Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Decadal North Pacific Bred Vectors in a Coupled GCM

A number of recent studies done with simple numerical models suggest that the decadal variability in the extratropical North Pacific Ocean is a result of the excitation of low-frequency ocean basin modes. To test this assumption, low-frequency North Pacific variability was examined using a state-of-the-art coupled general circulation model (CGCM). Earlier studies had shown that slowly varying dynamical modes in a CGCM can be effectively isolated using the breeding technique. In this study, the breeding method was applied to the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA) anomaly coupled GCM (ACGCM), and it was found that several types of slow modes can be isolated depending on the parameters of the breeding cycle. Tropical bred vector SST and upper-ocean heat content are dominated by the ENSO, which is consistent with the results obtained earlier using other CGCMs. Extratropical bred vector upper-ocean heat content is dominated by oceanic instability localized east of Japan, varying on seasonal-to-interannual time scales, and decadal modes with the large-scale pattern over the central and eastern extratropical North Pacific. Similar to ocean basin modes, the decadal modes have a signature of westward-propagating long baroclinic Rossby waves, but do not exhibit the global imprint typical for global basin modes. The relationship between the decadal bred vectors and the background anomalies is consistent with linear damped dynamics. Presumably, the growth of the decadal bred vectors is due to the atmospheric stochastic forcing, but the existence of extratropical instability on decadal time scales still needs to be verified.
CANDID: Dynamic candidate evaluations for automatic prevention of SQL injection attacks

SQL injection attacks are one of the top-most threats for applications written for the Web. These attacks are launched through specially crafted user inputs, on Web applications that use low-level string operations to construct SQL queries. In this work, we exhibit a novel and powerful scheme for automatically transforming Web applications to render them safe against all SQL injection attacks. A characteristic diagnostic feature of SQL injection attacks is that they change the intended structure of queries issued. Our technique for detecting SQL injection is to dynamically mine the programmer-intended query structure on any input, and detect attacks by comparing it against the structure of the actual query issued. We propose a simple and novel mechanism, called Candid, for mining programmer intended queries by dynamically evaluating runs over benign candidate inputs. This mechanism is theoretically well founded and is based on inferring intended queries by considering the symbolic query computed on a program run. Our approach has been implemented in a tool called Candid that retrofits Web applications written in Java to defend them against SQL injection attacks. We have also implemented Candid by modifying a Java Virtual Machine, which safeguards applications without requiring retrofitting. We report extensive experimental results that show that our approach performs remarkably well in practice.
Emotion, Coping, and Climate Change in Island Nations: Implications for Environmental Justice

Abstract Island nations are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including changes in sea level, storms, coastal erosion, and freshwater availability. The purpose of this cross-cultural study is to understand how emotional responses to climate change are inequitably distributed across people living in island nations with varying climate change vulnerability. We consider how emotional responses (particularly sadness, worry, anger, happiness, and hope) may be related to people's biophysical vulnerability, adaptive capacity, and likelihood of relocation in the face of climate change. Using data from 272 ethnographic interviews collected in local communities in Fiji, Cyprus, New Zealand, and England, we explore the emotional reactions of respondents to current and future effects of climate change. Our results demonstrate that respondents in island nations with greater biophysical vulnerability are more likely to be concerned about relocation as a result of climate change, and they are als.
Hot spring siliceous stromatolites from Yellowstone National Park: assessing growth rate and laminae formation

Stromatolites are commonly interpreted as evidence of ancient microbial life, yet stromatolite morphogenesis is poorly understood. We apply radiometric tracer and dating techniques, molecular analyses and growth experiments to investigate siliceous stromatolite morphogenesis in Obsidian Pool Prime (OPP), a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park. We examine rates of stromatolite growth and the environmental and/or biologic conditions that affect lamination formation and preservation, both difficult features to constrain in ancient examples. The “main body” of the stromatolite is composed of finely laminated, porous, light–dark couplets of erect (surface normal) and reclining (surface parallel) silicified filamentous bacteria, interrupted by a less‐distinct, well‐cemented “drape” lamination. Results from dating studies indicate a growth rate of 1–5 cm year−1; however, growth is punctuated. 14C as a tracer demonstrates that stromatolite cyanobacterial communities fix CO2 derived from two sources, vent water (radiocarbon dead) and the atmosphere (modern 14C). The drape facies contained a greater proportion of atmospheric CO2 and more robust silica cementation (vs. the main body facies), which we interpret as formation when spring level was lower. Systematic changes in lamination style are likely related to environmental forcing and larger scale features (tectonic, climatic). Although the OPP stromatolites are composed of silica and most ancient forms are carbonate, their fine lamination texture requires early lithification. Without early lithification, whether silica or carbonate, it is unlikely that a finely laminated structure representing an ancient microbial mat would be preserved. In OPP, lithification on the nearly diurnal time scale is likely related to temperature control on silica solubility.
Using Log likelihood relation for BER analysis of QAM in space diversity

