Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metal Hyperaccumulation Armors Plants against Disease

Metal hyperaccumulation, in which plants store exceptional concentrations of metals in their shoots, is an unusual trait whose evolutionary and ecological significance has prompted extensive debate. Hyperaccumulator plants are usually found on metalliferous soils, and it has been proposed that hyperaccumulation provides a defense against herbivores and pathogens, an idea termed the ‘elemental defense’ hypothesis. We have investigated this hypothesis using the crucifer Thlaspi caerulescens, a hyperaccumulator of zinc, nickel, and cadmium, and the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. maculicola (Psm). Using leaf inoculation assays, we have shown that hyperaccumulation of any of the three metals inhibits growth of Psm in planta. Metal concentrations in the bulk leaf and in the apoplast, through which the pathogen invades the leaf, were shown to be sufficient to account for the defensive effect by comparison with in vitro dose–response curves. Further, mutants of Psm with increased and decreased zinc tolerance created by transposon insertion had either enhanced or reduced ability, respectively, to grow in high-zinc plants, indicating that the metal affects the pathogen directly. Finally, we have shown that bacteria naturally colonizing T. caerulescens leaves at the site of a former lead–zinc mine have high zinc tolerance compared with bacteria isolated from non-accumulating plants, suggesting local adaptation to high metal. These results demonstrate that the disease resistance observed in metal-exposed T. caerulescens can be attributed to a direct effect of metal hyperaccumulation, which may thus be functionally analogous to the resistance conferred by antimicrobial metabolites in non-accumulating plants.
ARE SHOCKS TO REAL OUTPUT PERMANENT OR TRANSITORY? EVIDENCE FROM A PANEL OF PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES

Panel unit root and stationarity tests without structural breaks suggest that for eight Pacific island economies real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita contains a unit root. The panel stationarity test that accommodates structural change in the trend function, however, finds evidence in favour of regimewise trend stationarity. This result points to the importance of taking structural breaks into account. The finding implies that, for the period considered, the permanent secular component of output is dominated by transitory fluctuations accompanied by infrequent changes in the trend function. The only exceptions are Fiji and Kiribati, for which individual stationarity tests with multiple structural breaks suggest that real GDP per capita contains a unit root.
L'Evaluation ex-post des operations locales de maitrise de la demande en energie : Etat de l'art, méthodes bottom-up, exemples appliqués et approche du développement d'une culture pratique de l'évaluation

La Maitrise de la Demande en Energie s'impose comme une priorite dans un contexte d'epuisement des ressources et de reduction des emissions polluantes. En parallele, les echelons locaux prennent une importance croissante dans la mise en oeuvre des activites de MDE, dont le cadre evolue (ouverture des marches, nouveaux instruments d'intervention). Dans ce contexte, les besoins en evaluation ex-post augmentent, aussi bien pour des raisons reglementaires que pour aider a un necessaire changement d'echelle. Notre these etudie la problematique originale de l'evaluation ex-post des operations locales de MDE en France. L'etat de l'art, au travers de l'analyse des experiences americaines et europeennes ainsi que des ouvrages de reference dans le domaine, fournit un materiau methodologique consequent et fait ressortir les questions cles liees a l'evaluation. En parallele, les operations locales de MDE en France sont caracterisees par une analyse de leur contexte et un travail sur leurs criteres de segmentation. La combinaison de ces criteres avec les questions cles de l'evaluation donne une grille d'analyse qui sert de base a la constitution de methodes d'evaluation. L'etude des specificites des operations locales precise de plus les besoins associes en evaluation. Une methodologie est ensuite developpee pour completer et adapter les materiaux existants au cas des operations locales afin de mettre au point des methodes d'evaluation operationnelles, facilement appropriables par les acteurs et permettant d'alimenter un processus de capitalisation d'experiences. Ces methodes permettent de repondre aux deux objectifs principaux : quantifier les resultats obtenus, et detecter les facteurs de succes/echec. La methodologie a ete validee sur des cas concrets, pour lesquels ces objectifs ont ete atteints.
National and Global Origins of Environmental Association

