Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Stationary Arrival Process of Independent Diffusers from a Continuum to an Absorbing Boundary Is Poissonian

We consider the arrival process of infinitely many identical independent diffusion processes from an infinite bath to an absorbing boundary. Previous results on this problem were confined to independent Brownian particles arriving at an absorbing sphere. The present paper extends these results to general diffusion processes, without any symmetries and without resorting to explicit expressions for solutions to the relevant equations. It is shown that for general absorbing boundaries and force fields, the steady stream of arrivals is Poissonian with rate equal to the total flux on the absorbing boundary, as calculated from the continuum theory of diffusion with transport. The considered arrival problem arises in the theory of Langevin simulations of ions in electrolytic solutions. In a Langevin simulation ions enter and exit the simulation region, and it is necessary to compute the probability laws for their entrance times into the simulation. While the simulated ions inside the small simulation region inte.
Cu-In-Ga metal precursors sputter deposited from a single ternary target for Cu(lnGa)(SeS)2 film formation

Precursor films used for the growth of Cu(InGa)Se2 were sputter deposited from a single Cu-In-Ga compound target to determine if better control of composition and improved reproducibility compared to precursors deposited from separate sputter targets could be obtained. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize changes in phase and morphology of the ternary sputter target, precursor films, and reacted films over a series of deposition runs and compared with films deposited from two targets. The surface morphology and composition of the target and precursor films were characterized over a range of sputtering conditions and compared to the bulk target composition over time. The precursor films contain Cu9(In1-xGax)4 and In phases with In-rich nodules. The target has a Cu-rich surface composition compared to the bulk that indicates preferential sputtering of In. Cu(InGa)(SeS)2 films were formed by a three-step H2Se/Ar/H2S reaction process. The composition of reacted films using ternary target precursors is comparable to the bulk target composition and good reproducibility is demonstrated. Finally, solar cells fabricated using the reacted films gave a maximum efficiency of 13.4%.
Indexability of 2D range search revisited: constant redundancy and weak indivisibility

In the 2D orthogonal range search problem, we want to preprocess a set of 2D points so that, given any axis-parallel query rectangle, we can report all the data points in the rectangle efficiently. This paper presents a lower bound on the query time that can be achieved by any external memory structure that stores a point at most r times, where r is a constant integer. Previous research has resolved the bound at two extremes: r = 1, and r being arbitrarily large. We, on the other hand, derive the explicit tradeoff at every specific r. A premise that lingers in existing studies is the so-called indivisibility assumption: all the information bits of a point are treated as an atom, i.e., they are always stored together in the same block. We partially remove this assumption by allowing a data structure to freely divide a point into individual bits stored in different blocks. The only assumption is that, those bits must be retrieved for reporting, as opposed to being computed -- we refer to this requirement as the weak indivisibility assumption. We also describe structures to show that our lower bound is tight up to only a small factor.
'No Telling Passcodes Out Because They're Private'

Children under age 12 increasingly use Internet-connected devices to go online. And while Internet use exposes people to privacy and security risks, few studies examine how these children perceive and address such concerns. To fill this gap, we conducted a qualitative study of 18 U.S. families with children ages 5-11. We found that children recognized certain privacy and security components from the contextual integrity framework, but children ages 5-7 had gaps in their knowledge. Children developed some strategies to manage concerns but largely relied on parents for support. Parents primarily used passive strategies to mediate children's device use and largely deferred teaching children about these concerns to the future. We argue that helping children develop strong privacy and security practices at a young age will prepare them to manage their privacy and security as adolescents and adults. We offer recommendations to scaffold children's learning on privacy and security.
Policing at the margins: fostering trust and cooperation among ethnic minority groups

Over the past few decades, Australia has become less dominated by White-European cultural groups and is increasingly characterized by racial and cultural diversity. This diversity brings many benefits, but it also poses challenges for governance. Authorities such as the police are faced with greater diversity in cultural norms, values, identities, and attitudes toward police and the law. This increase in diversity may therefore have implications for the ability of police to foster trust, obtain compliance, and encourage cooperation among certain groups. Procedural justice has been regarded as central to improving public trust and confidence in authorities. This paper will use survey data to examine the role that procedural justice policing can play in promoting trust and cooperation among ethnic minority groups living in Australia.
Battery charge saving in wireless image sensors for remote metering

The paper presents a methodology to reduce the energy consumption of visual sensor node in wireless sensor networks. This methodology, based on a balancing between processing and transmission tasks, can be applied in all those situations where subjective image based measurements are required. Considering that in a sensor node, the transmission task is the most energy consumption, the proposed method tries to find the best compression rate able to give a significant reduction of transmission time, returning adequate and objective image quality and compression time. Some results are presented applying the proposed methodology to a case study: the use of wireless visual sensors to the remote metering of water counters
The relationship between gender-role measures: A review

