Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Photosynthetic responses of 13 grassland species across 11 years of free-air CO 2 enrichment is modest , consistent and independent of N supply

If long-term responses of photosynthesis and leaf diffusive conductance to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are similar or predictably different among species, functional types, and ecosystem types, general global models of elevated CO2 effects can effectively be developed. To address this issue we measured gas exchange rates of 13 perennial grassland species from four functional groups across 11 years of long-term free-air CO2 enrichment (eCO2, 1 180 ppm above ambient CO2) in the BioCON experiment in Minnesota, USA. Eleven years of eCO2 produced consistent but modest increases in leaf net photosynthetic rates of 10% on average compared with plants grown at ambient CO2 concentrations across the 13 species. This eCO2-induced enhancement did not depend on soil N treatment, is much less than the average across other longer-term studies, and represents strong acclimation (i.e. downregulation) as it is also much less than the instantaneous response to eCO2. The legume and C3 nonlegume forb species were the most responsive among the functional groups (1 13% in each), the C4 grasses the least responsive (1 4%), and C3 grasses intermediate in their photosynthetic response to eCO2 across years (1 9%). Leaf stomatal conductance and nitrogen content declined comparably across species in eCO2 compared with ambient CO2 and to degrees corresponding to results from other studies. The significant acclimation of photosynthesis is explained in part by those eCO2-induced decreases in leaf N content and stomatal conductance that reduce leaf photosynthetic capacity in plants grown under elevated compared with ambient CO2 concentrations. Results of this study, probably the longest-term with the most species, suggest that carbon cycle models that assume and thereby simulate long-lived strong eCO2 stimulation of photosynthesis (e.g.425%) for all of Earth’s terrestrial ecosystems should be viewed with a great deal of caution.
A Numerical Study of a Cooling Ratio for Laser Based Prototyping Technology with a Sample of 316l Stainless Steel

The objectives of this work are to study Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS TM ) produced materials and iden- tify the microstructures. Numerical method was used to examine the influence of materials' type and LENS TM process pa- rameters on the forming of the specific microstructures from thermodynamics and fluid dynamics point of view. Samples of 316L stainless steel were examined, microstructures of samples were used to estimate the corresponding cooling rate, and the cooling rate was compared with the results of three different levels of simplified models.
Randomized phase 3 trial of fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide alone or followed by Paclitaxel for early breast cancer.

BACKGROUND Taxanes are among the most active drugs for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, and, as a consequence, they have also been studied in the adjuvant setting. METHODS After breast cancer surgery, women with lymph node-positive disease were randomly assigned to treatment with fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide (FEC) or with FEC followed by weekly paclitaxel (FEC-P). The primary endpoint of study-5-year disease-free survival (DFS)-was assessed by Kaplan-Meier analysis. Secondary endpoints included overall survival and analysis of the prognostic and predictive value of clinical and molecular (hormone receptors by immunohistochemistry and HER2 by fluorescence in situ hybridization) markers. Associations and interactions were assessed with a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model for DFS for the following covariates: age, menopausal status, tumor size, lymph node status, type of chemotherapy, tumor size, positive lymph nodes, HER2 status, and hormone receptor status. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS Among the 1246 eligible patients, estimated rates of DFS at 5 years were 78.5% in the FEC-P arm and 72.1% in the FEC arm (difference = 6.4%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.6% to 11.2%; P = .006). FEC-P treatment was associated with a 23% reduction in the risk of relapse compared with FEC treatment (146 relapses in the 614 patients in the FEC-P arm vs 193 relapses in the 632 patients in the FEC arm, hazard ratio [HR] = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.62 to 0.95; P = .022) and a 22% reduction in the risk of death (73 and 95 deaths, respectively, HR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.57 to 1.06; P = .110). Among the 928 patients for whom tumor samples were centrally analyzed, type of chemotherapy (FEC vs FEC-P) (P = .017), number of involved axillary lymph nodes (P < .001), tumor size (P = .020), hormone receptor status (P = .004), and HER2 status (P = .006) were all associated with DFS. We found no statistically significant interaction between HER2 status and paclitaxel treatment or between hormone receptor status and paclitaxel treatment. CONCLUSIONS Among patients with operable breast cancer, FEC-P treatment statistically significantly reduced the risk of relapse compared with FEC as adjuvant therapy.
Molecular Evolutionary and Epidemiological Dynamics of Genotypes 1G and 2B of Rubella Virus

