Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does arrest really deter wife battery? An effort to replicate the findings of the Minneapolis Spouse Abuse Experiment.

In this paper we try to replicate the findings from the Minneapolis Spouse Abuse Experiment (Sherman and Berk, 1984). Using longitudinal data from the criminal justice system on 783 wife-battery incidents, an ex post factor design coupled with a propensity-score analysis reveals that arrests substantially reduce the number of new incidents of wife battery. In addition, the reductions are greatest for batterers whom the police would ordinarily be especially inclined to arrest. Policy and theoretical implications are discussed. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1985. Copyright © 1985 by the American Sociological Association) Domestic Violence Intervention Arrest Effects Domestic Violence Offender Spouse Abuse Offender Spouse Abuse Intervention Deterrence Male Offender Male Violence Adult Male Adult Offender Adult Violence Law Enforcement Intervention Offender Arrest Violence Against Women Partner Violence California Replication Studies 11-01
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: A Review of Etiology and Treatment

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a congenital cardiac disease with an estimated prevalence of 1:500 in the population. Individuals with HCM can present with clinical manifestations that include left ventricular outflow obstruction, cardiac dysrhythmias, diastolic heart failure, cardiac angina, and sudden cardiac death. Current treatments include pharmacologic intervention to reduce heart rate and ventricular contractility as well as surgery or septal alcohol ablation to reduce myocardial septal size. Implantable cardiac defibrillators are considered a treatment option in individuals with HCM who are at an increased risk for sudden cardiac death. The identification of persons at risk for complications related to HCM is important for reducing mortality and morbidity in this population. In addition, diagnosis of HCM in an individual allows the healthcare provider caring for these patients to screen, educate, and institute timely preventative measures in other members of the family. The purpose of this review is to provide clinicians caring for cardiac patients with a guide for recognition, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of HCM.
Multipurpose Reservoir Operation Using Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper presents an efficient and reliable swarm intelligence-based approach, namely elitist-mutated particle swarm opti- mization EMPSO technique, to derive reservoir operation policies for multipurpose reservoir systems. Particle swarm optimizers are inherently distributed algorithms, in which the solution for a problem emerges from the interactions between many simple individuals called particles. In this study the standard particle swarm optimization PSO algorithm is further improved by incorporating a new strategic mechanism called elitist-mutation to improve its performance. The proposed approach is first tested on a hypothetical multireservoir system, used by earlier researchers. EMPSO showed promising results, when compared with other techniques. To show practical utility, EMPSO is then applied to a realistic case study, the Bhadra reservoir system in India, which serves multiple purposes, namely irrigation and hydropower generation. To handle multiple objectives of the problem, a weighted approach is adopted. The results obtained demonstrate that EMPSO is consistently performing better than the standard PSO and genetic algorithm techniques. It is seen that EMPSO is yielding better quality solutions with less number of function evaluations.
Complement Receptor of the Ig Superfamily Enhances Complement-Mediated Phagocytosis in a Subpopulation of Tissue Resident Macrophages

An important function of the complement cascade is to coat self and foreign particles with C3-proteins that serve as ligands for phagocytic receptors. Although tissue resident macrophages play an important role in complement-mediated clearance, the receptors coordinating this process have not been well characterized. In the present study, we identified a subpopulation of resident peritoneal macrophages characterized by high expression of complement receptor of the Ig superfamily (CRIg), a recently discovered complement C3 receptor. Macrophages expressing CRIg showed significantly increased binding and subsequent internalization of complement-opsonized particles compared with CRIg negative macrophages. CRIg internalized monovalent ligands and was able to bind complement-opsonized targets in the absence of Ca2+ and Mg2+, which differs from the β2-integrin CR3 that requires divalent cations and polyvalent ligands for activation of the receptor. Although CRIg dominated in immediate binding of complement-coated particles, CRIg and CR3 contributed independently to subsequent particle phagocytosis. CRIg thus identifies a subset of tissue resident macrophages capable of increased phagocytosis of complement C3-coated particles, a function critical for immune clearance.
LocationSpark: A Distributed In-Memory Data Management System for Big Spatial Data

