Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Evolution of Helium in Blue Compact Galaxies

We discuss the chemical evolution of dwarf irregular and blue compact galaxies in light of recent data, new stellar yields, and chemical evolution models. We examine the abundance data for evidence of H II region self-enrichment effects, which would lead to correlations in the scatter of helium, nitrogen, and oxygen abundances around their mean trends. The observed helium abundance trends show no such correlations, although the nitrogen-oxygen trend does show strong evidence for real scatter beyond observational error. We construct simple models for the chemical evolution of these galaxies, using the most recent yields of 4He, C, N, and O in intermediate- and high-mass stars. The effects of galactic outflows, which can arise both from bulk heating and evaporation of the interstellar medium and from the partial escape of enriched supernova ejecta are included. In agreement with other studies, we find that supernova-enriched outflows can roughly reproduce the observed He, C, N, and O trends; however, in models that fit N versus O, the slopes ΔY/ΔO and ΔY/ΔN consistently fall more than 2 σ below the fit to observations. We discuss the role of the models and their uncertainties in the extrapolation of primordial helium from the data. We also explore the model dependence arising from nucleosynthesis uncertainties associated with nitrogen yields in intermediate-mass stars, the fate of 8-11 M☉ stars, and massive star winds.
Lessons from Loricrin-deficient Mice : Compensatory Mechanisms Maintaining Skin Barrier Function in the Absence of a Major Cornified Envelope Protein

The epidermal cornified cell envelope (CE) is a complex protein–lipid composite that replaces the plasma membrane of terminally differentiated keratinocytes. This lamellar structure is essential for the barrier function of the skin and has the ability to prevent the loss of water and ions and to protect from environmental hazards. The major protein of the epidermal CE is loricrin, contributing z 70% by mass. We have generated mice that are deficient for this protein. These mice showed a delay in the formation of the skin barrier in embryonic development. At birth, homozygous mutant mice weighed less than control littermates and showed skin abnormalities, such as congenital erythroderma with a shiny, translucent skin. Tape stripping experiments suggested that the stratum corneum stability was reduced in newborn Lor 2 / 2 mice compared with wildtype controls. Isolated mutant CEs were more easily fragmented by sonication in vitro, indicating a greater susceptibility to mechanical stress. Nevertheless, we did not detect impaired epidermal barrier function in these mice. Surprisingly, the skin phenotype disappeared 4–5 d after birth. At least one of the compensatory mechanisms preventing a more severe skin phenotype in newborn Lor 2 / 2 mice is an increase in the expression of other CE components, such as SPRRP2D and SPRRP2H, members of the family of “small proline rich proteins”, and repetin, a member of the “fused gene” subgroup of the S100 gene family.
Plasmid-Borne erm(T) from Invasive, Macrolide-Resistant Streptococcus pyogenes Strains

ABSTRACT Twenty-three isolates of group A streptococci (GAS) recovered from population-based invasive GAS surveillance in the United States were erythromycin resistant, inducibly clindamycin resistant, and lacked known macrolide resistance determinants. These 23 isolates, representing four different clones, contained a broad-host-range plasmid carrying the erm(T) methylase gene, which has not been detected in GAS previously.
Chipless RFID Tag Using Hybrid Coding Technique

Increasing the coding capacity of chipless RFID tags is a key factor while considering the development of miniaturized tags. A novel hybrid coding technique by combining phase deviation and frequency position encoding is proposed here. A coding capacity of 22.9 bits is obtained simply with five resonators within a reduced dimension of 2 cm × 4 cm. The proposed tag is based on 5 `C' like metallic strip resonators having resonance frequency within the band of 2.5 GHz to 7.5 GHz. The tag is potentially low-cost since only one conductive layer is needed for the fabrication. Different tag configurations are designed and validated with measurement results in bi-static configuration. A good agreement between measurement and simulation validates the theoretical predictions.
How Society Can Foster Self-Directed Learning

Suppose we take Brigid Barron’s [this issue] learning ecology framework seriously as the way to encourage youths to take on the identity of self-directed learners. What kind of learning environments should we then try to create? How do such environments differ from the school-based learning environments we have invested in so heavily over the last 200 years? And how do the new technologies enable us to create learning environments that support self-directed learners? Self-directed learners are likely to be the clear winners in the 21st century economy. They will develop deep skills and knowledge, which can pay off in fruitful careers. If we are trying to foster self-directed learning, we particularly want to encourage youths to pursue career interests that are likely to pay off for them. Currently many youths pursue careers in sports or the arts because these careers are so visible and glamorous, despite the low probability of success. Barron focuses on self-directed learning in the context of computerand Web-based learning because that is the data she collected. But there are many other career-related interests that youths may develop, such as interests in medicine, law, the military, business, technology, etc. These are the kinds of areas around which school systems have been developing ‘career academies. ’ Youths also develop passions about more narrowly focused topics, which might evolve into careers, such as Chinese history, set theory, black holes, poetry or horses. All such passions can provide the basis for developing specialized knowledge that supports youths’ future endeavors. As a society we would do well to make it easier for youths to pursue their interests as deeply as possible.
Changes in picturing of ‘self’ in social anxiety disorder: a case report

