Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Massive star formation in Wolf-Rayet galaxies - II. Optical spectroscopy results

Aims. We have performed a comprehensive multiwavelength analysis of a sample of 20 starburst galaxies that show the presence of a substantial population of very young massive stars, most of them classified as Wolf-Rayet (WR) galaxies. In this paper, the second of the series, we present the results of the analysis of long-slit intermediate-resolution spectroscopy of star-formation bursts for 16 galaxies of our sample. Methods. We study the spatial localization of the WR stars in each galaxy. We analyze the excitation mechanism and derive the reddening coefficient, physical conditions, and chemical abundances of the ionized gas. We study the kinematics of the ionized gas to check the rotation/turbulence pattern of each system. When possible, tentative estimates of the Keplerian mass of the galaxies are calculated. Results. Aperture effects and the exact positioning of the slit onto the WR-rich bursts seem to play a fundamental role in their detection. We check that the ages of the last star-forming burst estimated using optical spectra agree with those derived from Hα imagery. Our analysis shows that a substantial fraction of the galaxies exhibit evidence of perturbed kinematics. With respect to the results found in individual galaxies, we remark the detection of objects with different metallicity and decoupled kinematics in Haro 15 and Mkn 1199, the detection of tidal streams in IRAS 08208+2816, Tol 9, and perhaps in SBS 1319+579, and the development of a merging process in both SBS 0926+606 A and Tol 1457-262. Conclusions. All of these results – in combination with those obtained in Paper I – reinforce the hypothesis that interactions with or between dwarf objects is a very important mechanism in triggering massive-star formation in starburst galaxies, especially in dwarf ones. It must be highlighted that only deep and very detailed observations – as presented in this paper – can provide clear evidences that these subtle interaction processes are taking place.
A functional screen identifies miRNAs that inhibit DNA repair and sensitize prostate cancer cells to ionizing radiation

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in DNA repair pathways through transcriptional responses to DNA damaging agents or through predicted miRNA regulation of DNA repair genes. We hypothesized that additional DNA damage regulating miRNAs could be identified by screening a library of 810 miRNA mimetics for the ability to alter cellular sensitivity to ionizing radiation (IR). A prostate cancer Metridia luciferase cell model was applied to examine the effects of individual miRNAs on IR sensitivity. A large percentage of miRNA mimetics were found to increase cellular sensitivity to IR, while a smaller percentage were protective. Two of the most potent IR sensitizing miRNAs, miR-890 and miR-744–3p, significantly delayed IR induced DNA damage repair. Both miRNAs inhibited the expression of multiple components of DNA damage response and DNA repair. miR-890 directly targeted MAD2L2, as well as WEE1 and XPC, where miR-744–3p directly targeted RAD23B. Knock-down of individual miR-890 targets by siRNA was not sufficient to ablate miR-890 radiosensitization, signifying that miR-890 functions by regulating multiple DNA repair genes. Intratumoral delivery of miR-890 mimetics prior to IR therapy significantly enhanced IR therapeutic efficacy. These results reveal novel miRNA regulation of DNA repair and identify miR-890 as a potent IR sensitizing agent.
Privacy and Perceptions: How Facebook Advertising Affects its Users

This research paper details a study of Facebook users and their perception of advertising on the site. Characteristics such as privacy, micro targeting, Facebook use, awareness, and reactions, were all important factors that influenced these responses. The objective of this study was to see how undergraduate students from four colleges across the country view Facebook and its advertisers. The results indicated that student reactions did not overwhelmingly lean in a particular direction: Individual users perceive the site differently, and this determination directly correlates with the uses and gratification theory.
Construction of predicate argument structure annotator based on event type thesaurus

In this research we construct a predicate argument structure annotator that can disambiguate predicate’s semantic concept and semantic role types of its arguments in a running texts. The semantic concepts are manually constructed and systematically organized by event type of predicates according to linguistically-motivated lexical semantic structure. For example the following predicates “get”, “take”, “buy”, “obtain”, “take”, “rob” and “rent” must contain a shared meaning of ’Getting from something’; and the difference of “get” and “rent” must be with/without ownership of the obtained object. We describe this semantic shared/different meaning with abstracted LCS-base structure in our Thesaurus, e.g., The semantic structure of “get” might be ([Agent] CAUSE BECOME [Theme] BE AT [Goal=person]), and “rent” might be more detailed structure as [Agent] CAUSE (BY MEANS OF [Agent] renting [Theme]) BECOME [Theme] BE AT Goal=person]). This thesaurus is continuously constructed taking into account what are the base semantic structure among all Japanese predicates. Thus by making predicate argument structure annotator (we call ASA) based on thesaurus, we can see how the thesaurus’s concepts can catch the same expressions of natural language. For this purpose, ASA can recognized idiom and equivalent expressions of predicates e.g., “X ga Y ni hone-wo oru (X gives oneself trouble about Y)” and “X ga Y ni kurou-suru (X has difficulty with Y)” with disambiguating verb senses “hone-wo oru (gives oneself trouble about/break one’s back)”. By constructing predicate argument structure with systematic thesaurus, we try to convert running texts into more semantically controllable descriptions.
First Structure Formation. I. Primordial Star-forming Regions in Hierarchical Models

