness and criminal history combined have the greatest influence on sentencing, location is also influential, with substantial differences between circuits in the use of incarceration.
Evaluation of sexual functions of the pregnant women.

INTRODUCTION Pregnant women may avoid sexual intercourse or may unavoidably undergo problems in their sexual lives because of various complaints they suffer from. AIM The study aims to evaluate sexual functions of the pregnant women and to determine the factors that negatively affect their sexual health. METHODS This is a descriptive research study conducted to evaluate sexual functions of pregnant women. Three hundred six pregnant women admitted to the Women Birth Polyclinics within the Women Birth and Children's Hospital between October 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011 were included in the study. The data were gathered using a personal information form and the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). Kruskall-Wallis variance analysis and Mann-Whitney U-tests were used for the statistical analysis. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES The main outcome is an assessment of the FSFI domains in pregnancy and relationships between pregnancy complaints and sexual functions. RESULTS The results indicated that the mean age of the pregnant women was 25.6 ± 5.4 and their length of marriage was 5.93 ± 5.4 years. The study revealed that 88.9% of the pregnant women had sexual desire disorders, 86.9% had sexual arousal disorder, 42.8% had lubrication disorders, 69.6% had orgasm disorders, and 48% had sexual satisfaction disorders. Statistically significant differences were found in correlations between FSFI medians and the characteristics of the pregnant women in terms of age, educational level, length and type of marriage, and gestational week. There were also statistically significant differences in correlations between the pregnancy characteristics in terms of backache, constipation, respiratory difficulty, leg ache, and cramp problems (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS It was determined that the sexual lives of the pregnant women were negatively affected not only by factors such as old age, low educational status, arranged marriages lasting for more than 10 years, undesired pregnancy, and gestational week but also by health problems such as backache, constipation, respiratory difficulty, leg ache, and cramp problems.
Molecular Characterization of a Novel Family of Trypanosoma cruzi Surface Membrane Proteins (TcSMP) Involved in Mammalian Host Cell Invasion

Background The surface coat of Trypanosoma cruzi is predominantly composed of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins, which have been extensively characterized. However, very little is known about less abundant surface proteins and their role in host-parasite interactions. Methodology/ Principal Findings Here, we described a novel family of T. cruzi surface membrane proteins (TcSMP), which are conserved among different T. cruzi lineages and have orthologs in other Trypanosoma species. TcSMP genes are densely clustered within the genome, suggesting that they could have originated by tandem gene duplication. Several lines of evidence indicate that TcSMP is a membrane-spanning protein located at the cellular surface and is released into the extracellular milieu. TcSMP exhibited the key elements typical of surface proteins (N-terminal signal peptide or signal anchor) and a C-terminal hydrophobic sequence predicted to be a trans-membrane domain. Immunofluorescence of live parasites showed that anti-TcSMP antibodies clearly labeled the surface of all T. cruzi developmental forms. TcSMP peptides previously found in a membrane-enriched fraction were identified by proteomic analysis in membrane vesicles as well as in soluble forms in the T. cruzi secretome. TcSMP proteins were also located intracellularly likely associated with membrane-bound structures. We demonstrated that TcSMP proteins were capable of inhibiting metacyclic trypomastigote entry into host cells. TcSMP bound to mammalian cells and triggered Ca2+ signaling and lysosome exocytosis, events that are required for parasitophorous vacuole biogenesis. The effects of TcSMP were of lower magnitude compared to gp82, the major adhesion protein of metacyclic trypomastigotes, suggesting that TcSMP may play an auxiliary role in host cell invasion. Conclusion/Significance We hypothesized that the productive interaction of T. cruzi with host cells that effectively results in internalization may depend on diverse adhesion molecules. In the metacyclic forms, the signaling induced by TcSMP may be additive to that triggered by the major surface molecule gp82, further increasing the host cell responses required for infection.
Aboriginal Gangs and Their (Dis)placement: Contextualizing Recruitment, Membership, and Status

