Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Diffusion of Policy Frames: Evidence from a Structural Topic Model

Policy diffusion occurs when policies in one unit (e.g., countries, states, cities) are influenced by the prior adoption of policies in other units. Although numerous studies have convincingly documented this phenomenon, they have, with very few exceptions, generally ignored a crucial step in the diffusion process—namely, how policies are framed ahead of their adoption. Policy frames—the discussion of a policy from particular viewpoints—play a crucial role in linking the actions of previous units with the potential actions in other units. In this paper, we identify policy frames and examine their link with prior policy adoptions. We focus on the area of restrictions on smoking in U.S. states. Our analysis draws upon an original dataset of more than four million paragraphs from articles published in 50 American newspapers covering 47 states between 1996 and 2014. We use structural topic models to estimate how smoking bans have been framed and how frames change as a function of policy adoption in other states. We find that, as more neighboring states enact legislation restricting smoking, concerns about the restaurant business decrease; worries about the casino business increase; detailed regulations such as ventilation requirements or separate rooms for smokers are discussed less frequently; voters’ support and involvement in the decisionmaking process surrounding smoking bans are discussed more frequently; the compatibility of smoking restrictions with individual rights loses salience as a topic; and the passage of legislation is discussed more frequently, while the process by which decisions are made loses salience. These findings establish a foothold for the usefulness of structural topic models and support for the idea that policy frames are an important part of the diffusion process.
Immediate versus delayed intramedullary nailing for open fractures of the tibial shaft: A multivariate analysis of factors affecting deep infection and fracture healing

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate contributing factors affecting deep infection and fracture healing of open tibia fractures treated with locked intramedullary nailing (IMN) by multivariate analysis. Materials and Methods: We examined 99 open tibial fractures (98 patients) treated with immediate or delayed locked IMN in static fashion from 1991 to 2002. Multivariate analyses following univariate analyses were derived to determine predictors of deep infection, nonunion, and healing time to union. The following predictive variables of deep infection were selected for analysis: age, sex, Gustilo type, fracture grade by AO type, fracture location, timing or method of IMN, reamed or unreamed nailing, debridement time (≤6 h or >6 h), method of soft-tissue management, skin closure time (≤1 week or >1 week), existence of polytrauma (ISS< 18 or ISS≥18), existence of floating knee injury, and existence of superficial/pin site infection. The predictive variables of nonunion selected for analysis was the same as those for deep infection, with the addition of deep infection for exchange of pin site infection. The predictive variables of union time selected for analysis was the same as those for nonunion, excluding of location, debridement time, and existence of floating knee and superficial infection. Results: Six (6.1%; type II Gustilo n=1, type IIIB Gustilo n=5) of the 99 open tibial fractures developed deep infections. Multivariate analysis revealed that timing or method of IMN, debridement time, method of soft-tissue management, and existence of superficial or pin site infection significantly correlated with the occurrence of deep infection (P< 0.0001). In the immediate nailing group alone, the deep infection rate in type IIIB + IIIC was significantly higher than those in type I + II and IIIA (P = 0.016). Nonunion occurred in 17 fractures (20.3%, 17/84). Multivariate analysis revealed that Gustilo type, skin closure time, and existence of deep infection significantly correlated with occurrence of nonunion (P < 0.05). Gustilo type and existence of deep infection were significantly correlated with healing time to union on multivariate analysis (r2 = 0.263, P = 0.0001). Conclusion: Multivariate analyses for open tibial fractures treated with IMN showed that IMN after EF (especially in existence of pin site infection) was at high risk of deep infection, and that debridement within 6 h and appropriate soft-tissue managements were also important factor in preventing deep infections. These analyses postulated that both the Gustilo type and the existence of deep infection is related with fracture healing in open fractures treated with IMN. In addition, immediate IMN for type IIIB and IIIC is potentially risky, and canal reaming did not increase the risk of complication for open tibial fractures treated with IMN.
Axioms for Hopf invariants

1. Since H. Hopf first proved that irziS) « Z by showing that a certain invariant was non tri vial, several similar invariants—called generalized Hopf invariants—have been described; indeed, there are no less than 6 different definitions in the literature, and it was not always clear whether theorems about one applied to others. Many definitions were riddled with choices which had to be made, a notable exception being the definition of I. M. James [5]. This note gives an axiomatic approach somewhat similar to the axiomatic approach to Steenrod operations. Detailed proofs of the results below, together with some other properties of Hopf invariants, will appear elsewhere.
Two components in major solar particle events

