Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exchange of Meteoritic Material between Stellar

Introduction: It is now generally accepted that meteorite-size fragments of rock can be ejected from planetary bodies [1]. There are currently some 16 meteorites in our collections that were probably ejected from the planet Mars and a comparable number that originated on the Moon. Numerical studies of the or-bital evolution of such planetary ejecta are consistent with the observed cosmic ray exposure times and infall rates of these meteorites [2]. All of these numerical studies, however, agree that a substantial fraction (up to 1/3) of the ejecta from any planet in our solar system is eventually thrown out of the solar system during encounters with the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn. In this abstract I examine the probability that such inter-stellar meteorites might be captured into a distant solar system and fall onto a terrestrial planet in that system within a given interval of time T. The implications of these results for the possibility of interstellar pansper-mia will be examined. Orbital Evolution of Planetary Ejecta: Planetary meteorites are currently believed to be ejected from their planets of origin by large impacts through the process of spallation [3]. Once ejected from a parent planet, such meteorites make many close passes to other planets or interact with orbital resonances created mainly by the giant planets. As a result of these encounters the orbits of the ejecta alter with time and the ejected rocks may eventually end up falling onto another planet or leaving the solar system. In the present work we make use of the Arnold-Öpik Monte Carlo evolution scheme [4]. This method explicitly ignores resonances and thus may lead to errors reaching perhaps a factor of two compared to the more exact sim-plectic integrator schemes [5]. Nevertheless, we believe that this rapid method yields results sufficiently accurate for our purpose in this estimate. A number of rough estimates, based on the number of Martian meteorites collected vs. the number of as-teroidal meteorites in our collections times the estimated rate at which asteroidal meteorites fall on Earth each year, suggest that about 500 kg of Martian rocks larger than 10 cm in diameter fall on Earth each year. Another estimate puts this at roughly 15 individual meteorites per year [6]. These estimates must be treated with caution, as the spectrum of meteorite masses is dominated by the largest objects, so this figure might be a considerable underestimate if integrated over the age …
Writing Characteristics of Students With Learning Disabilities and Typically Achieving Peers

There is a general consensus that writing is a challenging task for students with learning disabilities (LD). To identify more precisely the extent and depth of the challenges that these students experience with writing, the authors conducted a meta-analysis comparing the writing performance of students with LD to their typically achieving peers. From 53 studies that yielded 138 effect sizes, the authors calculated average weighted effect sizes, showing that students with LD obtained lower scores than their peers on the following writing outcomes: writing quality (–1.06); organization (–1.04); vocabulary (–0.89); sentence fluency (–0.81); conventions of spelling, grammar, and handwriting (–1.14); genre elements (–0.82); output (–0.87); and motivation (–0.42). Implications for research and practice are provided based on these findings.
Identity and Honorifics Use in Korean Study Abroad

This study examines quantitative (DCT data) and qualitative (recordings of natural conversations, retrospective interviews) to explore the use of Korean honorifics by four advanced male learners on a study abroad program at a university in Seoul. Although the DCT data reveal that all four learners possessed strong underlying pragmatic knowledge regarding when honorific forms ( contaymal ) and non-honorific forms ( panmal ) should normatively be used, their use of these forms in real world interactions frequently departed from native norms. To explain this gap between knowledge and usage, the paper explores questions of these speakers’ identities, drawing on a growing body of literature that sees identity as pivotal to explaining second language acquisition, particularly in the study abroad context.
Fenomena Kemiskinan Nelayan: Perspektif Teori Strukturasi

Tulisan ini merupakan hasil studi lapangan yang menggambarkan realitas kemiskinan nelayan di Desa Teluk, Kecamatan Labuan, Kabupaten Pandeglang-Banten. Dengan menggunakan teori Strukturasi Giddens, kemiskinan nelayan dijelaskan sebagai produk dari dinamika relasi agen dan struktur yang melembagakan praktik sosial dalam kehidupan masyarakat nelayan. Lewat metode studi kasus, maka, tampak dengan jelas betapa proses strukturasi yang berlangsung bukannya membebaskan kaum nelayan dari perangkap kemiskinan, sebaliknya justru melanggengkan kemiskinan yang ada. Dengan kata lain, struktur juga bisa bersifat constraint (unenabling), sehingga perubahan struktural yang terjadi bukan memberdayakan melainkan bersifat mereproduksi dan melanggengkan kemiskinan kaum nelayan. This paper is the result of field studies that illustrate the reality of poverty in the fishing village of Teluk, District of Labuan, Pandeglang, Banten. By using the theory of Structuration Giddens, poverty fisherman explained as a product of the dynamics of relations agents and structures that institutionalize social practices in the life of the fishing community. Through the case study method, then, appears clearly how the structuration process that takes place instead of freeing the fishermen of the poverty trap, instead perpetuate the poverty that exists. In other words, the structure can also be constraints (unenabling), so that the structural changes taking place not empowering but rather reproduce and restless-gengkan poverty of the fishermen.
Measurement of elasticity of normal placenta using the Virtual Touch quantification technique

