Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrated model based on the psychology of active/non-active computer users: activating technology holdouts

Although many Internet-based social services exist that can raise our quality of life, there are still many non-active users who cannot fully enjoy the convenience of the computer and its functionality even though they have computers in the home. In order to analyze how to enhance computer usage, we conducted a field study and arrived at an integrated model that enables us to deeply understand the psychology of active/non-active computer users. Initial design guidelines for activating the non-active users are derived from our model.
Baltorussus Total Makeover: Rejuvenation and Sex Change in an Ancient Parasitoid Wasp Lineage

The Orussidae is a small and rare but phylogenetically important family of parasitoid wasps. The fossil record of the family is also very poor. Baltorussus velteni was described from Baltic amber from an allegedly female specimen. This and another recently discovered specimen are examined with microCT scanning and standard microscopy. We reveal that both the holotype and the new specimen are actually males. Furthermore, the results of the microCT scanning allow us to integrate the fossils in a morphological data set assembled for extant Orussidae. Phylogenetic analyses consistently retrieve Baltorussus as a separate basal lineage within the crown group, whereas two Cretaceous fossils are placed as stem group orussids and a Dominican amber fossil in an extant genus. Based on the positions of the fossils, we estimate that the extant Orussidae radiated in the mid-Cretaceous (approx. 100 Ma ago). This is considerably younger than a previously suggested Early Jurassic date (180 Ma ago), which was primarily based on biogeographic evidence.
Production of auto-anti-idiotypic antibody during the normal immune response to TNP-ficoll. III. Absence in nu/nu mice: evidence for T-cell dependence of the anti-idiotypic-antibody response

Although athymic mice make an excellent immune response to the thymus- independent antigen trinitrophenyl-lys-Ficoll (TNP-F), nude mice of AKR/J and BALB/c strains lack the anti-idiotypic response that occurs in euthymic mice of both of these strains within the first 1--2 wk after injection of more TNP-F. Anti-idiotypic antibody-blocked (hapten- augmentable) anti-TNP splenic plaque-forming cells (PFC) do not occur at any time and serum anti-idiotypic antibody is absent in both congenitally athymic mice, and thymectomized, irradiated, bone marrow- reconstituted mice. Nevertheless, nu/nu mice do have PFC which can be inhibited by exposure to anti-idiotypic antibody produced in +/+ mice. As a consequence of the failure to produce anti-idiotypic antibodies, the anti-TNP PFC response is athymic as compared to euthymic mice is of greater magnitude, declines less precipitously, and shows an increase rather than a decrease in affinity between days 4 and 7 after antigen injection. It is concluded that the anti-idiotypic antibody response is thymus dependent and that athymic mice lack a helper cell required for the induction of anti-idiotypic antibodies.
USING VIDEO IN THE CLASSROOM

Nowadays, students are very much visual learners. Further, with the quick spread of broadband internet access, is making the use of video in the classroom much more reliable. Video is a medium which is replacing print – Chris Anderson of TED goes as far as suggesting it is a “revolution” transcending that of the Gutenberg revolution. It is changing both the way we learn and the way we interact with each other.
GLOBAL POWER FUNCTIONS OF GOODNESS OF FIT TESTS By Arnold Janssen Heinrich-Heine-University of Düsseldorf

It is shown that the global power function of any nonparametric test is flat on balls of alternatives except for alternatives coming from a finite dimensional subspace. The present benchmark is here the upper one-sided (or two-sided) envelope power function. Every choice of a test fixes a priori a finite dimensional region with high power. It turns out that also the level points are far away from the corresponding Neyman–Pearson test level points except for a finite number of orthogonal directions of alternatives. For certain submodels the result is independent of the underlying sample size. In the last section the statistical consequences and special goodness of fit tests are discussed.
The Economics of Construction Price Inflation in the UK: Measurement, Output and Productivity

This thesis evaluates the UK construction price and cost indices and their use in measuring inflation, construction output and productivity. It proposes theoretically grounded and econometrically sound models for construction demand and supply. This study reviews the compilation methods of the published tender price indices (TPIs) in the UK and finds that they have distinct advantages. However, some components (M&E trades), some procurement methods (design and build), and some sub-sectors (private commercial and housing) are disproportionally under-represented or absent from the sampling of projects that underpins the TPIs. The TPIs are found to be very likely biased upwards. The review of the construction cost indices in the UK, measures of the input prices facing contractors, finds that the measure of labour cost is based on increasingly unrepresentative national wage agreements, and appears to be biased upwards. The construction new orders series published by ONS are reviewed as a possible measure of demand and predictor of quantity of construction output, and are shown to be unfit for either purpose. Grounded on a simple demand-and-supply theoretical model, the method proposed by Haynes and Stone (1985) is applied to estimate a system of demand-and-supply equations for new construction work in the UK, which is tested against and supported by the results of the data-driven vector autoregressive model. Findings from EU-KLEMS show that the rate of productivity growth of the construction sector is lower than that of the whole economy. Applying Baumol’s two sector unbalanced growth model, econometric studies are undertaken for the UK and other European countries. Results confirm the proposition that the relative rate of growth of labour productivity of the construction sector determines the long-run relative price movement of its outputs. The positive productivity growth in UK construction industry explains the differential between its (higher) input price growth and (lower) output price growth.
The Response of Orographic Precipitation over Idealized Midlatitude Mountains Due to Global Increases in CO2

