Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rainforest Aerosols as Biogenic Nuclei of Clouds and Precipitation in the Amazon

Clean or Dirty Aerosols strongly affect atmospheric properties and processes—including visibility, cloud formation, and radiative behavior. Knowing their effects in both clean and polluted air is necessary in order to understand their influence (see the Perspective by Baltensperger). Clarke and Kapustin (p. 1488) examine vertical atmospheric profiles collected above the Pacific Ocean, where air quality is affected by the transport of polluted air from the west, and find significant regional enhancements in light scattering, aerosol mass, and aerosol number associated with combustion. Aerosol particle concentrations in this region can exceed values in clean, unperturbed regions by over an order of magnitude. Thus combustion affects hemispheric aerosol optical depth and the distribution of cloud condensation nuclei. Pöschl et al. (p. 1513) discuss the composition of aerosols above the Amazon Basin, in the pristine conditions of the rainy season. The aerosols in this region are derived mostly from gaseous biogenic precursors, plants, and microorganisms, and particle concentration is orders of magnitude lower than in polluted continental regions. The majority of cloud condensation nuclei in the Amazon during the wet season are derived from biogenic precursors. The Amazon is one of the few continental regions where atmospheric aerosol particles and their effects on climate are not dominated by anthropogenic sources. During the wet season, the ambient conditions approach those of the pristine pre-industrial era. We show that the fine submicrometer particles accounting for most cloud condensation nuclei are predominantly composed of secondary organic material formed by oxidation of gaseous biogenic precursors. Supermicrometer particles, which are relevant as ice nuclei, consist mostly of primary biological material directly released from rainforest biota. The Amazon Basin appears to be a biogeochemical reactor, in which the biosphere and atmospheric photochemistry produce nuclei for clouds and precipitation sustaining the hydrological cycle. The prevailing regime of aerosol-cloud interactions in this natural environment is distinctly different from polluted regions.
Dynamic Purchase Decisions Under Regret: Price and Availability

We model a dynamic purchase context in which a consumer is uncertain about the product's valuation. The consumer has two purchase opportunities for the product: forward purchase in Period 1 or spot purchase in Period 2. Two forms of regret are considered: buyer's regret over the money paid in excess of his valuation of the product when buying forward and hesitater's regret for the lost opportunity of an increased surplus when not buying forward. We illustrate how regrets affect the purchase decision: a consumer is more likely to buy forward when more averse to hesitater's regret but more likely to delay the decision when more averse to buyer's regret. We also consider alternative consumer types to characterize how regret affects their spot purchase decisions as well as what triggers the regret. We show that type inconsistency---that is, a consumer's incorrect anticipation of his future type---induces an inferior Period 1 purchase decision and thereby reduces the consumer's expected surplus.
Unresolved conflicts and shaming processes: risk factors for long-term sick leave for mental-health reasons

Mental illness is the most common diagnosis resulting in long-term sick leave in Sweden today, especially stress-related syndromes and mood disorders. The aim of this article is to analyse the relational and emotional processes in the workplace that may contribute to the understanding of long-term sick leave for mental-health reasons. We conducted interviews with twenty-six people who were on sick-leave because of diagnoses of mental ill-health. The empirical material was analysed using Classic Grounded Theory. We suggest that the risk of being afflicted with mental illness, and forced into long-term sick leave, increases when there are conflicts at work that remain unresolved and which lead to malignant shaming processes that jeopardize personal dignity. In their struggle to maintain self-esteem, the afflicted escalate their work efforts by increasing work intensity, putting in overtime, and working when ill. Eventually, this behaviour affects their health and results in sick-listing. The strengths and weaknesses of the study are discussed along with the need for further research.
Deriving DG categories

— We investigate the (unbounded) derived category of a differential Z-graded category (=DG category). As a first application, we deduce a "triangulated analogue" (4.3) of a theorem of Freyd's [5], Ex. 5.3 H, and Gabriel's [6], Ch. V, characterizing module categories among abelian categories. After adapting some homological algebra we go on to prove a "Morita theorem" (8.2) generalizing results of [19] and [20]. Finally, we develop a formalism for Koszul duality [1] in the context of DG augmented categories.
The effect of repeated professional supragingival plaque removal on the composition of the supra- and subgingival microbiota.

