Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Population Dynamics and Internal Warfare: A Reconsideration *

The hypothesis that population pressure causes increased warfare has been recently criticized on the empirical grounds. Both studies focusing on specific historical societies and analyses of cross-cultural data fail to find positive correlation between population density and incidence of warfare. In this paper we argue that such negative results do not falsify the population-warfare hypothesis. Population and warfare are dynamical variables, and if their interaction causes sustained oscillations, then we do not in general expect to find strong correlation between the two variables measured at the same time (that is, unlagged). We explore mathematically what the dynamical patterns of interaction between population and warfare (focusing on internal warfare) might be in both stateless and state societies. Next, we test the model predictions in several empirical case studies: early modern England, Han and Tang China, and the Roman Empire. Our empirical results support the population-warfare theory: we find that there is a tendency for population numbers and internal warfare intensity to oscillate with the same period but shifted in phase (with warfare peaks following population peaks). Furthermore, the rates of change of the two variables behave precisely as predicted by the theory: population rate of change is negatively affected by warfare intensity, while warfare rate of change is positively affected by population densityKey words: population, warfare, dynamics, nonlinear feedback loops, mathematical models.
Feasibility of ocean fertilization and its impact on future atmospheric CO2 levels

Iron fertilization of macronutrient‐rich but biologically unproductive ocean waters has been proposed for sequestering anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2). The first carbon export measurements in the Southern Ocean (SO) during the recent SO‐Iron Experiment (SOFeX) yielded ∼900 t C exported per 1.26 t Fe added. This allows the first realistic, data‐based feasibility assessment of large‐scale iron fertilization and corresponding future atmospheric CO2 prognosis. Using various carbon cycle models, we find that if 20% of the world's surface ocean were fertilized 15 times per year until year 2100, it would reduce atmospheric CO2 by ≲15 ppmv at an expected level of ∼700 ppmv for business‐as‐usual scenarios. Thus, based on the SOFeX results and currently available technology, large–scale oceanic iron fertilization appears not a feasible strategy to sequester anthropogenic CO2.
Triangular-Chain Conditional Random Fields

Sequential modeling is a fundamental task in scientific fields, especially in speech and natural language processing, where many problems of sequential data can be cast as a sequential labeling or a sequence classification. In many applications, the two problems are often correlated, for example named entity recognition and dialog act classification for spoken language understanding. This paper presents triangular-chain conditional random fields (CRFs), a unified probabilistic model combining two related problems. Triangular-chain CRFs jointly represent the sequence and meta-sequence labels in a single graphical structure that both explicitly encodes their dependencies and preserves uncertainty between them. An efficient inference and parameter estimation method is described for triangular-chain CRFs by extending linear-chain CRFs. This method outperforms baseline models on synthetic data and real-world dialog data for spoken language understanding.
Political Inequalities Start at Home: Parents, Children, and the Socialization of Civic Infrastructure Online

We use a two-wave panel survey of parent-child dyads in the United States to connect online democratic divides with the unequal socialization of political interest in the home. We test a model connecting parent socioeconomic status to the amount of political communication in the home and the subsequent development of youth political interest over the course of an election cycle. We develop the theoretical concept of online civic infrastructure to foreground how interest-driven social media use in adolescence may shape future opportunities for civic and political engagement by building network connections and opening up flows of communication that carry news, political information, and opportunities for mobilization.
Metagenomic Analysis of Upwelling-Affected Brazilian Coastal Seawater Reveals Sequence Domains of Type I PKS and Modular NRPS

