Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Drug And Alcohol Consumption As Functions Of Social Structures: A Cross-cultural Sociology

This work uses classical sociological theory to demonstrate how the processes of rationalization and modernization have altered why, how, and how frequently people consume drugs. As cultural and structural changes increase heterogeneity and individuation, social controls over drug use weaken. Drug use therefore becomes increasingly widespread among the general population, a greater variety of drugs are used, drugs are used more frequently and drugs are used more for individualistic and profane reasons as opposed to communal and sacred reasons. Moreover, as the dimensions of stratification change over time, rules regulating who is permitted to use intoxicants change. Whereas drug consumption was once strongly patterned by ascribed statuses, it is more highly correlated with achieved statuses in modernized societies. The theory can account for current cross-cultural patterns of drug consumption that indicate that rates of drug use are much higher in advanced industrial nations than in lesser-developed nations. In addition, the theory explains the variations in rates of drug use over time in the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Israel, and the former Soviet Republics. Finally, the theory explains the evolution of the drug subculture in the United States since 1940s.
Early Life Circumstance and Adult Mental Health

We show that psychological well-being in adulthood varies with circumstance in early life. Combining a time series of real producer prices of cocoa with a nationally representative household survey in Ghana, we find that a one standard deviation rise in the cocoa price in early life decreases the likelihood of severe mental distress in adulthood by 3 percentage points (half the mean prevalence) for cohorts born in cocoa-producing regions relative to those born in other regions. Impacts on related personality traits are consistent with this result. Maternal nutrition, reinforcing childhood investments, and adult circumstance are likely operative channels of impact.
THE TIMING OF SPEECH-ACCOMPANYING GESTURES WITH RESPECT TO PROSODY

The question of how and whether the body movements that accompany speaking are timed with respect to the speech has often been studied, and investigators have reached different conclusions depending on the types of gestures and aspects of prosody attended to. The ToBI system for labeling pitch accents (phrase‐level prosodic prominences) and intonational phrase boundaries, which provides a well‐defined inventory of prosodic elements, was used to label several sound files from videotaped lectures in English. A particular type of gesture, i.e., discrete sharp rapid movements that reach a perceptually salient end point, was separately labeled for syllable location in the visual display of the same lecture samples. Preliminary analysis showed a strong correlation between this type of ‘‘stroke‐like’’ gesture of the head or hands and pitch accented syllables. For example, for one speaker of Australian English, 168 of 195 strokelike gestures (86%) occurred with a pitch‐accented syllable. If these observations from coarse‐grained temporal labeling are confirmed by the frame‐by‐frame labeling now under way, it will suggest that the study of speech‐accompanying gestures can provide evidence for the prosodic structure of spoken utterances, and raise the possibility that a complete model of speech production planning should include a gestural component.
Human Pancreatic Cancer Contains a Side Population Expressing Cancer Stem Cell-Associated and Prognostic Genes

In many types of cancers, a side population (SP) has been identified based on high efflux capacity, thereby enriching for chemoresistant cells as well as for candidate cancer stem cells (CSC). Here, we explored whether human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) contains a SP, and whether its gene expression profile is associated with chemoresistance, CSC and prognosis. After dispersion into single cells and incubation with Hoechst dye, we analyzed human PDAC resections specimens using flow cytometry (FACS). We identified a SP and main population (MP) in all human PDAC resection specimens (n = 52) analyzed, but detected immune (CD45+) and endothelial (CD31+) cells in this fraction together with tumor cells. The SP and MP cells, or more purified fractions depleted from CD31+/CD45+ cells (pSP and pMP), were sorted by FACS and subjected to whole-genome expression analysis. This revealed upregulation of genes associated with therapy resistance and of markers identified before in putative pancreatic CSC. pSP gene signatures of 32 or 10 up- or downregulated genes were developed and tested for discriminatory competence between pSP and pMP in different sets of PDAC samples. The prognostic value of the pSP genes was validated in a large independent series of PDAC patients (n = 78) using nCounter analysis of expression (in tumor versus surrounding pancreatic tissue) and Cox regression for disease-free and overall survival. Of these genes, expression levels of ABCB1 and CXCR4 were correlated with worse patient survival. Thus, our study for the first time demonstrates that human PDAC contains a SP. This tumor subpopulation may represent a valuable therapeutic target given its chemoresistance- and CSC-associated gene expression characteristics with potential prognostic value.
The Materiality of Accounting Errors: Evidence from SEC Comment Letters

