Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Relationship between Stratiform Low Cloud Cover and Lower-Tropospheric Stability

Abstract Observations in subtropical regions show that stratiform low cloud cover is well correlated with the lower-troposphere stability (LTS), defined as the difference in potential temperature θ between the 700-hPa level and the surface. The LTS can be regarded as a measure of the strength of the inversion that caps the planetary boundary layer (PBL). A stronger inversion is more effective at trapping moisture within the marine boundary layer (MBL), permitting greater cloud cover. This paper presents a new formulation, called the estimated inversion strength (EIS), to estimate the strength of the PBL inversion given the temperatures at 700 hPa and at the surface. The EIS accounts for the general observation that the free-tropospheric temperature profile is often close to a moist adiabat and its lapse rate is strongly temperature dependent. Therefore, for a given LTS, the EIS is greater at colder temperatures. It is demonstrated that while the seasonal cycles of LTS and low cloud cover fraction (CF) are.
Habit Formation, the World Real Interest Rate, and the Present Value Model of the Current Account

A recent study reports that habit formation in consumption can improve the ability of the present value model of the current account (PVM) to forecast actual current account movements because habits make the current account more volatile. This paper, however, shows that the habit-forming PVM is observationally equivalent to the canonical PVM augmented with a transitory consumption shock: the sample test statistics of the habit-forming PVM are not informative to detect the role of habit formation in current account movements. This identification problem is resolved by conducting Monte Carlo experiments of two small open economy-real business cycle (SOE-RBC) models calibrated to Canadian postwar quarterly data: one with habit formation and the other with the stochastic world real interest rate. Results reveal that the SOE-RBC model with the stochastic world real interest rate dominates the SOE-RBC model with habit formation in explaining Canadian sample test statistics of the habit-forming PVM as well as the standard PVMs. This suggests that research on the current account should concentrate on the determinants of the world real interest rate rather than alternative specifications of utility.
Tropine Forming Tropinone Reductase Gene from Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha): Biochemical Characteristics of the Recombinant Enzyme and Novel Physiological Overtones of Tissue-Wide Gene Expression Patterns

Withania somnifera is one of the most reputed medicinal plants of Indian systems of medicine synthesizing diverse types of secondary metabolites such as withanolides, alkaloids, withanamides etc. Present study comprises cloning and E. coli over-expression of a tropinone reductase gene (WsTR-I) from W. somnifera, and elucidation of biochemical characteristics and physiological role of tropinone reductase enzyme in tropane alkaloid biosynthesis in aerial tissues of the plant. The recombinant enzyme was demonstrated to catalyze NADPH-dependent tropinone to tropine conversion step in tropane metabolism, through TLC, GC and GC-MS-MS analyses of the reaction product. The functionally active homodimeric ∼60 kDa enzyme catalyzed the reaction in reversible manner at optimum pH 6.7. Catalytic kinetics of the enzyme favoured its forward reaction (tropine formation). Comparative 3-D models of landscape of the enzyme active site contours and tropinone binding site were also developed. Tissue-wide and ontogenic stage-wise assessment of WsTR-I transcript levels revealed constitutive expression of the gene with relatively lower abundance in berries and young leaves. The tissue profiles of WsTR-I expression matched those of tropine levels. The data suggest that, in W. somnifera, aerial tissues as well possess tropane alkaloid biosynthetic competence. In vivo feeding of U-[14C]-sucrose to orphan shoot (twigs) and [14C]-chasing revealed substantial radiolabel incorporation in tropinone and tropine, confirming the de novo synthesizing ability of the aerial tissues. This inherent independent ability heralds a conceptual novelty in the backdrop of classical view that these tissues acquire the alkaloids through transportation from roots rather than synthesis. The TR-I gene expression was found to be up-regulated on exposure to signal molecules (methyl jasmonate and salicylic acid) and on mechanical injury. The enzyme's catalytic and structural properties as well as gene expression profiles are discussed with respect to their physiological overtones.
The Effects of Cognitive Training for Elderly: Results from My Mind Project

Abstract Cognitive decline and dementia represent very important public health problems that impact the ability to maintain social function and independent living. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a nonpharmacological intervention consisting of comprehensive cognitive training in elderly people having one of three different cognitive statuses. In all, 321 elderly people with a diagnoses of mild–moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD), with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and without cognitive decline were randomly assigned to two groups: experimental group (EG, who underwent intervention) and control group (CG), according to a prospective randomized intervention study. In the three groups, immediately after the end of the intervention, we observed a significant effect on some cognitive and noncognitive outcomes in the EGs. At the end of the intervention, we found an intermediate intervention effect on the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS) score of subjects with AD, as well as on functional status, as measured by using the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scale. A significant intervention effect was also observed on enhancement of auditory verbal short-term memory and subjective memory complaints of subjects with MCI. The group of subjects without cognitive decline obtained a significant intervention effect on subjective complaints outcomes. The obtained results demonstrated that participation in the intervention could improve performance with respect to specific cognitive functions and psychological statuses. The role of healthy lifestyle programs, such as the use of comprehensive interventions, has been shown to be efficient for enhancing memory and other abilities in aged individuals with and without cognitive decline.
Conceptual understanding of acids and bases concepts and motivation to learn chemistry

