Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multimodal Distributions along the Horizontal Branch

We report on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) U, V, and far-ultraviolet observations of three galactic globular clusters (GGCs), NGC 5272 = M3, NGC 6205 = M13, and NGC 6093 = M80. Two of these clusters (namely, M13 and M80) have horizontal-branch (HB) tails that extend to the helium-burning main sequence, with the hottest stars reaching theoretical effective temperatures above 35,000 K. In both clusters, groups of stars are found to be separated by narrow gaps along the blue HB sequence. These gaps appear at similar locations in the color-magnitude diagrams of the two clusters. While stochastic effects may give rise to variations in the color distribution along the HB, the coincidence of gaps in different clusters effectively rules this out as the primary cause. The comparison among the clusters strongly suggests that there are separate physical processes operating during the earlier red giant phase of evolution to produce mass loss.
The Internal Working Models Concept: What do we Really know about the Self in Relation to Others?

The internal working models concept is the foundation for understanding how attachment processes operate in adult relationships, yet many questions exist about the precise nature and structure of working models. To clarify the working models concept, the authors evaluate the empirical evidence relevant to the content, structure, operation, and stability of working models in adult relationships. They also identify 4 theoretical issues that are critical for clarifying the properties of working models. These issues focus on the central role of affect and goals in working models, the degree to which working models are individual difference or relational variables, and the definition of attachment relationships and felt security in adulthood.
Immunoglobulin switch μ sequence causes RNA polymerase II accumulation and reduces dA hypermutation

Repetitive DNA sequences in the immunoglobulin switch μ region form RNA-containing secondary structures and undergo hypermutation by activation-induced deaminase (AID). To examine how DNA structure affects transcription and hypermutation, we mapped the position of RNA polymerase II molecules and mutations across a 5-kb region spanning the intronic enhancer to the constant μ gene. For RNA polymerase II, the distribution was determined by nuclear run-on and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays in B cells from uracil-DNA glycosylase (UNG)–deficient mice stimulated ex vivo. RNA polymerases were found at a high density in DNA flanking both sides of a 1-kb repetitive sequence that forms the core of the switch region. The pileup of polymerases was similar in unstimulated and stimulated cells from Ung−/− and Aid−/−Ung−/− mice but was absent in cells from mice with a deletion of the switch region. For mutations, DNA was sequenced from Ung−/− B cells stimulated in vivo. Surprisingly, mutations of A nucleotides, which are incorporated by DNA polymerase η, decreased 10-fold before the repetitive sequence, suggesting that the polymerase was less active in this region. We propose that altered DNA structure in the switch region pauses RNA polymerase II and limits access of DNA polymerase η during hypermutation.
Electromagnetic fields at 2.45 GHz trigger changes in heat shock proteins 90 and 70 without altering apoptotic activity in rat thyroid gland

Summary Non-ionizing radiation at 2.45 GHz may modify the expression of genes that codify heat shock proteins (HSP) in the thyroid gland. Using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique, we studied levels of HSP-90 and HSP-70. We also used hematoxilin eosin to look for evidence of lesions in the gland and applied the DAPI technique of fluorescence to search for evidence of chromatin condensation and nuclear fragmentation in the thyroid cells of adult female Sprague-Dawley rats. Fifty-four rats were individually exposed for 30 min to 2.45 GHz radiation in a Gigahertz transverse electromagnetic (GTEM) cell at different levels of non-thermal specific absorption rate (SAR), which was calculated using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) technique. Ninety minutes after radiation, HSP-90 and HSP-70 had decreased significantly (P<0.01) after applying a SAR of 0.046±1.10 W/Kg or 0.104±5.10−3 W/Kg. Twenty-four hours after radiation, HSP-90 had partially recovered and HSP-70 had recovered completely. There were few indications of lesions in the glandular structure and signs of apoptosis were negative in all radiated animals. The results suggest that acute sub-thermal radiation at 2.45 GHz may alter levels of cellular stress in rat thyroid gland without initially altering their anti-apoptotic capacity.
Change and Stability in Attitudes Toward Violence During ISAF Service

A Swedish contingent to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF; N = approx. 320) was studied before and after deployment to Afghanistan to assess if the mission and experiences on it affected attitudes toward violence. Attitudes toward war violence and penal violence were assessed across t = 1 and t = 2, as were the effects of combat exposure on change and stability in attitudes. It was hypothesized that the attitudes would remain stable across the deployment due to their importance to the soldierly identity, but that experiences of combat exposure would cause an increase in the propensity toward change. Results demonstrate that attitudes did not change between the pre- and postdeployment stages. Unexpectedly, increasing levels of combat exposure did not predict higher rates of change, but rather increased stability in attitudes toward violence. The results demonstrate that in terms of the willingness to use force, peacekeeping deployments do not have detrimental effects on soldiers.
Acculturation-mediated parental aspirations of Indian immigrants in Singapore