Des entrevues avec d’anciens membres de gangs, des policiers et du personnel des services correctionnels laissent croire qu’il y a de nombreux facteurs de risque favorisant l’association des jeunes et des jeunes adultes autochtones à des gangs. D’anciens membres autochtones de gangs ont indiqué que le fardeau de la discrimination et de l’étiquetage raciaux vient s’ajouter à l’inégalité structurelle et au manque d’occasions signalés par les chercheurs comme des facteurs de causalité à la participation à un gang. Les jeunes autochtones désavantagés et désillusionnés, et encouragés par des amis et des proches faisant partie de gangs, cherchent dans ces regroupements un sentiment d’identité et une raison d’être. Fait intéressant, plusieurs décennies après leur formation, des groupes comme les « Indian Posse », les « Manitoba Warriors », les « Alberta Warriors » et les « Native Syndicate » sont relégués non seulement en marge de la société légitime, mais aussi marginalisés dans le monde du crime, en raison de leur organisation et de leur fréquence derrière les barreaux. Pour comprendre les gangs autochtones, il faut tenir compte des facteurs contextuels, notamment la présence et l’interaction de divers précurseurs établis de l’appartenance à un gang. Ces facteurs contribuent à leur grande présence dans les prisons, et ils suggèrent que, même si l’existence de ces gangs remonte à plusieurs décennies, ils restent relégués au statut de gangs de rue.
Strongly Universal String Hashing is Fast

We present fast strongly universal string hashing families: they can process data at a rate of 0.2 CPU cycle per byte. Maybe surprisingly, we find that these families—though they require a large buffer of random numbers—are often faster than popular hash functions with weaker theoretical guarantees. Moreover, conventional wisdom is that hash functions with fewer multiplications are faster. Yet we find that they may fail to be faster due to operation pipelining. We present experimental results on several processors including low-power processors. Our tests include hash functions designed for processors with the carry-less multiplication instruction set. We also prove, using accessible proofs, the strong universality of our families.
Obesity and weight change related to parity and breast-feeding among parous women in Brazil

Abstract Objective: Studies on the independent role of parity in long-term body weight change in economically developing countries are scarce and inconclusive, and only a few studies have taken into account patterns of breast-feeding. This association was examined in a national cross-sectional survey representative of Brazilian parous women. Design and setting: The survey conducted in 1996 measured women's height and weight in the household and data on weight prior to the first pregnancy, parity and breast-feeding were recalled. Subjects: A sample of 2338 parous women, 15 to 49 years of age, 29 months after last delivery on average, had current body mass index (BMI, in kg m−2) modelled through hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis. Explanatory variables included parity, days of predominant breast-feeding, BMI pre-pregnancy, socio-economic, geographic, demographic and other reproductive variables. Results: Prevalences of overweight (BMI=25.0–29.9 kg m−2) and obesity (BMI<=30.0 kg m−2) were 25.2% and 9.3%. The overall mean weight gain per year after the first pregnancy was 0.90 kg for an average time since first pregnancy of eight years. BMI pre-pregnancy modified the association between current BMI and parity. Therefore, weight change attributed to parity calculated for a woman of average height (1.56 m) was 0.60 kg greater for primiparous women with a BMI pre-pregnancy of 30 kg m−2, compared with women with BMI pre-pregnancy of 25 kg m−2. This greater weight retention among obese women was 1.21 kg for women with two children and 1.82 kg for women with three or more children. Parity reduced the effect of weight loss associated with lactation (1.75 kg for six months of lactation among primiparous women and 0.87 kg among women with three or more children). For the sub-sample of 793 primiparous women, a weight decrease of 300 g was associated with each month of predominant breast-feeding for all prior BMI levels. Conclusions: In this study, weight change associated to reproduction was highly dependent on BMI previous to pregnancy and the effects of parity and lactation were small.
On the (un-)controllability of affective priming: Strategic manipulation is feasible but can possibly be prevented

Three studies are presented that explored if and to what extent affective priming effects in a standard affective priming paradigm are susceptible to voluntary control. Specifically, it was tested was whether participants were able to eliminate or amplify affective priming effects when instructed to do so. In Experiment 1, it was shown that participants were successful in implementing manipulation instructions to decrease or eliminate the effect. Experiment 2 showed that such manipulation attempts succeeded in the opposite direction too, with participants voluntarily enhancing priming effects. Furthermore, it was shown that such manipulation effects could only partly be prevented by shortening duration of prime presentation and stimulus onset asynchrony between prime and target. The first two studies thus proved the susceptibility of the affective priming paradigm to spontaneous and strategic manipulation intentions of participants. However, when a moderate time pressure was induced by implementing a response deadline in Experiment 3, manipulation efforts failed. Implications of these results for the application of the affective priming paradigm in attitude research, specifically in socially sensitive domains, are discussed.
Biasing and Genus Statistics of Dark Matter Halos in the Hubble Volume Simulation

