Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Are sesquiterpenes a good source of secondary organic cloud condensation nuclei (CCN)? Revisiting β-caryophyllene CCN

Abstract. Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) was formed in an environmental reaction chamber from the ozonolysis of β-caryophyllene (β-C) at low concentrations (5 ppb or 20 ppb). Experimental parameters were varied to characterize the effects of hydroxyl radicals, light and the presence of lower molecular weight terpene precursor (isoprene) for β-C SOA formation and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) characteristics. Changes in β-C SOA chemicophysical properties (e.g., density, volatility, oxidation state) were explored with online techniques to improve our predictive understanding of β-C CCN activity. In the absence of OH scavenger, light intensity had negligible impacts on SOA oxidation state and CCN activity. In contrast, when OH reaction was effectively suppressed (> 11 ppm scavenger), SOA showed a much lower CCN activity and slightly less oxygenated state consistent with previously reported values. Though there is significant oxidized material present (O / C > 0.25), no linear correlation existed between the mass ratio ion fragment 44 in the bulk organic mass ( f 44 ) and O / C for the β-C-O 3 system. No direct correlations were observed with other aerosol bulk ion fragment fraction ( f x ) and κ as well. A mixture of β-C and lower molecular weight terpenes (isoprene) consumed more ozone and formed SOA with distinct characteristics dependent on isoprene amounts. The addition of isoprene also improved the CCN predictive capabilities with bulk aerosol chemical information. The β-C SOA CCN activity reported here is much higher than previous studies (κ
Neurologic Complications of Celiac Disease

Neurologic complications of celiac disease (CD) include ataxia and peripheral neuropathy, which can be the presenting symptoms and signs. Early diagnosis and intervention could prevent development of further neurologic and systemic complications. Questions remain regarding the prevalence of the neurologic complications, the pathophysiological mechanisms, and the effectiveness of therapy or response to a gluten-free diet.
Women's labour market participation interacting with macroeconomic growth and family policies

Cette these recherche le lien entre l’emploi des femmes et la croissance macroeconomique en prenant en compte les effets des politiques familiales. Tandis que plusieurs etudes montrent un impact positif de l’emploi des femmes sur la croissance macroeconomique, l’impact inverse de la croissance sur l’emploi des femmes n’est pas si clair. Quelques economistes suggerent que la croissance du PIB baisse d’abord l’emploi des femmes et l’augmente seulement a mi et long terme a partir d��un certain niveau de developpement economique, mais cet impact convexe (hypothese du « U de la feminisation») n’est pas encore prouve par des etudes empiriques. Je propose donc une propre analyse empirique de l’impact de la croissance macroeconomique sur l’emploi des femmes, basee sur des donnees qui contiennent des observations de plus de 180 pays et de plus de 40 ans. La structure de la base de donnees me permet de prendre en compte des problemes d’endogeneite. Mon analyse confirme un impact convexe de la croissance macroeconomique sur l’emploi des femmes. Ce resultat montre que pour promouvoir l’emploi des femmes, on ne peut pas toujours compter sur la croissance. Des institutions promouvant l’egalite entre hommes et femmes sont necessaires pour encourager l’emploi des femmes, et surtout l’emploi des meres. Pourtant, dans de nombreux pays europeens, le caractere redistributif de plusieurs instruments de la politique familiale risque de decourager l’offre d’emploi des meres. Par consequent, il apparait essentiel de creer un eventail coherent d’instruments de politique familiale pour prevenir, en meme temps, les familles de la pauvrete et encourager l’emploi des meres et la fecondite.
Adaptive Ribbon : a Hybrid Model for MR cerebral Cortical Segmentation and Representation