To gain unique insights into the materiality judgments of financial statement preparers, we examine firms’ responses to SEC comment letters that inquire about accounting error materiality. We document that preparers typically use multiple quantitative benchmarks in their materiality analyses and frequently acknowledge departures from the traditional “5 percent of earnings” rule of thumb when deeming errors immaterial. These departures are explained by asserting that the benchmark hurdle is abnormally low and/or that the error does not consistently exceed the hurdle across affected periods. We also document substantial variation in the extent to which qualitative factors are mentioned as considerations. Leveraging these comment letter insights, we propose and test a parsimonious model of materiality judgments that uses data commonly available to researchers. Our tests affirm that a materiality benchmark based on the three-year average of earnings predicts actual materiality judgments better than quantitative proxies used in prior research. Further, we find that including both a control for financial statement misclassification errors and the existence of multiple errors dramatically improves model explanatory power. Our findings shed new light on firms’ complex and nuanced materiality evaluations and help to improve the materiality proxies used in empirical archival research.
Dietary composition and weight change among low-income preschool children.

OBJECTIVE To examine the relation between dietary composition and weight change among children. We tested several hypotheses considering intake of nutrients (total fat and fiber) and predefined food groups (breads and grains, "fat foods," fruits, and vegetables) used in the North Dakota Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC Program). DESIGN Prospective study. Subjects We collected dietary, anthropometric, and sociodemographic data from 1379 children aged 2 to 5 years participating in the North Dakota WIC Program on 2 visits ranging from 6 to 12 months apart. Main Outcome Measure Annual change in weight. RESULTS In multiple regression analyses, no significant relations were found between total intake of fat, fiber, fruits, or vegetables and weight change. There was a 0.16-kg lower weight change per year (95% confidence interval [CI], -0.20 to -0.12 kg; P<.01) with each additional daily serving of breads and grains, and a 0.05-kg greater weight change per year (95% CI, 0.1-0.09 kg; P<.05) for each additional serving of fat foods in a model adjusting for sex, age, baseline weight, change in height, and sociodemographic variables. CONCLUSIONS Intake of North Dakota WIC Program-defined fat foods, but not dietary fat per se, significantly predicted weight gain, whereas intake of North Dakota WIC Program-defined breads and grains, but not fiber per se, significantly predicted weight loss in preschool children.
Job Aid or Job Slayed? The Perceived Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Medical and Legal Work

Job Aid or Job Slayed? The Perceived Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Medical and Legal Work by Jessica L. Helsten May 2019 Chair: Nathan Bennett Major Academic Unit: Executive Doctorate in Business Advances in technology are traditionally seen as beneficial to society. According to the MIT Technology Review article “How Technology is Destroying Jobs,” this was the case until the year 2000 (Rotman, 2013). Previous research (e.g.,Walter & Lopez, 2008) has shown a relationship between perceived threat to professional autonomy and intention to use technology among physicians. This study expands the scope of highly-skilled, well-educated professionals to consider the perceptions of artificial intelligence held by physicians and lawyers and the relationship these perceptions have with perceived job displacement and perceived impact to professional autonomy. The purpose of this quantitative research study was to make an empirical contribution to the body of knowledge studying job displacement and professional autonomy by presenting the findings of survey data from 75 physicians specializing in radiology and 75 lawyers specializing in contract, transactional, and mergers and acquisitions law in the United States. Survey results suggest that physicians, for the most part, perceive artificial intelligence as a job aid; whereas, the majority of lawyers perceive that artificial intelligence will have a neutral impact on their jobs. Practical implications of the survey results are to provide education for lawyers regarding the benefits of using artificial intelligence for contract review and creation, e-
End-to-End Trainable Attentive Decoder for Hierarchical Entity Classification

We address fine-grained entity classification and propose a novel attention-based recurrent neural network (RNN) encoder-decoder that generates paths in the type hierarchy and can be trained end-to-end. We show that our model performs better on fine-grained entity classification than prior work that relies on flat or local classifiers that do not directly model hierarchical structure.
A simple and fast DNA compressor

In this paper we consider the problem of DNA compression. It is well known that one of the main features of DNA sequences is that they contain substrings which are duplicated except for a few random mutations. For this reason most DNA compressors work by searching and encoding approximate repeats. We depart from this strategy by searching and encoding only exact repeats. However, we use an encoding designed to take advantage of the possible presence of approximate repeats. Our approach leads to an algorithm which is an order of magnitude faster than any other algorithm and achieves a compression ratio very close to the best DNA compressors. Another important feature of our algorithm is its small space occupancy which makes it possible to compress sequences hundreds of megabytes long, well beyond the range of any previous DNA compressor. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An Automation PCI Allocation Method for eNodeB and Home eNodeB Cell

