Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bernstein-Gelfand-Gelfand reciprocity on perverse sheaves

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Intertemporal Tradeoffs for Gains and Losses: An Experimental Measurement of Discounted Utility

This article provides a parameter-free measurement of utility in intertemporal choice and presents new and more robust evidence on the discounting of money outcomes. Intertemporal utility was concave for gains and convex for losses, consistent with a hypothesis put forward by Loewenstein and Prelec (1992). Discount rates declined over time but less so than previously observed under the assumption of linear utility. For approximately 40% of our subjects constant discounting provided the best fit. The remaining 60% were most consistent with Harvey's (1986) power discounting. Our data provide little support for the popular quasi-hyperbolic model, which is widely used in economics today. We observed an asymmetry in the discounting of gains and losses that, unlike earlier findings, cannot be explained by a framing effect.
Smear technique for intraoperative diagnosis of central nervous system neoplasms

Background: Smear cytology has become increasily popular as an alternative to frozen section for the rapid diagnosis of most of central nervous system lesions. The aim of this study was to assess the utility of smear technique for the rapid diagnosis in the neurosurgical biopsies and to compare the smear cytological features with the final histopathological examination. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective study conducted in the Department of Pathology of BP Koirala Memorial cancer Hospital for a period of one year. Sixty cases of clinically suspected CNS tumors were sent for intraoperative smear cytological examination and histological examination. Both techniques were then compared for their ability to diagnose as well as grade the tumors. Results: Gliomas (51.6%) were the most frequently occurring tumors in the total cases. Diagnostic accuracy of squash/smear technique achieved was 88 %( 53/60) when compared with histopathological diagnoses. In two cases, smears comprised of blood clots and no opinion was possible in cytology. Complete discrepancy was seen in five cases that included two cases of atypical meningioma, a one case each of germinoma, glioblastoma and metastatic tumor. Conclusion: Smear technique is a fairly accurate, rapid, easily reproducible and cost effective tool to diagnose brain tumours. Smear cytology is of great value in Intraoperative consultation of central nervous system lesions. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3126/jpn.v4i7. 10296 Journal of Pathology of Nepal (2014) Vol. 4 , 544-547
Associated Risk Factors in Female Urinary Incontinence and Effectivenessof Electromyography-Biofeedback on Quality of Life

The aim of this study is to determine the demographic characteristics and risk factors related to female Urinary Incontinence (UI), the frequency by age, sex, type and degree of incontinence; and to evaluate the effectiveness of a pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) protocol with electromyography (EMG-BFB) with surface electrodes applied at the Pelvic Floor (PF) Unit of the Department of Rehabilitation at Salamanca’s Healthcare University Complex: as well as the potential effect on the Quality of Life (QoL) of incontinent women through the ICIQ-SF/I-QOL scales/questionnaires. We studied 311 female with different types of UI. They were all treated with 20 EMG-BFB sessions, twice a week. Superficial electrodes were used around the anus, and self administered ICIQ-SF and I-QOL questionnaires/scales were used. The mean age was 55.76+/-14.95 years. There were 83.6% female and 16.4% male. The UI increases with age. We have found statistical significance (p<0.05) between UI and pregnancy, delivery, menopause and gynecological abdominal or urological surgery in women. The commonest UI type was the Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI) (58.28%), and the 2o grade SUI (47.73%) the most common. After EMG-BFB treatment, we have found a statistically significant improvement (p<0.05) in the mean values for both of the scales, in total UI female patients, for any of the UI types (included UUI) as well as in every I-QOL subscales. After analyzing our data and the bibliography reviewed, EMG-BFB was effective as a training technique of the pelvic floor muscles in UI, and in improving the QoL of female patients. The risk factors for female UI are age, pregnancy, delivery, menopause, and gynecological, abdominal or urological surgery.
Trend Inflation , Firm ’ s Backward-looking Behavior , and Inflation Persistence Insu

It is often believed that inflation persistence can be attributed to variation in the Federal Reserve’s long-run inflation target rather than firm’s backwardlooking pricing behavior in the literature. In this regard, this paper investigates whether there is a need for the role of firm’s backward-looking behavior in accounting for inflation persistence even after trend inflation is taken into account. To this end, we study the role of past output gaps in determining the inflation gap, defined as the deviation of inflation from its long-run path. Our findings are threefold. First, there is a long-lasting effect of the output gap on inflation gap and the maximum effect of the output gap on inflation gap occurs after four to seven quarters. Second, most fluctuations in the inflation gap are attributable to past output gaps than current and expected future output gaps. Finally, firm’s backward-looking behavior is an essential ingredient in accounting for observed dynamic correlation between the output gap and inflation gap while the Federal Reserve’s long run inflation target as a source of inflation persistence is not. Moreover, moments of key macroeconomic variables are best explained when both forwardand backward-looking behavior are equally important in determining the inflation gap. These results disagree with the forward-looking New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC).
Elevated CO2 levels and herbivore damage alter host plant preferences

