Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Employment and Health Benefits: A Connection at Risk

The United States is unique among economically advanced nations in its reliance on employers to provide health benefits voluntarily for workers and their families. Although it is well known that this system fails to reach millions of these individuals as well as others who have no connection to the work place, the system has other weaknesses. It also has many advantages. Because most proposals for health care reform assume some continued role for employers, this book makes an important contribution by describing the strength and limitations of the current system of employment-based health benefits. It provides the data and analysis needed to understand the historical, social, and economic dynamics that have shaped present-day arrangements and outlines what might be done to overcome some of the access, value, and equity problems associated with current employer, insurer, and government policies and practices. Health insurance terminology is often perplexing, and this volume defines essential concepts clearly and carefully. Using an array of primary sources, it provides a store of information on who is covered for what services at what costs, on how programs vary by employer size and industry, and on what governments do--and do not do--to oversee employment-based health programs. A case study adapted from real organizations' experiences illustrates some of the practical challenges in designing, managing, and revising benefit programs. The sometimes unintended and unwanted consequences of employer practices for workers and health care providers are explored. Understanding the concepts of risk, biased risk selection, and risk segmentation is fundamental to sound health care reform. This volume thoroughly examines these key concepts and how they complicate efforts to achieve efficiency and equity in health coverage and health care. With health care reform at the forefront of public attention, this volume will be important to policymakers and regulators, employee benefit managers and other executives, trade associations, and decisionmakers in the health insurance industry, as well as analysts, researchers, and students of health policy.
Finding a needle in a haystack

We have recently identified tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily, member 9 (TNFRSF9, best known as CD137 or 4–1BB) as a biomarker of tumor-reactive T cells naturally occurring in cancer patients, and developed a rapid, accurate system to comprehensively isolate lymphocytes with tumor-rejecting properties from human biopsies. Our findings reveal a previously unappreciated role for CD137, a co-stimulatory TNFR family member, in the immunobiology of human cancer.
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London . Series B Universal Turing Machine

The understanding of lambda calculus has analyzed simulated annealing, and current trends suggest that the synthesis of thin clients will soon emerge. After years of confirmed research into web browsers, we demonstrate the deployment of local-area networks. We concentrate our efforts on verifying that IPv6 can be made event-driven, metamorphic, and distributed.
Consensus: A comprehensive solution to the grand challenges of information fusion

The information fusion community faces at least five grand challenges. In this paper we describe how our revolutionary implementation of an automated high level information fusion system addresses these grand challenges. Our innovative system processes real-time heterogeneous information sources, including track data, as well as spoken and written English language, transforming all inputs into a rich canonical semantic form for deep automated reasoning. Users can engage in real-time Question Answering with Virtual Advisers and a Virtual Battlespace using spoken and written English and haptic devices. This solution offers the prospect of comprehensive situation awareness.
On the Consistency Rule in Causal Inference : An Axiom , Definition , Assumption , or a Theorem ?

In two recent communications, Cole and Frangakis and VanderWeele conclude that the consistency rule used in causal inference is an assumption that precludes any side-effects of treatment/exposure on the outcomes of interest. They further develop auxiliary notation to make this assumption formal and explicit. I argue that the consistency rule is a theorem in the logic of counterfactuals and need not be altered. Instead, warnings of potential side-effects should be embodied in standard modeling practices that makes causal assumptions explicit and transparent.
On the Consistency Rule in Causal Inference : Axiom , Definition , Assumption , or Theorem ?

Remove the abstract (and move to the Main Text). In two recent communications, Cole and Frangakis and VanderWeele conclude that the consistency rule used in causal inference is an assumption that precludes any side-effects of treatment/exposure on the outcomes of interest. They further develop auxiliary notation to make this assumption formal and explicit. I argue that the consistency rule is a theorem in the logic of counterfactuals and need not be altered, even in cases where different versions of treatment/exposure have side effects on the outcome. Instead, warnings of potential side-effects should be embodied in standard modeling practices, using graphs or structural equation models, in which causal assumptions are given transparent and unambiguous representation. In two recent communications, Cole and Frangakis and VanderWeele interpret the consistency rule of causal inference an assumption that is violated whenever versions of treatment/exposure have unintended side effects on the outcomes of interest. They further develop auxiliary notation to make this assumption formal and explicit. I argue that the consistency rule is in fact a theorem in the logic of counterfactuals and need not be altered. Side-effects can be made explicit in standard modeling practices, whenever transparent models are used. Informally, the consistency rule states that a person’s potential outcome under a hypothetical condition that happened to materialize is precisely the outcome experienced by that person. When expressed formally, this rule reads: X(u) = x =⇒ Yx(u) = Y (u) (1) where X(u) stands for the exposure that person u actually experienced, Yx(u) the potential outcome of person u had the exposure been at level X = x, and Y (u) is the outcome 1 In Epidemiology, Vol. 21(6):872-875, 2010. TECHNICAL REPORT R-358 August 2010
Machine Translation: A View from the Lexicon

