Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating Cross-National Metrics of Tertiary Graduation Rates for Oecd Countries: A Case for Increasing Methodological Congruence and Data Comparability

By examining the different methods and processes by which national data gathering agencies compile and submit their findings to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the authors (1) assess the methodological challenges of accurately reporting tertiary completion and graduation rates cross-nationally; (2) to examine the incongruence of existing internationally comparative data on tertiary completion, particularly within the OECD; and (3) to offer policy recommendations for increasing the congruence and comparability of U.S. higher education data with that of other OECD countries (and the rest of the world).
Trends over 5 Decades in U.S. Occupation-Related Physical Activity and Their Associations with Obesity

Background The true causes of the obesity epidemic are not well understood and there are few longitudinal population-based data published examining this issue. The objective of this analysis was to examine trends in occupational physical activity during the past 5 decades and explore how these trends relate to concurrent changes in body weight in the U.S. Methodology/Principal Findings Analysis of energy expenditure for occupations in U.S. private industry since 1960 using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Mean body weight was derived from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). In the early 1960's almost half the jobs in private industry in the U.S. required at least moderate intensity physical activity whereas now less than 20% demand this level of energy expenditure. Since 1960 the estimated mean daily energy expenditure due to work related physical activity has dropped by more than 100 calories in both women and men. Energy balance model predicted weights based on change in occupation-related daily energy expenditure since 1960 for each NHANES examination period closely matched the actual change in weight for 40–50 year old men and women. For example from 1960–62 to 2003–06 we estimated that the occupation-related daily energy expenditure decreased by 142 calories in men. Given a baseline weight of 76.9 kg in 1960–02, we estimated that a 142 calories reduction would result in an increase in mean weight to 89.7 kg, which closely matched the mean NHANES weight of 91.8 kg in 2003–06. The results were similar for women. Conclusion Over the last 50 years in the U.S. we estimate that daily occupation-related energy expenditure has decreased by more than 100 calories, and this reduction in energy expenditure accounts for a significant portion of the increase in mean U.S. body weights for women and men.
Eurographics / Acm Siggraph Symposium on Computer Animation (2008) Meshless Modeling of Deformable Shapes and Their Motion

We present a new framework for interactive shape deformation modeling and key frame interpolation based on a meshless finite element formulation. Starting from a coarse nodal sampling of an object's volume, we formulate rigidity and volume preservation constraints that are enforced to yield realistic shape deformations at interactive frame rates. Additionally, by specifying key frame poses of the deforming shape and optimizing the nodal displacements while targeting smooth interpolated motion, our algorithm extends to a motion planning framework for deformable objects. This allows reconstructing smooth and plausible deformable shape trajectories in the presence of possibly moving obstacles. The presented results illustrate that our framework can handle complex shapes at interactive rates and hence is a valuable tool for animators to realistically and efficiently model and interpolate deforming 3D shapes.
Journal of Multinational Financial Management Exchange Rate Exposure and the Use of Foreign Currency Derivatives in the Australian Resources Sector

In this paper, we provide a re-examination of the exchange rate exposure and foreign currency derivative use by Australian resources firms in the 2006–2009 period which is characterized by increased volatility caused by the global financial crisis. In particular , we consider the interaction of a resources firm's exchange rate risk exposures, foreign currency derivative use and the global financial crisis simultaneously. Conforming to expectations, our results indicate that more companies are significantly exposed to exchange rate risk since the onset of the financial crisis. However, there is a lack of evidence that the use of foreign currency derivative is more effective in alleviating exchange rate exposures during the crisis as opposed to the pre-crisis period.
fMRI capture of auditory hallucinations: Validation of the two‐steps method

