Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Drivers of fire in the boreal forests: Data constrained design of a prognostic model of burned area for use in dynamic global vegetation models

[1] Boreal regions are an important component of the global carbon cycle because they host large stocks of aboveground and belowground carbon. Since boreal forest evolution is closely related to fire regimes, shifts in climate are likely to induce changes in ecosystems, potentially leading to a large release of carbon and other trace gases to the atmosphere. Prediction of the effect of this potential climate feedback on the Earth system is therefore important and requires the modeling of fire as a climate driven process in dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs). Here, we develop a new data-based prognostic model, for use in DGVMs, to estimate monthly burned area from four climate (precipitation, temperature, soil water content and relative humidity) and one human-related (road density) predictors for boreal forest. The burned area model is a function of current climatic conditions and is thus responsive to climate change. Model parameters are estimated using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method applied to on ground observations from the Canadian Large Fire Database. The model is validated against independent observations from three boreal regions: Canada, Alaska and Siberia. Provided realistic climate predictors, the model is able to reproduce the seasonality, intensity and interannual variability of burned area, as well as the location of fire events. In particular, the model simulates well the timing of burning events, with two thirds of the events predicted for the correct month and almost all the rest being predicted 1 month before or after the observed event. The predicted annual burned area is in the range of various current estimates. The estimated annual relative error (standard deviation) is twelve percent in a grid cell, which makes the model suitable to study quantitatively the evolution of burned area with climate.
Epigenetic repression of bone morphogenetic protein receptor II expression in scleroderma

Germline mutations in the bone morphogenetic protein type II receptor (BMPRII) gene play an essential role in the pathogenesis of familial pulmonary arterial hypertension (FPAH). In view of the histological similarities between scleroderma (SSc) and FPAH arterial lesion, we examined the expression levels of BMPRII in SSc microvascular endothelial cells (MVEC). Oxidative stress and serum starvation were used to examine apoptotic responses of MVECs. BMPRII expression levels were determined by RT‐PCR and by Western blot. Epigenetic regulation of BMPRII expression was examined by the addition of epigenetic inhibitors to MVECs cultures, by methylation‐specific PCR, and by sequence analysis of DNA methylation pattern of the BMPRII promotor region. SSc‐MVECs were more sensitive to apoptotic signals than were normal‐MVECs. A significant decrease in BMPRII expression levels in SSc‐MVECs was noted, whereas no significant differences in the expression levels of BMPRIA and BMPRIB were observed. Similar reduction in expression levels was noted in SSc skin biopsies. The expression level of BMPRII in SSc‐MVECs was normalized by the addition of 2‐deoxy‐5‐azacytidine and trichostatin A to cell cultures. Extensive CpG sites methylation in the BMPRII promoter region was noted in SSc‐MVECs with no detectable site methylation in control‐MVECs. SSc‐MVECs are more sensitive to apoptotic triggers than are control‐MVECs. The enhanced apoptosis may be related to epigenetic repression of BMPRII expression as apoptosis of control‐MVECs can be augmented by knocking down BMPRII expression. The role of BMPRII underexpression in the pathogenesis of SSc vasculopathy is suggested and should be investigated further.
Error Minimizing Minimax : Avoiding Search Pathology in Game Trees

Game-tree pathology is a phenomenon where deeper minimax search results in worse play. It was was discovered 30 years ago (Nau 1982) and shown to exist in a large class of games. Most games of interest are not pathological so there has been little research into searching pathological trees. In this paper we show that even in non-pathological games, there likely are pathological subtrees. Further, we introduce error minimizing minimax search, an adaptation of minimax that recognizes pathological subtrees in arbitrary games, and cuts off search accordingly (shallower search is more effective than deeper search in pathological subtrees). Finally, we present experimental studies of error minimizing minimax in two different games. In our experiments, error minimizing minimax outperformed minimax, sometimes substantially, and never exhibited pathological characteristics.
After Life Imprisonment: Reentry in the Era of Mass Incarceration

to undo the harm caused by centuries of reliance on enslaved labor to build its economic power, social order, and global standing, the impulse to romanticize the work of abolitionism, to redeem the national transgression of slavery, is understandable. The work of sociologists, however, is not to soothe our social anxieties but to craft, as Lamb-Books has so earnestly offered, an honest, thoughtful, and wellinformed understanding of the productive misdirections of moral progress and the contrary-but-generative movements of social change. Angry Abolitionists traces the personal, interpersonal, and intramural struggles of antislavery abolitionists to make their message move from the margins of antebellum society to the mainstream, extending understandings of social movement participation to include ‘‘both the self-described ‘abolitionists’ and people who disliked that label or perhaps had never even heard of it altogether’’ (p. 70). Confronting head on the methodological and socio-historical challenges of unearthing the emotional lives of longarchived subjects for the purposes of empirical study, at its best Angry Abolitionists bridges the divide between the sociology of emotion and collective action theory with a capacious approach to ‘‘contentious politics’’ that makes room for more nuanced self-critical analysis of the structural constraints that have historically limited which movements we study as well as the ways we are taught to study them.
New craniodental remains of Wakaleo alcootaensis (Diprotodontia: Thylacoleonidae) a carnivorous marsupial from the late Miocene Alcoota Local Fauna of the Northern Territory, Australia

