Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fabrication of Meso-Porous Sintered Metal Thin Films by Selective Etching of Silica Based Sacrificial Template

Meso-porous metal materials have enhanced surface energies offering unique surface properties with potential applications in chemical catalysis, molecular sensing and selective separation. In this paper, commercial 20 nm diameter metal nano-particles, including silver and copper were blended with 7 nm silica nano-particles by shear mixing. The resulted powders were cold-sintered to form dense, hybrid thin films. The sacrificial silica template was then removed by selective etching in 12 wt% hydrofluoric acid solutions for 15 min to reveal a purely metallic meso-porous thin film material. The impact of the initial silica nano-particle diameter (7–20 nm) as well as the sintering pressure (5–20 ton·m−2) and etching conditions on the morphology and properties of the final nano-porous thin films were investigated by porometry, pyknometery, gas and liquid permeation and electron microscopy. Furthermore, the morphology of the pores and particle aggregation during shear mixing were assessed through cross-sectioning by focus ion beam milling. It is demonstrated that meso-pores ranging between 50 and 320 nm in average diameter and porosities up to 47% can be successfully formed for the range of materials tested.
Susceptibility to exacerbation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

BACKGROUND Although we know that exacerbations are key events in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), our understanding of their frequency, determinants, and effects is incomplete. In a large observational cohort, we tested the hypothesis that there is a frequent-exacerbation phenotype of COPD that is independent of disease severity. METHODS We analyzed the frequency and associations of exacerbation in 2138 patients enrolled in the Evaluation of COPD Longitudinally to Identify Predictive Surrogate Endpoints (ECLIPSE) study. Exacerbations were defined as events that led a care provider to prescribe antibiotics or corticosteroids (or both) or that led to hospitalization (severe exacerbations). Exacerbation frequency was observed over a period of 3 years. RESULTS Exacerbations became more frequent (and more severe) as the severity of COPD increased; exacerbation rates in the first year of follow-up were 0.85 per person for patients with stage 2 COPD (with stage defined in accordance with Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease [GOLD] stages), 1.34 for patients with stage 3, and 2.00 for patients with stage 4. Overall, 22% of patients with stage 2 disease, 33% with stage 3, and 47% with stage 4 had frequent exacerbations (two or more in the first year of follow-up). The single best predictor of exacerbations, across all GOLD stages, was a history of exacerbations. The frequent-exacerbation phenotype appeared to be relatively stable over a period of 3 years and could be predicted on the basis of the patient's recall of previous treated events. In addition to its association with more severe disease and prior exacerbations, the phenotype was independently associated with a history of gastroesophageal reflux or heartburn, poorer quality of life, and elevated white-cell count. CONCLUSIONS Although exacerbations become more frequent and more severe as COPD progresses, the rate at which they occur appears to reflect an independent susceptibility phenotype. This has implications for the targeting of exacerbation-prevention strategies across the spectrum of disease severity. (Funded by GlaxoSmithKline; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00292552.)
Acute salivary gland hypofunction in the duct ligation model in the absence of inflammation

Objective The commonly associated aetiology of salivary gland inflammation and salivary hypofunction has led to the widely held belief that inflammation causes salivary gland hypofunction. Indeed, our own recent study seemed to support this contention. Here, we tested the hypothesis that, in an acute duct ligation model, eliminating inflammation the submandibular gland would recover normal function. Materials and methods Ligation of the rat submandibular gland excretory duct for 24 h was used to induce inflammation and salivary gland hypofunction. A group of duct ligated rats was compared with a second group given dexamethasone, on the day of duct ligation. Twenty-four hours later salivary gland function was assessed and salivary glands were collected. Results Histology and myeloperoxidase activity assay revealed a profound decrease in inflammatory cell infiltration of ligated glands from rats given dexamethasone, compared with ligated glands in the absence of dexamethasone. Salivary flow rate evoked by methacholine was decreased (P < 0.01) by approximately 56% (ligated vs control, 79 ± 9 μl min−1 g−1vs 177 ± 11 μl min−1 g−1) and salivary flow from ligated dexamethasone-treated and ligated glands was similar. Conclusion Despite eliminating the inflammatory reaction in the ligated gland, salivary hypofunction was not reversed, suggesting that other mechanisms must be at work in the ligation-induced salivary hypofunction.
Health insurance patterns and transitions: consequences for the physical and economic well-being of individuals and families

