Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Ages of Elliptical Galaxies from Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions

The mean ages of early-type galaxies obtained from the analysis of optical spectra give a mean age of 8 Gyr at z = 0, with 40% being younger than 6 Gyr. Independent age determinations are possible by using infrared spectra (5-21 μm), which we have obtained with the Infrared Spectrograph on Spitzer. This age indicator is based on the collective mass-loss rate of stars, in which mass loss from AGB stars produces a silicate emission feature at 9-12 μm. This feature decreases more rapidly than the shorter wavelength continuum as a stellar population ages, providing an age indicator. From observations of 30 nearby early-type galaxies, 29 show a spectral energy distribution dominated by stars, and one has significant emission from the ISM and is excluded. The infrared age indicators for the 29 galaxies show them all to be old, with a mean age of about 10 Gyr and a standard deviation of only a few Gyr. This is consistent with the ages inferred from the values of M/LB, but is inconsistent with the ages derived from the optical line indices, which can be much younger. All of these age indicators are luminosity weighted and should be correlated, even if multiple-age components are considered. The inconsistency indicates that there is a significant problem with either the infrared and the M/LB ages, which agree, or with the ages inferred from the optical absorption lines.
Are Patterns of Public Governance Changing? A Study of Immigration, Migrant Education, and Bilingual Education Policies in the United States and the European Union

The emergence of new tools and mechanisms whereby governments enable and assist collective action on behalf of societal goals and community interests has led many scholars to claim that governance in economically-advanced democracies is being transformed. The boundaries between the state and civil society, they claim, are becoming blurred and are shifting toward enlarged roles in societal steering by the private sector, both non-profit and for-profit. Systematic, analytically-framed empirical evidence to support such claims is lacking, however. This paper reports the results of using a research design that provides insights into mechanisms and trajectories of governance in the United States and in the European Union and its member countries over the last three decades in three domains of public policy domains: immigration, migrant education, and bilingual education with overlapping constituencies but varied patterns of governance. The evidence presented here suggest that narratives of transformation based on examples of emergent mechanisms of societal steering tend to obscure the complex, multi-directional political and path-dependent dynamics of societal governance and its evolution. An important insight is that patterns of change in the relative influence of the three sectors of society is more often than not driven by each sector’s pursuit of its own distinctive interests, which may be, but often are not, conducive to the kinds of collaborations celebrated in narratives of transformation.
Students' perspectives on the use of L1 in English classrooms

The current study looks into the reasons and perspectives students have about the use of their first language in English classrooms. It analyzes their opinions on different issues connected to first language use. The analysis for this paper was conducted on data from an online survey and follow-up interviews based on 51 total participants. The results showed that students used their first language for a variety of reasons. The amount of first language used also differed. The results also showed that patterns emerged when considering the participants’ language backgrounds, age, and the English language proficiency level. The results of this study will help teachers and students understand the reasons students have for using their first language in English classrooms. By knowing these reasons, students may be able to eliminate them and eventually improve the English language learning process. Teachers can also use the results to modify their classroom management to reduce the amount and frequency for first language use. To sum up, the research showed that students have a variety of reasons for and opinions about why they use theirfirst language in their English classrooms, and that usage may be affected by a number of variables that need further research and study.
On Time Evolution and Causality of Force-free Black Hole Magnetospheres

The rotational energy of a Kerr black hole is often invoked as the free energy source that powers compact astrophysical systems. An important question concerning the energy extraction mechanism is whether a Kerr black hole can communicate stresses to a distant load via a surrounding, force-free magnetosphere, and whether such structures are stable. In this paper we address this question. We first re-examine the properties of short-wavelength force-free waves and show that, contrary to earlier claims, fast magnetosonic disturbances do affect the global electric current flowing in the system, even in flat spacetime; beyond the light cylinder the perturbed charge density is on the order of the perturbed Goldreich-Julian charge density. This implies that the fast magnetosonic surface is a causal wind boundary. We then go on to study the evolution of a force-free system driven by a spinning-up black hole by solving the time-dependent Maxwell equations near the horizon using perturbation method. We find that the electromagnetic field, current, and charge density grow exponentially in the linear regime. We conclude that after time t = 2M ln(1/2α2), where α is the lapse function, the evolution will reach an adiabatic stage, whereby the solution is to a good approximation the static one, with the angular momentum of the hole being the adiabatic parameter. This implies that black hole magnetospheres are stable. A brief discussion on the relation between global current closure and causality in force-free systems is given at the end.
Building Earthquake Damage Information Extraction from a Single Post-Earthquake PolSAR Image

