Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automatic recognition of personality and conflict handling style in mobile phone conversations

This article proposes experiments on the automatic recognition of personality traits and conflict handling style based on nonverbal communication. The tests are performed over the SSPNet-Nokia Corpus, a collection of 60 mobile phone calls (120 subjects in total) based on the Winter Survival Task. Nonverbal behavioral cues are extracted from speech (captured with the phone microphones) and motor activation (captured indirectly via the gyroscopes mounted on the phones). Support Vector Machines are then adopted to map the cues into two psychological constructs, namely the “Big Five” personality traits and the dimensions of the “Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory”, the former capturing individual characteristics and the latter accounting for subjects attitude towards conflict and disagreement. The results show that performances higher than chance to a statistically significant extent can be achieved for one personality trait (Neuroticism) and two conflict handling styles (Dominating and Obliging).
Cascading Failure Analysis Considering Interaction Between Power Grids and Communication Networks

This paper aims to model interdependencies between power systems and dispatching data networks, and to analyze the intricate impacts on cascading failures. The functions of communication networks are embedded into dispatching data networks in China, thus we use dispatching data networks in the paper. The structures of dispatching data networks are generally categorized into two types: 1) double-star; and 2) mesh. The correlation of nodes in double-star networks and power systems is “degree to degree,” whereas “degree to betweenness” is the correlation for mesh networks. Furthermore, the interactive model between power grids and dispatching data networks is presented by a dynamic power flow model. Taking the IEEE 39-bus system and China's Guangdong 500-kV system as examples, in the case of random attacks on the interdependent system, simulation results show that the power grid coupled with double-star dispatching data networks has lower probability of catastrophic failures than with the mesh structure, because the double-star dispatching data network has outstanding capability of delivering information even though some communication nodes are out of order. In contrast, under intentional attacks, the decrement of the transmission performance of the double-star network is more serious than that in the mesh network. Therefore, the power system exhibits much higher vulnerability when coupled with the double-star network.
Dry weather sewage spills impacts on river health

The Yarra River is considered to be an important environmental and recreational asset by the Melbourne community in Australia. The upper reaches of the Yarra provide water for consumptive use including drinking water for the 4.2 Million people in Melbourne and some agricultural use. The lower Yarra is mainly utilized for recreational purposes and is a focal point for tourism in Melbourne. Water quality of the Yarra River in its lower catchments is relatively poor when compared with the upper reaches due to urbanisation. Faecal coliform levels have been observed to be high in the lower sections of the Yarra River even during dry weather periods. One of the contributors to faecal contamination during dry weather has been identified as dry weather sewer spills due to structural collapses or blockages from tree roots and seepage from septic tanks. The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of dry weather sewer spills on river water quality and to estimate the survival rate of microbes with time on pervious and impervious surfaces after a spill. Dry weather spills are retained on the ground surface and then mobilized through surface runoff to drains and waterways following storm events. The number of faecal microbes carried to the waterways will depend on the volume of the spill, magnitude of the storm generating runoff, elapsed time after the spill and the antecedent climate conditions before the storm. Actual spill data from 2007 were collected from archived information for two catchments in Melbourne. This research draws conclusions by discussing the potential effects on river water quality due to dry weather spills, the impact of rainfall intensity and its potential to mobilize the microbes towards a stormwater drain to be transported to a nearby water course. Overall, the objectives of this study were achieved and the transport of microbes was estimated at different elapsed times depending on the relative humidity after a dry weather spill event, providing its impact on waterways. 2
Research on Optimization Effect of Environmental Pollution Accounting Control Based on Green Low Carbon Background

