Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adenylyl cyclase 2 (AC2) selectively couples to EP2 receptors while adenylyl cyclase 3 (AC3) is not receptor regulated in airway smooth muscle

Adenylyl cyclases (AC) are important regulators of airway smooth muscle function, as ßadrenergic receptor (ßAR) agonists stimulate AC activity and cAMP production. We have previously shown in a number of cell types that AC6 selectively couples to ßAR and that these proteins are co-expressed in lipid rafts. We overexpressed AC2, AC3 or AC6 in mouse bronchial smooth muscle cells (mBSMC) and HEK-293 cells using recombinant adenoviruses and assessed their localization and regulation by various G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR). AC3 and AC6 were expressed primarily in caveolin-rich fractions, whereas AC2 expression was excluded from these domains. AC6 expression enhanced cAMP production in response to isoproterenol but did not increase responses to butaprost, reflecting the colocalization of AC6 with ß2AR but not EP2R in lipid raft fractions. AC2 expression enhanced butaprost-stimulated cAMP production but had no effect on the ß2AR-mediated response. AC3 did not couple to any GPCR we tested. Forskolin-induced arborization of mBSMC was assessed as a functional readout of cAMP signaling. Arborization was enhanced by overexpression of AC6 and AC3, but AC2 had no effect. GPCR-stimulated arborization mirrored the selective coupling observed for cAMP production. With addition of the PDE4 inhibitor, rolipram, AC2 did accelerate forskolinstimulated arborization. Thus, AC2 selectively couples to EP2R but signals from this complex are limited by PDE4 activity. AC3 does not appear to couple to GPCR in either mBSMC or HEK-293 cells, so likely exists in a distinct signaling domain. JPET #193425
The Effect of Learning Style and General Self-E cacy on Satisfaction of e-Learning in Dental Student

Tahereh Baherimoghadam Department of Orthodontic, School of Dentistry, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University Shahram Hamedani Oral and Dental Disease Research Center, School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran Manoosh Mehrabi Department of e-Learning in Medical Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. Navid Naseri (  Navidnaseri@gmail.com ) Department of Orthodontic, School of Dentistry, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University Nooshin Marzban Private dentist
Temporally resolved sectoral and regional contributions to air pollution in Beijing: informing short-term emission controls

We investigate the contributions of local and regional emission sources to air quality in Beijing to inform the design of short-term emission control strategies for mitigating major pollution episodes. We use a well-evaluated version of the WRF-Chem model at 3 km horizontal resolution to determine the daily accumulation of pollution over Beijing from local and regional sources in October 2014 under a range of meteorological conditions. Considering feasible emission reductions across residential, transport, power and industrial sectors, we find that one-day controls on local emissions have an immediate effect on PM2.5 concentrations on the same day, but can have lingering effects as much as five days later under stagnant conditions. One-day controls in surrounding provinces have the greatest effect in Beijing on the day following the controls, but may have negligible effects under northwesterly winds when local emissions dominate. To explore the contribution of different emission sectors and regions, we perform simulations with each source removed in turn. We find that residential and industrial sectors from neighbouring provinces dominate PM2.5 levels in Beijing during major pollution episodes, but that local residential emissions and industrial/residential emissions from more distant provinces can also contribute significantly during some episodes. We then perform a structured set of perturbed emission simulations to allow us to build statistical emulators that represent the relationships between emission sources and air pollution in Beijing over the period. We use these computationally fast emulators to determine the sensitivity of PM2.5 concentrations to different emission sources and the interactions between them, including for secondary PM, and to create pollutant response surfaces for daily average PM2.5 concentrations in Beijing. We use these surfaces to identify the short-term emission controls needed to meet the national air quality target of daily average PM2.5 less than 75 μg m−3 for pollution episodes of different intensities. We find that for heavily polluted days with daily mean PM2.5 higher than 225 μg m−3, even emission reductions of 90 % across all sectors over Beijing and surrounding provinces may be insufficient to meet the national air quality standards. These results highlight the regional nature of PM pollution and the challenges of tackling it during major pollution episodes.
Assessing the usability of complex psychosocial interventions: The Intervention Usability Scale

