Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome: An update

Although asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are two of the most common airway obstructive diseases in clinics, they differ from each other in clinical characteristics and pathogenesis. Asthma is a heterogeneous disease more likely to affect children and teenagers, often accompanied by allergic rhinitis, urticaria, and other allergic diseases, and associated with a family history of atopy. Clinically, asthma is manifested as volatile severity of wheezing over time. Asthmatic patients usually have airway inflammation predominated by eosinophils and CD4+ T lymphocyte infiltration; variable and reversible airflow limitation; and, between two episodes of asthma attack, basically normal lung functions. The patients often respond well to corticosteroids. On the other hand, COPD is associated with aberrant chronic inflammation of the airway and lungs arising from exposure to noxious particles and gases, and is more likely to affect the population aged above 40. COPD patients have dyspnea on exertion, airway inflammation predominated by infiltration of neutrophils, CD8+ T lymphocytes and macrophages, and persistent but progressive airflow limitation as shown by lung function test (LFT). They usually respond poorly to corticosteroids, and the outcomes are often disappointing. Despite a great deal of differences between asthma and COPD, both share many similarities. Patients with either one of these entities may present with clinical symptoms such as chronic cough, sputum, and exertional dyspnea. LFTs may reveal obstructive ventilatory dysfunction for both. It has been demonstrated that the airflow limitation was not fully reversible in 16% of asthma patients over a 20-year follow-up,[3] and that positive bronchial provocation test (BPT) and airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) may also be indicated in a considerable percentage of COPD patients. [4] Pulmonary diffusion capacity was once considered as a physiological measure that would best distinguish between asthma and COPD, but unfortunately, a level of carbon monoxide diffusing capacity (DLCO) less than 80% predicted value only yielded 77% sensitivity and 71% specificity. [5] In addition, Jatakanon and colleagues[6] found neutrophils may be the predominating cells in airway secretions from a number of patients with mild to severe asthma,[7] whereas sputum eosinophilic counts may also increase in acute exacerbation of COPD. Pathologically, both asthma and COPD may exhibit airway remodeling, which involves subepithelial fibrosis, epithelial goblet cell metaplasia, and hyperplasia or hypertrophy of smooth muscle cells.
Airborne 3D FTG data proves utility for both Minerals and Oil & Gas Exploration/Exploitation

Moving platform 3D Full Tensor Gradiometry (FTG) is now available in both airborne and marine system versions. Current marine systems recently modified to go airborne are proving the adaptability/utility of FTG in transitional and land environments for both petroleum and minerals objectives. Two such surveys in North America, one targeting mineral deposits and the second, a hydrocarbon accumulation at a salt dome illustrate some current applications of this innovative technology. The minerals deposit data was flown using/comparing both constant altitude and drape survey acquisition methods over an area of rugged topography (7.5x15.5km). Two drilled/sampled ore body targets (250-350m in diameter) were successfully detected with the Tzz tensor and compared/integrated to a dense grid of existing land gravity, Tz. Additionally, the horizontal tensors Txz and Tyz were utilized to determine lineament geometries from grid peak analysis, linking local tectonic elements to prospective subsurface geology and providing insight to ore body formation and hence detection. Frequency-filtering techniques are also employed to further enhance and separate geologic features. The oil field data was gathered at constant altitude (300m AMSL) and covers an area of a shallow piercement salt diapir (9.7x10.3 km). The primary survey objectives are to image complex salt geology and detect areas of complex overhang geometries where 3D seismic data are inherently ambiguous. In this manner 3D FTG analysis is utilized to reduce risk and geologic uncertainty with respect to ongoing development/directional drilling programs. Further, it is anticipated that the FTG derived salt isopach will be used to reduce valuable iteration time during pre-stack depth migration (PSDM) of the 3D seismic. These two case studies clearly demonstrate the diverse utility of this exciting new technology.
New single crystal 40Ar/39Ar ages improve time scale for deposition of the Omo Group, Omo–Turkana Basin, East Africa

