Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kindergarten Affordances for Physical Activity and Preschoolers’ Motor and Social-Emotional Competence

This study examined the relationship between the quality of the kindergarten physical and social environment to promote physical activity (PA) and preschoolers’ motor and social-emotional competence. Two Portuguese kindergartens (Gondomar city) were selected from a pool of seventeen with an assessment of kindergarten PA best practices (one with high PA practices, the other with low). Thirty-six children (M = 4.42; SD = 1.00 years) without neuromotor disorders participated in this study. Motor and social-emotional competence were assessed with standardized motor skills tasks and parent report of child behaviors. Children from the kindergarten with higher compliance with PA best practices showed significantly better motor competence. No statistically significant differences were found for social-emotional competence scores. These findings emphasize the critical importance of kindergarten in promoting preschoolers’ motor competence by assuring a physical and social environment that enhances their PA practice. This is a particularly relevant concern for directors and teachers during the post-pandemic period, given the developmental delays and decreases in physical activity preschool children experienced across the pandemic period.
Impacts of Climate Change and Land Use/Cover Change on the Net Primary Productivity of Vegetation in the Qinghai Lake Basin

The Qinghai Lake Basin acts as a natural barrier, preventing the western desert from spreading eastward. This is an important link in preserving the ecological stability of the northeastern region of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP). Therefore, quantitative research into the net primary productivity (NPP) of vegetation and its driving force in the Qinghai Lake Basin is required. The effects of land use/cover change (LUCC) and climate change on NPP in the Qinghai Lake Basin were studied using R-contribution ratio and partial correlation analysis methods using MOD17A3H products, Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) data, and meteorological data. (1) The LULC of the Qinghai Lake Basin showed a trend that “the area of grassland, cultivated land, and unused land continued to decrease, while the area of other LULC types increased” from 2000 to 2020, according to the study’s findings. Grassland, water bodies, construction land, and unused land dominated the mutual transformation of LULC types. (2) The NPP of the basin showed a growing trend, with a growth rate of 3.93 gC·m–2·a–1 before 2010 and 0.88 gC·m–2·a–1 after 2010. Significant regional heterogeneity was found in NPP, with gradients decreasing from southeast to northwest. (3) The impact of LUCC on overall NPP changes had gradually increased. Climate change has been the primary driver of NPP changes in the Qinghai Lake Basin over the last 20 years.
Microwave-Assisted Extraction of Carrageenan from Sarcopeltis skottsbergii

The development of greener processes for the sustainable utilization of raw materials is increasingly demanded for environmental and economic reasons. A rapid and chemical-free technique was proposed for the extraction of hybrid kappa/iota (6/4) carrageenan from Sarcopeltis (ex Gigartina) skottsbergii. After separation, carrageenans were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflectance, high-performance size-exclusion chromatography, and rheology. Maximum carrageenan extraction yields up to 63–64% were obtained operating at 110 or at 160 °C, for 5–7 min considering the sum of the heating and cooling periods, but the extraction of the phenolic fraction was favored at 220 °C. The recovered carrageenan showed apparent viscous values around 103 mPa at the lowest tested shear rates (0.1 1/s) and could be suitable to formulate films. Furthermore, those carrageenans obtained under 140 °C showed gel characteristics without previous separation from the liquid extract, avoiding ethanolic precipitation and energy consumption. The antiradical properties correlated with the phenolic content in the liquid phase, but no influence of temperature on the reducing properties was observed. The microwave-assisted hydrothermal treatment could be an efficient tool without needing chemicals for the extraction of carrageenans, which showed adequate rheological properties for commercial uses.
DENSE ORBITS WITH TWO ENDS

In this paper almost transitive actions of linear algebraic groups G are studied on complete normal manifolds X defined over the field of complex numbers. Such actions are completely described in cases when the complement in X of an open orbit is disconnected or contains an isolated point. As a preliminary, all homogeneous spaces of G having two Freudenthal ends are found.Bibliography: 16 titles.
Functional Niche Partitioning Occurs over Body Size but Not Nutrient Reserves nor Melanism in a Polar Carabid Beetle along an Altitudinal Gradient