The cerebral cortical segmentation is the first and important step in understanding brain anatomy and functions. While manual segmentation is time-consuming and labor-intensive, automatic segmentation remains a challenging problem. It is mainly due to the variable structure of the brain, several kinds of artifacts and restrictive body scanning methods. In this paper, we present a new adaptive ribbon model for obtaining an accurate and topologically-preserving representation of the geometric central layer of the brain cortex. Fusing region and boundary information, our approach reconstructs the cerebral cortex with the priori information as a guideline. The method is largely automatic and the results are robust to thermal noise, intensity inhomogeneities, and partial volume effect. Results and validations from various experiments including both simulated and real data are presented in this paper.
Distributional Semantics for Resolving Bridging Mentions

We explore the impact of adding distributional knowledge to a state-of-the-art coreference resolution system. By integrating features based on word and context expansions from a distributional thesaurus (DT), automatically mined IS-A relationships and shallow syntactical clues into the Berkeley system (Durrett and Klein, 2013), we are able to increase its F1 score on bridging mentions, i.e. coreferent mentions with non-identical heads, by 8.29 points. Our semantic features improve over the Web-based features of Bansal and Klein (2012). Since bridging mentions are a hard but infrequent class of coreference, this leads to merely small improvements in the overall system.
Intergroup contact and prejudice in Moroccan and Spanish users of Spanish public libraries: mediating variables and directionality of the process / Contacto intergrupal y prejuicio en usuarios marroquíes y españoles de bibliotecas públicas españolas: variables mediadoras y direccionalidad del proces

This study tests two serial models of intergroup contact in intergroup relations between users of Spanish public libraries and the directionality of the contact-prejudice relationship. Participants were selected in libraries that meet IFLA Guidelines in Barcelona (NSpaniards = 138 and NMoroccans = 89) and libraries that do not meet these guidelines in Almería (NSpaniards = 116 and NMoroccans = 100). They responded to a survey about the quantity of intergroup contact, anxiety, ethnocultural empathy, outgroup knowledge and prejudice. Several serial mediation analyses reveal a model where the indirect effect of quantity of contact in the library on prejudice was mediated by intergroup anxiety and ethnocultural empathy in Moroccans in Almería and Spaniards and Moroccans in Barcelona, and it found that the direction of this relationship is from contact to attitudes, but not attitudes to contact. These results show that the mediating power of affective variables is stronger than that of cognitive variables. Explanations about the absence of significant results in Spaniards in the Almería group are provided.
Managing microfinance with paper, pen and digital slate

India's extensive Self-Help Group (SHG) microfinance network brings formal savings and credit services to 86 million poor households. Yet, the inability to maintain high-quality records remains a persistent weakness in SHG functioning. We study this problem and present a financial record management application built on a low-cost digital slate prototype. The solution directly accepts handwritten input on ordinary paper forms and provides immediate electronic feedback. A field trial with 200 SHG members in rural India shows that the use of the digital slate solution results in shorter data recording time, fewer incorrect entries, and more complete records. The paper-pen-slate solution performs as well as, and is strongly preferred over, a purely electronic alternative. The digital slate solution is able to comfortably move between paper and digital worlds, achieving efficiency and quality gains while catering to the preferences and budgets of low-income low-literate clients.
Applied Statistical Models of Assessment and Evaluation of Instructional Efficiency

The purpose of the contemporary research was the determination of the validity and reliability of the graduating senior exit survey (GSS) as a possible supplementary instrument, to assess faculty on teaching effectiveness at a university in the southeastern US. The research approach was quantitative, and the dataset was the 426 students’ responses on specific elements of teaching effectiveness for the fall 2016 semester GSS survey at the university. Applying the Cronbach’s alpha statistic, the findings revealed the alpha for the 9 elements on the rating scale, which together assessed teaching effectiveness at the university, was . 95, an indication the elements established a scale that had practical internal stability reliability for the GSS instrument. In addition, applying the principal axis factoring with varimax rotation, indicated the three indexes of teaching effectiveness, including motivation, competence, and expertise had strong positive loadings of > . 40, and interconnected significantly with teaching effectiveness, thus endorsing the construct validity of the GSS instrument in assessing teaching efficacy. However, the research was limited to one semester analysis of the GSS instrument, which may be inadequate to establish the generalizability of the instrument as a measurement of teaching efficiency. Subsequent studies must include additional semesters to determine generalizability.
The user cost of natural resources and the optimal exploitation of two non-renewable polluting resources