A study has been made of 29 intense, solar particle events observed in the energy range 25–80 MeV/nuc near Earth in the years 1997 through 2001. It is found that the majority of the events (19/29) had Fe/O ratios that were reasonably constant with time and energy, and with values above coronal. These all originated on the Sun's western hemisphere and most had intensities that rose rapidly at the time of an associated flare (and coronal mass ejection). Interplanetary shocks observed near Earth had little effect on particle intensities during these events. The remaining 10 events had different intensity‐time profiles and Fe/O ratios that varied with time and energy with event‐averaged values at or below coronal. Most of these originated near central meridian and 6 had strong interplanetary shocks that were observed near Earth. There were four events with two peaks in the intensity‐time profiles, the first near the time of the associated flare (with high Fe/O) and the other at shock passage (with a lower Fe/O) suggesting that solar particle events have two components. At high rigidities the first component (probably flare generated) usually dominates and interplanetary shock‐accelerated particles (forming the second component) make a minor contribution except in the case of unusually fast shocks.
Effects of nanofiller morphology and aspect ratio on the rheo-mechanical properties of polyimide nanocomposites

New polyimide nanocomposites containing organically modified montmorillonite (MMT), synthetic silicate (chrysotile) nanotubes (SNT), and zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) were prepared to investigate the influence of the nanoparticle morphology on the nanocomposite rheology and mechanical properties under selected conditions that the materials are likely to encounter during use. The efficiency of homogeneous dispersion of the nanoparticles in the polyimide matrix was studied by measuring the rheology of model oligoimides (OI) dispersions containing the desired amounts of the nanoparti- cles. The OI/nanoparticles dispersions showed significant increase in complex viscosity with increasing concentration of the nanoparticles that depended strongly on the nanoparticle morphology and aspect ratio. Polyimide nanocomposite films (PI-PM) prepared from the poly(amic acid) of poly(pyromellitic dianhydride-co-4,4'-oxydianiline) (PM) filled with the desired concentration of the nanoparticles showed an increase in tensile modulus with increasing nanoparticle concentra- tion in the order MMT>SNT>ZrO2. In contrast to the PI-PM/MMT films, the PI-PM films filled with 10 vol% of SNT and ZrO2 showed higher sample failure strains, suggesting that the SNT and ZrO2 may be more effective in improving the duc- tility of the polyimide nanocomposites for applications where the relatively brittle polyimide/MMT nanocomposites films are not useable.
Lack of correlation between genotype and phenotype in celiac disease.

BACKGROUND Celiac disease has a wide range of clinical features. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether specific HLA genotypes are associated with particular clinical appearances. METHODS One hundred forty-five patients with confirmed celiac disease were oligotyped for DR and DQ HLA genes. Clinical notes, physical examination, and a questionnaire provided their personal data. Patients were grouped into nine genotypic categories, according to the presence of the specific DQ heterodimer DQA1*0501-DQB1*0201 (hence termed alpha0beta0), in single or double dose, and the presence of the DRB4 antigen. RESULTS Age at first symptoms and age at beginning of gluten-free diet were not significantly different in the nine groups. The initial symptoms of the disease had a similar distribution in all groups. In twenty-seven patients, disease was diagnosed by family screening: they shared a similar HLA genotype with those who had relevant symptoms. The actual growth status-evaluated by standardized height, percentage of median weight for age, and percentage of median weight for height--was not different in the nine groups. Presence of unusual health complaints was not associated with a specific genotype. CONCLUSIONS There is no evidence that clinical features of celiac disease are associated with different HLA genotypes. Genes outside the HLA may play a relevant role.
Identifying Malicious Nodes in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks using a Reputation Scheme based on Reinforcement Learning

This paper proposes a reputation mechanism that selects trustworthy nodes for forwarding packets in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). The proposed method combines an existing reputation scheme with a reinforcement learning technique called the on-policy Monte Carlo (ONMC) method in the node selection process during the execution of a path search. The objective is to find a decision rule for selecting neighboring nodes which maximizes the long-term average reward. This paper extends a recent work by employing a finite buffer M/M/1/K queuing model to produce packet drops that in turn characterize the reputation values at each node in the MANET. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can achieve up to 71% and 61% increase in throughput over the existing reputation scheme under both static and dynamic topology cases, respectively
GRAFT SURVIVAL FOLLOWING LIVING‐DONOR RENAL TRANSPLANTATION: A COMPARISON OF TACROLIMUS AND CYCLOSPORINE MICROEMULSION WITH MYCOPHENOLATE MOFETIL AND STEROIDS

