Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Response of Biological Soil Crust Diazotrophs to Season, Altered Summer Precipitation, and Year-Round Increased Temperature in an Arid Grassland of the Colorado Plateau, USA

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts), which supply significant amounts of fixed nitrogen into terrestrial ecosystems worldwide (∼33 Tg y−1), are likely to respond to changes in temperature and precipitation associated with climate change. Using nifH gene-based surveys, we explored variation in the diazotrophic community of biocrusts of the Colorado Plateau, USA in response to season (autumn vs. spring), as well as field manipulations that increased the frequency of small volume precipitation events and year-round soil temperature. Abundance of nifH genes in biocrusts ranged from 3 × 106 to 1 × 108 g−1 soil, and nifH from heterocystous cyanobacteria closely related to Scytonema hyalinum, Spirirestis rafaelensis, and Nostoc commune comprised >98% of the total. Although there was no apparent seasonal effect on total nifH gene abundance in the biocrusts, T-RFLP analysis revealed a strong seasonal pattern in nifH composition. Spirirestis nifH abundance was estimated to oscillate 1 to >2 orders of magnitude between autumn (low) and spring (high). A year-round increase of soil temperature (2–3°C) had little effect on the diazotroph community structure over 2 years. Altered summer precipitation had little impact on diazotroph community structure over the first 1.5 years of the study, when natural background patterns across years and seasons superseded any treatment effects. However, after the second summer of treatments, nifH abundance was 2.6-fold lower in biocrusts receiving altered precipitation. Heterocystous cyanobacteria were apparently more resilient to altered precipitation than other cyanobacteria. The results demonstrate that diazotrophic community composition of biocrusts in this semi-arid grassland undergoes strong seasonal shifts and that the abundance of its dominant members decreased in response to more frequent, small volume precipitation events.
Preclinical in vivo evaluation of Npe6‐mediated photodynamic therapy on normal vasculature

Current treatments of port‐wine stain birthmarks typically involve use of a pulsed dye laser (PDL) combined with cooling of the skin. Currently, PDL therapy protocols result in varied success, as some patients experience complete blanching, while others do not. Over the past decade, we have studied the use of photodynamic therapy (PDT) as either a replacement or adjuvant treatment option to photocoagulate both small and large vasculature. The objective of the current study was to evaluate a PDT protocol that involves use of an alternate intravascular photosensitizer mono‐L‐aspartylchlorin‐e6 (NPe6) activated by an array of low‐cost light emitting diodes.
Hemorrhage-Induced Vascular Hyporeactivity to Norepinephrine in Select Vasculatures of Rats and the Roles of Nitric Oxide and Endothelin

Hemorrhage-induced vascular hyporeactivity to norepinephrine (NE) and the possible effector roles of nitric oxide (NO) and endothelin (ET) were investigated in different vascular beds of rats. Under urethane anesthesia, rats (n = 7 per group) were hemorrhaged to a mean arterial pressure (MAP) of 50 mm Hg for 60 min. A group of rats was pretreated with either NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (10 mg/kg), an NO synthase inhibitor, or PD142893 (0.1 mg/kg), an ET receptor antagonist 15 min before the end of the hypotensive period. Operated, euvolemic rats served as controls. The responses of MAP and the blood flow of the superior mesenteric (SMA), celiac (CA), left renal (LRA), and left femoral arteries (LFA) to NE (3 &mgr;g/kg, i.v.) were measured at baseline (prehemorrhage), at the end of the hypotensive period (0 h), and at 1, 2, and 4 h after the end of the hypotensive period. The pressor responses to NE on MAP at 0, 1, 2, and 4 h in the 60-min hemorrhage groups were reduced to 45.9%, 37.8%, 29.2%, 18.4% of baseline pressor response, respectively. At these same times, the fall in blood flow in response to NE in SMA, CA, LRA, and LFA was significantly blunted (P < 0.01). This loss of responsiveness in CA and LFA was more severe than in SMA and LRA (P < 0.05–P < 0.01). Pretreatment with L-NAME or PD142893 significantly improved the pressor response of MAP and the blood flow responses of the four arteries to NE (P < 0.01). Hypotension at 50 mm Hg for 60 min resulted in an apparent loss of vascular reactivity to NE, and the four vasculatures studies were not affected to the same extent. In addition, NO and ET appear to contribute to the loss of vascular reactivity in different vasculatures in hemorrhagic shock.
Shrinkage-Based Capon and APES for Spectral Estimation