We examine the origins of voluntary associations devoted to environmental protection, focusing on the divergent trajectories of industrialized versus developing countries. We consider a wide range of domestic economic, political, and institutional dynamics that give rise to environmental associations. Developing and extending neo-institutional world polity arguments, we characterize domestic association in the developing world as the product of global cultural models, legitimation, and resources. Using event history and dynamic panel models, we analyze the formation of domestic environmental associations for a large sample of countries in the contemporary period. Among highly industrialized countries, domestic factors—resources and political institutions that afford favorable opportunities—largely explain the prevalence of environmental associations. In contrast, global forces are a powerful catalyst for environmental organizing in the developing world. The environmental movement, which had domestic origins in the West, became institutionalized in the world polity, generating new associations on a global scale. We also find positive effects of democratic institutions and philanthropic foundations. Environmental degradation and societal affluence are not primary drivers of environmental association. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of globally-sponsored voluntary associations, which appear to be common in the developing world.
How social fear of drugs in the non-sporting world creates a framework for doping policy in the sporting world

Doping policy is usually presented as though it sits separate from other societal issues, and yet in part, it is clearly a reflection of the broader concerns and historical responses to drug use in the non-sporting world. This is an under-researched aspect of doping policy formation and continuity. With reference to a number of key ‘drug myths’ and a broad discursive framework of fear and ‘othering’ in the non-sporting world, this article will attempt to show how the ‘drug problem’ has been essentially framed in that arena so that comparisons can be made to the development of doping policy. It will be argued that the broader social context has long inflected upon doping administrators and doping policy and that this has resulted in a relative mirroring of policy formation discourses and trajectory found in the non-sporting world. It will be further argued that this mirroring is reflected in a number of key drug myths and discursive positionings that have emerged in the sporting world: for example, that efficacious performance enhancement is a simple issue, that the health risks are like playing Russian Roulette, that doping undermines sport/morality to a degree that other forms of cheating do not and that doping policy is rational. It will be argued that a fear-based approach to drugs policy can result in a policy that does not protect those it is supposed to and results in a disproportionate and uninformed response.
The effects of employee services on organizational commitment and intentions to quit

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of the provision of employee services on employees' organizational commitment and their intentions to quit as well as their underlying reasons.Design/methodology/approach – The paper shows that questionnaires were administered at two organizations in Singapore to evaluate employees' attitudes resulting from the provision of employee services. Mediator regression analyses and structural equation modeling were used to test the relationships between the provision of employee services with construed external image of the organization, valence for employee services, organizational identification, organizational commitment, and intentions to quit.Findings – The paper found that positive employee attitudes arising from the provision of employee services were the result of a positive construed external image of the organization. It also shows that, when employees perceived that outsiders viewed their organization positively, their level of identificati.
Filterbank learning using Convolutional Restricted Boltzmann Machine for speech recognition

Convolutional Restricted Boltzmann Machine (ConvRBM) as a model for speech signal is presented in this paper. We have developed ConvRBM with sampling from noisy rectified linear units (NReLUs). ConvRBM is trained in an unsupervised way to model speech signal of arbitrary lengths. Weights of the model can represent an auditory-like filterbank. Our proposed learned filterbank is also nonlinear with respect to center frequencies of subband filters similar to standard filterbanks (such as Mel, Bark, ERB, etc.). We have used our proposed model as a front-end to learn features and applied to speech recognition task. Performance of ConvRBM features is improved compared to MFCC with relative improvement of 5% on TIMIT test set and 7% on WSJ0 database for both Nov'92 test sets using GMM-HMM systems. With DNN-HMM systems, we achieved relative improvement of 3% on TIMIT test set over MFCC and Mel filterbank (FBANK). On WSJ0 Nov'92 test sets, we achieved relative improvement of 4-14% using ConvRBM features over MFCC features and 3.6-5.6% using ConvRBM filterbank over FBANK features.
It feels good to learn where I belong: School belonging, academic emotions, and academic achievement in adolescents