Background. Registry databases offer the statistical power to analyze differences in graft survival rates that may not be detected in randomized clinical trials. This study analyses 2‐year graft survival using tacrolimus (tac) or cyclosporine (CsA) with mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and steroids. Methods. Data reported to the United Network for Organ Sharing Renal Transplant Registry for livingdonor kidney patients receiving a transplant during 1998 to 1999 were included. The primary end point was graft survival after adjustment for confounding variables. A Cox model multivariate analysis was used to adjust for potential confounding factors. Results. Patients receiving CsA‐MMF (n=4,686) and tac‐MMF (n=2,393) were included. Unadjusted allcause 2‐year graft survival rate was significantly higher with CsA‐MMF than tac‐MMF (94.3% vs. 92.2%, P=0.0006). After adjustment for potential confounding factors, risk of graft failure at 2 years was significantly higher in patients receiving tac‐MMF versus CsA‐MMF for both all‐cause graft failure (hazards ratio [HR] 1.28, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.09‐1.49, P=0.002) and death‐censored graft failure (HR 1.25, 95% CI 1.05‐1.49, P=0.013). Other independent risk factors for graft failure were recipient or donor age greater than 55 years, female sex, pretransplant blood transfusions, one or two haplotype mismatches compared with zero haplotype mismatch, and panel reactive antibody (PRA) greater than 30%. Conclusions. Our findings demonstrate that 2‐year renal allograft survival is significantly higher in living‐donor recipients receiving CsA compared with tac as initial immunosuppression in combination with MMF.
Coflow: A Networking Abstraction for Distributed Data-Parallel Applications

Over the past decade, the confluence of an unprecedented growth in data volumes and the rapid rise of cloud computing has fundamentally transformed systems software and corresponding infrastructure. To deal with massive datasets, more and more applications today are scaling out to large datacenters. These distributed data-parallel applications run on tens to thousands of machines in parallel to exploit I/O parallelism, and they enable a wide variety of use cases, including interactive analysis, SQL queries, machine learning, and graph processing. Communication between the distributed computation tasks of these applications often result in massive data transfers over the network. Consequently, concentrated efforts in both industry and academia have gone into building high-capacity, low-latency datacenter networks at scale. At the same time, researchers and practitioners have proposed a wide variety of solutions to minimize flow completion times or to ensure per-flow fairness based on the point-to-point flow abstraction that forms the basis of the TCP/IP stack. We observe that despite rapid innovations in both applications and infrastructure, application- and network-level goals are moving further apart. Data-parallel applications care about all their flows, but today’s networks treat each point-to-point flow independently. This fundamental mismatch has resulted in complex point solutions for application developers, a myriad of configuration options for end users, and an overall loss of performance. The key contribution of this dissertation is bridging this gap between application-level performance and network-level optimizations through the coflow abstraction. Each multipoint-to-multipoint coflow represents a collection of flows with a common application-level performance objective, enabling application-aware decision making in the network. We describe complete solutions including architectures, algorithms, and implementations that apply coflows to multiple scenarios using central coordination, and we demonstrate through large-scale cloud deployments and trace-driven simulations that simply knowing how flows relate to each other is enough for better network scheduling, meeting more deadlines, and providing higher performance isolation than what is otherwise possible using today’s application-agnostic solutions. In addition to performance improvements, coflows allow us to consolidate communication optimizations across multiple applications, simplifying software development and relieving end users from parameter tuning. On the theoretical front, we discover and characterize for the first time the concurrent open shop scheduling with coupled resources family of problems. Because any flow is also a coflow with just one flow, coflows and coflow-based solutions presented in this dissertation generalize a large body of work in both networking and scheduling literatures.
Predictors of organ damage in systemic lupus erythematosus: the Hopkins Lupus Cohort.

OBJECTIVE The Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Damage Index (SDI) is the accepted measure of permanent organ damage in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We analyzed data from a large SLE cohort to identify variables associated with rates of damage accrual as measured by the SDI. METHODS The study included 2,054 SLE patients (92% female, 56% white, and 37% African American) with a mean age at diagnosis of 33 years. The SDI score was calculated retrospectively at the time of cohort entry and prospectively during followup. The relationships between time-invariant patient characteristics and rates of damage accrual were assessed based on the damage score at the last available followup visit. The relationships between time-varying patient characteristics and damage accrual were assessed based on the timing of damage accrual during cohort participation. RESULTS Overall, the SDI score increased at a rate of 0.13 per year. Higher rates of damage were observed for those who were older, male, or African American, had a lower income or education level, were hypertensive, were positive for lupus anticoagulant, or had proteinuria. During followup, the risk of damage was higher for those who were older, had more disease activity, had low complement levels, were positive for anti-double-stranded DNA, satisfied more ACR criteria for SLE, or were receiving corticosteroids. Lower risk was observed among patients receiving hydroxychloroquine. After adjustment for other variables, age, hypertension, and corticosteroid use emerged as the most important predictors of damage accrual. CONCLUSION Our findings indicate that rates of damage vary in demographic subgroups, but much variation appears to be explained by hypertension and corticosteroid use. These data clearly point to the need for tight control of disease activity without reliance on corticosteroids.
Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Genotyping for Breeding and Genetics Applications in Chickpea and Pigeonpea using the BeadXpress Platform

