Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bottomside sinusoidal irregularities in the equatorial F region

A new category of equatorial F region plasma irregularities having properties easily distinguished from those of plasma bubbles, depletions, or broadband turbulence has been identified in the data from the retarding potential analyzer (RPA) and the ion drift meter (IDM) on the Atmosphere Explorer satellites AE-C and AE-E. These irregularities are observed in the bottomside at night in a narrow belt extending approximately ±12° from the dip equator and up to 7500 km or more in the east–west direction. High-resolution data from the RPA reveal nearly sinusoidal waves in the ion number density Ni with peak to peak ΔNi/Ni amplitudes that span more than three orders of magnitude, from values less than 0.1% to more than 100%. These distinctive “bottomside sinusoidal” (BSS) irregularities typically have a central wavelength lying in the range from 300 m to 3 km, and relatively narrow spectra. The power spectral index is often large (5 or 6) at the shorter wavelengths, but the spectrum usually decays much less rapidly on the longer wavelength side. The vertical drift velocity also has a wavelike structure that appears to be anticorrelated to within a phase uncertainty of approximately ±90° with the Ni variations, such that regions of lower density plasma move upward and higher density regions move downward with respect to the mean ionospheric drift. Anticorrelated wavelike drift and density fluctuations are consistent with plasma that is Rayleigh-Taylor unstable. Consideration of altitude localization and cross-field ambipolar diffusion effects can introduce at least a slight maximum in the R-T growth rate near 1 km and also sharply limit irregularity growth at smaller scale sizes, thus providing a tentative explanation of the peaked Ni spectrum observed. Ionograms from Huancayo display a typical “mid-latitude” frequency spread signature when BSS is present.
Mapping the conformational landscape of a dynamic enzyme by multitemperature and XFEL crystallography

Determining the interconverting conformations of dynamic proteins in atomic detail is a major challenge for structural biology. Conformational heterogeneity in the active site of the dynamic enzyme cyclophilin A (CypA) has been previously linked to its catalytic function, but the extent to which the different conformations of these residues are correlated is unclear. Here we compare the conformational ensembles of CypA by multitemperature synchrotron crystallography and fixed-target X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) crystallography. The “diffraction-before-destruction” nature of XFEL experiments provides a radiation-damage-free view of the functionally important alternative conformations of CypA, confirming earlier synchrotron-based results. We monitored the temperature dependences of these alternative conformations with eight synchrotron datasets spanning 100-310 K. Multiconformer models show that many alternative conformations in CypA are populated only at 240 K and above, yet others remain populated or become populated at 180 K and below. These results point to a complex evolution of conformational heterogeneity between 180-240 K that involves both thermal deactivation and solvent-driven arrest of protein motions in the crystal. The lack of a single shared conformational response to temperature within the dynamic active-site network provides evidence for a conformation shuffling model, in which exchange between rotamer states for a large aromatic ring in the middle of the network shifts the conformational ensemble for the other residues in the network. Together, our multitemperature analyses and XFEL data motivate a new generation of temperature- and time-resolved experiments to structurally characterize the dynamic underpinnings of protein function.
Role of preoperative carbohydrate loading: a systematic review

INTRODUCTION Surgical stress in the presence of fasting worsens the catabolic state, causes insulin resistance and may delay recovery. Carbohydrate rich drinks given preoperatively may ameliorate these deleterious effects. A systematic review was undertaken to analyse the effect of preoperative carbohydrate loading on insulin resistance, gastric emptying, gastric acidity, patient wellbeing, immunity and nutrition following surgery. METHODS All studies identified through PubMed until September 2011 were included. References were cross-checked to ensure capture of cited pertinent articles. RESULTS Overall, 17 randomised controlled trials with a total of 1,445 patients who met the inclusion criteria were identified. Preoperative carbohydrate drinks significantly improved insulin resistance and indices of patient comfort following surgery, especially hunger, thirst, malaise, anxiety and nausea. No definite conclusions could be made regarding preservation of muscle mass. Following ingestion of carbohydrate drinks, no adverse events such as apparent or proven aspiration during or after surgery were reported. CONCLUSIONS Administration of oral carbohydrate drinks before surgery is probably safe and may have a positive influence on a wide range of perioperative markers of clinical outcome. Further studies are required to determine its cost effectiveness.
Arthroscopic capsular release for idiopathic frozen shoulder with intra-articular injection and a controlled manipulation

