Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Increment of Social Axioms over Broad Personality Traits in the Prediction of Dyadic Adjustment: An Investigation across Four Ethnic Groups

This study investigates the relationship between personality, social axioms, and dyadic adjustment. A sample of 420 participants (210 heterosexual couples), approximately evenly distributed between four ethnic backgrounds (Romanian, Hungarian, German, and Rroma), was investigated in a cross–sectional approach with the Romanian versions of the Social Axioms Survey, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. The analyses were based on the actor–partner interdependence model. The results showed that social axioms show incremental validity over personality traits in the prediction of dyadic adjustment, attesting to the usefulness of a worldview measure in predicting interpersonal outcomes over and above that provided by a measure of personality. Three of the five dimensions of social axioms were associated with dyadic adjustment, with either actor or partner effects. A few significant differences have been found between the various ethnic groups on effects of the social axioms on dyadic adjustment: The positive actor effect of reward for application is not visible for German men, the negative partner effect of social cynicism is not detectable for Rroma men, and the negative partner effect of social complexity is not visible for Rroma women. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology
A Longitudinal Evaluation of Strain, Work Engagement, and Intervention Strategies to Address the Health of High-Risk Employees

Numerous theoretical perspectives have been proposed to describe the aetiology of occupational stress, and decades of empirical research have demonstrated its associations with various work and individual characteristics. Furthermore, the high individual, organisational, and societal costs of occupational stress are well documented. Theoretical and practical implications of this research have been limited, however, due to the reliance on cross-sectional, non-experimental designs and the pathogenic focus of occupational health research. Drawing on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001), this research aimed to investigate longitudinal associations amongst job demands, job resources, coping, engagement, work-related burnout, and psychological strain. A stress management intervention designed to reduce strain and promote engagement specifically within a high-stress occupation (corrective services employees) was also evaluated. Therefore, this research addressed the dearth of evaluations of the longitudinal stress process, positive well-being outcomes (engagement), and stress management interventions.
Endogenous Life‐Cycle Housing Investment and Portfolio Allocation

This paper develops a life-cycle portfolio allocation model to address the effects of housing investment on the portfolio allocation of households. The model employs a comprehensive housing investment structure, Epstein-Zin recursive preferences and a stock market entry cost. Furthermore, rather than resorting to calibration we estimate the value of the relative risk aversion and elasticity of intertemporal substitution. The model shows that housing investment has a strong crowding out effect on investment in risky assets throughout the life-cycle and predicts that homeowners are, by and large, wealthier than renters and invest more in risky assets than renters.
Estrus induction and Fertility response in true anestrus buffaloes using lugol's iodine

The present study was carried out to see the efficacy of lugol's iodine for the initiation of ovarian cyclicity in postpartum true anestrus buffaloes. Confirmation of true anestrus in 30 buffaloes was done by finding smooth ovaries at rectal examination, out of 30, 15 buffaloes was treated with Lugol's iodine (1:50) ratio @ 30ml I/U once only whereas, the remaining 15 buffaloes were serve as control for treated group and no treatment was given to such animals. The result for induction of estrus was 73.34 %( 11/15) and the conception rate was 53.33% (8/15). This result shows that there are better possibilities of inducing ovarian cyclicity in functionally anestrus buffaloes and its cost effectiveness.
Bi-objective Inventory Management through Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization

A useful graphical output from the statistical inventory mathematics is the expected cost versus service level exchange curve. Such graphs demonstrate the nonlinear relationship between increasing cost and service level given the constraints on the business. The curve represents the operating objective and many managers refer to this curve as the efficient frontier. These exchange curve analyses seldom formulated inventory trade-offs as a multi-objective optimization problem and their solution procedures were all based on single objective optimization. In this paper, a bi-objective inventory management model without redundancy is discussed first. Then a solution procedure based on evolutionary multi-objective optimization is introduced to effectively solve the fixed order model. The results show that the intrinsic multi-objective approach can find efficient policies of order size and safety factor simultaneously without estimating shortage cost or service level. By comparing historical cost and service levels to the performance levels possible, a business can gauge how much room it has for improvement and determine the most cost-effective operating point. The cost-service trade-off can be observed in a single run of an iterative computation, so that it is more appropriate for the practice of inventory management.
High Yield Preparation Method of Thermally Stable Cellulose Nanofibers