Marine environments harbor a wide range of microorganisms from the three domains of life. These microorganisms have great potential to enable discovery of new enzymes and bioactive compounds for industrial use. However, only ~1% of microorganisms from the environment can currently be identified through cultured isolates, limiting the discovery of new compounds. To overcome this limitation, a metagenomics approach has been widely adopted for biodiversity studies on samples from marine environments. In this study, we screened metagenomes in order to estimate the potential for new natural compound synthesis mediated by diversity in the Polyketide Synthase (PKS) and Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetase (NRPS) genes. The samples were collected from the Praia dos Anjos (Angel’s Beach) surface water—Arraial do Cabo (Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil), an environment affected by upwelling. In order to evaluate the potential for screening natural products in Arraial do Cabo samples, we used KS (keto-synthase) and C (condensation) domains (from PKS and NRPS, respectively) to build Hidden Markov Models (HMM) models. From both samples, a total of 84 KS and 46 C novel domain sequences were obtained, showing the potential of this environment for the discovery of new genes of biotechnological interest. These domains were classified by phylogenetic analysis and this was the first study conducted to screen PKS and NRPS genes in an upwelling affected sample
LTP Promotes a Selective Long-Term Stabilization and Clustering of Dendritic Spines

Dendritic spines are the main postsynaptic site of excitatory contacts between neurons in the central nervous system. On cortical neurons, spines undergo a continuous turnover regulated by development and sensory activity. However, the functional implications of this synaptic remodeling for network properties remain currently unknown. Using repetitive confocal imaging on hippocampal organotypic cultures, we find that learning-related patterns of activity that induce long-term potentiation act as a selection mechanism for the stabilization and localization of spines. Through a lasting N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor and protein synthesis–dependent increase in protrusion growth and turnover, induction of plasticity promotes a pruning and replacement of nonactivated spines by new ones together with a selective stabilization of activated synapses. Furthermore, most newly formed spines preferentially grow in close proximity to activated synapses and become functional within 24 h, leading to a clustering of functional synapses. Our results indicate that synaptic remodeling associated with induction of long-term potentiation favors the selection of inputs showing spatiotemporal interactions on a given neuron.
Evaluation of Single-Impact-Induced Cartilage Degeneration by Optical Coherence Tomography

Posttraumatic osteoarthritis constitutes a major cause of disability in our increasingly elderly population. Unfortunately, current imaging modalities are too insensitive to detect early degenerative changes of this disease. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a promising nondestructive imaging technique that allows surface and subsurface imaging of cartilage, at near-histological resolution, and is principally applicable in vivo during arthroscopy. Thirty-four macroscopically normal human cartilage-bone samples obtained from total joint replacements were subjected to standardized single impacts in vitro (range: 0.25 J to 0.98 J). 3D OCT measurements of impact area and adjacent tissue were performed prior to impaction, directly after impaction, and 1, 4, and 8 days later. OCT images were assessed qualitatively (DJD classification) and quantitatively using established parameters (OII, Optical Irregularity Index; OHI, Optical Homogeneity Index; OAI, Optical Attenuation Index) and compared to corresponding histological sections. While OAI and OHI scores were not significantly changed in response to low- or moderate-impact energies, high-impact energies significantly increased mean DJD grades (histology and OCT) and OII scores. In conclusion, OCT-based parameterization and quantification are able to reliably detect loss of cartilage surface integrity after high-energy traumatic insults and hold potential to be used for clinical screening of early osteoarthritis.
Standard model statistics of a type II orientifold

We analyse four‐dimensional, supersymmetric intersecting D‐brane models in a toroidal orientifold background from a statistical perspective. The distribution and correlation of observables, like gauge groups and couplings, are discussed. We focus on models with a Standard Model‐like gauge sector, derive frequency distributions for their occurence and analyse the properties of the hidden sector.
GUILT AND HOSTILITY IN DEPRESSION

