Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Virial Mass Function of Nearby SDSS Galaxy Clusters

We present a new determination of the cluster mass function and velocity dispersion function in a volume ~107 h3 Mpc-3 using data from the Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to determine virial masses. We use the caustic technique to remove foreground and background galaxies. The cluster virial mass function agrees well with recent estimates from both X-ray observations and cluster richnesses. Our determination of the mass function lies between those predicted by the 1 and 3 year WMAP data. We constrain the cosmological parameters Ωm and σ8 and find good agreement with WMAP and constraints from other techniques. With the CIRS mass function alone, we estimate Ωm = 0.24 and σ8 = 0.92, or σ8 = 0.84 ±0.03 when holding Ωm = 0.3 fixed. We also use the WMAP parameters as priors and constrain velocity segregation in clusters. Using the 1 and 3 year results, we infer velocity segregation of σgxy/σDM ≈ 0.94 ± 0.05 or 1.28 ± 0.06, respectively. The good agreement of various estimates of the cluster mass function shows that it is a useful independent constraint on estimates of cosmological parameters. We compare the velocity dispersion function of clusters to that of early-type galaxies and conclude that clusters comprise the high-velocity end of the velocity dispersion function of dark matter halos. Future studies of galaxy groups are needed to study the transition between dark matter halos containing individual galaxies and those containing systems of galaxies. The evolution of cluster abundances provides constraints on dark energy models; the mass function presented here offers an important low-redshift calibration benchmark.
Interferon-α Abrogates Tolerance Induction by Human Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells

Background Administration of interferon-α (IFN-α) represents an approved adjuvant therapy as reported for malignancies like melanoma and several viral infections. In malignant diseases, tolerance processes are critically involved in tumor progression. In this study, the effect of IFN-α on tolerance induction by human tolerogenic dendritic cells (DC) was analyzed. We focussed on tolerogenic IL-10-modulated DC (IL-10 DC) that are known to induce anergic regulatory T cells (iTregs). Methodology/Principal Findings IFN-α promoted an enhanced maturation of IL-10 DC as demonstrated by upregulation of the differentiation marker CD83 as well as costimulatory molecules. IFN-α treatment resulted in an increased capacity of DC to stimulate T cell activation compared to control tolerogenic DC. We observed a strengthened T cell proliferation and increased IFN-γ production of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells stimulated by IFN-α-DC, demonstrating a restoration of the immunogenic capacity of tolerogenic DC in the presence of IFN-α. Notably, restimulation experiments revealed that IFN-α treatment of tolerogenic DC abolished the induction of T cell anergy and suppressor function of iTregs. In contrast, IFN-α neither affected the priming of iTregs nor converted iTregs into effector T cells. Conclusions/Significance IFN-α inhibits the induction of T cell tolerance by reversing the tolerogenic function of human DC.
An Evaluation of Authenticity: A Case of EAP Textbooks in Iran

Authenticity and authentic materials are advocated for language teaching extensively. This criterion is also recommended for English language teaching settings such as EAP where the students are to deal with real-world and authentic language use. The present study aims at evaluating the current status of the EAP textbooks and the materials included in them in Iran by the administration of the authenticity evaluation checklist. Accordingly, seeking to find data both qualitatively and quantitatively, the study was conducted to seek for the lecturers’ views on the authenticity level of the EAP textbooks. Thus, the results of the interview and the evaluation checklist reveal that although authenticity of context, teacher, student, and text is deemed as essential by this group of teachers, the current textbooks for EAP have limited authenticity and in some aspects authenticity is even absent. The interview results revealed that the majority of the EAP teachers believed that the current EAP textbooks need to be reengineered and the texts need revision. Thus, the findings can be used by EAP curriculum designers and materials developers in taking into consideration the authenticity feature as an important factor in designing EAP textbooks in future in Iran and in similar language teaching contexts.
The Sleep-Modulating Peptide Orexin-B Protects Midbrain Dopamine Neurons from Degeneration, Alone or in Cooperation with Nicotine

