Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
X-Ray Reflection from Inhomogeneous Accretion Disks. I. Toy Models and Photon Bubbles

Numerical simulations of the interiors of radiation-dominated accretion disks show that significant density inhomogeneities can be generated in the gas. Here, we present the first results of our study on X-ray reflection spectra from such heterogeneous density structures. We consider two cases: first, we produce a number of toy models in which a sharp increase or decrease in density, of variable width, is placed at different depths in a uniform slab. Comparing the resulting reflection spectra to those from an unaltered slab shows that the inhomogeneity can affect the emission features, in particular the Fe Kα and O VIII Lyα lines. The magnitude of any differences depends on both the parameters of the density change and the ionizing power of the illuminating radiation, but the inhomogeneity is required to be within ~2 Thomson depths of the surface to cause an effect. However, only relatively small variations in density (by factors of a few) are necessary for significant changes in the reflection features to be possible. Our second test was to compute reflection spectra from the density structure predicted by a simulation of the nonlinear outcome of the photon-bubble instability. The resulting spectra also exhibited differences from the constant-density models, caused primarily by a strong 6.7 keV iron line. Nevertheless, constant-density models can provide a good fit to simulated spectra, albeit with a low reflection fraction, between 2 and 10 keV. Below 2 keV, differences in the predicted soft X-ray line emission result in very poor fits with a constant-density ionized-disk model. The results indicate that density inhomogeneities may further complicate the relationship between the Fe Kα equivalent width and the X-ray continuum. Further calculations are needed to verify that density variations of sufficient magnitude will occur within a few Thomson depths of the disk photosphere.
STUDIES ON THE CHEMOTHERAPY OF THE HUMAN MALARIAS. I. METHOD FOR THE QUANTITATIVE ASSAY OF SUPPRESSIVE ANTIMALARIAL ACTION IN VIVAX MALARIA.

The wartime program for the development of new antimalarial drugs made apparent the need for satisfactory techniques for the assay of their activities in the human malarias. It seemed likely that the use of blood-induced malaria would partly satisfy this need. Information which has accrued since the beginning of these studies now permits the interpretation of results obtained with this type of infection in terms of a reasonable hypothesis concerning the biology of the malarias. It is now believed that in mosquito-transmitted vivax malaria the sporozoites are localized initially
Angiogenic synergistic effect of basic fibroblast growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor in an in vitro quantitative microcarrier-based three-dimensional fibrin angiogenesis system.

AIM To develop an in vitro three-dimensional (3-D) angiogenesis system to analyse the capillary sprouts induced in response to the concentration ranges of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and to quantify their synergistic activity. METHODS Microcarriers (MCs) coated with human microvascular endothelial cells (HMVECs) were embedded in fibrin gel and cultured in 24-well plates with assay media. The growth factors bFGF, or VEGF, or both were added to the system. The wells (n = 8/group) were digitally photographed and the average length of capillary-like sprouts (ALS) from each microcarrier was quantitated. RESULTS In aprotinin-stabilized fibrin matrix, human microvascular endothelial cells on the MCs invaded fibrin, forming sprouts and capillary networks with lumina. The angiogenic effects of bFGF or VEGF were dose-dependent in the range from 10 to 40 ng/mL. At d 1, 10 ng/mL of bFGF and VEGF induced angiogenesis with an ALS of 32.13 +/- 16.6 microm and 43.75 +/- 27.92 microm, respectively, which were significantly higher than that of the control (5.88 +/- 4.45 microm, P<0.01), and the differences became more significant as the time increased. In addition, the combination of 10 ng/mL of bFGF and VEGF each induced a more significant effect than the summed effects of bFGF (10 ng/mL) alone and VEGF (10 ng/mL) alone when analyzed using SPSS system for general linear model (GLM) (P = 0.011), and that also exceeded the effects by 20 ng/mL of either bFGF or VEGF. CONCLUSION A microcarrier-based in vitro three-dimensional angiogenesis model can be developed in fibrin. It offers a unique system for quantitative analysis of angiogenesis. Both bFGF and VEGF exert their angiogenic effects on HMVECs synergistically and in a dose-dependent manner.
Plasticity in Developing Brain: Active Auditory Exposure Impacts Prelinguistic Acoustic Mapping