New jaws and teeth referable to the rare thylacoleonid marsupial Wakaleo alcootaensis are figured and described. The species is the geologically youngest known member of the genus and is only known from the late Miocene Alcoota Local Fauna of the Northern Territory, Australia. A revised diagnosis of the species is presented which is found to be morphologically distinct from its congeners. W. alcootaensis can be distinguished from other species of Wakaleo by its greater size, deeply recessed masseteric fossa, more steeply angled I1, loss of P2, greater P3 to M1 ratio and loss of M3. Several characters of W. alcootaensis, including the increase in size, steeply angled I1, increase of the relative size of P3, and reduction of the molar row are present in at least some species of Thylacoleo. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that these character states are convergences and that there was parallel evolution in these two thylacoleonid lineages.
National Poverty Center Working Paper Series Moving from Public Housing to Homeownership: Perceived Barriers to Program Participation and Success Moving from Public Housing to Homeownership: Perceived Barriers to Program Participation and Success Moving from Public Housing to Homeownership: Perceive

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the National Poverty Center or any sponsoring agency The Ford Foundation and the Mac Arthur Foundation provided financial support for this research. The opinions expressed in this document are the authors', and do not necessarily reflect those of these Foundations. The goals of public housing have evolved from providing shelter to providing opportunities for escaping from welfare and buying one's own home. Despite numerous federal policies aimed at enhancing resident self-sufficiency and homeownership through programs run by local public housing authorities, little is known about who participates and who succeeds. This study explores barriers to participation and success in an innovative resident self-sufficiency /homeownership program developed by the Housing Authority of the City and County of Denver. We conduct a survey of participants in the Foundations for Homeownership program, eliciting their perceptions regarding willingness and ability to participate in the program and, thereafter, completing it successfully. We find that at time of entry into the program, participants report, on average, 4.6 major barriers that they perceive would limit their ability to achieve current goals. Poor credit ratings, not having enough savings, low earnings, carrying too much debt, and perceived discrimination against low income people by mortgage lenders were seen as the primary obstacles affecting participant ability to achieve their goals. When asked about the factors which affect public housing residents' ability to participate in homeownership programs, participants identified the following as major problems: lack of affordable day care; not knowing about available resources; lack of education or training; lack of confidence in the ability to succeed; substance abuse; and the unwillingness or inability to make the effort or commitment to reach personal goals. Major barriers affecting the willingness of public housing residents to participate in homeownership programs include carrying too much debt; not earning a high enough hourly wage; not having enough savings; the lack of a steady job; not being able to budget earnings effectively; and poor credit ratings. Respondents suggest that increasing earnings, repairing credit, perseverance, and learning how to budget are the major vehicles for overcoming these barriers. OLS and logistic regression analyses were conducted to ascertain the degree to which perceived barriers were associated with participants' demographic, economic, or attitudinal characteristics. Larger numbers of perceived barriers to achieving goals were associated with African …
Order parameter at the boundary of a trapped Bose gas.

Through a suitable expansion of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation near the classical turning point, we obtain an explicit solution for the order parameter at the boundary of a trapped Bose gas interacting with repulsive forces. The kinetic energy of the system, in terms of the classical radius R and of the harmonic oscillator length ${\mathit{a}}_{\mathrm{HO}}$, follows the law ${\mathit{E}}_{\mathrm{kin}}$/N\ensuremath{\propto}${\mathit{R}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}2}$[ln(R/${\mathit{a}}_{\mathrm{HO}}$)+ const], approaching, for large R, the results obtained by solving numerically the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The occurrence of a Josephson-type current in the presence of a double trap potential is finally discussed. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
Nearby early-type galaxies with ionized gas. II. Line-strength indices for 18 additional galaxies

We previously presented a data-set of line-strength indices for 50 early-type galaxies in the nearby Universe. The galaxy sample is biased toward galaxies showing emission lines, located in environments corresponding to a broad range of local galaxy densities, although predominantly in low density environments. The present addendum enlarges the above data-set of line-strength indices by analyzing 18 additional early-type galaxies (three galaxies, NGC 3607; NGC 5077 and NGC 5898 were presented in the previous set). We measured 25 line-strength indices, defined by the Lick IDS standard system (Trager et al. 1998, ApJS. 116, 1; Worthey & Ottaviani 1997, ApJS, 111, 377), for 7 luminosity weighted apertures and 4 gradients of each galaxy. This addendum presents the line-strength data-set and compares it with the available data in the literature.
Too Big to Fail: Some Empirical Evidence on the Causes and Consequences of Public Banking Interventions in the Uk