Our purpose was to validate a reliable method to capture brain activity concomitant with hallucinatory events, which constitute frequent and disabling experiences in schizophrenia. Capturing hallucinations using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) remains very challenging. We previously developed a method based on a two‐steps strategy including (1) multivariate data‐driven analysis of per‐hallucinatory fMRI recording and (2) selection of the components of interest based on a post‐fMRI interview. However, two tests still need to be conducted to rule out critical pitfalls of conventional fMRI capture methods before this two‐steps strategy can be adopted in hallucination research: replication of these findings on an independent sample and assessment of the reliability of the hallucination‐related patterns at the subject level. To do so, we recruited a sample of 45 schizophrenia patients suffering from frequent hallucinations, 20 schizophrenia patients without hallucinations and 20 matched healthy volunteers; all participants underwent four different experiments. The main findings are (1) high accuracy in reporting unexpected sensory stimuli in an MRI setting; (2) good detection concordance between hypothesis‐driven and data‐driven analysis methods (as used in the two‐steps strategy) when controlled unexpected sensory stimuli are presented; (3) good agreement of the two‐steps method with the online button‐press approach to capture hallucinatory events; (4) high spatial consistency of hallucinatory‐related networks detected using the two‐steps method on two independent samples. By validating the two‐steps method, we advance toward the possible transfer of such technology to new image‐based therapies for hallucinations. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4966–4979, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Monosynaptic cortical input and local axon collaterals of identified striatonigral neurons. A light and electron microscopic study using the golgi‐peroxidase transport‐degeneration procedure

Following the injection of horseradish peroxidase into the ipsilaeral substantia nigra, 36 retrogradely labelled neurons in the striatum were characterized (in three rats) by Golgi staining and gold toning: each neuron was of the medium‐size, densely spinous type. Prior to the injection of horseradish peroxidase, two of the rats had had lesions placed in the ipsilateral motor cortex, the third rat had had a lesion placed in the ipsilateral frontal and prefrontal cortex. In the electron microscope, degenerating boutons of cortical neurons were found in asymmetrical synaptic contact with the spines of proximal and distal dendrites of all six of the identified striatonigral neurons that were studied. Some of the degenerating boutons were small (diameter 0.1–0.3 μ), while others were larger (1–2 μ). An individual dendrite of a striatonigral neuron was in synaptic contact with very few degenerating boutons
Signaling Pathways Mediating Insulin‐Stimulated Glucose Transport

ABSTRACT: A major action of insulin is to accelerate the rate of uptake of sugar into muscle and adipose cells following a meal. The biochemical mechanism by which this is accomplished has been a subject of intense experimentation, although elucidation of the pathways has remained elusive. In recent years, numerous signaling molecules and cascades modulated by insulin have been identified, although few have been definitively established as important to the metabolic actions of the hormone. An exception to this is the lipid kinase phosphatidylinositide 3′‐kinase, which, under many conditions, appears absolutely required for insulin to stimulate hexose uptake into adipocytes. Akt/PKB, a serine/threonine protein kinase activated by insulin in a phosphatidylinositide 3′‐kinase‐dependent manner, has been implicated as a critical mediator of insulin's actions on metabolism and cell survival. Nonetheless, Akt/PKB's role in many insulin effects, particularly accelerated glucose transport, remains controversial. Interestingly, soluble analogues of ceramide antagonize both insulin's activation of Akt/PKB as well as its stimulation of glucose transport, consistent with a causal relationship between the two.
Beta Testing of a Network-Based Health Literacy Program Tailored for Older Adults With Hypertension

A touch screen-enabled "Personal Education Program" was modified to the "next generation" to capture self-medication behaviors of older adults with hypertension and assess related knowledge and self-efficacy. The program analyzes patient-entered information and delivers interactive educational content tailored to the reported behaviors. Summaries of self-reported symptoms, medication use (including frequency/time), drug interactions, and corrective strategies with an illustration of the drug interaction are printed to inform the provider before the primary care visit and for the patient to take home for self-study. After formative research during development and formal diagnostic and verification usability studies with advanced practice nurses and older adults, a beta test was conducted with older adults with hypertension over a 3-month period. Findings from the beta test suggest that older adult user satisfaction was high. Blood pressure declined over the four visits for 82% of the participants. The next generation of the Personal Education Program had a large effect size in increasing knowledge and self-efficacy for avoiding adverse self-medication behaviors. Behavior risk score did not change significantly but was significantly correlated with systolic blood pressure on the fourth visit. The positive results found in this small sample suggest that the next generation of the Personal Education Program could play a central role in facilitating patient-provider communication and medication adherence.
Presentation Styles on User Perceived Usefulness in Opinion Summarization