This study investigates the role of acculturation process in shaping the aspirations of the first generation Indian immigrants in Singapore for their children studying at the pre-university level. Data was collected through qualitative interviews with twelve parent pairs. Parents aspired for quality education, academic excellence, professional success and financial security for their children. The role of parents’ acculturation process was evidently seen in shaping parents’ aspirations in response to the demands of the environmental differences between India and Singapore. This influence was mainly reflected in their specific aspirations, or reasons for having certain aspirations as a manifestation of their behaviour, values and/or beliefs which changed upon migration.
Antidumping Protection and Productivity Growth of Domestic Firms

In this Paper we provide empirical evidence that Antidumping (AD) Protection can induce technological catching-up by domestic firms affected by the import protection. We identify a panel of 1,793 import-competing domestic firms between 1993 and 2000, directly affected by AD cases that were initiated in 1996. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find evidence of increased Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth for firms protected by AD measures compared to firms that did not receive protection. Our analysis indicates, however, that the effect of protection depends on the ‘distance to the frontier firm’ in the industry. While protection raises TFP growth of ‘laggard’ firms, the reverse holds for domestic firms that are close to the efficiency frontier. These results confirm recent theoretical work supporting the view that protection can induce technological catching-up.
Sulphated Polysaccharides from Ulva clathrata and Cladosiphon okamuranus Seaweeds both Inhibit Viral Attachment/Entry and Cell-Cell Fusion, in NDV Infection

Sulphated polysaccharides (SP) extracted from seaweeds have antiviral properties and are much less cytotoxic than conventional drugs, but little is known about their mode of action. Combination antiviral chemotherapy may offer advantages over single agent therapy, increasing efficiency, potency and delaying the emergence of resistant virus. The paramyxoviridae family includes pathogens causing morbidity and mortality worldwide in humans and animals, such as the Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) in poultry. This study aims at determining the antiviral activity and mechanism of action in vitro of an ulvan (SP from the green seaweed Ulva clathrata), and of its mixture with a fucoidan (SP from Cladosiphon okamuranus), against La Sota NDV strain. The ulvan antiviral activity was tested using syncytia formation, exhibiting an IC50 of 0.1 μg/mL; ulvan had a better anti cell-cell spread effect than that previously shown for fucoidan, and inhibited cell-cell fusion via a direct effect on the F0 protein, but did not show any virucidal effect. The mixture of ulvan and fucoidan showed a greater anti-spread effect than SPs alone, but ulvan antagonizes the effect of fucoidan on the viral attachment/entry. Both SPs may be promising antivirals against paramyxovirus infection but their mixture has no clear synergistic advantage.
The Development of a SMS-based Teaching and Learning System

The short message service (SMS) technology is one of the most stable mobile technologies around. Most of our tertiary students carry mobile phones with SMS facilities and can be used for teaching and learning. There are many projects of using SMS technologies in education as outlined in the literature review, but many publications do not provide the possible underlying technologies to implement such the teaching and learning systems. In this paper, the development of a SMS-based teaching and learning system is presented. The underlying technology of using GSM modems to build the SMS-based teaching and learning system is revealed. The system is capable of supporting administrative, teaching and learning activities via the SMS technology. Examples of various activities such as brainstorming, voting, and assessment activities supported by the system are illustrated.
Comparing Apples and Oranges: Using Reward-Specific and Reward-General Subjective Value Representation in the Brain

The ability of human subjects to choose between disparate kinds of rewards suggests that the neural circuits for valuing different reward types must converge. Economic theory suggests that these convergence points represent the subjective values (SVs) of different reward types on a common scale for comparison. To examine these hypotheses and to map the neural circuits for reward valuation we had food and water-deprived subjects make risky choices for money, food, and water both in and out of a brain scanner. We found that risk preferences across reward types were highly correlated; the level of risk aversion an individual showed when choosing among monetary lotteries predicted their risk aversion toward food and water. We also found that partially distinct neural networks represent the SVs of monetary and food rewards and that these distinct networks showed specific convergence points. The hypothalamic region mainly represented the SV for food, and the posterior cingulate cortex mainly represented the SV for money. In both the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and striatum there was a common area representing the SV of both reward types, but only the vmPFC significantly represented the SVs of money and food on a common scale appropriate for choice in our data set. A correlation analysis demonstrated interactions across money and food valuation areas and the common areas in the vmPFC and striatum. This may suggest that partially distinct valuation networks for different reward types converge on a unified valuation network, which enables a direct comparison between different reward types and hence guides valuation and choice.
System-level power-performance trade-offs in bus matrix communication architecture synthesis

