Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Welfare Reform Less Than Meets the Eye

welfare reform, it is valuable to look back over nearly six years of experience with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act to see exactly what welfare reform can and cannot accomplish. Welfare reform has not been the disaster predicted by its critics, but neither has it been the extraordinary success hailed by its supporters. Welfare reform has led to a substantial reduction in welfare rolls, largely by speeding the exit of those individuals who were most likely to have left eventually even in the absence of reform. Although the decline in welfare rolls has slowed and even reversed in some states as a result of the slowing economy, reform itself, and in particular sanctions, has played an important roll in reducing the number of people receiving cash welfare benefits. On the other hand, welfare reform has been far less successful in meeting most of its other goals. Neither time limits nor work requirements have been vigorously enforced. Welfare reform has failed to significantly reduce out-of-wedlock births to young women. And, most important, it has not enabled former recipients to become independent and self-sufficient. In the end, our experience with PRWORA shows the limits of welfare reform. The longterm answer to poverty and dependency does not lie with any government program, no matter how well intentioned. Congress needs to go beyond proposals that simply tinker with welfare and begin to phase out government assistance in favor of private charity. At the same time Congress should aggressively pursue policies that promote economic growth and job creation. When it comes to welfare, we should end it, not mend it. Welfare Reform Less Than Meets the Eye
Application of the M/Pareto process to modeling broadband traffic streams

In this paper we examine the usefulness of the M/Pareto process as a model for broadband traffic. We show that the queueing performance of the M/Pareto process depends upon the level of aggregation in the process. When the level of aggregation is high, the M/Pareto converges to a long-range-dependent Gaussian process. For lower levels of aggregation, the M/Pareto is capable of modeling the queueing performance of real broadband traffic traces.
Non-local memory hysteresis in a pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM)

In a system using PAMs, a big research effort has been carried out to solve the control problem, in which the nonlinear dynamics of a PAM were left behind as a disturbance to that system. The inherent dynamics in a PAM is due to its constitutional materials which cause hysteresis during cyclic contraction/extension. Prior knowledge of the hysteresis behavior in a PAM may simplify the associated control system. In this paper, the hysteretic behavior of a PAM is investigated and the results show much similarity to the presliding regime in the friction of mechanical contacting elements. The PAM hysteresis is thus generalized and represented by a lumped-parameter model, which is useful for control design.
Phenotypes-nitrosourea in Human Cell Lines with Different DNA Repair N-Ethyl-N Toxicity , Mutagenicity , and Mutational Spectra of Updated Version

We examined the toxicity, mutagenicity, and mutational spectra of.Vi'tln l-A-nitroMiiirea (ENU) in three Epstein-Barr virus-transformed hu man lymphoblastoid cell lines, each with a different DNA repair phenotype. One cell line lacks O'-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (ACT) activity; another, derived from a patient with xeroderma pigmentosum, complementation group A, lacks nucleotide excision repair (NER) capa bility, and the third is competent in both repair functions. â€¢ M -induced toxicity and mutagenicity at the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase locus were increased to a similar degree relative to the repaircompetent cells in both AGT-deficient and NER-deficient cells. We determined the mutational spectra for ENU by identifying DNA sequence changes at the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase locus in at least 26 clones resistant to 6-thioguanine from each cell line. Of the characterized mutations, 89% were single-base pair substitutions. Tran sitions and transversions were found at AT and GC base pairs in all three cell lines. The biggest difference within the spectra was in the rate of transitions at GC base pairs. Compared to the repair-competent cell line, this mutation was elevated about 8-fold in the AGT-deficient cells and about 3-fold in the NER-deficient cells. We conclude that both AGT and NER play an important role in protecting human cells from the toxic and mutagenic effects of ENU. Furthermore, the mutational spectra suggest that both of these repair systems participate in the repair of 06-ethyl-
Impact of Coronary Tortuosity on Coronary Pressure: Numerical Simulation Study

Background Coronary tortuosity (CT) is a common coronary angiographic finding. Whether CT leads to an apparent reduction in coronary pressure distal to the tortuous segment of the coronary artery is still unknown. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of CT on coronary pressure distribution by numerical simulation. Methods 21 idealized models were created to investigate the influence of coronary tortuosity angle (CTA) and coronary tortuosity number (CTN) on coronary pressure distribution. A 2D incompressible Newtonian flow was assumed and the computational simulation was performed using finite volume method. CTA of 30°, 60°, 90°, 120° and CTN of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 were discussed under both steady and pulsatile conditions, and the changes of outlet pressure and inlet velocity during the cardiac cycle were considered. Results Coronary pressure distribution was affected both by CTA and CTN. We found that the pressure drop between the start and the end of the CT segment decreased with CTA, and the length of the CT segment also declined with CTA. An increase in CTN resulted in an increase in the pressure drop. Conclusions Compared to no-CT, CT can results in more decrease of coronary blood pressure in dependence on the severity of tortuosity and severe CT may cause myocardial ischemia.
Farmer perceptions of sustainable agriculture practices and drought risk reduction in Nebraska, USA

