Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Digital Mapping of Soil Properties Using Multivariate Statistical Analysis and ASTER Data in an Arid Region

Modeling and mapping of soil properties has been identified as key for effective land degradation management and mitigation. The ability to model and map soil properties at sufficient accuracy for a large agriculture area is demonstrated using Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) imagery. Soil samples were collected in the El-Tina Plain, Sinai, Egypt, concurrently with the acquisition of ASTER imagery, and measured for soil electrical conductivity (ECe), clay content and soil organic matter (OM). An ASTER image covering the study area was preprocessed, and two predictive models, multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) and the partial least squares regression (PLSR), were constructed based on the ASTER spectra. For all three soil properties, the results of MARS models were better than those of the respective PLSR models, with cross-validation estimated R2 of 0.85 and 0.80 for ECe, 0.94 and 0.90 for clay content and 0.79 and 0.73 for OM. Independent validation of ECe, clay content and OM maps with 32 soil samples showed the better performance of the MARS models, with R2 = 0.81, 0.89 and 0.73, respectively, compared to R2 = 0.78, 0.87 and 0.71 for the PLSR models. The results indicated that MARS is a more suitable and superior modeling technique than PLSR for the estimation and mapping of soil salinity (ECe), clay content and OM. The method developed in this paper was found to be reliable and accurate for digital soil mapping in arid and semi-arid environments.
Classical analog of electromagnetically induced transparency

We present a classical analog of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). In a system of just two coupled harmonic oscillators subject to a harmonic driving force, we reproduce the phenomenology observed in EIT. We also describe a simple experiment with two linearly coupled RLC circuits which can be incorporated into an undergraduate laboratory.
Parent-Child Agreement on Ratings of Anxiety in Children

Research on congruence of parents' and children's reports of children's symptomatology has typically yielded low to moderate agreement. This study extended past research by examining the rate of parent-child agreement on reported anxiety for a nonclinical sample of children. 85 children ages 8 to 16 years and attending recreational summer camps completed measures of their own anxiety and parents completed the same scales on their children twice; once according to their perceptions of their own child's anxiety and once for how they predicted their own child would complete the measures. Analysis indicated that (a) parent-child correspondence was low when using either parents' perceptions or predictions of their child's anxiety, (b) mother-father correspondence on their child's anxiety was moderately high, (c) the children's gender and age were not significantly associated with correspondence, and (d) mothers' and fathers' anxiety was negatively associated with parent-child correspondence. The implications of these findings for research and clinical practice are discussed.
Study of the thermal stabilization mechanism of biodegradable poly(L‐lactide)/silica nanocomposites

Biodegradable poly(L-lactide) (PLA)/silica (SiO(2)) nanocomposites were prepared by melt compounding to investigate the effect of spherical nanofillers on the thermal stability of PLA. The nanocomposites displayed improved thermal stability both under nitrogen and in air. The stabilization mechanism was attributed mainly to the barrier effect of the network formed, which was demonstrated by the improved barrier properties and rheological performance. The dispersion of nanofiller and matrix-nanoparticle interactions were investigated to evaluate the dependence of the network on SiO(2) loadings. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis indicated that hydroxyl groups on SiO(2) surfaces and PLA chain-ends reacted during melt processing. The resulting grafted SiO(2) and entangled PLA chains formed a dense network, which hindered the diffusion of oxygen and volatile decomposition products. Furthermore, the improvement in thermal stability resulted from the restraining effect on the mobility of active hydroxyl end-groups, so that some related thermal decomposition reactions were inhibited, which was confirmed from gel permeation chromatography measurements. (C) 2010 Society of Chemical Industry
Effect of substrate orientation on the catalyst-free growth of InP nanowires

We report the fabrication of self-catalysed InP nanowires on (111)B, (111)A, (110), and (001) InP substrates. Indium droplets, deposited in situ using metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy, are used as seeds for nanowire growth. The preferential nanowire growth direction is always on (111)B, (111)A, and (110) oriented substrates. On (111)A substrates some initial growth in the [111]A direction is observed before kinking into one of the available directions. The nanowires are optically active at room temperature. On (001) substrates no nanowire growth off the substrate is observed. However, growth still takes place in the two possible equivalent azimuthal directions.
Idiotypic Cascades after Injection of the Monoclonal Antibody OC125: A Study in a Mouse Model. Induction of Antibodies against OC125 and CA 125 after Immunization with an Anti-CA 125 (MAb OC125) Monoclonal Antibody by Activation of the Idiotypic Network

