Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
White Americans' Genetic Lay Theories of Race Differences and Sexual Orientation: Their Relationship with Prejudice toward Blacks, and Gay Men and Lesbians

This study examined the relationship between White Americans' genetic explanations, conceptualized as genetic lay theories, for perceived racial differences and for sexual orientation, and attitudes toward Blacks, and gay men and lesbians, respectively. Considering contrasting public discourse surrounding race and sexual orientation, we predicted that genetic lay theories would be associated with greater prejudice toward Blacks, but less prejudice toward gay men and lesbians. The findings, based on a representative sample of 600 White Americans, were consistent with expectations. Results are discussed in relation to the literature on essentialism and implicit theories of the malleability of traits. The present research broadens our view of lay theories by showing how they support either prejudice or tolerance, depending on the target group.
Delayed Adoption of Rules: A Relational Theory of Firm Exposure and State Cooptation

The state creates and changes rules that coerce firms, but firms can delay or decouple responses to rule changes to manage the cost of demands. Theory of compliance to the state has not yet considered the degree to which the firm can delay adoption because of low exposure to rules and state links that allow cooptation, but both of these relations between state power and firm ability to counteract it can affect the adoption decision. This makes the response to state rule changes a more strategic outcome than the theory of coercive isomorphism implies. We develop a relational theory of delayed firm compliance to a state rule change that considers firm exposure due to discrepancy from the rule and firm cooptation of the state due to state links, and we test the theory by examining the adoption of the split-share structure reform, a state-mandated corporate governance reform among listed firms in China. We find that exposure and cooptation influenced the speed of adoption and the decoupling from reform intentions. We also found that their effects on firm response to coercion weaken when the new rule becomes institutionalized. Our theory of delayed compliance is also likely to apply to coercive pressure from other powerful organizations than the state.
A novel parallel prefix sum algorithm and its implementation on multi-core platforms

This paper presents a novel parallel prefix sum algorithm on n numbers by p processors. A parallel time analysis shows that this proposed algorithm is more efficient and easy-scalable than Blelloch's classic parallel solution for the same problem. Unlike Blelloch's method, the proposed algorithm does not require the number p of processors to be a power of 2, and it needs no extra buffers apart from the array that holds the numbers. For practical considerations, a variant of the proposed algorithm is further developed which incurs less overhead due to thread management and synchronisation. The Blelloch's algorithm and the variant of the proposed method are implemented via POSIX Threads, and are tested on two multicore platforms. The results showed that the variant outperformed the Blelloch's method provided that the size of the array not exceeded the total capacity of the L2 cache of the host machine. In some of the tested cases, the increase in performance was as high as 50%.
Dectin-1-Mediated Pathway Contributes to Fusarium proliferatum-Induced CXCL-8 Release from Human Respiratory Epithelial Cells

Fusarium species are causative agents of human respiratory disorders and are distributed widely in our environment. Little is known of their interaction with human respiratory epithelial cells, which may contribute to allergic airway responses. In this study, we report on the release of C–X–C motif chemokine ligand 8 (CXCL-8) from human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells upon stimulation with Fusarium proliferatum extracts. F. proliferatum-induced cytokine release from BEAS-2B cells was determined by cytokine array and CXCL-8 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. Blocking antibodies and signaling pathway inhibitors were employed to delineate cell surface receptors and signaling pathways participating in CXCL-8 release. F. proliferatum extracts induced the release of CXCL-8 in a time-dependent manner. The dectin-1 receptor ligands, curdlan and laminarin, reduced CXCL-8 release. Cells pre-treated with anti-Dectin-1 antibodies (2 µg/mL) decreased CXCL-8 release by 24%. Furthermore, F. proliferatum-stimulated CXCL-8 release was reduced by 32%, 53%–81%, 40% and 26% after BEAS-2B cells were pretreated with activation inhibitors of spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk)—piceatannol—, mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs)—PD98059, U0126, SB202190, SP600125—, phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)—LY294002—and nuclear factor κ-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB)—BAY117082—, respectively. These results suggest that Dectin-1-mediated activation of the Syk, MAPKs, PI3K and NF-κB signaling pathways contributes to F. proliferatum-stimulated CXCL-8 release from BEAS-2B cells and provides an important basis for developing novel therapeutic strategies in clinical allergy.
Dual-Regularized Multi-View Outlier Detection