We study the optimal extraction of two non-renewable resources when extraction costs depend on cumulative previous extraction. We first define a complete user cost of natural resources, including environmental damages, which allows us to greatly simplify the resolution. This framework is applied to a study of oil and coal optimal extraction. The extraction cost of oil is initially lower than the one of coal but increases more rapidly. Coal leads to higher emissions. In a business as usual scenario the optimal path is to use first only oil, before using the two resources and relying a lot on cheaper coal, until the backstop becomes profitable. When the carbon price is taken into account, the optimal path relies much less on the more polluting coal, and it may be optimal to revert to an oil only trajectory.
On the near-equality case of the Positive Mass Theorem

The Positive Mass Conjecture states that any complete asymptotically flat manifold of nonnnegative scalar curvature has nonnegative mass. Moreover, the equality case of the Positive Mass Conjecture states that in the above situation, if the mass is zero, then the Riemannian manifold must be Euclidean space. The Positive Mass Conjecture was proved by R. Schoen and S. -T. Yau for all manifolds of dimension less than 8, and it was proved by E. Witten for all spin manifolds. In this paper, we consider complete asymptotically flat manifolds of nonnegative scalar curvature that are also harmonically flat in an end. We show that, whenever the Positive Mass Theorem holds, any appropriately normalized sequence of such manifolds whose masses converge to zero must have metrics that are uniformly converging to Euclidean metrics outside a compact region. This result is an ingredient in a forthcoming proof, co-authored with H. Bray, of the Riemannian Penrose inequality in dimensions less than 8.
On topological M-theory

We construct a gauge fixed action for topological membranes on G2-manifolds such that its bosonic part is the standard membrane theory in a particular gauge. We prove that quantum mechanically the path-integral in this gauge localizes on associative submanifolds. Moreover on M ×S 1 the theory naturally reduces to the standard A-model on Calabi-Yau manifold and to a membrane theory localized on special Lagrangian submanifolds. We discuss some properties of topological membrane theory on G2-manifolds. We also generalize our construction to topological p–branes on special manifolds by exploring a relation between vector cross product structures and TFTs.
WORKING PAPER SERIES Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy Department of Economics Sep 2013 No . 163 Productivity and the Welfare of Nations

We show that the welfare of a countrys in nitely-lived representative consumer is summarized, to a rst order, by total factor productivity (TFP) and by the capital stock per capita. These variables su¢ ce to calculate welfare changes within a country, as well as welfare di¤erences across countries. The result holds regardless of the type of production technology and the degree of product market competition. It applies to open economies as well, if TFP is constructed using domestic absorption, instead of gross domestic product, as the measure of output. Welfare relevant TFP needs to be constructed with prices and quantities as perceived by consumers, not rms. Thus, factor shares need to be calculated using after-tax wages and rental rates, and will typically sum to less than one. These results are used to calculate welfare gaps and growth rates in a sample of advanced countries with high-quality data on output, hours worked, and capital. We also present evidence for a broader sample that includes both advanced and developing countries. JEL: D24, D90, E20, O47
Role of crotoxin, a phospholipase A2 isolated from Crotalus durissus terrificus snake venom, on inflammatory and immune reactions.

