Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does magnetic pressure affect the intracluster medium dynamics

A possible discrepancy found between the determination of mass of the intracluster medium (ICM) from gravitational lensing data and that from X-ray observations has been much discussed in recent years. For instance, Miralda-Escude & Babul found that the mass estimate derived from gravitational lensing can be as much as a factor of 2–2.5 larger than the mass estimate derived from analysis of the X-ray observations. Another important discrepancy related to these data is that X-ray imaging, with some spectral resolution, suggests that the mass distribution of the gravitating matter, mostly dark matter, has a central cusp, or at least that the dark matter is more centrally condensed than the X-ray-emitting gas, and also with respect to the galaxy distribution (Eyles et al.), at variance with what is expected from the most accepted models of formation of large-scale structure. Could these discrepancies be a consequence of the standard description of the ICM, in which hydrostatic equilibrium maintained by thermal pressure is assumed? In analogy to the interstellar medium of the Galaxy, a non-thermal term of pressure is expected, which contains contributions of magnetic fields, turbulence and cosmic rays. We follow the evolution of the ICM, considering a term of magnetic pressure, aiming at answering the question of whether or not these discrepancies can be explained via non-thermal terms of pressure. Our results suggest that the magnetic pressure could only affect the dynamics of the ICM on scales as small as ≲1 kpc. Our models are constrained by the observations of large- and small-scale fields, and we are successful at reproducing available data, for both Faraday rotation limits and inverse Compton limits for the magnetic fields. In our calculations, the radius (from the cluster centre) in which magnetic pressure reaches equipartition is smaller than radii derived in previous works. The crucial difference in our models is our more realistic treatment of the magnetic field geometry, and the consideration of a sink term in the cooling flow which reduces the amplification of the field strength during the inflow. In addition, the magnetic field calculations are changed after the cooling flow has been formed.
A simple technique to manipulate foraging costs in seed-eating birds

SUMMARY Food availability is a key factor in ecology and evolution, but available techniques to manipulate the effort to acquire food in vertebrates are technically challenging and/or labour intensive. We present a simple technique to increase foraging costs in seed-eating birds that can be applied with little effort and at low monetary cost for prolonged periods (years) to solitary or group-housed animals. The essence of the technique is that food is offered in a container above ground level, with holes in the sides from which the food can be taken, forcing birds into energetically demanding hovering flight to forage. As a control treatment we offered a similar container but with perches mounted beneath the holes, allowing birds to eat without extra flights. Increasing foraging costs in this way induced zebra finches to double the time spent foraging, and to decrease their basal metabolic rate, in agreement with results obtained using more laborious techniques to increase foraging costs. The technique was not too severe because mortality was low during a winter with sub-zero temperatures. As foraging costs under natural conditions are generally higher than those under standard laboratory conditions, we suggest that measuring behaviour and physiology when animals have to work for food may better reflect their natural state.
Co-Architecting Controllers and DRAM to Enhance DRAM Process Scaling

Today's DRAM process is expected to continue scaling, enabling minimum feature sizes below 10nm. To achieve this, the main challenges to address are expected to be refresh, write recovery time (tWR), and variable retention time (VRT) parameters. This paper proposes enhancement features that address these three scaling parameters by simultaneously coarchitecting the controller and DRAM instead of designing them individually. Combining temperature compensated tWR (TCWR) with sub-array level parallelism (SALP) enables tWR relaxation, while further improving performance above a given temperature threshold such as 25 o C. In-DRAM ECC enables efficient repairs when refresh and VRT failures generate fail bits. It also provides additional single bit failure protection, thereby increasing field reliability which is critical for servers. Despite the general perception that in-DRAM ECC is not applicable to server main memories due to excessive chip size increases, the proposed inDRAM ECC with dummy data bit pre-fetching results in a modest array size increase of only ~6.2%. By changing the echosystem to enable the proposed features, DRAM scaling is expected to accelerate further, enabling a continuous supply of low cost, high capacity, high performance, and low power DRAMs for the industry.
Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Platelet Gel Improve Bone Deposition within CAD-CAM Custom-Made Ceramic HA Scaffolds for Condyle Substitution

