Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Precise characterization and investigation of laser cooling in III-V compound semiconductors

The physics and engineering issues associated with laser cooling of III-V compound semiconductors, in particular GaAs double heterostructures (DHS), are theoretically and experimentally investigated. This research addresses the key concepts of external quantum efficiency (EQE) and parasitic background absorption in a semiconductor laser cooler. The external quantum efficiency describes how well recombination radiation is removed from the cooling device and is precisely measured by All-optical
Cultural Affiliation and Self-Esteem as Predictors of Internalizing Symptoms Among Mexican American Adolescents

We investigated the relations between affiliation with Mexican culture and self-esteem at baseline (Time 1 [T1]), and internalizing symptoms 2 years later (Time 2 [T2]) among a sample of high-risk Mexican American adolescents. Results indicated that T1 affiliation with Mexican culture was not related to T2 internalizing symptoms, controlling for T1 internalizing symptoms. The relation between T1 self-esteem and T2 internalizing symptoms was significant, controlling for T1 internalizing symptoms. Regression analyses revealed, for girls only, a significant interaction between affiliation with Mexican culture and self-esteem in the prediction of T2 internalizing symptoms. Specifically, low self-esteem was a risk factor for internalizing symptoms only among those girls minimally affiliated with Mexican culture. There was no significant interaction between cultural affiliation and self-esteem among Mexican American boys. Findings highlight the importance of gender and culture in risk processes for internalizing symptoms.
tmRNA in Caulobacter crescentus Is Cell Cycle Regulated by Temporally Controlled Transcription and RNA Degradation

ABSTRACT SsrA, or tmRNA, is a small RNA found in all bacteria that intervenes in selected translation reactions to target the nascent polypeptide for rapid proteolysis. We have found that the abundance of SsrA RNA in Caulobacter crescentus is regulated with respect to the cell cycle. SsrA RNA abundance increases in late G1 phase, peaks during the G1-S transition, and declines in early S phase, in keeping with the reported role for SsrA in the timing of DNA replication initiation. Cell cycle regulation of SsrA RNA is accomplished by a combination of temporally controlled transcription and regulated RNA degradation. Transcription from the ssrA promoter peaks late in G1, just before the peak in SsrA RNA abundance. SsrA RNA is stable in G1-phase cells and late S-phase cells but is degraded with a half-life of 4 to 5 min at the onset of S phase. This degradation is surprising, since SsrA RNA is both highly structured and highly abundant. This is the first observation of a structural RNA that is cell cycle regulated.
The Association between Apolipoprotein E Gene Polymorphism and Mild Cognitive Impairment among Different Ethnic Minority Groups in China

The association, in different ethnic groups, of apolipoprotein E (apoE) gene polymorphism with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has been unclear. Few studies have examined the association in Chinese minorities. The current study explores the association between apoE gene polymorphism and MCI in one of the biggest ethnic groups—the Hui—and compares it with the Han. The Minimental State Exam, Activities of Daily Living Scale, and Geriatric Depression Scale were administered to 306 ethnic Hui and 618 ethnic Han people aged ≥55 years. ApoE genotypes were determined using the high resolution melting curve method. The distribution of the apoE genotype and the frequency of alleles ε2, ε3, and ε4 were similar in the Hui and Han groups. In analyses adjusted for age, gender, and education level, the ε4 allele was a risk factor for MCI in both the Hui group (OR = 2.61, 95% CI: 1.02–6.66) and the Han group (OR = 2.36, 95% CI: 1.19–4.67), but the apoE ε2 allele was protective for MCI only in the Han group (OR = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.38–0.88). The association of some apoE genotypes with MCI may differ in different ethnic groups in China. Further studies are needed to explore this effect among different populations.
Termination control of electronic phases in oxide thin films and interfaces: LaAlO3/SrTiO3(001)