Simple Summary When exposed to gradual stresses such as climate warming, species with high plasticity may develop different growth types (morphotypes) adapted to specific ranges of the temperature spectrum, thereby securing their survival in various scenarios. Amblystogenium pacificum is a carabid beetle endemic to the sub-Antarctic Crozet Islands that has two distinctive morphotypes based on body coloration. Here, we measured functional traits related to morphology and biochemical reserves to test whether they were related to morphotype, sex, and altitude (as a proxy for a temperature gradient). We also tested whether distinct functional niches (trait profiles) could be identified based on morphotype, sex, and altitude. We found a positive correlation between altitude and body size as well as higher protein and sugar reserves in females than in males. The body size profile showed the clearest functional response of A. pacificum along the altitudinal gradient, even though darker morphotypes tended to be smaller and more constrained at higher altitudes and females showed limited trait variations at the highest altitude. Hence, our results show mitigated responses of A. pacificum in the temperature–size relationships such that further trait measurements are necessary before using this as a model case to investigate population range shifts in relation to global changes. Abstract Phenotypic plasticity can favor the emergence of different morphotypes specialized in specific ranges of environmental conditions. The existence of intraspecific partitioning confers resilience at the species scale and can ultimately determine species survival in a context of global changes. Amblystogenium pacificum is a carabid beetle endemic to the sub-Antarctic Crozet Islands, and it has two distinctive morphotypes based on body coloration. For this study, A. pacificum specimens of functional niches were sampled along an altitudinal gradient (as a proxy for temperature), and some morphological and biochemical traits were measured. We used an FAMD multivariate analysis and linear mixed-effects models to test whether these traits were related to morphotype, altitude, and sexual dimorphism. We then calculated and compared the functional niches at different altitudes and tested for niche partitioning through a hypervolume approach. We found a positive hump-shaped correlation between altitude and body size as well as higher protein and sugar reserves in females than in males. Our functional hypervolume results suggest that the main driver of niche partitioning along the altitudinal gradient is body size rather than morphotype or sex, even though darker morphotypes tended to be more functionally constrained at higher altitudes and females showed limited trait variations at the highest altitude.
Improving Management of Portal Hypertension: The Potential Benefit of Non-Etiological Therapies in Cirrhosis

Portal hypertension is the consequence of cirrhosis and results from increased sinusoidal vascular resistance and hepatic blood inflow. Etiological therapies represent the first intervention to prevent a significant increase in portal pressure due to chronic liver damage. However, other superimposed pathophysiological drivers may worsen liver disease, including inflammation, bacterial translocation, endothelial dysfunction, and hyperactivation of hemostasis. These mechanisms can be targeted by a specific class of drugs already used in clinical practice. Albumin, rifaximin, statins, aspirin, and anticoagulants have been tested in cirrhosis and were a topic of discussion in the last Baveno consensus as non-etiological therapies. Based on the pathogenesis of portal hypertension in cirrhosis, our review summarizes the main mechanisms targeted by these drugs as well as the clinical evidence that considers them a valid complementary option to manage patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension.
Electrically controlling the polarizing direction of a graphene polarizer

We theoretically demonstrate a polarizer with an electrically controllable polarizing direction in the far infrared range using two orthogonal periodic arrays of graphene ribbons, which have different widths and are supported on a dielectric film placed on a thick piece of metal. The operation mechanism originates from the polarization-dependent resonant absorption of the two orthogonal graphene ribbons, which can be respectively controlled with different external bias voltages. The operation wavelength can be expanded to terahertz (THz) radiation.
A study of the timing and duration of icebreaks on shipping routes in the Laptev Sea