INTRODUCTION The aim of this prospective study was to assess the immediate and long-term effectiveness of arthroscopic capsular release in a large cohort of patients with a precise and isolated diagnosis of stage II idiopathic frozen shoulder. METHODS All patients underwent a preoperative evaluation. Patients with secondary frozen shoulder and those with concurrent pathology at arthroscopy were excluded. This left 136 patients with a stage II arthroscopically confirmed idiopathic frozen shoulder. At each postoperative attendance, a record was made of pain, function and range of motion. At 12 months, the Oxford shoulder score was calculated, and pain and range of motion were assessed. RESULTS Fifty per cent achieved good pain relief within a week and eighty per cent within six weeks of arthroscopic capsular release. The mean preoperative visual analogue scale pain score was 6.6 and the mean postoperative score was 1.0. The mean time to achieving good pain relief was 16 days following surgery. No patient could sleep through the night prior to surgery while 90% reported having a complete night’s sleep at a mean of 12 days after surgery. The mean postoperative Oxford shoulder score was 38/48 and the mean improvement was 19.2. CONCLUSIONS This large series demonstrates that arthroscopic capsular release is a safe procedure, with rapid improvement in pain and a marked improvement in range of motion.
Study of the rare decays of B 0 s and B 0 into muon pairs from data collected during the LHC Run 1 with the ATLAS detector

A study of the decays B 0 s → μ + μ − and B 0 → μ + μ − has been performed using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 25 fb − 1 of 7 and 8 TeVproton– proton collisions collected with the ATLAS detector during the LHC Run 1. For the B 0 dimuon decay, an upper limit on the branching fraction is set at B ( B 0 → μ + μ − ) < 4 . 2 × 10 − 10 at 95% conﬁdence level. For B 0 s , the branching fraction B ( B 0 s → μ + μ − ) = (cid:2) 0 . 9 + 1 . 1 − 0 . 8 (cid:3) × 10 − 9 is measured. The results are consistent with the Standard Model expectation with a p value of 4.8%, corresponding to 2 . 0 standard deviations.
The Devonian sedimentation and tectonism of a rapidly subsiding, semi-arid fluvial basin in the Midland Valley of Scotland

Synopsis Early Devonian fluvial sedimentation took place in a large, late-orogenic basin bounded by actively-subsiding high-angled faults. Deposition of gravels and sands took place on mountain-fringing bajadas from sheetfloods and braided streams; sands, silts and clays were deposited in adjacent flood-plains. Basin-margin faults, notably the Highland Boundary Fault, controlled subsidence of an elongate depositional basin and when movement on these was sufficiently rapid, coalescing bajadas were constructed. When the rate of source area uplift/depositional basin subsidence decreased, the uplands were reduced and floodplains initially encroached on to the inactive bajadas before extending over the former source areas. The Devonian sedimentary rocks of the Midland Valley which accumulated under semi-arid conditions, indicate that varying rates of source uplift/depositional basin subsidence were the dominant controls influencing the nature of the depositional processes. Moreover the various vertical sequences of genetically-different deposits found in the study area also occur in other similar alluvial basin deposits and a model is formulated to demonstrate that these successions reflect a limited number of distinct evolutionary tectono-sedimentary sequences.
Zipf's Law in Short-Time Timbral Codings of Speech, Music, and Environmental Sound Signals

Timbre is a key perceptual feature that allows discrimination between different sounds. Timbral sensations are highly dependent on the temporal evolution of the power spectrum of an audio signal. In order to quantitatively characterize such sensations, the shape of the power spectrum has to be encoded in a way that preserves certain physical and perceptual properties. Therefore, it is common practice to encode short-time power spectra using psychoacoustical frequency scales. In this paper, we study and characterize the statistical properties of such encodings, here called timbral code-words. In particular, we report on rank-frequency distributions of timbral code-words extracted from 740 hours of audio coming from disparate sources such as speech, music, and environmental sounds. Analogously to text corpora, we find a heavy-tailed Zipfian distribution with exponent close to one. Importantly, this distribution is found independently of different encoding decisions and regardless of the audio source. Further analysis on the intrinsic characteristics of most and least frequent code-words reveals that the most frequent code-words tend to have a more homogeneous structure. We also find that speech and music databases have specific, distinctive code-words while, in the case of the environmental sounds, this database-specific code-words are not present. Finally, we find that a Yule-Simon process with memory provides a reasonable quantitative approximation for our data, suggesting the existence of a common simple generative mechanism for all considered sound sources.
Radioprotective Effect of Gliclazide as an Anti-Hyperglycemic Agent Against Genotoxicity Induced by Ionizing Radiation on Human  Lymphocytes