Purpose. This study evaluated the efficacy of a regenerative approach using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and CAD-CAM customized pure and porous hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffolds to replace the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) condyle. Methods. Pure HA scaffolds with a 70% total porosity volume were prototyped using CAD-CAM technology to replace the two temporomandibular condyles (left and right) of the same animal. MSCs were derived from the aspirated iliac crest bone marrow, and platelets were obtained from the venous blood of the sheep. Custom-made surgical guides were created by direct metal laser sintering and were used to export the virtual planning of the bone cut lines into the surgical environment. Sheep were sacrificed 4 months postoperatively. The HA scaffolds were explanted, histological specimens were prepared, and histomorphometric analysis was performed. Results. Analysis of the porosity reduction for apposition of newly formed bone showed a statistically significant difference in bone formation between condyles loaded with MSC and condyles without (P < 0.05). The bone ingrowth (BI) relative values of split-mouth comparison (right versus left side) showed a significant difference between condyles with and without MSCs (P < 0.05). Analysis of the test and control sides in the same animal using a split-mouth study design was performed; the condyle with MSCs showed greater bone formation. Conclusion. The split-mouth design confirmed an increment of bone regeneration into the HA scaffold of up to 797% upon application of MSCs.
Karen Barad’s Quantum Ontology and Posthuman Ethics: Rethinking the Concept of Relationality:

This article focuses on Karen Barad’s quantum ontology and her attempts to reformulate the concept of relationality. The aim is to show how Barad’s work articulates a new kind of empiricism for the social sciences, by reclaiming the creative and speculative force of experimental practice and by recentering the philosophical problem as a source of inquiry. Relationality is redefined through discussions of diffractive apparatus, more-than-human performativity, and the “polymorphous perversity” of the matter-meaning mixture.
Multisector Involvement Among Adolescents With Disabilities

When youth experience psychosocial difficulties, multiple sectors of care may intervene. The present study examined the prevalence and sociodemographic predictors of multisector involvement related to psychosocial difficulties among adolescents with disabilities. Using a nationally representative sample of 9,230 students who participated in the National Longitudinal Transition Study–2, we estimated students’ rates of involvement in school, health, social service, and juvenile justice sectors and used logistic regression models to ascertain the relations to student characteristics. Students with disabilities were frequently involved with a variety of sectors of care, but schools remain the primary provider. Multisector involvement was commonplace, particularly for adolescents with emotional disturbance or autism. Disability and insurance type consistently predicted involvement of each sector, but other sociodemographic characteristics commonly related to disparities in involvement were not significant in most of our models. Communication and collaboration across systems can support the school-based problem solving and individualized planning for students with disabilities.
Relaxed-currency serializability for middle-tier caching and replication

Many applications, such as e-commerce, routinely use copies of data that are not in sync with the database due to heuristic caching strategies used to enhance performance. We study concurrency control for a transactional model that allows update transactions to read out-of-date copies. Each read operation carries a "freshness constraint" that specifies how fresh a copy must be in order to be read. We offer a definition of correctness for this model and present algorithms to ensure several of the most interesting freshness constraints. We outline a serializability-theoretic correctness proof and present the results of a detailed performance study.
A Level-3 Reformulation-Linearization Technique-Based Bound for the Quadratic Assignment Problem