A major task across infancy is the creation and tuning of the acoustic maps that allow efficient native language processing. This process crucially depends on ongoing neural plasticity and keen sensitivity to environmental cues. Development of sensory mapping has been widely studied in animal models, demonstrating that cortical representations of the sensory environment are continuously modified by experience. One critical period for optimizing human language mapping is early in the first year; however, the neural processes involved and the influence of passive compared with active experience are as yet incompletely understood. Here we demonstrate that, while both active and passive acoustic experience from 4 to 7 months of age, using temporally modulated nonspeech stimuli, impacts acoustic mapping, active experience confers a significant advantage. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we show that active experience increases perceptual vigilance/attention to environmental acoustic stimuli (e.g., larger and faster P2 peaks) when compared with passive experience or maturation alone. Faster latencies are also seen for the change discrimination peak (N2*) that has been shown to be a robust infant predictor of later language through age 4 years. Sharpening is evident for both trained and untrained stimuli over and above that seen for maturation alone. Effects were also seen on ERP morphology for the active experience group with development of more complex waveforms more often seen in typically developing 12- to 24-month-old children. The promise of selectively “fine-tuning” acoustic mapping as it emerges has far-reaching implications for the amelioration and/or prevention of developmental language disorders.
Beyond the consumer: parents, privatization, and fundraising in US urban public schooling

Given recent budgetary gaps in public education, many civic and educational leaders have relied upon private sources of funding for US public schools, including funds raised by parents. Yet parents’ role as economic actors in public education has been largely unexplored. Drawing from a qualitative study of parent engagement, fundraising, and school change in Chicago public schools, I explore the educational investments of a largely White group of middle- and upper middle-class parents and how they understand their collective engagement in relation to educational disparities. The findings show that parents were not only consumers through school choice, but also economic brokers of private capital via their fundraising efforts and producers of urban school change. Despite their stated commitments to public education and desire for diversity, most parents worked with and for a more selective public in their school change efforts, exacerbating resource disparities in the segregated urban district. The findings highlight the tensions and equity issues that arise when White, economically advantaged parents are positioned as consumers within neoliberal urban educational contexts while simultaneously called upon to support, sustain, and improve the public schools they choose for their children.
Spectroscopic and Spectropolarimetric Observations of V838 Monocerotis

The spectroscopic and spectropolarimetric variability of the peculiar variable V838 Monocerotis during the brighter phases of its multiple outbursts in 2002 is presented. Significant line profile variability of Hα and Si II 6347.10 and 6371.36 Å occurred in spectra obtained between 2002 February 5 and March 14, and a unique secondary absorption component was observed near the end of this time period. Our observations also suggest that multiple shifts in ionization states occurred during the outbursts. Spectropolarimetric observations reveal that V838 Mon exhibited both intrinsic and interstellar polarization components during the initial stages of the second outburst, indicating the presence of an asymmetric geometry; however, the intrinsic component had declined significantly by February 14. We determine the interstellar polarization to be Pmax = 2.746% ± 0.011%, λmax = 5790 ± 37 Å, and P.A. = 153. °43 ± 0. °12, and we find the integrated intrinsic V-band polarization on February 5 to be P = 0.983% ± 0.012% at a position angle of 127. °0 ± 0. °5. The implications of these observations for the nature of V838 Monocerotis, its distance, and its ejecta are discussed.
Signals Derived from YABBY Gene Activities in Organ Primordia Regulate Growth and Partitioning of Arabidopsis Shoot Apical Meristems[W]

Shoot apical meristems (SAMs) are self-sustaining groups of cells responsible for the ordered initiation of all aerial plant tissues, including stems and lateral organs. The precise coordination of these processes argues for crosstalk between the different SAM domains. The products of YABBY (YAB) genes are limited to the organ primordium domains, which are situated at the periphery of all SAMs and which are separated by a margin of three to seven cells from the central meristem zone marked by WUSCHEL and CLAVATA3 expression. Mutations in the two related YAB1 genes, FILAMENTOUS FLOWER and YABBY3 (YAB3), cause an array of defects, including aberrant phyllotaxis. We show that peripheral YAB1 activity nonautonomously and sequentially affects the phyllotaxis and growth of subsequent primordia and coordinates the expression of SAM central zone markers. These effects support a role for YAB1 genes in short-range signaling. However, no evidence was found that YAB1 gene products are themselves mobile. A screen for suppression of a floral YAB1 overexpression phenotype revealed that the YAB1-born signals are mediated in part by the activity of LATERAL SUPPRESSOR. This GRAS protein is expressed at the boundary of organ primordia and the SAM central zone, distinct from the YAB1 expression domain. Together, these results suggest that YAB1 activity stimulates signals from the organs to the meristem via a secondary message or signal cascade, a process essential for organized growth of the SAM.
Music Educators’ Self-Perceptions of Interpersonal Skills

The purpose of this exploratory study was to measure music educators’ (N = 9) self-perceptions of their use of interpersonal skills. Participants rated themselves on 32 statements included on the “My Use of Interpersonal Skills Inventory” in pre- and posttest formats. Participants participated in a 4-week period of weekly practice, class discussions, and self-reflections focused on interpersonal skills. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test was applied and revealed an overall significant difference (z = −2.81, p < .01) in participants’ self-perceptions of their use of interpersonal skills. Self-perceptions of improved skills were reported in 20 out of 32 areas including a statistically significant (p < .05) increase of ratings for seven interpersonal skill behaviors.
Troubling power dynamics: Youth with disabilities as co-researchers in sexuality research in South Africa

