Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Simple Model of Subprime Borrowers and Credit Growth

The surge in credit and house prices that preceded the Great Recession was particularly pronounced in ZIP codes with a higher fraction of subprime borrowers (Mian and Sufi, 2009). We present a simple model with prime and subprime borrowers distributed across geographic locations, which can reproduce this stylized fact as a result of an expansion in the supply of credit. Due to their low income, subprime households are constrained in their ability to meet interest payments and hence sustain debt. As a result, when the supply of credit increases and interest rates fall, they take on disproportionately more debt than their prime counterparts, who are not subject to that constraint.
A randomized trial of the effect of low dose epinephrine infusion in addition to tranexamic acid on blood loss during total hip arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is associated with both intraoperative and postoperative blood loss resulting in anaemia and, in some patients, transfusion of red blood cells. Epinephrine enhances coagulation by several mechanisms. We evaluated the effect of intraoperative low dose infusion of epinephrine on intraoperative and early postoperative blood loss. METHODS After consent, 106 subjects undergoing THA under spinal anaesthesia were randomly assigned to receive an i.v. infusion of either epinephrine 0.05 µg kg(-1) min(-1) or placebo (saline 0.9%) during the entire surgical procedure. Intraoperative tranexamic acid (TXA) was administered to all subjects. The primary outcome was intraoperative blood loss directly measured by drains and weighing swabs. Secondary outcome was total blood loss at 24 h postoperatively calculated using the Gross formula. RESULTS Of 106 subjects randomized, 6 were excluded, leaving 100 subjects for analyses. Mean duration of surgery was 58 (21) min. Intraoperative blood loss was 343 (95% CI 300-386) ml in the epinephrine group compared with 385 (353-434) ml in the placebo group, P = 0.228. 24 h blood loss was 902 (800-1004) ml in the epinephrine group compared with 1080 (946-1220) ml in the placebo group, P = 0.038. CONCLUSION In subjects also receiving TXA, intraoperative low dose epinephrine infusion did not reduce intraoperative blood loss in THA but calculated 24 h blood loss was reduced by 180 ml compared with placebo. Further studies on low dose epinephrine in patients at high risk of significant bleeding are warranted. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NCT 01708642.
Epidemiology of chronic rhinosinusitis, selected risk factors, comorbidities, and economic burden

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a relevant and prevalent medical condition in Germany, Europe and the world. If analysed in detail, the prevalence of CRS shows regional and temporary variety. In this review, currently available data regarding the prevalence of CRS is therefore sorted by country and/or region, time point of data collection and the CRS-definition employed. Risk factors like smoking and gastroesophageal reflux are discussed regarding their influence on CRS prevalence. Moreover, comorbidities of CRS, like asthma, conditions of the cardiovascular system and depression are listed and their influence on CRS is discussed. Furthermore, data on CRS prevalence in special cohorts, like immunocompromised patients, are presented. To estimate the economic burden of CRS, current data e.g. from Germany and the USA are included in this review.
Application of linear regression to videokeratoscope data for tilted surfaces

Purpose: To investigate the use of linear regression analysis performed on the tabular data display of the EyeSys videokeratoscope (VK). When a radius squared vs distance squared scatterplot is produced from aspheric surface data the equivalent conic section can be deduced from the intercept and slope of the linear regression line. Non‐linear plots are often produced. Linear regression may then be applied in a number of ways.
Cortical Dynamics in Presence of Assemblies of Densely Connected Weight-Hub Neurons

Experimental measurements of pairwise connection probability of pyramidal neurons together with the distribution of synaptic weights have been used to construct randomly connected model networks. However, several experimental studies suggest that both wiring and synaptic weight structure between neurons show statistics that differ from random networks. Here we study a network containing a subset of neurons which we call weight-hub neurons, that are characterized by strong inward synapses. We propose a connectivity structure for excitatory neurons that contain assemblies of densely connected weight-hub neurons, while the pairwise connection probability and synaptic weight distribution remain consistent with experimental data. Simulations of such a network with generalized integrate-and-fire neurons display regular and irregular slow oscillations akin to experimentally observed up/down state transitions in the activity of cortical neurons with a broad distribution of pairwise spike correlations. Moreover, stimulation of a model network in the presence or absence of assembly structure exhibits responses similar to light-evoked responses of cortical layers in optogenetically modified animals. We conclude that a high connection probability into and within assemblies of excitatory weight-hub neurons, as it likely is present in some but not all cortical layers, changes the dynamics of a layer of cortical microcircuitry significantly.
Neuroimage: Clinical Lessons of Als Imaging: Pitfalls and Future Directions — a Critical Review