How to use self-management techniques to reduce the cost of operation and maintenance for LTE Network has become a main challenge for telecommunication operators. In this paper, the allocation method of physical cell identifier (PCI) in LTE Network is analyzed, and an automation PCI allocation system (ACPIAS) framework is proposed. In addition, we propose a policy-based automation PCI allocation method which can modify the policy according to the PCI utilization and the scale of base station. Through this allocation method, the validity of PCI can be guaranteed and the frequency of conflict detection, repair and re-allocation process is reduced. The method can assign PCI not only for eNodeB cells but also for Home eNodeB (HeNB) cells in LTE Network. Finally, a simulation is proposed to validate the correctness of the allocation method.
Integrating Gaussian Processes with Word-Sequence Kernels for Bayesian Text Categorization

We address the problem of multi-labelled text classification using word-sequence kernels. However, rather than applying them with Support Vector Machine as in previous work, we chose a classifier based on Gaussian Processes. This is a probabilistic non-parametric method that retains a sound probabilistic semantics while overcoming the limitations of parametric methods. We present the empirical evaluation of our approach on the standard Reuters-21578 datasets.
Pension Funds and the U.K. Economy

The paper considers the impact of U.K. defined benefit (DB) pension plan unding and investment on the U.K. economy. It suggests that many conventional theories are based on incomplete or inconsistent economics. In particular, the author suggests that:• An economy cannot really gain competitive advantage from high returns on the domestic assets in which pension funds invest. • DB liabilities are essentially similar for most schemes and can be closely matched with bonds. • Funding pension liabilities has no primary impact on individuals’ consumption and saving or on firms’ capital investment. • Pension funds are not natural investors in the equity of new ventures.The conclusion of the paper is that the most significant impact of pension funds on the U.K. economy relates to the costs imposed by extreme mismatching between their financial assets and liabilities. The author argues that such risks can, in essence, “crowd out” entrepreneurial risk. He asserts that the U.K. economy would gain from greater focus on the matching of these assets and liabilities, and that the best way to stimulate enterprise is by eliminating the frictional costs in the economy arising from current practices.
The Relationship between Students’ Conceptions of Learning and Their Academic Achievement

This study investigates the relationship between pre-university students’ conceptions of learning with their academic achievement. The sample consisted of 309 students (165 males and 144 females) in Tehran city. Among them, 104 individuals were in Mathematics, 110 in Experimental Science, and 95 in Literature (Humanities). The participants were selected through multistage cluster sampling. To assess their conceptions of learning, Purdie and Hattie’s (2002) questionnaire was used, and to measure their academic achievement, the total mean of high school diploma was considered. The results showed a significant relationship between students’ conceptions of learning and their academic achievement. There is also a meaningful relationship between students’ number of conceptions of learning and their academic achievement.
On the Enumeration of Restricted Words over a Finite Alphabet

We present a method for the enumeration of restricted words over a finite alphabet. Restrictions are described through the inclusion or exclusion of suitable building blocks used to construct the words by concatenation. Our approach, which relies on the invert transform and its representation in terms of partial Bell polynomials, allows us to generalize and address in a systematic manner previous results in the subject.
Dynamic Liquidity in Endowment Economies

While recent research has examined the asset pricing implications of systematic liquidity risk, a more basic question remains: Why does market liquidity change over time? Economy-wide fluctuations in asymmetric information, search costs, and credit conditions all may play a part. This paper highlights another potential explanation: changes in the willingness of agents to accommodate perturbations to their equilibrium portfolio holdings. I propose a natural measure of this flexibility - essentially a shadow elasticity - which, like a shadow price, is well defined whether or not trade actually occurs in the economy. This quantity characterizes the price impact or bid/ask spread that a small trader would experience, and is an endogenous function of the underlying state variables in the economy. I compute the function for some tractable example models and uncover a rich variety of predictions about liquidity dynamics that, in some cases, appear consistent with both the levels and covariations observed in the data. The results have important implications for the pricing and hedging of liquidity risk.
Single-layer graphene nanosheets with controlled grafting of polymer chains

Single-layer graphene nanosheets (SLGNs) are prepared by reduction of well-exfoliated graphite oxide aided by a surfactant (sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate, SDBS). Grafting density and polystyrene (PS) chain lengths are controlled by modulating the concentrations of diazonium compound and monomer during the grafting reaction of the initiator and the succeeding atomic transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectra and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are used to confirm the single-layer structure of graphene sheets, covalent bonding at the interface, and distribution uniformity of grafting PS chains at the SLGN surface. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is performed to assess the control of grafting density and chain length. PS chains grafted on the SLGN surface exhibited remarkably confined relaxation behavior. An increase in the glass transition temperature (Tg) of up to 18 °C is observed for high grafting density, low molecular weight polymer-grafted graphene samples. The low grafting density, high molecular weight sample shows an increase in Tg of ∼9 °C, which is attributed to superior heat conduction efficiency. The measured thermal conductivity for the PS composite film with 2.0 wt% SLGNs increase by a factor of 2.6 compared to that of the pure PS.
Electoral Fragmentation and Government Spending : Reversing the Causal Link with Evidence from Greece 1

