Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unraveling the dynamics and structure of functionalized self-assembled monolayers on gold using 2D IR spectroscopy and MD simulations

Significance Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are a form of nanotechnology that enables the functionalization of surfaces with single layers of chemically designed structures having tuned properties. In contrast to the characterization of time-average static structures, it is challenging to measure the dynamic behavior of SAMs on the timescales of molecular motions, i.e. picoseconds. Here we combine 2D IR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate alkyl chain monolayers functionalized with a head group. The dynamics reported by the head group are induced by the alkyl chain motions. For example, it was determined that SAMs with higher alkyl chain gauche defect content have faster dynamics caused by more frequent chain conformational fluctuations. Functionalized self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are the focus of ongoing investigations because they can be chemically tuned to control their structure and dynamics for a wide variety of applications, including electrochemistry, catalysis, and as models of biological interfaces. Here we combine reflection 2D infrared vibrational echo spectroscopy (R-2D IR) and molecular dynamics simulations to determine the relationship between the structures of functionalized alkanethiol SAMs on gold surfaces and their underlying molecular motions on timescales of tens to hundreds of picoseconds. We find that at higher head group density, the monolayers have more disorder in the alkyl chain packing and faster dynamics. The dynamics of alkanethiol SAMs on gold are much slower than the dynamics of alkylsiloxane SAMs on silica. Using the simulations, we assess how the different molecular motions of the alkyl chain monolayers give rise to the dynamics observed in the experiments.
Measuring characteristics of teacher professional development

The primary purpose of the study was to create and psychometrically test an instrument which measured teachers’ perceptions of characteristics of professional development. The sample consisted of elementary teachers from five school districts in Washington State participating in a district improvement initiative. Results of exploratory factor analysis resulted in a five-component solution which provided evidence of construct validity. All components/subscales had moderate to strong internal consistency as measured by Cronbach’s alpha. The secondary purpose was to determine if characteristics of professional development predicted teachers’ use of new knowledge and skills, and student learning outcomes, thus contributing to the predictive validity of the instrument. There was a slight, but significant, correlation between Active Learning in Classroom and teachers’ use of new knowledge and skills, as measured by classroom observation scores. A small negative correlation emerged between Collective Participation and student learning, as measured by student scores on the state’s mathematics assessment. Potential uses of the instrument, called Characteristics of Teacher Professional Development (CTPD), are discussed.
Opportunities for cost-effective prevention of late-life depression: an epidemiological approach.

CONTEXT Clinically relevant late-life depression has a prevalence of 16% and is associated with substantial societal costs through its disease burden and unfavorable prognosis. From the public health perspective, depression prevention may be an attractive, if not imperative, means to generate health gains and reduce future costs. OBJECTIVE To target high-risk groups for depression prevention such that maximum health gains are generated against the lowest cost. DESIGN Population-based cohort study over 3 years. SETTING General population in the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS Twenty-two hundred community residents aged 55 to 85 years. Of these, 1925 were not depressed at baseline. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE The onset of clinically relevant depression was measured with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. For each of the risk factors (and their combinations), we calculated indices of potential health gain and the effort (costs) required to generate those health gains. RESULTS One in every 5 cases of clinically relevant late-life depression is a new case. Consequently, depression prevention has to play a key role in reducing the influx of new cases. This is best done by directing prevention efforts toward elderly people who have depressive symptoms, experience functional impairment, and have a small social network, in particular women, as well as people who have attained only a low educational level or who suffer from chronic diseases. CONCLUSIONS Directing prevention efforts toward selected high-risk groups could help reduce the incidence of depression and is likely to be more cost-effective than alternative approaches. This article further shows that we have the methodology at our disposal to conduct ante hoc cost-benefit analysis in preventive psychiatry. This helps set a rational research and development agenda before testing the cost-effectiveness of interventions in time-consuming and expensive trials.
Informed embedding: exploiting image and detector information during watermark insertion

Usually watermark embedding simply adds a globally or locally attenuated watermark pattern to the cover data (photograph, music, movie). The attenuation is required to maintain fidelity of the cover data to an observer while the watermark detector considers the cover data to be "noise". We refer to this as blind embedding. Cox, Miller and McKellips (see Proceedings of the IEEE, vol.87, no.7, p.1127-41, 1999) observed that the cover data is not noise, i.e. it is not random but completely known at the time of embedding. This knowledge, along with knowledge of the detection algorithm to be used, allows a new category of informed embedder to be realized. We describe a simple watermarking algorithm and then compare the performance of blind embedding with three types of informed embedding. Note that in all four cases, the watermark detector is unchanged, only the embedder is altered. Experimental results clearly reveal the improvement of informed over blind embedding.
Conceptual Model Based Normalization of XML Views