The relationship between self-report measures of gender traits (PAQ and BSRI), behaviour (SRBS and MFRQ) and attitudes (AWS) is reviewed by considering the comparison of two or more groups differing on trait scores, correlations between the scales and relevant experimental studies. Trait measures show extremely small relationships to attitudes: for men, lower instrumental and higher expressive trait scores were weakly associated with a more non-traditional attitude. For women, higher instrumental scores, lower expressive scores and higher (i.e. less feminine) M-F PAQ scores were weakly associated with a more non-traditional attitude. A very low relationship was found between the AWS and the Masculine and Feminine scales of the SRBS, but higher correlations were found for the M-F scale (negative for men and positive for women). Very high correlations were found between the MFRQ (a role preference scale) and the AWS. There were conistent positive associations between the respective M and F scales of the PAQ and SRBS for both men and women, accounting for between 2.6 and 14.4 percent of the variance. Correlations between the PAQ scales and the MFRQ were generally low. These results support the multidimensional rather than the unidimensional view of masculinity and femininity.
Evaluating the Scope of Learning Style Instruments Used in Studies Published in the Journal of Agricultural Education

The purpose of this study was to determine the most commonly used learning style instruments within the field of agricultural education. Learning styles is a generic concept that frequently includes cognitive styles, personality styles, learning styles, sensory modes, and typologies like those associated with the work of Carl Jung. This paper seeks to describe the predominant instruments applied in the field of agricultural education and the purposes for which these instruments are used.
Experiments on children's speech recognition under acoustically mismatched conditions

In this paper, we have explored the effectiveness of some of the existing acoustic features for the task of recognizing children's speech using acoustic models trained on adults' speech. Among the explored features, the Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) and the perceptual linear prediction cepstral coefficients (PLPCC) are the most commonly used ones in speech recognition. The third feature explored in this work is the one based on normalized first-order spectral moments (SMAC-features). The SMAC-features have not been explored for such mismatched ASR task as reported in the presented work. Due to large acoustic mismatch that exists between the training and test data, the recognition performance is observed to be highly degraded in all the explored cases. At the same time, the SMAC-features are noted to be superior to the other two. The same has been verified experimentally in this paper under clean as well as noisy test conditions. To address the acoustic mismatch, a low-rank projection is learned on the adults' training data using heteroscedastic linear discriminant analysis. The derived transform happens to emphasize the principal dimensions of acoustic variations in the adults' speech. The low-rank projection is then applied to both the training and test data. During testing, the transform maps children's test data to the space of the training data and thus alleviates the acoustic mismatch. The low-rank projection is found to result in significant improvements in the recognition performance when applied to the SMAC-features.
Sensitization of heat-treated Listeria monocytogenes to added lysozyme in milk

Listeria monocytogenes was highly resistant to hen egg white lysozyme in whole milk but was sensitive in media and in phosphate buffer. Methods to sensitize the pathogen to lysozyme in milk were investigated. Treatment of whole milk by cation exchange to remove minerals, particularly Ca2+ and Mg2+, slightly promoted inactivation of L. monocytogenes by lysozyme at 4 degrees C over a period of 6 days. Heat treatment (62.5 degrees C for 15 s) strongly sensitized L. monocytogenes to lysozyme in demineralized milk and in MES [2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid] buffer. Addition of Ca2+ or Mg2+ to the demineralized milk restored resistance to lysozyme. Cells were more rapidly heat inactivated at 55 degrees C in demineralized milk containing lysozyme, and addition of Ca2+ to the demineralized milk restored the resistance to heat. The results indicate that minerals or mineral-associated components protect L. monocytogenes from inactivation by lysozyme and heat in milk, probably by increasing cell surface stability. The heat treatment of foods containing added lysozyme can probably play a significant role in producing microbiologically safe foods.
Dumbbell-PCR: a method to quantify specific small RNA variants with a single nucleotide resolution at terminal sequences

Recent advances in next-generation sequencing technologies have revealed that cellular functional RNAs are not always expressed as single entities with fixed terminal sequences but as multiple isoforms bearing complex heterogeneity in both length and terminal sequences, such as isomiRs, the isoforms of microRNAs. Unraveling the biogenesis and biological significance of heterogenetic RNA expression requires distinctive analysis of each RNA variant. Here, we report the development of dumbbell PCR (Db-PCR), an efficient and convenient method to distinctively quantify a specific individual small RNA variant. In Db-PCR, 5′- and 3′-stem–loop adapters are specifically hybridized and ligated to the 5′- and 3′-ends of target RNAs, respectively, by T4 RNA ligase 2 (Rnl2). The resultant ligation products with ‘dumbbell-like’ structures are subsequently quantified by TaqMan RT-PCR. We confirmed that high specificity of Rnl2 ligation and TaqMan RT-PCR toward target RNAs assured both 5′- and 3′-terminal sequences of target RNAs with single nucleotide resolution so that Db-PCR specifically detected target RNAs but not their corresponding terminal variants. Db-PCR had broad applicability for the quantification of various small RNAs in different cell types, and the results were consistent with those from other quantification method. Therefore, Db-PCR provides a much-needed simple method for analyzing RNA terminal heterogeneity.
Deriving Specification for Process-Control Systems: A Problem Frames Approach

