Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analytical Investigation of Ultrabroadband Plasma–Graphene Radar Absorbing Structures

In this paper, for the first time, the combinational use of plasma medium and graphene sheets is theoretically proposed for stealth applications. The designed structure is a perfect-electric-conductor-backed thin composite material, including a foam layer, multilayer graphene sheets, and a plasma slab, which is topped by a monolayer graphene. The simultaneous use of the lossy characteristics of plasma and graphene layers in the lower and upper parts of the frequency band, respectively, results in a new type of broadband radar absorbing structures. An analytical approach based on the transmission line theory has been utilized to demonstrate the effects of structural parameters on the reflection/absorption specifications. The performance of the designed structures is significantly improved in terms of both the total thickness and bandwidth compared with the previously published plasma-based absorbers. The role of each layer in the final absorption behavior is also investigated by an impedance transformation method. The structure exhibits good performance at oblique incidences for different polarizations. Therefore, according to different advantages such as lower thickness, wider bandwidth, and additional flexibility in design, this new type of absorbers has a positive future for the design of stealth military platforms.
Achievement Goals During Middle Childhood: Individual Differences in Motivation and Social Adjustment

Person-centered analyses of achievement goals have been scarce in studies of elementary school children. In this investigation, the authors examined the natural combinations of achievement goals (mastery, performance-approach, performance-avoidance) among 3rd grade students (N = 195) and how clusters differed in self-, teacher-, and peer-reported adjustment variables. Cluster analysis revealed four groups of students: mastery (above average in mastery goals, below average in performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals), multi-goal (above average in all three goals), avoidant (above average in performance-avoidance goals, below average in mastery and performance-approach goals), and low motivation (below average in all three goals). Clusters differed in self-reported academic self-efficacy and perceptions of teacher support, teacher-reported academic competence, and peer nominations of social status. Mastery students had the most adaptive profiles; low motivation, the least adaptive. Avoidant boys had more maladaptive profiles than avoidant girls.
Protecting civilians in civil war

Can local organizations give civilians the capacity to protect themselves from civil war violence? Civilians have traditionally been considered powerless when facing armed groups but new research suggests organized communities may promote security through nonviolent strategies such as resolving disputes between neighbors and managing relations with macro-armed actors. This article analyzes whether and how these ‘mechanisms’ designed to retain community autonomy functioned in the community-case of the Peasant Worker Association of the Carare River (ATCC) in Colombia. The Carare civilians developed a local institutional process to investigate threats against suspected armed group collaborators to clarify the ‘fog of war’ and reform civilian preferences to participate in the conflict. This process is evaluated in reference to existing hypotheses about violence in civil wars such as the balance of territorial control using qualitative evidence from original field research. A unique within-case database created through focus group sessions with community ‘conciliators’ is used to analyze not only acts of violence, but also threats that were defused. Despite the prevalence of conditions that would predict persistent violence against civilians, the local institution itself proved to be a critical factor for both explaining and limiting levels of violence. The results suggest civilian choices and their consequences did not merely result from the capabilities or choices of armed actors.
Assessing heparin neutralization following cardiac surgery: sensitivity of thrombin time-based assays versus protamine titration methods

Adequate assessment of heparin neutralization following cardiac surgery is critical in reducing the patient’s exposure to protamine. Both excessive protamine and residual heparin have been associated with postoperative bleeding and poor patient recovery. The activated clotting time (ACT) is the preferred intraoperative heparin monitor, while both protamine titration (i.e. a protamine-containing ACT) and thrombin time methods have been used to detect circulating residual heparin after protamine administration. Following initial protamine dosing using the protamine response test (PRT), postoperative monitoring was employed in the operating room prior to transport of the patient to intensive care. Two point-of-care assays, the thrombin time (TT) and the protamine dose assay (PDA), were evaluated to determine their relative heparin sensitivity and their usefulness to quantitate protamine dose. The PDA, which is based on the ACT, was shown in laboratory and clinical studies to detect residual heparin above 0.25 units/ml and to quantify additional minidoses of protamine (as low as 25 mg) required to obtain complete heparin neutralization. Differential evaluation of the TT and heparin neutralized thrombin time (HNTT) was shown in laboratory studies to be more sensitive to small amounts of residual heparin than the ACT. Clinical evaluations confirmed that additional protamine is required in approximately 12% of cardiac surgical cases managed using the PRT system. Both the PDA and TT/HNTT provided useful postoperative assessment of the adequacy of heparin neutralization. The TT/HNTT had slightly improved heparin sensitivity even in the presence of significant fibrinogen loss. These point-of-care assays provide the opportunity to optimize heparin and protamine management in the cardiac surgery patient.
Visual Cues Generated During Action Facilitate 14-Month-Old Infants’ Mental Rotation

