Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of a Resident Population of Adventitial Macrophage Progenitor Cells in Postnatal Vasculature

Rationale: Macrophages regulate blood vessel structure and function in health and disease. The origins of tissue macrophages are diverse, with evidence for local production and circulatory renewal. Objective: We identified a vascular adventitial population containing macrophage progenitor cells and investigated their origins and fate. Methods and Results: Single-cell disaggregates from adult C57BL/6 mice were prepared from different tissues and tested for their capacity to form hematopoietic colony-forming units. Aorta showed a unique predilection for generating macrophage colony-forming units. Aortic macrophage colony-forming unit progenitors coexpressed stem cell antigen-1 and CD45 and were adventitially located, where they were the predominant source of proliferating cells in the aortic wall. Aortic Sca-1+CD45+ cells were transcriptionally and phenotypically distinct from neighboring cells lacking stem cell antigen-1 or CD45 and contained a proliferative (Ki67+) Lin−c-Kit+CD135−CD115+CX3CR1+Ly6C+CD11b− subpopulation, consistent with the immunophenotypic profile of macrophage progenitors. Adoptive transfer studies revealed that Sca-1+CD45+ adventitial macrophage progenitor cells were not replenished via the circulation from bone marrow or spleen, nor was their prevalence diminished by depletion of monocytes or macrophages by liposomal clodronate treatment or genetic deficiency of macrophage colony-stimulating factor. Rather adventitial macrophage progenitor cells were upregulated in hyperlipidemic ApoE−/− and LDL-R−/− mice, with adventitial transfer experiments demonstrating their durable contribution to macrophage progeny particularly in the adventitia, and to a lesser extent the atheroma, of atherosclerotic carotid arteries. Conclusions: The discovery and characterization of resident vascular adventitial macrophage progenitor cells provides new insight into adventitial biology and its participation in atherosclerosis and provokes consideration of the broader existence of local macrophage progenitors in other tissues.
What do we know about forest fire size distribution, and why is this knowledge useful for forest management?

Forest fire size distribution (FSD) is one of the suite of indicators of forest fire regimes. It is applied in forest fire management, particularly for planning and evaluating suppression efforts. It is also used in forest management in the context of emulating natural fire disturbances. Given the recent growth in research and applied interest in this topic, we review and synthesise the state of knowledge on FSD, and identify sources of knowledge uncertainties and future research directions. Based on literature, it is common for forest fires to follow the power law probability distribution, particularly the truncated subtype, under a variety of forest types and forest and fire management practices. Other types of FSD are also observed, but under specific circumstances. Although there is evidence that observed FSDs vary both over space and time, the knowledge is too fragmented to generalise the cause–effect relationships for such variation. As well, it is not clear how the various methods of studying FSD and their spatio-temporal scales influence derivations of FSDs. We suggest that a hypothetico-deductive research approach, combining empirical studies with process-based simulations is an effective means to advance the knowledge of FSD. We suggest caution in the use of FSD in forest management because applying different distributions or even different parameters for the same distribution may result in great fire size class differences and thus different implications for forest management.
Beyond bulk entrainment and detrainment rates: A new framework for diagnosing mixing in cumulus convection

A new framework for diagnosing mixing in cumulus convection is proposed, where the vertical evolution of the cloud mass flux distribution as a function of given parcel properties is viewed as a mapping process. Matrices that characterize this mapping process are constructed using a Lagrangian particle dispersion model embedded in a Large Eddy Simulation. Extending previous use of LES‐diagnosed bulk entrainment and detrainment rates to test bulk plume models, the construction of these mapping matrices from LES provides a reference, against which multiple‐parcel models can be compared. The framework is further applied to diagnose the response of shallow cumuli to a small temperature perturbation.
The role of cognitive appraisal in media-induced presence and emotions

