Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Polygenic score for sleep duration in relation to risk of Alzheimer's disease: results from the UK Biobank

INTRODUCTION: Studies have suggested sleep duration may be associated with Alzheimer's disease risk, but findings based on self-reported sleep duration are likely to be influenced by reverse causation and residual confounding bias. METHODS: A polygenic score (PGS) for device-measured sleep duration was constructed using LDpred2-auto in 77,770 white British UK Biobank participants. We applied the PGS to 264,746 white British participants independent of the sample from which the PGS was developed. We assessed the association of fifths of genetically predicted sleep duration with Alzheimer's disease risk (1,451 cases/264,746 individuals over median 12.5y of follow-up). RESULTS: The PGS explained ~2% of variation in device-measured sleep duration. Compared to individuals in the middle fifth of PGS, those in the highest fifth (indicating ~15 mins/day longer sleep) had a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease (HR=0.79[95%CI,0.67-0.94]). DISCUSSION: Our results indicate that genetic predisposition to relatively long sleep duration is associated with a lower Alzheimer's disease risk.
Estimating the transmission dynamics of Omicron in Beijing, November to December 2022

We tracked the effective reproduction number Rt of Omicron BF.7 in Beijing in November-December 2022 by fitting a transmission dynamic model parameterized with real-time mobility data to (i) the daily number of new symptomatic cases on November 1-11 (when the zero-covid interventions were still strictly enforced) and (ii) the proportion of individuals who participated in online polls on December 10-14 and self-reported to have been previously test-positive. After the announcement of "20 measures", we estimated that Rt increased to 3.42 (95% CrI: 2.79-4.17) on November 18. Infection incidence peaked on December 10, and the cumulative infection attack rate was 42.5% (95% CrI: 20.3-63.9) on December 14. Surveillance programmes should be rapidly set up to monitor the evolving epidemiology and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 across China.
Invasive Mechanical Ventilation Duration Prediction using Survival Analysis

Your research problem and objectives Invasive mechanical ventilation is one of the leading life support machines in the intensive care unit (ICU). By identifying the predictors of ventilation time upon arrival, important information can be gathered to improve decisions regarding capacity planning. Purpose In this study, first day ventilated patients ventilation time was analyzed using survival analysis. The probabilistic behaviour of ventilation time duration was analyzed and the predictors of ventilation time duration were determined based on available first day covariates. Materials and methods A retrospective analysis of ICU ventilation time in Ontario was performed with data from ICU patients obtained from the Critical Care Information System (CCIS) in Ontario between July 2015 and December 2016. As part of the protocol for inclusion, a patient must have been connected to an invasive ventilator upon arrival to the ICU. Parametric survival methods were used to characterize ventilation time and to determine associated covariates. Parametric and non-parametric methods were used to determine predictors of ventilation duration for first-day ventilated patients. Results A total of 128,030 patients visited the ICUs between July 2015 and December 2016. 51,966 (40.59 pervcent) patients received invasive mechanical ventilation on arrival. Analysis of ventilation duration suggested that the log-normal distribution provided the best fit to ventilation time, whereas the log-logistic Accelerated Failure Time model best describes the association between the covariates and ventilation duration. ICU site, admission source, admission diagnosis, scheduled admission, scheduled surgery, referring physician, central venous line treatment, arterial line treatment, intracranial pressure monitor treatment, extra-corporeal membrane oxygen treatment, intraaortic balloon pump treatment, other interventions, age group, pre-ICU LOS, and MODS score were significant predictors of the ICU ventilation time. Conclusions The results show substantial variability in ICU ventilation duration for different ICUs, patients demographics, and underlying conditions, and highlight mechanical ventilation as an important driver of ICU costs. The predictive performance of the proposed model showed that both the model and the data can be used to predict an individual patients ventilation time and to provide insight into predictors.
Local-Scale phylodynamics reveal differential community impact of SARS-CoV-2 in metropolitan US county

