Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Numerical investigation of a sandbar formation and evolution in a tide-dominated estuary using a hydro-morphodynamic model

ABSTRACT This paper presents a numerical study on ‘sandbar’ feature in a tide-dominated symmetrical funnel-shaped estuary using a hydro-morphodynamic model. A series of benchmark flows is simulated to demonstrate the capabilities of the model (e.g., well-balanced property, treating wet/dry fronts, shock-capturing ability), and the good quantitative accuracy. Afterwards, the model is applied for systematic numerical case studies. The main geometrical parameters, the upstream and boundary conditions are specified with reference to the Qiantang River Estuary (QRE), where a giant ‘sandbar’ is well known. It is shown that a maximum turbidity zone forms due to interactions of the riverine discharge and the tidal flow. Strong deposition occurs in the maximum turbidity zone, whereas erosion occurs otherwise. This results in a sandbar of comparable magnitude and position with the observed ‘sandbar’ in the QRE. As the sandbar grows, a slight increasing trend followed by a rapid decreasing trend for the difference between high and low water levels is established. A larger riverine discharge leads to a sandbar more closer to the seaside, but effect of the seasonal discharge variation is limited. Erodibility of bed and seaside sediment input mainly influence the height of the formed sandbar.
Mortality Reduction Associated with HIV/AIDS Care and Antiretroviral Treatment in Rural Malawi: Evidence from Registers, Coffin Sales and Funerals

Background To report on the trend in all-cause mortality in a rural district of Malawi that has successfully scaled-up HIV/AIDS care including antiretroviral treatment (ART) to its population, through corroborative evidence from a) registered deaths at traditional authorities (TAs), b) coffin sales and c) church funerals. Methods and Findings Retrospective study in 5 of 12 TAs (covering approximately 50% of the population) during the period 2000–2007. A total of 210 villages, 24 coffin workshops and 23 churches were included. There were a total of 18,473 registered deaths at TAs, 15781 coffins sold, and 2762 church funerals. Between 2000 and 2007, there was a highly significant linear downward trend in death rates, sale of coffins and church funerals (X2 for linear trend: 338.4 P<0.0001, 989 P<0.0001 and 197, P<0.0001 respectively). Using data from TAs as the most reliable source of data on deaths, overall death rate reduction was 37% (95% CI:33–40) for the period. The mean annual incremental death rate reduction was 0.52/1000/year. Death rates decreased over time as the percentage of people living with HIV/AIDS enrolled into care and ART increased. Extrapolating these data to the entire district population, an estimated 10,156 (95% CI: 9786–10259) deaths would have been averted during the 8-year period. Conclusions Registered deaths at traditional authorities, the sale of coffins and church funerals showed a significant downward trend over a 8-year period which we believe was associated with the scaling up HIV/AIDS care and ART.
Hyaluronan is required for cranial neural crest cells migration and craniofacial development

Background: Hyaluronan is a crucial glycosaminoglycan of the vertebrate embryonic extracellular matrix able to influence cell behaviour, both by assembling the pericellular matrices and by activating signal transducing receptors such as CD44. Results: We showed that the hyaluronan synthases, Has1 and Has2, and CD44 display a dynamic expression pattern during cranial neural crest cells (NCC) development. By knocking down Has1 and Has2 gene functions, we revealed that hyaluronan synthesized by Has1 and Has2 is necessary for the proper development of the visceral skeleton. Conclusions: The data suggest that hyaluronan helps to maintain the active migratory behaviour of cranial NCC, and that its presence around pre‐chondrogenic NCC is crucial for their survival. CD44 knock down also suggests that the role of hyaluronan in cranial NCC migration could be mediated, at least in part, by the activation of CD44. These findings contribute to the unveiling of the functional relation between NCC and their extracellular environment during craniofacial development. Developmental Dynamics 241:294–302, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Type b haemophilus influenzae infections in adults.