After an earthquake, rapidly and accurately obtaining building damage information can help to effectively guide the implementation of the emergency rescue and can reduce disaster losses and casualties. Using a single post-earthquake fully-polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) image to interpret building damage information not only involves a guaranteed data source but is also easy and can be rapidly implemented. This paper is focused on rapid building earthquake damage detection in urban areas using post-earthquake PolSAR data. In PolSAR images, the undamaged buildings parallel to satellite flight pass are different from the collapsed buildings, but the undamaged buildings divergent to satellite flight pass are very similar to collapsed buildings because of their volume scattering characteristics. In this paper, the method of polarization orientation angle (POA) compensation is employed to increase the scattering power of buildings divergent to satellite flight pass, and then Wishart supervised classification is implemented on the PolSAR data after POA compensation. In addition, the two parameters of normalized difference of the dihedral component (NDDC) and ρHHHV are proposed to improve the classification accuracy of the Wishart supervised classification, and both the undamaged buildings and collapsed buildings are determined. The study was carried out after the “4.14” Yushu earthquake in Yushu County, Qinghai province, China. The three damage levels are set for the urban area at the city block scale according to the values of the BBCR building damage index. The experimental results confirm that the scheme proposed in this paper can greatly improve the accuracy of the extraction of building damage information.
Using qualitative models to define sustainable management for the commons in data poor conditions

Nearly 50 years after Hardin’s “tragedy of the commons” we have not yet found predictive tools to guide us towards sustainable management of common-pool resources (CPR). We often have a good understanding of the qualitative relationships between the principal actors in socioecological systems (SESs), but classical quantitative approaches require a tremendous amount of data to understand the drivers of SESs sustainability. Here we show that qualitative modelling approaches can provide important governance insights for SESs that are understood but not quantified. We used Loop Analysis to test the outcomes of different management regimes on a simple nature-based tourism SES described by economic, social and environmental variables. We tested the sustainability of different management scenarios on this system and we identified the necessary conditions to achieve it. We found that management regimes where property rights and responsibilities are shared between different stakeholders are more likely to be successful. However, the system is generally highly unstable and it is important to tune each strategy to each particular situation. The conditions for sustainability found across the different systems tested were: a low reinvestment rate of tourist revenues into new infrastructures and a low growth rate of the environment. Management strategies based on maximum sustainable yield, which keep the environment far from its carrying capacity, have less chance to be sustainable. Qualitative models of SESs are powerful diagnostic tools; they can help identifying variables that play an important role in determining socioecological sustainability in data-poor circumstances and guide the design of efficient data collection programmes. Our results highlight the importance of careful planning when designing management strategies for nature-based tourism. The application of one-size-fits-all solutions to every situation is likely to lead to the failure of the commons; however tourism-based SESs can be sustainable if management strategies are tuned to each particular case.
Construction and characterization of a Xanthomonas oryzae pv . oryzae bacterial arti ¢ cial chromosome library

Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae is an important plant pathogen which causes bacterial blight of rice. To facilitate genome studies of this bacterium, we have constructed a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library of strain MAFF 311018. It consisted of 750 clones representing 16 genome equivalents, and had an insert size ranging from 20 to 220 kb with an average size of 107 kb. This library is the first to be constructed from a X. oryzae pv. oryzae strain. The usefulness of this library was demonstrated through polymerase chain reaction screening of 11 genes and the 16S^23S rDNA spacer region in a 192-clone subset, representing five genome equivalents. The results obtained showed an average of 5.9 BAC clones per screening. This result is in good agreement with the estimated size of the test library, indicating that the constructed BAC library can be used to facilitate genome analysis of X. oryzae pv. oryzae. ß 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. on behalf of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies.
Output and Performance Measurement in Government: The State of the Art

Part 1 The background: the political and administrative background, Peter Hennessey efficiency measurement in the public sector, Michael Barrow the use of output and performance indicators in goevernment departments, Jeff Jones. Part 2 Case studies: performance measures and outcomes in the health service, Helen Roberts local authority experience, David Henderson-Stewart internal organization and the use of PIs in local government, David Burningham performance indicators for higher education and research, Martin Cave and Stephen Hanney evaluating performance in the environment, Peter Daffern and Graham Walshe. Part 3 The future: the prospect for output and performance indicators, Christopher Pollitt conclusions, Martin Cave and Maurice Kogan.
The Power of Money