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of 5E learning cycle model oriented instruction (LCMI) on 11th-grade students' conceptual understanding of acids and bases concepts and student motivation to learn chemistry. The study, which lasted for 7 weeks, involved two groups: An experimental group (LCMI) and a control group (the traditional teacher-centered instruction [TTCI]). Based on multivariate analysis of covariance results, the LCMI students outperformed the TTCI students in terms of conceptual understanding about acids and bases. Similarly, the students from the experimental group scored higher motivation and this difference was found to be statistically significant. These findings demonstrated that instruction based on learning cycle model provide students a deeper conceptual understanding, foster high-order thinking, engage them in the learning process, and influence their motivation to learn by increasing the relevance of school chemistry to their daily lives.
Test data for relational queries

An automatic technique for generating a comprehensive test database for a given query is studied. The test database is large enough to cover all essentially different situations under the given set of dependencies, and also large enough to illustrate the effect of each operation appearing in the query. On the other hand, the database attempts to do this in a minimal way. The method can be applied in the testing of queries, e.g. as an aid in learning a new query language. The basis of the construction is the definition of an adequate test case. We characterize this concept using Armstrong relations and show that adequate examples have the desired properties. We also give a method for producing reasonably small example databases for select-project-join queries where each relation scheme appears at most once in the query.
Neuropsychological profile of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

present study investigated cognitive function in children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The subjects were 20 children between the ages of 6 and 12 years of both genders who were diagnosed with ALL and underwent exclusively triple intrathecal prophylactic chemotherapy of the central nervous system. The protocol used for the neuropsychological assessment included the following cognitive aspects: intellectual performance, attention, memory and executive function. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics using the Mann-Whitney U test and Student t-test. The effects of gender, age at diagnosis, and time since the initiation of treatment on the children's performance were determined. The evaluation of intellectual performance revealed reduced scores in the group of children who were female and younger than 5 years of age at diagnosis, especially difficulty with verbal skills and working memory. With regard to attention systems, the different groups presented expected performance for their age. We observed lower scores in the different groups in executive function, aspects of the development of problem-solving strategies, self-regulation, cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control. Better performance was observed for episodic memory and semantic memory (immediate and recognition), but lower scores were found for learning and recall after interference. In conclusion, the present findings are both consistent and discordant with the literature in the field that alludes to the impact of chemotherapy on the maturation of the central nervous system.
A New Experimental Paradigm for Affective Research in Neuro-adaptive Technologies

One core challenge in the field of neuro-adaptive technology is the detection of the current mental user state. Existing experimental paradigms use established stimulus material (e.g. pictures) to induce affective user states and make them measurable. Since these paradigms lack ecological validity, there is a pressing need to design more interactive stimulus material that allows a reliably and systematical induction of different affective user states in more realistic scenarios. We present and empirically validate a new experimental paradigm featuring a simulated adaptive system that induces positive and negative affective user states through supporting or impeding goal achievement during a navigation task. Furthermore, we tested the feasibility of quantifying underlying neurophysiological processes of affective states by simultaneous investigations of electroencephalographic and functional near-infrared spectroscopic. These investigations further show the effectiveness of our paradigm in inducing different levels of affect and provides an indication of features of brain activity containing discriminative information, a proposal that warrants further investigation in a larger cohort of participants.
Activation of the mTOR Pathway by Oxaliplatin in the Treatment of Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastasis

Background Standard of care treatment for colorectal cancer liver metastasis consists of a cytotoxic chemotherapy in combination with a targeted agent. Clinical trials have guided the use of these combinatory therapies, but it remains unclear what the optimal combinations of cytotoxic chemotherapy with a targeted agent are. Methods Using a genomic based approach, gene expression profiling was obtained from tumor samples of patient with colorectal cancer liver metastasis who received an oxaliplatin based therapy. Early passaged colorectal cancer liver metastasis cell lines and patient derived xenografts of colorectal cancer liver metastasis were then treated with oxaliplatin and a mTOR inhibitor. Results Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that the mTOR pathway was activated in patients receiving oxaliplatin based therapy. Treatment of early passaged colorectal cancer lines and patient derived xenografts with oxaliplatin resulted in activation of the mTOR pathway. Combination therapy with oxaliplatin and a mTOR inhibitor resulted in a synergistic effect both in vitro and in vivo. Conclusion Our findings suggest a genomic based approach can be used to identify optimal combinations of cytotoxic chemotherapy with a targeted agent and that these observations can be validated both in vitro and in vivo using patient derived colorectal cancer cell lines and patient derived xenografts prior to clinical use.
Investigating Japanese College Student Preferences for Native and Nonnative Speaker English Teachers

