Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A theoretical study of sea surface up/down wind brightness temperature differences

The small slope approximation (SSA) for polarimetric thermal emission from a rough surface is applied to study the up/down wind difference of sea surface brightness temperatures. A complete third-order theory is used, with results expressed in terms of an integral over the sea surface bispectrum. An approximation is developed to obtain emission contributions for surface length scales much larger than the electromagnetic wavelength and in this limit, the up/down wind brightness temperature difference is determined entirely by a combination of third moments of surface slope. Polarization dependencies in this limit however do not match those obtained from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) WindRAD empirical model. Another approximation is derived to capture up/down wind emission asymmetry due to short waves which are modulated by longer waves. In this case, an integral of emission "weighting functions" over a pair of "reduced" bispectra is obtained, and examination of the weighting functions shows the importance of surface length scales comparable to the electromagnetic wavelength. The polarization dependencies of these weighting functions illustrate the possibility of matching the WindRAD model, but the absence of an effective hydrodynamic model for short gravity-capillary wave modulation by longer waves limits detailed comparisons.
Fault-Based Conformance Testing in Practice

Conforming to protocol specifications is a critical issue in modern distributed software systems. Nowadays, complex service infrastructures, such as Voice-over-IP systems, are usually built by combining components of different vendors. If the components do not correctly implement the various protocol specifications, failures will certainly occur. In the case of emergency calls this may be even life-threatening. Functional black-box conformance testing, where one checks the conformance of the implemented protocol to a specification becomes therefore a major issue. In this work, we report on our experiences and findings when applying fault-based conformance testing to an industrial application. Besides a discussion on modeling and simplifications we present a technique that prevents an application from implementing particular faults. Faults are modeled at the level of the specification. We show how such a technique can be adapted to specifications with large state spaces and present results obtained when applying our technique to the Session Initiation Protocol and to the Conference Protocol. Finally, we compare our results to random and scenario based testing.
Inhibition of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell proliferation and synergism of cisplatin with silvestrol and episilvestrol isolated from Aglaia stellatopilosa

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a type of tumour that arises from the epithelial cells that line the surface of the nasopharynx. NPC is treated with radiotherapy and cytotoxic chemotherapeutic drugs such as cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil. However, current strategies are often associated with potential toxicities. This has prompted efforts to identify alternative methods of treatment. The present study aimed to investigate silvestrol and episilvestrol-mediated inhibition of cell proliferation in human NPC cells. The growth kinetics of NPC cells treated with silvestrol or episilvestrol were monitored dynamically using a real-time, impedance-based cell analyzer, and dose-response profiles were generated using a colorimetric cell viability assay. Furthermore, apoptosis was evaluated using flow cytometry and high content analysis. In addition, flow cytometry was performed to determine cell cycle distribution. Finally, the effects of combining silvestrol or episilvestrol with cisplatin on NPC cells was examined. Apoptosis was not observed in silvestrol and episilvestrol-treated NPC cells, although cell cycle perturbation was evident. Treatment with both compounds induced a significant increase in the percentage of cells in the G2/M phase, as compared with the control. In vitro cultures combining silvestrol or episilvestrol with cisplatin showed synergistic effects against NPC cells. The results of the present study suggested that silvestrol and episilvestrol had an anti-tumour activity in NPC cells. Silvestrol and episilvestrol, particularly in combination with cisplatin, merit further investigation, so as to determine the cellular mechanisms underlying their action(s) as anti-NPC agents.
The Recovery of Repeated-Sprint Exercise Is Associated with PCr Resynthesis, while Muscle pH and EMG Amplitude Remain Depressed

The physiological equivalents of power output maintenance and recovery during repeated-sprint exercise (RSE) remain to be fully elucidated. In an attempt to improve our understanding of the determinants of RSE performance we therefore aimed to determine its recovery following exhaustive exercise (which affected intramuscular and neural factors) concomitantly with those of intramuscular concentrations of adenosine triphosphate [ATP], phosphocreatine [PCr] and pH values and electromyography (EMG) activity (a proxy for net motor unit activity) changes. Eight young men performed 10, 6-s all-out sprints on a cycle ergometer, interspersed with 30 s of recovery, followed, after 6 min of passive recovery, by five 6-s sprints, again interspersed by 30 s of passive recovery. Biopsies of the vastus lateralis were obtained at rest, immediately after the first 10 sprints and after 6 min of recovery. EMG activity of the vastus lateralis was obtained from surface electrodes throughout exercise. Total work (TW), [ATP], [PCr], pH and EMG amplitude decreased significantly throughout the first ten sprints (P<0.05). After 6 min of recovery, TW during sprint 11 recovered to 86.3±7.7% of sprint 1. ATP and PCr were resynthesized to 92.6±6.0% and 85.3±10.3% of the resting value, respectively, but muscle pH and EMG amplitude remained depressed. PCr resynthesis was correlated with TW done in sprint 11 (r = 0.79, P<0.05) and TW done during sprints 11 to 15 (r = 0.67, P<0.05). There was a ∼2-fold greater decrease in the TW/EMG ratio in the last five sprints (sprint 11 to 15) than in the first five sprints (sprint 1 to 5) resulting in a disproportionate decrease in mechanical power (i.e., TW) in relation to EMG. Thus, we conclude that the inability to produce power output during repeated sprints is mostly mediated by intramuscular fatigue signals probably related with the control of PCr metabolism.
PlaceAvoider: Steering First-Person Cameras away from Sensitive Spaces