BACKGROUND: Crotoxin (CTX) is a potent neurotoxin from Crotalus durissus terrificus snake venom (CdtV) composed of two subunits: one without catalytic activity (crotapotin), and a basic phospolipase A2. Recent data have demonstrated that CdtV or CTX inhibit some immune and inflammatory reactions. AIM: The aim of this paper was to investigate the mechanisms involved in these impaired responses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Male Swiss mice were bled before and at different intervals of time after subcutaneous injection of CTX or bovine serum albumin (BSA) (control animals). The effect of treatments on circulating leukocyte mobilisation and on serum levels of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, interferon (IFN)-gamma and corticosterone were investigated. Spleen cells from treated animals were also stimulated in vitro with concanavalin A to evaluate the profile of IL-4, IL-6, IL-10 or IFN-gamma secretion. Cytokine levels were determined by immunoenzymatic assay and corticosterone levels by radioimmunoassay. To investigate the participation of endogenous corticosteroid on the effects evoked by CTX, animals were treated with metyrapone, an inhibitor of glucocorticoid synthesis, previous to CTX treatment. RESULTS: Marked alterations on peripheral leukocyte distribution, characterised by a drop in the number of lymphocytes and monocytes and an increase in the number of neutrophils, were observed after CTX injection. No such alteration was observed in BSA-treated animals. Increased levels of IL-6, IL-10 and corticosterone were also detected in CTX-injected animals. IFN-gamma levels were not modified after treatments. In contrast, spleen cells obtained from CTX-treated animals and stimulated with concanavalin A secreted less IL-10 and IL-4 in comparison with cells obtained from control animals. Metyrapone pretreatment was effective only to reverse the neutrophilia observed after CTX administration. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that CTX may contribute to the deficient inflammatory and immune responses induced by crude CdtV. CTX induces endogenous mechanisms that are responsible, at least in part, for these impaired responses.
Can transformational managers control turnover intention

Orientation and research purpose: Employee turnover is a complex phenomenon that has negative consequences for organisations. The purpose of this study was to measure the correlation between transformational leadership style and turnover intention to control the employee turnover rate in organisations. Research method: This study utilised a two-stage clustering method and web-based survey research with a correlational design to collect the data. A total of 356 responses were collected from 14 clusters in Southern California; however, the final selected data for analysis came from 210 subjects with a cluster-sampling design of (14 × 15). Main findings and managerial implications: This study concluded that the transformational leadership style has a negative correlation with turnover intention. Managers who adopt this style of leadership can expect lower rates of turnover; thus, they can stay competitive in an unstable economy and achieve enhanced productivity, improved performance and reduction in expenses.
Student Time Allocation and Educational Production Functions

In this paper we aim to remedy some shortcomings in the economic literature on university student absenteeism and academic performance. We start by introducing a simple theoretical model in which students decide the optimal allocation of their time between lecture attendance, self-study and leisure. Under some specific assumptions, we find a positive relationship between lecture attendance and time devoted to self-study in each course, from which we infer that estimates of student performance regressions which omit self-study might be biased. Thus, we estimate an academic performance regression using data from first year undergraduate students of economics in the academic year 1998-99 at the University of Ancona (Italy) and find evidence that once self-study time is controlled for, the positive and significant effect of lecture attendance for some courses disappears. This is likely to be important especially when student performance regressions are used to evaluate the effectiveness of course attendance and to inform the debate on the introduction of mandatory attendance on some courses to enhance student performance.
Post-Exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Infection: A Clinical Trial Comparing Lopinavir/Ritonavir versus Atazanavir Each with Zidovudine/Lamivudine