viii CHAPTER 1. BACKGROUND 1 Counting the Uninsured 1 Consequences of Being Uninsured 7 Goals of This Investigation 9 CHAPTER 2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 11 Purpose and Acquisition of Health Insurance 12 Family Insurance Patterns, Spells, and Transitions 17 Patterns 19 Spells and Transitions 21 Weil-Being 26 Child Weil-Being 26 Family Weil-Being 30 Investigating Two Particular Domains 32 Summary 33 CHAPTER 3. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION 35 Ecological Theory of Human Development 35 From Ecological Theory to an Adapted Behavioral Model 39 Research Questions and Hypotheses 43 Conceptual and Empirical Hypotheses 44 CHAPTER 4. METHODS 48 Data and Sample 48 Time Period Definitions 50 The Sample of Individuals and Families 51 Weighting and Variance Estimation 55 Variable Descriptions 58 Predisposing Characteristics Variables 59 Enabling Resource Variables 63 Well-Being Outcome Indicators 74 Empirical Strategy 80 Empirical Model 80
Research Paper Series Globalisation and Labour Markets Offshoring, Labour Market Institutions and the Elasticity of Labour Demand the Centre Acknowledges Financial Support from the Leverhulme Trust under Programme Grant F114/bf Offshoring, Labour Market Institutions and the Elasticity of Labour Dema

Acknowledgements The present paper provides an extension to the analysis of the elasticity of labour demand that was published in Chapter 3 of the OECD Employment Outlook 2007, " OECD workers in the global economy: increasingly vulnerable? " The authors would like to thank Sébastien Martin for excellent research assistance and Andrea Bassanini, Martine Durand, and John Martin for very helpful comments and suggestions. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or its member states. All remaining errors are our own. Financial support from the Leverhulme Trust under Programme Grant F114 /BF is also gratefully acknowledged. Abstract This paper analyses the evolution of the elasticity of labour demand and the role of offshoring therein using industry-level data for a large number of OECD countries. The first main finding is that the wage elasticity of labour demand has increased substantially. The finding that employment has become increasingly sensitivity to wages is shown to be robust to a wide variety of econometric specifications of labour demand, although some of this association may reflect a trend increase in the speed of adjustment rather than an increase in the long-run wage elasticity. A second finding is that more intensive offshoring is associated with more elastic labour demand, consistent with increased offshoring having expanded the flexibility of firms to adjust the mix of domestic workers and foreign value-added in production when relative factor prices change. More in particular, the average elasticity of labour demand appears to be about 30% to 40% larger in absolute value than the counter-factual elasticity which would have prevailed had offshoring not been possible. Increases of this magnitude might well have important implications for job security and worker bargaining power. Finally, we find some evidence that strict employment protection legislation weakens the link between offshoring and higher labour demand elasticity. This suggests that the impact of offshoring on labour demand elasticity depends on the national institutional environment.
Delay and rate constrained transmission policies over wireless channels

We study delay and rate constrained transmission of bursty traffic over wireless channels. We characterize the minimum power requirements via bounds for both single user and multiuser downlink problems, using a class of randomized first-come first-served policies. We show that a larger tolerable delay leads to power reduction, even for single-user Gaussian channels; a source coding interpretation is offered for the result. Further, we show that traffic with maximum-delay constraints requires more power than the same traffic with average-delay constraints.
Author ' s personal copy Research paper Response growth using a low-frequency suppressor

Numerous psychophysical studies on two-tone suppression have been carried out. More recently, researchers have attempted to relate the magnitude of suppression to the level of suppressee. [Wojtczak, M. , Viemeister, N.F. , 2005. Psychophysical response growth under suppression. In: Pressnitzer, D. , de Cheveigne, A. , McAdams, S. , Collet, L. (Eds.), Auditory Signal Processing: Physiology, Psychoaccoustics, and Models. Springer, New York, pp. 67–74] demonstrated that the magnitude of suppression for a higher-frequency, fixed-level suppressor decreases with increasing level of the suppressee. This suggests a linearization of the basilar membrane response in presence of a high-frequency suppressor. The present study expands these results to a low-frequency suppressor of varying intensity levels. Detection of a 10-ms, 4.0-kHz probe was measured under different forward-masking conditions: one with a 200-ms, 4.0-kHz masker (suppressee) presented with no suppressor and another with the same masker paired with a 2.2-kHz, 200-ms suppressor. The 4.0-kHz masker level was varied adaptively and a range of probe levels was used to measure the growth of suppression. Results indicate that (1) the magnitude of suppression increases with increasing suppressor level and (2) generally, the probe level was not related to the magnitude of suppression. 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Relationship between Personality Traits and Performance among School Principals