Rubella Virus (RV), which causes measles-like rashes in children, puts millions of infants at risk of congenital defects across the globe. Employing phylogenetic approaches to the whole genome sequence data and E1 glycoprotein sequence data, the present study reports the substitution rates and dates of emergence of all thirteen previously described rubella genotypes, and gains important insights into the epidemiological dynamics of two geographically widely distributed genotypes 1G and 2B. The overall nucleotide substitution rate of this non-vector-borne RV is in the order of 10−3 substitutions/site/year, which is considerably higher than the substitution rates previously reported for the vector-borne alphaviruses within the same family. Currently circulating strains of RV share a common ancestor that existed within the last 150 years, with 95% Highest Posterior Density values ranging from 1868 to 1926 AD. Viral strains within the respective genotypes began diverging between the year 1930 s and 1980 s. Both genotype 1G and 2B have shown a decline in effective number of infections since 1990 s, a period during which mass immunization programs against RV were adapted across the globe. Although both genotypes showed some extent of spatial genetic structuring, the analyses also depicted an inter-continental viral dispersal. Such a viral dispersal pattern could be related to the migration of infected individuals across the regions coupled with a low coverage of MMR vaccination.
Changes in body weight, C-reactive protein, and total adiponectin in non-obese women after 12 months of a small-volume, home-based exercise program

OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to evaluate the effects of small-volume, home-based exercise combined with slight caloric restriction on the inflammatory markers C-reactive protein and adiponectin. METHODS: In total, 54 women were randomly assigned to one of two groups for exercise intervention: the control or home-based exercise groups. Weight, waist and hip circumferences, and inflammatory markers were measured at baseline and after 6 and 12 months. Women allocated to the home-based exercise group received a booklet explaining the physical exercises to be practiced at home at least 3 times per week, 40 minutes per session, at low-to-moderate intensity. All participants received dietary counseling aimed at reducing caloric intake by 100-300 calories per day, with a normal distribution of macro-nutrients (26-28% of energy as fat). Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01206413 RESULTS: The home-based exercise group showed a significantly greater reduction in weight and body mass index at six months, but no difference between groups was observed thereafter. With regard to the inflammatory markers, a greater but non-statistically significant reduction was found for C-reactive protein in the home-based exercise group at six months; however, this difference disappeared after adjusting for weight change. No differences in adiponectin were found at the 6- or 12-month follow-up. CONCLUSION: Small-volume, home-based exercise did not promote changes in inflammatory markers independent of weight change.
A Variational Approach to Retrieve Rain Rate by Combining Information from Rain Gauges, Radars, and Microwave Links

Accurate and reliable rain rate estimates are important for various hydrometeorological applications. Consequently, rain sensors of different types have been deployed in many regions. In this work, measurements from different instruments, namely, rain gauge, weather radar, and microwave link, are combined for the first time to estimate with greater accuracy the spatial distribution and intensity of rainfall. The objective is to retrieve the rain rate that is consistent with all these measurements while incorporating the uncertainty associated with the different sources of information. Assuming the problem is not strongly nonlinear, a variational approach is implemented and the Gauss–Newton method is used to minimize the cost function containing proper error estimates from all sensors. Furthermore, the method can be flexibly adapted to additional data sources. The proposed approach is tested using data from 14 rain gauges and 14 operational microwave links located in the Zurich area (Switzerland) to correct the prior rain rate provided by the operational radar rain product from the Swiss meteorological service (MeteoSwiss). A cross-validation approach demonstrates the improvement of rain rate estimates when assimilating rain gauge and microwave link information.
Resilience: a structuring force

The destabilizing power of a traumatic experience has been widely discussed in many studies; however, on the other hand, many studies in psychological literature show a different view of this experience. This study addresses the positive meaning and the transforming power of an event, which, although devastating, reveals to the subject skills, unknown until now. Referring to recent longitudinal studies (Cimino, S., Sinesi, S., Monniello, G., (2012); Cimino, S. , Monniello, G. , Cerniglia, L. , Ballarotto G. (2013) it is proposed to highlight how it is an usual position which is generated in order to deal with the pain. In these studies, the traumatic event taken into account concerns parental loss in children and adolescents (development age) in the attempt to explore, by the use of specific instruments such as Symptom Checklist – 90 – R, (Derogatis, 1994); Eating Attitude Test-40 (Garner and Garfinkel, 1979) and Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (Armstrong et al., 1997), the multiple aspects of the subjective answer to the traumatic event. In addition, a more systemic review is given to the different measures of resilience, such as: dispositional measures (Miller Behavioral Style Scale, Miller, 1987) and situational ones (Ways of Coping Questionnaire, Lazarus and Folkman, 1984); and also, to the psychotherapeutic processes intended as an element to promote the increment of such capacity with a particular reference to the cognitive-behavioral and systemic-relational model. Finally, special attention is given to the protective value of a secure attachment, together with the ability for mentalization, considered as aspects capable of strengthening some important cognitive-emotional self regulation abilities and, therefore, promoting the development of resilient behavior. In conclusion, the many aims of this study are: to provide a right definition of resilience, to try analysing and fixing solutions about the main theoretical controversies over this matter; moreover, this study tries to highlight all those factors that contribute to influence resilient behaviours and to identify strategies and procedures that can facilitate or hinder their execution.
STEM Integration: Teacher Perceptions and Practice.

