Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mandatory Sentencing and Racial Disparity: Assessing the Role of Prosecutors and the Effects of Booker

This Article presents new empirical evidence concerning the effects of United States v. Booker, which loosened the formerly mandatory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, on racial disparities in federal criminal cases. Two serious limitations pervade existing empirical literature on sentencing disparities. First, studies focus on sentencing in isolation, controlling for the “presumptive sentence” or similar measures that themselves result from discretionary charging, plea-bargaining, and fact-finding processes. Any disparities in these earlier processes are excluded from the resulting sentence-disparity estimates. Our research has shown that this exclusion matters: pre-sentencing decision-making can have substantial sentence-disparity consequences. Second, existing studies have used loose causal inference methods that fail to disentangle the effects of sentencing-law changes, such as Booker, from surrounding events and trends. In contrast, we use a dataset that traces cases from arrest to sentencing, allowing us to assess Booker’s effects on disparities in charging, plea-bargaining, and fact-finding, as well as sentencing. We disentangle background trends by using a rigorous regression discontinuity-style design. Contrary to other studies (and in particular, the dramatic recent claims of the U.S. Sentencing Commission), we find no evidence that racial disparity has increased since Booker, much less because of Booker. Unexplained racial disparity remains persistent, but does not appear to have increased following the expansion of judicial discretion. authors. Sonja B. Starr is a Professor at the University of Michigan Law School. M. Marit Rehavi is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of British Columbia and a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. For helpful comments and conversations, we thank David Abrams, Daron Acemoglu, Alberto Alesina, Joe Altonji, Alan Auerbach, Nick Bagley, John Bronsteen, Ing-Haw Cheng, Kristina Daugirdas, John DiNardo, Avlana Eisenberg, Leonid Feller, Nicole Fortin, Nancy Gallini, Nancy Gertner, David Green, Sam Gross, Don Herzog, Jim Hines, Jill Horwitz, Thomas Lemieux, Justin McCrary, Julian Mortenson, Brendan Nyhan, J.J. Prescott, Eve Brensike Primus, Adam Pritchard, Jeff Smith, Sara Sun Beale, and participants at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, the National Sentencing Policy Institute, the NBER Summer Institute, the annual meetings of the American Law and Economics Association and the American Society of Criminology, workshops at the University of Michigan, UBC, Duke, and Loyola-Chicago, and the CIFAR-IOG Workshop. Sharon Brett, Michael Chi, Michael Farrell, Ryan Gersovitz, Seth Kingery, Matthew Lee, Midas Panikkar, Art Robiso, Sabrina Speianu, and Adam Teitelbaum provided able research assistance. mandatory sentencing and racial disparity
Kechwa and Spanish Bilingual Grammars: Testing Hypotheses on Functional Interference and Convergence

This paper presents an exploratory study on cross-linguistic interference among indigenous Kechwa1–Spanish bilingual children (n=30) living in a language contact situation. Its preliminary findings show evidence of cross-linguistic interference between Kechwa desiderative progressive forms such as miku-naya-yka-n (eat-desprog-3) ‘S/he wants to/is about to eat’ and bilingual Spanish modal progressive structures such as está queriendo comer ‘wants to/is about to eat’. The latter convey a desiderative/imminent aspectual meaning absent in the narratives of a comparison group of Spanish-dominant children (n=25). The paper focuses on showing how interference and convergence in functional features such as modal and aspect features are possible despite striking differences in the morphology of two languages spoken by a bilingual individual. It is argued that, as predicted by the Functional Interference Hypothesis and the Functional Convergence Hypothesis, functional features are the locus of language change, and that activation of functional features from language A in language B, under specific discourse conditions, may lead to convergence in some bilingual individuals. These preliminary findings underscore the need to study the relationship between knowledge of syntax and knowledge of discourse conditions in bilinguals as well as the ability displayed by some bilingual individuals to dissociate syntax from morphology.
The Antecedents and Consequences of Role Stress Among Chinese Salespersons: An Exploratory Study in Hong Kong

Data from 295 salespersons of a life insurance company in Hong Kong were used to test the relationships among organizational variables, role stress variables, job satisfaction, and propensity to leave. Based on previous conceptual and empirical work on role stress, an integrative method was estimated and analyzed by using a confirmatory methodology. Findings showed the data fitted the proposed model well. The results suggest that an awareness of the antecedents and consequences of role stress among life insurance salespersons can be of value to both marketing academicians and professionals.
Long-Term Trends in the Public Representation of Science Across the ‘Iron Curtain’: 1946-1995

