Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clear-sky closure studies of lower tropospheric aerosol and water vapor during ACE-2 using airborne sunphotometer, airborne in-situ, space-borne, and ground-based measurements

We report on clear-sky column closure experiments (CLEARCOLUMN) performed in the Canary Islands during the second Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE-2) in June/July 1997. We present CLEARCOLUMN results obtained by combining airborne sunphotometer and in-situ (optical particle counter, nephelometer, and absorption photometer) measurements taken aboard the Pelican aircraft, space-borne NOAA/AVHRR data and ground-based lidar and sunphotometer measurements. During both days discussed here, vertical profiles flown in cloud-free air masses revealed 3 distinctly different layers: a marine boundary layer (MBL) with varying pollution levels, an elevated dust layer, and a very clean layer between the MBL and the dust layer. A key result of this study is the achievement of closure between extinction or layer aerosol optical depth (AOD) computed from continuous in-situ aerosol size-distributions and composition and those measured with the airborne sunphotometer. In the dust, the agreement in layer AOD (λ=380−1060 nm) is 3−8%. In the MBL there is a tendency for the in-situ results to be slightly lower than the sunphotometer measurements (10−17% at λ=525 nm), but these differences are within the combined error bars of the measurements and computations.
The WOrk-ReLated Flow (WOLF) Inventory: Romanian Adaptation

Flow at work represents a short-term peak experience characterised by absorption, work enjoyment, and intrinsic work motivation and it is measured with the WOrk-reLated Flow inventory (WOLF). The aim of this paper was the Romanian adaptation of WOLF. We conducted the reliability and validity analyses, as well as the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, on a sample of 224 Romanian employees selected using the snowball sampling method. The high values of the internal consistency indices (similar to those obtained in the initial validation study) and the positive and statistically significant associations between factors indicated good psychometric properties of the instrument. On the one hand, the exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor solution for the Romanian population. These results are congruent with some recent studies showing that the work enjoyment and the intrinsic work motivation are two overlapping dimensions and that the work enjoyment is a main element of the intrinsic work motivation. On the other hand, the confirmatory factor analysis yielded that the initially suggested three-factor model fits better with the data. But, considering the results we obtained, we propose that a two-factor solution fits better the data. However, further studies in this area are required to draw a certain conclusion upon which factorial structure is better for the Romanian population. All the results considered, the WOLF Inventory has good psychometric properties and it can be used in research and practice.
Are Women Coached by Women More Likely to Become Sport Coaches? Head Coach Gender and Female Collegiate Athletes’ Entry into the Coaching Profession

A plethora of research on barriers facing women in the coaching profession exists, but less attention has been devoted to female student-athletes’ transition into coaching. Some research suggests that female athletes who are coached by women are more likely to become coaches. In the present study, existing research is extended by examining the relationship between collegiate female basketball players’ post-playing career behavior and the gender of their collegiate head coach. Two research questions are addressed: (1) Are female collegiate Division-I basketball players who are coached by female head coaches more likely to enter the coaching profession than athletes who are coached by men? And; (2) If female basketball players do enter coaching, are those who were coached by women more likely to persist in coaching? Collegiate head coach gender did not emerge as a significant predictor of athletes’ likelihood to enter coaching, but logistic regression indicated that athletes who did enter coaching were 4.1-times more likely to stay in coaching if they had a female head coach. This study extends the scarce and outdated body of research on the potential salience of same-sex coaching role models for female athletes and provides baseline data on collegiate athletes’ entry rate into coaching, lending support to advocacy aimed at reversing the current stagnation of women in the sport coaching profession.
Network-Based Integration of Disparate Omic Data To Identify "Silent Players" in Cancer

Development of high-throughput monitoring technologies enables interrogation of cancer samples at various levels of cellular activity. Capitalizing on these developments, various public efforts such as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) generate disparate omic data for large patient cohorts. As demonstrated by recent studies, these heterogeneous data sources provide the opportunity to gain insights into the molecular changes that drive cancer pathogenesis and progression. However, these insights are limited by the vast search space and as a result low statistical power to make new discoveries. In this paper, we propose methods for integrating disparate omic data using molecular interaction networks, with a view to gaining mechanistic insights into the relationship between molecular changes at different levels of cellular activity. Namely, we hypothesize that genes that play a role in cancer development and progression may be implicated by neither frequent mutation nor differential expression, and that network-based integration of mutation and differential expression data can reveal these “silent players”. For this purpose, we utilize network-propagation algorithms to simulate the information flow in the cell at a sample-specific resolution. We then use the propagated mutation and expression signals to identify genes that are not necessarily mutated or differentially expressed genes, but have an essential role in tumor development and patient outcome. We test the proposed method on breast cancer and glioblastoma multiforme data obtained from TCGA. Our results show that the proposed method can identify important proteins that are not readily revealed by molecular data, providing insights beyond what can be gleaned by analyzing different types of molecular data in isolation.
MODIS-informed greenness responses to daytime land surface temperature fluctuations and wildfire disturbances in the Alaskan Yukon River Basin

