Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strengthening the Scholarship of Engagement

Should your college or university have a strategy for strengthening the scholarship of engagement? If so, what should it be? This question arises at a time when levels of civic engagement are inconsistent, when higher education and engaged scholarship have potential for addressing the situation, and when new civic engagement and community learning centers are arising on campuses and, in some cases, on a "road half traveled. " This essay addresses this question and some of the issues it raises. It assumes that civic engagement is a core purpose of higher education, and that engaged scholarship can contribute to its answer. It places emphasis on student learning, faculty engagement, and institutional change. These are not the only elements of a larger strategy, but they are among the most important ones.
How do different firms react to exchange rate changes? Prices, quantities, entry and exit1

This paper analyzes the reaction of exporters to exchange rate changes. We show that, in the presence of distribution costs in the export market, high and low productivity firms react differently to a depreciation . Whereas high productivity firms optimally raise their markup rather than the volume they export, low productivity firms choose the opposite strategy. This heterogeneity has interesting consequences for the aggregate impact of exchange rate movements. The presence of fixed costs to export means that exporting requires a high productivity, an attribute which in turn gives an incentive to firms to react to an exchange rate depreciation by increasing their export price rather than their sales. Exporters are, by selection, firms which optimally choose not to increase export volumes following a depreciation. We then test the main predictions of the model on a very rich French firm level data set with destination-specific export values and volumes on the period 1995-2005. We find that high performance firms react to a depreciation by increasing their export price rather than their export volume. The reverse is true for low productivity exporters. We also show that the probability of firms to enter the export market following a depreciation increases. However, the extensive margin response to exchange rate changes is small at the aggregate level because firms that enter, following a depreciation, are less productive and smaller relative to existing firms.
A Role for the Motor System in Binding Abstract Emotional Meaning

Sensorimotor areas activate to action- and object-related words, but their role in abstract meaning processing is still debated. Abstract emotion words denoting body internal states are a critical test case because they lack referential links to objects. If actions expressing emotion are crucial for learning correspondences between word forms and emotions, emotion word–evoked activity should emerge in motor brain systems controlling the face and arms, which typically express emotions. To test this hypothesis, we recruited 18 native speakers and used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare brain activation evoked by abstract emotion words to that by face- and arm-related action words. In addition to limbic regions, emotion words indeed sparked precentral cortex, including body-part–specific areas activated somatotopically by face words or arm words. Control items, including hash mark strings and animal words, failed to activate precentral areas. We conclude that, similar to their role in action word processing, activation of frontocentral motor systems in the dorsal stream reflects the semantic binding of sign and meaning of abstract words denoting emotions and possibly other body internal states.
Prediction of health outcomes using big (health) data

The vast amounts of information in the form of electronic medical records are used to develop a novel model of disease progression. The proposed model is based on the representation of a patient's medical history in the form of a binary history vector, motivated by empirical evidence from previous work and validated using a large `real-world' data corpus. The scope for the use of the described methodology is overarching and ranges from smarter allocation of resources and discovery of novel disease progression patterns and interactions, to incentivization of patients to make lifestyle changes.
Calcium-dependent association of a protein complex with the lymphocyte plasma membrane: probable identity with calmodulin-calcineurin

A protein complex is shown to participate in a calcium-dependent association with plasma membranes purified either from pig mesenteric lymph node lymphocytes or from human lymphoblastoid cell lines. Plasma membranes prepared in the presence of calcium possess this complex; those prepared in the absence of calcium (5 mM EGTA) do not. The complex associates itself with the inner cytoplasmic surface of the plasma membrane. This complex is referred to as the "acidic protein band" because of its location during migration upon alkaline-urea gel electrophoresis. The complex dissociates from the plasma membrane during electrophoresis on 8-M urea gels, irrespective of calcium levels during electrophoresis; at intermediate urea concentrations (4-6 M), the complex is not dissociated in the presence of calcium. Upon purification of the acidic protein band, SDS acrylamide gel electrophoresis, immunoblotting, and radioimmunoassay techniques suggest that the acidic protein band is composed of at least four peptides (designated 68K, 59K, 20K, 20K): two of these (68K, 20K) are immunopositive for calcineurin and one (20K) is immunopositive for calmodulin. Immunoblots of urea gels also indicate that the calcineurin heavy chain (68K) can also appear at three different locations on the urea gel. Patches and caps induced in human peripheral blood lymphocytes by fluorescein-conjugated goat anti-human IgG are not coincident with the location of calcineurin, which remains distributed throughout the cell.
Differentiating Embryonic Stem Cells Pass through ‘Temporal Windows’ That Mark Responsiveness to Exogenous and Paracrine Mesendoderm Inducing Signals

