Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
STELLAR POPULATION SYNTHESIS BASED MODELING OF THE MILKY WAY USING ASTEROSEISMOLOGY OF 13,000 KEPLER RED GIANTS

With current space-based missions it is now possible to obtain age-sensitive asteroseismic information for tens of thousands of red giants. This provides a promising opportunity to study the Galactic structure and evolution. We use asteroseismic data of red giants, observed by Kepler, to test the current theoretical framework of modeling the Galaxy based on population synthesis modeling and the use of asteroseismic scaling relations for giants. We use the open source code Galaxia to model the Milky Way and find the distribution of the masses predicted by Galaxia to be systematically offset with respect to the seismically inferred observed masses. The Galactic model overestimates the number of low-mass stars, and these stars are predominantly old and of low metallicity. Using corrections to the Δ ν scaling relation suggested by stellar models significantly reduces the disagreement between predicted and observed masses. For a few cases where non-seismic mass estimates are available, the corrections to Δ ν also improve the agreement between seismic and non-seismic mass estimates. The disagreement between predictions of the Galactic model and the observations is most pronounced for stars with [Fe/H] < − 0.5 and [Fe/H] > 0 or for T eff > 4700 K. Altering the star formation rate in order to suppress stars older than 10 Gyr improves the agreement for mass but leads to inconsistent color distributions. We also tested the predictions of the TRILEGAL Galactic model. However, unlike Galaxia, it had difficulties in reproducing the photometric properties of the Kepler Input Catalog because it overestimates the number of blue stars. We conclude that either the scaling relations and/or the Galactic models need to be revised to reconcile predictions of theory with asteroseismic observations.
Understanding Adaptive Immune System as Reinforcement Learning

The adaptive immune system of vertebrates can detect, respond to, and memorize diverse pathogens from past experience. While the selection of T helper (Th) clones is the simple and established mechanism to recognize and memorize new pathogens, the question that still remains unexplored is how the Th cells can acquire better ways to bias the responses of immune cells for eliminating pathogens more efficiently by translating the recognized antigen information into regulatory signals. In this work, we address this problem by associating the adaptive immune network organized by the Th cells with reinforcement learning (RL). By employing recent advancements of network-based RL, we show that the Th immune network can acquire the association between antigen patterns of and the effective responses to pathogens. Moreover, the clonal selection as well as other inter-cellular interactions are derived as a learning rule of this network. We also demonstrate that the stationary clone-size distribution after learning shares characteristic features with those observed experimentally. Our theoretical framework may contribute to revising and renewing our understanding of adaptive immunity as a learning system.
Flow equations for dense granular fluids: New insight from a first-principles derivation

Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK(Dated: January 7, 2014)We present a ﬁrst-principles theory for plug-free dense granular ﬂow. This is done by coarse-graining directly the microscopic dynamics and deriving an explicit relation between the macroscopicstress and strain rate tensors. The newly derived relation not only diﬀers signiﬁcantly from that ofthe existing empirical models for such ﬂows but it also provides a novel understanding of the eﬀectof rigid-like rotational regions in the ﬂow.
Analysis of Volatile Compounds, Composition, and Thermal Behavior of Coffee Beans According to Variety and Roasting Intensity

This study aimed to investigate the ways in which the thermal behavior, composition, and volatile compound contents of roasted coffee beans depend on variety and roasting intensity. The thermal analysis revealed various transformations in coffee composition, namely, drying, water loss, and decomposition of polysaccharides, lipids, amino acids, and proteins. The results showed that volatile compounds are released differently in coffee depending on coffee type and degree of roasting. The most abundant volatile compounds present in the samples were 2-butanone, furan, 2-methylfuran, methyl formate, 2.3-pentanedione, methylpyrazine, acetic acid, furfural, 5-methyl furfural, and 2-furanmethanol. The total polyphenol contents ranged between 13.3 and 18.9 g gallic acid/kg, being slightly higher in Robusta than in Arabica varieties and in more intensely roasted beans compared to medium-roasted beans. The Robusta variety has higher mineral contents than Arabica, and the contents of most minerals (K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, P, N, and S) increased with roasting intensity. Discrimination between coffee varieties and roasting intensities is possible based on mineral and polyphenol contents.
Sexual Health among Youth in Residential Care in Spain: Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviors

Adolescents in the child welfare system often face multiple maladaptive experiences that predispose them to worse sexual health outcomes. This study aims to (1) describe the sexual health of adolescents in Spanish residential care by exploring their sexual knowledge, attitudes toward sexuality, and sexual behaviors and (2) to find out whether there are certain characteristics that make a subgroup particularly vulnerable to engaging in risky sexual behaviors. A total of 346 adolescents recruited from 47 Spanish residential care facilities (34.1% girls, 65.9% boys) aged between 11 and 19 years old completed some self-report instruments. Descriptive analyses and tests to prove gender and age differences were conducted. Their knowledge of sexuality was lower than observed in the general adolescent population, their attitudes more negative, and their tendency to engage in risky sexual behaviors higher. Girls made very infrequent use of condoms, while boys had more sexist attitudes and made habitual use of withdrawal. Although more than 20% of them had experienced sexual exchange activities before the age of 13 until 17, they did not use condoms systematically. The low level of knowledge, the early initiation of sexual exchange activities, and the scarce use of protection methods, together with sexist attitudes, place this group in a situation of great vulnerability, increasing the risk of unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and even teen dating violence.
The Enduring Association of a First Pregnancy Abortion with Subsequent Pregnancy Outcomes: A Longitudinal Cohort Study

Introduction Multiple abortions are consistently associated with adverse health consequences. Prior abortion is a known risk factor for another abortion. Objective To determine the persistence of the association of a first-pregnancy abortion with the likelihood of subsequent pregnancy outcomes. Methods Data was extracted for a study population of 5453 continuously eligible Medicaid beneficiaries in states which funded and reported elective abortions 1999–2015. Women age 16 in 1999 were organized into three cohorts based upon the first pregnancy outcome: abortion, birth, natural loss. Results Women in the abortion cohort are more likely than those in the birth cohort to experience another abortion rather than a birth or natural loss, and less likely to experience a live birth rather than an abortion or natural loss, for every subsequent pregnancy. The tendency toward abortion (OR 2.99, CL 2.02-4.43) and away from birth (OR 0.49, CL 0.39-0.63) peaks at the sixth pregnancy, but persists throughout the reproductive period ages 16–32. The pattern is reversed, but similarly consistent, for women in the birth cohort. They remain likelier to have another birth rather than an abortion or natural loss in subsequent pregnancies. Compared to the birth cohort, the abortion cohort had 1.35 times as many pregnancies: 4.31 times the abortions, 1.53 times the natural losses, but only 0.52 times the births. They were 4.3 and 5.0 times as likely to have 2-plus and 3-plus abortions, but only 0.47 times and 0.31 times as likely to have 2-plus and 3-plus births. Of the abortion cohort, 37.1% had no births. By contrast, 73.6% of the birth cohort had no abortions. Conclusion The first-pregnancy abortion maintains a strong and persistent association with the likelihood of another abortion in subsequent pregnancies, enabling a cascade of adverse events associated with multiple abortions.
Mediatrix method for filamentation of objects in images

Nesta contribuicao, nos descrevemos o metodo Mediatrix para filamentacao de objetos. Este metodo e um processo iterativo que decompoe formas em filamentos seguindo a direcao do maior brilho proximo ao eixo principal utilizando mediatrizes. A partir deste metodo e possivel obter diversos atributos morfologicos como, por exemplo, o comprimento ao longo da direcao principal, largura do objeto e, no caso de objetos curvos, e possivel estimar o seu centro de curvatura e seu raio de curvatura. Como um exemplo ilustrativo, nos aplicamos esta tecnica em objetos com forma de arco, obtidos atraves de simulacoes de arcos gravitacionais. Keywords: Image Processing, Feature Extraction, Algorithms.
UNIVERSAL ENTROPY BOUND AND DISCRETE SPACETIME