Persson et al. (2007) explored the impact of electoral fragmentation (via coalition governments) on government spending. Using data from Greek elections we reverse their causal link by exploiting, as a natural experiment, Greece’s underreporting (and forgery) of its past fiscal record. Its retrospective revision, just before the 2010 elections, revealed new information that generated expectations for fewer government spending. We show that expected spending cuts caused a steep decline in the electoral support for dominant parties (and a record 5% increase in fragmentation) by limiting clientelist politics. We find no evidence that increased fragmentation (or coalition governments) induced higher spending.
A Physiologically Based Model of Interaural Time Difference Discrimination

Interaural time difference (ITD) is a cue to the location of sounds containing low frequencies and is represented in the inferior colliculus (IC) by cells that respond maximally at a particular best delay (BD). Previous studies have demonstrated that single ITD-sensitive cells contain sufficient information in their discharge patterns to account for ITD acuity on the midline (ITD = 0). If ITD discrimination were based on the activity of the most sensitive cell available (“lower envelope hypothesis”), then ITD acuity should be relatively constant as a function of ITD. In response to broadband noise, however, the ITD acuity of human listeners degrades as ITD increases. To account for these results, we hypothesize that pooling of information across neurons is an essential component of ITD discrimination. This report describes a neural pooling model of ITD discrimination based on the response properties of ITD-sensitive cells in the IC of anesthetized cats. Rate versus ITD curves were fit with a cross-correlation model of ITD sensitivity, and the parameters were used to constrain a population model of ITD discrimination. The model accurately predicts ITD acuity as a function of ITD for broadband noise stimuli when responses are pooled across best frequency (BF). Furthermore, ITD tuning based solely on a system of internal delays is not sufficient to predict ITD acuity in response to 500 Hz tones, suggesting that acuity is likely refined by additional mechanisms. The physiological data confirms evidence from the guinea pig that BD varies systematically with BF, generalizing the observation across species.
Surface Debye Temperatures and Specific Heat of Nanocrystals

The present study deals with the contribution of the surface atomic layer to the specific heat of nanocrystals. In the case of small phases with comparable number of bulk and surface atoms, the variation of heat capacity with respect to that of infinitely large phase is significant. To evaluate this variation, in the framework of the classical Debye model, we introduce surface excess heat capacity that accounts for the surface layer contribution. On that physical background, we draw a functional dependence of the specific heat of nano clusters on the number of their bulk and surface atoms and corresponding bulk, , and surface, , Debye temperatures. Since depends on the crystallographic orientation of the surface, the presented model also accounts for the symmetry and atomic density of the respective crystal faces of the nanocrystal.
Genetic studies in NZB mice. V. Recombinant inbred lines demonstrate that separate genes control autoimmune phenotype

The genetic basis for autoimmunity in NZB mice has been investigated through analysis of recombinant inbred lines produced by mating NZB mice with two different non-autoimmune strains. Several genes (at least six) were found to be necessary for the production of eight traits characteristic of the NZB mice that were studied. No fundamental genetic defect (an "autoimmunity gene") was identified that could give rise to the various autoimmune traits studied. This study strongly suggests that NZB disease results from the actions of several separate genes that together result in the characteristic manifestations of autoimmunity.
Overconfidence, Investor Sentiment, and Evolution

We examine the long-run survival of non-rational traders in a dynamic evolutionary model. Specifically, we develop a general population dynamic for a large economy with rational and non-rational traders according to the process of wealth accumulation in asset markets. The dynamic indicates that the growth rate of wealth accumulation drives the evolutionary process in asset markets. This endogenously determined group wealth accumulation process distinguishes our evolutionary model from previous models with exogenous imitation processes. We apply the population dynamic to examine the survival of overconfident traders in a pairwise contest and the survival of noise traders in a playing-the-field contest. We find that neither underconfident nor bearish sentiment can survive. On the other hand, investors with moderate overconfidence or bullish sentiment can survive in the long run. Furthermore, these moderately aggressive investors may dominate the market if fundamental risk in the market is sufficiently large. These findings provide interesting new empirical implications for the survivability of active fund management. Overall, our results lend support to the relevance of the psychology of investors with respect to either overconfidence or sentiment for the study of financial markets.