Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
InSAR Applied to the Study of Active Volcanic and Seismic Areas in Africa

Two active volcanic areas situated in immature portions of the East African Rift System (EARS): the Lake Kivu (Dem. Rep. of Congo) and Lake Natron (Tanzania) regions, which are located in the western and eastern branch, respectively, are still poorly known. Both areas indeed lack of ground-based networks, due to security problems or difficult field accessibility. The Lake Kivu area includes two volcanoes erupting frequently: the Nyamulagira and Nyiragongo volcanoes. The SAR database covering these volcanoes includes data from JERS, ERS-1&2, ENVISAT, ALOS, RADARSAT-1&2 satellites back from year 1996. SAR Interferometry (InSAR) is thus applied to study the ground deformations. MT-InSAR approaches, such as the ”‘StaMPS”’ method, are used to give us new complementary information to better constrain the previous established eruption models, or gain new insights on eruptions missed by the conventional InSAR, as well as on magmatic and tectonic activity. When enough constrain are available, the ground displacements are modeled using a 3D-Mixed Boundary Elements Method combined with a neighborhood algorithm. Hence, the 1996, 2002, 2004 and 2010 eruptions of Nyamulagira are modeled. The modeling results, coupled with the StaMPS MT-InSAR results, bring new insights concerning the magma plumbing system of this poorly known volcano and its eruptive mechanisms. The collapse of the eastern flank of Nyamulagira, along the NNW-trend fractures network linking Nyamulagira and Nyiragongo volcanoes, can also be identified. InSAR also captures the ground displacements associated with the January 2002 Nyiragongo eruption. The modeling of this major event evidences a deep magma intrusion beneath the Lake Kivu. Such intrusions should be taken into account for hazard assessment. The magma could indeed finds its way to the Lake Kivu floor, as evidenced by the presence of several old phreato-magmatic cones, and causes a lake overturn. The low dikes overpressures found in the North Kivu and Lake Natron areas indicate that, although the rift is considered as immature, the rift extension is driven by the supply of magma from depth, rather than by the tectonics. A new criterion to identify the rifting stage is found to be the stress state. In the southern part of the rift, tectonic activity dominates, indicating that the tectonics is probably driving the rift opening there.
Lichen Sclerosus: A 5-Year Follow-Up After Topical, Subdermal, or Combined Therapy

Objective The purpose of our study was to compare clinical data regarding patients with pruritic lichen sclerosus (LS) at moderate or severe stages using 2 different therapies with a 5-year follow-up. Materials and Methods The study was approved by the institutional review board and was presented as a retrospective clinical data review of patients with pruritic biopsy diagnosis LS who underwent therapy at our university private practice from 2002 to 2005. We compared the results of a weekly topical application of high-potency steroid (HPS) with a combined HPS and monthly anesthetic/steroid subdermal injection (ASI). Outcomes were timed to achieve pruritus-free status, the number of symptomatic recurrences, and patient satisfaction with therapy. Results Fifty-four patients were diagnosed with LS between 2002 and 2005. There were 13 patients who had mild-stage, 25 who had moderate-stage, and 16 who had severe-stage LS. Five-year follow-up data on 17 patients with moderate-stage LS and 14 patients with severe-stage LS were obtained. Time to pruritus free was 6 weeks with ASI and 19 weeks with HPS for moderate-stage LS (p = .04) and 9 weeks with ASI and 24 weeks with HPS for severe-stage LS (p = .03). Recurrences were more frequent on HPSfor moderate-stage LS (p = .04) but not significant with HPS for severe-stage LS (p = .15). Only ASI was successful at treating patients with recalcitrant pruritus. Conclusions In our population, patients with symptomatic moderate-stage LS seem to have a more rapid and prolonged response to ASI than to HPS but are less satisfied with the injections.
Antimicrobial activity analysis of extracts of Acacia modesta , Artimisia absinthium , Nigella sativa and Saussurea lappa against Gram positive and Gram negative microorganisms

