Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ESTIMATING THE STAR FORMATION RATE AT 1 kpc SCALES IN NEARBY GALAXIES

Using combinations of Hα, ultraviolet (UV), and infrared (IR) emission, we estimate the star formation rate (SFR) surface density, ΣSFR, at 1 kpc resolution for 30 disk galaxies that are targets of the IRAM HERACLES CO survey. We present a new physically motivated IR spectral-energy-distribution-based approach to account for possible contributions to 24 μm emission not associated with recent star formation. Considering a variety of “reference” SFRs from the literature, we revisit the calibration of the 24 μm term in hybrid (UV+IR or Hα+IR) tracers. We show that the overall calibration of this term remains uncertain at the factor of two level because of the lack of wide-field, robust reference SFR estimates. Within this uncertainty, published calibrations represent a reasonable starting point for 1 kpc-wide areas of star-forming disk galaxies, but we re-derive and refine the calibration of the IR term in these tracers to match our resolution and approach to 24 μm emission. We compare a large suite of ΣSFR estimates and find that above ΣSFR ∼ 10−3 M☉ yr−1 kpc−2 the systematic differences among tracers are less than a factor of two across two orders of magnitude dynamic range. We caution that methodology and data both become serious issues below this level. We note from simple model considerations that when focusing on a part of a galaxy dominated by a single stellar population, the intrinsic uncertainty in Hα- and FUV-based SFRs is ∼0.3 and ∼0.5 dex.
Comparative and combined effects of interleukin 6, interleukin 1 beta, and tumor necrosis factor alpha on proteoglycan metabolism of human articular chondrocytes cultured in agarose.

OBJECTIVE To study the effects of recombinant tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin 1 beta (IL-1 beta) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) on proteoglycan metabolism of isolated chondrocytes. METHODS Human articular cartilage cells were cultured in agarose gel. In these culture conditions, chondrocytes keep their phenotypic stability. They release cartilage specific proteoglycans into the surrounding artificial matrix. Proteoglycan synthesis was measured by the incorporation of 35sulfate (35S). RESULTS TNF-alpha and IL-1 beta depressed proteoglycan synthesis and induced proteoglycan degradation. The effects of both cytokines were additive, when used in submaximal doses. No mutual induction of TNF-alpha and IL-1 beta was shown, but both cytokines stimulated the chondrocytes to release IL-6, up to 100,000 pg/ml. Equal amounts of human recombinant IL-6 did not affect proteoglycan synthesis. IL-6 did not alter proteoglycan quality, nor did it modulate the IL-1 beta activities on proteoglycan metabolism. CONCLUSION These findings illustrate the role of IL-1 beta and TNF-alpha in cartilage degradation and suggest that the role of the large amounts of IL-6 released in response to IL-1 in chronic arthritis is not directly protective with regard to proteoglycan metabolism.
Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human-Computer Relationship

Interfaces that talk and listen are populating computers, cars, call centers, and even home appliances and toys, but voice interfaces invariably frustrate rather than help. In Wired for Speech, Clifford Nass and Scott Brave reveal how interactive voice technologies can readily and effectively tap into the automatic responses all speech -- whether from human or machine -- evokes. Wired for Speech demonstrates that people are "voice-activated": we respond to voice technologies as we respond to actual people and behave as we would in any social situation. By leveraging this powerful finding, voice interfaces can truly emerge as the next frontier for efficient, user-friendly technology.Wired for Speech presents new theories and experiments and applies them to critical issues concerning how people interact with technology-based voices. It considers how people respond to a female voice in e-commerce (does stereotyping matter? ), how a car's voice can promote safer driving (are "happy" cars better cars? ), whether synthetic voices have personality and emotion (is sounding like a person always good? ), whether an automated call center should apologize when it cannot understand a spoken request ("To Err is Interface; To Blame, Complex"), and much more. Nass and Brave's deep understanding of both social science and design, drawn from ten years of research at Nass's Stanford laboratory, produces results that often challenge conventional wisdom and common design practices. These insights will help designers and marketers build better interfaces, scientists construct better theories, and everyone gain better understandings of the future of the machines that speak with us.
Women in information technology careers: a person-process-context-time framework

The underrepresentation of women in IT is a research area that has received much attention in recent years. Extant research has examined many factors that contribute to and/or improve the widening gender gap. Review articles to date have focused on certain aspects of the field, e.g., the pipeline (Gürer and Camp, 2001), secondary and post-secondary education (Sanders, 2005; Singh, Allen, Scheckler, and Darlington, 2007), and women in IT careers (Ahuja, 2002). There is a need for a comprehensive framework that synthesizes and extends existing research using a new research lens. We propose an integrative organizing model that draws on the career theory literature, Bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory (Bronfenbrenner, 2004), the relational model of career decisions (Mainiero and Sullivan, 2005), and Super's life-span, life-space approach to career development (Super, 1990). Examples of how the framework can be applied are discussed.
Preservation Mechanism of Chitosan-Based Coating with Cinnamon Oil for Fruits Storage Based on Sensor Data