As the popularity of XML as a format for data representation grows the need for storing XML data in an effective way grows as well. Recent research has provide us with effective solutions based on storing XML data into relational databases and with new technologies based on storing XML data in the native form. However, design of XML databases has not been studied sufficiently yet. In this paper, we suppose a set of XML schemes that describe XML representation of our data in several types of XML documents. We show that we can not usually store the data directly in this representation because it can contain redundancies. To design an optimal database schema we therefore need to locate these redundancies and eliminate them. We describe two types of redundancies in XML data in this paper and show how to utilize a conceptual schema of the XML schemes to locate such redundancies. We also show how to normalize the XML schemes to eliminate these redundancies.
Birmingham Stochastic Ranking Algorithm for Many-Objective Optimization Based on Multiple Indicators

—Traditional multiobjective evolutionary algorithms face a great challenge when dealing with many objectives. This is due to a high proportion of nondominated solutions in the population and low selection pressure toward the Pareto front. In order to tackle this issue, a series of indicator-based algorithms have been proposed to guide the search process toward the Pareto front. However, a single indicator might be biased and lead the population to converge to a subregion of the Pareto front. In this paper, a multi-indicator-based algorithm is proposed for many-objective optimization problems. The proposed algorithm, namely stochastic ranking-based multi-indicator Algorithm (SRA), adopts the stochastic ranking technique to balance the search biases of different indicators. Empirical studies on a large number (39 in total) of problem instances from two well-deﬁned benchmark sets with 5, 10, and 15 objectives demonstrate that SRA performs well in terms of inverted generational distance and hypervolume metrics when compared with state-of-the-art algorithms. Empirical studies also reveal that, in the case a problem requires the algorithm to have strong convergence ability, the performance of SRA can be further improved by incorporating a direction-based archive to store well-converged solutions and maintain diversity.
CLIC1 overexpression is associated with poor prognosis in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas.

BACKGROUND Clinical significance of chloride intracellular channel 1 (CLIC1) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) remains largely unknown. This study was performed to assess the expression of CLIC1 in benign and malignant pancreatic lesions, and to assess its clinicopathological significance. MATERIALS AND METHODS Tissue samples from resected PDAC (n = 70) and their matched normal pairs were evaluated for CLIC1 expression by immunohistochemical staining. Their expression was correlated with different clinicopathological parameters. RESULTS CLIC1 expression was significantly higher (67.1%) in PDAC than in adjacent control tissues (25.7%, P < 0.001). High CLIC1 levels were associated with the histological grade (P < 0.001) and tumor size (P < 0.001); but not with sex, age, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage, tumor location, or lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). Univariate Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that a positive CLIC1 expression was associated with a decreased overall survival (P < 0.01). Multivariate cox regression analysis showed that CLIC1 expression and lymph node metastasis were independent risk factors for disease-free survival. CONCLUSION The expression of CLIC1 might be closely related to the carcinogenesis, clinical biological behaviors, and prognosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas.
Cloning and sequencing of a multigene family encoding the flagellins of Methanococcus voltae

The flagellins of Methanococcus voltae are encoded by a multigene family of four related genes (flaA, flaB1, flaB2, and flaB3). All four genes map within the same region of the genome, with the last three arranged in a direct tandem. Northern (RNA) blot and primer extension analyses of total cellular RNA indicate that all four genes are transcribed. The flaB1, flaB2, and flaB3 flagellins are transcribed as part of a large polycistronic message which encodes at least one more protein which is not a flagellin. An intercistronic stem-loop followed by a poly(T) tract located between the flaB2 and flaB3 genes appears to increase the resistance of the flaB1/flaB2 portion of this polycistronic message to digestion by endogenous RNases. The flaA gene, located approximately 600 bp upstream from the tandem, is transcribed as a separate message at very low levels. The four open reading frames encode proteins of molecular weights 23,900, 22,400, 22,800, and 25,500, much less than the Mr values of 33,000 and 31,000 for the flagellins calculated from sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of isolated flagellar filaments. Each flagellin contains multiple eukaryotic glycosylation signals (Arg-X-Ser/Thr), although they do not appear to be glycoproteins, and each has an 11- or 12-amino-acid leader peptide. The N termini of all four flagellins (amino acids 1 through 47 of the mature protein) are very hydrophobic, and this region shows a high degree of homology with the flagellins from Halobacterium halobium.
The Dimensional Structure of Children’s Perceptions of Television Reality