Background Mesendoderm induction during embryonic stem cell (ESC) differentiation in vitro is stimulated by the Transforming Growth Factor and Wingless (Wnt) families of growth factors. Principal Findings We identified the periods during which Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) 4, Wnt3a or Activin A were able to induce expression of the mesendoderm marker, Mixl1, in differentiating mouse ESCs. BMP4 and Wnt3a were required between differentiation day (d) 1.5 and 3 to most effectively induce Mixl1, whilst Activin A induced Mixl1 expression in ESC when added between d2 and d4, indicating a subtle difference in the requirement for Activin receptor signalling in this process. Stimulation of ESCs with these factors at earlier or later times resulted in little Mixl1 induction, suggesting that the differentiating ESCs passed through ‘temporal windows’ in which they sequentially gained and lost competence to respond to each growth factor. Inhibition of either Activin or Wnt signalling blocked Mixl1 induction by any of the three mesendoderm-inducing factors. Mixing experiments in which chimeric EBs were formed between growth factor-treated and untreated ESCs revealed that BMP, Activin and Wnt signalling all contributed to the propagation of paracrine mesendoderm inducing signals between adjacent cells. Finally, we demonstrated that the differentiating cells passed through ‘exit gates’ after which point they were no longer dependent on signalling from inducing molecules for Mixl1 expression. Conclusions These studies suggest that differentiating ESCs are directed by an interconnected network of growth factors similar to those present in early embryos and that the timing of growth factor activity is critical for mesendoderm induction.
What Women Want--What Men Want: Why the Sexes Still See Love and Commitment So Differently

1. Attractiveness, Sexuality, and Choosing Mates 2. Women's and Men's Sexualtiies: Differences in arousal, Goals, and Selectivity 3. Emotional Alarms: The Link between Sex and Love 4. What Do Women Want? Women's Perceptions of Sexual Attractiveness 5. Choosing Partners for Marriage: Male Status and Female Competition 6. What Do Men Want? Men's Criteria for Choosing Partners 7. The Dating-Mating Market: The Man Shortage and Marriage Squeeze 8. Romance, Male Dominance, and the Quest for Investment 9. What Men and Women Want in Marriage 10. Who Does the Diapers and the Dishes? The Domestic Division of Labor 11. Are Men and Women Alike Around the Globe? Sex in China and Somoa 12. Coping with Sex Differences and Cultural Change Notes References Index
Models of Shiftwork and Health: An Examination of the Influence of Stress on Shiftwork Theory

This paper critically reviews models of shiftwork and health and provides a historical overview of changes in the conceptualization of the association between them. Models are hypothetical and conceptually broad, becoming more so as they move away from linear, chronobiological to multidirectional, psychological conceptualizations. We attribute this tendency to the use of stress frameworks to explain the relationship between shiftwork and health. We assess the usefulness of stress as an explanatory concept in terms of how it affects shiftwork research and practice and make recommendations for future practice and theory development.
Point mutations destabilizing a precursor protein enhance its post‐translational import into mitochondria.

In order to study the role of protein unfolding during post‐translational protein import into mitochondria, we destabilized the structure of a mitochondrial precursor protein by site‐directed mutagenesis. The precursor consisted of the first 16 residues of the yeast cytochrome oxidase subunit IV precursor fused to mouse dihydrofolate reductase. Labilization of the folded precursor structure was monitored by increased susceptibility to protease and diminished ability of methotrexate to block import of the precursor into isolated yeast mitochondria. On comparing the original precursor with two mutant forms that were destabilized to different degrees, increased labilization correlated with an increased rate and efficiency of import into mitochondria. This supports the view that the precursor must unfold in order to enter the mitochondria.
Spillover of Marital Interactions and Parenting Stress in Families of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Few disorders appear to be more challenging for parents than autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Little is known about the extent to which parenting stress experienced by parents of children with ASD affects or is affected by marital quality. We examined daily spillover between level of parenting stress and marital interactions in a sample of 176 married couples (89.4% Caucasian, non-Hispanic) who have a child with ASD (5–12 years of age, 85% male) via a 14-day daily diary approach. On each day of the daily diary, parents individually reported on 8 positive and 8 negative marital interactions and their level of parenting stress. Dyadic multilevel modeling analyses using hierarchical linear modeling were conducted to examine same-day and lagged-effect associations between number of positive and negative marital interactions and level of parenting stress. Having a day with a higher number of negative marital interactions was associated with a higher level of parenting stress for both mothers and fathers of children with ASD. Having a day with fewer positive marital interactions was associated with having a more stressful parenting day for mothers of children with ASD. Same-day spillover was moderated by parent gender and the functioning of the child with ASD. Spillover flowed bidirectionally for mothers of children with ASD. Helping parents of children with ASD find ways to engage in positive marital interactions on stressful parenting days and avoid having negative affect, tension, and behaviors stemming from negative marital interactions spill into parenting experiences are important intervention targets.
A Dynamical Model of Pitch Memory Provides an Improved Basis for Implied Harmony Estimation