Purpose: The aim of this study was to measure the elasticity of normal placentas using the Virtual Touch quantification (VTQ) technique. Methods: This study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee. Fifty randomly selected, healthy pregnant women in their second trimester and 50 randomly selected, healthy pregnant women in their third trimester with a single fetus were included, and their placentas underwent VTQ through shear wave velocity (SWV) measurements. The measurements were performed at different locations to sample different areas of the placenta. Measurements were performed 3-4 times in each location, the mean shear wave velocities were calculated without the highest and lowest values of measurements in each region, and the results were compared. Results: The SWV of the placenta was 0.983±0.260 m/sec, and the minimal and maximal speed was 0.63 m/sec and 1.84 m/sec, respectively. There was no significant difference between the second and third trimester of VTQ of the placenta in terms of SWV (0.978±0.255 m/sec vs. 0.987±0.266 m/sec, P=0.711). The maternal age between second and third trimester was 27.9±4.3 years and 29.2±4.4 years, respectively; there was no significant difference between them (P=0.159). Conclusion: The results of this study show that the SWV of normal placenta tissue is 0.983±0.260 m/sec, it has little variation between the second and third trimesters, and the VTQ technique may potentially play an additional role in placenta evaluation.
In Vivo Function and Evolution of the Eutherian-Specific Pluripotency Marker UTF1

Embryogenesis in placental mammals is sustained by exquisite interplay between the embryo proper and placenta. UTF1 is a developmentally regulated gene expressed in both cell lineages. Here, we analyzed the consequence of loss of the UTF1 gene during mouse development. We found that homozygous UTF1 mutant newborn mice were significantly smaller than wild-type or heterozygous mutant mice, suggesting that placental insufficiency caused by the loss of UTF1 expression in extra-embryonic ectodermal cells at least in part contributed to this phenotype. We also found that the effects of loss of UTF1 expression in embryonic stem cells on their pluripotency were very subtle. Genome structure and sequence comparisons revealed that the UTF1 gene exists only in placental mammals. Our analyses of a family of genes with homology to UTF1 revealed a possible mechanism by which placental mammals have evolved the UTF1 genes.
Spitzer Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy of Distant X-Ray Luminous Active Galactic Nuclei

We present mid-infrared spectroscopy of a sample of 16 optically faint infrared luminous galaxies obtained with the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on the Spitzer Space Telescope. These sources were jointly selected from Spitzer and Chandra imaging surveys in the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey Boötes field and were selected from their bright X-ray fluxes to host luminous AGNs. None of the spectra show significant emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs; 6.2 μm equivalent widths <0.2 μm), consistent with their infrared emission being dominated by AGNs. Nine of the X-ray sources show 9.7 μm silicate absorption features. Their redshifts are in the range 0.9 < z < 2.6, implying infrared luminosities of log LIR = 12.5–13.6 L☉. The average silicate absorption is not as strong as that of previously targeted optically faint infrared luminous galaxies with similar mid-infrared luminosities, implying that the X-ray selection favors sources behind a smaller column of Si-rich dust than non-X-ray selection. Seven of the X-ray sources have featureless power-law mid-infrared spectra. We argue that the featureless spectra likely result from the sources having weak or absent silicate and PAH features rather than the sources lying at higher redshifts, where these features are shifted out of the IRS spectral window. We investigate whether there are any correlations between X-ray and infrared properties and find that sources with silicate absorption features tend to have fainter X-ray fluxes and harder X-ray spectra, indicating a weak relation between the amount of silicate absorption and the column density of X-ray-absorbing gas.
Fused one-vs-all mid-level features for fine-grained visual categorization

As an emerging research topic, fine-grained visual categorization has been attracting growing attentions in recent years. Due to the large inter-class similarity and intra-class variance, recognizing objects in fine-grained domains is extremely challenging, and sometimes even humans can not recognize them accurately. Traditional bag-of-words model could obtain desirable results for basic-level category classification by weak alignment using spatial pyramid matching model, but may easily fail in fine-grained domains since the discriminative features are not only subtle but also extremely localized. The fine differences often get swamped by those irrelevant features, and it is virtually impossible to distinguish them. To address the problems above, we propose a new framework for fine-grained visual categorization. We strengthen the spatial correspondence among parts by including foreground segmentation and part localization. Based on the part representations of the images, we learn a large set of mid-level features which are more suitable for fine-grained tasks. Comparing with the low level features directly extracted from the images, the learned one-vs-all mid-level features enjoy the following advantages. First, the dimension of the mid-level features is relatively small. In order to obtain high classification accuracy, the dimension of the low level features usually reaches several thousand to tens of thousand, and becomes even larger when introducing spatial pyramid model. However, the dimension of our mid-level features is related to the number of classes, which is far less. Second, each entry of the proposed mid-level features is meaningful, which forms a more compact representation of the image. Third, the mid-level features are more robust than the low level ones, which is helpful for classification. Fourth, the learning process of the mid-level features is independent and can be easily combined with other techniques to boost the performance. We evaluate the proposed approach on the extensive fine-grained dataset CUB 200-2011 and Stanford Dogs, by learning the mid-level features based on the popular Fisher vectors and convolutional neural network, we boost the classification accuracy by a considerable margin and advance the state-of-the-art performance in fine-grained visual categorization.
Inversion of the Balance between Hydrophobic and Hydrogen Bonding Interactions in Protein Folding and Aggregation

