Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparison of galaxy group luminosity functions from semi-analytic models

Semi-analytic models (SAMs) are currently one of the primary tools with which we model statistically significant ensembles of galaxies. The underlying physical prescriptions inherent to each SAM are, in many cases, different from one another. Several SAMs have been applied to the dark matter merger trees extracted from the Millennium Run, including those associated with the well-known Munich and Durham lineages. We compare the predicted luminosity distributions of galaxy groups using four publicly available SAMs, in order to explore a galactic environment in which the models have not been explored to the same degree as they have in the field or in rich clusters. We identify a characteristic 'wiggle' in the group galaxy luminosity function generated using the De Lucia et al. SAM, which is not present in the Durham-based models, consistent to some degree with observations. However, a comparison between conditional luminosity functions of groups between the models and observations suggests that neither model is a particularly good match. The luminosity function wiggle is interpreted as the result of the two-mode active galactic nucleus feedback implementation used in the Munich models, which itself results in flattened magnitude gap distribution. An associated analysis of the magnitude gap distribution between first- and second-ranked group galaxies shows that while the Durham models yield distributions with approximately equal luminosity first- and second-ranked galaxies, in agreement with observations, the De Lucia et al. models favour the scenario in which the second-ranked galaxy is approximately 1 mag fainter than the primary, especially when the dynamic range of the mock data is limited to 3 mag.
Ovarian, metabolic and endocrine indexes in dairy cows with different body condition scores

ABSTRACT. Body condition can influence bovine fertility, but the morphologi-cal, biochemical and endocrine mechanisms of this influence are not fully un-derstood. The aim of the study was to examine the interrelationships between cow body condition, morphological and endocrine state of the ovary, and blood metabolic indexes. Czech Fleckvieh dairy cows at the follicular phase of the ovarian cycle and with a tendency towards emaciation (body condition score-CS2) and cows with an average body condition score (BCS3) were compared. Plasma concentrations of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), non-esterified fat-ty acids (NEFAs), Ca 2+ , inorganic phosphorus (P i ), Mg 2+ , Fe 2+ , Cu 2+ , Zn (deter-mined using photometrically), leptin and insulin (ELISA), ovarian area, number of visible ovarian follicles, diameter of primary and secondary ovarian follicles and corpora albicantia (macro- and micrometric analysis of ovarian histological sections), as well as the release of progesterone, testosterone, oestradiol and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) by isolated ovarian granulosa cells (RIA) were analysed. No significant differences between BCS2 and BCS3 cows in blood metabolic and endocrine indexes (except for decreased Zn
Unsupervised Methods for Camera Pose Estimation and People Counting in Crowded Scenes

Most visual crowd counting methods rely on training with labeled data to learn a mapping between features in the image and the number of people in the scene. However, the exact nature of this mapping may change as a function of different scene and viewing conditions, limiting the ability of such supervised systems to generalize to novel conditions, and thus preventing broad deployment. Here I propose an alternative, unsupervised strategy anchored on a 3D simulation that automatically learns how groups of people appear in the image and adapts to the signal processing parameters of the current viewing scenario. To implement this 3D strategy, knowledge of the camera parameters is required. Most methods for automatic camera calibration make assumptions about regularities in scene structure or motion patterns, which do not always apply. I propose a novel motionbased approach for recovering camera tilt that does not require tracking. Having an automatic camera calibration method allows for the implementation of an accurate crowd counting algorithm that reasons in 3D. The system is evaluated on various datasets and compared against state-of-art methods.
Coumarin, a Lead Compound of Warfarin, Inhibits Melanogenesis via Blocking Adenylyl Cyclase