With the global temperature rising and the greenhouse effect serious, the development of a low-carbon green economy will inevitably become an international trend. Since China's current energy structure is a development model of high energy consumption and high pollution, and coal is the main energy source, China's environmental pollution control has a long way to go. Based on this, this paper comprehensively analyzes the statistical description of the accounting in the pollution control project, establishes the optimization model of accounting fair value, and aims to achieve low carbon green environmental governance, and proposes a regression analysis environment based on the second element. Governance accounting model. The linear statistical method is used to calculate the fair value, combined with the payment level of environmental governance and the quality benefit level as the dependent variable, and the equilibrium game control is carried out to realize the green low carbon cost accounting. Finally, through empirical analysis, the regression analysis of the model is better, which leads to the optimization of environmental protection cost.
Quantitative analysis of repetitive movement as a tool for diagnostic support in ergonomics.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate muscular strain in the upper limbs of workers in a freeze-processing plant for poultry by developing a tool for quantitative analysis, yielding a final score, which can provide diagnostic support in legal proceedings. METHODS The Strain index proposed by Moore & Garg was used to quantify biomechanical aspects of muscular strain, evaluating the intensity and duration of effort, frequency of movement, position of wrist and hand, speed of activity and duration of the task per shift. The index was applied in three critical work-areas in a freeze-processing plant for poultry where the activities of nine workers were analyzed. RESULTS Absenteeism caused by osteomuscular lesions and mental-health problems reaches 20%. The three work-areas studied are those where the birds' throats are cut, where they are suspended on a conveyor-belt and, where they are wrapped. These areas were chosen because they have the highest rates of absenteeism and rotation of workers. The findings identified final scores between 12 and 27, when 7 or more means the maximum risk. CONCLUSION Defensive strategies developed by workers can reduce biomechanical problems arising from high throughput rates, but are not enough by themselves to allow production to proceed without the occurrence of osteomuscular problems.
Risk factors for shooting gallery use and cessation among intravenous drug users.

BACKGROUND Shooting galleries, locations where intravenous drug users (IVDUs) can rent or borrow needles and syringes, are a high-risk environment for HIV-1 transmission. This study investigates risk factors for lifetime attendance at shooting galleries and differentiates characteristics of those who continue to frequent shooting galleries and those who have stopped. METHODS We interviewed 2615 active IVDUs in Baltimore in 1988 and 1989 and determined patterns of IV drug use, sociodemographics, and HIV-1 serostatus as related to persistence vs cessation of shooting gallery use. RESULTS Over half (52%) of active IVDUs reported ever using a shooting gallery, with 33% reporting use within the prior 3 months. In multivariate analysis, lifetime shooting gallery use was associated with male gender, homosexuality/bisexuality, low socioeconomic status, Black race, and heavier drug involvement. Persistent shooting gallery users were more frequently male, homosexual/bisexual, homeless, less educated, and started IV drug use more recently compared with those who ceased going to shooting galleries. CONCLUSIONS Shooting gallery attendance may be pragmatic from a sociological and economic perspective, but it carries with it a heightened risk of acquiring HIV-1 infection.
The Propagation of Internal Solitary Waves over Variable Topography in a Horizontally Two-Dimensional Framework

AbstractThis paper presents a horizontally two-dimensional theory based on a variable-coefficient Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equation, which is developed to investigate oceanic internal solitary waves propagating over variable bathymetry, for general background density stratification and current shear. To illustrate the theory, a typical monthly averaged density stratification is used for the propagation of an internal solitary wave over either a submarine canyon or a submarine plateau. The evolution is essentially determined by two components, nonlinear effects in the main propagation direction and the diffraction modulation effects in the transverse direction. When the initial solitary wave is located in a narrow area, the consequent spreading effects are dominant, resulting in a wave field largely manifested by a significant diminution of the leading waves, together with some trailing shelves of the opposite polarity. On the other hand, if the initial solitary wave is uniform in the transverse direction, t.
EGFR: A Master Piece in G1/S Phase Transition of Liver Regeneration

