Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How Microbes Defend Themselves From Incoming Hydrogen Peroxide

Microbes rely upon iron as a cofactor for many enzymes in their central metabolic processes. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) superoxide and hydrogen peroxide react rapidly with iron, and inside cells they can generate both enzyme and DNA damage. ROS are formed in some bacterial habitats by abiotic processes. The vulnerability of bacteria to ROS is also apparently exploited by ROS-generating host defense systems and bacterial competitors. Phagocyte-derived O 2 − can toxify captured bacteria by damaging unidentified biomolecules on the cell surface; it is unclear whether phagocytic H2O2, which can penetrate into the cell interior, also plays a role in suppressing bacterial invasion. Both pathogenic and free-living microbes activate defensive strategies to defend themselves against incoming H2O2. Most bacteria sense the H2O2 via OxyR or PerR transcription factors, whereas yeast uses the Grx3/Yap1 system. In general these regulators induce enzymes that reduce cytoplasmic H2O2 concentrations, decrease the intracellular iron pools, and repair the H2O2-mediated damage. However, individual organisms have tailored these transcription factors and their regulons to suit their particular environmental niches. Some bacteria even contain both OxyR and PerR, raising the question as to why they need both systems. In lab experiments these regulators can also respond to nitric oxide and disulfide stress, although it is unclear whether the responses are physiologically relevant. The next step is to extend these studies to natural environments, so that we can better understand the circumstances in which these systems act. In particular, it is important to probe the role they may play in enabling host infection by microbial pathogens.
Getting adaptation right – challenges and ethical issues facing planners adapting to sea level rise in southern Sweden

ABSTRACT Sea level rise (SLR) caused by climate change presents challenges for public planners all over the world. In this study, practical challenges and ethical factors in adaptation to SLR were identified based on interviews with planners in Sweden. Six challenges were identified: lack of knowledge and human resources, lacking integration and coordination, lacking or insufficient frameworks for dealing with long-time-horizons, responsibility for implementation and financing, and goal conflicts in the process of implementing adaptation policy. These challenges are then developed into a typology of ethical factors that are of particular importance for adaptation to SLR, categorised as input-oriented, process-oriented and outcome-oriented ethical factors. The challenges and ethical factors identified in this paper are the first step taken towards answering the question of what a sustainable and ethical adaptation to SLR in the context of local and regional policy-making could look like.
Heartbreaking vs. Heartwarming Facebook Advertisements by Nonprofits to Help the Rohingya Refugees

Abstract It is a common observation to see Muslim communities affected by violence and mass migrations. This is often followed by international nonprofits running online campaigns to receive charitable donations. Specifically, the Rohingya refugee crisis spurred Facebook advertisements based on negative emotional appeals. We argue that such advertisements make viewers emotionally numb to the victims. We propose that viewers will respond more altruistically when presented with solutions-oriented information. To test this assumption, we conducted a between-group experiment (n = 102) manipulating message valence (positive vs. negative) of a Facebook advertisement. Results indicate that participants in the positive condition expressed more positive emotions and that nonprofits should cease creating heartbreaking advertisements when similar levels of empathy can be evoked from heartwarming advertisements. Participants in both conditions expressed similar empathy, trust, and intentions to donate. The study offers implications to positively frame the Muslim communities affected by violence on social media.
Effect of displacer on performance of Stirling-type pulse tube refrigerator with work recovery

The displacer-type pulse tube refrigerator is a kind of Stirling-type pulse tube refrigerator with work recovery. It uses a displacer as a phase shifter and has the advantages of high efficiency and compact structure. One-dimensional numerical simulation of the displacer-type pulse tube refrigerator is performed, and the accuracy of the simulation is experimentally verified. The parametric analyses of displacer diameter, rod diameter, moving mass, spring stiffness, mechanical damping, and clearance seal are conducted. The results show that regenerator phase relations and work recovery effectiveness are significantly influenced by the displacer parameters, which further affect the performance. Regenerator phase relations and work recovery effectiveness are better when the rod diameter ratio to displacer diameter is about 0.5, contributing to the maximum coefficient of performance (COP c ). The rod diameter corresponding to the optimal cooling capacity is greater than that corresponding to the optimal COP c at the same displacer diameter. The length of the clearance seal has a slight effect on the performance when the height is less than 25 μm. Work recovery effectiveness is a unique attribute of the work recovery pulse tube refrigerator. Work recovery and phase shift require coupled analysis to optimize the performance of displacer-type pulse tube refrigerator.
A tri-band Frequency-Selective Surface