The bit error rate (BER) performance for quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) with different diversity combining scheme is derived for Rayleigh fading channel using Log-likelihood ratio (LLR). Three combining techniques, maximal ratio combiner (MMC), selection combining (SC), and Equal Gain Combiner (EGC) are considered for the BER analysis in this paper. The average BER performance of QAM symbol through a flat fading channel is derived from the individual bits forming the QAM symbol with MRC, SC, and EGC space diversity. The analytical and simulation of BER performance of the QAM symbol through the fading channel with MMC, SC, and EGC combiner is compared. The both analytical and simulation result shows that the probability of bit error decreases with the order of diversity for all the cases of MRC, SC, and EGC. It is also seen from the results that MRC provides better BER performance than the other two combiners (SC and EGC) for the same environment of the fading channel.
Spectral-based k-corrections and implications for the colour-magnitude relation of E/S0s and its evolution

We select a sample of 70378 E/S0 (early-type) galaxies at 0<z<0.36 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, excluding disk and star-forming galaxies. We estimate g and r magnitudes in the observer- and rest-frames directly from the SDSS DR6 spectra; this provides an object-by-object estimate of the k-correction. We use the k-corrections from the spectra to study the evolution of the rest-frame colour-magnitude relation (CMR) and colour-sigma (velocity dispersion) relation (CsigmaR). The evolution is very sensitive to the k-correction. Both the CMR and CsigmaR evolve blueward with increasing redshift, approximately in agreement with passive evolution models with age approx. 12 Gyr. The slope and zero-point of the CMR depend on whether colours were defined in fixed physical or angular apertures, a consequence of the fact that the centers of these objects tend to be redder: the relation is steeper for fixed angular apertures. One the other hand, the CsigmaR slope does not show this dependence on the aperture in which the colour was defined, suggesting that colour gradients are correlated with residuals from the sigma-M_r relation. As these residuals are age indicators, our findings suggest that colour gradients correlate with the age of the stellar population.
If You Measure It, Can You Improve It? Exploring The Value of Energy Disaggregation

Over the past few years, dozens of new techniques have been proposed for more accurate energy disaggregation, but the jury is still out on whether these techniques can actually save energy and, if so, whether higher accuracy translates into higher energy savings. In this paper, we explore both of these questions. First, we develop new techniques that use disaggregated power data to provide actionable feedback to residential users. We evaluate these techniques using power traces from 240 homes and find that they can detect homes that need feedback with as much as 84% accuracy. Second, we evaluate whether existing energy disaggregation techniques provide power traces with sufficient fidelity to support the feedback techniques that we created and whether more accurate disaggregation results translate into more energy savings for the users. Results show that feedback accuracy is very low even while disaggregation accuracy is high. These results indicate a need to revisit the metrics by which disaggregation is evaluated.
How do team factors affect technology adoption decision?

Teamwork has become increasingly important in modern businesses. Our study investigated the factors involved in team members' decision-making in a team context. We used the technology acceptance model (TAM) as a basis and incorporated the team-level factors of consensus on appropriation (COA) and cooperative team norms (CTN) into the model. Questionnaires were sent to project team members working in mid-sized to large businesses in Taiwan, and 126 valid surveys were collected and analyzed using SEM. Our results showed that CTNs affected perceived usefulness of PMS. COA has a direct effect on perceived usefulness as well. The paper contributes toward a better understanding of information technology adoption with regard to team-level factors. Implications for future research and management practice are discussed.
HOTRiDE: Hierarchical Ordered Task Replanning in Dynamic Environments

One of the assumptions in classical planning is that the environment is static : i.e., the planner is the only entity that can induce changes in the environment. A more realistic assumption is that the environment is dynamic ; that is, there are other entities in the world and the actions generated by the planner may fail due to the operations of these entitites. In this paper, we describe a planning system, called HOTRiDE (Hierarchical Ordered Task Replanning in Dynamic Environments), which interleaves plan generation, execution, and repair in order to work under such circumstances. Our approach is an extension of SHOP (Simple Hierarchical Ordered Plan-ner) (Nau et al. 1999), which is a well-known Hierarchical Task Network planning system. Our experiments with HOTRiDE in an abstracted version of a military-planning domain demonstrates the potential of our approach.
A retrospective study of predictive factors for effective aripiprazole augmentation of antidepressant therapy in treatment-resistant depression

