Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Safety in numbers: more walkers and bicyclists, safer walking and bicycling

Objective: To examine the relationship between the numbers of people walking or bicycling and the frequency of collisions between motorists and walkers or bicyclists. The common wisdom holds that the number of collisions varies directly with the amount of walking and bicycling. However, three published analyses of collision rates at specific intersections found a non-linear relationship, such that collisions rates declined with increases in the numbers of people walking or bicycling. Data: This paper uses five additional data sets (three population level and two time series) to compare the amount of walking or bicycling and the injuries incurring in collisions with motor vehicles. Results: The likelihood that a given person walking or bicycling will be struck by a motorist varies inversely with the amount of walking or bicycling. This pattern is consistent across communities of varying size, from specific intersections to cities and countries, and across time periods. Discussion: This result is unexpected. Since it is unlikely that the people walking and bicycling become more cautious if their numbers are larger, it indicates that the behavior of motorists controls the likelihood of collisions with people walking and bicycling. It appears that motorists adjust their behavior in the presence of people walking and bicycling. There is an urgent need for further exploration of the human factors controlling motorist behavior in the presence of people walking and bicycling. Conclusion: A motorist is less likely to collide with a person walking and bicycling if more people walk or bicycle. Policies that increase the numbers of people walking and bicycling appear to be an effective route to improving the safety of people walking and bicycling.
Inhibition of Group IIA Secretory Phospholipase A2 and its Inflammatory Reactions in Mice by Ethanolic Extract of Andrographis paniculata, a Well-known Medicinal Food

Andrographis paniculata Nees is an important medicinal plant found in the tropical regions of the world, which has been traditionally used in Indian and Chinese medicinal systems. It is also used as medicinal food. A. paniculata is found to exhibit anti-inflammatory activities; however, its inhibitory potential on inflammatory Group IIA phospholipases A2(PLA2) and its associated inflammatory reactions are not clearly understood. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the inhibitory/neutralizing potential of ethanolic extract of A. paniculata on the isolated inflammatory PLA2(VRV-PL-VIIIa) from Daboii rusellii pulchella (belonging to Group IIA inflammatory secretory PLA2[sPLA2]) and its associated edema-induced activities in Swiss albino mice. A. paniculata extract dose dependently inhibited the Group IIA sPLA2enzymatic activity with an IC50value of 10.3 ± 0.5 μg/ml. Further, the extract dose dependently inhibited the edema formation, when co-injected with enzyme indicating that a strong correlation exists between lipolytic and pro-inflammatory activities of the enzyme. In conclusion, results of this study shows that the ethanolic extract of A. paniculata effectively inhibits Group IIA sPLA2and its associated inflammatory activities, which substantiate its anti-inflammatory properties. The results of the present study warranted further studies to develop bioactive compound (s) in ethanolic extract of A. paniculata as potent therapeutic agent (s) for inflammatory diseases. SUMMARY This study emphasis the anti-inflammatory effect of A. paniculata by inhibiting the inflammatory Group IIA sPLA2 and its associated inflammatory activities such as edema. It was found that there is a strong correlation between lipolytic activity and pro-inflammatory activity inhibition. Therefore, the study suggests that the extract processes potent anti-inflammatory agents, which could be developed as a potential therapeutic agent against inflammatory and related diseases.
VC3: Trustworthy Data Analytics in the Cloud Using SGX

We present VC3, the first system that allows users to run distributed MapReduce computations in the cloud while keeping their code and data secret, and ensuring the correctness and completeness of their results. VC3 runs on unmodified Hadoop, but crucially keeps Hadoop, the operating system and the hyper visor out of the TCB, thus, confidentiality and integrity are preserved even if these large components are compromised. VC3 relies on SGX processors to isolate memory regions on individual computers, and to deploy new protocols that secure distributed MapReduce computations. VC3 optionally enforces region self-integrity invariants for all MapReduce code running within isolated regions, to prevent attacks due to unsafe memory reads and writes. Experimental results on common benchmarks show that VC3 performs well compared with unprotected Hadoop: VC3's average runtime overhead is negligible for its base security guarantees, 4.5% with write integrity and 8% with read/write integrity.
Using groups for the prevention of eating disorders among college women

