Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Losses Induce Consistency in Risk Taking Even Without Loss Aversion

It is posited that because of the attentional effect of losses, individuals would show more behavioral consistency in risk-taking tasks with losses, even in the absence of loss aversion. In two studies, the consistency of risky choices across different experience-based tasks was evaluated for gain, loss, and mixed (gain loss) tasks. In both studies, losses facilitated the consistency across tasks: the correlation between risk-taking choices in different tasks increased when the tasks involved frequent losses. Study 2 also showed a positive effect of losses on temporal consistency. Losses increased the correlation between risk-taking levels across two sessions that were 45 days apart. Also in Study 2, losses induced consistency between experiential risk-taking choices and self-reported ratings of risky behavior. In both studies, the positive effect of losses on consistency was observed even when the average participant did not exhibit loss aversion. Taken together, the results indicate that losses increase the consistency of risk-taking behavior and suggest that this is due to the effect of losses on attention. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Survey of Geometric Data Structures for Ray Tracing

Ray tracing is a computer graphics technique for generating photo-realistic images. To determine the color at each pixel of the image, one traces the path traversed by each ray of light arriving at the pixel back through several reflections and/or refractions. The most time-consuming phase of a ray tracer is ray traversal, which determines for each of a large number of rays, the first object met by that ray. Many data structures have been proposed to accelerate this process. This survey describes and compares the construction and traversal algorithms for a variety of commonly used data structures from practitioner’s point of view. ∗achang@cis.poly. edu. Work on this survey has been supported by National Science Foundation under Grant ITR-0081964.
Improvement of endothelial function with metformin and rosiglitazone treatment in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

OBJECTIVE There is evidence of preclinical cardiovascular disease even in young women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The aim of our study was to assess and compare the effects of metformin (MET) and rosiglitazone (ROSI) on endothelial function in PCOS patients. METHODS For 6 months, 26 women with PCOS received either MET or ROSI. Blood samples for assessment of androgens, lipids, and high-sensitive C-reactive protein were taken at baseline and at endpoint. Endothelium-dependent flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and glyceryl trinitrate-induced endothelium-independent dilation of brachial artery were studied before and after treatment. Homeostasis model assessment (HOMA(IR)) calculation was applied as a measure of insulin resistance (IR). RESULTS With treatment, FMD of brachial artery improved significantly from 4.2+/-6.6 to 10.2+/-5.9% in MET group (P=0.036) and from 2.9+/-3.2 to 7.6+/-4.9% in ROSI group (P=0.026), MET being as effective as ROSI (P=0.70). The endothelium-independent dilation did not change. Additionally, administration of MET was associated with a significant decrease in HOMA(IR) (P=0.003), serum total and serum-free testosterone (P=0.045 and P=0.008 respectively) and significantly higher frequencies of menstrual bleeding (P=0.006). CONCLUSIONS A 6-month therapy with insulin sensitizers, MET and ROSI, resulted in marked improvement of endothelial function in young PCOS patients without clinically evident atherosclerosis who were not severely insulin resistant. Neither drug was superior to the other. We conclude that therapeutic intervention with either insulin sensitizer may reverse the atherosclerotic process in PCOS patients at its early stage.
Origin and Genetic Diversity of Pig Breeds

Genetic and archaeological findings suggest that pig domestication began about 9000–10000 YBP at multiple sites across Eurasia, followed by their subsequent spread at a worldwide scale. Development of local types throughout the centuries led to the foundation, mostly during the nineteenth century, of current modern breeds with defined phenotypes and production abilities. Extensive intercrossing markedly increased the gene pool of these founder populations. For instance, it is well known that many European pig breeds carry Far Eastern haplotypes at high frequencies because of an ancient introgression with Chinese swine. Since then, artificial selection, genetic bottlenecks and inbreeding have significantly modified the allelic diversity of pig breeds. In the next future, state-of-the-art scientific advances as well as conservation programmes will be fundamental to preserve the genetic reservoir of pig breeds as well as to exploit it in the context of artificial selection schemes.
Language, perception and production in profoundly deaf children

