Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New insight into introducing a -approximation ratio for minimum vertex cover problem

Vertex cover problem is a famous combinatorial problem, which its complexity has been heavily studied over the years. It is known that it is hard to approximate to within any constant factor better than , while a -approximation for it can be trivially obtained. In this paper, new properties and new techniques are introduced which lead to approximation ratios smaller than on special graphs. Then, by a combination of semidefinite programming and a rounding procedure, along with satisfying the proposed assumptions, we introduce an approximation algorithm with a performance ratio of on arbitrary graphs.
Usability and user experience evaluation of Virtual Integrated Patient

Most existing Virtual Patients utilize simplistic, predictable, and prescriptive approaches that limit deductive learning and the development of decision-making skills for medical students. We have designed a chat-based virtual patient for performing patient interviews, physical examinations, and investigations to help medical students develop reasoning skills. In this paper, we present results from a two-part study. In the first part, we conducted a usability evaluation with seven medical students and six clinicians. The objectives of the usability evaluation was to determine how VIP’s user interface and its features affect the usability (efficiency, effectiveness and learnability) as well as the general subjective user experience associated with the use of system. Each participant completed a user experience, system usability scale, and a self-prepared survey form. A significant difference was seen between the results of students and tutors. Due to a lack of training data, the chatbot model predicted incorrect responses that led participants to feel frustrated. In the second part of study, we have retrained the chatbot model using the feedback and designed an error correction approach and engaged seven new medical students to test the chatbot intensively — a total of 2169 user interactions were performed with the chatbot. Of that, 77.4% were properly answered by the bot, 10.8 % were out-of-domain concepts, 8.6 % were unknown concepts (Li et al., 2018), 3.3 % were corrected using the error correction approach designed.
Recognition versus Disclosure of Offsetable Derivatives and Investor Risk Assessment

U.S. GAAP allows banks to offset derivative assets against derivative liabilities with the same counterparty and report only the net amount on the balance sheet. Derivatives offsetting under IFRS is much more restrictive, resulting in the single largest difference in balance sheet presentation between U.S. GAAP versus IFRS. We examine whether recognition versus disclosure is associated with differential investor risk assessment of offsetable derivatives. We find that recognition matters for the risk assessment of equity investors but not for CDS investors, which is likely explained by the greater sophistication of CDS investors relative to equity investors. Corroborating this inference, we show that more sophisticated equity investors more fully utilize disclosed offsetable derivatives information. Our findings shed light on the unsettled debate about the divergent accounting treatment of offsetable derivatives under U.S. GAAP versus IFRS.
Confidence Interval Construction – A New Self-Normalization Approach Based on Adjusted Range

This paper proposes a new self-normalization method to construct confidence intervals for quantities of stationary time series. Unlike the self-normalization approach in Shao (2010) and Lobato (2001), which utilize the variance of a partial as the self-normalizer, we propose the use of its adjusted range instead. Given range’s capacity to deal long-range dependence in highly non-Gaussian time series with large skewness and/or kurtosis (Mandelbrot and Wallis, 1969). This paper also introduces two range-based autocorrelation tests, extending Lobato (2001) and Shao (2010); and also a confidence interval construction for censored dependent data, extending Huang et al. (2015). The simulation studies confirm the validity of our approach.
Bacon causes cancer: Do consumers care?

In October 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) released a report classifying processed meat as a type 1 carcinogen. The report prompted headlines and attracted immediate public attention, but the economic impacts remain unknown. In this paper, we investigate the impacts of the IARC report on selected processed meat prices and purchases using retail scanner data from US grocery stores. We compare changes in prices and sales of selected processed meat products to a constructed synthetic control group (using a convex combination of nonmeat food products). We find a significant decrease in bacon prices in the wake of the IARC report release, but we find no evidence of a sales reduction. We find no significant changes in price and sales for ham and sausage. The pattern of price and quantity changes are consistent with downward shifts in demand and outward shifts in supply for bacon and sausage following the release of the IARC report.
Chewing Gum with Added Chitosan Reduces the Number of Cariogenic Bacteria Colonies in Human Saliva

In our study, we compared the numbers of cariogenic bacteria colonies in the saliva from subjects before and after 14 days of chewing gum with added chitosan. The control group chewed sugar-free gum with no chitosan. Chewing chitosan-containing gum significantly reduced the numbers of colonies of both Streptococcus mutans (MS) and Lactobacillus (LB) compared to chitosan-free gum, suggesting that chitosan-enriched gum may have an anticariogenic effect which is independent of beneficial effects of chewing any gum. Experimental article (J Int Dent Med Res 2021; 14(1): 12-16)
Liquid crystals and the Heilmann-Lieb model

