Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stakeholder interaction and internet auction outcomes: analyzing active disclosure

Better understanding of information asymmetry in internet auctions by researchers has led to improved online auction designs, increased market efficiency, and therefore better outcomes for all stakeholders. In this paper we focus on a specific aspect of internet auctions that has not received much attention in the literature: the presence of interaction between buyers and sellers while an auction is in progress -- so called "live interaction". Examples of such interaction include characteristics of questions from buyers, answers and other disclosures from sellers, conversation threads, etc. We believe that such interaction differentiates active disclosure from seller volunteered information (passive disclosure). The facilitation of live interaction is a feature of the auction site TradeMe which represents 60% of all internet traffic in New Zealand. We collected data from 532 auctions of used cars over a three week period. In addition to data about the auction itself, we collected data about the number of questions asked and answered, the average length of the questions and answers, number of conversation threads and the use of specific textual triggers in the questions that encompass sentiments such as intent, politeness, and courtesy words. We modeled the problem using logistic regression to isolate live interaction based determinants of auction outcomes. We studied the effects of live interaction variables on outcomes in two ways: by themselves; and embedded in a larger model encompassing more traditional auction characteristics. The results show which specific aspects of live interaction between buyers and sellers are significant in determining auction outcomes. We propose that such interaction is greatly facilitated by the use of mobile devices and building it in as a necessary design feature can produce superior outcomes.
Rayleigh waves in a viscoelastic half-space under initial hydrostatic stress in presence of the temperature field

The effect of the temperature and initial hydrostatic stress has been shown on the propagation of Rayleigh waves in a viscoelastic half-space. It has been explained how the velocity of Rayleigh waves depends not only on the parameters pertaining to the viscoelastic properties of the half-space, but on the temperature and the initial hydrostatic stress of the half-space also. The variations of the phase velocity of Rayleigh waves in dimensionless form with respect to the magnitude of the initial hydrostatic stress under certain practical assumptions have been depicted in graphs after numerical computations. If the temperature and the initial hydrostatic stress of the half-space are neglected, the results obtained are in perfect agreement with the classical case as obtained by Caloi for the propagation of Rayleigh waves in a viscoelastic medium.
Refractive Error and Ocular Findings Among Infants and Young Children With Severe Problem Behavior and Developmental Disabilities

ABSTRACT The prevalence of refractive error and ocular disorders among infants and young children with severe behavioral problems and developmental disorders is not well defined, particularly in developing countries. We performed a retrospective review of ophthalmic examinations performed during a National Institutes of Health–funded cohort study of very young children in Peru with behavioral problems and at risk for developmental disorders. Two-hundred twenty-two children between the ages of 0 and 4 years (mean 2.2 ± 0.9 years) were examined and 100 (45.0%) had an abnormal ocular exam. Overall, the prevalence of refractive error was 33.3%, nystagmus was 12.2%, and strabismus was 10.9%. Among children with Down syndrome, refractive error ranged from 46.2% at age 2 to 85.7% at age 4. Refractive error and ocular disorders are highly prevalent even at a young age in children with behavioral problems and developmental disorders. Much of the visual impairment in this population is treatable; early identification and intervention can have a lifelong positive impact on neurodevelopment.
Phenomenology of neutrino oscillations at the neutrino factory

We consider the prospects for a neutrino factory to measure mixing angles, the CP violating phase and mass-squared differences by detecting wrong-charge muons arising from the chain μ+ → νe → νμ → μ− and the right-charge muons coming from the chain μ+ → ν̄μ → ν̄μ → μ+ (similar to μ− chains), where νe → νμ and ν̄μ → ν̄μ are neutrino oscillation channels through a long baseline. First, we perform the baseline and energy optimization of the neutrino factory including the latest simulation results from the magnetized iron neutrino detector (MIND). Second, we study physics with near detectors and consider the treatment of systematic errors including cross section errors, flux errors, and background uncertainties. Third, the effects of one additional massive sterile neutrino are investigated in the context of near and far detector combinations.
Health Effects of a Mixture of Indoor Air Volatile Organics, Their Ozone Oxidation Products, and Stress