Prelingually profoundly deaf children usually experience problems with language learning (Webster, 1986; Campbell, Burden & Wright, 1992). The acquisition of written language would be no problem for them if normal development of reading and writing was not dependent on spoken language (Pattison, 1986). However, such children cannot be viewed as a homogeneous group since some, the minority, do develop good linguistic skills. Group studies have identified several factors relating to language skills: hearing loss and level of loss, I.Q. , intelligibility, lip-reading, use of phonology and memory capacity (Furth, 1966; Conrad, 1979; Trybus & Karchmer, 1977; Jensema, 1975; Baddeley, Papagno & Vallar, 1988; Baddeley & Wilson, 1988; Hanson, 1989; Lake, 1980; Daneman & Carpenter,1980). These various factors appear to be interrelated, with phonological awareness being implicated in most. So to understand behaviour, measures of all these factors must be obtained. The present study aimed to achieve this whilst investigating the prediction that performance success may be due to better use of phonological information. Because linguistic success for the deaf child is exceptional, a case study approach was taken to avoid obscuring subtle differences in performance. Subjects were screened to meet 6 research criteria: profound prelingual deafness, no other known handicap, English the first language in the home, at least average non-verbal IQ , reading age 7-9 years and inter-subject dissimilarities between chronological reading age discrepancies. Case histories were obtained from school records and home interviews. Six subjects with diverse linguistic skills were selected, four of which undertook all tests. Phonological awareness and development was assessed across several variables: immediate memory span, intelligibility, spelling, rhyme judgement, speech discrimination and production. There was considerable inter-subject performance difference. One boy's speech production was singled out for a more detailed analysis. Useful aided hearing and consistent contrastive speech appear to be implicated in other English language skills. It was concluded that for phonological awareness to develop, the deaf child must receive useful inputs from as many media as possible (e.g., vision, audition, articulation, sign and orthography). When input is biassed toward the more reliable modalities of audition and articulation, there is a greater possibility of a robust and useful phonology being derived and thus better access to the English language.
Jet Stability and the Generation of Superluminal and Stationary Components

We present a numerical simulation of the response of an expanding relativistic jet to the ejection of a superluminal component. The simulation has been performed with a relativistic time-dependent hydrodynamical code from which simulated radio maps are computed by integrating the transfer equations for synchrotron radiation. The interaction of the superluminal component with the underlying jet results in the formation of multiple conical shocks behind the main perturbation. These trailing components can be easily distinguished because they appear to be released from the primary superluminal component instead of being ejected from the core. Their oblique nature should also result in distinct polarization properties. Those appearing closer to the core show small apparent motions and a very slow secular decrease in brightness and could be identified as stationary components. Those appearing farther downstream are weaker and can reach superluminal apparent motions. The existence of these trailing components indicates that not all observed components necessarily represent major perturbations at the jet inlet; rather, multiple emission components can be generated by a single disturbance in the jet. While the superluminal component associated with the primary perturbation exhibits a rather stable pattern speed, trailing components have velocities that increase with distance from the core but move at less than the jet speed. The trailing components exhibit motion and structure consistent with the triggering of pinch modes by the superluminal component. The increase in velocity of the trailing components is an indirect consequence of the acceleration of the expanding fluid, which is assumed to be relativistically hot; if observed, such accelerations would therefore favor an electron-positron (as opposed to proton rest mass) dominated jet.
Monolithic multisegment mode locked DBR laser for wavelength tunable picosecond pulse generation

Monolithic active/passive mode locked DBR lasers for 4/spl times/10 Gb/s OTDM application at 1.55 /spl mu/m are realized by low cost 2"-technology. The devices show excellent performance at STM-64 frequency: they deliver nearly time-bandwidth limited (<0.4) and wavelength tunable (4.3 nm range) optical RZ pulses of down to 8 ps pulse width.
Testing fundamental physics with distant star clusters: theoretical models for pressure-supported stellar systems

