Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
REGULARITY OF SOLUTIONS TO THE SPATIALLY HOMOGENEOUS BOLTZMANN EQUATION WITHOUT ANGULAR CUTOFF

Most of the work on the Boltzmann equation is based on the Grad's angular cutoff assumption. Even though the smoothing effect from the singular cross-section without the angular cutoff corresponding to the grazing collision is expected, there is no general mathematical theory especially for the spatially inhomogeneous case. As a further study on the problem in the spatially homogeneous situation, in this paper, we will prove the Gevrey smoothing property of the solutions to the Cauchy problem for Maxwellian molecules without angular cutoff by using pseudo-differential calculus. Furthermore, we apply similar analytic techniques for the Sobolev space regularity to the nonlinear equation, and prove the smoothing property of solutions for the spatially homogeneous nonlinear Boltzmann equation with the Debye-Yukawa potential.
The Built Environment and Active Travel: Evidence from Nanjing, China

Background: An established relationship exists between the built environment and active travel. Nevertheless, the literature examining the impacts of different components of the built environment is limited. In addition, most existing studies are based on data from cities in the U.S. and Western Europe. The situation in Chinese cities remains largely unknown. Based on data from Nanjing, China, this study explicitly examines the influences of two components of the built environment—the neighborhood form and street form—on residents’ active travel. Methods: Binary logistic regression analyses examined the effects of the neighborhood form and street form on subsistence, maintenance and discretionary travel, respectively. For each travel purpose, three models are explored: a model with only socio-demographics, a model with variables of the neighborhood form and a complete model with all variables. Results: The model fit indicator, Nagelkerke’s ρ2, increased by 0.024 when neighborhood form variables are included and increased by 0.070 when street form variables are taken into account. A similar situation can be found in the models of maintenance activities and discretionary activities. Regarding specific variables, very limited significant impacts of the neighborhood form variables are observed, while almost all of the characteristics of the street form show significant influences on active transport. Conclusions: In Nanjing, street form factors have a more profound influence on active travel than neighborhood form factors. The focal point of the land use regulations and policy of local governments should shift from the neighborhood form to the street form to maximize the effects of policy interventions.
INDEPENDENCE OF PHOTOPRODUCT FORMATION ON DNA CONFORMATION *

Abstract— In an ethanolic solution native T7 DNA can undergo conformational transitions from the B conformation (0% ethanol) to the C‐like (60% w/w ethanol) and the A (80% w/w ethanol) conformations. We have investigated the formation of three classes of thymine‐derived photoproducts in T7 DNA irradiated (280 nm) in the B, C‐like, and A conformations, which were monitored by circular dichroism measurements. We find that the predominant class of thymine‐derived photoproducts in any conformational state is cyclobutyl dipyrimidines. While the ‘spore product,’ 5‐thyminyl‐5,6‐dihydrothymine, which belongs to another class of photoproductsf does form in native DNA in the A conformation, its yield in denatured DNA at 80% ethanol is the same as that in native DNA. The yield of pyrimidine adduct, a third photoproduct class, is a maximum at 50–60% ethanol. This effect of ethanol is probably not due to the ethanol‐induced C‐like conformation, however, since pyrimidine adduct formation is not enhanced when T7 DNA is irradiated in the C conformation in 6 M CsCl or in intact phage. We conclude from these and other data in the literature that the degree of hydration rather than the conformational state is the critical factor in determining which of the photoproducts will form in native DNA.
Source Detection and Functional Connectivity of the Sensorimotor Cortex during Actual and Imaginary Limb Movement: A Preliminary Study on the Implementation of eConnectome in Motor Imagery Protocols

Sensorimotor cortex is activated similarly during motor execution and motor imagery. The study of functional connectivity networks (FCNs) aims at successfully modeling the dynamics of information flow between cortical areas. Materials and Methods. Seven healthy subjects performed 4 motor tasks (real foot, imaginary foot, real hand, and imaginary hand movements), while electroencephalography was recorded over the sensorimotor cortex. Event-Related Desynchronization/Synchronization (ERD/ERS) of the mu-rhythm was used to evaluate MI performance. Source detection and FCNs were studied with eConnectome. Results and Discussion. Four subjects produced similar ERD/ERS patterns between motor execution and imagery during both hand and foot tasks, 2 subjects only during hand tasks, and 1 subject only during foot tasks. All subjects showed the expected brain activation in well-performed MI tasks, facilitating cortical source estimation. Preliminary functional connectivity analysis shows formation of networks on the sensorimotor cortex during motor imagery and execution. Conclusions. Cortex activation maps depict sensorimotor cortex activation, while similar functional connectivity networks are formed in the sensorimotor cortex both during actual and imaginary movements. eConnectome is demonstrated as an effective tool for the study of cortex activation and FCN. The implementation of FCN in motor imagery could induce promising advancements in Brain Computer Interfaces.
Quality assessment for H.264 coded low-rate and low-resolution video sequences