We apply the level-3 reformulation-linearization technique (RLT3) to the quadratic assignment problem (QAP). We then present our experience in calculating lower bounds using an essentially new algorithm based on this RLT3 formulation. Our method is not guaranteed to calculate the RLT3 lower bound exactly, but it approximates this lower bound very closely and reaches it in some instances. For Nugent problem instances up to size 24, our RLT3-based lower bound calculation solves these problem instances exactly or serves to verify the optimal value. Calculating lower bounds for problem sizes larger than size 27 still presents a challenge because of the large amount of memory needed to implement the RLT3 formulation. Our presentation emphasizes the steps taken to significantly conserve memory by using the numerous problem symmetries in the RLT3 formulation of the QAP. We implemented this RLT3-based bound calculation in a branch-and-bound algorithm. Experimental results project significant runtime improvement over all other published QAP branch-and-bound solvers.
Drosophila Model of Human Inherited Triosephosphate Isomerase Deficiency Glycolytic Enzymopathy

Heritable mutations, known as inborn errors of metabolism, cause numerous devastating human diseases, typically as a result of a deficiency in essential metabolic products or the accumulation of toxic intermediates. We have isolated a missense mutation in the Drosophila sugarkill (sgk) gene that causes phenotypes analogous to symptoms of triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) deficiency, a human familial disease, characterized by anaerobic metabolic dysfunction resulting from pathological missense mutations affecting the encoded TPI protein. In Drosophila, the sgk gene encodes the glycolytic enzyme TPI. Our analysis of sgk mutants revealed TPI impairment associated with reduced longevity, progressive locomotor deficiency, and neural degeneration. Biochemical studies demonstrate that mutation of this glycolytic enzyme gene does not result in a bioenergetic deficit, suggesting an alternate cause of enzymopathy associated with TPI impairment.
Four enhancements to automateddistributed system experimentation methods

Experimentation is an essential tool employed by the developers of software systems, especially distributed systems. In prior work we developed a model-driven framework for automating various experimentation tasks, such as workload generation, and demonstrated that it gives the engineer a cost-effective means to conduct large-scale experiments on distributed testbeds. We have enhanced the methods underlying the framework in four significant ways: (1) increasing the expressiveness of workloads by allowing for conditional and reactive behaviors; (2) supporting the repeatability of experiments through the creation of environment workloads that can control the operational context; (3) enabling the composability of application and environment workloads to obtain a broader class of experiments; and (4) extending the scope of experiment management to include control over multiple runs. We use the enhancements to conduct a series of interesting new experiments. Specifically, the enhancements allow us to manipulate a fixed-wired testbed so that it simulates a mobile-wireless environment, and to selectively and maliciously inject faults into a system.
MicroRNA-133a Protects Against Myocardial Fibrosis and Modulates Electrical Repolarization Without Affecting Hypertrophy in Pressure-Overloaded Adult Hearts

Rationale: MicroRNA (miR)-133a regulates cardiac and skeletal muscle differentiation and plays an important role in cardiac development. Because miR-133a levels decrease during reactive cardiac hypertrophy, some have considered that restoring miR-133a levels could suppress hypertrophic remodeling. Objective: To prevent the “normal” downregulation of miR-133a induced by an acute hypertrophic stimulus in the adult heart. Methods and Results: miR-133a is downregulated in transverse aortic constriction (TAC) and isoproterenol-induced hypertrophy, but not in 2 genetic hypertrophy models. Using MYH6 promoter-directed expression of a miR-133a genomic precursor, increased cardiomyocyte miR-133a had no effect on postnatal cardiac development assessed by measures of structure, function, and mRNA profile. However, increased miR-133a levels increased QT intervals in surface electrocardiographic recordings and action potential durations in isolated ventricular myocytes, with a decrease in the fast component of the transient outward K+ current, Ito,f, at baseline. Transgenic expression of miR-133a prevented TAC-associated miR-133a downregulation and improved myocardial fibrosis and diastolic function without affecting the extent of hypertrophy. Ito,f downregulation normally observed post-TAC was prevented in miR-133a transgenic mice, although action potential duration and QT intervals did not reflect this benefit. miR-133a transgenic hearts had no significant alterations of basal or post-TAC mRNA expression profiles, although decreased mRNA and protein levels were observed for the Ito,f auxiliary KChIP2 subunit, which is not a predicted target. Conclusions: These results reveal striking differences between in vitro and in vivo phenotypes of miR expression, and further suggest that mRNA signatures do not reliably predict either direct miR targets or major miR effects.
Etiology and Features of Eyes with Rubeosis Iridis among Korean Patients: A Population-Based Single Center Study