Liquid crystals are everywhere, and they do more for you than you might think. They tell you the weather, the time, and will kindly let you know that your connection to eduroam was rejected, and that you’ll have to listen to the rest of the seminar. Indeed, most displays run on liquid crystals, from the small dials in digital wristwatches to large flat-screen televisions. In this paper, I will review some results pertaining to why (or, perhaps, how) liquid crystals exist in the first place. In particular, I will focus on a model introduced by Heilmann and Lieb in 1979, for which Lieb and I have recently proved the emergence of a nematic liquid crystal phase.
Cellulose acetate nanocarrier production by supercritical assisted electrospray

Supercritical assisted electrospray is an emerging process used for the production of polymeric microand nanoparticles of controlled size and distribution. The main innovation consists of the addition of supercritical CO2 to the polymeric solution, with the aim of obtaining an expanded liquid, characterized by reduced viscosity and surface tension. Cellulose acetate (CA) was selected as the model polymer, thanks to its peculiarities, such as low cost, biodegradability and biocompatibility. The experiments were performed at different pressures (from 80 bar to 140 bar) and polymer concentrations (from 0.2% to 1% w/w). CA nanoparticles were successfully produced; working at 140 bar and 30 kV, particles characterized by a mean diameter in the range from 266.7±145 nm to 343.9±120 nm were obtained, processing 0.2% w/w and 1% w/w CA solutions, respectively. These results open the way to the production of biopolymeric sub-microcarriers that, loaded with active molecules, can be used in nutraceuticals.
City-scale energy modeling to assess impacts of extreme heat on electricity consumption and production using WRF-UCM modeling with bias correction

The energy consumption of buildings at the city scale is highly influenced by the weather conditions where the buildings are located. Thus, having appropriate weather data is important for improving the accuracy of prediction of city-level energy consumption and demand. Typically, local weather station data from the nearest airport or military base is used as input into building energy models. However, the weather data at these locations often differs from the local weather conditions experienced by an urban building, particularly considering most ground-based weather stations are located far from many urban areas. The use of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) coupled with an Urban Canopy Model (UCM) provides means to predict more localized variations in weather conditions. However, despite advances made in climate modeling, systematic differences in ground-based observations and model results are observed in these simulations. In this study, a comparison between WRF-UCM model results and data from 40 ground-based weather station in Austin, TX is conducted to assess existing systematic differences. Model validations was conducted through an iterative process in which input parameters were adjusted to obtain to best possible fit to the measured data. To account for the remaining systemic error, a statistical approach with spatial and temporal bias correction is implemented. This method improves the quality of the WRF-UCM model results by identifying the statistic properties of the systematic error and applying several bias correction techniques.
Scaling Stack Trace Fingerprinting

A stack trace, the active stack frames at the point of crash, can contain much useful debugging information. However, this same information can be useful when penetration testing. More specifically, it can point to the usage of a specific framework and version, which in turn can lead to its vulnerabilities. Consequently, a tool to fingerprint such stack traces is useful. There currently exists such a tool for Java (X41 BeanStack), but due to the common use of JavaScript in web applications, there is a desire to extend this to JavaScript. The tool works by extracting relevant data from Java class files and inserting that data into a database. Data extracted from stack traces can then be searched for in that database. However, there is a scalability issue. With there already being 49 million rows in the database and each stack trace containing multiple stack frames, the querying time can quickly grow. That is why this research focuses on improving the current X41 BeanStack database have a more efficient storage and querying system, as well as to work with JavaScript. To do so, the parsing of stack traces and extraction of data from frameworks is first focused on. Then the research takes the current implementation and new use case to evaluate against possible database and storage methods. Finally, further improvements such as a better data model are also considered. Using the same database, MariaDB, but with a better data model, resulted in a speedup of 2-5.5x depending on the number of sequential queries. Further performance could be gained by switching to a hash index in PostgreSQL and when combining multiple query searches into a single query. Finally, it was also observed that using a NoSQL key-value database such as Couchbase improved performance even further.
Influence of Adsorbed Water on the Oxygen Evolution Reaction on Oxides

