Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of streamers in liquid nitrogen under AC voltages using UHF techniques

Pre-breakdown phenomena in liquid nitrogen (LN2), often referred as streamers, are the precursor of total breakdown due to the more conductive nature of density-change channels compared to the liquid. The paper characterizes streamer behavior in LN2 under AC voltages using ultra high frequency (UHF) and radio frequency current transformer (RFCT) measurements. The aim is to further understand the role of LN2 as insulation as well as the application of non-conventional partial discharge (PD) detection techniques in condition monitoring of future HTS devices. An experiment has been developed to measure PD events in LN2 using narrowband and wideband methods simultaneously. PD detection following IEC 60270 standards allows measurement of the amount of charge transferred at the terminals while the use of a UHF senor with a bandwidth up to 3 GHz can provide better resolution in the time domain. Results from the UHF sensor show that PD in LN2 appears in the form of multiple pulses which are suggested to be due to the expansion and collapse of the gaseous channels. The pulse burst phenomenon was not observed by the narrowband detection. Instead, a slowly damped signal was measured, which may result from the integration of multiple individual events. The experiment also allows correlation of PD measurements with images of pre-breakdown streamers using shadow photography. The characteristics of streamers in LN2 are discussed based on the observation of the density-change channels together with the corresponding discharge signature.
Modeling and understanding time-evolving scenarios

In this paper, we consider the problem of modeling application scenarios characterized by variability over time and involving heterogeneous kinds of knowledge. The evolution of distributed technologies creates new and challenging possibilities of integrating different kinds of problem solving methods, obtaining many benefits from the user point of view. In particular, we propose here a multilayer modeling system and adopt the Knowledge Artifact concept to tie together statistical and Artificial Intelligence rule-based methods to tackle problems in ubiquitous and distributed scenarios.
[Outcomes of bile duct drainage by means of ERCP in geriatric patients].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is usually the procedure of choice for relieving bile duct obstruction. a large number of patients undergoing this intervention are geriatric population (aged 75 years of age and older). Our aim was to assess the efficacy of ERCP in this group of patients as compared to younger ones. PATIENTS AND METHODS A retrospective study. All patients in whom a therapeutic biliary endoscopy had been performed over a four-year period of time (2002-2005) were included. RESULTS 178 geriatric patients and 159 younger ones underwent ERCP. No differences were found in successful biliary drainage (97.7 vs. 98.7%), complication number (11.8 vs. 14.4%), or mortality rate (1.1 vs. 0.6%). On the other hand, more common bile duct stones were found in geriatric patients (57.3 vs. 39.6%, p = 0.004), and also more self-expanding metal stents were employed to drain malignant obstructive jaundice (47 vs. 8%, p = 0.0035). In the youngest group, more ERCPs were repeated in the same patients (4 vs. 10%, p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The geriatric population showed similar success and morbidity and mortality rates when compared to younger patients in draining their bile duct by means of ERCP. Common bile duct stones were more frequently found in geriatric patients. No patients needing an ERCP should be excluded only because of their age.
Profile of Ets gene expression in human breast carcinoma

Background: Ets genes encode a family of transcription factors that play key roles in cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. Fusions of Ets genes with other targets have been described in Ewing’s sarcoma, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia and more recently prostate carcinoma. Ets expression in breast carcinoma has not been comprehensively studied, and is the focus of this study. Methods: RT-Q-PCR was used to determine the expression of Ets genes in a panel of ten common breast cancer cell lines, two immortalized normal breast epithelial cell lines, and one primary culture of human mammary epithelial cells. Ets with altered expression in cancer cell lines were verified in primary breast tumors. Results: Transcripts of 21 of the 27 Ets genes were detected in either normal or cancer cells. Of the 21 detectable genes, 14 were expressed at a similar level in both normal and breast cancer cell lines. Four genes, Ehf, Elf3, Elf5 and Pdef, were expressed at higher levels in breast cancer cells than normal epithelials. Surprisingly, the expression of Elk3, Ets1 and Fli1 was repressed in breast cancer cells. The protein status of Ehf, Elf3, Pdef, Elk3, Ets1 and Fli, strongly correlated with the transcript data, suggesting that Ets expression is regulated primarily at the transcriptional level. Similarly, Elf3, Pdef and Tel2 were over-expressed, while Elk3, Ets1 and Fli1 were under-expressed in primary breast tumor specimens in comparison with normal mammary tissues. Conclusions: Our study identified a subset of Ets genes with altered expression in breast carcinoma, implicating their roles in mammary tumorigenesis. While the Ets over-expression pattern is useful to uncover recurrent genetic alterations involving Ets genes, the repressed expression of several Ets genes suggests that some Ets proteins may play suppressor roles during breast cancer progression. Our results warrant detailed studies of individual Ets activity in mammary gland neoplasia.
Linear prediction receiver for differential space-time block codes with spatial correlation

