Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The distribution of kHz QPO frequencies in bright low mass X-ray binaries

We analyzed all published frequencies, $\nu_1$ and $\nu_2$, of the twin kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations (kHz QPOs) in bright neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries. The two frequencies are well correlated but, contrary to recent suggestions, the frequency–frequency correlation is significantly different from a $\nu_2 = (3/2) \nu_1$ relation. To check whether, although not following the the 3/2 relation, the QPO frequencies cluster around a region where $\nu_2/\nu_1 \approx 3/2$, we re-analyzed the Sco X-1 data that were used to report that ratio and show that, because the distribution of ratios of linearly correlated measurements is intrinsically biased, although the significance of the clustering around $\nu_2/\nu_1 \approx 3/2$ previously reported in the case of Sco X-1 is formally correct, it does not provide any useful information about a possible underlying resonance mechanism in this source. Using the same data, we then show that the (unbiased) distribution of QPO frequencies is consistent with a uniform distribution at a $2.4\sigma$ level. To investigate this further, we analyzed a larger data set of Sco X-1 and four other sources, 4U 1608–52, 4U 1636–53, 4U 1728–34 and 4U 1820–30. We find that for all five sources the distribution of the kHz QPO frequencies is not uniform and has multiple peaks, which have no analogy in the distribution of points in the spectral color–color diagrams of these sources. Finally, we demonstrate that a simple random walk of the QPO frequencies can reproduce qualitatively the observed distributions in frequency and frequency ratio. This result weakens the support for resonance models of kHz QPOs in neutron stars.
Periodizing heat acclimation in elite Laser sailors preparing for a world championship event in hot conditions

ABSTRACT Purpose: To examine the retention and re-acclimation responses during a periodized heat acclimation (HA) protocol in elite sailors preparing for the 2013 World Championships in Muscat, Oman (∼27–30°C, 40–60% RH). Methods: Two elite male Laser class sailors completed 5 consecutive days of HA (60 min per day in 35°C, 60% RH). Heat response tests (HRT) were performed on day 1 and 5 of HA, then 1 (decay 1, D1) and 2 (D2) weeks following HA. Participants were then re-acclimated (RA) for 2 days, within the next week, before a final HRT ∼72 h post-RA. Rectal temperature, plasma volume, heart rate, sweat rate, as well as thermal discomfort and rating of perceived exertion were measured during each HRT. Results: Rectal temperature decreased with HA (0.46 ± 0.05°C), while individual responses following D1, D2 and RA varied. Heart rate (14 ± 7 bpm), thermal discomfort (0.6 ± 0.1 AU) and rating of perceived exertion (1.8 ± 0.6 AU) decreased across HA, and adaptations were retained by D2. Plasma volume steadily increased over the decay period (D2 = 8.0 ± 1.3%) and after RA (15.5 ± 1.1%) compared with baseline. RA resulted in further thermoregulatory improvements in each Athlete, although individual adjustments varied. Conclusion: Heat strain was reduced in elite Laser sailors following HA and most thermoregulatory adaptations were retained for 2 weeks afterwards. RA may ‘top up’ adaptations after 2 weeks of HA decay.
Correlates of Diversification in the Plant Clade Dipsacales: Geographic Movement and Evolutionary Innovations

We explore patterns of diversification in the plant clades Adoxaceae and Valerianaceae (within Dipsacales), evaluating correlations between biogeographic change (i.e., movements into new areas), morphological change (e.g., the origin of putative key innovations associated with vegetative and reproductive characters), and shifts in rates of diversification. Our findings indicate that rates of diversification in these plants tend to be less tightly correlated with the evolution of morphological innovations but instead exhibit a pronounced correlation with movement into new geographic areas, particularly the dispersal of lineages into new mountainous regions. The interdependence among apparent novelties (arising from their nested phylogenetic distribution) and the correlation between morphological and biogeographic change suggests a complex history of diversification in Dipsacales. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of incorporating biogeographic history in studies of diversification rates and in the study of geographic gradients in species richness. Furthermore, these results argue against a simple deterministic relationship between dispersal and diversification: like other factors that may influence the probability of speciation and/or extinction, the impact of dispersal on diversification rates depends on being in the right place at the right time.
Stempelator: A Hybrid Stemmer for the Polish Language