To determine whether orexinergic hypothalamic peptides can influence the survival of brainstem dopamine (DA) neurons, we used a model system of rat midbrain cultures in which DA neurons degenerate spontaneously and progressively as they mature. We established that orexin (OX)-B provides partial but significant protection to spontaneously dying DA neurons, whereas the homologous peptide OXA has only marginal effects. Importantly, DA neurons rescued by OXB accumulated DA efficiently by active transport, suggesting that they were functional. G-protein–coupled OX1 and OX2 receptors were both present on DA neurons, but the protective effect of OXB was attributable solely to OX2 receptors; a selective inhibitor of this receptor subtype, N-ethyl-2-[(6-methoxy-3-pyridinyl)[(2-methylphenyl)sulfonyl]amino]-N-(3-pyridinylmethyl)-acetamide (EMPA), suppressed this effect, whereas a selective agonist, [Ala11, d-Leu15]OXB, reproduced it. Survival promotion by OXB required intracellular calcium mobilization via inositol-1,4,5-triphosphate and ryanodine receptors. Nicotine, a well known neuroprotective molecule for DA neurons, improved OXB-mediated rescue through the activation of α-bungarotoxin–sensitive (presumably α7) nicotinic receptors, although nicotine had no effect on its own. Altogether, our data suggest that the loss of hypothalamic orexinergic neurons that occurs in Parkinson’s disease might confer an increased vulnerability to midbrain DA neurons in this disorder.
Minimal Gene Regulatory Circuits for a Lysis-Lysogeny Choice in the Presence of Noise

Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) that make reliable decisions should have design features to cope with random fluctuations in the levels or activities of biological molecules. The phage GRN makes a lysis-lysogeny decision informed by the number of phages infecting the cell. To analyse the design of decision making GRNs, we generated random in silico GRNs comprised of two or three transcriptional regulators and selected those able to perform a -like decision in the presence of noise. Various two-protein networks analogous to the CI-Cro GRN worked in noise-less conditions but failed when noise was introduced. Adding a CII-like protein significantly improved robustness to noise. CII relieves the CI-like protein of its ‘decider’ function, allowing CI to be optimized as a decision ‘maintainer’. CII's lysogenic decider function was improved by its instability and rapid removal once the decision was taken, preventing its interference with maintenance. A more reliable decision also resulted from simulated co-transcription of the genes for CII and the Cro-like protein, which correlates fluctuations in these opposing decider functions and makes their ratio less noisy. Thus, the decision network contains design features for reducing and resisting noise.
The effects of dietary protein content on growth and maturation in deer mice

Growth and female maturation appear to be limited by the availability of dietary protein in natural populations of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus borealis) in the Kananaskis Valley, Alberta. We examined the effects of dietary protein content on nestling growth rates and sexual maturation of female deer mice in two laboratory experiments. In the first, mice whose mothers were fed a low-protein mixture of sunflower seeds and oats (14% protein) exhibited slow growth prior to weaning and those fed high-protein cat food (30% protein) postweaning showed compensatory growth. Preweaning but not postweaning diet quality affected the proportion of females who were sexually mature at 42 days of age. Therefore, while deficient nestling growth can be compensated for, the effects of a low-quality maternal diet during lactation may have lasting effects on the maturation of female offspring. In the second experiment, mice raised on isocaloric diets of 14, 20, and 30% protein did not differ in growth as nestlings or ju.
Need-Supportive Professional Development in Elementary School Physical Education: Effects of a Cluster-Randomized Control Trial on Teachers’ Motivating Style and Student Physical Activity

This cluster-randomized controlled trial investigated the efficacy of a teacher professional development (TPD) program, grounded on self-determination theory, to increase elementary school teachers’ need-supportive motivating style and consequently their students’ physical activity (PA) during physical education (PE) lessons. Participants were 15 elementary school teachers and their 293 students. Teachers in the treatment condition received a sports-related notebook and attended four 3-hr workshops over 1 school year; teachers in the control condition received only the notebook. Students’ PA and teachers’ motivating style were assessed on four occasions via accelerometers and observations, respectively. Results showed that teachers in the treatment condition increased support of their students’ psychological needs for the majority of the school year, but there was a slight decrease in the fourth wave of measurement. Students in the treatment condition increased their time spent in moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), independently of the sport taught, whereas their counterparts from the control condition decreased their MVPA. This is the first study to provide elementary school teachers with a PE teacher professional development program grounded in self-determination theory and demonstrate the potential of such a program to improve teachers’ motivating style and student MVPA in PE.
A Lightweight Approach to Mobile Multicasting in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are envisioned to have significant impacts on many applications. In scenarios such as first responder systems and administrative applications, data sinks are frequently being mobile. In this research, we study one-to-many and many-to-many data communications from stationary sensors to mobile sinks, which is defined as mobile multicasting here. We firstly propose Track and Transmit (TNT), a simple lightweight approach to providing mobile multicasting service in WSN. Its rationale is based on the fact that the mobile sinks will stamp their movement traces in the networks while moving continuously from one location to another. Then we propose Priced TNT (PTNT), which improves the forwarding efficiency of TNT. Compared to VLM2 (Very Lightweight Mobile Multicasting), simulations show that both TNT and PTNT are able to dramatically suppress the control overheads, as well as achieve better data delivery-ratio and acceptable delay performances.
Do we really mean the same? the relationship between word choices and computer mediated cooperative learning