Due to Its multiple biological activities, coumarin (a main ingredient of Cinnamon extracts) has gained attention as potentially useful therapeutics for various diseases. However, the efficacy of coumarin for the use of dermatological health has not been fully explored. To clarify the action mechanism of the skin protecting property of coumarin, we firstly investigated the molecular docking property of coumarin on the mammalian adenylyl cyclase, which is the key enzyme of cAMP-induced melanogenesis in the skin cells. In binding study, the benzopyran moiety of coumarin occupies dual sites of the hydrophobic cleft at the interface of two subunits of adenylyl cyclase. We also examined the involvement of coumarin in alpha-MSH and forskolin induced cAMP signaling within a cell based assay. In addition, we inquired into the inhibitory effect of coumarin on melanogenesis and found that the pretreatment with coumarin inhibited the forskolin-induced melanin contents significantly without annihilating the cell viability. Our results strongly suggest that coumarin directly inhibits the activity of adenylyl cyclase, downregulates forskolin-induced cAMP-production pathway, consequently inhibiting melanogenesis. Thus, coumarin may also be used as an effective inhibitor of hyperpigmentation.
The Role of Expectations in Changed Inflation Dynamics

The Phillips curve has been much flatter in the past twenty years than in the preceding decades. We consider two hypotheses. One is that prices at the microeconomic level are stickier than they used to be---in the context of the canonical Calvo model, firms are adjusting prices less often. The other is that the expectations of firms and households about future inflation are now less well informed by macroeconomic conditions; because expectations are important in the setting of current-period prices, inflation is therefore less sensitive to macroeconomic conditions. To distinguish between our two hypotheses, we bring to bear information on inflation expectations from surveys, which allow us to distinguish changes in the sensitivity of inflation to economic conditions conditioning on expectations from changes in the sensitivity of expectations themselves to economic conditions. We find that, with some measures, expectations are less tied to economic conditions than in the past, and thus that this reduced attentiveness can account for a significant portion of the reduction in the sensitivity of inflation to economic conditions in recent decades.
The Human Nuclear Exoso me Targeting Complex Is Loaded onto Newly Synthesized RNA to Direct Early Ribonucleolysis Graphical

In Brief The nuclear RNA exosome is directed to many of its nucleoplasmic substrates by the nuclear exosome targeting (NEXT) complex. Lubas et al. now use iCLIP to follow NEXT targeting to RNA via its RNA binding component RBM7. Association of RBM7 with RNAPII-derived RNAs enables degradation upon emergence of unprotected RNA 30 ends. Thus, the NEXT complex defines an early exosome targeting pathway acting on newly synthesized RNA, including snoRNAs embedded in pre-mRNA introns.
Multimodality and audiences: local languaging in the Gambian linguistic landscape

This paper is concerned with the linguistic landscape in urban Gambia. It reviews recent work done on linguistic landscapes and explores the relation between The Gambia’s social and ethnolinguistic diversity and visible linguistic phenomena in the public space from an ethnographic and social semiotic perspective. It is argued that the occasional use of local languages in an otherwise English only environment (as e.g., in the publicity campaigns of the mobile phone operators Gamcel, Africell and Comium) serves a symbolic rather than communicative function and has more to do with corporate creativity than it reflects ethnolinguistic relations. The overall absence of local languages and the salience of images in the Gambian linguistic landscape should be understood in the context of an informal English-only policy for visual communication and the relatively high rate of illiteracy that is typical for a postcolonial Third World country. Drawing on the theoretical notions of audience design and multimodality, it is shown how retailers in a major shopping street Serrekunda (the country’s largest conurbation) use images more than multilingualism as a vernacular strategy to accommodate illiterates in their audiences. The paper concludes with an argument that ‘language’ may not be the most crucial analytic category in a descriptive linguistics of the linguistic landscape, and that ‘local languaging’ may be a more suitable term to capture what is going on linguistically in public spaces.
Is Peer Review a Game of Chance?