System-on-chip communication architectures have a significant impact on the performance and power consumption of modern multiprocessor system-on-chips (MPSoCs). However, customization of such architectures for an application requires the exploration of a large design space. Thus designers need tools to rapidly explore and evaluate relevant communication architecture configurations exhibiting diverse power and performance characteristics. In this paper we present an automated framework for fast system-level, application-specific, power- performance trade-offs in bus matrix communication architecture synthesis. Our paper makes two specific contributions. First, we develop energy macro-models for system-level exploration of bus matrix communication architectures. Second, we incorporate these macro- models into a bus matrix synthesis flow that enables designers to efficiently explore the power-performance design space of different bus matrix configurations. Experimental results show that our energy macro- models incur less than 5% average absolute error compared to gate-level models. Furthermore, our bus matrix synthesis framework generates a tradeoff space with designs that exhibits an approximately 20% variation in power and 40% variation in performance on an industrial networking MPSoC application, demonstrating the utility of our approach.
The Development of Father Involvement in Diverse Family Environments

ii Dedication.iv Acknowledgments. v Vita . vii List of Tables . xv List of Figures . xvi Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 Marriage: A Fading Institution? 2 The Life Course Perspective . 5 Father Involvement.6 Structure of Dissertation. 8 The Data . 9 Chapter 2: A Test of the Revised Conceptualization of Father Involvement in Married Families . 14 Revised Theoretical Conceptualization of Father Involvement.15
Mechanisms and passive control of crossflow-vortex-induced transition in a three-dimensional boundary layer

Crossflow-vortex-induced laminar breakdown in a three-dimensional flat-plate boundary-layer flow is investigated in detail by means of spatial direct numerical simulations. The base flow is generic for an infinite swept wing, with decreasing favourable chordwise pressure gradient. First, the downstream growth and nonlinear saturation states initiated by a crossflow-vortex-mode packet as well as by single crossflow-vortex modes with various spanwise wavenumbers are simulated. Second, the secondary instability of the flow induced by the saturated crossflow vortices is scrutinized, clearly indicating the convective nature of the secondary instability and strengthening knowledge of the conditions for its onset. Emphasis is on the effect of crossflow-vortex-mode packets and of the spanwise vortex spacing on the secondary stability properties of the saturation states. Saturated uniform crossflow vortices initiated by single crossflow-vortex modes turn out to be less unstable than vortices initiated by a packet of vortex modes, and closely spaced saturated vortices are even stable. Third, we investigate the transition control strategy of upstream flow deformation by appropriate steady nonlinear vortex modes as applied in wind tunnel experiments at the Arizona State University. A significant transition delay is shown in the base flow considered here, and the underlying mechanisms are specified.
Joint Load Transfer Efficiency of Rigid Pavement Considering Dynamic Effects under a Single Moving Load

the mechanistic analysis presented in this paper is only a beginning of new approach for understanding the real joint load transfer capability on airport and highway concrete pavements. It gives up the two major assumptions those have been popularly adopted by hundreds of published papers: the load is transferred under a wheel with zero speed and with fixed position. The real load transfer in field is always under wheels with non-zero speed and with varied position at any moment. The objective of this study focuses on quantifying the dynamic effects of a moving wheel while it is crossing a joint on a pavement. The analysis is conducted using a model of two-slab system on Kelvin foundation under a moving wheel with variable speed v, different pavement damping Cs, foundation reaction modulus k and foundation damping Ck. The dynamic joint load transfer efficiency is temporarily and empirically defined by the peak strain ratio LTE(S) on the two sides of a joint. The primary findings include: (1) The higher speed of a moving wheel leads to the higher LTE(S);(2) The larger the pavement damping Cs leads to the higher LTE(S);(3) The numerical ratio c(=LTE(S)dynamic/ LTE(S)static) varies in the range 1 to 2 mainly depending on speed v and damping Cs;(4) The LTE(S)dynamic is not sensitive to foundation reaction modulus k and foundation damping Ck. Further researches are needed for appropriate applications of the new model in practice.
Deep Vein Thrombosis Resolution Is Modulated by Monocyte CXCR2-Mediated Activity in a Mouse Model