Apparatus for flowing fluid from wells such as oil wells and the like, utilizing gas displacement of fluid entering the well from an earth formation intersected by the well. Apparatus is utilized that enables the use of a simple downhole double check valve system that may be retrieved from the well for repair or replacement simply by removing the centermost conduit from the well thereby enabling the use of blowout proof safety mechanisms for such repair or replacement operations and eliminating the necessity of simultaneously removing all of the conduits or removing liquid filled tubing from the well.
Drivers of Individual Performance in IT Offshore Outsourcing Projects - A Case Study from the German Banking Industry

The research question of this paper is what drives individual performance of members in IT offshore outsourcing projects. The research methodology chosen to analyze this research question is an exploratory and interpretive case study design. 15 unstructured and semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed with the aim of contributing to the theory-building process of individual performance in offshore outsourcing. The result of our investigations is an integrated performance model including expectancy theory, goal-setting theory, and cultural intelligence. In summary, we found four essential drivers for individual motivation and performance in the project: A cascading approach to meet deadlines which enhanced self-efficacy; the clarification of roles, responsibilities, and goals supported by a work coordination tool; the mutual clarification of expectations and open communication between German and Indian project workers as well as between superiors and subordinates; and the development of cultural intelligence for successful cross-cultural adaptation.
Intelligent multifunction myoelectric control of hand prostheses

Intuitive myoelectric prosthesis control is difficult to achieve due to the absence of proprioceptive feedback, which forces the user to monitor grip pressure by visual information. Existing myoelectric hand prostheses form a single degree of freedom pincer motion that inhibits the stable prehension of a range of objects. Multi-axis hands may address this lack of functionality, but as with multifunction devices in general, serve to increase the cognitive burden on the user. Intelligent hierarchical control of multiple degree-of-freedom hand prostheses has been used to reduce the need for visual feedback by automating the grasping process. This paper presents a hybrid controller that has been developed to enable different prehensile functions to be initiated directly from the user's myoelectric signal. A digital signal processor (DSP) regulates the grip pressure of a new six-degree-of-freedom hand prosthesis thereby ensuring secure prehension without continuous visual feedback.
High-resolution structures of two complexes between thrombin and thrombin-binding aptamer shed light on the role of cations in the aptamer inhibitory activity

The G-quadruplex architecture is a peculiar structure adopted by guanine-rich oligonucleotidic sequences, and, in particular, by several aptamers, including the thrombin-binding aptamer (TBA) that has the highest inhibitory activity against human α-thrombin. A crucial role in determining structure, stability and biological properties of G-quadruplexes is played by ions. In the case of TBA, K+ ions cause an enhancement of the aptamer clotting inhibitory activity. A detailed picture of the interactions of TBA with the protein and with the ions is still lacking, despite the importance of this aptamer in biomedical field for detection and inhibition of α-thrombin. Here, we fill this gap by presenting a high-resolution crystallographic structural characterization of the thrombin–TBA complex formed in the presence of Na+ or K+ and a circular dichroism study of the structural stability of the aptamer both free and complexed with α-thrombin, in the presence of the two ionic species. The results indicate that the different effects exerted by Na+ and K+ on the inhibitory activity of TBA are related to a subtle perturbation of a few key interactions at the protein–aptamer interface. The present data, in combination with those previously obtained on the complex between α-thrombin and a modified aptamer, may allow the design of new TBA variants with a pharmacological performance enhancement.
QA4LOV: A Natural Language Interface to Linked Open Vocabulary

