Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Decay of Tropical Cyclone Winds after Landfall in the New England Area

Abstract A version of the Kaplan and DeMaria empirical model for predicting the decay of tropical cyclone 1-min maximum sustained surface winds after landfall is developed for the New England region. The original model was developed from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) best-track wind estimates for storms that made landfall in the United States south of 37°N from 1967 to 1993. In this note, a similar model is developed for U.S. storms north of 37°N, which primarily made landfall in New York or Rhode Island and then moved across New England. Because of the less frequent occurrence of New England tropical cyclones, it was necessary to include cases back to 1938 to obtain a reasonable sample size. In addition, because of the faster translational speed and the fairly rapid extratropical transition of the higher-latitude cases, it was necessary to estimate the wind speeds at 2-h intervals after landfall, rather than every 6 h, as in the NHC best track. For the model development, the estimates of the maximu.
Image classification using object detectors

Image categorization is one of the most competitive topic in computer vision and image processing. In this paper, we propose to use trained object and region detectors to represent the visual content of each image. Compared to similar methods found in the literature, our method encompasses two main areas of novelty: introducing a new spatial pooling formalism and designing a late fusion strategy for combining our representation with state-of-the art methods based on low-level descriptors, e.g. Fisher Vectors and BossaNova. Our experiments carried out in the challenging PASCAL VOC 2007 dataset reveal outstanding performances. When combined with low-level representations, we reach more than 67.6% in MAP, outperforming recently reported results in this dataset with a large margin.
FANNG: Fast Approximate Nearest Neighbour Graphs

We present a new method for approximate nearest neighbour search on large datasets of high dimensional feature vectors, such as SIFT or GIST descriptors. Our approach constructs a directed graph that can be efficiently explored for nearest neighbour queries. Each vertex in this graph represents a feature vector from the dataset being searched. The directed edges are computed by exploiting the fact that, for these datasets, the intrinsic dimensionality of the local manifold-like structure formed by the elements of the dataset is significantly lower than the embedding space. We also provide an efficient search algorithm that uses this graph to rapidly find the nearest neighbour to a query with high probability. We show how the method can be adapted to give a strong guarantee of 100% recall where the query is within a threshold distance of its nearest neighbour. We demonstrate that our method is significantly more efficient than existing state of the art methods. In particular, our GPU implementation can deliver 90% recall for queries on a data set of 1 million SIFT descriptors at a rate of over 1.2 million queries per second on a Titan X. Finally we also demonstrate how our method scales to datasets of 5M and 20M entries.
Lasik in high hyperopia with wavelight allegretto eye-q excimer laser – one year results

