Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implicit surface octrees for ray tracing point models

Point-based representations of objects have been used as modeling alternatives to the almost ubiquitous quads or triangles. However, our ability to render these points has not matched their polygonal counterparts when we consider both rendering time and sophisticated lighting effects. In this paper, we present a framework for ray tracing massive point model environments at interactive frame rates on the Graphic Processing Units (GPUs). We introduce the Implicit Surface Octree (ISO), a lightweight data structure for efficient representation of point set surfaces. ISOs provide a compact local manifold approximation of the input point data and can also be embellished with lighting information. This enables us to further the state of the art by demonstrating reflections, refractions and shadow effects on complex point models at interactive frame rates.
DBT Graduate Group Pilot Study: A Model to Generalize Skills to Create a “Life Worth Living”

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based program aimed at decreasing impulsive and self-harming behaviors. One part of this treatment is a skills training group, in which participants learn specific techniques to manage behaviors, interact with others and learn how to tolerate painful emotions. During this part of treatment, the focus is primarily on skills acquisition, but may not necessarily provide the chance to strengthen the skills or generalize the skills into day-to-day problems. One possibility to address this issue is to implement a DBT graduate group, in which clients can continue to develop the skills they have learned. This article presents a pilot study for a DBT graduate group in which 11 clients created specific target goals and then used the skills to work toward these goals, overcome barriers and experience emotions related to life problems. Results from this study indicate an improvement in mood based on decreases in depression scores on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), reports of achievements of target goals and positive and successful transitions out of therapy. While more information is needed about DBT aftercare programs, this article suggests components of a possible graduate group curriculum to help clients continue with the positive momentum gained from the skills training groups.
Role of Serotonin in the Immune System and in Neuroimmune Interactions

Serotonin (5-HT) is one of the most extensively studied neurotransmitters of the central nervous system. 5-HT is, however, also present in a variety of peripheral tissues including in constituents of the immune system. The function of 5-HT in the immune system has received increasing attention since about 1984, but has been reviewed only once, in 1985. In recent years, modern techniques of molecular biology such as reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and targeted gene disruption have made it possible to study new important aspects of 5-HT in the immune system. In the first part of the review, we explore whether 5-HT is involved in interactions between the central nervous and immune systems. It emerges that 5-HT may mediate interactions of these two systems by four different pathways. In the second part, we dissect the functional roles of 5-HT in the immune system. We describe the distribution of 5-HT receptors and the 5-HT transporter on immune cells and estimate which levels 5-HT may attain in the extracellular space in physiological conditions and under pathological circumstances such as inflammation, thrombosis, and ischemia. At these 5-HT concentrations, four major functions for 5-HT emerge. These include T cell and natural killer cell activation, delayed-type hypersensitivity responses, production of chemotactic factors, and natural immunity delivered by macrophages. Finally, we discuss promising future avenues to further advance knowledge of the role of 5-HT in the immune system and in neuroimmune interactions.
Essays on political economy and industrial organization

This thesis comprises essays on political economy and industrial organization. The rest two chapters are composed of research papers on political economy, which contribute to the literature on split-ticket voting and lobbying formation, respectively. The other two chapters on industrial organization are based on joint research papers with Luis C. Corchon, where we study the welfare losses yielded by imperfect competition under product differentiation. Each chapter can be considered independently of the rest
Two Distinct Modes of Forebrain Circuit Dynamics Underlie Temporal Patterning in the Vocalizations of Young Songbirds

Accurate timing is a critical aspect of motor control, yet the temporal structure of many mature behaviors emerges during learning from highly variable exploratory actions. How does a developing brain acquire the precise control of timing in behavioral sequences? To investigate the development of timing, we analyzed the songs of young juvenile zebra finches. These highly variable vocalizations, akin to human babbling, gradually develop into temporally stereotyped adult songs. We find that the durations of syllables and silences in juvenile singing are formed by a mixture of two distinct modes of timing: a random mode producing broadly distributed durations early in development, and a stereotyped mode underlying the gradual emergence of stereotyped durations. Using lesions, inactivations, and localized brain cooling, we investigated the roles of neural dynamics within two premotor cortical areas in the production of these temporal modes. We find that LMAN (lateral magnocellular nucleus of the nidopallium) is required specifically for the generation of the random mode of timing and that mild cooling of LMAN causes an increase in the durations produced by this mode. On the contrary, HVC (used as a proper name) is required specifically for producing the stereotyped mode of timing, and its cooling causes a slowing of all stereotyped components. These results show that two neural pathways contribute to the timing of juvenile songs and suggest an interesting organization in the forebrain, whereby different brain areas are specialized for the production of distinct forms of neural dynamics.
Structurally Anchored Organizational Democracy