Background: While neuroimaging in ALS has gained unprecedented momentum in recent years, little progress has been made in the development of viable diagnostic, prognostic and monitoring markers. Objectives: To identify and discuss the common pitfalls in ALS imaging studies and to reflect on optimal study designs based on pioneering studies. Methods: A " PubMed "-based literature search on ALS was performed based on neuroimaging-related keywords. Study limitations were systematically reviewed and classified so that stereotypical trends could be identified. Results: Common shortcomings, such as relatively small sample sizes, statistically underpowered study designs, lack of disease controls, poorly characterised patient cohorts and a large number of conflicting studies, remain a significant challenge to the field. Imaging data of ALS continue to be interpreted at a group-level, as opposed to meaningful individual-patient inferences. Conclusions: A systematic, critical review of ALS imaging has identified stereotypical shortcomings, the lessons of which should be considered in the design of future prospective MRI studies. At a time when large multicentre studies are underway a candid discussion of these factors is particularly timely.
Governance in League of Legends: A hybrid system

Disruptive behaviors such as flaming and griefing are pervasive and problematic in many online venues. Riot Games, the maker of League of Legends, one of the world’s largest multiplayer online games, receives thousands of player complaints about disruptive behavior almost every day. To deal with this situation, they devised the “Tribunal” system, a crowdsourcing system that leverages player norms to identify and punish disruptive players. We conducted an ethnographic study concerning the interplay between player norms and rules in League of Legends. We found that governance in League of Legends is a hybrid system. Norms and rules both govern player behavior. Players engaged in a variety of conversations to interpret formal rules, communicate with Riot Games, analyze behaviors, and articulate norms. Riot Games’ official forums were a key venue for these discussions. These discussions provided players rich opportunities to learn norms and rules. Through their interactions, players reconciled norms and rules. We analyze how and why the hybrid system emerged. We consider the impact of the hybrid system on governance and corporation-player relationship.
Reliability and Validity of a Dual‐Task Force Platform Assessment of Balance Performance: Effect of Age, Balance Impairment, and Cognitive Task

OBJECTIVES The primary aim of this study was to identify whether performing a balance task on a force platform while performing a cognitive task (backwards counting by three) could discriminate between healthy older people and older people at mildly increased risk of falling better than performing the balance task alone. Additional aims were to identify the effect of age on balance performance and to investigate the retest reliability and concurrent validity of the balance measures. DESIGN Cross-sectional-cohort, three-group comparison design. SETTING Gait and balance testing laboratory. PARTICIPANTS Twenty healthy young adults (HY, mean age +/- standard deviation = 26.4 +/- 1 years), 20 healthy older adults (HO, 73.8 +/- 6.0 years), and 20 older adults with mild increase in falls risk (MIFR, 74.8 +/- 3 years). MEASUREMENTS All subjects were tested on the balance task alone and while performing a concurrent cognitive task on the Chattecx Balance System (CBS) under three platform conditions: stable platform (stable), dynamic platform with forward-backward tilting (F-B), and dynamic platform with side-to-side tilting (S-S) and on the step test, timed up-and-go, and gait measures. RESULTS There was a significant difference between HY and HO on the S-S and F-B conditions, both with and without the addition of the cognitive task (P< .05), but not under stable platform conditions. There were also significant differences between the HO and MIFR groups under stable and F-B conditions (P< .05). A three-way analysis of variance identified significant main effects for group, platform condition and task (P< .05), group-by-platform interaction, and platform-by-task interaction. The F-B condition with the cognitive task most effectively discriminated between groups. Post hoc analyses revealed that the F-B condition with cognitive task was associated with the highest accuracy in classifying subjects from the two older groups, with a sensitivity of 0.8 and a specificity of 0.8. Retest reliability for most CBS measures was moderate to high, and correlations between dynamic CBS measures and clinical measures were high. CONCLUSION Measurement of dynamic balance on the CBS (F-B) with a cognitive task is a reliable measure that discriminates well between healthy older people and those with a mild increase in risk of falling.
Crystal structure and activity of Bacillus subtilis YoaJ (EXLX1), a bacterial expansin that promotes root colonization

We solved the crystal structure of a secreted protein, EXLX1, encoded by the yoaJ gene of Bacillus subtilis. Its structure is remarkably similar to that of plant β-expansins (group 1 grass pollen allergens), consisting of 2 tightly packed domains (D1, D2) with a potential polysaccharide-binding surface spanning the 2 domains. Domain D1 has a double-ψ β-barrel fold with partial conservation of the catalytic site found in family 45 glycosyl hydrolases and in the MltA family of lytic transglycosylases. Domain D2 has an Ig-like fold similar to group 2/3 grass pollen allergens, with structural features similar to a type A carbohydrate-binding domain. EXLX1 bound to plant cell walls, cellulose, and peptidoglycan, but it lacked lytic activity against a variety of plant cell wall polysaccharides and peptidoglycan. EXLX1 promoted plant cell wall extension similar to, but 10 times weaker than, plant β-expansins, which synergistically enhanced EXLX1 activity. Deletion of the gene encoding EXLX1 did not affect growth or peptidoglycan composition of B. subtilis in liquid medium, but slowed lysis upon osmotic shock and greatly reduced the ability of the bacterium to colonize maize roots. The presence of EXLX1 homologs in a small but diverse set of plant pathogens further supports a role in plant–bacterial interactions. Because plant expansins have proved difficult to express in active form in heterologous systems, the discovery of a bacterial homolog opens the door for detailed structural studies of expansin function.
Resident self-governance in social model recovery programs

