Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chondrule-forming Shock Fronts in the Solar Nebula: A Possible Unified Scenario for Planet and Chondrite Formation

Chondrules are millimeter-sized spherules found throughout primitive chondritic meteorites. Flash heating by a shock front is the leading explanation of their formation. However, identifying a mechanism for creating shock fronts inside the solar nebula has been difficult. In a gaseous disk capable of forming Jupiter, the disk must have been marginally gravitationally unstable at and beyond Jupiter's orbit. We show that this instability can drive inward spiral shock fronts with shock speeds of up to ~10 km s-1 at asteroidal orbits, sufficient to account for chondrule formation. The mixing and transport of solids in such a disk, combined with the planet-forming tendencies of gravitational instabilities, results in a unified scenario linking chondrite production with gas giant planet formation.
Leveraging business workflows in distributed systems research for the orchestration of reproducible and scalable experiments

While rapid research on distributed systems is observed, experiments in this field are often difficult to design, describe, conduct and reproduce. By overcoming these difficulties the research could be further stimulated and add more credibility to results in distributed systems research. The key factors responsible for this situation are technical (software bugs and hardware errors), methodological (incorrect practices), as well as social (reluctance to share work). In this paper, the existing approaches for the management of experiments on distributed systems are described and a novel approach using business process management (BPM) is presented to address their shortcomings. Then, the questions arising when such approach is taken, are addressed. We show that it can be a better alternative to the traditional way of performing experiments as it encourages better scientific practices and results in more valuable research and publications. Finally, a plan of our future work is outlined and other applications of this work are discussed.
t Requirement of Endogenous Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor for Sensitization to Amphetamine

Repeated exposure to amphetamine produces long-lasting increases in sensitivity to its effects. We reported previously that repeated amphetamine treatment results in increased astrocytic expression of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra compacta (SNc) and that this effect is prevented by coadministration of a nonspecific glutamate receptor antagonist. Here we show that the development of sensitization to amphetamine is prevented when amphetamine injections are preceded by infusions of a neutralizing antibody to bFGF into the VTA. In addition, we show that astrocytic bFGF expression is increased in the VTA and SNc of animals that exhibit behavioral sensitization and that the number of bFGF-immunoreactive astrocytes in these regions is strongly and positively correlated with the magnitude of sensitization. Cotreatment with an NMDA glutamate receptor antagonist blocks both the development of behavioral sensitization and bFGF induction. These results show that endogenous bFGF is necessary for the development of sensitization to amphetamine and suggest that bFGF mediates the glutamatergic-dopaminergic interaction that initiates the long-term consequences of repeated drug use.
Inverse pH Regulation of Plant and Fungal Sucrose Transporters: A Mechanism to Regulate Competition for Sucrose at the Host/Pathogen Interface?

Background Plant sucrose transporter activities were shown to respond to changes in the extracellular pH and redox status, and oxidizing compounds like glutathione (GSSG) or H2O2 were reported to effect the subcellular targeting of these proteins. We hypothesized that changes in both parameters might be used to modulate the activities of competing sucrose transporters at a plant/pathogen interface. We, therefore, compared the effects of redox-active compounds and of extracellular pH on the sucrose transporters UmSRT1 and ZmSUT1 known to compete for extracellular sucrose in the Ustilago maydis (corn smut)/Zea mays (maize) pathosystem. Methodology/Principal Findings We present functional analyses of the U. maydis sucrose transporter UmSRT1 and of the plant sucrose transporters ZmSUT1 and StSUT1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae or in Xenopus laevis oocytes in the presence of different extracellular pH-values and redox systems, and study the possible effects of these treatments on the subcellular targeting. We observed an inverse regulation of host and pathogen sucrose transporters by changes in the apoplastic pH. Under none of the conditions analyzed, we could confirm the reported effects of redox-active compounds. Conclusions/Significance Our data suggest that changes in the extracellular pH but not of the extracellular redox status might be used to oppositely adjust the transport activities of plant and fungal sucrose transporters at the host/pathogen interface.
Characterization and modeling of NBTI stress, recovery, material dependence and AC degradation using R-D framework

Five signatures of NBTI such as strong gate insulator process dependence, universal rate of long-time DC degradation, AC duty cycle dependence, AC frequency independence as well as recovery of degradation after stress have been identified. A model has been proposed using uncorrelated contributions from stress induced generated interface traps, hole trapping in process related pre-existing traps and stress induced generated bulk traps to explain the above features. For optimized devices, NBTI under use condition is shown to be dominated by interface traps, and can be modeled using Reaction-Diffusion model.
Relationship between Caregivers’ Smoking at Home and Urinary Levels of Cotinine in Children