Multi-view outlier detection is a challenging problem due to the inconsistent behaviors and complicated distributions of samples across different views. The existing approaches are designed to identify the outlier exhibiting inconsistent characteristics across different views. However, due to the inevitable system errors caused by data-captured sensors or others, there always exists another type of outlier, which consistently behaves abnormally in individual view. Unfortunately, this kind of outlier is neglected by all the existing multi-view outlier detection methods, consequently their outlier detection performances are dramatically harmed. In this paper, we propose a novel Dual-regularized Multi-view Outlier Detection method (DMOD) to detect both kinds of anomalies simultaneously. By representing the multi-view data with latent coefficients and sample-specific errors, we characterize each kind of outlier explicitly. Moreover, an outlier measurement criterion is well-designed to quantify the inconsistency. To solve the proposed non-smooth model, a novel optimization algorithm is proposed in an iterative manner. We evaluate our method on five datasets with different outlier settings. The consistent superior results to other state-of-the-art methods demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.
STRUCTURE AND ACTIVITY OF PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA PAO1 BIOFILMS by Raaja

Nutrient concentration profiles are affected by the mass transport outside the biofilm, inside the biofilm, and by the structure of the biofilm. To understand the distribution of biofilm activity, it is necessary to correlate the local nutrient concentration, local mass transport in the biofilm and the biofilm structure. The correlations among surface averaged dissolved oxygen concentration, surface averaged relative effective diffusivity, and areal porosity in the biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 grown in a flat plate reactor, were quantified. Three dimensional distributions of local dissolved oxygen concentration, local relative effective diffusivity, and porosity in the biofilm were measured. It was found that the local dissolved oxygen concentrations and relative effective diffusivities correlate weakly with each other or with the areal porosity. However surface averaged dissolved oxygen concentration and surface averaged relative effective diffusivity strongly correlated with each other and with the areal porosity. The surface averaged dissolved oxygen concentration, surface averaged relative effective diffusivity, and areal porosity decreased towards the bottom of the biofilm, while the coefficients of variation computed for each of these parameters increased towards the bottom of the biofilm. The coefficient of variation is quantified as a measure of the heterogeneity of the biofilm. The increase in the coefficient of variation shows that the heterogeneity of the biofilm increases towards the bottom of the biofilm.
A new Ensemble Learning Method Based on Pairwise Constraints and Subset Selection

It is well known that in order to get a strong ensemble, obtaining more accurate and high diverse component classifiers is very important. Most existing ensemble methods are based on the two conditions. In this paper, considering the two conditions as well, a novel ensemble approach based on pairwise constraints and subset selection are presented. Experiments on 7 UCI datasets are carried out and the results indicate our proposed method performs better than Bagging.
Control of erythroid differentiation: asynchronous expression of the anion transporter and the peripheral components of the membrane skeleton in AEV- and S13-transformed cells

Chicken erythroblasts transformed with avian erythroblastosis virus or S13 virus provide suitable model systems with which to analyze the maturation of immature erythroblasts into erythrocytes. The transformed cells are blocked in differentiation at around the colony-forming unit- erythroid stage of development but can be induced to differentiate in vitro. Analysis of the expression and assembly of components of the membrane skeleton indicates that these cells simultaneously synthesize alpha-spectrin, beta-spectrin, ankyrin, and protein 4.1 at levels that are comparable to those of mature erythroblasts. However, they do not express any detectable amounts of anion transporter. The peripheral membrane skeleton components assemble transiently and are subsequently rapidly catabolized, resulting in 20-40-fold lower steady-state levels than are found in maturing erythrocytes. Upon spontaneous or chemically induced terminal differentiation of these cells expression of the anion transporter is initiated with a concommitant increase in the steady- state levels of the peripheral membrane-skeletal components. These results suggest that during erythropoiesis, expression of the peripheral components of the membrane skeleton is initiated earlier than that of the anion transporter. Furthermore, they point a key role for the anion transporter in conferring long-term stability to the assembled erythroid membrane skeleton during terminal differentiation.
CRSN Symposium: Focus on Schizophrenia Symposium du CRSN : le point sur la schizophrénie Using animal models to test a neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia

A series of studies has shown that neonatal excitotoxic disconnection of the rat ventral hippocampus may serve as a heuristic model of schizophrenia. The model mimics a spectrum of neurobiologic and behavioural features of schizophrenia. It produces functional pathology in critical brain regions implicated in schizophrenia and connected with the hippocampal formation, namely, the striatum, nucleus accumbens and the prefrontal cortex. These brain regions are also targeted by antipsychotic drugs. Neonatal insult leads in young adulthood to the emergence of abnormalities in a number of dopamine-related behaviours. It also models some of the negative aspects of schizophrenia, such as social impairments and working memory deficits. Moreover, our data show that even transient inactivation of the ventral hippocampus during a critical period of development that produces subtle anatomical changes in the hippocampus may be sufficient to trigger behavioural changes similar to those observed in animals with the permanent excitotoxic lesion. The results of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation studies show that this transient disconnection in the CA1 and CA2 area of the hippocampus may have long-lasting consequences for neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus. Our data suggest that neonatal disconnection of the ventral hippocampus alters development and plasticity of prefrontal cortical circuitry and produces a constellation of behavioural and cellular changes that mimic many aspects of schizophrenia. The neonatal hippocampal disconnection model represents a potential new model of schizophrenia without a gross anatomical lesion. Une serie d’etudes ont demontre que la deconnexion excitotoxique neonatale de l’hippocampe ventral du rat peut servir de modele heuristique de la schizophrenie. Le modele imite un eventail de caracteristiques neurobiologiques et comportementales de la schizophrenie. Il produit une pathologie fonctionnelle dans des regions critiques du cerveau incriminees dans la schizophrenie et reliees a la formation de l’hippocampe, soit le neostriatum, le noyau accumbens et le cortex prefrontal. Ces regions du cerveau sont aussi visees par les antipsychotiques. Les atteintes neonatales entrainent chez le jeune adulte l’apparition d’anomalies dans un certain nombre de comportements relies a la dopamine. Elles produisent aussi cer
Iterative Decoding of L-step Majority-Logic Decodable Codes Based on Belief Propagation