The dynamics of the development of the Lena polynya forming in the Laptev Sea and its impact on navigation conditions in the Arctic, in the Laptev Sea, is investigated. The hypothesis is tested that the timing of polynya may have a significant impact on its average growth rate. The results of the GLORYS12v1 global reanalysis and standard methods of mathematical statistics were used in this test. The validity of the hypothesis was confirmed by the example of the section of the polynya located at the mouth of the major navigable channel of the Lena delta Bykovskaya. Stable tendencies of changing the dates of the polynya formation towards earlier dates in the modern period have been revealed. A high probability of improvement of navigation conditions is observed in this region in 2020-2040. However, with further warming of the Siberian climate, the opposite process is possible - the freezing of the polynya that formed too early, which will lead to a colder climate in the region and deterioration of navigation conditions. The selection of general routes for ships in the areas where the polynya is spreading will contribute to more intensive and safer navigation. For this purpose, accurate forecasts of its size and position are required. The relevance of research results for ship traffic forecasting and plans for the use of icebreaker escorts for vessels is noted.
Jacob’s Disease: Case Series, Extensive Literature Review and Classification Proposal

Jacob’s disease is a rare entity consisting of the formation of a pseudojoint between an abnormal coronoid process of the mandible and the inner surface of the zygomatic bone. First described by Jacob in 1899, its diagnosis and definition have never been entirely univocal. In this paper, we present three emblematic cases and an extensive review of the literature on Jacob’s disease. Given the variability observed in the presentation of the disease, we have developed a proposal for the classification, here reported.
Declining, seasonal-varying emissions of sulfur hexafluoride from the United States

Abstract. Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is the most potent greenhouse gas (GHG), and its atmospheric abundance, albeit small, has been increasing rapidly. Although SF6 is used to assess atmospheric transport modeling and its emissions influence the climate for millennia, SF6 emission magnitudes and distributions have substantial uncertainties. In this study, we used NOAA's ground-based and airborne measurements of SF6 to estimate SF6 emissions from the United States between 2007 and 2018. Our results suggest a substantial decline of US SF6 emissions, a trend also reported in the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) national inventory submitted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), implying that US mitigation efforts have had some success. However, the magnitudes of annual emissions derived from atmospheric observations are 40 %–250 % higher than the EPA's national inventory and substantially lower than the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) inventory. The regional discrepancies between the atmosphere-based estimate and EPA's inventory suggest that emissions from electric power transmission and distribution (ETD) facilities and an SF6 production plant that did not or does not report to the EPA may be underestimated in the national inventory. Furthermore, the atmosphere-based estimates show higher emissions of SF6 in winter than in summer. These enhanced wintertime emissions may result from increased maintenance of ETD equipment in southern states and increased leakage through aging brittle seals in ETD in northern states during winter. The results of this study demonstrate the success of past US SF6 emission mitigations and suggest that substantial additional emission reductions might be achieved through efforts to minimize emissions during servicing or through improving sealing materials in ETD.
Combining Dynamic Mode Decomposition and Difference-in-Differences in an Analysis of At-Risk Youth

We analyze the impact of the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office of Gang Reduction Youth Development (GRYD) prevention programming using quasi-experimental data. We model the evolution of questionnaire scores and apply Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) to describe the asymptotic behavior of the dynamical system. The analysis indicates that risk decreased for youth who enrolled in GRYD prevention services, while it increased or remained the same for those who were in the control group. We augment these observations using a difference-in-differences (DID) model, showing that the decrease in risk can be attributed to enrolment in prevention services. We draw a connection between DMD and DID using both mathematical analysis and empirical evidence from the questionnaire data. Combining DMD and DID with factor analysis, we investigate the effectiveness of prevention services with respect to different attitudinal domains. We conclude that gang prevention is most effective in impacting attitudes towards negative peer obedience and least effective in impacting attitudes towards violence for self defense. Our analytical approach can be extended to other types of repeated questionnaires.
Effective College Teaching