A wealth of intriguing properties emerge in the seemingly simple system composed of the band insulators LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 such as a two-dimensional electron gas, superconductivity and magnetism. In this paper, we review the current insight obtained from first principles calculations on the mechanisms governing the behaviour of thin LaAlO3 films on SrTiO3(001). In particular, we explore the strong dependence of the electronic properties on the surface and interface termination, the finite film thickness, lattice polarization and defects. A further aspect that is addressed is how the electronic behaviour and functionality can be tuned by an SrTiO3 capping layer, adsorbates and metallic contacts. Lastly, we discuss recent reports on the coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity in this system for what they might imply about the electronic structure of this system.
Three-dimensional Model of Coagulation Factor Va Bound to Activated Protein C

Summary A complete molecular model of blood coagulation factor Va (FVa) bound to anticoagulant activated protein C (APC) and to a phospholipid membrane was constructed. The three homologous A domains and the two homologous C domains of FVA were modeled based on the X-ray crystallographic structures of ceruloplasmin and C2 domain of factor V, respectively. The final arrangement of the five domains in the complete FVa model bound to a membrane incorporated extensive published experimental data. FVa binds the phospholipid membrane through its C2 domain while the A-domain trimer is located from 40 through 100 Å above the membrane plane. From our model we infer a probable role for metal ions at the interface between FVa light and heavy chains, provide an explanation for the slower APC cleavage at Arg306 relative to Arg506, and predict specific interactions between positively and negatively charged exosites in APC and FVa, respectively.
Is the climate warming or cooling?

Numerous websites, blogs and articles in the media have claimed that the climate is no longer warming, and is now cooling. Here we show that periods of no trend or even cooling of the globally averaged surface air temperature are found in the last 34 years of the observed record, and in climate model simulations of the 20th and 21st century forced with increasing greenhouse gases. We show that the climate over the 21st century can and likely will produce periods of a decade or two where the globally averaged surface air temperature shows no trend or even slight cooling in the presence of longer‐term warming.
Shame , guilt , and personality judgment q

The purpose of this study was to shed further light on the intrapersonal and interpersonal correlates of shameand guilt-proneness by examining their relations with selfand peer-ratings of the five-factor model (FFM) of personality. Shameand guilt-proneness were assessed using a scenario-based and a checklist measure. Consistent with findings from previous research, the self-rating data yielded support for the view that shame-proneness may be associated with more maladaptive patterns than guilt-proneness. However, peer-ratings of personality failed to corroborate these findings. Both scenario-based and checklist measures of shame-proneness were associated with a tendency to underestimate one! s Agreeableness relative to peer-ratings. Several possible interpretations of these findings are discussed in light of the extant research on personality judgment. 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.
Role of Initiating Nucleoside Triphosphate Concentrations in the Regulation of Influenza Virus Replication and Transcription

ABSTRACT The mechanisms regulating the synthesis of mRNA, cRNA, and viral genomic RNA (vRNA) by the influenza A virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase are not fully understood. Previous studies in our laboratory have shown that virion-derived viral ribonucleoprotein complexes synthesize both mRNA and cRNA in vitro and early in the infection cycle in vivo. Our continued studies showed that de novo synthesis of cRNA in vitro is more sensitive to the concentrations of ATP, CTP, and GTP than capped-primer-dependent synthesis of mRNA. Using rescued recombinant influenza A/WSN/33 viruses, we now demonstrate that the 3′-terminal sequence of the vRNA promoter dictates the requirement for a high nucleoside triphosphate (NTP) concentration during de novo-initiated replication to cRNA, whereas this is not the case for the extension of capped primers during transcription to mRNA. In contrast to some other viral polymerases, for which only the initiating NTP is required at high concentrations, influenza virus polymerase requires high concentrations of the first three NTPs. In addition, we show that base pair mutations in the vRNA promoter can lead to nontemplated dead-end mutations during replication to cRNA in vivo. Based on our observations, we propose a new model for the de novo initiation of influenza virus replication.
How We Avoid Collisions With Stationary and Moving Obstacles

