Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perspectives on Teacher Burnout and School Reform

This paper examines two general models of teacher burnout, the psychological and the sociological. In the sociological model burnout is a form of job-specific alienation and can be redressed through organizational and structural changes. School reform in the United States as it impacts teachers has followed three waves since 1983: legislated standardization and competency testing, decentralization and site-based decision making, and high-stakes testing with accountability. Teacher burnout data collected during each of the waves is compared with data collected prior to the reforms. Each wave exacerbated teacher burnout, but affected different sub-groups of teachers. teacher burnout, school reform, United States educational policies
Temperature Sensing in Seawater Based on Microfiber Knot Resonator

Ocean internal-wave phenomena occur with the variation in seawater vertical temperature, and most internal-wave detections are dependent on the measurement of seawater vertical temperature. A seawater temperature sensor based on a microfiber knot resonator (MKR) is designed theoretically and demonstrated experimentally in this paper. Especially, the dependences of sensing sensitivity on fiber diameter and probing wavelength are studied. Calculated results show that sensing sensitivity increases with the increasing microfiber diameter with the range of 2.30–3.91 μm and increases with the increasing probing wavelength, which reach good agreement with results obtained by experiments. By choosing the appropriate parameters, the maximum sensitivity measured can reach to be 22.81 pm/°C. The seawater temperature sensor demonstrated here shows advantages of small size, high sensitivity, easy fabrication, and easy integration with fiber systems, which may offer a new optical method to detect temperature of seawater or ocean internal-wave phenomenon and offer valuable reference for assembling micro sensors used for other parameters related to seawater, such as salinity, refractive index, concentration of NO3− and so on.
YtfB, an OapA Domain-Containing Protein, Is a New Cell Division Protein in Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT While screening the Pfam database for novel peptidoglycan (PG) binding modules, we identified the OapA domain, which is annotated as a LysM-like domain. LysM domains bind PG and mediate localization to the septal ring. In the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli, an OapA domain is present in YtfB, an inner membrane protein of unknown function but whose overproduction causes cells to filament. Together, these observations suggested that YtfB directly affects cell division, most likely through its OapA domain. Here, we show that YtfB accumulates at the septal ring and that its action requires the division-initiating protein FtsZ and, to a lesser extent, ZipA, an early recruit to the septalsome. While the loss of YtfB had no discernible impact, a mutant lacking both YtfB and DedD (a known cell division protein) grew as filamentous cells. The YtfB OapA domain by itself also localized to sites of division, and this localization was enhanced by the presence of denuded PGs. Finally, the OapA domain bound PG, though binding did not depend on the formation of denuded glycans. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that YtfB is a cell division protein whose function is related to cell wall hydrolases. IMPORTANCE All living cells must divide in order to thrive. In bacteria, this involves the coordinated activities of a large number of proteins that work in concert to constrict the cell. Knowing which proteins contribute to this process and how they function is fundamental. Here, we identify a new member of the cell division apparatus in the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli whose function is related to the generation of a transient cell wall structure. These findings deepen our understanding of bacterial cell division.
A simple, fast, and accurate algorithm to estimate large phylogenies by maximum likelihood.

The increase in the number of large data sets and the complexity of current probabilistic sequence evolution models necessitates fast and reliable phylogeny reconstruction methods. We describe a new approach, based on the maximum- likelihood principle, which clearly satisfies these requirements. The core of this method is a simple hill-climbing algorithm that adjusts tree topology and branch lengths simultaneously. This algorithm starts from an initial tree built by a fast distance-based method and modifies this tree to improve its likelihood at each iteration. Due to this simultaneous adjustment of the topology and branch lengths, only a few iterations are sufficient to reach an optimum. We used extensive and realistic computer simulations to show that the topological accuracy of this new method is at least as high as that of the existing maximum-likelihood programs and much higher than the performance of distance-based and parsimony approaches. The reduction of computing time is dramatic in comparison with other maximum-likelihood packages, while the likelihood maximization ability tends to be higher. For example, only 12 min were required on a standard personal computer to analyze a data set consisting of 500 rbcL sequences with 1,428 base pairs from plant plastids, thus reaching a speed of the same order as some popular distance-based and parsimony algorithms. This new method is implemented in the PHYML program, which is freely available on our web page: http://www.lirmm. fr/w3ifa/MAAS/.
CA-DAG: Communication-Aware Directed Acyclic Graphs for Modeling Cloud Computing Applications