Purpose To estimate the etiology and features of the eyes with rubeosis iridis among Korean patients. Materials and Methods This study is a retrospective review of 533 Korean patients with rubeosis iridis who visited an eye hospital in Seoul, Korea. We defined rubeosis iridis as visible blood vessels on the iris surface detected during a slit-lamp examination. All cases were reviewed for age at the time of diagnosis, medical history, the most likely cause of rubeosis iridis, visual acuity, and intraocular pressure. Results The most commonly observed cause of rubeosis iridis was diabetic retinopathy (DR; n = 337, 63.2%), followed by retinal vein occlusion (RVO; n = 101, 18.9%), ocular ischemic syndrome (OIS; n = 24, 4.5%), retinal detachment (n = 17, 3.2%), and uveitis (n = 15, 2.8%). The cause was classified as miscellaneous in 18 cases (3.4%); in 21 eyes (3.9%), the cause was not clear. Age at the time of rubeosis iridis diagnosis was lower in patients with DR (56.5 years) than in those with RVO (61.0 years) and OIS (64.8 years; P < 0.01). Intraocular pressure of the eyes with DR (37.3 mmHg) and RVO (39.5 mmHg) was higher than that of the eyes with OIS (25.8 mmHg; P < 0.01). Conclusion In our population-based single center study, DR was the leading cause of rubeosis iridis followed by RVO and OIS among Korean patients. The clinical characteristics of the eyes with rubeosis iridis differed according to etiology. This finding may be useful when assessing eyes with rubeosis iridis.
A test of expectancy-value theory in predicting alcohol consumption*

Abstract Background: Research on alcohol-related outcome expectancies has primarily focused on the likelihood of the anticipated effects, while comparatively little attention has been paid to their subjective evaluation. However, according to expectancy-value theory, the expectation that alcohol use will produce certain consequences and the evaluation of those consequences jointly and interactively determine an individual's decision to consume alcohol. Previous research on this issue was hampered by multiple regression strategies that are plagued by measurement error and low statistical power. Method: To overcome this limitation, we investigated expectancy-value interactions in predicting drinking variables by drawing on latent variable methodology using the five expectancy-value dimensions from the Comprehensive Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire. Expectancy-value models were tested in a sample of college students (N = 1053) and a sample of alcohol-dependent inpatients (N = 699). Results: Significant expectancy-value interactions emerged concerning social assertiveness among students as well as for aggression and tension reduction among alcohol-dependent inpatients. The relationship between expectancy and drinking was strongest for pronounced (either positive or negative) valuations of the effect. Effect sizes were small, however. Conclusions: The results are in partial agreement with basic premises of expectancy-value theory. However, this study also identifies limits to the universal validity of expectancy-value theory, given that prediction of alcohol use depends on the effect domains, alcohol outcome measures, and study populations.
Investigating the Intersection of Poverty and Race in Gifted Education Journals: A 15-Year Analysis

Using a two-phase content analysis approach, this study examined how education scholars have discussed the intersection of giftedness, race, and poverty in gifted academic journals from 2000 to 2015. Specifically, the authors explored the following questions: (a) What are the characteristics of studies published that explore the intersection of giftedness, poverty, and students of color? (b) How do scholars discuss and theorize about how to recruit and retain gifted students of color who come from families living in poverty? (c) In what ways do scholars discuss the intersection of race and poverty for gifted students of color? Findings indicated that while studies were focused on students of color, there was limited discussion about the impact of race and poverty on the recruitment and retention of gifted students of color who come from families living in poverty. Implications and future research are discussed.
Moving Target Defense: a Journey from Idea to Product