We study the interface between adsorbed water and stoichiometric, defect-free (110) rutile oxide surfaces of TiO2, RuO2, and IrO2 in order to understand how water influences the stabilities of the intermediates of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In our model the water is treated as explicitly adsorbed H2O molecules, which are found to form two-dimensional water chains (layers) on all investigated oxide surfaces. The first chain formed by the most strongly bound H2O molecules is adsorbed on the 5-fold coordinated surface metal atoms. The second chain is composed of less strongly bound H2O molecules binding to bridging oxygens. The third chain interacts weakly and predominantly with the H2O molecules of the second layer, resembling bulk water. We find that the stability of the water layer close to the oxide surface is almost the same as the one found on flat metal surfaces, such as the Pt(111) surface, despite the highly different adsorption pattern of the water molecules. We show that the presence of .
The Geography of Recruitment An extended abstract

Why aren’t all vacancies posted in online? In 2020, 95% of US population had access to the Internet, and online job boards and hiring have seen a massive growth since their introduction in early 2000s. The marginal cost of posting a vacancy online is virtually 0, but around a third of jobs are still filled offline (Carnevale, Jayasundera, and Repnikov, 2014). In this paper, I argue that we can answer this question through the lenses of the geography of recruitment. The decision to recruit beyond the city, region, or state boundaries is in many ways similar to the decision to post a vacancy on the Internet: both actions open the firm to new potential employees. If we can pin down the circumstances under which firms choose to advertise their job openings in labour markets that are different or larger than their local one, we get closer to explaining why the shift to hiring online hasn’t been absolute, and why it doesn’t appear to have led to substantial changes in employment and mobility. The main obstacle to studying firms’ recruitment behaviour – its spatial dimension in particular – is the lack of suitable data. Traditional data sources, such as JOLTS, focus on the number of vacancies over time rather than on how and where are the jobs openings advertised. The best data on firm recruitment in the US is from 1982 and it includes no data on hiring across space. Online vacancy postings, which are a rich tool for analysing recent labour market trends, reveal little about firms’ spatial hiring decisions beyond the binary decision whether to post online. At the same time, firms and workers do match across space: the majority of long-distance moves within the US are to take up a new job (Amior, 2019; Balgova, 2019), which means that firms must recruit outside of their local labour markets. To observe firms’ decisions about hiring across space I turn to help-wanted ads in US newspapers in 1990. Because newspapers differ in where they are distributed, and because The Federal Communications Commision estimates that in 2019 about 14.5 million individuals lacked access to terrestrial connection; see https://docs.fcc. gov/public/attachments/FCC-21-18A1.pdf. The Employment Opportunities Pilot Project I collect a random sample of newspapers available on the digital archive Newspapers.com.
Predictors of survival after Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt (TIPS) in patients with refractory ascites in end-stage liver cirrhosis

Objectives: The aim of this study is to analyse predictors for overall survival (OS) after TIPS in patients with refractory ascites in end-stage liver cirrhosis. Methods: A total of 213 consecutive patients (129 male, 84 female, age 59.9±10.5 years) with TIPS for refractory ascites were included. Patient characteristics, clinical outcome and survival data were analysed from institutional databases and respective records from referring physicians and registration offi ces. Data were completed with a telephone questionnaire. Research Article Predictors of survival after Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt (TIPS) in patients with refractory ascites in end-stage liver cirrhosis Pitton Michael Bernhard1*, Zimmermann Tim2, HoppeLotichius Maria3, Mildenberger Philipp4, Kloeckner Roman5, Mittler Jens6, Weinmann Arndt7, Otto Gerd8 and Düber Christoph9 1Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Medical Center, Langenbeckstr.1, 55131 Mainz, Germany 2Department of Internal Medicine I, University Medical Center, Langenbeckstr.1, 55131 Mainz, Germany 3Department of General and Visceral Surgery and Transplantation Surgery, University Medical Center, Langenbeckstr.1, 55131 Mainz, Germany 4Institute of Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics (IMBEI), University Medical Center, Langenbeckstr.1, 55131 Mainz, Germany 5Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Medical Center, Langenbeckstr.1, 55131 Mainz, Germany 6Department of General and Visceral Surgery and Transplantation Surgery, University Medical Center, Langenbeckstr.1, 55131 Mainz, Germany 7Department of Internal Medicine I University Medical Center, Langenbeckstr.1, 55131 Mainz, Germany 8Emeritus of the Division of Transplantation Surgery, University Medical Center, Langenbeckstr.1, 55131 Mainz, Germany 9Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Medical Center, 55131 Mainz, Germany Received: 04 May, 2021 Accepted: 15 June, 2021 Published: 16 June, 2021 *Corresponding author: Dr. Pitton Michael Bernhard, EBIR, MHBA, Professor, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Langenbeckstr.1, 55131 Mainz, Germany, Tel: ++49 6131 172057; Fax: ++49 6131 176642; E-mail:
Sell now or later? A decision-making model for feeder cattle selling

