Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gas Prices and Endogenous Product Selection in the U . S . Automobile Industry

I develop and estimate a model of the U.S. automobile industry in which firms choose the fuel efficiency of their new vehicles. I then use the model to analyze the 2008 gas price increase of 28%. Firms face a technological frontier between providing fuel efficiency and other quality, and the gas price shifts incentives to locate along this frontier. Where firms locate along this frontier is of environmental and policy significance. The demand model is nested logit, and supply is differentiated products oligopoly. The model is estimated using data from the US automobile market from 1971-2007. The model predicts a 2008 sales decline of 11.9% and sales-weighted fuel efficiency increase of 27.9%. These are close to actual figures. I then demonstrate that firms’ have incentives to raise fuel efficiency approximately 20% for vehicle offerings in 2009 and beyond. Contributions to previous work include modeling product choice, relaxing restrictive identifying assumptions, and obtaining more realistic estimates of fuel efficiency preference. The model can be used to analyze various policy and environmental changes.
Lipid monolayer-coated solid surfaces do not perturb the lateral motion and distribution of C3b receptors on neutrophils

We have used epifluorescence and photobleaching techniques to study the lateral distribution and motion of fluorescein-conjugated Fab fragments of anti-C3b receptor antibody bound to human neutrophils when the cells rest on various solid supports (microscope slides or cover slips). Supports composed of quartz, glass, or alkylated glass induced cellular adhesion, spreading, and an extensive lateral redistribution of C3b receptors (but not HLA antigens). The neutrophil C3b receptors become patchy, and the patches apparently undergo nonrandom translational motion. Many patches are found on the upper surfaces of the cells removed from the region of cell membrane-glass contact. In contrast, neutrophils supported by lipid monolayer-coated glass do not adhere or spread, and the C3b receptor remains uniform and diffuses freely (D approximately equal to 2 X 10(-10) cm2/s).
Topographic Enhancement of Eddy Efficiency in Baroclinic Equilibration

AbstractThe processes that determine the depth of the Southern Ocean thermocline are considered. In existing conceptual frameworks, the thermocline depth is determined by competition between the mean and eddy heat transport, with a contribution from the interaction with the stratification in the enclosed portion of the ocean. Using numerical simulations, this study examines the equilibration of an idealized circumpolar current with and without topography. The authors find that eddies are much more efficient when topography is present, leading to a shallower thermocline than in the flat case. A simple quasigeostrophic analytical model shows that the topographically induced standing wave increases the effective eddy diffusivity by increasing the local buoyancy gradients and lengthening the buoyancy contours across which the eddies transport heat. In addition to this local heat flux intensification, transient eddy heat fluxes are suppressed away from the topography, especially upstream, indicating that local.
A Look at Food Price Elasticities and Flexibilities

The matrices of food price elasticities and flexibilities derived from a complete food demand system approach are theoretical consistent and reciprocal with each other. The statistical estimates, however, show that by using the inverted elasticities to represent flexibilities or vice versa, cause sizable measurement errors. For agricultural policy and program analyses, directly estimated food price elasticities and flexibilities should be used.
Do Workers Pay for On-The-Job Training?

We examine the relationships among on-the-job training, starting wages, wage growth, and productivity growth. Our models suggest that training lowers starting wages, but the estimated magnitudes are small. When firms are asked directly, we find that they pay higher starting wages to workers requiring less training than is typical, but do not pay lower starting wages to workers who require more training than is typical. In contrast to the results for wage growth, we find a large, robust impact of training on productivity growth, suggesting that firms pay most of the cost and reap most of the returns to training.
Activation of EphA4 and EphB2 Reverse Signaling Restores the Age-Associated Reduction of Self-Renewal, Migration, and Actin Turnover in Human Tendon Stem/Progenitor Cells

Tendon tissues, due to their composition and function, are prone to suffer age-related degeneration and diseases as well as to respond poorly to current repair strategies. It has been suggested that local stem cells, named tendon stem/progenitor cells (TSPCs), play essential roles in tendon maintenance and healing. Recently, we have shown that TSPC exhibit a distinct age-related phenotype involving transcriptomal shift, poor self-renewal, and elevated senescence coupled with reduced cell migration and actin dynamics. Here, we report for the first time the significant downregulation of the ephrin receptors EphA4, EphB2 and B4 and ligands EFNB1 in aged-TSPC (A-TSPC). Rescue experiments, by delivery of target-specific clustered proteins, revealed that activation of EphA4- or EphB2-dependent reverse signaling could restore the migratory ability and normalize the actin turnover of A-TSPC. However, only EphA4-Fc stimulation improved A-TSPC cell proliferation to levels comparable to young-TSPC (Y-TSPC). Hence, our novel data suggests that decreased expression of ephrin receptors during tendon aging and degeneration limits the establishment of appropriate cell-cell interactions between TSPC and significantly diminished their proliferation, motility, and actin turnover. Taken together, we could propose that this mechanism might be contributing to the inferior and delayed tendon healing common for aged individuals.
Management of Sjogren's Syndrome Patient: A Case Report of Prosthetic Rehabilitation with 6-Year Follow-Up