Objective: To assess the impact of different smoking behaviors of caregivers on environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure in children aged 5–6 years in Changsha, China. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, random digit-dial telephone survey of caregivers (n = 543) between August and October 2013. Caregivers’ smoking behaviors were collected by a questionnaire. Exposure assessment was based upon determination of urinary cotinine levels in children employing gas chromatography–triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). Results: In children not living with a smoker, children living with one smoker, and children living with more than one smoker at home, median urinary cotinine concentrations (ng/mL) were 0.72, 2.97, and 4.46, respectively. For children living with one smoker, median urinary cotinine levels of children exposed to ETS were associated with caregiver smoking behaviors, i.e., if a caregiver consumed more cigarettes (>20 compared with ≤10; 7.73 versus 2.29 ng/mL, respectively). Conclusions: The magnitude of ETS exposure in children is correlated with the smoking behaviors of the caregiver. Counseling for smoking cessation and educational interventions are needed urgently for smoking caregivers to increase their awareness about ETS exposure and to encourage smoking cessation at home or to take precautions to protect children’s health.
Artificial agents as social companions: design guidelines for emotional interactions

Virtual and robotic agents are becoming increasingly prominent, taking on a variety of everyday life roles (i.e., assistants, tutors, coaches, companions). Displaying social and affective behaviour is a necessary requirement when agents need to interact and collaborate with humans. Nevertheless, current agent prototypes lack important skills, such as recognising human emotions, adapting to them and expressing appropriate affective states. This dissertation addresses issues related to these challenges. First, research is surveyed which investigates the use of psychophysiology for affect recognition. Next, empirical work is presented which investigates the multimodal expression of emotions through robotic embodiment. Finally, a use-case is presented, where a virtual agent takes the role of a companion for older adults. An evaluation study is discussed, highlighting the effects of the agent’s socio-affective capabilities on interactions and long-term user-engagement. The dissertation concludes with a set of guidelines for the design of natural, believable, effective and acceptable human-agent interactions.
Apoptosis driven by IP3‐linked mitochondrial calcium signals

Increases of mitochondrial matrix [Ca2+] ([Ca2+]m) evoked by calcium mobilizing agonists play a fundamental role in the physiological control of cellular energy metabolism. Here, we report that apoptotic stimuli induce a switch in mitochondrial calcium signalling at the beginning of the apoptotic process by facilitating Ca2+‐induced opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (PTP). Thus [Ca2+]m signals evoked by addition of large Ca2+ pulses or, unexpectedly, by IP3‐mediated cytosolic [Ca2+] spikes trigger mitochondrial permeability transition and, in turn, cytochrome c release. IP3‐induced opening of PTP is dependent on a privileged Ca2+ signal transmission from IP3 receptors to mitochondria. After the decay of Ca2+ spikes, resealing of PTP occurs allowing mitochondrial metabolism to recover, whereas activation of caspases is triggered by cytochrome c released to the cytosol. This organization provides an efficient mechanism to establish caspase activation while mitochondrial metabolism is maintained to meet ATP requirements of apoptotic cell death.
The untold story: harms experienced in the Irish population due to others’ drinking.

This report by Hope, Barry and Byrne is concerned with harms resulting from drinking alcohol. For many years, the focus in discussing harms from drinking was on harms suffered by the drinker. And indeed, these harms are widespread and often severe, in terms of mental disorder, injury and overdose, chronic and infectious diseases, and social functioning and welfare. Alcohol has been found to be a leading risk factor in the global burden of disease, particularly in high- and middle-income countries (GBD Risk Factors Collaborators, 2017), though such studies primarily count only harms which affect the drinker. Estimates of the societal costs of drinking in countries like Ireland have found the costs to be high (Byrne, 2010), though they mainly count costs to governments or to the drinker.
Decision support for global software development with pattern discovery