Numerous applied linguists have widely discussed, in the TESOL literature, whether NESTs or NNESTs are better English teachers. Abundant research has clearly demonstrated that NESTs have an advantage in teaching oral skills, due to their native speaker competence, and play the role of reliable informants in English language teaching (e.g., Hall and Cook, 2013; Ma, 2012; Medgyes, 1994; Saito, 2014; Widdowson, 1992). As Hall and Cook (2013) note, NESTs’ dominant position appears to be justified by the assumption, supported by ELT theorists, that English should be taught and learned monolingually in the classroom, without reference to the learners’ own language. Thus, NESTs are often preferred as instructors, taking on a special status as ideal linguistic models with their greater English proficiency and ease. However, Shaw (1979) points out that NESTs may lack deeper and necessary insights into the English language, making lesson preparation and execution less effective. For instance, NESTs have native intuition of what is grammatically correct, but may lack the metalinguistic knowledge required to effectively explain English grammatical rules to learners. In contrast, several studies have shown that NNESTs, through their experience of learning English as an additional language, have distinctive positive traits for ELT. NNESTs, for example, can play the role of good learner models, teach language learning strategies more effectively, develop language awareness through their formal knowledge of English, provide appropriate linguistic information about the language to learners, be especially sensitive to learning problems, anticipate difficulties in learning, be more empathetic to learners’ needs, and set more realistic learning goals; while their cultural affinity with students in EFL contexts can make them more preferred instructors (e.g., Boyle, 1997; Cook, 2005; Lipovsky & Mahboob, 2010; Medgyes, 1994). Above all, Hall and Cook (2013) insist that the use of the learners’ own language in EFL 《論 文》
Smart identifier network: A collaborative architecture for the future internet

The current Internet has many inherent shortcomings, such as poor security, low mobility, and high energy consumption, which all seriously hinder its further development. This article first re-examines the original design of the Internet, and points out the so-called triple bindings, namely resource/location binding, user/network binding, and control/data binding, which are the root causes of the current Internet's problems. A collaborative Internet architecture named SINET is proposed by removing the restrictions from the triple bindings completely. SINET contains three layers vertically and two domains horizontally. At each layer, there are two domains associated with a pair of xID and xBD. Multiple xAMs among these xIDs and xBDs are established to collaboratively adapt to various services requirements. Experimental tests have verified that SINET improves the performance in many ways and thus has great potential to flexibly satisfy emerging demands.
Author ' s personal copy A Bayesian formulation of behavioral control

Helplessness, a belief that the world is not subject to behavioral control, has long been central to our understanding of depression, and has influenced cognitive theories, animal models and behavioral treatments. However, despite its importance, there is no fully accepted definition of helplessness or behavioral control in psychology or psychiatry, and the formal treatments in engineering appear to capture only limited aspects of the intuitive concepts. Here, we formalize controllability in terms of characteristics of prior distributions over affectively charged environments. We explore the relevance of this notion of control to reinforcement learning methods of optimising behavior in such environments and consider how apparently maladaptive beliefs can result from normative inference processes. These results are discussed with reference to depression and animal models thereof. 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Δ1-Pyrroline-5-Carboxylate/Glutamate Biogenesis Is Required for Fungal Virulence and Sporulation