This paper compares changing patterns of science news over a period of 50 years. The study analyses a biannual corpus of 2800 news articles in Britain (the Daily Telegraph) and 5800 in Bulgaria (Rabotnichesko Delo), and shows divergent and convergent trends. Britain carries considerably more science news than Bulgaria all through the period, while the coverage shows parallel swings: increasing intensity during the 1950s, a turning point in the early 1960s, declining into the 1970s, and rising again in the 1980s and 1990s. Media coverage in both countries shows similar swings in public appeal. The trends in the medicalization of science news, the reporting of controversy and the evaluation of science diverge in the two contexts. The paper concludes with speculative explanations of these results. Similarities and differences in these long-term trends point to common factors and specific differences at work on either side of the (former) ‘Iron Curtain’.
Active Learning with Visualization for Text Data

Labeled datasets are always limited, and oftentimes the quantity of labeled data is a bottleneck for data analytics. This especially affects supervised machine learning methods, which require labels for models to learn from the labeled data. Active learning algorithms have been proposed to help achieve good analytic models with limited labeling efforts, by determining which additional instance labels will be most beneficial for learning for a given model. Active learning is consistent with interactive analytics as it proceeds in a cycle in which the unlabeled data is automatically explored. However, in active learning users have no control of the instances to be labeled, and for text data, the annotation interface is usually document only. Both of these constraints seem to affect the performance of an active learning model. We hypothesize that visualization techniques, particularly interactive ones, will help to address these constraints. In this paper, we implement a pilot study of visualization in active learning for text classification, with an interactive labeling interface. We compare the results of three experiments. Early results indicate that visualization improves high-performance machine learning model building with an active learning algorithm.
Loss of Protease Dimerization Inhibition Activity of Darunavir Is Associated with the Acquisition of Resistance to Darunavir by HIV-1

ABSTRACT Dimerization of HIV protease is essential for the acquisition of protease's proteolytic activity. We previously identified a group of HIV protease dimerization inhibitors, including darunavir (DRV). In the present work, we examine whether loss of DRV's protease dimerization inhibition activity is associated with HIV development of DRV resistance. Single amino acid substitutions, including I3A, L5A, R8A/Q, L24A, T26A, D29N, R87K, T96A, L97A, and F99A, disrupted protease dimerization, as examined using an intermolecular fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based HIV expression assay. All recombinant HIVNL4-3-based clones with such a protease dimerization-disrupting substitution failed to replicate. A highly DRV-resistant in vitro-selected HIV variant and clinical HIV strains isolated from AIDS patients failing to respond to DRV-containing antiviral regimens typically had the V32I, L33F, I54M, and I84V substitutions in common in protease. None of up to 3 of the 4 substitutions affected DRV's protease dimerization inhibition, which was significantly compromised by the four combined substitutions. Recombinant infectious clones containing up to 3 of the 4 substitutions remained sensitive to DRV, while a clonal HIV variant with all 4 substitutions proved highly resistant to DRV with a 205-fold 50% effective concentration (EC50) difference compared to HIVNL4-3. The present data suggest that the loss of DRV activity to inhibit protease dimerization represents a novel mechanism contributing to HIV resistance to DRV. The finding that 4 substitutions in PR are required for significant loss of DRV's protease dimerization inhibition should at least partially explain the reason DRV has a high genetic barrier against HIV's acquisition of DRV resistance.
Visits to the country of origin: how second‐generation British Pakistanis shape transnational identity and maintain power asymmetries

In this article, I identify the need for more nuanced approaches to transnational emotional attachment, especially with regard to the second generation. Interviewing second-generation British Pakistanis while on their holidays in Pakistan and comparing the findings with data collected in the UK provides a more realistic exploration of the phenomenon than would have been possible with only narratives collected before and after the trips. In contrast to current utopian views of egalitarian transnationalism negotiated at a personal level, known in the literature as transnationalism from below, I argue that the visits of second-generation British Pakistanis perpetuate global power asymmetries. Furthermore, such visits may help British Pakistanis redefine their identity in relation to Pakistan, the UK and Islam, thus contributing to the formation of a new transnational identity. In the conclusion, I suggest that leisure visits can still carry the potential for important political and economic relations for Pakistan in times of need
Long-Term Functional Outcomes and Correlation with Regional Brain Connectivity by MRI Diffusion Tractography Metrics in a Near-Term Rabbit Model of Intrauterine Growth Restriction

