Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
From ribonuclease A toward bovine seminal ribonuclease: a step by step thermodynamic analysis.

A proline, a leucine, and two cysteine residues, introduced at positions 19, 28, 31, and 32 of bovine pancreatic RNase A, i.e. the positions occupied by these residues in the subunit of bovine seminal RNase, the only dimeric RNase of the pancreatic-type superfamily, transform monomeric RNase A into a dimeric RNase, endowed with the same ability of BS-RNase of swapping its N-terminal segments. The thermodynamic consequences of the progressive introduction of these four residues into RNase A polypeptide chain have been studied by comparing the temperature- and urea-induced denaturation of three mutants of RNase A with that of a stable monomeric derivative of BS-RNase. The denaturation processes proved reversible for all proteins, and well represented by the two-state N<-->D transition model. The progressive introduction of the four residues into RNase A led to a gradual shift of the protein stability toward that characteristic of monomeric BS-RNase, which, in turn, is markedly less stable than RNase A with respect to both temperature- and urea-induced denaturation. On the other hand, the thermal stability of a dimeric active mutant of RNase A is found to approach that of wild-type seminal RNase.
Boosted Web Named Entity Recognition via Tri-Training

Named entity extraction is a fundamental task for many natural language processing applications on the web. Existing studies rely on annotated training data, which is quite expensive to obtain large datasets, limiting the effectiveness of recognition. In this research, we propose a semisupervised learning approach for web named entity recognition (NER) model construction via automatic labeling and tri-training. The former utilizes structured resources containing known named entities for automatic labeling, while the latter makes use of unlabeled examples to improve the extraction performance. Since this automatically labeled training data may contain noise, a self-testing procedure is used as a follow-up to remove low-confidence annotation and prepare higher-quality training data. Furthermore, we modify tri-training for sequence labeling and derive a proper initialization for large dataset training to improve entity recognition. Finally, we apply this semisupervised learning framework for person name recognition, business organization name recognition, and location name extraction. In the task of Chinese NER, an F-measure of 0.911, 0.849, and 0.845 can be achieved, for person, business organization, and location NER, respectively. The same framework is also applied for English and Japanese business organization name recognition and obtains models with performance of a 0.832 and 0.803 F-measure.
Preferential behavior in online groups

Online communities in the form of message boards, listservs, and newsgroups continue to represent a considerable amount of the social activity on the Internet. Every year thousands of groups ourish while others decline into relative obscurity; likewise, millions of members join a new community every year, some of whom will come to manage or moderate the conversation while others simply sit by the sidelines and observe. These processes of group formation, growth, and dissolution are central in social science, and in an online venue they have ramifications for the design and development of community software In this paper we explore a large corpus of thriving online communities. These groups vary widely in size, moderation and privacy, and cover an equally diverse set of subject matter. We present a broad range of descriptive statistics of these groups. Using metadata from groups, members, and individual messages, we identify users who post and are replied-to frequently by multiple group members; we classify these high-engagement users based on the longevity of their engagements. We show that users who will go on to become long-lived, highly-engaged users experience significantly better treatment than other users from the moment they join the group, well before there is an opportunity for them to develop a long-standing relationship with members of the group We present a simple model explaining long-term heavy engagement as a combination of user-dependent and group-dependent factors. Using this model as an analytical tool, we show that properties of the user alone are sufficient to explain 95% of all memberships, but introducing a small amount of per-group information dramatically improves our ability to model users belonging to multiple groups.
Research on the Simulation of Urban Land Use Change Based on GIS and CA Models - A Case Study of Longgang District, Shenzhen City

In this paper we emphasize on the technology research depending on the CA model which have powerful computation function and spatial analysis ability of GIS to simulate and forecast urban land use change in Shenzhen city. We reconstructed and extended conventional CA model from three aspects including model run-time, influencing factors, transforming rules and finally integrate GIS into CA model by AML language. The experimental result shows that the experimental model can better simulate and predict urban land change and the result reached the expectant aim, it can offer service for the administration to institute reasonable urban developmental programming, while it also has directive signification for realizing urban continuable development.
Learning the Nonlinearity of Neurons from Natural Visual Stimuli

Learning in neural networks is usually applied to parameters related to linear kernels and keeps the nonlinearity of the model fixed. Thus, for successful models, properties and parameters of the nonlinearity have to be specified using a priori knowledge, which often is missing. Here, we investigate adapting the nonlinearity simultaneously with the linear kernel. We use natural visual stimuli for training a simple model of the visual system. Many of the neurons converge to an energy detector matching existing models of complex cells. The overall distribution of the parameter describing the nonlinearity well matches recent physiological results. Controls with randomly shuffled natural stimuli and pink noise demonstrate that the match of simulation and experimental results depends on the higher-order statistical properties of natural stimuli.
Beyond the Grave—Adolescent Parental Loss: Letting Go and Holding On

