Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the estimation of galaxy structural parameters: the Sérsic model

This paper addresses some questions which have arisen from the use of the Sersic r1/n law in modelling the luminosity profiles of early-type galaxies. The first issue deals with the trend between the half-light radius and the structural parameter n. We show that the correlation between these two parameters is not only real, but also a natural consequence from the previous relations found to exist between the model-independent parameters: total luminosity, effective radius and effective surface brightness. We also define a new galaxy concentration index which is largely independent of the image exposure depth, and is shown to be monotonically related with n. The second question concerns the curious coincidence between the form of the Fundamental Plane and the coupling between 〈I〉e and re when modelling a light profile. We explain, through a mathematical analysis of the Sersic law, why the quantity re〈I〉e0.7 appears almost constant for an individual galaxy, regardless of the value of n (over a large range) adopted in the fit to the light profile. Consequently, Fundamental Planes of the form re〈I〉e0.7∝σ0x (for any x, and where σ0 is the central galaxy velocity dispersion) are insensitive to galaxy structure. Finally, we address the problematic issue of the use of model-dependent galaxy light-profile parameters versus model-independent quantities for the half-light radii, mean surface brightness and total galaxy magnitude. The former implicitly assume that the light-profile model can be extrapolated to infinity, while the latter quantities, in general, are derived from a signal-to-noise ratio truncated profile. We quantify (mathematically) how these parameters change as one reduces the outer radius of an r1/n profile, and reveal how these can vary substantially when n≥4.
Purification of a ribonuclease inhibitor from Novikoff hepatoma supernatant fraction.

A comparison between the levels of ribonuclease inhibitor in normal rat liver and Novikoff hepatoma 105,000 × g supernatant fractions is reported. Novikoff hepatoma contained 61% less inhibitor per g of tissue or 39% less per mg protein than did normal rat liver. A rapid and simple method that had been developed for the purification of rat liver ribonuclease inhibitor was applied to Novikoff hepatoma 105,000 × g supernatant fraction. The purification procedure led to a 121-fold increase in specific activity, with a yield of 49%. The molecular weight and inhibition curve of purified inhibitor were also determined and were found to be similar to those of normal rat liver ribonuclease inhibitor.
Influência da Dureza dos Discos Abrasivos no Corte de Materiais Dúcteis

O corte de materiais por disco abrasivo e um dos processos que apresentam as melhores caracteristicas de economia, eficiencia e rapidez sendo muito utilizado no meio industrial. Fatores como porcentagens e homogeneidade da mistura dos componentes, tamanho, forma (abrasividade), tenacidade e dureza dos graos abrasivos, tipos de ligantes e de abrasivos, velocidade de corte e velocidade de mergulho influenciam na seguranca, no desempenho e comportamento da operacao. Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre a influencia da dureza dos discos abrasivos no desempenho do processo de corte em operacoes do tipo remocao a seco. O aumento da dureza dos discos propiciou um aumento da forca tangencial de corte e da relacao G, devido a mais forte ligacao entre o grao e o ligante no composito. Os resultados mostram que a dureza dos discos abrasivos afeta a economia, pois influencia na vida util dos discos abrasivos em termos de numeros de cortes proporcionados; a produtividade, pois esta relacionada com o numero de trocas de discos desgastados; os esforcos necessarios para a operacao, pois estao relacionados com as forcas tangenciais de corte.
Evaluation by Expert Dancers of a Robot That Performs Partnered Stepping via Haptic Interaction

Our long-term goal is to enable a robot to engage in partner dance for use in rehabilitation therapy, assessment, diagnosis, and scientific investigations of two-person whole-body motor coordination. Partner dance has been shown to improve balance and gait in people with Parkinson's disease and in older adults, which motivates our work. During partner dance, dance couples rely heavily on haptic interaction to convey motor intent such as speed and direction. In this paper, we investigate the potential for a wheeled mobile robot with a human-like upper-body to perform partnered stepping with people based on the forces applied to its end effectors. Blindfolded expert dancers (N=10) performed a forward/backward walking step to a recorded drum beat while holding the robot's end effectors. We varied the admittance gain of the robot's mobile base controller and the stiffness of the robot's arms. The robot followed the participants with low lag (M=224, SD=194 ms) across all trials. High admittance gain and high arm stiffness conditions resulted in significantly improved performance with respect to subjective and objective measures. Biomechanical measures such as the human hand to human sternum distance, center-of-mass of leader to center-of-mass of follower (CoM-CoM) distance, and interaction forces correlated with the expert dancers' subjective ratings of their interactions with the robot, which were internally consistent (Cronbach's α=0.92). In response to a final questionnaire, 1/10 expert dancers strongly agreed, 5/10 agreed, and 1/10 disagreed with the statement "The robot was a good follower. " 2/10 strongly agreed, 3/10 agreed, and 2/10 disagreed with the statement "The robot was fun to dance with. " The remaining participants were neutral with respect to these two questions.
Prostate-specific antigen and free prostate-specific antigen in the early detection of prostate cancer: do combination tests improve detection?