Abstract Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by significant distress regarding social performance situations. Patients experience strong embarrassment about how they are perceived by others due to increased self-focused attention. This case report presents two cases of SAD and the effects of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) on ‘picturing of self’ (e.g. self-picturing and self-projection). The goal was to demonstrate the changes in ‘picturing of self’ using brief video feedback (VF) as a treatment and projective drawing as an assessment method of CBT, especially with SAD. The CBT consisted of psychoeducation and case formulation, cognitive restructuring, and behavioural experiments. In one case VF was used to provide additional means by showing the patient's own actual moving figure, the self-picture. For the other case, the patient was instructed to ‘draw a person’ and the changes in drawing style were assessed. Through the course of CBT, Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale scores reduced significantly in both cases. ‘Picturing of self’ changed as a result of the use of CBT. Brief VF and projective drawing would be useful for individuals to see the change in themselves.
The moderating role of past experience in the formation of a tourist destination's image and in tourists’ behavioural intentions

The aim of this work is to understand the moderating effects of tourists’ prior experiences of a given destination on the process of image formation (in both its cognitive and affective dimensions) for that destination and on the influence that the image – together with the tourist's satisfaction – has on their loyalty-driven behaviours as expressed in the intention to recommend. To achieve this aim, a sample of 512 tourists was used and a multi-group analysis performed, distinguishing between first-time and repeat visitors. The findings reveal that experience has a moderating effect on the formation of the cognitive image and on the influence of the tourist's satisfaction on the overall image of the tourist destination. These findings have significant management implications in the context of helping to create and appropriately manage the image of a tourist destination.
Assessment of clustering tendency through progressive random sampling and graph-based clustering results

Clustering analysis is widely used technique in many emerging applications. Assessment of clustering tendency is generally done by Visual Access Tendency (VAT) algorithm. VAT detects the clustering tendency by reordering the indices of objects from the dissimilarity matrix, according to logic of Prim's algorithm. Therefore, VAT demands high computational cost for large datasets. The contribution of proposed work is to develop best sampling technique for obtaining good representative of entire dataset in the form of sub-dissimilarity matrix in VAT, it provides accessing of prior tendency visually by detecting number of square shaped dark blocks along with diagonal in sample based VAT image. This proposed work gives same clustering tendency results when we compare with simple VAT, and it has an advantage of less processing time since it uses only sampled dissimilarity matrix. This sample based VAT (PSVAT) uses set of distinguished features for random selection of progressive sample representatives. Finally, known clustering tendency is used in graph-based clustering technique (Minimum Spanning Tree based clustering) for achieving efficient clustering results. Comparative runtime values of PSVAT and VAT on several datasets are presented in this paper for showing that PSVAT is better than VAT in respect of runtime performance and clustering validity is also tested by Dunn's Index for sampled data.
Parabens as Agents for Improving Crocetin Esters’ Shelf-Life in Aqueous Saffron Extracts

The effect of parabens on the shelf-life of crocetin esters and picrocrocin in aqueous saffron solutions was studied. Degradation of saffron crocetin esters fits a first-order kinetics model, and the results indicated that the crocetin (β-d-glucosyl)-(β-d-gentiobiosyl) esters were more stable than the crocetin di-(β-d-gentiobiosyl) esters regardless of whether trans and cis isomers were considered. Under all tested conditions both parabens gave good results, especially propyl paraben that showed a greater influence on the degradation rate constant, except for cis-crocetin di-(β-d-gentiobiosyl) ester and cis-crocetin (β-d-glucosyl)-(β-d-gentiobiosyl) ester. In presence of propyl paraben (200 mg/L), the half-life periods of trans-crocetin di-(β-d-gentiobiosyl) ester improved considerably, up to four-fold. Special attention has been paid to the effect of propyl paraben on 46 saffrons with different crocetin ester contents. No differences were observed in terms of picrocrocin. By analysis of variance, it is noteworthy that there were differences between the mean content of crocetin esters for all analysed saffron, except for trans-crocetin (β-d-glucosyl)-(β-d-gentiobiosyl) ester.
Evolving genetic regulatory networks for systems biology