In the present study, we applied Valins’ (1966) bogus bodily feedback paradigm to investigate the roles of cognitive appraisal (tele)presence, and emotion in the context of media usage. Participants (N=30) viewed short sequences of a TV show, whereby false heart rate feedback was provided. In line with Valins’ paradigm, the manipulation we used in this study included two levels: high vs. low false heart rate feedback. We assessed presence, enjoyment, and the real heart rate. Participants reported stronger experiences of presence and enjoyed the clips more when they wrongly believed that they had been aroused. Since bogus feedback increases the sensation of presence, the results indicate that presence—like emotions—can be influenced by cognitive appraisals. It is likely that the false heart rate feedback was attributed to the stimulus, which in turn enhanced the sensation of presence.
The growing Canadian energy gap: more the can than the couch?

Abstract Objective The present study describes the trajectory of the energy gap (energy imbalance) in the Canadian population from 1976 to 2003, its temporal relationship to adult obesity, and estimates the relative contribution of energy availability and expenditure to the energy gap. It also assesses which foods contributed the most to changes in available energy over the study period. Design Annual estimates of the energy gap were derived by subtracting population-adjusted per capita daily estimated energy requirements (derived from Dietary Reference Intakes) from per capita daily estimated energy available (obtained from food balance sheets). Food balance sheets were used to assess which foods contributed to changes in energy availability. Adult obesity rates were derived from six national surveys. The relationship to the energy gap was assessed through regression analysis. Results Between 1976 and 2003, per capita daily estimated energy availability increased by 18 % (1744 kJ), and increased energy availability was the major driver of the increased energy gap. Salad oils, wheat flour, soft drinks and shortening accounted for the majority of the net increase in energy availability. Adult obesity was significantly correlated with the energy gap over the study period. Conclusions The widening energy gap is being driven primarily by increased energy availability. The food commodities driving the widening energy gap are major ingredients in many energy-dense convenience foods, which are being consumed with increasing frequency in Canada. Policies to address population obesity must have a strong nutritional focus with the objective of decreasing energy consumption at the population level.
Global precipitation estimates based on a technique for combining satellite-based estimates, rain gauge analysis, and NWP model precipitation information

Abstract The “satellite-gauge-model” (SGM) technique is described for combining precipitation estimates from microwave satellite data, infrared satellite data, rain gauge analyses, and numerical weather prediction models into improved estimates of global precipitation. Throughout, monthly estimates on a 2.5° × 2.5° lat-long grid are employed. First, a multisatellite product is developed using a combination of low-orbit microwave and geosynchronous-orbit infrared data in the latitude range 40°N–40–S (the adjusted geosynchronous precipitation index) and low-orbit microwave data alone at higher latitudes. Then the rain gauge analysis is brought in, weighting each field by its inverse relative error variance to produce a nearly global, observationally based precipitation estimate. To produce a complete global estimate, the numerical model results are used to fill data voids in the combined satellite-gauge estimate. Our sequential approach to combining estimates allows a user to select the multisatellite estim.
Salvage chemotherapy with paclitaxel for recurrent oligodendrogliomas.

PURPOSE A prospective phase II study of paclitaxel was performed in adult patients with recurrent hemispheric oligodendrogliomas. PATIENTS AND METHODS Twenty adult patients (14 men and six women), ages 18 to 52 years (median, 40.5), with recurrent supratentorial hemispheric oligodendrogliomas were treated. All patients had previously been treated with surgery, involved-field radiotherapy (median dose, 55 Gy; range 54 to 55 Gy) and nitrosourea-based (procarbazine, lomustine [CCNU], and vincristine [PCV-3 regimen]) chemotherapy (median number of cycles, five; range, four to six). Fourteen patients were treated adjuvantly with radiotherapy and nitrosourea-based chemotherapy; six were treated at recurrence following initial gross total resection with reoperation (subtotal resection in all), radiotherapy, and nitrosourea-based chemotherapy. Paclitaxel was administered intravenously at a dose of 175 mg/m2 every 3 to 4 weeks with neurologic and neuroradiographic evaluation every 8 weeks. RESULTS A median of three cycles of paclitaxel (range, two to 10) were administered. All patients were assessable. Toxicity included partial alopecia (12 patients), thrombocytopenia (six), neutropenia (three), and anemia (one). One patient developed neutropenic fever without bacteriologic documentation and four required transfusion of blood products (RBCs, n = 2; platelet, n = 2). No treatment-related deaths occurred. Ten patients (50%) demonstrated either a neuroradiographic partial response (n = 3) or stable disease (n = 7), with a median response and stable disease duration of 10 months (range, 5 to 14). CONCLUSION Paclitaxel demonstrated modest efficacy with minimal toxicity in this pretreated cohort of adult patients with recurrent hemispheric oligodendrogliomas.
Diurnal variability of water vapour in the Baltic Sea region according to NCEP-CFSR and BaltAn65 + reanalyses*