Although we all use money every day, the nature and functioning of money seem shrouded in commonplace myths and ancient mysteries. Money plays a central role in economics today, yet rarely do we come across a serious, informed discussion of what money really is and what role it plays in the development of society. Money is a remarkable human invention, a mental symbol, a social organization and a means for the application and transfer of social power for accomplishment. This article is the first in a series of articles exploring the origins, nature and functioning of money and its creative power by comparing money with two other pre-eminent social institutions – language and the Internet. Money, according to the adage, makes the world go round. And just now the world appears to be spinning wildly out of control, escaping from its traditional orbit and raising the specter of a head-on collision with economy, democracy and the welfare of humanity. Concern with the prevailing monetary system has given rise to calls for abolition of the current system of national currencies, a return to the gold standard, elimination of debt money and interest, reversion to local currencies that were prevalent in earlier centuries, and invention of new forms of money such as energy currency or earth currency linked to productive capacities and natural resources. The plethora of ideas floating around suggest that there is widespread discontent and confusion intermixed with a good dose of myth and superstition regarding the origin, nature and role of money in society. Rather than hastening to contribute one more solution to the mountain that has been proposed, we may do well to first inquire into the fundamental principles on which money is based and the process by which it has evolved with the development of society. This may help us identify the precise points at which the global monetary system has become vitiated and ensure that any changes we propose are in line with humanity’s evolutionary advance.
The role of the dynamics of focal adhesion kinase in the mechanotaxis of endothelial cells

The migration of vascular endothelial cells (ECs) is critical in vascular remodeling. We showed that fluid shear stress enhanced EC migration in flow direction and called this “mechanotaxis. ” To visualize the molecular dynamics of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) at focal adhesions (FAs), FAK tagged with green fluorescence protein (GFP) was expressed in ECs. Within 10 min of shear stress application, lamellipodial protrusion was induced at cell periphery in the flow direction, with the recruitment of FAK at FAs. ECs under flow migrated with polarized formation of new FAs in flow direction, and these newly formed FAs subsequently disassembled after the rear of the cell moved over them. The cells migrating under flow had a decreased number of FAs. In contrast to shear stress, serum did not significantly affect the speed of cell migration. Serum induced lamellipodia and FAK recruitment at FAs without directional preference. FAK(Y397) phosphorylation colocalized with GFP-FAK at FAs in both shear stress and serum experiments. The total level of FAK(Y397) phosphorylation after shear stress was lower than that after serum treatment, suggesting that the polarized change at cell periphery rather than the total level of FAK(Y397) phosphorylation is important for directional migration. Our results demonstrate the dynamics of FAK at FAs during the directional migration of EC in response to mechanical force, and suggest that mechanotaxis is an important mechanism controlling EC migration.
Voxel-wise meta-analyses of brain blood flow and local synchrony abnormalities in medication-free patients with major depressive disorder.

BACKGROUND Published meta-analyses of resting-state regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) studies of major depressive disorder (MDD) have included patients receiving antidepressants, which might affect brain activity and thus bias the results. To our knowledge, no meta-analysis has investigated regional homogeneity changes in medication-free patients with MDD. Moreover, an association between regional homogeneity and rCBF has been demonstrated in some brain regions in healthy controls. We sought to explore to what extent resting-state rCBF and regional homogeneity changes co-occur in the depressed brain without the potential confound of medication. METHODS Using the effect-size signed differential mapping method, we conducted 2 meta-analyses of rCBF and regional homogeneity studies of medication-free patients with MDD. RESULTS Our systematic search identified 14 rCBF studies and 9 regional homogeneity studies. We identified conjoint decreases in resting-state rCBF and regional homogeneity in the insula and superior temporal gyrus in medication-free patients with MDD compared with controls. Other changes included altered resting-state rCBF in the precuneus and in the frontal-limbic-thalamic-striatal neural circuit as well as altered regional homogeneity in the uncus and parahippocampal gyrus. Meta-regression revealed that the percentage of female patients with MDD was negatively associated with resting-state rCBF in the right anterior cingulate cortex and that the age of patients with MDD was negatively associated with rCBF in the left insula and with regional homogeneity in the left uncus. LIMITATIONS The analysis techniques, patient characteristics and clinical variables of the included studies were heterogeneous. CONCLUSION The conjoint alterations of rCBF and regional homogeneity in the insula and superior temporal gyrus may be core neuropathological changes in medication-free patients with MDD and serve as a specific region of interest for further studies on MDD.
One-shot Learning with Memory-Augmented Neural Networks