SARS-CoV-2 transmission is largely driven by heterogeneous dynamics at a local scale, leaving local health departments to design interventions with limited information. We analyzed SARS-CoV-2 genomes sampled between February 2020 and March 2022 jointly with epidemiological and cell phone mobility data to investigate fine scale spatiotemporal SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics in King County, Washington, a diverse, metropolitan US county. We applied an approximate structured coalescent approach to model transmission within and between North King County and South King County alongside the rate of outside introductions into the county. Our phylodynamic analyses reveal that following stay-at-home orders, the epidemic trajectories of North and South King County began to diverge. We find that South King County consistently had more reported and estimated cases, COVID-19 hospitalizations, and longer persistence of local viral transmission when compared to North King County, where viral importations from outside drove a larger proportion of new cases. Using mobility and demographic data, we also find that South King County experienced a more modest and less sustained reduction in mobility following stay-at-home orders than North King County, while also bearing more socioeconomic inequities that might contribute to a disproportionate burden of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Overall, our findings suggest a role for local-scale phylodynamics in understanding the heterogeneous transmission landscape.
Discovery of Hard X-Rays from a Cluster of Protostars

We report on the detection of hard X-rays from protostar candidates (Class I sources) in the R Coronae Australis (R Cr A) molecular cloud. The hard X-rays are found even in the quiescent states with extremely high temperature of about 6 keV. One of the sources, probably the embedded far-infrared source Rl , exhibited a powerful X-ray flare. These phenomena are similar to, but with a significantly higher temperature than, those seen in T Tauri stars. The flare spectrum is unusual, showing a broadened or double emissionline structure between 6.2 and 6.8 keV. Since X-rays are unexpected from current protostellar theory, these ASCA observations should have a significant impact on our understanding of star formation and the earliest phases of stellar evolution.
Breast imaging with ultrasound tomography: a comparative study with MRI

The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of an ultrasound tomography (UST) prototype relative to magnetic resonance (MR) for imaging overall breast anatomy and accentuating tumors relative to background tissue. The study was HIPAA compliant, approved by the Institutional Review Board, and performed after obtaining the requisite informed consent. Twenty-three patients were imaged with MR and the UST prototype. T1 weighted images with fat saturation, with and without gadolinium enhancement, were used to examine anatomical structures and tumors, while T2 weighted images were used to identify cysts. The UST scans generated sound speed, attenuation, and reflection images. A qualitative visual comparison of the MRI and UST images was then used to identify anatomical similarities. A more focused approach that involved a comparison of reported masses, lesion volumes, and breast density was used to quantify the findings from the visual assessment. Our acoustic tomography prototype imaged distributions of fibrous stroma, parenchyma, fatty tissues, and lesions in patterns similar to those seen in the MR images. The range of thresholds required to establish tumor volume equivalency between MRI and UST suggested that a universal threshold for isolating masses relative to background tissue is feasible with UST. UST has demonstrated the ability to visualize and characterize breast tissues in a manner comparable to MRI. Thresholding techniques accentuate masses relative to background anatomy, which may prove clinically useful for early cancer detection.
Time-variable Intrinsic Absorption Lines in the Quasi-stellar Object Q2343+125