We investigate the mean velocity dispersion and the velocity dispersion profile of stellar systems in modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND), using the N-body code n-mody, which is a particle-mesh-based code with a numerical MOND potential solver developed by Ciotti, Londrillo & Nipoti. We have calculated mean velocity dispersions for stellar systems following Plummer density distributions with masses in the range of 104 to 109 M⊙ and which are either isolated or immersed in an external field. Our integrations reproduce previous analytic estimates for stellar velocities in systems in the deep MOND regime (ai, ae≪a0), where the motion of stars is either dominated by internal accelerations (ai≫ae) or constant external accelerations (ae≫ai). In addition, we derive for the first time analytic formulae for the line-of-sight velocity dispersion in the intermediate regime (ai∼ae∼a0). This allows for a much-improved comparison of MOND with observed velocity dispersions of stellar systems. We finally derive the velocity dispersion of the globular cluster Pal 14 as one of the outer Milky Way halo globular clusters that have recently been proposed as a differentiator between Newtonian and MONDian dynamics.
Coagulation with limited aggregations

Smoluchowski's coagulation equations can be used as elementary mathematical models for the formation of polymers. We review here some recent contributions on a variation of this model in which the number of aggregations for each atom is a priori limited. Macroscopic results in the deterministic setting can be explained at the microscopic level by considering a version of stochastic coalescence with limited aggregations, which can be related to the so-called random configuration model of random graph theory.
Working Paper Series Designing Efficient College and Tax Policies

The total social benefits of college education exceed the private benefits because the government receives a share of the monetary returns in the form of income taxes. We study the policy implications of this fiscal externality in an optimal dynamic tax framework. Using a variational approach we derive a formula for the revenue effect of an increase in college education subsidies and for the excess burden of income taxation caused by the college margin. We also show how the optimal nonlinear income tax problem is altered by the college margin. Our modeling assumptions are strongly guided by the recent structural labor literature on college education. The model incorporates multidimensional heterogeneity, idiosyncratic risk and borrowing constraints. The model matches key empirical results on college enrollment patterns, returns to education and enrollment elasticities. Quantitatively, we find that a marginal increase in college subsidies in the US is at least 70 percent self-financing through the net-present value increase in future tax revenue. When targeting this increase to children in the lowest parental income tercile, it is even up to 165 percent self-financing. The excess burden of income taxation is only slightly altered by the college margin and therefore the optimal Mirrleesian income tax schedule is barely affected as well, in particular if subsidies are set at their optimal level. JEL-classification: H21, H23, I22, I24, I28
Emergence of Classical BSE Strain Properties during Serial Passages of H-BSE in Wild-Type Mice

Background Two distinct forms of atypical spongiform encephalopathies (H-BSE and L-BSE) have recently been identified in cattle. Transmission studies in several wild-type or transgenic mouse models showed that these forms were associated with two distinct major strains of infectious agents, which also differed from the unique strain that had been isolated from cases of classical BSE during the food-borne epizootic disease. Methodology/Principal Findings H-BSE was monitored during three serial passages in C57BL/6 mice. On second passage, most of the inoculated mice showed molecular features of the abnormal prion protein (PrPd) and brain lesions similar to those observed at first passage, but clearly distinct from those of classical BSE in this mouse model. These features were similarly maintained during a third passage. However, on second passage, some of the mice exhibited distinctly different molecular and lesion characteristics, reminiscent of classical BSE in C57Bl/6 mice. These similarities were confirmed on third passage from such mice, for which the same survival time was also observed as with classical BSE adapted to C57Bl/6 mice. Lymphotropism was rarely detected in mice with H-BSE features. In contrast, PrPd was detectable, on third passage, in the spleens of most mice exhibiting classical BSE features, the pattern being indistinguishable from that found in C57Bl/6 mice infected with classical BSE. Conclusion/Significance Our data demonstrate the emergence of a prion strain with features similar to classical BSE during serial passages of H-BSE in wild-type mice. Such findings might help to explain the origin of the classical BSE epizootic disease, which could have originated from a putatively sporadic form of BSE.
Youth and the City in the Global South