Completely and partially edentulous patients with Sjogren's syndrome (SS) experience severe hyposalivation, xerostomia, and considerable difficulty in using tissue-supported prosthesis. This clinical paper describes the management, treatment, and 6-year follow-up of a patient diagnosed with SS type II, who uses corticosteroids and antihyperglycemic drugs. The patient received restorative, periodontal, and surgical treatments followed by implant-supported fixed prosthesis. Radiographic evaluation and probing depth showed gingival health and no bone loss after 6 years. Treatment with implant-retained dental prosthesis greatly increased comfort and function, offering an alternative to patients with SS.
Sinusoidal-Ripple-Current Charging Strategy and Optimal Charging Frequency Study for Li-Ion Batteries

In this paper, the sinusoidal-ripple-current (SRC) charging strategy for a Li-ion battery is proposed. The ac-impedance analysis is used to explore the optimal charging frequency. Experiments indicate that the optimal charging performance can be achieved by the proposed SRC with the minimum-ac-impedance frequency fZmin. Compared with the conventional constant-current constant-voltage charging strategy, the charging time, the charging efficiency, the maximum rising temperature, and the lifetime of the Li-ion battery are improved by about 17%, 1.9%, 45.8%, and 16.1%, respectively.
Network dynamics of hippocampal cell‐assemblies resemble multiple spatial maps within single tasks

The firing of place cells in the rodent hippocampus is reliable enough to infer the rodent's position to a high accuracy; however, hippocampal firing also reflects the stages of complex tasks. Theories have suggested that these task‐stage responses may reflect changes in reference frame related to task‐related subgoals. If the hippocampus represents an environment in multiple ways depending on a task's demands, then switching between these cell assemblies should be detectable as a switch in spatial maps or reference frames. Place cells exhibit extreme temporal variability or “overdispersion,” which Fenton et al. suggest reflects changes in active cell‐assemblies. If reference‐frame switching exists, investigating the relationship of the single cell variability described by Fenton and collegues to network level processes provides an entry point to understanding the relationship between cell‐assembly‐like mechanisms and an animal's behavior. We tested the cell‐assembly explanation for overdispersion by recording hippocampal neural ensembles from rats running three tasks of varying spatial complexity: linear track (LT), cylinder‐foraging (CF), and cylinder‐goal (CG). Consistent with the reports by Fenton and colleagues, hippocampal place cells showed high variance in their firing rates across place field passes on the CF and CG tasks. The directional firing of hippocampal place cells on LT provided a test of the reference‐frame hypothesis: ignoring direction produced overdispersion similar to the CF and CG tasks; taking direction into account produced a significant decrease in overdispersion. To directly examine the possibility of a network modulation of cell‐assemblies, we clustered the firing patterns within each pixel and chained them together to construct whole‐environment spatial firing maps. Maps were internally self‐consistent, switching with mean rates of several hundred milliseconds. There were significant increases in map‐switching rates following reward‐related events on the LT and CG tasks, but not on the CF task. Our results link single cell variability with network‐level processes and imply that hippocampal spatial representations are made up of multiple, continuous submaps, the selection of which depends on the animal's goals when reward is tied to the animal's spatial behavior. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Short-Term Consumption of a Dark Chocolate Containing Flavanols is Followed by a Significant Decrease in Normotensive Population

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the primary chronic disease afflicting industrialized societies today. Development of atherosclerosis, thrombosis and hypertension is a multifactorial process in which endothelial dysfunction, inflammatory response, modified lipids and lipoproteins and activated platelets all play significant roles in the process. Numerous epidemiologic studies support the concept that regular consumption of foods and beverages rich in antioxidant vitamins and flavonoids is associated with a decreased risk of CVD mortality, specially hypertension. Foods that have been identified as having a high polyphenolic flavonoid content include many fruits and vegetables such as apples and onions, teas (green and black), red wines and certain chocolates. The purpose of this paper is to determine changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure due to the intake of calculated amount of dark and white chocolate and to investigate its effects on the anthropometric measures. Eighty nine females with mean age of 21.45±19.8 years (from 18-25 years) were included in this study. The studied populations were divided into three groups; group I included thirty females who received 100 gram of dark chocolate (Galaxy, containing .500 mg polyphenols) every day for fifteen days, group II included thirty females who received 90 gram of white chocolate (Galaxy, containing no polyphenols) every day for fifteen days and group III included twenty nine females who were prevented from any type of chocolate for fifteen days. Along our sample population, two blood pressure readings and several anthropometric measures were recorded. After fifteen days of ingestion of dark chocolate, there was statistically significant lowering in the systolic and diastolic blood pressure (p 0.05). As expected, the serum lipid concentrations were in the range of normality with no significant differences between groups (p>0.05). Current dietary studies indicate that short-term administration of dark chocolate (but not white chocolate) is followed by a significant decrease in blood pressure in healthy persons. These findings indicate that dark chocolate may exert a protective action on the vascular endothelium.
Free-Form Deformation for Point-Sampled Surface