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are ideal molecular markers due to their higher abundance. Although several types of genotyping platforms for assaying large number of SNPs are available, in cases such as marker‐assisted selection, where few markers are required for genotyping a set of potential lines, high‐throughput SNP genotyping platforms (e.g., iScan or Infinium) may not be cost effective. In this scenario, GoldenGate assays based on VeraCode technology using Illumina BeadXpress seems to be the most cost‐effective platform. The objective of this study was to develop cost‐effective SNP genotyping platforms in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.). Two sets of SNPs, one each for chickpea (96 SNPs) and pigeonpea (48 SNPs), were developed and tested by genotyping 288 diverse genotypes from respective reference sets. The SNPs selected for the oligo pool assays had high transferability to crop wild relative species. The mean polymorphism information content value of assayed SNP markers was 0.31 and 0.32 in chickpea and pigeonpea, respectively. No unique pattern was observed in the chickpea reference set whereas two major groups were observed in the case of the pigeonpea reference set. The Illumina BeadXpress platform assays developed for chickpea and pigeonpea are highly informative and cost effective for undertaking genetic studies in these legume species.
Auckland children's exposure to risk as pedestrians.

AIM To examine children's exposure to risk as pedestrians and to examine the extent to which child pedestrian exposure to risk varies by socioeconomic status and ethnic group. To identify factors which may influence child pedestrian exposure to risk. METHOD A survey of 442 parents was conducted to examine how children travel to and from school and parental perceptions of the risk of pedestrian injury. RESULTS There are considerable socioeconomic and ethnic differences in children's exposure to risk as pedestrians. The proportion of children who walked home from school in the lowest socioeconomic stratum (63.5%) was over twice that in the highest socioeconomic stratum (25.2%). A significantly higher proportion of Maori (61.2%) and Pacific Island children (74.6%) walked home from school compared with children of European origin (29.4%). For children from families without access to a car, the proportion who walk home from school (78.0%) was more than twice that for children from families with a car (36.7%). Parental perceptions of risk do not vary by socioeconomic status and ethnic group. CONCLUSION The increased pedestrian injury rates for poor children and for Maori and Pacific Island children may be explained, in part, by the increased pedestrian exposure of these children. Increased pedestrian exposure is likely to reflect social and economic constraints, rather than differences in perceptions of the danger to children as pedestrians. Efforts to address the safety of children as pedestrians are urgently required.
Apoptotic Effects of Two COX‐2 Inhibitors on Breast Adenocarcinoma Cells Through COX‐2 Independent Pathway

Recently, much effort has been directed toward the search for compounds that influence apoptosis and to understand their mechanisms of action. Cyclooxygenase (COX)‐2 inhibitors may induce apoptosis through the COX‐2‐independent mechanism via a mitochondrial pathway. In view of the reported antiproliferative activities of two COX‐2 inhibitor derivatives (1, 2) in breast cancer cells (MCF‐7), the present study was undertaken to evaluate the potential of these compounds to induce apoptosis and unravel the associated mechanisms. The apoptotic activities of the two compounds were assessed using flow cytometry, fluorescence microscope, and Western blot analysis. Compounds 1 and 2‐treated MCF‐7 cells revealed the apoptotic cell death, as confirmed by the changes in nuclear morphology and the increased annexin‐V/PI staining. Elevation of Bax to Bcl‐2 ratio and activation of caspase‐3 were found to be associated with the initiation of apoptosis induced by compound 1. Further investigation showed that compounds 1 and 2 inhibited NF‐κB, FHC, and ERK activation, while no dramatic change was revealed in c‐Myc and EGR‐1 levels. Our data suggest that induction of apoptosis by compounds 1 and 2 is not associated with COX‐2 expression and occurs through the NF‐κB pathway, which sequentially inhibits P‐ERK and FHC expression. J. Cell. Biochem. 116: 81–90, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
IVACE: A self-regulating variable Reactor

Inductance Variable Auto-Controle/spl acute/e a/spl grave/ Entrefers (IVACE) is a self-regulating variable reactor consisting essentially of passive components: magnetic cores with air gaps, four windings, and a diode bridge rectifier. Originally designed for use as a static var compensator, it is now used by Hydro-Que/spl acute/bec near its 735-kV transmission lines as a new voltage regulator for the overhead-ground-wire supply system for the utility's microwave stations in remote areas.