Background A clinical trial comparing the rate of discontinuation and tolerability of two post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) regimens was performed. Methods A total of 255 individuals attending the emergency rooms of six hospitals for exposure to HIV and criteria to receive PEP were randomized to receive zidovudine/ lamivudine plus either lopinavir/ritonavir (n=131) or atazanavir (n=124; day 0). The primary end point was the rate of PEP discontinuation before day 28 of follow-up. Secondary end points were incidence of side effects, follow-up at days 90 and 180 and rate of seroconversions. Results A total of 55 patients (29 in lopinavir/ritonavir and 26 in atazanavir arms) did not attend the first scheduled appointment (day 1) and were excluded from the analysis. The rate of discontinuation before day 28 owing to any cause was similar between groups (37/102 [36%] in lopinavir/ritonavir and 35/98 [36%] in atazanavir arms, P=0.82). Adverse events were the reason for discontinuation or switching of PEP in 33 individuals (16/102 [16%] in the lopinavir/ritonavir arm and 17/98 [17%] in the atazanavir arm, P=0.84). Adverse events were reported in 92/200 (46%) of individuals on PEP who attend at least the day 1 appointment (50/102 [49%] in the lopinavir/ ritonavir arm and 42/98 [43%] in the atazanavir arm, P=0.38). There were no seroconversions. Conclusions The rate of discontinuation of PEP before day 28 was similar with zidovudine/lamivudine plus either lopinavir/ritonavir or atazanavir. The rate of discontinuation of PEP because of adverse events was low in both arms. Almost 50% of the patients of both arms suffered side effects. New strategies are needed to improve the tolerance.
Behavior of Scaled Steel-Concrete Composite Girders and Steel Monopole Towers Strengthened with CFRP

Cost-effective rehabilitation and/or strengthening of steel structures currently demanded by the telecommunications industry and transportation departments. Rehabilitation is often required due to cross-section losses resulting from corrosion damage and strengthening may be required due to changes in the use of a structure. Current strengthening techniques, have several disadvantages including their cost, need to match the surface configuration of the existing structure, poor fatigue performance and the need for ongoing maintenance due to continued corrosion attack. The current research program makes use of new high modulus types of carbon fiber for strengthening steel structures. The research program, currently in progress, includes phases to determine the appropriate resin and adhesive for wet lay-up of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets and bonding of CFRP strips, respectively. Test results of three scaled monopoles showed significant stiffness increases prior to yield. A significant stiffness as well as ultimate strength increase was found for the first steel-concrete composite girder tested in the program.
Survivor of Suicide Loss Support Group Facilitators: Do Peers and Professionals Differ?

ABSTRACT Suicide is a major public health issue affecting countless people each year worldwide. Support groups are one of the few resources available to survivors of suicide loss to aid the healing journey. This study examined differences among support group facilitators based on status as a peer, professional, or peer/professional. Differences emerged among the facilitator types, particularly on attitudes of group effectiveness, the role of sharing stories in the group, when loss survivors should attend, and who should facilitate groups. The results provide important insights about group facilitation differences, though further research is necessary to understand effective approaches. A degree in social work was the most common educational background for facilitators who identified as professionals. As social workers often facilitate groups or work alongside peers in the provision of support groups across a variety of areas, the findings provide insights regarding facilitation differences to which social workers may need to attend.
Trade-off among different anti-herbivore defence strategies along an altitudinal gradient

We found that Salvia nubicola distributed along a broad altitudinal gradient developed a range of defence strategies against insect herbivores. The strategies, however, do not seem to be used simultaneously in all populations even though most of them are correlated with the altitudinal gradient along which herbivore pressure is decreasing. Our study thus shows the importance of simultaneous study of different defence strategies since understanding trade-offs among them could be necessary for detecting the mechanisms by which plants are able to cope with changes in plant-herbivore interactions as a consequence of future climate change.
Moderate deviations for stabilizing functionals in geometric probability

The purpose of the present paper is to establish explicit bounds on moderate deviation probabilities for a rather general class of bounded geometric functionals enjoying the exponential stabilization property. Compared to our previous work [1], the price to pay for the considerably larger generality of our estimates is a narrower scale range in which our moderate deviation results hold; we argue that a range limitation seems inevitable under our general assumptions though. Our proof techniques rely on cumulant expansions and cluster measures and yield completely explicit bounds on deviation probabilities. The examples of geometric functionals we treat include bounded statistics of random packing models and random graphs arising in computational geometry, such as Euclidean nearest neighbor graphs, Voronoi graphs and sphere of influence graphs.