Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mixing layer height over Munich, Germany : Variability and comparisons of different methodologies

[1] On 4 days in summer and winter the mixing layer height over the municipal area of Munich, Germany, was determined by several remote sensing instruments and in situ probes. The main motivation was to obtain information on aerosols, and therefore we decided to understand the mixing layer as that layer where most of the locally produced aerosols are concentrated. In this paper we wanted to investigate the potential of the quite different methodologies which depend on measurements of aerosol properties and those which do not. The operation of two lidars, a ceilometer, a wind-temperature-radar, a sodar, radiosondes, and aerosol probes onboard of a microlight aircraft allowed such a thorough intercomparison. As the instruments were located at different sites, the horizontal homogeneity of the mixing layer could also be observed. It was found that the agreement between the different methodologies is very good as long as the mixing layer height does not exceed approximately 1 km, which is the common measurement range of all instruments. In summer, however, the mixing layer can reach 2 km and more, so that the lidar turns out to be the most capable remote sensing technique. Another advantage of the lidar is the possibility to clearly derive the internal structure of the mixing layer. The latter is important in cases when simple parameterizations assume vertical homogeneity of aerosol properties within the mixing layer. On the other hand, lidars are quite expensive and require a trained operator. As a conclusion, the development of unattended working lidars including automated data evaluation should be fostered. From the limited data set it was found that the mixing layer height in Munich did not change more than approximately 100 m over a horizontal distance of around 50 km. If this finding can be confirmed by further measurements, the area of Munich is a good test bed for the validation of aerosol retrievals from satellite data with medium spatial resolution and for the validation of the numerical treatment of aerosols in mesoscale chemistry transport models.
Regional differences in the evolution of lung disease in children with cystic fibrosis

Progression of lung disease is a major event in children with cystic fibrosis (CF), but regional differences in its evolution are unclear. We hypothesized that regional differences occur beginning in early childhood. We examined this issue by evaluating 132 patients followed in the Wisconsin Neonatal Screening Project between 1985 and 2010. We scored chest X‐rays obtained every 1–2 years with the Wisconsin chest X‐ray system, in which we divided the lungs into quadrants, and gave special attention to ratings for bronchiectasis (BX) and nodular/branching opacities. We compared the upper and lower quadrant scores, and upper right and left quadrant scores, as patients aged using a multivariable generalized estimation equation (GEE) model. We did a confirmatory analysis for a subset of 81 patients with chest computerized tomography (CT) images obtained in 2000 and scored using the Brody scoring system. The chest X‐ray analysis shows that the upper quadrants have higher BX (P < 0.001) and nodular/branching opacities (P < 0.001) scores than the lower quadrants. CT analysis likewise reveals that the upper quadrants have more BX (P = 0.02). Patients positive for mucoid PA showed significantly higher BX scores than patients with non‐mucoid PA (P = 0.001). Chest X‐ray scoring also revealed that the upper right quadrant has more BX (P < 0.001) than the upper left quadrant, and CT analysis was again confirmatory (P < 0.001). We conclude that pediatric patients with CF develop more severe lung disease in the upper lobes than the lower lobes in association with mucoid PA infections and also have more severe lung disease on the right side than on the left side in the upper quadrants. A variety of potential explanations such as aspiration episodes may be clinically relevant and provide insights regarding therapies. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2012; 47:635–640. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Learning Discriminative Features via Label Consistent Neural Network

Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) enforce supervised information only at the output layer, and hidden layers are trained by back propagating the prediction error from the output layer without explicit supervision. We propose a supervised feature learning approach, Label Consistent Neural Network, which enforces direct supervision in late hidden layers in a novel way. We associate each neuron in a hidden layer with a particular class label and encourage it to be activated for input signals from the same class. More specifically, we introduce a label consistency regularization called "discriminative representation error" loss for late hidden layers and combine it with classification error loss to build our overall objective function. This label consistency constraint alleviates the common problem of gradient vanishing and tends to faster convergence, it also makes the features derived from late hidden layers discriminative enough for classification even using a simple k-NN classifier. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach achieves state-of-the-art performances on several public datasets for action and object category recognition.
You Don’t Know Jack about Disks

Traditionally, the programmer’s working model of disk storage has consisted of a set of uniform cylinders, each with a set of uniform tracks, which in turn hold a fixed number of 512-byte sectors, each with a unique address. The cylinder is made up of concentric circles (or tracks) on each disk platter in a multiplatter drive. Each track is divided up like pie slices into sectors. Because any location in this three-dimensional storage space could be uniquely identified by the cylinder number, head (surface) number, and sector number, this formed the basis for the original programming model for disk drives: cylinder-head-sector access.
A Comparative Look into Public IXP Datasets