Abstract Peer review is the standard that journals and granting agencies use to ensure the scientific quality of their publications and funded projects. The peer-review process continues to be criticized, but its actual effectiveness at ensuring quality has yet to be fully investigated. Here we use probability theory to model the peer-review process, focusing on two key components: (1) editors' prescreening of submitted manuscripts and (2) the number of referees polled. The model shows that the review process can include a strong “lottery” component, independent of editor and referee integrity. Focusing on journal publications, we use a Bayesian approach and citation data from biological journals to show that top journals successfully publish suitable papers—that is, papers that a large proportion of the scientific community would deem acceptable—by using a prescreening process that involves an editorial board and three referees; even if that process is followed, about a quarter of published papers still may be unsuitable. The element of chance is greater if journals engage only two referees and do no prescreening (or if only one editor prescreens); about half of the papers published in those journals may be unsuitable. Furthermore, authors whose manuscripts were initially rejected can significantly boost their chances of being published by resubmitting their papers to other journals. We make three key recommendations to ensure the integrity of scientific publications in journals: (1) Use an editor or editorial board to prescreen and remove manuscripts of low suitability; (2) use a three-of-three or four-of-four decision rule when deciding on paper acceptance; and (3) use a stricter decision rule for resubmissions.
GALAXY ENVIRONMENTS OVER COSMIC TIME: THE NON-EVOLVING RADIAL GALAXY DISTRIBUTIONS AROUND MASSIVE GALAXIES SINCE z = 1.6

We present a statistical study of the environments of massive galaxies in four redshift bins between z = 0.04 and z = 1.6, using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the NEWFIRM Medium Band Survey. We measure the projected radial distribution of galaxies in cylinders around a constant number density selected sample of massive galaxies and utilize a statistical subtraction of contaminating sources. Our analysis shows that massive primary galaxies typically live in group halos and are surrounded by 2–3 satellites with masses more than one-tenth of the primary galaxy mass. The cumulative stellar mass in these satellites roughly equals the mass of the primary galaxy itself. We further find that the radial number density profile of galaxies around massive primaries has not evolved significantly in either slope or overall normalization in the past 9.5 Gyr. A simplistic interpretation of this result can be taken as evidence for a lack of mergers in the studied groups and as support for a static evolution model of halos containing massive primaries. Alternatively, there exists a tight balance between mergers and accretion of new satellites such that the overall distribution of galaxies in and around the halo is preserved. The latter interpretation is supported by a comparison to a semi-analytic model, which shows a similar constant average satellite distribution over the same redshift range.
A modified Arcan test to analyze the behavior of composites and their assemblies under out-of-plane loadings

Composite materials are a key element in weight reduction strategies, so the analysis of the mechanical behavior of assemblies of composite modules is of great importance. Failure initiation in bonded assemblies involving composites is often associated with crack initiation in the adhesive or delamination of the composite plies close to the adhesive joint, caused by interlaminar or throughthickness stresses. Thus, the analysis of the behavior of composites and their assemblies under outof-plane loadings is necessary in order to optimize such structures. However, few experimental devices are proposed in the literature and they often require thick composite specimens which are not representative of most industrial applications. This paper describes the use of a modified Arcan test to determine the behavior of composites and hybrid bonded assemblies over a wide range of tensile– shear out-of-plane loadings. The key advantages of this fixture are the testing of thin composite plates and the use of an adhesive to fix samples. Moreover, an optimization of the design of the proposed device, based on finite element simulations, significantly limits the influence of edge effects in order to obtain accurate experimental results. Some test results are presented which underline the potential of the proposed approach.
Kobe University Repository : Kernel タイトル Tit le Purificat ion and characterizat ion of a halotolerant intracellular protease from Bacillus subt ilis strain FP-133 著者

A halotolerant strain FP-133, able to grow at concentrations of 0-12.5% (w/v) NaCl, was isolated from a fish paste and identified as Bacillus subtilis. B. subtilis strain FP-133 produced an intracellular protease which showed catalytic activity under saline conditions. The enzyme was purified to homogeneity 143-fold with a yield of 0.9%. The purified enzyme showed an optimum activity at a concentration of 5% (w/v) NaCl. After storage in 7.5% (w/v) NaCl at 4°C for 24 h, the enzyme kept 100% of its activity. The molecular mass of the protease was determined to be 59 kDa by gel filtration; the protein consisted of four subunits each with a molecular mass of 14 kDa. The enzyme showed aminopeptidase activity. It acted on L-leucyl-p-nitroanilide, L-leucyl-β-naphthylamide, and oligopeptides containing glycine, L-histidine, or L-leucine. The Km and Vmax values for L-leucyl-pnitroanilide were 18 μM and 2.2 mM/h mg, respectively. The enzyme was activated by Fe, Fe, and Ni in synergism with Mg.
OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE AND PERFORMANCE IN LARGE SPANISH COMPANIES. EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF AN ENDOGENOUS RELATION