PURPOSE: To present one-year results after LASIK in high hyperopia with spherical equivalent (SEQ) of more than 3D using WaveLight Allegretto Wave 400Hz excimer laser and WaveLight Rondo microkeratome. METHODS: Fifty-one eyes of 30 patients underwent LASIK to correct hyperopia. WaveLight Allegretto Wave 400 Hz excimer laser was used and flaps were created with WaveLight Rondo microkeratome. Mean preoperative SEQ was +4.16 ± 1.44 D (range: +3.25 to +8.00), and mean cylinder was -1.44 ± 1.52 D (range: 0 to -5.00). Mean preoperative UVA was 0.10 ± 0.12 (range: 0.01 to 0.40), while mean BSCVA was 0.69 ± 0.18 (range: 0.40 to 1.00). Uncorrected and best spectacle corrected visual acuities (UVA and BSCVA), as well as manifest refraction, were recorded at 1, 6 and 12 months after the treatment. RESULTS: One month postoperatively UVA and BSCVA increased to 0.52 ± 0.23 (range: 0.3 to 0.8) and 0.66 +/- 0.19 (range 0.4 to 1.0) respectively and did not change statistically over 1-year interval (p=0.154 and p=0.196 respectively). One eye lost one line, 35 maintained, and 5 eyes gained one line of BSCVA. Manifest SEQ decreased to -0.35 ± 0.88 D (range: -2.00 to +1.00) at 1 month and stabilized at -0.16 +/- 0.65 D (range: -0.75 to +1.00) at 1-year follow-up (p<0.05). Manifest cylinder decreased to -0.41 ± 0.50 D (range: -2.00 to 0) at 1 month and did not change statistically over 1-year (p=0.500). CONCLUSIONS: LASIK in high hyperopia using WaveLight Allegretto Wave provided predictable and stable results over the period of 1 year follow-up, comparable to the outcomes of low to moderate hyperopia. An initial overcorrection was planned to counteract a possible regression.
Loss of membrane‐bound lytic transglycosylases increases outer membrane permeability and β‐lactam sensitivity in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a leading cause of nosocomial infections. Its relatively impermeable outer membrane (OM) limits antibiotic entry, and a chromosomally encoded AmpC β‐lactamase inactivates β‐lactam antibiotics. AmpC expression is linked to peptidoglycan (PG) recycling, and soluble (sLT) or membrane‐bound (mLT) lytic transglycosylases are responsible for generating the anhydromuropeptides that induce AmpC expression. Thus, inhibition of LT activity could reduce AmpC‐mediated β‐lactam resistance in P. aeruginosa. Here, we characterized single and combination LT mutants. Strains lacking SltB1 or MltB had increased β‐lactam minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) compared to wild type, while only loss of Slt decreased MICs. An sltB1 mltB double mutant had elevated β‐lactam MICs compared to either the sltB1 or mltB single mutants (96 vs. 32 μg/mL cefotaxime), without changes to AmpC levels. Time–kill assays with β‐lactams suggested that increased MIC correlated with a slower rate of autolysis in the sltB1 mltB mutant – an antisuicide phenotype. Strains lacking multiple mLTs were more sensitive to β‐lactams and up to 16‐fold more sensitive to vancomycin, normally incapable of crossing the OM. Multi‐mLT mutants were also sensitive to bile salts and osmotic stress, and were hyperbiofilm formers, all phenotypes consistent with cell envelope compromise. Complementation with genes encoding inactive forms of the enzymes – or alternatively, overexpression of Braun's lipoprotein – reversed the mutants' cell envelope damage phenotypes, suggesting that mLTs help to stabilize the OM. We conclude that P. aeruginosa mLTs contribute physically to cell envelope stability, and that Slt is the preferred target for future development of LT inhibitors that could synergize with β‐lactams.
Nanofibers in face masks and respirators to provide better protection

A facemask is a loose-fitting, disposable device that creates a physical barrier between the mouth and nose of the wearer and potential contaminants in the immediate environment. They are generally labelled as surgical, isolation, dental or medical procedure masks. On the other hand, respirators are personal air purifiers. They are designed to protect the wearer from inhaling dangerous substances such as toxic chemicals and infectious particles. Respirators are designed to help reduce the wearer’s respiratory exposure to airborne contaminants such as particles that are small enough to be inhaled - particles less than 100 microns (μm) in size. A face masks or a respirator consist entirely or substantially of filter material or comprises a face piece in which the main filter(s) form an inseparable part of the device. Nanofibers could be the key elements for filter materials in face masks or respirators. They have a very high surface area per unit mass that enhances capture efficiency and other surface area-dependent phenomena that may be engineered into the fiber surfaces (such as catalysis or ion exchange). They could enhance filter performance for capture of naturally occurring nanoparticles such as viruses, as well as micron-sized particles such as bacteria or man-made particles such as soot from diesel exhaust.
Effect of laying period and duck origin on egg characteristics