The current paper focuses on resident self-governance, in theory and in practice, in California social model recovery programs. Social model programs are derived from AA 12-step/12-tradition philosophy and have adopted the belief held in AA that persons in recovery must take responsibility for their own recovery, not just in speech but in action. Social model programs put this conviction into practice with formal mechanisms for resident self-governance that give residents opportunities for responsibility. This is considered vital practice for taking responsibility outside the relatively secure confines of the social model program. Resident self-governance is a distinctive feature of social model, and literature from social model leaders has emphasized the transfer of AA principles of egalitarian power-sharing and rotating leadership to a programmatic setting. How resident self-governance actually works, and how it is reconciled with a nonprofit parent agency that must maintain some hierarchy for purposes of efficiency and to satisfy legal and funder requirements, is explored through reference to the two social model programs that were studied in the Social Model Process Evaluation project.
Computational Architecture of the Parieto-Frontal Network Underlying Cognitive-Motor Control in Monkeys

Visual Abstract The statistical structure of intrinsic parietal and parieto-frontal connectivity in monkeys was studied through hierarchical cluster analysis. Based on their inputs, parietal and frontal areas were grouped into different clusters, including a variable number of areas that in most instances occupied contiguous architectonic fields. Connectivity tended to be stronger locally: that is, within areas of the same cluster. Distant frontal and parietal areas were targeted through connections that in most instances were reciprocal and often of different strength. These connections linked parietal and frontal clusters formed by areas sharing basic functional properties. This led to five different medio-laterally oriented pillar domains spanning the entire extent of the parieto-frontal system, in the posterior parietal, anterior parietal, cingulate, frontal, and prefrontal cortex. Different information processing streams could be identified thanks to inter-domain connectivity. These streams encode fast hand reaching and its control, complex visuomotor action spaces, hand grasping, action/intention recognition, oculomotor intention and visual attention, behavioral goals and strategies, and reward and decision value outcome. Most of these streams converge on the cingulate domain, the main hub of the system. All of them are embedded within a larger eye–hand coordination network, from which they can be selectively set in motion by task demands.
A Low Complexity Approach of Combining Cooperative Diversity and Multiuser Diversity in Multiuser Cooperative Networks

In this paper, we investigate the scheduling scheme to combine cooperative diversity (CD) and multiuser diversity (MUD) in multiuser cooperative networks under the time resource allocation (TRA) framework in which the whole transmission is divided into two phases: the broadcast phase and the relay phase. The broadcast phase is for direct transmission whereas the relay phase is for relay transmission. Based on this TRA framework, a user selection based low complexity relay protocol (US-LCRP) is proposed to combine CD and MUD. In each time slot (TS) of the broadcast phase, a “best” user is selected for transmission in order to obtain MUD. In the relay phase, the relays forward the messages of some specific users in a fixed order and then invoke the limited feedback information to achieve CD. We demonstrate that the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) of the US-LCRP is superior to that of the existing schemes, where more TSs are allocated for direct transmission in order to jointly exploit CD and MUD. Our analytical and numerical results show that the US-LCRP constitutes a more efficient resource utilization approach than the existing schemes. Additionally, the US-LCRP can be implemented with low complexity because only the direct links' channel state information (CSI) is estimated during the whole transmission.
Fitness dynamics within a poplar hybrid zone: I. Prezygotic and postzygotic barriers impacting a native poplar hybrid stand

Hybridization and introgression are pervasive evolutionary phenomena that provide insight into the selective forces that maintain species boundaries, permit gene flow, and control the direction of evolutionary change. Poplar trees (Populus L.) are well known for their ability to form viable hybrids and maintain their distinct species boundaries despite this interspecific gene flow. We sought to quantify the hybridization dynamics and postzygotic fitness within a hybrid stand of balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera L.), eastern cottonwood (P. deltoides Marsh.), and their natural hybrids to gain insight into the barriers maintaining this stable hybrid zone. We observed asymmetrical hybrid formation with P. deltoides acting as the seed parent, but with subsequent introgression biased toward P. balsamifera. Native hybrids expressed fitness traits intermediate to the parental species and were not universally unfit. That said, native hybrid seedlings were absent from the seedling population, which may indicate additional selective pressures controlling their recruitment. It is imperative that we understand the selective forces maintaining this native hybrid zone in order to quantify the impact of exotic poplar hybrids on this native system.
Evaluation of Dental Implant Osseointegration Using Ultrasonic Spectrometry : A Phantom Study