This study analyses how the exchange of text specific information in virtual cooperative writing can be improved. Based on findings concerning the automatic absorption of words in written communication (lexical alignment), we conducted a study with 64 students to determine whether there was a positive impact of the use of different terminology on the transfer of knowledge and the individual learning outcomes. As assumed, dyads that had cooperated with material containing different terminology asked more questions, gave more explanations and performed better in a following learning test than dyads whose learning materials contained the same terminology. The results are discussed with regard to their implications for selecting and creating further learning materials.
Revenue Optimization in Posted-Price Auctions with Strategic Buyers

We study revenue optimization learning algorithms for posted-price auctions with strategic buyers. We analyze a very broad family of monotone regret minimization algorithms for this problem, which includes the previously best known algorithm, and show that no algorithm in that family admits a strategic regret more favorable than $\Omega(\sqrt{T})$. We then introduce a new algorithm that achieves a strategic regret differing from the lower bound only by a factor in $O(\log T)$, an exponential improvement upon the previous best algorithm. Our new algorithm admits a natural analysis and simpler proofs, and the ideas behind its design are general. We also report the results of empirical evaluations comparing our algorithm with the previous state of the art and show a consistent exponential improvement in several different scenarios.
Impact of a combined treatment of angiotensin II type 1 receptor blockade and 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA-reductase inhibition on secretory phospholipase A2-type IIA and low density lipoprotein oxidation in patients with coronary artery disease.

AIMS To evaluate the impact of a combined treatment of angiotensin II type 1 (AT(1))-receptor blockade and 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA-reductase inhibition (statin) on the secretory phospholipase A(2) type IIA (sPLA(2)-IIA) and oxidized low density lipoprotein (oxLDL) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS AND RESULTS Sixty patients with angiographically documented CAD and a history of arterial hypertension were randomized in a double-blinded fashion to pravastatin (PRAV, 40 mg/day, n = 30) or PRAV plus irbesartan (PRAV+IRB, 40 mg/day+300 mg/day, n = 30) and were treated for 3 months. Blood pressure (BP) and cholesterol fractions were determined at baseline and after 3 months. SPLA(2) activity as primary endpoint, sPLA(2)-IIA protein, oxLDL levels, and high-sensitivity (hs)-C-reactive protein were measured by an enzyme-linked immunabsorbent assay. In both treatment groups, systolic BP levels and circulating HDL and LDL levels were reduced to the same extent. The combined treatment of PRAV+IRB significantly decreased sPLA(2)-IIA activity and sPLA(2)-IIA-protein concentration compared with PRAV treatment alone (P < 0.05). In addition, PRAV+IRB significantly reduced oxLDL levels compared with PRAV treatment alone (P < 0.05). This effect was independent of changes in LDL cholesterol levels. CONCLUSION These findings are consistent with the notion that the combined treatment of pravastatin with irbesartan reduced sPLA(2)-IIA-activity, sPLA(2)-IIA-protein concentration, and oxLDL in patients with CAD suggesting a novel anti-atherogenic effect by combining AT(1)-receptor blockade with statin treatment.
Serum Levels of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Preeclamptic and Normotensive Pregnancy

The purpose of these studies was first to determine if vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a vascular permeability agent, is increased in the serum of women with preclinical and clinical preclampsia (PE), and second to determine how these levels change after delivery. Twenty preeclamptic and 25 normotensive women at term consented to have blood taken pre- and post-delivery. Ten preeclamptic, 10 gestational hypertensive, and 28 normotensive women had blood collected respectively at 12, 20, and 30 weeks gestation and predelivery. Serum was extracted from all samples, and VEGF concentrations were determined by radioimmunoassay. Predelivery, the median serum VEGF concentration in the preeclamptic group was 51.7 ng/mL, and in the control group the concentration was 13.9 ng/mL (P <0.0001). Serum VEGF concentrations fell within 24 hours of delivery in both groups, which resulted in median values of 3.8 ng/mL and 3.2 ng/mL respectively (P <0.3). At 12 and 20 weeks, there was no significant difference between the serum VEGF concentrations in the 3 groups (P <0.3, 0.052 respectively). At 30 weeks, prior to the onset of clinical PE, the serum VEGF levels in the eventual preeclamptic group were elevated significantly compared with the gestational hypertensive and normotensive groups (P <0.001). Predelivery serum VEGF concentrations were significantly elevated in the preeclamptic group and were similar to those in the first study (P <0.0001). These findings suggest that VEGF may be important in the pathophysiology of PE and has the potential to act as a preclinical marker for the condition.
The Wage Penalty for Motherhood