We discuss high-resolution Keck Observatory spectra of an intrinsic absorption-line system at redshift za ≈ 2.24 in the radio-quiet QSO Q2343+125 (ze = 2.515). The absorber's physical relationship to the QSO is confirmed by time-variable line strengths and partial line-of-sight coverage of the QSO continuum source. The N V, C IV, and Si IV doublets varied in unison by factors of ≳4 in less than 0.3 yr in the QSO rest frame. The resolved C IV doublet ratios show that the absorber occults ≲20% of the QSO continuum source; therefore, the absorbing clouds are likely to have characteristic sizes less than 0.01 pc. There is evidence for smaller coverage fractions when the lines were weaker, which could explain the line-strength changes. Lower ionization species such as C II and Si II are not detected. The Lyα line at za ≈ 2.24 is contaminated by the dense forest of cosmologically intervening absorption lines, but also appears to be weak or absent. The large uncertainties in the H I column prevent reliable constraints on the metal abundances. The za ≈ 2.24 lines clearly form in high-velocity ejecta from the QSO. The line profiles are smooth and rounded, with FWHM ~ 400 km s-1 and centroids shifted -24,000 km s-1 from the QSO emission redshift. Several narrow-line systems are present inside the broader absorption profiles, but they did not vary in strength and may be due to intervening gas. The large-amplitude variability, low coverage fractions, and large ratio of centroid to FWHM velocities imply different outflow properties than those inferred from the broad absorption lines (BALs) in other sources. Nonetheless, the ejecta identified by the za ≈ 2.24 absorber could be related to the BAL phenomenon and could be ubiquitous in QSOs if the gas subtends a small fraction of the sky as seen from the emission source(s).
Adaptive general predictive controller for nonlinear systems

A nonlinear general predictive controller (NLGPC) is described which is based on the use of a Hammerstein model within a recursive control algorithm. A key contribution of the paper is the use of a novel, one-step simple root solving procedure for the Hammerstein model, this being a fundamental part of the overall tuning algorithm. A comparison is made between NLGPC and nonlinear deadbeat control (NLDBC) using the same one-step nonlinear components, in order to investigate NLGPC advantages and disadvantages.
Microstructure and piezoelectric properties of Li‐doped Bi0.5(Na0.825K0.175)0.5TiO3 piezoelectric ceramics

Piezoelectric ceramics Bi0.5(Na0.825K0.175)0.5TiO3 + x wt% Li2CO3 (abbreviated as BNKTL‐x) with x ranging from 0 to 10 were synthesized by conventional solid‐state reaction. XRD results reveal that the ceramics possess pure perovskite phase from x = 0 to x = 1.0. The SEM micrographs show that ceramics have a dense microstructure with a fine grain size at 1145 °C when x < 5.0. The measurements of dielectric and piezoelectric properties indicate that the optimum piezoelectric properties constant d33 = 174 pC/N at x = 0.5 and planar electromechanical coupling factor kp = 29.7% at x = 0.75 are observed. The depolarization temperature Td of BNKTL‐1.0 ceramics is above 170 °C. It is apparent that the ceramics can be employed in practical applications. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
A kernel-based core growing clustering method

In this paper, a novel clustering method in the kernel space is proposed. It effectively integrates several existing algorithms to become an iterative clustering scheme, which can handle clusters with arbitrary shapes. In our proposed approach, a reasonable initial core for each of the cluster is estimated. This allows us to adopt a cluster growing technique, and the growing cores offer partial hints on the cluster association. Consequently, the methods used for classification, such as support vector machines (SVMs), can be useful in our approach. To obtain initial clusters effectively, the notion of the incomplete Cholesky decomposition is adopted so that the fuzzy c-means (FCM) can be used to partition the data in a kernel defined-like space. Then a one-class and a multiclass soft margin SVMs are adopted to detect the data within the main distributions (the cores) of the clusters and to repartition the data into new clusters iteratively. The structure of the data set is explored by pruning the data in the low-density region of the clusters. Then data are gradually added back to the main distributions to assure exact cluster boundaries. Unlike the ordinary SVM algorithm, whose performance relies heavily on the kernel parameters given by the user, the parameters are estimated from the data set naturally in our approach. The experimental evaluations on two synthetic data sets and four University of California Irvine real data benchmarks indicate that the proposed algorithms outperform several popular clustering algorithms, such as FCM, support vector clustering (SVC), hierarchical clustering (HC), self-organizing maps (SOM), and non-Euclidean norm fuzzy c-means (NEFCM). © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.4
Spectroscopic binaries in the Orion OB1 association