Abstract The prevalence of eating disorders and associated health risks, morbidity, and mortality renders prevention programming an urgent health care need. Growing awareness of the pervasiveness and scope of the problem on college campuses has resulted in development of treatment and prevention models. However, few studies examine the efficacy of this programming. Utilizing a sociocultural model for the etiology of eating disorders, this research compared treatment and no-treatment group differences in 80 undergraduate women. The four-session intervention programming was intended to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors identified by previous prevention research. Both groups completed preintervention and postintervention questionnaires designed to assess the efficacy of the program. Multivariate analysis of variance and post hoe univariate analyses indicated that the prevention program was successful in increasing the psychosocial factors of physical, personal, and social self-concept and reducing the drive for thinness and unhealthful methods of weight regulation, two significant risk factors.
Homeostatic regulation of REM sleep in humans during extended sleep.

Benington and Heller (1994) recently proposed a sleep-dependent model for the homeostatic control of REM sleep in which the amount of REM sleep propensity discharged in each bout of REM sleep affects the timing of the subsequent REM episode. Consistent with their hypothesis, they reported that in rats the duration of a REM episode was positively correlated with the duration of the succeeding NREM episode and not with the duration of the preceding NREM episode. To assess this hypothesis in humans, we used 308 sleep records from 11 subjects who remained at bedrest in the dark and slept ad libitum during 14-hour periods each night for 4 weeks. The timing of the onset of the first REM episode of the long night was linked to the timing of sleep onset. NREM-REM cycle duration decreased progressively throughout the night as a result of a progressive decrease in duration of the NREM component. Durations of REM sleep episodes correlated significantly with durations of subsequent NREM episodes in three out of the eight rank cycles analyzed (p < .0031, Bonferroni corrected); positive correlation coefficients were found for all the remaining cycles, but were not statistically significant when the conservative Bonferroni correction of the alpha level was applied. With the exception of the first sleep cycle, durations of REM sleep episodes did not correlate with durations of preceding NREM sleep episodes. According to the present results, the amount of REM sleep in one episode controls the time of occurrence of the next REM episode when the impact of other possible regulating factors are at a low level. We hypothesize that the extended dark/rest period, by increasing the time window allowed for sleep, provided a condition under which the systems governing REM sleep expression were free of the masking imposed by the conventional 16 hours light/8 hours dark schedule that consolidates and compresses sleep.
Öğretmen Adaylarının Zihinsel Stil Tercihlerine Yönelik Bir Araştırma: Zihinsel Stiller Değişiyor mu?

Zihinsel stil, alanyazinda one surulen butun ‘stil’ yapilarinin anlamini icine alan genel bir kavram olarak kullanilmaktadir. Zihinsel Stiller Sternberg (1997) tarafindan gelistirilen “Zihinsel Oz-Yonetim Kurami”na dayandirilmaktadir. Bu kuramin ayirt edici ozellikleri soyle siralanabilir, stiller tek boyut altinda degil, bes farkli boyut altinda toplanmistir, tanimlanan stiller kendi iclerinde iki zit kutba ayrilmak yerine sureklilik biciminde algilanir, hicbir stil iyi ya da kotu degildir, her birey icin tek bir stil tanimlanmaz, stil profili cikarilir (Zhang, 2001, s.548). Bu arastirmanin amaci ogretmen adaylarinin zihinsel stillerinin bir ogretim yariyili icinde farklilasma durumunu ortaya koymaktir. Stillerin olculmesinde Sternberg ve Wagner tarafindan gelistirilen “Dusunme Stilleri Olcegi” kullanilmistir. Olcek bir ogretim yariyilinin basinda ve sonunda farkli bolumlerde ogrenim goren 794 ogretmen adayina uygulanmistir. Yapilan analizler ile I. ve II. uygulama sonuclari incelendiginde ayrintisal alt olcegi disindaki tum alt olceklerde istatistiksel olarak anlamli bir fark bulunmustur. Bu sonuc, ogretmen adaylarinin zihinsel stil tercihlerinin bir ogretim yariyili icinde degisebilecegini gostermektedir
Product Variety, Across-Market Demand Heterogeneity, and the Value of Online Retail