Six tuffaceous beds within the Omo Group of the Omo–Turkana Basin have been dated using the 40Ar/39Ar single crystal total fusion method on anorthoclase, yielding eruption ages. The Omo Group constitutes up to 800 m of subaerially exposed sediments surrounding Lake Turkana within the East African Rift system in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia. Rhyolitic explosive eruptions produced tuffs and pumice clasts that are considered to have been deposited shortly after eruption. The new age data on feldspars from the pumice clasts range from 4.02 ± 0.04 Ma for the Naibar Tuff of the Koobi Fora Formation to 1.53 ± 0.02 Ma for Tuff K of the Shungura Formation. The Orange Tuff in the KBS Member of the Koobi Fora Formation was dated at 1.76 ± 0.03 Ma, providing good control in this part of the sequence where formerly there was a >200 ka gap. Data are consistent with earlier measurements and significantly improve age resolution within the Omo Group, which has yielded many vertebrate fossils, including hominin fossils comprising a number of species. We suggest new age estimates for a limited number of hominin specimens. Supplementary material: Eleven tables and nine figures are available at www.geolsoc. org.uk/SUP18506.
Quantum Search with Noisy Oracle

We consider quantum search algorithms that have access to a noisy oracle that, for every oracle call, with probability $p>0$ completely depolarizes the query registers, while otherwise working properly. Previous results had not ruled out quantum $\mathrm{O}(\sqrt{n})$-query algorithms in this setting, even for constant $p$. We show that, for all $p\le 0.99$, the quantum noisy-query complexity of the unstructured search is $\tilde\Theta(\max\{np,\sqrt{n}\})$. The lower bound $\Omega(\max\{np,\sqrt n\})$ holds also for the dephasing noise and even when, for every oracle call, the algorithm is provided with a flag indicating whether the error has occurred.
MALASPINA GLACIER, ALASKA

Malaspina Glacier is a piedmont ice sheet covering approximately 850 square miles on the flat coastal foreland of southern Alaska. The Seward-Malaspina glacier system has experienced marked deficits in 6 out of 9 budget years between 1945 and 1954. In 1 of the remaining 3 years it had a good surplus, and in the other 2 years the economy was about balanced. Variation in precipitation has exerted a major influence on regimen. Seismic explorations show that the ice, 2000 feet thick, lies in a basin at least 825 and possibly 1000 feet below sea level. Data support speculation that the closure of this basin is due about one-third to glacial erosion and two-thirds to peripheral glacial deposition. Geometrically and structurally, Malaspina Glacier is simple in broad aspects but complex in detail. An extensive system of radial crevasses, a prevailing foliation, and two sets of tight joints are consistent with the broad lobate form of the sheet and with the stresses causing it to spread out on the coastal foreland. Near the center of the glacier the foliation dips too steeply (75°–85°) to be related to near-surface shearing, so it is attributed to plastic deformation at some depth. An extensive and complex system of folds, spectacularly displayed on the glacier's surface, deforms ice streams and debris bands about near-vertical axes. These structures were formed within the Malaspina and are not inherited from higher in the system. They are attributed to slip folding, or to flowage with minor modification by slippage, and developed in response to the strong shove of ice pouring out of the mountains. The Malaspina Glacier spreads out and at the same time maintains sufficient thickness and surface slope to flow uphill across the coastal foreland by folding up accordian fashion. Deformation of an aluminum pipe in a 1000-foot borehole near the center of this glacier provides information on internal flow. Differential movement in 1 year between top and bottom of the hole was 5.75 feet, with the top moving the most. Deformation recorded in the uppermost 300 feet over a 3-year period extends to within less than 50 feet of the surface, amounts to 1.5 feet, and follows a similar curve. Malaspina borehole observations do not support the concept of extrusion flow. Plots of these data suggest that the strain rate is not an exponential function of depth, but rather that the stress-strain-rate relationship can be described by the commonly used function γ = kr^n, with a value of about 3 for n. Yielding appears to have occurred at a shear stress as small as 0.01 bar. Movement of the Malaspina Glacier seemingly involves basal slip or boundary-layer flow as well as internal flowage. Movement of the ice is controlled primarily by surface slope, and steeper parts of the ice surface overlie ascending as well as descending reaches on the subglacial floor. Simple calculations based upon ablation, surface slope, and horizontal velocity show that surfaceward movement of ice is required near the glacier's margin to maintain elevation and profile. Nye's compressive flow seems the most likely mechanism for producing such surfaceward movement.
Conversion of NOAA atmospheric dry air CH4 mole fractions to a gravimetrically prepared standard scale