Abstract Diurnal variations in water vapour in the Baltic Sea region are examined using BaltAn65 + and NCEP-CFSR reanalyses of summer (JJA) data for the period 1979–2005. A systematic difference between precipitable water (PW) diurnal variability above the land and the water is revealed. Above the land, PW diurnal variability has minimal values at 00 and 06 UTC, as in previous studies, whereas above the water, the minima are at 12 and 18 UTC. Diurnal variability in the vertical humidity profile is controlled by turbulent mixing and the diurnal behaviour of sea breezes. The impacts and proportions of diurnal variability of humidity are evaluated at different vertical levels.
Light-induced depigmentation in planarians models the pathophysiology of acute porphyrias

Porphyrias are disorders of heme metabolism frequently characterized by extreme photosensitivity. This symptom results from accumulation of porphyrins, tetrapyrrole intermediates in heme biosynthesis that generate reactive oxygen species when exposed to light, in the skin of affected individuals. Here we report that in addition to producing an ommochrome body pigment, the planarian flatworm Schmidtea mediterranea generates porphyrins in its subepithelial pigment cells under physiological conditions, and that this leads to pigment cell loss when animals are exposed to intense visible light. Remarkably, porphyrin biosynthesis and light-induced depigmentation are enhanced by starvation, recapitulating a common feature of some porphyrias – decreased nutrient intake precipitates an acute manifestation of the disease. Our results establish planarians as an experimentally tractable animal model for research into the pathophysiology of acute porphyrias, and potentially for the identification of novel pharmacological interventions capable of alleviating porphyrin-mediated photosensitivity or decoupling dieting and fasting from disease pathogenesis. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.14175. 001
Taxonomy of Security Attacks in Sensor Networks and Countermeasures

Ad-hoc sensor networks have become common over the past few years and the domain of their application is increasing widely. However, the security of these networks poses a great challenge due to the fact that they consist of tiny wireless devices which have limited hardware and energy resources. In addition, these networks are generally deployed and then left unattended. These facts coupled together make it impractical to directly apply the traditional security mechanisms to the sensor network paradigm. Therefore, there is a need to analyze and better understand the security requirements of sensor networks. This paper provides a comprehensive taxonomy of security attacks on sensor networks, and gives solutions for each set of attacks. More importantly, it points out the research directions which need to be investigated in the future.
Life-cycle support for staff assignment rules in process-aware information systems

Process mining has been proposed as a tool for analyzing business processes based on events logs. Today, most information sys- tems are logging events in some log and thus provide detailed informa- tion about the processes they are supporting. This information can be used for two forms of process mining: conformance checking (comparing the actual process with some a-priori model) and discovery (deriving a model from scratch). Most of the process mining tools have been focus- ing on the control-∞ow perspective and today it is possible to automat- ically construct process models that can be used for the conflguration of Process-Aware Information Systems (PAISs). This paper provides an overview of process mining and focuses on a neglected aspect of PAISs: stafi assignment. We propose an approach for stafi assignment mining based on decision tree learning, i.e., based on some organizational model and an event log we try to discover allocation rules. This is useful for conflguring new PAISs. However, it can also be used to evaluate stafi assignment rules in some existing PAIS. Based on this, ∞aws and re- dundancies within stafi assignment rules (e.g., security holes by ofiering process activities to non-authorized users in exceptional cases) can be detected and optimization strategies can be derived automatically. The approach has been implemented in the context of the ProM framework and difierent strategies have been evaluated using simulation. Altogether, this work contributes to a complete life-cycle support for stafi assignment rules.
Binary signature sets for increased user capacity on the downlink of CDMA systems

