Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of Disdrometer Type on Weather Radar Algorithms from Measured DSD: Application to Italian Climatology

Relations for retrieving precipitation and attenuation information from radar measurements play a key role in radar meteorology. The uncertainty in such relations highly affects the precipitation and attenuation estimates. Weather radar algorithms are often derived by applying regression methods to precipitation measurements and radar observables simulated from datasets of drop size distributions (DSD) using microphysical and electromagnetic assumptions. DSD datasets can be derived from theoretical considerations or obtained from experimental measurements collected throughout the years by disdrometers. Although the relations obtained from experimental disdrometer datasets can be generally considered more representative of a specific climatology, the measuring errors, which depend on the specific type of disdrometer used, introduce an element of uncertainty to the final retrieval algorithms. Eventually, data quality checks and filtering procedures applied to disdrometer measurements play an important role. In this study, we pursue two main goals: (i) evaluate two different techniques for establishing weather radar algorithms from measured DSD, and (ii) investigate to what extent dual-polarization radar algorithms derived from experimental DSD datasets are influenced by the different error structures introduced by the various disdrometer types (namely 2D video disdrometer, first and second generation of OTT Parsivel disdrometer, and Thies Clima disdrometer) used to collect the data. Furthermore, weather radar algorithms optimized for Italian climatology are presented and discussed.
Trace and Major Element Geochemistry of Basalts from Leg 81

Fifty-two samples of basalt from the four holes drilled on the Leg 81 transect across the Rockall margin were analyzed by X-ray fluorescence for Rb, Sr, Y, Zr, and Nb. On the basis of these results 13 samples were chosen for major and supplementary trace-element analysis. The results show no progressive change in the character of the volcanism, from Hole 555 in the continental domain through Holes 552 and 553A in the dipping reflector sequence to Hole 554A on the outer high. Two distinct magma types are present, apparently reflecting heterogeneity of the underlying mantle, but both types are present in both Holes 553A and 555, while Hole 552 and Hole 554 are each composed of a single type. Both magma types have a clear ocean-floor basalt signature when examined by discrimination diagrams, as does the basalt from Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 112, which formed at the same time as the Leg 81 basalts slightly farther south along the spreading center. In contrast, the basalts of East Greenland, formed at the same time, are more enriched in incompatible elements and have a within-plate geochemical signature, as is found in some basalts of Iceland today. Clearly the present distinction in geochemistry between the basalts of Iceland and those erupting well south on the Reykjanes Ridge was already established when continental splitting took place.
Development of a Screening Tool to Estimate Vitamin A Intake and Comparison with Detailed Dietary Assessment Methods

We aimed to develop and validate a tool to estimate vitamin A (VA) intake and identify children at risk of intake above the tolerable upper intake level (UL). We developed, pilot-tested, and refined a screening tool to estimate VA intake among Filipino children 12–18 mo of age. Data were entered into tablets with pre-loaded food composition data to calculate VA intake immediately. The screening tool was used to identify children likely to have “adequate” (one group: 200–500 µg retinol activity equivalents, RAE/d) or “high” (two groups: >600 µg retinol/d) intake. Interviewers administered four 24-h recalls, one 12-h observed weighed record with 12-h recall, and a 30-d supplement questionnaire. Breastmilk intake and VA concentration were measured among breastfeeding children. We compared the screening tool and detailed dietary assessment (DDA) results for primary VA sources, group mean usual intake, and prevalence of intakes above the UL. Major VA sources were similar between methods: fortified milk powders, multivitamin supplements, and breastmilk; contributions from intervention programs (e.g., micronutrient powders, fortified staple foods) were low. Mean usual retinol intakes for the high groups (n = 47 and 39, respectively) were 1218 and 1313 µg/d by screening tool vs. 1096 and 931 by DDA; 70 and 77% had usual intake above 600 µg/d. In the adequate group (n = 37), mean total VA intake was 375 and 559 µg RAE/d by screening and DDA, respectively. This screening tool provides a reasonably good rapid estimate of VA intake among Filipino children and can be useful for identifying groups with adequate to excessive intakes. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Out of Sight, Out of Time? A Meta–Analytic Investigation of Procrastination and Time Perspective