BACKGROUND, AIMS The purpose of the present investigation was to determine the effect of weekly professionally administered supragingival plaque removal on the composition of the supra and subgingival microbiota. METHODS 18 adult subjects with periodontitis who had been treated and were in a maintenance phase of therapy were clinically and microbiologically monitored at baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months. After the baseline visit, the subjects received scaling and root planing followed by professional supragingival plaque removal every week for 3 months. Clinical measures of plaque accumulation, bleeding on probing (BOP), gingival redness, suppuration, pocket depth and attachment level were made at 6 sites per tooth at each visit. Separate supra (N = 1804) and subgingival (N = 1804) plaque samples were taken from the mesial aspect of all teeth excluding third molars in each subject at each time point and evaluated for their content of 40 bacterial taxa using checkerboard DNA-DNA hybridization. Significance of changes in mean counts, prevalence and proportions of bacterial species over time in both supra and subgingival samples were determined using the Quade test and adjusted for multiple comparisons. RESULTS Mean % of sites exhibiting plaque, gingival redness and BOP were significantly reduced during the course of the study. Significant decreases in mean counts were observed in both supra and subgingival samples. Mean total DNA probe counts (x10(5), +/-SEM) at baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months were: 133+/-19, 95+/-25, 66+/-6, 41+/-6 (p<0.001) for supragingival samples and 105+/-22, 40+/-10, 19+/-4, 13+/-3 (p<0.001) for subgingival samples. Mean counts of 22 of 40 and 34 of 40 species tested were significantly reduced in the supra and subgingival samples respectively over the monitoring period. For example, mean counts of Porphyromonas gingivalis x10(5) at baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months in the subgingival plaque samples were 2.0+/-0.4, 0.5+/-0.2, 0.6+/-0.3, 0.3+/-0.1 (p<0.001); Bacteroides forsythus 2.0+/-0.6, 0.4+/-0.1, 0.4+/-0.2, 0.1+/-0.2 (p<0.001); Treponema denticola 3.4+/-1.1, 0.8+/-0.3, 0.4+/-0.2, 0.3+/-0.3 (p<0.01). Similar reductions were seen in supragingival plaque samples. While counts were markedly reduced by professional plaque removal, the proportion and prevalence of the 40 test species were marginally affected. CONCLUSIONS Weekly professional supragingival plaque removal profoundly diminished counts of both supra- and subgingival species creating a microbial profile comparable to that observed in periodontal health. This profile was maintained at the final monitoring visit, 9 months after completion of therapy.
Molecular Signatures of Localized Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma to Predict Disease-Free Survival after Nephrectomy

Purpose: To identify the molecular signature of localized (N0M0) clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and assess its ability to predict outcome. Methods: Clinical characteristics and pathologic records of 170 patients with localized clear cell RCC who underwent nephrectomy were reviewed. Immunohistochemical analysis was done on a tissue microarray of all primary tumors using a kidney cancer–related panel of protein markers, which included CAIX, CAXII, CXCR3, gelsolin, Ki-67, vimentin, EpCAM, p21, p27, p53, pS6, PTEN, HIF-1α, pAkt, VEGF-A, VEGF-C, VEGF-D, VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2, and VEGFR-3. Associations with disease-free survival (DFS) were evaluated with Cox models, and a concordance index assessed prognostic accuracy. Results: Median follow-up was 7.1 years. The final multivariate Cox model determined T classification, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, and five molecular markers (Ki-67, p53, endothelial VEGFR-1, epithelial VEGFR-1, and epithelial VEGF-D) to be independent prognostic indicators of DFS. The molecular signature based on these markers predicted DFS with an accuracy of 0.838, an improvement over T classification of 0.746, and the University of California-Los Angeles Integrated Staging System of 0.780. A constructed nomogram combined the molecular, clinical, and pathologic factors and approached a concordance index of 0.904. Conclusions: A molecular signature consisting of five molecular markers (Ki-67, p53, endothelial VEGFR-1, epithelial VEGFR-1, and epithelial VEGF-D) can predict DFS for localized clear cell RCC. The prognostic ability of the signature and nomogram may be superior to clinical and pathologic factors alone and may identify a subset of localized patients with aggressive clinical behavior. Independent, external validation of the nomogram is required. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(3):894–900)
NETWORK INTRUSION DETECTION USING NAÏVE BAYES