Unraveling the molecular clues of liver proliferation has become conceivable thanks to the model of two-third hepatectomy. The synchronicity and the well-scheduled aspect of this process allow scientists to slowly decipher this mystery. During this phenomenon, quiescent hepatocytes of the remnant lobes are able to reenter into the cell cycle initiating the G1-S progression synchronously before completing the cell cycle. The major role played by this step of the cell cycle has been emphasized by loss-of-function studies showing a delay or a lack of coordination in the hepatocytes G1-S progression. Two growth factor receptors, c-Met and EGFR, tightly drive this transition. Due to the level of complexity surrounding EGFR signaling, involving numerous ligands, highly controlled regulations and multiple downstream pathways, we chose to focus on the EGFR pathway for this paper. We will first describe the EGFR pathway in its integrity and then address its essential role in the G1/S phase transition for hepatocyte proliferation. Recently, other levels of control have been discovered to monitor this pathway, which will lead us to discuss regulations of the EGFR pathway and highlight the potential effect of misregulations in pathologies.
Effects of nutrient addition on vegetation and carbon cycling in an ombrotrophic bog

We measured net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE), plant biomass and growth, species composition, peat microclimate, and litter decomposition in a fertilization experiment at Mer Bleue Bog, Ottawa, Ontario. The bog is located in the zone with the highest atmospheric nitrogen deposition for Canada, estimated at 0.8–1.2 g N m−2 yr−1 (wet deposition as NH4 and NO3). To establish the effect of nutrient addition on this ecosystem, we fertilized the bog with six treatments involving the application of 1.6–6 g N m−2 yr−1 (as NH4NO3), with and without P and K, in triplicate 3 m × 3 m plots. The initial 5–6 years have shown a loss of first Sphagnum, then Polytrichum mosses, and an increase in vascular plant biomass and leaf area index. Analyses of NEE, measured in situ with climate‐controlled chambers, indicate that contrary to expectations, the treatments with the highest levels of nutrient addition showed lower rates of maximum NEE and gross photosynthesis, but little change in ecosystem respiration after 5 years. Although shrub biomass and leaf area increased in the high nutrient plots, loss of moss photosynthesis owing to nutrient toxicity, increased vascular plant shading and greater litter accumulation contributed to the lower levels of CO2 uptake. Our study highlights the importance of long‐term experiments as we did not observe lower NEE until the fifth year of the experiment. However, this may be a transient response as the treatment plots continue to change. Higher levels of nutrients may cause changes in plant composition and productivity and decrease the ability of peatlands to sequester CO2 from the atmosphere.
Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition and Pancreatic Tumor Initiating CD44+/EpCAM+ Cells Are Inhibited by γ-Secretase Inhibitor IX

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive disease with a high rate of metastasis. Recent studies have indicated that the Notch signalling pathway is important in PDAC initiation and maintenance, although the specific cell biological roles of the pathway remain to be established. Here we sought to examine this question in established pancreatic cancer cell lines using the γ-secretase inhibitor IX (GSI IX) to inactivate Notch. Based on the known roles of Notch in development and stem cell biology, we focused on effects on epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) and on pancreatic tumor initiating CD44+/EpCAM+ cells. We analyzed the effect of the GSI IX on growth and epithelial plasticity of human pancreatic cancer cell lines, and on the tumorigenicity of pancreatic tumor initiating CD44+/EpCAM+ cells. Notably, apoptosis was induced after GSI IX treatment and EMT markers were selectively targeted. Furthermore, under GSI IX treatment, decline in the growth of pancreatic tumor initiating CD44+/EpCAM+ cells was observed in vitro and in a xenograft mouse model. This study demonstrates a central role of Notch signalling pathway in pancreatic cancer pathogenesis and identifies an effective approach to inhibit selectively EMT and suppress tumorigenesis by eliminating pancreatic tumor initiating CD44+/EpCAM+ cells.
Pitch Accent Alignment in Romance: Primary and Secondary Associations with Metrical Structure