One of the challenging and important problems that still needs solution within the field of dental implant surgery is to monitor the osseointegration process. Therefore, this work aims to achieve a reliable noninvasive automatic method to evaluate dental implant stability which is directly related to the grade of osseointegration. For this purpose, an experimental phantom study was performed to simulate this process and evaluate it. Ultrasonic spectrometry was proposed and used to take measurements that were processed and analyzed to estimate the stability of the simulated dental implant. The phantom that was designed and used in the experiments simulated a jawbone with a dental implant and was made of a little pool filled with soft-tissue- equivalent material (with respect to ultrasound waves) and a solid cylinder of fresh oak-wood immersed into it to simulate the jawbone. A metal screw was used to simulate the dental implant. By screwing this screw into or out of the wooden cylinder, varying grades of stiffness and contact between the screw and the wooden tissues were obtained. And by this way, varying screw stability grades which simulate varying osseointegration grades were achieved. Pulse-echo ultrasound was used to measure the power spectra of the received ultrasonic echo- signals. These power spectra were, at first, processed and normalized then analyzed by using the partial least squares method to estimate the corresponding implant stability or stiffness grades. The number of screwing turns (for the screw into or out of the wooden cylinder) was used as a measure of stiffness grade.The feasibility of this approach was investigated through experimental tasks and promising results were achieved. A coefficient of determination R 2 of 96.4% and a mean absolute error of ±0.23 screwing turns were achieved when comparing real and estimated stiffness-grade values, indicating the high efficiency and good accuracy of this approach.
Epidermal patterning genes are active during embryogenesis in Arabidopsis

Epidermal cells in the root of Arabidopsis seedling differentiate either as hair or non-hair cells, while in the hypocotyl they become either stomatal or elongated cells. WEREWOLF (WER) and GLABRA2 (GL2) are positive regulators of non-hair and elongated cell development. CAPRICE (CPC) is a positive regulator of hair cell development in the root. We show that WER, GL2 and CPC are expressed and active during the stages of embryogenesis when the pattern of cells in the epidermis of the root-hypocotyl axis forms. GL2 is first expressed in the future epidermis in the heart stage embryo and its expression is progressively restricted to those cells that will acquire a non-hair identity in the transition between torpedo and mature stage. The expression of GL2 at the heart stage requires WER function. WER and CPC are transiently expressed throughout the root epidermal layer in the torpedo stage embryo when the cell-specific pattern of GL2 expression is being established in the epidermis. We also show that WER positively regulates CPC transcription and GL2 negatively regulates WER transcription in the mature embryo. We propose that the restriction of GL2 to the future non-hair cells in the root epidermis can be correlated with the activities of WER and CPC during torpedo stage. In the embryonic hypocotyl we show that WER controls GL2 expression. We also provide evidence indicating that CPC may also regulate GL2 expression in the hypocotyl.
Iterative extrapolation algorithm for data reconstruction over sphere

Given limited or incomplete measurement data on a sphere, a new iterative algorithm is proposed on how to extrapolate signal over the whole sphere. The algorithm is based on a priori assumption that the Fourier decomposition of the signal on the sphere has finite degree of spherical harmonic coefficients, that is, the signal is mode limited. The algorithm is a simple iteration involving only the spherical harmonic decomposition. It is proven that the algorithm converges to the original signal over observation region and the convergence rate is lower bounded by the largest eigenvalue of an associated Fredholm integral equation.
Identifying the Core Content and Structure of a Schema for Cultural Understanding

Abstract : Multicultural perspective taking skills enable Army leaders to adapt quickly when encountering individuals or groups from unfamiliar cultures and to function effectively in multinational alliances. In previous research, a schema for cultural understanding was identified as a key component of multicultural perspective taking. The primary objective for the present research was to identify core content and structure of a schema for cultural understanding that can be used to inform training for Soldiers deploying to unfamiliar cultures. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, we extracted schema content through interviews and identified common themes and concepts. This process resulted in schema content consisting of attributes of culture, goals in using cultural knowledge, and tactics for cultural learning. Findings indicate that concepts of religion, values and beliefs, and customs or traditions are central attributes of cultural understanding. These findings can inform training development and guide further research on the skills needed to function effectively in multicultural environments. Whereas traditional cultural awareness training typically focuses on understanding members of a specific culture or country, augmenting this training by focusing on a schema for cultural understanding developed through practical experience will afford Army leaders broader cultural capability.