A radial velocity study of the brighter members of the Ori OB2 association is reported. The radial velocity variables, new preliminary orbital elements for six spectroscopic binaries, and the projected axial rotation in stars for which the orbital elements are lacking are reported. The correlation between the proportion of binaries and the average axial rotation for the subgroups of the association is discussed. It is found that the Orion main-sequence members rotate at almost the same rate as field stars of the same types. The average radial velocity for the whole association is 23 km/s. The percentage of spectroscopic binaries with periods shorter than 100 days plus the magnetic Ap-Bp among the main-sequence members of the association is 32 percent. 102 refs.
Solutions containing a large parameter of a quasi-linear hyperbolic system of equations and their nonlinear geometric optics approximation

It is well known that a quasi-linear first order strictly hyperbolic system of partial differential equations admits a formal approximate solution with the initial data λ −1 a 0 (λx . η, x)r 1 (η), λ > 0, x, η ∈ R n , η ¬= 0. Here r 1 (η) is a characteristic vector, and a 0 (σ, x) is a smooth scalar function of compact support. Under the additional requirements that n = 2 or 3 and that a 0 (σ, x) have the vanishing mean with respect to σ, it is shown that a genuine solution exists in a time interval independent of λ, and that the formal solution is asymptotic to the genuine solution as λ → ∞
Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity and protect health

> Wealthy nations must do much more, much faster. The United Nations General Assembly in September 2021 will bring countries together at a critical time for marshalling collective action to tackle the global environmental crisis. They will meet again at the biodiversity summit in Kunming, China, and the climate conference (Conference of the Parties (COP)26) in Glasgow, UK. Ahead of these pivotal meetings, we—the editors of health journals worldwide—call for urgent action to keep average global temperature increases below 1.5°C, halt the destruction of nature and protect health. Health is already being harmed by global temperature increases and the destruction of the natural world, a state of affairs health professionals have been bringing attention to for decades.1 The science is unequivocal; a global increase of 1.5°C above the preindustrial average and the continued loss of biodiversity risk catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse.2 3 Despite the world’s necessary preoccupation with COVID-19, we cannot wait for the pandemic to pass to rapidly reduce emissions. Reflecting the severity of the moment, this editorial appears in health journals across the world. We are united in recognising that only fundamental and equitable changes to societies will reverse our current trajectory. The risks to health of increases above 1.5°C are now well established.2 Indeed, no temperature rise is ‘safe’. In the past 20 years, heat-related mortality among people aged over 65 has increased by more than 50%. 4 Higher temperatures have brought increased dehydration and renal function loss, dermatological malignancies, tropical infections, adverse mental health outcomes, pregnancy complications, allergies, and cardiovascular and pulmonary morbidity and mortality.5 6 Harms disproportionately affect the most vulnerable, including children, older populations, ethnic minorities, poorer communities and those with underlying health problems.2 4 Global heating is also contributing to the decline in …
Effects of ion beams on the early stages of MgO growth

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to examine the effects of ion beams in selecting MgO island orientations during ion beam assisted deposition. Sputter yields are determined as a function of ion beam orientation for MgO islands of different sizes. While channeling does occur in small islands, the difference in sputter yields between channeling and nonchanneling orientations is much smaller in small islands than in larger islands or a continuous film. The ion beam is capable of disrupting the entire island structure at small island sizes, while channeling dependent sputtering occurs at larger island size. Since less sputtering occurs for channeling orientations, the ion beam produces an orientation-dependent island growth rate. This leads to island orientation-dependent nucleation rates. A new analytical model parameterized using the molecular dynamics sputter yield data is developed which predicts how growth conditions affect these island-orientation nucleation rates. Based upon these simulatio.
X-rays from the radio halo of M87

The Einstein Observatory and the VLA were used to scan the radio halo of the galaxy M87 to detect the presence, if any, of inverse Compton X-ray (ICX) emissions. The scans revealed a coincidence of an asymmetrical X-ray structure with a luminosity near 4 x 10 to the 41st ergs/sec and dominant symmetrical emission from the hot interstellar gas. The emission can be attributed to ICX if the magnetic field of the proposed halo varies between 3-8 times below equipartition levels of 2-5 micro-gauss, which would imply that the confinement is produced by an outside medium. The necessary characteristics of the confining mechanism are discussed. 43 references.
Channel length dependent sensitivity of Schottky contacted silicon nanowire field-effect transistor sensors