The article describes the contrastive possibilities of alignment of high accents in three Romance varieties, namely, Central Catalan, Neapolitan Italian, and Pisa Italian. The Romance languages analyzed in this article provide crucial evidence that small differences in alignment in rising accents should be encoded phonologically. To account for such facts within the AM model, the article develops the notion of “phonological anchoring” as an extension of the concept of secondary association originally proposed by Pierrehumbert and Beckman (1988), and later adopted by Grice (1995), Grice, Ladd, and Arvaniti (2000), and others to explain the behavior of edge tones. The Romance data represent evidence that not only peripheral edge tones seek secondary associations. We claim that the phonological representation of
Targeted sequencing of the Paget's disease associated 14q32 locus identifies several missense coding variants in RIN3 that predispose to Paget's disease of bone

Paget's disease of bone (PDB) is a common disorder with a strong genetic component characterized by increased but disorganized bone remodelling. Previous genome-wide association studies identified a locus on chromosome 14q32 tagged by rs10498635 which was significantly associated with susceptibility to PDB in several European populations. Here we conducted fine-mapping and targeted sequencing of the candidate locus to identify possible functional variants. Imputation in 741 PDB patients and 2699 controls confirmed that the association was confined to a 60 kb region in the RIN3 gene and conditional analysis adjusting for rs10498635 identified no new independent signals. Sequencing of the RIN3 gene identified a common missense variant (p.R279C) that was strongly associated with the disease (OR = 0.64; P = 1.4 × 10−9), and was in strong linkage disequilibrium with rs10498635. A further 13 rare missense variants were identified, seven of which were novel and detected only in PDB cases. When combined, these rare variants were over-represented in cases compared with controls (OR = 3.72; P = 8.9 × 10−10). Most rare variants were located in a region that encodes a proline-rich, intrinsically disordered domain of the protein and many were predicted to be pathogenic. RIN3 was expressed in bone tissue and its expression level was ∼10-fold higher in osteoclasts compared with osteoblasts. We conclude that susceptibility to PDB at the 14q32 locus is mediated by a combination of common and rare coding variants in RIN3 and suggest that RIN3 may contribute to PDB susceptibility by affecting osteoclast function.
Silver-Impregnated Vacuum-Assisted Closure in the Treatment of Recalcitrant Venous Stasis Ulcers

Vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) has made a significant contribution to the treatment of acute and chronic wounds. Microdeformational forces from the VAC device accelerate granulation tissue formation when compared with moist saline dressing changes. We present 2 patients with multiple comorbid conditions and complex venous stasis ulcers that had persistent purulent drainage after conventional treatment modalities. Only after utilizing silver-impregnated VAC therapy (GranuFoam Silver), combining the antimicrobial benefits of silver with the advantages of VAC technology, were the wound beds adequately prepared for substantial split-thickness skin grafts. Based on these cases, the silver-impregnated VAC device may be a useful adjunct in wound bed preparation when standard therapies have failed to clear infected wounds. This may lead to improved healing rates and overall decreased wound burden in these complex patients.
Effect of El Niño/La Niña on tropical easterly jet stream during Asian summer monsoon season