AbstractThe sensitivity of stratiform midlatitude orographic precipitation to global mean temperature is investigated through numerical simulations. As a step toward understanding the relative influence of thermodynamic and dynamical processes on orographic precipitation, simple idealizations of Earth’s major north–south mountain chains are considered. The individual terrain elements occupy four islands equally spaced around the Northern Hemisphere of a planet otherwise covered by ocean. Although these mountains have very little influence on the sensitivity of the zonally averaged precipitation to changes in global mean surface temperature, the precipitation on the windward slopes of the ridges is highly sensitive to such changes. When the ridges run between 40° and 60°N, the windward-slope hydrological sensitivity exceeds the Clausius–Clapeyron scaling of about 7% K−1 over the northern half of the barrier, leading to substantial precipitation changes. The annual accumulated orographic precipitation is mo.
Integrated Neural Representations of Odor Intensity and Affective Valence in Human Amygdala

Arousal and valence are proposed to represent fundamental dimensions of emotion. The neural substrates for processing these aspects of stimuli are studied widely, with recent studies of chemosensory processing suggesting the amygdala processes intensity (a surrogate for arousal) rather than valence. However, these investigations have assumed that a valence effect in the amygdala is linear such that testing valence extremes is sufficient to infer responses across valence space. In this study, we tested an alternative hypothesis, namely that valence responses in the amygdala are nonlinear. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, we measured amygdala responses to high- and low-concentration variants of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant odors. Our results demonstrate that the amygdala exhibits an intensity-by-valence interaction in olfactory processing. In other words, the effect of intensity on amygdala activity is not the same at all levels of valence. Specifically, the amygdala responds differentially to high (vs low)-intensity odor for pleasant and unpleasant smells but not for neutral smells. This implies that the amygdala codes neither intensity nor valence per se, but a combination that we suggest reflects the overall emotional value of a stimulus.
A Partial Least Squares Latent Variable Modeling Approach for Measuring Interaction Effects: Results from a Monte Carlo Simulation Study and an Electronic - Mail Emotion/Adoption Study

The ability to detect and accurately estimate the strength of interaction effects are critical issues that are fundamental to social science research in general and IS research in particular. Within the IS discipline, a significant percentage of research has been devoted to examining the conditions and contexts under which relationships may vary, often under the general umbrella of contingency theory (cf. McKeen et al. 1994, Weill and Olson 1989). In our survey of such studies, the majority failed to either detect or provide an estimate of the effect size. In cases where effect sizes are estimated, the numbers are generally small. These results have led some researchers to question both the usefulness of contingency theory and the need to detect interaction effects (e.g., Weill and Olson 1989). This paper addresses this issue by providing a new latent variable modeling approach that can give more accurate estimates of interaction effects by accounting for the measurement error that attenuates the estimated relationships. The capacity of this approach at recovering true effects in comparison to summated regression is demonstrated in a Monte Carlo study that creates a simulated data set in which the underlying true effects are known. Analysis of a second, empirical data set is included to demonstrate the technique's use within IS theory. In this second analysis, substantial direct and interaction effects of enjoyment on electronic-mail adoption are shown to exist.
Psychopathy and intelligence in high-risk violent women

ABSTRACT There has been a longstanding debate and mixed evidence on the link between psychopathy and intelligence. Most of the existing research comes from male prisoners, with the literature on female psychopathy and intelligence remaining sparse. Thus, the current study explored the correlational association between psychopathy and intelligence in a sample of high-risk violent female offenders. This is the first study of its kind from the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway for women in the United Kingdom (UK). The sample includes high-risk violent women presenting with severe personality disorder. In the present study, we conducted a correlational examination between total scores, and the 2-factor and 4-facet structure of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) with intelligence using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). No significant associations were found between total PCL-R scores, or factor 2, and intelligence. Positive associations were found between verbal comprehension and factor 1 and the interpersonal facet. Thus, the results suggest high-risk violent female offenders with interpersonal psychopathic traits demonstrate higher levels of verbal comprehension skills. This finding may help explain why psychopathic female offenders, who can be characterized by deceitful and egocentric behaviours, may be able to successfully charm and con others for their own personal gain.
Reconstruction of Finite Rate of Innovation Signals with Model-Fitting Approach