In this paper, we present a free-form deformation (FFD) approach to manipulate point-sampled surface. Our approach provides users the powerful free-form deformation directly on point-sampled surface. In the preprocessing, we use a robust extension of hi- erarchical clustering scheme to partition a point-sampled model into clusters, fit a mov- ing least square (MLS) surface to each of them, and define a valid polygonal area on the base domain of the MLS surface. At run time, we apply the conventional free-form de- formation technique on these clusters. While users adjust the grids of the FFD lattice, we propose a novel interpolation method, which responses to the curvature variation during object deformation, to curve the base domain of the MLS surfaces of those clusters con- cerned. Finally, we resample the new base domain to produce the deformed point set model. The proposed technique is very intuitive, effective and easy to implement. With this technique, high frequency details from the original point-set surface can be main- tained well on the deformed surface and several interesting deformed results of point- sampled models are demonstrated to verify the proposed scheme.
Sonic Hedgehog Signaling in Limb Development

The gene encoding the secreted protein Sonic hedgehog (Shh) is expressed in the polarizing region (or zone of polarizing activity), a small group of mesenchyme cells at the posterior margin of the vertebrate limb bud. Detailed analyses have revealed that Shh has the properties of the long sought after polarizing region morphogen that specifies positional values across the antero-posterior axis (e.g., thumb to little finger axis) of the limb. Shh has also been shown to control the width of the limb bud by stimulating mesenchyme cell proliferation and by regulating the antero-posterior length of the apical ectodermal ridge, the signaling region required for limb bud outgrowth and the laying down of structures along the proximo-distal axis (e.g., shoulder to digits axis) of the limb. It has been shown that Shh signaling can specify antero-posterior positional values in limb buds in both a concentration- (paracrine) and time-dependent (autocrine) fashion. Currently there are several models for how Shh specifies positional values over time in the limb buds of chick and mouse embryos and how this is integrated with growth. Extensive work has elucidated downstream transcriptional targets of Shh signaling. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how antero-posterior positional values are encoded and then interpreted to give the particular structure appropriate to that position, for example, the type of digit. A distant cis-regulatory enhancer controls limb-bud-specific expression of Shh and the discovery of increasing numbers of interacting transcription factors indicate complex spatiotemporal regulation. Altered Shh signaling is implicated in clinical conditions with congenital limb defects and in the evolution of the morphological diversity of vertebrate limbs.
Toward an alternative notion of information systems ontologies: Information engineering as a hermeneutic enterprise

In this paper we discuss the construction of information systems ontologies. We summarize and discuss Barry Smith's review (2003a) of the field in the paper, “Ontology. ” In that essay Smith concludes with a plea for ontologies that reflect the categories of current scientific theories because they represent our best knowledge of the world. In this context, we develop an argument for a hermeneutic approach to ontologies—one compatible with the orientation introduced into information science by Winograd and Flores (1986) and later developed by many others. To do this, we argue that the literature in the philosophy and history of science supports a hermeneutic interpretation of the nature and growth of science. This, given Smith's argument, shows the relevance of hermeneutics to the creation of information system ontologies. The problems associated with understanding and creating information systems ontologies are addressed fruitfully only if one begins by acknowledging that databases are mechanisms for communication involving judgments and interpretations by intelligent and knowledgeable users. The main contributions of this paper are our conclusions that (a) information system ontologies should take into consideration a perspective of the philosophy and history of science, and (b) hermeneutics as construed by Gadamer (1975, 1979) constitutes a place from which we can understand the tasks of information ontologists and database users.
Designing an Open Agent System for Book-Trading

The present work focuses in the implementation of an open system for book-trading based in the Agent paradigm. For enabling openness an agent infrastructure is provided allowing at execution time a newly incoming buyer agent to conciliate its way of interacting with the system rather than being done at design time. The proposal considers the disambiguation of the possible divergences that could arise at three levels: semantics, communication and interaction.
Adaptive Analysis for Precise and Efficient Error Checking