Process-control systems are usually real time and embedded within the larger environment. Controllers are required to ensure desired environment properties through performing ongoing control behavior at the interface with sensors and actuators. However, the environment is heterogeneous and informal, which poses special challenge to develop complete and safe specification. Problem Frames are a rigor requirements analysis approach for software problems and emphasize the fundamental role of environment in capturing of specification. In this paper, we contribute to exploring the application of Problem Frames approach for specifying process-control system requirements. The process is an integration of problem progression and consideration of frame concern, reliability concern, overrun concern and other concerns with coordinating the nature of process-control systems. The outcome displays the applicability of PFs to process-control system specification.
Calcineurin inhibits VCX1-dependent H+/Ca2+ exchange and induces Ca2+ ATPases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The PMC1 gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes a vacuolar Ca2+ ATPase required for growth in high-Ca2+ conditions. Previous work showed that Ca2+ tolerance can be restored to pmc1 mutants by inactivation of calcineurin, a Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase sensitive to the immunosuppressive drug FK506. We now report that calcineurin decreases Ca2+ tolerance of pmc1 mutants by inhibiting the function of VCX1, which encodes a vacuolar H+/Ca2+ exchanger related to vertebrate Na+/Ca2+ exchangers. The contribution of VCX1 in Ca2+ tolerance is low in strains with a functional calcineurin and is high in strains which lack calcineurin activity. In contrast, the contribution of PMC1 to Ca2+ tolerance is augmented by calcineurin activation. Consistent with these positive and negative roles of calcineurin, expression of a vcx1::lacZ reporter was slightly diminished and a pmc1::lacZ reporter was induced up to 500-fold by processes dependent on calcineurin, calmodulin, and Ca2+. It is likely that calcineurin inhibits VCX1 function mainly by posttranslational mechanisms. Activities of VCX1 and PMC1 help to control cytosolic free Ca2+ concentrations because their function can decrease pmc1::lacZ induction by calcineurin. Additional studies with reporter genes and mutants indicate that PMR1 and PMR2A, encoding P-type ion pumps required for Mn2+ and Na+ tolerance, may also be induced physiologically in response to high-Mn2+ and -Na+ conditions through calcineurin-dependent mechanisms. In these situations, inhibition of VCX1 function may be important for the production of Ca2+ signals. We propose that elevated cytosolic free Ca2+ concentrations, calmodulin, and calcineurin regulate at least four ion transporters in S. cerevisiae in response to several environmental conditions.
Broad and Narrow CHC Abilities Measured and Not Measured by the Wechsler Scales

In this commentary, we reviewed two clinical validation studies on the Wechsler Scales conducted by Weiss and colleagues. These researchers used a rigorous within-battery model-fitting approach that demonstrated the factorial invariance of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) across populations. Beyond the important finding of invariance across populations, however, these studies did not provide much additional clarification about exactly what is and what is not measured by the WISC-IV and WAIS-IV vis-à-vis an overarching empirically validated theory of the structure of cognitive abilities. To that end, we argued that a better understanding of the cognitive constructs (both broad and narrow) measured by the Wechsler scales or invariance across selection of variables is necessary and will require theory-driven joint or cross-battery confirmatory factor analysis. Recommendations for conducting this type of research were offered within the context of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory of cognitive abilities.
Hot, sweaty, and satisfied: Effects of Bikram yoga on psychological well-being -

Background: Bikram yoga is sometimes referred to as hot yoga and a typical class is 90-minutes in duration, consists of 26 Hatha yoga postures and 2 breathing exercises, and is performed in a room heated to 41°C (105° F) with 40% humidity. This study examined the effects of Bikram yoga on two aspects of psychological well-being: core self-evaluation (CSE) and life satisfaction. Core self-evaluation is sometimes referred to as positive self-concept and is comprised of aspects of self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability. Life satisfaction is a holistic appraisal of one’s life in which a comparison is made of one’s current circumstances to what is thought to be an appropriate internally determined personal standard. Methods: Twenty-two subjects completed a 60-day Bikram yoga challenge. Self-report survey responses were gathered before and immediately after the challenge. A within-subjects one group pretest-posttest experimental design was used. Results: Bonferroni-adjusted t-tests for change over time in CSE and life satisfaction were both statistically significant. Cohen’s d statistic as a measure of effect size was . 53 for core-self-evaluation and . 40 for life satisfaction. Conclusions: Life satisfaction and CSE each improved over the course of the intervention. It is likely that the well-known effects of participating in intense physical exercise also contributed to improvements in psychological well-being.
The Polymerase Acidic Protein Gene of Influenza A Virus Contributes to Pathogenicity in a Mouse Model