Abstract Given the relatively small industry scale of cow-calf operations in New York to other regions of the country, little is known about differences in determinant values for feeder cattle. Using auction prices and quality characteristics over 7 years, differences in market, lot, and quality parameters suggest opportunities for improved marketing performance. A delta profit model is constructed to inform timing of marketing decisions for producers. The results indicate a relatively high potential for producers to increase farm returns by delaying sales of lighter-weight feeder cattle from the fall to spring auction months, given sufficient rates of gain and reasonable overwintering costs.
The role of peripheral inflammatory cells in predicting radiation pneumonitis

Background: Radiation pneumonitis (RP) is a common complication of thoracic radiation which affects patients’ ability to breathe, limits the deliverable intensity of radiotherapy and impairs clinical outcomes, indicating the need for timely diagnosis and management. The purpose of this study was to determine the predictive capability of two peripheral inflammatory cells for RP. Materials and Methods: A murine RP model was established using SD rats that received a single dose of 20 Gy thoracic radiation. At 2 and 4 weeks post-radiation, mice were processed to harvest lungs for hematoxylin -eosin (HE) staining and collect blood for flow cytometry analysis. Results: By 2 weeks post-radiation, histopathological changes had occurred in the lungs indicating the onset of RP. Peripheral CD45HIS48 granulocytes were significantly increased by the radiation treatment at both the early and later time points (P<0.05). However, we did not observe a statistically significant increase of CD45CD11b/cHIS48 monocytes/macrophages. Conclusion: Our study highlights the possibility that increased levels of peripheral CD45HIS48 granulocytes could serve as a predictive indicator of RP. Early detection provides the opportunity for early intervention and therefore, a reduction in the rate and extent of RP.
Evaluation of the Relationship Between the Invasive Front of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Clinicopathological Parameters

Background & Objective: The present study investigated the relationship between invasive front (IF) of tumors and clinicopathological parameters including stage, grade, nodal involvement, lymphocytic host response (LHR), recurrence, overall survival (OS), and disease-free survival (DFS). Methods: A total of 87 oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) biopsies were evaluated. Clinical stage, grading, nodal involvement, time of recurrence, OS, and DFS were assessed. The number of tumor budding cells in the IF was measured by two pathologists with an optic microscope. IF was graded to low risk (<5) and high risk (>5), according to the counting of tumor budding as a single cancer cell or cluster cells. Also, LHR was reported in the IF as mild, moderate, and severe. Results: IF was reported in 43.7% of patients as a low-risk group and 49.4% as a high-risk group. LHR was also mild in 31%, moderate in 25.3%, and severe in 43.7% of the patients. Most of the patients were in stage IV (31%) and grade 1 (60.9%). The high risk IF group had a significant statistical relationship with stage (P=0.001), grade (P=0.039), five years OS (P=0.03), five years DSF (P=0.01), and lymph node involvement (P=0.007). The relation between LHR and stage of disease was significant (P=0.034). Conclusion: Considering the essential role of histopathological reports in the treatment plan of patients and the relationship between IF and clinical parameters, IF evaluation in routine histopathological examinations, especially in the early stages of OSCC, seems to be necessary.
Development of Vancomycin Delivery Systems Based on Autologous 3D Platelet-Rich Fibrin Matrices for Bone Tissue Engineering

Autologous platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) is derived from the blood and its use in the bone tissue engineering has emerged as an effective strategy for novel drug and growth factor delivery systems. Studies have approved that combined therapy with PRF ensures higher biological outcomes, but patients still undergo additional treatment with antibiotic drugs before, during, and even after the implantation of biomaterials with PRF. These systematically used drugs spread throughout the blood and lead not only to positive effects but may also induce adverse side effects on healthy tissues. Vancomycin hydrochloride (VANKA) is used to treat severe Staphylococcal infections but its absorption in the target tissue after oral administration is low; therefore, in this study, we have developed and analyzed two kinds of VANKA carriers—liposomes and microparticles in 3D PRF matrices. The adjustment, characterization, and analysis of VANKA carriers in 3D PRF scaffolds is carried out in terms of encapsulation efficiency, drug release kinetics and antibacterial activity; furthermore, we have studied the micro- and macrostructure of the scaffolds with microtomography.