Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Methanogenesis and the Wood–Ljungdahl Pathway: An Ancient, Versatile, and Fragile Association

Methanogenesis coupled to the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway is one of the most ancient metabolisms for energy generation and carbon fixation in the Archaea. Recent results are sensibly changing our view on the diversity of methane-cycling capabilities in this Domain of Life. The availability of genomic sequences from uncharted branches of the archaeal tree has highlighted the existence of novel methanogenic lineages phylogenetically distant to previously known ones, such as the Methanomassiliicoccales. At the same time, phylogenomic analyses have suggested a methanogenic ancestor for all Archaea, implying multiple independent losses of this metabolism during archaeal diversification. This prediction has been strengthened by the report of genes involved in methane cycling in members of the Bathyarchaeota (a lineage belonging to the TACK clade), representing the first indication of the presence of methanogenesis outside of the Euryarchaeota. In light of these new data, we discuss how the association between methanogenesis and the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway appears to be much more flexible than previously thought, and might provide information on the processes that led to loss of this metabolism in many archaeal lineages. The combination of environmental microbiology, experimental characterization and phylogenomics opens up exciting avenues of research to unravel the diversity and evolutionary history of fundamental metabolic pathways.
Regularization of Feedwater Flow Rate Evaluation for Venturi Meter Fouling Problem in Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract Inferential sensing is a method that can be used to evaluate parameters of a physical system based on a set of measurements related to these parameters. The most common method of inferential sensing uses mathematical models to infer a parameter value from correlated sensor values. However, since inferential sensing is an inverse problem, it can produce inconsistent results due to minor perturbations in the data. This research shows that regularization can be used in inferential sensing to produce consistent results. Data from Florida Power Corporation’s Crystal River nuclear power plant (NPP) are used to give an important example of monitoring NPP feedwater flow rate.
Tutoring Solutions for No Child Left Behind: Research, Practice, and Policy Implications

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is structured to encourage partnerships between K-12 schools and a wide variety of community tutoring and educational service organizations. Tutoring is a form of education with a long history and can be an important component in improving student achievement. There is a considerable body of literature on tutoring, but much of it is mainly descriptive in nature. Some important researched-based studies are analyzed here, but clearly many more studies of this type are needed for tutoring to make a substantial contribution to NCLB.
Digital Music Set Free : The Flip Side of DRM

Digital rights management (DRM) refers to technologies designed to control how end users may access, copy, or convert digital media. In the context of music downloads, DRM makes illegal copying of digital music more difficult to prevent download piracy. Although DRM certainly makes illegal copying harder, is there also a downside to limiting customers’ ability to use the products they have purchased? Or, without DRM, might download piracy volume be higher, and the profits of the music industry decline, as the industry seems to believe? This article addresses these and related questions by developing a model of a music distribution channel that allows a record label to sell through both traditional CD retailers and download services at different wholesale prices. Consumers have heterogeneous preferences for downloaded versus CD music and differ in their propensity to engage in piracy. Comparing two cases one in which the music download service sells DRM-protected music and another in which it sells DRM-free songs suggests the effects of eliminating DRM protection. Among the interesting results, the analysis indicates that the level of download piracy may decline when DRM protection is removed while sales of music in digital format increase and that the traditional retailer prefers to compete with digital music pirates rather than with legal music download services.
AIDE: Fast and Communication Efficient Distributed Optimization

In this paper, we present two new communication-efficient methods for distributed minimization of an average of functions. The first algorithm is an inexact variant of the DANE algorithm that allows any local algorithm to return an approximate solution to a local subproblem. We show that such a strategy does not affect the theoretical guarantees of DANE significantly. In fact, our approach can be viewed as a robustification strategy since the method is substantially better behaved than DANE on data partition arising in practice. It is well known that DANE algorithm does not match the communication complexity lower bounds. To bridge this gap, we propose an accelerated variant of the first method, called AIDE, that not only matches the communication lower bounds but can also be implemented using a purely first-order oracle. Our empirical results show that AIDE is superior to other communication efficient algorithms in settings that naturally arise in machine learning applications.
Factors Associated with Use of Interactive Cancer Communication System: An Application of the Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking

In order to provide insights about cancer patients' online information seeking behaviors, the present study analyzes individuals' transaction log data and reports on how demographics, disease-related factors, and psychosocial needs predict patterns of service use within a particular Interactive Cancer Communication System (ICCS). Study sample included 294 recently diagnosed breast cancer patients. Data included pretest survey scores of demographic, disease-related, and psychosocial factors and automatically collected ICCS use data over the 4-month intervention. Statistical analyses correlated pre-test survey scores with subsequent, specific types of ICCS service usage. Patterns of online cancer information seeking differed according to the patients' characteristics, suggesting that lower income, less educated women and those lacking in information-seeking competence use the computer and online services to the same or a greater degree if those services are made available to them. Results of this study can inform more effective resource development for future eHealth applications.
Planning and Control Algorithms for Enhanced Rough-Terrain Rover Mobility