Starting from the universal entropy bounds suggested by Bekenstein and Susskind and applying them to the black-body radiation situation, we get a cut-off of space Δx ≥χlP with χ≥0.1. We go further to get a cutoff of time Δt ≥χlP/c, thus, the discrete spacetime structure is obtained. With the discrete spacetime, we can explain the uncertainty principle. Based on the hypothesis of information theory and the entropy of black holes, we get the precise value of the parameter χ and demonstrate the reason why the entropy bounds hold.
A Modified Computational Method of Active State Earth Pressure behind Rigid Retaining Wall

Modes and magnitude of wall movement have a great influence on the distribution of Earth pressure behind retaining wall. For gravity retaining wall exerted by cohesionless soil rotating outward about the base, based on Dubrova’s method of redistribution of pressure and forming mechanism of Earth pressure, the distribution pattern of internal friction angle along the wall back was established for different displacements, and then, an improved method of calculating active Earth pressure was proposed, which considers the influence of displacement. It considers the influence of displacement and also reflects the gradual formation process of Earth pressure. When the retaining wall is in an at-rest state, the distribution of Earth pressure calculated in this paper is defined as initial active state Earth pressure, and it is not equal to static Earth pressure, because the retaining wall has a tendency of active displacement. As the wall movement develops, the mobilized internal friction angle of the quasi-sliding surface increases gradually from the initial internal friction angle ϕ 0 to the internal friction angle ϕ , and accordingly, the distribution of Earth pressure at the intersection of the sliding surface and the wall back decreases gradually from the distribution of initial active state Earth pressure in the static state to that of Coulomb active Earth pressure.
Full-Length Genome of the Equine Influenza A Virus Subtype H3N8 from 2019 Outbreak in Saudi Arabia

Simple Summary Equine influenza is a highly contagious respiratory viral disease. The current study is the first to provide a description of the full-length genome sequence and surveillance of recent exposure to the equine influenza virus (EIV) during the 2019 epidemic in Saudi Arabia. This epidemic was benign, since it resulted in low case fatality (0.45%, 1/224). The viruses detected in the current study were found to be related to subtype H73N8 clade 1 of the Florida sublineage. Full-length genome sequencing revealed no evidence of major genetic changes or of reassortment among the eight segments of the viral genome. However, the Saudi strains showed a considerable number of amino acid substitutions in the signal peptide (2 amino acid substitutions), HA1 (10 amino acid substitutions) and HA2 (4 amino acid substitutions) in the haemagglutinin glycoprotein in comparison to clade 1 Florida sublineage vaccinal strains. These findings should be considered during selection of the equine influenza vaccine strains approved for use in Saudi Arabia. Abstract Equine influenza is a major cause of respiratory infections in horses and can spread rapidly despite the availability of commercial vaccines. This study aimed to screen the incidence of equine influenza virus (EIV) and molecularly characterize the haemagglutinin and neuraminidase from positive EIV field samples collected from Saudi Arabia. Six-hundred twenty-one horses from 57 horse barns were screened for the presence of the clinical signs, suggestive for equine influenza, from different parts of Saudi Arabia. Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from each horse showing respiratory distress. Samples from the same horse barn were pooled together and screened for the presence of the influenza A virus using quantitative real time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Selective positive samples were subjected to full-length genome sequencing using MiSeq Illumina. Out of the total 57 pools, 39 were found positive to EIV using qRT-PCR. Full-length gene sequences were compared with representative EIV strains selected from the GenBank database. Phylogenetic analysis of the HA and NA genes revealed that the identified virus strains belong to H3N8 clade 1 of the Florida sublineage and were very similar to viruses identified in USA in 2019, with no current evidence for reassortment. This is one of the first reports providing detailed description and characterization of EIVs in Saudi Arabia. Detailed surveillance and genetic information sharing could allow genetic evolution of equine influenza viruses to be monitored more effectively on a global basis and aid in refinement of vaccine strain selection for EIV.
The Effect of Political Instability on Bank Profitability: Evidence from Ethiopia

