Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Young Citizens, Social Media, and the Dynamics of Political Learning in the U.S. Presidential Primary Election

This study explores political learning among young adults during the 2016 U.S. presidential primary elections. We are interested in how the rise of digital and social media is affecting the ways young adults learn about political events as they happen. Using a rolling cross-section survey design, we surveyed a unique sample of American young adults every day for a period of 3 weeks. This method allows us to ask participants about breaking news events as they occur, and to connect knowledge of current events to self-report of media use during a very short time period. We examine the relationship between media exposure and political learning using both self-report media exposure measures and measures of the volume of attention to political events in the news media and via social sharing of news on Facebook. Results suggest that social media volume, not self-reports of exposure, was key in providing young adults with the opportunities to learn about politics during the 2016 U.S. primary season.
Employee Voice and Workers Commitment in Nigerian Workplace

This study examined the effect of Employee Voice on Workers Commitment in the Banking Industry in Nigeria. Seven research questions and seventeen hypotheses were proposed to test the relationship between Employee Voice and Workers Commitment. The quantitative research data was gathered with the aid of a five point likert scale questionnaire distributed to 357 employees, which is the corresponding sample size for the population of 5000 employees using Krejcie and Morgan’s Sample size determination. All the variables used for the study had a Cronbach Alpha above 0.7. With the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences Software, the Spearman Rank Order Coefficient was used to test fifteen out of the seventeen hypotheses. Multiple Regression Analysis was used to test the remaining two hypotheses. The results of the study revealed that Joint Consultation has a significant positive effect on workers Affective Commitment; Internal Attitude Survey and Suggestion Scheme has a significant positive effect on employee’s Continuance and Normative Commitment; while Quality Circle and Team Briefing has a significant Positive effect on employee’s Affective, Continuance and Normative Commitmen
Permanent renal failure induced by pentastarch

Background. Controversy exists with volume resuscitation using crystalloids or colloids. Renal dysfunction has been reported with some colloids and osmotic agents, but remains poorly defined. Patient. We report the case of a 67-year-old male who had normal kidney function at baseline and who developed anuric ARF in relation to the administration of >10 litres of 10% pentastarch. A renal biopsy confirmed hydropic changes in tubular cells compatible with colloid-induced damage. Conclusion. This case demonstrates that hydroxyethyl starch preparations may be associated with acute kidney injury, and one should carefully consider their use, especially in patients with pre-existing renal dysfunction. Osmotic tubular cell lesions may be long lasting and irreversible.
Wages and the bargaining regime

In a corporatist country like the Netherlands, wages should not be distinguished by union membership status, but by bargaining regime. Acknowledging the firms' bargaining regime, we find small differences between four regimes and certainly no distinction between "covered" and "uncovered" firms. keywords: wages; collective bargaining JEL code: J31, J51 *This paper has evolved from earlier drafts presented at workshops at Leiden (Aldi Hagenaars Memorial Conference), Amsterdam (Tinbergen Institute), Madrid (CEMFI), Nagoya University, Kansai Research Center (Osaka), Arhus (EALE Meetings) and forms part of a research project on wage formation and corporatism. An earlier version appeared as Discussion Paper no 88 at the Economic Research Center, School of Economics, Nagoya University. Teulings was supported by a fellowship from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW). At the time of the research, Leuven was associated with OECD. The views expressed here are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of KNAW or OECD. We thank all seminar participants for their comments.
Complex food webs prevent competitive exclusion among producer species

Herbivorous top-down forces and bottom-up competition for nutrients determine the coexistence and relative biomass patterns of producer species. Combining models of predator–prey and producer–nutrient interactions with a structural model of complex food webs, I investigated these two aspects in a dynamic food-web model. While competitive exclusion leads to persistence of only one producer species in 99.7% of the simulated simple producer communities without consumers, embedding the same producer communities in complex food webs generally yields producer coexistence. In simple producer communities, the producers with the most efficient nutrient-intake rates increase in biomass until they competitively exclude inferior producers. In food webs, herbivory predominantly reduces the biomass density of those producers that dominated in producer communities, which yields a more even biomass distribution. In contrast to prior analyses of simple modules, this facilitation of producer coexistence by herbivory does not require a trade-off between the nutrient-intake efficiency and the resistance to herbivory. The local network structure of food webs (top-down effects of the number of herbivores and the herbivores' maximum consumption rates) and the nutrient supply (bottom-up effect) interactively determine the relative biomass densities of the producer species. A strong negative feedback loop emerges in food webs: factors that increase producer biomasses also increase herbivory, which reduces producer biomasses. This negative feedback loop regulates the coexistence and biomass patterns of the producers by balancing biomass increases of producers and biomass fluxes to herbivores, which prevents competitive exclusion.
Impact of severe intellectual disability on proxy instrumental assessment of quality of life