Internet eXchange Points (IXPs) are core components of the Internet infrastructure where Internet Service Providers (ISPs) meet and exchange traffic. During the last few years, the number and size of IXPs have increased rapidly, driving the flattening and shortening of Internet paths. However, understanding the present status of the IXP ecosystem and its potential role in shaping the future Internet requires rigorous data about IXPs, their presence, status, participants, etc. In this work, we do the first cross-comparison of three well-known publicly available IXP databases, namely of PeeringDB, Euro-IX, and PCH. A key challenge we address is linking IXP identifiers across databases maintained by different organizations. We find different AS-centric versus IXP-centric views provided by the databases as a result of their data collection approaches. In addition, we highlight differences and similarities w.r. t. IXP participants, geographical coverage, and co-location facilities. As a side-product of our linkage heuristics, we make publicly available the union of the three databases, which includes 40.2% more IXPs and 66.3% more IXP participants than the commonly-used PeeringDB. We also publish our analysis code to foster reproducibility of our experiments and shed preliminary insights into the accuracy of the union dataset.
Life Span of Silicone Gel‐Filled Mammary Prostheses

&NA; The discussion on possible side effects of implanted silicone has resulted in a growing number of patients inquiring whether or not their mammary prostheses are intact and when failure of the prostheses is to be expected. Between November 1988 and May 1995, 182 patients had their silicone mammary prostheses replaced, repositioned, or removed one to three times. Capsular contraction, dislocation, pain paresthesia, and/or suspected rupture were common indications for surgery. To try and be able to provide an indication as to the correlation of implant age and integrity, we recorded the status of all 426 prostheses observed during secondary surgery. In this selected group of patients, approximately 50 percent of the mammary prostheses with an implant age of 7 to 10 years showed gel bleed or rupture. Applying the survival Kaplan‐Meier curve, 50 percent of implants may be expected to bleed or be ruptured at the age of 15 years. Rupture was observed more frequently than gel bleed. It seems that there is no chronologic relation between gel bleed and rupture. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 100: 1723, 1997.)
Tectono‐metamorphic evolution of the Karakorum Metamorphic complex (Dassu–Askole area, NE Pakistan): exhumation of mid‐crustal HT–MP gneisses in a convergent context

The South Karakorum margin, east of the Himalayan syntaxis, consist of an E–W elongated zone of young (10–3 Ma) high‐grade metamorphic rocks (M2) and related migmatitic domes. This late tectono‐metamorphic event post‐dates the Palaeogene (55–37 Ma) phase of thickening of the belt featured by NW–SE structures and associated M1 amphibolite facies metamorphism (0.7 GPa, 700 °C). This M2 metamorphism is characterised by low‐pressure, high‐temperature conditions coeval with migmatite formation in response to a thermal increase of c. 150 °C compared to M1, culminating at a temperature of c. 770 °C and a pressure of 0.5–0.6 GPa. Rapid exhumation of migmatitic domes, at a rate of 5 mm yr−1, was accommodated by vertical extrusion, in the core of E–W crustal‐scale folds. These crustal‐scale folds formed in response to N–S syn‐collisional shortening and were enhanced by thermal weakening of the migmatised continental crust.
The impact of early re-resection in patients with pT1 high-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer

Aim To evaluate the impact of early re-resection on the incidence of tumour recurrence and progression in patients with pT1 high-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (HG-NMIBC). Patients and methods From 2001 to 2008, 486 consecutive patients were diagnosed with pT1 HG-NMIBC. Data were collected retrospectively which included patient demographics, histological parameters including the presence of detrusor muscle at initial TUR and at re-resection, adjuvant intravesical therapy, and recurrence and progression rates. Early re-resection was performed within six weeks of initial TUR. Patients comprised those who underwent an early re-resection (Group A, n = 172) and those who did not (Group B, n = 314). Results At initial TUR, detrusor muscle was present in 61% (n = 105) of patients in Group A and 76% (n = 240) of patients in Group B. At early re-resection, detrusor muscle was present in 77.9% of cases. A residual tumour was present in 54.6% of re-resected cases. The overall incidence of tumour recurrence was 35% and 42% in Groups A and B, respectively. During follow-up, there was a significantly higher rate of tumour stage progression in patients who did not undergo early re-resection (Group B 14.4% vs. Group A 3.3%, P < 0.05). Conclusions Early re-resection facilitates accurate staging and clearance of residual disease. Subsequent rates of tumour stage progression are significantly improved. We advocate early re-resection for all patients with HG-NMIBC.
PAC-Bayesian Generalization Bound on Confusion Matrix for Multi-Class Classification