Online retail gives consumers access to an astonishing variety of products. However, the additional value created by this variety depends on the extent to which local retailers already satisfy local demand. To quantify the gains and account for local demand, we use detailed data from an online retailer and propose methodology to address a common issue in such data - sparsity of local sales due to sampling and a significant number of local zeros. Our estimates indicate products face substantial demand heterogeneity across markets; as a result, we find gains from online variety that are 30% lower than previous studies.
Markets and the English: rethinking educational restructuring as institutional design

Abstract This paper analyses the concerns, parameters and silences emerging in the field of English research on contemporary educational restructuring. The research effort oriented to the investigation of Thatcherism and the marketisation of education is documented. Its strong emphasis on markets and processes of marketisation and its neglect of alternatives to Thatcherism is noted. This pattern of emphases and silences in research seems to have arisen as a result of changes in the research‐policy context, and because of the way Thatcherism has been conceptualised in educational research. I argue that these developments have encouraged a narrowing of both research and political horizons in education. I suggest that a more comprehensive framework for analysing educational restructuring can be developed by recontextualising Thatcherism and drawing on recent social science research on institutional design. Such a framework would appear to offer a basis for tackling the empirical and normative work of assessi.
Analyzing Nonblocking Multilog Networks with the köNIG-Egevarý Theorem

When analyzing a nonblocking switching network, the typical problem is to find a route for a new request through the network without disturbing existing routes. By solving this problem, we can derive how many hardware components of a certain type (Banyan planes in a multi-log network, for instance) are needed for the network to be nonblocking. This scenario appears in virtually all combinations of switching environments: strictly, widesense or rearrangeably nonblocking, unicast or multicast switching, and circuit, multirate, or photonic switching. In this paper, we show that the Konig–Egevarý theorem is a very good tool which helps solve the above prototypical problem. The idea is to somehow "represent" the potential blocking connections as edges of a bipartite graph. The maximum number of blocking connections roughly corresponds to the size of a maximum matching in that bipartite graph. The size of any vertex cover, by the Konig–Egevarý theorem, is an upper bound on the maximum number of blocking connections. Thus, by specifying a small vertex cover, we can derive the sufficient number of hardware components for the network to be nonblocking. We illustrate the technique by analyzing crosstalk-free and non-crosstalk-free widesense nonblocking multicast multi-log networks. Particularly, for the first time in the literature we derive conditions for the d-ary multi-log network to be crosstalk-free multicast widesense nonblocking under the window algorithm for any given window size. Several by-products follow from our approach and results. Firstly, our results allow for computing the best window size minimizing the fabric cost, showing that the multi-log network is a good candidate for crosstalk-free multicast switching architectures. Secondly, the analytical approach also gives a much simpler proof of the known case when the network is not required to be crosstalk-free. Thirdly, we show that several known results for the multi-log multicast networks under the so-called fanout constraints are simple corollaries of our results.
ASMiGA: An Archive-Based Steady-State Micro Genetic Algorithm

We propose a new archive-based steady-state micro genetic algorithm (ASMiGA). In this context, a new archive maintenance strategy is proposed, which maintains a set of nondominated solutions in the archive unless the archive size falls below a minimum allowable size. It makes the archive size adaptive and dynamic. We have proposed a new environmental selection strategy and a new mating selection strategy. The environmental selection strategy reduces the exploration in less probable objective spaces. The mating selection increases searching in more probable search regions by enhancing the exploitation of existing solutions. A new crossover strategy DE-3 is proposed here. ASMiGA is compared with five well-known multiobjective optimization algorithms of different types-generational evolutionary algorithms (SPEA2 and NSGA-II), archive-based hybrid scatter search, decomposition-based evolutionary approach, and archive-based micro genetic algorithm. For comparison purposes, four performance measures (HV, GD, IGD, and GS) are used on 33 test problems, of which seven problems are constrained. The proposed algorithm outperforms the other five algorithms.
In Vitro Reconstitution of SARS-Coronavirus mRNA Cap Methylation