The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between ownership structure and firm value. This relationship is analyzed taking into account not only the endogenous character of ownership but also the peculiarities of the Spanish corporate system. For this purpose, we select a balanced panel of 101 companies quoted in the Madrid exchange market from 1991 through 1997. We have applied econometric panel data techniques (generalized method of moments, gmm), which allows us to control the endogeneity problem through instruments. Our results confirm the positive effect of ownership concentration on firm market value. This relationship is robust to the inclusion of variables regarding the nature of the main shareholder, firm industry and time. Furthermore, we present some evidence about the relationship between the type of control (majority and minority) and a firm’s market value.
Treatment of gaseous effluents by using surface discharge plasma in continuous reactors: Process modelling and simulation

In the present work, the oxidation of isovaleraldehyde, a typical pollutant of indoor air, is investigated by using two different plasma DBD reactors: cylindrical and planar reactor. The study of the influence of the specific energy shows that its increment is accompanied by an increase of the removal efficiency. In fact, when specific energy extends three times, the removal efficiency is increased from 5 to 40 %. Moreover an increase of the specific energy induces a higher mineralization due to byproducts oxidation with reactive species production. The same behaviour is observed with ozone production. A generic mathematical model is developed to represent the experimental results obtained. This model is based on several mass transfer steps occurring in series between bulk and plasma phases. The degradation reaction mechanism is supposed to occur on two steps. Firstly, isovaleraldehyde leads to the formation of a fictitious equivalent intermediate (EI). In a second step, EI is transformed into CO and CO2. This approach gives a good agreement between modelling and experiments with a satisfactory overall description of byproducts formation. This original approach allows for the simulation of plasma oxidation kinetics process without knowing the complete chemical pathway.
Does Bougainvillea spectabilis protect Swiss Albino Mice from Aflatoxin-induced Hepatotoxicity?

| We have investigated the protective effect of oral administration of the ethanolic extract of Bougainvillea spectabilis leaves against aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) induced hepatic injuries among male Swiss albino mice. AFB1 exposure has significantly increased (P< 0.05) the lipid peroxidase activity and decreased the activities of various antioxidant enzymes viz. superoxide dismutase (57.58%), catalase (24.14%), glutathione peroxidase (44.21%), glutathione S-transferase (44.07%) and glutathione reductase (13.51%). It also declined the level of ascorbic acid, reduced glutathione and protein contents by 47%, 34% and 24% respectively. It markedly decreased lipid peroxidation (TBARS level) with concomitant stimulation (P < 0.05) of antioxidants (enzymatic and non – enzymatic both). HPTLC analysis revealed availability of sufficient amount of flavonoids, alkaloids and phenolic compounds in the extract of B. spectabilis leaves might be responsible for the improved efficiency of antioxidant system and subsequent protection from aflatoxicity.
Are Americans Becoming More or Less Alike ? Trends in Race , Class , and Ability Differences in Intelligence

American students' test scores have been slowly but steadily declining for the past half century. Some recent explanations for this decline have focused on dysgenic trends resulting from low-IQ parents outbreeding highIQ parents. In this article, the authors examined the evidence for dysgenic trends by considering race-, class-, and ability-related changes in intelligence test scores over time. They concluded that (a) racial differences in intelligence decreased from 1973 to 1988 and have remained fairly constant since, (b) intelligence differences between the upper and lower thirds of social class groups have been decreasing slightly since 1932, and (c) Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test-score differences between the top and bottom quartiles have been relatively stable since 1961. Thus, the authors found no evidence supporting the dysgenic hypothesis. Rather, the combined evidence points to a growing convergence across racial, socioeconomic, and ability-related segments of American society.
Interfacial Equilibria and Structure of Polyatomic Fluids from Interfacial-SAFT ( i SAFT ) Density Functional Theory