The author considers a relational perspective of mourning and suggests an elaboration and extension of Freud's theory of mourning with a sharper focus on the dialectic of holding on and letting go of the formative lost object relationship. Sussillo argues that Freud's early (1917) theoretical tilt toward the relinquishment of affective ties with the dead, later expanded and culminated in a deeper relational sensibility, was shaped by his developing theories and personal losses. Her position is that the analyst can help facilitate the adult patient's affective experience of felt continuity with the absent object, lost in adolescence, that ultimately allows the separation and the transformation of the primitive bond. Sussillo's perspective represents a synthesis of relational theories in a broad sense—also informed by attachment theory, contemporary bereavement research, infant research, and developmental theory. This thesis is illustrated by a clinical example that highlights the therapeutic action.
Microlensing Optical Depth toward the Galactic Bulge Using Bright Sources from OGLE-II

We present a measurement of the microlensing optical depth toward the Galactic bulge based on 4 years of the OGLE-II survey. We consider only bright sources in the extended red clump giant (RCG) region of the color-magnitude diagram, in 20 bulge fields covering ~5 deg2 between 0° < l < 3° and -4° < b < -2°. Using a sample of 32 events we find τ = 2.55 × 10-6 at (l, b) = (1.°16, - 2.°75). Taking into account the measured gradient along the Galactic latitude b, τ = [(4.48 ± 2.37) + (0.78 ± 0.84) × b] × 10-6, this value is consistent with previous measurements using RCG sources and recent theoretical predictions. We determine the microlensing parameters and select events using a model light curve that allows for flux blending. Photometric quality delivered by difference image analysis (DIA) combined with the 1. ″3 median seeing of the OGLE-II images are sufficient to constrain and reject the majority of strong blends. We find that ~38% of the OGLE-II events that appear to have RCG sources are actually due to much fainter stars blended with a bright companion. We show explicitly that model fits without blending result in similar τ estimates through partial cancellation of contributions from higher detection efficiency, underestimated timescales, and a larger number of selected events. The near cancellation of the optical depth bias and the fact that microlensing event selection based on models without blending discriminates against blends have been utilized by previous analyses based on RCG sources. The latter approach, however, leads to biased timescale distributions and event rates. Consequently, microlensing studies should carefully consider source confusion effects even for bright stars.
SATSoT: A methodology to map controllable-polarity devices on a regular fabric using SAT

Devices with controllable-polarity, such as Double-Gate Vertically-Stacked Nanowire FETs, have shown promising interests in recent years to implement XOR-based logic functions in an unprecedented compact way. Such a compactness is obtained at the cost of a denser interconnect, that can be mitigated by designing an efficient hyper-regular layout structure, called Sea-of-Tiles. In this paper, we propose a methodology, based on Boolean satisfiability, to map netlists of transistors on such a structure. The methodology endeavors to minimize the wiring complexity, by maximizing the sharing of the different terminals. We showed that its implementation, SATSoT, is able to automatically generate compact mappings with wiring complexities similar to manual layouts.
Tyrosine Phosphorylation in the C-Terminal Nuclear Localization and Retention Signal (C-NLS) of the EWS Protein

Ewing sarcoma (EWS) proto-oncoprotein, an RNA-binding protein, is involved in DNA recombination and repair, gene expression, RNA processing and transport, as well as cell signalling. Chimeric EWS oncoproteins generated by chromosomal translocations between EWSR1 and the genes of transcription factors cause malignant tumors. To understand the loss of function by these translocations, the role of the intact EWS protein has to be investigated. The predominantly nuclear localization of the EWS protein via a transportin-1-mediated mechanism is dependent on the recently identified C-NLS (also known as PY-NLS). Among other residues in the C-NLS, Y656 interacts with transportin-1 and is essential for its nuclear localization. Here, we show that Y656 is phosphorylated, which seems to be a critical factor for transportin-1-mediated nuclear import. If Y656 was mutated cytosolic aggregates of the EWS protein, colocalized with transportin-1, were observed, similar to those described with mutants of the closely related FUS/TLS protein that had amino acid substitutions in the PY-NLS causing familial amyothrophic lateral sclerosis.
Preschoolers, Parents, and Peers: Child Temperament and Parenting Styles as Predictors of Peer Play