Finite rate of innovation (FRI) is a recent framework for sampling and reconstruction of a large class of parametric signals that are characterized by finite number of innovations (parameters) per unit interval. In the absence of noise, exact recovery of FRI signals has been demonstrated. In the noisy scenario, there exist techniques to deal with non-ideal measurements. Yet, the accuracy and resiliency to noise and model mismatch are still challenging problems for real-world applications. We address the reconstruction of FRI signals, specifically a stream of Diracs, from few signal samples degraded by noise and we propose a new FRI reconstruction method that is based on a model-fitting approach related to the structured-TLS problem. The model-fitting method is based on minimizing the training error, that is, the error between the computed and the recovered moments (i.e., the FRI-samples of the signal), subject to an annihilation system. We present our framework for three different constraints of the annihilation system. Moreover, we propose a model order selection framework to determine the innovation rate of the signal; i.e., the number of Diracs by estimating the noise level through the training error curve. We compare the performance of the model-fitting approach with known FRI reconstruction algorithms and Cramér-Rao's lower bound (CRLB) to validate these contributions.
The regulation of connective tissue growth factor expression influences the viability of human trabecular meshwork cells

Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) induces extracellular matrix (ECM) synthesis and contractility in human trabecular meshwork (HTM) cells. Both processes are involved in the pathogenesis of primary open‐angle glaucoma. To date, little is known about regulation and function of CTGF expression in the trabecular meshwork (TM). Therefore, we analysed the effects of different aqueous humour proteins and stressors on CTGF expression in HTM cells. HTM cells from three different donors were treated with endothelin‐1, insulin‐like growth factor (IGF)‐1, angiotensin‐II, H2O2 and heat shock and were analysed by immunohistochemistry, real‐time RT‐PCR and Western blotting. Viability after H2O2 treatment was measured in CTGF silenced HTM‐N cells and their controls. Latrunculin A reduced expression of CTGF by about 50% compared to untreated HTM cells, whereas endothelin‐1, IGF‐1, angiotensin‐II, heat shock and oxidative stress led to a significant increase. Silencing of CTGF resulted in a delayed expression of αB‐crystallin and in reduced cell viability in comparison to the controls after oxidative stress. Conversely, CTGF treatment led to a higher cell viability rate after H2O2 treatment. CTGF expression is induced by factors that have been linked to glaucoma. An increased level of CTGF appears to protect TM cells against damage induced by stress. The beneficial effect of CTGF for viability of TM cells is likely associated with the effects on increased ECM synthesis and higher contractility of the TM, thereby contributing to reduced aqueous humour outflow facility causing increased intraocular pressure.
A Minimalist Approach to Shallow Discourse Parsing and Implicit Relation Recognition

We describe a minimalist approach to shallow discourse parsing in the context of the CoNLL 2015 Shared Task. 1 Our parser integrates a rule-based component for argument identification and datadriven models for the classification of explicit and implicit relations. We place special emphasis on the evaluation of implicit sense labeling, we present different feature sets and show that (i) word embeddings are competitive with traditional word-level features, and (ii) that they can be used to considerably reduce the total number of features. Despite its simplicity, our parser is competitive with other systems in terms of sense recognition and thus provides a solid ground for further refinement.
Measuring the Economic Effects of Casinos on Local Areas : Applying a Community Comparison Matching Method

