Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Competence pheromone, oligopeptide permease, and induction of competence in Streptococcus pneumoniae

An unmodified heptadecapeptide pheromone capable of eliciting competence for genetic transformation in Streptococcus pneumoniae has recently been identified and characterized. In considering possible signaltransduction mechanisms for the peptide, the previously characterized Ami oligopeptide permease and the three highly homologous oligopeptide‐binding lipoproteins, AmiA. AliA, and AliB, appeared to be good candidates for receptors. We therefore compared the spontaneous transformability of Ami, AliA and AliB mutants to that of an isogenic wild‐type strain and we investigated the response of the various mutants to treatment with synthetic competence‐stimulating peptide (CSP). Our results clearly demonstrate that neither Ami nor any of the three highly homologous oligopeptide‐binding lipoproteins identified so far in S. pneumoniae are required for competence induction following treatment with synthetic CSP. Although the existence of a fourth unidentified oligopeptide‐binding lipoprotein and/or a second oligopeptide permease operon could not be completely ruled out, we favour the hypothesis that CSP signal transmission rather involves a two‐component regulatory system. Although none of the single or double Ami and Ali mutants tested appeared severely affected for competence, an exceptional aliB plasmid‐insertion mutation abolished competence completely. In addition, the triple AmiA‐AliA‐AliB mutant differed from wild type in showing no sharp peak of competence but exhibiting transformability throughout the exponential phase of growth. These and previous observations are discussed and a general hypothesis is proposed to account for the modulation of competence by peptide permease mutants in S. pneumoniae.
Environmental extremes versus ecological extremes: impact of a massive iceberg on the population dynamics of a high-level Antarctic marine predator†

Extreme events have been suggested to play a disproportionate role in shaping ecological processes, but our understanding of the types of environmental conditions that elicit extreme consequences in natural ecosystems is limited. Here, we investigated the impact of a massive iceberg on the dynamics of a population of Weddell seals. Reproductive rates of females were reduced, but survival appeared unaffected. We also found suggestive evidence for a prolonged shift towards higher variability in reproductive rates. The annual number of females attending colonies showed unusual swings during the iceberg period, a pattern that was apparently the consequence of changes in sea-ice conditions. In contrast to the dramatic effects that were recorded in nearby populations of emperor penguins, our results suggest that this unusual environmental event did not have an extreme impact on the population of seals in the short-term, as they managed to avoid survival costs and were able to rapidly re-achieve high levels of reproduction by the end of the perturbation. Nevertheless, population projections suggest that even this modest impact on reproductive rates could negatively affect the population in the long run if such events were to occur more frequently, as is predicted by models of climate change.
Ambiguous Encoding of Stimuli by Primary Sensory Afferents Causes a Lack of Independence in the Perception of Multiple Stimulus Attributes

Accurate sensory perception often depends on the independent encoding and subsequent integration of multiple stimulus attributes. In the weakly electric fish Eigenmannia, P- and T-type primary afferent fibers are specialized for encoding the amplitude and phase, respectively, of electrosensory stimuli. We used a stimulus estimation technique to quantify the ability of P- and T-units to encode random modulations in amplitude and phase. As expected, P-units exhibited a clear preference for encoding amplitude modulations, whereas T-units exhibited a clear preference for encoding phase modulations. Surprisingly, both types of afferents also encoded their nonpreferred stimulus attribute when it was presented in isolation or when the preferred stimulus attribute was sufficiently weak. Because afferent activity can be affected by modulations in either amplitude or phase, it is not possible to unambiguously distinguish between these two stimulus attributes by observing the activity of a single afferent fiber. Simple model neurons with a preference for encoding either amplitude or phase also encoded their nonpreferred stimulus attribute when it was presented in isolation, suggesting that such ambiguity is unavoidable. Using the well known jamming avoidance response as a probe of electrosensory perception, we show that the ambiguity at the single-neuron level gives rise to a systematic misrepresentation of stimuli at the population level and a resulting misperception of the amplitude and phase of electrosensory stimuli.
Quantifying the semantics of search behavior before stock market moves