In this paper, we examine the dependence of channel length on the sensitivity of Schottky contacted silicon nanowire field-effect transistor sensors. The fabricated experimental devices are used as photosensors as well as chemical sensors for pH sensing. The difference in light illuminated current response depends on the channel length in the linear regime. However, the current ratio (ΔILight-Dark/IDark) shows a different trend, being much improved for a longer channel in the subthreshold regime, which can be explained by the different subthreshold swings. Finally, devices of two different channel lengths are applied to detect the pH value of a solution yielding results similar to photosensing. From these results, we suggest that it is desirable to shorten the channel if the sensor is working in the linear region and increase the channel length if the sensor is used in the subthreshold region.
Nonlinear Vibrations and Stability of Shells and Plates

Introduction. 1. Nonlinear theories of elasticity of plates and shells 2. Nonlinear theories of doubly curved shells for conventional and advanced materials 3. Introduction to nonlinear dynamics 4. Vibrations of rectangular plates 5. Vibrations of empty and fluid-filled circular cylindrical 6. Reduced order models: proper orthogonal decomposition and nonlinear normal modes 7. Comparison of different shell theories for nonlinear vibrations and stability of circular cylindrical shells 8. Effect of boundary conditions on a large-amplitude vibrations of circular cylindrical shells 9. Vibrations of circular cylindrical panels with different boundary conditions 10. Nonlinear vibrations and stability of doubly-curved shallow-shells: isotropic and laminated materials 11. Meshless discretization of plates and shells of complex shapes by using the R-functions 12. Vibrations of circular plates and rotating disks 13. Nonlinear stability of circular cylindrical shells under static and dynamic axial loads 14. Nonlinear stability and vibrations of circular shells conveying flow 15. Nonlinear supersonic flutter of circular cylindrical shells with imperfections.
Scanning capabilities of large parabolic cylinder reflector antennas with phased-array feeds

Two methods of scanning large parabolic cylinder antennas are examined: one method moves a small array across the focal plane to form a scanning beam; the other method employs a larger stationary array which is capable of electronically scanning the beam. With conventional single-element feeds, the maximum possible scan angle decreases with increasing reflector size. With array feeds, however, the scan limits are shown to be independent of reflector size and antenna gain. Antennas with movable array feeds are found to have high performance (high gain and low sidelobes) even when scanned more than ten degrees off axis; antennas with stationary array feeds degrade rapidly beyond about one degree of scan because of aperture blockage. Off-axis designs which eliminate the aperture blockage are shown to extend the coverage of antennas with stationary feeds to about \pm 5 degrees.
Rocket measurements of auroral electric and magnetic fields

A series of five Nike Tomahawk sounding rockets were launched from Fort Churchill into a variety of auroral conditions. Payload instrumentation included electric field meters, magnetometers, auroral photometers, and charged-particle detectors. Horizontal dc electric fields were measured and were found to point southward during negative magnetic bays. This is consistent with the presence of westward-flowing Hall currents. The relative absence of electric-field variations with altitude indicates that field mapping along nearly equipotential magnetic field lines may be taking place. Perturbations measured by the rocket magnetometers and photometers suggest that the auroral electrojet often flows parallel to visible auroral forms and is comprised of a series of thin current filaments of varying intensity. According to the magnetometer records, horizontal electrojet currents of 104 to 106 amp existed during periods of visible auroral activity. An upper limit for a field-aligned current in a zenith auroral display 10 km from the payload was calculated to be 2.5×105 amp on the basis of flux-gate magnetometer data. Results from a solid-state particle detector, however, suggest that the current was probably of much smaller magnitude. Calculations using various current models indicate that it is often necessary to propose the existence of two or more horizontal current filaments to produce agreement between ground-station and rocket magnetic records.