Abstract. The study was carried out on eggs of two-year-old Orpington ducks (O1) and crossbred ducks Khaki Campbell×Orpington (KhO). Eggs for analysis were collected in the 6th and the 22nd week of egg laying. The eggs of KhO ducks had greater weight (72.45 g), specific gravity (1.083 g/cm3) and a thicker shell (0.67 mm) in comparison to eggs of the O1 population (70.64 g, 1.081 g/cm3 and 0.65 mm, respectively). Eggshell content accounted for 9.53% and 7.85% of egg weight in KhO and O1 ducks, respectively. Eggs of KhO ducks were characterized by a lower egg white index (0.07), yolk content (39.48%) and protein content of egg white as well as lower L* parameter of yolk than eggs of O1 ducks. In KhO eggs, yolk lipids contained more C 18:1 cis-9, C 20:4, C 22:6 and C 20:5 and less α C 18:3 and C 18:1 trans-11 fatty acids than those of O1 eggs. The eggs laid in the 6th week had greater weight (by 3.61 g), specific gravity (by 0.01 g/cm3), egg white content (by 2.26%), eggshell thickness (by 0.04 mm), strength (by 10.70 N) and deformation (by 0.90%), and lower yolk content (by 2.34%) than the eggs laid in the 22nd week of laying. Furthermore, the eggs laid at the beginning of the second laying period were characterized by higher protein content of egg white and yolk (by 0.26% and 0.49% respectively) and pH value of egg white and yolk, lower lightness of yolk (L*), higher unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) content of yolk (especially polyunsaturated fatty acids – PUFA, by 2.53%), and lower saturated fatty acids (SFA) content of yolk (by 3.10%) and total cholesterol content (by 2.38%).
Personality and Social Psychology Review Promoting the "social" in the Examination of Social Stigmas Personality and Social Psychology Review Additional Services and Information for Promoting the "social" in the Examination of Social Stigmas

This review highlights the value ofempirical investigations examining actual interactions that occur between stigmatizers and targets, and is intended to stimulate and help guide research ofthis type. We identify trends in the literature demonstrating that research studying ongoing interactions between stigmatizers and targets is relatively less common than in the past. Interactive studies are challenging, complex, and have variables that are sometimes more difcult to control; yet, they offer unique insights and significant contributions to understanding stigma-related phenomena that may not be offered in other (e.g., self-report) paradigms. This article presents a conceptual and empirical overview of stigma research, delineates the unique contributions that have been made by conducting interactive studies, and proposes what can befurther learned by conducting more of such research. One of the most interesting, and least understood or researched areas related to social stigma concerns the dynamics of interactions between stigmatized and nonstigmatized individuals.
Manipulating antioxidant intake in asthma: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND Antioxidant-rich diets are associated with reduced asthma prevalence in epidemiologic studies. We previously showed that short-term manipulation of antioxidant defenses leads to changes in asthma outcomes. OBJECTIVE The objective was to investigate the effects of a high-antioxidant diet compared with those of a low-antioxidant diet, with or without lycopene supplementation, in asthma. DESIGN Asthmatic adults (n = 137) were randomly assigned to a high-antioxidant diet (5 servings of vegetables and 2 servings of fruit daily; n = 46) or a low-antioxidant diet (≤2 servings of vegetables and 1 serving of fruit daily; n = 91) for 14 d and then commenced a parallel, randomized, controlled supplementation trial. Subjects who consumed the high-antioxidant diet received placebo. Subjects who consumed the low-antioxidant diet received placebo or tomato extract (45 mg lycopene/d). The intervention continued until week 14 or until an exacerbation occurred. RESULTS After 14 d, subjects consuming the low-antioxidant diet had a lower percentage predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 s and percentage predicted forced vital capacity than did those consuming the high-antioxidant diet. Subjects in the low-antioxidant diet group had increased plasma C-reactive protein at week 14. At the end of the trial, time to exacerbation was greater in the high-antioxidant than in the low-antioxidant diet group, and the low-antioxidant diet group was 2.26 (95% CI: 1.04, 4.91; P = 0.039) times as likely to exacerbate. Of the subjects in the low-antioxidant diet group, no difference in airway or systemic inflammation or clinical outcomes was observed between the groups that consumed the tomato extract and those who consumed placebo. CONCLUSIONS Modifying the dietary intake of carotenoids alters clinical asthma outcomes. Improvements were evident only after increased fruit and vegetable intake, which suggests that whole-food interventions are most effective. This trial was registered at http://www.actr. org.au as ACTRN012606000286549.
Investigation of the performance of an SIS mixer with Nb-AlN-NbN tunnel junctions in the 780–950 GHz frequency band