A novel low-profile tri-band bandpass frequency-selective surface (FSS) is proposed in this paper. The structure is designed by the two-dimensional repetition of a unit cell consisting of four apertures. Each aperture is a combination of T-shaped, U-shaped and a rectangular-shaped aperture aligned horizontally or vertically. The performance of the designed FSS structure is independent of the angle of incidence of the incident wave due to the orientation of the apertures in the unit cell. The designed FSS structure operates at the desired frequency bands close to 8-14 GHz. The insertion loss is close to 3.26, 2.68 and 1.12 dB at the respective frequencies of 8.1, 9.8 and 11 GHz. The advantage of this design is that it exhibits tri-band characteristics for various angles of incidence of the incident wave even though it is a low-profile single layer structure. The total dimensions of the unit cell are approximately 0.55 λ0 × 0.55 λ0 at 8 GHz.
Countering violent extremism: assessment in theory and practice

ABSTRACT Programs for preventing and countering violent extremism (CVE) are a point of frequent collaboration across the divide between academics and practitioners in national security. However, both academics and practitioners have been hobbled in their effectiveness by conceptual under-development in the field. This has been due in part to the divide and the different incentive structures for both sides that have contributed to a lack of data-sharing from praxis. However, the main challenge preventing the establishment of rigourous studies of best practices in CVE has been the absence of an accepted analytic framework for measuring results. Practitioners engage in either assessment of program participants outcomes which may not be connected to the effectiveness of the program, or in evaluation of programs by whether they are delivered according to design. Academics may develop theories of CVE to test but are unable to do so without causal effect data from the programs. This article argues that both sides of the divide would prosper from adoption of an education sector framework for assessing what participants demonstrably learn in programs as outcomes. This approach would permit better hypothesis testing and responsible program development and management.
Enhanced image preprocessing method for an autonomous vehicle agent system

Excessive training time is a major issue face when training autonomous vehicle agents with neural networks by using images as input. This paper proposes a deep time-economical Q network (DQN) input image preprocessing method to train an autonomous vehicle agent in a virtual environment. The environmental information is extracted from the virtual environment. A top-view image of the entire environment is then redrawn according to the environmental information. During training of the DQN model, the top-view image is cropped to place the vehicle agent at the center of the cropped image. The current frame top-view image is combined with the images from the previous two training iterations. The DQN model use this combined image as input. The experimental results indicate higher performance and shorter training time for the DQN model trained with the preprocessed images compared with that trained without preprocessing.
Rethinking the foundations: towards powerful professional knowledge in teacher education in the USA and England

ABSTRACT In this paper, we aim to outline what foundations can offer in terms of understanding education and educational practice, and thus for providing a basis for teachers’ professional knowledge. We look critically at the struggle foundation disciplines often experience with coherence and integration in terms of both their relation to each other and to broader (e.g. philosophical or sociological) thought. We begin to rethink foundations more as a (strong, disciplinary and professionally orientated) region rather than a singular or a set of singulars (to use Bernstein’s terms), although one that is rather different from other regions. In doing so, we suggest that Bernstein’s work, in providing a rich lens to understand curricula and pedagogic practice while holding social and political issues and implications close, is a useful exemplar of the type of educational knowledge which should be at the core of the foundations. A revitalized region of educational foundations can offer the ‘powerful professional knowledge’ that will enable teachers to make knowledgeable professional judgements in educational practice.
Between ethnonational and international curricula: competing identity discourses in the Armenian school in Jerusalem

Abstract The use of international curricula by minority diaspora communities poses a paradox for the construction of student identities that juxtaposes ethnonational and global discourses. Positioned in the throes of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the Armenian School in Jerusalem utilizes a global curriculum while also attempting to sustain collective Armenian identity among its students, who study four languages. This ethnographic case study of the Armenian School analyzes the impact of competing discourses on identity construction. Findings reveal a pervasive ethnonational discourse based upon key ethnosymbols which promotes a powerful sense of belonging to an imagined Armenian transnation. Simultaneously, the international curriculum champions English as a dominant language and prevents the anchoring of Armenian identity within local society. Global discourses associated with the international curriculum, coupled with a lack of attachment to a concrete homeland, tend to orient graduates away from the Jerusalem community and toward opportunities abroad.
Review on frequency reconfigurable antenna using substrate-integrated waveguide for cognitive radio application

Cognitive radio (CR) exploits the spectrum efficiently and minimizes the interference between different devices. Meanwhile, multiband frequency-reconfigurable antennas (FRA) are desirable for CR where it is beneficial to dynamically reconfigure a single antenna to be transmitted and/or received on multiple frequency bands. As stated by the literature review, there is a dearth of work into multiband FRA that is directly applied in CR applications with substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) technology. Frequency-reconfigurable SIW (FRSIW) is seen as promising for the development of microwave and millimeter waveband antennas. This study’s key objective is for the technical operational advances of SIW antennas to be summarized and compared. The design structure of FRSIW elements using different techniques is discussed in detail. The findings supported the effectiveness of FRSIW for managing radio spectrum to work in most efficient way.
Constructing ‘powerful’ curriculum theory