We present a numerical analysis of genus statistics for dark matter halo catalogs from the Hubble volume sim- ulation. The huge box-size of the Hubble volume simulation enables us to carry out a reliable statistical analysis of the biasing properties of halos at a Gaussian smoothing scale of RG ≥ 30 h −1 Mpc with a cluster-mass scale of between 7 × 10 13 h −1 Mand 6 × 10 15 h −1 M� . A detailed comparison of the genus for dark matter halos with that for the mass distribution shows that the non-Gaussianity induced by the halo biasing is comparable to that by nonlinear gravitational evolution, and both the shape and the amplitude of the genus are almost insensitive to the halo mass at RG ≥ 30 h −1 Mpc. In order to characterize the biasing effect on the genus, we apply a perturbative formula developed by Matsubara (1994, AAA 062.161.289). We find that the perturbative formula well describes the simulated halo genus at RG ≥ 50 h −1 Mpc. The result indicates that the biasing effect on the halo genus is well approximated by nonlinear deterministic biasing up to the second-order term in the mass density fluctuation. The two parameters describing the linear and quadratic terms in the nonlinear biasing accurately specify the genus for galaxy clusters.
Narcissism, Identity, And Legitimacy

The theory of narcissism can be employed usefully to analyze the dynamics of group and organizational behavior. Just as individuals seek to regulate their self-esteem through such ego-defense mechanisms as denial, rationalization, attributional egotism, sense of entitlement, and ego aggrandizement, which ameliorate anxiety, so too do groups and organizations. An understanding of the behaviors by which groups and organizations regulate self-esteem is important, because it sheds light on the dynamics underlying the legitimacy attributions made by organizational participants. In this article I enlarge and illustrate these arguments.
CEGAR-Based Formal Hardware Verification : A Case Study

We describe the application of the Reveal formal functional verification system to six representative hardware test cases. Reveal employs counterexample-guided abstraction refinement, or CEGAR, and is suitable for verifying the complex control logic of designs with wide datapaths. Reveal performs automatic datapath abstraction yielding an approximation of the original design with a much smaller state space. This approximation is subsequently used to verify the correctness of control logic interactions. If the approximation proves to be too coarse, it is automatically refined based on the spurious counterexample it generates. Such refinement can be viewed as a form of on-demand “learning” similar in spirit to conflict-based learning in modern Boolean satisfiability solvers. The abstraction/refinement process is iterated until the design is shown to be correct or an actual design error is reported. The Reveal system allows some user control over the abstraction and refinement steps. Using six representative benchmarks as case studies, we examine the effect on Reveal’s performance of the various available options for abstraction and refinement. We also show examples of the types of learned “facts” that Reveal discovers in the refinement step. Based on our initial experience with this system, we believe that automating the verification for a useful class of hardware designs is now quite feasible.
Peak flow measurements among visitors to a public health exhibition

The results of measurements of peak flow made on 2,891 office workers and others attending a public health exhibition in the City of London have been analysed. After standardizing for height, peak flow was found to increase with age into the third decade before declining again, and there was evidence of a more rapid decline among continuing smokers than among those who had never smoked or had given up. Possible effects of exposure to air pollution were considered in terms of residential histories: mean peak flows for subjects born in London were a little below those of subjects born elsewhere.
AGE MATTERS, AND SO MAY RATERS

Research on the age of learning effect on second language learners’ foreign accents utilizes human judgments to determine speech production outcomes. Inferences drawn from analyses of these ratings are then used to inform theories. The present study focuses on rater differences in the age of learning effect research. Three groups of raters who differed in their native language background and language experience participated in the study: inexperienced native English speaker (NES) raters, experienced NES raters, and advanced nonnative English speaker (NNES) raters. All raters evaluated 64 speech samples taken from both NESs and NNESs who varied in their age of arrival in the second-language-speaking country. Results from the study showed that experienced NES raters were better than the other two rater groups at distinguishing NESs from NNESs. Although no rater group differences were found in scaling speakers’ foreign accents or in their interrater reliability, inexperienced NES raters were stricter in their ratings than both experienced NES raters and advanced NNES raters. Implications for research on age of learning effects are discussed.
Endoscopic Calcaneoplasty

Endoscopic calcaneoplasty offers access to the retrocalcaneal space, thereby making it possible to remove inflamed retrocalcaneal bursa as well as the posterosuperior part of the calcaneus in applicable cases of painful hindfoot. In this study, endoscopic calcaneoplasty was performed in 21 procedures in 20 patients. All of the patients had typical complaints of inflammation of the retrocalcaneal bursa that were unresponsive to nonoperative treatment for more than 6 months. In all patients a superior calcaneal angle of more than 75° and positive parallel pitch lines were present on the lateral calcaneal radiograph. The mean follow-up was 3.9 years (range, 2 to 6.5). There were no surgical complications and no postoperative infections. One patient had a fair result, 4 patients had good results, and the remaining 15 patients had excellent results. Whether this operation is performed by endoscopic or open technique, enough bone must be removed to prevent impingement of the bursa between the calcaneus and Achilles tendon. Endoscopic calcaneoplasty is a minimally invasive technique performed in an outpatient setting and combined with a functional rehabilitation program. The procedure has low morbidity. Patients have a short recovery time and quickly resume work and sports.
The Gradient of Immigrant Age-at-Arrival Effects on Socioeconomic Outcomes in the U.S. 1