The chitosan-based coating with antimicrobial agent has been developed recently to control the decay of fruits. However, its fresh keeping and antimicrobial mechanism is still not very clear. The preservation mechanism of chitosan coating with cinnamon oil for fruits storage is investigated in this paper. Results in the atomic force microscopy sensor images show that many micropores exist in the chitosan coating film. The roughness of coating film is affected by the concentration of chitosan. The antifungal activity of cinnamon oil should be mainly due to its main consistent trans-cinnamaldehyde, which is proportional to the trans-cinnamaldehyde concentration and improves with increasing the attachment time of oil. The exosmosis ratios of Penicillium citrinum and Aspergillus flavus could be enhanced by increasing the concentration of cinnamon oil. Morphological observation indicates that, compared to the normal cell, the wizened mycelium of A. flavus is observed around the inhibition zone, and the growth of spores is also inhibited. Moreover, the analysis of gas sensors indicate that the chitosan-oil coating could decrease the level of O2 and increase the level of CO2 in the package of cherry fruits, which also control the fruit decay. These results indicate that its preservation mechanism might be partly due to the micropores structure of coating film as a barrier for gas and a carrier for oil, and partly due to the activity of cinnamon oil on the cell disruption.
Handbook of Research in Social Studies Education

1. Introduction Part 1: Change and Continuity in Social Studies 2. Continuity and Change in Social Studies Curriculum 3. Early Elementary Social Studies 4. What Happens in Social Studies Classrooms? Research on K-12 Social Studies Practice Part 2: Civic Competence in Pluralist Democracies 5. Knowing and Doing in Democratic Citizenship Education 6. International Political Socialization Research 7. Service-Learning 8. Controversial Issues asnd Democratic Discourse 9. Diversity and Citizenship Education: Historical, Theoretical, and Philosophical Issues Part 3: Social Justice and the Social Studies 10. Social Justice and the Social Studies 11. Gender and Sexuality in the Social Studies 12. Global Education Part 4: Assessment and Accountability 13. Assessment and Accountability in the Social Studies Part Five: Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines 14. Research on Students' Ideas about History 15. Research on K-12 Geography Education 16. Recent Research on the Teaching and Learning of Pre-Collegiate Economics Part 6: Information Ecologies: Technology in the Social Studies 17. Technology and Social Studies Part 7: Teacher Preparation and Development 18. The Education of Social Studies Teachers 19. The Professional Development of Social Studies Teachers
The role of epithelial cell adhesion molecule N-glycosylation on apoptosis in breast cancer cells

Glycosylation of cell surface proteins plays an important role in the regulation of apoptosis. It has been demonstrated that knockdown of epithelial cell adhesion molecule promoted apoptosis, inhibited cell proliferation, and caused cell-cycle arrest. In this study, we investigated whether and how N-glycosylation of epithelial cell adhesion molecule influenced the apoptosis in breast cancer cells. We applied the N-glycosylation mutation epithelial cell adhesion molecule plasmid to express deglycosylation of epithelial cell adhesion molecule and then to study its function. Our results showed that deglycosylation of epithelial cell adhesion molecule promoted apoptosis and inhibited cell proliferation. Deglycosylation of epithelial cell adhesion molecule enhanced the cytotoxic effect of 5-fluorouracil, promoting apoptosis by downregulating the expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and upregulating the expression of the pro-apoptotic proteins Bax and Caspase 3 via the extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 1/2 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. These findings are important for a better understanding of epithelial cell adhesion molecule apoptosis regulation and suggest epithelial cell adhesion molecule as a potential target for the treatment of breast cancer.
Transformation in the South African Police Service : the implementation of affirmative action and employment equity in SAPS

The real transformation of the South African Police Service by the country's first democratically elected government started in 1994. At that time the police were confronted with a serious legitimacy crisis among a majority of South Africans as a consequence of many decades of brutal and racist apartheid policing practices. It was not until 1997 that the South African Police Service drafted what it called the 'Credo for Affirmative Action'. This document stated that 'in order to manifest commitment to this policy and constitutional responsibility, the South African Police Service shall strive to reflect the demographics of the country in all occupational classes and at all levels of the organisation at national and provincial levels, in terms of race and gender'. At this point the goals set for the organisation included ensuring that middle and senior management levels comprised of at least 50 percent black people and 30 percent women by the year 2000. In October 2001, the organisation developed and released a national employment equity plan intensifying the process of transformation. By 2005, the South African Police Service looked significantly different in terms of its racial profile.
Controlling aggregates of deferrable loads for power system regulation