Pronounced climate warming and increased wildfire disturbances are known to modify forest composition and control the evolution of the boreal ecosystem over the Yukon River Basin (YRB) in interior Alaska. In this study, we evaluate the post-fire green-up rate using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) derived from 250 m 7 day eMODIS (an alternative and application-ready type of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data) acquired between 2000 and 2009. Our analyses indicate measureable effects on NDVI values from vegetation type, burn severity, post-fire time, and climatic variables. The NDVI observations from both fire scars and unburned areas across the Alaskan YRB showed a tendency of an earlier start to the growing season (GS); the annual variations in NDVI were significantly correlated to daytime land surface temperature (LST) fluctuations; and the rate of post-fire green-up depended mainly on burn severity and the time of post-fire succession. The higher average NDVI values for the study period in the fire scars than in the unburned areas between 1950 and 2000 suggest that wildfires enhance post-fire greenness due to an increase in post-fire evergreen and deciduous species components.
The UBS-SBC Merger and Competition in the Swiss Retail Banking Sector

We address two questions about the impact of the UBS-SBC merger: (i) How will the concentration in the Swiss retail banking market change, and (ii) what are the expected consequences for the consumers. The answer to the first question is based on a comparison of Herfindahl and C3-indices in 1997 as they actually have been to as they could have been if the banks already had been merged. For both types of indices, and for the two product groups considered (loans and mortgages, savings deposits) the impact of the merger is huge. To answer the second question, we have examined how concentration interfered with savings deposits and mortgages interest rates in the previous decade, between the cantons and over time. The results obtained for savings deposits indicate that the structure performance hypothesis dominates for large cantons, while the efficiency hypothesis and the contestable market hypotheses cannot be rejected for small cantons. For mortgages, the contestable market hypotheses clearly dominates for large cantons, while for small cantons evidence is split between the efficiency hypothesis and the contestable market hypothesis.
Real Wages and Unemployment: State of the Debate

he question of the impact of real wages on employment and unemployment continues to be contentious. A recent example is Bell (2000) in which a number of the essays touch on this question and related policy issues. Unfortunately, many of the essays use questionable arguments to sidestep the question altogether and this approach is consistent with a major strand in the Australian academic literature on unemployment. Therefore, it would be useful to restate the terms of this debate so that the arguments can be embedded in an appropriate framework. The second part of this paper attempts that task. The third section of the paper examines two examples of sustained high unemployment rates that occurred in Australia in the twentieth century. In both cases, the high unemployment rate resulted from an attempt to improve the income distribution by increasing wage rates. An econometric analysis presented in the Appendix examines the role of high real wages in these experiences. In both cases the focus is on how the economy reacted to a real wage shock, that is, a sharp increase in real wages.
The Difference Women Make: The Policy Impact of Women in Congress

What if there were more women in Congress? Providing the first comprehensive study of the policy activity of male and female legislators at the federal level, Michele L. Swers persuasively demonstrates that, even though representatives often vote a party line, their gender is politicallly significant and does indeed influence policy making. Swers combines quantitative analyses of bills with interviews with legislators and their staff to compare legislative activity on women's issues by male and female members of the House of Representatives during the 103rd (1993-94) and 104th (1995-96) Congresses. Tracking representatives' commitment to women's issues throughout the legislative process, from the introduction of bills through committee consideration to final floor votes, Swers examines how the prevailing political context and members' positions within Congress affect whether and how aggressively they pursue women's issues. Anyone studying congressional behaviour, the role of women or the reperesentation of social identities in Congress should benefit from Swers's balanced and nuanced analysis.
Shellflow. I. The Convergence of the Velocity Field at 6000 Kilometers Per Second