The preparation of nanocellulose fibers (NFs) is achieved through pretreating cellulose in a NaOH/urea/thiourea solution, and then defibrillating the fibers through ultrasonication, resulting in a high yield of 85.4%. Extensive work has been done to optimize the preparation parameters. The obtained NFs are about 30 nm in diameter with cellulose II crystal structure. They possess high thermal stability with an onset of thermal degradation at 270 °C and a maximum degradation temperature of 370 °C. Such NFs have potential applications in transistors and batteries with high thermal stability. NFs-H were obtained by homogenizing undefibrillated fibers separated from the preparation of NFs. NFs-H were also in cellulose II crystal form but with lower thermal stability due to low crystallinity. They can be applied to make highly transparent paper.
Inhibitory effects of micronized fenofibrate on carotid atherosclerosis in patients with essential hypertension.

BACKGROUND The coexistence of hypertension and dyslipidemia synergistically increases the risk of cardiovascular events. We investigated the effect of the lipid-lowering agent micronized fenofibrate on inhibition of carotid atherosclerosis in patients with essential hypertension and mild hyperlipidemia. METHODS We measured serum lipid profiles and inflammatory markers on chemistry or immune analyzers and common or internal carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and diameter (D) by ultrasonography. RESULTS Patients receiving micronized fenofibrate for 24 months in addition to antihypertensive treatment had decreased concentrations of total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglyceride, apolipoprotein B100, oxidized LDL, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, P-selectin, and cytokines. These patients had increased concentrations of HDL-cholesterol, apolipoprotein A-I, and nitric oxide. Common carotid artery IMT (CCAIMT) and internal carotid artery IMT (ICAIMT) remained unchanged during the 24-month intervention. Moreover, the mean CCAIMT/D ratio and ICAIMT/D ratio were significantly decreased in the fenofibrate intervention group. In contrast, CCAIMT/D and ICAIMT/D ratios were increased in the control group. The incidence rates of carotid artery plaque formation and stroke in the fenofibrate intervention group were significantly lower than those in the control group. CONCLUSION The combination of antihypertensive agents with micronized fenofibrate can effectively prevent the progression of carotid atherosclerosis and reduce the incidence of stroke in patients with essential hypertension.
The learning path of the hidden economy: the tax burden and tax evasion in New Zealand

This paper considers the ‘learning curve’ relationship between the aggregate tax rate and the relative size of the hidden economy in New Zealand. Some simple non-linear models are estimated so that the effects of changes in the effective tax rate on the underground economy can be simulated. This study finds that about half of the hidden activity in New Zealand is a learned response to changing opportunities and constraints in fiscal policy, but this amount varies over the business cycle. Simulating a zero tax rate permits us to discover the ‘natural rate’ of underground and criminal activity. Some partial lessons are drawn for taxation policy in that country.
Sequentially Switching Cell Assemblies in Random Inhibitory Networks of Spiking Neurons in the Striatum

The striatum is composed of GABAergic medium spiny neurons with inhibitory collaterals forming a sparse random asymmetric network and receiving an excitatory glutamatergic cortical projection. Because the inhibitory collaterals are sparse and weak, their role in striatal network dynamics is puzzling. However, here we show by simulation of a striatal inhibitory network model composed of spiking neurons that cells form assemblies that fire in sequential coherent episodes and display complex identity–temporal spiking patterns even when cortical excitation is simply constant or fluctuating noisily. Strongly correlated large-scale firing rate fluctuations on slow behaviorally relevant timescales of hundreds of milliseconds are shown by members of the same assembly whereas members of different assemblies show strong negative correlation, and we show how randomly connected spiking networks can generate this activity. Cells display highly irregular spiking with high coefficients of variation, broadly distributed low firing rates, and interspike interval distributions that are consistent with exponentially tailed power laws. Although firing rates vary coherently on slow timescales, precise spiking synchronization is absent in general. Our model only requires the minimal but striatally realistic assumptions of sparse to intermediate random connectivity, weak inhibitory synapses, and sufficient cortical excitation so that some cells are depolarized above the firing threshold during up states. Our results are in good qualitative agreement with experimental studies, consistent with recently determined striatal anatomy and physiology, and support a new view of endogenously generated metastable state switching dynamics of the striatal network underlying its information processing operations.
On the difficulty of training recurrent neural networks