Identifying the forces that drive proteins to misfold and aggregate, rather than to fold into their functional states, is fundamental to our understanding of living systems and to our ability to combat protein deposition disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and the spongiform encephalopathies. We report here the finding that the balance between hydrophobic and hydrogen bonding interactions is different for proteins in the processes of folding to their native states and misfolding to the alternative amyloid structures. We find that the minima of the protein free energy landscape for folding and misfolding tend to be respectively dominated by hydrophobic and by hydrogen bonding interactions. These results characterise the nature of the interactions that determine the competition between folding and misfolding of proteins by revealing that the stability of native proteins is primarily determined by hydrophobic interactions between side-chains, while the stability of amyloid fibrils depends more on backbone intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions.
In vivo comparative imaging of dopamine D2 knockout and wild-type mice with (11)C-raclopride and microPET.

UNLABELLED The use of mice with targeted gene deletions (knockouts [KOs]) provides an important tool to investigate the mechanisms underlying behavior, neuronal development, and the sequella of neuropsychiatric diseases. MRI has been used to image brain structural changes in KO mice but, to our knowledge, the feasibility of using PET to investigate brain neurochemistry in KO mice has not been demonstrated. METHODS We have evaluated the sensitivity of the microPET to image dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) KO mice (D2-/-). PET measurements were performed in wild-type (D2+/+) mice and KO (D2-/-) mice using a microPET scanner. Briefly, each animal was anesthetized and injected intravenously with (11)C-raclopride, a DRD2-specific ligand, and dynamic PET scanning was performed for 60 min. RESULTS The (11)C-raclopride images of the KO mice showed significantly lower binding in the striatum (ST) than those of the wild-type (WT) mice, which was confirmed by the time-activity curves that revealed equivalent binding in the ST and cerebellum (CB) in KO mice, whereas the WT mice had significantly higher binding in the ST than in the CB. The ST/CB ratio was significantly higher in WT mice than in KO mice (ST/CB = 1.33 +/- 0.13 and 1.05 +/- 0.03, respectively; P < 0.002; n = 10). The microPET images were compared qualitatively with conventional autoradiography images. CONCLUSION These data support the use of microPET as an effective in vivo imaging tool for studying noninvasively KO mice. These same tools can be extended to investigate other genetically engineered murine models of disease. Future studies will seek to use microPET to investigate the relationships between genes, neuronal activity, and behavior.
New challenges for adaptive optics: extremely large telescopes

ABSTRA C T The performance of an adaptive optics (AO) system on a 100-m diameter ground-based telescope working in the visible range of the spectrum is computed using an analytical approach. The target Strehl ratio of 60 per cent is achieved at 0.5mm with a limiting magnitude of the AO guide source near R magnitude , 10; at the cost of an extremely low sky coverage. To alleviate this problem, the concept of tomographic wavefront sensing in a wider field of view using either natural guide stars (NGS) or laser guide stars (LGS) is investigated. These methods use three or four reference sources and up to three deformable mirrors, which increase up to 8-fold the corrected field size (up to 60 arcsec at 0.5mm). Operation with multiple NGS is limited to the infrared (in the J band this approach yields a sky coverage of 50 per cent with a Strehl ratio of 0.2). The option of open-loop wavefront correction in the visible using several bright NGS is discussed. The LGS approach involves the use of a faintOR , 22U NGS for low-order correction, which results in a sky coverage of 40 per cent at the Galactic poles in the visible.
The association between body height and coronary heart disease among Finnish twins and singletons.