Six hundred and six employees in 33 enterprises (Austria, Germany, Israel, and Italy) that represent different levels of structurally anchored organizational democracy were examined in a multi-method, cross-level study. Based on a typology of democratic enterprises, we investigated the extent to which democratic structures impact employees’ individually perceived participation, affective commitment, and humanitarian ethical orientation. We found support for the expected relationships. Whereas cross-level mediation tests suggest that individually perceived participation fully mediates the positive relationship between democratic structures and affective commitment, they provide no support to our prediction that the influence of democratic structures on humanitarian ethic will be mediated by individually perceived participation.
Attempted reduction of Abbott MS-2 false-susceptible errors for cefotaxime-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa by medium modification

Thirty-five modifications of Abbott MS-2 growth medium were evaluated in an attempt to reduce the high frequency of false-susceptible errors produced by the MS-2 system when testing resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa against cefotaxime. A hypotonic modification with 0.1% KNO3 reduced the errors from 41 to 20% for 23 resistant isolates. All hypertonic modifications proved unsatisfactory. No modification reduced false-susceptible errors to acceptable clinical levels.
Learning capability and storage capacity of two-hidden-layer feedforward networks

The problem of the necessary complexity of neural networks is of interest in applications. In this paper, learning capability and storage capacity of feedforward neural networks are considered. We markedly improve the recent results by introducing neural-network modularity logically. This paper rigorously proves in a constructive method that two-hidden-layer feedforward networks (TLFNs) with 2/spl radic/(m+2)N (/spl Lt/N) hidden neurons can learn any N distinct samples (x/sub i/, t/sub i/) with any arbitrarily small error, where m is the required number of output neurons. It implies that the required number of hidden neurons needed in feedforward networks can be decreased significantly, comparing with previous results. Conversely, a TLFN with Q hidden neurons can store at least Q/sup 2//4(m+2) any distinct data (x/sub i/, t/sub i/) with any desired precision.
Why Some Firms Export

This paper examines the factors that increase the probability of entry into exporting. Using a panel of U.S. manufacturing plants, we test for the role of plant characteristics, spillovers from neighboring exporters, entry costs, and government export promotion expenditures. Entry and exit in the export market by U.S. plants is substantial, past exporters are apt to reenter, and plants are likely to export in consecutive years. However, we find that entry costs are significant and spillovers from the export activity of other plants are negligible. State export promotion expenditures have no significant effect on the probability of exporting. Plant characteristics, especially those indicative of past success, strongly increase the probability of exporting, as does changing industries.
Antimalarial Drug Resistance: Literature Review and Activities and Findings of the ICEMR Network

Antimalarial drugs are key tools for the control and elimination of malaria. Recent decreases in the global malaria burden are likely due, in part, to the deployment of artemisinin-based combination therapies. Therefore, the emergence and potential spread of artemisinin-resistant parasites in southeast Asia and changes in sensitivities to artemisinin partner drugs have raised concerns. In recognition of this urgent threat, the International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research (ICEMRs) are closely monitoring antimalarial drug efficacy and studying the mechanisms underlying drug resistance. At multiple sentinel sites of the global ICEMR network, research activities include clinical studies to track the efficacies of antimalarial drugs, ex vivo/in vitro assays to measure drug susceptibilities of parasite isolates, and characterization of resistance-mediating parasite polymorphisms. Taken together, these efforts offer an increasingly comprehensive assessment of the efficacies of antimalarial therapies, and enable us to predict the emergence of drug resistance and to guide local antimalarial drug policies. Here we briefly review worldwide antimalarial drug resistance concerns, summarize research activities of the ICEMRs related to drug resistance, and assess the global impacts of the ICEMR programs.
Reducing the rank of a matroid

We consider the rank reduction problem for matroids: Given a matroid $M$ and an integer $k$, find a minimum size subset of elements of $M$ whose removal reduces the rank of $M$ by at least $k$. When $M$ is a graphical matroid this problem is the minimum $k$-cut problem, which admits a 2-approximation algorithm. In this paper we show that the rank reduction problem for transversal matroids is essentially at least as hard to approximate as the densest $k$-subgraph problem. We also prove that, while the problem is easily solvable in polynomial time for partition matroids, it is NP-hard when considering the intersection of two partition matroids. Our proof shows, in particular, that the maximum vertex cover problem is NP-hard on bipartite graphs, which answers an open problem of B. Simeone.
Household Financial Management and Women’s Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence in the Philippines

This study explores the causal impact of independent management of household finances upon women’s experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the Philippines. Propensity score matching is used to generate a casual estimate of the impact of women’s roles as household financial managers on their experiences of IPV. Findings demonstrate that managing household finances independently significantly increased the severity of IPV women experienced from their partners compared with women who managed finances jointly with partners. Findings reinforce the importance of explicit attention to intrahousehold power dynamics and gender norms in the implementation of microfinance interventions intended to empower women.
A longitudinal study of risk factors for incident albuminuria in diabetic American Indians: the Strong Heart Study.