The presence and absence of the feelings of guilt and hostility in depression had been a matter of controversy in the crosscultural literature. In the psychopathology of depression, these feelings have been considered playing a significant role. Redlich and Freedman (1966) reported that the feelings of guilt in depressive patients were found to be associated with shame as well as unworthiness over the past sins and failures. Murphy et al. (1967) related the guilt feelings in the European depressives to the Judo Christian emphasis on sin and guilt and to the internalized ideals of behaviour. Psychoanalytically oriented researchers have held that guilt is uncommon in nonwestem cultures and hence depression is also uncommon. The paucity of guilt feeling in depression of African countries has been noticed by various workers (Lambo, 1956 ; Yap, 1958 ; Amara, 1967). Lambo (1956) thought that this variety of guilt feelings in depressives could be due to erroneous diagnosis. Commenting on the findings of various workers in African countries Yap (1965) remarked that there was a paucity and mildness of guilt and unworthiness expressed in such patients. In our country, there are only few reports on the symptoms of depressive patients. Ansari (1969) reported guilt feelings in 67.5% of his 40 depressed patients. Similarly, Venkoba Rao (1966) found these feelings in 26.7%, Bagadia, et al. (1973) in 5.3%, Teja et al. (1971) in 48% and Sethi et al. (1973) in 11.7% of depressive patients. Teja et al. (1971) compared 100 Indian depressive with depressed patients studied by Venkoba Rao (1966) and in two British studies and showed that the occurrence of guilt was statistically the same in all four studies. The nature of feelings of guilt observed in Indian patients was of impersonal character. Their feeling of unworthiness, self abasement, shame and guilt are handled by the mechanism of projection. Contrary to the earlier findings, Venkoba Rao (1978) found guilt feelings only in 8% of depressions. Regarding the other aspect, that is, hostility in depressives, the earlier classical formulation presented by Freud (1916) and Abraham (1911) pointed out that these feelings are reverted towards the self rather than object world in depressive illness. In such patients, the ability to express their hostile feelings outwardly has not been observed. In another formulation Rubinfine (1968) stated that the warding off of the feelings of hostility in depressives helped them to preserve their original love object. Blaint (1952) considered the importance of depressives' feelings of bitterness and resentment, though these were not considered as the essential elements of depression. On the contrary, Buss (1961) had observed depressives readily expressing their resentment. Similar findings were reported by Weisman et al. (1960) in his study of females with the help of Rosenweig's PF Test.
Do Managers Overreact to Salient Risks? Evidence from Hurricane Strikes

Consistent with salience theories of choice, we find that managers overreact to salient risks. We study how managers respond to the occurrence of a hurricane event when their firms are located in the neighborhood of the disaster area. We find that the sudden shock to the perceived liquidity risk leads managers to increase the amount of corporate cash holdings, even though the real liquidity risk remains unchanged. Such an increase in cash holdings is only temporary. Over time, the perceived risk decreases, and the bias disappears. This bias is costly for shareholders because it leads to higher retained earnings and negatively impacts firm value by reducing the value of cash. We examine alternative explanations for our findings. In particular, we find only weak evidence that the possibility of risk learning or regional spillover effects may influence our results.
Hiding clusters in adversarial settings

In adversarial settings, records associated with those who want to conceal their existence or activities tend to be unusual because of their illicit status; but not too unusual because of efforts to make them as normal as possible. Clusters of such records will not be single outliers or even outlying clusters, but rather small clusters on the fringes of normal clusters. Such structures are undetectable by many mainstream clustering algorithms, for example those based on distance and convexity. We show that even more sophisticated clustering algorithms are easily subverted by the addition of only a few carefully chosen records. Robust clustering in adversarial settings will require the development of more sophisticated algorithms tailored to this domain.
The Angular Momentum of Gas in Protogalaxies. I. Implications for the Formation of Disk Galaxies