Interactions between the moth Spodoptera littoralis and two of its host plants, alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) were examined, using plants grown under ambient (350 ppm) and elevated (700 ppm) CO2 conditions. To determine strength and effects of herbivore-induced responses assays were performed with both undamaged (control) and herbivore damaged plants. CO2 and damage effects on larval host plant preferences were determined through dual-choice bioassays. In addition, larvae were reared from hatching to pupation on experimental foliage to examine effects on larval growth and development. When undamaged plants were used S. littoralis larvae in consumed more cotton than alfalfa, and CO2 enrichment caused a reduction in the preference for cotton. With damaged plants larvae consumed equal amounts of the two plant species (ambient CO2 conditions), but CO2 enrichment strongly shifted preferences towards cotton, which was then consumed three times more than alfalfa. Complementary assays showed that elevated CO2 levels had no effect on the herbivore-induced responses of cotton, whereas those of alfalfa were significantly increased. Larval growth was highest for larvae fed undamaged cotton irrespectively of CO2 level, and lowest for larvae on damaged alfalfa from the high CO2 treatment. Development time increased on damaged cotton irrespectively of CO2 treatment, and on damaged alfalfa in the elevated CO2 treatment. These results demonstrate that elevated CO2 levels can cause insect herbivores to alter host plant preferences, and that effects on herbivore-induced responses may be a key mechanism behind these processes. Furthermore, since the insects were shown to avoid foliage that reduced their physiological performance, our data suggest that behavioural host plant shifts result in partial escape from negative consequences of feeding on high CO2 foliage. Thus, CO2 enrichment can alter both physiology and behaviour of important insect herbivores, which in turn may to impact plant biodiver (Less)
Effects of Smoking Cigarette on White Blood Cell and Platelet Parameter on a Sample of Normal Subject in Rania City

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the extent of adverse (1) effect of cigarette on Total and differential leucocytes (WBC) counts and total platelets count Platelets count and its related parameters at male in Rania city – Iraq . (2) To compare Total and differential leucocytes (WBC) counts and total platelets count Platelets count and its related parameters of both smokers and non-smokers Methods: Sixty five male subjects participated in this study, cigarette smoker (n= 35), non-smoker (n= 30). Blood samples from healthy non-smokers and smokers (males) were collected and analyzed for Total and differential leucocytes WBC counts and total platelets count and its related parameters by using fully automatic hematological analyzer. Results: The current study revealed a significant increase in total WBC counts in smokers. Lymphocytes count, were insignificantly decreased in smokers than that of non-smokers while Neutrophils count and mixed white blood cells were insignificantly increasing in smokers than non-smokers. Total WBC counts were significant higher in higher pack-year smokers. Lymphocytes count and was reduced in higher pack-year smokers while Mixed white blood cells was higher in higher pack-year smokers But both of alteration were not significant. The neutrophils count was significantly reduced. In the study of PLT and PCT were elevation significantly in cigarette Smoking while MPV, PDW, P-LCR were reduced non-significantly in cigarette Smoking. The result of current study showed PLT and PDW count, were not significantly statistically elevation in higher pack -year smoker. The present study revealed MPV, PCT and P-LCR were non-significantly reduced with higher of pack-year smokers. But PLT count, MPV, PDW, PCT and P-LCR changes were found non-significant (p<0.05) in smoking. Conclusions: This study shows that cigarette smoking may cause effect on Total and differential leucocytes (WBC) counts and total platelets count Platelets count and its related parameters during health Recommendations: Additional studies are necessary to elucidate the effect of smoking in females with other age factions. Further studies, are recommended to investigate the impact of smoking on another parameters.
Predicting Success in College: The Importance of Placement Tests and High School Transcripts

