Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fault branching and rupture directivity

[1] Could the directivity of a complex earthquake be inferred from the ruptured fault branches it created? Typically, branches develop in forward orientation, making acute angles relative to the propagation direction. Direct backward branching of the same style as the main rupture (e.g., both right lateral) is disallowed by the stress field at the rupture front. Here we propose another mechanism of backward branching. In that mechanism, rupture stops along one fault strand, radiates stress to a neighboring strand, nucleates there, and develops bilaterally, generating a backward branch. Such makes diagnosing directivity of a past earthquake difficult without detailed knowledge of the branching process. As a field example, in the Landers 1992 earthquake, rupture stopped at the northern end of the Kickapoo fault, jumped onto the Homestead Valley fault, and developed bilaterally there, NNW to continue the main rupture but also SSE for 4 km forming a backward branch. We develop theoretical principles underlying such rupture transitions, partly from elastostatic stress analysis, and then simulate the Landers example numerically using a two-dimensional elastodynamic boundary integral equation formulation incorporating slip-weakening rupture. This reproduces the proposed backward branching mechanism based on realistic if simplified fault geometries, prestress orientation corresponding to the region, standard lab friction values for peak strength, and fracture energies characteristic of the Landers event. We also show that the seismic S ratio controls the jumpable distance and that curving of a fault toward its compressional side, like locally along the southeastern Homestead Valley fault, induces near-tip increase of compressive normal stress that slows rupture propagation.
Dams and indigenous peoples in malaysia: development, displacement and resettlement

Abstract Large dams have proliferated in Malaysia in recent decades. Constructed mainly to meet mounting domestic demand for water and energy, they have destroyed large tracts of species‐rich tropical rain forest and displaced many already poor and marginalized indigenous groups from their homes and ancestral lands without their consent. Evicted indigenes were promised a better life in resettlement villages, but for the most part this has not occurred. Invariably traumatized by resettlement and widely forced into cash‐based economies for which they were ill prepared, many resettled indigenes suffered from frayed social relationships, high rates of unemployment and enduring poverty, in large part because the authorities failed to internalize project costs. The consequences for indigenous groups of dam‐induced environmental change and development‐forced displacement and resettlement (DFDR) are explored through a critical reading of the literature on four large dams: Sungai Selangor, Babagon, Batang Ai and Bakun. More large dams are under construction and many others have been proposed, resulting in threats to the future well‐being of many indigenous communities. Generally speaking, the experiences of Malaysia's dam‐affected indigenes mirror those of other indigenous minorities in the greater Southeast Asian region.
Statistics of Natural Stochastic Textures

Statistics of natural images have become an important subject of research in recent years. The highly kurtotic, non-Gaussian, statistics known to be characteristic of many natural images are exploited in various image processing tasks. We focus on Natural Stochastic Textures (NST), an important subset of natural images. In the rst part of this report, we show their abundance in natural images and explore their statistical properties: Gaussianity, statistical self-similarity, stationary increments and long-range dependencies. These properties, and in particular the Gaussianity, stand in contrast to known properties of the wider class of natural images. In the second part of this report, the importance of the Fourier phase in NST representation and processing is explored. A magnitude-phase variational ow is presented. This ow allows for image restoration/enhancement of images, combining statistical properties as well as the phase structure of a images.
Emerging drugs for schizophrenia

Background/objective: Schizophrenia is a chronic and disabling psychiatric disorder that requires lifelong medication. The past 15 years led to the introduction of a number of new drugs (‘atypical’) that have dramatically displaced the older drugs (‘typical’), at least in Western markets. As the dust settles on this period and substantial data, as well as practical prescribing experience, are available, we examine what has been gained and what can be learned. Methods: Information available from various medical database resources: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Database, ClinicalTrials.gov (a registry of federally and privately supported clinical trials) and schizophreniaforum.org – Drugs in Clinical Trials for Schizophrenia. Results/conclusion: It seems that the clinical benefits of the newer second-generation antipsychotics are modest, the greatest advantage being a reduction in motor side effects. The earlier hope that these agents have a primary effect on negative and cognitive symptoms is harder to sustain. Clozapine remains superior, even to other atypical antipsychotics, in treating refractory schizophrenia. On a mechanistic level, it seems that dopamine D2 blockade is necessary and even sufficient for antipsychotic response (at least in some), though other receptors may contribute in ways that are not yet well understood.
Understanding Trust in e-Government

Since the mid of 1990’s, information and communication technologies have influenced the society in a spectacular way, mainly because of the development of the Internet. The dependence on information technology has grown far beyond our expectations. Many institutions have recognized the advantages of this development and entered the digital highway. Governments worldwide have begun to recognize the potential opportunities offered by ICT to fit with citizens’ demands, and have started to introduce information and transactions online in what is now called e-Government.
Direct action of a leukemogenic virus on the thymus.