Recent theory suggests that trait procrastination is a form of temporal self–regulation failure that reflects a disjunction between the present and future self. Yet research to date is sparse and inconsistent regarding the nature of the associations of procrastination with time perspective. The current study aimed to meta–analytically summarize the evidence to date to address the question of how procrastination is linked to future and present time perspective, and to test whether stress and positive affect explained the link between procrastination and future time perspective. A search of the available literature yielded six published studies and three unpublished studies, which were combined with five unpublished data sets for a total of 14 samples with 4312 participants. The meta–analysis revealed that procrastination had a moderate and significant negative association with future time perspective, and a small but significant positive association with present time perspective. Mediation analyses across two of the samples found that high stress and low positive affect explained in part the association between procrastination and future time perspective. Overall, these findings support the notion that procrastinators focus less on the future and highlight the dynamic interrelations of affect and cognition that underlie procrastinators’ intertemporal choices. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology
January 2016 at Value in Health The impact of patient-centred versus didactic education programmes in chronic patients by severity . The case of type 2 diabetes mellitus

This research was conducted through the project “The Contribution of Public and Private Services to European Growth and Welfare, and the Role of Public-Private Innovation Networks (ServPPIN)”, financed by the European Commission, VII Framework Programme (FP7-SSH-2007-1); and through the project “La innovación en servicios y las interacciones entre servicios públicos y privados: el caso de la sanidad”, financed by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación in Spain. Manuel García-Goñi also thanks the Ramón Areces Foundation for financial support starting November 2014 under the research project “Envejecimiento y sistema sanitario y social. El gasto público y sus efectos en igualdad, dependencia y aseguramiento en España”. The authors thank Pedro Pita Barros, Ricardo Mora, members of the ServPPIN European network, and participants at the Spanish Health Economics Association Meeting for their helpful comments. Any errors are the authors’ responsibility.
Quantifying the long-term impact of zoological education: a study of learning in a zoo and an aquarium

Abstract There is increasing evidence that zoos and aquariums do, as intended, educate their visitors. However, even though most zoos offer a wide array of educational experiences, few studies have considered if the duration of an educational experience affects learning or whether learning lasts beyond the immediate visit. The current study used matched-pairs surveys to investigate children’s knowledge, attitude and knowledge of positive behavior during both a five-day zoo camp and six months after an aquarium visit. The participants of the study included children aged 9–12 years some of whom had participated in a purposefully designed educational intervention. First, the impact of a five-day zoo camp experience on children’s learning was investigated. Second, learning retention was investigated six months after a school tour at an aquarium. Results showed that during the camp learning was positively affected by participation in the educational intervention and by previous zoo experience. Girls were more likely than boys to have an increase in learning six months after an aquarium visit. The study demonstrates that learning persists, but that education can be enhanced with longer programs. Thus, zoos can play an increasingly important role in igniting pro-environmental behavior.
Knockdown of TNF-alpha by DNAzyme gold nanoparticles as an anti-inflammatory therapy for myocardial infarction

In this study, we used deoxyribozyme (DNAzyme) functionalized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to catalytically silence tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in vivo as a potential therapeutic for myocardial infarction (MI). Using primary macrophages as a model, we demonstrated 50% knockdown of TNF-α, which was not attainable using Lipofectamine-based approaches. Local injection of DNAzyme conjugated to gold particles (AuNPs) in the rat myocardium yielded TNFα knockdown efficiencies of 50%, which resulted in significant anti-inflammatory effects and improvement in acute cardiac function following MI. Our results represent the first example showing the use of DNAzyme AuNP conjugates in vivo for viable delivery and gene regulation. This is significant as TNF-α is a multibillion dollar drug target implicated in many inflammatorymediated disorders, thus underscoring the potential impact of DNAzyme-conjugated AuNPs.
Biochemical and Molecular Actions of Nutrients Vitamin C Deficiency Exerts Paradoxical Cardiovascular Effects in Osteogenic Disorder Shionogi ( ODS ) Rats 1

Vitamin C is considered to be a very efficient water-soluble antioxidant, for which several new cardiovascular properties were recently described. The aim of this study was to determine in vivo the effects of a severe depletion of vitamin C on cardiac and vascular variables and reperfusion arrhythmias. For this purpose, we used a mutant strain of Wistar rats, osteogenic disorder Shionogi (ODS). After 15 d of consuming a vitamin C–deficient diet, ODS rats had a 90% decrease in plasma and tissue levels of ascorbate compared with ODS vitamin C–supplemented rats and normal Wistar rats. However, plasma antioxidant capacity, proteins, -tocopherol, urate, catecholamines, lipids, and nitrate were not influenced by the vitamin C deficiency in ODS rats. Moreover, there was no difference between ODS vitamin C–deficient and –supplemented rats in heart rate and arterial pressure. After 5 min of an in vivo regional myocardial ischemia, various severe arrhythmias were observed, but their intensities were not modified by vitamin C in vitamin C–deficient ODS rats. The vascular reactivity, measured in vitro on thoracic arteries, was not altered by ascorbate deficiency in ODS rats. These unexpected results suggest that unidentified compensatory mechanisms play a role in maintaining normal cardiac function and vascular reactivity in vitamin C–deficient rats. J. Nutr. 134: 729–735, 2004.
Modification rule of monodromies in an R 2 – move K