Background Several studies have evaluated the efficacy and tolerability of aripiprazole for augmentation of antidepressant therapy for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Here, we investigated the efficacy of aripiprazole augmentation for TRD including both major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder and the clinical predictors of treatment efficacy in a Japanese population. Methods Eighty-five depressed Japanese patients who underwent aripiprazole augmentation therapy after failing to respond satisfactorily to antidepressant monotherapy were included in the study. Treatment responses were evaluated based on Clinical Global Impression Improvement scores assessed 8 weeks after initiation of aripiprazole administration. We compared demographic and diagnostic variables, psychiatric medication variables, and clinical variables between remission and nonremission groups. Results The aripiprazole augmentation remission rate was 36.5%. Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that aripiprazole augmentation was significantly more effective for bipolar depression than for major depressive disorder, and both absence of comorbid anxiety disorders and current episode duration >3 months were significantly associated with the efficacy of aripiprazole augmentation. Conclusion Polarity of depression, comorbidity of anxiety disorders, and current episode duration may predict the efficacy of aripiprazole augmentation for TRD including both major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. Among them, comorbidity of anxiety disorders was significantly related to the efficacy for TRD including only major depressive disorder. Additional studies are needed to examine the association between the efficacy of aripiprazole augmentation and bipolarity, and these findings should be validated further in a prospective study.
The emotions of educational leadership: breaking the silence

This study examines the emotionality of educational leadership by exploring administrators' recall of key junctures in their lives as leaders, and was designed to begin to investigate the associations between an individual's philosophy of leadership and his/her experience of emotionality in leadership. Employing an interview method, the study uses stimulated recall of emotional experiences associated with leadership work. An assessment of the situations that evoked emotions, patterns associated with the emotions themselves and the act of reflection, led to noteworthy conclusions that may hold important implications for further research in the sociology of emotions and educational leadership theory and practice. Emerging findings support the position that our understanding of the role of the emotions may be fundamental to a fuller appreciation of the intra- and intersubjective realities of life in schools, in general, and of educational leadership in particular.
Spermidine/spermine N 1-acetyltransferase specifically binds to the integrin α9 subunit cytoplasmic domain and enhances cell migration

The integrin α9β1 is expressed on migrating cells, such as leukocytes, and binds to multiple ligands that are present at sites of tissue injury and inflammation. α9β1, like the structurally related integrin α4β1, mediates accelerated cell migration, an effect that depends on the α9 cytoplasmic domain. α4β1 enhances migration through reversible binding to the adapter protein, paxillin, but α9β1-dependent migration is paxillin independent. Using yeast two-hybrid screening, we identified the polyamine catabolizing enzyme spermidine/spermine N 1-acetyltransferase (SSAT) as a specific binding partner of the α9 cytoplasmic domain. Overexpression of SSAT increased α9β1-mediated migration, and small interfering RNA knockdown of SSAT inhibited this migration without affecting cell adhesion or migration that was mediated by other integrin cytoplasmic domains. The enzyme activity of SSAT is critical for this effect, because a catalytically inactive version did not enhance migration. We conclude that SSAT directly binds to the α9 cytoplasmic domain and mediates α9-dependent enhancement of cell migration, presumably by localized effects on acetylation of polyamines or of unidentified substrates.
TGF-beta1 Gene Polymorphism in Association with Diabetic Retinopathy Susceptibility: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β1) gene has been regarded as an important mechanism in angiogenesis, endothelial cell proliferation, adhesion,and the deposition of extracellular matrix. The TGF-β1 gene may be involved in the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR) through disrupting angiogenesis. However, studies investigating the relationship between −509C/T and +869T/C(L10P) polymorphisms and DR yielded contradictory and inconclusive outcomes. In order to realize these ambiguous findings, a meta-analysis was performed to assess the association between the TGF-β1 gene polymorphisms and susceptibility to DR. Methodology/Principal Findings We conducted a search of all English reports on studies for the association between the TGF-β1 gene polymorphisms and susceptibility to DR using Medline, the Cochrane Library, EMbase, Web of Science, Google (scholar), and all Chinese reports were identified manually and on-line using CBMDisc, Chongqing VIP database, and CNKI database. The strict selection criteria and exclusion criteria were determined, and odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess the strength of associations. The fixed or random effect model was selected based on the heterogeneity test among studies. Publication bias was estimated using Begg's funnel plots and Egger's regression test. Results A total of three studies were included in the meta-analysis and all included studies analyzed patients with type 2 diabetes. For +869T/C(L10P) polymorphism, significant association was observed in an allele model (L versus P: OR = 1.34, 95%CI = 1.03–1.73) and the recessive model (LL versus LP+PP: OR = 1.70, 95%CI = 1.13–2.56). As regards −509C/T polymorphism, no obvious associations were found for all genetic models. Conclusions This meta-analysis suggested that the +869T/C(L10P) polymorphism in TGFβ1 gene would be a potential protect factor for DR. However, the −509C/T polymorphism is not associated with DR.
Comparison of model estimated and measured direct-normal