This book describes a novel, cross-linguistic approach to machine translation that solves certain classes of syntactic and lexical divergences by means of a lexical conceptual structure that can be composed and decomposed in language-specific ways. This approach allows the translator to operate uniformly across many languages, while still accounting for knowledge that is specific to each language.The translation model can be used to map a source-language sentence to a target-language sentence in a principled fashion. It is built on the basis of a parametric approach, making it easy to change from one language to another (by setting syntactic switches for each language and providing lexical descriptions for each language) without having to write a whole new processor for each language.Dorr's approach advances the field of machine translation in a number of important ways: it provides a uniform processor in which the same syntactic and lexical-semantic processing modules are used for each language; it is interlingual, able to derive an underlying language-independent form of the source language that allows any of the three target languages - Spanish, English, or German - to be produced from this form; and it describes a systematic mapping between the lexical-semantic level and the syntactic level that allows the appropriate target-language words to be selected and realized, despite the potential for syntactic and lexical divergences. Bonnie Jean Dorr is Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Maryland.
Participatory action research: An exploration from a Freirean perspective of research involving people with dementia

Researchers are increasingly being called upon to involve people with dementia in research that pertains to them. Participatory Action Research (PAR) has been one of the approaches that has been utilized to do this. How people understand and apply the ideas behind this approach however has often been atheoretical and diverse. This has implications for how purpose, power, voice and agency are conceived and actualized.
Strategic Planning for Water Rights Acquisitions in the Columbia Basin: an Assessment of Regional Streamflow Response to Climate Change

Strategic Planning for Water Rights Acquisitions in the Central Columbia Basin: An assessment of regional streamflow response to climate change Erin Donley Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Dr. Robert J. Naiman School of Forest Resources Conflict over scarce water resources in the Central Columbia River Basin is historic and persistent. Human alteration of the natural flow regime, land-use change and other factors have already caused 11 evolutionarily significant units (ESUs) of salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) to be listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Further, climatechange projections indicate that the hydrology of snow-dominant sub-basins within the Columbia Basin may be especially vulnerable to climate change. The objectives for this thesis are to identify regions of the Central Columbia River Basin that may be most flow-limited for ESA-listed fish populations and to provide the Washington Water Trust (WWT), a conservation organization, with strategic guidance for water rights acquisitions in these flow-limited regions. To accomplish these objectives, I performed two assessments: an examination of the potential changes in flow availability of the Okanogan, Methow, Wenatchee and Yakima sub-basins and an assessment of the opportunities and threats to the WWT‟s operational activities. I simulated streamflow under historic and future scenarios to evaluate potential impacts of changes in climate, water use and governance. To assess the WWT‟s operational activities, I examined water right characteristics in each sub-basin and compared the results to the WWT‟s stated mission and water right acquisition criteria. Results suggest that overall the Yakima sub-basin is projected to be most flow-limited during the summer months as a result of simulated climate change. Streamflow in the Yakima sub-basin is projected to decrease by an average of 40% in the period 2020 and 54% in 2040, with the greatest reductions occurring at the beginning of the summer. Further, my assessment indicates the Yakima sub-basin‟s recent water right adjudication, high potential for collaboration with other Yakima-based conservation organizations and the WWT‟s existing presence in the Yakima sub-basin make it the sub-basin most closely aligned with the WWT‟s stated mission and acquisition criteria. Ultimately, the hydrologic and organizational assessments suggest that instream flow conservation in the Yakima sub-basin will provide the greatest benefit to ESA-listed species and the operational success of the WWT over the next thirty years.
Forest Fire/Wildfire Protection