During the 2007‐09 financial crisis, the banking sector received an extraordinary level of public support. In this empirical paper, we examine the determinants of a number of government interventions: government funding or central bank liquidity insurance schemes, public capital injections, and nationalizations. We use bank‐level data spanning all British and foreign banks operating within the United Kingdom. We use multinomial logit regression techniques and find that a bank's size, relative to the size of the entire banking system, typically has a large positive and non‐linear effect on the probability of public sector intervention for a bank. We also use instrumental variable techniques to show that British interventions helped; there is fragile evidence that the wholesale (non‐core) funding of an affected institution increased by over 38% following capital injection or nationalization.
Relative Contribution of Th1 and Th17 Cells in Adaptive Immunity to Bordetella pertussis: Towards the Rational Design of an Improved Acellular Pertussis Vaccine

Whooping cough caused by Bordetella pertussis is a re-emerging infectious disease despite the introduction of safer acellular pertussis vaccines (Pa). One explanation for this is that Pa are less protective than the more reactogenic whole cell pertussis vaccines (Pw) that they replaced. Although Pa induce potent antibody responses, and protection has been found to be associated with high concentrations of circulating IgG against vaccine antigens, it has not been firmly established that host protection induced with this vaccine is mediated solely by humoral immunity. The aim of this study was to examine the relative contribution of Th1 and Th17 cells in host immunity to infection with B. pertussis and in immunity induced by immunization with Pw and Pa and to use this information to help rationally design a more effective Pa. Our findings demonstrate that Th1 and Th17 both function in protective immunity induced by infection with B. pertussis or immunization with Pw. In contrast, a current licensed Pa, administered with alum as the adjuvant, induced Th2 and Th17 cells, but weak Th1 responses. We found that IL-1 signalling played a central role in protective immunity induced with alum-adsorbed Pa and this was associated with the induction of Th17 cells. Pa generated strong antibody and Th2 responses, but was fully protective in IL-4-defective mice, suggesting that Th2 cells were dispensable. In contrast, Pa failed to confer protective immunity in IL-17A-defective mice. Bacterial clearance mediated by Pa-induced Th17 cells was associated with cell recruitment to the lungs after challenge. Finally, protective immunity induced by an experimental Pa could be enhanced by substituting alum with a TLR agonist that induces Th1 cells. Our findings demonstrate that alum promotes protective immunity through IL-1β-induced IL-17A production, but also reveal that optimum protection against B. pertussis requires induction of Th1, but not Th2 cells.
Semantics of query languages for network databases

Semantics determines the meaning of language constructs; hence it says much more than syntax does about implementing the language. The main purpose of this paper is a formal presentation of the meaning of basic language constructs employed in many database languages (sublanguages). Therefore, stylized query languages SSL (Sample Selection Language) and J (Joins) are introduced, wherein most of the typical entries present in other query languages are collected. The semantics of SSL and J are defined by means of the denotational method and explained informally. In SSL and J, four types of expressions are introduced: a selector (denotes a set of addresses), a term (denotes a set of values), a formula (denotes a truth value), and a join (denotes a set of n-tuples of addresses or values). In many cases alternative semantics are given and discussed. In order to obtain more general properties of the proposed languages, a new database access model is introduced, intended to be a tool for the description of the logical access paths to data. In particular, the access paths of the network and relational models can be described. SSL and J expressions may be addressed to both data structures. In the case of the relational model, expressions of J are similar to SQL or QUEL statements. Thus J may be considered a generalization of relational query languages for the network model. Finally, a programming language, based on SSL and J, is outlined, and the issues of SSL and J implementation are considered.
Literacy education in prison: developing a social literacy programme in the prison school of Cyprus

ABSTRACT The current paper presents data from a social literacy programme implemented in the prison school in Cyprus for 18 months. The programme was theoretically informed by critical literacy, genre pedagogy, multimodality and non-formal education and it aimed to opt away from skill-based, autonomous and corrective models of literacy education that are widespread in prison education. The current programme approached literacy from the ideological and social perspective. The methodology adopted was a combination of intervention (design and implementation) and ethnographic research (reflective diaries, field notes of the implementation process) along with texts produced by the prisoners. The main findings indicate that the prisoners were very responsive to this type of literacy education since it provided them space to reflect on their own experience, freedom to express themselves and produce texts, away from corrective educational models, and the programme as a whole was appropriate for prisoners of varied educational and social background.
ROBUST TIMEKEEPING IN CIRCADIAN NETWORKS: FROM GENES TO CELLS

