Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal Shortest Path and Minimum-link Path Queries between Two Convex Polygons in the Presence of Obstacles Optimal Shortest Path and Minimum-link Path Queries between Two Convex Polygons in the Presence of Obstacles

We present eecient algorithms for shortest-path and minimum-link-path queries between two convex polygons inside a simple polygon P, which acts as an obstacle to be avoided. Let n be the number of vertices of P, and h the total number of vertices of the query polygons. We show that shortest-path queries can be performed optimally in time O(log h + logn) (plus O(k) time for reporting the k edges of the path) using a data structure with O(n) space and preprocessing time, and that minimum-link-path queries can be performed in optimal time O(log h + logn) (plus O(k) to report the k links), with O(n 3) space and preprocessing time. We also extend our results to the dynamic case, and give a uniied data structure that supports both queries for convex polygons in the same region of a connected planar subdivision S. The update operations consist of insertions and deletions of edges and vertices. Let n be the current number of vertices in S. The data structure uses O(n) space, supports updates in O(log 2 n) time, and performs shortest-path and minimum-link-path queries in times O(log h + log 2 n) (plus O(k) to report the k edges of the path) and O(log h + k log 2 n), respectively. Performing shortest-path queries is a variation of the well-studied separation problem, which has not been eeciently solved before in the presence of obstacles. Also, it was not previously known how to perform minimum-link-path queries in a dynamic environment, even for two-point queries.
Fine Structure of Glycosaminoglycans from Fresh and Decellularized Porcine Cardiac Valves and Pericardium

Cardiac valves are dynamic structures, exhibiting a highly specialized architecture consisting of cells and extracellular matrix with a relevant proteoglycan and glycosaminoglycan content, collagen and elastic fibers. Biological valve substitutes are obtained from xenogenic cardiac and pericardial tissues. To overcome the limits of such non viable substitutes, tissue engineering approaches emerged to create cell repopulated decellularized scaffolds. This study was performed to determine the glycosaminoglycans content, distribution, and disaccharides composition in porcine aortic and pulmonary valves and in pericardium before and after a detergent-based decellularization procedure. The fine structural characteristics of galactosaminoglycans chondroitin sulfate and dermatan sulfate were examined by FACE. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of decellularized pericardium and its propensity to be repopulated by in vitro seeded fibroblasts were investigated. Results show that galactosaminoglycans and hyaluronan are differently distributed between pericardium and valves and within heart valves themselves before and after decellularization. The distribution of glycosaminoglycans is also dependent from the vascular district and topographic localization. The decellularization protocol adopted resulted in a relevant but not selective depletion of galactosaminoglycans. As a whole, data suggest that both decellularized porcine heart valves and bovine pericardium represent promising materials bearing the potential for future development of tissue engineered heart valve scaffolds.
Evaluating the implementation of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Systems from the Perspective of Health Professional

In health informatics, the "updated DeLone and McLean IS success model" is reviewed as a mature model in measuring health information system (HIS) success. This research provided an evaluation model to estimate the implementation of electronic medical records (EMR) systems from a health professional perspective by combined the updated DeLone and McLean IS success model, data quality management model, and EMR systems safety attributes. Based on evidence-based management (EBM), this research could be regarded as an empirical example for further EMR systems research since it not only provided a model to measure the Taiwanese EMR systems in two hospitals by implementing a structure instrument and structure equation modeling (SEM) of quantitative methods, but also introduced how to identify the possible effects in such evaluation research.
IEEE 1584-2002

IEEE 1584-2002 was developed to help protect people from arc-flash hazard dangers. The predicted arc current and incident energy are used in selecting appropriate overcurrent protective devices and personal protective equipment, as well as defining safe working distance. Since the magnitude of the arc current is inherently linked with the degree of arc hazard, the arc is examined as a circuit parameter. Furthermore, since estimation are often useful, simple equations for predicting ballpark arc current, arc power, and incident energy values and probable ranges are presented in this work.
Determinants of Personality and Its Association with Risky Health Behaviors