We present the first results from the Shellflow program, an all-sky Tully-Fisher (TF) peculiar-velocity survey of 276 Sb-Sc galaxies with redshifts between 4500 and 7000 km s-1. Shellflow was designed to minimize systematic errors between observing runs and between telescopes, thereby removing the possibility of a spurious bulk flow caused by data inhomogeneity. A fit to the data yields a bulk-flow amplitude of Vbulk = 70 km s-1 (1 σ error) with respect to the cosmic microwave background, i.e., consistent with being at rest. At the 95% confidence level, the flow amplitude is <300 km s-1. Our results are insensitive to which Galactic extinction maps we use, and to the parameterization of the TF relation. The larger bulk motion found in analyses of the Mark III peculiar-velocity catalog are thus likely to be due to nonuniformities between the subsamples making up Mark III. The absence of bulk flow is consistent with the study of Giovanelli and collaborators and flow-field predictions from the observed distribution of IRAS galaxies.
Immunotherapy Targeting Folate Receptor Induces Cell Death Associated with Autophagy in Ovarian Cancer

Purpose: Cancer cells are highly dependent on folate metabolism, making them susceptible to drugs that inhibit folate receptor activities. Targeting overexpressed folate receptor alpha (FRα) in cancer cells offers a therapeutic opportunity. We investigated the functional mechanisms of MORAB-003 (farletuzumab), a humanized mAb against FRα, in ovarian cancer models. Experimental Design: We first examined FRα expression in an array of human ovarian cancer cell lines and then assessed the in vivo effect of MORAB-003 on tumor growth and progression in several orthotopic mouse models of ovarian cancer derived from these cell lines. Molecular mechanisms of tumor cell death induced by MORAB-003 were investigated by cDNA and protein expression profiling analysis. Mechanistic studies were performed to determine the role of autophagy in MORAB-003–induced cell death. Results: MORAB-003 significantly decreased tumor growth in the high-FRα IGROV1 and SKOV3ip1 models but not in the low-FRα A2780 model. MORAB-003 reduced proliferation, but had no significant effect on apoptosis. Protein expression and cDNA microarray analyses showed that MORAB-003 regulated an array of autophagy-related genes. It also significantly increased expression of LC3 isoform II and enriched autophagic vacuolization. Blocking autophagy with hydroxychloroquine or bafilomycin A1 reversed the growth inhibition induced by MORAB-003. In addition, alteration of FOLR1 gene copy number significantly correlated with shorter disease-free survival in patients with ovarian serous cancer. Conclusions: MORAB-003 displays prominent antitumor activity in ovarian cancer models expressing FRα at high levels. Blockade of folate receptor by MORAB-003 induced sustained autophagy and suppressed cell proliferation. Clin Cancer Res; 21(2); 448–59. ©2014 AACR.
The Quintessence of Organizational Commitment and Organizational Cynicism

Abstract The article deals with the constituents of organizational commitment and organizational cynicism and in order to concisely present systematised material disclosing the very essence of the phenomena, the authors analyse their interrelation, the specificity of development (organizational commitment) and management (organizational cynicism), their causes, importance and / or consequences caused. The aim of research is to distinguish the dimensions of the relationship of these phenomena highlighting the quintessence of organizational commitment and organizational cynicism.
The Effect of Physical Activity on Social Physique Anxiety and Academic Achievement in the 8th Grade Secondary School Students

The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between the level of physical activity, social physique anxiety, and academic achievement. This study evaluated 524 students in total from four schools in Istanbul province, 272 of whom were female and 252 were male students. In order to determine the level of physical activity of students, Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C), developed by Kowalski et al., was used. Validity and reliability of the scale for Turkish population was tested by Sert and Temel. As for establishing the levels of social physique anxiety of students, the scale of Social Physique Anxiety, developed by Hart et al. and adapted to the Turkish society by Dogan was used. For the statistical analyses, averages of the level of physical activity, social physique anxiety, and school academic score were taken. By using Pearson correlation coefficient, the relationship between the averages was checked and the level of significance was set at p 0.05).
The Effects Of HIV Disease And Lifestyle Factors On Cellular Aging In Trangender Women