Significance Internet search data may offer new possibilities to improve forecasts of collective behavior, if we can identify which parts of these gigantic search datasets are relevant. We introduce an automated method that uses data from Google and Wikipedia to identify relevant topics in search data before large events. Using stock market moves as a case study, our method successfully identifies historical links between searches related to business and politics and subsequent stock market moves. We find that the predictive value of these search terms has recently diminished, potentially reflecting increasing incorporation of Internet data into automated trading strategies. We suggest that extensions of these analyses could help draw links between search data and a range of other collective actions. Technology is becoming deeply interwoven into the fabric of society. The Internet has become a central source of information for many people when making day-to-day decisions. Here, we present a method to mine the vast data Internet users create when searching for information online, to identify topics of interest before stock market moves. In an analysis of historic data from 2004 until 2012, we draw on records from the search engine Google and online encyclopedia Wikipedia as well as judgments from the service Amazon Mechanical Turk. We find evidence of links between Internet searches relating to politics or business and subsequent stock market moves. In particular, we find that an increase in search volume for these topics tends to precede stock market falls. We suggest that extensions of these analyses could offer insight into large-scale information flow before a range of real-world events.
A social and cognitive approach to affect in SLA

Abstract Affective factors in language learning have long attracted attention. While research findings indicate substantial links between affect and achievement, further inquiry into the role and contribution of affect in language learning has been limited by a narrow focus on single emotions and on the disruptive effects of emotion. Drawing on social cognitive theory and research on the intelligent processing of emotions we propose an approach to understanding affect in SLA. This approach emphasizes the reciprocal nature of relationships among emotions, their individual and social antecedents and their effects on learning and achievement. Evidence from a qualitative study into the regulation of affect conducted with 19 independent learners of Russian demonstrates how students' emotions and their regulation of emotions are affected by the learning environment and by the quality of relationships available to them within that environment. Results also reveal how students' cognitive appraisals mediate their experiences of emotions, and that intelligent processing of emotions can impact positively on their experience of language learning. We argue that a broader perspective on affect and affective experiences can illuminate further the interdependence between the social context and cognitive processes in language learning.
Not Just Bad Actions: Affective Concern for Bad Outcomes Contributes to Moral Condemnation of Harm in Moral Dilemmas

Moral dilemmas typically entail directly causing harm (said to violate deontological ethics) to maximize overall outcomes (said to uphold utilitarian ethics). The dual process model suggests harm-rejection judgments derive from affective reactions to harm, whereas harm-acceptance judgments derive from cognitive evaluations of outcomes. Recently, Miller, Hannikainen, and Cushman (2014) argued that harm-rejection judgments primarily reflect self-focused—rather than other-focused—emotional responses, because only action aversion (self-focused reactions to the thought of causing harm), not outcome aversion (other-focused reactions to witnessing suffering), consistently predicted dilemma responses. However, they assessed only conventional relative dilemma judgments that treat harm-rejection and outcome-maximization responses as diametric opposites. Instead, we employed process dissociation to assess these response inclinations independently. In two studies (N = 558), we replicated Miller and colleagues’ findings for conventional relative judgments, but process dissociation revealed that outcome aversion positively predicted both deontological and utilitarian inclinations—which canceled out for relative judgments. Additionally, individual differences associated with affective processing—psychopathy and empathic concern—correlated with the deontology but not utilitarian parameter. Together, these findings suggest that genuine other-oriented moralized concern for others’ well-being contribute to both utilitarian and deontological response tendencies, but these tendencies nonetheless draw upon different psychological processes.
The Sequencing of Interventions with Offenders: An Addition to the Responsivity Principle

Despite a growing recognition that the sequence in which rehabilitative interventions are delivered to offenders may impact the effectiveness of a set of interventions as a whole, relatively little research has been carried out to provide evidence to substantiate such claims. A narrative literature review was conducted to identify and analyze research in the field of rehabilitation, exploring developments made with reference to models of rehabilitation. The article proceeds to explore theories and research into the concepts of responsivity and readiness to change with reference to the process of behavioral change and discusses how theory can be linked to practice.
Influence of Screw Length and Bone Thickness on the Stability of Temporary Implants

The purpose of this work was to study the influence of screw length and bone thickness on the stability of temporary implants. A total of 96 self-drilling temporary screws with two different lengths were inserted into polyurethane blocks (n = 66), bovine femurs (n = 18) and rabbit tibia (n = 12) with different cortical thicknesses (1 to 8 mm). Screws insertion in polyurethane blocks was assisted by a universal testing machine, torque peaks were collected by a digital torquemeter and bone thickness was monitored by micro-CT. The results showed that the insertion torque was significantly increased with the thickness of cortical bone from polyurethane (p < 0.0001), bovine (p = 0.0035) and rabbit (p < 0.05) sources. Cancellous bone improved significantly the mechanical implant stability. Insertion torque and insertion strength was successfully moduled by equations, based on the cortical/cancellous bone behavior. Based on the results, insertion torque and bone strength can be estimate in order to prevent failure of the cortical layer during temporary screw placement. The stability provided by a cortical thickness of 2 or 1 mm coupled to cancellous bone was deemed sufficient for temporary implants stability.
Optimality of Thompson Sampling for Gaussian Bandits Depends on Priors