Tonal melody can imply vertical harmony through a sequence of tones. Current methods for automatic chord estimation commonly use chroma-based features extracted from audio signals. However, the implied harmony of unaccompanied melodies can be difficult to estimate on the basis of chroma content in the presence of frequent nonchord tones. Here we present a novel approach to automatic chord estimation based on the human perception of pitch sequences. We use cohesion and inhibition between pitches in auditory short-term memory to differentiate chord tones and nonchord tones in tonal melodies. We model short-term pitch memory as a gradient frequency neural network, which is a biologically realistic model of auditory neural processing. The model is a dynamical system consisting of a network of tonotopically tuned nonlinear oscillators driven by audio signals. The oscillators interact with each other through nonlinear resonance and lateral inhibition, and the pattern of oscillatory traces emerging from the interactions is taken as a measure of pitch salience. We test the model with a collection of unaccompanied tonal melodies to evaluate it as a feature extractor for chord estimation. We show that chord tones are selectively enhanced in the response of the model, thereby increasing the accuracy of implied harmony estimation. We also find that, like other existing features for chord estimation, the performance of the model can be improved by using segmented input signals. We discuss possible ways to expand the present model into a full chord estimation system within the dynamical systems framework.
The relevance of shared experiences: A multi-level study of collective efficacy as a moderator of job control in the stressor-strain relationship

Karasek's Job Demand-Control model proposes that control mitigates the positive effects of work stressors on employee strain. Evidence to date remains mixed and, although a number of individual-level moderators have been examined, the role of broader, contextual, group factors has been largely overlooked. In this study, the extent to which control buffered or exacerbated the effects of demands on strain at the individual level was hypothesized to be influenced by perceptions of collective efficacy at the group level. Data from 544 employees in Australian organizations, nested within 23 workgroups, revealed significant three-way cross-level interactions among demands, control and collective efficacy on anxiety and job satisfaction. When the group perceived high levels of collective efficacy, high control buffered the negative consequences of high demands on anxiety and satisfaction. Conversely, when the group perceived low levels of collective efficacy, high control exacerbated the negative consequences of high demands on anxiety, but not satisfaction. In addition, a stress-exacerbating effect for high demands on anxiety and satisfaction was found when there was a mismatch between collective efficacy and control (i.e. combined high collective efficacy and low control). These results provide support for the notion that the stressor-strain relationship is moderated by both individual- and group-level factors.
Robust Adaptive Gradient-Descent Training Algorithm for Recurrent Neural Networks in Discrete Time Domain

For a recurrent neural network (RNN), its transient response is a critical issue, especially for real-time signal processing applications. The conventional RNN training algorithms, such as backpropagation through time (BPTT) and real-time recurrent learning (RTRL), have not adequately addressed this problem because they suffer from low convergence speed. While increasing the learning rate may help to improve the performance of the RNN, it can result in unstable training in terms of weight divergence. Therefore, an optimal tradeoff between RNN training speed and weight convergence is desired. In this paper, a robust adaptive gradient-descent (RAGD) training algorithm of RNN is developed based on a novel RNN hybrid training concept. It switches the training patterns between standard real-time online backpropagation (BP) and RTRL according to the derived convergence and stability conditions. The weight convergence and L 2-stability of the algorithm are derived via the conic sector theorem. The optimized adaptive learning maximizes the training speed of the RNN for each weight update without violating the stability and convergence criteria. Computer simulations are carried out to demonstrate the applicability of the theoretical results.
Assessing Plant Diversity in a Dry Tropical Forest: Comparing the Utility of Landsat and Ikonos Satellite Images

While high expectations have been raised about the utility of high resolution satellite imagery for biodiversity assessment, there has been almost no empirical assessment of its use, particularly in the biodiverse tropics which represent a very challenging environment for such assessment challenge. This research evaluates the use of high spatial resolution (IKONOS) and medium spatial resolution (Landsat ETM+) satellite imagery for assessing vegetation diversity in a dry tropical forest in central India. Contrary to expectations, across multiple measures of plant distribution and diversity, the resolution of IKONOS data is too fine for the purpose of plant diversity assessment and Landsat imagery performs better.
Fatherhood: Evolution and Human Paternal Behavior