ABSTRACT Background: Proxy quality of life (QoL) evaluation has been reported to be influenced by many factors. The present study was designed to investigate the impact that the presence of severe intellectual disability (ID) may have on proxy attribution of QoL in the instrumental assessment. Methods: The “other person” form (proxy questionnaire) of the Italian adaptation of the Quality of Life Instrument Package (QoL-IP), the BASIQ [BAtteria di Strumenti per l’Indagine della Qualità di Vita] was administered to 20 first-line operators to assess their perceptions of the QoL of 92 subjects with severe ID and 34 volunteers without ID. The 54-item BASIQ measures three psychological domains (Being; Belonging; Becoming) and nine sub-domains, with each item also assessed across four dimensions (Importance; Satisfaction; Decision-making; and Opportunities). Results: Subjects with ID (as rated by proxies) had higher scores on BASIQ domains than those of non-ID subjects except for the sub-domain of Psychological Being. People with ID also received lower scores from proxies on the Decision-making dimension but higher scores on the Opportunities dimension. Differences between groups were statistically significant for most variables. Conclusions: Findings suggest that prejudicial attitudes towards the QoL of people with severe ID may be either absent in proxies or contained within the scope of the excercise. Previous research indicating that non-integrated QoL assessment may give paradoxical results was also supported.
Effects of time pressure and text complexity on translators' fixations

We tracked the eye movements of 18 students as they translated three short texts with different complexity levels under three different time constraints. Participants with touch typing skills were found to attend more to on-screen text than participants without touch typing skills. Time pressure was found to mainly affect fixations on the source text, and text complexity was found to only affect the number of fixations on the source text. Overall, it was found that average fixation duration was longer in the target text area than in the source text area.
An examination of US first-year teachers’ risk for occupational stress: associations with professional preparation and occupational health

Abstract Previous research has demonstrated associations between teacher stress and occupational burnout, but few studies have attempted to operationalize a central tenet of most stress theories, namely that teachers’ appraisals of their classroom demands vis-à-vis their classroom resources is a central driver of vulnerability to stress. The research is particularly silent on risk for stress among the most vulnerable workers in the education sector – first-year teachers. The current study, utilizing data from the US National Center for Education Statistics Beginning Teachers Longitudinal study, sought to replicate prior research, conducted with more experienced US teachers, demonstrating that perceptions of classroom demands and resources can be used to classify new teachers according to their risk for stress. In an extension to previous analyses, the current study also examined the association between first-year teachers’ risk for stress and professional preparation. Results from this study aligned with previous findings, teachers classified at risk for stress reported more burnout symptoms (d = 1.48) and less classroom control (d = .62). Teacher education characteristics and exposure to first-year support programming were also found to be associated with first-year teachers’ risk for stress classification. Findings have implications for how US teacher education potentially shapes first-year teachers’ appraisal of their working conditions and corresponding risk for stress.
Development in Patients with Alcohol-Induced Cirrhosis Hepatic Iron Accumulation and Hepatocellular Carcinoma Genetic Polymorphisms in Antioxidant Enzymes Modulate

Manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) converts the superoxide anion into H2O2, which, unless it is detoxified by glutathione peroxidase 1 (GPx1), can increase hepatic iron and can react with iron to form genotoxic compounds. We investigated the role of Ala/Val-MnSOD and Pro/Leu-GPx1 polymorphisms on hepatic iron accumulation and hepatocellular carcinoma development in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis. Genotypes were determined in 162 alcoholic patients with cirrhosis but without hepatocellular carcinoma initially, who were prospectively followed up for hepatocellular carcinoma development. We found that patients with two Val-MnSOD alleles (slow H2O2 production) and two Pro-GPx1 alleles (presumably quick H2O2 detoxification) had a lower risk of hepatocellular carcinoma development than other patients (C trend test, P = 0.001; log-rank, P = 0.0009). Indeed, hepatocellular carcinoma percentage was 0% in subjects with this ‘‘2Val-MnSOD/2Pro-GPx1’’ genotype versus 16%, 27%, and 32% in ‘‘2Val-MnSOD/1or2Leu-GPx1,’’ ‘‘1or2AlaMnSOD/2Pro-GPx1,’’ and ‘‘1or2Ala-MnSOD/1or2Leu-GPx1’’ patients, respectively. The percentage of patients with stainable hepatic iron increased progressively with these genotypic associations: 22%, 28%, 50%, and 53%, respectively (C trend test, P = 0.005). Stainable iron was a risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (log-rank, P = 0.0002; relative risk, 3.40). In conclusion, polymorphisms in antioxidant enzymes modulate hepatic iron accumulation and hepatocellular carcinoma development in French alcoholic patients with cirrhosis. (Cancer Res 2006; 66(5): 2844-52)
Analysis of underwriting factors for AAPCC