The study aims to examine the effect of political instability on Bank profitability. To achieve this object, the researcher used the World Bank database and data from annual audit financial statements of 15 selected commercial Banks for the period 2012-2016. The researcher applied the generalized method of moments to analyze the effect of political instability on Bank profitability. Both descriptive analysis and inferential statistics are made in this regard. The result of the generalized method of moments estimation shows that political instability positively affects Bank profitability. Bank specific variables such as credit risk ratio, Non-interest income to total asset ratio, and Cost to income ratio are essential factors for Bank profitability. Growth of gross domestic product and inflation are significant determinants of Bank profitability. Bank size, liquidity and credit risk ratio are insignificant. The study is helpful to higher government officials, policymakers, Banks shareholders, Banks top management, etc. Moreover, the study contributed to the existing literature by linking political instability and Bank profitability.
Nanostructured IrOx supported on N-doped TiO2 as an efficient electrocatalyst towards acidic oxygen evolution reaction

Reducing the Ir consumption without compromising the catalytic performance for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is highly paramount to promote the extensive development of the environmentally-friendly solid polymer electrolyte water electrolysis (SPEWE) system. Herein, TiO2 is doped with N through facile NH3 gas treatment and innovatively employed to support IrOx nanoparticles towards acidic OER. N-doping action not only dramatically boosts the electrical conductivity and dispersing/anchoring effects of TiO2, but also effectively improves the electron-transfer procedure. As a result, the IrOx/N–TiO2 electrocatalyst exhibits prominent catalyst utilization, catalytic activity and stability. Specifically, the overpotential required to deliver 10 mA cm−2 is only 270 mV, and the mass activity climbs to 278.7 A gIr−1 @ 1.55 VRHE. Moreover, the single cell voltage is only 1.761 V @ 2.0 A cm−2 when adopting IrOx/N–TiO2 as the anode catalyst, which is 44 mV lower than that of the commercial IrO2 counterpart.
Decadal Weakening of Abyssal South China Sea Circulation

The global ocean mass has significantly changed during recent decades, which may induce changes in the abyssal ocean circulation. Due to the lack of in situ observations, the response of the abyssal South China Sea (SCS) circulation to ocean mass changes remains unclear. The ocean state estimate, Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO), provides the long‐term ocean mass changes in terms of ocean bottom pressure (OBP). Here we use the ECCO OBP data to quantify decadal changes in the abyssal SCS circulation and reveal a weakening trend. The OBP gradient trend manifests in forms of an anomalous anticyclonic circulation that is intensified by topographic effects along the continental slopes to reduce the existing abyssal circulation. The weakening abyssal circulation corresponds to the weakening Luzon Strait overflow that yields a decreasing vorticity budget in the abyssal SCS.
Regulation of Extracellular Vesicle-Mediated Immune Responses against Antigen-Specific Presentation

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) produced by various immune cells, including B and T cells, macrophages, dendritic cells (DCs), natural killer (NK) cells, and mast cells, mediate intercellular communication and have attracted much attention owing to the novel delivery system of molecules in vivo. DCs are among the most active exosome-secreting cells of the immune system. EVs produced by cancer cells contain cancer antigens; therefore, the development of vaccine therapy that does not require the identification of cancer antigens using cancer-cell-derived EVs may have significant clinical implications. In this review, we summarise the molecular mechanisms underlying EV-based immune responses and their therapeutic effects on tumour vaccination.
AMS-SFE: Towards an Alignment of Manifold Structures via Semantic Feature Expansion for Zero-shot Learning

Zero-shot learning (ZSL) aims at recognizing unseen classes with knowledge transferred from seen classes. This is typically achieved by exploiting a semantic feature space (FS) shared by both seen and unseen classes, i.e., attributes or word vectors, as the bridge. However, due to the mutually disjoint of training (seen) and testing (unseen) data, existing ZSL methods easily and commonly suffer from the domain shift problem. To address this issue, we propose a novel model called AMS-SFE. It considers the Alignment of Manifold Structures by Semantic Feature Expansion. Specifically, we build up an autoencoder based model to expand the semantic features and joint with an alignment to an embedded manifold extracted from the visual FS of data. It is the first attempt to align these two FSs by way of expanding semantic features. Extensive experiments show the remarkable performance improvement of our model compared with other existing methods.
A PANCHROMATIC VIEW OF NGC 602: TIME-RESOLVED STAR FORMATION WITH THE HUBBLE AND SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPES

We present the photometric catalogs for the star-forming cluster NGC 602 in the wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud covering a range of wavelengths from optical (HST/ACS F555W, F814W, and SMARTS/ANDICAM V, I) to infrared (Spitzer/IRAC 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8 μm and MIPS 24 μm). Combining this with Infrared Survey Facility near-infrared photometry (J, H, Ks), we compare the young main sequence (MS) and pre-main sequence (PMS) populations prominent in the optical with the current young stellar object (YSO) populations revealed by the infrared. We analyze the MS and PMS population with isochrones in color–magnitude diagrams to derive ages and masses. The optical data reveal ∼565 PMS candidates, low-mass Stage iii YSOs. We characterize ∼40 YSOs by fitting their spectral energy distributions to a grid of models (Robitaille et al.) to derive luminosities, masses, and evolutionary phase (Stages i–iii). The higher resolution HST images reveal that ∼70% of the YSO candidates are either multiples or protoclusters. For YSOs and PMS sources found in common, we find a consistency in the masses derived. We use the YSO mass function to derive a present-day star formation rate of ∼0.2–1.0 M☉ yr−1 kpc−2, similar to the rate derived from the optical star formation history suggesting a constant star formation rate for this region. We demonstrate a progression of star formation from the optical star cluster center to the edge of the star-forming dust cloud. We derive lifetimes of a few 105 years for the YSO Stages i and ii.
Stubborn Distributivity, Multiparticipant Nouns and the Count/Mass Distinction *

There are predicates that I call “stubbornly distributive” based on what happens when they are combined with plural count noun phrases. I will use these stubbornly distributive predicates to identify and analyze a certain subset of mass nouns which I call “multi-participant nouns”. Traffic and rubble are multi-participant nouns but furniture and luggage turn out not to be. Importantly, ‘typical’ mass nouns like water are multiparticipant nouns.
RF-Trojan: Leaking Kernel Data Using Register File Trojan

Register Files (RFs) are the most frequently accessed memories in a microprocessor for fast and efficient computation and control logic. Segment registers and control registers are especially critical for maintaining the CPU mode of execution that determinesthe access privileges. In this work, we explore the vulnerabilities in RF and propose a class of hardware Trojans which can inject faults during read or retention mode. The Trojan trigger is activated if one pre-selected address of L1 data-cache is hammered for certain number of times. The trigger evades post-silicon test since the required number of hammering to trigger is significantly high even under process and temperature variation. Once activated, the trigger can deliver payloads to cause Bitcell Corruption (BC) and inject read error by Read Port (RP) and Local Bitline (LBL). We model the Trojan in GEM5 architectural simulator performing a privilege escalation. We propose countermeasures such as read verification leveraging multiport feature, securing control and segment registers by hashing and L1 address obfuscation.
Effects of frustration and cyclic exchange on the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet within the self-consistent spin-wave theory

The relevance of the quasi-two-dimensional spin-1/2 frustrated quantum antiferromagnet (AFM) due to its possibility of modeling the high-temperature superconducting parent compounds has resulted in numerous theoretical and experimental studies. This paper presents a detailed research of the influence of the varying exchange interactions on the model magnetic properties within the framework of self-consistent spin-wave theory based on Dyson–Maleev (DM) representation. Beside the nearest neighbor (NN) interaction within the plane, the planar frustration up to the third NNs, cyclic interaction and the interlayer coupling are taken into account. The detailed description of the elementary spin excitations, staggered magnetization, spin-wave velocity renormalization factor and ground state energy is given. The results are compared to the predictions of the linear spin-wave theory and when possible also to the second-order perturbative spin-wave expansion results. Finally, having at our disposal improved experimental results for the in-plane spin-wave dispersion in high-Tc copper oxide La2CuO4, the self-consistent spin-wave theory (SCSWT) is applied to that compound in order to correct earlier obtained set of exchange parameters and high-temperature spin-wave dispersion.