To gain a better understanding of teachers’ beliefs about, perceptions of, and classroom practices using STEM integration, a multi-case case study was conducted with three middle school teachers. These teachers were purposefully selected from a pool of teachers involved in a year-long professional development module on STEM integration to represent science, mathematics and engineering teachers. This study addresses the following research questions: (1) What are teachers’ beliefs about and perceptions of STEM integration after a yearlong teacher professional development training? and (2) What is the connection between beliefs about and perceptions of STEM integration and teachers’ classroom practices? Data collection consisted of document analysis, classroom observations, and interviews. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Findings from the case studies suggest that (1) the problem solving process is a key component to integrate STEM disciplines, (2) teachers in different STEM disciplines have different perceptions about STEM integration and that leads to different classroom practices, (3) technology is the hardest discipline to integrate in these cases, and (4) teachers are aware of the need to add more content knowledge in their STEM integration.
Did Socialism Fail to Innovate? A Natural Experiment of the Two Zeiss Companies

Two Carl Zeiss companies provide a natural experiment for analyzing the effects of socialist versus market systems on innovation. By analyzing patent records from 1950 to 1990, we trace the technological contributions of Zeiss Jena in the German Democratic Republic and Zeiss Oberkochen in the Federal Republic of Germany. We show that Zeiss Jena gradually developed considerable technological competence, but a deficiency of innovative potential within the socialist system led to political pressures on key firms to innovate “by plan. ” These findings on Zeiss Jena imply that technologically viable firms can fail during the initial period of transition from socialism to capitalism. The diagnosis of a lack of innovation and faulty managerial incentives as the disease that is “cured” by market reforms should be balanced by an understanding of the actual capabilities of socialist firms and the difficulties of radical change mandated by brutal shocks to the macroeconomic system.
Small Variance Estimators for Rare Event Probabilities

Improving Importance Sampling estimators for rare event probabilities requires sharp approximations of conditional densities. This is achieved for events defined through large exceedances of the empirical mean of summands of a random walk, in the domain of large or moderate deviations. The approximation of conditional density of the trajectory of the random walk is handled on long runs. The length of those runs which is compatible with a given accuracy is discussed; simulated results are presented, which enlight the gain of the present approach over classical Importance Sampling schemes. Detailed algorithms are proposed.
Fast maximum entropy restoration of low-noise solar images

Maximum Entropy (ME) deconvolution has become a widely used approach for image restoration. Although it has many attractive features, its computational burden is consider- ably larger than for competing linear inversion techniques. The present work accelerates ME restoration by using linear tech- niqueswithintheMEframeworkandproposesasimpleandfast algorithm which is applicable to low-noise (< 3%) images. The algorithm is tested in numerical simulations, compared to well- known algorithms and applied to solar radio maps obtained by a scanning antenna.
Tumour-endothelium interactions in co-culture: coordinated changes of gene expression profiles and phenotypic properties of endothelial cells

Tumour angiogenesis is a complex process based upon a sequence of interactions between tumour cells and endothelial cells. To model tumour/endothelial-cell interactions, we co-cultured U87 human glioma cells with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). U87 cells induced an `activated' phenotype in HUVECs, including an increase in proliferation, migration and net-like formation. Activation was observed in co-cultures where cells were in direct contact and physically separated, suggesting an important role for soluble factor(s) in the phenotypic and genotypic changes observed. Expressional profiling of tumour-activated endothelial cells was evaluated using cDNA arrays and confirmed by quantitative PCR. Matching pairs of receptors/ligands were found to be coordinately expressed, including TGFβRII with TGFβ3, FGFRII and cysteine-rich fibroblast growth factor receptor (CRF-1) with FGF7 and FGF12, CCR1, CCR3, CCR5 with RANTES and calcitronin receptor-like gene (CALCRL) with adrenomedullin. Consistent with cDNA array data, immunohistochemical staining of expressed proteins revealed the upregulation of Tie-2 receptor in vitro and in vivo. Our data suggest that tumour-induced activation of quiescent endothelial cells involves the expression of angiogenesis-related receptors and the induction of autocrine growth loops. We suggest that tumour cells release growth factors that induce endothelial cells to express specific ligands and their cognate receptors coordinately.
Analysis of Child Gender Discrimination Based on Adults' Consumption Patterns: Microdata Evidence from China