This research seeks to explore the relationship between personality traits and performance among school principals. The main objective of this research is to analyze the relationship between principals’ personality traits such as introversion, extroversion neuroticism and emotional stability between several performance dimensions. A descriptive correlation research method was employed a sample size of 50 principals and 176 teachers in elementary schools, middle schools and high schools were selected from the total population of principals and teachers in the academic year of 2008-2009 through the stratified sampling method. The Eysenck questionnaire used to assess principal's personality. Weiss K performance evolution questionnaire used to assess principals' performance. Reliability of the questionnaires determined 0.81 and 0.98 respectively. Data analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple regression, one way- analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Tukey test. Results showed that there is a positive relationship between principal’s personality characteristics of introversion and extroversion and performance dimensions, and 35% of score variance in leadership, human relationships and organizational dimensions was explainable by extroversion and introversion scores. Also there is a negative relationship between neuroticism and emotional stability and performance dimensions, and 40% of scores variance in professional and educational dimensions was explainable by neuroticism and emotional stability of principals.
Inflation, Unemployment, Labor Force Change in European Countries

Linear relationships between inflation, unemployment, and labor force are obtained for two European countries - Austria and France. The best fit models of inflation as a linear and lagged function of labor force change rate and unemployment explain more than 90% of observed variation (R2 greater than 0.9). Labor force projections for Austria provide a forecast of decreasing inflation for the next ten years. In France, inflation lags by four years behind labor force change and unemployment allowing for an exact prediction at a four-year horizon. Standard error of such a prediction is lower than 1%. The results confirm those obtained for the USA and Japan and provide strong evidences in favor of the concept of labor force growth as the only driving force behind unemployment and inflation.
Higgs potential in a minimal S3 invariant extension of the standard model

Minimal ${S}_{3}$ invariant Higgs potential with real soft ${S}_{3}$ breaking masses is investigated. It is required that without having a problem with triviality, all physical Higgs bosons, except one neutral one, become heavy $\ensuremath{\gtrsim}10\mathrm{TeV}$ in order to sufficiently suppress flavor-changing neutral currents. There exist three nonequivalent soft mass terms that can be characterized according to their discrete symmetries, and the one that breaks ${S}_{3}$ completely. The ${S}_{2}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ invariant vacuum expectation values (VEVs) of the Higgs fields are the most economic VEVs in the sense that the freedom of VEVs can be completely absorbed into the Yukawa couplings so that it is possible to derive, without referring to the details of the VEVs, the most general form for the fermion mass matrices in minimal ${S}_{3}$ extension of the standard model. We find that except for the completely broken case of the soft terms, the ${S}_{2}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ invariant VEVs are unique VEVs that satisfy the requirement of heavy Higgs bosons. It is found that they also correspond to a local minimum in the completely broken case.
Parameter tuning in pointwise adaptation using a propagation approach

This paper discusses the problem of adaptive estimation of a univariate object like the value of a regression function at a given point or a linear functional in a linear inverse problem. We consider an adaptive procedure originated from Lepski [Theory Probab. Appl. 35 (1990) 454-466. ] that selects in a data-driven way one estimate out of a given class of estimates ordered by their variability. A serious problem with using this and similar procedures is the choice of some tuning parameters like thresholds. Numerical results show that the theoretically recommended proposals appear to be too conservative and lead to a strong oversmoothing effect. A careful choice of the parameters of the procedure is extremely important for getting the reasonable quality of estimation. The main contribution of this paper is the new approach for choosing the parameters of the procedure by providing the prescribed behavior of the resulting estimate in the simple parametric situation. We establish a non-asymptotical "oracle" bound, which shows that the estimation risk is, up to a logarithmic multiplier, equal to the risk of the "oracle" estimate that is optimally selected from the given family. A numerical study demonstrates a good performance of the resulting procedure in a number of simulated examples.
Stationarity and the Term Structure of Interest Rates: A Characterisation of Stationary and Unit Root Yield Curves

The nature of yield curve dynamics and the determinants of the integration order of yields are investigated using a benchmark economy in which the logarithmic expectations theory holds and the regularity condition of a limiting yield and limiting term premium is satisfied. By considering a zero-coupon yield curve with a complete term structure of maturities, a linear vector autoregressive process is constructed that provides an arbitrarily accurate moving average representation of the complete yield curve as its cross-sectional dimension (n) goes to infinity. We use this to prove the following novel results. First, any I(2) component vanishes owing to the almost sure (a.s.) convergence of the innovations to yields, vt(n), as n. Second, the yield curve is stationary if and only if nvt(n) converges a.s. , or equivalently the innovations to log discount bond prices converge a.s. ; otherwise yields are I(1). A necessary condition for either stationarity or the absence of arbitrage is that the limiting yield is constant over time. Since the time-varying component of term premia is small in various fixed-income markets, these results provide insight into the critical determinants of the stationarity properties of the term structure.
Opportunities for use of exact statistical equations