Although a proliferation of participatory studies has explored youth sexuality in the African context, very few studies have included youth with disabilities. This is inevitably a result of the misconceptions surrounding disabled sexualities and youth with disabilities’ competence in undertaking research. This article argues against these misconceptions by outlining a participatory sexuality study that worked with youth with disabilities as co-researchers in South Africa. In discussing the experiences of the young disabled co-researchers, the article troubles the constructs of power and empowerment in youth participatory research.
Estimates of fluvial erosion on Titan from sinuosity of lake shorelines

Titan has few impact craters, suggesting that its surface is geologically young. Titan's surface also has abundant landforms interpreted to be fluvial networks. Here we evaluate whether fluvial erosion has caused significant resurfacing by estimating the cumulative erosion around the margins of polar lakes. A scarcity of detailed topographic data makes it difficult to measure fluvial incision on Titan, but images of drowned fluvial features around the lake margins, where elevated levels of hydrocarbon liquids appear to have partly flooded fluvial valleys, offer a constraint on the topography. We mapped the shorelines of several lakes to obtain topographic contours that trace the fluvially dissected topography. We then used a numerical landscape evolution model to calibrate a relationship between contour sinuosity, which reflects the extent of fluvial valley incision, and cumulative erosion. We confirmed this relationship by analyzing a partially dissected surface adjacent to the Minnesota River, USA. Comparison of the mapped Titan contours with the sinuosity‐erosion relationship suggests that cumulative fluvial erosion around the margins of Titan's polar lakes, including Ligeia Mare, Kraken Mare, and Punga Mare in the north and Ontario Lacus in the south, ranges from 4% to 31% of the initial relief. Additional model simulations show that this amount of fluvial erosion does not render craters invisible at the resolution of currently available imagery, suggesting that fluvial erosion is not the only major resurfacing mechanism operating in Titan's polar regions.
Ethanol inhibits neuritogenesis induced by astrocyte muscarinic receptors

In utero alcohol exposure can lead to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, characterized by cognitive and behavioral deficits. In vivo and in vitro studies have shown that ethanol alters neuronal development. We have recently shown that stimulation of M3 muscarinic receptors in astrocytes increases the synthesis and release of fibronectin, laminin, and plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1, causing neurite outgrowth in hippocampal neurons. As M3 muscarinic receptor signaling in astroglial cells is strongly inhibited by ethanol, we hypothesized that ethanol may also inhibit neuritogenesis in hippocampal neurons induced by carbachol‐stimulated astrocytes. In the present study, we report that the effect of carbachol‐stimulated astrocytes on hippocampal neuron neurite outgrowth was inhibited in a concentration‐dependent manner (25–100 mM) by ethanol. This effect was because of the inhibition of the release of fibronectin, laminin, and plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1. Similar effects on neuritogenesis and on the release of astrocyte extracellular proteins were observed after the incubation of astrocytes with carbachol in the presence of 1‐butanol, another short‐chain alcohol, which like ethanol is a competitive substrate for phospholipase D, but not by tert‐butanol, its analog that is not a substrate for this enzyme. This study identifies a potential novel mechanism involved in the developmental effects of ethanol mediated by the interaction of ethanol with cell signaling in astrocytes, leading to an impairment in neuron–astrocyte communication. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Submerged Dyslexia Iceberg: How Many School Children Are Not Diagnosed? Results from an Italian Study

Background Although dyslexia is one of the most common neurobehavioral disorders affecting children, prevalence is uncertain and available data are scanty and dated. The objective of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of dyslexia in an unselected school population using clearly defined and rigorous diagnostic criteria and methods. Methods Cross sectional study. We selected a random cluster sample of 94 fourth grade elementary school classes of Friuli Venezia Giulia, a Region of North Eastern Italy. We carried out three consecutive levels of screening: the first two at school and the last at the Neuropsychiatry Unit of a third level Mother and Child Hospital. The main outcome measure was the prevalence of dyslexia, defined as the number of children positive to the third level of screening divided by the total number of children enrolled. Results We recruited 1774 children aged 8–10 years, of which 1528 received parents’ consent to participate. After applying exclusion criteria, 1357 pupils constituted the final working sample. The prevalence of dyslexia in the enrolled population ranged from 3.1% (95% CI 2.2–4.1%) to 3.2% (95% CI 2.4–4.3%) depending on different criteria adopted. In two out of three children with dyslexia the disorder had not been previously diagnosed. Conclusions This study shows that dyslexia is largely underestimated in Italy and underlines the need for reliable information on prevalence, in order to better allocate resources both to Health Services and Schools.
Spatial distribution of nests constrains the strength of sexual selection in a warbler