This report provides historical background on wildfires, and describes concerns about the wildland-urban interface and about forest and rangeland health. The report discusses fuel management, fire control, and fire effects. The report then examines federal, state, and landowner roles and responsibilities in protecting lands and resources from wildfires, and concludes by discussing current issues for federal wildfire management.
Comparative Evaluation of Antimicrobial Efficacy of Various Antibiotic Pastes and Calcium Hydroxide Using Chitosan as a Carrier Against Enterococcus faecalis: An In Vitro Study

Introduction: The use of intracanal medicaments between appointments can serve as an important aid in the sterilization of the root canal system. Calcium hydroxide is commonly used, but it is not completely effective against Enterococcus faecalis. A triple antibiotic paste (TAP) is used but has the problem of tooth discoloration. Double antibiotic paste (DAP) or modified TAP (MTAP) has been suggested to solve this. Chitosan has been used as a vehicle in pharmacology, and it has inherent antibacterial properties too. Objective: This study compares the efficacy of DAP and MTAP using chitosan as a vehicle with calcium hydroxide. Materials and methods: Sixty single-rooted teeth were taken and decoronated with a length of 13 mm. Biomechanical preparation (BMP) was done with #3 Gates-Glidden (GG) drills, 17% ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), and 5.25% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) used for irrigation. These were kept in microcentrifuge tubes with 1 ml brain heart infusion (BHI) broth. Contamination was done with E. faecalis strain for 21 days. DAP and MTAP pastes were prepared and added to the chitosan solution. Groups were divided into 10 each, each medicament with saline or chitosan as the vehicle. The microbial load was measured at the end of two and seven days. Results: The level of significance was kept at p = 0.05. Statistical analysis was done with the Kruskal-Wallis test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). DAP and MTAP groups with chitosan showed a significant reduction in the microbial load when compared to calcium hydroxide with chitosan. Conclusion: DAP and MTAP with chitosan can be effective intracanal medicaments against E. faecalis in refractory endodontic cases.
Morphological, Physiological and Biochemical Responses of Gerbera Cultivars to Heat Stress

Heat stress is an agricultural problem for Gerbera jamesonii, and it often causes poor seedling growth, reduced flower yield and undesirable ornamental characteristics of flowers. However, little is known about the effect of heat stress on the morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics of gerbera plants. Here, the responses of six cultivars of Gerbera jamesonii to heat stress were investigated. Under a 1-d heat treatment at 45°C, the leaves of gerbera cultivars showed yellowing, wilting, drying and death to varying degrees. The heat treatment also resulted in increased electrical conductivity, decreased soluble protein and chlorophyll contents, and the accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA) and proline in leaves. Moreover, heat tolerance differed among the six tested gerbera cultivars. Our results demonstrated that among the six gerbera cultivars, ‘Meihongheixin’ is a heat-resistant cultivar, whereas ‘Beijixing’ is a heatsensitive one. ‘Shijihong’ and ‘Linglong’ are relatively heat-resistant cultivars, and ‘Dadifen’ and ‘Taiyangfengbao’ are relatively heat sensitive.
Phonology : an exploration into the vocalization of code

When children learn to read, they almost invariably start with oral reading: reading the words and sentences out loud. Experiments have shown that when novices read text aloud, their comprehension is better then when reading in silence. This is attributed to the fact that reading aloud focuses the child’s attention to the text. We hypothesize that reading code aloud could support program comprehension in a similar way, encouraging novice programmers to pay attention to details. To this end we explore how novices read code, and we found that novice programmers vocalize code in different ways, sometimes changing vocalization within a code snippet. We are thus lead to believe that in order to teach novices to read code aloud, an agreed upon way of reading code is needed. As such, this paper proposes studying code phonology, ultimately leading to a shared understanding about how code should be read aloud, such that this can be practiced. In addition to being valuable as an educational and diagnostic tool for novices, we believe that pair programmers could also benefit from standardized communication about code, and that it could support improved tools for visually and physically disabled programmers.
Non-Monetary Benefits of Continuous Training

We study the effects of continuous training on non-monetary outcomes. Wider benefits of continuous training have become a top priority on the European political agenda. Using SOEP data, we find evidence that continuous training increases life satisfaction, reduces worries about the own economic and job situation, and increases civic participation in some domains. We employ a regression-adjusted DiD matching approach that accounts for selection on observables and for time-invariant unobservables.
language teaching