1 Department of Biochemistry, Hazara University Garden Campus, Mansehara, Pakistan. 2 Department of Pharmacy, Government University, Faisalabad, Pakistan. 3 Faculty of Pharmacy and alternative Medicines, The Isalamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan. 4 School of Pharmacy, the University of Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan. 5 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad 22060, Pakistan. 6 Faculty of Pharmacy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan. 7 Institute of Pure and Applied Biology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan. 8 Department of Chemistry, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad 22060, Pakistan.
Identification of Amino Acid Residues of the T-Cell Epitope of Mycobacterium tuberculosis α Antigen Critical for Vβ11+ Th1 Cells

ABSTRACT Stimulation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-primed lymph node cells from C57BL/6 mice with α antigen (also known as antigen 85B and MPT59) induced cell proliferation, production of interleukin 2 and gamma interferon, and expansion of Vβ11+CD4+ T cells in conjunction with antigen-presenting cells in an I-Ab-restricted manner. Using a series of 15-amino-acid peptides that overlapped each other by 5 amino acids and spanned the mature α antigen, we identified the antigenic epitope for α antigen-specific Vβ11+ Th1 cells. That peptide (peptide-25), which corresponds to amino acid residues 240 to 254 of α antigen, contains a motif that is conserved in I-Ab and requires processing by antigen-presenting cells. Using peptide-25-reactive Vβ11+ T-cell clones and substituted peptide-25 mutants, we determined which amino acid residues within peptide-25 were critical for T-cell receptor (TCR) recognition. Our results showed that the amino acid residues at positions 245, 246, 248, 250, and 251 are important for recognition of TCRVβ11 and that residues at positions 244, 247, 249, and 252 are I-Abcontact residues. We also observed that active immunization of C57BL/6 mice with peptide-25 can lead to decreased bacterial load in the lungs of M. tuberculosis H37Rv-infected mice. These results should provide us with a useful tool for delineating the regulation of Vβ11+ Th1-cell development during M. tuberculosis infection and for developing a vaccine inducing a Th1-dominant immune response.
Evaluation of Resistance to Low Temperatures in Promising Interspecies Grapevine Hybrids

Frost resistance has been tested in 14 interspecific hybrids already selected for table grape production. The experiment was carried out by artificial exposure to low temperature of cuttings. This test was repeated three times during winter: in the second half of December, in the middle of January, and in the second half of February. Resistance was scored by measuring the percentage of alive, partially frozen, and fully frozen buds. The hybrid 19574 derived from the cross SV 18-315 x ‘Muscat Hamburg’ showed the highest resistance. Most hybrids (11 out of 14) performed better that the control ‘Muscat Hamburg’. In most hybrids, resistance level was the highest in mid winter.
Vicia voggenreiteriana (Fabaceae) a new species from the island of La Gomera (Canary Islands)

Vicia voggenreiteriana J. Gil, R. Mesa & M.L. Gil (Fabaceae), a new species of subg. Cracca Peterm. , sect. Cracca Dumort. is described and illustrated from the island of La Gomera, Canary Islands, north-west of Africa. It is related to and compared with Vicia nataliae U. Reifenberger & A. Reifenberger and Vicia cirrhosa C. Sm. ex Webb & Berthel. , two endemic species from the Canary Islands.
Quantifying the extent of change in extreme weather events in response to global warming

Weather extremes have been documented in the context of a warming climate in association with increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. However, there remains much uncertainty as to how these extreme events will respond to future climate warming. In particular, climate modeling studies have predicted changes in the frequency and severity of weather extremes, and the range of changes reported in the literature is very large, and sometimes contradictory, as the nature of many extreme weather phenomena is not fully understood. This uncertainty stems, in part, from the limited ability of coarse resolution climate models to accurately measure and simulate weather events that occur at the microscale level, such as tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. However, some of the range of results reported originates simply from a wide variety of scenarios of future climate change used to drive climate model simulations, which hampers our ability to make generalizations about predicted changes in extreme weather events. The goal of this study is to conduct a meta-analysis of the literature on projected future extreme weather events, so as to identify trends, using global mean temperature change as a common frame of reference. Results indicate that global warming could significantly alter the behavior of multiple extreme weather events, such as mid-latitude drought, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, as well as the selected important meteorological variables that engender them, into the 21st century.
Understanding Mobile Internet Diffusion: The Case of Jamaica