Despite recent breakthroughs in the applications of deep neural networks, one setting that presents a persistent challenge is that of “one-shot learning. ” Traditional gradient-based networks require a lot of data to learn, often through extensive iterative training. When new data is encountered, the models must inefficiently relearn their parameters to adequately incorporate the new information without catastrophic interference. Architectures with augmented memory capacities, such as Neural Turing Machines (NTMs), offer the ability to quickly encode and retrieve new information, and hence can potentially obviate the downsides of conventional models. Here, we demonstrate the ability of a memory-augmented neural network to rapidly assimilate new data, and leverage this data to make accurate predictions after only a few samples. We also introduce a new method for accessing an external memory that focuses on memory content, unlike previous methods that additionally use memory locationbased focusing mechanisms.
Mortgage Companies and Regulatory Arbitrage

Mortgage companies (MCs) do not fall under the strict regulatory regime of depository institutions. We empirically show that this gap resulted in regulatory arbitrage and allowed bank holding companies (BHCs) to circumvent consumer compliance regulations, mitigate capital requirements, and reduce exposure to loan-related losses. Compared to bank subsidiaries, MC subsidiaries of BHCs originated riskier mortgages to borrowers with lower credit scores, lower incomes, higher loan-to-income ratios, and higher default rates. Our results imply that precrisis regulations had the capacity to mitigate the deterioration of lending standards if consistently applied and enforced for all types of intermediaries.
Dissociation between Neurodegeneration and Caspase-11-Mediated Activation of Caspase-1 and Caspase-3 in a Mouse Model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Caspase-11 is a key regulator of caspase-1 and caspase-3 activation under pathological conditions. We show here that the expression of caspase-11 is upregulated in the spinal cord of superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) G93A transgenic mice, a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), before the onset of motor dysfunction and remains at the high levels throughout the course of disease. The caspase-1- and caspase-3-like activities, as well as the level of interleukin-1β, were significantly reduced in the spinal cord of symptomatic caspase-11–/–;SOD1 G93A mice compared with that of caspase-11+/–; SOD1 G93A mice. However, neurodegeneration, inflammatory responses, and the disease onset and progression in SOD1 G93A transgenic mice were not altered by the ablation of caspase-11 gene. Thus, although caspases may contribute to certain aspects of pathology in this mouse model of ALS, their inhibition is not sufficient to prevent neurodegeneration. Our study urges caution when considering the inhibition of caspases as a direct therapeutic method for the treatment of chronic neurodegenerative diseases.
Expression of the P2Y1 Nucleotide Receptor in Chick Muscle: Its Functional Role in the Regulation of Acetylcholinesterase and Acetylcholine Receptor

In vertebrate neuromuscular junctions, ATP is stored at the motor nerve terminals and is co-released with acetylcholine during neural stimulation. Here, we provide several lines of evidence that the synaptic ATP can act as a synapse-organizing factor to induce the expression of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and acetylcholine receptor (AChR) in muscles, mediated by a metabotropic ATP receptor subtype, the P2Y1 receptor. The activation of the P2Y1receptor by adenine nucleotides stimulated the accumulation of inositol phosphates and intracellular Ca2+ mobilization in cultured chick myotubes. P2Y1 receptor mRNA in chicken muscle is very abundant before hatching and again increases in the adult. The P2Y1 receptor protein is shown to be restricted to the neuromuscular junctions and colocalized with AChRs in adult muscle (chicken, Xenopus, and rat) but not in the chick embryo. In chicks after hatching, this P2Y1 localization develops over ∼3 weeks. Denervation or crush of the motor nerve (in chicken or rat) caused up to 90% decrease in the muscle P2Y1 transcript, which was restored on regeneration, whereas the AChR mRNA greatly increased. Last, mRNAs encoding the AChE catalytic subunit and the AChR α-subunit were induced when the P2Y1 receptors were activated by specific agonists or by overexpression of P2Y1 receptors in cultured myotubes; those agonists likewise induced the activity in the myotubes of promoter–reporter gene constructs for those subunits, actions that were blocked by a P2Y1-specific antagonist. These results provide evidence for a novel function of ATP in regulating the gene expression of those two postsynaptic effectors.