Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alongshore Variability in Crescentic Sandbar Patterns at a Strongly Curved Coast

Sandbars, submerged ridges of sand parallel to the shoreline, tend to develop crescentic patterns while migrating onshore. At straight coasts, these patterns form preferably under near‐normal waves through the generation of circulation cells in the flow field, whereas they decay under energetic oblique waves with associated intense alongshore currents. Recently, observations at a man‐made convex curved coast showed an alongshore variability in patterning that seems related to a spatiotemporal variability of the local wave angle (Sand Engine). Here, we aim to systematically explore how coastline curvature contributes to alongshore variability in crescentic pattern formation, by introducing local differences in wave angle and the resulting flow field. A nonlinear morphodynamic model was used to simulate the patterns in an initially alongshore uniform sandbar that migrates onshore along the imposed curved coast. The model was forced by a time‐invariant and time‐varying offshore wave angle. Simulations show that the presence of patterns and their growth rate relate to the local breaker angle, depending on the schematization of the offshore angle and the local coastline orientation. Growth rates decrease with increasing obliquity as both refraction‐induced reductions of the wave height as well as alongshore currents increase. Furthermore, simulations of variations in coastline curvature show that patterns may develop faster at strongly curved coasts if this curvature leads to an increase in near‐normal angles. This implies that beaches where the coastline orientation changes substantially, for example, due to km‐scale nourishments, become potentially more dangerous to swimmers due to strong currents that develop with pronounced bar patterns.
A broad mutational target explains an evolutionary trend

An evolutionary trend, the rapid evolution of a trait in a group of organisms, can in some cases be explained by the mutational variance, the propensity of a phenotype to change under spontaneous mutation. However, the causes of high mutational variance are still elusive. For some morphological traits, fast evolution was shown to depend on the high mutation rate of one or few underlying loci with short tandem repeats. Here, we investigate the case of the fastest evolving cell fate among vulva precursor cells in Caenorhabditis nematodes, that of the cell called ‘P3.p’. For this, we combine mutation accumulation lines, whole-genome sequencing, genetic linkage analysis of the phenotype in recombinant lines, and candidate testing through mutant and CRISPR genome editing to identify causal mutations and the corresponding loci underlying the high mutational variance of P3.p. We identify and validate molecular lesions responsible for changes in this cell’s phenotype during a mutation accumulation experiment. We find that these loci do not present any characteristics of a high mutation rate, are scattered across the genome and belong to distinct biological pathways. Our data instead indicate that a broad mutational target size is the cause of the high mutational variance and of the corresponding evolutionary trend.
Does Quantitative Easing Boost Bank Lending to the Real Economy or Cause Other Bank Asset Reallocation? The Case of the UK

We investigate the impact of the asset purchase program (APP) introduced by the Bank of England (BOE) in 2009 on the composition of assets of UK banks, and the implications for bank lending to the real economy, using a unique database on the program. Knowing the identity of the banks that receive reserves injections through the BOE’s APP (QE banks) provides us with an ideal empirical design for a difference-in-differences exercise. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) didn’t expect there to be strong transmission of the APP’s impact through the bank lending channel. In line with that, we find no evidence that suggests that QE directly boosted bank lending to the real economy, even when controlling fully for demand-side effects. The overall reduction of retail lending is more pronounced for treated (QE) banks than for the control group. QE banks reallocated their assets towards lower risk-weighted investments, such as government securities, as suggested by the increased sensitivity of their equity returns to peripheral EU bond returns. Overall, our findings suggest that, if banks are not adequately capitalised, risk-based capital constraints can limit the transmission of expansionary unconventional monetary policies via the bank lending channel, and provide incentives for carry trade activities.
Entertainment-Education for Starting HIV/AIDS Discussions and Reducing Stigma: African American College Students' Reactions to the Film Yesterday

Entertainment-education is a media tool used to reduce the spread and stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. This pilot study explored how African American (AA) college students understood stigma as portrayed in the South African film Yesterday. Data were collected through a focus group where four major themes emerged. One is “we can talk, but please do not touch. ” The study shows that films on HIV/AIDS that feature people of African descent can be used to generate classroom discussions and promote positive attitudes about HIV/AIDS among AA students.
120 GBaud PAM-4/PAM-6 Generation and Detection by Photonic Aided Digital-to-Analog Converter and Linear Equalization

In this article, for the first time, we propose a photonic-aided digital-to-analog converter (PA-DAC) to break through transmitter-side bandwidth limitation in intensity modulation and direct detection (IM-DD) systems. By using this method, bandwidth of receiver-side devices can be fully utilized, and nonlinear distortions in high-data-rate electrical signals are avoided. Experimental results show that, with only linear equalization, 120 GBaud PAM-4 and PAM-6 signals have been successfully generated and detected with bite error ratios (BERs) below 6.25%-OH HD-FEC and 20%-OH SD-FEC limits, respectively.
Promotional Campaigns in the Era of Social Platforms