This study systematically compared perceived usefulness of different types of opinion summarization techniques in two phases of experiments. In the first crowd-sourced experiment, we recruited 46 Amazon turkers to first read 50 reviews from Amazon.com, and then completed a survey in order to generate high quality summary information. This first phase generated four presentation styles of summaries, namely, Tag Clouds, Aspect-Oriented Sentiments, Paragraph Summary and Group Sample. In the second, follow-up lab experiment, 34 participants evaluated the four styles in a card sorting experiment. Each participant was given 32 cards (8 cards each presentation style) and grouped the cards into five categories based on the usefulness of the cards. Results indicate that presentation styles have a significant impact on user perceived usefulness in making decisions in a product review task. Participants perceived Aspect-Oriented Sentiments as the most useful presentation style. System implications and recommendations were discussed.
Metagenomics of an Alkaline Hot Spring in Galicia (Spain): Microbial Diversity Analysis and Screening for Novel Lipolytic Enzymes

A fosmid library was constructed with the metagenomic DNA from the water of the Lobios hot spring (76°C, pH = 8.2) located in Ourense (Spain). Metagenomic sequencing of the fosmid library allowed the assembly of 9722 contigs ranging in size from 500 to 56,677 bp and spanning ~18 Mbp. 23,207 ORFs (Open Reading Frames) were predicted from the assembly. Biodiversity was explored by taxonomic classification and it revealed that bacteria were predominant, while the archaea were less abundant. The six most abundant bacterial phyla were Deinococcus-Thermus, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Acidobacteria, Aquificae, and Chloroflexi. Within the archaeal superkingdom, the phylum Thaumarchaeota was predominant with the dominant species “Candidatus Caldiarchaeum subterraneum. ” Functional classification revealed the genes associated to one-carbon metabolism as the most abundant. Both taxonomic and functional classifications showed a mixture of different microbial metabolic patterns: aerobic and anaerobic, chemoorganotrophic and chemolithotrophic, autotrophic and heterotrophic. Remarkably, the presence of genes encoding enzymes with potential biotechnological interest, such as xylanases, galactosidases, proteases, and lipases, was also revealed in the metagenomic library. Functional screening of this library was subsequently done looking for genes encoding lipolytic enzymes. Six genes conferring lipolytic activity were identified and one was cloned and characterized. This gene was named LOB4Est and it was expressed in a yeast mesophilic host. LOB4Est codes for a novel esterase of family VIII, with sequence similarity to β-lactamases, but with unusual wide substrate specificity. When the enzyme was purified from the mesophilic host it showed half-life of 1 h and 43 min at 50°C, and maximal activity at 40°C and pH 7.5 with p-nitrophenyl-laurate as substrate. Interestingly, the enzyme retained more than 80% of maximal activity in a broad range of pH from 6.5 to 8.
Polyphonic audio-to-score alignment based on Bayesian Latent Harmonic Allocation Hidden Markov Model

This paper presents a Bayesian method for temporally aligning a music score and an audio rendition. A critical problem in audio-to-score alignment is in dealing with the wide variety of timbre and volume of the audio rendition. In contrast with existing works that achieve this through ad-hoc feature design or careful training of tone models, we propose a Bayesian audio-to-score alignment method by modeling music performance as a Bayesian Hidden Markov Model, each state of which emits a Bayesian signal model based on Latent Harmonic Allocation. After attenuating reverberation, variational Bayes method is used to iteratively adapt the alignment, instrument tone model and the volume balance at each position of the score. The method is evaluated using sixty works of classical music of a variety of instrumentation ranging from solo piano to full orchestra. We verify that our method improves the alignment accuracy compared to dynamic time warping based on chroma vector for orchestral music, or our method employed in a maximum likelihood setting.
The Spiral Model as a Tool for Evolutionary Acquisition