Future planetary exploration missions will require rovers to perform difficult tasks in rough terrain, with limited human supervision. Many current motion planning and control algorithms do not consider the physical characteristics of the rover and its environment, which limits their effectiveness in rough terrain. This paper presents an overview of physics-based rover and terrain modeling techniques that allow improved prediction of rough-terrain rover mobility. Kinematic and force models of a rover in rough terrain are presented. A method for on-line estimation of critical terrain physical parameters is presented. A method for on-line estimation of wheel-terrain contact geometry is also presented. It is shown that these modeling techniques can be used in advanced control and motion planning algorithms to improve a rover's rough-terrain mobility.
Frequency and intentionality in (un)marked choices in codeswitching: “This is a 24-hour country”

This paper has three, related goals. Its main goal is to provide quantitative evidence supporting the claim that in bilingual conversation the unmarked choice can be identified via a frequency-based criterion(cf. Myers-Scotton,1993b). Accordingly, frequency also identifies the marked choice. Second, it shows that not all participants in the same conversation necessarily have the same unmarked choice. Data come from a Malawian family temporarily living in the United States. Both parents and the children engage in codeswitching, but how the two languages are employed and their frequency within the overall codeswitching pattern shows that for the parents, English is marked, while for the children Chicheŵa is marked. Finally, the paper reinforces the argument that people are rational actors in the sense that they perceive selecting one way of speaking over another as a means to optimize their outcomes in interpersonal relationships(cf. Myers-Scotton, 1998; Myers-Scotton & Bolonyai, 2001). When speakers are bilingual and codeswitching is a component of the community, the types of code choices they make in codeswitching conversations become a means of achieving such goals. Specifically, marked choices become self-presentations.
“Uphill” cation transport: A bioinspired photo-driven ion pump

Driven by light energy, a bioinspired ion pump can realize the “uphill” ion transport process analogous to the biological system. Biological ion pumps with active ionic transport properties lay the foundation for many life processes. However, few analogs have been produced because extra energy is needed to couple to this “uphill” process. We demonstrate a bioinspired artificial photo-driven ion pump based on a single polyethylene terephthalate conical nanochannel. The pumping process behaving as an inversion of zero-volt current can be realized by applying ultraviolet irradiation from the large opening. The light energy can accelerate the dissociation of the benzoic acid derivative dimers existing on the inner surface of nanochannel, which consequently produces more mobile carboxyl groups. Enhanced electrostatic interaction between the ions traversing the nanochannel and the charged groups on the inner wall is the key reason for the uphill cation transport behavior. This system creates an ideal experimental and theoretical platform for further development and design of various stimuli-driven and specific ion–selective bioinspired ion pumps, which anticipates wide potential applications in biosensing, energy conversion, and desalination.
Cohesive anaphoric relations in French children's narratives as a function of mutual knowledge

This study examines how French children of 6, 9, and 11 years use referring expressions for reference maintenance in narratives elicited in two situations: children and their interlocutor were looking at a picture book together (mutual knowledge) or the inter locutor was blindfolded (no mutual knowledge). Local coreference has a strong impact on the selection of pronouns (coreferential) vs. nominals (non-coreferential) at all ages and in both situations. However, children from 9 years on produce more pronouns in the absence of mutual knowledge and the extent to which children mark story structure varies as a function of age and situation. Regardless of situation, 6-year-olds mark boundaries across successive pictures (external structure) and episodes (internal structure) by means of nominals. Although a similar pattern can be observed at other ages in the mutual knowledge condition, it gradually disappears with increasing age in the absence of mutual knowledge. It is concluded that discourse-internal functions of referring expressions are a late development characterized by the increasing impact of coreference, which gradually overrides other factors, as children learn to rely maximally on discourse cohesive relations in the absence of mutual knowledge.
Interoception Drives Increased Rational Decision-Making in Meditators Playing the Ultimatum Game

