Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ARock : an Algorithmic Framework for Async-Parallel Coordinate Updates

The problem of finding a fixed point to a nonexpansive operator is an abstraction of many models in numerical linear algebra, optimization, and other areas of scientific computing. To solve this problem, we propose ARock, an asynchronous parallel algorithmic framework, in which a set of agents (machines, processors, or cores) update randomly selected coordinates of the unknown variable in an asynchronous parallel fashion. The resulting algorithms are not affected by load imbalance. When the coordinate updates are atomic, the algorithms are free of memory locks. We show that if the nonexpansive operator has a fixed point, then with probability one, the sequence of points generated by ARock converges to a fixed point of the operator. Stronger convergence properties such as linear convergence are obtained under stronger conditions. As special cases of ARock, novel algorithms for linear systems, convex optimization, machine learning, distributed and decentralized optimization are introduced with provable convergence. Very promising numerical performance of ARock has been observed. Considering the paper length, we present the numerical results of solving linear equations and sparse logistic regression problems.
Pengaruh Brand Ambassador, Brand Personality Dan Korean Wave Terhadap Keputusan Pembelian Produk Nature Republic Aloe Vera

This study aims to determine the impact of Brand Ambassador, Brand Personality and Korean Wave toward Purchase Decision Nature Republic Aloe Vera skincare product in the Faculty of Culture University Sumatera Utara. This research is associative research and the type of data used is quantitative data. The population of this research is students in the Faculty of culture University Sumatera Utara. The sample in this study amounted to 92 respondent. The technique used is multiple linear regressions. The results of this study showed that Brand Ambassador, Brand Personality and Korean Wave simultaneously, significantly influence towards purchase decision Nature Republic Aloe Vera skincare product in the Faculty of Culture University Sumatera Utara. Partially, Brand Ambassador has a positive and significant effect to purchase decision, Brand Personality has a positive and significant effect to purchase decision, Korean Wave has a positive and significant effect to purchase decision Nature Republic Aloe Vera skincare product in the Faculty of Culture University Sumatera Utara. Keywords: Brand Ambassador, Brand Personality, Korean Wave, Purchase Decision
Mental Images in Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) and in Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD): An Exploratory Study

Abstract Little is known about mental images (cognitive representations with sensory qualities) in body integrity identity disorder (BIID). This study aimed to determine whether individuals with BIID experience mental images and, if so, whether they differ to those experienced by individuals with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and healthy controls. A semi-structured interview on mental images and their qualities was delivered to a sample of 22 individuals with BIID and 19 with BDD, and 22 healthy controls. Both the BIID (n = 15, 68.2%) and BDD (n = 14, 73.7%) groups reported significantly more mental images than healthy controls (n = 3, 13.6%), but no differences between the two clinical groups were found. While mental images in BDD were focused on ‘flawed’ body parts, images in BIID involved the desired handicap. Mental images in BIID were experienced as less distressing and more sexually arousing compared to BDD. No further differences were found between the groups (e.g., regarding sensory multimodality, dominance of a specific body part). Although the two groups reported a similar frequency of mental images, images appear to serve different functions across conditions. Clinically, it may be necessary to target the positive mental images in BIID to improve treatment outcome.
Specificities and challenges of responding to internal displacement in urban settings

Abstract The world is rapidly urbanizing, and so is internal displacement. However, knowledge about the specific situation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in urban settings and how it differs from, and impacts on, their host communities is still limited, and responses continue to be inadequate. This article analyzes the particular needs of urban IDPs by taking into account how the various contexts and patterns of urban internal displacement contribute to shaping people's experience. It discusses three key challenges that humanitarian actors are faced with in developing effective responses: identifying and reaching IDPs in urban settings, addressing their urgent protection concerns, and supporting their local integration. It concludes by pointing out the need for methodological and operational guidance on how to bring together area-based approaches that account for the impact of displacement on entire urban communities, and tailored approaches addressing IDPs’ specific needs in urban settings. The need for stocktaking exercises and more effective sharing of experiences among practitioners, municipal authorities and policy-makers is also underlined.
The Adaptive Advantage of Symbolic Theft Over Sensorimotor Toil: Grounding Language in Perceptual Categories