In this paper, we present preliminary measured performance of an SIS mixer employing a Nb/AIN/NbN tunnel junction in the frequency range of 780–950 GHz range. The mixer design is an upgrade of the Carbon Heterodyne Array of the Max-Planck-Institute Plus (CHAMP+) mixer, coupled with an easy to fabricate smooth-walled horn. The noise temperature of the mixer is measured using the standard Y-factor method, but all the RF optics is enclosed in the cryostat. We use a rotating mirror in the cryostat to switch between a room temperature load and a 4 K blackbody load. With this method, we have measured a noise temperature of 330 K around 850 GHz, corrected for a mismatch between a reduced height rectangular waveguide at the input of the mixer block and a full height waveguide at the output of the horn. To remove this mismatch we now plan to redesign a new mixer chip with a full-height waveguide backpiece. The expected performance of the new mixer chip is also reported.
Apoptosis in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a review of the evidence

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease primarily affecting the upper and lower motor neurones of the central nervous system. Recently, a lot of interest has been generated by the possibility that a mechanism of programmed cell death, termed apoptosis, is responsible for the motor neurone degeneration in this condition. Apoptosis is regulated through a variety of different pathways which interact and eventually lead to controlled cell death. Apart from genetic regulation, factors involved in the control of apoptosis include death receptors, caspases, Bcl‐2 family of oncoproteins, inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs), inhibitors of IAPs, the p53 tumour suppressor protein and apoptosis‐related molecules. The first part of this article will give an overview of the current knowledge of apoptosis. In the second part of this review, we will examine in detail the evidence for and against the contribution of apoptosis in motor neurone cell death in ALS, looking at cellular‐, animal‐ and human post‐mortem tissue‐based models. In a chronic neurodegenerative disease such as ALS, conclusive evidence of apoptosis is likely to be difficult to detect, given the rapidity of the apoptotic cell death process in relation to the relatively slow time course of the disease. Although a complete picture of motor neurone death in ALS has not been fully elucidated, there is good and compelling evidence that a programmed cell death pathway operates in this disorder. The strongest body of evidence supporting this comes from the findings that, in ALS, changes in the levels of members of the Bcl‐2 family of oncoproteins results in a predisposition towards apoptosis, there is increased expression or activation of caspases‐1 and ‐3, and the dying motor neurones in human cases exhibit morphological features reminiscent of apoptosis. Further supporting evidence comes from the detection of apoptosis‐related molecules and anti‐Fas receptor antibodies in human cases of ALS. However, the role of the p53 protein in cell death in ALS is at present unclear. An understanding of the mechanism of programmed cell death in ALS may provide important clues for areas of potential therapeutic intervention for neuroprotection in this devastating condition.
Resistance against Integrase Strand Transfer Inhibitors and Relevance to HIV Persistence

Drug resistance prevents the successful treatment of HIV-positive individuals by decreasing viral sensitivity to a drug or a class of drugs. In addition to transmitted resistant viruses, treatment-naïve individuals can be confronted with the problem of drug resistance through de novo emergence of such variants. Resistant viruses have been reported for every antiretroviral drug tested so far, including the integrase strand transfer inhibitors raltegravir, elvitegravir and dolutegravir. However, de novo resistant variants against dolutegravir have been found in treatment-experienced but not in treatment-naïve individuals, a characteristic that is unique amongst antiretroviral drugs. We review here the issue of drug resistance against integrase strand transfer inhibitors as well as both pre-clinical and clinical studies that have led to the identification of the R263K mutation in integrase as a signature resistance substitution for dolutegravir. We also discuss how the topic of drug resistance against integrase strand transfer inhibitors may have relevance in regard to the nature of the HIV reservoir and possible HIV curative strategies.
Free vibration, bending and buckling of a FG-CNT reinforced composite beam: Comparative analysis with hybrid laminated composite beam