In this issue we are pleased to include Jane Setter and Jennifer Jenkins' article on pronunciation. Focusing mainly on English pronunciation, the authors look at both L1 and L2 research into the role of pronunciation in many aspects of our lives. They offer discussion of recent controversies, and present a full section on the implications of pronunciation research for teaching. On a different note, I need to announce that this will be my last issue as editor of LTA. I would like to thank everyone who has collaborated on the journal during the time of my editorship: the team at CUP, the abstracting team, and many others. I am pleased to hand over now to Ewa Jaworska and Graeme Porte, and wish them the very best for their editorship.
Under Consideration for Publication in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming a Uniform Approach to Logic Programming Semantics

Part of the theory of logic programming and nonmonotonic reasoning concerns the study of fixed-point semantics for these paradigms. Several different semantics have been proposed during the last two decades, and some have been more successful and acknowledged than others. The rationales behind those various semantics have been manifold, depending on one's point of view, which may be that of a programmer or inspired by commonsense reasoning, and consequently the constructions which lead to these semantics are technically very diverse, and the exact relationships between them have not yet been fully understood. In this paper, we present a conceptually new method, based on level mappings, which allows to provide uniform characterizations of different semantics for logic programs. We will display our approach by giving new and uniform characterizations of some of the major semantics, more particular of the least model semantics for definite programs, of the Fitting semantics, and of the well-founded semantics. A novel characterization of the weakly perfect model semantics will also be provided.
Under Consideration for Publication in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming Verifying Termination and Error-freedom of Logic Programs with Block Declarations

We present verification methods for logic programs with delay declarations. The verified properties are termination and freedom from errors related to built-ins. Concerning termination , we present two approaches. The first approach tries to eliminate the well-known problem of speculative output bindings. The second approach is based on identifying the predicates for which the textual position of an atom using this predicate is irrelevant with respect to termination. Three features are distinctive of this work: it allows for predicates to be used in several modes; it shows that block declarations, which are a very simple delay construct, are sufficient to ensure the desired properties; it takes the selection rule into account, assuming it to be as in most Prolog implementations. The methods can be used to verify existing programs and assist in writing new programs.
Under Consideration for Publication in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming Proving Correctness of Imperative Programs by Linearizing Constrained Horn Clauses

We present a method for verifying the correctness of imperative programs which is based on the automated transformation of their specifications. Given a program prog, we consider a partial correctness specification of the form {φ} prog {ψ}, where the assertions φ and ψ are predicates defined by a set Spec of possibly recursive Horn clauses with linear arithmetic (LA) constraints in their premise (also called constrained Horn clauses). The verification method consists in constructing a set PC of constrained Horn clauses whose satisfiability implies that {φ} prog {ψ} is valid. We highlight some limitations of state-of-the-art constrained Horn clause solving methods, here called LA-solving methods, which prove the satisfiability of the clauses by looking for linear arithmetic interpretations of the predicates. In particular, we prove that there exist some specifications that cannot be proved valid by any of those LA-solving methods. These specifications require the proof of satisfiability of a set PC of constrained Horn clauses that contain nonlinear clauses (that is, clauses with more than one atom in their premise). Then, we present a transformation, called linearization, that converts PC into a set of linear clauses (that is, clauses with at most one atom in their premise). We show that several specifications that could not be proved valid by LA-solving methods, can be proved valid after linearization. We also present a strategy for performing linearization in an automatic way and we report on some experimental results obtained by using a preliminary implementation of our method.
Under Consideration for Publication in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming Swapping Evaluation: a Memory-scalable Solution for Answer-on-demand Tabling

One of the differences among the various approaches to suspension-based tabled evaluation is the scheduling strategy. The two most popular strategies are local and batched evaluation. The former collects all the solutions to a tabled predicate before making any one of them available outside the tabled computation. The latter returns answers one by one before computing them all, which in principle is better if only one answer (or a subset of the answers) is desired. Batched evaluation is closer to SLD evaluation in that it computes solutions lazily as they are demanded, but it may need arbitrarily more memory than local evaluation, which is able to reclaim memory sooner. Some programs which in practice can be executed under the local strategy quickly run out of memory under batched evaluation. This has led to the general adoption of local evaluation at the expense of the more depth-first batched strategy. In this paper we study the reasons for the high memory consumption of batched evaluation and propose a new scheduling strategy which we have termed swapping evaluation. Swapping evaluation also returns answers one by one before completing a tabled call, but its memory usage can be orders of magnitude less than batched evaluation. An experimental implementation in the XSB system shows that swapping evaluation is a feasible memory-scalable strategy that need not compromise execution speed.