The applications of the Rothbarth model of inferring child gender discrimination from the variations in parental living standard have consistently failed to uncover evidence for bias from surveys in countries with some of the world's worst welfare outcomes for girls. This paper demonstrates the importance of the remedies required for an effective implementation of that model with an application to a survey from urban China. The paper obtains econometric evidence for the presence of child gender bias for the survey by non-parametric and semiparametric methods in addition to the standard parametric estimates. The results reported for three categories of adult goods all suggest bias against girls, in contrast to those reported in earlier applications of the model to China. The additional probit estimates of the probability of having a second child conditional on the gender of the first child provide further support for our findings. The test results cast doubts on the previous findings that claim the Rothbarth model of gender discrimination to be ineffective in identifying evidence of bias from consumption patterns.
Oxygen‐sensitive contrast in blood for steady‐state free precession imaging

Steady‐state free precession (SSFP) methods have gained widespread recognition for their ability to provide fast scans at high signal‐to‐noise ratio. This paper demonstrates that such methods are also capable of reflecting functional information, particularly blood oxygenation state. It is well known that SSFP signals show substantial sensitivity to small off‐resonance frequency variations. However, that mechanism cannot explain the oxygen‐sensitive contrast in blood that was observed with steady‐state methods using phase‐cycled radiofrequency pulses. From theoretical and experimental models it is demonstrated that the mechanism responsible for such contrast originates from the motion of spins through local field inhomogeneities in and around deoxygenated red blood cells. In addition, this work shows that it is critical to choose the scan parameters carefully for robust oxygen‐sensitive contrast. Finally, it is demonstrated that it is possible to build a quantitative model that incorporates the Luz–Meiboom model, which had been used in the past to estimate quantitative measures of vascular blood oxygen levels. It is envisioned that this method could be instrumental in real‐time imaging focused on detecting diseases where the oxygen state of blood is impaired. Magn Reson Med 53:574–583, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Oil Prices and Exchange Rate Volatility in Nigeria: An Empirical Investigation

As a mono-product economy, where the main export commodity is crude oil, volatility in oil prices has implications for the Nigerian economy and, in particular, exchange rate movements. The latter is particularly important due to the twin dilemma of being an oilexporting and oil-importing country, a situation that emerged in the last decade. The study examined the effects of oil price volatility, demand for foreign exchange, and external reserves on exchange rate volatility in Nigeria using monthly data for the period 1999:1 to 2009:12. Drawing from the works of Jin (2008), the authors utilized cointegration technique and vector error correction model (VECM) for the long-run and the short-run analysis, respectively. The results showed that a 1.0 per cent permanent increase in oil price at the international market increases exchange rate volatility by 0.54 per cent in the long-run, while in the short-run by 0.02 per cent. Also a permanent 1.0 per cent increase in demand for foreign exchange increases exchange rate volatility by 14.8 per cent in the long-run. The study reaffirms the direct link of demand for foreign exchange and oil price volatility with exchange rate movements and, therefore, recommends that demand for foreign exchange should be closely monitored and exchange rate should move in tandem with the volatility in crude oil prices bearing in mind that Nigeria remains an oil-dependent
Industry certification: value, validity, and a place for SoDIS®

Industry certification is a veritable juggernaut driven by several dynamics: candidates seeking to boost knowledge, skills, status, and remuneration; the industry and professional associations seeking to set minimum standards, and raise the bar of competency levels; employers seeking ways to better qualify job candidates; consumers demanding knowledgeable and skilled professionals; and product vendors demanding highly competent technicians implement and support their products. Academic institutions are integrating industry certification in their curricula. A certification for the SoDIS (Software Development Impact Statements) methodology of ethics-based risk assessment has been mooted.
Joint PDF construction for sensor fusion and distributed detection

A novel method of constructing a joint PDF under H1, when the joint PDF under H0 is known, is developed. It has direct application in distributed detection systems. The construction is based on the exponential family and it is shown that asymptotically the constructed PDF is optimal. The generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) is derived based on this method for the partially observed linear model. Interestingly, the test statistic is equivalent to the clairvoyant GLRT, which uses the true PDF under H1, even if the noise is non-Gaussian.
Throughput Analysis in Multihop CSMA Packet Radio Networks

In this paper, we use a Markov model to develop a product form solution to efficiently analyze the throughput of arbitrary topology multihop packet radio networks that employ a carrier sensing multiple access (CSMA) protocol with perfect capture. We consider both exponential and nonexponential packet length distributions. Our method preserves the dependence between nodes, characteristic of CSMA, and determines the joint probability that nodes are transmitting. The product form analysis provides the basis for an automated algorithm that determines the maximum throughput in networks of size up to 100 radio nodes. Numerical examples for several networks are presented. This model has led to many theoretical and practical extensions. These include determination of conditions for product form analysis to hold, extension to other access protocols, and consideration of acknowledgments.