SARS-coronavirus (SARS-CoV) genome expression depends on the synthesis of a set of mRNAs, which presumably are capped at their 5′ end and direct the synthesis of all viral proteins in the infected cell. Sixteen viral non-structural proteins (nsp1 to nsp16) constitute an unusually large replicase complex, which includes two methyltransferases putatively involved in viral mRNA cap formation. The S-adenosyl-L-methionine (AdoMet)-dependent (guanine-N7)-methyltransferase (N7-MTase) activity was recently attributed to nsp14, whereas nsp16 has been predicted to be the AdoMet-dependent (nucleoside-2′O)-methyltransferase. Here, we have reconstituted complete SARS-CoV mRNA cap methylation in vitro. We show that mRNA cap methylation requires a third viral protein, nsp10, which acts as an essential trigger to complete RNA cap-1 formation. The obligate sequence of methylation events is initiated by nsp14, which first methylates capped RNA transcripts to generate cap-0 7MeGpppA-RNAs. The latter are then selectively 2′O-methylated by the 2′O-MTase nsp16 in complex with its activator nsp10 to give rise to cap-1 7MeGpppA2′OMe-RNAs. Furthermore, sensitive in vitro inhibition assays of both activities show that aurintricarboxylic acid, active in SARS-CoV infected cells, targets both MTases with IC50 values in the micromolar range, providing a validated basis for anti-coronavirus drug design.
Black holes in Godel-type universes with a cosmological constant

We discuss supersymmetric black holes embedded in a Godel-type universe with cosmo- logical constant in five dimensions. The spacetime is a fibration over a four-dimensional Kahler base manifold, and generically has closed timelike curves. Asymptotically the space approaches a deformation of AdS5, which suggests that the appearance of closed timelike curves should have an interpretation in some deformation of D = 4, N = 4 super-Yang- Mills theory. Finally, a Godel-de Sitter universe is also presented and its causal structure is discussed.
Sunlight, vitamin D, and ovarian cancer mortality rates in US women.

BACKGROUND In general, ovarian cancer incidence and mortality is higher in northern than southern latitudes. This ecologic study tests the hypothesis that vitamin D produced in the skin from sunlight exposure may be associated with a protective action in ovarian cancer mortality. METHODS The association between average annual sunlight energy and age-specific ovarian cancer mortality rates in counties containing the 100 largest US cities was evaluated for 1979-1988. Simple linear regression was performed by decade using sunlight and ozone as independent variables and ovarian cancer rates as the dependent variable. Multiple regression was used to adjust for ozone and sulphur dioxide, since these atmospheric components may absorb ultraviolet light. RESULTS Fatal ovarian cancer in these areas was inversely proportional to mean annual intensity of local sunlight in a univariate analysis (P = 0.0001), and in a regression adjusted for air pollution (P = 0.04). The association was also seen when restricted to 27 major urban areas of the US; however, probably due to a small sample size, this statistic did not reach significance. CONCLUSIONS This ecologic study supports the hypothesis that sunlight may be a protective factor for ovarian cancer mortality.
Three Empirical Essays on the Determinants of Economic Growth