The paper by Norden, Callerame and Baum in this issue of the Journal calls attention to a facet of Haemophilus influenzae infections that has aroused only sporadic interest in the past. Although this kind of disease has been known to occur in adults for many years, the few cases in this age group have stimulated the description of single ones and the association of its pathogenesis with either a local or a generalized defect in host defense mechanisms. Thus, many reports have emphasized the relation of susceptibility to this type of infection to deficient or defective immunoglobulins, antibiotic-therapy (superinfection), spinal .
Global Sensitivity Analysis in a Mathematical Model of the Renal Interstitium

The pressure in the renal interstitium is an important factor for normal kidney function. Here we develop a computational model of the rat kidney and use it to investigate the relationship between arterial blood pressure and interstitial fluid pressure. In addition, we investigate how tissue flexibility influences this relationship. Due to the complexity of the model, the large number of parameters, and the inherent uncertainty of the experimental data, we utilize Monte Carlo sampling to study the model's behavior under a wide range of parameter values and to compute first- and total-order sensitivity indices. Characteristically, at elevated arterial blood pressure, the model predicts cases with increased or reduced interstitial pressure. The transition between the two cases is controlled mostly by the compliance of the blood vessels located before the afferent arterioles.
Rapid Initialization of SINS for Land Vehicle-based Vertically-launched Missiles

This paper describes a new method for rapid initialization of a strapdown initial navigation system (SINS) which is hosted on a missile intended for vertical launch from a land vehicle. The SINS initialization aims to determine initial values of the system, including position, velocity, and attitude. For a fixed host platform, the attitude is the most critical aspect of the initialization. There are two alignment procedures. The first is the analytical alignment, in which the attitude matrix is computed directly utilizing the output of an inertial measurement unit (IMU) in combination with known earth rotation and gravity. The second procedure, usually referred to as the precise alignment, utilizes rough-wrought output from the analytical alignment to estimate precise initial attitude using a Kalman filter. Commonly used methods for precise alignment include the single-position alignment, the two-position alignment and the multi-position alignment. The latter two methods are widely used on fixed platforms because of good observability of the system. The two-position alignment introduces the second position alignment by rotating the yaw angle by180 . The multi-position alignment is implemented by further rotating yaw or pitch based on the rotation of the twoposition alignment. For a missile which is verticallylaunched from a land vehicle, either the multi-position or two-position alignment reduces the effectiveness and flexibility of operations as both alignments require a machine to implement the yaw rotation. This paper presents a new two-position self-alignment method, which introduces a rotation of pitch by 90 , to naturally reflect the raising to an upright position of the while on a fixed land vehicle. Distinguishing itself from the commonly-used two-position alignment or multiposition alignment, the new method requires the rotation to the second position after the missile remains at the first position for 30s until the horizontal misalignment angles become stable. In computer simulations, the effect of wind disturbance is considered. The results confirm that the proposed method can reduce the alignment period and achieve a higher precision of solution than those of commonly used methods.
Mapping distribution of Sundarban mangroves using Sentinel-2 data and new spectral metric for detecting their health condition

Abstract The present study explores the suitability of Sentinel-2 images for mapping the physiological conditions of Sundarban mangroves and identifying suitable wavebands for the purpose. This work finds two shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands of Sentinel-2 appropriate and proposes a new spectral metric, namely Discriminant Normalized Vegetation Index (DNVI) based on these two bands. The spectral profile of mangroves is validated with the hyperspectral and high spatial resolution Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG) data. DNVI emphasized the importance of SWIR bands in segregating different health conditions of similar and dissimilar mangrove species assemblages. Classification using Support Vector Machine supervised learning model discriminated mangroves with an overall accuracy of 93.9%. The article highlighted the competence of high spatial resolution Sentinel-2 images and the proposed spectral metric can be exploited for mapping mangrove assemblages and their health at different eco-regions.
Edgar Dale's Pyramid of Learning in medical education: A literature review