Objectives: Gliclazide (GL) is widely used to reduce hyperglycemia in diabetic patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effect of GL against chromosome damage induced by ionizing radiation in human blood lymphocytes. Methods: In this experimental study, peripheral blood samples were collected from human volunteers and treated with GL at various concentrations (5, 25, 50 or 100 μM) for three hours. Then samples were irradiated to X-ray (1.5 Gy). Blood samples were cultured with mitogenic stimulation. The frequencies of micronuclei in cytokinesis-blocked binucleated lymphocytes were determined in the different samples. The antioxidant activities of GL were assayed by two different methods as 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl radical (DPPH) free radical scavenging and reducing antioxidant power assays. Results: GL significantly reduced the percentage of micronuclei in lymphocytes which were irradiated. The maximum radioprotection in the reduction of percentage of micronuclei in lymphocytes was observed at 100 μM of GL with 52% efficacy. GL exhibited excellent free radical scavenging activity and reducing power at concentration dependent activities. The IC50 values of GL were lower than ascorbic acid. Higher potencies were observed in the antioxidant activities for GL than ascorbic acid in both methods. Conclusion: This data exhibits that GL is a powerful radioprotective agent that could protect healthy cells against the chromosome damage induced by ionizing radiation through antioxidant activity. The radioprotective effect is new indication of GL for patients' protection against side effect induced by ionizing radiation.
Acquired hypermethylation of the P16INK4A promoter in abdominal paraganglioma: relation to adverse tumor phenotype and predisposing mutation

Recurrent alterations in promoter methylation of tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) and LINE1 (L1RE1) repeat elements were previously reported in pheochromocytoma and abdominal paraganglioma. This study was undertaken to explore CpG methylation abnormalities in an extended tumor panel and assess possible relationships between metastatic disease and mutation status. CpG methylation was quantified by bisulfite pyrosequencing for selected TSG promoters and LINE1 repeats. Methylation indices above normal reference were observed for DCR2 (TNFRSF10D), CDH1, P16 (CDKN2A), RARB, and RASSF1A. Z-scores for overall TSG, and individual TSG methylation levels, but not LINE1, were significantly correlated with metastatic disease, paraganglioma, disease predisposition, or outcome. Most strikingly, P16 hypermethylation was strongly associated with SDHB mutation as opposed to RET/MEN2, VHL/VHL, or NF1-related disease. Parallel analyses of constitutional, tumor, and metastasis DNA implicate an order of events where constitutional SDHB mutations are followed by TSG hypermethylation and 1p loss in primary tumors, later transferred to metastatic tissue. In the combined material, P16 hypermethylation was prevalent in SDHB-mutated samples and was associated with short disease-related survival. The findings verify the previously reported importance of P16 and other TSG hypermethylation in an independent tumor series. Furthermore, a constitutional SDHB mutation is proposed to predispose for an epigenetic tumor phenotype occurring before the emanation of clinically recognized malignancy.
A remote sensing study of the urban heat island of Houston, Texas

Radiative surface temperature maps of Houston, Texas were derived from satellite sensor data acquired at approximately 0400 LST on 27 separate occasions over a two-year period. Urban-rural temperature differences were determined for 21 of these cases by modelling the urban heat island as a twodimensional Gaussian surface superimposed on a planar rural background. The purpose of this study was to characterise the complete urban heat island in magnitude and spatial extent without the use of in situ measurements and to determine whether a correlation exists between heat island magnitude and rural temperature. The urban heat island magnitude was found to be inversely correlated with rural temperature, while the spatial extent was found to be independent of both heat island magnitude and rural temperature.
Outcome of reminder text messages intervention on completion of routine immunization in rural areas, Nigeria