Proline dehydrogenase (Prodh) and Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase (P5Cdh) are two key enzymes in the cellular biogenesis of glutamate. Recombinant Prodh and P5Cdh proteins of the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica were investigated and showed activity in in vitro assays. Additionally, the C. parasitica Prodh and P5Cdh genes were able to complement the Saccharomyces cerevisiae put1 and put2 null mutants, respectively, to allow these proline auxotrophic yeast mutants to grow on media with proline as the sole source of nitrogen. Deletion of the Prodh gene in C. parasitica resulted in hypovirulence and a lower level of sporulation, whereas deletion of P5Cdh resulted in hypovirulence though no effect on sporulation; both Δprodh and Δp5cdh mutants were unable to grow on minimal medium with proline as the sole nitrogen source. In a wild-type strain, the intracellular level of proline and the activity of Prodh and P5Cdh increased after supplementation of exogenous proline, though the intracellular Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate (P5C) content remained unchanged. Prodh and P5Cdh were both transcriptionally down-regulated in cells infected with hypovirus. The disruption of other genes with products involved in the conversion of arginine to ornithine, ornithine and glutamate to P5C, and P5C to proline in the cytosol did not appear to affect virulence; however, asexual sporulation was reduced in the Δpro1 and Δpro2 mutants. Taken together, our results showed that Prodh, P5Cdh and related mitochondrial functions are essential for virulence and that proline/glutamate pathway components may represent down-stream targets of hypovirus regulation in C. parasitica.
Measured and modelled cloud condensation nuclei number concentration at the high alpine site Jungfraujoch

Abstract. Atmospheric aerosol particles are able to act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and are therefore important for the climate and the hydrological cycle, but their properties are not fully understood. Total CCN number concentrations at 10 different supersaturations in the range of SS=0.12–1.18% were measured in May 2008 at the remote high alpine research station, Jungfraujoch, Switzerland (3580 m a.s.l.). In this paper, we present a closure study between measured and predicted CCN number concentrations. CCN predictions were done using dry number size distribution (scanning particle mobility sizer, SMPS) and bulk chemical composition data (aerosol mass spectrometer, AMS, and multi-angle absorption photometer, MAAP) in a simplified Kohler theory. The predicted and the measured CCN number concentrations agree very well and are highly correlated. A sensitivity study showed that the temporal variability of the chemical composition at the Jungfraujoch can be neglected for a reliable CCN prediction, whereas it is important to know the mean chemical composition. The exact bias introduced by using a too low or too high hygroscopicity parameter for CCN prediction was further quantified and shown to be substantial for the lowest supersaturation. Despite the high average organic mass fraction (~45%) in the fine mode, there was no indication that the surface tension was substantially reduced at the point of CCN activation. A comparison between hygroscopicity tandem differential mobility analyzer (HTDMA), AMS/MAAP, and CCN derived κ values showed that HTDMA measurements can be used to determine particle hygroscopicity required for CCN predictions if no suitable chemical composition data are available.
Unfolding Thermodynamics of Cysteine-Rich Proteins and Molecular Thermal-Adaptation of Marine Ciliates

Euplotes nobilii and Euplotes raikovi are phylogenetically closely allied species of marine ciliates, living in polar and temperate waters, respectively. Their evolutional relation and the sharply different temperatures of their natural environments make them ideal organisms to investigate thermal-adaptation. We perform a comparative study of the thermal unfolding of disulfide-rich protein pheromones produced by these ciliates. Recent circular dichroism (CD) measurements have shown that the two psychrophilic (E. nobilii) and mesophilic (E. raikovi) protein families are characterized by very different melting temperatures, despite their close structural homology. The enhanced thermal stability of the E. raikovi pheromones is realized notwithstanding the fact that these proteins form, as a rule, a smaller number of disulfide bonds. We perform Monte Carlo (MC) simulations in a structure-based coarse-grained (CG) model to show that the higher stability of the E. raikovi pheromones is due to the lower locality of the disulfide bonds, which yields a lower entropy increase in the unfolding process. Our study suggests that the higher stability of the mesophilic E. raikovi phermones is not mainly due to the presence of a strongly hydrophobic core, as it was proposed in the literature. In addition, we argue that the molecular adaptation of these ciliates may have occurred from cold to warm, and not from warm to cold. To provide a testable prediction, we identify a point-mutation of an E. nobilii pheromone that should lead to an unfolding temperature typical of that of E. raikovi pheromones.
Sixteenths: Direct evidence on institutional trading costs

In June 1997, the Nasdaq stock market and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) each lowered its minimum price increment on most stocks from eighths to sixteenths. Like other researchers investigating similar events, we find that quoted spreads and effective spreads decline on both markets at the introduction of sixteenths. However, spreads do not necessarily measure the cost of trading, particularly for market participants who execute larger orders over time. In this paper, we use a sample of institutional trades provided by the Plexus Group to directly measure the effect of the tick size reduction on trading costs. For these institutions, the cost of small NYSE and Nasdaq trades (less than 10,000 shares) is little changed by the advent of sixteenths. However, NYSE trades of at least 10,000 shares are more expensive to execute when prices are quoted in sixteenths, and the cost differential increases with order size. Overall, for the institutions in this sample, the move to sixteenths has resulted in increased trading costs. These findings emphasize that spreads are not a sufficient statistic for measuring market quality; they also suggest that smaller price increments may not be pareto-improving.