This article concentrates on a quality assessment for H.264 coded low-rate and low-resolution video sequences which are in particular of interest for mobile communication. The choice of appropriate setup for tests is discussed. The focu s is given on the influence of the sequence character (spatial and temporal information). The data set is compared to various known video quality metrics. It is shown on the obtained data set, that it is not possible to separate the dynamic and static parameters without considering the character of the sequence and thus to create a universal metric.
Language Typology and Syntactic Description: Speech act distinctions in grammar

Sentences like these are special insofar as their utterance in appropriate circumstances amounts to performing the action identified by the finite verb. The typical formal properties of such sentences in English include first person subjects, second person indirect objects, a present tense non-progressive active form of a speech act verb and the deictic adverb hereby, but performative sentences may also be in the passive voice, contain modal hedges and a nominalization instead of a verb:
Covering Disaster: A Pilot Study into Secondary Trauma for Print Media Journalists Reporting on Disaster

A pilot study is undertaken for research into the area of traumatology or the potential impact on the journalists who report on disaster, who are generally the youngest in the profession and have no training in dealing with either grief or trauma or interview techniques for distressed people. Serious traumata are experienced by the journalists at the time of covering stories of critical nature and continue to experience residual effects even later.
Cardiovascular mortality in Dutch men during 1996 European football championship: longitudinal population study

Abstract Objective: To investigate whether an important football match increases stress to such an extent that it triggers acute myocardial infarction and stroke. Design: Longitudinal study of mortality around 22 June 1996 (the day the Dutch football team was eliminated from the European football championship). Mortality on 22 June was compared with the five days before and after the match and in the same period in 1995 and 1997. Setting: Netherlands. Subjects: Dutch population aged 45 years or over in June 1996. Main outcome measures: All cause mortality and mortality due to coronary heart disease and stroke. Results: Mortality from coronary heart disease and stroke was increased in men on the day of the match (relative risk 1.51, 95% confidence interval 1.08 to 2.09). No clear rise in mortality was observed for women (1.11, 0.80 to 1.56). Among men, about 14 excess cardiovascular deaths occurred on the day of the match. Conclusion: Important sporting events may provoke a sufficient level of stress to trigger symptomatic cardiovascular disease. The difference between men and women requires further investigation.
Legume Plants Enhance the Resistance of Soil to Ecosystem Disturbance

Cultivation of legume plants is well known to improve soil N level and net primary productivity; besides, it may deliver other ecosystem benefits such as increasing soil carbon sequestration and soil food web complexity. However, little is known about whether legumes can improve the resistance of soils to ecosystem disturbances. In the present study, we compared the resistance of soils to an ecosystem disturbance (understory removal) in the presence or absence of a legume species (Cassia alata) in mixed tree species plantations in southern China. Soil physico-chemical and biotic properties were employed to quantify the resistance of soils to understory removal. Our results showed that the resistance indices of soil water content, omnivorous-predacious nematode abundance and nematode channel index to understory removal were greater in the presence of legumes than those without legumes in wet season. The resistance indices of fungal to bacterial ratio, fungivorous nematode abundance and total arthropod abundance were greater in the presence of legume than those without legume species in dry season. Our results indicate that legumes may enhance the resistances of soil physico-chemical and biological properties to the ecosystem disturbance. Our findings could provide a better understanding of the myriad ways in which legumes can positively affect ecosystem functioning.
The effect of initiation of child supplementation on resumption of post-partum menstruation

Summary The effects of initiation of solid and liquid supplementation on resumption of post-partum menstruation are examined, 0using data from a 2-year prospective study of birth interval dynamics from central Java, Indonesia. The sample analysed consisted of 444 women who experienced resumption of menses while breast-feeding, women who were breast-feeding and amenorrhoeic at the end of the study, or women who resumed menstruation or were censored after infant mortality and weaning which preceded the resumption of menses. Multivariate hazard model analysis was used to assess the significance of supplementation, various breast-feeding covariates, and age and parity of the dependent variable. Because the timing of supplementation varies, the supplementation variables were introduced into the analysis as time-varying covariates. For the mothers in the sample, solid and liquid supplementation was initiated at medians of 2·1 and 8·0 months respectively. The former had a significant effect on resumption of menses, while the latter was only marginally significant. Earlier supplementation meant shorter durations of amenorrhoea for the majority of women. However, the effect was not consistent across all categories of women. For the small group of mothers who were low intensity breast-feeders (≤6 minutes per nursing episode) or as low frequency day-time breast-feeders (≤6 nursing episodes per day-time), earlier supplementation had no additional effect on their rate of resumption of menses post-partum.
Modification of Small Hepatitis Delta Virus Antigen by SUMO Protein

