Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Climatological Characteristics of Fog at Cape Town International Airport

The character of fog at Cape Town International Airport (CTIA), South Africa, is investigated, using 13 yr of historical hourly data during the period 1997‐2010. Hourly surface observations are used to identify fog types that most frequently affect CTIA, by using an objective fog-type classification method that classifies fog events according to their primary formation mechanisms. Fog-type characteristics, such as the minimum visibility, duration, and time of onset and dissipation, are determined. Self-organizing maps (SOMs) are used to determinethedominantsynopticcirculationtypes associated withfog at CTIA.Resultsshowthatradiative processes are the most common cause of fog, with an enhanced likelihood of radiation fog in winter. Cloudbase-lowering fog and advection fog events are more likely at the start of the fog season. As the fog season (March‐August) progresses, synoptic circulations associated with fog change from a dominant low pressure pattern along the west coast in March and April to a dominant interior high pressure pattern toward July and August. The techniques presented may be used to provide aviation forecasters with a detailed description of the types of fog that frequently occur, their characteristics, and the synoptic circulation associated therewith.
Update on lifestyle determinants of postprandial triacylglycerolemia with 1 emphasis on the Mediterranean lifestyle . 2 3

3 Maria I. Maraki 1 and Labros S. Sidossis 1,2 4 5 6 Laboratory of Nutrition & Clinical Dietetics, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, 7 Harokopio University, Athens, Greece. 8 Metabolism Unit, Shriners Hospital for Children, Departments of Internal Medicine 9 and Surgery, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas, USA. 10 11 12 Running title: Mediterranean lifestyle and lipemia 13 14 15 16 Address for correspondence: 17 Labros S. Sidossis, Ph.D. 18 6.128 Rebecca Sealy Hospital, 301 University Blvd, Galveston, TX 77555-0177. 19 Phone: +1409-266-9690, Fax: +1409-772-1942 e-mail: lasidoss@utmb.edu 20 21
Body shape dissatisfaction and obesity among Taiwanese adolescents.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to estimate the level of body shape dissatisfaction among a large sample of adolescent boys and girls within different weight categories. METHODS A total sample of 883 adolescents aged 12 to 16 was included from junior high schools in Taipei County, Taiwan. The Contour Drawing Rating Scale was used to assess body shape dissatisfaction. RESULTS Body shape dissatisfaction is prevalent in Taiwanese adolescents, particularly for girls. This is linked to degree of overweight in both boys and girls but is also prevalent in girls who are not overweight or obese. Girls and boys clearly aspire to thinness but some boys would also prefer to be larger. CONCLUSIONS This study extends our understanding of body shape dissatisfaction and its relationship with weight status in eastern cultures such as Taiwan.
A Generic Reconfigurable Mixed Time and Frequency Domain QAM Transmitter with Forward Error Correction

In the past three decades, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have emerged to be the backbone of digital signal processing, especially in high-speed communication systems. However, today, these devices are clocked below 1GHz and improvement in performance stays a big challenge on all abstraction layers, right from system architecture down to physical technology. Far and wide, myriad number of researches are done on methodologies and techniques which can deliver higher throughput with lower operating frequencies. Towards this projected objective, in this paper an efficient modulation technique like Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) along with mixed time and frequency domain approach and Forward Error Correction (FEC) technique have been utilized to employ a generic scalable FPGA based QAM transmitter with filter parallelization being executed in mixed domain. The system developed in this paper achieves an effective throughput of 12.8Gb/s for 256-QAM with 16 parallel inputs having an operating frequency of 201.25MHz, while a 18.7Gb/s effective throughput is realized with 32 parallel inputs at 146MHz. Thereby, it paves down a promising methodology for applications where having higher clock frequencies is a hard limit.
On Automatic Contextual Metadata Generation for Personal Digital Photographs

The advancements of technology have been making digital cameras more and more affordable for everyone. Consequently, digital photographs have grown exponentially this last decade and have been making it beyond the abilities of people to easily manage their own photo collections. Annotation is one of the solutions to solve this burden. Therefore, we propose a semi-automatic annotation engine with contextual metadata generation. Photos with geo-referential information such as Global Positioning System (GPS) are the current tendency. Using the exact location information given by GPS, together with timestamps, our novel engine semi-automatically generates contextual metadata for each photo from different sources of information namely the public news and users' personal information. We have designed, implemented and tested our system.
IL-6 and extracellular matrix remodeling.