Direct-normal solar irradiance (DNSI), the energy in the solar spectrum incident in unit time at the Earth{close_quote}s surface on a unit area perpendicular to the direction to the Sun, depends only on atmospheric extinction of solar energy without regard to the details of the extinction, whether absorption or scattering. Here we report a set of closure experiments performed in north central Oklahoma in April 1996 under cloud-free conditions, wherein measured atmospheric composition and aerosol optical thickness are input to a radiative transfer model, MODTRAN 3, to estimate DNSI, which is then compared with measured values obtained with normal incidence pyrheliometers and absolute cavity radiometers. Uncertainty in aerosol optical thickness (AOT) dominates the uncertainty in DNSI calculation. AOT measured by an independently calibrated Sun photometer and a rotating shadow-band radiometer agree to within the uncertainties of each measurement. For 36 independent comparisons the agreement between measured and model-estimated values of DNSI falls within the combined uncertainties in the measurement (0.3{endash}0.7{percent}) and model calculation (1.8{percent}), albeit with a slight average model underestimate ({minus}0.18{plus_minus}0.94){percent}; for a DNSI of 839Wm{sup {minus}2} this corresponds to {minus}1.5{plus_minus}7.9Wm{sup {minus}2}. The agreement is nearly independent of air mass and water-vapor path abundance. These results thus establish the accuracymore » of the current knowledge of the solar spectrum, its integrated power, and the atmospheric extinction as a function of wavelength as represented in MODTRAN 3. An important consequence is that atmospheric absorption of short-wave energy is accurately parametrized in the model to within the above uncertainties. {copyright} 1997 American Geophysical Union« less
A Model of Supplier Integration into New Product Development

In many industries, firms are looking for ways to cut concept-to-customer development time, to improve quality, and to reduce the cost of new products. One approach shown to be successful in Japanese organizations involves the integration of material suppliers early in the new product development cycle. This involvement may range from simple consultation with suppliers on design ideas to making suppliers fully responsible for the design of components or systems they will supply. While prior research shows the benefit of using this approach, execution remains a problem. The processes for identifying and integrating suppliers into the new product development (NPD) process in North American organizations are not understood well. This problem is compounded by the fact that design team members often are reluctant to listen to the technology and cost ideas made by suppliers in new product development efforts. We suggest a model of the key activities required for successful supplier integration into NPD projects, based on case studies with 17 Japanese and American manufacturing organizations. The model is validated using data from a survey of purchasing executives in global corporations with at least one successful and one unsuccessful supplier integration experience. The results suggest that (1) increased knowledge of a supplier is more likely to result in greater information sharing and involvement of the supplier in the product development process; (2) sharing of technology information results in higher levels of supplier involvement and improved outcomes; (3) supplier involvement on teams generally results in a higher achievement of NPD team goals; (4) in cases when technology uncertainty is present, suppliers and buyers are more likely to share information on NPD teams; and (5) the problems associated with technology uncertainty can be mitigated by greater use of technology sharing and direct supplier participation on new product development teams. A supplier’s participation as a true member of a new product development team seems to result in the highest level of benefits, especially in cases when a technology is in its formative stages.
Metallicity of the Intergalactic Medium Using Pixel Statistics. I. Method

Studies of absorption spectra of high-z QSOs have revealed that the intergalactic medium at z ~ 2-3 is enriched to ~10-3 to 10-2 Z☉ for gas densities more than a few times the mean cosmic density but have not yet produced an accurate metallicity estimate or constrained variations in the metallicity with density, redshift, or spatial location. This paper discusses the "pixel optical depth" (POD) method of QSO spectrum analysis, using realistic simulated spectra from cosmological simulations. In this method, absorption in Lyα is compared to corresponding metal absorption on a pixel-by-pixel basis, yielding for each analyzed spectrum a single statistical correlation encoding metal enrichment information. Our simulations allow testing and optimization of each step of the technique's implementation. Tests show that previous studies have probably been limited by C IV self-contamination and O VI contamination by H I lines; we have developed and tested an effective method of correcting for both contaminants. We summarize these and other findings and provide a useful recipe for the POD technique's application to observed spectra. Our tests reveal that the POD technique applied to spectra of presently available quality is effective in recovering useful metallicity information even in underdense gas. We present an extension of the POD technique to directly recover the intergalactic metallicity as a function of gas density. For a given ionizing background, both the oxygen and carbon abundances can be measured with errors of at most a factor of a few over at least an order of magnitude in density, using a single high-quality spectrum.