We compare the maximum achievable common signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) target level Kmax in the downlink of various code division multiple access (CDMA) systems with binary sequence sets. We derive an upper bound to Kmax for binary systems with symbol-aligned users, and we compare this upper bound to the value of Kmax for quasi-orthogonal sequences (QOS), Grassmannian signatures and binary Pados-Karystinos signatures. Secondly, we turn our attention to systems where the (binary) signatures of the users are displaced with respect to each other. In this context, we show that the value of Kmax of improved random O(rthogonal)CDMA/OCDMA (O/O) can further be increased as compared to the original improved. O/O system (with square-root cosine rolloff pulses) by an appropriate choice of the chip pulse. In addition to this, improved O/O systems with fixed signature set can achieve values of K max that are as high as those in the improved random O/O system, while not having the drawback of a spread on Kmax. Applying a steepest descent search to such a fixed improved O/O system, can result in a system with a binary signature set that has even higher values for Kmax well beyond the upper bound on Kmax for systems with aligned chip pulses
A Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) for the Detection of Mine-Like Objects in Sidescan Sonar Imagery

Detection of mine-like objects (MLOs) in sidescan sonar imagery is a problem that affects our military in terms of safety and cost. The current process involves large amounts of time for subject matter experts to analyze sonar images searching for MLOs. The automation of the detection process has been heavily researched over the years and some of these computer vision approaches have improved dramatically, providing substantial processing speed benefits. However, the human visual system has an unmatched ability to recognize objects of interest. This paper posits a brain-computer interface (BCI) approach, that combines the complementary benefits of computer vision and human vision. The first stage of the BCI, a Haar-like feature classifier, is cascaded in to the second stage, rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of images chips. The RSVP paradigm maximizes throughput while allowing an electroencephalography (EEG) interest classifier to determine the human subjects' recognition of objects. In an additional proposed BCI system we add a third stage that uses a trained support vector machine (SVM) based on the Haar-like features of stage one and the EEG interest scores of stage two. We characterize and show performance improvements for subsets of these BCI systems over the computer vision and human vision capabilities alone.
Association Between Epicardial Fat Thickness and Premature Coronary Artery Disease: A Case Control Study

Background: The association between epicardial fat thickness (EFT) and premature coronary artery disease (CAD) has not been elaborately studied. Objectives: In the present study, we sought whether such a relationship between EFT and CAD exists. Patients and Methods: Sixty two consecutive subjects, under 50 years of age, who underwent coronary angiography (CAG) with the aspect of CAD, were included in this case control study. They were divided into two groups of 31 subjects, namely CAD (cases) and non-CAD (controls) group, according to CAG data. Presence of conventional coronary risk factors, drug history, and anthropometric data were recorded. Then, each subject underwent standard transthoracic echocardiography for measuring EFT in the proximal part of right ventricular outflow tract in the parasternal long axis view at end diastole, as well as other parameters of systolic and diastolic function, and left ventricle (LV) mass. Images were stored for offline analysis when the echocardiocardiographers were blind to CAG data. Results: Among baseline characteristics, waist circumference, triglyceride levels, cigarette smoking and history of statin use were significantly higher in the CAD group. The body mass index (BMI) was significantly higher in the non-CAD group. According to echocardiographic data, the EFT with a cut off value of 2.95 mm could well differentiate subjects in each group. The LV mass and E/e were significantly higher in CAD group, in addition to EFT. Also, there was a significant correlation between EFT and waist circumference, as well as LV mass. However, no significant relation was between EFT and LV systolic and diastolic function. Conclusions: The EFT, as measured by echocardiography, with a cut off value 2.95 mm has a strong association with premature CAD.
Paleomagnetism of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks from the Karatau Range, Southern Kazakhstan: Multiple remagnetization events correlate with phases of deformation