Using neural nets to simulate learning and the genetic algorithm to simulate evolution in a toy world of mushrooms and mushroom-foragers, we place two ways of acquiring categories into direct competition with one another: In (1) "sensorimotor toil," new categories are acquired through real-time, feedback-corrected, trial and error experience in sorting them. In (2) "symbolic theft," new categories are acquired by hearsay from propositions - boolean combinations of symbols describing them. In competition, symbolic theft always beats sensorimotor toil. We hypothesize that this is the basis of the adaptive advantage of language. Entry-level categories must still be learned by toil, however, to avoid an infinite regress (the "symbol grounding problem"). Changes in the internal representations of categories must take place during the course of learning by toil. These changes can be analyzed in terms of the compression of within-category similarities and the expansion of between-category differences. These allow regions of similarity space to be separated, bounded and named, and then the names can be combined and recombined to describe new categories, grounded recursively in the old ones. Such compression/expansion effects, called "categorical perception" (CP), have previously been reported with categories acquired by sensorimotor toil; we show that they can also arise from symbolic theft alone. The picture of natural language and its origins that emerges from this analysis is that of a powerful hybrid symbolic/sensorimotor capacity, infinitely superior to its purely sensorimotor precursors, but still grounded in and dependent on them. It can spare us from untold time and effort learning things the hard way, through direct experience, but it remain anchored in and translatable into the language of experience.
Brain gray matter deficits at 33-year follow-up in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder established in childhood.

CONTEXT Volumetric studies have reported relatively decreased cortical thickness and gray matter volumes in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) whose childhood status was retrospectively recalled. We present, to our knowledge, the first prospective study combining cortical thickness and voxel-based morphometry in adults diagnosed as having ADHD in childhood. OBJECTIVES To test whether adults with combined-type childhood ADHD exhibit cortical thinning and decreased gray matter in regions hypothesized to be related to ADHD and to test whether anatomic differences are associated with a current ADHD diagnosis, including persistent vs remitting ADHD. DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis embedded in a 33-year prospective follow-up at a mean age of 41.2 years. SETTING Research outpatient center. PARTICIPANTS We recruited probands with ADHD from a cohort of 207 white boys aged 6 to 12 years. Male comparison participants (n = 178) were free of ADHD in childhood. We obtained magnetic resonance images in 59 probands and 80 comparison participants (28.5% and 44.9% of the original samples, respectively). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Whole-brain voxel-based morphometry and vertexwise cortical thickness analyses. RESULTS The cortex was significantly thinner in ADHD probands than in comparison participants in the dorsal attentional network and limbic areas (false discovery rate < 0.05, corrected). In addition, gray matter was significantly decreased in probands in the right caudate, right thalamus, and bilateral cerebellar hemispheres. Probands with persistent ADHD (n = 17) did not differ significantly from those with remitting ADHD (n = 26) (false discovery rate < 0.05). At uncorrected P < . 05, individuals with remitting ADHD had thicker cortex relative to those with persistent ADHD in the medial occipital cortex, insula, parahippocampus, and prefrontal regions. CONCLUSIONS Anatomic gray matter reductions are observable in adults with childhood ADHD, regardless of the current diagnosis. The most affected regions underpin top-down control of attention and regulation of emotion and motivation. Exploratory analyses suggest that diagnostic remission may result from compensatory maturation of prefrontal, cerebellar, and thalamic circuitry.
An empirical investigation of gist helpfulness in online reviews

The online-purchase trends suggest that consumers’ online reviews have become very important for customers and the sellers in purchase decisions and product sales respectively. Although the significance of online reviews has been examined, there are research gaps in studies on how to make title of online reviews helpful. The paper explores the traits that influence the formation of title of online reviews. The study proposes gist helpfulness for the title of online reviews adopting elements such as online recommendation, online reviewer, and online review timeline, online review indicator. Our analysis of data from survey of 528 customers shows that daily use of internet positively influences gist helpfulness. The analysis was conducted through binary logistic regression. It is found that review depth and online reading experience have significance over gist helpfulness. The approach in this study is empirical where it attempts to improvise selection of reading reviews based on titles. The scope of the study is as such that it can be adopted by online companies to upgrade the current online review system and enrich customer experience to maintain relationship with their users. Besides, this paper aims to develop a normative model considering important strategic issues to develop an insight related to consumer reviews. Corresponding author: Sanjay Bhāle Email addresses for corresponding author: sanjay.bhale@indiraiimp.edu. in First submission received: 25th March 2018 Revised submission received: 10th May 2018 Accepted: 28th May 2018
Australian Media Portrayals of Domestic Terrorism: The Sydney Siege and Parramatta Shooting

Abstract Content analysis of two Sydney newspapers' coverage of two recent terrorist events in Australia examined the way Australian media portray domestic terrorism. The findings revealed the existence of Orientalism (Said 1977) in Australian media portrayals of terrorism. This produced an enemy-other frame evident in the portrayal of the offender, the Muslim community and the wider portrayal of domestic terrorism. This enemy-other frame reinforced a national identity of what it means to be Australian. Social expectations concerning employment, economic contribution and values of kindness, loyalty and multiculturalism underlined the expected behaviours of individuals, separating the offenders, and to an extent the broader Muslim community from the collective Australian identity. The results affirm that media coverage of domestic terrorism goes beyond mere reporting of a terrorist event. Rather, the media employs multiple discursive frames to establish context and societal expectations regarding acceptable behaviour, national belonging, criminal justice procedures, and the role of security agencies.
Estimating Dose Painting Effects in Radiotherapy: A Mathematical Model