When moving through cluttered environments we use different forms of the same source of information to avoid stationary and moving objects. A stationary obstacle can be avoided by looking at it, registering the differential parallactic displacements on the retina around it during pursuit fixation, and then acting on that information. Such information also specifies one's general heading. A moving obstacle can be avoided by looking at it, registering the displacements reflecting constancy or change in one's gaze-movement angle, and then acting on that information. Such information, however, does not generally specify one's heading. Passing in front of a moving object entails retrograde motion of objects in the deep background; collisions entail the lamellar pattern of optical flow; and passing behind entails more nearly uniform flow against one's direction of motion. Accuracy in the laboratory compares favorably with that of real-world necessities.
vfGuard: Strict Protection for Virtual Function Calls in COTS C++ Binaries

Control-Flow Integrity (CFI) is an important security property that needs to be enforced to prevent controlflow hijacking attacks. Recent attacks have demonstrated that existing CFI protections for COTS binaries are too permissive, and vulnerable to sophisticated code reusing attacks. Accounting for control flow restrictions imposed at higher levels of semantics is key to increasing CFI precision. In this paper, we aim to provide more stringent protection for virtual function calls in COTS C++ binaries by recovering C++ level semantics. To achieve this goal, we recover C++ semantics, including VTables and virtual callsites. With the extracted C++ semantics, we construct a sound CFI policy and further improve the policy precision by devising two filters, namely “Nested Call Filter” and “Calling Convention Filter”. We implement a prototype system called vfGuard, and evaluate its accuracy, precision, effectiveness, coverage and performance overhead against a test set including complex C++ binary modules used by Internet Explorer. Our experiments show a runtime overhead of 18.3% per module. On SpiderMonkey, an open-source JavaScript engine used by Firefox, vfGuard generated 199 call targets per virtual callsite – within the same order of magnitude as those generated from a source code based solution. The policies constructed by vfGuard are sound and of higher precision when compared to state-of-the-art binary-only CFI solutions.
Relationships among the cyclostome braconid (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) subfamilies inferred from a mitochondrial tRNA gene rearrangement.

The arrangement of mitochondrial tRNA genes for lysine (K) and aspartate (D) from the junction of the cytochrome oxidase II and ATPase 8 genes was determined in a range of hymenopteran taxa. This indicated that the ancestral arrangement for the order is 'KD', as found in the Diptera (represented by Drosophila and Anopheles) and basal Orthoptera. Most Hymenoptera that evolved after the appearance of parasitism also have the 'KD' arrangement, including noncyclostome braconids. However, most cyclostome braconids have either a 'DK' or a 'DHK' arrangement (where 'H' refers to the tRNA gene for Histidine). In both cases, the aspartate tRNA gene is encoded on the mitochondrial N-strand, rather than the J-strand as is usually the case. This rearrangement identified a monophyletic group not previously recognized, consisting of Rogadinae + Braconinae + Gnamptodontinae + Histeromerinae + Rhyssalinae + Betylobraconinae + Opiinae + Alysiinae. Only one cyclostome subfamily (Doryctinae) retained the 'KD' arrangement, suggesting this to be the most basal of the cyclostome subfamilies, consistent with ectoparasitism being plesiomorphic for the cyclostomes. However, the Aphidiinae also retained the 'KD' arrangement, leaving unresolved the issue of whether they should be included within the cyclostomes.
Pollution-tolerant invertebrates enhance greenhouse gas flux in urban wetlands.