Worldwide it is estimated that there are over 5.3 billion mobile subscribers of which almost 4 billion are in the developing world (ITU, 2010b). For developing countries, the digital divide in terms of access has begun to close with the flow of digital information through core mobile services (e.g. voice, SMS) even in the poorest of countries. This offers the potential to capitalize on the economic benefits and improvements in quality of life that can come about with improved communications (Abraham, 2007; Rashid & Elder, 2009). In addition the rapid spread of this innovation in developing countries also paves the way for greater connectivity and access to the Internet via mobile devices and diffusing of value-added services such as mobile banking. However, uptake of more advanced mobile services other than basic telephony has lagged behind expectations, even for trendsetters like Finland (Bouwman et al., 2008). In developing countries the lag may be due in part to the affordability of access and the underdeveloped nature of basic services such as Internet access and mobile banking. However, where these services are more affordable and accessible (and increasingly so) it is important to investigate why persons have been slow to adopt mobile Internet.
The vegetation and flora of Lakeba, Nayau and Aiwa Islands, Central Lau Group, Fiji

We describe terrestrial vegetation communities and compile an annotated checklist of vascular plant species found on the islands of Lakeba (56 km 2 ), Aiwa (1.2 km 2 ) and Nayau (22 km 2 ) in the central Lau Group, Fiji, based on all previous published sources and our own observations and collections published here for the first time. Vegetation communities include coastal strand, mangrove, freshwater wetlands, grassland, fernland and scrub, lowland forest, and cultural vegetation. In 1999-2001, we collected plant specimens and made observations comprising 92, 76 and 279 new island records for Lakeba, Aiwa and Nayau, respectively (73, 21 and 102 of them collected). When combined with all other known vascular plants for these islands, the number of species documented to date is 337 for Lakeba, 85 for Aiwa and 295 for Nayau. A total of 449 species have now been recorded from these three islands of Central Lau. Many (161, 36%) of these are introduced. Among these, 16% are believed to be aboriginal introductions, while the majority (84%) are species introduced in historic times. About two-thirds of the species, 288 (64%) are indigenous to the Lau Group, but only 41 (14% of the indigenous species) are endemic to Fiji. Fourteen taxa, all of them endemic to Fiji or the western Polynesian or eastern Melanesian region, have been documented to occur in the Lau group by our recent surveys.
Science, Technology, Society and Environment (STSE) Approach in Environmental Science for Nonscience Students in a Local Culture

Students in the academe are as much a part of the system that tries to understand the relationship of man to science, technology, society and the environment. For these students, education becomes relevant and meaningful only to the extent that they are able to maximize resources and methods in understanding the subject. In the hope of providing this kind of educational environment the study introduced an approach capitalizing on the relationship of science, technology, society and environment. It is therefore the aim of the study to use the STSE approach in teaching an environmental science course. STSE is an approach using the interactions of four important factors namely; science, technology, society and environment. Using activities derived from the local environment, a learning climate unique to the STSE approach was developed and used to determine the influence such approach on the academic achievement and environmental science self-efficacy of students. Quantitative and qualitative designs were used in the study. An experimental design using Solomon’s Four Group Design was used for the quantitative part, while observation and interview were used in the qualitative part. The STSE approach is found to be effective in improving the academic performance as well as the environmental science self efficacy of the students who were exposed to the approach.
Genes and environment: a SNPshot.