There are two widely known issues with properly training recurrent neural networks, the vanishing and the exploding gradient problems detailed in Bengio et al. (1994). In this paper we attempt to improve the understanding of the underlying issues by exploring these problems from an analytical, a geometric and a dynamical systems perspective. Our analysis is used to justify a simple yet effective solution. We propose a gradient norm clipping strategy to deal with exploding gradients and a soft constraint for the vanishing gradients problem. We validate empirically our hypothesis and proposed solutions in the experimental section.
Validation of the Young Adult Relational Aggression Scale

ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . iii LIST OF TABLES . vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . viii CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION . 1 Forms of Aggression . 6 Functions of Aggression . 8 Adverse Correlates of Relational Aggression . 11 Relational Aggression in Late Adolescents and Emerging Adults . 13 Correlates of Reactive and Proactive Relational Aggression . 23 Inconsistencies in the Literature . 26 Measurement of Relational Aggression in Emerging Adults . 29 Development of a New Measure . 43 Reactive Relational Aggression . 49 Proactive Relational Aggression . 50 The Present Study . 53 Research Questions and Hypotheses . 54 CHAPTER II – METHODS . 57 Instruments . 57 v Demographic Questionnaire. 57 Young Adult Relational Aggression Scale (YARAS). 57 Self-Report of Aggression and Social Behavior Measure (SRASBM). 58 Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI). 59 Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP). 59 UCLA Loneliness Scale. 60 Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21. 60 Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AQ). 61 Procedure . 62 CHAPTER III – RESULTS . 64 Data Screening . 64 Confirmatory Factor Analysis . 64 Confirmatory Factor Analysis Fit Statistics (N = 402) . 67 Bivariate Correlations . 72 CHAPTER IV – DISCUSSION. 83 Factor Structure . 84 Convergent and Discriminant Validity . 87 Limitations and Future Directions . 91 Conclusion . 95 APPENDIX A – TABLES . 96 vi APPENDIX B – FIGURE . 105 APPENDIX C – MEASURES . 106 APPENDIX D – DEMOGRAPHIC FORM . 116 APPENDIX E – CONSENT FORM A . 118 APPENDIX F – CONSENT FORM B . 120 APPENDIX G – IRB Approval Letter . 122 REFERENCES . 123
Mathematical models for the spatial receptive-field organization of nonlagged X-cells in dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of cat

Spatial receptive fields of relay cells in dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) have commonly been modeled as a difference of two Gaussian functions. We present alternative models for dLGN cells which take known physiological couplings between retina and dLGN and within dLGN into account. The models include excitatory input from a single retinal ganglion cell and feedforward inhibition via intrageniculate interneurons. Mathematical formulas describing the receptive field and response to circular spot stimuli are found both for models with a finite and an infinite number of ganglion-cell inputs to dLGN neurons. The advantage of these models compared to the common difference-of-Gaussians model is that they, in addition to providing mathematical descriptions of the receptive fields of dLGN neurons, also make explicit contributions from the geniculate circuit. Moreover, the model parameters have direct physiological relevance and can be manipulated and measured experimentally. The discrete model is applied to recently published data (Ruksenas et al., 2000) on response versus spot-diameter curves for dLGN cells and for the retinal input to the cell (S-potentials). The models are found to account well for the results for the X-cells in these experiments. Moreover, predictions from the discrete model regarding receptive-field sizes of interneurons, the amount of center-surround antagonism for interneurons compared to relay cells, and distance between neighboring retinal ganglion cells providing input to interneurons, are all compatible with data available in the literature.
The Discourse Structuring Potential of Definite Noun Phrases in Natural Discourse