The differential space-time block code is well-known to provide full spatial diversity and allows simple differential detection. Recent results have shown performance degradation when the channel is time-varying. The letter shows the effect on error performance of spatial correlation between transmit antennas. A generalized receiver which exploits spatial correlation information, is proposed and shown to outperform an existing receiver in terms of frame error rate for slowly varying channels with moderate to high spatial correlation.
Distal tibial tuberosity translation using TTA implants for the treatment of patella alta in large breed dogs

Summary Introduction: Medial patellar luxation frequently occurs in dogs resulting in lameness with increasing incidence in large breed dogs. Patella alta has been defined as a patellar ligament length to patellar length ratio that is greater than two and may predispose to patellar luxation. Objective: To describe the surgical technique for stabilization of the distal translation of the tibial tuberosity using tibial tuberosity advancement plates and the clinical outcomes with follow-up for clinical cases of dogs. Methods: Dogs that were presented with the complaint of patellar luxation and that were concurrently diagnosed with patella alta and were greater than 20 kg in body weight underwent surgery using a tibial tuberosity advancement plate to stabilize the osteotomy. Radiographic assessment of A:PL distance (the ratio of the proximal aspect of the patella to the femoral condyle [A] to the patellar length [PL]), L:P ratio (ratio of the length of the patellar ligament to the diagonal length of the patella), and owner assessment were obtained. Results: Eleven stifles in nine dogs underwent surgical correction with a mean preoperative L:P ratio of 2.47. There were no complications and the lameness resolved clinically. The mean A:PL ratios preoperatively (2.6 ± 0.22) and postoperatively (2.1 ± 0.25) were significantly different (p = 0.0003). All owners were satisfied with the outcome and all dogs had a resolution of lameness with no recurrence of patellar luxation. Clinical significance: Stabilization of distal translation of the tibial tuberosity using tibial tuberosity advancement implants to correct patella alta in large breed dogs was feasible and resulted in good clinical outcome.
Morphine Glucuronidation and Glucosidation Represent Complementary Metabolic Pathways That Are Both Catalyzed by UDP-Glucuronosyltransferase 2B7: Kinetic, Inhibition, and Molecular Modeling Studies

Morphine 3-β-D-glucuronide (M3G) and morphine 6-β-D-glucuronide (M6G) are the major metabolites of morphine in humans. More recently, morphine-3-β-d-glucoside (M-3-glucoside) was identified in the urine of patients treated with morphine. Kinetic and inhibition studies using human liver microsomes (HLM) and recombinant UGTs as enzyme sources along with molecular modeling were used here to characterize the relationship between morphine glucuronidation and glucosidation. The M3G to M6G intrinsic clearance (CLint) ratio (∼5.5) from HLM supplemented with UDP-glucuronic acid (UDP-GlcUA) alone was consistent with the relative formation of these metabolites in humans. The mean CLint values observed for M-3-glucoside by incubations of HLM with UDP-glucose (UDP-Glc) as cofactor were approximately twice those for M6G formation. However, although the M3G-to-M6G CLint ratio remained close to 5.5 when human liver microsomal kinetic studies were performed in the presence of a 1:1 mixture of cofactors, the mean CLint value for M-3-glucoside formation was less than that of M6G. Studies with UGT enzyme-selective inhibitors and recombinant UGT enzymes, along with effects of BSA on morphine glycosidation kinetics, were consistent with a major role of UGT2B7 in both morphine glucuronidation and glucosidation. Molecular modeling identified key amino acids involved in the binding of UDP-GlcUA and UDP-Glc to UGT2B7. Mutagenesis of these residues abolished morphine glucuronidation and glucosidation. Overall, the data indicate that morphine glucuronidation and glucosidation occur as complementary metabolic pathways catalyzed by a common enzyme (UGT2B7). Glucuronidation is the dominant metabolic pathway because the binding affinity of UDP-GlcUA to UGT2B7 is higher than that of UDP-Glc.
Extratropical Forcing of Submonthly Variations of Rainfall in Vietnam