(ECM) proteins into the liverin response to a number of liver injuries, including chron-ic ethanol ingestion, viral hepatitis and iron deposition.Hepatic fibrosis has important physiopathologic conse-quences on the liver function and structure. First, it maycontribute to increase intrahepatic vascular resistances tothe portal flow and to originate portal hypertension. Acti-vated hepatic stellate cells may contribute to this effect,since these cells exhibit contractile capacity and canmodulate blood flow at the sinusoidal level (1). Second,perisinusoidal fibrosis represents a barrier to the ex-change of nutrients and metabolites between sinusoidalblood and hepatocytes. Furthermore, deposition of ECMin the space of Disse induces the loss of fenestrae of thesinusoidal endothelial cells (2). Third, ECM is a physio-logical reservoir for cytokines and growth factors in theclose cell surrounding. The binding of these factors toECM component modulates their biological activity andprotects them from proteolysis (3). EMC of the liver is composed of three distinct types ofproteins including collagen, noncollagenous glycopro-teins, and proteoglycans (Fig. 1).
Gingival status and gingival fluid flow in diabetic and non-diabetic patients

Background: The aim of this study was to estimate the role of smoking as a risk factor on the gingival status of the diabetic and non-diabetic patient as measured by both gingival fluid flow (G.F.F) and gingival fluid pH (G.F.pH) and clinical parameters (plaque index and gingival index). Material and method: All the patients were smokers with mean age of 45 years. Thirty-two sites were selected from each group. Clinical examination including PL.I and GI were evaluated for each patient, G.F. F and G.F. pH were evaluated to in the selected sites. Results: The PL.I, G.I, G.F. F and G.F. pH for smoker diabetic patients were slightly higher than smoker non-diabetic patients, but no statistical difference was found. Conclusion: There was a positive relationship between the clinical parameters and G.F. F and G.F. pH in both diabetic and non diabetic patient. It was also found that smokers are high risk group for periodontitis.
Ischemic Retinopathies: Oxidative Stress and Inflammation

Ischemic retinopathies (IRs), such as retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), diabetic retinopathy (DR), and (in many cases) age-related macular degeneration (AMD), are ocular disorders characterized by an initial phase of microvascular changes that results in ischemia, followed by a second phase of abnormal neovascularization that may culminate into retinal detachment and blindness. IRs are complex retinal conditions in which several factors play a key role during the development of the different pathological stages of the disease. Increasing evidence reveals that oxidative stress and inflammatory processes are important contributors to the pathogenesis of IRs. Despite the beneficial effects of the photocoagulation and anti-VEGF therapy during neovascularization phase, the need to identify novel targets to prevent initial phases of these ocular pathologies is still needed. In this review, we provide an update on the involvement of oxidative stress and inflammation in the progression of IRs and address some therapeutic interventions by using antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents.
Inhibiting myostatin reverses muscle fibrosis through apoptosis

160 words Text: 3,690 words Condensed Title: Myostatin Inhibition Reverses Fibrosis © 2012. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd. Jo ur na l o f C el l S ci en ce A cc ep te d m an us cr ip t JCS online publication date 8 June 2012 Myostatin Inhibition Reverses Fibrosis
Happiness and reminiscing: The role of time perspective, affect, and mode of thinking.