We use numerical simulations of structure formation in a cold dark matter cosmology to compare the angular momentum distributions of dark matter and nonradiative gas in a large sample of halos. We show that the two components have identical spin parameter distributions and that their angular momentum distributions within individual halos are very similar, all in excellent agreement with standard assumptions. Despite these similarities, however, we find that the angular momentum vectors of the gas and dark matter are poorly aligned, with a median misalignment angle of ~30°, which might have important implications for spin correlation statistics used in weak lensing studies. We present distributions for the component of the angular momentum that is aligned with the total angular momentum of each halo and find that for between 5% and 50% of the mass, this component is negative. This disagrees with the generally adopted "universal" angular momentum distribution, for which the mass fraction with negative specific angular momentum is zero. We discuss the implications of our results for the formation of disk galaxies. Since galactic disks generally do not contain counterrotating stars or gas, disk formation cannot occur under detailed conservation of specific angular momentum. We suggest that the material with negative specific angular momentum combines with positive angular momentum material to build a bulge component, and we show that in such a scenario the remaining material can form a disk with a density distribution that is very close to exponential.
Evidence for local and systemic activation of immune cells by peritumoral injections of interleukin 2 in patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

Interleukin 2 (IL2) was injected peritumorally and intranodally in 36 patients with unresectable squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck enrolled in an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group-sponsored phase Ib trial (EST P-Z388). Groups of 6 patients received escalating doses(200, 2 x 10(3), 2 x 10(4), 2 x 10(5), 2 x 10(6), and 4 x 10(6) units) of IL2 daily 5 times/week for 2 weeks. Tumor biopsies were obtained before and after IL2 therapy. Tumor tissue was provided for histology, and the remaining fresh tissue was divided for snap-freezing in -75 degrees C and for separation of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and tumor cells. Immunophenotyping of TIL performed on cryostat sections of paired pre- and post-IL2 biopsy tissues showed increases after IL2 therapy in the number of T-cells (P = 0.005), natural killer (NK; CD16+) cells (P = 0.0001), CD25+ cells (P = 0.004), and HLA-DR+ cells (P = 0.001) accumulating in the tumor stroma. In the tumor parenchyma, NK cells (P = 0.0001) and HLA-DR+ cells (P = 0.003) were increased after IL2 therapy. The T:NK cell ratios in the tumor stroma and parenchyma were decreased after therapy, suggesting selective accumulation of NK cells. By flow cytometry, TIL recovered from post-IL2 biopsy tissues were enriched (P < 0.05) in CD3-CD56+ (NK) cells. In situ hybridization with [35S] cDNA probes for cytokines and IL2 receptors indicated that the numbers of cells expressing mRNA for IL2, tumor necrosis factor alpha, IL1-beta, gamma-interferon, transforming growth factor beta, and IL2 receptor p55 or p70 were increased in post-IL2 biopsy tissues as compared to pre-IL2 tissues. Cytolytic activity of TIL isolated from post-IL2 tissues was also increased, as determined in 4-h 51Cr release assays against K562 targets (12 +/- 3 mean lytic units/10(7) cells +/- SEM pre-IL2 versus 46 +/- 13 post-IL2; n = 16) and against autologous tumor (13 +/- 8 versus 68 +/- 26; n = 9). Fresh TIL of one clinical responder showed relatively high levels (195 lytic units) of autotumor cytotoxicity after IL2 therapy versus no activity prior to therapy. In the blood, NK and lymphokine-activated killer cell activity, and percentages of CD3-CD56+ NK cells and of activated (CD25+) T-lymphocytes were increased for all doses of IL2. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
A cost-effectiveness analysis of folic acid fortification policy in the United States