Although action experience has been shown to enhance the development of spatial cognition, the mechanism underlying the effects of action is still unclear. The present research examined the role of visual cues generated during action in promoting infants’ mental rotation. We sought to clarify the underlying mechanism by decoupling different aspects of action experience and choosing to manipulate the visual aspect while holding other aspects constant. Fourteen-month-old infants were given opportunities to rotate a cylinder placed on a turntable; the cylinder was decorated with vertical or horizontal stripes. If the effects of action hinge on the quality of visual cues generated during action, infants should benefit more from rotating the cylinder with vertical stripes as they generate richer cues when each stripe moves laterally with the cylinder. As predicted, the infants in the vertical-stripe condition looked significantly longer at an improbable outcome than at a probable outcome of a hidden-rotation event, whereas those in the horizontal-stripe condition looked about equally at the 2 outcomes. The results suggest that the effects of action on mental rotation are derived not from motor experience alone, but from integrating motor and visual experiences.
Associations Between Emotional Intelligence, Socio-Emotional Adjustment, and Academic Achievement in Childhood

This study examined the relationship between trait emotional intelligence (EI) with children’s socio-emotional adjustment at school and academic achievement. Children aged 8 to 10 (n = 106) and 11 to 13 years (n = 99) completed the youth version of the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i: YV). Their socio-emotional adjustment was measured with scales from the Teacher’s Report Form assessing socio-emotional problems and adaptive functioning at school. Trait EI was positively correlated with aspects of children’s adaptive functioning and academic achievement only in the 11- to 13-year-old but not in the 8- to 10-year-old group. Our results illustrate the importance of taking age into consideration when assessing the relationship between trait EI with socio-emotional adjustment at school and academic achievement. The consequences and limitations of these findings are discussed.
Stock Return Predictability and Variance Risk Premia: Statistical Inference and International Evidence

Abstract Recent empirical evidence suggests that the variance risk premium predicts aggregate stock market returns. We demonstrate that statistical finite sample biases cannot “explain” this apparent predictability. Further corroborating the existing evidence of the United States, we show that country-specific regressions for France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United Kingdom result in quite similar patterns. Defining a “global” variance risk premium, we uncover even stronger predictability and almost identical cross-country patterns through the use of panel regressions.
Protein Requirements Are Elevated in Endurance Athletes after Exercise as Determined by the Indicator Amino Acid Oxidation Method

A higher protein intake has been recommended for endurance athletes compared with healthy non-exercising individuals based primarily on nitrogen balance methodology. The aim of this study was to determine the estimated average protein requirement and recommended protein intake in endurance athletes during an acute 3-d controlled training period using the indicator amino acid oxidation method. After 2-d of controlled diet (1.4 g protein/kg/d) and training (10 and 5km/d, respectively), six male endurance-trained adults (28±4 y of age; Body weight, 64.5±10.0 kg; VO2peak, 60.3±6.7 ml·kg-1·min-1; means±SD) performed an acute bout of endurance exercise (20 km treadmill run) prior to consuming test diets providing variable amounts of protein (0.2–2.8 g·kg-1·d-1) and sufficient energy. Protein was provided as a crystalline amino acid mixture based on the composition of egg protein with [1-13C]phenylalanine provided to determine whole body phenylalanine flux, 13CO2 excretion, and phenylalanine oxidation. The estimated average protein requirement was determined as the breakpoint after biphasic linear regression analysis with a recommended protein intake defined as the upper 95% confidence interval. Phenylalanine flux (68.8±8.5 μmol·kg-1·h-1) was not affected by protein intake. 13CO2 excretion displayed a robust bi-phase linear relationship (R2 = 0.86) that resulted in an estimated average requirement and a recommended protein intake of 1.65 and 1.83 g protein·kg-1·d-1, respectively, which was similar to values based on phenylalanine oxidation (1.53 and 1.70 g·kg-1·d-1, respectively). We report a recommended protein intake that is greater than the RDA (0.8 g·kg-1·d-1) and current recommendations for endurance athletes (1.2–1.4 g·kg-1·d-1). Our results suggest that the metabolic demand for protein in endurance-trained adults on a higher volume training day is greater than their sedentary peers and current recommendations for athletes based primarily on nitrogen balance methodology. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrial.gov NCT02478801
The Trilogy of GxE: Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Application