Three experiments showed that subjects' ratings of general life satisfaction depended not only on the hedonic quality of the life experiences they happened to recall but also on the way in which they thought about them. Specifically, the hedonic quality of present life events influenced subjects' judgments of well-being in the same direction. The hedonic quality of past events, however, had a congruent impact on well-being judgments only when thinking about them elicited affect in the present but otherwise had a contrast effect on these judgments. Two factors were found to determine if thinking about the past elicits affect: whether subjects describe the events vividly and in detail or only mention them briefly, and whether subjects describe how the events occurred rather than why they occurred. Possible mediating mechanisms and implications of these results are discussed. People's feelings of happiness and satisfaction are no doubt a function of the affective quality of their everyday experiences. The nature of this relation, however, is not as straightforward as one might expect. For example, whereas negative experiences do frequently decrease individuals' perceptions of their quality of life (e.g., Zautra & Reich, 1983), some findings indicate that negative events may also increase subjective well-being (Elder, 1974). In fact, even events of extreme hedonic value seem to be poor predictors of individuals' wellbeing. For example, Brickman, Coates, and Janoff-Bulman (1978) found in their study that people who won a million dollars in a lottery
Residents’ Perceptions of Plastic Surgeons as Craniofacial Surgery Specialists

Objective:To assess residents’ perceptions of plastic surgeons as craniofacial surgery specialists in Brazil. Methods:Brazilian residents were asked to choose 1 or 2 specialists that they perceived to be an expert for 14 craniofacial surgery-related scenarios. Both an overall analysis (all 14 scenarios) and subanalysis (each scenario separately) were performed. Response patterns were distributed as “plastic surgeons alone,” “plastic surgeons combined with other specialists,” or “without plastic surgeons. ” Results:Overall, plastic surgeons were chosen more (all P < 0.05) as experts than all other specialists. The subanalysis showed that plastic surgeons were chosen more (all P < 0.05) as experts than other specialists in 50% of craniofacial surgery-related scenarios and also demonstrated that “plastic surgeons alone” and “without plastic surgeons” were selected more (all P < 0.05) than other response patterns in 31.71% and 42.86% of scenarios, respectively. General surgery residents and male residents chose more (all P < 0.05) plastic surgeons as experts than their peers. Conclusion:Residents’ perceptions of plastic surgeons as craniofacial surgery specialists are limited in Brazil.
Estimating the oral bioavailability of methylmercury to channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)

In classical pharmacology, oral bioavailability of a toxicant is defined as that fraction of an orally administered dose reaching the systemic circulation of the animal. The present study estimates the bioavailability of methylmercury in channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) by comparing concentrations in the blood through time after oral and intra‐arterial (IA) administration. Catfish were cannulated in the dorsal aorta and gavaged a pelleted feed that had been spiked with methylmercury. Each catfish was gavaged an increasing amount of spiked feed. Following oral dosing, serial blood samples were removed for more than 1,500 h. One month after removal of the last blood sample, the same fish were injected IA with methylmercury and serial blood samples were removed for more than 3,000 h. The area under the curve of the blood concentration‐time curve extrapolated to infinity (AUC0→∞) was calculated from fish dosed orally and IA using both noncompartmental (trapezoidal) and compartmental methods. Bioavailability was estimated as the ratio of the dose‐corrected oral AUC0→∞ to the IA AUC0→∞. Average bioavailability estimates from this approach were 33% using noncompartmental (range 14–55%) and 29% using compartmental (range 12–42%) methods and were correlated with the amount of food gavaged to the fish (r2 = 0.95, p = 0.026). Bioavailability estimates using the present methods were much lower than estimates using more conventional methods (i.e., assimilation efficiency estimates using mass balance), suggesting that conventional methods may overestimate the true bioavailability of toxicants in fish.
Assessing the Impact of Introducing an ACE Regime - A Behavioural Corporate Microsimulation Analysis for Germany