This paper investigates an alternation found with definite noun phrases in direct object position in Romanian that represents a theoretical puzzle for current theories of Differential Object Marking or pe-marking (Dobrovie-Sorin 1994). When in direct object position and unmodified, definite noun phrases can be accompanied either by the differential object marker pe, or by the simple enclitic definite article. In light of the findings of a sentencecontinuation experiment, we show that pe-marking is used for referents that display a high Discourse Structuring Potential (Chiriacescu 2011). We conclude that different types of definite noun phrases do not equally contribute to the Discourse Structuring Potential of their referents. We argue that pe-marked unmodified definite noun phrases display (i) a higher likelihood of subsequent mention (Givón 1983, Ariel 2001, Arnold 2010) and (ii) a higher topic shift potential (Givón 1983).
The use of distal rhynchokinesis by birds feeding in water

SUMMARY The use of distal rhynchokinesis, which consists of the movement of the distal part of the upper jaw with respect to the cranium, is well documented in long-billed shorebirds (Scolopacidae), commonly being associated with the deep probing feeding method. However, the functional and evolutionary significance of distal rhynchokinesis and other cranial kinesis is unclear. We report for the first time the use and occurrence of distal rhynchokinesis in wild long-billed shorebirds feeding on small prey items suspended in water. We tested whether prey size in captive dunlins Calidris alpina influences the occurrence of distal rhynchokinesis during feeding and also whether its use affects foraging efficiency. We found that wild dunlin, curlew sandpiper Calidris ferruginea, sanderling Calidris alba and little stint Calidris minuta commonly use distal rhynchokinesis to strike, capture and transport small prey items. Prey size influenced the occurrence of distal rhynchokinesis during the transport phase, with this type of cranial kinesis being more frequently used with larger prey. The rhynchokinesis protraction angle (a measure of bill tip elevation) during prey strike and transport was affected by prey size, and bill gape was modulated through the use of distal rhynchokinesis in relation to prey size. Finally, the use of distal rhynchokinesis throughout intra-oral prey transport was related to shorter transport times, which improved foraging efficiency. We conclude that distal rhynchokinesis is a mechanism that could contribute to the flexible feeding behaviour of long-distance migratory shorebirds, enhancing small prey profitability and so improving foraging efficiency, and may have played a role in the evolutionary radiation of Scolopacidae (Charadrii).
Antimicrobial Resistance Profile and Genotypic Characteristics of Streptococcus suis Capsular Type 2 Isolated from Clinical Carrier Sows and Diseased Pigs in China

Streptococcus suis serotype 2 is an important zoonotic pathogen. Antimicrobial resistance phenotypes and genotypic characterizations of S. suis 2 from carrier sows and diseased pigs remain largely unknown. In this study, 96 swine S. suis type 2, 62 from healthy sows and 34 from diseased pigs, were analyzed. High frequency of tetracycline resistance was observed, followed by sulfonamides. The lowest resistance of S. suis 2 for β-lactams supports their use as the primary antibiotics to treat the infection of serotype 2. In contrast, 35 of 37 S. suis 2 with MLSB phenotypes were isolated from healthy sows, mostly encoded by the ermB and/or the mefA genes. Significantly lower frequency of mrp+/epf+/sly+ was observed among serotype 2 from healthy sows compared to those from diseased pigs. Furthermore, isolates from diseased pigs showed more homogeneously genetic patterns, with most of them clustered in pulsotypes A and E. The data indicate the genetic complexity of S. suis 2 between herds and a close linkage among isolates from healthy sows and diseased pigs. Moreover, many factors, such as extensive use of tetracycline or diffusion of Tn916 with tetM, might have favored for the pathogenicity and widespread dissemination of S. suis serotype 2.
Explorer Emotion Recognition in Spontaneous and Acted Dialogues