There is an increasing presence of structured data due to the adoption of Linked data principles on the web. At the same time, web users have diﬀerent skills and want to be able to interact with Linked datasets in various manner, such as asking questions in natural language. This paper proposed a ﬁrst implementation of Query Answering system (QA) applied to the Linked Open Vocabularies (LOV) catalogue, mainly focused on metadata information retrieval. The goal is to provide to end users yet another access to metadata information available in LOV using natural language questions.
Cutting through the clutter: Task-relevant features for image matching

Where do we focus our attention in an image? Humans have an amazing ability to cut through the clutter to the parts of an image most relevant to the task at hand. Consider the task of geo-localizing tourist photos by retrieving other images taken at that location. Such photos naturally contain friends and family, and perhaps might even be nearly filled by a person's face if it is a selfie. Humans have no trouble ignoring these `distractions' and recognizing the parts that are indicative of location (e.g., the towers of Neuschwanstein Castle instead of their friend's face, a tree, or a car). In this paper, we investigate learning this ability automatically. At training-time, we learn how informative a region is for localization. At test-time, we use this learned model to determine what parts of a query image to use for retrieval. We introduce a new dataset, People at Landmarks, that contains large amounts of clutter in query images. Our system is able to outperform the existing state of the art approach to retrieval by more than 10% mAP, as well as improve results on a standard dataset without heavy occluders (Oxford5K).
Impacts of Satellite-Based Snow Albedo Assimilation on Offline and Coupled Land Surface Model Simulations

Seasonal snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is the largest component of the terrestrial cryosphere and plays a major role in the climate system through strong positive feedbacks related to albedo. The snow-albedo feedback is invoked as an important cause for the polar amplification of ongoing and projected climate change, and its parameterization across models is an important source of uncertainty in climate simulations. Here, instead of developing a physical snow albedo scheme, we use a direct insertion approach to assimilate satellite-based surface albedo during the snow season (hereafter as snow albedo assimilation) into the land surface model ORCHIDEE (ORganizing Carbon and Hydrology In Dynamic EcosystEms) and assess the influences of such assimilation on offline and coupled simulations. Our results have shown that snow albedo assimilation in both ORCHIDEE and ORCHIDEE-LMDZ (a general circulation model of Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique) improve the simulation accuracy of mean seasonal (October throughout May) snow water equivalent over the region north of 40 degrees. The sensitivity of snow water equivalent to snow albedo assimilation is more pronounced in the coupled simulation than the offline simulation since the feedback of albedo on air temperature is allowed in ORCHIDEE-LMDZ. We have also shown that simulations of air temperature at 2 meters in ORCHIDEE-LMDZ due to snow albedo assimilation are significantly improved during the spring in particular over the eastern Siberia region. This is a result of the fact that high amounts of shortwave radiation during the spring can maximize its snow albedo feedback, which is also supported by the finding that the spatial sensitivity of temperature change to albedo change is much larger during the spring than during the autumn and winter. In addition, the radiative forcing at the top of the atmosphere induced by snow albedo assimilation during the spring is estimated to be -2.50 W m-2, the magnitude of which is almost comparable to that due to CO2 (2.83 W m-2) increases since 1750. Our results thus highlight the necessity of realistic representation of snow albedo in the model and demonstrate the use of satellite-based snow albedo to improve model behaviors, which opens new avenues for constraining snow albedo feedback in earth system models.
Aperture coupled feed circularly polarized antenna

Aperture-coupled microstrip line feed circularly polarized patch antenna is designed and its performance characteristics are observed by changing its feed orientations. The perfect impedance matching and appreciable axial ratio bandwidths are achieved from the current model. The complete analysis is done by changing feed line orientations and by placing special slots on the ground element. The antenna compactness can be achieved by placing shorting pin at appropriate location on the axis of feed line. Antenna output parameters are computed with finite element method based simulation. A microstrip line patch antenna is designed which is a circular microstrip line coupling through four Γ-shaped slots to generate four sequentially phased sources to excite the single layer patch antenna.
Lipid Rafts Serve as a Signaling Platform for Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Clustering