BACKGROUND There have been no studies that use longitudinal data with more than 2 measurements and methods of longitudinal data analysis to identify risk factors for incident albuminuria over time more effectively. STUDY DESIGN Longitudinal study. SETTINGS & PARTICIPANTS A subgroup of participants in the Strong Heart Study, a population-based sample of American Indians, in central Arizona, Oklahoma, and North and South Dakota. Participants with diabetes without albuminuria were followed up for a mean of 4 years. PREDICTORS Age, sex, study center, high-density lipoprotein and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, triglyceride level, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, use of antihypertensive medication, smoking, hemoglobin A(1c) level, fasting glucose level, type of diabetes therapy, diabetes duration, plasma creatinine level, and urinary albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR). OUTCOMES & MEASUREMENTS Albuminuria was defined as UACR of 30 mg/g or greater. Urine creatinine and albumin were measured by using the picric acid method and a sensitive nephelometric technique, respectively. RESULTS Of 750 and 568 participants with diabetes without albuminuria and with normal plasma creatinine levels at the first and second examinations, 246 and 132 developed albuminuria by the second and third examinations, respectively. Incident albuminuria was predicted by baseline UACR, fasting glucose level, systolic blood pressure, plasma creatinine level, study center, current smoking, and use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and antidiabetic medications. UACR of 10 to 30 mg/g increased the odds of developing albuminuria 2.7-fold compared with UACR less than 5 mg/g. LIMITATIONS Single random morning urine specimen. CONCLUSIONS Many risk factors identified for incident albuminuria can be modified. Control of blood pressure and glucose level, smoking cessation, and use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors may reduce the incidence of albuminuria.
Characteristics of Aerobic Granules Grown on Glucose and Acetate in Sequential Aerobic Sludge Blanket Reactors

Aerobic granules were cultivated in two column-type sequential aerobic sludge blanket reactors fed with glucose and acetate, respectively. The characteristics of aerobic granules were investigated. Results indicated that the glucose- and acetate-fed granules have comparable characteristics in terms of settling velocity, size, shape, biomass density, hydrophobicity, physical strength, microbial activity and storage stability. Substrate component does not seem to be a key factor on the formation of aerobic granules. However, microbial diversity of the granules is closely associated with the carbon sources supplied to the reactors. Compared with the conventional activated sludge flocs, aerobic granules exhibit excellent physical characteristics that would be essential for industrial application. This research provides a complete set of characteristics data of aerobic granules grown on glucose and acetate, which would be useful for further development of aerobic granules-based compact bioreactor for handling high strength organic wastewater.
Who kicks whom?1 Contextual and Temporal Effects in the IT Use - Performance Relationship

This research extends extant literature examining the relationship between IS use and performance. While prior theory has predominantly treated IS use as an antecedent of performance and hypothesized a positive effect of use on performance, this research provides an alternative perspective. Specifically, this paper theorizes that under certain contexts performance can be an antecedent of use and that the effect can be in the opposite direction. In contrast to non-contingent models, this paper proposes a contingent model in which the IS use-performance relationship is contingent on organizational performance and varies over time. The model proposed here is tested on longitudinal data. Distributed lag model was employed for data analysis. The results support our hypotheses that performance is an antecedent of IS use and that the effect is negative, i.e. when organizational performance declines, IS use increases but after a period of increased use, the effect declines to non-significant levels.
Fitness proportionate selection based binary particle swarm optimization

Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO) has shown its advantages not only in dealing with continous optimization problems, but also in dealing with discrete optimization problems. Binary Particle Swarm Optimization(BPSO), the discrete version of PSO, has been widely applied to many areas. Although there are some variations aiming to improve BPSO's performance, none of them has been proven to be a promissing alternative. In this paper, we propose a novel binary particle swarm optimization called Fitness Proportionate Selection Based Binary Particle Swarm Optimization(FPSBPSO). We test FPSBPSO's performance in function optimization problems and multidimension knapsack problems. Experimental results show that FPSBPSO can find better optima than BPSO and a variation of BPSO.
Magnesium, Insulin Resistance and Body Composition in Healthy Postmenopausal Women

