Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
k-Pairs Non-Crossing Shortest Paths in a Simple Polygon

This paper presents an O(n+k) time algorithm to compute the set of k non-crossing shortest paths between k source-destination pairs of points on the boundary of a simple polygon of n vertices. Paths are allowed to overlap but are not allowed to cross in the plane. A byproduct of this result is an O(n) time algorithm to compute a balanced geodesic triangulation which is easy to implement. The algorithm extends to a simple polygon with one hole where source destination pairs may appear on both the inner and outer boundary of the polygon. In the latter case, the goal is to compute a collection of non-crossing paths of minimum total cost.
A study of large-bowel volvulus in urban Australia.

BACKGROUND Large-bowel volvulus is a rare cause of bowel obstruction in the industrialized world. We analyzed the presentation and outcome of 49 patients at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Australia, who received a diagnosis of colonic volvulus from 1991 to 2001. METHODS A retrospective chart study was carried out. RESULTS Twenty-nine patients had sigmoid volvulus (59%), 19 patients had cecal volvulus (39%) and 1 patient had a transverse colon volvulus (2%). The diagnosis of sigmoid volvulus was made accurately on plain abdominal radiography or contrast enema in 90% of cases (n = 26), compared with only 42% of cases (n = 8) of cecal volvulus. Twenty-two patients with sigmoid volvulus were treated initially with endoscopic decompression. The success rate was 64% (n = 14). There was a high early recurrence rate of sigmoid volvulus for those treated by endoscopic decompression alone (43%) during a mean period of 32 days. Of the 14 patients with cecal volvulus who were treated with right hemicolectomy, 12 had primary anastomosis and 2 had end ileostomy with mucous fistula formation. There was no anastomotic leak following right hemicolectomy with primary anastomosis, even though 6 of these patients had an ischemic cecum. CONCLUSIONS Endoscopic decompression of the sigmoid volvulus was safe and effective as an initial treatment but has a high early recurrence rate. Any patient who is fit enough to undergo operation should have a definitive procedure during the same admission to avoid recurrence. Cecal volvulus is associated with a higher incidence of gangrene and is treated effectively by right hemicolectomy with or without anastomosis. The need for swift operative intervention is emphasized.
A mixed-methods study of the health-related masculine values among young Canadian men.

Masculinity frameworks in men's health research have focused on masculine ideals and norms to describe men's health practices. However, little attention has been paid to inductively deriving insights about what constitutes health-related masculine values among young men. A sequential exploratory mixed-methods design, comprising a qualitative lead to derive health-related masculine values with a follow-up quantitative arm to test the items, was used. Drawing on a sample of 15-29-year-old Canadian male interview participants (n = 30) and survey respondents (n = 600), 5 health-related masculine values were highlighted: (a) selflessness, (b) openness, (c) well-being, (d) strength, and (e) autonomy. Selflessness was characterized by caring for and helping others. Openness included the willingness to gain exposure from new experiences, ideas, and people. Well-being was linked to fitness and masculine body ideals and aesthetics. In terms of strength, men endorsed intellectual, emotional, and physical strength. Regarding autonomy, there was consensus men should be self-sufficient and decisive, whereas being independent drew less endorsement. Highlighting the interdependency of these domains, exploratory factor analysis yielded 2 overarching reliable quantitative dimensions characterized by domains of being inclusive (openness and selflessness; α = .88) and empowered (well-being and autonomy; α = .85). Some inductively derived and pilot-tested values ran counter to long-standing claims that young men are typically hedonistic, hypercompetitive, and estranged from self-health. Study findings are discussed detailing how the evaluation of specific health-related masculine values in subgroups of men might advance masculinities-focused men's health research and inform the next generation of targeted gendersensitized services.
When Promoting Similarity Slows Satiation: The Relationship of Variety, Categorization, Similarity, and Satiation

Satiation is an ongoing marketing challenge as it continually reduces a consumer's ability to enjoy a favored experience. The prevailing notion is that satiation increases with similarity; hence, consumers can best slow satiation by consuming stimuli that are as different as possible. We challenge this traditional (and intuitive) view and instead propose that stimuli can be so inherently different that consumers no longer spontaneously consider them together as part of the same experience. In such cases, promoting the similarity of the stimuli can counterintuitively slow satiation. We propose that this reversal happens because finding similarities leads the consumer to place these episodes into a single ad hoc category for the ongoing experience, thereby helping the consumer fully realize the overall variety inherent across all stimuli. Five studies establish this finding across multiple domains (music, art, and food) and provide process evidence that an ad hoc categorization for the overall experience underlies our effect. Our theory and findings provide insight into how and when similarity can help or hinder satiation, and they clarify the role of ad hoc categorization in this relationship.
Dissociation between Neuronal Activity in Sensorimotor Cortex and Hand Movement Revealed as a Function of Movement Rate