An EOF analysis is applied to high-resolution Vietnam Gridded Precipitation anomalies to support the notion that the characteristics of intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) of rainfall in Vietnam are distinct from location to location and highly affected by topography. Power spectral analysis reveals that the ISO of rainfall in Vietnam is dominated by submonthly-scale ISO (SISO), which is most active in September–October. The rainfall SISO shows remarkable relationships with heavy rainfall days in the Red River Delta and Mid-Central and Central Highlands but relatively weak correlations with heavy rainfall days in the Northeast and Southern Plain. A composite technique applied to filtered OLR and ERA-Interim shows that the first four principal components (PCs) of the rainfall SISO involve four different processes that closely relate to extratropical systems. The rainfall SISO in the PC1 is governed by interaction between the pressure surge induced by the submonthly amplifications of the Siberian high and tropical depressions (TDs). Rainfall SISO in PC2 is modulated by the convergence of the southward excursion of the polar air mass and TD-type waves. Rainfall SISO in PC3 is generated by the quasigeostrophic lifting of the extratropical wave train associated with TD-type waves. The effect of upstream development of the wave train from the North Pacific and TD-type wave is the key process inducing the rainfall SISO in PC4.
The discoverability of the web

Previous studies have highlighted the high arrival rate of new contenton the web. We study the extent to which this new content can beefficiently discovered by a crawler. Our study has two parts. First,we study the inherent difficulty of the discovery problem using amaximum cover formulation, under an assumption of perfect estimates oflikely sources of links to new content. Second, we relax thisassumption and study a more realistic setting in which algorithms mustuse historical statistics to estimate which pages are most likely toyield links to new content. We recommend a simple algorithm thatperforms comparably to all approaches we consider.We measure the emphoverhead of discovering new content, defined asthe average number of fetches required to discover one new page. Weshow first that with perfect foreknowledge of where to explore forlinks to new content, it is possible to discover 90% of all newcontent with under 3% overhead, and 100% of new content with 9%overhead. But actual algorithms, which do not have access to perfectforeknowledge, face a more difficult task: one quarter of new contentis simply not amenable to efficient discovery. Of the remaining threequarters, 80% of new content during a given week may be discoveredwith 160% overhead if content is recrawled fully on a monthly basis.
User-Aware Electricity Price Optimization for the Competitive Market

Demand response mechanisms and load control in the electricity market represent an important area of research at the international level: the trend towards competition and market liberalization has led to the development of methodologies and tools to support energy providers. Demand side management helps energy suppliers to reduce the peak demand and remodel load profiles. This work is intended to support energy suppliers and policy makers in developing strategies to act on the behavior of energy consumers, with the aim to make a more efficient use of energy. We develop a non-linear optimization model for the dynamics of the electricity market, which can be used to obtain tariff recommendations or for setting the goals of a sensibilization campaign. The model comes in two variants: a stochastic version, designed for residential electricity consumption, and a deterministic version, suitable for large electricity users (e.g., public buildings, industrial users). We have tested our model on data from the Italian energy market and performed an extensive analysis of different scenarios. We also tested the optimization model in a real setting in the context of the FP7 DAREED project (http://www.dareed.eu/), where the model has been employed to provide tariff recommendations or to help the identification of goals for local policies.
Processing of a wheat light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b protein precursor by a soluble enzyme from higher plant chloroplasts