THE EFFECTS OF HIV DISEASE AND LIFESTYLE FACTORS ON CELLULAR AGING IN TRANSGENDER WOMEN by Scott Stephen Sohn Background: Telomeres are short tandem repeats of nucleotides at the ends of chromosomes. These specialized structures serve as caps on the end of the chromosomes, which protect DNA integrity. Telomeres get shorter each time a cell replicates, but the DNA remains intact as long as the telomere caps are a sufficient length. In time, telomeres become too short to protect DNA, which leads to cellular death. Previous research has shown that disease and negative lifestyle factors play a role in accelerated telomere attrition throughout the cellular lifecycle. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine if HIV infection and lifestyle factors in a transgender population living in Atlanta Georgia are associated with telomere
Public to Private Takeovers and the Market for Corporate Control

This paper investigates the extent to which firms going private have different characteristics from other acquired firms. We find the firms going private have higher board shareholdings and higher institutional shareholdings. In addition, they have poorer growth prospects and experience more takeover speculation. However, there is no evidence that they have different internal governance structures, have higher free cash flow or spend different amounts on capital projects. It was also found that the premiums received by shareholders in firms going private were lower than those received by shareholders of other acquired firms. We also find novel evidence of private activity designed to ensure that a bid to take a firm private is successful. Overall the results offer stronger support for the financial incentive hypothesis rather than for the financial realignment hypothesis.
Distributed rational decision making

Automated negotiation systems with self interested agents are becoming increas ingly important One reason for this is the technology push of a growing standardized communication infrastructure Internet WWW NII EDI KQML FIPA Concor dia Voyager Odyssey Telescript Java etc over which separately designed agents belonging to di erent organizations can interact in an open environment in real time and safely carry out transactions The second reason is strong application pull for computer support for negotiation at the operative decision making level For example we are witnessing the advent of small transaction electronic commerce on the Internet for purchasing goods information and communication bandwidth There is also an industrial trend toward virtual enterprises dynamic alliances of small agile enterprises which together can take advantage of economies of scale when available e g respond to more diverse orders than individual agents can but do not su er from diseconomies of scale Multiagent technology facilitates such negotiation at the operative decision mak ing level This automation can save labor time of human negotiators but in addi tion other savings are possible because computational agents can be more e ective at nding bene cial short term contracts than humans are in strategically and com binatorially complex settings This chapter discusses multiagent negotiation in situations where agents may have di erent goals and each agent is trying to maximize its own good without concern for the global good Such self interest naturally prevails in negotiations among independent businesses or individuals In building computer support for negotiation in such settings the issue of self interest has to be dealt with In cooperative distributed problem solving the system designer imposes an interaction protocol and a strategy a mapping from state history to action a
Commitment in relationships: An updated meta‐analysis of the Investment Model

This article provides a systematic review and updated meta-analysis of the extant literature on Rusbult's Investment Model of Commitment. This meta-analysis aimed to determine the strength of the associations between commitment and its antecedents and to investigate potential moderators of these associations. This meta-analysis included 50,427 participants from 202 independent samples (collected between 1980 and early 2016) that had examined the intercorrelations between satisfaction, investment size, quality of alternatives, and commitment. Across all studies, satisfaction had the largest aggregate association with commitment (r = 0.65), followed by investments (r = 0.53) and quality of alternatives (r = −0.43). Several significant moderators of the relationships between the antecedents and commitment were also identified. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
When Patients Overreport Symptoms: More Than Just Malingering

Mental-health patients may report more symptoms than they actually experience. Experts and laypeople often view this overreporting as a sign of malingering. We show that there are multiple pathways to symptom overreporting: carryover effects from previous tests that lower the threshold for answering affirmatively to symptom items, suggestive misinformation that escalates symptom reports, inattentive responding that promotes indiscriminate endorsement of symptoms, and personality traits that bias symptom reports in an upward direction. A one-sided focus on malingering may distract from a research agenda that may contribute to knowledge accumulation in this domain.
Computational models of machine vision goal, role and success

This paper surveys the learning algorithms of visual features representation and the computational modelling approaches proposed with the aim of developing better artificial object recognition systems. It turns out that most of the learning theories and schemas have been developed either in the spirit of understanding biological facts of vision or designing machines that provide better or competitive perception power than humans. In this study, we discuss and analyse the impact of notable statistical approaches that map the cognitive neural activity at macro level formally, as well as those that work independently without any biological inspiration towards the goal of developing better classifiers. With the ultimate objective of classification in hand, the dimensions of research in computer vision and AI in general, have expanded so much so that it has become important to understand if our goals and diagnostics of the visual input learning are correct or not. We first highlight the mainstream approaches that have been proposed to solve the classification task ever since the advent of the field, and then suggest some criterion of success that can guide the direction of the future research.