An R2 –move is a homotopy of wrinkled fibrations which deforms images of indefinite fold singularities like the Reidemeister move of type II. Variants of this move are contained in several important deformations of wrinkled fibrations. In this paper, we first investigate how monodromies are changed by this move. For a given fibration and its vanishing cycles, we then give an algorithm to obtain vanishing cycles in a single reference fiber of a fibration obtained by flip and slip, which is a sequence of homotopies increasing fiber genera. As an application of this algorithm, we give several examples of diagrams which were introduced by Williams to describe smooth 4–manifolds by a finite sequence of simple closed curves in a closed surface.
Planning for Waterway Renewal: Balancing Institutional Reproduction and Institutional Change

ABSTRACT Modern waterway networks are ageing and need to be renewed, yet the institutional context in the waterway sector is averse to change because of path dependencies. Waterway renewal requires actors to navigate between institutional reproduction and change. Applying an innovative framework for analysing institutions in a case study of the Dutch national waterways, we mainly find instances of institutional reproduction, which turns waterway renewal into a technical and financial exercise. However, institutional change becomes increasingly evident through a new functional-relational path, suggesting that planning for waterway renewal also entails reconsidering novel waterway configurations and incorporating neighbouring spatial developments.
Serotonin transporter binding in the diencephalon is reduced in insulin resistant obese humans

Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva. nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.
Secrets of image denoising cuisine*

Digital images are matrices of equally spaced pixels, each containing a photon count. This photon count is a stochastic process due to the quantum nature of light. It follows that all images are noisy. Ever since digital images have existed, numerical methods have been proposed to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. Such ‘denoising’ methods require a noise model and an image model. It is relatively easy to obtain a noise model. As will be explained in the present paper, it is even possible to estimate it from a single noisy image.
Antibiotic Potency of Extract from Streptomyces Isolated from Terrestrial Soil of Amirthi Forest , India

The aims of the present study were to isolate novel actinomycetes from the terrestrial soil and to evaluate their antibacterial potential. A total of 26 strains of actinomycetes were isolated and screened for antibacterial activity by the well diffusion method. Two of the isolates, VITAM-10 and VITAM-16, possessed a broad spectrum of antibacterial activity against the selected Gram positive and Gram negative ATCC bacterial strains. The isolate VITAM-16 produced a 22 mm zone of inhibition against Proteus vulgaris and VITAM-10 produced 17.6 mm zone of inhibition against Bacillus cereus. VITAM-16 exhibited potent antibacterial activity than VITAM-10. Hence, VITAM-16 was chosen for further studies. The isolate VITAM-16 was subjected to morphologic, cultural and biochemical characterizations and identified to be belonged to the genus Streptomyces. 16S rDNA nucleotide sequence of VITAM-16 showed 97 99 % sequences similarity with Streptomyces taxons. The ethyl acetate (EA) extract of VITAM-16 was analyzed by GC-MS, fumaric acid and propanoic acid were found to be the major compounds. The EA extract exhibited an MIC value from 0.06-0.90 mg/ml against tested bacterial pathogens. The results of the present study suggest that VITAM-16 can be explored further for identification of novel antibiotics.
Insignificant solar‐terrestrial triggering of earthquakes

We examine the claim that solar‐terrestrial interaction, as measured by sunspots, solar wind velocity, and geomagnetic activity, might play a role in triggering earthquakes. We count the number of earthquakes having magnitudes that exceed chosen thresholds in calendar years, months, and days, and we order these counts by the corresponding rank of annual, monthly, and daily averages of the solar‐terrestrial variables. We measure the statistical significance of the difference between the earthquake‐number distributions below and above the median of the solar‐terrestrial averages by χ2 and Student's t tests. Across a range of earthquake magnitude thresholds, we find no consistent and statistically significant distributional differences. We also introduce time lags between the solar‐terrestrial variables and the number of earthquakes, but again no statistically significant distributional difference is found. We cannot reject the null hypothesis of no solar‐terrestrial triggering of earthquakes.
Future Expectations of Adolescents: The Role of Mentoring, Family Engagement, and Sense of Belonging