Personality plays an important role in almost every aspects of individual’s psychosocial and physical health. Additionally, an individual’s personality affects health by predisposing the person to a higher chance of developing specific health behaviors. Attention to personality trait in clinical interventions is stressed in many reported health behavioral theories. Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) is a comprehensive personality inventory that is widely used in behavioral genetics. The original theory suggested that temperament traits were under genetic influences, whereas character traits were gradually built by an interaction between temperaments and environment until early adulthood. Heritabilities of personality has been reported to be about 0.4 in average, but discrepancies in different ethnicities are present, and these estimates tend to be inflated when only twins are used in the study. Also, despite moderate heritability of 0.3-0.6 for most personality domains, even large powered studies with Caucasian samples were not successful in locating specific genetic variant that explains personality. Besides identifying the determinants of personality, confirming its relationship to risky health behaviors, specifically with behaviors that are theorized to have psychosocial base, may give important public health implications. Additionally, personality may mediate the effects of gene on these health behaviors. This study attempted to evaluate TCI by examining the genetic and
Labeling and the Differential Impact of School Discipline on Negative Life Outcomes: Assessing Ethno-Racial Variation in the School-to-Prison Pipeline

The relationship between educational attainment and involvement in the criminal justice system is one of the most consistent findings in the criminological literature. Contributing to this relationship is the increased and disproportionate use of exclusionary discipline, particularly among ethno-racial minorities. Exclusionary discipline is correlated with negative life outcomes however; scholars have yet to examine the impact of school discipline on behavioral outcomes across race and ethnicity. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent and Adult Health, this study addresses this gap by modeling the pathways from school exclusion to future dropout, delinquency, and criminal offending for White, Black, and Hispanic youth. Results suggest significant differences in the effect of school exclusion on future outcomes across ethno-racial groups.
Comparative analysis of Calanus finmarchicus demography at locations around the Northeast Atlantic

Standardized time-series sampling was carried out throughout 1997 at seven locations around the Northeast Atlantic to investigate regional variations in the seasonal demography of Calanus finmarchicus. Sites ranged from an inshore location in the North Sea, where C. finmarchicus formed only a small component of the zooplankton ( 2000 mgC m-2 during spring and summer). The internal consistency of the demographic time-series from each site was investigated by three partial models of life-cycle processes. In general, the demography of late copepodites could be accounted for by a relatively simple forecast model of stage development and diapause. However, there was a large discrepancy between nowcast estimates of egg production based on female abundance, temperature, and chlorophyll, and hindcast simulations of the egg production required to account for the observed abundance of early copepodite stages. The results point to a gap in our understanding of seasonal variations in rates of egg production and/or survival of nauplii. Overall, the population sampled at Weathership M appeared to be reasonably self-contained, but all other sites were reliant on invasion of overwintered stock in spring. At least two generations were observed at all but one site, but the extent to which these were generated by discrete bursts of egg production varied between sites and seemed to be partly dependent on the proximity to an overwintering location.
A longitudinal study of vocabulary size and composition in low risk preterm children

The vocabulary size and composition of one group of full-term and three groups of low risk preterm children with different gestational ages (GA) were longitudinally compared at 10, 22 and 30 months of age. Expressive vocabulary development was assessed through the CDI. Cognitive development was also assessed at 22 months (Batelle Developmental Inventory), and data concerning biological and environmental characteristics of the children were also obtained. Growth curve analyses indicated that there were no significant differences in vocabulary size or percentage of word categories among GA groups. Regression analyses showed that word production and cognitive scores measured at 22 months were the main predictors of total vocabulary and word categories at 30 months. Gender, maternal education and GA did not contribute in a significant way to the variance of use of the vocabulary categories or vocabulary size. Therefore, GA does not seem to affect vocabulary development and composition when biomedical complications associated to prematurity are excluded.
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience Integrative Neuroscience Covert Expectation-of-reward in Rat Ventral Striatum at Decision Points