Summary When a leukemogenic virus (radiation leukemia virus, RLV), extracted from radiogenic lymphomas of strain C57BL mice, was directly injected either into 1 lobe of the thymus in situ in newborn C57BL mice, or into intrarenal C57BL thymic grafts in thymectomized, irradiated C57BL or F, hybrid hosts, a high incidence of lymphoid tumors developed after an unusually short latent period. No such tumors resulted when RLV was injected into intrarenal grafts of spleen or lymph node in similarly prepared hosts. In the neonatally inoculated animals, tumors originated invariably in the injected lobe, indicating that there is a direct neoplastic interaction between RLV and target cells in the thymus. Histologic examination and transplantation assays revealed that “transformed” cells with neoplastic potentialities are present in the thymus grafts as early as 1 week after virus inoculation. Virus injection into graft-bearing hybrid hosts elicited a high proportion of tumors that exhibited the transplantation behavior characteristic of donor cell derivation. Data on other parameters, such as the route of virus injection, the interval between graft placement and virus injection, and the requirement for systemic or partial-body irradiation are also presented.
Parental involvement in secondary schools in New Zealand: Implications for school psychologists

An extensive international literature now supports the potential of parental involvement (PI) for improving children’s academic achievements and social outcomes. This research also suggests that involvement which schools organize themselves is more effective than externally imposed PI programmes. It is therefore important to investigate PI practices in schools so that guidance on effective PI can be based on actual evidence from schools. This article reports the results of a survey of parental involvement (PI) practices in 21 secondary schools in New Zealand. Interviews were conducted with school principals using a schedule that focused on 11 aspects of PI. Analysis of data from the interviews indicates that all 21 secondary schools had a variety of PI practices in place. Notable gaps in PI provision were: a lack of written school policies on PI; the ad hoc nature of the organization of PI by schools; the lack of specific strategies to involve diverse parents; a limited focus on parent education; and, a lack of training for teachers on PI. Implications for improving the practice of PI in secondary schools and for the role of school psychologists in this, are discussed.
Macular Gradient Measurement in Myopic Posterior Staphyloma Using Optical Coherence Tomography

Purpose To evaluate clinical characteristics and the macular gradient in myopic posterior staphyloma with time domain (TD) optical coherence tomography (OCT). Methods Sixty-four staphyloma eyes of 40 patients were examined. Macular gradient (tangent θ) and the location of staphyloma were assessed with OCT imaging. The macular gradient was measured at points 1 mm and 2 mm distant from the fovea. The relationships of the macular gradient with age, axial length, and spherical equivalent were analyzed. Results In 8 eyes (12.5%), the bottoms of the staphylomas were in the fovea, and there was no macular gradient. However, in the other 56 eyes (87.5%), the bottoms of the staphylomas were not in the foveal area, and macular gradients existed. Staphylomas were commonly located in the infero-nasal retinal area. The mean macular gradient (tangent θ) was 0.26 ± 0.08 at 1 mm distance from the fovea and 0.28 ± 0.10 at 2 mm. No significant relationships were observed between macular gradient and axial length, patient age, or spherical equivalent. Conclusions TD OCT reveals staphyloma location. If the location is outside of the fovea, a macular gradient exists and can be measured by OCT. Axial length measurement error may occur in eyes with poor visual fixation and steep macular gradients.
On-line and memory-based processes in group variability judgments

Are group variability judgments made in an on-line or memory-based fashion? In a first experiment addressing this question, subjects made judgments of a group's variability, a judgment intended to be on-line (liking), or a judgment intended to be memory-based (religiousness). Variability judgments were made more slowly than on-line judgments and at the same speed as memory-based judgments. Independently of this effect, in-group variability was judged more rapidly than out-group variability. In addition to replicating these results, a second experiment using a minimal group paradigm demonstrated that the amount of similarity information recalled predicted both the latency and extremity of variability judgments. We discuss the implications of our conclusion that variability judgments are predominantly memory-based for models of group variability judgments.
Monolithic distributed amplifier with active control schemes for optimum gain and group-delay flatness, bandwidth, and stability