We present LocationSpark, a spatial data processing system built on top of Apache Spark, a widely used distributed data processing system. LocationSpark offers a rich set of spatial query operators, e.g., range search, kNN, spatio-textual operation, spatial-join, and kNN-join. To achieve high performance, LocationSpark employs various spatial indexes for in-memory data, and guarantees that immutable spatial indexes have low overhead with fault tolerance. In addition, we build two new layers over Spark, namely a query scheduler and a query executor. The query scheduler is responsible for mitigating skew in spatial queries, while the query executor selects the best plan based on the indexes and the nature of the spatial queries. Furthermore, to avoid unnecessary network communication overhead when processing overlapped spatial data, We embed an efficient spatial Bloom filter into LocationSpark's indexes. Finally, LocationSpark tracks frequently accessed spatial data, and dynamically flushes less frequently accessed data into disk. We evaluate our system on real workloads and demonstrate that it achieves an order of magnitude performance gain over a baseline framework.
On the Power of Las Vegas for One-Way Communication Complexity, OBDDs, and Finite Automata

The study of the computational power of randomized computations is one of the central tasks of complexity theory. The main goal of this paper is the comparison of the power of Las Vegas computation and deterministic respectively nondeterministic computation. We investigate the power of Las Vegas computation for the complexity measures of one-way communication, ordered binary decision diagrams, and finite automata. (i) For the one-way communication complexity of two-party protocols we show that Las Vegas communication can save at most one half of the deterministic one-way communication complexity. We also present a language for which this gap is tight. (ii) The result (i) is applied to show an at most polynomial gap between determinism and Las Vegas for ordered binary decision diagrams. (iii) For the size (i.e., the number of states) of finite automata we show that the size of Las Vegas finite automata recognizing a language L is at least the square root of the size of the minimal deterministic finite automaton recognizing L. Using a specific language we verify the optimality of this bound. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.
A Review of Dietary Polyphenol-Plasma Protein Interactions: Characterization, Influence on the Bioactivity, and Structure-Affinity Relationship

The interactions between polyphenols, especially flavonoids and plasma proteins, have attracted great interest among researchers. Few papers, however, have focused on the structure-affinity relationship of polyphenols on their affinities for plasma proteins. The aim of this review is to give an overview of the research reports on the characterization, influence on the bioactivity, and the structure-affinity relationship for studying the affinities between polyphenols and plasma proteins. The molecular properties that influence the affinities of polyphenols for plasma proteins are the following: 1) One or more hydroxyl groups in the B-ring (e.g., 3′,4′ dihydroxylated B ring catechol group) of flavonoids enhanced the binding affinities to proteins. However, the hydroxyl group in the C-ring will weaken the binding interaction. 2) The presence of an unsaturated 2,3-bond in conjugation with a 4-carbonyl group, characteristic of flavonols structure, has been associated with stronger binding affinity with plasma proteins; 3) The glycosylation of flavonoids decreases the affinities for plasma proteins by 1–3 orders of magnitude depending on the conjugation site and the class of sugar moiety; 4) The methylation of hydroxyl groups in flavonoids slightly enhanced the affinities for plasma proteins by 2–16 times; 5) The galloylated catechins have higher binding affinities for plasma proteins than do non-galloylated catechins and the pyrogallol-type catechins have higher affinities than do the catechol-type catechins. The affinity of the catechin with 2,3-trans structure was lower than those of the catechin with 2,3-cis structure; 6) The gallotannins with more gallol groups presented a much higher percentage of binding to plasma proteins. α-D-Gallotannin showed a greater affinity for plasma proteins than does the natural stereoisomer, β-D-gallotannin; 7) The binding degree of chlorogenic acid with only one caffeoyl group was lower than the binding degrees of caffeoyl quinic acids with more caffeoyl groups. The methylation of phenolic acid decreased the affinity for BSA.
Reconfiguring Boundary Relations: Robotic Innovations in Pharmacy Work