ABSTRACT Hepatitis delta antigen (HDAg) is a nuclear protein that is intimately involved in hepatitis delta virus (HDV) RNA replication. HDAg consists of two protein species, the small form (S-HDAg) and the large form (L-HDAg). Previous studies have shown that posttranslational modifications of S-HDAg, such as phosphorylation, acetylation, and methylation, can modulate HDV RNA replication. In this study, we show that S-HDAg is a small ubiquitin-like modifier 1 (SUMO1) target protein. Mapping data showed that multiple lysine residues are SUMO1 acceptors within S-HDAg. Using a genetic fusion strategy, we found that conjugation of SUMO1 to S-HDAg selectively enhanced HDV genomic RNA and mRNA synthesis but not antigenomic RNA synthesis. This result supports our previous proposition that the cellular machinery involved in the synthesis of HDV antigenomic RNA is different from that for genomic RNA synthesis and mRNA transcription, requiring different modified forms of S-HDAg. Sumoylation represents a new type of modification for HDAg.
Employee participation in decision making, psychological ownership and knowledge sharing: mediating role of organizational commitment in Taiwanese high-tech organizations

This study aims to investigate the effect of employee participation in decision making (EPDM) on employees’ positive cognition and attitudes which can lead to their knowledge-sharing behaviour. Consistent with the philanthropic and justice principles of Confucianism, such participation emphasizes the sharing of power with employees, which can satisfy employees’ humanistic needs, give employees a fundamental right to extend a degree of control and psychologically experience ownership of the organization. Employees who perceive they have ownership of the organization regard themselves as important organizational members and then commit to the organization. Knowledge-sharing behaviour contributes to the creation and utilization of knowledge; therefore, high-tech organizations always carefully negotiate with internal power relations in order to make tacit knowledge shared and produce innovation. Psychological ownership makes employees produce organizational commitment which can evoke altruistic spirit, contributing to knowledge-sharing behaviour. However, researchers have not yet investigated the relationships among EPDM, psychological ownership, organizational commitment, and knowledge-sharing behaviour, revealing an important research gap. Statistical analysis of 260 samples involving high technical and knowledge-intensive companies in Taiwan was undertaken. Theory-driven approach and structural equation modeling were the main methodologies employed. Results showed that employee participation in decision making was a positive association with psychological ownership. Psychological ownership was positively related to organizational commitment. A positive relationship existed between organizational commitment and knowledge sharing. Organizational commitment mediated the relationship between psychological ownership and knowledge-sharing behaviour. Important implications for academics and practitioners were discussed.
Visual Dynamics: Probabilistic Future Frame Synthesis via Cross Convolutional Networks

We study the problem of synthesizing a number of likely future frames from a single input image. In contrast to traditional methods, which have tackled this problem in a deterministic or non-parametric way, we propose a novel approach that models future frames in a probabilistic manner. Our probabilistic model makes it possible for us to sample and synthesize many possible future frames from a single input image. Future frame synthesis is challenging, as it involves low- and high-level image and motion understanding. We propose a novel network structure, namely a Cross Convolutional Network to aid in synthesizing future frames; this network structure encodes image and motion information as feature maps and convolutional kernels, respectively. In experiments, our model performs well on synthetic data, such as 2D shapes and animated game sprites, as well as on real-wold videos. We also show that our model can be applied to tasks such as visual analogy-making, and present an analysis of the learned network representations.
Design Principles for Dependable Robotic Assistants

A large number of functionalities have been integrated into a single fully autonomous humanoid robot, HERMES. To evaluate the dependability of this extremely complex machine, and its ability to interact with strangers, HERMES was exhibited in a museum, far away from its home laboratory, for more than six months. During this period the robot and its skills were regularly demonstrated to the public by non-expert presenters up to 12 hours per day. Also, HERMES interacted with the visitors, chatted with them in English, French and German, answered questions and performed services as requested by them. Only three major failures occurred during the 6-month period, all of them caused by failures of commercially available modules that could easily be replaced. The key to this success was the dependability that had been originally designed into HERMES. During the design process certain design principles were followed in both hardware and software. These principles are introduced, and some long- and short-term experiments carried out with the real robot in real environments are presented. In fact, by demonstrating HERMES in the museum, at trade fairs and in TV studios — besides our institute environment — we have learned valuable lessons, especially regarding the interaction of a complex robotic assistant with unknown humans. Although we did not quantitatively evaluate the robot’s performance or acceptance by the non-expert users, several qualitative results are given in this paper, and many videos highlighting these results can be downloaded from the HERMES homepage.
Visiting Patients at Home: Reasons and Efficiency of Dental House Calls