This paper considers the role of a demand aggregator that manages a large number of consumer loads, with the objective of participating in the frequency regulation market. The key feature to be exploited is load deferrability in time, which enables the aggregator to adapt the consumption profile and thus reduce its own consumption of regulation, and even be a provider of regulation services to others. Rather than a microscopic model that considers individual loads and their scheduling, we consider here a macroscopic viewpoint drawn from fluid models of queueing systems. Here the state variable is the quantity of currently dispatchable loads, and the control input dictates the fraction of those which are currently active. The dynamics is a simple nonlinear ODE that allows us to design a controller with a feedforward term to track an external regulation reference, and a feedback term to reduce the impact of random load oscillations, in an agnostic way to the microscopic scheduling. The performance of this controller is evaluated by simulation using practical regulation signals.
Instagram Use, Loneliness, and Social Comparison Orientation: Interact and Browse on Social Media, But Don't Compare

Ever since the emergence of social networking sites (SNSs), it has remained a question without a conclusive answer whether SNSs make people more or less lonely. To achieve a better understanding, researchers need to move beyond studying overall SNS usage. In addition, it is necessary to attend to personal attributes as potential moderators. Given that SNSs provide rich opportunities for social comparison, one highly relevant personality trait would be social comparison orientation (SCO), and yet this personal attribute has been understudied in social media research. Drawing on literature of psychosocial implications of social media use and SCO, this study explored associations between loneliness and various Instagram activities and the role of SCO in this context. A total of 208 undergraduate students attending a U.S. mid-southern university completed a self-report survey (Mage = 19.43, SD = 1.35; 78 percent female; 57 percent White). Findings showed that Instagram interaction and Instagram browsing were both related to lower loneliness, whereas Instagram broadcasting was associated with higher loneliness. SCO moderated the relationship between Instagram use and loneliness such that Instagram interaction was related to lower loneliness only for low SCO users. The results revealed implications for healthy SNS use and the importance of including personality traits and specific SNS use patterns to disentangle the role of SNS use in psychological well-being.
Nosocomial pneumonia in patients undergoing heart surgery

Objective: To determine the risk factors related to the presence of postsurgical nosocomial pneumonia (NP) in patients who had undergone cardiac surgery. Design: A case‐control study. Setting: Postcardiac surgical intensive care unit at a university center. Patients: A total of 45 patients with NP and 90 control patients collected during a 4‐yr period. Interventions: Pre‐, intra‐, and postoperative factors were collected and compared between two groups of patients (cases vs. controls) to determine their influence on the development of NP. The diagnosis of NP was always microbiologically confirmed as pulmonary specimen brush culture of ≥103 colony‐forming units/mL or positive blood culture/pleural fluid culture by the growth of identical microorganisms isolated at the lung. For each patient diagnosed with NP, we selected control cases at a ratio of 1:2. Measurements and Main Results: The incidence of NP was 6.5%. Multivariate analysis found a probable association of the following variables with a greater risk for the development of NP: reintubation (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 62.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 8.1‐480; p = .01); nasogastric tube (AOR, 19.7; 95% CI, 3.5‐109; p = .01), transfusion of ≥4 units of blood derivatives (AOR, 12.8; 95% CI, 2‐82; p = .01) and empirical treatment with broad‐spectrum antibiotics (AOR, 6.6; 95% CI, 1.2‐36.8; p = .02). Culture results showed 13.3% of the NP to be of polymicrobial origin, whereas 77.3% of the microorganisms isolated were Gram‐negative bacteria. The mortality (51 vs. 6.7%, p < .01) and the length of stay in the intensive care unit (25 ± 14.8 days vs. 5 ± 5 days, p < .01) were both greater in patients with NP. Conclusions: We conclude that the surgical risk factors, except the transfusion of blood derivatives, have little effect on the development of NP. Reintubation, nasogastric tubing, previous therapy with broad‐spectrum antibiotics, and blood transfusion are factors most likely associated with NP acquisition.
Direct Bidirectional μ-Opioid Control of Midbrain Dopamine Neurons