As a first step, we introduce PlaceAvoider, a technique for owners of first-person cameras to ‘blacklist’ sensitive spaces (like bathrooms and bedrooms). PlaceAvoider recognizes images captured in these spaces and flags them for review before the images are made available to applications. PlaceAvoider performs novel image analysis using both fine-grained image features (like specific objects) and coarse-grained, scene-level features (like colors and textures) to classify where a photo was taken. PlaceAvoider combines these features in a probabilistic framework that jointly labels streams of images in order to improve accuracy. We test the technique on five realistic firstperson image datasets and show it is robust to blurriness, motion, and occlusion.
Source Strength and Scattering Properties of Organic Marine Aerosols

Abstract : LONG-TERM GOAL. My long term goal is to quantify the role played by sea salt in radiative scattering in the marine environment. This project studies the number of aerosol particles produced from sea salt under different marine conditions. Studying the chemical composition of those particles provides important information about their behavior in the atmosphere. OBJECTIVES. I would like to see whether the number of sea salt particles observed in field projects can be predicted by current parameterizations of particle flux based on wind speed. I will test whether other parameters are also important determinants of sea salt particle concentrations. I also want to establish what the compositions of sea salt particles are. To this end, I will need to design and build an accurate instrument for measuring sea salt aerosol. APPROACH. We have completed analyses of the chemical composition of aerosol samples collected as part of the Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE) 2 in Tenerife in 1997. We have also studied the role of sea salt particles in layers other than the boundary layer by quantifying the rate of entrainment of particles to and from the marine boundary layer. We have designed and built a new salt particle counter to make direct measurements of sea salt more accurately.
Rank‐ordered regulation of motor units

Myoelectric signals were detected from the tibialis anterior muscle of 5 subjects with a quadrifilar needle electrode while the subjects generated isometric forces that increased linearly with time (10% of maximal voluntary contraction/s) up to maximal voluntary level. Motor unit firing rates were studied as a function of force throughout the full range of muscle force output. The relationship between force and firing rate was found to contain three distinct regions. At recruitment and near maximal force levels, firing rates increased more rapidly with force than in the intermediate region. Furthermore, in the regions with rapid increases, the rate of change of firing rate was correlated to the recruitment threshold, with higher recruitment threshold motor units displaying greater rates of change. In the intermediate region, all motor units had similar rates of change of firing rate. A weak positive correlation was found between initial firing rate and recruitment threshold. Firing rates of motor units at any instant were found to be ordered according to the recruitment order: at any given time in the contraction motor units with lower recruitment thresholds had higher firing rates than units with higher recruitment thresholds. Firing rates of all motor units were observed to converge to the same value at maximal forces. Mechanisms underlying motor unit recruitment and firing rate modulation are discussed in the context of a conceptual model. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Independent or ungrateful? Consequences of confronting patronizing help for people with disabilities

People with disabilities routinely face a dilemma in dealing with patronizing help: While accepting unsolicited assistance may be harmful for its recipients, confronting the helper can lead to negative interpersonal repercussions. Across two studies, participants were presented with a scenario depicting an interaction between a blind target and a sighted pedestrian and asked to evaluate the behaviors of the characters involved. Study 1 showed that, whereas blind participants considered both patronizing and hostile treatment as inappropriate responses to the blind target’s request for information, sighted participants saw patronizing help as significantly more appropriate than openly hostile treatment. Study 2 further demonstrated that, among sighted participants, blind targets were viewed as less warm and more rude when confronting benevolent versus hostile discrimination. These findings highlighted the difficulty of confronting patronizing treatment and have important implications for people with disabilities as well as other patronized minorities more generally.
Öğretmen Adaylarının Anadolu Ağızlarına Yönelik Tutum Ölçeğinin Geçerlik ve Güvenirlik Çalışması