* Preface * Introduction * Our Founding Fathers * A World of Diversity: Cross-Cultural Variation in Paternal Care * Men and Marriage * Fathers and Fertility * Who's the Dad? * Father Involvement, Father Absence, and Children's Outcomes * The Makings of a Stepfather * Having It All? Fatherhood, Male Social Relationships, and Work * The Descent of Dad's Sexuality * Babies on His Brain * Health and the Human Father * Rewriting the Manual * Appendix * References * Acknowledgments * Index
Constructing a South African Hope Measure

An instrument to assess levels of hope was developed. From a qualitative analysis of what students regarded as hope, items were constructed and a questionnaire was applied to 474 undergraduate social sciences students. The results were calibrated across gender and ethnic groups using item response theory, specifically Rasch analysis. Five unidimensional constructs were identified (goal achievement resources, ineffectuality, future vision, despondency, and self-efficacy) and compared to three instruments namely the Life Orientation Test Revised, Snyder's Adult Dispositional Hope Scale Items and Adult State Hope Scale to find support for construct validity. Adequate item invariance across gender and ethnic groups were found, as well as good item and person separation and item fit.
Toward An Agreement on Semantic Web Architecture

— There are many problems associated with the World Wide Web: getting lost in the hyperspace; the web content is still accessible only to humans and difficulties of web administration. The solution to these problems is the Semantic Web which is considered to be the extension for the current web presents information in both human readable and machine processable form. The aim of this study is to reach new generic foundation architecture for the Semantic Web because there is no clear architecture for it, there are four versions, but still up to now there is no agreement for one of these versions nor is there a clear picture for the relation between different layers and technologies inside this architecture. This can be done depending on the idea of previous versions as well as Gerber’s evaluation method as a step toward an agreement for one Semantic Web architecture.
Experience‐dependent plasticity in hypocretin/orexin neurones: re‐setting arousal threshold

The neuropeptide hypocretin is synthesized exclusively in the lateral hypothalamus and participates in many brain functions critical for animal survival, particularly in the promotion and maintenance of arousal in animals – a core process in animal behaviours. Consistent with its arousal‐promoting role in animals, the neurones synthesizing hypocretin receive extensive innervations encoding physiological, psychological and environmental cues and send final outputs to key arousal‐promoting brain areas. The activity in hypocretin neurones fluctuates and correlates with the behavioural state of animals and intensive activity has been detected in hypocretin neurones during wakefulness, foraging for food and craving for addictive drugs. Therefore, it is likely that hypocretin neurones undergo experience‐dependent changes resulting from intensive activations by stimuli encoding changes in the internal and external environments. This review summarizes the most recent evidence supporting experience‐dependent plasticity in hypocretin neurones. Current data suggest that nutritional and behavioural factors lead to synaptic plasticity and re‐organization of synaptic architecture in hypocretin neurones. This may be the substrate of enhanced levels of arousal resulting from behavioural changes in animals and may help to explain the mechanisms underlying the changes in arousal levels induced by physiological, psychological and environmental factors.
Identification of the P3 Promoter and Distinct Roles of the Two Promoters of the SaeRS Two-Component System in Staphylococcus aureus

ABSTRACT In Staphylococcus aureus, the SaeRS two-component system (TCS) encoded by the saePQRS operon controls expression of major virulence factors, such as coagulase and alpha-hemolysin. The saePQRS operon has two promoters: P1 and P3. The P1 promoter, a strong promoter, is autoinduced and can transcribe all four genes. Compared with P1, P3 shows fairly low but constitutive promoter activity, and it transcribes only saeR and saeS, the two genes encoding response regulator SaeR and sensor kinase SaeS. However, the role of each promoter in sae signaling has not been rigorously defined. In this study, we found that the genuine transcription start site (TSS) of P3 is located 78 nucleotides downstream of the previously reported TSS. Subsequently, the P3 promoter sequence was identified and validated by mutagenesis analyses. Deletion of the saePQ region including the P1 promoter did not significantly alter the expression patterns of coagulase and alpha-hemolysin, two well-known sae target genes. Due to its L18P substitution in a transmembrane domain, SaeS in strain Newman has a constitutive kinase activity. Interestingly, the mutation also rendered the protein unstable, but the protein stability was restored by SaeQ, suggesting a possible SaeQ-SaeS interaction. Ironically, the same mutation seems to increase mRNA stability. SaeR appears to be stabilized by SaeS, possibly by a protein-protein interaction. Chromosomal mutation of P1 did not affect the expression pattern of coagulase and alpha-hemolysin. Based on these results, we conclude that transcription of saeRS from P3 is sufficient for target gene activation and that P1 is not involved in the activation.