Background: Edgar Dale's Pyramid of Learning and percentages of retained learning are cited in educational literature in a range of disciplines. The sources of the Pyramid, however, are misleading. Aims: To examine the evidence supporting the Pyramid and the extent to which it is cited in medical education literature. Methods: A review of literature (1946–2012) based on a search utilising Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, Medline and Google Scholar conducted from September to November 2012. Results: A total of 43 peer-reviewed medical education journal articles and conference papers were found. While some researchers had been misled by their sources, other authors’ interpretations of the citations did not align with the content of those citations, had no such citations, had circular references, or consulted questionable sources. There was no agreement on the percentages of learning retention, in spite of many researchers’ citing primary texts. Discussion and conclusion: The inappropriate citing of the Pyramid and its associated percentages in medical education literature is widespread and continuous. This citing undermines much of the published work, and impacts on research-based medical education literature. While the area of learning/teaching strategies and amount of retention from each is an area for future research, any reference to the Pyramid should be avoided.
Diurnal variation of cholesterol precursors squalene and methyl sterols in human plasma lipoproteins.

Animal cholesterol synthesis shows a marked diurnal variation, a phenomenon, at the moment, not known to occur in man. Since cholesterol precursors in serum reflect overall cholesterol synthesis in many conditions, a 24-hr profile of squalene and methyl sterols was studied in plasma lipoproteins in order to demonstrate whether these cholesterol precursors could exhibit a diurnal cycling in healthy human subjects. During the 24-hr period, lipoproteins of density < 1.006 g/ml transported 30-50% of the plasma squalene. Free methyl sterols were found mainly in low density lipoproteins (LDL) and esterified methyl sterols in LDL and high density lipoproteins (HDL). Postprandial hyperlipidemia at noon was associated with an inconsistent increase of the squalene and free methyl sterol concentrations in the lipoproteins of density < 1.006 g/ml. In terms of micro g per mg of cholesterol, the precursor contents were, however, low in each lipoprotein during the daytime. During the night and early morning, the values were several times higher. Thus the peak plasma squalene and methyl sterol contents occurred at midnight and 4 am. The highest variation was found for squalene in the density class < 1.006 g/ml and for lanosterol and diunsaturated dimethyl sterol in LDL and HDL. For different methyl sterols, the mean diurnal variation was 3.5- to 6.9-fold in LDL, 2.0- to 4.5-fold in HDL, and 2.6- to 3.6-fold in the density class < 1.006 g/ml. The respective values for squalene were 2.2, 1.4, and 2.9. Esterified methyl sterols varied slightly in the density class < 1.006 g/ml only, and the percentage esterification exhibited a diurnal fluctuation that was the reciprocal of that of free methyl sterol levels. The rapid and marked diurnal fluctuation of squalene and free methyl sterols in plasma lipoproteins suggests that these precursors are metabolized on and off lipoproteins. The variation is most likely caused by changes in cholesterol synthesis, inferring that circadian rhythm also regulates human cholesterol production. -Miettinen, T. A. Diurnal variation of cholesterol precursors squalene and methyl sterols in human plasma lipoproteins.
Incremental planning

Ambros-Ingerson and Steel suggested to interleave planning and execution through incremental planning, ie. using a planner that can output valid pre(cid:12)xes of the (cid:12)nal plan before it has (cid:12)nished planning. This method could considerably bring down the time lost in planning, especially in dynamic domains, where replanning has to occur frequently. We improve on the basic idea, avoiding certain problems, by presenting an incremental planner with provable properties for a restricted class of planning problems, the 3S class. Finding out whether a 3S instance is solvable or not is computationally tractable, despite the fact that generating a plan is inherently intractable. By (cid:12)rst testing whether an instance is solvable or not, we can avoid outputting pre(cid:12)xes of invalid plans in the latter case. Furthermore, making the reasonable assumption that natural problems have non-exponential-size solutions, we can also plan e(cid:14)ciently in practice since we need not waste time on non-solvable instances.
Characteristics of splenic marginal zone lymphoma: Clinical, hematologic, and flow cytometry findings of 34 cases

Background: Splenic marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL) is a low-grade disorder that regularly presents with peripheral blood (PB) involvement. A precise description of clinical, laboratory features and immunophenotypic characterization of SMZL are still lacking. Here, we reviewed 34 patients presenting with SMZL to describe the clinical, hematologic features, and flow cytometry immunophenotypic findings of this type of lymphoma at diagnosis. Objectives: The aim of this study is to confirm that SMZL has a specific immunologic profile which enables the hematopathologist and clinician to differentiate this low-grade B-cell lymphoma from other B-cell lymphoproliferative disorder, especially chronic lymphocytic leukemia and hairy cell leukemia, which could sometimes stimulate SMZL morphologically and to emphasize that a correlation of immunophenotypic findings, clinical, and hematologic features of patients plus careful morphological examination of PB and/or bone marrow (BM) aspirate can lead confidently to the correct diagnosis. Materials And Methods: Flow cytometry immunophenotypic findings of 34 cases of SMZL were reviewed. The analysis was performed by BD FACS Calibur™ and FACSCanto II flow cytometers. B lymphocytes were identified according to their Side-Scattered (SSC)/CD19 distribution. A marker was considered positive when expressed in more than 20% of cells above the control. Results: Median age was 60 years, range (35–84 years), both sexes were affected equally. All patients presented with splenomegaly, 71% of patients had absolute lymphocytosis and 88% of patients showed PB involvement. Seventy-four percent of patients had anemia and (53%) of them had thrombocytopenia. Cells from all cases expressed pan B-cell antigens (CD19, CD20), 74% of cases expressed CD79b and Human Leukocyte Antigen – antigen D Related (HLA-DR) expressed in nearly almost all cases (97%). Half of the patients expressed CD11c and SIgD, 41% expressed CD5 and FMC7 while CD25 and CD103 showed positivity in less than 5% of cases. Preferential expression of Kappa light chain was demonstrated, CD10 and CD38, SIgG were negative. Conclusion: SMZL has a distinct immunologic profile which if correlated with morphologic findings of PB or BM aspirates, clinical and hematologic features can help to make the accurate diagnosis and lessens the need of further invasive diagnostic procedure.
Reduced Left Ventricular Functional Reserve in Hypertensive Patients With Preserved Function at Rest

In many hypertensive patients, left ventricular pump function is normal at rest but abnormal during exercise. Myocardial dysfunction or altered left ventricular loading may be responsible for this finding. To verify the hypothesis of impaired myocardial functional reserve in the hypertensive heart, we assessed the response of stress-adjusted midwall shortening to graded, low-dose dobutamine infusion in hypertensive subjects with normal midwall shortening at rest. Sixty-five subjects (45 never treated hypertensive subjects and 20 normotensive volunteers comparable for age) received dobutamine at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 &mgr;g · kg−1 · min−1 for 5-minute steps; within this range of infusion rates, heart rate and systemic blood pressure were stable. Two-dimensional, M-mode, and Doppler echocardiography were performed at baseline and at the end of each step. In normotensive controls, midwall shortening increased from baseline during 2 &mgr;g · kg−1 · min−1 dobutamine by an average of 16±4.5% (P<0.01); a value of 2 standard deviations below this mean response was taken as the lower limit of normal. In the hypertensive subjects, 24 had a normal midwall shortening response to dobutamine at this dose (group I) and 21 had a subnormal response (group II). Whereas blood pressure and left ventricular mass were similar in group II and group I, the former had greater relative wall thickness (P<0.01) than the latter. &bgr;-adrenergic stimulation by very-low-dose dobutamine unmasks subtle impairment of myocardial functional reserve in hypertensive subjects with normal myocardial performance at rest. This alteration seems to be related mainly to increase in left ventricular relative wall thickness.
The measurement of Bacillus mycoides spore adhesion using atomic force microscopy, simple counting methods, and a spinning disk technique