Summary With the tremendous growth of network-based services and sensitive information on networks, network security is getting more and more importance than ever. Intrusion poses a serious security risk in a network environment. The ever growing new intrusion types posses a serious problem for their detection. The human labelling of the available network audit data instances is usually tedious, time consuming and expensive. In this paper, we apply one of the efficient data mining algorithms called naive bayes for anomaly based network intrusion detection. Experimental results on the KDD cup’99 data set show the novelty of our approach in detecting network intrusion. It is observed that the proposed technique performs better in terms of false positive rate, cost, and computational time when applied to KDD’99 data sets compared to a back propagation neural network based approach.
Computation and Complexity of Preference Inference Based on Hierarchical Models

Preference Inference involves inferring additional user preferences from elicited or observed preferences, based on assumptions regarding the form of the user's preference relation. In this paper we consider a situation in which alternatives have an associated vector of costs, each component corresponding to a different criterion, and are compared using a kind of lexicographic order, similar to the way alternatives are compared in a Hierarchical Constraint Logic Programming model. It is assumed that the user has some (unknown) importance ordering on criteria, and that to compare two alternatives, firstly, the combined cost of each alternative with respect to the most important criteria are compared; only if these combined costs are equal, are the next most important criteria considered. The preference inference problem then consists of determining whether a preference statement can be inferred from a set of input preferences. We show that this problem is coNP-complete, even if one restricts the cardinality of the equal-importance sets to have at most two elements, and one only considers non-strict preferences. However, it is polynomial if it is assumed that the user's ordering of criteria is a total ordering; it is also polynomial if the sets of equally important criteria are all equivalence classes of a given fixed equivalence relation. We give an efficient polynomial algorithm for these cases, which also throws light on the structure of the inference.
Development of Atherosclerosis in Genetically Hyperlipidemic Rabbits during Chronic Fish‐oil Ingestion

The evidence for a reduction In cardiovascular mortality from fish oil is based on epidemlologic observations. To test whether fish-oil supplementation Influences the development of atherosclerosis, we treated Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic rabbits (WHHL), an Inbred strain that spontaneously develops atherosclerosis, with 2.5 ml of MaxEPA flsh-oll concentrate dally and compared them to a control group fed un8upplemented rabbit chow. Serial cholesterol and trlglyceride levels were monitored as were plasma llpld hydroperoxldes. The animals were given fish oil from the time of weaning until 1 year of age, when they were sacrificed and their aortas were compared for the extent of atherosclerosis. No significant differences In the cholesterol or trlglyceride levels were noted between the two groups. Fatty acid hydroperoxlde levels were also similar and were noted to Increase from weaning (1.0±0.7/£M) to the time of sacrifice (1.8± 1.5/xM, p<0.01). Fish oil had no Influence on the extent of aortic atherosclerosis (25%± 14% surface area for controls vs. 28%± 19% for treated, p=NS), plaque thickness, or plaque volume after 1 year. We conclude that fish oil does not reduce the levels of serum cholesterol, llpld hydroperoxldes, or aortic atherosclerosis In WHHL rabbits. The hypothesis that fish oil protects against atherosclerosis was not supported by this study.
Transgenically Induced GAD Tolerance Curtails the Development of Early β-Cell Autoreactivities but Causes the Subsequent Development of Supernormal Autoreactivities to Other β-Cell Antigens