In stochastic bandit problems, a Bayesian policy called Thompson sampling (TS) has recently attracted much attention for its excellent empirical performance. However, the theoretical analysis of this policy is difficult and its asymptotic optimality is only proved for one-parameter models. In this paper we discuss the optimality of TS for the model of normal distributions with unknown means and variances as one of the most fundamental example of multiparameter models. First we prove that the expected regret of TS with the uniform prior achieves the theoretical bound, which is the first result to show that the asymptotic bound is achievable for the normal distribution model. Next we prove that TS with Jeffreys prior and reference prior cannot achieve the theoretical bound. Therefore the choice of priors is important for TS and non-informative priors are sometimes risky in cases of multiparameter models.
When More Is Not Enough

The concept of greed is one of the oldest social constructs; however, greed as a managerial attribute that affects firm outcomes has yet to attract scholarly attention in management. In this study, we examine the relationship of CEO greed to shareholder wealth. After anchoring greed to familiar constructs in organizational literature, we test our hypotheses on a sample of over 300 publicly traded firms from multiple industries. As predicted, greed has a negative relationship with shareholder return, but this relationship is moderated by the presence of a powerful, independent board, managerial discretion, and CEO tenure. The contributions of this study, which include refining our understanding of self-interest and opportunism, developing the greed construct, and illustrating its impact on shareholder wealth, are intended to open a new line of inquiry in the management literature.
School experience, reward characteristics, and intrinsic motivation.

PALLAK, SUZANNE R. ; COSTOMIRIS, STEVEN; SROKA, SUSAN; and PITTMAN, THANE S. School Experience, Reward Characteristics, and Intrinsic Motivation. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 1382-1391. The present experiment was conducted to address variations in prior experience with reward and some inconsistencies in previous investigations comparing verbal and symbolic rewards. 5-7-year-old children attending 4 private schools (half of which use symbolic rewards as marks of achievement) saw a videotape that either created the expectation of a performancecontingent reward or did not mention rewards. Except for children in a no-reward control condition, all children were rewarded after 5 min, half with praise (verbal reward) and half with a Good Player Award (symbolic reward). A triple-order interaction was obtained such that children attending schools that did not use symbolic rewards to mark achievement were less likely to draw during the free-play period when given an expected symbolic reward, but were more likely to draw when given a verbal reward. Children attending schools that did not use symbolic rewards to mark achievement, however, did not react differentially to symbolic and verbal rewards but instead were more likely to draw when the reward was expected than when it was unexpected. The nature of prior experience with rewards and reward contingency may affect the relative salience of informational and controlling properties and thereby enhance or undermine intrinsic motivation.
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE SALPETER SLOPE FOR THE INITIAL MASS FUNCTION

We suggest that the intrinsic, stellar initial mass function (IMF) follows a power-law slope γ = 2, inherited from hierarchical fragmentation of molecular clouds into clumps and clumps into stars. The well-known, logarithmic Salpeter slope Γ = 1.35 in clusters is then the aggregate slope for all the star-forming clumps contributing to an individual cluster, and it is steeper than the intrinsic slope within individual clumps because the smallest star-forming clumps contributing to any given cluster are unable to form the highest-mass stars. Our Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that the Salpeter power-law index is the limiting value obtained for the cluster IMF when the lower-mass limits for allowed stellar masses and star-forming clumps are effectively equal, mlo = Mlo. This condition indeed is imposed for the high-mass IMF tail by the turnover at the characteristic value mc ∼ 1 M☉. IMF slopes of Γ ∼ 2 are obtained if the stellar and clump upper-mass limits are also equal mup = Mup ∼ 100 M☉, and so our model explains the observed range of IMF slopes between Γ ∼ 1 and 2. Flatter slopes of Γ = 1 are expected when Mlo > mup, which is a plausible condition in starbursts, where such slopes are suggested to occur. While this model is a simplistic parameterization of the star formation process, it seems likely to capture the essential elements that generate the Salpeter tail of the IMF for massive stars. These principles also likely explain the integrated galaxy IMF (IGIMF) effect seen in low-density star-forming environments.
Heating, weakening and shear localization in earthquake rupture