Robotics is a rapidly expanding area of digital innovation with important implications for organizational practice in multioccupational settings. This paper explores the influence of robotic innovations on the boundary dynamics of three different occupational groups—pharmacists, technicians, and assistants—working in a hospital pharmacy. We extend Pickering's tuning approach [Pickering, A. 1995. The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, and Science. University of Chicago Press, Chicago] to examine the temporally emergent process that entangled the mechanical elements and digital inscriptions of a dispensing robot with the everyday practices of hospital pharmacy work. We found that engagement with the robot's hybrid and dynamic materiality over time reconfigured boundary relations among the three occupational groups, with important and contradictory consequences for the pharmacy workers' skills, jurisdictions, status, and visibility.
School Curriculum, Policies, and Practices Regarding Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Families

This study examined what elementary schools in New York State are doing to recognize lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) families in terms of curriculum, policies, and practices. In all, 116 school psychologists completed an online survey regarding their districts. Findings indicated that even though most school districts serve LGBT-headed families, few schools have comprehensive curricula, practices, and polices that address their family structure. Even though most respondents believed that LGBT families were visible and included within their district, they did not perceive the school environment to be very welcoming for these families. Schools with a higher per pupil expenditure were more inclusive, but the type of community (i.e., rural, urban, or suburban) in which schools were located did not relate to the level of recognition LGBT-headed families receive. Although findings suggest some awareness of LGBT-headed families, schools still have a long way to go before the needs of all families are met.
“I was able to still be her mom”—parenting at end of life in the pediatric intensive care unit

Objectives: The death of a child in the pediatric intensive care unit is perhaps one of the most devastating and challenging experiences a parent can ever endure. This article examines how parents of children dying in the pediatric intensive care unit understood their role and discusses implications for clinical care and policy. Design: Retrospective, qualitative study. Setting: Two pediatric intensive care units located in children’s hospitals within academic medical centers in the northeastern United States. Subjects: Parents of 18 children who died in the pediatric intensive care unit. Interventions: Semistructured telephone interviews, digitally recorded and transcribed. Measurements and Main Results: Many of the factors deemed important by the parents related to their capacity to be a “good parent” to their child throughout his or her stay in the pediatric intensive care unit. Specifically, parents sought meaningful ways to express and assert their parenthood across three domains: 1) providing love, comfort, and care; 2) creating security and privacy for the family; and 3) exercising responsibility for what happens to one’s child. Conclusions: Parents’ ability to fulfill the essential features of their role as parents of children dying in the pediatric intensive care unit shapes how they perceive the quality of the experience. Pediatric intensive care unit clinical care and policies can and should uphold and protect these features enabling parents to feel that, despite the outcome, they had done their best on behalf of their children.
Developing a Scale to Measure Reader Self-Perception for EFL Students.

The development of a scale for measuring selfperception for readers of English as a foreign language is discussed in this paper. The scale was developed from the four dimensions of self-efficacy theory proposed by Bandura (1977a): progress, observational comparison, social feedback and physiological states. A 36 item scale was developed to measure the four dimensions. Five hundred and fourteen Thai EFL students at the college level completed the scale. Factor analyses and item-total correlations indicated that most of the items best defined their own constructs. Cronbach’s alpha internal reliabilities also indicated a strong coherence of the items in measuring their proposed dimensions. Students’ achievements in reading and writing in English are correlated with the scale. Regression analyses showed that the SelfPerception Scale for Readers of English as a Foreign Language (SPSREFL) is a significant predictor for students’ reading achievement.
Boundary conditions for a capillary fluid in contact with a wall