In this paper, we propose a PAC-Bayes bound for the generalization risk of the Gibbs classifier in the multi-class classification framework. The novelty of our work is the critical use of the confusion matrix of a classifier as an error measure; this puts our contribution in the line of work aiming at dealing with performance measure that are richer than mere scalar criterion such as the misclassification rate. Thanks to very recent and beautiful results on matrix concentration inequalities, we derive two bounds showing that the true confusion risk of the Gibbs classifier is upper-bounded by its empirical risk plus a term depending on the number of training examples in each class. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first PAC-Bayes bounds based on confusion matrices.
Soil Phase Photodegradation of Toxic Organics at Contaminated Disposal Sites for Soil Renovation and Groundwater Quality Protection

Accurate assessment of the potential for contaminated soil remediation requires detailed knowledge of the fate of waste constituents within the soil environment. For many non-biodegradable organic compounds, photochemical degradation may provide a potential pathway for the removal of such compounds from soil surfaces. A study was conducted to evaluate the rate of photodegradation of ten hazardous organic compounds from three soils, silica gel, and four soil minerals (kaolinite, montmorillonite, illite, and calcite) under conditions of controlled irradiation. In addition, the effect of six amendment treatments (methylene blue, riboflavin, hydrogen peroxide, diethylamine, peat moss, and silica gel) on the rates of compound loss was also investigated. Under the conditions of the study, soil and mineral type, as well as surface renewal via mixing, were found to have more effect on degradation rates than any of the amendments that were tested.
Magnesium sulfate for acute asthma in adults: a systematic literature review

Magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) has been considered as an adjunct therapy for severe and life-threatening asthma exacerbation. The literature search was performed using MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar to summarize the current state of knowledge regarding magnesium therapy in acute exacerbation of adult asthma. A total of 16 trials and 4 meta-analyses were identified. As results, intravenous MgSO4 was beneficial in severe exacerbation, but evidence for nebulized magnesium was insufficient. However, larger trials are required to draw confirmative conclusions on the efficacy. Regarding the safety concern, the risk of major toxicity appears to be very low at usual doses described in the literature. Additionally, results from 4 surveys were examined on the gaps between knowledge and practice, and on the barrier to the use of MgSO4 at emergency departments. This literature review summarized the up-to-date evidence on the issues regarding the use of MgSO4 for acute asthma. We expect more studies to be conducted for evidence making in the Asian-Pacific regions.
An update on the rainfall characteristics of Brazil: seasonal variations and trends in 1979–2011

We studied rainfall characteristics of Brazil for the period 1979–2011. This is an update for an earlier study with data from 1958 to 1978. We compared the three consecutive wet and dry months in the two data sets. In the northern most part rainy season earlier was in April to July and now it is occurring later. In a large part of the south central region the rainy season in austral summer and dry season in austral winter did not change. However, to the east of this region rainy season in the latter data occurs earlier. Calculation of linear tendencies showed, that over the northern Amazon region there is a significant increase of rainfall. This agreed with previous results. Over this region dry season is becoming drier and wet season wetter. In the west of Northeast Brazil (NEB) there is an increase of rainfall. In southeast Brazil there is a region of highly significant decrease of rainfall in both wet and dry seasons. This is confirmed in our analysis on river discharges in Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais states. The negative tendencies in rainfall have great impact on the hydroelectric generation not only in this region but also at the national level because the hydroelectric dams furnish energy on a national level. The increase in rainfall in Northern Amazon is probably associated with Atlantic warming that resulted in higher moisture transport from east. The decrease of rainfall in southeast Brazil seems to be associated with the plummet of rain producing systems from south due to increase of mean sea level pressure in the south.
Acute kidney injury and posttrauma multiple organ failure: The canary in the coal mine

Background: Despite improved resuscitation strategies, acute kidney injury (AKI) remains an important cause of morbidity and high resource use among severely injured patients. Thus, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the epidemiology and outcomes of early AKI among severely injured patients as well as its impact on the development of postinjury multiple organ failure (MOF). Methods: We queried our 17-year database of high-risk postinjury patients (Injury Severity Score >15, age >15 years, survival >48 hours, and no isolated head injury). MOF and AKI (creatinine >1.8 mg/dL) were defined by the Denver MOF score. Patients with documented preexisting renal, hepatic, cardiac, or pulmonary disease (120, 5%) were excluded, leaving 2157 for analysis. Results: Early (day 2) AKI was evident in 2.13% of the patients and associated with a 78% MOF incidence and 27% mortality. Both rates were higher than those associated with early heart, lung, or liver failure. Conclusion: Early AKI is a harbinger of adverse outcome postinjury, outperforming hepatic, cardiac, or pulmonary dysfunction as a predictor of MOF and death. Prevention of early AKI and a better understanding of organ crosstalk may help reduce AKI-associated morbidity, mortality, and obligatory costs of this complication. Level of Evidence: I, prognostic study.
The maize (Zea mays ssp. mays var. B73) genome encodes 33 members of the purple acid phosphatase family