One of the goals of urban ecology is to link community structure to ecosystem function in urban habitats. Pollution-tolerant wetland invertebrates have been shown to enhance greenhouse gas (GHG) flux in controlled laboratory experiments, suggesting that they may influence urban wetland roles as sources or sinks of GHG. However, it is unclear if their effects can be detected in highly variable conditions in a field setting. Here we use an extensive data set on carbon dioxide (CO2 ), methane (CH4 ), and nitrous oxide (N2 O) flux in sediment cores (n = 103) collected from 10 urban wetlands in Melbourne, Australia during summer and winter in order to test for invertebrate enhancement of GHG flux. We detected significant multiplicative enhancement effects of temperature, sediment carbon content, and invertebrate density on CH4 and CO2 flux. Each doubling in density of oligochaete worms or large benthic invertebrates (oligochaete worms and midge larvae) corresponded to ~42% and ~15% increases in average CH4 and CO2 flux, respectively. However, despite exceptionally high densities, invertebrates did not appear to enhance N2 O flux. This was likely due to fairly high organic carbon content in sediments (range 2.1-12.6%), and relatively low nitrate availability (median 1.96 μmol/L NO3- -N), which highlights the context-dependent nature of community structural effects on ecosystem function. The invertebrates enhancing GHG flux in this study are ubiquitous, and frequently dominate faunal communities in impaired aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, invertebrate effects on CO2 and CH4 flux may be common in wetlands impacted by urbanization, and urban wetlands may make greater contributions to the total GHG budgets of cities if the negative impacts of urbanization on wetlands are left unchecked.
Polyharmonic homogenization, rough polyharmonic splines and sparse super-localization

We introduce a new variational method for the numerical homogenization of divergence form elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic equations with arbitrary rough (L^∞) coefficients. Our method does not rely on concepts of ergodicity or scale-separation but on compactness properties of the solution space and a new variational approach to homogenization. The approximation space is generated by an interpolation basis (over scattered points forming a mesh of resolution H) minimizing the L^2 norm of the source terms; its (pre-)computation involves minimizing O(H^(-d)) quadratic (cell) problems on (super-)localized sub-domains of size O(H ln(1/H)). The resulting localized linear systems remain sparse and banded. The resulting interpolation basis functions are biharmonic for d ≤ 3, and polyharmonic for d ≥ 4, for the operator -div(a∇.) and can be seen as a generalization of polyharmonic splines to differential operators with arbitrary rough coefficients. The accuracy of the method (O(H)) in energy norm and independent from aspect ratios of the mesh formed by the scattered points) is established via the introduction of a new class of higher-order Poincare inequalities. The method bypasses (pre-)computations on the full domain and naturally generalizes to time dependent problems, it also provides a natural solution to the inverse problem of recovering the solution of a divergence form elliptic equation from a finite number of point measurements.
M cells in the human heart.

See related articles, pages 981–991 Dispersion of repolarization across the ventricular wall has been suggested to underlie the inscription of the normal electrocardiographic T wave and when amplified to contribute prominently to the development of cardiac arrhythmias.1–3 The magnitude of transmural dispersion of repolarization (TDR) is attributable to intrinsic differences in the action potential duration (APD) of the 3 principal cell types that comprise the ventricular myocardium and the extent to which these repolarization differences are damped by electrotonic forces. An increase in tissue resistivity in the deep subepicardium,4 attributable to a sharp transition in cell orientation,3 reduced expression of connexin 435,6 and increased density of collagen7 in this region, contributes to the expression of repolarization heterogeneities across the ventricular wall by limiting the degree of electrotonic interaction between the myocardial layers. Thus, the degree of electrotonic coupling, together with the intrinsic differences in APD, determines the extent to which TDR is expressed and its impact on arrhythmogenesis, as well as on the morphology of the T wave. It is noteworthy that even in the absence of any difference in final repolarization time, electrotonic forces generated by transmural differences in the shape of the action potential can inscribe an upright T wave in the ECG. Theoretical studies have also been helpful in our understanding of the role of electrical coupling in the expression of TDR.8 TDR is in large part attributable to the presence of M cells between the endocardial and epicardial layers of the heart. The M cell, discovered in the early 1990s and named in memory of Gordon K. Moe,9,10 has as its hallmark the ability to prolong its action potential more than that of normal epicardium or endocardium in response to a slowing of rate or exposure to agents …
On implementation choices for iterative improvement partitioning algorithms