Abstract Objective To quantify the health and economic outcomes associated with changes in folic acid consumption following the fortification of enriched grain products in the USA. Design Cost-effectiveness analysis. Setting Annual burden of disease, quality-adjusted life years (QALY) and costs were projected for four steady-state strategies: no fortification, or fortifying with 140, 350 or 700 μg folic acid per 100 g enriched grain. The analysis considered four health outcomes: neural tube defects (NTD), myocardial infarctions (MI), colon cancers and B12 deficiency maskings. Subjects The US adult population subgroups defined by age, gender and race/ethnicity, with folate intake distributions from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (1988–1992 and 1999–2000), and reference sources for disease incidence, utility and economic estimates. Results The greatest benefits from fortification were predicted in MI prevention, with 16 862 and 88 172 cases averted per year in steady state for the 140 and 700 μg fortification levels, respectively. These projections were between 6261 and 38 805 for colon cancer and 182 and 1423 for NTD, while 15–820 additional B12 cases were predicted. Compared with no fortification, all post-fortification strategies provided QALY gains and cost savings for all subgroups, with predicted population benefits of 266 649 QALY gained and $3·6 billion saved in the long run by changing the fortification level from 140 μg/100 g enriched grain to 700 μg/100 g. Conclusions The present study indicates that the health and economic gains of folic acid fortification far outweigh the losses for the US population, and that increasing the level of fortification deserves further consideration to maximise net gains.
The efficiency of vaginal temperature measurement for detection of estrus in Japanese Black cows

Recently, weak estrous behavior was assumed to be the cause of a decline in breeding efficiency in cattle. The present study investigated the effect of measuring the vaginal temperature on the detection of estrus in Japanese Black cows. First, the effect of hormone administration to cows with a functional corpus luteum on the vaginal temperature was evaluated by continuous measurement using a temperature data logger. After 24 h of cloprostenol (PG) treatment, the vaginal temperature was significantly lower than on day 7 after estrus, and the low values were maintained until the beginning of estrus (P < 0.05). The cows that received PG and exogenous progesterone (CIDR) did not show a temperature decrease until the CIDR was removed. This finding suggested that the vaginal temperature change reflected the progesterone concentration. The rate of detection of natural estrus was lower for a pedometer than for the vaginal temperature (P < 0.05); synchronization of estrus resulted in a high estrus detection rate regardless of the detection method. In a subsequent experiment, the effect of vaginal temperature measurement and the use of a pedometer on estrus detection was evaluated in the cool and hot seasons. The average activities during non-estrus and the activity increase ratio (estrus/non-estrus) changed according to season (P < 0.01, P < 0.05). However, the average vaginal temperatures during estrus and non-estrus were not affected by season. The estrus detection rate of the pedometer was lower in summer and lower than that obtained using the vaginal temperature. These results indicated that vaginal temperature measurement might be effective for detecting estrus regardless of estrous behavior.
Lithopanspermia in star-forming clusters.

This paper considers the lithopanspermia hypothesis in star-forming groups and clusters, where the chances of biological material spreading from one solar system to another is greatly enhanced (relative to action in the field) because of the close proximity of the systems and lower relative velocities. These effects more than compensate for the reduced time spent in such crowded environments. This paper uses approximately 300,000 Monte Carlo scattering calculations to determine the cross sections for rocks to be captured by binaries and provides fitting formulae for other applications. We assess the odds of transfer as a function of the ejection speed v (eject) and number N(.) of members in the birth aggregate. The odds of any given ejected meteoroid being recaptured by another solar system are relatively low, about 1:10(3)-10(6) over the expected range of ejection speeds and cluster sizes. Because the number of ejected rocks (with mass m > 10 kg) per system can be large, N (R) approximately 10(16), virtually all solar systems are likely to share rocky ejecta with all of the other solar systems in their birth cluster. The number of ejected rocks that carry living microorganisms is much smaller and less certain, but we estimate that N (B) approximately 10(7) rocks can be ejected from a biologically active solar system. For typical birth environments, the capture of life-bearing rocks is expected to occur N (bio) asymptotically equal to 10-16,000 times (per cluster), depending on the ejection speeds. Only a small fraction (f (imp) approximately 10(4)) of the captured rocks impact the surfaces of terrestrial planets, so that N (lps) asymptotically equal to 10(3)-1.6 lithopanspermia events are expected per cluster (under favorable conditions). Finally, we discuss the question of internal versus external seeding of clusters and the possibility of Earth seeding young clusters over its biologically active lifetime.