In this letter, we propose shrinkage-based Capon (S-Capon) and APES (S-APES) spectral estimators by minimizing the mean-square error (MSE) of standard Capon and APES in a linear regression framework. The proposed methods are shown to give more accurate spectral estimates but lower resolution than the methods they based on. We combine Capon with the proposed S-Capon and S-APES to overcome the resolution limit of shrinkage-based methods for estimation of both frequency and amplitude of spectral lines. The so-obtained Capon-SCapon and Capon-SAPES spectral estimators, which have about the same computational complexity as Capon, are compared with the Capon-APES (CAPES) by numerical examples. Simulations show that the Capon-SCapon performs similarly to CAPES in a wide range of signal-to-noise ratio, and the Capon-SAPES always gives more accurate spectral amplitude (less bias and lower MSE) than CAPES.
Mutually Guided Image Filtering

Filtering images is required by numerous multimedia, computer vision and graphics tasks. Despite diverse goals of different tasks, making effective rules is key to the filtering performance. Linear translation-invariant filters with manually designed kernels have been widely used. However, their performance suffers from content-blindness. To mitigate the content-blindness, a family of filters, called joint/guided filters, have attracted a great amount of attention from the community. The main drawback of most joint/guided filters comes from the ignorance of structural inconsistency between the reference and target signals like color, infrared, and depth images captured under different conditions. Simply adopting such guidelines very likely leads to unsatisfactory results. To address the above issues, this paper designs a simple yet effective filter, named mutually guided image filter (muGIF), which jointly preserves mutual structures, avoids misleading from inconsistent structures and smooths flat regions. The proposed muGIF is very flexible, which can work in various modes including dynamic only (self-guided), static/dynamic (reference-guided) and dynamic/dynamic (mutually guided) modes. Although the objective of muGIF is in nature non-convex, by subtly decomposing the objective, we can solve it effectively and efficiently. The advantages of muGIF in effectiveness and flexibility are demonstrated over other state-of-the-art alternatives on a variety of applications. Our code is publicly available at https://sites.google. com/view/xjguo/mugif.
Comment les organisations se saisissent-elles de l’« image verte » ?

La multiplication des debats, des controverses, la signature de chartes et la demande d’application de codes deontologiques sur l’utilisation des arguments ecologiques posent question : que signifie cette effervescence autour de la communication sur le developpement durable ? Comment analyser ce besoin d’autoregulation sur un sujet encore mineur, mais de plus en pregnant dans la communication des organisations ? Nous proposons de nous interroger sur la prise en compte de la composante « verte » dans la politique d’image des organisations : comment les organisations s’approprient-elles la matrice rhetorique du developpement durable ?
Healthcare Public Key Infrastructure (HPKI) and Non-profit Organization (NPO): Essentials for Healthcare Data Exchange

To share healthcare information and to promote cooperation among healthcare providers and customers (patients) under computerized network environment, a non-profit organization (NPO), named as OCHIS, was established at Osaka, Japan in 2003. Since security and confidentiality issues on the Internet have been major concerns in the OCHIS, the system has been based on healthcare public key infrastructure (HPKI), and found that there remained problems to be solved technically and operationally. An experimental study was conducted to elucidate the central and the local function in terms of a registration authority and a time stamp authority by contracting with the Ministry of Economics and Trading Industries in 2003. This paper describes the experimental design with NPO and the results of the study concerning message security and HPKI. The developed system has been operated practically in Osaka urban area.
Biology and management of Asian citrus psyllid, vector of the huanglongbing pathogens.

The Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Psyllidae), is the most important pest of citrus worldwide because it serves as a vector of "Candidatus Liberibacter" species (Alphaproteobacteria) that cause huanglongbing (citrus greening disease). All commercially cultivated citrus is susceptible and varieties tolerant to disease expression are not yet available. Onset of disease occurs following a long latent period after inoculation, and thus the pathogen can spread widely prior to detection. Detection of the pathogen in Brazil in 2004 and Florida in 2005 catalyzed a significant increase in research on D. citri biology. Chemical control is the primary management strategy currently employed, but recently documented decreases in susceptibility of D. citri to several insecticides illustrate the need for more sustainable tools. Herein, we discuss recent advances in the understanding of D. citri biology and behavior, pathogen transmission biology, biological control, and chemical control with respect to "Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus. " Our goal is to point toward integrated and biologically relevant management of this pathosystem.
Genuine social inclusion or superficial co-existence? Former girl soldiers in eastern Congo returning home

The article focuses on the social dimension of child soldier reintegration. It draws on an empirical qualitative study on former girl soldiers in eastern Congo, and examines how former girl soldiers fare with regard to social acceptance and re-inclusion into their families and communities. The article presents empirical data revealing that the girls experience social exclusion, stigmatisation and non-acceptance both within their families and within the wider community. It may, therefore, be argued that there is a superficial (physical) co-existence rather than a genuine social inclusion of girls returning home from armed forces or groups. The article's discussion draws attention to the weighting of the different dimensions of reintegration (social, economic, psychological) and argues that the social dimension, although receiving less attention in programming, should be what comes first in order to fulfil former child soldiers' right to reintegration.
Superintendents' Intentions toward DARE: Results from a Statewide Survey

Abstract This investigation assessed superintendents' beliefs and intentions toward Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) and drug prevention programming, using a modified Theory of Planned Behavior as a framework. The study's primary purpose was to predict intentions toward future reliance on DARE. In June 2000 an anonymous mail survey was sent to all 611 public school superintendents in Ohio. The response rate was 71.5%. DARE was used by 85 to 87% of the state's public school districts. A large majority of the superintendents (88.2%) reported that they intended to rely on the program in the future. Most held either incorrect information about DARE's efficacy (29.0%) or acknowledged that that they were uninformed about DARE outcome research (33.6%). A multiple logistic regression analysis found that intention to use DARE in the future was positively associated with normative beliefs about community support for the program and negatively related with perceptions of their ability to replace drug prevention curricula in their district. The findings suggest that superintendents' positive intentions toward DARE were formed to avert conflict with adults in the school district and community. The dissemination of evidence-based drug prevention strategies will likely require stimulating parental demand for efficacious programming, in addition to educating school officials.
Méthodes informées de factorisation matricielle non négative : Application à l'identification de sources de particules industrielles. (Informed methods of Non-negative Matrix Factorization. A study of industrial source identification)

Les methodes de NMF permettent la factorisation aveugle d'une matrice non-negative X en le produit X = G . F de deux matrices non-negatives G et F. Bien que ces approches sont etudiees avec un grand interet par la communaute scientifique, elles souffrent bien souvent d'un manque de robustesse vis a vis des donnees et des conditions initiales et peuvent presenter des solutions multiples. Dans cette optique et afin de reduire l'espace des solutions admissibles, les travaux de cette these ont pour objectif d'informer la NMF, positionnant ainsi nos travaux entre la regression et les factorisations aveugles classiques. Par ailleurs, des fonctions de couts parametriques appelees divergences αβ sont utilisees, permettant de tolerer la presence d'aberrations dans les donnees. Nous introduisons trois types de contraintes recherchees sur la matrice F a savoir (i) la connaissance exacte ou bornee de certains de ses elements et (ii) la somme a 1 de chacune de ses lignes. Des regles de mise a jour permettant de faire cohabiter l'ensemble de ces contraintes par des methodes multiplicatives mixees a des projections sont proposees. D'autre part, nous proposons de contraindre la structure de la matrice G par l'usage d'un modele physique susceptible de distinguer les sources presentes au niveau du recepteur. Une application d'identification de sources de particules en suspension dans l'air, autour d'une region industrielle du littoral nord de la France, a permis de tester l'interet de l'approche. A travers une serie de tests sur des donnees synthetiques et reelles, nous montrons l'apport des differentes informations pour rendre les resultats de la factorisation plus coherents du point de vue de l'interpretation physique et moins dependants de l'initialisation.
Obesity bias and body image: How do fashion and retail students compare to other personal service majors?