Acknowledgments Part 1. Situating Youth in the City 1. Introduction: Youth and the City Karen Tranberg Hansen 2. Youth across the Globe: Comparison, Interdisciplinarity, and Cross-National Collaboration Anne Line Dalsgaard and Karen Valentin Part 2. Studying Youth in Cities 3. Dominant Ideas, Uncertain Lives: The Meaning of Youth in Recife Anne Line Dalsgaard, Monica Franch, and Russell Parry Scott 4. Politicized Leisure in the Wake of Doi Moi: A Study of Youth in Hanoi Karen Valentin 5. Localities and Sites of Youth Agency in Lusaka Karen Tranberg Hansen Part 3. Youth Making Meaning 6. Youth and the Home Katherine V. Gough 7. Toward Eduscapes: Youth and Schooling in a Global Era Ulla Ambrosius Madsen 8. The Work of the Imagination: Young People's Media Appropriation Norbert Wildermuth 9. Conclusion: Urban Youth in a Global World Karen Tranberg Hansen Index
Diazepam, given postischemia, protects selectively vulnerable neurons in the rat hippocampus and striatum

Following cerebral ischemia, certain populations of neurons degenerate. Excessive accumulation of excitatory amino acids in the synaptic cleft, activation of excitatory amino acid receptors, and influx of calcium into neurons play a key role in the development of ischemia-induced neuronal death. We hypothesized that neuroprotection may be achieved by enhancing inhibitory (i.e., gamma-aminobutyric acid, GABA) neurotransmission to offset excitation. Diazepam, a drug that increases GABA-induced chloride channel opening, was administered (10 mg/kg, i.p.) to rats 1 and 2 hr following 15 min of transient global ischemia, when hippocampal GABA levels, increased during ischemia, returned to basal. Rats were maintained normothermic during ischemia and became hypothermic following the injections of diazepam. Four days later, rats were sacrificed and the brains were examined for neuronal degeneration and the presence of GABAA receptors labeled by 35S-t- butylbicyclophosphorothionate (35S-TBPS). There was substantial neuroprotection of striatal neurons and pyramidal neurons in the CA1 area of the hippocampus. In addition, diazepam prevented the loss of 35S-TBPS binding sites in the striatum and in the dendritic fields of the CA1 hippocampus following ischemia. Since hypothermia, itself, is neuroprotective, we determined if hypothermia was required for the ability of diazepam to produce neuroprotection. Diazepam was microinjected into the CA1 hippocampus 1 and 2 hr following ischemia, and rats remained normothermic. Four days later, diazepam still produced substantial protection of hippocampal neurons. Thus, postischemic hypothermia may have contributed to the neuroprotection by diazepam when it was administered systemically, but the neuroprotective effect of diazepam did not require hypothermia. We conclude that delayed enhancement of GABAergic neurotransmission directly at the site of vulnerability following an ischemic event protects the vulnerable neurons from death.
Statistics of N-body simulations — III. Unequal masses

We describe results from large numbers of $N$-body simulations containing from $250$ to $1000$ stars each. The distribution of stellar masses is a power law, and the systems are isolated. While the collapse of the core exhibits the expected segregation of different masses, we find that the post-collapse evolution is, at a first approximation, homologous. This is quite surprising because there is no reason for supposing that mass segregation should not continue to have a substantial effect on the evolution of the cluster. In fact the spatial distribution of the mean stellar mass is nearly static throughout the post-collapse regime, except for the overall expansion of the systems, and this helps to explain why the post-collapse evolution is nearly self-similar. Self-similarity is also exhibited by the distribution of anisotropy and the profile of departures from equipartition, which show little change during the post-collapse phase. The departures from energy equipartition and isotropy are small in the core and increase with radius. During post-collapse evolution massive stars (mainly) are removed from the system by binary activity. This effect dominates the preferential escape of low-mass stars due to standard two-body relaxation processes.
A Better Diet Quality is Attributable to Adequate Energy Intake in Hemodialysis Patients