Motherhood is associated with lower hourly pay, but the causes of this are not well understood. Mothers may earn less than other women because having children causes them to (1) lose job experience, (2) be less productive at work, (3) trade off higher wages for mother-friendly jobs, or (4) be discriminated against by employers. Or the relationship may be spurious rather than causal—women with lower earning potential may have children at relatively higher rates. The authors use data from the 1982–1993 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth with fixed-effects models to examine the wage penalty for motherhood. Results show a wage penalty of 7 percent per child. Penalties are larger for married women than for unmarried women. Women with (more) children have fewer years of job experience, and after controlling for experience a penalty of 5 percent per child remains. “Mother-friendly” characteristics of the jobs held by mothers explain little of the penalty beyond the tendency of more mothers than non-mothers to work part-time. The portion of the motherhood penalty unexplained probably results from the effect of motherhood on productivity and/or from discrimination by employers against mothers. While the benefits of mothering diffuse widely—to the employers, neighbors, friends, spouses, and children of the adults who received the mothering—the costs of child rearing are borne disproportionately by mothers.
Negative Priming in Free Recall Reconsidered

Negative priming in free recall is the finding of impaired memory performance when previously ignored auditory distracters become targets of encoding and retrieval. This negative priming has been attributed to an aftereffect of deploying inhibitory mechanisms that serve to suppress auditory distraction and minimize interference with learning and retrieval of task-relevant information. In 6 experiments, we tested the inhibitory account of the effect of negative priming in free recall against alternative accounts. We found that ignoring auditory distracters is neither sufficient nor necessary to produce the effect of negative priming in free recall. Instead, the effect is more readily accounted for by a buildup of proactive interference occurring whenever 2 successively presented lists of words are drawn from the same semantic category.
Sport and Muslim men in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada: an exploratory study

Abstract This study is based on semi-structured interviews with nine Muslim men, between 19 and 25 years of age, living in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada, about their sport experiences. Study participants tried to balance their sporting interests with their desire to follow their faith, demonstrating varying degrees and dimensions of social inclusion. Sometimes physical education teachers and coaches facilitated inclusion, especially with regards to prayers and limiting activity levels during Ramadan. In contrast, with respect to factors not directly part of the game or sport, the men had to negotiate and reconcile conflicts between their beliefs and some of the normalized practices within the sport culture they were in. This included gendered norms of coarse and sexualized language, alcohol consumption and the provision of non-halal food. A few participants therefore found it far more comfortable and easier to participate in Muslim-led or Islamic informed sport.
Recommending people to people The nature of reciprocal recommenders with a case study in online dating

People-to-people recommenders constitute an important class of recommender systems. Examples include online dating, where people have the common goal of finding a partner, and employment websites where one group of users needs to find a job (employer) and another group needs to find an employee. People-to-people recommenders differ from the traditional items-to-people recommenders as they must satisfy both parties; we call this type of recommender reciprocal. This article is the first to present a comprehensive view of this important recommender class. We first identify the characteristics of reciprocal recommenders and compare them with traditional recommenders, which are widely used in e-commerce websites. We then present a series of studies and evaluations of a content-based reciprocal recommender in the domain of online dating. It uses a large dataset from a major online dating website. We use this case study to illustrate the distinctive requirements of reciprocal recommenders and highlight important challenges, such as the need to avoid bad recommendations since they may make users to feel rejected. Our experiments indicate that, by considering reciprocity, the rate of successful connections can be significantly improved. They also show that, despite the existence of rich explicit profiles, the use of implicit profiles provides more effective recommendations. We conclude with a discussion, linking our work in online dating to the many other domains that require reciprocal recommenders. Our key contributions are the recognition of the reciprocal recommender as an important class of recommender, the identification of its distinctive characteristics and the exploration of how these impact the recommendation process in an extensive case study in the domain of online dating.
Effects of prior investment and personal responsibility in a simple network game

The present study has two purposes. First, we wish to test the descriptive power of the Nash equilibrium solution in a traffic network game with a new population of participants and a different experimental procedure. Second, we wish to determine whether the effects of prior investment and personal responsibility, that may lead people to commit to a failing project, may be generalized from individual to interactive decision tasks. For these two purposes, we implement a computer-controlled traffic network game in which the addition of a cost-free line segment to the network may, in equilibrium, increase the travel cost of all the network users. Current Research in Social Psychology (Vol. 13, No. 2) (Aoki, et al.)
Braid groups are

We define pseudo-Garside groups and prove a theorem about them parallel to Garside’s result on the word problem for the usual braid groups. The main novelty is that the set of simple elements can be infinite. We introduce a group B = B(Zn) which we call the braid group of Zn, and which bears some vague resemblance to mapping class groups. It is to GL(n, Z) what the braid group is to the symmetric group Sn. We prove that B is a pseudo-Garside group. We give a small presentation for B(Zn) assuming one for B(Z) is given.