In our present study we tested the health effects among women of controlled exposures to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with and without ozone (O3), and psychological stress. Each subject was exposed to the following three conditions at 1-week intervals (within-subject factor): VOCs (26 mg/m3), VOCs + O3 (26 mg/m3 + 40 ppb), and ambient air with a 1-min spike of VOCs (2.5 mg/m3). As a between-subjects factor, half the subjects were randomly assigned to perform a stressor. Subjects were 130 healthy women (mean age, 27.2 years; mean education, 15.2 years). Health effects measured before, during, and after each 140-min exposure included symptoms, neurobehavioral performance, salivary cortisol, and lung function. Mixing VOCs with O3 was shown to produce irritating compounds including aldehydes, hydrogen peroxide, organic acids, secondary organic aerosols, and ultrafine particles (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < 0.1 μm). Exposure to VOCs with and without O3 did not result in significant subjective or objective health effects. Psychological stress significantly increased salivary cortisol and symptoms of anxiety regardless of exposure condition. Neither lung function nor neurobehavioral performance was compromised by exposure to VOCs or VOCs + O3. Although numerous epidemiologic studies suggest that symptoms are significantly increased among workers in buildings with poor ventilation and mixtures of VOCs, our acute exposure study was not consistent with these epidemiologic findings. Stress appears to be a more significant factor than chemical exposures in affecting some of the health end points measured in our present study.
Six week swimming followed by acute uptakes of ginsenoside Rg1 may affect aerobic capacity of SD rats

[Purpose] The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of six-weeks of endurance swim training and short-term intake of Rg1 on the expression of related proteins as well as improvement of aerobic exercise capacity in 8-week-old male SD rats. [Methods] The groups were divided into placebo (NP, n=6), Rg1 (NRG, n=6), exercise+placebo (EP, n=7), and exercise+Rg1 (ERG, n=7). On completion of the 6-week swimming exercise, Rg1-intake groups were treated with acute uptakes (3 times within 24hrs) of Rg1. After the treatment, all groups were subjected to a swim to exhaustion test, and then the mass of muscle tissue, mRNA expression level and activity of citrate synthase (CS) were analyzed on plantaris. [Results] There were no differences in the effect of 6-week swimming exercise and short-term intake of Rg1 on body weight and muscle mass between groups. Although the CS mRNA expression was elevated in the exercise group and combined treatment group, there was no significant difference in CS activity. Acute uptakes of Rg1 did not affect swimming time to exhaustion, but it was increased by 235% and 314% by the 6-weeks of exercise and combined treatment of exercise and Rg1, respectively, which suggests that the combined treatment increased the effect on the capacity of aerobic exercise. [Conclusion] Based on these results, it was confirmed that even a short-term treatment of Rg1 can give an additive effect for improvement of exercise function, and additional studies are needed for the mechanisms and modes of its working.
Covert and Side Channels Due to Processor Architecture

Information leakage through covert channels and side channels is becoming a serious problem, especially when these are enhanced by modern processor architecture features. We show how processor architecture features such as simultaneous multithreading, control speculation and shared caches can inadvertently accelerate such covert channels or enable new covert channels and side channels. We first illustrate the reality and severity of this problem by describing concrete attacks. We identify two new covert channels. We show orders of magnitude increases in covert channel capacities. We then present two solutions, Selective Partitioning and the novel random permutation cache (RPCache). The RPCache can thwart most cache-based software side channel attacks, with minimal hardware costs and negligible performance impact
A Topical Crawler for Uncovering Hidden Communities of Extremist Micro-Bloggers on Tumblr