ABSTRACT This article addresses how ‘powerful’ curriculum theory might be constructed from the perspective of the German Didaktik tradition—highly compatible with Schwab’s the Practical. To start with, I scrutinize Joseph Schwab’s model of curriculum planning and Wolfgang Klafki’s model of lesson preparation and examine two theories of content that underpin the two models. Invoking the German Didaktik tradition, I next explicate a distinctive form of theorizing that yields powerful curriculum/Didaktik theory. I argue that Didaktik, together with the Practical, provides a viable way of constructing powerful curriculum theory—exemplified by a theory of knowledge and a theory of content—in the current context. I conclude by drawing implications for our understanding of the powers of professional educational knowledge and for tackling the current crisis in educational theory.
Visual voices and aural (auto)ethnographies: the personal, political, and polysemic value of storytelling and/in communication

ABSTRACT This themed issue speaks to the political significance and power of stories and epistemological privileges, and the impact and influence of identity, technology, and culture in our storied communication. The digital focus of the last 20 years continually impacts how we tell and disseminate stories, how we make and record observations (research), and how we teach and reach audiences (publication). Featured essays foreground the ways we can use our voices, stories, histories, and scholarship to make sense of contexts, moments, and experiences that are sometimes unspeakable, but other times ineffable, as well as ways narrative and ethnography can be joined with other methods to amplify the personal and generalizable. Contributors approach the study of communication through emergent media including virtual reality, game studies, digital storytelling, podcasts, photovoice, film, and the study of sound.
An exploratory data analysis protocol for identifying problems in continuous movement data

ABSTRACT Movement datasets are often complex and require sophisticated processing and analysis. A thorough understanding of the dataset is needed to choose the right methods and to interpret their results. Misunderstandings and violations of assumptions about dataset characteristics can lead to flawed analysis results and wrong conclusions. To address this challenge, we propose a novel protocol for the systematic exploration of movement datasets. The individual protocol steps address the different types of movement data problems. The exploration tools recommended at each step are specifically tailored to identifying potential problems and avoiding common pitfalls when working with global navigation satellite system (GNSS) tracking data, commonly referred to as GPS tracks. However, the general steps should be transferable to continuous movement datasets with different characteristics, such as video trajectories. Furthermore, we provide an open-source implementation of our protocol in the form of a Jupyter notebook accompanying this paper.
Influencing factors on transfer and bioaccumulation of soil cadmium and assessment of its environmental risk in a typical karst area, China

ABSTRACT Cadmium has become the foremost inorganic pollutant in farmland in China. It is widely accumulated in karst areas in southwest China, especially in Guangxi Province. In this study, vertical soil profiles, rice grains and corresponding root-soil samples were collected in Guangxi. The Cd contents of soil and rice grain samples and several soil properties, including organic matter, Fe2O3, Al2O3, CaO, MgO, SiO2 contents and pH were tested. Meanwhile, sequential extraction procedure were used to analysis the chemical fractions of Cd in root-soil samples. Based on the measured data, influencing factors on bioaccumulation of Cd and its contamination risk in study area were discussed. The results indicate that the bioaccumulation and mobility of Cd from soil to rice grain are restrained by high soil pH, high contents of organic matter, clay mineral and carbonate. Guangxi has strong development of karst landform, with the continuous process of soil formation, the activity of Cd in the soils in such areas will gradually become stable. In general, the environmental risk of soil cadmium contamination in karst areas of Guangxi is relatively low. But preventing soil acidification is the significant measure to prevent the environmental risk of it.
Internal marketing: a review and future research agenda

ABSTRACT Internal marketing is a method of cultivating high-level employee performance. However, the concept is marred with confusion due to the wide range of definitions and consequent implementation challenges. We reviewed the literature on internal marketing published between 1980 and 2020, using a theory, context and method framework. We found that scholars have not paid attention to the utilization of an established framework for construct operationalization. We advocate for the application of self-determination theory as a framework for operationalizing internal marketing. In addition, based on the identified research gaps, we propose several ideas for future research directions.
Human-Animal Affective Robot Touch Classification Using Deep Neural Network