This study examined the relationships between school belonging, academic emotions, and academic achievement in Macau adolescents. A survey of 406 junior high school students in Macau was used to collect information on the extent to which these students felt accepted and respected in their schools (school belonging), the emotions they experienced in learning (academic emotions), and their grade point averages. Path analysis indicated that academic emotions mediated the relation between school belonging and academic achievement. Students with a greater sense of school belonging experienced more positive emotions (both activating and deactivating) and less negative deactivating emotions, which in turn contributed to their academic success. A sense of being rejected in school can affect academic achievement negatively through facilitating negative deactivating emotions and inhibiting positive deactivating emotions.
Comparing Nalmefene and Naltrexone in Alcohol Dependence: Are there any Differences? Results from an Indirect Meta-Analysis

Abstract Background: The mu-opioid antagonist naltrexone is one of the few approved pharmacotherapies for the treatment of alcohol dependence. Recently, the mu-opioid antagonist and partial kappa agonist nalmefene was approved by the European Medicines Agency for the reduction of alcohol consumption in adult patients with alcohol dependence. To date, no head-to-head studies have compared the efficacy and safety of naltrexone and nalmefene in reducing alcohol consumption. Methods: An indirect meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies on these 2 medications was conducted. A random effects model was used to measure effects and compare the 2 medications. 4 placebo-controlled studies with nalmefene and 13 with naltrexone were included. Results: A statistically significant advantage of nalmefene towards naltrexone in the 2 patient-relevant outcome efficacy criteria, quantity and frequency of drinking, was found. Both drugs had a benign safety profile. Conclusions: This indirect meta-analysis indicates an advantage of nalmefene over naltrexone. Nalmefene is an effective and well-tolerated medication for the reduction of alcohol consumption. Additional data are necessary to demonstrate possible advantages of nalmefene over naltrexone in the treatment of alcohol dependence.
Chromatically rich phenomenal percepts

Visual percepts frequently appear chromatically rich, yet their paucity in reportable information has led to widely accepted minimalist models of vision. The discrepancy may be resolved by positing that the richness of natural scenes is reflected in phenomenal consciousness but not in detail in the phenomenal judgments upon which reports about qualia are based. Conceptual awareness (including phenomenal judgments) arises from neural mechanisms that categorize objects, and also from mechanisms that conceptually characterize textural properties of pre‐categorically segmented regions in the visual field. Experimental evidence suggests that complex images instigate the generation of so‐called ensemble phenomenal judgments. These involve concepts that categorize global attributes of segmented areas but carry no information pertaining to details. It is then argued that there are cogent reasons for believing that phenomenal percepts (i.e. qualia) arising from chromatically complex stimuli cohere in this ensemble sense with both the stimulus and with the resulting ensemble phenomenal judgments. Thus, spatially detailed retinal images are deemed to yield correspondingly detailed phenomenal experiences that are in turn conceptually apprehended via a relatively small number of ensemble phenomenal judgments. Lastly, it is suggested that the bridge locus for chromatically rich phenomenal experiences is most plausibly located early in the cortical visual pathway.
A Proposal for Internationalizing Counseling Psychology in the United States:

This article, written by the coeditors of The Counseling Psychologist's (TCP) International Forum section, reviews the status of counseling psychology from an international perspective and presents a rational and modest proposal for promoting counseling psychology's commitment to global perspectives. The brief history of TCP's International Forum section is reviewed and specific recommendations for internationalizing counseling psychology are put forth. These recommendations are organized along (a) methods of psychological science, (b) profession-based initiatives, (c) Division 17 (counseling psychology) initiatives, and (d) program-specific activities. The marked challenges to internationalizing counseling psychology are also addressed.
A Meta-Analysis of Relationships Linking Service Failure Attributions to Customer Outcomes