Objective: This study was conducted to determine the association between magnesium (Mg), body composition and insulin resistance in 136 sedentary postmenopausal women, 50 to 77 years of age. Methods: Diabetics, hypertensives and women on hormonal replacement therapy were excluded and the remaining 74 were divided according to BMI≥25 (obese: OG) and BMI<25 kg/m2 (non-obese: NOG). Nutritional data disclosed that intakes were high for protein and saturated fat, low for carbohydrates, polyunsaturated fat and Mg and normal for the other nutrients, according to recommended dietary allowances (RDA). Mg values in red blood cells (RBC-Mg) and plasma (P-Mg), were determined, as were fasting glucose, and insulin levels, Homeostasis Model Assessment (HOMA), body mass index (BMI), body fat percent (BF %), abdominal fat (AF) and free fat mass (FFM). Results: RBC-Mg values were low in both groups when compared with normal values. There were significant differences in body composition parameters, HOMA and insulin levels, with higher basal insulin levels in OG. RBC-Mg was directly correlated with insulin, HOMA and FFM in both groups, according to Pearson correlations. HOMA in OG was also directly correlated with BMI, FFM and AF. In NOG, HOMA was only correlated with FFM. The low RBC-Mg levels observed were probably due to low Mg intake and to deregulation of factors that control Mg homeostasis during menopause. Conclusions: Both Mg deficit and obesity may independently lead to a higher risk for insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease.
Induced theta oscillations mediate large‐scale synchrony with mediotemporal areas during recollection in humans

One functional aspect of theta oscillations that recent studies have begun to explore in humans is their role for the recollection of personal events. A specific role of theta for recollection but not for stimulus‐familiarity would support links between cortical theta oscillations and hippocampal functioning, given that the hippocampus seems to be more critical for recollection than for stimulus‐familiarity. During recollection, theta oscillations might mediate a dynamic link between hippocampal and neocortical areas, thereby allowing to recruit and bind distributed cortical representations. We recorded theta oscillations using whole‐head magnetoencephalography while nine healthy subjects made recognition memory judgments on previously studied and unstudied pictures of faces. For each recognized face, subjects indicated whether they also recollected the background image in front of which that face was studied. Theta oscillations were higher in amplitude during recollection than during recognition in the absence of accurate memory for the background. These theta oscillations were induced in nature, meaning that they showed considerable phase variability from trial to trial. To nevertheless extract the field distribution of coherent theta oscillations from single trials, we calculated phase differences between sensor pairs at each time point of each single trial. This field information was used to localize the brain sources of synchronized theta‐generators. The results suggest that recollection is associated with induced activity increase in a distributed synchronous theta network, including prefrontal, mediotemporal, and visual areas. These findings are compatible with the notion that theta oscillations are related to the binding of distributed cortical representations during recollection. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Gifted Teacher Competencies: Ratings by Rural Principals and Teachers Compared

Rural school principals and gifted educators from 40 school districts in a midwestern state were surveyed with an instrument used in a 1981 national study of university trainers and gifted practitioners. Respondents rated 24 gifted-teacher competency items on a scale of 1 (non-essential) to 5 (essential). Group means for all items were compared for significance and used to provide a rank ordering of the competencies. Results showed remarkable congruence between both rural groups (as well as between these groups and the earlier national sample) on the eight “most essential” competencies. Greatest agreement between groups was found on items describing direct instructional competencies. Significant differences between the rural principals and teachers occurred on items involving counseling and advocacy skills.
Trends in Determinants of Entry into the Academic Career: The Case of South Korea, 1980-2010

Substantial research documents the determinants of entry into the academic career, yet little is known about how these determinants have evolved over time. Using data from a large sample of Korean scholars who received their doctoral degrees between 1980 and 2010, we estimate discrete-time event history models of transitioning to an academic position in any academic field. Results indicate that universalistic characteristics, such as publication record, strongly affect subsequent career success, but so do particularistic factors, including doctoral institution prestige. Since the 1980s, the influence of doctoral degree prestige increased substantially more than the influence of one’s publication record on higher education employment, implying that the rising importance of particularistic factors has outpaced growing consideration of universalistic characteristics in Korean academia. However, the importance of gender on academic employment has declined since the early 2000s, suggesting that the implementation of employment quotas for female professors may have stymied gender discrimination.
Citizenship versus Ethnicity: The Role of Institutions in Shaping Identity Choice

This paper examines the role that political institutions play in inducing or subduing ethnic identification. I provide a formal model of ethnic identification as a function of institutional design and social context that focuses on one question: what kinds of institutions will induce individuals to identify with the state rather than along ethnic lines? Among other things, the model offers predictions about when political institutions are capable of inducing a national identity. I conclude with an application of the model to the question of institutional design in Iraq. The model provides one explanation for why a period of low Sunni representation in Iraqi government would increase sectarianism, and why a more proportional Iraqi parliament may not remedy the problem.