This chapter is aimed at summarizing and discussing selected aspects of the literatures on the interactions between genes and environments (GxE). Although it is designed to be informative for researchers and practitioners interested in the field of developmental psychopathology, it reviews not only psychological but other related (epidemiological, genetic, and psychiatric) literatures. The chapter is structured to cover the conceptualization, operationalization, and application of the concept of GxE. In doing so, it presents the history of the concept, illustrates the ways it is put into practice today, and illuminates numerous complexities related to its applications. Although predominantly a literature review, the chapter presents two simulation studies and two illustrations of current and potential types of studies exercised in the field. Whereas not conceived as a practical set of guidelines for GxE studies, the chapter offers a number of recommendations that might be instrumental to researchers who are interested in conducting or interpreting GxE studies. Keywords: epidemiology; neuropsychiatric genetics; gene–environment interaction (GxE); gene by environment interaction; statistical interaction; biological interaction
Voices of children and parents from elsewhere: a glance at integration in Italian primary schools

ABSTRACT This study involves 35 research participants: 20 immigrant parents (primarily mothers from South America, North Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East) and 15 primary school children, aged 10–11. These children were born outside Italy and primary school was their first encounter with the Italian educational system. We observed their processes of integration through their stories and those of their parents. Our investigation aims to identify factors that support or inhibit their school integration. We adopt an ecological research paradigm, proposing a vision of knowledge as rooted in natural life contexts, focusing on subjectivity. Analysis of the data led to identification of core categories concerning these families’ experiences and their children's encounters with Italian schools. This paper focuses on the children's perspectives of their experiences with school.
Pitching a baseball: tracking high-speed motion with multi-exposure images

Athletes and coaches in most professional sports make use of high-tech equipment to analyze and, subsequently, improve the athlete's performance. High-speed video cameras are employed, for instance, to record the swing of a golf club or a tennis racket, the movement of the feet while running, and the body motion in apparatus gymnastics. High-tech and high-speed equipment, however, usually implies high-cost as well. In this paper, we present a passive optical approach to capture high-speed motion using multi-exposure images obtained with low-cost commodity still cameras and a stroboscope. The recorded motion remains completely undisturbed by the motion capture process. We apply our approach to capture the motion of hand and ball for a variety of baseball pitches and present algorithms to automatically track the position, velocity, rotation axis, and spin of the ball along its trajectory. To demonstrate the validity of our setup and algorithms, we analyze the consistency of our measurements with a physically based model that predicts the trajectory of a spinning baseball. Our approach can be applied to capture a wide variety of other high-speed objects and activities such as golfing, bowling, or tennis for visualization as well as analysis purposes.
Wide-Speed-Range Sensorless Vector Control of Synchronous Reluctance Motors Based on Extended Programmable Cascaded Low-Pass Filters

This paper proposes a new sensorless vector control of a synchronous reluctance motor for a wide range of speeds. The estimation of speed and rotor angle is based on extended programmable cascaded low-pass filters (LPFs), which effectively reduce the effects of direct-current (dc) offsets at low speeds. The effect of the number of LPF stages on output dc offset, estimation accuracy, and dynamic performance are determined, and their equations are developed. The determination of the number of LPF stages is based on these developed equations. Because the estimate of the rotor angle near-zero speed is possible, the motor start-up procedure can be done without complexity. The experimental results show that the estimated and the actual rotor angles are in agreement at very low and high speeds. Thus, sensorless vector control can be achieved over a wide range of speeds. In addition, motor start-up in a standstill condition is possible, and the transient response at low and high speeds is acceptable.
Robust communication against femtocell access failures

A single macrocell serving a number of outdoor users, overlaid with a femtocell which includes several home users, is studied. The home users in the femtocell are served by a home base station (HBS) that is connected to the macrocell base station (BS) via an unreliable connection (e.g., DSL). The unreliable link may take several possible capacity values. Robust communications strategies for the home users are investigated accounting for the facts that: (a) the home users (served by the HBS) may not be aware of the current state of the HBS-BS link; and that (b) the performance of the outdoor users (served directly by the BS) should not be disrupted by possible outages on the HBS-BS link. The problem is formulated in information-theoretic terms and inner and outer bounds are given to achievable sum-rates for outdoor and home users. Expected sum-rates with respect to the distribution over the HBS-BS link states are studied as well, and conditions are identified under which the proposed schemes are optimal.
Stress-induced Response, Localization, and Regulation of the Pmk1 Cell Integrity Pathway in Schizosaccharomyces pombe*