In socially monogamous species, extra‐pair paternity may increase the strength of intersexual selection by allowing males with preferred phenotypes to monopolize matings. Several studies have found relationships between male signals and extra‐pair mating, but many others fail to explain variation in extra‐pair mating success. A greater appreciation for the role that ecological contingencies play in structuring behavioural processes may help to reconcile contradictory results. We studied extra‐pair mating in a spatial context in the common yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas), a territorial wood warbler. Over the course of 6 years, we observed 158 breeding attempts by 99 males, resulting in a total of 369 nests and 520 sampled nestlings. The spatial distribution of territories varied greatly, with males having between 0 and 10 close neighbours and between three and 39 neighbouring nestlings close enough to represent extra‐pair siring opportunities. Both within‐pair and extra‐pair reproductive success increased with breeding density, but the opportunity for sexual selection and strength of selection varied with density. Total variance in reproductive success was highest at low density and was mostly explained by variation in within‐pair success. In contrast, at high density, both within‐pair and extra‐pair successes contributed substantially to variance in reproductive success. The relationships between plumage and extra‐pair mating also varied by density; plumage was under strong sexual selection via extra‐pair mating success at high density, but no selection was detected at low density. Thus, ecological factors that structure social interactions can drive patterns of sexual selection by facilitating or constraining the expression of mating preferences.
Influenza Vaccine: Immunization Rates, Knowledge, and Attitudes of Resident Physicians in an Urban Teaching Hospital

Abstract Background: Because resident physicians (RPs) frequently have direct patient contact, those who are unimmunized against influenza potentially subject patients to unnecessary risk of infection. Objective: To determine the rates of, knowledge regarding, and attitudes toward influenza immunization among RPs. We hypothesized that rates of and knowledge about influenza immunization did not differ between primary care (PC) and non-PC RPs. Methods: A self-administered, anonymous questionnaire distributed to a convenience sample of 300 RPs (150 PC and 150 non-PC). The questionnaire requested influenza immunization status in the 2003-2004 and previous seasons and factors influencing respondents' decisions whether to be immunized. It included a 20-item test of knowledge about influenza immunization. Results: Two hundred five (68.3%) of 300 distributed questionnaires (196 that were evaluable) were returned. Response rates of PC and non-PC RPs did not differ (P = .79). The overall immunization rate of RPs in 2003-2004 was 38.3% and rates did not differ between PC (38.9%) and non-PC (37.6%) RPs. RPs most often cited “self-protection” as a reason for electing (93.3%) and “lack of time” for declining (47.1%) influenza immunization. Their ability to correctly answer questions about influenza immunization varied; their mean knowledge score was 13.7 (perfect = 20). PC and non-PC trainees did not differ by knowledge score (P = .48). However, RPs “ever vaccinated” had a higher knowledge score than those “never vaccinated” (P = .01). Conclusion: RPs have low immunization rates and significant gaps in knowledge regarding influenza immunization. These problems should be addressed during their training by education on the importance, effectiveness, and safety of influenza vaccine for them and their patients.
Insider Ownership, Governance Mechanisms, and Corporate Bond Pricing Around the World

We investigate the effect of insider ownership on corporate bond yield spreads from 2003 to 2014 using a sample of 10,470 bonds issued by 1,222 non-financial firms from 48 countries. We find that greater insider ownership is associated with higher yield spreads. This positive relationship holds after controlling for measures of risk-taking, which suggests that bondholders price-protect against greater insider ownership for reasons beyond insiders’ heightened incentives to take risk. We consider consumption of private benefits as another economic channel through which insider ownership hurts bondholders. Using a global index of shareholder rights, we show that the positive association between insider ownership and the spread decreases for firms with relatively stronger shareholder rights, in which consumption of private benefits is less likely to occur. Furthermore, we present evidence that the probability of tunnelling, through related-party transactions, is larger in firms with more insider ownership. The positive relation between insider ownership holds even after excluding firms that deviate from the one-share-one-vote principle and firms with cross-ownership. We conclude that bondholders anticipate that greater insider ownership facilitates consumption of private benefits, with implications for the valuation of corporate debt around the world.
The Mind Managers

There is a tendency in the study of mass communications to begin to fantasize about the social powers of technology to the point where the dimensions of the social context become essentially irrelevant. With the move toward consolidation and monopoly in the broad economic context, the consolidation of culture by technological forms of consciousness manipulation presents us with the illusion of a public mind that bodes either affirmative visions of a new perceptual order (e.g., ‘global village’ of McLuhan) or catastrophic csonceptions of a robotization and virtually unassailable totalitarianization of the thought processes. In the case of the former, affirmative, vision of mass media, John Fekete (in “McLuhanacy: Counterrevolution in Cultural Theory,” Telos no. 15, Spring, 1973) has offered an effective critique.