When they experience service failures, customers look for causes. They seek to understand whether the service firm could have prevented the failure (controllability attribution) and whether the cause of the failure is temporary or constant over time (stability attribution). To understand such attributions, we perform a meta-analysis. We find that causal attributions are related to emotional and cognitive reactions in several ways. First, controllability attributions elicit stronger negative emotions than do stability attributions. Second, controllability attributions directly affect only transaction-specific satisfaction, whereas stability attributions directly affect customers’ transaction-specific and overall satisfaction. Third, both attributions affect loyalty and negative word of mouth through negative emotions, overall satisfaction, and transaction-specific satisfaction. Finally, contextual (i.e., cultural values), methodological (i.e., type of failure), and measurement factors (i.e., measurement scale) partly explain studywise variation in the effects of attributions on customer outcomes. We recommend that companies manage reactions to service failure thrice: before customers formulate attributional beliefs, using fast and accurate communication; when the attributional beliefs are formed, offering employee assistance and compensations; and well after the attributional beliefs are established, providing feedback on process improvements by the company.
Adherence-dependent increase in human monocyte PDGF(B) mRNA is associated with increases in c-fos, c-jun, and EGR2 mRNA

Adherence is an important initial step in the transition of a circulating monocyte to a tissue macrophage. This differentiation is accompanied by an augmented capacity to generate growth factors. We hypothesized that adherence itself might be an important trigger for a sequence of gene activation culminating in cells with increased mRNA encoding profibrotic growth factors such as platelet-derived growth factor B subunit (PDGF[B]) and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF- beta). After in vitro adherence, human monocytes had a biphasic increase in PDGF(B) mRNA with peaks at 6 h and 13 d. No increase in TGF- beta mRNA was observed. The 6-h increase in PDGF(B) mRNA was adherence dependent, and in addition, was abrogated when the cytoskeletal integrity was compromised by cytochalasin D. The 6-h increase in PDGF(B) mRNA was unaltered by adherence in the presence of the monocyte stimulus lipopolysaccharide. Adherence to either fibronectin or collagen-coated plastic had little consistent effect on PDGF(B) mRNA accumulation. The increased PDGF(B) mRNA observed in adherent monocytes was accompanied by increases in mRNAs of the early growth response genes c-fos (maximal at 20 min), c-jun, and EGR2 (maximal at 6-24 h). The increase in c-jun and EGR2, but not c-fos, mRNA was also abrogated by cytochalasin D. These observations suggest that adherence results in increases of c-fos, c-jun, EGR2, and PDGF(B) mRNA. In addition, the increases in c-jun, EGR2, and PDGF(B) may depend on cytoskeletal rearrangement. Modulation of these events at the time of adherence offers a mechanism by which differential priming of the cells may be accomplished.
Modeling human osteosarcoma in mice through 3AB‐OS cancer stem cell xenografts