Agrin, a motoneuron-derived factor, and the muscle-specific receptor tyrosine kinase (MuSK) are essential for the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) clustering at the postjunctional membrane. However, the underlying signaling mechanisms remain poorly defined. We show that agrin stimulates a dynamic translocation of the AChR into lipid rafts-cholesterol and sphingolipid-rich microdomains in the plasma membrane. This follows MuSK partition into lipid rafts and requires its activation. Disruption of lipid rafts inhibits MuSK activation and downstream signaling and AChR clustering in response to agrin. Rapsyn, an intracellular protein necessary for AChR clustering, is located constitutively in lipid rafts, but its interaction with the AChR is inhibited when lipid rafts are perturbed. These results reveal that lipid rafts may regulate AChR clustering by facilitating the agrin/MuSK signaling and the interaction between the receptor and rapsyn, both necessary for AChR clustering and maintenance. These results provide insight into mechanisms of AChR cluster formation.
Relationship between decayed teeth and metabolic syndrome: data from 4716 middle-aged male Japanese employees.

BACKGROUND Epidemiological findings regarding the relationship between decayed teeth (DT) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) are scarce. We evaluated the relationship of DT with MetS, obesity, and MetS components in early middle-aged male Japanese employees. METHODS We cross-sectionally analyzed dental and medical health checkup results from a total of 4716 participants aged 42 or 46 years. Logistic regression models were employed to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) after adjustment for age, breakfast consumption frequency, drinking habits, smoking status, and physical activity. RESULTS Significant differences in the prevalence of MetS, obesity determined by body mass index, and the components of MetS between participating men with and without DT were detected (all P < 0.01). The adjusted OR of MetS was 1.41 (95% CI, 1.14-1.74) for those with 1 or 2 DT, and 1.66 (95% CI, 1.28-2.16) for those with ≥3 DT (P for trend = 0.01), and this significant relationship was observed even in those without periodontal pocket formation (P for trend = 0.03) or missing teeth (P for trend = 0.02). DT was significantly related to overweight/obesity and the MetS components of hypertension, dyslipidemia, and hyperglycemia, with adjusted ORs of 1.35 (95% CI, 1.19-1.53), 1.22 (95% CI, 1.07-1.39), 1.18 (95% CI, 1.03-1.34), and 1.33 (95% CI, 1.13-1.56), respectively. In addition, even in non-overweight/non-obese men, DT was found to be related to dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia, though with marginal significance (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that having DT is related to MetS in early middle-aged Japanese men directly and through obesity and is independent of health behaviors, periodontal condition, and tooth loss.
An evaluation of the pathways model using the Quinte Longitudinal dataset

ABSTRACT The present study tested tenets of the Pathways Model of problem gambling by completing a cross-sectional latent class analysis using an existing dataset. The sample in this study consisted of 125 first-time adult problem gamblers from Ontario, Canada who participated in the Quinte Longitudinal study of Gambling and Problem Gambling. A three-class solution was found to be the best fitting model. There was a class resembling Behaviourally Conditioned gambler (n = 40), demonstrating minimal rates of pre-existing psychopathology and social dysfunction; a class that shared consistencies with the Emotionally Vulnerable gambler (n = 56), showing intermediate rates of anxiety, depression, problematic substance use and social dysfunction prior to onset of problem gambling; and a class resembling the Anti-social Impulsivist gambler (n = 29) characterized by the highest impulsivity, social dysfunction, antisociality and pre-existing psychiatric illness. Overall the findings provide evidence for the etiological assumptions of the Pathways Model by demonstrating that problem gamblers can be sub-grouped on traits pre-existing the development of aberrant gambling. These findings have implications for prevention and clinical practice, as specific groups of problem gamblers may require tailored intervention and prevention efforts.
Signaling Mechanisms of Heparin-Binding Epidermal Growth Factor-Like Growth Factor in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells

A host of growth factors have been implicated in vascular pathologies; one such factor is heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (HB-EGF). Although HB-EGF has been shown to stimulate mitogenesis and chemotaxis of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC), its signaling mechanism remains undefined. In this study, we examined possible signal transduction pathways by which HB-EGF leads to mitogenesis in cultured rat VSMC. HB-EGF induced phosphorylation of the EGF receptor (EGFR) with maximum phosphorylation at 0.5 to 1 minute, whereas erbB4, the other receptor to which HB-EGF binds, was not activated on HB-EGF stimulation. HB-EGF induced a time- and concentration-dependent phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK; p42/44 MAPK, extracellular signal-regulating kinase [ERK] 1/2). It also activated Akt and p70S6 kinase (p70S6K) but not p38 MAPK. HB-EGF-induced phosphorylation of these kinases was blocked by the EGFR kinase inhibitor AG1478. To investigate signaling molecules involved in HB-EGF-induced DNA synthesis, we pretreated VSMC with the specific ERK kinase mitogen-activated kinase (MEK) inhibitor PD98059 and the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor LY294002. These inhibitors significantly blocked HB-EGF-induced DNA synthesis. PD98059 inhibited HB-EGF-induced ERK activation, whereas it had no effect on Akt activation by HB-EGF. By contrast, LY294002 inhibited HB-EGF-induced Akt and p70S6K activation without effecting ERK activation by HB-EGF. These results demonstrate that HB-EGF-induced mitogenesis requires both ERK and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (Akt and p70S6K) pathways activated through EGFR, thereby providing a new mechanistic insight by which HB-EGF contributes to vascular remodeling.
The impact of limbic system morphology on facial emotion recognition in bipolar I disorder and healthy controls

Introduction Impairments in facial emotion recognition (FER) have been reported in bipolar disorder (BD) subjects during all mood states. This study aims to investigate the impact of limbic system morphology on FER scores in BD subjects and healthy controls. Material and methods Thirty-nine euthymic BD I (type I) subjects and 40 healthy controls were subjected to a battery of FER tests and examined with 3D structural imaging of the amygdala and hippocampus. Results The volume of these structures demonstrated a differential pattern of influence on FER scores in BD subjects and controls. In our control sample, larger left and right amygdala demonstrated to be associated to less recognition of sadness faces. In BD group, there was no impact of amygdala volume on FER but we observed a negative impact of the left hippocampus volume in the recognition of happiness while the right hippocampus volume positively impacted on the scores of happiness. Conclusion Our results indicate that amygdala and hippocampus volumes have distinct effects on FER in BD subjects compared to controls. Knowledge of the neurobiological basis of the illness may help to provide further insights on the role of treatments and psychosocial interventions for BD. Further studies should explore how these effects of amygdala and hippocampus volumes on FER are associated with social networks and social network functioning.
Effects of reciprocal, perceived person–environment fit, and emotional labor on job involvement: Moderated mediation analyses

Abstract Purpose This study examines the relationship between emotional labor and job involvement with convenience store employee, as well as mediating (perceived P–E fit) and moderating (reciprocal P–E fit) variables of this relation by proposing a moderated mediation model. Design/methodology/method The SPSS Program with PROCESS macro (Models 4 and 7) analysis was used with a sample of 230 convenience stores’ employees. Findings Results of this study demonstrated that reciprocal fit and perceived fit had moderated mediation effects between predictor (emotional labor) and criterion variables (job involvement). In addition, perceived fit evidenced positive effects on job involvement. Research limitations/implications We do not investigate the generation differences, futhure research may examine the mediating effects between EL and JI. To fully understand emotional labor, the specific cultural contexts in which it takes place will need to be considered. Practical implications This research has implications for the managers they could conduct social and individual identity to moderate the relationship between emotional workers and negative emotions. Furthermore, HR managers could apply training strategy to mediate the relationship between emotional labor and job involvement. Originality/value In the context of the emotional labor on job involvement, no studies have been conducted that have analyzed the moderated mediation effects especially the relationship between emotional labor and job involvement. This research seeks to build and extend the existing state of research on augmented moderated mediation effects by reciprocal fit and perceived fit.