The review of the requirements of different cloud applications identified the need to consider communication processes explicitly and equally to the computing tasks. Following this observation, we propose a new communication-aware model for cloud computing applications, called CA-DAG. This model is based on Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) that in addition to computing vertices include separate vertices to represent communications. Such a representation allows making separate resource allocation decisions, assigning processors to handle computing jobs and network resources for information transmissions, such as application database requests.
Semantic Ideation Learning for Agent-Based E-Brainstorming

Brainstorming can assist organizations in generating creative ideas using teamwork and collaboration. However, the role of information technology in brainstorming is merely that of an assistant that passively supports the progression of brainstorming sessions rather than proactively engaging in the sessions. This paper integrates the unique association thinking of humans with an intelligent agent technique to devise an automated decision agent called the Semantic Ideation Learning Agent (SILA) that can represent a session participant who is actively participating in brainstorming. SILAs are grounded on the three association capabilities of human thinking (similarity, contiguity, and contrast). Furthermore, a Collective Brainstorming Decision System (CBDS) is built to construct an environment where SILAs can learn and share their knowledge with each other. Additionally, CBDS is integrated into an intelligent care project (iCare) for the purpose of innovated e-service recommendation. Preliminarily, evaluation results indicate that the proposed system advances e-brainstorming by crossing the three key boundaries of human ideation capability (understanding, cognition boundary, and endurance).
A Portrait of Firm Expansion and Contraction Channels

We present a novel set of stylised facts on forms of firm expansion and contraction, using unique business register data for the United Kingdom between 1997 and 2005. We distinguish between adjustments of employment and turnover at existing establishments, expansions and contractions taking place via greenfield investments and disinvestments, and via acquisitions and sell-offs. We document the relative importance of these three channels and how firms choose between them. We interpret our findings in the light of existing theories of firm dynamics, and propose directions for future theoretical developments.
HSF-1 activates the ubiquitin proteasome system to promote non-apoptotic developmental cell death in C. elegans

Apoptosis is a prominent metazoan cell death form. Yet, mutations in apoptosis regulators cause only minor defects in vertebrate development, suggesting that another developmental cell death mechanism exists. While some non-apoptotic programs have been molecularly characterized, none appear to control developmental cell culling. Linker-cell-type death (LCD) is a morphologically conserved non-apoptotic cell death process operating in Caenorhabditis elegans and vertebrate development, and is therefore a compelling candidate process complementing apoptosis. However, the details of LCD execution are not known. Here we delineate a molecular-genetic pathway governing LCD in C. elegans. Redundant activities of antagonistic Wnt signals, a temporal control pathway, and mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase signaling control heat shock factor 1 (HSF-1), a conserved stress-activated transcription factor. Rather than protecting cells, HSF-1 promotes their demise by activating components of the ubiquitin proteasome system, including the E2 ligase LET-70/UBE2D2 functioning with E3 components CUL-3, RBX-1, BTBD-2, and SIAH-1. Our studies uncover design similarities between LCD and developmental apoptosis, and provide testable predictions for analyzing LCD in vertebrates. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.12821. 001
Riemannian geometry for EEG-based brain-computer interfaces; a primer and a review

Despite its short history, the use of Riemannian geometry in brain-computer interface (BCI) decoding is currently attracting increasing attention, due to accumulating documentation of its simplicity, accuracy, robustness and transfer learning capabilities, including the winning score obtained in five recent international predictive modeling BCI data competitions. The Riemannian framework is sharp from a mathematical perspective, yet in practice it is simple, both algorithmically and computationally. This allows the conception of online decoding machines suiting real-world operation in adverse conditions. We provide here a review on the use of Riemannian geometry for BCI and a primer on the classification frameworks based on it. While the theoretical research on Riemannian geometry is technical, our aim here is to show the appeal of the framework on an intuitive geometrical ground. In particular, we provide a rationale for its robustness and transfer learning capabilities and we elucidate the link between a simple Riemannian classifier and a state-of-the-art spatial filtering approach. We conclude by reporting details on the construction of data points to be manipulated in the Riemannian framework in the context of BCI and by providing links to available open-source Matlab and Python code libraries for designing BCI decoders.
Cybersphere: the fully immersive spherical projection system