OBJECTIVE To study how tolerance to GAD65 affects the development of autoimmunity to other β-cell autoantigens (β-CAAs) in GAD65-transgenic (GAD-tg) NOD mice. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We used ELISPOT to characterize the frequency and functional phenotype of T-cell responses to GAD65 and other β-CAAs at different ages in GAD-tg mice and their NOD mouse littermates. RESULTS In young GAD-tg mice, Th1 responses to GAD65's dominant determinants were 13−18% of those in young NOD mice. This coincided with a great reduction in Th1 responses to other β-CAAs. Evidently, GAD65-reactive T-cells are important for activating and/or expanding early autoreactivities in NOD mice. As GAD-tg mice aged, their T-cell responses to GAD65 remained low, but they developed supernormal splenic and pancreatic lymph node T-cell autoimmunity to other β-CAAs. Apparently, the elimination/impairment of many GAD65-reactive T-cells allowed other β-CAA–reactive T-cells to eventually expand to a greater extent, perhaps by reducing competition for antigen-presenting cells, or homeostatic proliferation in the target tissue, which may explain the GAD-tg mouse's usual disease incidence. CONCLUSIONS Transgenically induced reduction of GAD65 autoreactivity curtailed the development of early T-cell responses to other β-CAAs. However, later in life, β-CAA–reactive T-cells expanded to supernormal levels. These data suggest that early β-cell autoreactivities are mutually dependent for support to activate and expand, while later in the disease process, autoantigen-specific T-cell pools can expand autonomously. These findings have implications for understanding type 1 diabetes immunopathogenesis and for designing antigen-based immunotherapeutics.
Expression of peripherin in the pig spiral ganglion – aspects of nerve injury and regeneration

Conclusion. Peripherin protein may be important not only for developing neurons but also for the maintenance and regeneration of axonal processes in the mature cochlea. More knowledge about its expression and function could improve our understanding with reference to axonal regrowth and nerve restoration in the damaged cochlea. Objective. To investigate the existence of peripherin protein in adult pig spiral ganglion and cultured spiral ganglion neurons of the guinea pig. Materials and methods. Immunohistochemistry with anti-peripherin antibodies was performed on sections of adult pig spiral ganglion and guinea pig spiral ganglion cell (SGC) culture. Results. In pig auditory neurons, both type I and type II SGCs showed expression of the protein peripherin. These cells were not preferentially located near the intraganglionic spiral bundle (IGSB). The IGSB consisted of thin calibre fibres showing intense peripherin and thicker fibres that were TUJ-1 positive. Only a few fibres within the IGSB co-expressed both peripherin and TUJ-1. Cultured guinea pig neurons displayed a rich expression of peripherin, including the nuclei. This protein was expressed in regions such as the perikaryon and axons but there was also a segmental expression of peripherin in some regions. Peripherin was more expressed in areas of axon branching and in the centre of the active growth cones and lammelipodia.
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Weak Task-related Modulation and Stimulus Representations during Arithmetic Problem Solving in Children with Developmental Dyscalculia

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a disability that impacts math learning and skill acquisition in school-age children. Here we investigate arithmetic problem solving deficits in young children with DD using univariate and multivariate analysis of fMRI data. During fMRI scanning, 17 children with DD (ages 7–9, grades 2 and 3) and 17 IQ-and reading ability-matched typically developing (TD) children performed complex and simple addition problems which differed only in arithmetic complexity. While the TD group showed strong modulation of brain responses with increasing arithmetic complexity, children with DD failed to show such modulation. Children with DD showed significantly reduced activation compared to TD children in the intraparietal sulcus, superior parietal lobule, supramarginal gyrus and bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in relation to arithmetic complexity. Critically , multivariate representational similarity revealed that brain response patterns to complex and simple problems were less differentiated in the DD group in bilateral anterior IPS, independent of overall differences in signal level. Taken together, these results show that children with DD not only under-activate key brain regions implicated in mathematical cognition, but they also fail to generate distinct neural responses and representations for different arithmetic problems. Our findings provide novel insights into the neural basis of DD.
Sensitivity of Bimodal Listeners to Interaural Time Differences with Modulated Single- and Multiple-Channel Stimuli