[1] Sixteen mixtures of methane (CH4) in dry air were prepared using a gravimetric technique to define a CH4 standard gas scale covering the nominal range 300–2600 nmol mol−1. It is designed to be suitable for measurements of methane in air ranging from those extracted from glacial ice to contemporary background atmospheric conditions. All standards were prepared in passivated, 5.9 L high-pressure aluminum cylinders. Methane dry air mole fractions were determined by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection, where the repeatability of the measurement is typically better than 0.1% (≤1.5 nmol mol−1) for ambient CH4 levels. Once a correction was made for 5 nmol mol−1 CH4 in the diluent air, the scale was used to verify the linearity of our analytical system over the nominal range 300–2600 nmol mol−1. The gravimetrically prepared standards were analyzed against CH4 in air standards that define the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (CMDL) CMDL83 CH4 in air scale, showing that CH4 mole fractions in the new scale are a factor of (1.0124 ± 0.0007) greater than those expressed in the CMDL83 scale. All CMDL measurements of atmospheric CH4 have been adjusted to this new scale, which has also been accepted as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) CH4 standard scale; all laboratories participating in the WMO Global Atmosphere Watch program should report atmospheric CH4 measurements to the world data center on this scale.
The Carnmenellis Granite: Its Petrology, Metamorphism and Tectonics

I. Introduction The Carnmenellis granite and its metamorphic aureole were mapped, in 1839, by de la Beche. The area has since been re-surveyed by the Geological Survey and the results recorded in the one-inch maps, nos. 352 and 359 (New Series) and in the Survey Memoir on the Falmouth and Camborne district (Hill & MacAlister, 1906). The granite is an important unit in the chain of post-Carboniferous granite intrusions forming the backbone of the peninsula of Cornwall and Devon. The consanguinity of these intrusions has long been known, but the recognition of the composite character of individual intrusions is comparatively recent. Intrusive relationship between major composite masses was observed on Dartmoor by the members of the Geological Survey (Reid & others, 1912), Brammall (1923), and Osman (1928), and on Bodmin Moor by myself (1927). Intrusion sequences are discussed by Brammall (1923 & 1932) and Osman (1928). Important petrological contrasts between the Devonian and the Cornish granites were pointed out by Flett and Dewey (Reid & others, 1912), and problems of variation within individual complexes have since been made the basis of detailed study by Osman with special reference to the Dartmoor and Scilly Isles masses, by Richardson (1923) dealing with the St. Austell granite, and by myself in a paper on the Bodmin Moor granite (1927), and the Carnmenellis granite, the subject of the present contribution. I would add that, subsequent to the presentation of the paper to the Society, I have had the advantage of re-examining my analytical data
Observations of high‐frequency internal waves in the Coastal Ocean Dynamics Region

Current meter data from the second Coastal Ocean Dynamics Experiment (CODE II) for July 1982 are analyzed for internal waves in the 6 to 40 cycles per day (cpd) frequency band. It is found that the wave field is anisotropic and that the current ellipses are oriented in approximately the cross-isobath direction. The squares of the ratio of the major to minor axes of the current ellipses (the “ellipticity”) are consistent with a continuum of internal waves propagating onshore but are not consistent with a single wave propagating onshore. The reduction of internal wave energy across the shelf is consistent with propagation from the deep ocean or shelf break, as is the correlation between vertical velocities and velocities parallel to the minor axis. However, there is evidence for the generation of additional internal wave energy on the shelf in the evolution of the current ellipses across the shelf and in the bluing of the internal wave spectra across the shelf. Internal wave energy levels are elevated by a factor of 1.5 to 5 above Garrett and Munk [1972] levels at the moorings on the 130 and 365 m isobaths. The first vertical mode dominates at the 130 m isobath, the only mooring for which the vertical modal analysis was done.
Trace Level Pesticide Detections in Arkansas Surface Waters