In their famous Mirrlees review (2011) on reforming the tax system for the 21st century, the authors put forward the introduction of an allowance for corporate equity regime. In recent years, several countries introduced an ACE regime. The main feature of an ACE regime is that it removes tax distortions on marginal investment and finance distortions. Yet, by narrowing the tax base an ACE regime potentially requires an increase in tax rates which might affect location choices and profit shifting activity negatively. In this paper, we employ a microsimulation model to determine the consequences of introducing an ACE regime in Germany. The simulation results show that granting an ACE for corporate income tax purposes results in a revenue loss of about 18%. This could be financed by an increase of the combined profit tax rate by 6 percentage points. At firm level, our analysis illustrates the heterogeneous distribution of the reform effect accross the sample. For 50% of firms between the 25th and 75th percentile, introducing an ACE regime reduces tax payments between 35% and 2%. If the ACE is combined with a tax rate adjustment, the tax effect ranges between -32% and +7.1% for firms between the 25th and 75th percentile. With respect to behavioural responses on decision margins, we find that introducing the ACE reduces the mean debt-ratio by about 1.5 percentage points in the short run. For the capital-stock we arrive at a mean short-term increase of 2.4%. Finally, our computations show that the ACE regime with adjusted profit tax rate cannot be overall tax neutral. In particular, the increase in the profit tax rate required to finance the equity allowance induces intensified outward profit-shifting activities and affects location choices negatively. In the short-run the tax revenue is therefore shown to decline to about 95% of its original level.
On the Validity of (Cost-Saving) Randomization Methods in Dictator-Game Experiments: A Systematic Test

Motivated by methodological concerns, theoretical considerations, and evidence from previous studies, this paper makes a contribution to conducting dictator-game experiments under resource constraints. Using a holistic and strictly controlled approach, we systematically assess the validity of common cost-saving dictator-game variants. We include five common approaches and compare them to a standard dictator game: involving fewer receivers than dictators; paying only some subjects or decisions; role uncertainty at the time of the transfer decision; a combination of random decision payment and role uncertainty. To test the validity of subjects’ dictator-game decisions, we relate them to complementary individual difference measures of generosity: social value orientation, personal values, and a donation to charity. In line with previous evidence, our data show that dictator behavior is quite sensitive to the applied methods. The standard version of the dictator game has the highest validity. Involving fewer receivers than dictators and not paying for all decisions yields comparably valid results. These methods may, therefore, represent feasible alternatives for the conduct of dictator games under contraints. By contrast, in the dictator-game variants where only some subjects are paid or where subjects face uncertainty about their final player role, the expected associations with other measures of generosity are distorted. Under role uncertainty, generosity is also biased upwards. We conclude that these methods are inappropriate when the researchers are interested in valid individual measures of generosity.
Effect of drying method on physical and chemical quality, hotness and volatile flavour characteristics of dried chilli

The effects of drying methods, such as sun drying at 37 o C, hot air drying at 60 o C and freeze drying, on the quality of dried Chee fah chilli (Capsicum annuum Linn. var. acuminatum Fingarh.) were investigated. The quality parameters were moisture content, colour (L*, a*, b* values), ascorbic acid content, capsaicin content, volatile flavour and sensorial description. The freeze-dried (FD) sample gave more bright-red colour and contained higher ascorbic acid content than the sun-dried (SD) and hot air-dried (HD) samples (P 0.05). Types and concentrations of volatile flavour compounds were monitored using headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) with a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC- MS). The groups of volatile flavour compounds were acids, alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, esters, furan and hydrocarbons. This was in agreement with the panelists who described the pungent odour as the most abundant one. In addition, the unique flavour attributes in the FD, HD and SD samples were green, sweet and alcohol- linked, respectively.
A Class-E Power Amplifier Design Considering MOSFET Nonlinear Drain-to-Source and Nonlinear Gate-to-Drain Capacitances at Any Grading Coefficient