1 Introduction The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of community matching, one of the methods we will use to analyze the economic impacts of gaming venues in Massachusetts. 1 Community matching involves selecting a group of communities that are economically and demographically similar to the casino host communities in Massachusetts. Once casinos open in Massachusetts, comparisons of data trends between the casino host communities and their matched control communities will provide a relative assessment of the impacts of casinos over time. To be clear, community matching is not the only method we will use to conduct our economic impact analysis. Rather, it is intended to complement our other methods and enhance our overall assessment of the economic impacts of casinos. While a brief description of our methods is outlined below, the purpose and focus of this paper is to provide detail about the community matching method. Casino gambling in the United States includes commercially operated casinos, Class III Indian casinos and racetracks with co-located slot machines or video lottery terminals. Before 1990, casino gambling was legal and operating in two states: Nevada and New Jersey. In November 2011, legislation was passed permitting casinos to be introduced to Massachusetts for the first time. Three casino licenses are available in Massachusetts with one license allocated in each of three regions of the state along with a single license for a slots parlor with no geographic restriction as to its location. When its first casino opens in 2015, Massachusetts will be the 36 th state with legal operating casinos. This is a remarkable transformation in a twenty five year span, particularly compared to the nearly five-decade span between 1931, when Nevada legalized casinos, and 1978, when the first casino outside Nevada opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This expansion of casino gambling has been controversial with much of the debate centered on the social and economic impacts of casino gambling. This debate is ongoing, in part because measuring the impacts of a casino is challenging. The nature of that challenge is described below along with our chosen methods for evaluating the economic impacts of casino introduction. 1 In this analysis, gaming venues are defined as commercial casinos, Class III Indian casinos, or racetracks with slot machines and video lottery terminals. 2 The broader SEIGMA project will provide a comprehensive review of social and economic impacts related to the introduction …
Persistent post-surgical pain following anterior thoracotomy for lung cancer: a cross-sectional study of prevalence, characteristics and interference with functioning.

OBJECTIVES Most studies of persistent post-surgical pain following thoracic surgery have focused on classic posterolateral thoracotomy in mixed surgical populations without systematic assessment of disease recurrence and other potential sources of pain. The purpose of this study was to examine patterns in the prevalence of persistent post-surgical pain following lung cancer surgery and to quantitatively assess the characteristics of persistent post-surgical pain and associated sensory changes. METHODS In May 2010, a sample of 702 patients undergoing lung cancer surgery from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2009 was asked to complete a mail distributed questionnaire. The questionnaire included the Brief Pain Inventory and questions on pain-associated characteristics, symptoms and sensory changes. Patients were enrolled according to the following criteria: (1) no additional surgical procedures performed in the thoracic region 10 years prior to and up until the cross section; (2) no explorative surgery; (3) no resection of the thoracic wall and (4) no clinical or radiological signs of disease recurrence. Patients undergoing video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery were excluded. RESULTS The response rate was 89%. The final study population consisted of 414 patients with a median age of 69 years and a median follow-up time of 45 months. The overall prevalence of persistent post-surgical pain following anterior thoracotomy was estimated to 19% (95% CI: 15-23%). Clinically relevant pain defined as ≥4 on a 0-10 numerical rating scale was prevalent in 9% of the study participants (95% CI: 6-12%); pain with neuropathic characteristics was present in 36% (95% CI: 25-48%). A total of 62% of the participants with persistent post-surgical pain reported an increased or decreased sense of touch in the painful area. CONCLUSIONS Persistent post-surgical pain following anterior thoracotomy was prevalent in 19% (95% CI: 15-23%) of lung cancer patients for up to 10 years postoperatively. Future preventive strategies should focus on the role of intraoperative nerve damage, including the potentially protective role of anterior thoracotomy.
Determination of Ivermectin in Medicated Feeds by Liquid Chromatography with Fluorescence Detection

A labour- and time-effective analytical procedure for determination of ivermectin in medicated feed at recommended level of 2.0 mg kg−1 has been developed and validated. The analyte was extracted from grinded feed samples with acetonitrile and derivatisated with N-methylimidazole and trifluoracetic anhydride. The fluorescent derivatives were analysed by liquid chromatography method using C8 column. The isocratic conditions using acetonitrile, methanol, water, and tetrahydrofuran were applied. Fluorescence detection was performed at 365 nm (excitation) and 475 nm (emission) wavelengths. The total analysis time was 10 min. The validation results of the method (within-laboratory reproducibility 4.0% CV, mean recovery 100.1%) confirm the appropriate precision and accuracy of the developed method.
Kernel Interpolation for Scalable Structured Gaussian Processes (KISS-GP)

We introduce a new structured kernel interpolation (SKI) framework, which generalises and unifies inducing point methods for scalable Gaussian processes (GPs). SKI methods produce kernel approximations for fast computations through kernel interpolation. The SKI framework clarifies how the quality of an inducing point approach depends on the number of inducing (aka interpolation) points, interpolation strategy, and GP covariance kernel. SKI also provides a mechanism to create new scalable kernel methods, through choosing different kernel interpolation strategies. Using SKI, with local cubic kernel interpolation, we introduce KISSGP, which is 1) more scalable than inducing point alternatives, 2) naturally enables Kronecker and Toeplitz algebra for substantial additional gains in scalability, without requiring any grid data, and 3) can be used for fast and expressive kernel learning. KISS-GP costs O(n) time and storage for GP inference. We evaluate KISS-GP for kernel matrix approximation, kernel learning, and natural sound modelling.