We have recently investigated the slow dynamics of 1-butyl-3methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate, a very popular room-temperature ionic solvent. Our study predicts the existence of heterogeneity in the liquid and shows that this heterogeneity is the underlying microscopic cause for the recently reported "Red Edge Effect"(REE) observed in the study of fluorescence of the organic probe ANF. Our theoretical work explains in microscopic terms the relation between REE and dynamic heterogeneity in a room-temperature ionic liquid. We have also been able to predict the timeand wavelengthdependent emission spectra of ANF in the same ionic solvent. From the analysis of our simulated data we are able to derive an approximate time scale for reorganization of the solvent around the solute probe. Diffusion Studies by Pulsed-Gradient NMR: Capabilities, Results, and Perspectives
Athens Institute for Education and Research ATINER ATINER ' s Conference Paper Series FIT 2013-0799

Rationale: To document the nature of common soccer musculoskeletal injuries and the exercise performance of the male Kwa Zulu Natal (KZN) junior soccer team. Methods: Eighteen players’ underwent kinanthropometric, exercise performance assessments and a musculoskeletal injury questionnaire appraisal. The kinanthropometric characteristics measured were body mass, stature and skinfold measurements. The exercise performance profile constituents were resting heart rate, blood pressure, flexibility, muscle strength and endurance, explosive strength, agility and aerobic capacity. Plantar and dorsi-flexion and quadriceps angles constituted the flexibility tests. Exercise performance was measured with the following test; one minute sit-ups and press-ups, vertical jump, 10m agility T-test and 20m multistage fitness test. Results: Of the 18 players who answered the questionnaire, 72.2% experienced soccer musculoskeletal injury indicating the knee (42.8%), ankle (28.5%) and hip (21.4%) to be most prevalent (p<0.05). The cohort’s mean age, body mass, stature, body mass index and percentage body fat were 14.3 ± 0.6 years, 53.2 ±7.5kg, 1.6 ±0.08m, 20.0 ± 1.4 kg/m2 and 5.5 ± 2.2% respectively. The players’ mean resting heart rate was 59.7 ± 12.7bpm. The players’ push-up (36.4 ± 7.5 rep/min.) and vertical jump (32.4 ± 0.2) scores were below the norm. The cohort’s completed an average of 47.2±5.5 sit-ups. The players’ ATINER CONFERENCE PAPER SERIES No: FIT2013-0799 6 flexibility, abdominal strength and endurance, agility and aerobic capacity were within the normative ranges respectively. Conclusion: The players sustained a high prevalence of soccer musculoskeletal injuries over the last 12 months. Players need to enhance their fitness status.
An Uncertainty Management Perspective on Long-Run Impacts of Adversity: The Influence of Childhood Socioeconomic Status on Risk, Time, and Social Preferences

Abstract While there has been a recent increase in focus on the role of early life socioeconomic status (SES) on preferences and decision-making, there is still debate surrounding the proper theoretical framework for understanding such effects. Some have argued that early life SES can fundamentally shift time preferences per se, such that those from low SES backgrounds favor current rewards over future rewards. Others have argued that, while early life SES has lasting effects on behavior, such effects are only observable in the presence of salient cues to mortality. Here, we propose an alternative framework that centers on environmental uncertainty. In this uncertainty management framework, early life deprivation promotes the development of strategies that minimize the downside costs of uncertainty across domains. We argue that this focus on managing uncertainty results in greater risk-aversion, present-orientation, and prosociality. Furthermore, these effects need not be dependent on salient cues to mortality. Across four large samples of participants (total N = 4714), we find that childhood deprivation uniquely predicts greater risk-aversion (both incentivized and hypothetical) and greater prosociality in economic games. Childhood deprivation also predicts greater present-orientation, but not above-and beyond current SES. We further find that mortality cues are not necessary to elicit these differences. Our results support an uncertainty management perspective on the effects of childhood SES on risk, time, and social preferences.