Flexible decision-making strategies (such as planning) are a key component of adaptive behavior, yet their neural mechanisms have remained resistant to experimental analysis. Theories of planning require prediction and evaluation of potential future rewards, suggesting that reward signals may covertly appear at decision points. To test this idea, we recorded ensembles of ventral striatal neurons on a spatial decision task, in which hippocampal ensembles are known to represent future possibilities at decision points. We found representations of reward which were not only activated at actual reward delivery sites, but also at a high-cost choice point and before error correction. This expectation-of-reward signal at decision points was apparent at both the single cell and the ensemble level, and vanished with behavioral automation. We conclude that ventral striatal representations of reward are more dynamic than suggested by previous reports of reward-and cue-responsive cells, and may provide the necessary signal for evaluation of internally generated possibilities considered during fl exible decision-making. rats pause at a choice point on a spatial task, hippocampal place representations transiently sweep forward of the animal (Johnson and Redish, 2007). Such non-local representations could provide a prediction component of fl exible decision-making; however, no suitable evaluative signal has yet been identifi ed. A candidate location for such a signal is the ventral striatum, which receives inputs from the hippocampal formation through A current integrative view on ventral striatal function holds it mediates the infl uence of motivationally relevant stimuli on behav-Such cue-elicited responses are thought to underlie the motivational impact of reward-predictive cues on behavior. In contrast to this established role of ventral striatal representations of reward in cue-driven (stimulus-response) settings, relatively little is known about the involvement of reward representations underlying instrumental (action-outcome) behavior. While lesion evidence for ventral striatal involvement in tasks demonstrably requiring outcome-dependent processing is con-fl icting (Corbit et al., 2001; de Borchgrave et al., 2002), several studies testing a range of spatial and instrumental behaviors have implicated ventral striatum (Atallah et al., 2007; Cardinal et al.,
Lunar Cycle Influences Spontaneous Delivery in Cows

There is a popular belief that the lunar cycle influences spontaneous delivery in both humans and cattle. To assess this relationship, we investigated the synodic distribution of spontaneous deliveries in domestic Holstein cows. We used retrospective data from 428 spontaneous, full-term deliveries within a three-year period derived from the calving records of a private farm in Hokkaido, Japan. Spontaneous birth frequency increased uniformly from the new moon to the full moon phase and decreased until the waning crescent phase. There was a statistically significant peak between the waxing gibbous and full moon phases compared with those between the last quarter and the waning crescent. These changes were clearly observed in deliveries among multiparous cows, whereas they were not evident in deliveries among nulliparous cows. These data suggest the utility of dairy cows as models for bio-meteorological studies, and indicate that monitoring lunar phases may facilitate comprehensive understanding of parturition.
SOCIAL TRAJECTORY OF STUDENTS FROM A PUBLIC PREPARATORY COURSE FOR SELECTION TO UNIVERSITY

The aim of the research that originated this article was the analysis of the social trajectory of students from a public preparatory course and the verification of their expectations about higher education. Data collection was based on a questionnaire with open and closed-ended questions and a semi-structured interview, based on the models used by Muzzetti (1997). Data were analyzed by the elaboration of thematic charts. Based on the researches conducted by Pierre Bourdieu (1997, 2007), this research concluded that the students understand that schooling is, besides being a viable alternative in the search for social ascension, the redeeming of social ills. Profession choice based on natural talent or divine gift generate expectations which attest the lack of knowledge about the school system by students and their parents, which is reinforced by the belief in opportunity equality.
RNA degradation buffers asymmetries of transcription in Arabidopsis mitochondria

To understand better the relative contributions of transcriptional and post‐transcriptional processes towards the regulation of gene expression in plant mitochondria, we compared the steady state levels of RNAs with the respective transcriptional activities. All of the protein and rRNA coding genes of the Arabidopsis mitochondrial genome and several orfs were analyzed by run‐on and northern experiments. rRNAs constitute the bulk of the steady state RNA in Arabidopsis mitochondria, but are (different from maize mitochondria) not equally prominent among the run‐on transcripts. Their relatively low rate of active transcription is apparently compensated by their high stability. Run‐on transcription values differ significantly between genes coding for different subunits of the same protein complex. The steady state RNA levels are considerably more homogeneous, indicating that high variations of transcription rates are counterbalanced by post‐transcriptional processes. The relative amounts of the steady state transcripts for the different subunits in a given protein complex reflect the relative stoichiometries of the protein subunits much more closely than the respective transcriptional activities. Post‐transcriptional RNA processing and stability thus contribute significantly to the regulation of gene expression in Arabidopsis mitochondria.
Improving DRAM latency with dynamic asymmetric subarray