This paper uses student-level data from a statewide community college system to examine the validity of placement tests and high school information in predicting course grades and college performance. We consider the ACCUPLACER and COMPASS placement tests, using two quantitative and two literacy tests from each battery. We find that placement tests do not yield strong predictions of how students will perform in college. Placement test scores are positively—but weakly—associated with college grade point average (GPA). When we control for high school GPA, the correlation disappears. Placement test scores are positively associated with college credit accumulation even after controlling for high school GPA. After three to five semesters, a student with a placement test score in the highest quartile has on average nine credits more than a student with a placement test score in the lowest quartile. In contrast, high school GPAs are useful for predicting many aspects of students’ college performance. High school GPA has a strong association with college GPA; students’ college GPAs are approximately 0.6 units below their high school GPAs. High school GPA also has a strong association with college credit accumulation. A student whose high school GPA is one grade higher will have accumulate approximately four extra credits per semester. Other information from high school transcripts is modestly useful; this includes number of math and English courses taken in high school, honors courses, number of F grades, and number of credits. This high school information is not independently useful beyond high school GPA, and collectively it explains less variation in college performance. We also calculate accuracy rates and four validity metrics for placement tests. We find high “severe” error rates using the placement test cutoffs. The severe error rate for English is 27 to 33 percent; i.e., three out of every ten students is severely misassigned. For math, the severe error rates are lower but still nontrivial. Using high school GPA instead of placement tests reduces the severe error rates by half across both English and math.
Concrete Damage Plasticity Model for Modeling FRP-to-Concrete Bond Behavior

AbstractThe technique of externally bonding fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites has become very popular worldwide for retrofitting existing reinforced concrete (RC) structures. Debonding of FRP from the concrete substrate is a typical failure mode in such strengthened structures. The bond behavior between FRP and concrete thus plays a crucial role in these structures. The FRP-to-concrete bond behavior has been extensively investigated experimentally, commonly using a single or double shear test of the FRP-to-concrete bonded joint. Comparatively, much less research has been concerned with numerical simulation, chiefly due to difficulties in the accurate modeling of the complex behavior of concrete. This paper presents a simple but robust finite-element (FE) model for simulating the bond behavior in the entire debonding process for the single shear test. A concrete damage plasticity model is proposed to capture the concrete-to-FRP bond behavior. Numerical results are in close agreement with test data,.
From Princess to Queen: A Black Feminist Approach to Positive Sexual Identity Development

Historically, research literature has focused on prevention components of sexuality with the African American community. There has been an emphasis on topics such as teenage pregnancy, unplanned births, contraceptive use, and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections. Using a Black Feminist Theoretical framework, this study explores how Black women construct ideas about Black womanhood and sexuality through the narratives and experiences of their network, which can include family members and community members. The purpose of this approach is to help transition the deficit based, prevention only, hypersexual messages that have permeated the Black female community into an empowering approach to sexuality and sexuality research.
Metabolic challenge of proneural glioblastoma cancer stem cell lines does not induce a mesenchymal transformation in vitro

The histologically defined tumor entity glioblastoma (GBM) comprises different molecular subgroups. On a transcriptional level, at least two subgroups were uniformly identified: proneural and mesenchymal GBM. Treatment of GBM with radiotherapy and anti-angiogenic drugs may trigger molecular subtype transformation with proneural tumors shifting towards a mesenchymal phenotype. Because both treatment modalities also result in dramatic changes of the metabolic microenvironment of GBM, we hypothesized if the major determinants in local microenvironment-hypoxia and (lactate) acidosis-may induce consistent changes in the phenotype of primary glioblastoma stem cell lines in vitro. A panel of 5 different proneural GBM stem cell lines (GSC) lines was systematically challenged for 7 days with acidosis (pH 5.5-7.4), sodium lactate (0-60 mM), lactic acid (0-15 mM), or with 72 h hypoxia (2% oxygen). Acidosis significantly improved survival but inhibited proliferation of GSC lines. Sodium lactate inhibited proliferation without affecting survival. Neither acidosis nor sodium lactate did consistently change growth pattern or stem cell marker expression. Hypoxia and lactate induced a more proneural-like phenotype with increased Olig2 and CD133 expression in 1 GSC line, but did not consistently alter marker expression in the other 4 GSC lines. None of the 5 GSC lines investigated showed changes indicative for a proneural-to-mesenchymal transformation towards a more malignant phenotype. Taken together, our data does not exclude the possibility that metabolic factors like lactate acidosis may induce a more mesenchymal phenotype. Nevertheless, data suggest that therapy-induced metabolic changes in the microenvironment are likely not of crucial importance to our understanding of mesenchymal transformation after radio-and anti-angiogenic therapy for most GBM.
People with larger social networks are better at predicting what someone will say but not how they will say it