This retrospective study analyzes indications for house calls by dentists in a domiciliary setting. Its database consists in 69 visits made by a dentist office in Munich from 1998 to 2013 at the homes of 29 non-institutionalized seniors (≥62 years old, 15 females, 14 males, average age 83.7 years old). The analysis focused on the patients’ general state of health, their dental and oral health, the kinds of dental treatments administered, as well as economic aspects and the quantitative development in the frequency of house calls during the study period. The most frequent pre-existing conditions that made a house call necessary were cardiovascular illnesses (60%) and dementia diseases (36%). Multi-morbidity, dependency on care, accessibility issues, and frailty because of advanced age played a central role. The patients’ oral health was acceptable, with the exception of those with dementia diseases, who were more frequently toothless (40% versus 5.6%) and had a higher percentage of carious and decayed teeth (26.3% versus 10.3%). The most frequent procedures were treatments for denture sores and the repair of removable dentures (53.6%). The main focus was on reparative dentistry. The average house call took 37 minutes including travel time. Thus, the time needed was a multiple of the time necessary for treatment in the dental office. The lack of economic efficiency may be the reason why many dentists in Germany hesitate to make house calls. Despite the introduction of additional fees for the treatment of patients in need of long-term care on April 1, 2013, the number of house calls is low and increases only slowly. At the same time, the need for house calls will rise in the future due to an increasing proportion of elderly persons in the population and a decline in the percentage of toothless elderly.
Functional neuroimaging of sex differences in autobiographical memory recall

Autobiographical memory (AM) is episodic memory for personally experienced events. The brain areas underlying AM retrieval are known to include several prefrontal cortical and medial temporal lobe regions. Sex differences in AM recall have been reported in several behavioral studies, but the functional anatomical correlates underlying such differences remain unclear. This study used fMRI to compare the neural correlates of AM recall between healthy male and female participants (n = 20 per group). AM recall in response to positive, negative, and neutral cue words was compared to a semantic memory task involving the generation of examples from a category using emotionally valenced cues. Behaviorally, females recalled more negative and fewer positive AMs compared with males, while ratings of arousal, vividness, and memory age did not differ significantly between sexes. Males and females also did not differ significantly in their performance on control tasks. Neurophysiologically, females showed increased hemodynamic activity compared to males in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), dorsal anterior insula, and precuneus while recalling specific AMs (all valences combined); increased activity in the DLPFC, transverse temporal gyrus, and precuneus while recalling positive AMs; and increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, amygdala, and temporopolar cortex when recalling negative AMs. When comparing positive to negative AMs directly, males and females differed in their BOLD responses in the hippocampus and DLPFC. We propose that the differential hemodynamic changes may reflect sex‐specific cognitive strategies during recall of AMs irrespective of the phenomenological properties of those memories. Hum Brain Mapp 34:3320–3332, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Changing Public Attitudes toward Television and Other Media 1959-1976

This series of studies, begun in 1959, has shown television increasingly becoming the dominant medium in people's lives. From a secondary position in 1959, television moved almost steadily upward in public regard and approval of its programming. After assuming a leading position in 1963, television steadily increased its lead in successive years, reaching a record high in 1974. This 1976 study shows television essentially in a holding position on levels of approval in the various comparative measurements. The progress shown for television has been made during a period of turbulence and change in all aspects of American life. Today's lifestyles, social mores and customs are far different from those of 1959 mostly because of upheavals that occurred during the sixtiesThe seventies presented problems in different areas. There was the trauma of ending the Vietnam War, quickly followed by Watergate and the resignation of President Nixon. Gerald Ford's ascendency to the Presidency brought a brief surge of optimism that was soon ended by increasing inflation and a recession that threatened to develop into a true depression. The public reacted with increasing cynicism and skepticism toward leadership and institutions, with increased demands for consumer protection and with increasing apprehension regarding the futureNow, however, other of our current studies show the tide of public confidence sharply on the rise. With signs of economic recovery, the public is beginning to show a more favorable attitude towards the institutions of society and a measurably more hopeful attitude about the future. During these years, television has proved itself successful not only in meeting the challenges presented by demands for keeping up with changing times, but in providing services and entertainment of a caliber recognized by the public as essential to modern life. Entering what may be a new era in America, television is in a unique position to be an effective force in meeting the needs of the future. At the same time there