Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Axion helioscopes as solar magnetometers

Axion helioscopes search for solar axions and axion-like particles via inverse Primakoff conversion in strong laboratory magnets pointed at the Sun. Anticipating the detection of solar axions, we determine the potential for the planned next-generation helioscope, the International Axion Observatory (IAXO), to measure or constrain the solar magnetic field. To do this we consider a previously neglected component of the solar axion flux at sub-keV energies arising from the conversion of longitudinal plasmons. This flux is sensitively dependent to the magnetic field profile of the Sun, with lower energies corresponding to axions converting into photons at larger solar radii. If the detector technology eventually installed in IAXO has an energy resolution better than 200 eV, then solar axions could become an even more powerful messenger than neutrinos of the magnetic field in the core of the Sun. For energy resolutions better than 10 eV, IAXO could access the inner 70% of the Sun and begin to constrain the field at the tachocline: the boundary between the radiative and convective zones. The longitudinal plasmon flux from a toroidal magnetic field also has an additional 2% geometric modulation effect which could be used to measure the angular dependence of the magnetic field.
Didática e formação de professores: contributos para o desenvolvimento profissional docente no contexto das DCNs

Didactic and teachers training: contributions to teachers professional development Resumo Este artigo discute a importância da Didatica para a formacao e o desenvolvimento profissional dos professores. Defende a ideia da Didatica trabalhar conteudos que propiciem subsidios teoricos e metodologicos sobre o ensino, os quais contribuam para a identidade dos professores. Recorre-se a autores que adotam uma abordagem critica, para defender um ensino da Didatica nas licenciaturas que efetive uma praxis pedagogica nao reduzida a racionalidade instrumental/tecnica. Ao reconhecer o conhecimento didatico como primordial a formacao de professores, tece consideracoes sobre os conteudos da Didatica e sua perspectiva de orientacao nas diretrizes curriculares nacionais que tem regulado a formacao de professores nas ultimas decadas no Brasil. Palavras-chave: Didatica; formacao de Professores; diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais. Abstract This article discusses the importance of Didactics for the training and professional development of teachers. It defends the idea of Didactics to work with contents that provide theoretical and methodological subsidies to teaching, which contribute to the teachers' identity. It resorts to authors who adopt a critical approach in order to defend a teaching of didactic in undergraduate courses that effective a pedagogical praxis not reduced to instrumental/technical rationality. Lastly, recognizes didactic knowledge as essential to teacher education and makes considerations about the contents of Didactics and its orientation perspective in national curricular guidelines that have regulated teacher training in the last decades in Brazil . Key words: Didactic; teachers training; national Curricular Guidelines.
Is T Tauri North a “Classical” T Tauri Star?

We present high-resolution H- and K-band spectroscopic observations of the archetypal T Tauri star T Tau North. Synthetic spectral modeling is used to derive the K-band temperature, surface gravity, magnetic field strength, and rotational velocity for this star. The K-band spectroscopic temperature measured is , which is cooler than the temperature measured from optical observations. Our K-band temperature measurement for T Tau N is confirmed using equivalent-width line ratio versus temperature relations in the H band, from which a is derived. This optical versus IR temperature difference is interpreted as cool or hot spots, or both, covering a significant part of the surface of T Tau N. The gravity derived for T Tau N, , is lower than the gravity of nearly every other star in a sample of 24 classical T Tauri stars in Taurus. Combining these temperature and gravity results with magnetic stellar evolutionary models, we find the age of T Tau N to be less than 1 Myr old. These results suggest that T Tau N is in an earlier evolutionary stage than most classical T Tauri stars in Taurus, arguing that it is a protostar ejected from the embedded southern binary system shortly after its formation.
Fully Test-time Adaptation by Entropy Minimization

Faced with new and different data during testing, a model must adapt itself. We consider the setting of fully test-time adaptation, in which a supervised model confronts unlabeled test data from a different distribution, without the help of its labeled training data. We propose an entropy minimization approach for adaptation: we take the model's confidence as our objective as measured by the entropy of its predictions. During testing, we adapt the model by modulating its representation with affine transformations to minimize entropy. Our experiments show improved robustness to corruptions for image classification on CIFAR-10/100 and ILSVRC and demonstrate the feasibility of target-only domain adaptation for digit classification on MNIST and SVHN.
Forecasting with Macro-Finance Models: Applications to United States and New Zealand