The rise of social media has facilitated the diffusion of information to more easily reach millions of users. While some users connect with friends and organically share information and opinions on social media, others have exploited these platforms to gain influence and profit through promotional campaigns and advertising. The existence of promotional campaigns contributes to the spread of misleading information, spam, and fake news. Thus, these campaigns affect the trustworthiness and reliability of social media and render it as a crowd advertising platform. This dissertation studies the existence of promotional campaigns in social media and explores different ways users and bots (i.e. automated accounts) engage in such campaigns. In this dissertation, we design a suite of detection, ranking, and mining techniques. We study user-generated reviews in online e-commerce sites, such as Google Play, to extract campaigns. We identify cooperating sets of bots and classify their interactions
Development of herpetic infection associated with stroke and its correction with acyclovir

Abstract Background: Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is prevalent in today’s world population, and there is evidence of potential HSV reactivation in patients with immune deficiency induced by acute stroke. However, the data on the use of antivirals in the setting of stroke are scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reactivation of HSV-1 in patients with stroke, using several methods, and to assess the efficacy of acyclovir in the treatment of experimental stroke. In the employed methodology, PCR and dot-ELISA were used to detect the occurrence of HSV-1 in patients with acute stroke. White mice were infected with HSV-1 and experimental stroke was simulated. The infected mice with stroke were subdivided into two groups: one of them received no treatment, while the other one was treated with acyclovir. The level of HSV-1 reactivation was determined by the methods used in human patients. The brain tissue of experimental animals was also subjected to morphological and morphometrical study. The results of such work reveal that, by the applied serological method, HSV-1 was found in all patients with stroke. Herein, the increased level of HSV-1 was seen in the brain tissue and blood in 100% of the experimental infected animals. However, the use of acyclovir suppressed reproduction of HSV-1. Hence, it can be concluded that clinical and laboratory studies have demonstrated the different sensitivity of Dot-Elisa and PCR, with the former being more sensitive. Moreover, the use of acyclovir in the experiment inhibited viral reproduction and further development of viral infection. Still, chemic lesions in the brain persisted.
Effective Field Theory Interpretation of ATLAS Top Quark Measurements

In the first part of this dissertation, the combination of ATLAS top quark measurements to constrain dimension-six operator coefficients is presented. Top quark measurements provide a powerful tool to constrain the electroweak interaction of top quarks. Many models of physics Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) predict deviations of top quark interactions from the Standard Model. The Standard Model Effective Theory (SMEFT) provides a framework to parameterize BSM effects in a model independent way. Combining top quark measurements allows to constrain several Wilson coefficients of the dimension-six SMEFT operators at once. Specifically, the combination of the 8 TeV t-channel single top cross section, the W helicity fractions and the single top decay distributions is studied. This allows to constrain a set of five Wilson coefficients, four of which generate modifications to the Wtb interaction vertex and one four-quark interaction. Systematic uncertainties are correlated between the measurements and these correlations are calculated and included in the combination. Limits are set simultaneously on all Wilson coefficients as well as individually. All limits are in accordance with Standard Model predictions. In the second part, the new ATLAS 3D event display VP1-Light is presented. VP1-Light is a lightweight, standalone version of the general purpose 3D event display VP1. VP1 is tightly integrated into the ATLAS experiment's software framework, making the use of VP1 rather restrictive. With VP1-Light these restrictions have been eliminated giving ATLAS physics analysis users an easy to use event display.
Unveiled: the Effect of the Headscarf Ban on Women’s Tertiary Education in Turkey

ABSTRACT The majority of women in Turkey wear headscarves. However, from 1997 to 2013, headscarves were banned in tertiary education institutions, due to the Turkish military’s decision that headscarves are incompatible with secularism. This study examines the impact of wearing headscarves on women’s educational attainment. In particular, it measures the impact of the headscarf ban by using a regression–discontinuity method, based on individual-level data from four countrywide surveys. Within the confines of the econometric analysis and data set used, the author finds statistically significantly lower tertiary educational attainment among headscarved women, but finds no evidence that the ban reduced the tertiary educational attainment of headscarved women. This result may reflect that, since only 3.5 percent of headscarved women born before the ban had some tertiary education, there was not much room for the methodological approach to capture any significant effects of the ban. HIGHLIGHTS - There exists a large gap in the educational attainment of headscarved women compared to that of non-headscarved women in Turkey, even after controlling for background variables. - This paper finds no evidence that the ban on headscarves at tertiary educational institutions, in effect from 1997 to 2013, reduced the tertiary educational attainment of headscarved women, which was already low. - Educational disadvantage for headscarved women begins after primary school. - Although lifting the headscarf ban was a good first step, eliminating the barriers to women’s education will require a much broader perspective.
School truancy and welfare receipt dynamics in early adulthood: A longitudinal study