Field and borehole observations of active earthquake fault zones show that shear is often localized to principal deforming zones of order 0.1–10 mm width. This paper addresses how frictional heating in rapid slip weakens faults dramatically, relative to their static frictional strength, and promotes such intense localization. Pronounced weakening occurs even on dry rock-on-rock surfaces, due to flash heating effects, at slip rates above approximately 0.1 m s−1 (earthquake slip rates are typically of the order of 1 m s−1). But weakening in rapid shear is also predicted theoretically in thick fault gouge in the presence of fluids (whether native ground fluids or volatiles such as H2O or CO2 released by thermal decomposition reactions), and the predicted localizations are compatible with such narrow shear zones as have been observed. The underlying concepts show how fault zone materials with high static friction coefficients, approximately 0.6–0.8, can undergo strongly localized shear at effective dynamic friction coefficients of the order of 0.1, thus fitting observational constraints, e.g. of earthquakes producing negligible surface heat outflow and, for shallow events, only rarely creating extensive melt. The results to be summarized include those of collaborative research published with Nicolas Brantut (University College London), Eric Dunham (Stanford University), Nadia Lapusta (Caltech), Hiroyuki Noda (JAMSTEC, Japan), John D. Platt (Carnegie Institution for Science, now at *gramLabs), Alan Rempel (Oregon State University) and John W. Rudnicki (Northwestern University). This article is part of the themed issue ‘Faulting, friction and weakening: from slow to fast motion’.
The Role of Hostile and Benevolent Sexism in Women's and Men's Perceptions of the Menstruating Woman

Perceptions of menstruating women were studied in a sample of 244, predominantly European American, college freshmen. Both women and men rated the menstruating woman, as compared with the average woman, as higher on the Neuroticism factor from Lippa's (1991) measure of the Big Five personality factors. Men also rated her as lower on the Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness factors, and women rated her lower on the Extraversion factor. Women rated her as perceiving herself as less masculine and more feminine. Both women and men rated her as less “energized” and “sexy,” but more “irritable,” “sad,” and “angry. ” In addition, men rated her as less “clean and fresh,” “nurturing,” and “reasonable,” and more “spacey” and “annoying. ” Significant relationships were found between negative impressions of the menstruating woman and the Hostile Sexism Scale (Glick & Fiske, 1996). Although most ratings by men and women were negative, women perceived the menstruating woman as more “maternal,” “strong,” and “trustworthy. ”
How the Built Environment Shapes Spatial Bridging Ties and Social Capital

The study examined spatial bridging ties that develop between members of a subdivision, and the relationship of such ties to different aspects of the built environment. We suggest that spatial bridging ties are important to the development of social capital within a community, as they help to overcome a tendency for ties to be spatially proximate (the propinquity effect). Using ego-based network data, we examined the formation of spatial bridging ties within a new urbanist subdivision (NUS) and also identified specific design features of the NUS that were associated with such ties. We found an association between spatial bridging ties and the use of mixed-use amenities, suggesting that mixed-use amenities (e.g., local shops and restaurants) may be facilitating spatial bridging ties between residents in NUS communities. The results also provide some evidence of a positive relationship between spatial bridging ties and social capital.
Electron Energy Distribution Function in a Hall Discharge Plasma Aiaa/asme/sae/asee Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit Electron Energy Distribution Function in a Hall Discharge Plasma

The role of inelastic collisions in Hall thruster operation is studied through simulation of the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) inside the thruster channel. The electron Boltzmann equation is solved using the Lorentz approximation (two-term expansion) and the "local-field" approximation. The resultant zero-dimensional Boltzmann equation takes into account inelastic losses due to ionizing collisions and wall-collisions. Secondary electrons from ionization and wall-collisions are also included in the model. Electron continuity is used to calculate the sheath potential at the insulator walls. Results show an EEDF cut off at high energy due to electron loss to the walls. Secondary and scattered electrons from ionization provide a large population of low-energy electrons. The calculated EEDFs agree well with experimental electron temperature data when an experimentally-determined effective collision frequency is used for electron momentum transport. Predicted values for the wall-sheath potential agree with results from a charge-balance model, except where said model predicts sheath collapse.
Gender Stereotypes, Same-Gender Preferences, and Organizational Variation in the Hiring of Women: Evidence from Law Firms

Laboratory studies have shown that stereotypes and in-group favoritism influence people's perceptions and evaluations of others, but empirical research has not yet linked these processes to gender disparities in real workplace outcomes. This study proposes that the gender stereotypicality of selection criteria and decision makers' same-gender preferences operate to intensify gender inequality in hiring. These arguments are tested with data on large U.S. law firms in the mid-1990s. The findings show that when selection criteria include a greater number of stereotypically masculine characteristics, women constitute a smaller proportion of new hires, and that, conversely, when criteria include more stereotypically feminine traits, women are better represented among new hires. Female decision makers also fill more vacancies with women than do male decision makers, but among entry-level hires, this effect diminishes as women's share of high-ranking positions increases toward gender balance.