Systems theoretic tools, including mathematical modeling, control theoretic analysis, and feedback design, advance the understanding of the circadian clock: a set of noisy oscillators that communicate to ensure its function as a reliable pacemaker. The clock’s internal time, or phase, is a key performance measure used to investigate dynamics of a single deterministic oscillator for the purpose of generating insight into the behavior of coupled stochastic oscillators. The analysis of a single oscillator identifies appropriate coupling mechanisms for an ensemble of stochastic oscillators. Phase also serves as a critical control objective for a model predictive control algorithm that aims to correct mismatch between the biological clock and its environment.
Approximation systems for functions in topological and in metric spaces

A notable feature of the TTE approach to computability is the representation of the argument values and the corresponding function values by means of infinitistic names. Two ways to eliminate the using of such names in certain cases are indicated in the paper. The first one is intended for the case of topological spaces with selected indexed denumerable bases. Suppose a partial function is given from one such space into another one whose selected base has a recursively enumerable index set, and suppose that the intersection of base open sets in the first space is computable in the sense of Weihrauch-Grubba. Then the ordinary TTE computability of the function is characterized by the existence of an appropriate recursively enumerable relation between indices of base sets containing the argument value and indices of base sets containing the corresponding function value.This result can be regarded as an improvement of a result of Korovina and Kudinov. The second way is applicable to metric spaces with selected indexed denumerable dense subsets. If a partial function is given from one such space into another one, then, under a semi-computability assumption concerning these spaces, the ordinary TTE computability of the function is characterized by the existence of an appropriate recursively enumerable set of quadruples. Any of them consists of an index of element from the selected dense subset in the first space, a natural number encoding a rational bound for the distance between this element and the argument value, an index of element from the selected dense subset in the second space and a natural number encoding a rational bound for the distance between this element and the function value. One of the examples in the paper indicates that the computability of real functions can be characterized in a simple way by using the first way of elimination of the infinitistic names.
Role of gabapentin enacarbil XR in restless legs syndrome

Gabapentin enacarbil XR is a new extended-release formulation which attempts to overcome the reduced efficacy of shorter-acting gabapentin, with sustained delivery over a 24-hour period. It is a gabapentin prodrug which is efficiently and rapidly converted to gabapentin during active transport throughout the length of the intestine via high-capacity monocarboxylate type 1 nutrient transporters unlike its predecessor, which is absorbed via low-capacity transporters largely confined to the upper intestinal region. Its lack of saturable absorption allows for dose-proportional absorption and hence increased bioavailability. Several clinical trials addressing its efficacy in moderate to severe restless legs syndrome (RLS) demonstrate improvements in the International RLS Rating Scale after a 2-week to 3-month period. Open-label studies of 52 weeks’ duration showed maintenance of symptom reduction with once-daily administration of the extended-release formulation. The most commonly reported treatment-emergent adverse effects were somnolence and dizziness. Although the incidence of emergent adverse effects is high, it is comparable with that of gabapentin. No studies thus far have documented augmentation as an issue, unlike that observed with most dopaminergic agents. In addition, both dopamine precursors and agonists have not been shown to increase slow wave sleep or improve overall sleep architecture consistently despite improvement in the periodic leg movement index, in contrast with gabapentin enacarbil. Presently, gabapentin enacarbil has not been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration or Medsafe for use in RLS. The cost of this medication may also be a potential barrier for many patients. Future comparative efficacy studies with gabapentin, first-line dopaminergic agents, rotigotine, being the other once daily RLS medication, and pregabalin, the structural analog of gabapentin, will be necessary.
The association between personality, coping and depressive symptoms in adult patients with chronic pain

As a rising concern in the medical and mental health fields, this study aims to examine predictors of depressive symptoms in a sample of Egyptian chronic pain patients in terms of coping styles and personality traits. Patients with chronic pain are believed to experience different stressors which include, but are not limited to, pain, disability, reduced productivity and financial difficulties. Such factors, in addition to various psychosocial factors, constitute the disease burden of chronic pain. This study examines the degree to which coping styles and personality traits can influence the disease outcome in terms of comorbid depressive symptoms. A total of 98 (50 patients with fibromyalgia and 48 patients with rheumatoid arthritis) patients were interviewed and were assessed in terms of their coping styles, personality profile and severity of depressive symptoms. Results show a high prevalence of depressive symptoms and suggest passive coping, high neuroticism, low extraversion, unmarried status and more years of education. to be moderate predictors of the severity of chronic pain. Findings of this study shed light on the significance of the psychological aspects of chronic pain conditions and may help in designing liaison interventions for the management of secondary and comorbid depressive symptoms. DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AND CHRONIC PAIN 7