The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is required for the rewarding and motivational actions of opioids and activation of dopamine neurons has been implicated in these effects. The canonical model posits that opioid activation of VTA dopamine neurons is indirect, through inhibition of GABAergic inputs. However, VTA dopamine neurons also express postsynaptic μ-opioid peptide (MOP) receptors. We report here that in Sprague Dawley rat, the MOP receptor-selective agonist DAMGO (0.5–3 μm) depolarized or increased the firing rate of 87 of 451 VTA neurons (including 22 of 110 dopamine neurons). This DAMGO excitation occurs in the presence of GABAA receptor blockade and its EC50 value is two orders of magnitude lower than for presynaptic inhibition of GABA release on to VTA neurons. Consistent with a postsynaptic channel opening, excitations were accompanied by a decrease in input resistance. Excitations were blocked by CdCl2 (100 μm, n = 5) and ω-agatoxin-IVA (100 nm, n = 3), nonselective and Cav2.1 Ca2+ channel blockers, respectively. DAMGO also produced a postsynaptic inhibition in 233 of 451 VTA neurons, including 45 of 110 dopamine neurons. The mean reversal potential of the inhibitory current was −78 ± 7 mV and inhibitions were blocked by the K+ channel blocker BaCl2 (100 μm, n = 7). Blockade of either excitation or inhibition unmasked the opposite effect, suggesting that MOP receptors activate concurrent postsynaptic excitatory and inhibitory processes in most VTA neurons. These results provide a novel direct mechanism for MOP receptor control of VTA dopamine neurons.
An Intelligent Multiagent System for Autonomous Microgrid Operation

A microgrid is an eco-friendly power system because renewable sources such as solar and wind power are used as the main power sources. For this reason, much research, development, and demonstration projects have recently taken place in many countries. Operation is one of the important research topics for microgrids. For efficient and economical microgrid operation, a human operator is required as in other power systems, but it is difficult because there are some restrictions related to operation costs and privacy issues. To overcome the restriction, autonomous operation for microgrids is required. Recently, an intelligent agent system for autonomous microgrid operation has been studied as a potential solution. This paper proposes a multiagent system for autonomous microgrid operation. To build the multiagent system, the functionalities of agents, interactions among agents, and an effective agent protocol have been designed. The proposed system has been implemented by using an ADIPS/DASH framework as an agent platform. The intelligent multiagent system for microgrid operation based on the proposed scheme is tested to show the functionality and feasibility on a distributed environment through the Internet.
Soil Diversity as Affected by Land Use in China: Consequences for Soil Protection

Rapid land-use change in recent decades in China and its impact on terrestrial biodiversity have been widely studied, particularly at local and regional scales. However, the effect of land-use change on the diversity of soils that support the terrestrial biological system has rarely been studied. Here, we report the first effort to assess the impact of land-use change on soil diversity for the entire nation of China. Soil diversity and land-use effects were analyzed spatially in grids and provinces. The land-use effects on different soils were uneven. Anthropogenic soils occupied approximately 12% of the total soil area, which had already replaced the original natural soils. About 7.5% of the natural soil classes in China were in danger of substantial loss, due to the disturbance of agriculture and construction. More than 80% of the endangered soils were unprotected due to the overlook of soil diversity. The protection of soil diversity should be integrated into future conservation activities.
Living with the Past: Evolution, Development, and Patterns of Disease

Epidemiological observations have led to the hypothesis that the risk of developing some chronic noncommunicable diseases in adulthood is influenced not only by genetic and adult life-style factors but also by environmental factors acting in early life. Research in evolutionary biology, developmental biology, and animal and human physiology provides support for this idea and suggests that environmental processes influencing the propensity to disease in adulthood operate during the periconceptual, fetal, and infant phases of life. This “developmental origins of health and disease” concept may have important biological, medical, and socioeconomic implications.
High rate epitaxial lift-off of InGaP films from GaAs substrates

Centimeter sized, crack-free single crystal InGaP films of 1 μm thickness were released from GaAs substrates by a weight-induced epitaxial lift-off process. At room temperature, the lateral etch rate of the process as a function of the applied Al0.85Ga0. 15As release layer thickness was found to have a maximum of 3 mm/h at 3 nm. Using 5-nm-thick AlAs release layers, the etch rate increased exponentially with temperature up to 11.2 mm/h at 80 °C. Correlation of the experimental data with the established theoretical description of the process indicate that the model is qualitatively correct but fails to predict the etch rates quantitatively by orders of magnitude.
The Perceived Attractiveness of Adult Facial Prototypes

This study investigated attractiveness ratings of individual faces and facial prototypes while controlling for symmetry. Symmetry was controlled by comparing symmetric individual faces to prototypes composed of 2, 4, 8, and 16 symmetric faces, morphed together by blending facial features such as eyes, nose, eyebrows, mouth, and outer contour. Adult male and female participants (N = 139, Mage = 19.12 years) viewed stimuli presented on a computer monitor and rated the attractiveness of each facial stimuli on a 10 point scale, with higher values representing increased attractiveness. Results indicated that attractiveness ratings increased as the number of faces in the prototype increased, F(4,104) = 145.24,p<. 0005. Since symmetry was controlled in this study, other factors must contribute to a prototype's attractiveness.