The influence of El Niño/La Niña on the upper‐tropospheric circulation pattern, especially on tropical easterly jet stream (TEJ) over the Asian summer monsoon region, has been studied using ECMWF Reanalysis (ERA) Interim Data for a period of 34 years (1980–2013). The TEJ shows distinctive features during El Niño and La Niña events. The intensity of the TEJ increases and it spreads horizontally and vertically during La Niña years, whereas it weakens and shrinks spatially in El Niño years. Walker circulation over the summer monsoon region shows strong easterlies in La Niña events accompanied with vertically enhanced zonal flow. Lower level (∼850 hPa) convergence as well as upper level (∼150 hPa) divergence is strong in La Niña events and a westward shift of divergence centre is also observed in these years. A strong (weak) anticyclonic flow at upper levels at about 150 hPa is prominent during La Niña (El Niño) years over the Tibetan region causing significant inter‐annual variability of the TEJ.
The utility of rodent models of autism spectrum disorders.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW This review discusses the ways that rodent models of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have been used to gain critical information about convergent molecular pathways, the mechanisms underlying altered microcircuit structure and function, and as a screen for potential cutting edge-treatments for ASDs. RECENT FINDINGS There is convergent evidence that impaired developmental pruning of connections may be a common finding among several mouse models of ASDs. Recent studies have uncovered impaired autophagy by pathological mTOR activation as a potential contributor to microcircuit dysfunction and behavior. ASD-related disinhibition and exaggerated synaptic plasticity in multiple distinct circuits in cortex and reward circuits in striatum also contribute to social dysfunction and repetitive behaviors. New exciting molecular therapeutic techniques have reversed cognitive deficits in models of ASD, indicating that mouse models could be used for preclinical translational studies of new treatments. SUMMARY Rodent models of ASDs coupled to new emerging technologies for genome editing, cell-specific functional and structural imaging, and neuronal activity manipulation will yield critical insights into ASD pathogenesis and fuel the emergence of new treatments.
Initiator-Elongator Discrimination in Vertebrate tRNAs for Protein Synthesis

ABSTRACT Initiator tRNAs are used exclusively for initiation of protein synthesis and not for the elongation step. We show, in vivo and in vitro, that the primary sequence feature that prevents the human initiator tRNA from acting in the elongation step is the nature of base pairs 50:64 and 51:63 in the TΨC stem of the initiator tRNA. Various considerations suggest that this is due to sequence-dependent perturbation of the sugar phosphate backbone in the TΨC stem of initiator tRNA, which most likely blocks binding of the elongation factor to the tRNA. Because the sequences of all vertebrate initiator tRNAs are identical, our findings with the human initiator tRNA are likely to be valid for all vertebrate systems. We have developed reporter systems that can be used to monitor, in mammalian cells, the activity in elongation of mutant human initiator tRNAs carrying anticodon sequence mutations from CAU to CCU (the C35 mutant) or to CUA (the U35A36 mutant). Combination of the anticodon sequence mutation with mutations in base pairs 50:64 and 51:63 yielded tRNAs that act as elongators in mammalian cells. Further mutation of the A1:U72 base pair, which is conserved in virtually all eukaryotic initiator tRNAs, to G1:C72 in the C35 mutant background yielded tRNAs that were even more active in elongation. In addition, in a rabbit reticulocyte in vitro protein-synthesizing system, a tRNA carrying the TΨC stem and the A1:U72-to-G1:C72 mutations was almost as active in elongation as the elongator methionine tRNA. The combination of mutant initiator tRNA with the CCU anticodon and the reporter system developed here provides the first example of missense suppression in mammalian cells.
Living with it: Adapting crop-production systems to emerging climate change

This paper presents an overview of challenges facing agriculture as a result of developing climate change and discusses adaptations the agricultural sector will need to make to meet these challenges. It provides a summary of: • potential climate changes that could affect crop-production activities, • characteristics that make a crop better able to adapt to climate change, and • changes to crop production that are likely to occur in response to climate change.
Acquiring Lexical Knowledge from Text: A Case Study

Language acquisition addresses two important text processing issues. The immediate problem is understanding a text in spite of the existence of lexical gaps. The long term issue is that the understander must incorporate new words into its lexicon for future use. This paper describes an approach to constructing new lexical entries in a gradual process by analyzing a sequence of example texts. This approach permits the graceful tolerance of new words while enabling the automated extension of the lexicon. Each new acquired lexeme starts as a set of assumptions derived from the analysis of each word in a textual context. A variety of knowledge sources, including morphological, syntactic, semantic, and contextual knowledge, determine the assumptions. These assumptions, along with justifications and dependencies, are interpreted and refined by a learning program that ultimately updates the system's lexicon. This approach uses existing linguistic knowledge, and generalization of multiple occurrences, to create new operational lexical entries.