Children's awareness of the dramatic and unreal nature of most of television (perceived reality) has been proposed as playing an important part in children's responses to television, although there is some disagreement as to just what that important part is. More basically, however, perceived reality has been assumed to be a unitary concept measurable by widely varying questionnaire items and experimental manipulations. Based on an explication of perceived reality that proposed a division into a variety of subdimensions, questionnaire items were constructed and responded to by children from nursery school. first. third, and sixth grades. Factor analyses revealed a basic important distinction between the degree to which children believe they are viewing either ongoing life or drama (Magic Window reality), and the degree to which they believe television characters and events do or do not match their expectations about the world (Social Expectations). An "adult discount" with age was found only for Magic Window reality; Social Expectations reality either increased with age or followed curvilinear trends. Given the breakdown of perceived reality into its component parts, further research should be much better equipped to examine its potential as in intervening variable in television effects.
Mediated Patriot Games

This article explores the relationship between national identity and media sport, focusing specifically on the construction and representations of national identities in the television coverage of the (men’s) 1996 European Football Championships (Euro ’96). While Anderson’s and Hobsbawm’s respective concepts of ‘imagined communities’ and ‘invented traditions’ are useful in this regard, the process-sociological perspective is also particularly helpful. National habitus codes, embodied feelings and the practical consciousness of the individuals who comprise a nation have been shown to play a powerful role in the foundation of cultural relations, identity politics and the construction and representation of national identities. The results of this textual analysis of Euro ’96 television coverage — supported by insights into the production codes that helped to construct the texts — suggest that it served to reinforce the stronger emotive I/we identification of the English with their own nation, rather than with the we-image of being also Europeans. The findings suggest that dominant I/we national identities are arguably strengthened in international sporting tournaments like Euro ’96, which can be seen as mediated patriot games where nation is pitted against nation, with matches framed as contests between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
The Eating Disorder Belief Questionnaire: In-Patient Adolescent Scores

This study sought to investigate the validity and use of the Eating Disorder Belief Questionnaire (EDBQ) with an in-patient sample of adolescents with anorexia nervosa ( n = 40). Results highlighted that participants were able to meaningfully complete the measure and that their scores were comparable with those reported for an adult out-patient eating disorder group. Participants EDBQ scores were significantly higher than those reported previously for ‘normal dieters’, patients with depression and ‘healthy’ controls, providing further evidence of the measure’s specificity in assessing anorexic cognitions. In light of the measure’s usefulness in assessing core beliefs and underlying assumptions in adolescents with anorexia nervosa, it is recommended that the EDBQ should be used as part of the clinical assessment of this client group.
Voltage-drop aware analytical placement by global power spreading for mixed-size circuit designs

Excessive supply voltage drops in a circuit may lead to significant circuit performance degradation and even malfunction. To handle this problem, existing power delivery aware placement algorithms model voltage drops as an optimization objective. We observe that directly minimizing voltage drops in an objective function might not resolve voltage-drop violations and might even cause problems in power-integrity convergence. To remedy this deficiency, in this paper, we propose new techniques to incorporate device power spreading forces into a mixed-size analytical placement framework. Unlike the state-of-the-art previous work that handles the worst voltage-drop spots one by one, our approach simultaneously and globally spreads all the blocks with voltage-drop violations to desired locations directly to minimize the violations. To apply the power force, we model macro current density and power rails for our placement framework to derive desired macro/cell locations. To further improve the solution quality, we propose an efficient mathematical transformation to adjust the power force direction and magnitude. Experimental results show that our approach can substantially improve the voltage drops, wirelength, and runtime over the previous work.
Constructing Actuarial Devices for Predicting Recidivism

A recent contribution to the prediction literature by Steadman et al. features a novel “iterative classification” procedure for constructing risk screening devices. In this article, the authors apply the iterative classification procedure to a large recidivism data set, across a range of recidivism outcomes and cross-validation conditions. The purpose of this study is to assess the generalizability of the iterative classification procedure and to draw comparisons with more traditional methods of device construction. Results show the iterative classification procedure to outperform other standard device construction procedures in terms of the percentage of cases classified as high or low risk but not to outperform more traditional device construction procedures on a variety of other performance measures. Implications for future research on the construction and evaluation of risk screening devices are discussed.
A distributed energy-efficient algorithm for resource allocation in downlink femtocell networks