Research shows that microblogging websites such as Tumblr are being misused as a platform to disseminate hate and extremism. We formulate the problem of locating such extremist communities as a graph search problem. We propose a topical crawler based approach performing several tasks: searching for a blogger, computing its similarity against exemplary documents, filtering hate promoting bloggers, navigating through links to other bloggers and managing a queue of such bloggers for social network analysis. We conduct experiments on real world dataset and examine the e↵ectiveness of ’like’ and ’reblog’ features as links between bloggers. Experimental results demonstrates that the proposed solution approach is e↵ective with an F-score of 0.80.
Turning the tables on citation analysis one more time: Principles for comparing sets of documents

We submit newly developed citation impact indicators based not on arithmetic averages of citations but on percentile ranks. Citation distributions are—as a rule—highly skewed and should not be arithmetically averaged. With percentile ranks, the citation score of each paper is rated in terms of its percentile in the citation distribution. The percentile ranks approach allows for the formulation of a more abstract indicator scheme that can be used to organize and/or schematize different impact indicators according to three degrees of freedom: the selection of the reference sets, the evaluation criteria, and the choice of whether or not to define the publication sets as independent. Bibliometric data of seven principal investigators (PIs) of the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam are used as an exemplary dataset. We demonstrate that the proposed family indicators [R(6), R(100), R(6, k), R(100, k)] are an improvement on averages-based indicators because one can account for the shape of the distributions of citations over papers. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
THE DILATON THEOREM AND CLOSED STRING BACKGROUNDS

The zero-momentum ghost-dilaton is a non-primary BRST physical state present in every bosonic closed string background. It is given by the action of the BRST operator on another state |χ〉, but remains nontrivial in the semirelative BRST cohomology. When local coordinates arise from metrics we show that dilaton and |χ〉 insertions compute Riemannian curvature and geodesic curvature respectively. A proper definition of a CFT deformation induced by the dilaton requires surface integrals of the dilaton and line integrals of |χ〉. Surprisingly, the ghost number anomaly makes this a trivial deformation. While dilatons cannot deform conformal theories, they actually deform conformal string backgrounds, showing in a simple context that a string background is not necessarily the same as a CFT. We generalize the earlier proof of quantum background independence of string theory to show that a dilaton shift amounts to a shift of the string coupling in the field-dependent part of the quantum string action. Thus the “dilaton theorem”, familiar for on-shell string amplitudes, holds off-shell as a consequence of an exact symmetry of the string action.
Implementation and Tuning of Batched Cholesky Factorization and Solve for NVIDIA GPUs

Many problems in engineering and scientific computing require the solution of a large number of small systems of linear equations. Due to their high processing power, Graphics Processing Units became an attractive target for this class of problems, and routines based on the LU and the QR factorization have been provided by NVIDIA in the cuBLAS library. This work addresses the situation where the systems of equations are symmetric positive definite. The paper describes the implementation and tuning of the kernels for the Cholesky factorization and the forward and backward substitution. Targeted workloads involve the solution of thousands of linear systems of the same size, where the focus is on matrix dimensions from 5 by 5 to 100 by 100. Due to the lack of a cuBLAS Cholesky factorization, execution rates of cuBLAS LU and cuBLAS QR are used for comparison against the proposed Cholesky factorization in this work. Execution rates of forward and backward substitution routines are compared to equivalent cuBLAS routines. Comparisons against optimized multicore implementations are also presented. Superior performance is reached in all cases.
Analysis of Mathematical Communication Skills and Confidence of 10th Grader of SMK in Geometry Material Viewed from Cognitive Style

The purpose of this study were to describe the mathematical communication skills and the confidence of grade X SMK students on Van Hiele model geometry learning based on their cognitive styles. It was a qualitative descriptive research. The subjects were 2 impulsive students and 2 reflective students which were selected with MFFT instrument. The data collection techniques were mathematical communication skills tests (written and orally), interviews, documentation, attitude scale and activity observation sheets. The results showed that both written and orally, reflective students were able to meet 5 indicators of mathematical communication skills, and less meet another indicators. While, impulsive students less meet all of the mathematical communication skills indictors. The impulsive students confidence was in the medium category. In contrary, the reflective students confidence was in the high category.
Refining the Relationships of Perfectionism, Self-efficacy, and Stress to Dieting and Binge Eating: Examining the Appearance, Interpersonal, and Academic Domains