This paper presents theory and analysis for class-E power amplifier considering MOSFET nonlinear gate-to-drain and nonlinear drain-to-source capacitances at any grading coefficient of the MOSFET body junction diode. The nonlinearity degree of a MOSFET parasitic capacitance is determined by the grading coefficient. When the grading coefficient is not considered in design procedure, the switch voltage waveform of the class-E power amplifier does not satisfy the switching conditions, which results in a decrease of the power conversion efficiency. Therefore, the grading coefficient is an important parameter to satisfy the class-E zero-voltage switching (ZVS) and zero-derivative switching (ZDS) conditions. The MOSFET gate-to-drain capacitance is highly nonlinear, and it is more nonlinear than drain-to-source capacitance for most MOSFETs. In some cases, the change in the gate-to-drain capacitance can be as large as 100 times. The results show that this nonlinearity affects the class-E power amplifier properties, such as switch voltage, power output capability, and maximum switch voltage. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the nonlinearity of the gate-to-drain capacitance, along with the drain-to-source capacitance. A design example at 4 MHz operating frequency is also given to describe the design procedure. The ZVS and ZDS conditions are achieved in the obtained switch voltage. The circuit simulation was performed using PSpice software. For verification of the presented theory, a class-E power amplifier is fabricated. The measured results are verified with simulation and theory results.
Development of Biologically Based Therapies for Basal-Like Tumors

Abstract : The basal-like subtype of breast cancer is both estrogen receptor and HER2 negative and therefore is not effectively treated by hormonal therapy or trastuzamab. The purpose of this research is to identify treatment options for this subset of breast cancer patients. Breast cell lines of basal-like and luminal origin were treated with five different chemotherapeutics to determine sensitivity levels. The basal-like cell lines were more sensitive to carboplatin than luminal lines. Next, we focused on identifying a biologic therapy targeting the basal-like subtype. HER1/EGFR is expressed in approximately 50% of the basal-like tumors while not expressed in the luminal tumors. The basal-like cell lines showed an increased sensitivity to several EGFR inhibitors compared to the luminal lines. Combinations of two EGFR were synergistic with carboplatin. This work is support for a clinical trial at UNO, which will treat basal-like breast cancer patients with a HER1 inhibitor with or without carboplatin. An EGFR activation signature was identified and shown to predict poor outcome in two breast tumor data sets. In basal-like tumors, there may be many mechanisms for activation of this pathway but many appear to be downstream of EGFR in the RAS-MEK-ERK pathway. This work shows that basal-like may need to be further stratified to identify successful treatment regimens.
The Impact of Anticipating Satisfaction on Consumer Choice

How do preferences change when consumers focus on the anticipated satisfaction with a purchase rather than choice? In a series of three studies, we show that preferences, both expressed and revealed, change depending on the degree to which anticipated satisfaction is evoked. These shifts in preferences arise because, compared to choice, anticipated satisfaction elicits a mental-imaging processing strategy that is both more effort intensive and qualitatively different. By providing direct evidence from thought protocols and by presenting evidence suggesting that these shifts in preferences vanish when mental imagery is discouraged or made more difficult, we show that the effect arises out of a processing strategy that requires effortful mental imagery of one or more of the options in the decision-making task. Finally, we demonstrate the uniqueness of the effect by showing that it cannot be generated with heightened processing or by an orientation that is directed toward the extent to which the options are liked. Copyright 2000 by the University of Chicago.
Self-Efficacy, Intrinsic Motivation, and Academic Outcomes Among Latino Middle School Students Participating in an After-School Program

This longitudinal study examined how academic self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, and participation in an after-school program contributed to the academic achievement of Latino middle school students over the course of one school year. Participants were 47 Latino students in sixth through eighth grades who attended two public middle schools in which an after-school program was held that was specifically for Latino students. Results from ordinary least squares regression revealed that intrinsic motivation was positively associated with students GPAs, self-efficacy was a positive predictor of students’ school attendance and standardized math achievement scores, and attendance at the after-school program also contributed positively to students’ math achievement. Results from multilevel growth modeling showed that students’ self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation remained stable across the school year and were not related to students’ degree of participation in the after-school program. Several avenues for future research within the Latino student population are discussed.