Abstract Social factors, such as farming methods, have an impact on farm vulnerability to drought, but have received little research or policy attention. Some researchers and advocates have argued that sustainable agriculture systems are less vulnerable to climate risk than conventional systems because sustainable agriculture requires producers to have skills promoting adaptability. In this paper, we investigate producers’ perceptions on the use of sustainable agriculture in reducing drought risk, and what they believe would help them better adapt to drought. We surveyed and interviewed farmer members of two sustainable agriculture organizations in Nebraska, USA, during a multi-year drought period from 1999 to 2007. Producers reported implementing a range of practices, such as organic soil building techniques, reduced tillage, targeted crop selection and diversification of crop and livestock production systems, to reduce their drought vulnerability. Although some practices were implemented specifically to reduce drought risk, producers felt that the practices they implemented as part of their normal operation were largely responsible for reducing their risk. Respondents held mixed views on the effects of insurance and farm programs on their drought management decisions. Finally, producers indicated that their ability to adapt to drought is limited by a number of barriers, especially a lack of capital and the need to respond to markets and maximize production to maintain cash flows.
EGT2 gene transcription is induced predominantly by Swi5 in early G1

In a screen for cell cycle-regulated genes in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we have identified a gene, EGT2, which is involved in cell separation in the G1 stage of the cell cycle. Transcription of EGT2 is tightly regulated in a cell cycle-dependent manner. Transcriptional levels peak at the boundary of mitosis and early G1 The transcription factors responsible for EGT2 expression in early G1 are Swi5 and, to a lesser extent, Ace2. Swi5 is involved in the transcriptional activation of the HO gene during late G1 and early S phase, and Ace2 induces CTS1 transcription during early and late G1 We show that Swi5 activates EGT2 transcription as soon as it enters the nucleus at the end of mitosis in a concentration-dependent manner. Since Swi5 is unstable in the nucleus, its level drops rapidly, causing termination of EGT2 transcription before cells are committed to the next cell cycle. However, Swi5 is still able to activate transcription of HO in late G1 in conjunction with additional activators such as Swi4 and Swi6.
Cytokines and Chemokines as Biomarkers of Community-Acquired Bacterial Infection

Routinely used biomarkers of bacterial etiology of infection, such as C-reactive protein and procalcitonin, have limited usefulness for evaluation of infections since their expression is enhanced by a number of different conditions. Therefore, several inflammatory cytokines and chemokines were analyzed with sera from patients hospitalized for moderate bacterial and viral infectious diseases. In total, 57 subjects were enrolled: 21 patients with community-acquired bacterial infections, 26 patients with viral infections, and 10 healthy subjects (control cohorts). The laboratory analyses were performed using Luminex technology, and the following molecules were examined: IL-1Ra, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, INF-γ, MIP-1β, and MCP-1. Bacterial etiology of infection was associated with significantly (P < 0.001) elevated serum concentrations of IL-1Ra, IL-2, IL-6, and TNF-α in comparison to levels observed in the sera of patients with viral infections. In the patients with bacterial infections, IL-1Ra and IL-8 demonstrated positive correlation with C-reactive protein, whereas, IL-1Ra, TNF-α, and MCP-1 correlated with procalcitonin. Furthermore, elevated levels of IL-1Ra, IL-6, and TNF-α decreased within 3 days of antibiotic therapy to levels observed in control subjects. The results show IL-1Ra as a potential useful biomarker of community-acquired bacterial infection.
Effect of grit on performance in Crossfit in advanced and novice athletes