Background: Mental distress among medical students is often reported. Burnout has not been studied frequently and studies using interviewer-rated diagnoses as outcomes are rarely employed. The objective of this prospective study of medical students was to examine clinically significant psychiatric morbidity and burnout at 3rd year of medical school, considering personality and study conditions measured at 1st year. Methods: Questionnaires were sent to 127 first year medical students who were then followedup at 3rd year of medical school. Eighty-one of 3rd year respondents participated in a diagnostic interview. Personality (HP5-i) and Performance-based self-esteem (PBSE-scale) were assessed at first year, Study conditions (HESI), Burnout (OLBI), Depression (MDI) at 1st and 3rd years. Diagnostic interviews (MINI) were used at 3rd year to assess psychiatric morbidity. High and low burnout at 3rd year was defined by cluster analysis. Logistic regressions were used to identify predictors of high burnout and psychiatric morbidity, controlling for gender. Results: 98 (77%) responded on both occasions, 80 (63%) of these were interviewed. High burnout was predicted by Impulsivity trait, Depressive symptoms at 1st year and Financial concerns at 1st year. When controlling for 3rd year study conditions, Impulsivity and concurrent Workload remained. Of the interviewed sample 21 (27%) had a psychiatric diagnosis, 6 of whom had sought help. Unadjusted analyses showed that psychiatric morbidity was predicted by high Performancebased self-esteem, Disengagement and Depression at 1st year, only the later remained significant in the adjusted analysis. Conclusion: Psychiatric morbidity is common in medical students but few seek help. Burnout has individual as well as environmental explanations and to avoid it, organisational as well as individual interventions may be needed. Early signs of depressive symptoms in medical students may be important to address. Students should be encouraged to seek help and adequate facilities should be available. Background Repeated evidence that medical students are subjected to considerable stress has been published over the last decades [1-4]. There is evidence that mental distress during Published: 12 April 2007 BMC Medical Education 2007, 7:6 doi:10.1186/1472-6920-7-6 Received: 24 November 2006 Accepted: 12 April 2007 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral. com/1472-6920/7/6 © 2007 Dahlin and Runeson; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Depressive Disorders : Focally Altered Cerebral Perfusion Measured with Arterial Spin-labeling MR Imaging 1

Su Lui, PhD Laura M. Parkes, PhD Xiaoqi Huang, PhD Ke Zou, MS Raymond C. K. Chan, PhD Hong Yang, PhD Ling Zou, MD Dongming Li, MS Hehan Tang, MS Tijiang Zhang, MD Xiuli Li, MS Yi Wei, MD Long Chen, MD Xueli Sun, MD Graham J. Kemp, PhD Qi-Yong Gong, MD, PhD Purpose: To assess focal cerebral perfusion in patients with refractory depressive disorder (RDD), patients with nonrefractory depressive disorder (NDD), and healthy control subjects by using arterial spin-labeling (ASL) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging.
Differentially Expressed Genes between Early and Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) as a Potential Tool for Selecting Liver Transplant Recipients

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer in the world. Liver transplantation (LT) represents a curative treatment for “small” HCC. Preoperative staging is critical in selecting optimal candidates for LT to optimize the use of this scarce resource. From December 1997 to February 2004, 148 patients diagnosed with cirrhosis and HCC were evaluated at our center. After staging, the patients were listed for LT according to United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) criteria. When pretransplant liver MRIs were compared with the findings of the explanted livers, 8 of 35 patients (22.8%) were understaged. Three of the 8 patients (37.5%) had recurrence post-LT. A retrospective gene expression profiling study was done using microarray technology for tumor samples in the pretransplant hepatitis C virus (HCV)-HCC understaged patients and in a contemporaneous group of HCV-HCC patients that were accurately staged. Two sample t tests comparing the early versus advanced HCV-HCCs with respect to gene expression showed an important set of genes differentially expressed among the samples. Hierarchical clustering analysis of the gene expression profiling classified 93.8% of the total tumor samples and 85.7% of the understaged samples in concordance with the explanted pathological staging. We found a distinctive pattern of gene expression between early and advanced HCV-HCCs. These results suggest that gene expression profiling could improve the pre-LT HCC staging to more closely mimic the explant pathology. Whether gene expression profiling of HCC will be refined to the point of predicting potential metastatic biologic behavior to predict post-LT recurrence will require longitudinal prospective study of this gene array technology.
Conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas de adolescentes españoles sobre la violencia de pareja