BACKGROUND The combined use of free and total prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in early detection of prostate cancer has been controversial. This article systematically evaluates the discriminating capacity of a large number of combination tests. METHODS Free and total PSA were analyzed in stored serum samples taken prior to diagnosis in 429 cases and 1,640 controls from the Physicians' Health Study. We used a classification algorithm called logic regression to search for clinically useful tests combining total and percent free PSA and receiver operating characteristic analysis and compared these tests with those based on total and complexed PSA. Data were divided into training and test subsets. For robustness, we considered 35 test-train splits of the original data and computed receiver operating characteristic curves for each test data set. RESULTS The average area under the receiver operating characteristic curve across test data sets was 0.74 for total PSA and 0.76 for the combination tests. Combination tests with higher sensitivity and specificity than PSA > 4.0 ng/mL were identified 29 out of 35 times. All these tests extended the PSA reflex range to below 4.0 ng/mL. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that the overall diagnostic performance as expressed by the area under the curve did not differ significantly for the different tests. CONCLUSIONS Tests combining total and percent free PSA show modest overall improvements over total PSA. However, utilization of percent free PSA below a PSA threshold of 4 ng/mL could translate into a practically important reduction in unnecessary biopsies without sacrificing cancers detected.
Metallic species, oxygen and silicon in the lunar exosphere: Upper limits and prospects for LADEE measurements

[1] The only species that have been so far detected in the lunar exosphere are Na, K, Ar, and He. However, models for the production and loss of species derived from the lunar regolith through micrometeoroid impact vaporization, sputtering, and photon-stimulated desorption, predict that a host of other species should exist in the lunar exosphere. Assuming that loss processes are limited to ballistic escape, photoionization, and recycling to the surface, we have computed column abundances and compared them to published upper limits for the Moon. Only for Ca do modeled abundances clearly exceed the available measurements. This result suggests the relevance of some loss processes that were not included in the model, such as the possibility of gas-to-solid phase condensation during micrometeoroid impacts or the formation of stable metallic oxides. Our simulations and the recalculation of efficiencies for resonant light scattering show that models for other species studied are not well constrained by existing measurements. This fact underlines the need for improved remote and in situ measurements of the lunar exosphere such as those planned by the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft. Our simulations of the LADEE neutral mass spectrometer and visible/ultraviolet spectrometer indicate that LADEE measurements promise to provide definitive observations or set stringent upper limits for all regolith-driven exospheric species. We predict that observations by LADEE will constrain assumed model parameters for the exosphere of the Moon.
Semi-automatic Ontology Acquisition from a Corporate Intranet

The focused access to knowledge resources like intranet documents plays a vital role in knowledge management and supports in general the shifting towards a Semantic Web. Ontologies act as a conceptual backbone for semantic document access by providing a common understanding and conceptualization of a domain. Building domain-specific ontologies is a time-consuming and expensive manual construction task. This paper describes our actual and ongoing work in supporting semi-automatic ontology acquisition from a corporate intranet of an insurance company. We present a comprehensive architecture and generic method for discovering a domain-tailored ontology from given intranet resources.
Calcium buffering in presynaptic nerve terminals. I. Evidence for involvement of a nonmitochondrial ATP-dependent sequestration mechanism

A latent ATP-dependent Ca storage system is enriched in preparations of pinched-off presynaptic nerve terminals (synaptosomes), and is exposed when the terminals are disrupted by osmotic shock or saponin treatment. The data indicate that a fraction of the Ca uptake (measured with 45Ca) is associated with the intraterminal mitochondria; it is blocked by ruthenium red, by FCCP, and by azide + dinitrophenol + oligomycin. There is, however, a residual ATP-dependent Ca uptake that is insensitive to the aforementioned poisons; this (nonmitochondrial) Ca uptake is blocked by tetracaine, mersalyl and A-23187. Moreover, A- 23187 rapidly releases previously accumulated Ca from these (nonmitochondrial) storage sites, whereas the Ca chelator, EGTA, does not. The proteolytic enzyme, trypsin, spares the mitochondria but inactivates the nonmitochondrial Ca uptake mechanism. Chemical measurements of total Ca indicate that the ATP-dependent Ca uptake at the nonmitochondrial sites involves the net transfer of Ca from medium to tissue fragments. This system can sequester Ca when the ambient- ionized Ca2+ concentration (buffered with EGTA) is less than 0.3 micrometer; brain mitochondria take up little Ca when the ionized Ca2+ level is this low. Preliminary subfractionation studies indicate that the nonmitochondrial Ca storage system does not sediment with synaptic vesicles. We propose that this Ca storage system, which has many properties comparable to those of skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum, may be associated with intraterminal smooth endoplasmic reticulum. This Ca-sequestering organelle may help to buffer intracellular Ca.
ARTHUR: A Collaborative Augmented Environment for Architectural Design and Urban Planning