In this thesis, I use macro-finance models to explore the inter-relationships between the macroeconomy and the yield curve in a forecasting setting. Using the arbitrage-free Nelson-Siegel approach to model the yield curve combined with Vector Autoregression (VAR), I jointly model macroeconomic variables and the yield curve factors to produce forecasts of inflation, activity, and interest rates. In line with earlier literature I compare whether the macro-finance model is able to better capture the dynamics of the macro variables and the yield curve factors compared with a macro-only model and a yields-only model respectively. However, a key difference is I use a full real-time forecasting setting, whereas the recent literature focuses on quasi real-time forecasting. I find there is benefit from using macro-finance models for forecasting macroeconomic variables in real-time but the gain is more significant at longer-term horizons. Indeed, the macro-finance models do not outperform traditional macroeconomic models for forecasting activity at short-term horizons. The forecasting gain is more robust for inflation and the policy rate. The theoretically motivated restrictions on the yield curve dynamics improve the forecast performance of yield curve components and generally macroeconomic variables. Using a quasi real-time environment to assess the forecast performance can overstate the usefulness of macro-finance models and understate the usefulness of placing restrictions on the yield curve dynamics.
Ventricular Nuclei‐DNA Relationships with Myocardial Growth and Hypertrophy in the Rat

Rat ventricles, ranging from 306 to 1999 mg, were obtained from normal animals of different ages and from animals subjected to chronic aortic constriction. The concentration of DNA in the paired ventricles (right and left) was found to be closely related to the concentration of nuclei in the left ventricular papillary muscles. Muscle nuclei represented only 10 to 15% of this population of nuclei. In young animals (phase 1), the total ventricular content of muscle nuclei, nonmuscle nuclei, and of DNA were increasing with ventricular growth. In the adult rat (phase 2), the total ventricular content of DNA and of both muscle and nonmuscle nuclei remained relatively constant with ventricular growth. In the enlarged hearts (phase 3), there was a further increase in total ventricular DNA but there was no further increase in the total number of muscle nuclei. Spectrophotometric studies (Feulgen stain), showed that 88% of the muscle nuclei belonged to a single ploidy class (probably diploid). No relation could be demonstrated between the extent of nuclear polyploidy and the weight of the ventricles. It was concluded that polyploidy was not a significant factor in the increased total DNA of phase 3. The increased ventricular DNA of phase 3 was explained by the proliferation of the nonmuscle nuclei.
PP2A and GSK-3β Act Antagonistically to Regulate Active Zone Development

The synapse is composed of an active zone apposed to a postsynaptic cluster of neurotransmitter receptors. Each Drosophila neuromuscular junction comprises hundreds of such individual release sites apposed to clusters of glutamate receptors. Here, we show that protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is required for the development of structurally normal active zones opposite glutamate receptors. When PP2A is inhibited presynaptically, many glutamate receptor clusters are unapposed to Bruchpilot (Brp), an active zone protein required for normal transmitter release. These unapposed receptors are not due to presynaptic retraction of synaptic boutons, since other presynaptic components are still apposed to the entire postsynaptic specialization. Instead, these data suggest that Brp localization is regulated at the level of individual release sites. Live imaging of glutamate receptors demonstrates that this disruption to active zone development is accompanied by abnormal postsynaptic development, with decreased formation of glutamate receptor clusters. Remarkably, inhibition of the serine-threonine kinase GSK-3β completely suppresses the active zone defect, as well as other synaptic morphology phenotypes associated with inhibition of PP2A. These data suggest that PP2A and GSK-3β function antagonistically to control active zone development, providing a potential mechanism for regulating synaptic efficacy at a single release site.
NTAGI subcommittee recommendations on Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) vaccine introduction in India.

BACKGROUND WHO estimates that Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) caused over 8 million cases of serious disease and 376,000 deaths globally in the year 2000. The introduction of Hib vaccines has essentially eliminated Hib disease in countries where they are routinely used. Now, almost all Hib disease cases and deaths occur in countries where Hib vaccines is not incorporated in the routine immunization program. PROCESS The Hib and Pneumococcal subcommittee of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) in India met in April 2008. This paper focuses on the discussions regarding Hib vaccine introduction; the pneumococcal vaccine discussion is being published separately. The subcommittee reviewed the available published and unpublished literature as well as consulted prominent Hib experts to make an informed decision regarding the introduction of Hib vaccine into the routine Universal Immunization Program (UIP) in India. OBJECTIVES The meeting was conducted with the objectives of reviewing the existing Indian, regional and global data on Hib disease (meningitis and pneumonia), the data on safety and immunogenecity of Hib vaccines manufactured in India, as well as the programmatic and operational requirements for the introduction of Hib vaccine in India, with the goal of making a recommendation on the introduction of Hib vaccine into the UIP. RECOMMENDATIONS The committee noted that Hib diseases burden is suffiently high in India to warrant prevention by vaccination. Hib vaccines have been demonstrated to be safe, both globally and in India, and extremely efficacious in all settings where they have been used. Hib vaccine fits into the UIP immunization schedule. Several Indian manufacturers are currently producing Hib vaccines, and a detailed analysis showed that supplier capacity would be sufficient to meet the present and future demand for India if given sufficient lead time to increase production. Recognizing that it is the poorest children that are most at risk, the Indian Academy of Pediatrics has already recommended this vaccine for routine use in India. This subcommittee strongly recommended that Hib vaccine should immediately be introduced in India's UIP.
Belgian Norms for the Waterloo-Stanford Group C (WSGC) Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility

Abstract Belgian norms of the Waterloo-Stanford Group C Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (WSGC) are presented. A French translation of the WSGC was administered to 150 Belgium college students between October and December 2009. Belgium has 2 main linguistic groups, Dutch and French speakers. The present translation was conceived for all French-speaking populations. Score distribution, item analysis, and reliability of the WSGC are presented and compared to the normative sample of the WSGC. The results were also compared with 2 North American norms (University of Connecticut and Seton Hall University) and a Portuguese (translated) norm. The findings show that normative data from the French (Belgium) sample are in line with the reference samples. The only significant difference was the lower proportion of participants scoring within the high range of hypnotic suggestibility on the WSGC.
Corporate Law Reforms in Europe: The Two-Tier Model and the One-Tier Model of Corporate Governance in the Italian Reform of Corporate Law

This paper explores the Italian reform of corporate governance of 2003, which, for the first time, allowed corporations to choose among three different models of governance in part inspired by foreign legal systems. Italian corporations have three governance options. First, corporations may adopt the Italian traditional system of governance which has been modernized by the reform of corporate law. This model of governance is still the most influential and most commonly used in Italy. Besides the traditional model two other "alternative" systems of governance were created by the 2003 reform: the two-tier system and the one-tier system. The first model owes its basic structure to the German tradition, where the shareholders' meeting appoints a supervisory board, which then appoints a management board. In contrast, the one-tier model derives from the Anglo-American tradition. In this system the shareholders' meeting appoints the board of directors, which then appoints a number of directors to an audit committee entrusted with monitoring functions. Taking into account the initial goals of the Italian legislator in designing the 2003 reform, we illustrate how the models have been implemented in Italian practice, and describe the initial predictions of their benefits and disadvantages. Then, we provide some empirical evidence of the practical consequences of the Italian reform of corporate governance three years after its enactment, and we investigate whether the predictions mentioned above were accurate.
Evidence for balancing selection at the DAB locus in the axolotl, Ambystoma mexicanum

The axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) has been characterized as immunodeficient, and the absence of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II polymorphism has been cited as a possible explanation. Here we present evidence for considerable allelic polymorphism at the MHC class II DAB locus for a sample of wild‐caught axolotls. Evidence that these sequences are the product of balancing selection for disease resistance is discussed.
Salespersons' service quality and customer loyalty in fashion chain stores: A study in Hong Kong retail stores

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate which dimension of salespersons' service quality is of most importance for customer loyalty in a fashion chain stores setting. It also aims to assess the effects of two retail environmental factors (price level and customers' demographic variables) on the customer loyalty of salespersons service quality.Design/methodology/approach – The study uses the SERVQUAL service quality instrument with modification in measuring the salespersons' service quality in the Hong Kong fashion retail environment. In order to measure customer loyalty in fashion chain stores, multi‐item measures were used to collect data on repatronage intentions, word‐of‐mouth intentions, and satisfaction. A total of 232 surveys were administrated to shoppers who were leaving a fashion chain store in Hong Kong.Findings – The results showed that the empathy dimension of salesperson service quality is the most important for customer loyalty in Hong Kong's fashion chain stores but the empath.
Symptomatic Arteriovenous Malformations (Angiographically Visualized) and Occult Vascular Malformations

THE AUTHORS COMPARED the clinical presentations of angiographically apparent arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) and angiographically occult vascular malformations (AOVMs) of the brain in 188 consecutive patients treated when computed tomography and magnetic resonance were available. There were 133 patients (70.7%) with AVMs and 55 patients (29.2%) with AOVMs. AOVMs tended to occur more frequently in male patients and in the posterior fossa and to present earlier clinically than AVMs, but differences were not significant. One distinctive feature was the greater size of AVMs, as compared with AOVMs. Presentation by hemorrhage occurred in 64.3% of the patients with AVMs and in 61.8% of those with AOVMs. Malformations of both types located in the posterior fossa presented with hemorrhage more frequently (84.2% of AVMs and 78.5% of AOVMs) than similar lesions lying above the tentorium (60.8% of AVMs and 56% of AOVMs). Bleeding was more severe in patients with AVMs than in those with AOVMs, as indicated by the higher mortality associated with hemorrhage (7.5 vs. 3.6% of the cases) and the more frequent and marked decrease in the level of consciousness observed at admission (34 vs. 16.2% of drowsy or comatose patients). Brain hematomas caused by AVMs were on average bigger than those caused by AOVMs (58.8 and 20% of large hematomas, respectively), and intraventricular and subarachnoid hemorrhages were also more common and profuse in patients with AVMs. However, AOVMs bled subsequently more times than AVMs (61.7 vs. 15.6%), before they were diagnosed and treated, leading to a higher nonoperative morbidity (16.3 vs. 13.6% ). Epilepsy was the first symptom in 27.1% of the patients with AVMs and in 27.2% of those with AOVMs.
Suppression of Viral RNA Recombination by a Host Exoribonuclease