We investigate the formation of the first primordial star clusters from high-σ perturbations in a cold dark matter-dominated universe. For this purpose, we have developed a powerful two-level hierarchical cosmological code with a realistic and robust treatment of multispecies primordial gas chemistry, paying special attention to the formation and destruction of H2 molecules, nonequilibrium ionization, and cooling processes. We performed three-dimensional simulations at small scales and at high redshifts and find that, analogous to simulations of large-scale structure, a complex system of voids, filaments, sheets, and spherical knots form at the intersections of filaments. On the total mass scales covered by our simulations (1 × 105 to 1 × 109 M☉), which collapse at redshifts z > 25, we find that only within the spherical knots can enough H2 be formed (n/n≳5×10−4) to cool the gas appreciably. The time dependence of the formation of H2 molecules and the final H2 fraction in the simulations agree with the theoretical predictions of Abel and Tegmark et al. remarkably well. Using a different H2 cooling function (that of Lepp & Shull), we repeat the calculations of Tegmark et al. We find a minimum mass that is able to collapse and cool via H2 for a given redshift that is an order of magnitude lower than that found by Tegmark et al. Furthermore, we discuss the possible implications for theories of primordial star formation from the extensive merging of small structure inherent in hierarchical models. In our simulation, typically only 5%-8% percent of the total baryonic mass in the collapsing structures is found to cool significantly. Assuming the Padoan model for star formation, our results would predict the very first stellar systems to be as small as ~50 M☉. Some implications for primordial globular cluster formation scenarios are also discussed.
Smart grid demand response management using internet of things for load shedding and smart-direct load control

This paper proposes the use of a novel algorithm for smart direct load control and load shedding to minimize the power outage in sudden grid load changes, as well as reduce the Peak-to-Average Ratio (PAR). The algorithm uses forecasting, shedding, and smart direct load control. The algorithm also uses the Internet of Things and stream analytics to provide real-time load control, and generates a daily schedule for customers' equipped with IEDs, based on their demands, comfort, and the forecasted load model. The demand response techniques are utilized for real time load control and optimization. To test the algorithm, a simulation system was developed that takes into account one hundred customers owning randomly selected appliances. The results indicated that load shedding using ARIMA time series prediction model and applying smart direct load control (S-DLC) and Internet of Things can remarkably reduce customers' power outage.
Internet Acceptable User Policies in Alabama School Systems

The purpose of this study was to determine the current status of and need for acceptable use policies (AUPs) for students' use of the Internet in Alabama school systems. Alabama superintendents were questioned using an electronic survey that could be returned via e-mail on an anonymous Internet site. Primary questions were: (1) What is your level of concern about students' proper use of the Internet? (2) Is there really a necessity for schools to have an AUP concerning accessing the Internet? (3) What do you believe are the crucial elements of an AUP for students' use of the Internet? (4) What was the nature of the incident your system experienced related to student use of the Internet in the past years? and (5) What is the best way to make sure that students use the Internet properly in school other than having an AUP? Results suggest that there is a great need for Internet use policies in Alabama. While the students in a majority of school systems use the Internet, a minority of the systems have adequate AUPs. Appendices include the questionnaire, cover letter, a sample AUP, and a list of Internet sites about AUPs. (Contains 22 references.) (MES) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. _J Internet Acceptable User Policies in Alabama School Systems Feng Sun and James E. McLean University of Alabama at Birmingham Paper presented at the 1999 Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association November 18, 1999 Point Clear, Alabama
Distinct Olfactory Cross-Modal Effects on the Human Motor System