ARE YOU PLANNING TO TEACH IN A COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY? TEACHING ALREADY? Knowing something yourself is different from helping someone else learn it. The course Effective College Teaching will be offered during the Spring 2010 semester and is open to graduate students from all disciplines. Effective College Teaching can help you develop a solid foundation of research-based professional knowledge and skills essential for college teaching today. Discover how to:
Combining radial basis function surrogates and dynamic coordinate search in high-dimensional expensive black-box optimization

This article presents the DYCORS (DYnamic COordinate search using Response Surface models) framework for surrogate-based optimization of HEB (High-dimensional, Expensive, and Black-box) functions that incorporates an idea from the DDS (Dynamically Dimensioned Search) algorithm. The iterate is selected from random trial solutions obtained by perturbing only a subset of the coordinates of the current best solution. Moreover, the probability of perturbing a coordinate decreases as the algorithm reaches the computational budget. Two DYCORS algorithms that use RBF (Radial Basis Function) surrogates are developed: DYCORS-LMSRBF is a modification of the LMSRBF algorithm while DYCORS-DDSRBF is an RBF-assisted DDS. Numerical results on a 14-D watershed calibration problem and on eleven 30-D and 200-D test problems show that DYCORS algorithms are generally better than EGO, DDS, LMSRBF, MADS with kriging, SQP, an RBF-assisted evolution strategy, and a genetic algorithm. Hence, DYCORS is a promising approach for watershed calibration and for HEB optimization.
Assessing illegal trade networks of two species of pangolins through a questionnaire survey in Nepal

Pangolins are among the most extensively traded taxa in southeastern Asia mainly due to the perceived medicinal value of their scales and other body parts, putting them at risk of extinction, however, little is known about their trade status in Nepal. The purpose of the study was to assess the status of pangolin trade in Makwanpur district of Nepal. Semi-structured interview with household (n = 90), key informant survey (n = 15), Four focus group discussion at each study site was conducted. Seizure data (2015–2019) were gathered from the law enforcement agencies to identify and analyze the major trade routes. The majority of the respondents (63%) were well aware of the protection status of pangolins. Further, our study found that historically local peoples used pangolin body parts in making rings, bags, jackets, and musical instruments but at present they stopped it. Pangolin traders were typically middle-aged men and unemployed youth. Majority of the hunting was found to be opportunistic but when pangolins were caught, they were generally sold for additional income. Currently, the seizure data has shown the declining trend of pangolin trade within the Makwanpur district. Community forest user groups and community based anti-poaching units are working actively for the conservation and promulgation of threatened pangolins in the Makwanpur district which had long served as a major trade route to China. Thus, we advocate strengthening border security and the formation of community-based anti-poaching units, followed by mobilization, anti-poaching trainings, security assurance, and incentives for worthy conservation results in pangolin-rich communities. Further, we recommend sustained conservation awareness programs, in addition to alternative livelihood opportunities, for the long-term conservation of pangolins and their habitat.
Extended optical line emission from 3C 293: radio jets propagating through a rotating gaseous disk

On presente des images optiques et des spectres a longue fente du gaz etendu responsable des raies, associe a la radiogalaxie particuliere 3C293. Ces donnees montrent que la galaxie contient un disque gazeux en rotation dans lequel le cœur radio puissant de 3C293 est immerge. Les raies d'emission de ce gaz sont relativement larges suggerant que les mouvements non circulaires sont importants. 3C293 ressemble a la radiogalaxie 3C305. On suppose que dans ces deux radiogalaxies des jets se propagent a travers les disques gazeux denses en rotation
How AlphaFold2 Predicts Conditionally Folding Regions Annotated in an Intrinsically Disordered Protein Database, IDEAL