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations among child temperament, parenting styles, and peer interactive play behaviors. Parents of 44 preschoolers provided ratings of their children’s temperament on the Behavioral Style Questionnaire (BSQ; McDevitt & Carey, 1978) and ratings of their children’s interactive play behaviors on the Peer Interactive Play Scale (PIPPS; Fantuzzo, Sutton-Smith, Coolahan, Manz, Canning, & Denham, 1995). Parents also rated their perceptions of their own parenting behaviors and their relationships with their children on the Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI; Gerard, 1994). It was hypothesized that child temperament and parenting styles would predict children’s peer play behaviors, such that children with more desirable temperament traits and those whose parents engaged in more authoritative parenting behaviors would exhibit positive behaviors during peer play interactions. In contrast, it was hypothesized that children with more difficult temperaments and parents who engaged in less positive parenting behaviors would exhibit more negative play behaviors. Results indicate that personal-social flexibility and parental limit-setting were found to be significantly related to play disconnection and disruption.
Color image enhancement using spatially adaptive saturation feedback

One way of enhancing color image contrast is to feed back high-frequency spatial information from the saturation component into the luminance component. A new algorithm, which uses a spatially variant measure of salience, is presented. This method offers key improvements to a previous saturation feedback technique. Experimental results confirm that improved color image enhancement is achieved.
Evolution of recombination rates between sex chromosomes

In species with genetic sex-determination, the chromosomes carrying the sex-determining genes have often evolved non-recombining regions and subsequently evolved the full set of characteristics denoted by the term ‘sex chromosomes’. These include size differences, creating chromosomal heteromorphism, and loss of gene functions from one member of the chromosome pair. Such characteristics and changes have been widely reviewed, and underlie molecular genetic approaches that can detect sex chromosome regions. This review deals mainly with the evolution of new non-recombining regions, focusing on how certain evolutionary situations select for suppressed recombination (rather than the proximate mechanisms causing suppressed recombination between sex chromosomes). Particularly important is the likely involvement of sexually antagonistic polymorphisms in genome regions closely linked to sex-determining loci. These may be responsible for the evolutionary strata of sex chromosomes that have repeatedly formed by recombination suppression evolving across large genome regions. More studies of recently evolved non-recombining sex-determining regions should help to test this hypothesis empirically, and may provide evidence about whether other situations can sometimes lead to sex-linked regions evolving. Similarities with other non-recombining genome regions are discussed briefly, to illustrate common features of the different cases, though no general properties apply to all of them. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Evolutionary causes and consequences of recombination rate variation in sexual organisms’.
Inference of Mechanical Properties from Instrumented Depth Sensing Indentation at Tiny Loads and Indentation Depths

Different hardness measures as Vickers, Brinell and Meyer hardness are discussed with respect to their physical interpretation. Meyer hardness is found to be best suited as a measure of plastic properties. The outline of a depth sensing nanoindentation experiment is described, and particular emphasis is given to the correct deduction of the contact area from indenter penetration data. Experimental complications, as phase transformations, finite machine compliance, thermal and pieco drift, and sample creep are detailed with, and their impact on the calculation of hardness and elastic modulus is shown. Furthermore the onset of yielding in dependence on critical load, indenter curvature and yield strength is discussed.
Towards Virtual Passthrough I/O on Commodity Devices

A commodity I/O device has no support for virtualization. A VMM can assign such a device to a single guest with direct, fast, but insecure access by the guest's native device driver. Alternatively, the VMM can build virtual devices on top of the physical device, allowing it to be multiplexed across VMs, but with lower performance. We propose a technique that provides an intermediate option. In virtual passthrough I/O (VPIO), the guest interacts directly with the physical device most of the time, achieving high performance, as in passthrough I/O. Additionally, the guest/device interactions drive a model that in turn identifies (1) when the physical device can be handed off to another VM, and (2) if the guest programs the device to behave illegitimately. In this paper, we describe the VPIO model, and present preliminary results in using it to support a commodity network card within the Palacios VMM we are building. We believe that an appropriate model for an I/O device could be produced by the hardware vendor as part of the design, implementation, and testing process.
Bayesian Spatial Modelling with R-INLA

The principles behind the interface to continuous domain spatial models in the RINLA software package for R are described. The integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA) approach proposed by Rue, Martino, and Chopin (2009) is a computationally effective alternative to MCMC for Bayesian inference. INLA is designed for latent Gaussian models, a very wide and flexible class of models ranging from (generalized) linear mixed to spatial and spatio-temporal models. Combined with the stochastic partial differential equation approach (SPDE, Lindgren, Rue, and Lindstrom 2011), one can accommodate all kinds of geographically referenced data, including areal and geostatistical ones, as well as spatial point process data. The implementation interface covers stationary spatial models, non-stationary spatial models, and also spatio-temporal models, and is applicable in epidemiology, ecology, environmental risk assessment, as well as general geostatistics.
Effects of Participation in After-School Programs for Middle School Students: A Randomized Trial