Contact of a fluid with a solid or an elastic wall is investigated. The wall exerts molecular forces on the fluid which is locally strongly nonhomogeneous. The problem is approached with a fluid energy of the second gradient form and a wall surface energy depending on the value of the fluid density at the contact. >From the virtual work principle are obtained limit conditions taking into account the fluid density, its normal derivative to the wall and the curvature of the surface
Data-driven inference of network connectivity for modeling the dynamics of neural codes in the insect antennal lobe

The antennal lobe (AL), olfactory processing center in insects, is able to process stimuli into distinct neural activity patterns, called olfactory neural codes. To model their dynamics we perform multichannel recordings from the projection neurons in the AL driven by different odorants. We then derive a dynamic neuronal network from the electrophysiological data. The network consists of lateral-inhibitory neurons and excitatory neurons (modeled as firing-rate units), and is capable of producing unique olfactory neural codes for the tested odorants. To construct the network, we (1) design a projection, an odor space, for the neural recording from the AL, which discriminates between distinct odorants trajectories (2) characterize scent recognition, i.e., decision-making based on olfactory signals and (3) infer the wiring of the neural circuit, the connectome of the AL. We show that the constructed model is consistent with biological observations, such as contrast enhancement and robustness to noise. The study suggests a data-driven approach to answer a key biological question in identifying how lateral inhibitory neurons can be wired to excitatory neurons to permit robust activity patterns.
Impact of perioperative myocardial injury on early and long-term outcome after coronary artery bypass grafting.

AIMS To establish the influence of perioperative myocardial injury on short- and long-term survival after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). METHODS AND RESULTS The correlation of postoperative serum aspartate aminotransferase and creatine kinase MB to early cardiac-related death and to late survival was evaluated in 4911 patients who underwent CABG consecutively during a 6-year period. There were 93 early deaths (1.9%), 73 of them cardiac-related (1.5% of 4911). After a mean follow-up of 5 years, 409 additional deaths (8.5% of 4818) had occurred. Elevated enzyme levels on day 1 postoperatively highly increased the risk of early cardiac death (serum aspartate aminotransferase >or=2.35 microkat.l(-1): odds ratio 9.2; serum creatine kinase MB >or=61 microg.l(-1): odds ratio 6.0), and increased the risk of late death by approximately 50% (serum aspartate aminotransferase >or=2.35 microkat.l(-1): relative hazard 1.5; serum creatine kinase MB >or=61 microg.l(-1): relative hazard 1.4). This increased risk of death was independent of other risk factors and remained constant over time. CONCLUSIONS Enzyme elevation after CABG implied an increased risk of both early and late death. The long-term effect persisted many years after surgery.
A prospective, randomized comparison of thromboelastographic coagulation profile in patients receiving lactated Ringer's solution, 6% hetastarch in a balanced-saline vehicle, or 6% hetastarch in saline during major surgery.

OBJECTIVES To compare the effects of lactated Ringer's solution (LR), 6% hetastarch in a balanced-saline vehicle (HS-BS), and 6% hetastarch in normal saline (HS-NS) on coagulation using thromboelastography. DESIGN Prospective, randomized double-blinded evaluation of previously published clinical trial. SETTING Tertiary-care medical center. PARTICIPANTS Patients undergoing elective noncardiac surgery with an anticipated blood loss >500 mL. A total of 90 patients were enrolled with 30 patients in each group. INTERVENTIONS Patients received a standardized anesthetic. LR, HS-BS, and HS-NS were administered intraoperatively based on a fluid administration algorithm. Hemodynamic targets included maintenance of arterial blood pressure, heart rate, and urine output within a predefined range. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Thromboelastography variables for r time, k time, maximum amplitude, and alpha angle (mean +/- SD) were recorded at induction of anesthesia, at the end of surgery, and 24 hours postoperatively. Patients in the LR group showed a state of hypercoagulation at the end of surgery with reductions (p < 0.005) in r time (-3.8 +/- 6.7 mm) and k time (-1.7 +/- 2.5 mm). This state of hypercoagulation continued into the postoperative period. Patients in the HS-NS group showed a state of hypocoagulation with increases (p < 0.05) in r time (+6.2 +/- 8.5 mm) and k time (+1.7 +/- 3.9 mm) and a reduction in maximum amplitude (-8.0 +/- 9.8 mm) at the end of surgery. This state of hypocoagulation was reduced in the postoperative period. Patients in the HS-BS group showed no significant changes in coagulation status at end of surgery, with the smallest changes in r time (-0.3 +/- 4.1 mm), k time (+0.1 +/- 3.1 mm), maximum amplitude (-5.4 +/- 12.3 mm), and alpha angle (0.3 +/- 12.5 degrees ). CONCLUSION LR-treated patients exhibited a hypercoagulative profile that persisted into the postoperative period. HS-BS administration was associated with a lesser change in the coagulation profile compared with HS-NS, which was associated with a hypocoagulative state.
Visualization of the structure of classes using a graph