OBJECTIVE An inverse association between body height and the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) has been observed. However, the mechanisms behind this association are still largely unknown. We will examine the role of genetic and familial factors behind the association in a large twin data set. DESIGN AND SETTING The data were derived from the Finnish Twin cohort including 2438 singletons, 4073 monozygotic (MZ) twins, and 9202 dizygotic (DZ) twins aged 25-69 years at baseline in 1976. Incident CHD cases were derived from hospital discharge data and cause of death data between 1977 and 1995. Cox regression analysis and conditional logistic regression analysis were used. RESULTS In population-level analyses no differences in the general risk of CHD between zygosity groups were found. The association between body height and CHD was similar between sexes and zygosity groups. When men and women in all zygosity groups were studied together an increased risk of CHD was found only among the shortest quartile (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.34, 95% CI: 1.14-1.57). Among the twin pairs discordant for CHD a suggestive increased risk for the shorter twin was seen among DZ twins (odds ratio [OR] = 1.19, 95% CI: 0.95-1.48) when men and women were studied together. CONCLUSION An inverse association between body height and CHD was broadly similar between sexes and twin zygosity groups and was associated with short stature. Among discordant twin pairs we found a weak association among DZ twins but not MZ twins. This may suggest the role of genetic liability behind the association between body height and CHD.
Practical quad mesh simplification

In this paper we present an innovative approach to incremental quad mesh simplification, i.e. the task of producing a low complexity quad mesh starting from a high complexity one. The process is based on a novel set of strictly local operations which preserve quad structure. We show how good tessellation quality (e.g. in terms of vertex valencies) can be achieved by pursuing uniform length and canonical proportions of edges and diagonals. The decimation process is interleaved with smoothing in tangent space. The latter strongly contributes to identify a suitable sequence of local modification operations. The method is naturally extended to manage preservation of feature lines (e.g. creases) and varying (e.g. adaptive) tessellation densities. We also present an original Triangle‐to‐Quad conversion algorithm that behaves well in terms of geometrical complexity and tessellation quality, which we use to obtain the initial quad mesh from a given triangle mesh.
Delayed cortical impairment following lipopolysaccharide exposure in preterm fetal sheep

Preterm infants exhibit chronic deficits in white matter (WM) and cortical maturation. Although fetal infection/inflammation may contribute to WM pathology, the factors contributing to cortical changes are largely unknown. We examined the effect of fetal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure on WM and cortical development as assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and histopathology in fetal sheep at preterm human equivalent age.
Iron Deficiency Impairs Intra-Hepatic Lymphocyte Mediated Immune Response

Hepatic expression of iron homeostasis genes and serum iron parameters predict the success of immunosuppression withdrawal following clinical liver transplantation, a phenomenon known as spontaneous operational tolerance. In experimental animal models, spontaneous liver allograft tolerance is established through a process that requires intra-hepatic lymphocyte activation and deletion. Our aim was to determine if changes in systemic iron status regulate intra-hepatic lymphocyte responses. We used a murine model of lymphocyte-mediated acute liver inflammation induced by Concanavalin A (ConA) injection employing mice fed with an iron-deficient (IrDef) or an iron-balanced diet (IrRepl). While the mild iron deficiency induced by the IrDef diet did not significantly modify the steady state immune cell repertoire and systemic cytokine levels, it significantly dampened inflammatory liver damage after ConA challenge. These findings were associated with a marked decrease in T cell and NKT cell activation following ConA injection in IrDef mice. The decreased liver injury observed in IrDef mice was independent from changes in the gut microflora, and was replicated employing an iron specific chelator that did not modify intra-hepatic hepcidin secretion. Furthermore, low-dose iron chelation markedly impaired the activation of isolated T cells in vitro. All together, these results suggest that small changes in iron homeostasis can have a major effect in the regulation of intra-hepatic lymphocyte mediated responses.
Altered Phase Precession and Compression of Temporal Sequences by Place Cells in Epileptic Rats

In the hippocampus, pyramidal cells encode information in two major ways: rate coding and temporal coding. Rate coding, in which information is coded through firing frequency, is exemplarily illustrated by place cells, characterized by their location-specific firing. In addition, the precise temporal organization of firing of multiple place cells provides information, in a compressed time window, about the temporal sequence of the locations visited by the animal. This encoding is accomplished through phase precession, a phenomenon whereby unit firing is linked to theta rhythm, one of the major hippocampal EEG oscillations. Although it is likely that this type of processing is critical for normal brain function, its involvement in pathologies associated with cognitive disorders is unknown. In this experiment, we determined whether the temporal organization of place cell firing is affected in an animal model of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE), a disease accompanied with cognitive impairment. We investigated hippocampal coding and its relationship to theta rhythm in rats after status epilepticus (SE), a condition that leads to MTLE. We found a great proportion of SE place cells had aberrant phase/precession pattern and temporal organization of firing among pairs of neurons, which constitutes the compression of temporal sequences, was altered in SE rats. The same animals were also markedly impaired in the water maze task, a measure of spatial memory. We propose that the synaptic and cellular alterations observed in MTLE induce aberrant temporal coding in the hippocampus, contributing in turn to cognitive dysfunction.