Tumor heterogeneity is widely considered to be a determinant factor in tumor progression and in particular in its recurrence after therapy. Unfortunately, current medical techniques are unable to deduce clinically relevant information about tumor heterogeneity by means of non-invasive methods. As a consequence, when radiotherapy is used as a treatment of choice, radiation dosimetries are prescribed under the assumption that the malignancy targeted is of a homogeneous nature. In this work we discuss the effects of different radiation dose distributions on heterogeneous tumors by means of an individual cell-based model. To that end, a case is considered where two tumor cell phenotypes are present, which we assume to strongly differ in their respective cell cycle duration and radiosensitivity properties. We show herein that, as a result of such differences, the spatial distribution of the corresponding phenotypes, whence the resulting tumor heterogeneity can be predicted as growth proceeds. In particular, we show that if we start from a situation where a majority of ordinary cancer cells (CCs) and a minority of cancer stem cells (CSCs) are randomly distributed, and we assume that the length of CSC cycle is significantly longer than that of CCs, then CSCs become concentrated at an inner region as tumor grows. As a consequence we obtain that if CSCs are assumed to be more resistant to radiation than CCs, heterogeneous dosimetries can be selected to enhance tumor control by boosting radiation in the region occupied by the more radioresistant tumor cell phenotype. It is also shown that, when compared with homogeneous dose distributions as those being currently delivered in clinical practice, such heterogeneous radiation dosimetries fare always better than their homogeneous counterparts. Finally, limitations to our assumptions and their resulting clinical implications will be discussed.
Examining the Nexus between Prescription Opioid and Heroin Abuse

ABSTRACT Opioid use has long been a problem in the United States and heroin has shown to be particularly dangerous. Whereas the profile of heroin users changed throughout the 1900s, prior to the 1990s, most users were city-dwellers living on the fringes of the law. However, as the push began to make prescription opioids more available, this shift in policy seemingly resulted in a shift of the common profile of heroin users. We explore the nexus between prescription opioid and heroin abuse via in-depth interviews with 30 former drug users residing in a women’s halfway house in the Southern United States.
Urine or You’re Out: Racialized Economic Threat and the Determinants of Welfare Drug Testing Policy in the United States, 2009–2015

ABSTRACT Since 2009, fifteen U.S. states have passed some sort of restrictive drug-testing program for welfare-applicants and/or suspected recipients. Sociologists are often concerned with identifying the conditions under which states implement a particular social policy. As such, we ask what conditions separate states that have implemented drug testing policies for welfare applicants from those that have not. Using discrete-time event history analysis models we test several existing theories of policy creation, namely group threat and partisan politics. Results indicate that declines in white labor force participation, and possessing a Republican governor, are positively associated with the passage of welfare drug testing policy. Contrary to explanations given by political operatives, neither state fiscal conditions, nor welfare caseloads, are statistically associated with passage. Our results re-affirm the association between racial and economic threat and reactionary social policy, as well as underscore the importance of political power in implementing such policy. This deepens and broadens our understanding of the longstanding American animosity towards welfare and welfare recipients, and, most importantly, the ongoing shift towards disciplinary poverty management in the United States, even in the face of a substantial economic downturn.
A compact micro Coriolis mass flow sensor with flow bypass for a monopropellant micro propulsion system

We have designed, fabricated and tested a micromachined Coriolis flow sensor for the measurement of hydrazine (N2H4) propellant flow in a micro chemical propulsion system (uCPS). The sensor will be used for measurement and characterization of the uCPS in a simulated space vacuum environment. To reach the required flow range a bypass system is integrated. Initial measurements demonstrate an increase of the flow range in accordance with the designed bypass ratio. The sensor is operated as a two-port resonator in an oscillator circuit to improve frequency stability.
Virulence and Pathogen Multiplication: A Serial Passage Experiment in the Hypervirulent Bacterial Insect-Pathogen Xenorhabdus nematophila