Purple acid phosphatases (PAPs) play an important role in plant phosphorus nutrition, both by liberating phosphorus from organic sources in the soil and by modulating distribution within the plant throughout growth and development. Furthermore, members of the PAP protein family have been implicated in a broader role in plant mineral homeostasis, stress responses and development. We have identified 33 candidate PAP encoding gene models in the maize (Zea mays ssp. mays var. B73) reference genome. The maize Pap family includes a clear single-copy ortholog of the Arabidopsis gene AtPAP26, shown previously to encode both major intracellular and secreted acid phosphatase activities. Certain groups of PAPs present in Arabidopsis, however, are absent in maize, while the maize family contains a number of expansions, including a distinct radiation not present in Arabidopsis. Analysis of RNA-sequencing based transcriptome data revealed accumulation of maize Pap transcripts in multiple plant tissues at multiple stages of development, and increased accumulation of specific transcripts under low phosphorus availability. These data suggest the maize PAP family as a whole to have broad significance throughout the plant life cycle, while highlighting potential functional specialization of individual family members.
Assays to Measure Nanomolar Levels of the Renin Inhibitor CGP 38 560 in Plasma

A radioinhibitor binding assay and an enzyme inhibition assay have been developed to measure plasma levels of CGP 38 560, a potent human renin inhibitor. The detection limit of the assays was between 0.5 and 1 pmol/ml. There was a good correlation (r = 0.989) between the two assays for the measurement of human plasma spiked with CGP 38 560 in concentrations from 1.9 nM to 12 fiM. Intra-assay variability was 6.1–17.3% and 4.4–27.2% for the radioinhibitor binding assay and the enzyme inhibition assay, respectively. Interassay variability was 6.0–28.2% and 3.8–28.4% for the radioinhibitor binding assay and the enzyme inhibition assay, respectively. Blood samples were collected during a pharmacological study performed in normotensive human volunteers on an unrestricted diet who were infused during a 30-minute period with CGP 38 560 A (50 μ/kg). Similar values for the concentrations of renin inhibitor in plasma were obtained with the radioinhibitor binding assay and the enzyme inhibitor assay, and there was a significant correlation between values obtained with the two different methodologies (r = 0.94). The plasma levels of renin inhibitor reached a maximum at the end of infusion and then decreased rapidly, indicating a short plasma half-life. The changes in biochemical parameters, plasma renin activity, and plasma concentration of active renin could be related to the concentrations of CGP 38 560 measured in the plasma.
A variational method for relativistic computations in atomic and molecular physics

This article is devoted to a two-spinor characterization of energy levels of Dirac operators based at a theoretical level on a rigorous variational method, with applications in atomic and molecular physics. This provides a numerical method that is free of the numerical drawbacks often present in discretized relativistic approaches. It is moreover independent of the geometry and monotone: Eigenvalues are approximated from above. We illustrate our numerical approach by the computation of the ground state in atomic and diatomic configurations using B-splines.
Learning and climate change

Abstract Learning—i.e. the acquisition of new information that leads to changes in our assessment of uncertainty—plays a prominent role in the international climate policy debate. For example, the view that we should postpone actions until we know more continues to be influential. The latest work on learning and climate change includes new theoretical models, better informed simulations of how learning affects the optimal timing of emissions reductions, analyses of how new information could affect the prospects for reaching and maintaining political agreements and for adapting to climate change, and explorations of how learning could lead us astray rather than closer to the truth. Despite the diversity of this new work, a clear consensus on a central point is that the prospect of learning does not support the postponement of emissions reductions today.
Role of Cell Culture for Virus Detection in the Age of Technology

SUMMARY Viral disease diagnosis has traditionally relied on the isolation of viral pathogens in cell cultures. Although this approach is often slow and requires considerable technical expertise, it has been regarded for decades as the “gold standard” for the laboratory diagnosis of viral disease. With the development of nonculture methods for the rapid detection of viral antigens and/or nucleic acids, the usefulness of viral culture has been questioned. This review describes advances in cell culture-based viral diagnostic products and techniques, including the use of newer cell culture formats, cryopreserved cell cultures, centrifugation-enhanced inoculation, precytopathogenic effect detection, cocultivated cell cultures, and transgenic cell lines. All of these contribute to more efficient and less technically demanding viral detection in cell culture. Although most laboratories combine various culture and nonculture approaches to optimize viral disease diagnosis, virus isolation in cell culture remains a useful approach, especially when a viable isolate is needed, if viable and nonviable virus must be differentiated, when infection is not characteristic of any single virus (i.e., when testing for only one virus is not sufficient), and when available culture-based methods can provide a result in a more timely fashion than molecular methods.