Simple Summary Intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) in intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) play important roles in various biological processes by providing protein binding regions. The regions can adopt local structures upon binding to their interaction partners. An IDP database—IDEAL—has collected these conditionally binding regions as Protean Segments (ProSs). A recently developed program, called AlphaFold2 (AF2), accurately predicts structural domains in proteins. Because ProSs have the bilateral characteristics of IDRs and ordered regions, assessing AF2 models corresponding to ProSs is worthwhile. We classified ProSs into three classes: the excellent class agrees well with the AF2 models, the poor class agrees poorly, and the average class agrees between these two. The ProSs in the excellent class were characterized by some features similar to globular structures, whereas those in the poor class showed features of extended structures. The ProSs in the excellent class were further grouped into those with high prediction reliability (pLDDT) and those with a relatively low pLDDT and a small normalized radius of gyration. Abstract AlphaFold2 (AF2) is a protein structure prediction program which provides accurate models. In addition to predicting structural domains, AF2 assigns intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) by identifying regions with low prediction reliability (pLDDT). Some regions in IDRs undergo disorder-to-order transition upon binding the interaction partner. Here we assessed model structures of AF2 based on the annotations in IDEAL, in which segments with disorder-to-order transition have been collected as Protean Segments (ProSs). We non-redundantly selected ProSs from IDEAL and classified them based on the root mean square deviation to the corresponding region of AF2 models. Statistical analysis identified 11 structural and sequential features, possibly contributing toward the prediction of ProS structures. These features were categorized into two groups: one that contained pLDDT and the other that contained normalized radius of gyration. The typical ProS structures in the former group comprise a long α helix or a whole or part of the structural domain and those in the latter group comprise a short α helix with terminal loops.
The neural pathway of the hyperthermic response to antagonists of the transient receptor potential vanilloid-1 channel

ABSTRACT We identified the neural pathway of the hyperthermic response to TRPV1 antagonists. We showed that hyperthermia induced by i.v. AMG0347, AMG 517, or AMG8163 did not occur in rats with abdominal sensory nerves desensitized by pretreatment with a low i.p. dose of resiniferatoxin (RTX, TRPV1 agonist). However, neither bilateral vagotomy nor bilateral transection of the greater splanchnic nerve attenuated AMG0347-induced hyperthermia. Yet, this hyperthermia was attenuated by bilateral high cervical transection of the spinal dorsolateral funiculus (DLF). To explain the extra-splanchnic, spinal mediation of TRPV1 antagonist-induced hyperthermia, we proposed that abdominal signals that drive this hyperthermia originate in skeletal muscles – not viscera. If so, in order to prevent TRPV1 antagonist-induced hyperthermia, the desensitization caused by i.p. RTX should spread into the abdominal-wall muscles. Indeed, we found that the local hypoperfusion response to capsaicin (TRPV1 agonist) in the abdominal-wall muscles was absent in i.p. RTX-desensitized rats. We then showed that the most upstream (lateral parabrachial, LPB) and the most downstream (rostral raphe pallidus) nuclei of the intrabrain pathway that controls autonomic cold defenses are also required for the hyperthermic response to i.v. AMG0347. Injection of muscimol (inhibitor of neuronal activity) into the LPB or injection of glycine (inhibitory neurotransmitter) into the raphe blocked the hyperthermic response to i.v. AMG0347, whereas i.v. AMG0347 increased the number of c-Fos cells in the raphe. We conclude that the neural pathway of TRPV1 antagonist-induced hyperthermia involves TRPV1-expressing sensory nerves in trunk muscles, the DLF, and the same LPB-raphe pathway that controls autonomic cold defenses.
QUADRATIC STOCHASTIC OPERATORS, LYAPUNOV FUNCTIONS, AND TOURNAMENTS

A class of quadratic stochastic operators acting in a finite-dimensional simplex is distinguished that has trajectory at any point of the simplex behaving in a nonregular fashion as a rule. For the discrete dynamical systems generated by such operators the existence of a Lyapunov function of the form is proved, and an algorithm for finding the numbers is indicated. Upper estimates are obtained for the set of limit points of the trajectories. It is proved that the negative trajectories exist and converge. The question of the number of isolated fixed points of the operators in the distinguished class is considered. The connection between discrete dynamical systems and the theory of tournaments is also studied.Bibliography: 12 titles.