In today's enterprise networks, there are many ways for a determined attacker to obtain a foothold, bypass current protection technologies, and attack the intended target. Over several years we have developed the Self-shielding Dynamic Network Architecture (SDNA) technology, which prevents an attacker from targeting, entering, or spreading through an enterprise network by adding dynamics that present a changing view of the network over space and time. SDNA was developed with the support of government sponsored research and development and corporate internal resources. The SDNA technology was purchased by Cryptonite, LLC in 2015 and has been developed into a robust product offering called Cryptonite NXT. In this paper, we describe the journey and lessons learned along the course of feasibility demonstration, technology development, security testing, productization, and deployment in a production network.
Effects of Network Segregation in Intergroup Conflict: An Experimental Analysis

Dense in-group and scarce out-group relations (network segregation) often support the emergence of conflicts between groups. A key underlying mechanism is social control that helps to overcome the collective action problem within groups, but contributes to harmful conflicts among them in segregated settings. In this study, a new experimental design is introduced to test whether internalized social control affects contribution decisions in intergroup related collective action. Subjects played single-shot Intergroup Public Good games in two groups of five without communication. Subjects were connected via computers and connection patterns were manipulated to detect forms of social control that are activated conditional on expectations and on the composition of the artificially created ego-network. Results confirm the influence of behavioral confirmation and the conditional impact of internalized selective incentives. As an aggregated consequence of these social control effects, harmful intergroup outcomes were least likely when members of the groups were arranged in a mixed network.
P2Y1 receptor signaling is controlled by interaction with the PDZ scaffold NHERF-2

P2Y1 purinergic receptors (P2Y1Rs) mediate rises in intracellular Ca2+ in response to ATP, but the duration and characteristics of this Ca2+ response are known to vary markedly in distinct cell types. We screened the P2Y1R carboxyl terminus against a recently created proteomic array of PDZ (PSD-95/Drosophila Discs large/ZO-1 homology) domains and identified a previously unrecognized, specific interaction with the second PDZ domain of the scaffold NHERF-2 (Na+/H+ exchanger regulatory factor type 2). Furthermore, we found that P2Y1R and NHERF-2 associate in cells, allowing NHERF-2-mediated tethering of P2Y1R to key downstream effectors such as phospholipase Cβ. Finally, we found that coexpression of P2Y1R with NHERF-2 in glial cells prolongs P2Y1R-mediated Ca2+ signaling, whereas disruption of the P2Y1R–NHERF-2 interaction by point mutations attenuates the duration of P2Y1R-mediated Ca2+ responses. These findings reveal that NHERF-2 is a key regulator of the cellular activity of P2Y1R and may therefore determine cell-specific differences in P2Y1R-mediated signaling.
Affective Recognition in Dynamic and Interactive Virtual Environments

The past decade has witnessed a significant increase in interest in human emotional behaviours in the future of interactive multimodal computing. Although much consideration has been given to non-interactive affective stimuli (e.g., images and videos), the recognition of emotions within interactive virtual environments has not received an equal level of attention. In the present study, a psychophysiological database, cataloguing the EEG, GSR and heart rate of 30 participants, exposed to an affective virtual environment, has been constructed. 743 features were extracted from the physiological signals. Then, by employing a feature selection technique, the dimensionality of the feature space was reduced to a smaller subset, containing only 30 features. Four classification techniques (KNN, SVM, Discriminant Analysis (DA) and Classification Tree) were employed to classify the affective psychophysiological database into four Affective Clusters (derived from a Valence-Arousal space) and eight Emotion Labels. By employing cross-validation techniques, the performances of more than a quarter of a million different classification settings (various window lengths, classifier settings, etc.) were investigated. The results suggested that the physiological signals could be employed to classify emotional experiences, with high precision. The KNN and SVM outperformed both Classification Tree and DA classifiers; with 97.01 percent and 92.84 percent mean accuracies, respectively.