Touch gesture recognition is an important aspect in human–robot interaction, as it makes such interaction effective and realistic. The novelty of this study is the development of a system that recognizes human–animal affective robot touch (HAART) using a deep learning algorithm. The proposed system was used for touch gesture recognition based on a dataset provided by the Recognition of the Touch Gestures Challenge 2015. The dataset was tested with numerous subjects performing different HAART gestures; each touch was performed on a robotic animal covered by a pressure sensor skin. A convolutional neural network algorithm is proposed to implement the touch recognition system from row inputs of the sensor devices. The leave-one-subject-out cross-validation method was used to validate and evaluate the proposed system. A comparative analysis between the results of the proposed system and the state-of-the-art performance is presented. Findings show that the proposed system could recognize the gestures in almost real time (after acquiring the minimum number of frames). According to the results of the leave-one-subject-out cross-validation method, the proposed algorithm could achieve a classification accuracy of 83.2%. It was also superior compared with existing systems in terms of classification ratio, touch recognition time, and data preprocessing on the same dataset. Therefore, the proposed system can be used in a wide range of real applications, such as image recognition, natural language recognition, and video clip classification.
Generalized Class of Mean Estimators with Known Measures for Outliers Treatment

In estimation theory, the researchers have put their efforts to develop some estimators of population mean which may give more precise results when adopting ordinary least squares (OLS) method or robust regression techniques for estimating regression coefficients. But when the correlation is negative and the outliers are presented, the results can be distorted and the OLS-type estimators may give misleading estimates or highly biased estimates. Hence, this paper mainly focuses on such issues through the use of non-conventional measures of dispersion and a robust estimation method. Precisely, we have proposed generalized estimators by using the ancillary information of non-conventional measures of dispersion (Gini’s mean difference, Downton’s method and probabilityweighted moment) using ordinary least squares and then finally adopting the Huber M-estimation technique on the suggested estimators. The proposed estimators are investigated in the presence of outliers in both situations of negative and positive correlation between study and auxiliary variables. Theoretical comparisons and real data application are provided to show the strength of the proposed generalized estimators. It is found that the proposed generalized Huber-M-type estimators are more efficient than the suggested generalized estimators under the OLS estimation method considered in this study. The new proposed estimators will be useful in the future for data analysis and making decisions.
PATH: An interactive web platform for analysis of time-course high-dimensional genomic data

Discovering patterns in time-course genomic data can provide insights on the dynamics of biological systems in health and disease. Here, we present a Platform for Analysis of Time-course High-dimensional data (PATH) with applications in genomics research. This web application provides a user-friendly interface with interactive data visualisation, dimension reduction, pattern discovery, and feature selection based on the principal trend analysis (PTA). Furthermore, the web application enables interactive and integrative analysis of time-course high-dimensional data based on the Joint PTA. The utilities of PATH are demonstrated through simulated and real examples, and the comparison with classical time-course data analysis methods such as the functional principal component analysis. PATH is freely accessible at https://ouyanglab.shinyapps. io/PATH/.
Effectiveness of intravenous r-tPA versus UK for acute ischaemic stroke: a nationwide prospective Chinese registry study

Background Intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (r-tPA) and urokinase (UK) are both recommended for the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) in China, but with few comparative outcome data being available. We aimed to compare the outcomes of these two thrombolytic agents for the treatment of patients within 4.5 hours of onset of AIS in routine clinical practice in China. Methods A pre-planned, prospective, nationwide, multicentre, real-world registry of consecutive patients with AIS (age ≥18 years) who received r-tPA or UK within 4.5 hours of symptom onset according to local decision-making and guideline recommendations during 2017–2019. The primary effectiveness outcome was the proportion of patients with an excellent functional outcome (defined by modified Rankin scale scores 0 to 1) at 90 days. The key safety endpoint was symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage according to standard definitions. Multivariable logistic regression was used for comparative analysis, with adjustment according to propensity scores to ensure balance in baseline characteristics. Results Overall, 4130 patients with AIS were registered but 320 had incomplete or missing data, leaving 3810 with available data for analysis of whom 2666 received r-tPA (median dose 0.88 (IQR 0.78–0.90) mg/kg) and 1144 received UK (1.71 (1.43–2.00)×104 international unit per kilogram). There were several significant intergroup differences in patient characteristics: r-tPA patients were more educated, had less history of stroke, lower systolic blood pressure, greater neurological impairment and shorter treatment times from symptom onset than UK patients. However, in adjusted analysis, the frequency of excellent outcome (OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.40, p=0.052) and symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage (OR 0.70, 95% CI 0.33 to 1.47, p=0.344) were similar between groups. Conclusions UK may be as effective and carry a similar safety profile as r-tPA in treating mild to moderate AIS within guidelines in China. Registration http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. unique identifier: NCT02854592.