School truancy is associated with many negative life outcomes, including violent, property, and drug offending, lower levels of education, and subsequently lower status and lower-paying jobs. These negative life outcomes are also related to future reliance on government welfare payments. This research sought to identify how high school truancy affects young people's welfare receipt dynamics in emerging adulthood. It uses longitudinal data from a nationally representative household panel survey (the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey) to estimate the effect of truancy on young people's likelihood of receiving government-paid cash transfers in emerging adulthood. We find that young people who are truant are over four times more likely to receive cash transfers than young people who are not truant. Findings also show that the extent of truancy does not impact the likelihood of welfare receipt, even when differentiating between infrequent and problem truants. We conclude with some comments on truancy's role in welfare dynamics.
Efficient sparse portfolios based on composite quantile regression for high-dimensional index tracking

ABSTRACT Index tracking is a well-known passive management strategy that seeks to match the performance of a benchmark index. To the best of our knowledge, the existing literatures for sparse index tracking are mainly focus on the penalized least squares (LS) regression under the no-short selling constraint. In this paper, we propose an efficient sparse portfolio that based on composite quantile regression to simultaneously perform stock selection and capital allocation for high-dimensional index tracking. A special consideration is made concerning the budget constraint that has been ignored by the existing LS-type procedures. Furthermore, we develop a specialized linear programming algorithm for the implementation of the proposed method. Through the simulation, we show that the proposed method outperforms (or at least matches) existing procedures in terms of prediction accuracy and variable selection. Finally, we apply the proposed method to track the SP 500 index in the New York Stock Exchange.
Teacher Self-Efficacy and Classroom Managment

Teacher Self-Efficacy and Classroom Management by Michelle Mitchell MED, Freed-Hardeman University, 2004 MS, Tennessee State University, 1999 BS, Tennessee State University, 1995 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Education Psychology Walden University November 2019 Abstract When the classroom environment is safe, reductions in aggression and an increase in compliance with rules can be expected. Teacher self-efficacy is therefore likely to play a significant role in teachers’ participation in the change process of implementing strategies that assist with classroom management styles. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and classroom management styles (rewardWhen the classroom environment is safe, reductions in aggression and an increase in compliance with rules can be expected. Teacher self-efficacy is therefore likely to play a significant role in teachers’ participation in the change process of implementing strategies that assist with classroom management styles. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and classroom management styles (reward strategies, preventive strategies, initial corrective strategies, and later corrective strategies). Teachers’ characteristics such as age, gender, education level, years of teaching experience, grade level taught, and class size were also explored to provide insight on teacher training and professional development programs. Survey data were collected from 43 teachers in urban and rural area of West Tennessee. The Spearman correlation analysis indicated a correlation between teacher self-efficacy and the four classroom management styles while the linear regression model showed that teacher characteristics do not predict teacher’s self-efficacy. This study revealed that the practice of preventive strategies by teachers had a greater impact on teacher self-efficacy scores compared to other classroom management strategies (reward strategies, initial corrective strategies, and later corrective strategies). Findings reinforce that school climate plays a significant role in the professional development of teachers and their use of specific classroom management practices. Addressing the gap between teachers’ efficacy beliefs and classroom decisions could help school professionals to develop interventions to minimize this gap, which could, in turn, promote positive school outcomes, such as students’ behavior adjustment and academic achievement. Teacher Self-Efficacy and Classroom Management by Michelle Mitchell MED, Freed Hardeman University, 2004 MS, Tennessee State University, 1999 BS, Tennessee State University, 1995 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Education Psychology
Atmospheric Research Over the Western North Atlantic Ocean Region and North American East Coast: A Review of Past Work and Challenges Ahead

Decades of atmospheric research have focused on the Western North Atlantic Ocean (WNAO) region because of its unique location that offers accessibility for airborne and ship measurements, gradients in important atmospheric parameters, and a range of meteorological regimes leading to diverse conditions that are poorly understood. This work reviews these scientific investigations for the WNAO region, including the East Coast of North America and the island of Bermuda. Over 50 field campaigns and long‐term monitoring programs, in addition to 715 peer‐reviewed publications between 1946 and 2019, have provided a firm foundation of knowledge for these areas. Of particular importance in this region has been extensive work at the island of Bermuda that is host to important time series records of oceanic and atmospheric variables. Our review categorizes WNAO atmospheric research into eight major categories, with some studies fitting into multiple categories (relative %): aerosols (25%); gases (24%); development/validation of techniques, models, and retrievals (18%); meteorology and transport (9%); air‐sea interactions (8%); clouds/storms (8%); atmospheric deposition (7%); and aerosol‐cloud interactions (2%). Recommendations for future research are provided in the categories highlighted above.
Testing the effectiveness of principal components in adjusting for relatedness in genetic association studies