It is often assumed that similar behavior is generated by the same brain activity. However, this does not take into account the brain state or recent behavioral history and movement initiation or continuation may not be similarly generated in the brain. To study whether similar movements are generated by the same brain activity, we measured neuronal population activity during repeated movements. Three human subjects performed a motor repetition task in which they moved their hand at four different rates (0.3, 0.5, 1, and 2Hz). From high-resolution electrocorticography arrays implanted on motor and sensory cortex, high-frequency power (65–95 Hz) was extracted as a measure of neuronal population activity. During the two faster movement rates, high-frequency power was significantly suppressed, whereas movement parameters remained highly similar. This suppression was nonlinear: after the initial movement, neuronal population activity was reduced most strongly, and the data fit a model in which a fast decline rapidly converged to saturation. The amplitude of the beta-band suppression did not change with different rates. However, at the faster rates, beta power did not return to baseline between movements but remained suppressed. We take these findings to indicate that the extended beta suppression at the faster rates, which may suggest a release of inhibition in motor cortex, facilitates movement initiation. These results show that the relationship between behavior and neuronal activity is not consistent: recent movement influences the state of motor cortex and facilitates next movements by reducing the required level of neuronal activity.
A Big Data Approach to Analyzing Market Volatility

Understanding the microstructure of the financial market requires the processing of a vast amount of data related to individual trades, and sometimes even multiple levels of quotes. This requires computing resources that are not easily available to financial academics and regulators. Fortunately, data-intensive scientific research has developed a series of tools and techniques for working with a large amount of data. In this work, we demonstrate that these techniques are effective for market data analysis by computing an early warning indicator called Volume-synchronized Probability of Informed trading (VPIN) on a massive set of futures trading records. The test data contains five and a half year’s worth of trading data for about 100 most liquid futures contracts, includes about 3 billion trades, and takes 140GB as text files. By using (1) a more efficient file format for storing the trading records, (2) more effective data structures and algorithms, and (3) parallelizing the computations, we are able to explore 16,000 different parameter combinations for computing VPIN in less than 20 hours on a 32-core IBM DataPlex machine. On average, computing VPIN of one futures contract over 5.5 years takes around 1.5 seconds on one core, which demonstrates that a modest computer is sufficient to monitor a vast number of trading activities in real-time – an ability that could be valuable to regulators. By examining a large number of parameter combinations, we are also able to identify the parameter settings that improves the prediction accuracy from 80% to 93%.
Including subjective norm and technology trust in the technology acceptance model: a case of e-ticketing in China

This paper is concerned with a modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) that includes subjective norm and technology trust as antecedents of adoption intention. Although much of previous research has included subjective norm as an adoption factor, the results obtained are not consistent. This study suggests that subjective norm is salient when adoption involves people living in collectivist societies. Trust in the ability of the technology is also important, particularly for people who are unfamiliar with new technologies. The proposed model was tested in the context of electronic ticketing for air travelers in China. Implications of the results in terms of both theory and practice are discussed.
Productivity Spillovers across Firms through Worker Mobility

Using matched firm-worker data from Danish manufacturing, we observe firm-to-firm worker movements and find that firms that hired workers from more productive firms experience productivity gains one year after the hiring. The productivity gains associated with hiring from more productive firms are equivalent to 0.35 percent per year for an average firm. Surviving a variety of statistical controls, these gains increase with education, tenure, and skill level of new hires, persist for several years after the hiring was done, and remain broadly similar for different industries and measures of productivity. Competing explanations for these gains, knowledge spillovers in particular, are discussed. (JEL D24, J24, J62, L60, O33)
The Geographical Distribution and Correlates of Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors in an Urban Region

A lot of emphasis has been put on the densification of urban form to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. However, many recent studies have found that central urban dwellers, even though their carbon footprints of daily transportation may be lower, might be responsible for higher total emissions than those that reside in suburban areas. Similarly, as with the urban form, higher environmental concern is often considered as an indicator of lower emissions, but several studies have found that pro-environmental attitude (PEA) does not always correlate with less energy intensive behavior. This study analyzes how urban zones, PEA, and several sociodemographic variables are associated with annual travel emissions and pro-environmental behaviors (PEB), using a dataset collected with a map-based online survey (softGIS) survey, contributed by 841 participants from the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA), Finland. Although PEA can affect PEBs related to household energy consumption (β = 0.282, p < 0.001), clothing (β = 0.447, p < 0.001) and produce purchases (β = 0.449, p < 0.0001), their relationship with emissions from local (β = −0.067), national (β = −0.019) and international (β = −0.016) travel was not significant. Clusters of low emissions from local travel and high international travel emissions were found in pedestrian-oriented urban zones and residents of car-oriented zones were more likely to conserve household energy (β = 0.102, p < 0.05). These results might help broaden the current perspective of city planners, as well as identify opportunities for more effective mitigation policies.
Impact of Iodinated Contrast on Renal Function and Hemodynamics in Rats with Chronic Hyperglycemia and Chronic Kidney Disease