Fashion and health-related industries communicate and endorse a thin body ideal contributing to obesity bias and affecting services to clients. Obesity bias was examined among 200 undergraduate students in these majors and other majors, to justify developing bias intervention programmes to create tolerant and inclusive professionals in fields that regularly interact with the public and with relative strangers. An online survey assessed obesity bias, appearance orientation and evaluation, weight satisfaction and shape satisfaction, to see which variables led to bias.Fashion and retail studies majors reported the lowest obesity bias when compared to health-related and other majors had the most positive attitudes towards obese persons and reported higher appearance orientation. A partial correlation overall revealed that as a student's appearance orientation increases, their positive attitudes towards obese people decreased and their obesity bias increased. We believe that cognitive intervention programmes are warranted to reduce bias in these pre-professionals.
Coiled‐coil domain‐mediated FRQ–FRQ interaction is essential for its circadian clock function in Neurospora

The frequency (frq) gene, the central component of the frq‐based circadian negative feedback loop, regulates various aspects of the circadian clock in Neurospora. However, the biochemical function of its protein products, FRQ, is poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrated that the most conserved region of FRQ forms a coiled‐coil domain. FRQ interacts with itself in vivo, and the deletion of the coiled‐coil region results in loss of the interaction. Point mutations, which are designed to disrupt the coiled‐coil structure, weaken or completely abolish the FRQ self‐association and lead to the arrhythmicity of the overt rhythm. Mutations of the FRQ coiled‐coil that inhibit self‐association also prevent its interaction with two other key components of the Neurospora circadian clock, namely WC‐1 and WC‐2, the two PAS domain‐containing transcription factors. Taken together, these data strongly suggest that the formation of the FRQ–FRQ and FRQ–WC complexes is essential for the function of the Neurospora clock.
Parenting behaviours during child problem solving: The roles of child temperament, mother education and personality, and the problem-solving context

Child temperament, parent openness to experience, conscientiousness, and education, and parent a priori assessments of the task were examined in relation to parenting behaviours during child problem solving. Mothers and their children (73 dyads) were visited the summer before kindergarten. Mothers’ cognitive, emotional, and autonomy support were coded as they provided assistance during four child problem-solving tasks. Mothers with more education provided more metacognitive information. Before education was considered, it appeared that mothers who perceived their children as difficult and who were less open to experiences were less likely to regulate task difficulty, encourage their children’s efforts, and encourage their children’s active role in problem solving. However, more educated mothers regulated task difficulty, encouraged their children’s efforts, and encouraged their children’s active role more when they perceived their children as difficult than when they perceived their children as easy. More educated mothers also were likely to regulate task difficulty and encourage their children’s active role regardless of their openness. Children perceived as difficult were most likely to be rejected and also were particularly likely to be rejected if the mother was highly conscientious. Conscientious mothers were likely to be overly controlling. When mothers perceived the task negatively they were less likely to provide metacognitive information, regulate task difficulty, and encourage the child’s active role; and were more likely to be overcontrolling and rejecting.
Jerk-Limited Time-Optimal Reference Trajectory Generation for Robot Actuators