Projects in the area of architectural design and urban planning typically engage several architects as well as experts from other professions. While the design and review meetings thus often involve a large number of cooperating participants, the actual design is still done by the individuals in the time in between those meetings using desktop PCs and CAD applications. A real collaborative approach to architectural design and urban planning is often limited to early paper-based sketches. In order to overcome these limitations, we designed and realized the ARTHUR system, an Augmented Reality (AR) enhanced round table to support complex design and planning decisions for architects. While AR has been applied to this area earlier, our approach does not try to replace the use of CAD systems but rather integrates them seamlessly into the collaborative AR environment. The approach is enhanced by inDigital Peer Publishing Licence Any party may pass on this Work by electronic means and make it available for download under the terms and conditions of the current version of the Digital Peer Publishing Licence (DPPL). The text of the licence may be accessed and retrieved via Internet at http://www.dipp. nrw.de/.
Identification of a thyroxine-containing self-epitope of thyroglobulin which triggers thyroid autoreactive T cells

Although thyroglobulin (Tg), the thyroid prohormone, is well known as a T cell dependent autoantigen in human and experimental autoimmune thyroid disease, very little is known about the molecular basis of Tg recognition by T cells. In this paper, we have characterized the epitopes recognized by two clonotypically distinct, murine Tg autoreactive T cell hybridomas, CH9 and ADA2. In vitro iodination of a Tg preparation which was deficient in in vivo organified iodine was first used to confirm our previous observation that these T cells recognize iodination-related epitopes in the Tg molecule. Affinity chromatography of tryptic peptides derived from normally iodinated human Tg revealed that these epitopes were exclusively located in thyroxine (T4) containing peptides. Through the use of synthetic T4- containing peptides, representing the four major hormonogenic sites in Tg, we demonstrated that both CH9 and ADA2 recognize an epitope containing the T4 at position 2553 in human Tg. Sets of overlapping 5mer to 12mer peptides around this T4 showed that the most potent peptide was a 9mer beginning at Asp 2551. The T4 was shown to be a critical residue, since its replacement with any of the 20 naturally occurring amino acids produced only nonstimulatory peptides. Since the T cell hybridomas could also be stimulated by major histocompatibility complex class II positive (interferon-gamma-treated) thyroid epithelial cells in vitro, and their parent T cell lines can induce thyroiditis on adoptive transfer, the T4-containing Tg sequence described here is implicated as a pathogenic epitope in murine thyroid autoimmunity.
Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma: clinical outcome of 30 consecutive patients referred to a single institution in the past 5 years.

OBJECTIVE Treatment options for anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC), which is one of the most lethal human malignant tumors, include surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy usually combined in a multimodal approach, to improve survival and avoid death from local invasion. However, there is no standard protocol for ATC treatment and the optimal sequence within multimodal therapy is debated. We retrospectively report the clinical outcome of 30 ATC patients referred consecutively to the Oncological Endocrinology Unit of San Giovanni Battista Hospital (Turin, Italy) between 2000 and 2005. DESIGN Patients were treated by one of the following approaches: i) surgery followed by adjuvant-combined chemoradiotherapy; ii) neo-adjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy; or iii) chemotherapy alone. The surgical procedures were classified as 'maximal debulking' or 'palliative resection'. Maximal debulking entailed total or near-total thyroidectomy and complete resection of all gross tumor or minimal residual disease adherent to vital structures, independently of the presence or absence of distant metastases. In palliative resections, macroscopic residual disease was left in the neck. Survival of patients stratified by treatment was assessed. RESULTS Analysis of multivariate hazard ratios showed that maximal debulking followed by adjuvant chemoradiotherapy was the only treatment that modified survival of ATC patients (hazard ratio= 0.23, 95% CI: 0.07-0.79), even if factors determining poor prognosis or increased surgical risk were present. CONCLUSIONS Despite the overall grim outcome of ATC, these results justify an attempt at maximal debulking surgery, followed by adjuvant chemoradiotherapy, possibly in all ATC patients.
A TECHNIQUE TO OBTAIN THE UNDERLYING CARRIER FLUID RHEOLOGY FROM WIDE SIZE DISTRIBUTION SUSPENSIONS USING A SMALL PIPE VISCOMETER.