Modern genetic association studies require modeling population structure and family relatedness in order to calculate correct statistics. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) is one of the most common approaches for modeling this population structure, but nowadays the Linear Mixed-Effects Model (LMM) is believed by many to be a superior model. Remarkably, previous comparisons have been limited by testing PCA without varying the number of principal components (PCs), by simulating unrealistically simple population structures, and by not always measuring both type-I error control and predictive power. In this work, we thoroughly evaluate PCA with varying number of PCs alongside LMM in various realistic scenarios, including admixture together with family structure, measuring both null p-value uniformity and the area under the precision-recall curves. We find that PCA performs as well as LMM when enough PCs are used and the sample size is large, and find a remarkable robustness to extreme number of PCs. However, we notice decreased performance for PCA relative to LMM when sample sizes are small and when there is family structure, although LMM performance is highly variable. Altogether, our work suggests that PCA is a favorable approach for association studies when sample sizes are large and no close relatives exist in the data, and a hybrid approach of LMM with PCs may be the best of both worlds.
UNDERSTANDING INFANT AND YOUNG CHILD FEEDING CHALLENGES IN CHINA

This paper reviews infant feeding challenges China faces in the current economic and social climate. Infant and young childhood is a critical period of growth and development and losses due to under-nutrition are often irreversible. In urban areas, there has been a rapid increase in childhood obesity since the market reform policies of the early 1980’s, with interventions focusing on school-aged children or young adults. Under-nutrition continues to be widespread in many rural areas of China, and while improvements have taken place, most efforts are focused on school-aged children. In both under- and over-nutrition, little attention has been paid to the role infant feeding plays. Through observations and interviews with healthcare workers, mother’s groups and rural-urban migrant women in Shanghai and Yunnan, we attempt to deconstruct social and economic determinants of infant and young child feeding practices in order to illuminate specific barriers and possible solutions. Infant feeding decisions, particularly those regarding breastfeeding, are closely linked to cultural, economic and social values. Education, a crucial component of improving nutritional outcomes, does not alone change infant feeding behavior. Rural-to-urban migration, re-negotiation of family roles, and media as the main source of nutrition information for households each pose unique barriers to providing infant and young children with proper nutrition. Infant feeding and nutrition programs should take a multi-pronged approach that includes education, awareness, and policy. 摘要： 本文讨论在当前经济和社会环境下，中国所面临的婴儿喂养问题。 婴儿和幼儿期是生长发育的关键期，在此阶段由于营养不足而造成的不利影响常常是无法弥补的。 在中国很多农村地区，营养不足仍然相当普遍，虽然相应的改进措施已经实施，但是大多数只关注于学龄期儿童。 在城市中，自80年代市场改革开放以来，儿童肥胖迅速增长，而相应的干预措施也只关注于学龄期儿童及青少年。 无论是营养不足还是营养过剩，都没有注意到婴儿喂养在其中所起的作用。 教育，虽然是改善营养状况的关键因素，但是单靠教育难以改变婴儿喂养习惯。 从农村到城市的移居，家庭成员角色的重新定位，以及家庭营养信息主要来自于媒体等，各自从不同方面对婴幼儿获得适宜营养发挥着独特的作用。 因此，婴儿喂养和营养计划应该多管齐下，包括教育、宣传、政策制定等。
Navigating an Uncertain Journey of Pregnancy After Perinatal Loss

The purpose of this qualitative data analysis was to gain insights into women's experiences over the course of pregnancy subsequent to prior perinatal loss. Diaries from 19 pregnant women with a history of miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal death who participated in an intervention study were the data source. The participants were primarily Caucasian, 23 to 41 years old, with a history of one to six prior losses, high school to graduate school education, and a wide range of incomes. Inductive thematic analysis of pregnancy diary entries was done. A metaphor of navigating a pregnancy journey that feels scary and uncertain, toward the goal of reaching their desired destination, a healthy infant, was identified from women's personal accounts. Six themes were identified: (a) Staying Alert: Noting Physical Symptoms, (b) Dealing with Uncertainty: Expressing Emotions, (c) Dreaming of the Destination: Evolving Thoughts of Baby, (d) Traveling Together: Connecting with Others, and (e) Moving Forward: Reflecting on Sense of Self. The interaction of several themes is described as (f) Staying on Track: Navigating through Pregnancy. Women may find journaling helpful in dealing with the anxiety and fear that characterize pregnancy after loss. Viewing pregnancy after perinatal loss as similar to navigating an uncertain journey may provide greater understanding of the emotional, physical, and social challenges that women may experience. Recognition that women with a history of perinatal loss may be anxious and fearful during pregnancy will increase sensitive care.