A processing activity has been identified in higher plant chloroplasts that cleaves the precursor of the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b- binding protein (LHCP). A wheat LHCP gene previously characterized (Lamppa, G.K., G. Morelli, and N.-H. Chua, 1985. Mol. Cell Biol. 5:1370- 1378) was used to synthesize RNA and subsequently the labeled precursor polypeptide in vitro. Incubation of the LHCP precursors with a soluble extract from lysed chloroplasts, after removal of the thylakoids and membrane vesicles, resulted in the release of a single 25-kD peptide. In contrast, when the LHCP precursors were used in an import reaction with intact pea or wheat chloroplasts, two forms (25 and 26 kD) of mature LHCP were found. The peptide released by the processing activity in the organelle-free assay comigrated with the lower molecular mass form of mature LHCP produced during import. Properties of the processing activity suggest that it is an endopeptidase. Chloroplasts from both pea and wheat, two divergent higher plants, contain the processing enzyme, suggesting its physiological importance in LHCP assembly into the thylakoids. We discuss the implications of LHCP precursor processing by a soluble enzyme that may be in the stromal compartment.
A tutorial on modern anti-windup design

In this paper, several constructive linear and nonlinear anti-windup techniques are presented and explained. Two approaches, namely direct linear anti-windup (DLAW) and model recovery anti-windup (MRAW), are described in an algorithmic way, in order to illustrate their main features. Hereafter, theoretical conditions ensuring stability and performance, their applicability, their accompanying guarantees, and their merits and deficiencies are given. The possible extensions to less standard problem settings are also briefly discussed.
Nephropathy in Chronic Lead Poisoning

THE ACUTE symptoms of lead poisoning were recognized by Nikander as early as the second century, BC, and they were correctly attributed to "cerussa" (white lead). 1 However, the "Devonshire colic" of 1724 was initially thought to be an epidemic pestilence. Tronchin correctly identified lead in the drinking water of Amsterdam as the cause of the epidemic colic of that city in 1757, and Baker showed ten years later that the cider made in Devon contained large amounts of lead, which produced the colic. 1 During the 200 years since, the literature has been replete with studies of lead poisoning, and although the industrial sources have been largely eliminated, the home brewing of wine 2,3 or whiskey 4,5 has continued to be a considerable source of chronic lead absorption in some areas. There has been universal agreement about the acute symptoms of plumbism, but the nature of the delayed effects remains controversial. In 1863
The intuitive practitioner : Cognitive aspects on the development of Expertise

In recent years the interest in expertise and proficiency has been raising, in educational research, knowledge management as well as in cognitive science. The expert’s know how or procedural knowledge is often hidden even for him or her self, it is tacit. ”We can know more than we can tell”. (Polanyi, 1967) This paper is an “Integrative research review”, trying to show new aspects of experience-based learning and the development of expertise. Several new results from brain imaging studies and from neuropsychology gives reason to believe that experts utilize nondeclarative, implicit memories to perform better. These results delivers new ways of understanding how experts perceive, assess, decide and take action.
Information theory‐based decision support system for integrated design of multivariable hydrometric networks

Adequate and accurate hydrologic information from optimal hydrometric networks is an essential part of effective water resources management. Although the key hydrologic processes in the water cycle are interconnected, hydrometric networks (e.g., streamflow, precipitation, groundwater level) have been routinely designed individually. A decision support framework is proposed for integrated design of multivariable hydrometric networks. The proposed method is applied to design optimal precipitation and streamflow networks simultaneously. The epsilon‐dominance hierarchical Bayesian optimization algorithm was combined with Shannon entropy of information theory to design and evaluate hydrometric networks. Specifically, the joint entropy from the combined networks was maximized to provide the most information, and the total correlation was minimized to reduce redundant information. To further optimize the efficiency between the networks, they were designed by maximizing the conditional entropy of the streamflow network given the information of the precipitation network. Compared to the traditional individual variable design approach, the integrated multivariable design method was able to determine more efficient optimal networks by avoiding the redundant stations. Additionally, four quantization cases were compared to evaluate their effects on the entropy calculations and the determination of the optimal networks. The evaluation results indicate that the quantization methods should be selected after careful consideration for each design problem since the station rankings and the optimal networks can change accordingly.
Properties of isostables and basins of attraction of monotone systems