An atomic force microscope has been used to study the adhesion of Bacillus mycoides spores to a hydrophilic glass surface and a hydrophobic‐coated glass surface. AFM images of spores attached to the hydrophobic‐coated mica surface allowed the measurement of spore dimensions in an aqueous environment without desiccation. The spore exosporium was observed to be flexible and to promote the adhesion of the spore by increasing the area of spore contact with the surface. Results from counting procedures using light microscopy matched the density of spores observed on the hydrophobic‐coated glass surface with AFM. However, no spores were observed on the hydrophilic glass surface with AFM, a consequence of the weaker adhesion of the spores at this surface. AFM was also used to quantify directly the interactions of B. mycoides spores at the two surfaces in an aqueous environment. The measurements used “spore probes” constructed by immobilizing a single spore at the apex of a tipless AFM cantilever. The data showed that stretching and sequential bond breaking occurred as the spores were retracted from the hydrophilic glass surface. The greatest spore adhesion was measured at the hydrophobic‐coated glass surface. An attractive force on the spores was measured as the spores approached the hydrophobic‐coated surface. At the hydrophilic glass surface, only repulsive forces were measured during the approach of the spores. The AFM force measurements were in qualitative agreement with the results of a hydrodynamic shear adhesion assay that used a spinning disk technique. Quantitatively, AFM measurements of adhesive force were up to 4 × 103 times larger than the estimates made using the spinning disk data. This is a consequence of the different types of forces applied to the spore in the different adhesion assays. AFM has provided some unique insights into the interactions of spores with surfaces. No other instrument can make such direct measurements for single microbiological cells. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 79: 170–179, 2002
Characteristics of Energetic Electron Precipitation Estimated from Simulated Bremsstrahlung X‐ray Distributions

Determination of the fluxes and spectra of energetic particle precipitation into the Earth's atmosphere is of critical importance for radiation belt dynamics, magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling, as well as atmospheric chemistry. To improve the assessments of precipitating electrons using X‐ray measurements requires deeper understanding of bremsstrahlung production, transport, and redistribution throughout the atmosphere. Here we use first‐principles Monte Carlo models to explore relativistic electron precipitation events from the perspective of bremsstrahlung X‐rays. The spatial distribution of X‐rays is quantified from the ground level up to satellite altitudes. We then simulate X‐ray images that would be captured using an ideal camera and calculate the energy spectra of X‐rays originating from monoenergetic beams of precipitating electrons. Moreover, we show how these impulse responses to monoenergetic beams can be used to reconstruct the precipitating source using an inversion technique. Modeling results show that space‐borne measurements of backscattered X‐rays provide a promising method to estimate precipitation spatial size, fluxes, and spectra.
Androgen-dependent apoptosis in male germ cells is regulated through the proto-oncoprotein Cbl

The proto-oncoprotein Cbl is known to control several signaling processes. It is highly expressed in the testis, and because spermatogenesis is androgen dependent, we investigated the androgen dependency expression of Cbl through its testicular sublocalization and its expression levels in rats that were exposed to the antiandrogen flutamide or were hypophysectomized. We report the androgen dependency of Cbl as it localizes in pachytene spermatocytes during androgen-dependent stages, is down-regulated upon flutamide exposure, and is up-regulated with testosterone in hypophysectomized rats. Coculture experiments showed the key control exerted by the Sertoli cell on Cbl activity. As flutamide induces germ cell apoptosis, we investigate members of the Bcl-2 family upon flutamide exposure. We show that the proapoptotic Bcl-2 family member Bim mirrored Cbl expression through a posttranscriptional process. We also show that in Cbl knockout mouse testes, the imbalance between the high expression of Bim and Smac/Diablo and antiapoptotic factors such as cellular inhibitor of apoptosis 2 favors a survival process, which makes these mice unresponsive to androgen withdrawal and could explain their hypofertility.