Sport performance is affected by physical as well psychological traits. The psychological trait grit has been shown to effect athletic performance. This study attempted to identify the level of grit in novice and advanced Crossfit athletes in order to determine if levels of grit play a role related to performance in the sport of fitness known as Crossfit. Male and female Crossfit athletes (n=50) completed the 12-Point Grit Scale test. The 12-Point Grit Scale is a 12-question instrument with two subscales (Perseverance of Effort, PE; Consistency of Interest, CI). The subscale scores and total grit scale scores were compared between the novice and advanced Crossfit athletes with independent t-tests (α≤0.05). The advanced Crossfit athletes (n=23) scored significantly greater than the novice athletes (n=27) for both the 12-Item Grit scale as well as the CI subscale (p<0.05). There was not a statistical difference in the PE subscale scores between the novice and advanced Crossfit athletes (p<0.05). As hypothesized, this study found grit levels to be greater among advanced Crossfit athletes suggesting that grit may play a role in successful participation in the sport of fitness known as Crossfit. Athletes and coaches could use this information in the training environment in a way that maximizes an athlete’s level of grit in order to get a competitive edge. Athletes and coaches could implement the findings of the current study by understanding the importance of practice, finding purpose in why they train in the first place, developing a sense of hope, and joining an existing gritty group of athletes.
Time domain ultrasonic signal characterization for defects in thin unsurfaced hardwood lumber.

One of the major users of thin, unsurfaced hardwood lumber is the pallet manufacturing industry. Almost all manufactured products spend part of their life cycle on a pallet during transportation. This makes pallets a critical component of both the transportation and manufacturing sectors of the economy. Many newly constructed wooden pallets, however, are not currently manufactured to deliver the best performance (strength, durability, and safety)—despite interest by pallet users and pallet manufacturers—because manual grading and sorting of parts is impractical due to processing speeds and volume, labor costs, and laborer skill. This paper describes initial work aiming to create an automated grading/sorting system for hardwood pallet parts using ultrasonic. Experiments were conducted on yellow-poplar ( Liriodendron tulipifera , L.) and red oak ( Quercus rubra , L.) deckboards using pressure-contact, rolling transducers in a pitch-catch arrangement. Sound and unsound knots, cross grain, bark pockets, holes, splits, and decay were characterized using six ultrasound variables calculated from the received waveforms. Our scanning system shows good data-collection repeatability, and scanning rate has little effect on the calculated variables. For each defect type, at least one ultrasonic variable demonstrated significant capability to discriminate between that defect and clear wood. Energy loss variables exhibited the greatest sensitivity to many defect types. Based on the empirical relationships identified in this study, we are now developing models to classify defects using ultrasonic signal characteristics. Scanning properties of the prototype apparatus suggest that it can readily be translated into a commercial product.
Crisis Resolution and Bank Liquidity

What is the effect of financial crises and their resolution on banks' choice of liquid asset holdings? When risky assets have limited pledgeability and banks have relative expertise in employing risky assets, the market for these assets clears only at fire-sale prices following a large number of bank failures. The gains from acquiring assets at fire-sale prices make it attractive for banks to hold liquid assets. We show that the resulting choice of bank liquidity is counter-cyclical, inefficiently low during economic booms but excessively high during crises, and present and discuss evidence consistent with these predictions. Since inefficient users may enter asset markets when prices fall sufficiently, interventions to resolve banking crises may be desirable ex post. However, policies aimed at resolving crises affect ex-ante bank liquidity in subtle ways: while liquidity support to failed banks or unconditional support to surviving banks in acquiring failed banks give banks incentives to hold less liquidity, support to surviving banks that is conditional on their liquid asset holdings creates incentives for banks to hold more liquidity.
A beat-tracking robot for human-robot interaction and its evaluation

Human-robot interaction through music in real environments is essential for humanoids, because such a robot makes people enjoyable. We thus developed a beat-tracking robot which steps, sings, and scats according to musical beats predicted by using a robot-embedded microphone, as a first step to realize a robot which makes a music session with people. This paper first describes the beat-tracking robot, and then evaluated it in detail at the following three points: adaptation to tempo changes, robustness of environmental noises including periodic noises generated by stepping, singing and scatting, and human-robot interaction by using a clapping sound. The results showed that our beat-tracking robot improved noise-robustness and adaptation to tempo changes drastically so that it can make a simple sound session with people.
The effects of 4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid plant growth regulator on the fruit set, yield and economic benefit of growing tomatoes in high temperatures.