Smooth trajectory generation is crucial for high performance control of actuators in industrial robots. In this article, we implement a simple jerk-limited time-optimal point-to-point reference trajectories for position control of electric motor based actuators. First, we briefly review the jerk-limited reference trajectory generation schemes. Then we simplify an existing result under the assumption that the initial and the final speeds of each reference trajectory are zero. Experimental results are provided to show the validity of the simplified algorithm.
Job Design: the Airplane Assembly Exercise

Job design, the formal and informal specification of an employee’s taskrelated activities (Griffin, 1982), continues to be a topic of importance in organizational behavior, human resources and operations management courses. While books are replete with discussions of job design models, (i.e., work simplification, task attributes, job characteristics and social information processing), exercises which demonstrate job design principles are less prevalent. This article describes an exercise that the authors have found useful in &dquo;bringing job design theories to life. &dquo;
Knowledge Warfare: Social Scientists as Operators of Global Governance

The future of the world depends on the knowledge we have of it. Keynes famously added to this that the world is ruled by the ideas of economists and political philosophers—and little else. But while nobody would dispute the power of ideas, Keynes forgot to add that ideas are always somebody's ideas. Social groups seek to monopolize the ideas they consider valuable and to discredit those that are a threat. Therefore symbolic struggles over legitimate principles of domination are not only ideational, as constructivists and discursive institutionalists argue. Unless fused with material interests, ideas or ideal interests are powerless (Weber in Gerth and Wright Mills 1991:280). They require the sustained mobilization of a variety of powerful carriers of convergent material and ideal interests—social groups such as politicians, experts, political activists, and journalists. From this perspective, global governance boils down to a constant, mainly upstream, “under the radar,” and politically defused warfare over the knowledge and interests that steer it. Social scientists play a key but concealed part in the steering of global governance in a variety of social roles and fields of action. They partake in the development of influential transnational professional groups that operate under and beyond global institutions (Kauppi and Madsen 2013). By producing practical knowledge for everyday or “banal” global governance, social scientists shape the politically imaginable …
Distinct Causal Mechanisms of Attentional Guidance by Working Memory and Repetition Priming in Early Visual Cortex

Human attention may be guided by representations held in working memory (WM) and also by priming from implicit memory. Neurophysiological data suggest that WM and priming may be associated with distinct neural mechanisms, but this prior evidence is only correlative. Furthermore, the role of the visual cortex in attention biases from memory remains unclear, because most previous studies conflated memory and selection processes. Here, we manipulated memory and attention in an orthogonal fashion and used an interventional approach to demonstrate the functional significance of WM and priming states in visual cortex for attentional biasing. Observers searched for a Landolt target that was preceded by a nonpredictive color cue that either had to be held in WM for a later recognition test or merely attended (priming counterpart). The application of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the occipital cortex modulated the impact of memory on search. Critically, the direction of this modulation depended on the memory state. In the WM condition, the application of TMS on validly cued trials (when the cue surrounded the sought target) enhanced search accuracy relative to the invalid trials (when the cue surrounded a distracter); the opposite pattern was observed in the priming condition. That the effects of occipital TMS on selection were contingent on memory context demonstrates that WM and priming represent distinct states in the early visual cortex that play a causal role in memory-based guidance of attention.
Knowledge Based Recommender Systems Using Explicit User Models

While recommender systems are in widespread use, they still experience problems. Many recommender systems produce recommendations which the customers find unsatisfactory. Further, these systems often suffer from problems when there are not enough participants, or when new products enter the system. We perceive an opportunity for knowledge-based recommender systems to gain leverage on recommendation tasks by using explicit models of both the user of the system and the products being recommeded. This differs from previous systems which, when they use a user model, have used one that is inferred from the ratings given by that user (i.e., an implicit user model). We believe that the additional information given by the user and product models can give the system leverage in difficult recommendation tasks, and also alleviate both the "early rater" problem and the "sparse ratings" problem experienced by current recommender systems~