The adjusted average per capita cost (AAPCC) formula is used to determine payment to health maintenance organizations (HMOs) by Medicare. The four original underwriting factors (i.e., age, sex, institutional status, and welfare status) for the AAPCC were calibrated from the Current Medicare Surveys for 1974-76. Those factors have been updated by various actuarial adjustments. Revised calculations of the AAPCC underwriting factors are presented using survey data from the 1984 National Long-Term Care Survey and expenditure data from the Medicare Part A and Part B bill files. Also examined is the effect on the underwriting factors of chronic functional disability, defined as having one or more chronic limitations in activities of daily living. Comparison of alternative underwriting factors is conducted by simulating the dollar impact on payment to HMOs for select enrollee populations.
Growth Determinants Revisited

This paper revisits the cross-country growth empirics debate using a novel Limited Information Bayesian Model Averaging framework to address model uncertainty in the context of a dynamic growth model in panel data with endogenous regressors. Our empirical findings suggest that once model uncertainty is accounted for there is strong evidence that initial income, investment, life expectancy, and population growth are robustly correlated with economic growth. We also find evidence that debt, openness, and inflation are robust growth determinants. Overall, the set of our robust growth determinants differs from those identified by other studies that incorporate model uncertainty, but ignore dynamics and/or endogeneity. This underscores the importance of accounting for model uncertainty and endogeneity in the investigation of growth determinants.
Cohort and Gender Differences in Psychosocial Adjustment to Later-Life Widowhood.

OBJECTIVES Despite the large body of literature on bereavement, little is known about the impact of sociohistorical context on individual reactions to spousal loss. This study examines the effect of marital status, time period and gender on physical and mental health, and whether reported difficulties following spousal loss differ at 2 distinctive time periods. METHOD Two cohorts of older bereaved persons (n = 753) in Switzerland, surveyed in 1979 and 2011, were compared regarding their reports of difficulties related to marital loss. The bereaved spouses were also compared with a group of married contemporaries (n = 1,517) regarding subjective health and depressive symptoms. RESULTS Marital status and gender each have independent effects on subjective health and depressive symptoms. The effects of widowhood on subjective health differed significantly at both time points. Widowed individuals in 2011, especially women, reported fewer social and financial difficulties than their counterparts in 1979. However, the effect of widowhood on depressive symptoms and psychological difficulties did not differ significantly across time points. DISCUSSION Social changes in the late 20th century may be protective for older adults' physical, social, and financial well-being in the face of spousal loss, yet these changes do not alleviate widow(er)s' psychological distress.
Gems from the Ashes: Capability Creation and Transformation in Internal Corporate Venturing

Our longitudinal study of the entire population of internal corporate ventures within a large European electronics manufacturer finds that the conventional focus in the corporate venturing literature to evaluate ventures based on business growth and financial performance may be misguided. Instead, we found that ventures are temporary conduits for capability development and play a primary role in launching the founding stage of new capability life cycles. Ventures' main contribution was often to transfer valuable capabilities to other ventures or the firm's existing business units. The benefit from investing in ventures was therefore largely independent of their commercial success. Furthermore, estimation of success rates proved highly sensitive to the stage of the ventures at which sampling began. These findings suggest the need to reconceptualize the notion of early stage ventures and their success. We further found that the venturing process can be conceptualized as a nested system of simultaneous selection at both the venture and the capability level. We show that these selection processes are distinct yet operate in a coevolutionary way and are amenable to proactive management.
Energy storage sizing for wind power: impact of the autocorrelation of day‐ahead forecast errors

Availability of day-ahead production forecast is an important step towards better dispatchability of wind power production. However, the stochastic nature of forecast errors prevents a wind farm operator from holding a firm production commitment. In order to mitigate the deviation from the commitment, an energy storage system connected to the wind farm is considered. One statistical characteristic of day-ahead forecast errors has a major impact on storage performance: errors are significantly correlated along several hours. We thus use a data-fitted autoregressive model that captures this correlation to quantify the impact of correlation on storage sizing. With a Monte Carlo approach, we study the behavior and the performance of an energy storage system (ESS) using the autoregressive model as an input. The ability of the storage system to meet a production commitment is statistically assessed for a range of capacities, using a mean absolute deviation criterion. By parametrically varying the correlation level, we show that disregarding correlation can lead to an underes- timation of a storage capacity by an order of magnitude. Finally, we compare the results obtained from the model and from field data to validate the model.
Loglog counting of large cardinalities