Since its original publication [1], the spiral development model diagrammed in Figure 1 has been used successfully in many defense and commercial projects. To extend this base of success, the Department of Defense (DoD) has recently rewritten the defense acquisition regulations to incorporate “evolutionary acquisition,” an acquisition strategy designed to mesh well with spiral development. In particular, DoD Instruction 5000.2 subdivides acquisition [2]: “There are two . approaches, evolutionary and single step to full capability. An evolutionary approach is preferred. [In this] approach, the ultimate capability delivered to the user is divided into two or more blocks, with increasing increments of capability. ” (p. 20) Here, a block corresponds to a single product release. The text goes on to specify the use of spiral development within blocks: “For both the evolutionary and singlestep approaches, software development shall follow an iterative spiral development process in which continually expanding software versions are based on learning from earlier development. ” (p. 20) Given this reliance on the spiral development model, an in-depth definition is appropriate. Two recent workshops provided one. The University of Southern California (USC) Center for Software Engineering and the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute held two workshops last year to study spiral development and identify a set of critical success factors and recommended approaches. Their results appear in two reports, [3, 4] and are available on the workshop Web site www.sei. emu.edu/cbs/spiral2000 The first author’s presentations at these workshops defined spiral development and are followed below. The definition was first converted to a report [5], where details, suggestions, and further references can be found. Additionally, a follow-on article appearing in a later CR O S S TA L K issue, will address the relationships among spiral development, evolutionary acquisition, and the Integrated Capability Maturity Model.
Blocking Wythoff Nim

The 2-player impartial game of Wythoff Nim is played on two piles of tokens. A move consists in removing any number of tokens from precisely one of the piles or the same number of tokens from both piles. The winner is the player who removes the last token. We study this game with a blocking maneuver, that is, for each move, before the next player moves the previous player may declare at most a predetermined number, $k - 1 \ge 0$, of the options as forbidden. When the next player has moved, any blocking maneuver is forgotten and does not have any further impact on the game. We resolve the winning strategy of this game for $k = 2$ and $k = 3$ and, supported by computer simulations, state conjectures of 'sets of aggregation points' for the $P$-positions whenever $4 \le k \le 20$. Certain comply variations of impartial games are also discussed.
Fetal Hyperinsulinism and Maternal One-Hour Postload Plasma Glucose Level

OBJECTIVE: Fetal insulin concentrations reflect the intrauterine glucose load given the fetus by the mother. In this study, we assessed the association between maternal glucose levels during oral glucose tolerance testing and fetal cord insulin. METHODS: Pregnant women with an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) result were included in this prospective study. The patients were divided into 3 groups according to their 1-hour OGTT glucose concentration: up to 160 mg/dL (control, group I), 160–179 mg/dL (intermediate, group II), and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM, group III). Patients with GDM were assigned to insulin therapy if blood glucose levels were not in the preferable range. RESULTS: Of the 930 patients who entered the study, 570 (61.3%) were assigned to group I, 76 (8.2%) to group II, and 284 (30.5%) to group III. The cord blood insulin value was significantly (P < .001, Mann–Whitney test) higher in group II (median, 12.8 &mgr;U/mL; range, 3–130 &mgr;U/mL) than in group I (median, 7.25 &mgr;U/mL; range, < 3–98 &mgr;U/mL). Cord blood insulin values were higher, albeit not significantly (P = .100, Mann–Whitney test), in group II than in group III (median, 9.9 &mgr;U/mL; range, < 3–61 &mgr;U/mL). CONCLUSION: Children whose mothers had a 1-hour value between 160 and 179 mg/dL had significantly higher cord blood insulin values than offspring of women with a 1-hour value below 160 mg/dL. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II-2
Capacity scaling of wireless networks with inhomogeneous node density: upper bounds