ResumenObjetivo: Conocer las creencias, actitudes y practicas de los adolescentes en sus relaciones de noviazgo y caracterizar el perfil de los adolescentes que reproducen y que son mas susceptibles de sufrir violencia de genero.Metodo: Diseno observacional, descriptivo, transversal y analitico a traves de 3 cuestionarios a 131 hombres y 139 mujeres adolescentes de Educacion Secundaria de la Region de Murcia (Espana). Resultados: Los adolescentes con padres de bajo nivel educativo y los hombres reconocen en menor medida las formas de violencia y justifican en mayor proporcion los comportamientos violentos de control y poder sobre las mujeres. Tanto hombres como mujeres perpetuan la violencia, pero ellos ejercen mas la violencia sexual mientras que ellas la verbal, que al mismo tiempo es mas sufrida por las adolescentes.Conclusiones: Las adolescentes son mas susceptibles de sufrir violencia verbal y violencia sexual por parte de sus parejas, conformando un grupo de riesgo de violencia de genero sobre el que hay que implementar medidas de prevencion, deteccion y proteccion. Es necesario sensibilizar y formar en igualdad de genero, especialmente, a los adolescentes con padres de bajo nivel educativo y los de sexo masculinoAbstractObjective: To determine the beliefs, attitudes and practices of adolescents in their relationships and to characterize the profile of adolescents who reproduce and who are more susceptible to suffer gender violence.Method: Observational, descriptive, cross-sectional design through self-administered questionnaires to 131 men and 139 women adolescents from secondary education centers in the Region of Murcia (Spain). Results: Adolescents with parents of low educational level and adolescent men recognize forms of violence to a lesser extent than women and justify to a greater extent, violent behaviors of control and power over adolescent women. Both men and women perpetuate violence, but men exert more sexual violence while women exert more verbal violence. At the same time, adolescent women are most susceptible to verbal violence from their intimate partners.Conclusions: Female adolescents are more susceptible to verbal violence and sexual violence by their partners, forming a group at risk of gender violence for which prevention, detection and protection measures must be implemented.It is necessary to sensitize and train in gender equality, especially, to adolescents with parents of low educational level and males. Keywords intimate partner violence, adolescent, aggression, sexism, gender and health, interpersonal relations, sexual violence.
Local Friction Laws for Glaciers: A Critical Review and New Openings

Abstract “Sliding velocity” and “friction law” are precisely defined. Different scales for tackling glacier dynamics are introduced. The energy balance in the melting-refreezing process is clarified. The validity of a Glen body as a model for ice rheology is discussed. The assumed model for subglacial water is a very slightly pervious ice, and a not absolutely watertight ice-bedrock interface, owing to glacial striae and rock joints. Then autonomous hydraulic regimes and cavities at water vapour pressure have a negligible influence on the drag, and only the interconnected regime has to be considered. A more rigorous treatment of Weertman’s model (independent knobs) gives quite different numerical factors. In general a term increasing with Terzaghi’s effective pressure N has to be added to the drag. The double-valued friction law found by Weertman is shown to have been an error. Kamb’s relations for the model with a vanishing microrelief are considerably simplified. His conjectural solution cannot be extended to slopes actually found in the microrelief. The author’s (Lliboutry, 1968) treatment is unsatisfactory and includes an error. With a model consisting of irregular bumps of similar length, a new friction law is given. The pertinent measure of the bedrock roughness is then the shadowing function, not the spectral power density.
Dynamics of Shells

This study deals with a new application of shell structures called modular shell system in seismic areas. This concept consists of an assemblage of tubular and cupola units. These structures are built using reinforced concrete and have been proposed for reconstruction after the Bam earthquake in Iran. A complete threedimensional modal spectral analysis, including both horizontal and vertical ground acceleration components, with all probable load cases, is carried out. The results show that this structural concept behaves well under seismic loading. Nevertheless, more attention should be given for opening frame regions. Due to the profound and efficient structural performance of this shell concept, it is suggested as a housing system for areas where the local site effect increases the high seismic risk.