Background: Usability—the extent to which an intervention can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction—may be a key determinant of implementation success. However, few instruments have been developed to measure the design quality of complex health interventions (i.e., those with several interacting components). This study evaluated the structural validity of the Intervention Usability Scale (IUS), an adapted version of the well-established System Usability Scale (SUS) for digital technologies, to measure the usability of a leading complex psychosocial intervention, Motivational Interviewing (MI), for behavioral health service delivery in primary care. Prior SUS studies have found both one- and two-factor solutions, both of which were examined in this study of the IUS. Method: A survey administered to 136 medical professionals from 11 primary-care sites collected demographic information and IUS ratings for MI, the evidence-based psychosocial intervention that primary-care providers reported using most often for behavioral health service delivery. Factor analyses replicated procedures used in prior research on the SUS. Results: Analyses indicated that a two-factor solution (with “usable” and “learnable” subscales) best fit the data, accounting for 54.1% of the variance. Inter-item reliabilities for the total score, usable subscale, and learnable subscale were α = . 83, α = . 84, and α = . 67, respectively. Conclusion: This study provides evidence for a two-factor IUS structure consistent with some prior research, as well as acceptable reliability. Implications for implementation research evaluating the usability of complex health interventions are discussed, including the potential for future comparisons across multiple interventions and provider types, as well as the use of the IUS to evaluate the relationship between usability and implementation outcomes such as feasibility. Plain language abstract: The ease with which evidence-based psychosocial interventions (EBPIs) can be readily adopted and used by service providers is a key predictor of implementation success, but very little implementation research has attended to intervention usability. No quantitative instruments exist to evaluate the usability of complex health interventions, such as the EBPIs that are commonly used to integrate mental and behavioral health services into primary care. This article describes the evaluation of the first quantitative instrument for assessing the usability of complex health interventions and found that its factor structure replicated some research with the original version of the instrument, a scale developed to assess the usability of digital systems.
Effect of small-scale snow surface roughness on snow albedo and reflectance

Abstract. The primary goal of this paper is to present a model of snow surface albedo accounting for small-scale surface roughness effects. The model is based on photon recollision probability, and it can be combined with existing bulk volume albedo models, such as Two-streAm Radiative TransfEr in Snow (TARTES). The model is fed with in situ measurements of surface roughness from plate profile and laser scanner data, and it is evaluated by comparing the computed albedos with observations. It provides closer results to empirical values than volume-scattering-based albedo simulations alone. The impact of surface roughness on albedo increases with the progress of the melting season and is larger for larger solar zenith angles. In absolute terms, small-scale surface roughness can decrease the total albedo by up to about 0.1. As regards the bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF), it is found that surface roughness increases backward scattering especially for large solar zenith angle values.
Favouring a disunited Kingdom? How negative perceptions of the EU-referendum relate to individual mobility and collective action considerations

One consequence of the EU-referendum’s pro-Brexit outcome was a renewed call for Scottish independence. Supporting this call can be construed as a form of collective action Scots may engage in. However, Scots may also consider individual mobility strategies including - in extreme cases - emigration. The current research investigated how identity-dynamics relate to these identity management strategies in post-referendum Scotland. We found a positive association between perceiving the EU-referendum as having violated expectations and considering individual mobility responses, mediated by identity subversion (i.e., the perception that the referendum results fundamentally changed the UK’s identity). Furthermore, we found that perceiving the EU-referendum as having violated expectations was related to higher collective action intentions, mediated by disidentification from UK citizens. Taken together, these findings underscore the pervasive role social identity processes play in shaping political decisions and individual behaviour.
Response of Late Valencia Sweet Orange (Citrus Sinensis (L.) Osbeck) to Fertilization on Acrisols of the Semi-Deciduous Forest Agro-Ecological Zone of Ghana

ABSTRACT We conducted a study to determine the response of Late Valencia sweet orange to organic and inorganic fertilizer application for two seasons in the semi-deciduous forest agro-ecological zone of Ghana. The experiment which was conducted in a randomized complete block design with four replications consisted of six treatments: (1) 9 t/ha oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB); (2) 4 t/ha poultry manure (PM); (3) NPKZn (90 kg/ha N, 60 kg/ha P, 80 kg/ha K and 4.8 kg/ha Zn); (4) 0.5 EFB (4.5 t/ha) + 0.5 NPKZn (45 kg/ha N, 30 kg/ha P, 40 kg/ha K and 2.40 kg/ha Zn); (5) 0.5 PM (2 t/ha) + 0.5 NPKZn (45 kg/ha N, 30 kg/ha P, 40 kg/ha K and 2.40 kg/ha Zn) and (6) Control. In the 2019 harvest season, the treatment PM+NPKZn recorded the highest yield of 14.7 t/ha while the control recorded the least yield (6.4 t/ha). In the 2020 harvest season, fruit yield ranged from 17.3 t/ha with the NPKZn treated plots to 28.8 t/ha with the EFB treated plots. Economic analysis showed that for the five fertilizer application treatments, the highest benefit/cost ratio was attained with the EFB treatment for the two harvesting seasons combined. Fertilization did not significantly affect leaf nutrient content 253 days after application. However, leaf nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) contents were generally higher 253 days after fertilizer application than the initial levels while phosphorus (P) level did not change. The study suggests the need for farmers to adopt the use of organic wastes as a soil fertility management practice for citrus while at the same time ensuring timely control of diseases to reduce fruit drop and improve fruit yield.
Inferring the Subsurface Geometry and Strength of Slow‐Moving Landslides Using 3‐D Velocity Measurements From the NASA/JPL UAVSAR

