Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strong lensing by a node of the cosmic web The core of MACS J0717.5+3745 at z=0.55

We present results of a strong-lensing analysis of MACS J0717.5+3745 (hereafter MACS J0717), an extremely X-ray luminous galaxy cluster at z = 0.55. Observations at different wavelengths reveal a complex and dynamically very active cluster, whose core is connected to a large scale filament extended over several Mpc. Using multi-passband imaging data obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), we identify 15 multiply imaged systems across the full field of view of ACS, five of which we confirmed spectroscopically in ground-based follow-up observations with the Keck telescope. We use these multiply imaged systems to constrain a parametric model of the mass distribution in the cluster core, employing a new parallelized version of the Lenstool software. The main result is that the most probable description of the mass distribution comprises four clusterscale dark matter haloes. The total mass distribution follows the light distribution but strongly deviates from the distribution of the intra-cluster gas as traced by the X-ray surface brightness. This confirms the complex morphology proposed by previous studies. We interpret this segregation of collisional and collisionless matter as strong evidence of multiple mergers and ongoing dynamical activity. MACS J0717 thus constitutes one of the most disturbed clusters presently known and, featuring a projected mass within the ACS field of view (R = 150” = 960 kpc) of 2.11 ± 0.23 × 10^(15) M_⊙, the system is also one of the most massive known.
PERCEPÇÃO DE IDOSOS DE UM CENTRO DE CONVIVÊNCIA SOBRE ENVELHECIMENTO

This is a piece of exploratory research with the objective of studying the perception of aging as perceived by elderly people at a community center, in the city of Goiânia. Ten elderly people were interviewed, age ranging from 60 to 87 years old, of which two were male and 8, female. Using thematic analysis, we were able to identify four categories: phenomena perceived in the body as signs of the ageing process, interpersonal relations in old age, briefness of life and self-achievement. For the subjects of the study, aging is lived with conflicting way, in which negative and positive aspects are recognized and mechanisms of adaptation are sought.
Organizational justice and employee satisfaction in performance appraisal

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the performance appraisal (PA) aspects that are connected with organizational justice, and more specifically three kinds of justice, namely distributive, procedural and interactional justice.Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a sample of 170 respondents who answered a questionnaire giving their perceptions on the purpose and criteria of PA, their satisfaction from PA and organizational justice.Findings – The results show that procedural, distributive and interactional justice are related with different elements of performance appraisal. Elements of satisfaction are strongly related to all aspects of organizational justice. The PA criteria are related to procedural justice.Research limitations/implications – The main limitation is that the research provides information based only on one source, that of the appraisee. However, it highlights the role of employee satisfaction to organizational justice, linking different sources of satisfaction to differ.
On the Slope Is on the Screen

Internet-based social media have emerged as an important site for creative consumption, or prosumption, and a number of studies have examined how consumers interact in and shape this virtual space. However, less is known about how social media transform consumers’ bodily practices beyond the realm of the Internet itself. Thus we might ask, If consumers embrace participatory web cultures, how does the web participate in (offline) consumer cultures? This article analyzes the significance of social media for a range of bodily subcultural practices. Using ethnographic data from freeskiing, a lifestyle sport similar to snowboarding, it details how social media converts “offline” forms of prosumption into mediatized and globally embedded practices. It argues that important subcultural practices, such as self-observation, learning, and developing a sense of style, all depend on habitual practices of seeing and that these offline practices change as the production and consumption of visual social media becomes more widespread. The article suggests that social media institute the global coordination of individual aesthetic practices that include hedonism, reflection, and knowledge. It concludes that social media can be conceptualized as scopic systems: decentralized, nonhierarchical mechanisms that select, distribute, and contextualize visual content and foster global microstructures among dispersed audiences. In developing this argument, the article specifies the impact of social media on prosumption on the basis of insights from science and technology studies.
Hearing-impaired children in the UK: education setting and communication approach

Abstract This study identified 17,657 children, born between 1980 and 1997, resident in the UK, with permanent bilateral hearing impairment >40 dBHL. Data are reported for a subset of 12,255 children notified by professionals in education. The data describe influences of explanatory variables on education setting and communication approach. A lower hearing level, possession of a cochlear implant, the absence of additional disabilities, and female gender were independently associated with settings involving inferred lower levels of support and with approaches involving a smaller component of signing. The data characterize the population of hearing-impaired children attending primary or secondary school in the UK in 1998, and constitute a reference data-set against which the impact of future changes in policy and practice may be judged.
Impact of aminoglycoside cycling in six tertiary intensive care units: prospective longitudinal interventional study.