Femtocells have attracted more and more attention in academia, industry and standardization forums. Besides, energy efficiency has been widely discussed in recent years. However, most of the existing works focus on the energy efficiency of macro base stations, the energy efficiency of femto base stations is neglected. In this paper, we study the maximization of energy efficiency of downlink OFDMA macro-femto networks. Both the transmit power constraint of femto base stations and the SINR thresholds of femto users and macro users are considered. We model the subchannel and power allocation problem as a non-cooperative game and a price function is introduced. To decrease the computational complexity, joint subchannel and power allocation are decomposed into two steps and a distributed resource allocation scheme is proposed to resolve the resource allocation problem. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has better performance in terms of energy efficiency compared with equal power allocation and an energy-efficient power control algorithm.
Semantic Annotation of Satellite Images Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation

In this letter, we are interested in the annotation of large satellite images, using semantic concepts defined by the user. This annotation task combines a step of supervised classification of patches of the large image and the integration of the spatial information between these patches. Given a training set of images for each concept, learning is based on the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model. This hierarchical model represents each item of a collection as a random mixture of latent topics, where each topic is characterized by a distribution over words. The LDA-based image representation is obtained using simple features extracted from image words. We then exploit the capability of the LDA model to assign probabilities to unseen images, in order to classify the patches of the large image into the semantic concepts, using the maximum-likelihood method. We conduct experiments on panchromatic QuickBird images with 60-cm resolution. Taking into account the spatial information between the patches shows to improve the annotation performance.
Comprehensive Analysis of a Yeast Lipase Family in the Yarrowia Clade

Lipases are currently the subject of intensive studies due to their large range of industrial applications. The Lip2p lipase from the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica (YlLIP2) was recently shown to be a good candidate for different biotechnological applications. Using a combination of comparative genomics approaches based on sequence similarity, synteny conservation, and phylogeny, we constructed the evolutionary scenario of the lipase family for six species of the Yarrowia clade. RNA-seq based transcriptome analysis revealed the primary role of LIP2 homologues in the assimilation of different substrates. Once identified, these YlLIP2 homologues were expressed in Y. lipolytica. The lipase Lip2a from Candida phangngensis was shown to naturally present better activity and enantioselectivity than YlLip2. Enantioselectivity was further improved by site-directed mutagenesis targeted to the substrate binding site. The mono-substituted variant V232S displayed enantioselectivity greater than 200 and a 2.5 fold increase in velocity. A double-substituted variant 97A-V232F presented reversed enantioselectivity, with a total preference for the R-enantiomer.
Medical and Nursing Students with Suboptimal Protective Immunity against Vaccine-Preventable Diseases

Objectives. Medical and nursing students (hereafter referred to as “healthcare students”) are at risk of contracting and transmitting infectious diseases in a hospital Setting. The aim of our study was to evaluate the vaccination history of healthcare students and their serologic immunity against vaccine-preventable diseases. Design. Prospective cohort study. Setting. A tertiary care children's hospital in Athens, Greece, which is affiliated with the University of Athens. Methods. Healthcare students were recruited during April through November 2007. The information obtained from these students during personal interviews included demographics and whether there was a history of varicella, measles, mumps, rubella, and/or hepatitis A or B virus infection. Vaccination history and documentation of disease were abstracted from available medical records. Serum antibodies against the above-mentioned viral agents were determined by use of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Seronegative students and those with immunization gaps were referred to local vaccination clinics, and compliance was assessed 3 months later. Results. A total of 187 healthcare students were recruited, 131 (70.1%) of whom provided complete documentation of vaccination history. Adequate immunity against diphtheria and tetanus was documented for 55 (37.2%) and 73 (49.3%) of the 148 participants, respectively, whereas age-appropriate vaccination against pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, and poliomyelitis was noted for 138 (93.2%), 147 (99.3%), 147 (99.3%), and 147 (99.3%) healthcare students, respectively. Of 185 healthcare students, 171 (92.4%) were immune to varicella. Of 182 healthcare students, 179 (98.4%) were immune to measles, 163 (89.6%) were immune to mumps, and 176 (96.7%) were immune to rubella. Of 179 healthcare students, 151 (84.4%) were immune to hepatitis B virus. Of 178 healthcare students, 26 (14.6%) were immune to hepatitis A virus. Antibodies (10 IU/L or higher) to hepatitis B surface antigen were detected for 151 (84.4%) of 179 healthcare students, and antibodies (10 IU/L or higher) to hepatitis A virus were detected for 26 (14.6%) of 178 healthcare students. Fewer than 30% of participants were in full compliance with recommended vaccinations. Conclusions. We have determined that there is a certain proportion of healthcare students who are susceptible to certain vaccine-preventable diseases. The development of an appropriate vaccination strategy is required to decrease the risk of transmission in a hospital setting.