The trade-off hypothesis proposes that the evolution of pathogens' virulence is shaped by a link between virulence and contagiousness. This link is often assumed to come from the fact that pathogens are contagious only if they can reach high parasitic load in the infected host. In this paper we present an experimental test of the hypothesis that selection on fast replication can affect virulence. In a serial passage experiment, we selected 80 lines of the bacterial insect-pathogen Xenorhabdus nematophila to multiply fast in an artificial culture medium. This selection resulted in shortened lag phase in our selected bacteria. We then injected these bacteria into insects and observed an increase in virulence. This could be taken as a sign that virulence in Xenorhabdus is linked to fast multiplication. But we found, among the selected lineages, either no link or a positive correlation between lag duration and virulence: the most virulent bacteria were the last to start multiplying. We then surveyed phenotypes that are under the control of the flhDC super regulon, which has been shown to be involved in Xenorhabdus virulence. We found that, in one treatment, the flhDC regulon has evolved rapidly, but that the changes we observed were not connected to virulence. All together, these results indicate that virulence is, in Xenorhabdus as in many other pathogens, a multifactorial trait. Being able to grow fast is one way to be virulent. But other ways exist which renders the evolution of virulence hard to predict.
Shape approximation for efficient progressive mesh compression

This paper introduces an original multi-resolution 3D mesh compression technique, called Shape Approximation-based Progressive Mesh (SAPM). The proposed approach losslessly compresses the mesh connectivity and exploits it in order to build a smooth approximation of the original mesh. The obtained mesh approximation is then decimated yielding a progressive mesh hierarchy. This hierarchy is used to efficiently predict and progressively transmit the geometry approximation errors. The proposed codec supports both spatial and quality scalabilities and offers high rate-distortion performances. Experimental evaluation shows that the SAPM codec is on average 38–57% more efficient than the state-of-the-art connectivity preserving 3D mesh compression techniques.
Type III Secretion Systems and Disease

SUMMARY Type III secretion systems (T3SSs) are complex bacterial structures that provide gram-negative pathogens with a unique virulence mechanism enabling them to inject bacterial effector proteins directly into the host cell cytoplasm, bypassing the extracellular milieu. Although the effector proteins vary among different T3SS pathogens, common pathogenic mechanisms emerge, including interference with the host cell cytoskeleton to promote attachment and invasion, interference with cellular trafficking processes, cytotoxicity and barrier dysfunction, and immune system subversion. The activity of the T3SSs correlates closely with infection progression and outcome, both in animal models and in human infection. Therefore, to facilitate patient care and improve outcomes, it is important to understand the T3SS-mediated virulence processes and to target T3SSs in therapeutic and prophylactic development efforts.
USING LOCAL SURROGATE INFORMATION IN LAGRANGEAN RELAXATION : AN APPLICATION TO SYMMETRIC TRAVELING SALESMAN PROBLEMS

The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is one of the most studied problems in Combinatorial Optimization literature. Several articles have been published on the subject and it remains today as an interesting and challenging problem. The most common interpretation of the problem seeks the shortest tour for a salesman on a number of cities or clients. Clients must be visited exactly one time and the salesman must return to their home city. For a comprehensive survey of solution methods, applications and related problems see the book of Lawler et al. [27]. Laporte [25] gives another review, including applications examples on computer wiring, wallpaper cutting, hole punching, job sequencing, dartboard design and crystallography. The problem is well known to be NP-hard [25] justifying the use of heuristics, mainly for large scale problems. Johnson and McGeoch [20] give a recent survey on the use of local search based heuristics.
Decreased Autophagy in Rat Heart Induced by Anti-β1-Adrenergic Receptor Autoantibodies Contributes to the Decline in Mitochondrial Membrane Potential

It has been recognized that changes in mitochondrial structure plays a key role in development of cardiac dysfunction, and autophagy has been shown to exert maintenance of mitochondrial homeostasis effects. Our previous study found that anti-β1-adrenergic receptor autoantibodies (β1-AABs) could lead to cardiac dysfunction along with abnormalities in mitochondrial structure. The present study tested the hypothesis that β1-AABs may induce the decline in mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) by suppression of cardiac autophagy, which contributed to cardiac dysfunction. Male adult rats were randomized to receive a vehicle or peptide corresponding to the second extracellular loop of the β1 adrenergic receptor (β1-AAB group, 0.4 μg/g every two weeks for 12 weeks) and treated with rapamycin (RAPA, an autophagy agonist) at 5 mg/kg/day for two days before detection. At the 4th week, 8th week and 12th week of active immunization, the rats were sacrificed and cardiac function and the levels of cardiac LC3 and Beclin-1 were detected. ΔΨm in cardiac myocytes was determined by myocardial radionuclide imaging technology and JC-1 staining. In the present study, β1-AABs caused cardiac dysfunction, reduced ΔΨm and decreased cardiac autophagy. Treatment with RAPA markedly attenuated β1-AABs-induced cardiac injury evidenced by recovered ΔΨm. Taken together, these results suggested that β1-AABs exerted significant decreased ΔΨm, which may contribute to cardiac dysfunction, most likely by decreasing cardiac autophagy in vivo. Moreover, myocardial radionuclide imaging technology may be needed to assess the risk in developing cardiac dysfunction for the people who have β1-AABs in their blood.