The effects of different concentrations of 4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (4-CPA) plant growth regulator hormone on fruit set, yield and economic benefit of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) growing in high temperatures in Botswana (Southern Africa) were examined. In a field experiment laid under complete randomized block design, tomatoes flowers were treated with four different concentrations of 00 ppm (control), 15ppm, 45ppm and 75ppm of 4-CPA growth regulator. Data collected involved number of fruit set, weight of small tomato, weight of cracked tomatoes, weight of cat face tomatoes, weight of rotten tomatoes, weight of pest damaged tomatoes and marketable tomatoes. A two way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed using the SPSS software ver.19 to analyze the data. The application of 4-CPA hormone indicated a positive and significant effect on the fruit set and yields of tomato. A positive relationship between the hormone concentration and the fruit set as well as total yield of tomato was also established (higher the concentration, higher the fruit set and tomato yield). The 75 ppm concentration of 4-CPA resulted not only the highest increase in fruit set but also increased the tomato yield and hence economic benefit in tomato production increased. It was concluded that use of 4-CPA hormone increased the fruit set, yield and economic benefit of summer tomato production. Suggested future research can be conducted to observe the effect of higher concentration of the 4-CPA hormone on fruit set, yield and fruit quality of tomatoes.
Thigh circumference and risk of heart disease and premature death: prospective cohort study

Objective To examine associations between thigh circumference and incident cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease and total mortality. Design Prospective observational cohort study with Cox proportional hazards model and restricted cubic splines. Setting Random subset of adults in Denmark. Participants 1436 men and 1380 women participating in the Danish MONICA project, examined in 1987-8 for height, weight, and thigh, hip, and waist circumference, and body composition by impedance. Main outcome measures 10 year incidence of cardiovascular and coronary heart disease and 12.5 years of follow-up for total death. Results A small thigh circumference was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and coronary heart diseases and total mortality in both men and women. A threshold effect for thigh circumference was evident, with greatly increased risk of premature death below around 60 cm. Above the threshold there seemed to be no additional benefit of having larger thighs in either sex. These findings were independent of abdominal and general obesity, lifestyle, and cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure and lipid concentration. Conclusion A low thigh circumference seems to be associated with an increased risk of developing heart disease or premature death. The adverse effects of small thighs might be related to too little muscle mass in the region. The measure of thigh circumference might be a relevant anthropometric measure to help general practitioners in early identification of individuals at an increased risk of premature morbidity and mortality.
Systematic Regularization of Linear Inverse Solutions of the EEG Source Localization Problem

Distributed linear solutions of the EEG source localization problem are used routinely. Here we describe an approach based on the weighted minimum norm method that imposes constraints using anatomical and physiological information derived from other imaging modalities to regularize the solution. In this approach the hyperparameters controlling the degree of regularization are estimated using restricted maximum likelihood (ReML). EEG data are always contaminated by noise, e.g., exogenous noise and background brain activity. The conditional expectation of the source distribution, given the data, is attained by carefully balancing the minimization of the residuals induced by noise and the improbability of the estimates as determined by their priors. This balance is specified by hyperparameters that control the relative importance of fitting and conforming to prior constraints. Here we introduce a systematic approach to this regularization problem, in the context of a linear observation model we have described previously. In this model, basis functions are extracted to reduce the solution space a priori in the spatial and temporal domains. The basis sets are motivated by knowledge of the evoked EEG response and information theory. In this paper we focus on an iterative "expectation-maximization" procedure to jointly estimate the conditional expectation of the source distribution and the ReML hyperparameters on which this solution rests. We used simulated data mixed with real EEG noise to explore the behavior of the approach with various source locations, priors, and noise levels. The results enabled us to conclude: (i) Solutions in the space of informed basis functions have a high face and construct validity, in relation to conventional analyses. (ii) The hyperparameters controlling the degree of regularization vary largely with source geometry and noise. The second conclusion speaks to the usefulness of using adaptative ReML hyperparameter estimates.
A Modified Particle Swarm Technique for Distribution Systems Reconfiguration

This paper introduces the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to solve the optimal network reconfiguration problem for power loss reduction. The PSO is a relatively new and powerful intelligence evolution method for solving optimization problems. It is a population-based approach. The PSO was inspired from natural behavior of the bees on how they find the location of most flowers. The proposed PSO algorithm is introduced with some modifications such as using an inertia weight that decreases linearly during the simulation. This setting allows the PSO to explore a large area at the start of the simulation. A modification in the number of iterations and the population size is also presented. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed PSO algorithm, comparative studies are conducted on two test distribution systems. The obtained results are compared with those obtained using other approaches in the previous work to examine the performance.
Faculty Motivations and Incentives for Teaching eCourses at a For-Profit Online Applied Arts College.

of Doctoral Dissertation Research Submitted to the Faculty of Argosy University, Online College of Education In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education by Laurie Tenzer November 2012 Keyes B. Kelly, Ed.D. Linda S. James, Ed.D. Department: College of Education