By immunization of mice with the anti-CA 125 monoclonal antibody OC125, we tried to induce antibodies directed against the tumour-associated antigen CA125, via activation of the idiotypic network. Mice immunized by repeated administrations of F(ab')2-fragments of the OC125 antibody produced anti-idiotypic antibodies, imitating the original target antigen of the OC125. After induction of these anti-idiotypic antibodies (Ab2 beta) a murine IgG-anti-CA125 (Ab3) response was detected. The induction of idiotypic cascades offers the possibility of immunization against tumour-associated antigens, without using the original antigen and breaking antitumour tolerance.
Longitudinal reference ranges for fetal ultrasound biometry in twin pregnancies

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to establish longitudinal reference ranges for fetal ultrasound biometry measurements and growth parameters in twin pregnancies. METHOD: A total of 200 uncomplicated twin pregnancies before 21 weeks of gestation were recruited for this prospective, longitudinal study. Women who abandoned follow-up, pregnancies with unknown outcomes or pregnancies with complications were excluded. Ultrasound scans were performed every three weeks, and biparietal and occipitofrontal diameters, head and abdominal circumferences, and femur diaphysis length measurements were obtained for each fetus at each visit. Estimated fetal weight, biparietal/occipitofrontal diameter, head circumference/abdominal circumference, and femur diaphysis length/abdominal circumference ratios were also calculated. Multilevel regression analysis was performed on normalized data. RESULTS: A total of 807 ultrasound examinations were performed in 125 twin pregnancies between 14 and 38 weeks of gestation (6.5±1.4 scans/pregnancy). Regression analysis demonstrated significant correlations for all variables with gestational age, namely log of the biparietal diameter (r = 0.98), log of the occipitofrontal diameter (r = 0.98), log of the head circumference (r = 0.99), log of the abdominal circumference (r = 0.98), square root of the femur length (r = 0.99), log of the estimated fetal weight (r = 0.99), biparietal/occipitofrontal ratio (r = -0.11), head/abdomen circumference ratio (r = -0.56), and log of the femur length/abdominal circumference ratio (r = 0.61). Values corresponding to the 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles for estimated fetal weight at 28, 32, and 36 weeks, respectively, were as follows: 937, 1,096, 1,284 g; 1,462, 1,720, 2,025 g; and 2,020, 2,399, 2,849 g. CONCLUSION: In twin pregnancies, fetal ultrasound biometry measurements and growth parameters show a significant correlation with gestational age.
Survival and function of human thymic dendritic cells are dependent on autocrine Hedgehog signaling

The Hedgehog (Hh) family of signaling molecules functions in the development of numerous tissues during embryogenesis and has also been involved in adult self‐renewing tissues. Recent results have demonstrated that the different components of the Hh signaling pathway are expressed in the human thymus. In this study, we investigate whether thymic dendritic cells (DCs) are cell targets for Hh signaling. Both components of the Hh receptor, Patched and Smoothened, as well as other Hh‐binding proteins with modulating functions, are expressed by human thymic DCs. The expression of Gli1, Gli2, and Gli3 transcription factors suggests that the Hh signaling pathway is active in thymic DCs, and approximately one‐half of thymic DCs produces Sonic Hh (Shh). The culture of thymic DCs with Shh protects them from apoptosis [similarly to CD40 ligand (CD40L)], and these antiapoptotic effects are related to an up‐regulation of Bcl‐2 and Bcl‐XL protein expression. The addition of the Hh pathway inhibitor, cyclopamine, decreases DC viability and impairs their allostimulatory function in vitro. In addition, the blockade of the Hh signaling pathway by cyclopamine treatment abrogates the up‐regulation of HLA‐DR, CD86, CD80, and CD83 expression induced by CD40L on thymic DCs. Finally, we also show that after activation with CD40L thymic DCs down‐regulate the expression of Hh receptor components as well as Shh production. Taken together, these results suggest that the survival and function of thymic DCs are regulated by an autocrine Hh signaling.
The Importance of Not Being Earnest: The Feeling Behind Laughter and Humor

The book contains a preface and an introduction, and then the rest is divided into three sections: Part 1, 'How we laugh', Part 2, 'Why we laugh', and Part 3, 'Pulling things together'. The volume closes with references and a combined index of both names and subjects. In his introduction, C relates laughter to a feeling of nonseriousness often elicited by a percep- tion of pseudo-plausibility in a state of affairs, which we ultimately exclude from our (serious) vision of how things are. Pseudo-plausibility has been called 'local logic', 'sense in nonsense', or 'appropriate inappropriateness' by other writers on humor. In Part 1, C concerns himself with the articulatory and acoustic phonetics of laughter, with special sections on varieties of laughter and laughing while speaking. His findings are based on recordings from the Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English. Audio samples of the data analyzed are available at C's website. By contrast, with questionable claims by Provine (2000) about the sounds of laughter, C demonstrates, in consonance with Bachorowski, Smoski, and Owren (2001), that the vowels of laughter are within the mid-central range, or very close to schwa. C finds no phonetic basis for the folk tradition of distinguishing laughs like heehee, haha, hoho and the like, and similar transcriptions of laughter, especially those following Jefferson 1985 and others in the conversational analysis tradition. By contrast with past writers, C demonstrates the phonetic complexity and individual character of laughter along with the significance of the final inhalation to replenish air in the lungs. His description of laughing while speaking breaks new ground in focusing on specific features of laughter like tremolo and creaky voice. Still, it seems odd that C spends so much time on the phonetics of laughter in such a relatively brief book, given that his purpose is to investigate the feeling behind laughter and humor. It would have served his theoretical purpose simply to have shown that laughter is physically disabling and that laughter prevents us from acting in serious ways—just as the psychological state of nonseriousness prevents us from thinking in serious ways. The rest of the discussion simply serves to fill in the picture of how human laughter works, sounds, and interacts with speech. C further relates laughter to smiling, and discusses internal changes in the body during laughter, interaction with the brain, and the often-claimed positive effect of laughter on health. The second part of the book focuses on the feeling behind laughter and humor. C discusses emotions and their description, and the evolution of the feeling of nonseriousness in a Darwinian vein, just as one might speculate why humans developed a behavior like crying or why cats developed purring. Then there is a long consideration of nonseriousness without humor. On the one hand, laughter is not the only possible reaction to the feeling of nonseriousness; on the other
Disturbance-Observer-Based PD Control of Flexible Joint Robots for Asymptotic Convergence

This paper proposes a robust PD control scheme for flexible-joint robots based on a disturbance observer (DOB). In this paper, the DOB is applied only to the motor-side dynamics of the robot, and the uncertainties on the motor-side are successfully eliminated. It is shown that the proposed DOB-based approach guarantees global asymptotic stability. To this end, two special treatments are required. First, unlike the typical configuration of the DOB, nominal states of the motor-side are fed back to the PD controller. Second, a control input that makes the nominal states stable is additionally introduced. The proposed approach was verified using multi-degree-of-freedom experiments.
American Journal of Epidemiology Original Contribution Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Risk of Distal Gastric Cancer in the Shanghai Women's and Men's Health Studies

Results from case-control and cohort studies of the association between fruit and vegetable consumption and gastric cancer risk have been inconsistent. Cases for the current study consisted of incident distal gastric cancers identified between 1996 and 2007 among members of the Shanghai Women's Health Study (n ¼ 206) and the Shanghai Men's Health Study (n ¼ 132). Intakes of fruits, vegetables, and select micronutrients were assessed on the basis of validated food frequency questionnaires. Multivariate-adjusted hazards ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated by Cox proportional hazards regression. For women, no associations were found between gastric cancer risk and the highest intake of fruits (hazard ratio (HR)
Phosphorous Sorption by Filtralite P—Small Scale Box Experiment

Abstract Phosphorus (P) sorption of light weight aggregate, Filtralite P has been examined through a box experiment which imitates a horizontal subsurface flow wetland system. The results showed that after the P breakthrough, the outlet P concentration increased with time according to the amount of P applied. Small scale boxes with a high inlet P concentration (15 ppm) and high loading rate (5–2.5 L d−1) reached 90% saturation level relatively quickly (after about 150 days of operation), while the boxes with low hydraulic loading rate (1.25 L day−1) were 70–90% saturated after 18 months of operation. The total P removal was dependent on pH, Ca, and the inlet P concentrations, but was independent of the hydraulic loading rate. Extraction of total P from the saturated filter material showed that the sorbed P accumulated within the inlet section of the box and decreased gradually towards the outlet as well as towards the bottom layer. Even after large amounts of Ca had leached out of the system, Filtralite P still had a very high P removal capacity. After resting periods the P sorption capacity of the material was regenerated, the P concentration in the effluent decreased by 22–53%.
Effects of dietary supplementation of organic acids and phytase on performance and intestinal histomorphology of broilers

The present experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of organic acids and phytase enzyme supplementation on performance and intestinal histomorphology of broilers. The experiment was done in a factorial arrangement 2 × 2 × 2 based on completely randomized design with eight treatments, five replicates with 12 chicks in each until 42 days of age. Diets included natural vinegar (0 and 2%), citric acid (CA; 0.00 and 1.00%) and phytase enzyme (PHY; 0.00 and 500 FTU phytase per kg of feed). One bird from each treatment replicate was randomly selected and slaughtered to evaluate the small intestinal morphology on 42 days of age. Analysis of results showed that vinegar increased feed consumption and body weight gain in total experimental period (p ˂ 0.05), while CA significantly decreased feed consumption on 0-14 days of age (p ˂ 0.05). No effect was observed on performance in interaction of organic acids together and with PHY group (p > 0.05). In duodenum CA increased the villus height and width (p ˂ 0.05) and PHY enzyme increased villus width (p ˂ 0.05) and decreased crypt depth (p ˂ 0.05). On the other hand, CA along with PHY significantly decreased crypt depth (p ˂ 0.05). In jejunum PHY alone and in combination with vinegar increased the goblet cells numbers (p ˂ 0.05), whereas vinegar significantly increased the goblet cells numbers in ileum (p ˂ 0.05). The muscular thickness in duodenum, jejunum, and ileum was not aﬀected among diﬀerent treatment groups. The results showed that supplementation of organic acids and phytase together in this experiment, with no negative effects on each other, improved their effects on some parameters.
Cultural Beliefs and Coping Strategies Related to Childhood Cancer

The purpose of this study is to describe cultural beliefs and coping strategies related to dealing with childhood cancer identified through a qualitative study of the caregiving experiences of first-generation South Asian immigrant parents of children with cancer. A constructivist grounded theory approach was employed. Families with a child at least 6 months postdiagnosis were recruited from 5 Canadian pediatric oncology centers. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted in English, Hindi, Punjabi, or Urdu with a sample of 25 South Asian parents. Analysis of interviews involved line-by-line coding and using the constant comparison method. The following 2 central themes related to culture and coping emerged: (a) cultural beliefs about childhood cancer being incurable, rare, unspeakable, and understood through religion and (b) parental coping strategies included gaining information about the child’s cancer, practicing religious rituals and prayers, trusting the health care professionals, and obtaining mutual support from other South Asian parents. These cultural beliefs and coping strategies have important implications for health care providers to understand the variations in the perceptions of childhood cancer and coping in order to implement culturally sensitive health care services.
A Fast Mean-Reverting Correction to Heston's Stochastic Volatility Model

We propose a multiscale stochastic volatility model in which a fast mean-reverting factor of volatility is built on top of the Heston stochastic volatility model. A singular perturbative expansion is then used to obtain an approximation for European option prices. The resulting pricing formulas are semianalytic, in the sense that they can be expressed as integrals. Difficulties associated with the numerical evaluation of these integrals are discussed, and techniques for avoiding these difficulties are provided. Overall, it is shown that computational complexity for our model is comparable to the case of a pure Heston model, but our correction brings significant flexibility in terms of fitting to the implied volatility surface. This is illustrated numerically and with option data.
Multi-cell soft errors at the 16-nm FinFET technology node

Soft error performance of 16-nm FinFET SRAM designs fabricated using a commercial bulk CMOS process is evaluated using heavy-ions. Results included supply voltage variations show that multi-cell upsets dominate soft-error rates. Dual-port SRAM has higher cross-section than single-port SRAM but did not have any multi-cell upset across the bit-line direction. TCAD simulations showing the extent of the perturbation in the electric parameters as a function of particle LET support the experimental data.
PVE Correction in PET-CT Whole-Body Oncological Studies From PVE-Affected Images

Partial Volume Effect (PVE) in PET-CT oncological studies affects the estimation of quantitative parameters useful for lesion malignancy differentiation and for monitoring disease and response to therapy. The aim of this work was to investigate the clinical feasibility and accuracy of PVE correction methods based on Recovery Coefficients (RC) as function of measured Lesion-to-Background ratio (L/B)m and measured lesion volume (Vm). PET-CT measurements were performed. The radioactivity concentration (Cm) and Vm were measured from images using Operator-Dependent and Operator-Independent (OI) techniques. RC curves were obtained combining RC from NEMA 2001 IQ phantom measurements as function of Sphere-to-Background ratio (S/B)m and sphere Vm. PVE correction was applied to PET-CT studies of anthropomorphic oncological phantoms and to PET-CT oncological studies (basal and follow up). The underestimation of Cm due to PVE in the NEMA IQ spheres (up to 80%) confirmed the severity of the error. The more feasible (always applicable, noise insensitive, reproducible) way to measure radioactivity was found by the use of an OI threshold technique. Our results showed that this measurement technique allows to achieve a PVE correction accuracy >; 87% (error in radioactivity estimate <; 13%) for a sphere diameter >; 1 cm. In patient studies the PVE correction was found to modify both SUV and SUV variations during patient follow up and our analysis showed that a PVE corrected SUV quantification increases the diagnostic confidence of oncological PET-CT studies.