The aim of this research is to develop a valid and reliable scale to measure the attitudes of prospective language teachers towards “Anatolian Dialects”. 380 prospective teachers studying in the departments of Turkish and English Language Teaching of two faculties from two universities participated in the research. As a result of factor analysis, the scale comprises a total of four factors and 22 items, namely “The Place and Function of Dialects in Education” (8 items), “Attitudes towards Employers of Dialects” (5 items), “Emotional Value towards the Use of Dialect” (6 items), and “The Status of Dialects” (3 items). The alpha reliability quotient has been determined as, 88 for the whole scale. Attitude Scale towards Anatolian Dialects (ASTAD) is the first original scale developed to determine how prospective teachers perceive the use of their own dialects.
Animacy and the ordering of postverbal prepositional phrases in Danish

Animacy is well known to affect the order of arguments, and in this article, a corpus study demonstrates that animacy affects the order of non-arguments too. Animacy effects have been explained by appeal to the faster retrieval of animate words, and this account is supported by the finding that postverbal adverbial prepositional phrases in Danish are mostly ordered with the animate phrase first in a corpus sample. Two behavioral experiments reveal no effect of animacy, which strongly suggests that animacy does not affect comprehension. In the corpus study, a strong preference for placing short phrases before long ones is found, and it is argued that this preference is not due to a link between length and accessibility, but rather due to a linearization principle, favoring placement of syntactic heads as close together as possible (in this case, this means placing the verb and the two prepositions as close as possible).
The work–schooling trade–off revisited: Market and domestic work of Indian children

The paper applies a simulated maximum likelihood procedure to jointly address the decisions on market work, household chores, and school attendance of Indian children, allowing also for combinations of these activities. The analysis is based on the Survey of Living Conditions (1998) of two North Indian provinces. By including domestic work in the choice set, the trade-offs between work and school of girls are much better captured. The results show that the determinants of market and domestic work significantly differ for both sexes. Additionally, the findings stress the importance of economic opportunities for both work and schooling of children. JEL Classification: J22, J13, O15
Lack of Association between Polymorphisms of the Dopamine Receptor D4 and Dopamine Transporter Genes and Personality Traits in a Korean Population

Human personality traits have a considerable genetic component. Cloninger et al. were the first to postulate that certain personality traits, such as novelty seeking, are related to the dopamine neurotransmitter system. In this study, we investigated the associations between dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) exon III and dopamine transporter (DAT1) polymorphisms and personality traits. The DRD4 and DAT1 gene polymorphisms were genotyped in 214 healthy Korean subjects, whose personality traits were assessed with the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). There were no significant differences between scores of TCI temperament dimensions (novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, and persistence) and DRD4 gene polymorphism. The DAT1 gene polymorphisms also showed no significant association with any of the temperament subscales of the TCI. These data suggest that DRD4 and DAT1 gene polymorphism may not associated with personality traits in a Korean population.
Comparison of Performance of Decision Tree Algorithms and Random Forest: An Application on OECD Countries Health Expenditures

trees and Random Forest are most popular methods of machine learning techniques. C4.5 which is an extension version of ID.3 algorithm and CART are one of these most commonly use algorithms to generate decision trees. Random Forest which constructs a lot of number of trees is one of another useful technique for solving both classification and regression problems. This study compares classification performances of different decision trees (C4.5, CART) and Random Forest which was generated using 50 trees. Data came from OECD countries health expenditures for the year 2011. AUC and ROC curve graph was used for performance comparison. Experimental results show that Random Forest outperformed in classification accuracy (AUC=0.98) in comparison with CART (0.95) and C4.5 (0.90) respectively. Future studies more focus on performance comparisons of different machine learning techniques using several datasets and different hyperparameter optimization techniques.
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS, MANAGEMENT AND STATISTICS UNIVERSITY OF MILAN – BICOCCA DEMS WORKING PAPER SERIES A Model of Chinese Central Government: the Role of Reciprocal Accountability