ABSTRACT Prediction of upcoming words facilitates language processing. Individual differences in social experience, however, might influence prediction ability by influencing input variability and representativeness. This paper explores how individual differences in social network size influence prediction and how this influence differs across linguistic levels. In Experiment 1, participants predicted likely sentence completions from several plausible endings differing in meaning or only form (e.g. work vs. job). In Experiment 2, participants’ pupil size was measured as they listened to sentences whose ending was the dominant one or deviated from it in either meaning or form. Both experiments show that people with larger social networks are better at predicting upcoming meanings but not the form they would take. The results thus show that people with different social experience process language differently, and shed light on how social dynamics interact with the structure of the linguistic level to influence learning of linguistic patterns.
How islands stir and fertilize the upper ocean

Large differences between the upstream and lee side flow characteristics of an isolated island in the Kuroshio have been identified from a three‐dimensional velocity survey and from vertical profiles of fine‐ and micro‐structure. In the island wake, the relative vorticity is O(10f), the horizontal current divergence indicates upwelling of O(0.01 m s−1), and the rate of dissipation of kinetic energy is O(10−4 W kg−1). Isopycnal surfaces shoal by 60 m on the lee side and surface nitrate concentration increases seven‐fold. Flow blockage by the island and the Izu‐Ogasawara Ridge on its flanks, induces horizontal and vertical flow separation. The associated lateral and vertical shear drive the upwelling and the vertical mixing in the wake and produces a very pronounced “island mass effect. ”
Environmental Factors and the Microbial Quality of Urban Drinking Water in a Low-Income Country: The Case of Madagascar

Access to piped water is often limited to urban areas in low-income countries, and the microbiological quality of drinking water varies due to technical and environmental constraints. To analyse the parameters that modulate the contamination of these systems, this study examines 16 years of microbial quality data for water supplied in 32 urban areas of Madagascar. A discriminant statistical approach and agglomerative hierarchical clusters were applied to environmental and climatic data. The microbial contamination varied between sites from 3.3 to 17.5%, and 78% of the supply systems showed large variations between years or months. Agglomerative hierarchical clusters (AHCs) revealed four supply system profiles that share a similar bacteriological evolution. Heavy rainfall and dry periods sustained increasing contamination, as reflected in levels of spores of sulphite-reducing clostridia (SSRC) and/or total coliforms (TC). SSRC were dominant in three profiles, with faecal indicator bacteria (FIB) dominant in the other. Principal component analysis demonstrated the main drivers of contamination: type of water source, implemented treatment, location of the site, population growth, lack of protection, agriculture, urbanization/sanitation, and flooding threats. Contamination increased over the 16-year period, reaching alarming levels. The protection of water sources should be a concern for public authorities.
Overbooking network slices through yield-driven end-to-end orchestration

Network slicing allows mobile operators to offer, via proper abstractions, mobile infrastructure (radio, networking, computing) to vertical sectors traditionally alien to the telco industry (e.g., automotive, health, construction). Owning to similar business nature, in this paper we adopt yield management models successful in other sectors (e.g. airlines, hotels, etc.) and so we explore the concept of slice overbooking to maximize the revenue of mobile operators. The main contribution of this paper is threefold. First, we design a hierarchical control plane to manage the orchestration of slices end-to-end, including radio access, transport network, and distributed computing infrastructure. Second, we cast the orchestration problem as a stochastic yield management problem and propose two algorithms to solve it: an optimal Benders decomposition method and a suboptimal heuristic that expedites solutions. Third, we implement an experimental proof-of-concept and assess our approach both experimentally and via simulations with topologies from three real operators and a wide set of realistic scenarios. Our performance evaluation shows that slice overbooking can provide up to 3x revenue gains in realistic scenarios with minimal footprint on service-level agreements (SLAs).
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Revisiting the solid HDO / H 2 O abundances

We revisit the reported detection and upper limits on HDO in ice mantles present in the molecular cloud environments of the massive young protostars Gl 2136 and W33 A, using independent VLT-ISAAC and UKIRT-CGS4 spectroscopic observations. We also present VLT and UKIRT spectra of RAFGL 7009 near the HDO absorption wavelength and reanalyze the ISO-SWS spectral data for NGC 7538 IRS9, Orion-BN and S140. We demonstrate that the previously reported detections of HDO in W33 A and NGC 7538 IRS9 are incorrect. We present an in-depth analysis that shows that, besides the sensitivity limits, detection of low levels of HDO is difficult in amorphous ice mantles when features from solid methanol, a common grain mantle constituent, are present. We discuss the specific problems arising in the ISO data in this wavelength range for NGC 7538 IRS9. Using VLT-ISAAC observations, we also investigate the HDO/H2O ratio toward the intermediate mass stars IRAS 05329–0728 and IRAS 08448–4343. Our derived upper limits for the D/H ratio in water ice range from HDO/H2O < 1% to 0.2% in the different sources, and we discuss these limits in comparison with values derived in other environments.