Background Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) affects 5–10% of all newborns and is associated with increased risk of memory, attention and anxiety problems in late childhood and adolescence. The neurostructural correlates of long-term abnormal neurodevelopment associated with IUGR are unknown. Thus, the aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive description of the long-term functional and neurostructural correlates of abnormal neurodevelopment associated with IUGR in a near-term rabbit model (delivered at 30 days of gestation) and evaluate the development of quantitative imaging biomarkers of abnormal neurodevelopment based on diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) parameters and connectivity. Methodology At +70 postnatal days, 10 cases and 11 controls were functionally evaluated with the Open Field Behavioral Test which evaluates anxiety and attention and the Object Recognition Task that evaluates short-term memory and attention. Subsequently, brains were collected, fixed and a high resolution MRI was performed. Differences in diffusion parameters were analyzed by means of voxel-based and connectivity analysis measuring the number of fibers reconstructed within anxiety, attention and short-term memory networks over the total fibers. Principal Findings The results of the neurobehavioral and cognitive assessment showed a significant higher degree of anxiety, attention and memory problems in cases compared to controls in most of the variables explored. Voxel-based analysis (VBA) revealed significant differences between groups in multiple brain regions mainly in grey matter structures, whereas connectivity analysis demonstrated lower ratios of fibers within the networks in cases, reaching the statistical significance only in the left hemisphere for both networks. Finally, VBA and connectivity results were also correlated with functional outcome. Conclusions The rabbit model used reproduced long-term functional impairments and their neurostructural correlates of abnormal neurodevelopment associated with IUGR. The description of the pattern of microstructural changes underlying functional defects may help to develop biomarkers based in diffusion MRI and connectivity analysis.
An exploratory study of the factors influencing undergraduate student choice: the case of higher education in Scotland

This article explores the factors influencing student choice at six contrasting universities in Scotland to establish if there is value in developing a model for predicting institutional choice for Scottish undergraduate entry. It is based on a survey of 651 students in two undergraduate disciplines, accountancy and engineering, across the six universities. The findings indicate that the choice decision is complex and multi‐factorial. Whilst there was variation across universities, disciplines and genders, the evidence illustrates consistency in respect of the top three factors: academic reputation, distance from home and location. Suggestions for change are formulated on the basis of the main findings.
Effective Transport for Trauma Patients under Current Circumstances in Korea: A Single Institution Analysis of Treatment Outcomes for Trauma Patients Transported via the Domestic 119 Service

In Korea, which still lacks a well-established trauma care system, the inability to transport patients to adequate treatment sites in a timely manner is a cause of low trauma patient survival. As such, this study was conducted to serve as a basis for the establishment of a future trauma transport system. We performed a comparative analysis of the transport time, and treatment outcomes between trauma victims transported by ground ambulance (GAMB) and those transported via the helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) through the National Emergency Management Agency's 119 reporting system, which is similar to the 911 system of the United States, from March 2011 to May 2014. The HEMS-transported patients received treatment instructions, by remote communication, from our trauma specialists from the time of accident reporting; in certain instances, members of the trauma medical staff provided treatment at the scene. A total of 1,626 patients were included in the study; the GAMB and HEMS groups had 1,547 and 79 patients, respectively. The median transport time was different between 2 groups (HEMS, 60 min vs. GAMB, 47 min, P<0.001) but for all patients was 49 min (less than the golden hour). Outcomes were significantly better in the HEMS compared to the GAMB, using the trauma and injury severity score (survival rate, 94.9% vs. 90.5%; Z score, 2.83 vs. -1.96; W score, 6.7 vs. -0.8). A unified 119 service transport system, which includes helicopter transport, and the adoption of a trauma care system that allows active initial involvement of trauma medical personnel, could improve the treatment outcome of trauma patients. Graphical Abstract
The Making of Television: Young Viewers' Developing Perceptions

Based on 122 individual interviews with Israeli preschoolers and kindergarteners, this study sought to gain a better understanding of the role of early experiences of growing up in a media-rich environment on young viewers' developing perceptions about the making of television. Overall, the study confirms that most kindergarteners exhibit a rather low understanding of the constructed nature of television programs and the effects of various photographic techniques. The qualitative analysis reveals different phases in the development of television comprehension.
Charging Strategies for Battery Electric Vehicles: Economic Benchmark and V2G Potential

This paper benchmarks the economic benefits of a smart charging and a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) operating strategy of an electric vehicle (EV) against a zero-intelligence charging strategy in a simulation-based analysis. Smart charging optimizes the timing of EV charging, while V2G additionally allows for selling electricity to the energy market. The strategies internalize the wear on energy storage equipment. The simulation builds on over 11 400 empirical driving profiles from a German mobility panel and applies technical specifications of three currently available EVs. This allows for a realistic analysis of the applicability of smart charging and V2G as well as the extent to which EVs are capable to fulfill current driving needs. Results show that smart charging strategies will reduce charging cost on average by more than 32% in all analyzed cases. V2G could provide additional revenue for EV owners with shorter trip patterns while reducing electricity cost for others.
Bidirectional Ca2+-dependent control of mitochondrial dynamics by the Miro GTPase