Background Converging evidence indicates that action observation and action-related sounds activate cross-modally the human motor system. Since olfaction, the most ancestral sense, may have behavioural consequences on human activities, we causally investigated by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) whether food odour could additionally facilitate the human motor system during the observation of grasping objects with alimentary valence, and the degree of specificity of these effects. Methodology/Principal Findings In a repeated-measure block design, carried out on 24 healthy individuals participating to three different experiments, we show that sniffing alimentary odorants immediately increases the motor potentials evoked in hand muscles by TMS of the motor cortex. This effect was odorant-specific and was absent when subjects were presented with odorants including a potentially noxious trigeminal component. The smell-induced corticospinal facilitation of hand muscles during observation of grasping was an additive effect which superimposed to that induced by the mere observation of grasping actions for food or non-food objects. The odour-induced motor facilitation took place only in case of congruence between the sniffed odour and the observed grasped food, and specifically involved the muscle acting as prime mover for hand/fingers shaping in the observed action. Conclusions/Significance Complex olfactory cross-modal effects on the human corticospinal system are physiologically demonstrable. They are odorant-specific and, depending on the experimental context, muscle- and action-specific as well. This finding implies potential new diagnostic and rehabilitative applications.
Quasars Probing Quasars. II. The Anisotropic Clustering of Optically Thick Absorbers around Quasars

With close pairs of quasars at different redshifts, a background quasar sight line can be used to study a foreground quasar's environment in absorption. We used a sample of 17 Lyman limit systems with column density NH I > 1019 cm-2 selected from 149 projected quasar pair sight lines to investigate the clustering pattern of optically thick absorbers around luminous quasars at z ~ 2.5. Specifically, we measured the quasar-absorber correlation function in the transverse direction and found a comoving correlation length of r0 = 9.2 h-1 Mpc (comoving), assuming a power-law correlation function ξ ∝ r-γ, with γ = 1.6. Applying this transverse clustering strength to the line of sight, would predict that ~15%-50% of all quasars should show a NH I > 1019 cm-2 absorber within a velocity window of Δv < 3000 km s-1. This overpredicts the number of absorbers along the line of sight by a large factor, providing compelling evidence that the clustering pattern of optically thick absorbers around quasars is highly anisotropic. The most plausible explanation for the anisotropy is that the transverse direction is less likely to be illuminated by ionizing photons than the line of sight, and that absorbers along the line of sight are being photoevaporated. A simple model for the photoevaporation of absorbers subject to the ionizing flux of a quasar is presented, and it is shown that absorbers with volume densities nH ≲ 0.1 will be photoevaporated if they lie within ~1 Mpc (proper) of a luminous quasar. Using this simple model, we illustrate how comparisons of the transverse and line-of-sight clustering around quasars can ultimately be used to constrain the distribution of gas in optically thick absorption-line systems.
A Cross-version Approach for Stabilizing Tempo-based Novelty Detection

The task of novelty detection with the objective of detecting changes regarding musical properties such as harmony, dynamics, timbre, or tempo is of fundamental importance when analyzing structural properties of music recordings. But for a specific audio version of a given piece of music, the novelty detection result may also crucially depend on the individual performance style of the musician. This particularly holds true for tempo-related properties, which may vary significantly across different performances of the same piece of music. In this paper, we show that tempobased novelty detection can be stabilized and improved by simultaneously analyzing a set of different performances. We first warp the version-dependent novelty curves onto a common musical time axis, and then combine the individual curves to produce a single fusion curve. Our hypothesis is that musically relevant points of novelty tend to be consistent across different performances. This hypothesis is supported by our experiments in the context of music structure analysis, where the cross-version fusion curves yield, on average, better results than the novelty curves obtained from individual recordings.
To see or not to see a bow shock : Identifying bow shocks with Hα allsky surveys

OB-stars have the highest luminosities and strongest stellar winds of all stars, which enables them to interact strongly with their surrounding ISM, thus creating bow shocks. These offer us an ideal opportunity to learn more about the ISM. They were first detected and analysed around runaway OB-stars using the IRAS allsky survey by van Buren et al. (1995, AJ, 110, 2614). Using the geometry of such bow shocks information concerning the ISM density and its fluctuations can be gained from such infrared observations. As to help to improve the bow shock models, additional observations at other wavelengths, e.g. H, are most welcome. However due to their low velocity these bow shocks have a size of 1°, and could only be observed as a whole with great difficulties. In the light of the new H allsky surveys (SHASSA/VTSS) this is no problem any more. We developed different methods to detect bow shocks, e.g. the improved determination of their symmetry axis with radial distance profiles. Using two H-allsky surveys (SHASSA/VTSS), we searched for bow shocks and compared the different methods. From our sample we conclude, that the correlation between the direction of both proper motion and the symmetry axis determined with radial distance profile is the most promising detection method. We found eight bow shocks around HD 17505 , HD 24430 , HD 48099 , HD 57061 , HD 92206 , HD 135240 , HD 149757 , and HD 158186 from 37 candidates taken from van Buren et al. (1995, AJ, 110, 2614).
Motion-planning method with active body-environment contact for a hand-arm system including passive joints