The computer generated virtual environments made possible by virtual reality (VR) may be moved through and manipulated by users in real time [1], but most display methods, including computer monitors, head-mounted displays, or projection screens, have an important limitation—they do not allow users to move around the virtual environment in a natural way. Efforts to remove this limitation include the development in the U.S. of a device similar to a stationary unicycle [3], which attempts to simulate the walking motion of a person sitting upon it. But this lessthan-ideal solution introduces its own restrictions on freedom of movement. By contrast, freedom of movement is not restricted with the fully immersive spherical projection system known as the Cybersphere, developed through joint research by VR Systems and the University of Warwick, both in the U.K. Users who enter this spherical system—which represents a new approach to VR visualization—can walk, run, jump, or crawl in any direction, while at the same time being able to observe an allencompassing virtual environment. In this article we describe where the Cybersphere fits in the world of virtual reality interfaces, and discuss ways it can be applied to a cross-sectional audience, ranging from simple component visualization to highly complex military simulations. Since the advent into VR in 1965, when Ivan Sutherland presented a paper describing the concepts of the Head Mounted Display (HMD), several systems have been developed to “perceive” physical objects. The Cybersphere, launched in October 2000, is the latest such system; others include the cathode ray tube (CRT), the head mounted display (HMD), the binocular omni-oriented monitor (BOOM), and a projection screen environment known as a CAVE. Following is a brief description of each.
Connecting users and items with weighted tags for personalized item recommendations

Tags are an important information source in Web 2.0. They can be used to describe users' topic preferences as well as the content of items to make personalized recommendations. However, since tags are arbitrary words given by users, they contain a lot of noise such as tag synonyms, semantic ambiguities and personal tags. Such noise brings difficulties to improve the accuracy of item recommendations. To eliminate the noise of tags, in this paper we propose to use the multiple relationships among users, items and tags to find the semantic meaning of each tag for each user individually. With the proposed approach, the relevant tags of each item and the tag preferences of each user are determined. In addition, the user and item-based collaborative filtering combined with the content filtering approach are explored. The effectiveness of the proposed approaches is demonstrated in the experiments conducted on real world datasets collected from Amazon.com and citeULike website.
Reproductive immunosuppression and diet. An evolutionary perspective on pregnancy sickness and meat consumption. Commentaries. Author's reply

Pregnancy sickness, a suite of symptoms that frequently co-occur during pregnancy, may be an adaptation providing behavioral prophylaxis against infection. Maternal immunosuppression, necessary for tolerance of the fetus, results in gestational vulnerability to pathogens. Throughout the period of maximal vulnerability, dietary behavior is significantly altered via changes in nausea susceptibility and olfaction and the development of marked aversions and cravings. Of food types, meat is both the most likely to carry pathogens and the principal target of gestational aversions and pregnancy taboos. Because meat was prominent in ancestral human diets but hygienic procedures that effectively eliminate the risk of meat-borne infection are recent, such pathogens likely constituted a source of selective pressure on pregnant females throughout human history. Both the relatively low protein and energy demands of the first trimester and the existence of nonmeat alternatives would have allowed for the evolution of time-limited gestational meat-avoidance mechanisms. Complementing these mechanisms, gestational cravings target substances that may influence immune functioning and affect the availability of iron in the gastro-intestinal tract, thereby limiting the proliferation of iron-dependent pathogens. Clinical and ethnographic findings are examined in light of these proposals, and directions for future research are outlined.
Gut Microbiome Composition in Non-human Primates Consuming a Western or Mediterranean Diet

The mammalian gastrointestinal tract harbors a highly diverse and dynamic community of bacteria. The array of this gut bacterial community, which functions collectively as a fully unified organ in the host metabolism, varies greatly among different host species and can be shaped by long-term nutritional interventions. Non-human primates, our close phylogenetic relatives and ancestors, provide an excellent model for studying diet-microbiome interaction; however, compared to clinical and rodent studies, research targeting primate gut microbiome has been limited. Herein, we analyze the gut microbiome composition in female cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis; n = 20) after the long-term (2.5 years) consumption of diets designed to mimic recent human Western- (WD; n = 10) or Mediterranean-type (MD; n = 10) diets. Microbiome diversity in MD consumers was significantly higher by the Shannon diversity index compared to the WD consumers, with similar but non-significant trends noted for the diversity metrics of species richness (Chao 1), observed operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and phylogenetic diversity (PD) whole Tree. Compared to the MD, the WD group demonstrated a higher Firmicutes-Bacteroides ratio and a significantly higher abundance of families Clostridiacea and Lactobacillaceae. Further analyses reveal significantly higher abundance of genera Lactobacillus, Clostridium, Faecalibacterium, and Oscillospira and lower abundance of Ruminococcus and Coprococcus in MD consumers relative to WD consumers. OTUs belonging to several species also show significant differences between the two groups, with Lactobacillus species demonstrating a prominently higher abundance in the MD consumers. The data reveal several differences in the gut microbiome of primates consuming the two different diets and should be useful for further studies aimed at understanding the diet-microbiome-health interactions in primates.
Interhemispheric connections of somatosensory cortex in the flying fox