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways are critical for the sensing and response of eukaryotic cells to extracellular changes. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, MAPK Pmk1/Spm1 has been involved in cell wall construction, morphogenesis, cytokinesis, and ion homeostasis, as part of the so-called cell integrity pathway together with MAPK kinase kinase Mkh1 and MAPK kinase Pek1. We show that Pmk1 is activated in multiple stress situations, including hyper- or hypotonic stress, glucose deprivation, presence of cell wall-damaging compounds, and oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide or pro-oxidants. The stress-induced activation of Pmk1 was completely dependent on Mkh1 and Pek1 function, supporting a nonbranched pathway in the regulation of MAPK activation. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that Mkh1, Pek1, and Pmp1 (a protein phosphatase that inactivates Pmk1) are cytoplasmic proteins. Mkh1 and Pek1 were also found at the septum, whereas Pmk1 localized in both cytoplasm and nucleus as well as in the mitotic spindle and septum during cytokinesis. Interestingly, Pmk1 subcellular localization was unaffected by stress or the absence of Mkh1 and Pek1, suggesting that its activation by the Mkh1-Pek1 cascade takes place at the cytoplasm and/or septum and that the active and inactive forms of this kinase cross the nuclear membrane. Cdc42 GTPase and its effectors, p21-activated kinases Pak2 and Pak1, are not upstream elements controlling the basal level or the stress-induced activation of Pmk1. However, Sty1 MAPK was essential for proper Pmk1 deactivation after hypertonic stress in a process regulated by Atf1 transcription factor. These results provide the first evidence for the existence of cross-talk between two MAPK cascades during the stress response in fission yeast.
Mediating effects of trust, communication, and collaboration on teacher professional learning in Hong Kong primary schools

Abstract This study tests mediated principal leadership effects on teacher professional learning through collegial trust, communication and collaboration in Hong Kong primary schools. It is based on a series of single mediator studies, and uses the same convenience sample of 970 teachers from 32 local primary schools. It also adopts regression-based macros, integrated with bootstrapping, to examine and compare sizes and proportions of potential mediating effects of the three human relational variables. The findings affirm the role and nature trust, communication, and collaboration play in the mediated relationship. In contrast, the mediating power of collaboration is non-significantly stronger than that of communication, and is more than double that of trust. The conclusion is that a school environment featuring mutual trust, effective communication and genuine collaboration is a core condition for teacher learning and change. Provided that the forces that bind people together in schools are multiple, principals are recommended to create school culture and conditions strategically for teacher learning to thrive.
Seroepidemiologic survey of varicella-zoster virus in korean adults using glycoprotein enzyme immuno assay and fluorescent antibody to membrane antigen test.

BACKGROUND Herpes zoster (HZ) occurs mainly in the elderly and Korea is rapidly becoming an aging society. Therefore, it is important to know the immune status against varicella-zoster virus (VZV) in Korean adults to prevent the disease. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to survey the immune status of Korean adults over 40 years of age against VZV. METHODS Antibody titer was measured using a VaccZyme™ VZV glycoprotein enzyme immunoassay (gpEIA) (Binding Site, UK). Fluorescent antibody to membrane antigen (FAMA) test was performed to measure the seropositive rate. RESULTS HZ incidence in the 214 adults enrolled in this study was 10.3%. The gpEIA geometric mean titer (GMT) was 490 mIU/ml and 90.2% of the subjects had a protective level of gpEIA antibody titer against varicella. The average gpEIA GMT of adults who previously had HZ was 1,122 mIU/ml, which was higher than the average gpEIA GMT of 457 mIU/ml in adults who had not had HZ. The FAMA positive rate was 98.6%. CONCLUSION Most (90.2%) Korean adults ≥40-years-of-age have a protective level of gpEIA antibody against varicella and 98.6% were FAMA seropositive. The GMT of gpEIA antibody was significantly increased with age, and was higher in adults with a history of HZ.
Amphetamine Withdrawal: II. A Placebo-Controlled, Randomised, Double-Blind Study of Amineptine Treatment

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the benefits of amineptine, a dopamine agonist antidepressant, in treating amphetamine withdrawal. Method: Inpatients with amphetamine withdrawal were recruited to participate in this placebo-controlled, randomised, double-blind, parallel group, 2-week comparison of amineptine and placebo treatments. The treatment effects were evaluated by means of the self-administered Amphetamine Withdrawal Questionnaire (AWQ) and the interviewer-administered Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale. An intention-to-treat analysis was applied to evaluate the therapeutic effects at the end of week 1 and week 2. Results: Twenty-two patients took part in each treatment group. The week-1 and week-2 intention-to-treat analyses showed that the mean AWQ reversed vegetative scores (combined scores of decreased energy, increased appetite and craving for sleep items) of the amineptine group were significantly lower than those of the placebo group. The general condition of the amineptine group assessed by CGI also significantly improved at the end of week 2. Although the discontinuation rate due to dissatisfaction with treatment of amineptine group (1/21) was much lower than that of placebo group (6/22), those rates were not significantly different (p = 0.09). Conclusions: Amineptine is specifically effective for treating a major component of amphetamine withdrawal: a reversed vegetative syndrome. Although more than 2 weeks of amineptine treatment may contribute further benefits, both risks and benefits should be taken into account in doing so.