A pesticide survey of surface water was conducted in 1989, 1990, and 1991 in Lawrence, Mississippi, Phillips, and Jefferson counties in Arkansas to assess nonpoint source water pollution. During these 3 years, 59−62 lake and river/stream sites were sampled eight times and screened for 17 pesticides commonly used in Arkansas. Pesticides were extracted by solid-phase extraction (SPE) disks. Extracts were analyzed by gas chromatography−electron capture detection (ECD) and high-performance liquid chromatography−UV detection (LCUV). Detections were confirmed by gas chromatography−mass spectroscopy (MS) or co-chromatography. The 256 detections during the survey represented 14 pesticides. Metolachlor (25% of total detections), atrazine (22%), norflurazon (16%), and cyanazine (14%) were the most commonly detected compounds. A total of 5% of the total detections was above health advisories. Spring and summer samples provided 73% of the total pesticide detections. Rivers and streams were responsible for 62% of the .
Optimizing delegation between human and AI collaborative agents

In the context of humans operating with artificial or autonomous agents in a hybrid team, it is essential to accurately identify when to authorize those team members to perform actions. Given past examples where humans and autonomous systems can either succeed or fail at tasks, we seek to train a delegating manager agent to make delegation decisions with respect to these potential performance deficiencies. Additionally, we cannot always expect the various agents to operate within the same underlying model of the environment. It is possible to encounter cases where the actions and transitions would vary between agents. Therefore, our framework provides a manager model which learns through observations of team performance without restricting agents to matching dynamics. Our results show our manager learns to perform delegation decisions with teams of agents operating under differing representations of the environment, significantly outperforming alternative methods to manage the team.
The stiffness of natural London Clay

An investigation of natural London Clay is reported involving advanced triaxial, hollow cylinder apparatus (HCA) and dynamic testing techniques. Significant anisotropy was revealed at all scales of deformation, and the framework of cross-anisotropic elasticity was found to apply broadly to the initial elastic behaviour. The stiffness parameters obtained by independent techniques generally exhibited good agreement, with the greatest deviation being seen in the Poisson's ratios, which fell far from the values usually assumed in conventional foundation analysis. Probing tests established the limits to the elastic domain over a range of depths, showing that these scaled in proportion to the mean effective stress level, as did those of a second kinematic surface that surrounded the elastic domain. Once engaged, this second surface signified a new pattern of strain increment directions, faster elastic-plastic stiffness decay with strain, and also a greater dependence of behaviour on recent stress history. Howev.
Modeled optical thickness of sea-salt aerosol

[1] We simulate the generation and microphysical evolution of sea-salt aerosol using a climatologically driven 3-D microphysical model for the year 2006. We then apply Mie theory to calculate the extinction and scattering efficiencies of our transported, size-resolved sea-salt aerosol, accounting for hygroscopic growth due to changes in ambient relative humidity. We calculate the column optical thickness of our modeled sea-salt aerosol for comparison to three previously published wind speed–dependent clean marine air optical thickness formulations. Variously derived from optical thickness measurements and retrievals taken from the Midway Island AERONET site, the satellite-based MODIS instruments, and the Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) site at Mace Head, Ireland, the three formulations report similar background levels of clean marine AOT at zero wind speed but significantly different functional dependencies for nonzero wind speeds. We find that our modeled sea-salt aerosol optical thickness very closely depends on the square of surface wind speed under steady state conditions. This relationship is consistent across all latitudes. However, due to the fact that steady state winds are seldom maintained, the 24 h mean wind is more frequently applicable to calculations of sea-salt AOT, with only slightly diminished accuracy.
Troposphere‐stratosphere dynamic coupling under strong and weak polar vortex conditions