Background: Software development process nowadays is becoming more globalized than ever before. Global Software Development (GSD) implies that the software development process is spread across countries and geographic boundaries. GSD brings challenges to software project leaders / managers because of the increase in management difficulty. As a result, utilizing data mining and machine learning techniques to provide quantitative, objective and predictive solution for project management is essential. Aim: To facilitate software project management to make decisions by mining embedded knowledge from data and providing meaningful results. Method: In this paper we propose to adopt a pattern discovery technique which has been successfully applied in the field of computational Biology. The technique discovers association patterns inherited in the data which can provide insightful information for domain experts (e.g., project leaders), therefore increasing their confidence in making decisions. We apply the technique in the software defect datasets from the NASA MDP repository to predict whether a software project is defective or not and find out important factors in the data that signaled the prediction. Results: For the tested datasets, statistically significant patterns are produced with good classification performance. The experiment results also reveal the effect of different discretization techniques on performance. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to employ the specific pattern mining technique in Software Engineering for defective software detection and the results showed the potential of such a technique in which it can provide not only good classification results but also meaningful information for project leaders to make decisions.
Requisitely holistic assessment of enterprises survival condition for coping with complex global environmental changes: the case of Slovenian enterprises

Presented research tries to explain to what extent the process of striving towards integration and requisitely holistic wholeness, captured within the models of integral management, is present in Slovenian enterprises. Enterprises' governance and management within the environment and in relations with the environment has been examined. In order to achieve the research goal we used acknowledge Kralj's method for determination the presence of four management developmental modes (named empirical, rational, cognitive and integrative management). The research results show that the presence of different modes of management varies regarding the enterprise size.
A small corpus-based study on argument strategies in English research papers by American and Chinese students: Writing from multiple sources

This paper draws on a comparative analysis of research papers by Chinese and American university students in the humanities and social sciences to explore the argument strategies employed when synthesizing information from multiple sources. Based on the analytic framework from previous research, the analysis shows that papers written by the two groups are similar in terms of claim-making, argument support and citation; however, they differ in several subtle respects such as the degree of argumentativeness, strength of authority and means of positioning. The paper attempts to explain their respective features by referring to socio-cultural factors, writing strategies as well as textual variables.
Unconditional Maximum Likelihood Performance at Finite Number of Samples and High Signal-to-Noise Ratio

This correspondence deals with the problem of estimating signal parameters using an array of sensors. In source localization, two main maximum-likelihood methods have been introduced: the conditional maximum-likelihood method which assumes the source signals nonrandom and the unconditional maximum-likelihood method which assumes the source signals random. Many theoretical investigations have been already conducted for the large samples statistical properties. This correspondence studies the behavior of unconditional maximum likelihood at high signal-to-noise ratio for finite samples. We first establish the equivalence between the unconditional and the conditional maximum-likelihood criterions at high signal-to-noise ratio. Then, thanks to this equivalence we prove the non-Gaussianity and the non-efficiency of the unconditional maximum-likelihood estimator. We also rediscover the closed-form expressions of the probability density function and of the variance of the estimates in the one source scenario and we derive a closed-form expression of this estimator variance in the two sources scenario
Measuring the Quality of the Home Environment of Young Children in Uruguay: Socioeconomic Gradients in the Home Inventory

Uruguay is one of very few countries in Latin America that has a nationally representative, longitudinal survey of early childhood development. In 2015â€“2016, during the second wave of the survey, an observational module on the home environment was administered at scale for the first time. The module included items from two subscales (responsiveness and acceptance) of a widely used instrument that measures the quality of the physical and emotional environment: the HOME inventory. We find that the set of items administered from the HOME has very good concurrent validity with child development and maternal personality traits, as well as with other relevant socioeconomic variables. In line with the literature, our analysis shows that children from the most vulnerable families are exposed to a lower-quality home environmentâ€”that is, less responsive and more punitive. Interestingly, Uruguayan children are exposed to better environments as compared to children in predominantly rural samples from the Latin America and Caribbean region; however, they present comparable environments when compared to similar samples from countries such as Brazil and Chile.
Crisis Construction and Organizational Learning: Capability Building in Catching-Up at Hyundai Motor

Effective organizational learning requires high absorptive capacity, which has two major elements: prior knowledge base and intensity of effort. Hyundai Motor Company, the most dynamic automobile producer in developing countries, pursued a strategy of independence in developing absorptive capacity. In its process of advancing from one phase to the next through the preparation for and acquisition, assimilation, and improvement of foreign technologies, Hyundai acquired migratory knowledge to expand its prior knowledge base and proactively constructed crises as a strategic means of intensifying its learning effort. Unlike externally evoked crises, proactively constructed internal crises present a clear performance gap, shift learning orientation from imitation to innovation, and increase the intensity of effort in organizational learning. Such crisis cons truction is an evocative and galvanizing device in the personal repertoires of proactive top managers. A similar process of opportunistic learning is also evident in other industries in Korea.
Firms ’ Incentives to Disclose Information about Product Quality : The Case of Multi-Attribute Products with Heterogeneous Consumers