Objective—To determine the role of CXCR2, the receptor for cysteine-X-cysteine (CXC) chemokines, and its primary effector cell, the neutrophil (PMN), on deep venous thrombosis (DVT) resolution. Methods and Results—DVT in BALB/c, anti-CXCR2 antibody-treated, and BALB/c CXCR2−/− mice were created by infrarenal inferior vena cava (IVC) ligation and the thrombus harvested at various time points over 21 days. The CXCR2−/− mice had significantly larger thrombi at early time points (days 2 to 8), and significantly decreased intrathrombus PMNs, monocytes, and neovascularization as compared with controls. Thrombus KC/CXCL1 was significantly higher at 2 days in CXCR2−/− thrombi as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Fibrin content was significantly higher, with less uPA gene expression at 4 days in CXCR2−/− thrombi. Late fibrotic maturation of the thrombus was delayed in the CXCR2−/− mice, with significantly decreased 8 day MMP-2 activity, whereas MMP-9 activity was elevated as compared with controls. Similar impairment in DVT resolution was found at 8 days with anti-CXCR2 inhibition. However, systemic neutropenia, unlike CXCR2 deletion, did not increase the thrombus size as compared with controls. Conclusions—Normal DVT resolution involves CXCR2-mediated neovascularization, collagen turnover, and fibrinolysis, and it is probably primarily monocyte-dependent.
Relevance of bone marrow features in the differential diagnosis between essential thrombocythemia and early stage idiopathic myelofibrosis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Diagnosis of essential thrombocythemia (ET) remains a challenging problem and has been predominantly established by exclusion of other thrombocythemic disorders. In this context the updated diagnostic criteria of the Polycythemia Vera Study Group (PVSG) are generally accepted, although histopathologic features of the bone marrow were only marginally considered. DESIGN AND METHODS A retrospective evaluation was performed of 168 patients presenting with ET in accordance with the criteria of the PVSG. Analysis was focused on the discriminating impact of bone marrow morphology. RESULTS Histopathology revealed that our cohort of patients could be divided into three distinct groups (true ET, questionable ET and false ET). These groups were characterized by certain diagnostic constellations of clinical data on admission. True ET was found in 53 patients presenting with no or a borderline splenomegaly and no relevant anemia or leuko-erythroblastic blood picture. The other patients showed clinical signs and symptoms which were more compatible with initial-prefibrotic (52 patients) or early (68 patients) idiopathic-primary myelofibrosis (IMF) with severe thrombocythemia. In true ET no significant hypercellularity of the bone marrow including myeloid precursors or an increase in reticulin fibers was detectable. Most prominent were changes of megakaryopoiesis which revealed large to giant-sized cells lacking a definite maturation defect. Their appearance in true ET contrasted with the clusters of abnormally differentiated, often bizarre elements of this lineage in patients with initial and early IMF (questionable or false ET). Calculation of survival disclosed a relevant disparity with a non-significant loss in life expectancy of 10.9% in true ET compared to 29.6% in questionable and 51.3% in false ET. Follow-up studies and repeated bone marrow biopsies revealed no transition into myelofibrosis in true ET, whereas this did occur in 22 of 27 patients with questionable and false ET. In the latter cohort bone marrow changes were accompanied by increasing anemia, splenomegaly, tear-drop poikilocytosis and reduction of the platelet count consistent with IMF. INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS A detailed evaluation of bone marrow features, in particular megakaryopoiesis is recommended to establish positive criteria for the diagnosis of ET and thus to accomplish a significant improvement of the PVSG postulates. In this context ongoing clinical trials on ET must regard pretreatment bone marrow biopsies as a major clue to diagnosis.
Effets d’un programme de promotion de la vitalité cognitive sur la pratique d’activité physique d’ainés

Background: Several studies have demonstrated that physical activity (PA) could have an impact on the cognitive vitality of older adults. The Jog Your Mind program encourages participants to become more physically active and is designed to promote cognitive vitality. This study aims to explore: 1) the effect of the program on PA; 2) the moderating and mediating effects of PA on the program’s impact on cognition; and 3) the correlation between
Optical spectrum of the planetary nebula M 2-24

We have obtained medium-resolution, deep optical long-slit spectra of the bulge planetary nebula (PN) M 2-24. The spectrum covers the wavelength range from 3610-7330 A. Over two hundred emission lines have been detected. The spectra show a variety of optical recombination lines (ORLs) from C, N, O and Ne ions. The diagnostic diagram shows significant density and temperature variations across the nebula. Our analysis suggests that the nebula has a dense central emission core. The nebula was thus studied by dividing it into two regions: 1) a high ionization region characterized by an electron temperature of Te = 16 300 K and a density of log Ne(cm 3 ) = 6:3; and 2) a low ionization region represented by Te = 11 400 K and log Ne(cm 3 )= 3:7. A large number of ORLs from C, N, O and Ne ions have been used to determine the abundances of these elements relative to hydrogen. In general, the resultant abundances are found to be higher than the corresponding values deduced from collisionally excited lines (CELs). This bulge PN is found to have large enhancements in two-elements, magnesium and neon.