The relationship between Northern Hemisphere (NH) tropospheric and stratospheric wave‐like anomalies of spherical zonal wave number (ZWN) 1 is studied by applying Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA). A lag‐correlation technique is used with 10‐day lowpass filtered daily time series of 50‐ and 500‐hPa geopotential heights. Generally stratospheric circulation is determined by ultralong tropospheric planetary waves. During winter seasons characterized either by an anomalously strong or weak polar winter vortex different propagation characteristics for waves of ZWN 1 are observed. The non‐linear perspective of the results have implications for medium range weather forecast and climate sensitivity experiments.
Temporal trends in δ18O composition of precipitation in Germany: insights from time series modelling and trend analysis

Temporal and spatial variations of stable oxygen (18O) and hydrogen (2H) isotope measurements in precipitation act as important proxies for changing hydro‐meteorological and regional and global climate patterns. Temporal trends in time series of the stable isotope composition in precipitation were rarely observed, and they are poorly understood. These might be a result of a lack of proper trend detection tools and effort for exploring trend processes. Here, we investigate temporal trends of δ18O in precipitation at 17 observation stations in Germany between 1978 and 2009. We test if significant trends in the isotope time series from different models can be observed. Mann–Kendall trend tests are applied on the isotope series, using general multiplicative seasonal autoregressive integrate moving average (ARIMA) models, which account for first and higher order serial correlations. Effects of temperature, precipitation, and geographic parameters on isotope trends are also investigated in the proposed models. To benchmark our proposed approach, the ARIMA results are compared with a trend‐free pre‐whitening procedure, the state of the art method for removing the first order autocorrelation in environmental trend studies. Moreover, we further explore whether higher order serial correlations in isotope series affects our trend results. Overall, three out of the 17 stations show significant changes when higher order autocorrelation are adjusted, and four show a significant trend when temperature and precipitation effects are considered. The significant trends in the isotope time series generally occur only at low elevation stations. Higher order autoregressive processes are shown to be important in the isotope time series analysis. Results suggest that the widely used trend analysis with only the first order autocorrelation adjustment may not adequately take account of the high order autocorrelated processes in the stable isotope series. The investigated time series analysis method including higher autocorrelation and external climate variable adjustments is shown to be a better alternative. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An original way to evaluate daily rainfall variability simulated by a regional climate model: the case of South African austral summer rainfall

We discuss the value of a clustering approach as a tool for evaluating daily rainfall output from climate models. Ascendant hierarchical clustering is used to evaluate how well South African recurrent daily rainfall patterns are simulated during the austral summer (December to February 1970–1971 to 1998–1999). A set of 35‐km regional climate simulations, run with the WRF model and driven by the ERA40 reanalysis, is chosen as a case study. Six recurrent patterns are identified and compared to the observed clusters obtained by applying the same methodology to 5352 daily rain gauge records. Two of the WRF clusters describe either a persistent and widespread dryness (65% of the days) or patterns similar to the seasonal mean rainfall gradient (13% of the days). The four remaining WRF clusters (∼20% of the days) are wetter; they describe the weakening, conservation or strengthening of the average rainfall gradient. The WRF cluster rainfall patterns and their associated circulation match the observed clusters rather well, but their frequency of occurrence is greatly overestimated by WRF during dry events, and underestimated for near‐normal rainfall conditions. The weak model biases found at the seasonal timescale conceal strongly biased intraseasonal rainfall variability. The WRF‐simulated rainfall patterns are then temporally or spatially projected on to the observed clusters. Spatial projection proves to be the more useful of these two approaches in quantifying model skill by assessing both the temporal co‐variability between WRF and observations, and the rainfall biases of the model with or without temporal dephasing. The WRF model simulates transient rainfall activity partially out of phase with observations, which induces large rainfall biases when temporal dephasing is not removed. Rainfall biases are significantly reduced, however, when temporal dephasing is removed. The clustering approach therefore proves its efficiency to highlight climate model strengths and deficiencies.