Human decision-making is often conceptualized as a competition between cognitive and emotional processes in the brain. Deviations from rational processes are believed to derive from inclusion of emotional factors in decision-making. Here, we investigate whether experienced Buddhist meditators are better equipped to regulate emotional processes compared with controls during economic decision-making in the Ultimatum Game. We show that meditators accept unfair offers on more than half of the trials, whereas controls only accept unfair offers on one-quarter of the trials. By applying fMRI we show that controls recruit the anterior insula during unfair offers. Such responses are powerful predictors of rejecting offers in social interaction. By contrast, meditators display attenuated activity in high-level emotional representations of the anterior insula and increased activity in the low-level interoceptive representations of the posterior insula. In addition we show that a subset of control participants who play rationally (i.e., accepts >85% unfair offers) recruits the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex presumably reflecting increased cognitive demands, whereas rational meditators by contrast display elevated activity in the somatosensory cortex and posterior superior temporal cortex. In summary, when assessing unfairness in the Ultimatum Game, meditators activate a different network of brain areas compared with controls enabling them to uncouple negative emotional reactions from their behavior. These findings highlight the clinically and socially important possibility that sustained training in mindfulness meditation may impact distinct domains of human decision-making.
FURTHER SUPPORT FOR THE HYPOTHESIS THAT PARENTAL HORMONE LEVELS AROUND THE TIME OF CONCEPTION ARE ASSOCIATED WITH HUMAN SEX RATIOS AT BIRTH

Summary During the past year, data have been published on the offspring sex ratios of people diagnosed with toxoplasmosis, hepatitis B, and pre- and post-menopausal breast cancer. It is shown here how these offspring sex ratios constitute further support for the hypothesis that mammalian (including human) parental hormone concentrations around the time of conception partially control the sexes of the resulting infants. If this interpretation were correct, then hormonal treatments might be considered for some or all of these conditions. It is intended that anyone who has read the present note and my two previous papers (James, 1996, 2004) should be aware of all the data relating to the hypothesis.
Attitude toward the AD as a Mediator of Consumer Brand Choice

Abstract This article addresses the issue of how advertising influences consumers' brand choices. A concept termed the attitude toward the advertisement approach (ATT A) is introduced; a theoretical case is developed showing why ATT A is an important mediator of brand choice; empirical evidence in support of this case is presented; and suggestions for future research are offered.
Considering the Cloze

Le test cloze, ou test de completion, est un procede qui consiste a enlever un mot tous les n mots dans le passage d'un texte que le lecteur doit ensuite retrouver par rapport au contexte textuel. Ce type d'exercice, invente par Taylor dans les annees 1950, permet de tester la comprehension dans la lecture de la langue maternelle et est egalement utilise pour l'enseignement des langues etrangeres. L'A. explore les differents types (a choix multiple, reponse libre.) de cette activite, etudie comment elle permet de mesurer la comprehension, donne des pistes pour son utilisation en tant que test et des conseils pour la correction de l'enseignant.
Modulation of Clusterin Isoforms Is Associated With All-Trans Retinoic Acid–Induced Proliferative Arrest and Apoptosis of Intimal Smooth Muscle Cells

Objectives— Clusterin is a heterodimeric glycoprotein which is implicated in several biological processes. The nuclear (n-CLU) and cytoplasmic secreted (s-CLU) isoforms have recently been described, but their role is still unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the expression of clusterin and its isoforms during proliferative arrest and apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs). Methods and Results— Clusterin expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting in human arteries and rat aortas. In human diffuse myointimal thickening, clusterin was detected in cell cytoplasm and extracellular space, whereas it was practically absent in the media. In rat aortas 15 days after ballooning, intimal cells (IT cells) overexpressed s-CLU and n-CLU, the latter mainly in the inner neointima; clusterin expression decreased at 60 days. In vitro, IT cells maintained high clusterin expression and its antisense markedly reduced proliferation and increased apoptosis. Western blotting showed that all-trans retinoic acid-induced proliferative arrest and increased &agr;-smooth muscle actin expression did associate to s-CLU and B-myb reduction, whereas bax-related apoptosis was associated to a shift from the s-CLU to n-CLU isoform. Conclusions— Clusterin overexpression characterized neointimal SMCs; s-CLU expression decreased in IT cells during all-trans retinoic acid–induced proliferative arrest and redifferentiation, whereas n-CLU overexpression was characteristic of apoptosis.
A Multidisciplinary Review of the Director Selection Literature

Director selection is a critical board process and outcome that influences the board and its overall performance. Because of this influence, research from a variety of different disciplinary areas examines the antecedents and outcomes of director selection. The authors offer a synthesis of this literature from these different disciplines. The authors first delineate the process that drives the selection of an individual to a board. They then review and categorize the director selection literature into two distinct perspectives—a rational economic perspective focused on the organization-level benefits driving the selection decision and a socialized perspective emphasizing the social processes that influence the director selection process. Finally, from their review, the authors suggest promising areas of future research regarding director selection.
Reflecting on Reflective Learning: The case of geography, earth and environmental sciences