Iodinated contrast (IC) is clinically used in diagnostic and interventional procedures, but its use can result in contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI). Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and chronic hyperglycemia (CH) are important predisposing factors to CI-AKI. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of iodinated contrast on the renal function and hemodynamics in rats with chronic hyperglycemia and chronic kidney disease. A total of 30 rats were divided into six groups; Sham: control of chronic renal disease; Citrate: control of chronic hyperglycemia (CH); Nx5/6: rats with 5/6 nephrectomy; Chronic Hyperglycemia: rats receiving Streptozotocin 65 mg/kg; Nx5/6 + IC: rats Nx5/6 received 6 mL/kg of IC; CH + IC: Chronic hyperglycemia rats receiving 6 mL/kg of IC. Renal function (inulin clearance; urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, NGAL) and hemodynamics (arterial blood pressure; renal blood flow; renal vascular resistance) were evaluated. Iodinated contrast significantly increased urinary NGAL and reduced inulin clearance, while the hemodynamics parameters showed changes in arterial blood pressure, renal blood flow, and renal vascular resistance in both CKD and CH groups. The results suggest that the iodinated contrast in risk factors models has important impact on renal function and hemodynamics. NGAL was confirmed to play a role of highlight in diagnosis of CI-AKI.
The Effect of Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) Strategy on Students’ Conceptual Mastery and Critical Thinking in Learning Vibration and Wave

Scientific learning in schools requires not only students’ ability to understand concept, but also critical thinking abilities of the students. However, the current scientific learning process is still focused on only cognitive aspects. Therefore, a teaching model or strategy that is able to support students to understand concept as well as develop students’ critical thinking abilities is needed. One of the existing needed strategies is Predict-Observe-Explain (POE). The aim of this research is to identify the effects of Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) strategy on students’ conceptual mastery and critical thinking in learning vibration and wave. The method that was used in this research was weak experiment and the design was one-group pretest-posttest. The population of this research was 8th grader students in a junior high school in Bandung. The sample of the research was 18 students. The technique that was used was purposive sampling. The results of the research were: There was enhancement in students’ conceptual mastery, indicated by average normalized gain of 0,29; There was enhancement in students’ critical thinking abilities from level 1,30 (challenged thinker) to 2,07 (beginning thinker). Students can easily predict, observe and explain waves concept have difficulties on transversal waves and longitudinal waves concepts. For the next research it is recommended that Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) is to be tried on motion, electricity and ecosystem.
Shear-sensitive microRNA-34a modulates flow-dependent regulation of endothelial inflammation

ABSTRACT Although many studies have described the roles of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the modulation of the endothelial response to shear stress, the mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Here, we demonstrate that miR-34a expression in endothelial cells was downregulated by atheroprotective physiological high shear stress (HSS), whereas it was upregulated by atheroprone oscillatory shear stress (OSS). Blockade of endogenous miR-34a dramatically decreased basal vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) protein expression levels. Conversely, miR-34a overexpression increased the protein levels of VCAM-1 and ICAM-1, consequently promoting monocyte adhesion to endothelial cells. Furthermore, miR-34a overexpression attenuated HSS-mediated suppression of VCAM-1 protein expression on endothelial cells, but promoted HSS-induced ICAM-1 expression. In addition, the OSS induction of endothelial cell VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 was suppressed by using an miR-34a inhibitor, which led to a reduction of monocyte adhesion to endothelial cells. Mechanistically, sirtuin 1 overexpression partially prevented miR-34a-induced VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 expression. Subsequent investigation demonstrated that miR-34a increased nuclear factor &kgr;B (NF-&kgr;B) p65 subunit (also known as RelA) acetylation (on residue Lys310), and silencing NF-&kgr;B signaling reduced miR-34a-induced VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 protein expression. These results demonstrate that miR-34a is involved in the flow-dependent regulation of endothelial inflammation.
Uncertainty, Financial Frictions, and Investment Dynamics