Abstract Exact structure function equations are an efficient means of obtaining asymptotic laws such as inertial range laws, as well as all measurable effects of inhomogeneity and anisotropy that cause deviations from such laws. “Exact” means that the equations are obtained from the Navier–Stokes equation or other hydrodynamic equations without any approximation. A pragmatic definition of local homogeneity lies within the exact equations because terms that explicitly depend on the rate of change of measurement location appear within the exact equations; an analogous statement is true for local stationarity. An exact definition of averaging operations is required for the exact equations. Careful derivations of several inertial range laws have appeared in the literature recently in the form of theorems. These theorems give the relationships of the energy dissipation rate to the structure function of acceleration increment multiplied by velocity increment and to both the trace of and the components of the third-order velocity structure functions. These laws are efficiently derived from the exact velocity structure function equations. In some respects, the results obtained herein differ from the previous theorems. The acceleration–velocity structure function is useful for obtaining the energy dissipation rate in particle tracking experiments provided that the effects of inhomogeneity are estimated by means of displacing the measurement location.
Hello To Trans-Fatty Acids and Good-bye To Fatty Liver in Dairy Cows

In dairy cattle, the period of transition from late pregnancy to early lactation is characterized by dramatic changes in nutrient demand that necessitate coordinated changes in body tissue metabolism to meet requirements of energy, glucose and amino acids by the mammary gland (Bauman and Curie, 1980; Bell, 1995; Overton et al., 2001). Failure of the transition cow to appropriately adjust her metabolism to support increased nutrient requirements of early lactation may lead to metabolic disorders, suboptimal milk production and compromised postpartum reproductive efficiency. One of the key metabolic adaptations that occur in support of lactation involves extensive mobilization of body fat to meet the increased demand for energy. However, if the rate of non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) mobilization from adipose tissue exceeds that of their metabolization in the liver, the syndrome of hepatic lipidosis or fatty liver may result, which can ultimately lead to prolonged recovery from other disorders, increased incidence of health problems, and compromised liver function (Drackley, 1999; Grummer, 1993; Veenhuizen et al., 1991). Therefore, the research missions of our laboratory are 1) to identify dietary components that can reduce periparturient metabolic upsets due to decreased feed intake, 2) improve milk production without negatively affecting its composition, and 3) stimulate ovarian activity to improve postpartum reproductive efficiency in dairy cattle.
Japanese Americans

The History and Culture of a People highlights the enormous contributions of Japanese Americans in history, civil rights, politics, economic development, arts, literature, film, popular culture, sports, and religious landscapes. It not only provides context to important events in Japanese American history and in-depth information about the lives and backgrounds of well-known Japanese Americans, but also captures the essence of everyday life for Japanese Americans as they have adjusted their identities, established communities, and interacted with other ethnic groups. This innovative volume will become the standard resource for exploring why the Japanese came to America more than 130 years ago, where they settled, and what experiences played a role in forming the distinctive Japanese American identity.
Simplified dynamics of human and mammalian neocortical neurons.

The behavior of human and mammalian neocortical neurons is governed by the interplay of approximately a dozen ion currents. Due to the complexity of the resulting dynamics, it is sometimes advantageous to resort to simpler systems in order to gain insight into the relationship between underlying dynamical principles and biophysics. This paper presents a new and extremely simple approximation to the dynamics of neocortical neurons based on just four simulated ion currents: I(Na), I(K), I(T), and I(AHP). The formulation incorporates Ohm's law plus explicit representation of Na(+), K(+), and Ca(2+)equilibrium potentials, yet mathematical simplicity is retained by restriction of the dynamics to cubic nonlinearities. The resulting equations produce a good approximation to spike shapes, firing rates, and bursting behavior throughout the physiological range. Analysis of the equations suggests that four unique dynamical regimes form the basis for different categories of neocortical neurons. Synaptic coupling between these model neurons demonstrates their potential utility in simulations by producing network models of bursting and of short-term memory function.
Five AI Challenges in Strategyproof Computing

Computational systems are now distributed by default, and designed, owned and used by multiple self-interested parties. In the face of this growing system complexity, we need a unifying design paradigm, that supports continued innovation and competition while promoting easy deployment, operation, and use. Focusing on the central problem of resource allocation—the arbitration of shared resources among the competing demands of users—we introduce a paradigm of strategyproof computing, a vision in which individual users can treat other resources as their own. We layout the benefits of strategyproof computing, and identify five AI challenges in making this vision a reality.