Iterative decoding of L-step Majority-Logic decodable (LSMLD) codes based on belief propagation (BP) is presented. The orthogonal Tanner graph of LSMLD codes is derived based on the L-step orthogonalized parity checks. The BP decoding algorithm based on the orthogonal Tanner graph (BP-O) is also designed. As the orthogonal Tanner graph is sparse and free of 4- cycles, LSMLD codes perform well under BP-O decoding. Simulation results show that BP-O decoding of LSMLD codes achieves a good soft-decision decoding gain over hard-decision decoding and the performance of LSMLD codes under BP-O decoding is equally well as that of LDPC codes with the same block length and rate under BP decoding.
A Reference Dependency Bank for Analyzing Complex Predicates

When dealing with languages of South Asia from an NLP perspective, a problem that repeatedly crops up is the treatment of complex predicates. This paper presents a first approach to the analysis of complex predicates (CPs) in the context of dependency bank development. The efforts originate in theoretical work on CPs done within Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG), but are intended to provide a guideline for analyzing different types of CPs in an independent framework. Despite the fact that we focus on CPs in Hindi and Urdu, the design of the dependencies is kept general enough to account for CP constructions across languages.
Altered Cognitive Control Activations after Moderate-to-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury and Their Relationship to Injury Severity and Everyday-Life Function

This study investigated how the neuronal underpinnings of both adaptive and stable cognitive control processes are affected by traumatic brain injury (TBI). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was undertaken in 62 survivors of moderate-to-severe TBI (>1 year after injury) and 68 healthy controls during performance of a continuous performance test adapted for use in a mixed block- and event-related design. Survivors of TBI demonstrated increased reliance on adaptive task control processes within an a priori core region for cognitive control in the medial frontal cortex. TBI survivors also had increased activations related to time-on-task effects during stable task-set maintenance in right inferior parietal and prefrontal cortices. Increased brain activations in TBI survivors had a dose-dependent linear positive relationship to injury severity and were negatively correlated with self-reported cognitive control problems in everyday-life situations. Results were adjusted for age, education, and fMRI task performance. In conclusion, evidence was provided that the neural underpinnings of adaptive and stable control processes are differently affected by TBI. Moreover, it was demonstrated that increased brain activations typically observed in survivors of TBI might represent injury-specific compensatory adaptations also utilized in everyday-life situations.
TIM-4 is expressed on invariant NKT cells but dispensable for their development and function

T cell immunoglobulin and mucin-4 (TIM-4), mainly expressed on antigen presenting cells, plays a versatile role in immunoregulation. CD1d-restricted invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells are potent cells involved in the diverse immune responses. It was recently reported that recombinant TIM-4 (rTIM-4) alone enhanced cytokine production in NKT hybridoma, DN32.D3 cells. Hence, we hypothesized that TIM-4 might regulate iNKT cell biology, especially their function of cytokine secretion. For the first time, we identified that TIM-4 was expressed in thymus iNKT cells, and its expression increased upon iNKT cell migration to the secondary lymphoid organs, especially in lymph nodes. Using TIM-4-deficient mice, we found that lack of TIM-4 did not disturb iNKT cell development, maturation, peripheral homeostasis and cytokine secretion. Moreover, TIM-4 deficiency did not alter the polarization of iNKT sublineages, including NKT1, NKT2 and NKT17. Finally, the mixed bone marrow transfer experiments further confirmed normal iNKT cell development and function from TIM-4-deficient bone marrow. In conclusion, our data suggest that TIM-4 is expressed on iNKT cells but dispensable for their development and function.
DRILLING RATE OF PENETRATION PREDICTION USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK: A CASE STUDY OF ONE OF IRANIAN SOUTHERN OIL FIELDS