ABSTRACT RNA viruses of humans, animals, and plants evolve rapidly due to mutations and RNA recombination. A previous genome-wide screen in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a model host, identified five host genes, including XRN1, encoding a 5′-3′ exoribonuclease, whose absence led to an ∼10- to 50-fold enhancement of RNA recombination in Tomato bushy stunt virus (E. Serviene, N. Shapka, C. P. Cheng, T. Panavas, B. Phuangrat, J. Baker, and P. D. Nagy, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102:10545-10550, 2005). In this study, we found abundant 5′-truncated viral RNAs in xrn1Δ mutant strains but not in the parental yeast strains, suggesting that these RNAs might serve as recombination substrates promoting RNA recombination in xrn1Δ mutant yeast. This model is supported by data showing that an enhanced level of viral recombinant accumulation occurred when two different 5′-truncated viral RNAs were expressed in the parental and xrn1Δ mutant yeast strains or electroporated into plant protoplasts. Moreover, we demonstrate that purified Xrn1p can degrade the 5′-truncated viral RNAs in vitro. Based on these findings, we propose that Xrn1p can suppress viral RNA recombination by rapidly removing the 5′-truncated RNAs, the substrates of recombination, and thus reducing the chance for recombination to occur in the parental yeast strain. In addition, we show that the 5′-truncated viral RNAs are generated by host endoribonucleases. Accordingly, overexpression of the Ngl2p endoribonuclease led to an increased accumulation of cleaved viral RNAs in vivo and in vitro. Altogether, this paper establishes that host ribonucleases and host-mediated viral RNA turnover play major roles in RNA virus recombination and evolution.
Restoring Trust Among Investors after Shredded CPA Reputation: Evidence from China

Our study examines whether CPA firms take measures to improve their audit quality and restore trust among investors when their reputations are in danger subsequent to disciplinary actions by the government regulatory agencies in China. Compared with a control group of the CPA firms without a reputation crisis, we find that the CPA firms with shredded reputation have lower audit quality, experience more CPA turnover, and earn lower audit fees prior to the publicized accounting scandals and relevant disciplinary actions. We also find that, subsequent to the disciplinary actions, these CPA firms significantly increase their audit quality when they operate under strong legal environments and when affiliated with Big 4, have no difference in audit quality from the control group, and are less likely to be dismissed and more likely to charge higher audit fees after taking remedial action. These results should be of interest to the accounting profession in general and those in emerging markets in particular.
Using quantum model of computation for reliability evaluation of defect tolerant nano-architectures

Quantum computation model has been anticipated as a compact way of representing exponential amount of information in polynomial succinctness, and carrying out multiple computation simultaneously. This is affected by manipulating superposed information through reversible/unitary transformations. In this paper, we use this succinctness of such a model of computation to encode (i) multiple possible input patterns into one superposed input, (ii) encode circuit computation as unitary evolution operations, and (iii) read multiple outputs by unentangling the superposed output. This allows us to compute the probability values of various possible states at the output for various possible input probability distributions. Thus, the reliability of the circuit being modeled can be computed, in terms of the entropy at the entangled output. At the outset this might seem quite convoluted, but we argue in this paper that this model of computation provides an effective and compact way of reliability evaluation, based on our previous work on analyzing reliability of defect-tolerant architectures by exploiting various other models of computation.
CONCURRENT ENGINEERING : Research and Applications Analysis and Synthesis of Reconfigurable Robotic Systems

Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMSs) offer a key technology for the realization of mass customization. Compared with integral systems, RMS may provide system configurations to satisfy a wide range of Functional Requirements (FRs). An important issue for RMS is configuration design, the determination of a configuration from all of feasible configurations to meet FRs. Configuration design of strongly coupled RMS, such as reconfigurable robotic system, has particular challenges due to special characteristics compared with dedicated systems. In this research, a methodology for the design of Reconfigurable Robotic Systems (RRSs) is described. The proposed methodology can be generalized to other reconfigurable manufacturing systems having similar features.