Why was the same state in China able to promote economic growth in the reform era but not in the previous thirty years? In this paper we focus on a speci c aspect that might help the search for a comprehensive explanation: the speci c institutional arrangement that induced autocratic government to adopt growth-enhancing policies. To this aim, we consider a standard political agency model (Besley, 2006) where the incumbent leader may be either congruent or not, and where both types need the support of the selectorate to hold on to power. Our main result is that in autocracies without electoral discipline, to restrain the opportunistic behavior of a leader, the size of the selectorateshould be intermediate: if too small, the selectorateis captured by the leader and has no disciplinary role; if too big, the leaders incentives are diluted. JEL Code: D02, H11, D74. Key Words: Accountability, Selectorate, Political agency, Chinese economic reform. 1The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments and insights of Susan Shirk, Barry Naughton, Peter Drysdale, Lee Benham, Massimo Bordignon, Scott Gehlbach, Philip Keefer, Giovanna Iannantuoni, Peter Murell, Hongbin Li, Nancy Qian, Victor Shih and Colin Xu. They thank discussions with the participants of the 15th Annual Conference of the International Society for New Institutional Economics; the Ronald Coase Institute 2010 Shanghai Workshop; the 34th Paci c Trade and Development (PAFTAD) Conference; and the 3rd Italian Doctoral Workshop in Economics and Analysis. They also thank comments of Li Han, another anonymous referee, and the editor. A rst revision of the paper was completed during Yuan Lis visit to IR/PS, University of California, San Diego. Yuan Li also thanks the German Research Foundation (DFG Graduierten Kolleg 1613) for nancial
Multiobjective Optimization of the Design of Nonlinear Electromagnetic Systems Using Parametric Reduced Order Models

This paper presents a new approach for performing fast multiobjective optimization of the design of moving nonlinear electromagnetic (EM) devices using parametric reduced order EM field models. The approach minimizes the high computational costs that arises from the frequent evaluation of large scale spatially discretized EM field models during the optimization process run. The performance of the proposed approach is demonstrated by carrying out a multiobjective design optimization of an electromagnetic device with a moving component and nonlinear material properties.
The Influence of Co-Enrollment on the Success of Traditional-Age Community College Students

Background/Context Student utilization of complex enrollment patterns has been identified as a significant recent development in higher education. Nearly a dozen different multi-institutional attendance patterns have been identified, including co-enrollment. Co-enrollment is simultaneous enrollment at two or more colleges or universities during the course of a given term or semester. Although research exists to understand the factors promoting persistence and degree completion for community college students, work does not properly account for co-enrollment or other forms of multi-institutional attendance. Purpose The purpose of the study is to measure the impact of co-enrollment on success outcomes among a national sample of traditional age community college students. The following research questions are addressed: (a) In what ways are the characteristics of traditional aged community college students who co-enroll similar or different from students who do not co-enroll? (b) Does co-enrollment significantly increase or decrease the odds that a student will earn a degree and/or persist through the sixth year of college? Subjects The sample was drawn from participants in the second follow-up of the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS: 04/09). The pre-matched sample was limited to the 4,920 students who began their postsecondary education at a two-year institution and were traditional in terms of age. The matched sample included a sub-sample of 700 co-enrollees and 700 matched students. Research Design The study utilized a non-experimental quantitative design. Data Collection and Analysis Propensity score matching techniques were used on observational data as a means of reducing observed selection bias. After the sample was shown to be balanced on observed covariates, logistic regression analyses were used to measures the influence of co-enrollment on the success of community college students. Results Results demonstrate that, even after controlling for observable selection bias and variables previously shown to influence success outcomes for community college students, co-enrolling at more than one institution during a given semester significantly increases the odds that community college students will succeed. Conclusions/Recommendations Co-enrollment may promote access to four-year institutions for community college students desiring to transfer and earn a four-year degree. State and federal policy makers and institutional leaders need to be aware that non-linear attendance is a legitimate way for students to experience and be successful in college. Descriptive work is needed to understand how and at what point students are attending multiple institutions.
Site-specific incorporation of N-(deoxyguanosin-8-yl)-2-acetylaminofluorene (dG-AAF) into oligonucleotides using modified ‘ultra-mild’ DNA synthesis

Aromatic amino and nitro compounds are potent carcinogens found in the environment that exert their toxic effects by reacting with DNA following metabolic activation. One important adduct is N-(deoxyguanosin-8-yl)-2-acetylaminofluorene (dG-AAF), which has been extensively used in studies of the mechanisms of DNA repair and mutagenesis. Despite the importance of dG-AAF adducts in DNA, an efficient method for its incorporation into DNA using solid-phase synthesis is still missing. We report the development of a modified ‘ultra-mild’ DNA synthesis protocol that allows the incorporation of dG-AAF into oligonucleotides of any length accessible by solid-phase DNA synthesis with high efficiency and independent of sequence context. Key to this endeavor was the development of improved deprotection conditions (10% diisopropylamine in methanol supplemented with 0.25 M of β-mercaptoethanol) designed to remove protecting groups of commercially available ‘ultra-mild’ phosphoramidite building blocks without compromising the integrity of the exquisitely base-labile acetyl group at N8 of dG-AAF. We demonstrate the suitability of these oligonucleotides in the nucleotide excision repair reaction. Our synthetic approach should facilitate comprehensive studies of the mechanisms of repair and mutagenesis induced by dG-AAF adducts in DNA and should be of general use for the incorporation of base-labile functionalities into DNA.