Rate of Penetration (ROP) estimation is a key parameter in drilling optimization, due to its crucial role in minimizing drilling operation costs. However, a lot numbers of unforeseen factors affect the ROP and make it a complex process and consequently difficult to predict. This paper presents an application of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) methods for estimation of ROP among drilling parameters obtained from one of Iranian southern oil fields, according to the fact that this method is useful when relationships of parameters are too complicated. The method is proposed as a more effective prognostic tool than are currently available procedures. The methodology enables drilling industry personnel to estimate the ROP not only during well planning procedure but also during drilling. A three layer feed-forward network has been selected which has the best correlation coefficient in testing the models. Simulation results show that the ANN approach is superior to the conventional methods in drilling rate prediction accuracy.
Use of the ocean surface wind direction signal in microwave radiance assimilation

We developed an empirical relative wind direction (RWD) model function to represent azimuthal variations of oceanic microwave radiances of vertical and horizontal polarizations. The RWD model function was based on radiance measurements from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer and Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS). Ocean surface wind vector data from SeaWinds on board the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite‐II and European Centre for Medium‐range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Integrated Forecasting System were utilized for the RWD model function development. The RWD model function was introduced to a microwave ocean emissivity model: a FAST microwave Emissivity Model (FASTEM) in a radiative transfer model for satellite radiance assimilation. Performances of the RWD model function were much more realistic than present azimuthal model functions in FASTEM for low wind speed and high‐frequency channels. Assimilation experiments using the RWD model function were performed in the ECMWF system. The experiment demonstrated reductions of first‐guess departure biases arising from modelling of the azimuthal variations in areas of high wind‐speed and low variability of wind direction. For example, bias reductions in ascending and descending SSMIS 19 GHz vertically polarized radiance in the Somali jet over the Arabian Sea were approximately 0.6 and 0.7 K. The bias reductions were found for all assimilated microwave imager channels in a wide wind‐speed range. Moreover, analysis increments of specific humidity in the lower troposphere were reduced (e.g. 0.2 g kg−1 reduction at 1000 hPa in the Somali jet). We found improvements of relative humidity and temperature in short‐range forecasts in the lower troposphere. The experiment results clearly showed the importance of modelling the azimuthal variation of emissivity for assimilation of microwave imager observations. The new RWD model function, combined with the other components of FASTEM, will be available as FASTEM‐6.
A Mathematical Model for a Disturbed Soil-column Experiment and Reconstruction of Breakthrough Data

This paper deals with a mathematical model for a disturbed soil-column experiment, and inversion and reconstruction of the measured breakthrough data. Based on the analysis of the experimental process and the breakthrough data for eight kinds of ion solutes, a mathematical model describing transport behaviors of the solute ions in the column was established. Furthermore, the unknown parameters were determined by applying an optimal perturbation iteration algorithm, and the breakthrough data were reconstructed.
Lecture 2 , Protein and NMR Structural Biology I 1 Lecture 2 Protein and NMR Structural Biology I

In this lecture we mainly give a brief introduction of the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and a survey of using NMR for studies of structures and dynamics of proteins and nucleic acids. 1 Overview of NMR Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon that measures the magnetic properties of each nucleus in a magnetic field based upon the magnetic properties of an atom's nucleus. All nuclei contain odd numbers of nucleons and some that contain even numbers of nucleons but odd charge have an intrinsic magnetic moment. NMR works by applying a strong magnetic field (the stronger the field the higher the resolution) to a sample and then measuring how the system responds to radio frequency waves. The radio frequency wave is electromagnetic radiation with an appropriate frequency which can be absorbed by a nucleus and switch its spin. Currently, NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography are the only techniques capable of determining the three-dimensional structures of macromolecules at atomic resolution. In contrast to X-ray, the NMR approach is complimentary in different ways [1]: 1. NMR directly measures protons, 13 C and 15 N. 2. NMR can be applied to molecules for which no single crystals are available. Thus new structures can be obtained, which are not available from X-ray studies. 3. NMR spectroscopy is a powerful technique for investigating intramolecular dynamics on many timescales, e.g. picoseconds to seconds. In addition, for a characterization of internal dynamics of biomacromolecular structures, NMR provides direct, quantitative measurements of the frequencies of certain high activation energy motional processes and at least semi-quantitative information on additional high frequency processes. In comparison, X-ray structure determinations may include an outline of the conformation space covered by high frequency structural fluctuations. Preliminary: Where does the magnetization come from? 1 H nuclei (or I = 1/2 nuclei) possess a spin 1/2 which is associated with an angular momentum and a magnetic dipole moment. Each 1 H nucleus thus behaves like a little magnet that spins around its dipole axis. A single spin 1/2 has the quantum mechanical property that, in an external magnetic field B 0 (measured in Tesla, abbreviated T), only two orientations (called " parallel "