In a previous study, it was shown that users of a cochlear implant and a contralateral hearing aid are sensitive to interaural time differences (ITDs). In the current study, we investigated (1) the influence on ITD sensitivity of bilaterally varying the place of excitation in the cochlea and of modulation frequency, and (2) the sensitivity to ITD with a 3-channel stimulus generated using continuous-interleaved-sampling (CIS)-like processing. The stimuli were (1) a high-frequency carrier (acoustic sinusoid and single-electrode electric pulse train), modulated with a half-wave-rectified low-frequency sinusoid (a so-called transposed stimulus), and (2) a 3-channel stimulus, generated by sending an acoustic click train through processing similar to the CIS strategy. Four bimodal listeners were sensitive to ITD for both stimulus types. For the first stimulus type, there was no significant influence on ITD sensitivity of the acoustic carrier frequency. Performance decreased with increasing modulation frequency with a limit of sensitivity at around 150–200 Hz. Sensitivity was similar for the single- and 3-channel stimulus. The results indicate the possibility of ITD perception with adapted clinical processors, which can lead to improved sound source localization and binaural unmasking.
Circumnuclear Star Clusters in the Galaxy Merger NGC 6240, Observed with Keck Adaptive Optics and the Hubble Space Telescope

We discuss images of the central ~10 kpc (in projection) of the galaxy merger NGC 6240 at H and K' bands, taken with the NIRC2 narrow camera on Keck II using natural guide star adaptive optics. We detect 28 star clusters in the NIRC2 images, of which only 7 can be seen in the similar spatial resolution, archival WFPC2 Planetary Camera data at either B or I band. Combining the NIRC2 narrow camera pointings with wider NICMOS NIC2 images taken with the F110W, F160W, and F222M filters, we identify a total of 32 clusters that are detected in at least one of these five infrared (λc > 1 μm) bandpasses. By comparing to instantaneous burst, stellar population synthesis models (Bruzual & Charlot), we estimate that most of the clusters are consistent with being ~15 Myr old and have photometric masses ranging from 7 × 105 to 4 × 107 M☉. The total contribution to the star formation rate (SFR) from these clusters is approximately 10 M☉ yr-1, or ~10% of the total SFR in the nuclear region. We use these newly discovered clusters to estimate the extinction toward NGC 6240's double nuclei and find values of AV as high as 14 mag along some sight lines, with an average extinction of AV ~ 7 mag toward sight lines within ~3'' of the double nuclei.
Aggregation of human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) into 3D spheroids enhances their antiinflammatory properties

Previous reports suggested that culture as 3D aggregates or as spheroids can increase the therapeutic potential of the adult stem/progenitor cells referred to as mesenchymal stem cells or multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). Here we used a hanging drop protocol to prepare human MSCs (hMSCs) as spheroids that maximally expressed TNFα stimulated gene/protein 6 (TSG-6), the antiinflammatory protein that was expressed at high levels by hMSCs trapped in the lung after i.v. infusion and that largely explained the beneficial effects of hMSCs in mice with myocardial infarcts. The properties of spheroid hMSCs were found to depend critically on the culture conditions. Under optimal conditions for expression of TSG-6, the hMSCs also expressed high levels of stanniocalcin-1, a protein with both antiinflammatory and antiapoptotic properties. In addition, they expressed high levels of three anticancer proteins: IL-24, TNFα-related apoptosis inducing ligand, and CD82. The spheroid hMSCs were more effective than hMSCs from adherent monolayer cultures in suppressing inflammatory responses in a coculture system with LPS-activated macrophages and in a mouse model for peritonitis. In addition, the spheroid hMSCs were about one-fourth the volume of hMSCs from adherent cultures. Apparently as a result, larger numbers of the cells trafficked through the lung after i.v. infusion and were recovered in spleen, liver, kidney, and heart. The data suggest that spheroid hMSCs may be more effective than hMSCs from adherent cultures in therapies for diseases characterized by sterile tissue injury and unresolved inflammation and for some cancers that are sensitive to antiinflammatory agents.