In this paper, we examine the incentives for firms to voluntarily disclose otherwise private information about quality attributes of differentiated products when those products have multiple attributes and consumers are heterogeneous in their tastes over these attributes. In particular, we focus on whether the so-called “unraveling result”—in equilibrium, firms fully disclose the quality of their products voluntarily when disclosure costs are zero—holds when disclosure of quality information adds vertical differentiation into a product world with existing horizontal differentiation. We show that there exist certain configurations of consumer multidimensional preferences under which firms, even with high-quality products, may not have incentive to disclose. This failure to disclose voluntarily will arise when disclosure results in more elastic demand for products and hence triggers more intense price competition among firms, leading to lower prices for all products. The escalation of competition can make all firms worse off and lead firms to not disclose the quality of their products, even with zero disclosure costs. As a result, the equilibrium in which quality disclosure is voluntary may diverge from that in which quality disclosure is mandatory. JEL classifications: L15 (Information and Product Quality); L5 (Regulation and Industrial Policy)
1 Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer ( FRET ) and Proximity Ligation Assays Reveal Functionally Relevant Homo-and Heteromeric Complexes among Hyaluronan Synthases HAS 1 , HAS 2 and HAS 3

In vertebrates, hyaluronan is produced in plasma membrane from cytosolic UDPsugar substrates by HAS1-3 isoenzymes that transfer N-Acetyl glucosamine (GlcNAc) and glucuronic acid (GlcUA) in alternative positions in the growing polysaccharide chain during its simultaneous extrusion into the extracellular space. It has been shown that HAS2 immunoprecipitates contain functional HAS2 homomers and also heteromers with HAS3 (Karousou et al. 2010 J. Biol. Chem. 285 23647-23654). Here we have systematically screened in live cells potential interactions among the HAS isoenzymes using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and flow cytometric quantification. We show that all HAS isoenzymes form homomeric and also heteromeric complexes with each other. The same complexes were detected both in Golgi apparatus and plasma membrane by using FRET microscopy and the acceptor photobleaching method. Proximity ligation assays with HAS antibodies confirmed the presence of HAS1-HAS2, HAS2-HAS2, and HAS2-HAS3 complexes between endogenously expressed HASs. C-terminal deletions revealed that the enzymes interact mainly via uncharacterized N-terminal 86 amino acid domain(s), but additional binding site(s) probably exist in their Cterminal parts. Of all homomeric complexes HAS1 had the lowest and HAS3 the highest synthetic activity. Interestingly, HAS1 transfection reduced the synthesis of hyaluronan obtained by HAS2 and HAS3, suggesting functional cooperation between the isoenzymes. These data indicate a general tendency of HAS isoenzymes to form both homomeric and heteromeric complexes with potentially important functional consequences on hyaluronan synthesis. http://www.jbc. org/cgi/doi/10.1074/jbc.M115.640581 The latest version is at JBC Papers in Press. Published on March 20, 2015 as Manuscript M115.640581
the Emotional Attentional Blink: A Review and Research Agenda

The Emotional Attentional Blink (EAB) refers to a temporary impairment in the ability to identify a single target when that target is preceded by an emotionally salient distractor, such as a disgusting, violent or erotic image (Most, Smith, Cooter, Levy, & Zald, 2007; Ciesielski, Armstrong, Zald, & Olatunji, 2010). The EAB represents a failure to perform an endogenous target discrimination task as a result of exogenous attentional capture by an emotional image, making it an effective medium through which to study the intersection of these two attentional systems. The present review seeks to relate existing models of the EAB to models of emotion (Tamietto & de Gelder, 2010) as well as endogenous and exogenous attention (Corbetta & Shulman, 2002; Taylor & Fragopanagos, 2005) in order to demonstrate the EAB’s utility in these research fields. Accompanying this review will be a brief research agenda and pilot experiment meant to address a few of the most integral questions to the study of attention and emotion, utilizing the EAB paradigm. A review of relevant literature as well as the aforementioned pilot study support the notion that the EAB may be a powerful tool in uncovering answer to the bigger questions in attention and emotion research. study in early neural perceptual and N1), indicating valence of these emotional images modulated early, possibly pre-attentive, neural processing. Furthermore, later attentional components typically associated with attentional selection (N2) and continued engagement of attentional resources (LPP) varied based upon the valence of the critical distractor and whether the participant was able to make a correct target discrimination. This suggests changes in underlying neural activity related to disruption of the top-down task by bottom-up attentional capture by the critical distractor. Should the present study be continued, it may be possible to more reliably relate these differences in distractor processing, related to distractor valence and target discrimination, to modulations of target processing.