In this paper, active control schemes are presented to optimize the performance of the distributed amplifier (DA) subject to the process variation. A detailed analysis of the DA with mismatched termination loads has been performed, which reveals that pronounced gain and group-delay ripple arises at the low-frequency end from the reflected waves in the artificial transmission line. To solve this problem, an active variable resistor is proposed as the gate-line termination load. The gain and stability of the cascode DA has also been analyzed, which identifies the most critical component determining the tradeoff between the gain-bandwidth product (GBP) and the stability to be the gate feedback resistor of common-gate field-effect transistor. It is also replaced with the active resistor to maximize GBP, while avoiding oscillations. A nine-section cascode DA with active control features is designed and fabricated using commercial GaAs pseudomorphic high electron-mobility transistor foundry. The measurement shows that the gain and group-delay ripple can be minimized, and GBP can be maximized without oscillations by the active bias controls. Active control schemes allow the monolithic DAs to be fine tuned after the fabrication and, thus, can be a robust DA design methodology against process variation and inaccurate device models.
Determinants of emergency department visits by older adults: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVES To conduct a systematic review of the literature on the determinants of hospital emergency department (ED) visits by elders, using a modification of the Andersen behavioral model of health services, adapted to explain ED utilization. METHODS Relevant articles were identified through MEDLINE and a search of reference lists and personal files. Studies of populations aged 65 or older in which ED visits were a study outcome were included if they were: original, not restricted to a particular medical condition, written in English or French, and investigated one or more determinants. Data were abstracted and checked by two authors using a standard protocol. RESULTS Fourteen studies (reported in 15 articles) were reviewed, 10 community-based and four using clinical samples. Among ten studies that measured multiple determinants, determinants reported from multivariate analyses included measures of need (perceived and evaluated health status, prior utilization), predisposing factors (health beliefs and sociodemographic variables), and enabling factors (physician availability, regular source of care, family resources, geographical access to services). CONCLUSIONS Need is usually the primary determinant of ED visits in older people. Controlling for need, predisposing and enabling factors that promote access to primary medical care are associated with reduced ED utilization.
Tourism Field Studies: Experiencing the Carnival of Venice

Many studies in a diversity of disciplines document examples of experiential education, but there is a current need to report studies that explore such examples within tourism, hospitality, and event management contexts. These documented cases can contribute to the development of a stronger theoretical foundation upon which to base future programs within tourism, hospitality, and event management contexts. Well-designed experiential education programs have the potential to surmount some of the limitations of more traditional approaches to instruction. This article offers an evaluative account of an experiential education program (a study tour) that used the Carnival of Venice as its focus. Students were invited to learn about this renowned event and the city that hosts it by participating in a multiplicity of experiential activities that were presented as a university-credited elective course. An examination of participant experiences demonstrates a very high level of interest in this form of experiential education and provides key learnings in 3 specific areas: demographics and the influence of prior travel experience, the relationship between motivation to attend and destination appeal, and the potential for creativity in assessment.
Prolonged in vitro exposure of Staphylococcus aureus to germicidal teat dips.

Eight strains of Staphylococcus aureus were tested to determine if prolonged exposure to commercial teat dips could enhance bacterial tolerance to teat dips in vitro. All strains of S. aureus were serially plated 15 times on chemically defined agar medium containing sublethal concentrations of linear dodecyl benzene sulfonic acid, chlorhexidine, sodium hypochlorite, and iodophor teat dips. Growth responses of S. aureus to chlorhexidine, sodium hypochlorite, and iodophor were not affected by prolonged exposure to these teat dips. Isolates subcultured on agar containing . 1% linear dodecyl benzene sulfonic acid teat dip subsequently had a greater mean growth response to . 1% solution of the germicide than did controls subcultured on basal medium. Hemolytic patterns, tube coagulase, clumping factor, and protein A reactions of S. aureus were not altered by exposure to any of the teat dips tested. In general, prolonged exposure to commercial teat dips did not alter germicidal susceptibility of S. aureus.
Dimensions and types of social status: A cross-age perspective.

Children's sociometric status was conceptualized in terms of independent dimensions of social preference and social impact. In Experiment 1, peer perceptual correlates of these dimensions were investigated with children in Grades 3, 5, and 8. Social preference was highly positively related to cooperativeness, supportiveness, and physical attractiveness and negatively related to disruptiveness and aggression. Social impact was related to active, salient behaviors of both positive and negative valence. Whereas the correlates were found to be similar at each grade level, greater proportions of the variance in these dimensions could be predicted at the younger ages than at the older ages. In Experiment 2, these dimensions were used to select children into five sociometric status groups, called popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, and average. Peer perceptions of the behavioral correlates of these groups were solicited and found to reveal distinct profiles. A previously unidentified group of controversial children was perceived as disruptive and aggressive (like the rejected group), but also as social leaders (like popular children). It is suggested that researchers consider controversial children as a distinct group in future behavioral and epidemiological studies.
Abstracting definitional interpreters (functional pearl)