The evolution of DRAM technology has been driven by capacity and bandwidth during the last decade. In contrast, DRAM access latency stays relatively constant and is trending to increase. Much efforts have been devoted to tolerate memory access latency but these techniques have reached the point of diminishing returns. Having shorter bitline and wordline length in a DRAM device will reduce the access latency. However by doing so it will impact the array efficiency. In the mainstream market, manufacturers are not willing to trade capacity for latency. Prior works had proposed hybrid-bitline DRAM design to overcome this problem. However, those methods are either intrusive to the circuit and layout of the DRAM design, or there is no direct way to migrate data between the fast and slow levels. In this paper, we proposed a novel asymmetric DRAM with capability to perform low cost data migration between subarrays. Having this design we determined a simple management mechanism and explored many management related policies. We showed that with this new design and our simple management technique we could achieve 7.25% and 11.77% performance improvement in single- and multi-programming workloads, respectively, over a system with traditional homogeneous DRAM. This gain is above 80% of the potential performance gain of a system based on a hypothetical DRAM which is made out of short bitlines entirely.
Ignoring the Elephant in the Room: A Neural Circuit to Downregulate Salience

How do we ignore stimuli that are salient but irrelevant when our task is to select a lower salient stimulus? Since bottom–up processes favor high saliency, detection of a low-salient target in the presence of highly salient distractors requires top–down attentional guidance. Previous studies have demonstrated that top–down attention can modulate perceptual processing and also that the control of attention is driven by frontoparietal regions. However, to date, there is no direct evidence on the cause and effect relationship between control regions and perceptual processing. Here, we report the first evidence demonstrating a neural circuit for the downregulation of salient distractors when a low-salient target is selected, combining brain imaging using functional magnetic resonance imaging with brain stimulation by transcranial magnetic stimulation. Using these combined techniques, we were able to identify a cause and effect relationship in the suppression of saliency, based on an interaction between the left intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and a region implicated in visual processing in our task (the left occipital pole). In particular, low-salient stimuli were selected by the left IPS suppressing early visual areas that would otherwise respond to a high-saliency distractor in the task. Apart from providing a first documentation of the neural circuit supporting selection by saliency, these data can be critical for understanding the underlying causes of problems in ignoring irrelevant salience that are found in both acquired and neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder or autism).
MazeBase: A Sandbox for Learning from Games

This paper introduces MazeBase: an environment for simple 2D games, designed as a sandbox for machine learning approaches to reasoning and planning. Within it, we create 10 simple games embodying a range of algorithmic tasks (e.g. if-then statements or set negation). A variety of neural models (fully connected, convolutional network, memory network) are deployed via reinforcement learning on these games, with and without a procedurally generated curriculum. Despite the tasks' simplicity, the performance of the models is far from optimal, suggesting directions for future development. We also demonstrate the versatility of MazeBase by using it to emulate small combat scenarios from StarCraft. Models trained on the MazeBase version can be directly applied to StarCraft, where they consistently beat the in-game AI.
Finishing College: The Role of State Policy in Degree Attainment

Half of college students drop out before completing a degree. While there is strong evidence that financial aid can increase college attendance, there is little evidence that it increases degree completion or even years of completed schooling. This is an important evidentiary gap, since it is completed schooling that is rewarded by the labor market. I exploit the introduction of two large state financial aid programs to estimate the impact of aid on completed schooling. I find that the aid programs increase the share of the population that completes a college degree by three percentage points. The effects are strongest among women, with white, non-Hispanic women increasing degree receipt by 3.8 percentage points and the share of other women attempting or completing any years of college increasing by six and eight percentage points, respectively. While my estimation strategy cannot separately identify the effect of aid on entry and persistence, I establish fairly tight bounds on the persistence effect, concluding that the aid programs increase the college persistence rate by 5 to 11 percent.
How Alluring Are Dark Personalities? the Dark Triad and Attractiveness in Speed Dating

Dark Triad traits (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) are linked to the pursuit of short–term mating strategies, but they may have differential effects on actual mating success in naturalistic scenarios: Narcissism may be a facilitator for men's short–term mating success, while Machiavellianism and psychopathy may be detrimental. To date, little is known about the attractiveness of Dark Triad traits in women. In a speed–dating study, we assessed participants‘ Dark Triad traits, Big Five personality traits, and physical attractiveness in N = 90 heterosexual individuals (46 women and 44 men). Each participant rated each partner's mate appeal for short– and long–term relationships. Across both sexes, narcissism was positively associated with mate appeal for short– and long–term relationships. Further analyses indicated that these associations were due to the shared variance among narcissism and extraversion in men and narcissism and physical attractiveness in women, respectively. In women, psychopathy was also positively associated with mate appeal for short–term relationships. Regarding mating preferences, narcissism was found to involve greater choosiness in the rating of others‘ mate appeal (but not actual choices) in men, while psychopathy was associated with greater openness towards short–term relationships in women. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology