Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elevation‐dependent thermal regime and dynamics of frozen ground in the Bayan Har Mountains, northeastern Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau, southwest China

To investigate and monitor permafrost in the Bayan Har Mountains (BHM), north‐eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, southwest China, 19 boreholes ranging from 20 to 100 m in depth were drilled along an elevational transect (4,221–4,833 m a.s.l.) from July to September 2010. Measurements from these boreholes demonstrate that ground temperatures at the depth of zero annual amplitude (TZAA) are generally higher than −2.0°C. The lapse rates of TZAA are 4 and 6 °C km−1, and the lower limits of permafrost with TZAA < −1°C are approximately 4,650 and 4,750 m a.s. l. on the northern (near Yeniugou) and southern (near Qingshui'he) slopes, respectively. TZAA changes abruptly within short distances from −0.2 to +1.2°C near the northern lower limits of permafrost and from about +0.5 to +1.5°C near the southern lower limits of permafrost. Thawing and freezing on the ground surface at Qingshui'he (4,413 m a. s. l.) are 13.3 d earlier and 26 d later than that at Chalaping (4,724 m a. s. l.), respectively. The temperature gradient at Qingshui'he is clearly larger than that at Chalaping. The changes of permafrost TZAA ranged from 0.03°C to 0.2°C from 2010 to 2017. A 3.5‐m‐thick permafrost near Qingshui'he was observed to disappear in summer 2013. There is no significant correlation between elevation and permafrost temperature changes in the study area, whereas the changes of very warm (close to 0°C) permafrost seem to be slow in the intermontane basins.
Temperature dependent optical constants for SiO2 film on Si substrate by ellipsometry

In situ ellipsometry measurements in the spectra range from 246 to 1000 nm were performed on a SiO2/Si system at temperatures varying from 25 to 600 °C. By using Cauchy dispersion model to describe SiO2 layer and B-spline to parameterize Si substrate, the temperature dependent optical constants of SiO2 film and Si substrate were precisely determined and analyzed which is helpful to understand the temperature effect of substrate for ellipsometry measurement. The temperature coefficient of refractive index of SiO2 at elevated temperature was obtained by ellipsometry. The results indicate that the temperature coefficient increases with increasing wavelength and decreasing temperature.
Kinematic analysis of vowel production in German

The tense and lax vowels of German were compared, based on an analysis of the duration, amplitude and velocity characteristics of lip and tongue movement. This study examined firstly whether they show different patterns of compression over changes in speech rate, and secondly whether velocity profiles would reveal evidence of different underlying control mechanisms. CVC movements were segmented into CV, nucleus and VC portions. Speech rate affected duration of CV and VC movements similarly for tense and lax vowels. However, the effect on nucleus duration was vastly greater for the tense vowels. Analysis of the velocity profiles of CV and VC movements in terms of the ratio of peak to average velocity showed no differences between tense and lax vowels, once differences in duration were taken into account. The conclusion is that tense and lax vowels share similar control mechanisms for the elementary CV and VC movements, but differ radically in the way these elements are concatenated.
Quasi‐random graphs with given degree sequences

It is now known that many properties of the objects in certain combinatorial structures are equivalent, in the sense that any object possessing any of the properties must of necessity possess them all. These properties, termed quasirandom, have been described for a variety of structures such as graphs, hypergraphs, tournaments, Boolean functions, and subsets of Zn, and most recently, sparse graphs. In this article, we extend these ideas to the more complex case of graphs which have a given degree sequence. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. , 2008
The Development of CBT Programmes for Anger: The Role of Interventions to Promote Perspective-Taking Skills

Abstract Although the emotion of anger has, in recent years, been the subject of increasing theoretical analysis, there are relatively few accounts of how interventions designed to reduce problematic anger might be related to cognitively oriented theories of emotion. In this review of the literature we describe how a cognitive-behavioural approach to the treatment of those with anger-related problems might be understood in relation to conceptualizations of anger from a cognitive perspective. Three additional interventions (visual feedback, chair-work, forgiveness therapy) are identified that aim to improve the perspective-taking skills of angry clients. It is concluded that such interventions might be considered for use within the context of cognitive-behavioural treatment.
Regulation of storage protein gene expression in Arabidopsis

The expression of seed storage proteins is under tight developmental regulation and represents a powerful model system to study the regulation of gene expression during plant development. In this study, we show that three homologous B3 type transcription factors regulate the model storage protein gene, At2S3, via two distinct mechanisms: FUSCA3 (FUS3) and LEAFY COTYLEDON2 (LEC2) activate the At2S3 promoter in yeast suggesting that they regulate At2S3 by directly binding its promoter; ABSCISIC ACID INSENSITIVE3 (ABI3), however, appears to act more indirectly on At2S3, possibly as a cofactor in an activation complex. In accordance with this, FUS3 and LEC2 were found to act in a partially redundant manner and differently from ABI3 in planta: At2S3 expression is reduced to variable and sometimes only moderate extent in fus3 and lec2 single mutants but is completely abolished in the lec2 fus3 double mutant. In addition, we found that FUS3 and LEC2 expression patterns, together with an unsuspected regulation of FUS3 by LEC2, enable us to explain the intriguing expression pattern of At2S3 in lec2 or fus3 single mutants. Based on these results, we present a model of At2S3 regulation and discuss its implications for other aspects of seed maturation.
Variance, Skewness and Kurtosis: results from the APM Cluster Redshift Survey and Model Predictions

We estimate the variance $\xibar_2$, the skewness $\xibar_3$ and the kurtosis $\xibar_4$ in the distribution of density fluctuations in a complete sample from the APM Cluster Redshift Survey with 339 clusters and a mean depth $ \sim 250\Mpc$. We are able to measure the statistics of fluctuations in spheres of radius $R \simeq 5-80 \Mpc$, with reasonable errorbars. The statistics in the cluster distribution follow the hierarchical pattern $\xibar_J=S_J~\xibar_2^{J-1}$ with $S_J$ roughly constant, $S_3 \simeq 2$ and $S_4 \sim 8$. We analyse the distribution of clusters taken from N-body simulations of different dark matter models. The results are compared with an alternative method of simulating clusters which uses the truncated Zel'dovich approximation. We argue that this alternative method is not reliable enough for making quantitative predictions of $\xibar$. The N-body simulation results follow similar hierarchical relations to the observations, with $S_J$ almost unaffected by redshift distortions from peculiar motions. The standard $\Omega=1$ Cold Dark Matter (CDM) model is inconsistent with either the second, third or fourth order statistics at all scales. However both a hybrid Mixed Dark Matter model and a low density CDM variant agree with the $\xibar_J$ observations.
Ethical aspects of human biobanks: a systematic review

Aim To systematically assess the existing literature on ethical aspects of human biobanks. Method We searched the Web of Science and PubMed databases to find studies addressing ethical problems in biobanks with no limits set (study design, study population, time period, or language of publication). All identified articles published until November 2010 were included. We analyzed the type of published articles, journals publishing them, involvement of countries/institutions, year of publication, and citations received, and qualitatively assessed every article in order to identify ethical issues addressed by the majority of published research on human biobanking. Results Hundred and fifty four studies satisfied our review criteria. The studies mainly came from highly developed countries and were all published in the last two decades, with over half of them published in 2009 or 2010. They most commonly discussed the informed consent, privacy and identifiability, return of results to participants, importance of public trust, involvement of children, commercialization, the role of ethics boards, international data exchange, ownership of samples, and benefit sharing. Conclusions The focus on ethical aspects is strongly present through the whole biobanking research field. Although there is a consensus on the old and most typical ethical issues, with further development of the field and increasingly complex structure of human biobanks, these issues will likely continue to arise and accumulate, hence requiring constant re-appraisal and continuing discussion.
Distinguishing Noise from Chaos: Objective versus Subjective Criteria Using Horizontal Visibility Graph

A recently proposed methodology called the Horizontal Visibility Graph (HVG) [Luque et al., Phys. Rev. E. , 80, 046103 (2009)] that constitutes a geometrical simplification of the well known Visibility Graph algorithm [Lacasa et al., Proc. Natl. Sci. U.S.A. 105, 4972 (2008)], has been used to study the distinction between deterministic and stochastic components in time series [L. Lacasa and R. Toral, Phys. Rev. E. , 82, 036120 (2010)]. Specifically, the authors propose that the node degree distribution of these processes follows an exponential functional of the form , in which is the node degree and is a positive parameter able to distinguish between deterministic (chaotic) and stochastic (uncorrelated and correlated) dynamics. In this work, we investigate the characteristics of the node degree distributions constructed by using HVG, for time series corresponding to chaotic maps, 2 chaotic flows and different stochastic processes. We thoroughly study the methodology proposed by Lacasa and Toral finding several cases for which their hypothesis is not valid. We propose a methodology that uses the HVG together with Information Theory quantifiers. An extensive and careful analysis of the node degree distributions obtained by applying HVG allow us to conclude that the Fisher-Shannon information plane is a remarkable tool able to graphically represent the different nature, deterministic or stochastic, of the systems under study.
Genesis of the El Romeral iron ore: New contributions to the understanding of iron oxide-apatite deposits

Iron oxide-apatite (IOA) ore deposits are a major source of iron and potentially of rare earth elements (REE), which are essential for the development of new technologies in our growing society. However, the genesis of these deposits remains controversial and both liquid immiscibility and hydrothermal replacement models have been proposed to explain the origin of IOA deposits. El Romeral is one of the largest IOA districts in the Chilean Iron Belt in the Coastal Cordillera of northern Chile. The Cerro Principal magnetite orebody in El Romeral, comprises massive magnetite intergrown with actinolite, with minor apatite, scapolite and sulfides (pyrite ± chalcopyrite). Several types of magnetite mineralization were identified using petrographic and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) observations. The main mineralization
Variation of anticyclotomic Iwasawa invariants in Hida families

Building on the construction of big Heegner points in the quaternionic setting, and their relation to special values of Rankin-Selberg $L$-functions, we obtain anticyclotomic analogues of the results of Emerton-Pollack-Weston on the variation of Iwasawa invariants in Hida families. In particular, combined with the known cases of the anticyclotomic Iwasawa main conjecture in weight $2$, our results yield a proof of the main conjecture for $p$-ordinary newforms of higher weights and trivial nebentypus.
Food safety knowledge and practice by the stages of change model in school children

In this study, 342 grade 4-6 elementary school students in Gyeonggi-do were recruited to determine their readiness to change food safety behavior and to compare their food safety knowledge and practices by the stages of change. The subjects were divided into three stages of change; the percentage of stage 1 (precontemplation) was 10.1%, the percentage of stage 2 (contemplation and preparation) was 62.4%, and that of stage 3 (action and maintenance) was 27.5%. Food safety knowledge scores in stage 3 (4.55) or stage 2 (4.50) children were significantly higher than those in stage 1 children (4.17) (P < 0.05). The two food safety behavior items "hand washing practice" and "avoidance of harmful food" were significantly different among the three groups (P < 0.05). Stages of change were significantly and positively correlated with food safety knowledge and practice. Age was significantly and negatively correlated with the total food safety behavior score (r = -0.142, P < 0.05). The most influential factor on the stage of change was a mother's instruction about food safety (P < 0.01).
The Prognostic and Predictive Role of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor in Surgical Resected Pancreatic Cancer

The data regarding the prognostic significance of EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) expression and adjuvant therapy in patients with resected pancreatic cancer are insufficient. We retrospectively investigated EGFR status in 357 resected PDAC (pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma) patients using tissue immunohistochemistry and validated the possible role of EGFR expression in predicting prognosis. The analysis was based on excluding the multiple confounding parameters. A negative association was found between overall EGFR status and postoperative survival (p = 0.986). Remarkably, adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy were significantly associated with favorable postoperative survival, which prolonged median overall survival (OS) for 5.8 and 10.2 months (p = 0.009 and p = 0.006, respectively). Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that adjuvant chemotherapy correlated with an obvious survival benefit in the EGFR-positive subgroup rather than in the EGFR-negative subgroup. In the subgroup analyses, chemotherapy was highly associated with increased postoperative survival in the EGFR-positive subgroup (p = 0.002), and radiotherapy had a significant survival benefit in the EGFR-negative subgroup (p = 0.029). This study demonstrated that EGFR expression is not correlated with outcome in resected pancreatic cancer patients. Adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy were significantly associated with improved survival in contrary EGFR expressing subgroup. Further studies of EGFR as a potential target for pancreatic cancer treatment are warranted.
Simulation and Rendering of Liquid Foams

In this paper we present a technique for simulating and rendering liquid foams. We are aiming at a functional realism that allows our simulation to be consistent with the physical effects in real liquid foam while avoiding the prohibitive computational cost of a physically accurate simulation. To this end, we have to recreate two important attributes of foam. The dynamic behaviour of the simulated foam must be based on the physics of real foam, and the characteristic interior structures of foam and their optical properties must be reproduced. We tackle these requirements by introducing a two part hybrid rendering approach. The first stage is geometric and determines the dynamic behaviour of the foam by simulating structural forces on a set of spheres, which represent the foam bubbles. In the second stage we render these spheres using a special surface shader that implicitly reconstructs the foam surfaces and performs the shading calculations. This two step approach allows us to easily integrate our technique into existing ray-tracing systems. We include images of an example animation to demonstrate the visual quality.
Characterization of a Hemoglobin Protease Secreted by the Pathogenic Escherichia coli Strain EB1

Many pathogenic bacteria can use heme compounds as a source of iron. Pathogenic Escherichia coli strains are capable of using hemoglobin as an iron source. However, the mechanism of heme acquisition from hemoglobin is not understood for this microorganism. We present the first molecular characterization of a hemoglobin protease (Hbp) from a human pathogenic E. coli strain. The enzyme also appeared to be a heme-binding protein. Affinity purification of this bifunctional protein enabled us to identify the extracellular gene product, and to clone and analyze its gene. A purification procedure developed for Hbp allowed us to perform functional studies. The protein interacted with hemoglobin, degraded it and subsequently bound the released heme. These results suggest that the protein is involved in heme acquisition by this human pathogen. Hbp belongs to the so-called IgA1 protease-like proteins, as indicated by the kinetics of its membrane transfer and DNA sequence similarity. The gene of this protein appears to be located on the large pColV-K30 episome, that only has been isolated from human and animal pathogens. All these characteristics indicate that Hbp may be an important virulence factor that may play a significant role in the pathogenesis of E. coli infections.
A novel deadline driven disk scheduling algorithm for multi-priority multimedia objects

We introduce a new deadline driven disk scheduling algorithm designed for multimedia servers. The proposed algorithm supports real time requests with multiple priorities, e.g., those for different object classes in digital library applications. The proposed algorithm enhances utilization of disk bandwidth by: maintaining one queue for all requests; and optimizing the seek time. Prior schemes, collectively termed "multi-queue schemes", maintain a separate queue for each priority group and optimize the performance of the high priority requests only. When compared with our proposed scheme, our technique provides approximately two order of magnitude improvement in meeting the deadline of low priority requests. In addition, this algorithm provides both a better disk utilization and a better average response time. Under certain conditions, our algorithm violates the deadline of a few high priority requests (less than 5 out of a million requests).
Sharp extension theorems and Falconer distance problems for algebraic curves in two dimensional vector spaces over finite fields.

In this paper we study extension theorems associated with general varieties in two dimensional vector spaces over finite fields. Applying Bezout's theorem, we obtain the sufficient and necessary conditions on general curves where sharp $L^p-L^r$ extension estimates hold. Our main result can be considered as a nice generalization of works by Mochenhaupt and Tao and Iosevich and Koh. As an application of our sharp extension estimates, we also study the Falconer distance problems in two dimensions.
Effect of site of starch digestion on portal nutrient net fluxes in steers

Processing of maize grain is known to modulate the site of starch digestion, thus the nature and amount of nutrients delivered for absorption. We assessed the effect of site of starch digestion on nutrient net fluxes across portal-drained viscera (PDV). Three steers, fitted with permanent digestive cannulas and blood catheters, successively received two diets containing 35 % starch as dent maize grain. Diets differed according to maize presentation: dry and cracked (by-pass, BP) v. wet and ground (control, C). Ruminal physicochemical parameters were not significantly affected. Between C and BP, the decrease in ruminal starch digestion was compensated by an increase in starch digestion in the small intestine. The amount of glucose and soluble α-glucoside reaching the ileum was not affected. The amount of glucose disappearing in the small intestine increased from 238 to 531 g/d between C and BP, but portal net flux of glucose remained unchanged (−97 g/d). The portal O2 consumption and net energy release were not significantly affected, averaging 16 % and 57 % of metabolizable energy intake, respectively. The whole-body glucose appearance rate, measured by jugular infusion of [6, 6-2H2]glucose, averaged 916 g/d. The present study shows that the increase in the amount of glucose disappearing in the small intestine of conventionally fed cattle at a moderate intake level induces no change in portal net flux of glucose, reflecting an increase in glucose utilization by PDV. That could contribute to the low response of whole-body glucose appearance rate observed at this moderate level of intestinal glucose supply.
A Faster Patch Ordering Method for Image Denoising

Among the patch-based image denoising processing methods, smooth ordering of local patches (patch ordering) has been shown to give state-of-art results. For image denoising the patch ordering method forms two large TSPs (Traveling Salesman Problem) comprised of nodes in N-dimensional space. Ten approximate solutions of the two large TSPs are then used in a filtering process to form the reconstructed image. Use of large TSPs makes patch ordering a computationally intensive method. A modified patch ordering method for image denoising is proposed. In the proposed method, several smaller-sized TSPs are formed and the filtering process varied to work with solutions of these smaller TSPs. In terms of PSNR, denoising results of the proposed method differed by 0.032 dB to 0.016 dB on average. In original method, solving TSPs was observed to consume 85% of execution time. In proposed method, the time for solving TSPs can be reduced to half of the time required in original method. The proposed method can denoise images in 40% less time.
Distribution of Hepatitis B Virus Genotypes among Patients with Chronic Infection in Japan Shifting toward an Increase of Genotype A

ABSTRACT Acute hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection has been increasing through promiscuous sexual contacts, and HBV genotype A (HBV/A) is frequent in patients with acute hepatitis B (AHB) in Japan. To compare the geographic distribution of HBV genotypes in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in Japan between 2005 and 2006 and between 2000 and 2001, with special attention to changes in the proportion of HBV/A, a cohort study was performed to survey changes in genotypes of CHB patients at 16 hospitals throughout Japan. Furthermore, we investigated the clinical characteristics of each genotype and examined the genomic characteristics of HBV/A isolates by molecular evolutionary analyses. Of the 1,271 patients, 3.5%, 14.1%, and 82.3% were infected with HBV/A, -B, and -C, respectively. In comparison with our previous survey during 2000 and 2001, HBV/A was twice as frequent (3.5% versus 1.7%; P = 0.02). The mean age was lower in the patients with HBV/A than in those with HBV/B or -C. Based on phylogenetic analyses of 11 full-length genomes and 29 pre-S2/S region sequences from patients, HBV/A isolates were imported from Europe and the United States, as well as the Philippines and India. They clustered with HBV/A from AHB patients and have spread throughout Japan. HBV/A has been increasing in CHB patients in Japan as a consequence of AHB spreading in the younger generation through promiscuous sexual contacts, aided by a tendency of HBV/A to induce chronic hepatitis. The spread of HBV/A infection in Japan should be prevented by universal vaccination programs.