Using an auxiliary memory smaller than the size of this abstract, the LOGLOG algorithm makes it possible to estimate in a single pass and within a few percents the number of different words in the whole of Shakespeare's works. In general the LOGLOG algorithm makes use of m small bytes of auxiliary memory in order to estimate in a single pass the number of distinct elements (the cardinality) in a file, and it does so with an accuracy that is of the order of 1/√m. The small bytes to be used in order to count cardinalities till N max comprise about log log N max bits, so that cardinalities well in the range of billions can be determined using one or two kilobytes of memory only. The basic version of the LOGLOG algorithm is validated by a complete analysis. An optimized version, super-LOGLOG, is also engineered and tested on real-life data. The algorithm parallelizes optimally.
Measuring mathematical affect in an international context: influences on pre-university attainment and degree choice

In many contexts, mathematical self-efficacy is known to be an important and distinct predictor of mathematical attainment and the nature of further participation in the study of mathematics and mathematically based disciplines. This study reports on the results of cross-sectional questionnaire-based study of over 500 former International Baccalaureate (IB) students across 64 countries who had studied higher level pre-university mathematics. Two different sub-scales were employed in the online questionnaire measuring (i) mathematical self-efficacy on completion of the IB course (i.e. retrospectively) and (ii) mathematical self-concept at the time of completion of the survey (i.e. mainly during degree study) . These scales were found to be essentially unidimensional and to measure distinct but related constructs. In terms of predicting type of degree participation, important differences in patterns of influence were found relating to mathematical self-efficacy and attainment, although degree choice was not well-predicted in the modelling. Differences by gender and country are also reported, and the relationship between self-efficacy and self-concept is explored.
ATMI 2 . 0 manual

1 ATMI model The processor and its packaging are idealized as depicted in Figure 1. ATMI models two layers of different materials. Typically, layer 1 is silicon and layer 2 is metal . Both layers have horizontal dimensions L × L, with L the width of the metal layer (or the square root of its area). T hat is, ATMI assumes a large silicon chip, which neglects the impact of chip edges. The interface material between the two layers is considered infinitely thin and is modeled by a conductance h1 in W/mK. If the actual thickness of the interface is di and its thermal conductivityki, the equivalent conductance is
NVMeDirect: A User-space I/O Framework for Application-specific Optimization on NVMe SSDs

The performance of storage devices has been increased significantly due to emerging technologies such as Solid State Drives (SSDs) and Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) interface. However, the complex I/O stack of the kernel impedes utilizing the full performance of NVMe SSDs. The application-specific optimization is also difficult on the kernel because the kernel should provide generality and fairness. In this paper, we propose a user-level I/O framework which improves the performance by allowing user applications to access commercial NVMe SSDs directly without any hardware modification. Moreover, the proposed framework provides flexibility where user applications can select their own I/O policies including I/O completion method, caching, and I/O scheduling. Our evaluation results show that the proposed framework outperforms the kernel-based I/O by up to 30% on microbenchmarks and by up to 15% on Redis.
Molecular recognition of organic ammonium ions in solution using synthetic receptors

Ammonium ions are ubiquitous in chemistry and molecular biology. Considerable efforts have been undertaken to develop synthetic receptors for their selective molecular recognition. The type of host compounds for organic ammonium ion binding span a wide range from crown ethers to calixarenes to metal complexes. Typical intermolecular interactions are hydrogen bonds, electrostatic and cation–π interactions, hydrophobic interactions or reversible covalent bond formation. In this review we discuss the different classes of synthetic receptors for organic ammonium ion recognition and illustrate the scope and limitations of each class with selected examples from the recent literature. The molecular recognition of ammonium ions in amino acids is included and the enantioselective binding of chiral ammonium ions by synthetic receptors is also covered. In our conclusion we compare the strengths and weaknesses of the different types of ammonium ion receptors which may help to select the best approach for specific applications.
Practical near-optimal sparse recovery in the L1 norm

We consider the approximate sparse recovery problem, where the goal is to (approximately) recover a high-dimensional vector x isin Rn from its lower-dimensional sketch Ax isin Rm. Specifically, we focus on the sparse recovery problem in the l1 norm: for a parameter k, given the sketch Ax, compute an approximation xcirc of x such that the l1 approximation error parx - xcircpar1 is close to minx' parx - x'par1, where x' ranges over all vectors with at most k terms. The sparse recovery problem has been subject to extensive research over the last few years. Many solutions to this problem have been discovered, achieving different trade-offs between various attributes, such as the sketch length, encoding and recovery times.