This study investigates the association between mentoring and future expectations of youth in residential placements in Israel, and how family engagement during care and sense of belonging mediate this relationship. The participants included 213 adolescents (16–19 years old). Structural equation modeling revealed that mentoring contributed to the youths’ future expectations indirectly via family engagement in care, sense of belonging, and the chain mediating effect of family engagement and sense of belonging. The discussion highlights the importance of considering youths’ connections with chosen mentors and families when training foster and residential care workers as well as when implementing individual treatment plans and strategies to strengthen the sense of belonging of youth in care.
Chemical composition and repellency of Nigella sativa L. seed essential oil against Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto

Malaria which is caused by the Plasmodium parasite and transmitted through bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes is an important public health concern in Africa. Insect repellents are commercially available but most of the synthetic repellents have adverse effects to the user as well as the environment. Previous studies have shown that Nigella sativa L. seed extracts have insecticidal and insect repelling activity. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the repellence efficacy of essential oil of Nigella sativa L. seeds on Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto and to determine the chemical composition of the essential oil. The repellence activity of the essential oil was dose-dependent and comparable to that of DEET (N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide). The repellence of the oil was 98.81 and 100% at concentrations of 0.01 and 0.1 g/mL, respectively. GC-MS analysis showed the major components of the essential oil to be p-cymene (34.67%), α-thujene (11.55%), trans-4-methoxythujane (5.81%), β-pinene (4.66%), methylcyclohexane (3.11%), α-pinene (2.82) and longifolene (2.55%). The repellence activity of N. sativa seed oil against An. gambiae can be attributed to the presence of α-pinene, p-cymene and longifolene. These findings have confirmed that the essential oil of N. sativa seeds contains compounds that repel An. gambiae and therefore can be used to control spread of malaria through prevention of mosquito bites.
Nitrogen availability for nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria upon growth on dinitrogen

The filamentous cyanobacterium Nostoc PCC 7120 is able to convert dinitrogen to ammonia in the absence of combined nitrogen. The expression of 20% of coding sequences from all major metabolic categories was examined in nitrogen fixing and non-nitrogen fixing growth conditions. The expression data were correlated with the nitrogen content of gene products. When growing on dinitrogen, Nostoc PCC 7120 incorporates more nitrogen into its proteome than in growth on ammonia. Thus, paradoxically, limitation of combined nitrogen in the culture medium leads to excessive nitrogen supply from the air. Biotechnological implications are discussed.
Using the WhatsApp Social Media Application for Active Learning

WhatsApp, the message-sharing social media app, is commonly used by students to collaborate on class assignments. This article examines the use of WhatsApp as part of a course gradable assignments and weekly pre- and postlecture discussions. This study is based on a survey and interviews conducted with undergraduate university students in the UAE who were asked if WhatsApp Groups use within the structured frame of the course and as gradable requirements increased their motivation to contribute to the course work. The results indicate that the students were more engaged with assignments that had WhatsApp embedded within the assignment structure. Furthermore, they found the pre- and postlecture WhatsApp discussions beneficial and effective, increasing motivation to participate actively in the lecture’s topic. This study concludes that the use of WhatsApp as part of course gradable assignments can contribute to active learning and enhance collaborative learning pre- and postlectures.
Higher-order bias corrections for kernel type density estimators on the unit or semi-infinite interval

For the data of size n from the unit or semi-infinite interval, several asymmetric kernel density estimators, having the mean integrated squared errors of order or , are available in the literature. We develop more higher-order bias-corrected estimators, achieving the order , where is a given integer. We illustrate the finite sample performance of the estimators through the simulations.
Vibronic Excitons in Molecular Systems

Absorption and emission of photons by any molecule is strongly in uenced by the molecular environment. When several chromophores are packed together their spectral properties are known to be altered and this is canonically ex- plained by quantum theory as electromagnetic interactions between the dipole moments. If the interaction is strong, the absorption process might be best described as the creation of a so-called exciton. These are not fully understood, especially not in biologically relevant systems. In addition, electronic transitions are in some molecules accompanied by vibrational transitions by such a high probability that these cannot be neglected. Models including these eects have not been used for many systems so far. The peridinin-binding protein complex PCP is an interesting system for exciton investigations but the vibrational coupling in carotenoids need to be accounted for. The present work deals with this problem in PCP.