A method for visualizing the structure of classes using a graph is proposed. Unlike the previous approaches of mapping data points onto a plane, this method represents a few sets of data points as nodes of the graph. From the sizes of the nodes and the widths of the links connecting the nodes, one can know how complex the structure is and to what degree the classes are separable. The experimental results show that the approach is effective for revealing a hidden structure of classes in a high-dimensional space.
An Anhydro-N-Acetylmuramyl-l-Alanine Amidase with Broad Specificity Tethered to the Outer Membrane of Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT From its amino acid sequence homology with AmpD, we recognized YbjR, now renamed AmiD, as a possible second 1,6-anhydro-N-acetylmuramic acid (anhMurNAc)-l-alanine amidase in Escherichia coli. We have now confirmed that AmiD is an anhMurNAc-l-Ala amidase and demonstrated that AmpD and AmiD are the only enzymes present in E. coli that are able to cleave the anhMurNAc-l-Ala bond. The activity was present only in the outer membrane fraction obtained from an ampD mutant. In contrast to AmpD, which is specific for the anhMurNAc-l-alanine bond, AmiD also cleaved the bond between MurNAc and l-alanine in both muropeptides and murein sacculi. Unlike the periplasmic murein amidases, AmiD did not participate in cell separation. ampG mutants, which are unable to import GlcNAc-anhMurNAc-peptides into the cytoplasm, released mainly peptides into the medium due to AmiD activity, whereas an ampG amiD double mutant released a large amount of intact GlcNAc-anhMurNAc-peptides into the medium.
Studies in Hysteria *

This paper describes how the idea of substituting “Briquet Syndrome” for “Hysteria” developed. It emphasizes the need to base the diagnosis firmly on clinical features and also the value of differentiating “polysymptomatic” forms (Briquet Syndrome) from “conversion” symptoms (unexplained neurological symptoms). Other studies have shown that there is a preponderance of Briquet's Syndrome in women, and that female relatives of patients have an increased prevalence of Briquet's Syndrome, while male relatives have an increased prevalence of antisocial personality and of alcoholism. Conversely, a study of female relatives of a male prison population reveals a high prevalence of Briquet's Syndrome amongst them. It is suggested that the association between Briquet's Syndrome and antisocial personality may explain many clinical and epidemiologic observations.
Inhabiting two worlds

This study investigated the role of the news media in the lives of Jewish and Arab children in Israel. A survey of 1657 children (ages 8–18), including analysis of open-ended questions, reveals that Jewish and Arab children in Israel live in two different worlds of news. They are exposed to different sources, stories, and interpretations; they take different messages from the news; and they hold to some degree different attitudes toward their roles in their lives. The news also seem to be more heavily integrated in the lives of the Jewish majority young people than it is in the lives of the Arab ones who treat it as more important to adults. If anything, it seems that the consumption of news serves mostly to contribute to separatism and further alienation of the minority Arab young people group from Israeli society.