ABSTRACT Adaptation of influenza A viruses to a new host species usually involves the mutation of one or more of the eight viral gene segments, and the molecular basis for host range restriction is still poorly understood. To investigate the molecular changes that occur during adaptation of a low-pathogenic avian influenza virus subtype commonly isolated from migratory birds to a mammalian host, we serially passaged the avirulent wild-bird H5N2 strain A/Aquatic bird/Korea/W81/05 (W81) in the lungs of mice. The resulting mouse-adapted strain (ma81) was highly virulent (50% mouse lethal dose = 2.6 log10 50% tissue culture infective dose) and highly lethal. Nonconserved mutations were observed in six viral genes (those for PB2, PB1, PA, HA, NA, and M). Reverse genetic experiments substituting viral genes and mutations demonstrated that the PA gene was a determinant of the enhanced virulence in mice and that a Thr-to-Iso substitution at position 97 of PA played a key role. In growth kinetics studies, ma81 showed enhanced replication in mammalian but not avian cell lines; the PA97I mutation in strain W81 increased its replicative fitness in mice but not in chickens. The high virulence associated with the PA97I mutation in mice corresponded to considerably enhanced polymerase activity in mammalian cells. Furthermore, this characteristic mutation is not conserved among avian influenza viruses but is prevalent among mouse-adapted strains, indicating a host-dependent mutation. To our knowledge, this is the first study that the isoleucine residue at position 97 in PA plays a key role in enhanced virulence in mice and is implicated in the adaptation of avian influenza viruses to mammalian hosts.
School-Burnout Inventory (SBI) Reliability and Validity

This study introduces a measure for school burnout and examines its validity and reliability among students in upper secondary high schools and vocational schools by using confirmatory factor analysis. School-related burnout comprises three dimensions: (a) exhaustion at school, (b) cynicism toward the meaning of school, and (c) sense of inadequacy at school. A total of 1418 (709 girls, 709 boys) adolescents from 13 postcomprehensive schools (6 upper secondary high schools, 7 vocational schools) filled in a questionnaire concerning their school burnout and background variables. The results showed that the three-factor solution, compared to one- or two-factor solutions, fit the data best and also gave the best reliability indices. The three theoretically-derived dimensions of school burnout were closely related but separate constructs. Finally, concurrent validity for the School-Burnout Inventory (SBI) was found when the correlations of depressive symptoms, school engagement, and academic achievement with e.
Robust Network Covert Communications Based on TCP and Enumerative Combinatorics

The problem of communicating covertly over the Internet has recently received considerable attention from both industry and academic communities. However, the previously proposed network covert channels are plagued by their unreliability and very low data rate. In this paper, we show through a new class of timing channels coined as Cloak that it is possible to devise a 100 percent reliable covert channel and yet offer a much higher data rate (up to an order of magnitude) than the existing timing channels. Cloak is novel in several aspects. First, Cloak uses the different combinations of N packets sent over X flows in each round to represent a message. The combinatorial nature of the encoding methods increases the channel capacity largely with (N,X). Second, based on the well-known 12-fold Way, Cloak offers 10 different encoding and decoding methods, each of which has a unique tradeoff among several important considerations, such as channel capacity and camouflage capability. Third, the packet transmissions modulated by Cloak can be carefully crafted to mimic normal TCP flows for evading detection. We have implemented Cloak and evaluated it in the PlanetLab and a controlled testbed. The results show that it is not uncommon for Cloak to have an order of channel goodput improvement over the IP Timing channel and JitterBug. Moreover, Cloak does not suffer from any message loss under various loss and reordering scenarios.
Networks of Faith: Interpersonal Bonds and Recruitment to Cults and Sects

A long tradition in social science explains recruitment to religious cults and sects on the basis of a congruence between the ideology of a group and the deprivations of those who join. A more recent approach to recruitment argues that interpersonal bonds between members and potential recruits are the essential element. In this paper we first show that these are complementary, not competing, approaches. Then, because the available evidential base for the role of interpersonal bonds is limited and qualitative, we present quantitative data pertaining to three quite different radical religious groups. In each case there is overwhelming support for the crucial role played by social networks in the formation and growth of such groups. Next we seek the boundaries of this phenomenon.Available studies suggest that not merely cult and sect recruitment, but commitment to conventional faiths as well, is supported by social networks.However, networks do not seem to play an important role in acceptance of mildly deviant occult beliefs. Belief in seances and tarot cards, for example, seems to spread via the mass media with little mediation by social networks. We discuss the implications of these findings for a theory of cult and sect recruitment.