Osteosarcoma is the second leading cause of cancer‐related death for children and young adults. In this study, we have subcutaneously injected—with and without matrigel—athymic mice (Fox1nu/nu) with human osteosarcoma 3AB‐OS pluripotent cancer stem cells (CSCs), which we previously isolated from human osteosarcoma MG63 cells. Engrafted 3AB‐OS cells were highly tumorigenic and matrigel greatly accelerated both tumor engraftment and growth rate. 3AB‐OS CSC xenografts lacked crucial regulators of beta‐catenin levels (E‐cadherin, APC, and GSK‐3beta), and crucial factors to restrain proliferation, resulting therefore in a strong proliferation potential. During the first weeks of engraftment 3AB‐OS‐derived tumors expressed high levels of pAKT, beta1‐integrin and pFAK, nuclear beta‐catenin, c‐Myc, cyclin D2, along with high levels of hyperphosphorylated‐inactive pRb and anti‐apoptotic proteins such as Bcl‐2 and XIAP, and matrigel increased the expression of proliferative markers. Thereafter 3AB‐OS tumor xenografts obtained with matrigel co‐injection showed decreased proliferative potential and AKT levels, and undetectable hyperphosphorylated pRb, whereas beta1‐integrin and pFAK levels still increased. Engrafted tumor cells also showed multilineage commitment with matrigel particularly favoring the mesenchymal lineage. Concomitantly, many blood vessels and muscle fibers appeared in the tumor mass. Our findings suggest that matrigel might regulate 3AB‐OS cell behavior providing adequate cues for transducing proliferation and differentiation signals triggered by pAKT, beta1‐integrin, and pFAK and addressed by pRb protein. Our results provide for the first time a mouse model that recapitulates in vivo crucial features of human osteosarcoma CSCs that could be used to test and predict the efficacy in vivo of novel therapeutic treatments. J. Cell. Biochem. 113: 3380–3392, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Unsupervised Learning of Sentence Representations using Convolutional Neural Networks

We propose a new encoder-decoder approach to learn distributed sentence representations from unlabeled sentences. The word-to-vector representation is used, and convolutional neural networks are employed as sentence encoders, mapping an input sentence into a fixed-length vector. This representation is decoded using long short-term memory recurrent neural networks, considering several tasks, such as reconstructing the input sentence, or predicting the future sentence. We further describe a hierarchical encoder-decoder model to encode a sentence to predict multiple future sentences. By training our models on a large collection of novels, we obtain a highly generic convolutional sentence encoder that performs well in practice. Experimental results on several benchmark datasets, and across a broad range of applications, demonstrate the superiority of the proposed model over competing methods.
Chomsky's Theory of Language: Some Recent Observations

The story of psycholinguistics in the second half of the 20th century is to a large extent the story of the evolution of Chomsky’s theory of grammar (Chomsky, 1957, 1965, 1980, 1986). At each stage in this evolution, Chomsky’s views regarding linguistic knowledge or competence have had a profound impact on research and theory in psycholinguistics as they concern both language acquisition in children and language performance in mature, language users. The foundation of Chomsky’s theory is the view that there is a strong, innate, specifically linguistic component in language acquisition (henceforth, the inizaterzess view) that acts to constrain the language acquisition process and the form of the resulting language. In the present article, I review three books that offer data relevant to this view (Poizner. Klima, & Bellugi; Radford; Yamada) and one that applies Chomsky’s recent description of mature linguistic competence to the study of language deficits in adults (Grodzinsky). First, however, I provide some background. According to Chomsky (see also the reviews in Cook, 1988; Haegeman, 1991; Rosenberg & Abbeduto, in press; and Sells, 1985), the initial state of a child’s linguistic knowledge (i.e., prior to the onset of language acquisition) is captured by the notion of iiniversal grammar, which consists of an innate system of principles and parameters (of variation across languages) that guide the acquisition of any human language. One of the principles is the projection principle. For example, certain aspects of the meaning of the word hit require an entity to do the hitting and an object to serve as the recipient of the action. The minimal syntactic (sentential) structure for expressing such a semantic relation would have to consist of a verb and two nouns, one to serve as subject and one as direct object. Thus, the semantic restrictions of
The Development of Risk Communication

This article describes the development of risk communication in the environmental and technological domain by systematically analyzing the literature as it is available through scientific journals. In total, 349 articles published between 1988 and 2000 were analyzed, with three research questions in mind: How can we characterize the risk communication literature? Do trends exist in risk communication literature? and What do scientific indicators tell us about the nature of the published papers on risk communication? The articles were sampled from the online databases ofWeb of Science. Results indicate that risk communication currently is dominated by a few important writers from the Western world and one very influential journal, and that desk research/narrative essays are published most frequently. This article also observes a steadily climbing number of publications, scientists from various backgrounds, and identifiable nodes of high production. Several recommendations for future developments in risk communication are made.