First and foremost I would like to thank Peter Egger and Theo Eicher for agree-ing to supervise my thesis and their support. I am deeply indebted to Theo Eicher for his ongoing guidance, countless discussions, inspiration and patience throughout this venture. Our close and productive collaboration is reflected in his co-authorship of chapter 1 and 3 of this dissertation. I am equally grateful to Chris Papageorgiou, also co-author of chapter 1, for fruitful discussions and the pleasure I had working with him and Theo Eicher. Grateful acknowledgements are made to the Ifo Institute for Economic Research and in particular the Department of International Institutional Comparisons for providing me with an excellent research environment and all neces-sary resources. Special thanks go to Rigmar Osterkamp and Wolfgang Ochel for cre-ating an inspiring and pleasant work atmosphere and for giving me the freedom to finish my thesis during the last months. I greatly benefited from my research stay at the University of Washington during the spring of 2007, where much of the research for chapter 2 was conducted, and I would like to express my thanks to the whole De-partment of Economics for their hospitality and especially Theo Eicher for the invita-tion. I also thank my fellow doctoral students and in particular Georg Wamser, Steffen Henzel, Andreas Leukert, Thomas Strobel and Johannes Mayr for discus-sions and comments on my work on various occasions. Editorial help from Kristi Marino and Dirk Ulbricht is greatly appreciated. I am indebted to Elke Kronjager for providing the investment data that underlies the database employed in chapter 3 and to Thomas Fuchs for early work on that database and for familiarizing me with the data and methods. Participants at the conference on “The Determinants of Productiv-ity Growth” in Vienna and especially Paul Schreyer made very valuable comments on the paper underlying chapter 3. I am also grateful to Gernot Doppelhofer for dis-cussions and additional insights into the Bayesian Model Averaging methodology. Financial support from the Ifo Institute and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under their grant “Determinants of German Sectoral Productivity Growth” is gratefully acknowledged. Last but certainly not least I thank my family for their lov-ing support and encouragement throughout the entire time.
The effect of high‐fat and high‐fructose diets on glucose tolerance and plasma lipid and leptin levels in rats

Aim: High‐fat and high‐fructose diets are usually used to induce animal model diabetes mellitus. The purposes of this research were to compare the abnormalities of glucose metabolism caused by high‐fructose diet and a high‐fat diet and the effects of the high‐fructose diet and high‐fat diet on plasma leptin.
Students’ and parents’ attitudes toward basic life support training in primary schools

Aim To assess attitudes of students and their parents toward basic life support (BLS) training in primary schools, along with their perceptions of students’ fears toward applying and training BLS. Methods In October 2011, a specifically designed, voluntary and anonymous questionnaire was distributed to 7th and 8th grade students and to their parents in two primary schools in Split, Croatia. Completed questionnaires were analyzed to determine the validity of the scale, and to determine sex and group differences in individual items and the whole scale. Results The questionnaires were completed by 301 school children and 361 parents. Cronbach’s alpha of the whole scale was 0.83, indicating good internal consistency. The students’ score for the whole attitude scale was 73.7 ± 11.1 out of maximum 95, while the parents’ score was 68.0 ± 11.9. Students’ attitude was significantly more positive than that of the parents (U = 29.7, P < 0.001). The greatest perceived students’ fear toward applying BLS was that they would harm the person in need of BLS. Conclusion Our study showed that in Croatia both students in their last two years of primary school and their parents had a positive attitude toward BLS training in primary schools. Implementing compulsory BLS training in Croatia’s primary schools could help increase students’ confidence, quell their fears toward applying BLS, and possibly even increase the survival of bystander-witnessed cardiac arrests.
An Ultralow-Power Wake-Up Receiver Based on Direct Active RF Detection

An ultralow-power direct active RF detection wake-up receiver (WuRx) is presented. In order to reduce the power consumption and system complexity, a differential RF envelope detector is implemented in a complementary current-reuse architecture. The detector sensitivity is enhanced through an embedded matching network with signal passive amplification. A prototype receiver is fabricated in 0.18-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> CMOS technology with a core size of 0.46 mm<sup>2</sup>. At the operating frequency of 2.4 GHz, the receiver achieves a −50 dBm sensitivity [10<sup>−3</sup> bit error rate (BER)] at a data rate of 200 kbps while consuming <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$4.5~\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> from a 0.8 V supply voltage. The WuRx is capable of achieving a 10<sup>−3</sup> BER for 200 kb/s data rate with a signal to interference ratio greater than −30 dB at ±10 MHz offset.