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to perform a numerical analysis on the static and dynamic behaviors of beams made up of functionally graded carbon nanotube (FG-CNT) reinforced polymer and hybrid laminated composite containing the layers of carbon reinforced polymer with CNT. Conventional fibers have higher density as compared to carbon nanotubes (CNTs), thus insertion of FG-CNT reinforced polymer layer in fiber reinforced composite (FRC) structures makes them sustainable candidate for weight critical applications. Design/methodology/approach In this context, stress and strain formulations of a multi-layer composite system is determined with the help of Timoshenko hypothesis and then the principle of virtual work is employed to derive the governing equations of motion. Herein, extended rule of mixture and conventional micromechanics relations are used to evaluate the material properties of carbon nanotube reinforced composite (CNTRC) layer and FRC layer, respectively. A generalized eigenvalue problem is formulated using finite element approach and is solved for single layer FG-CNTRC beam and multi-layer laminated hybrid composite beam by a user-interactive MATLAB code. Findings First, the natural frequencies of FG-CNTRC beam are computed and compared with previously available results as well as with Ritz approximation outcomes. Further, free vibration, bending, and buckling analysis is carried out for FG-CNTRC beam to interpret the effect of different CNT volume fraction, number of walls in nanotube, distribution profiles, boundary conditions, and beam-slenderness ratios. Originality/value A free vibration analysis of hybrid laminated composite beam with two different layer stacking sequence is performed to present the advantages of hybrid laminated beam over the conventional FRC beam.
Genome-Wide Analysis of the Sucrose Synthase Gene Family in Grape (Vitis vinifera): Structure, Evolution, and Expression Profiles

Sucrose synthase (SS) is widely considered as the key enzyme involved in the plant sugar metabolism that is critical to plant growth and development, especially quality of the fruit. The members of SS gene family have been identified and characterized in multiple plant genomes. However, detailed information about this gene family is lacking in grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.). In this study, we performed a systematic analysis of the grape (V. vinifera) genome and reported that there are five SS genes (VvSS1–5) in the grape genome. Comparison of the structures of grape SS genes showed high structural conservation of grape SS genes, resulting from the selection pressures during the evolutionary process. The segmental duplication of grape SS genes contributed to this gene family expansion. The syntenic analyses between grape and soybean (Glycine max) demonstrated that these genes located in corresponding syntenic blocks arose before the divergence of grape and soybean. Phylogenetic analysis revealed distinct evolutionary paths for the grape SS genes. VvSS1/VvSS5, VvSS2/VvSS3 and VvSS4 originated from three ancient SS genes, which were generated by duplication events before the split of monocots and eudicots. Bioinformatics analysis of publicly available microarray data, which was validated by quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR), revealed distinct temporal and spatial expression patterns of VvSS genes in various tissues, organs and developmental stages, as well as in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. Taken together, our results will be beneficial for further investigations into the functions of SS gene in the processes of grape resistance to environmental stresses.
Bayesian randomized clinical trials: A decision‐theoretic sequential design

The authors propose a Bayesian decision‐theoretic framework justifying randomization in clinical trials. Noting that the decision maker is often unable or unwilling to specify a unique utility function, they develop a sequential myopic design that includes randomization justified by the consideration of a set of utility functions. Randomization is introduced over all nondominated treatments, allowing for interim removal of treatments and early stopping. The authors illustrate their approach in the context of a study to find the optimal dose of pegylated interferon for platinum resistant ovarian cancer. They also develop an algorithm to implement their methodology in a phase II clinical trial comparing several competing experimental treatments.
Reducing the Computational Complexity of Multicasting in Large-Scale Antenna Systems

In this paper, we study the physical layer multicasting to multiple co-channel groups in large-scale antenna systems. The users within each group are interested in a common message and different groups have distinct messages. In particular, we aim at designing the precoding vectors solving the so-called quality of service (QoS) and weighted max-min fairness (MMF) problems, assuming that the channel state information is available at the base station (BS). To solve both problems, the baseline approach exploits the semidefinite relaxation (SDR) technique. Considering a BS with $N$ antennas, the SDR complexity is more than $\mathcal {O}(N^{6})$ , which prevents its application in large-scale antenna systems. To overcome this issue, we present two new classes of algorithms that, not only have significantly lower computational complexity than existing solutions, but also largely outperform the SDR-based methods. Moreover, we present a novel duality between transformed versions of the QoS and the weighted MMF problems. The duality explicitly determines the solution to the weighted MMF problem given the solution to the QoS problem, and vice versa. Numerical results are used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed solutions and to make comparisons with existing alternatives under different operating conditions.