AIM To determine the effect of aminoglycoside cycling in six tertiary intensive care units (ICU) on the rates of sepsis, aminoglycoside resistance patterns, antibiotic consumption, and costs. METHODS This was a prospective longitudinal interventional study that measured the effect of change from first-line gentamicin usage (February 2002-February 2003) to amikacin usage (February 2003-February 2004) on the aminoglycoside resistance patterns, number of patients with gram-negative bacteremia, consumption of antibiotics, and the cost of antimicrobial drugs in 6 tertiary care ICUs in Zagreb, Croatia. RESULTS The change from first-line gentamicin to amikacin usage led to a decrease in the overall gentamicin resistance of gram-negative bacteria (GNB) from 42% to 26% (P<0.001; z-test of proportions) and netilmicin resistance from 33% to 20% (P<0.001), but amikacin resistance did not change significantly (P=0.462), except for Acinetobacter baumanni (P=0.014). Sepsis rate in ICUs was reduced from 3.6% to 2.2% (P<0.001; chi(2) test), with a decline in the number of nosocomial bloodstream infections from 55/100 patient-days to 26/100 patient-days (P=0.001, chi(2) test). Furthermore, amikacin use led to a 16% decrease in the overall antibiotic consumption and 0.1 euro/patient/d cost reduction. CONCLUSION Exclusive use of amikacin significantly reduced the resistance of GNB isolates to gentamicin and netilmicin, the number of GNB nosocomial bacteremias, and the cost of total antibiotic usage in ICUs.
Galactic Bulge microlensing optical depth from EROS-2

We present a new EROS-2 measurement of the microlensing optical depth toward the Galactic Bulge. Light curves of $5.6\times 10^{6}$ clump-giant stars distributed over $66 \deg^2$ of the Bulge were monitored during seven Bulge seasons. 120 events were found with apparent amplifications greater than 1.6 and Einstein radius crossing times in the range $5 {\rm d}
Prosodic Contrasts in Ironic Speech

Prosodic features in spontaneous speech help disambiguate implied meaning not explicit in linguistic surface structure, but little research has examined how these signals manifest themselves in real conversations. Spontaneously produced verbal irony utterances generated between familiar speakers in conversational dyads were acoustically analyzed for prosodic contrasts. A prosodic contrast was defined as a statistically reliable shift between adjacent phrasal units in at least 1 of 5 acoustic dimensions (mean fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency variability, mean amplitude, amplitude variability, and mean syllable duration). Overall, speakers contrasted prosodic features in ironic utterances with utterances immediately preceding them at a higher rate than between adjacent nonironic utterance pairs from the same interactions. Across multiple speakers, ironic utterances were spoken significantly slower than preceding speech, but no other acoustic dimensions changed consistently. This is the first acoustic analysis examining relative prosodic changes in spontaneous ironic speech. Prosodic contrasts are argued to be an important mechanism for communicating implicit emotional and intentional information in speech—and a means to understanding traditional notions of an ironic tone.
Community Violence, Interpartner Conflict, Parenting, and Social Support as Predictors of the Social Competence of African American Preschool Children

Adopting an ecological framework, this study examines the role of community violence exposure, interpartner conflict, positive parenting, and informal social support in predicting the social skills and behavior problems of low-income African American preschoolers. Participants were 184 African American mothers and female caregivers of Head Start children who completed study measures in a structured interview. Regression analyses revealed that greater community violence exposure predicted more internalizing and externalizing child behavior problems and lower levels of self-control and cooperation. Greater interpartner conflict predicted more internalizing problems. Positive parenting was predictive of fewer internalizing and externalizing problems and higher levels of child self-control and cooperation. Greater informal social support predicted higher levels of all four child social skills, including self-control, cooperation, assertion, and responsibility. Positive parenting and informal social support failed to moderate the relationships between community violence exposure and interpartner conflict and child outcomes. Implications of the findings for intervention and future research are discussed.
Transformation of stimulus value signals into motor commands during simple choice

Decision-making can be broken down into several component processes: assigning values to stimuli under consideration, selecting an option by comparing those values, and initiating motor responses to obtain the reward. Although much is known about the neural encoding of stimulus values and motor commands, little is known about the mechanisms through which stimulus values are compared, and the resulting decision is transmitted to motor systems. We investigated this process using human fMRI in a task where choices were indicated using the left or right hand. We found evidence consistent with the hypothesis that value signals are computed in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex, they are passed to regions of dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and intraparietal sulcus, implementing a comparison process, and the output of the comparator regions modulates activity in motor cortex to implement the choice. These results describe the network through which stimulus values are transformed into actions during a simple choice task.
Prestige and Status in the Migration Process: The Case of Social Differentiation in a Romanian ‘Community’ in Spain