The hazardous impact and erosive potential of slow‐moving landslides depends on landslide properties including velocity, size, and frequency of occurrence. However, constraints on size, in particular, subsurface geometry, are lacking because these types of landslides rarely fully evacuate material to create measurable hillslope scars. Here, we use pixel offset tracking with data from the NASA/JPL Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar to measure the three‐dimensional surface deformation of 134 slow‐moving landslides in the northern California Coast Ranges. We apply volume conservation to infer the actively deforming thickness, volume, geometric scaling, and frictional strength of each landslide. These landslides move at average rates between ∼0.1–2 m/yr and have active areas of ∼6.10 × 103–2.35 × 106 m2, inferred mean thicknesses of ∼1.1–25 m, and volumes of ∼7.01 × 103–9.75 × 106 m3. The best fit volume‐area geometric scaling exponent is γ ∼ 1.2–1.5, indicating that these landslides fall between typical soil and bedrock landslide scaling. A rollover in the scaling relationship suggests that the largest landslide complexes in our data set become large primarily by increasing in area rather than thickness. In addition, the slow‐moving landslides display scale‐dependent frictional strength, such that large landslide tend to be weaker than small landslides. This decrease in frictional strength with landslide size is likely because larger landslides are composed of higher proportions of weak material. Our work shows how state of the art remote sensing techniques can be used to better understand landslide processes and quantify their contribution to landscape evolution and hazards to human safety.
Radar and ground-level measurements of precipitation collected by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne during the International Collaborative Experiments for PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic winter games

Abstract. This article describes a 4-month dataset of precipitation and cloud measurements collected during the International Collaborative Experiments for PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic winter games (ICE-POP 2018). This paper aims to describe the data collected by the Environmental Remote Sensing Laboratory of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. The dataset includes observations from an X-band dual-polarisation Doppler radar, a W-band Doppler cloud profiler, a multi-angle snowflake camera and a two-dimensional video disdrometer ( https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.918315 , Gehring et al. , 2020 a ). Classifications of hydrometeor types derived from dual-polarisation measurements and snowflake photographs are presented. The dataset covers the period from 15 November 2017 to 18 March 2018 and features nine precipitation events with a total accumulation of 195 mm of equivalent liquid precipitation. This represents 85 % of the climatological accumulation over this period. To illustrate the available data, measurements corresponding to the four precipitation events with the largest accumulation are presented. The synoptic situations of these events were contrasted and influenced the precipitation type and accumulation. The hydrometeor classifications reveal that aggregate snowflakes were dominant and that some events featured significant riming. The combination of dual-polarisation variables and high-resolution Doppler spectra with ground-level snowflake images makes this dataset particularly suited to study snowfall microphysics in a region where such measurements were not available before.
Deposition of light-absorbing particles in glacier snow of the Sunderdhunga Valley, the southern forefront of the central Himalayas

Abstract. Anthropogenic activities on the Indo-Gangetic Plain emit vast amounts of light-absorbing particles (LAPs) into the atmosphere, modifying the atmospheric radiation state. With transport to the nearby Himalayas and deposition to its surfaces the particles contribute to glacier melt and snowmelt via darkening of the highly reflective snow. The central Himalayas have been identified as a region where LAPs are especially pronounced in glacier snow but still remain a region where measurements of LAPs in the snow are scarce. Here we study the deposition of LAPs in five snow pits sampled in 2016 (and one from 2015) within 1 km from each other from two glaciers in the Sunderdhunga Valley, in the state of Uttarakhand, India, in the central Himalayas. The snow pits display a distinct enriched LAP layer interleaved by younger snow above and older snow below. The LAPs exhibit a distinct vertical distribution in these different snow layers. For the analyzed elemental carbon (EC), the younger snow layers in the different pits show similarities, which can be characterized by a deposition constant of about 50 µ g m −2 mm −1 snow water equivalent (SWE), while the old-snow layers also indicate similar values, described by a deposition constant of roughly 150 µ g m −2 mm −1 SWE. The enriched LAP layer, contrarily, displays no similar trends between the pits. Instead, it is characterized by very high amounts of LAPs and differ in orders of magnitude for concentration between the pits. The enriched LAP layer is likely a result of strong melting that took place during the summers of 2015 and 2016, as well as possible lateral transport of LAPs. The mineral dust fractional absorption is slightly below 50 % for the young- and old-snow layers, whereas it is the dominating light-absorbing constituent in the enriched LAP layer, thus, highlighting the importance of dust in the region. Our results indicate the problems with complex topography in the Himalayas but, nonetheless, can be useful in large-scale assessments of LAPs in Himalayan snow.
Global modeling studies of composition and decadal trends of the Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer

Abstract. The Asian summer monsoon (ASM) traps convectively lifted boundary layer pollutants inside its upper-tropospheric lower-stratospheric Asian monsoon anticyclone (AMA). It is associated with a seasonal and spatially confined enhanced aerosol layer, called the Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer (ATAL). Due to the dynamical variability of the AMA, the dearth of in situ observations in this region, the complexity of the emission sources and of transport pathways, knowledge of the ATAL properties in terms of aerosol budget, chemical composition, as well as its variability and temporal trend is still largely uncertain. In this work, we use the Community Earth System Model (CESM 1.2 version) based on the coupling of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5) and the MAM7 (Modal Aerosol Model) aerosol module to simulate the composition of the ATAL and its decadal trends. Our simulations cover a long-term period of 16 years from 2000 to 2015. We identify a typical “double-peak” vertical profile of aerosols for the ATAL. We attribute the upper peak (around 100 hPa, predominant during early ATAL, e.g., in June) to dry aerosols, possibly from nucleation processes, and the lower peak (around 250 hPa, predominant for a well-developed and late ATAL, e.g., in July and August) to cloud-borne aerosols associated with convective clouds. We find that mineral dust (present in both peaks) is the dominant aerosol by mass in the ATAL, showing a large interannual variability but no long-term trend, due to its natural variability. The results between 120 and 80 hPa (dry aerosol peak) suggest that for aerosols other than dust the ATAL is composed of around 40 % of sulfate, 30 % of secondary and 15 % of primary organic aerosols, 14 % of ammonium aerosols and less than 3 % of black carbon. Nitrate aerosols are not considered in MAM7. The analysis of the anthropogenic and biomass burning aerosols shows a positive trend for all aerosols simulated by CESM-MAM7.
How is analytical thinking related to religious belief? A test of three theoretical models

ABSTRACT The replicability and importance of the correlation between cognitive style and religious belief have been debated. Moreover, the literature has not examined distinct psychological accounts of this relationship. We tested the replicability of the correlation (N = 5284; students and broader samples of Canadians, Americans, and Indians); while testing three accounts of how cognitive style comes to be related to belief in God, karma, witchcraft, and to the belief that religion is necessary for morality. The first, the dual process model, posits that analytical thinking is recruited in overriding intuitions related to supernatural beliefs. The second, the expressive rationality model, posits that analytical thinking is recruited in supporting already-held beliefs in an identity-protective manner. And the third, the counter-normativity rationality model, posits that analytical thinking is recruited to question beliefs supported by prevailing cultural norms. In Study 2, we tested the replicability of our results in a re-analysis of published data. The association between analytic thinking style and beliefs was replicated. We conclude that whereas the counter-normativity rationality model was contradicted by the data, both the dual process and expressive rationality models received varying degrees of empirical support, but neither model fully accounted for all the patterns in the data.
Response of tidal flow regime and sediment transport in North Malé Atoll, Maldives, to coastal modification and sea level rise

Abstract. Changes to coastlines and bathymetry alter tidal dynamics and associated sediment transport processes, impacting upon a number of threats facing coastal regions, including flood risk and erosion. Especially vulnerable are coral atolls such as those that make up the Maldives archipelago, which has undergone significant land reclamation in recent years and decades and is also particularly exposed to sea level rise. Here we develop a tidal model of Male Atoll, Maldives, the first atoll-scale and multi-atoll-scale high-resolution numerical model of the atolls of the Maldives and use it to assess potential changes to sediment grain size distributions in the deeper atoll basin, under sea level rise and coastline alteration scenarios. The results indicate that the impact of coastline modification over the last two decades at the island scale is not limited to the immediate vicinity of the modified island but can also significantly impact the sediment grain size distribution across the wider atoll basin. Additionally, the degree of change in sediment distribution which can be associated with sea level rise that is projected to occur over relatively long time periods is predicted to occur over far shorter time periods with coastline changes, highlighting the need to better understand, predict and mitigate the impact of land reclamation and other coastal modifications before conducting such activities.