A young age at arrival is believed to be an important predictor of adult immigrant achievement, but there is no consensus on what age(s) at arrival is pivotal/crucial/critical. The 2000 census reports exact years of arrival and age providing us the opportunity to test different formulations for age-at-arrival effects for several different socioeconomic outcomes. We focus on the experiences of Mexican immigrants to the U.S. in this study. Our results indicate that the effect of early arrival is much greater for English proficiency than other outcomes and bears significantly on most, not all, attainments. There is little evidence at any age of a sharp discontinuity demarcating a 1.5 generation from older immigrants and, in fact, a series of classifications or a continuous measurement of age at arrival may be preferred in some cases. Guidelines are offered for the most appropriate formulation of age at arrival under different contexts.
Anatomical and functional segments of the deltoid muscle

Previous studies showed that the insertion of the intramuscular tendons of the deltoid muscle formed three discrete lines. The purpose of the present study was to establish a new dividing method of the deltoid muscle into various anatomical segments based on the distribution of the intramuscular tendons with their insertions (anatomical study). We further hoped to clarify the relationship between the anatomical segments and their activity pattern assessed by positron emission tomography with [18F]‐2‐fluoro‐deoxyglucose (FDG–PET; PET study). Sixty cadaveric shoulders were investigated in the anatomical study. Three tendinous insertions of the deltoid muscle to the humerus were identified. Then, the intramuscular tendons were traced from their humeral insertions to the proximal muscular origins. The extent of each anatomical segment of the muscle including its origin and insertion was determined through careful dissection. Six healthy volunteers were examined using FDG–PET for the PET study. PET images were obtained after exercise of elevation in the scapular plane. On the PET images, margins of each anatomical segment of the deltoid muscle were determined using magnetic resonance images. Then, the standardized uptake value in each segment was calculated to quantify its activity. The anatomical study demonstrated that the deltoid muscle was divided into seven segments based on the distribution of its intramuscular tendons. The PET study revealed that the intake of FDG was not uniform in the deltoid muscle. The area with high FDG intake corresponded well to the individual muscular segments separated by the intramuscular tendons. We conclude that the deltoid muscle has seven anatomical segments, which seem to represent the functional units of this muscle.
The Effect of Behavioral Therapy on Dog Phobia Response Patterns

ABSTRACT Phobic fear can be regarded as an emotional response syndrome consisting of three groups of response patterns, namely cognitive-affective, motor-behavioral and physiological. In the present study, female students were assigned to two groups: an experimental group consisting of participants suffering from dog phobia, and a control group. The study consisted of three stages: the resting stage measured baseline values, while the pre- and post-intervention stages measured values in the presence of a dog stimulus. Cognitive-affective aspects were assessed by an anxiety scale and post-study questionnaire. Motor-behavioral aspects focussed on dog approach termination distances and the observation of non-verbal communication cues during behavioral approach tests. Physiological aspects were measured in terms of plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) levels. Systematic desensitization therapy was found to be effective in alleviating motor-behavioral and cognitive-affective aspects, while its effect on plasma ACTH levels was inconclusive. No significant plasma ACTH level changes occurred in the experimental group during the study. When comparing the experimental and control groups, the only significant difference was a lower plasma ACTH level in the control group during the post-intervention stage. Total stressor schedule values suggest that participants in the experimental group had a predisposition to be generally more anxious and fearful than participants in the control group.
The Influence of Familial and Peer-Based Reference Groups on Consumer Decisions

A replication and extension of a study performed by Bearden and Etzel are reported in this article. The influence of peers on individuals' products and brand decisions for products that range in their degree of conspicuousness is examined for comparable samples in the United States and in Thailand to assess the validity of the original framework over time and across cultural contexts. Further, the influence of the family is addressed through an examination of intergenerational influences across the two cultures. The results of the study lend support to the original theoretical approach and also provide insight into how reference-group influence may vary depending on whether the influence is exercised by a member of a peer group or by a family member. Copyright 1992 by the University of Chicago.