Micro- and macro-level evidence indicates that fluctuations in idiosyncratic uncertainty have a large effect on investment; the impact of uncertainty on investment occurs primarily through changes in credit spreads; and innovations in credit spreads have a strong effect on investment, irrespective of the level of uncertainty. These findings raise a question regarding the economic significance of the traditional "wait-and-see" effect of uncertainty shocks and point to financial distortions as the main mechanism through which fluctuations in uncertainty affect macroeconomic outcomes. The relative importance of these two mechanisms is analyzed within a quantitative general equilibrium model, featuring heterogeneous firms that face time-varying idiosyncratic uncertainty, irreversibility, nonconvex capital adjustment costs, and financial frictions. The model successfully replicates the stylized facts concerning the macroeconomic implications of uncertainty and financial shocks. By influencing the effective supply of credit, both types of shocks exert a powerful effect on investment and generate countercyclical credit spreads and procyclical leverage, dynamics consistent with the data and counter to those implied by the technology-driven real business cycle models.
Measuring Financial and Economic Integration with Equity Prices in Emerging Markets

Abstract This paper examines real and financial links simultaneously at the regional and global level for a group of Pacific-Basin countries by analysing the covariance of excess returns on national stock markets over the period 1980–1998. We find overwhelming evidence at the regional and global level and for all sub-periods that financial integration is accompanied by economic integration. This seems to suggest that economic integration provides a channel for financial integration, which explains, at least partly, the high degree of financial integration found in this study and in other studies for this region even in the presence of foreign exchange controls. This result has important implications for the use of restrictions to isolate capital markets from world influences.
Tripeptide Interference with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Morphogenesis

ABSTRACT Capsid assembly during virus replication is a potential target for antiviral therapy. The Gag polyprotein is the main structural component of retroviral particles, and in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), it contains the sequences for the matrix, capsid, nucleocapsid, and several small polypeptides. Here, we report that at a concentration of 100 μM, 7 of 83 tripeptide amides from the carboxyl-terminal sequence of the HIV-1 capsid protein p24 suppressed HIV-1 replication (>80%). The three most potent tripeptides, glycyl-prolyl-glycine-amide (GPG-NH2), alanyl-leucyl-glycine-amide (ALG-NH2), and arginyl-glutaminyl-glycine-amide (RQG-NH2), were found to interact with p24. With electron microscopy, disarranged core structures of HIV-1 progeny were extensively observed when the cells were treated with GPG-NH2 and ALG-NH2. Furthermore, nodular structures of approximately the same size as the broad end of HIV-1 conical capsids were observed at the plasma membranes of treated cells only, possibly indicating an arrest of the budding process. Corresponding tripeptides with nonamidated carboxyl termini were not biologically active and did not interact with p24.
Analysis of police officers' and firefighters' psychological contracts, and its influence on their occupational stressors and well-being

This thesis investigates the application of psychological contract theory to police officers and firefighters. Chapter 1 systematically searches the published psychological contract measures to evaluate how this concept is operationalised within many tools. Chapter 2 critically reviews the PSYCONES measure of psychometric properties and identifies it as a valid and reliable tool, although some of the concepts are not necessarily psychometric. Chapter 3 investigates the experiences of police officers in relation to psychological contract, occupational stressors and well-being. Work–life balance is identified as an important factor affecting the well-being of employees. Chapter 4 examines the role of psychological contract and its effect on the well-being of police officers through an online survey. Significant results are identified. Chapter 5 explores the experiences of firefighters in regard to psychological contract, occupational stressors, coping strategies and well-being. Chapter 6 investigates the importance of psychological contract and its effect on the well-being of firefighters through an online survey. A few significant relationships are identified. In Chapter 7, the thesis is concluded, the findings for both samples are summarised, and the limitations, future research and implications are discussed.
The validation of the Dissociative Experiences Scale against the criterion of the SCID-D, using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis.

Objective and method: The aim of this study is to analyze the utility of the Dissociative Experience Scale (DES) as a screener for dissociative disorders. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IIIR DissociativeDisorders (SCID-D) was used as standard of comparison. Forty-three patients with a dissociativedisorderand 36 control patients with a range of psychiatric diagnoses participated in the study. Results: The DES distinguishes dissociative disorder patients from non-dissociative disorder patients very well (p<.0001); diagnostic utility of the DES based on Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis is excellent (.4 UC=. 96). The optimal cut-off score of 25 yields good to excellent sensitivity (93 %) and specificity (86% ). The positive predictive value of the DES (>25) in random clinical samples is limited (.26 .54) due to the relatively low estimated prevalence rate of dissociative disorders (5 15% respectively); the negative predictive value is high (.99). The use of a confirmatory interview such as the SLID-D is required to eliminate false positives.