In this paper, we investigate geometric properties of monotone systems by studying their isostables and basins of attraction. Isostables are boundaries of specific forward-invariant sets defined by the so-called Koopman operator, which provides a linear infinite-dimensional description of a nonlinear system. First, we study the spectral properties of the Koopman operator and the associated semigroup in the context of monotone systems. Our results generalize the celebrated Perron-Frobenius theorem to the nonlinear case and allow us to derive geometric properties of isostables and basins of attraction. Additionally, we show that under certain conditions we can characterize the bounds on the basins of attraction under parametric uncertainty in the vector field. We discuss computational approaches to estimate isostables and basins of attraction and illustrate the results on two and four state monotone systems.
Causal effect of disconnection lesions on interhemispheric functional connectivity in rhesus monkeys

In the absence of external stimuli or task demands, correlations in spontaneous brain activity (functional connectivity) reflect patterns of anatomical connectivity. Hence, resting-state functional connectivity has been used as a proxy measure for structural connectivity and as a biomarker for brain changes in disease. To relate changes in functional connectivity to physiological changes in the brain, it is important to understand how correlations in functional connectivity depend on the physical integrity of brain tissue. The causal nature of this relationship has been called into question by patient data suggesting that decreased structural connectivity does not necessarily lead to decreased functional connectivity. Here we provide evidence for a causal but complex relationship between structural connectivity and functional connectivity: we tested interhemispheric functional connectivity before and after corpus callosum section in rhesus monkeys. We found that forebrain commissurotomy severely reduced interhemispheric functional connectivity, but surprisingly, this effect was greatly mitigated if the anterior commissure was left intact. Furthermore, intact structural connections increased their functional connectivity in line with the hypothesis that the inputs to each node are normalized. We conclude that functional connectivity is likely driven by corticocortical white matter connections but with complex network interactions such that a near-normal pattern of functional connectivity can be maintained by just a few indirect structural connections. These surprising results highlight the importance of network-level interactions in functional connectivity and may cast light on various paradoxical findings concerning changes in functional connectivity in disease states.
Cellular mechanisms underlying temporal changes in skeletal muscle protein synthesis and breakdown during chronic β‐adrenoceptor stimulation in mice

Chronic stimulation of β‐adrenoceptors with β‐adrenoceptor agonists (β‐agonists) can induce substantial skeletal muscle hypertrophy, but the mechanisms mediating this muscle growth have yet to be elucidated. We investigated whether chronic β‐adrenoceptor stimulation in mice with the β‐agonist formoterol alters the muscle anabolic response following β‐adrenoceptor stimulation. Twelve‐week‐old C57BL/6 mice were treated for up to 28 days with a once‐daily injection of either saline (control, n= 9) or formoterol (100 μg kg−1; n= 9). Rates of muscle protein synthesis were assessed at either 1, 7 or 28 days of treatment, 6 h after injection. Protein synthesis rates were higher in formoterol‐treated mice at day 7 (∼1.5‐fold, P < 0.05), but not at day 1 or 28. The increased muscle protein synthesis was associated with increased phosphorylation of S6K1 (r= 0.49, P < 0.01). Formoterol treatment acutely reduced maximal calpain activity by ∼25% (P < 0.05) but did not affect atrogin‐1 protein levels and proteasome‐mediated proteolytic activity, despite significantly enhanced phosphorylation of Akt (P < 0.05). Formoterol increased CREB phosphorylation by ∼30% (P < 0.05) and PPARγ coactivator‐1α (PGC‐1α) by 11‐fold (P < 0.05) on day 1 only. These observations identify that formoterol treatment induces muscle anabolism, by reducing calpain activity and by enhancing protein synthesis via increased PI‐3 kinase/Akt signalling.