There is increasing interest in the hydraulic transport of high concentration, wide size distribution suspensions in laminar flow. Such suspensions generally stratify in pipe flow. The coarse burden, made from the larger particles, is conveyed in a non-Newtonian, visco-plastic carrier fluid made from the finer particles and conveying water. The rheological properties of the carrier fluid only are required for the successful design of such systems, which use a two-layer mechanistic modelling approach. Experimental studies made in Australia and South Africa during the AMIRA P599 projects have shown that surprisingly small particles will stratify under laminar flow conditions, but the exact size of the smallest particle to contribute to the coarse burden is unknown. Similarly, while the rheological behaviour of the carrier fluid is dominated by the influence of the very smallest particles, larger particles also influence the carrier's rheology and this upper bound is similarly unknown. Such limits cannot be theoretically ascertained as the interaction between the phases is rheologically complex. The variability of industrial suspensions makes the situation worse. Screening out of all the coarser particles, so that the rheology of the carrier fluid only can be measured, is a possible approach. However, this is practically very difficult, especially for smaller particles in yield stress fluids. This paper introduces a practical technique for determining the rheology of the carrier fluid only. This is obtained from a sample that has been only cursorily screened from the entire suspension.
An improved local well-posedness result for the modified KdV equation

The Cauchy problem for the modified KdV equation is shown to be locally well posed for data u_0 in the space \hat(H^r_s) defined by the norm ||u_0||:=|| ^s \hat(u_0)||_L^r', provided 4/3 < r \le 2, s \ge 1/2 - 1/(2r). For r=2 this coincides with the best possible result on the H^s - scale due to Kenig, Ponce and Vega. The proof uses an appropriate variant of the Fourier restriction norm method and linear as well as bilinear estimates for the solutions of the Airy equation.
Long-acting injectable risperidone in partially adherent and nonadherent patients with schizophrenia

Background: Long-acting injectable antipsychotics may improve medication adherence, thereby improving overall treatment effectiveness. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness, safety, and tolerability of risperidone long-acting injection in schizophrenic patients switched from oral antipsychotic medication. Methods: In a 12-month, multicenter, open-label, noncomparative study, symptomatically stable patients on oral antipsychotic medication with poor treatment adherence during the previous 12 months received intramuscular injections of risperidone long-acting injection (25 mg starting dose) every 2 weeks. The primary endpoint was the change in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total score. Results: Of the 60 patients who were screened, 53 received at least one injection (safety population), and 51 provided at least one postbaseline assessment. Mean PANSS total scores improved significantly throughout the study and at endpoint. Significant improvements were also observed in Clinical Global Impression of Severity, Personal and Social Performance, and Drug Attitude Inventory scales. Risperidone long-acting injection was safe and well-tolerated. Severity of movement disorders on the Extrapyramidal Symptom Rating Scale was reduced significantly. The most frequently reported adverse events were insomnia (22.6%), increased prolactin (17.0%), and weight gain (13.2%). Conclusion: Risperidone long-acting injection was associated with significant symptomatic improvements in stable patients with schizophrenia following a switch from previous antipsychotic medications.
Long-term survival of children with end-stage renal disease.

BACKGROUND Although renal-replacement therapy for children with end-stage renal disease has been used for several decades, data on patients' long-term survival are sparse. METHODS We examined the long-term survival of all children and adolescents who were under 20 years of age when renal-replacement therapy commenced (study period, April 1963 through March 2002), using data from the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry. Survival was analyzed with the use of Kaplan-Meier methods and age-standardized mortality rates. Risk factors for death were analyzed with the use of Cox regression analysis with time-dependent covariates. RESULTS A total of 1634 children and adolescents were followed for a median of 9.7 years. The long-term survival rate among children requiring renal-replacement therapy was 79 percent at 10 years and 66 percent at 20 years. Mortality rates were 30 times as high as for children without end-stage renal disease. Risk factors for death were a young age at the time renal-replacement therapy was initiated (especially for children under 1 year of age, among whom the risk was four times as high as for children 15 to 19 years of age) and treatment with dialysis (which was associated with a risk more than four times as high as for renal transplantation). Overall, a trend toward improved survival was observed over the four decades of the study. CONCLUSIONS Despite improvement in long-term survival, mortality rates among children requiring renal-replacement therapy remain substantially higher than those among children without end-stage renal disease. Increasing the proportion of children treated with renal transplantation rather than with dialysis can improve survival further.
Anticoagulants and mitral valvotomy: a nine-year survey.

Systemic embolism, occurring during either the operation or in the post-operative period, remains a serious complication of mitral valvotomy. It causes many deaths and those who survive it may suffer a crippling permanent disability. Since 1955 anticoagulants have been widely used at the Hill Top Hospital, Bromsgrove, for the purpose of preventing clot formation and subsequent dissemination at operation, and the results of this therapy form the basis of this study.