In this work, we compare emotion recognition on two types of speech: spontaneous and acted dialogues. Experiments were conducted on the AVEC2012 database of spontaneous dialogues and the IEMOCAP database of acted dialogues. We studied the performance of two types of acoustic features for emotion recognition: knowledge-inspired disfluency and nonverbal vocalisation (DIS-NV) features, and statistical Low-Level Descriptor (LLD) based features. Both Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Long Short-Term Memory Recurrent Neural Networks (LSTM-RNN) were built using each feature set on each emotional database. Our work aims to identify aspects of the data that constrain the effectiveness of models and features. Our results show that the performance of different types of features and models is influenced by the type of dialogue and the amount of training data. Because DIS-NVs are less frequent in acted dialogues than in spontaneous dialogues, the DIS-NV features perform better than the LLD features when recognizing emotions in spontaneous dialogues, but not in acted dialogues. The LSTM-RNN model gives better performance than the SVM model when there is enough training data, but the complex structure of a LSTM-RNN model may limit its performance when there is less training data available, and may also risk over-fitting. Additionally, we find that long distance contexts may be more useful when performing emotion recognition at the word level than at the utterance level.
Response to Gaseous NO2 Air Pollutant of P. fluorescens Airborne Strain MFAF76a and Clinical Strain MFN1032

Human exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), an air pollutant of increasing interest in biology, results in several toxic effects to human health and also to the air microbiota. The aim of this study was to investigate the bacterial response to gaseous NO2. Two Pseudomonas fluorescens strains, namely the airborne strain MFAF76a and the clinical strain MFN1032 were exposed to 0.1, 5, or 45 ppm concentrations of NO2, and their effects on bacteria were evaluated in terms of motility, biofilm formation, antibiotic resistance, as well as expression of several chosen target genes. While 0.1 and 5 ppm of NO2did not lead to any detectable modification in the studied phenotypes of the two bacteria, several alterations were observed when the bacteria were exposed to 45 ppm of gaseous NO2. We thus chose to focus on this high concentration. NO2-exposed P. fluorescens strains showed reduced swimming motility, and decreased swarming in case of the strain MFN1032. Biofilm formed by NO2-treated airborne strain MFAF76a showed increased maximum thickness compared to non-treated cells, while NO2 had no apparent effect on the clinical MFN1032 biofilm structure. It is well known that biofilm and motility are inversely regulated by intracellular c-di-GMP level. The c-di-GMP level was however not affected in response to NO2 treatment. Finally, NO2-exposed P. fluorescens strains were found to be more resistant to ciprofloxacin and chloramphenicol. Accordingly, the resistance nodulation cell division (RND) MexEF-OprN efflux pump encoding genes were highly upregulated in the two P. fluorescens strains. Noticeably, similar phenotypes had been previously observed following a NO treatment. Interestingly, an hmp-homolog gene in P. fluorescens strains MFAF76a and MFN1032 encodes a NO dioxygenase that is involved in NO detoxification into nitrites. Its expression was upregulated in response to NO2, suggesting a possible common pathway between NO and NO2 detoxification. Taken together, our study provides evidences for the bacterial response to NO2 toxicity.
Design and performance study of optical logic gates using Ti:KNbO3 based waveguide at 1.55 μm

Optical logic gates have become the most essential means of performing optical signal processing functions. These gates have potential for the development of large scale integrated optical processor. In this paper we tried to bring out the best performance of AND, NOT, NAND, NOR, XOR, XNOR logic gates based on electro-optic effect by implementing these devices with the use of Ti:KNbO3 waveguide. To implement these gates we used an optimal performing 2×2 Mach-Zehnder Interferometer electro-optic switch based on Ti:KNbO3 waveguide as basic building block. Two or more switches were needed for designing the gates. Signals in second electrodes which are also referred as control signals are the inputs of the gates. The novelty of this work is to introduce AND, NOT, NAND, NOR, XOR, XNOR logic gates using Ti:KNbO3 based waveguides at 1.55 μm. Finite difference beam propagation method (FDBPM) was used as the performance analyzing tool of these gates with the help of Opti-BPM 12.2 simulation software.