Human-symbiotic humanoid robots that can perform tasks dexterously using their hands are needed in our homes, welfare facilities, and other places as the average age of the population increases. To improve the task performance of human-symbiotic humanoid robots, a motion-planning method with active body-environment contact was developed. Taking into account the positive and negative effect of mechanical passive elements implemented in joints, this motion-planning method can enables the hand-arm system to establish the active BE contact at the appropriate body-site and to select the joints that perform the movement for executing the given task. Control algorithms for the tool operation, namely, writing with a pen, were also constructed. The motion-planning method was validated through actual experiments on a prototype human-symbiotic humanoid robot.
Association between the management of oral health and experience of oral health education and an investigation of influential factors of the PHP index in university students

Copyright © 2019 by Journal of Korean Academy of Oral Health This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objectives: The aims of this study were to determine the association between the management of oral health and experiences of oral health education and to investigate the influential factors of the Patient Hygiene Performance (PHP) index in an area’s university students. In addition, we explored the factors that influence the PHP index and how to effectively promote oral health. Methods: All collected data were analyzed using the c test, the t-test, and multiple regression using SPSS version 23.0 for Microsoft Windows. The statistical significance level was set at 5%. Results: The total age of 380 participants ranged from 18 to 39 years (mean 22.22±2.43). No significant differences were found in oral health status and experiences of oral health education. Conclusions: Active national-based policies to develop regular and systematic national oral health education programs are needed.
Cyclic Nucleotide-gated Ion Channels in Rod Photoreceptors Are Protected from Retinoid Inhibition

In vertebrate rods, photoisomerization of the 11-cis retinal chromophore of rhodopsin to the all-trans conformation initiates a biochemical cascade that closes cGMP-gated channels and hyperpolarizes the cell. All-trans retinal is reduced to retinol and then removed to the pigment epithelium. The pigment epithelium supplies fresh 11-cis retinal to regenerate rhodopsin. The recent discovery that tens of nanomolar retinal inhibits cloned cGMP-gated channels at low [cGMP] raised the question of whether retinoid traffic across the plasma membrane of the rod might participate in the signaling of light. Native channels in excised patches from rods were very sensitive to retinoid inhibition. Perfusion of intact rods with exogenous 9- or 11-cis retinal closed cGMP-gated channels but required higher than expected concentrations. Channels reopened after perfusing the rod with cellular retinoid binding protein II. PDE activity, flash response kinetics, and relative sensitivity were unchanged, ruling out pharmacological activation of the phototransduction cascade. Bleaching of rhodopsin to create all-trans retinal and retinol inside the rod did not produce any measurable channel inhibition. Exposure of a bleached rod to 9- or 11-cis retinal did not elicit channel inhibition during the period of rhodopsin regeneration. Microspectrophotometric measurements showed that exogenous 9- or 11-cis retinal rapidly cross the plasma membrane of bleached rods and regenerate their rhodopsin. Although dark-adapted rods could also take up large quantities of 9-cis retinal, which they converted to retinol, the time course was slow. Apparently cGMP-gated channels in intact rods are protected from the inhibitory effects of retinoids that cross the plasma membrane by a large-capacity buffer. Opsin, with its chromophore binding pocket occupied (rhodopsin) or vacant, may be an important component. Exceptionally high retinoid levels, e.g., associated with some retinal degenerations, could overcome the buffer, however, and impair sensitivity or delay the recovery after exposure to bright light.
Importance of the home environment for healthy aging: conceptual and methodological background of the European ENABLE-AGE Project.

Currently in Europe as well as in the United States, an increasing proportion of very old people remain living in their homes despite declines in physical and mental health. Together with the fact that the population of very old people is rapidly increasing (Mathers, Sadana, Salamon, Murray, Lopez, 2001; United Nations Development Programme, 2001), this poses new challenges to societal planning and housing development (Gitlin, 2003).
Studying the Use of Informal Artifacts that Support ED Residents ' Work to Inform EMR Design

Previous studies have described the phenomenon of " paper persistence " as an unintended consequence of implementing health IT systems, such as the EMR system. However, it has not been fully explored how paper use can actually serve as evidence of the importance of informal documentation practices in clinical work. We studied informal documentation practices by residents in an Emergency Department (ED). We found that informal documentation artifacts support essential characteristics of ED residents' work, such as coordinating information among care team members. Insights from our work can inform the discussion on the challenges and opportunities of integrating informal practices into formal EMR-based practices.