This paper examines how reflective learning can be promoted and developed explicitly within the disciplines of geography, earth and environmental sciences. A review of various theoretical perspectives on reflection is provided, as well as a brief summary of the ways of incorporating reflection in the curriculum. The substantive part of this paper is based on a UK Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) Subject Centre for Geography, Earth and Environmental Science (GEES) funded research project on reflective learning which was completed in 2001. A questionnaire survey was sent to GEES departments/schools to obtain information about the incorporation of reflective learning in the curriculum. From the analysis of the questionnaire returns, the project team identified four themes regarding the relevance of reflective learning to GEES disciplines. Project findings demonstrate how the inclusion of reflective learning exercises and activities is at an embryonic stage in many UK GEES departments/schools. The paper concludes by highlighting certain challenges that geographers, earth and environmental scientists could address if they wish to seek to develop reflective learning and enhance the student learning experience.
Novel EHD-Assisted ESP for Collection of Low Resistive Diesel Particulates

The novel electrohydrodynamically-assisted electrostatic precipitator (EHD ESP) was developed to suppress particle reentrainment for collection of low resistive diesel particulates. The collection efficiency was compared between the EHD ESP and the conventional ESP using two large diesel engines; 2.3 L and 3.2 L engines. The gas velocity was varied in the range of 1.35 to 7.3 m/s and the load was set at 0, 25 and 50%, where the operating gas temperatures were varied from 120 o C to 280 o C for 3.2 L engine. The particle size dependent collection efficiency was evaluated for the particle size ranging in 20 to 5,000 nm using a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) and a particle counter (PC). The EHD ESP showed excellent suppression of particle reentrainment and collection efficiency even for high gas flow velocities in comparison with the conventional ESP.
A lattice compress-and-forward scheme

We present a nested lattice-code-based strategy that achieves the random-coding based Compress-and-Forward (CF) rate for the three node Gaussian relay channel. To do so, we first outline a lattice-based strategy for the (X + Z<inf>1</inf>, X + Z<inf>2</inf>) Wyner-Ziv lossy source-coding with side-information problem in Gaussian noise, a re-interpretation of the nested lattice-code-based Gaussian Wyner-Ziv scheme presented by Zamir, Shamai, and Erez. We use the notation (X + Z<inf>1</inf>, X + Z<inf>2</inf>) Wyner-Ziv to mean that the source is of the form X + Z<inf>1</inf> and the side-information at the receiver is of the form X+Z<inf>2</inf>, for independent Gaussian X, Z<inf>1</inf> and Z<inf>2</inf>. We use this (X + Z<inf>1</inf>, X + Z<inf>2</inf>) Wyner-Ziv scheme to implement a “structured” or lattice-code-based CF scheme for the Gaussian relay channel which achieves the same rate as the Cover-El Gamal CF rate achieved by random Gaussian codebooks.
Sports Clubs, Social Capital and Social Regeneration: ‘ill-defined interventions with hard to follow outcomes’?

Recent political and policy concerns with social inclusion, civic renewal and ‘joined up’ government have placed debates about social capital at the centre of a number of areas of social policy. In this context increasing demands are being made of sport to contribute to this broader social regeneration agenda. This essay explores the nature of sport's presumed contribution, in particular the contribution of sports clubs to the development of types of capital, especially social capital. It concludes that it is not clear what contribution sports clubs can play in this agenda, that the new policy agenda carries dangers of undermining the nature and strengths of the voluntary sector in sport and that more research is required to explore the processes of social capital formation in sports clubs.
Children's Reasoning in Solving Relational Problems of Deduction

This article reports on a study of children's deductive reasoning in solving novel relational problems. Detailed protocols were obtained from 264 children (aged 9- 12 years) who verbalised their thinking as they solved the problems. The study included the development of a three-phase theory based on Johnson-Laird and Byrne's mental models perspective, but with some distinct modifications. These include a focus on the relational complexity entailed in model construction and in premise integration, and the advancement of four reasoning principles that are applied throughout problem solution (in contrast to Johnson-Laird's falsification processes as the hallmark of deductive reasoning). The reported case studies and the results of statistical analyses supported predictions arising from the proposed theory, including the key role of the reasoning principles. The results also showed that problem difficulty is a function of relational complexity, not of the number of models to be constructed, as argued by Johns.
Addressing the Challenging Behavior of Young Children Through Systematic Function-Based Intervention

A decision model was used to systematically construct function-based interventions for the disruptive behaviors of three young children (ages 3.75—4.75 years) receiving special education services in inclusive preschool settings. The study was conducted in three phases. In Part 1, descriptive functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) were conducted. Each FBA included structured interviews and direct observations that were used to identify the functions of target behaviors. In Part 2, function-based interventions were constructed for each participant . In Part 3, these interventions were implemented within ongoing activities in their preschool classrooms. The study covered nearly 9 weeks. Baseline and intervention were conducted for 17 sessions (nearly 6 weeks). Follow-up data were collected weekly for an additional 3 weeks. The interventions, when implemented correctly, produced dramatic improvements in the students’ behavior. Implications for future research are discussed.