In this paper we study the effects of analysis precision on automated error detection. We measure the impact of flow-sensitivity, context-sensitivity, and different types of pointer analysis on the accuracy of several error checking problems. We find that different problems can require vastly different levels of precision, so no fixed degree of precision is ideal for all cases. To solve this problem, we introduce an adaptive dataflow analysis algorithm that adjusts its level of precision—at a fine grain—to match the needs of the particular program and problem. We evaluate our algorithm on 14 C programs and find that it typically matches the accuracy of the most precise fixed-precision policy, at a small fraction of the cost.
Reflections of Prospective Teachers Toward a Critical Thinking-Based Pedagogical Course: A Case Study

Promoting critical thinking (CT) in an educational setting has been appraised in order to enhance learning and intellectual skills. In this study, a pedagogical course in a vocational teacher education program in Turkey was designed by integrating CT skill-based strategies/activities into the course content and CT skills were means leading to intended course objectives. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the importance of the course objectives, the attainment of the objectives, and the effectiveness of teachinglearning strategies/activities from prospective teachers’ points of view. The results revealed that although the students mostly considered the course objectives important, they did not feel competent in the attainment of all objectives especially in those related to the main topic of Learning and those requiring higher order thinking skills. On the other hand, the students considered the course activities effective for learning and for the development of thinking skills, especially, in interpreting, comparing, questioning, contrasting, and forming relationships. Keywords—Critical thinking, critical thinking-based instruction, higher order thinking skills, teacher education
Adaptor Grammars for Learning Non-Concatenative Morphology

This paper contributes an approach for expressing non-concatenative morphological phenomena, such as stem derivation in Semitic languages, in terms of a mildly context-sensitive grammar formalism. This offers a convenient level of modelling abstraction while remaining computationally tractable. The nonparametric Bayesian framework of adaptor grammars is extended to this richer grammar formalism to propose a probabilistic model that can learn word segmentation and morpheme lexicons, including ones with discontiguous strings as elements, from unannotated data. Our experiments on Hebrew and three variants of Arabic data find that the additional expressiveness to capture roots and templates as atomic units improves the quality of concatenative segmentation and stem identification. We obtain 74% accuracy in identifying triliteral Hebrew roots, while performing morphological segmentation with an F1-score of 78.1.
Type Ia Supernovae from Sub-Chandrasekhar Mass White Dwarfs

Abstract We argue that detonations of sub-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs can lead to bright explosions with light curves and spectra similar to those of observed Type Ia supernovae. Given that binary systems containing accreting sub-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs should be common, this suggests that a non-negligible fraction of the observed Type Ia supernova rate may arise from sub-Chandrasekhar mass explosions, if they can be ignited. We discuss aspects of how such explosions might be realized in nature and both merits and challenges associated with invoking sub-Chandrasekhar mass explosion models to account for observed Type Ia supernovae.
Determination of Specific Losses in the Limbs of an Epstein Frame Using a Three Epstein Frame Methodology Applied to Grain Oriented Electrical Steels

An experimental method to characterize the magnetic properties of Grain Oriented Electrical Steel in the rolling direction is proposed in this paper. It relies on the use of three 25 cm Epstein frames combined to generate three test-frames of different lengths. This enables the identification of the effective specific losses of the electrical steel when magnetization is applied along the rolling direction. As a consequence, it evidences the deviation of the loss figures obtained using the standardised Epstein test. The difference in losses is explained by the fact that the described method gives “only” the losses attached to the straight parts. The concept of the magnetic path length as defined by the standard is discussed.
OAI-PMH Harvested Collections & User Engagement

Discovery tools are used in libraries to bring together books, articles, and other resources. Research has focused on user and librarian evaluation of these tools, but there are few evaluations of non-book and non-article sources. Discovery tools can also include metadata for local collections harvested through the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Creating these harvests can be time consuming for staff, so it is important for libraries to understand if and how patrons use these records. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries (UNL Libraries) harvests metadata from local collections into the Encore discovery tool. A study was conducted to analyze patron use of OAI-harvested records. This study analyzed usage data for harvested collections obtained from different discovery sources and referrals through Encore. Google Analytics was used to evaluate searcher behavior differences between content referred through Encore and other referrals. Although discovery through Encore did not result in high numbers of traffic, there is evidence that patrons who discover records through Encore take more time looking through records than patrons using other discovery methods. This increase in time is a measure of engagement and may be reason enough for libraries to consider adding OAI-harvested collections to their discovery tool.