Calcium oscillations suppress mitochondrial movements along the microtubules to support on-demand distribution of mitochondria. To activate this mechanism, Ca2+ targets a yet unidentified cytoplasmic factor that does not seem to be a microtubular motor or a kinase/phosphatase. Here, we have studied the dependence of mitochondrial dynamics on the Miro GTPases that reside in the mitochondria and contain two EF-hand Ca2+-binding domains, in H9c2 cells and primary neurons. At resting cytoplasmic [Ca2+] ([Ca2+]c), movements of the mitochondria were enhanced by Miro overexpression irrespective of the presence of the EF-hands. The Ca2+-induced arrest of mitochondrial motility was also promoted by Miro overexpression and was suppressed when either the Miro were depleted or their EF-hand was mutated. Miro also enhanced the fusion state of the mitochondria at resting [Ca2+]c but promoted mitochondrial fragmentation at high [Ca2+]c. These effects of Miro on mitochondrial morphology seem to involve Drp1 suppression and activation, respectively. In primary neurons, Miro also caused an increase in dendritic mitochondrial mass and enhanced mitochondrial calcium signaling. Thus, Miro proteins serve as a [Ca2+]c-sensitive switch and bifunctional regulator for both the motility and fusion-fission dynamics of the mitochondria.
Wideband Flush-Mounted Surface Wave Antenna of Very Low Profile

This paper presents the design of a compact and wideband surface wave antenna that exhibits very low profile and can be flush-mounted on a conformal platform. The proposed antenna comprises a tapered grounded ceramic slab, a unidirectional surface wave launcher, and a tapered impedance transition. The ceramic slab is smoothly tapered to transform the guided surface wave into radiated space wave over a wide frequency range. The surface wave launcher employs a probe-fed parallel plate waveguide with a modified parabolic reflecting wall and a metallic post, which are critical for effectively transforming the cylindrical waves to a unidirectional plane wave within a broad frequency range. Simulated results show that the proposed surface wave antenna achieves a wide operation bandwidth from 6.1 to 18 GHz with a thickness of only ${\bf 0}. {\bf 12}{\lambda _0}$ at the center frequency. Acceptable gain values with stable and quasi end-fire radiation beams are obtained over the entire frequency band. A prototype of the proposed antenna is fabricated and tested. Measured results are in good agreement with simulated ones.
Understanding Power and Powerlessness

• Summary: This paper reviews the existing literature that seeks to conceptualize the operation of power, from modernist ideas of power as a ‘thing’ that may be possessed, to a range of critical alternatives, including structuralist, Foucauldian and feminist psychological perspectives. This review provides the foundations on which to construct a framework by which social workers may be able to map out and work with issues of power and powerlessness more effectively in their everyday practice. • Findings: Current frameworks, such as anti-oppressive practice, may be insufficient in being able to identify the range and complexity of power relations that may be enacted within a social situation. In order to provide a more comprehensive understanding, the article presents a discussion of the application of a framework for analysing the operation of different forms of power - one that acknowledges the potential of power to be both damaging and productive. • Applications: Through a discussion of how the concepts within this framework may be applied to a practice scenario, and to issues around the use of power and authority by social workers, there is an exploration of how the framework may provide a useful tool for underpinning emancipatory social work practice.
Barthesian perspectives on accounting communication and visual images of professional accountancy

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine Barthes' influence on, and potential for, accounting communication research; and to apply Barthes' principles to visual images of professional accountancy. Design/methodology/approach - The study seeks to provide: a synthesis of prior accounting research that has drawn on Barthes' work, followed by an overview of Barthes' work in both its rational, structuralist, phase, and its more sentimental, post-structuralist, phase, that identifies strands of interest to accounting communication; and Barthesian semiotic interpretations of visual images of accountancy portrayed in the annual report front covers of a major UK accounting firm through their linguistics (anchorage and relay), denotation and connotation. Findings - Barthes' work has been surprisingly little used in accounting; a number of aspects of Barthes's work could be more fruitfully exploited, especially those from his later post-structuralist phase; a Barthesian approach assists in reading the dual portrayal of accountancy as both an art and a science, and as business-aware as well as traditionally professional. Research limitations/implications - The theoretical section is limited to a broad overview of Barthes' very extensive work; the empirical section provides a detailed analysis of one organization. It would be useful to extend the research to more extended analyses based on Barthes' prolific work, and to many aspects of accounting communication. Practical implications - The analysis may be of interest to all accounting researchers, practitioners, trainees and auditors, since communication is central to accounting. Originality/value - The paper adds to theoretical work in accounting communication, to the empirical literature on the interpretation of verbal and visual signs in accounting and accountability statements, and to understanding of the external images of professional accountancy.