Recently there has been significant interest in evolving genetic regulatory networks with a user-determined behaviour. It is unclear whether or not artificial evolution of biochemical networks can be of direct benefit for or biological relevance to systems biology. This article highlights some pitfalls when concluding from artificially evolved genetic regulatory networks to real networks. This article also gives a (brief) review of some previous attempts to evolve genetic regulatory networks with oscillatory behaviour; it also describes a new system to evolve networks and describes the networks that have been evolved. These networks seem to be very diverse sharing no apparent common motifs either with one another or with their real-life counterparts.
Launching Return-Oriented Programming Attacks against Randomized Relocatable Executables

Since the day it was proposed, return-oriented programming has shown to be an effective and powerful attack technique against the write or execute only (W xor X) protection. However, a general belief in the previous research is, systems deployed with address space randomization where the executables are also randomized at run-time are able to defend against return-oriented programming, as the addresses of all instructions are randomized. In this paper, we show that due to the weakness of current address space randomization technique, there are still ways of launching return-oriented programming attacks against those well-protected systems efficiently. We demonstrate and evaluate our attacks with existing typical web server applications and discuss possible methods of mitigating such threats.
Motivations to Participate in Riparian Improvement Programs

This study utilized the theory of planned behavior, a model of attitudinal factors related to behavioral intention, to investigate the lack of participation in government-sponsored programs to conserve riparian areas. A telephone survey of 209 rural landowners whose property abutted a waterway revealed that financial motivations, past behaviors, exposure to government information, and self-efficacy predicted 29 percent of the variance in intent to participate in future conservation programs. The findings suggest that external constraints and social barriers (such as financial variables) are important moderators of perceived behavioral control and deserve closer scrutiny.
Inclusive Education in Taiwan

As an echo of the worldwide movement of inclusive education and because of the conviction of inclusive ideas, special education in Taiwan is moving toward a goal of inclusion, though not necessarily full inclusion. While its terminology is as yet undesignated, principles and strategies are significantly reflected in the Special Education Act and regulations are present. Over the past decade, a number of inclusive programs have been developed and implemented first on an experimental base and later as a regular schooling practice. Statistics indicate that the major options of placement for students with disabilities are a regular class with special education services (inclusive) and resource room programs (integrative). To date, inclusive education in Taiwan has achieved some outcomes; however, because it is still in a developing stage, it is also encountering many challenges, such as teacher's confidence and capability, curriculum adaptation, peer acceptance, and supporting resources. The toughest challenge to deal with is disruptive behaviors by students with disabilities. In sum, teachers' caring, capability, and collaboration as well as a supporting environment are key to the success of inclusion, and there is plenty of room for improvement in these regards.
Postpartum adolescents’ contraceptive counselling preferences

Abstract Objectives: The optimal approach for provision and timing of postpartum contraceptive counselling for adolescents has not been established. To reduce repeat pregnancies from current USA levels of nearly 20%, a better understanding is needed of postpartum adolescent females’ preferences regarding contraceptive counselling and delivery. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with 30 USA postpartum teens (97% Black) explored pregnancy prevention and contraceptive counselling. Transcripts were independently coded by two researchers and inter-rater reliability calculated using Kappa coefficients. With a standard content analysis approach, common themes were identified, coded and summarized. Results: Findings indicated pregnancy prevention was important – two thirds of subjects reported becoming pregnant ‘too soon’, almost all did not desire another child for at least 6 years and most indicated that pregnancy prevention was either ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important right now. The subjects described doctors and their prenatal clinic as their most accurate sources of contraception information, but stated that doctors and parents were the most helpful sources. All were comfortable discussing contraception with providers and had a desire for shared decision making. While many had received written materials, most preferred in-person contraceptive counselling. Optimally, participants suggested that contraceptive counselling would be provided by a physician, begin antepartum and almost all preferred to leave the hospital with their chosen method of contraception. Conclusions: Pregnancy prevention is important for postpartum adolescents as most desired to delay future childbearing. In-person contraceptive counselling should begin in the antepartum period and include provision of contraception prior to discharge.
No More Heroes? Rejection and Reverberation of the Past in the 2008 Events in Greece

This article attempts to trace the contested relationship between the December 2008 riots in Greece and the revolutionary past, aiming to promote a discussion on the dynamic relationship between past and present. The article argues that even though the activists' repertoire was pretty much removed from the past, their discourse often echoed or reverberated its poetics. The article further discusses how past movements—including December 1944, May 1968 and the Polytechnic events of 1973, were picked up and promoted by the media as compelling alter egos. The paper further reacts against the assertion put forward by prominent analysts that the 2008 "December events" were a direct consequence of the so-called "spirit of the metapolitefsi" and catalogues the novel characteristics of the movement, including the extensive use of technology and its transnational outlook.
Grasping gestures: Gesturing with physical artifacts