We analyze the capacity scaling laws of wireless ad hoc networks comprising significant inhomogeneities in the node spatial distribution over the network area. In particular, we consider nodes placed according to a shot-noise Cox process, which allows to model the clustering behavior usually recognized in large-scale systems. For this class of networks, we introduce novel techniques to compute upper bounds to the available per-flow throughput as the number of nodes tends to infinity, which are tight in the case of interference limited systems.
On the Power Allocation Problem in the Gaussian Interference Channel with Proportional Rate Constraints

This paper takes an analytical approach to solving the optimization problem of finding the power allocation that maximizes the sum-rate of the Gaussian interference channel with any linear power (interference) constraint and proportional rate constraints. It is proved that the sum-rate of the Gaussian interference channel restricted to proportional rate constraints does not have a critical point and the maximum sum-rate subject to said constraints occurs at the boundary of the domain formed by the plane representing the linear power constraint. This is accomplished by using analytic geometry in higher dimensions to show that the curve of intersection of the sum-rate and the proportional rate constraints is always increasing, and intersects the boundary plane representing the linear power constraint at a unique point. A polynomial time (in the number of users) centralized algorithm that finds this point of optimal power allocation is proposed. This is a significant improvement over existing algorithms for related power allocation problems which have exponential time complexity in the number of users. Two distributed algorithms with linear and constant complexities are also presented. Simulation results supporting the analysis and demonstrating the performances of the algorithms are presented.
TREM2 deficiency attenuates neuroinflammation and protects against neurodegeneration in a mouse model of tauopathy

Significance Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and is a major public health problem for which there is currently no disease-modifying treatment. There is an urgent need for greater understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in patients to create better therapeutic options. Recently, genetic studies uncovered novel AD risk variants in the microglial receptor, triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2). Previous studies suggested that loss of TREM2 function worsens amyloid-β (Aβ) plaque-related toxicity. In contrast, we observe TREM2 deficiency mitigates neuroinflammation and protects against brain atrophy in the context of tau pathology. These findings indicate dual roles for TREM2 and microglia in the context of amyloid versus tau pathology, which are important to consider for potential treatments targeting TREM2. Variants in the gene encoding the triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) were recently found to increase the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In the brain, TREM2 is predominately expressed on microglia, and its association with AD adds to increasing evidence implicating a role for the innate immune system in AD initiation and progression. Thus far, studies have found TREM2 is protective in the response to amyloid pathology while variants leading to a loss of TREM2 function impair microglial signaling and are deleterious. However, the potential role of TREM2 in the context of tau pathology has not yet been characterized. In this study, we crossed Trem2+/+ (T2+/+) and Trem2−/− (T2−/−) mice to the PS19 human tau transgenic line (PS) to investigate whether loss of TREM2 function affected tau pathology, the microglial response to tau pathology, or neurodegeneration. Strikingly, by 9 mo of age, T2−/−PS mice exhibited significantly less brain atrophy as quantified by ventricular enlargement and preserved cortical volume in the entorhinal and piriform regions compared with T2+/+PS mice. However, no TREM2-dependent differences were observed for phosphorylated tau staining or insoluble tau levels. Rather, T2−/−PS mice exhibited significantly reduced microgliosis in the hippocampus and piriform cortex compared with T2+/+PS mice. Gene expression analyses and immunostaining revealed microglial activation was significantly attenuated in T2−/−PS mice, and there were lower levels of inflammatory cytokines and astrogliosis. These unexpected findings suggest that impairing microglial TREM2 signaling reduces neuroinflammation and is protective against neurodegeneration in the setting of pure tauopathy.