The paleogeography of the Altaids and its kinematic and tectonic evolution during the final collision and amalgamation of Eurasia is still poorly known. Addressing this problem, a paleomagnetic study has been undertaken on Paleozoic sedimentary rocks from the Karatau, Southern Kazakhstan. Stepwise thermal demagnetization reveals the presence of a high‐temperature component of magnetization in most samples. Fold tests indicate a syn‐folding age of magnetic remanence acquisition at three of the five areas studied. Directional data of Devonian and Permian rocks yield a positive fold test, implying a primary magnetization. Resulting prefolding paleolatitudes for Permian and Devonian rocks show the proximity of the Karatau to Baltica during those times. Syn‐ and post‐folding magnetizations result in paleolatitudes for Karatau, which intersect the paleolatitude curve based on the Baltica apparent polar wander path (APWP), at times, which can be correlated to major deformational events at ~280 Ma, ~260 Ma, and ~230 Ma, respectively. We interpret this with complicated pattern of remagnetization events accompanying deformation, which can include syn‐folding remagnetization events and areas of primary magnetic signals. Additionally, the differences between reference declinations based on the APWP for Baltica and observed declinations suggest successive counterclockwise rotational reorganization of the Karatau during the late Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic, with maximal rotation values of ~65° with respect to Baltica. The remagnetization events are correlated with latest intracontinental stages of orogenic evolution in the Ural mountains and thus the Paleozoic amalgamation of the Eurasian continent and suggest synchronous and coherent tectonic evolution in the Urals and Karatau mountains.
The seymouriamorph tetrapod Utegenia shpinari from the ?Upper Carboniferous–Lower Permian of Kazakhstan. Part II: Postcranial anatomy and relationships

ABSTRACT The postcranial skeleton of the seymouriamorph Utegenia shpinari (? Upper Carboniferous–Lower Permian, Kurgalin Formation, Kazakhstan) is redescribed. Features that distinguish it from other Lower Permian seymouriamorphs (Discosauriscus, Ariekanerpeton, Seymouria) are: broad anterior portion of the interclavicle stem, merging indistinctly into the interclavicle plate; absence of a bulge in the anterior half of such a stem; presence of at least 28 presacral vertebrae; gastralia. The poorly ossified limbs of the largest Utegenia specimens are similar in degree of development to those of larval Discosauriscus, but the almost cylindrical, anterior trunk pleurocentra recall the condition of early juvenile Discosauriscus. A phylogeny of the best known seymouriamorphs, using a small but diverse exemplar from other early tetrapod groups, places Utegenia within seymouriamorphs as sister taxon to discosauriscids (Ariekanerpeton plus Discosauriscus). This conclusion affects origin and dispersal scenarios for seymouriamorphs, and supports the hypothesis of a widespread geographical record of Lower Permian taxa spanning across western Euramerica and eastern Asia.
Transcription of broadcast news

In this paper we report on our recent work in transcribing broadcast news shows. Radio and television broadcasts contain signal segments of various linguistic and acoustic natures. The shows contain both prepared and spontaneous speech. The signal may be studio quality or have been transmitted over a telephone or other noisy channel (ie., corrupted by additive noise and nonlinear distorsions), or may contain speech over music. Transcription of this type of data poses challenges in dealing with the continuous stream of data under varying conditions. Our approach to this problem is to segment the data into a set of categories, which are then processed with category specific acoustic models. We describe our 65k speech recognizer and experiments using different sets of acoustic models for transcription of broadcast news data. The use of prior knowledge of the segment boundaries and types is shown to not crucially affect the performance.