Abstract This study assessed the effects of attending an after-school program (ASP) on a range of outcomes for middle school youths. The program operated for 9 hr per week for 30 weeks and included attendance monitoring and reinforcement, academic assistance, a prevention curriculum, and recreational programming. Participants were 447 students randomly assigned either to the ASP or to after-school activities as usual. Program attendance was sporadic. Although treatment students experienced increased exposure to ASPs relative to controls, nearly all youth in both groups reported participating in some organized activity during the after-school hours, and the number of different activities in which youths reported being involved did not differ across groups. Participation in the treatment reduced time spent with friends with no adults present during the after-school hours. No differences between treatment and control youths were found on measures of conduct problems, academic performance, school attendance, or any of the intermediate behaviors and attitudes targeted. The study replicates findings from the national evaluation of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program for middle school students using a more rigorous research design.
Researching identity: a critical realist approach

The weaknesses of the constructivist positions on identity stem, primarily, from its ontological commitments. The failure to distinguish between ontology and epistemology results in explanatory weakness and emancipatory impotence (Fairclough et al. 2002). Here, we develop an alternative, critical realist, account of identity which we suggest ameliorates these weaknesses. To do so, we first explain how the principles of critical realism (CR) apply to thinking about identity and discourse, which in turn leads to an examination of the consequences of this for research. Finally, we provide a brief example of a critical realist analysis of identity based upon the recent work of one of the authors.
An improved space vector PWM control algorithm for multilevel inverters

The research on the multilevel inverter has been receiving wide attention mainly due to its capability of high voltage operation without switching devices connected in series. In this paper, a simple, detailed and general space vector algorithm is given. To facilitate the design and digital implementation of the space vector algorithm, all the space vectors are transformed from the commonly used Cartesian coordinate system to a 60/spl deg/ coordinate system. At the same time, two switching states selection algorithms are studied for multilevel inverters: large small alternation (LSA) method and all mean (AM) switching states method, in which the latter one can give better performance in terms of the harmonics content on the transformer primary side though it has a higher device switching frequency than that of LSA. AM switching states selection method makes the concept of space vector modulation (SVM) consistent in two-level voltage source inverters and multilevel inverter; both output equivalent mean switching sates in every sampling period. Both of these two methods also features easy implementation and generality and can be used in any high-level cascaded H-bridge inverters. They are verified through computer simulations and experiments.
When Good Goes Bad: The Effects of High Negative Affectivity on Pressure to Produce

Pressure to produce at the workplace is omnipresent, and in many ways a necessary situation. Although pressure to produce helps to motivate or drive employee performance, it is likely to be associated with negative outcomes. In this study, we examine three outcomes (job satisfaction, role overload, and perceived organizational support) to assess their linkages with pressure to produce. Based on person-situation theory, we also investigate negative affectivity (NA) as a moderator of pressure to produce-outcome relationships. We examine these hypotheses in a sample of 220 technology end-users from a wide range of jobs. Our results support our hypotheses that pressure to produce is negatively related to desired work outcomes, and that NA intensifies the associations between pressure to produce and negative consequences.
HISTORICAL CONTINGENCIES AND THE EVOLVING IMPORTANCE OF RACE, VIOLENT CRIME, AND REGION IN EXPLAINING MASS INCARCERATION IN THE UNITED STATES

This article combines insights from historical research and quantitative analyses that have attempted to explain changes in incarceration rates in the United States. We use state-level decennial data from 1970 to 2010 (N = 250) to test whether recent theoretical models derived from historical research that emphasize the importance of specific historical periods in shaping the relative importance of certain social and political factors explain imprisonment. Also drawing on historical work, we examine how these key determinants differed in Sunbelt states, that is, the states stretching across the nation's South from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific, from the rest of the nation. Our findings suggest that the relative contributions of violent crime, minority composition, political ideology, and partisanship to imprisonment vary over time. We also extend our analysis beyond mass incarceration's rise to analyze how factors associated with prison expansion can explain its stabilization and contraction in the early twenty-first century. Our findings suggest that most of the factors that best explained state incarceration rates in the prison boom era lost power once imprisonment stabilized and declined. We find considerable support for the importance of historical contingencies in shaping state-level imprisonment trends, and our findings highlight the enduring importance of race in explaining incarceration.