The interhemispheric connections of somatosensory cortex in the gray‐headed flying fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) were examined. Injections of anatomical tracers were placed into five electrophysiologically identified somatosensory areas: the primary somatosensory area (SI or area 3b), the anterior parietal areas 3a and 1/2, and the lateral somatosensory areas SII (the secondary somatosensory area) and PV (pairetal ventral area). In two animals, the hemisphere opposite to that containing the injection sites was explored electrophysiologically to allow the details of the topography of interconnections to be assessed. Examination of the areal distribution of labeled cell bodies and/or axon terminals in cortex sectioned tangential to the pial surface revealed several consistent findings. First, the density of connections varied as a function of the body part representation injected. For example, the area 3b representation of the trunk and structures of the face are more densely interconnected than the representation of distal body parts (e.g., digit 1, D1). Second, callosal connections appear to be both matched and mismatched to the body part representations injected in the opposite hemisphere. For example, an injection of retrograde tracer into the trunk representation of area 3b revealed connections from the trunk representation in the opposite hemisphere, as well as from shoulder and forelimb/wing representations. Third, the same body part is differentially connected in different fields via the corpus callosum. For example, the D1 representation in area 3b in one hemisphere had no connections with the area 3b D1 representation in the opposite hemisphere, whereas the D1 representation in area 1/2 had relatively dense reciprocal connections with area 1/2 in the opposite hemisphere. Finally, there are callosal projections to fields other than the homotopic, contralateral field. For example, the D1 representation in area 1/2 projects to contralateral area 1/2, and also to area 3b and SII. J. Comp. Neurol. 402:538–559, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Repeated exposure to 5 D 9 , an inhibitor of 3 D polymerase , effectively limits the replication

0166-3542/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.antiviral. 2013.03. 022 Abbreviations: FMD, foot-and-Mouth Disease; FMDV, foot-and-mouth disease virus; 3Dpol, 3D polymerase; 5D9, 4-chloro-N0-thieno [2,3-d]pyrimidin-4ylbenzenesulfonohydrazide; QSPR, quantitative structure–property relationship; RdRp, RNA dependent RNA polymerase; RNA, ribonucleic acid; NTP, nucleoside triphosphate; MTT, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide; BME, eagle’s medium basal; ATCC, American Type Culture Collection; BHK, baby hamster kidney; MOI, multiplicity of infection; hpi, hours post infection; PBST, Phosphate Buffered Saline with Tween-20; DMSO, Dimethylsulphoxide; RT-PCR, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction; RIPA, radioimmunoprecipitation assay. ⇑ Corresponding authors. Address: Plum Island Animal Disease Center, USDA/ ARS/NAA, P.O. Box 848, Greenport, NY 11944-0848, USA. Tel. +1 (631) 323 3177; fax: +1 (631) 323 3006 (E. Rieder), 471d Christopher Bond Life Sciences Center, 1201 Rollins Street, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. Tel. +1 573 882 4338 (S.G. Sarafianos). E-mail addresses: sarafianoss@missouri.edu (S.G. Sarafianos), elizabeth.rieder@ars.usda. gov (E. Rieder). Devendra K. Rai , Elizabeth A. Schafer , Kamalendra Singh , Mark A. McIntosh , Stefan G. Sarafianos b,c,d,⇑, Elizabeth Rieder a,⇑
Evaluating the effectiveness of Endostar therapy in human lung cancer xenografts using contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging

To investigate the feasibility of antiangiogenic effect of Endostar therapy in lung cancer xenografts using contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI). Two groups of nude mice bearing human lung carcinoma cells (NCI-H460 cell) were injected with Endostar (experiment group) or phosphate-buffered saline (control group). DCE-MRI was performed on the 7th day after injection, followed by collection of tumor tissues for immunohistochemistry. Tumor volumes in the experimental group were smaller than in the control group (0.249±0.138 vs. 0.448±0.096 cm3, P=0.032). The mean transfer constant (Ktrans), extravascular extracellular space fractional volume (Ve), and incremental area under the curve (iAUC) of the experimental group (0.052±0.015/min, 0.280±0.191, and 11.912±7.738, respectively) were found to be lower than those of the control group (0.149±0.026/min, 0.558±0.052 and 36.463±12.534) (all P<0.05), except the rate constant of backflux (Kep) (control: 0.334±0.111/ min; experimental: 0.478 ± 0.294/min; P>0.05). Microvessel density (MVD) was lower in the experimental group than in controls (11.36±4.57 vs. 20.44±3.46 vessels/high power field; P<0.05). In conclusion, Endostar could significantly inhibit the development of lung tumor xenografts in mice. DCE-MRI could be used as an effective method in evaluating tumor angiogenesis and the effect of antiangiogenic drugs.