Objective: This study investigated domain specific (appearance, interpersonal, and academic) interactive relationships of perfectionism, self-efficacy, and stress to dieting and binge eating, positing that the level of weight/shape self-efficacy would be pivotal in identifying elevated dieting versus elevated binge eating. Method: Participants were 406 randomly selected undergraduate women. At two time points (T1 and T2), 11 weeks apart, participants completed measures of dieting and binge eating attitudes/behaviors as well as domain-specific measures of perfec-tionism and self-efficacy (e.g., perfectionism related to appearance). Between T1 and T2, participants completed inventories weekly on the previous week's weight/shape, inter-personal, and academic stressors. Results: The combination of high interpersonal perfectionism, low inter-personal self-efficacy, high interperso-nal stress, and high weight/shape self-efficacy was associated with the most elevated dieting. The hypothesized interactions related to the appearance and academic domains where not supported. Conclusion: These results highlight the interpersonal context for dieting and the unique relationship between weight/ shape self-efficacy and dieting. V
High water-use efficiency and growth contribute to success of non-native Erodium cicutarium in a Sonoran Desert winter annual community

Erodium cicutarium, an invasive plant, has recently increased in abundance in the Sonoran Desert. We tested hypotheses for its success, and found no evidence for a release from natural enemies. Instead, E. cicutarium was able to achieve higher growth rates while controlling leaf-level water loss, allowing it to out-compete natives.
Bryophyte-Feeders in a Basal Brachyceran Lineage (Diptera: Rhagionidae: Spaniinae): Adult Oviposition Behavior and Changes in the Larval Mouthpart Morphology Accompanied with the Diet Shifts

Dipteran larval morphology exhibits overwhelming variety, affected by their diverse feeding habits and habitat use. In particular, larval mouthpart morphology is associated with feeding behavior, providing key taxonomic traits. Despite most larval Brachycera being carnivorous, a basal brachyceran family, Rhagionidae, contains bryophyte-feeding taxa with multiple feeding habits. To elucidate the life history, biology, and morphological evolution of the bryophyte-feeding rhagionids, the larval feeding behavior and morphology, and the adult oviposition behavior of four species belonging to three genera of Spaniinae (Spania Meigen, Litoleptis Chillcott and Ptiolina Zetterstedt) are described. Moreover, changes of the larval morphology associated with the evolution of bryophyte-feeding are traced by molecular phylogenetic analyses. Spania and Litoleptis (thallus-miners of thallose liverworts) share a toothed form of apical mandibular sclerite with an orifice on its dorsal surface, which contrasts to those of the other members of Rhagionidae possessing a blade-like mandibular hook with an adoral groove; whereas, Ptiolina (stem borer of mosses) exhibits a weak groove on the adoral surface of mandible and highly sclerotized maxilla with toothed projections. Based on the larval feeding behavior of the thallus-miners, it is inferred that the toothed mandibles with the dorsal orifice facilitate scraping plant tissue and then imbibing it with a great deal of the sap. A phylogeny indicated that the bryophyte-feeding genera formed a clade with Spaniopsis and was sister to Symphoromyia, which presumably are detritivores. This study indicates that the loss or reduction of adoral mandibular groove and mandibular brush is coincident with the evolution of bryophyte-feeding, and it is subsequently followed by the occurrence of dorsal mandibular orifice and the loss of creeping welts accompanying the evolution of thallus-mining.
Cartilage Oligomeric Matrix Protein in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and life threatening disease with median survival of 2.5–3 years. The IPF lung is characterized by abnormal lung remodeling, epithelial cell hyperplasia, myofibroblast foci formation, and extracellular matrix deposition. Analysis of gene expression microarray data revealed that cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), a non-collagenous extracellular matrix protein is among the most significantly up-regulated genes (Fold change 13, p-value <0.05) in IPF lungs. This finding was confirmed at the mRNA level by nCounter® expression analysis in additional 115 IPF lungs and 154 control lungs as well as at the protein level by western blot analysis. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that COMP was expressed in dense fibrotic regions of IPF lungs and co-localized with vimentin and around pSMAD3 expressing cells. Stimulation of normal human lung fibroblasts with TGF-β1 induced an increase in COMP mRNA and protein expression. Silencing COMP in normal human lung fibroblasts significantly inhibited cell proliferation and negatively impacted the effects of TGF-β1 on COL1A1 and PAI1. COMP protein concentration measured by ELISA assay was significantly increased in serum of IPF patients compared to controls. Analysis of serum COMP concentrations in 23 patients who had prospective blood draws revealed that COMP levels increased in a time dependent fashion and correlated with declines in force vital capacity (FVC). Taken together, our results should encourage more research into the potential use of COMP as a biomarker for disease activity and TGF-β1 activity in patients with IPF. Hence, studies that explore modalities that affect COMP expression, alleviate extracellular matrix rigidity and lung restriction in IPF and interfere with the amplification of TGF-β1 signaling should be persuaded.
Comparison of Several Spatial Discretizations for the Navier-Stokes Equations