Poor diet quality is one of strong predictors of subsequent increased mortality in hemodialysis patients. To determine diet quality and to define major problems contributing to poor diet quality in hemodialysis patients, a cross-sectional study was conducted between June 2009 and October 2010. Sixty-three hemodialysis patients (31 men, 32 women; aged 55.3 ± 11.9 years) in stable condition were recruited from the Artificial Kidney Center in Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea. Three-day diet records were obtained for dietary assessment. Mean adequacy ratio (MAR) is the average of the ratio of intakes to Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) for 12 nutrients. Index of nutritional quality (INQ) was determined as the nutritional density per 1,000 kcal of calories. Overall diet quality was evaluated using the Diet Quality Index-International (DQI-I). Statistics were used to determine diet quality, comparing dietary intake to DRI. Dietary calories (21.9 ± 6.7 kcal/kg/day) and protein (0.9 ± 0.3 g/kg/day) were found insufficient in the participants. The overall intake of 12 nutrients appeared to be also inadequate (0.66 ± 0.15), but INQs of overall nutrients, except for folate (0.6) and calcium (0.8), were found relatively adequate (INQ ≥ 1). As a result of diet quality assessment using DQI-I, dietary imbalance and inadequacy were found to be the most problematic in hemodialysis patients. This study suggests that the main reason for insufficient intake of essential nutrients is insufficient calorie intake. Hemodialysis patients should be encouraged to use various food sources to meet their energy requirements as well as satisfy overall balance and nutrient adequacy.
Impaired Recognition Memory and Decreased Prefrontal Cortex Spine Density in Aged Female Rats

Abstract: Aged F344 female rats (21 months) showed decreased performance, as compared to young rats (4 months), on an object recognition memory task. Golgi impregnation measured dendritic spine density of pyramidal neurons in the prefrontal cortex (layer II–III), a brain area important for recognition memory. Densities of spines in aged rats were 16% lower in tertiary, apical dendrites, but not significantly different in secondary basal dendrites. Concurrent measures of memory and spine density in the young and aged subjects show that age‐related declines in recognition memory are associated with decreased cortical spine density.
Hedonic Responses and Individual Definitions of an Ideal Apple as Predictors of Choice

Hedonic ratings and individual definitions of an ideal apple were used to explain repeated choices during one-week experiment. Participants (77 women, 31 men, mean age 45, range 19–65) rated the importance of six sensory attributes (red, green, sweet, sour, firm, crispy) in apples. Based on ratings, three clusters (CL) were identified: CL1 preferred sweet and soft; CL2 sour and firm; and CL3 medium sour and medium sweet apples. Liking of four cultivars with distinct sensory properties was measured three times (Monday–Wednesday–Friday) using a 7-point scale (like not at all – like very much). Following each tasting, three fruits from one cultivar were chosen to take home. Liking and choice reflected CL to some extent. Logistic regression models showed that both the liking of the cultivar chosen and disliking the nonchosen alternatives affected the choice. Liking rated just before a choice was a better predictor than the first (initial) liking. Furthermore, CL and hedonic flexibility (the largest difference between the liking scores of the cultivars selected) significantly predicted some choices. Hence, along with liking a product, disliking other options, inclination to also accept less preferred alternatives, and individual preference for certain qualities in apples play a role in the choice. Practical Applications In this study, we show that initial liking does not alone explain later liking. When products are offered side by side, such as in a real shopping situation, the properties of less-preferred options also affect the choice. Descriptions of an ideal product and the clusters constructed thereof moderately reflect liking. Such definition of an ideal product can be a useful tool in revealing consumer preferences as long as the rated attributes are relevant. The results emphasize the importance of variety of fruits available to satisfy individual, fluctuating consumer preferences.