This paper explores status relations in a Romanian migrant ‘community’ in Spain, developing a model of social differentiation within the ‘community’ based on ethnographic material. On a theoretical level, the paper builds on the distinction between ‘class’ and ‘status’, emphasising the latter's significance for migration research. Empirically, it aims to complement the study of status in the localities of origin, with a focus on status in the ‘communities’ at the destination. The paper suggests the existence of a developmental line in differentiation practices, from the most basic strategies of economic status improvement through the complex mechanisms of ‘prestige’ status recovery to the first occupational advancements with an associated status relevant in the receiving society, shaped by internal factors and external structural forces. Based on this, the paper proposes the model of social differentiation as a schematic tool that could become helpful in examining other phenomena related to migrant communities, especially their ‘adaptation possibilities’.
Increasing dose intensity of cisplatin‐etoposide in advanced nonsmall cell lung carcinoma

The authors designed this randomized, controlled trial to assess whether dose intensification of a cisplatin‐etoposide combination (PE), achieved by shortening the interval between chemotherapy cycles, would improve response rate and survival. The maximum tolerated dose of PE was administered in either 3‐ or 4‐week cycles to patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC).
Electrochemical Study of Iodide in the Presence of Phenol and o-Cresol: Application to the Catalytic Determination of Phenol and o-Cresol

The electrochemical oxidation of iodide in the presence of phenol and o-cresol was investigated at a glassy carbon electrode in buffered media by cyclic voltammetry, linear sweep voltammetry and controlled–potential coulometry. The experimental results indicate that the phenol and o-cresol convert to their derivatives after participating in a halogenation coupled reaction (quasi-catalytic reaction) following the oxidation of iodide to iodine. The concentrations of phenol and o-cresol have been determined in aqueous solutions according to the linear dependence of quasi-catalytic peak currents with the concentration. The calibration graphs show two linear sections of 0.0 to 1.0×10-4 M and 2.0×10-4 to 1.0 ×10-3 M for phenol and 4.2×10-5 to 1.0×10-4 M and 2.0×10-4 to 1.0×10-3 M for o-cresol. The theoretical detection limits and the relative standard deviations for ten measurements of phenol and o-cresol are 1.125×10-5 M, 1.06% and 4.201×10-5 M, 1.44%, respectively.
Eastern Asian Enterprise Structures and the Comparative Analysis of Forms of Business Organization

The economic success of different forms of business organization in East Asian countries emphasizes the variety of viable enterprise structures and suggests the need for a comparative analysis of how they develop and operate in different societal contexts. Major differences between East Asian business 'recipes' include the range of activities that are authoritatively coordinated, their patterns of development, the ways in which they are organized and controlled and the organization of inter enterprise relations. These differences suggest eight major dimensions on which dominant enterprise structures in different societies can be compared and how their development can be linked to major social institu tions.
Canonical Momenta Indicators of Financial Markets and Neocortical Eeg

A paradigm of statistical mechanics of financial markets (SMFM) is fit to multivariate financial markets using Adaptive Simulated Annealing (ASA), a global optimization algorithm, to perform maximum likelihood fits of Lagrangians defined by path integrals of multivariate conditional probabilities. Canonical momenta are thereby derived and used as technical indicators in a recursive ASA optimization process to tune trading rules. These trading rules are then used on out-of-sample data, to demonstrate that they can profit from the SMFM model, to illustrate that these markets are likely not efficient. This methodology can be extended to other systems, e.g., electroencephalography. This approach to complex systems emphasizes the utility of blending an intuitive and powerful mathematical-physics formalism to generate indicators which are used by AI-type rule-based models of management.
On the Integration of Computer Algebra Systems (CAS) by Canadian Mathematicians: Results of a National Survey