Grid convergence studies for subsonic and transonic flows over airfoils are presented in order to compare the accuracy of several spatial discretizations for the compressible Navier? Stokes equations. The discretizations include the following schemes for the inviscid fluxes: (1) second-order-accurate centered differences with third-order matrix numerical dissipation, (2) the second-order convective upstream split pressure scheme (CUSP), (3) third-order upwind-biased differencing with Roe's flux-difference splitting, and (4) fourth-order centered differences with third-order matrix numerical dissipation. The first three are combined with second-order differencing for the grid metrics and viscous terms. The fourth discretization uses fourth-order differencing for the grid metrics and viscous terms, as well as higher-order approximations near boundaries and for the numerical integration used to calculate forces and moments. The results indicate that the discretization using higher-order approximations for all terms is substantially more accurate than the others, producing less than two percent numerical error in lift and drag components on grids with less than 13,000 nodes for subsonic cases and less than 18,000 nodes for transonic cases. Since the cost per grid node of all of the discretizations studied is comparable, the higher-order discretization produces solutions of a given accuracy much more efficiently than the others.
Plume dispersion on a fringing coral reef system

A field program was implemented on a fringing reef located on Oahu, Hawaii, to investigate the dispersion characteristics of near‐bed dye plumes, tracked using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with an onboard fluorometer. The combination of moored and AUV‐based measurements collected synchronously in this study allowed us not only to observe the dispersion characteristics of individual plumes, but importantly to isolate the flow structures directly responsible for dispersion under a variety of forcing conditions. The evolution of several plumes was observed, each influenced by different wave (surface and internal), current, and stratification conditions. The observed dispersion was caused by both turbulent dispersion and plume meandering. Lateral turbulent dispersion coefficients were roughly an order of magnitude greater than previous observations on sandy beach sites, which is likely attributable to the enhanced surface wave‐induced mixing and the large physical roughness of the reef. For a large portion of the 2‐week experiment the effects of meandering dominated over turbulent dispersion (on average 1.5 times greater). The meandering was the result of large‐scale cross‐reef current variability. Moored thermistor chain data on the forereef suggest that the source of this cross‐reef flow variability were packets of solitary waves that accompanied the propagation of baroclinic bores up the reef slope. Baroclinic bores dissipated before they reached the inner reef when surface wave conditions were large, resulting in the reduction of plume meandering during this period.