In this functional pearl, we examine the use of definitional interpreters as a basis for abstract interpretation of higher-order programming languages. As it turns out, definitional interpreters, especially those written in monadic style, can provide a nice basis for a wide variety of collecting semantics, abstract interpretations, symbolic executions, and their intermixings. But the real insight of this story is a replaying of an insight from Reynold's landmark paper, Definitional Interpreters for Higher-Order Programming Languages, in which he observes definitional interpreters enable the defined-language to inherit properties of the defining-language. We show the same holds true for definitional abstract interpreters. Remarkably, we observe that abstract definitional interpreters can inherit the so-called “pushdown control flow” property, wherein function calls and returns are precisely matched in the abstract semantics, simply by virtue of the function call mechanism of the defining-language. The first approaches to achieve this property for higher-order languages appeared within the last ten years, and have since been the subject of many papers. These approaches start from a state-machine semantics and uniformly involve significant technical engineering to recover the precision of pushdown control flow. In contrast, starting from a definitional interpreter, the pushdown control flow property is inherent in the meta-language and requires no further technical mechanism to achieve.
Experimental evaluation of absolute stability in teleoperation systems

Absolute stability of teleoperation systems is analyzed based on linear models of such systems. These models are prone to dynamic and parametric uncertainties, which may result in a false robust stability outcome. In this paper, we propose an experimental methodology for the analysis of absolute stability of master-slave teleoperation systems. Using the properties of Möbius transformation, the methodology uses the force and position data collected from the three experiments locked-slave, mass-carrying slave, and free motion, to determine whether the passivity unit disk of the load mapped to the master side is within the passivity unit disk. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology, numerical and experimental results for a force-position bilateral control architecture under constant time delays are provided.
Morality Play or Playing Morality?: Intrinsic Religious Orientation and Socially Desirable Responding

The link between intrinsic religious orientation and socially desirable responding suggests that religiously devout individuals are concerned with maintaining a positive self-image in their own eyes (self-deception) and in others' (impression management). Measures of socially desirable responding may, however, penalize intrinsically religious persons for accurate self-reports of conscientiousness. Seventy-four undergraduates completed measures of religious orientation and socially desirable responding, then made either a negative or a positive self-disclosure. Socially desirable responding was again measured. Intrinsic religious orientation was positively correlated with self-deception change in the Negative Disclosure condition. This finding, in combination with corroborative behavioral evidence among high Intrinsic scorers, appeared consistent with a self-protective interpretation, rather than a content bias interpretation, of the intrinsic religious orientation/socially desirable responding relationship.
Evaluating level of specificity of normative referents in relation to personal drinking behavior.

OBJECTIVE Research has found perceived descriptive norms to be one of the strongest predictors of college student drinking, and several intervention approaches have incorporated normative feedback to correct misperceptions of peer drinking behavior. Little research has focused on the role of the reference group in normative perceptions. The current study sought to examine whether normative perceptions vary based on specificity of the reference group and whether perceived norms for more specific reference-group norms are related to individual drinking behavior. METHOD Participants were first-year undergraduates (n = 1,276, 58% female) randomly selected from a university list of incoming students. Participants reported personal drinking behavior and perceived descriptive norms for eight reference groups, including typical student; same gender, ethnicity, or residence; and combinations of those reference groups (e.g., same gender and residence). RESULTS Findings indicated that participants distinguished among different reference groups in estimating descriptive drinking norms. Moreover, results indicated misperceptions in drinking norms were evident at all levels of specificity of the reference group. Additionally, findings showed perceived norms for more specific groups were uniquely related to participants' own drinking. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that providing normative feedback targeting at least one level of specificity to the participant (i.e., beyond what the "typical" student does) may be an important tool in normative feedback interventions.
INTERCHANGEABILITY OF ANTIPARKINSONIAN MEDICATION

In this study, conducted on 30 mental hospital patients manifesting extrapyramidal symptomatology, two antiparkinsonian drugs were interchanged with one another and with a placebo in a double-blind, crossover trial, and the results compared with a third antiparkinsonian drug used as a positive control. Physical and laboratory information was collected as well as ratings on psychiatric and extrapyramidal symptomatology. In all subgroups, the extrapyramidal symptom ratings were significantly higher (p>.005) when receiving placebo than when receiving promethazine, ethopropazine or trihexyphenidyl. This would indicate the effectiveness of these drugs in controlling extrapyramidal symptomatology as well as the inadequacy of placebo treatment in cases of overt extrapyramidal symptomatology. There were no significant changes in physical and laboratory measures, nor in ratings of psychiatric symptoms under any of the experimental conditions.