In this article, we outline the findings of a Canadian survey study (N = 302) that focused on the extent of computer algebra systems (CAS)-based technology use in postsecondary mathematics instruction. Results suggest that a considerable number of Canadian mathematicians use CAS in research and teaching. CAS use in research was found to be the strongest factor affecting CAS integration in teaching. Mathematicians believe thatCASis becoming an integral part of contemporary mathematics knowledge. Two main factors impeding CAS integration are the departmental culture and the time required for designing CAS-based resources. Mathematicians mostly incorporate CAS use into assignments and much less for in-class tests and final examinations. CAS integration in teaching appears to remain a predominantly individual initiative. RésuméDans cet article, nous traçons les grandes lignes des résultats d’une étude canadienne (N = 302) ayant pour objet l’utilisation des technologies fondées sur les systèmes de calcul formel en enseignement des mathématiques au niveau post-secondaire. Les résultats indiquent qu’un nombre considérable de mathématiciens canadiens utilisent les systèmes de calcul formel dans leur recherche et leur enseignement. Il ressort également que leur utilisation en recherche est le facteur le plus important pour ce qui est de l’intégration des systèmes de calcul formel en enseignement. Les mathématiciens estiment que les systèmes de calcul formel constituent désormais une partie intégrante des connaissances mathématiques contemporaines. Deux facteurs principaux en gênent cependant l’intégration: la culture générale des départements et le temps nécessaire pour créer des ressources fondées sur ces systèmes. En général, les mathématiciens se servent des systèmes de calcul formel surtout dans les tâches, et beaucoup moins dans les évaluations en classe et dans les examens de fin de session. L’intégration de ces systèmes dans l’enseignement demeure largement le fait d’initiatives personnelles.
Dental cone beam computed tomography: justification for use in planning oral implant placement.

Intra-oral and panoramic radiographs are most frequently used in oral health care. Yet, the inherent nature of jaws and teeth renders three-dimensional diagnosis essential, especially in relation to oral surgery. Nowadays, this can be accomplished by dental cone beam computed tomography, which provides high-quality images at low radiation doses and low costs. Nonetheless, the effective dose ranges of cone beam computed tomography machines may easily vary from 10 to 1000 μSv, this being equivalent to two to 200 panoramic radiographs, even for similar presurgical indications. Moreover, the diagnostic image quality varies massively among available machines and parameter settings. Apart from the radiodiagnostic possibilities, dental cone beam computed tomography may offer a vast therapeutic potential, including opportunities for surgical guidance and further prosthetic rehabilitation via computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing solutions. These additional options may definitely explain part of the success of cone beam computed tomography for oral implant placement. In conclusion, dental cone beam computed tomography imaging could be justified for oral implant-related diagnosis, planning and transfer to surgical and further prosthetic treatment, but guidelines for justification and cone beam computed tomography optimization remain mandatory.
Reordering metrics for statistical machine translation

Natural languages display a great variety of different word orders, and one of the major challenges facing statistical machine translation is in modelling these differences. This thesis is motivated by a survey of 110 different language pairs drawn from the Europarl project, which shows that word order differences account for more variation in translation performance than any other factor. This wide ranging analysis provides compelling evidence for the importance of research into reordering. There has already been a great deal of research into improving the quality of the word order in machine translation output. However, there has been very little analysis of how best to evaluate this research. Current machine translation metrics are largely focused on evaluating the words used in translations, and their ability to measure the quality of word order has not been demonstrated. In this thesis we introduce novel metrics for quantitatively evaluating reordering. Our approach isolates the word order in translations by using word alignments. We reduce alignment information to permutations and apply standard distance metrics to compare the word order in the reference to that of the translation. We show that our metrics correlate more strongly with human judgements of word order quality than current machine translation metrics. We also show that a combined lexical and reordering metric, the LRscore, is useful for training translation model parameters. Humans prefer the output of models trained using the LRscore as the objective function, over those trained with the de facto standard translation metric, the BLEU score. The LRscore thus provides researchers with a reliable metric for evaluating the impact of their research on the quality of word order.
Approximate Best-Response Dynamics in Random Interference Games

In this paper, we develop a novel approach to the convergence of best-response dynamics for the family of interference games. Interference games represent the fundamental resource allocation conflict between users of the radio spectrum. In contrast to congestion games, interference games are generally not potential games. Therefore, proving the convergence of the best-response dynamics to a Nash equilibrium in these games requires new techniques. We suggest a model for random interference games, based on the long-term fading governed by the players’ geometry. Our goal is to prove convergence of the approximate best-response dynamics with high probability with respect to the randomized game. We embrace the asynchronous model in which the acting player is chosen at each stage at random. In our approximate best-response dynamics, the action of a deviating player is chosen at random among all the approximately best ones. We show that with high probability, with respect to the players’ geometry and asymptotically with the number of players, each action increases the expected social-welfare (sum of achievable rates). Hence, the induced sum-rate process is a submartingale. Based on the martingale convergence theorem, we prove convergence of the strategy profile to an approximate Nash equilibrium with good performance for asymptotically almost all interference games. We use the Markovity of the induced sum-rate process to provide probabilistic bounds on the convergence time. Finally, we demonstrate our results in simulated examples.