Iterative improvement partitioning algorithms such as those due to Fiduccia and Mattheyses (1982) and Krishnamurthy (1984) exploit an efficient gain bucket data structure in selecting modules that are moved from one partition to the other. In this paper, we investigate three gain bucket implementations and their effect on the performance of the Fiduccia-Mattheyses partitioning algorithm. Surprisingly, selection from gain buckets maintained as Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) stacks leads to significantly better results than selection from gain buckets maintained randomly or as First-In-First-Out (FIFO) queues. Our experiments show that LIFO buckets result in a 35% improvement over random buckets and a 42% improvement over FIFO buckets. Furthermore, eliminating randomization from the bucket selection is of greater benefit to Fiduccia-Mattheyses performance than adding the Krishnamurthy gain vector. By combining insights from the LIFO gain buckets with those of Krishnamurthy's original work, a new higher-level gain formulation is proposed. This alternative formulation results in a further 16% reduction in the average cut cost when compared directly to the Krishnamurthy formulation for higher-level gains, assuming LIFO organization for the gain buckets.
Graphene and its Interaction with Different Substrates Studied by Angular-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy

Graphen gilt auf Grund seiner außerordentlichen elektrischen, optischen und mechanischen Eigenschaften als eines der vielversprechendsten Materialen für eine vielzahl von zukunftstechnologischen Anwendungen. Dabei wird Graphen in jeder Art von Zukunftstechnologie immer im Kontakt mit anderen Materialien stehen. Weiterhin ist es in der Graphenforschung von zentraler Bedeutung, unterschiedliche Herstellungsmethoden auszuprobieren. In dieser Doktorarbeit werden drei verschiedene Herstellungsmethoden für Graphenschichten angewandt und die Wechselwirkung von Graphen mit unterschiedlichen Substraten mit Hilfe der winkelaufgelösten Photoemissionsspektroskopie (ARPES) untersucht. Bei der Segregationsmethode auf Ru(001) lassen sich kontrolliert Schichtdicken bis zu drei qualitativ hochwertigen Monolagen erstellen. Die erste Graphenlage wechselwirkt stark mit dem Substrat und die Graphen π-Bänder hybridisieren mit den Ru4d-Bändern. Die darauffolgende Lage verhält sich wie freistehendes Graphen mit 500 meV n-Dotierung. Eine Monolage Gold zwischen einer Graphenlage und der Ru(001)-Oberfläche führt zu einer Bandlücke von 200 meV am Diracpunkt. Die Diffusion von Nickelatomen in den SiC-Kristall führt zu der Bildung von θ-Ni2Si, welches dann das Substrat für das Graphen bildet. Die Graphen π-Bänder sind stark hybridisiert mit den Nickel d-Bändern. Die zweite Graphenschicht wächst in Inseln mit unterschiedlichen Orientierungen. Auch bei Graphen, hergestellt durch chemisches Aufdampfen auf Ni(111), sind die π-Bänder stark d-hybridisiert. Die Hybridisierung der Bänder in diesem System wurde im Zuge dieser Arbeit detailliert untersucht.
An Efficient Parallel Krylov-Schur Method for Eigen-Analysis of Large-Scale Power Systems

An efficient parallel Krylov-Schur method is proposed for computing eigenvalues and eigenvectors related with oscillating modes of low damping for large-scale power systems. Improved restarting techniques are explained and demonstrated in details, which focus on a refined selection of kept subspace in contraction and a reliable mechanism of no missing target eigenvalues. Cayley and shift-invert transforms are used to decouple the computation of eigen-analysis and enable the proposed parallelization with a master-slave scheme. Based on the improved restarting techniques, the strategy for adaptive allocation of shifts and the coordination of parallel computing tasks, the proposed method is capable of computing a large number of eigen-pairs with satisfactory accuracy, convergence rate and parallel acceleration. The computational efficiency is validated by three test cases from real-world large-scale power systems on a symmetric multi-processing (SMP) computer.