Abstract Gestures play an important role in communication. They support the listener, who is trying to understand the speaker. However, they also support the speaker by facilitating the conceptualization and verbalization of messages and reducing cognitive load. Gestures thus play an important role in collaboration and also in problem-solving tasks. In human–computer interaction, gestures are also used to facilitate communication with digital applications, because their expressive nature can enable less constraining and more intuitive digital interactions than conventional user interfaces. Although gesture research in the social sciences typically considers empty-handed gestures, digital gesture interactions often make use of hand-held objects or touch surfaces to capture gestures that would be difficult to track in free space. In most cases, the physical objects used to make these gestures serve primarily as a means of sensing or input. In contrast, tangible interaction makes use of physical objects as embodiments of digital information. The physical objects in a tangible interface thus serve as representations as well as controls for the digital information they are associated with. Building on this concept, gesture interaction has the potential to make use of the physical properties of hand-held objects to enhance or change the functionality of the gestures made. In this paper, we look at the design opportunities that arise at the intersection of gesture and tangible interaction. We believe that gesturing while holding physical artifacts opens up a new interaction design space for collaborative digital applications that is largely unexplored. We provide a survey of gesture interaction work as it relates to tangible and touch interaction. Based on this survey, we define the design space of tangible gesture interaction as the use of physical devices for facilitating, supporting, enhancing, or tracking gestures people make for digital interaction purposes, and outline the design opportunities in this space.
The Evolution of Decision and Experienced Utilities

Psychologists report that people make choices on the basis of "decision utilities" that routinely overestimate the "experienced utility" consequences of these choices. This paper argues that this dichotomy between decision and experienced utilities may be the solution to an evolutionary design problem. We examine a setting in which evolution designs agents with utility functions that must mediate intertemporal choices, and in which there is an incentive to condition current utilities on the agent's previous experience. Anticipating future utility adjustments can distort intertemporal incentives, a conflict that is attenuated by separating decision and experienced utilities.
Dialogue between estrogen receptor and E2F signaling pathways: The transcriptional coregulator RIP140 at the crossroads

Estrogen receptors and E2F transcription factors are the key players of two nuclear signaling pathways which exert a major role in oncogenesis, particularly in the mammary gland. Different levels of dialogue between these two pathways have been deciphered and deregulation of the E2F pathway has been shown to impact the response of breast cancer cells to endocrine therapies. The present review focuses on the transcriptional coregulator RIP140/NRIP1 which is involved in several regulatory feed-back loops and inhibitory cross-talks between different nuclear signaling pathways. RIP140 regulates the transactivation potential of estrogen receptors and E2Fs and is also a direct transcriptional target of these transcription factors. Published data highlight the complex regulation of RIP140 expression at the transcriptional level and its potential role in transcription cross-talks. Indeed, a subtle regulation of RIP140 expression levels has important consequences on other transcription networks targeted by this coregulator. Another level of regulation implies titration mechanisms by which activation of a pathway leads to sequestration of the RIP140 protein and thus impinges other gene regulatory circuitries. Altogether, RIP140 occupies a place of choice in the dialogue between nuclear receptors and E2Fs, which could be highly relevant in various human pathologies such as cancer or metabolic diseases.
The Impact of Minimum Wage Increases on Food and Kindred Products Prices: An Analysis of Price Pass-Through

An input-output model is used to analyze price pass-through effects of a minimum wage increase on prices of the food and kindred products and food-service industries. These sectors employ a disproportionate share of minimum wage workers, but results suggest a $0.50 increase in the present minimum wage would increase food prices less than 1 percent for most of the 12 food and kindred products prices and 1 percent at eating and drinking places.
Teacher Empowerment Under “Ideal” School-Site Autonomy

Few systematic studies have been conducted to determine how school decentralization works, how authority is allocated, and how school decentralization affects teachers. Over 100 personal interviews with teachers and administrators provide the base for this detailed analysis of teacher empowerment in several highly decentralized school districts. This study examines three questions: how teachers respond to opportunities for more influence, how these opportunities affect their teaching, and how these opportunities affect teachers’ work life and sense of efficacy.
A genetic algorithm metaheuristic for bakery distribution vehicle routing problem with load balancing

In this paper, we analyze a distribution problem at a bakery company in Istanbul, Turkey. The bakery wants to distribute products with the available fleets of trucks, while maintaining balance in workload between different truck drivers. The resulting problem is very similar to a capacitated vehicle routing problem with load balancing objective with a maximum distribution time and truck capacity constraints. A genetic algorithm meta-heuristic approach is proposed to obtain good quality solutions. The proposed meta-heuristic is utilized on a case study where different trucks serve customers in a large metropolitan area. The distance matrix is generated via a web application using Google Maps. The solutions obtained via the meta-heuristic are compared with the company's own distribution plan and global ant colony optimization algorithm.