Summary Completion of routine immunization for infants has been a challenge in Nigeria, and existing strategies implemented to promote immunization coverage yielded limited success. The use of reminder short services message (SMS) in mobilizing mothers of infants, especially in rural areas with lower immunization coverage has been suggested. This study investigated the effect of reminder SMS sent to mothers in rural communities on full and timely completion of routine childhood immunization. A quasi-experimental design was adopted, 3500 mothers of infants were categorized into the Intervention and Control groups recruited at various Primary Healthcare Centres in 6 states and the FCT, Nigeria. Reminder SMS were sent to mothers in the intervention group for 10 months. We adopted mixed methods of data collection, significance level set at p = 0.05. Majority of respondents were married (Control 94.3%; Intervention 95.5%), have experienced multiple births (Control 79.0%; Intervention 74.9%). Adherence to routine immunization appointment dates and completion of all immunizations was higher in the Intervention group (76.0%) compared with the Control (73.3%). A significant association between adherence to appointment dates and completeness of routine immunization vaccine was found. The Intervention group had a significantly higher completion rate for measles and yellow fever vaccines (55.3%; 75.9%) compared with the Control group (26.8%; 23.9%). Qualitative findings revealed positive comments from mothers in the intervention group that the messages increase awareness of immunization dates, assisted in readjusting their time which influenced timely completion. Interventions using reminder SMS enhanced infant immunization delivery; we recommend scale-up and integration into the health system to increase national immunization coverage.
Viscoelastic coupling model of the San Andreas Fault along the Big Bend, southern California

The big bend segment of the San Andreas fault is the 300-km-long segment in southern California that strikes about N65°W, roughly 25° counterclockwise from the local tangent to the small circle about the Pacific-North America pole of rotation. The broad distribution of deformation of trilateration networks along this segment implies a locking depth of at least 25 km as interpreted by the conventional model of strain accumulation (continuous slip on the fault below the locking depth at the rate of relative plate motion), whereas the observed seismicity and laboratory data on fault strength suggest that the locking depth should be no greater than 10 to 15 km. The discrepancy is explained by the viscoelastic coupling model which accounts for the viscoelastic response of the lower crust. Thus the broad distribution of deformation observed across the big bend segment can be largely associated with the San Andreas fault itself, not subsidiary faults distributed throughout the region. The Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities [1995] in using geodetic data to estimate the seismic risk in southern California has assumed that strain accumulated off the San Andreas fault is released by earthquakes located off the San Andreas fault. Thus they count the San Andreas contribution to total seismic moment accumulation more than once, leading to an overestimate of the seismicity for magnitude 6 and greater earthquakes in their Type C zones.
Ionospheric response to the 2015 St. Patrick's Day storm: A global multi‐instrumental overview

We present the first multi‐instrumental results on the ionospheric response to the geomagnetic storm of 17–18 March 2015 (the St. Patrick's Day storm) that was up to now the strongest in the 24th solar cycle (minimum SYM‐H value of −233 nT). The storm caused complex effects around the globe. The most dramatic positive ionospheric storm occurred at low latitudes in the morning (~100–150% enhancement) and postsunset (~80–100% enhancement) sectors. These significant vertical total electron content increases were observed in different local time sectors and at different universal time, but around the same area of the Eastern Pacific region, which indicates a regional impact of storm drivers. Our analysis revealed that this particular region was most concerned by the increase in the thermospheric O/N2 ratio. At midlatitudes, we observe inverse hemispheric asymmetries that occurred, despite the equinoctial period, in different longitudinal regions. In the European‐African sector, positive storm signatures were observed in the Northern Hemisphere (NH), whereas in the American sector, a large positive storm occurred in the Southern Hemisphere, while the NH experienced a negative storm. The observed asymmetries can be partly explained by the thermospheric composition changes and partly by the hemispherically different nondipolar portions of the geomagnetic field as well as by the IMF By component variations. At high latitudes, negative ionospheric storm effects were recorded in all longitudinal regions, especially the NH of the Asian sector was concerned. The negative storm phase developed globally on 18 March at the beginning of the recovery phase.
Clues to Martian brines based on halogens in salts from nakhlites and MER samples

[1] Chlorine and Br abundances in fracture-filling secondary salts in Nakhla veins determined in this study by Synchrotron X-ray Microprobe (Br) and Electron Microprobe (Cl) techniques compare well to the halogens determined recently by APXS instruments in soils and rock rinds at the Gusev and Meridiani sites. The salts in these Mars rocks arise from Martian brines that have undergone evaporative or freezing concentration. The halogen abundances in these salts are corrected for “dilution effect” (because of mixing with halogen-poor phases) to obtain their “true” abundances, which seem to be close to the halogen abundances in terrestrial sea brines. Consistent with the petrographic evidence for evaporative salt deposition sequence of carbonate-sulfate-halite in nakhlite meteorites, Nakhla veins yield high Br (∼250 ppm) and low Cl/Br ratios (∼10–50), suggesting possible salt deposition from concentrated brines, whereas Lafayette iddingsite, with low Br (11 ppm) and high Cl/Br ratios (∼250–300), indicates salt deposition from dilute brines on Mars. The low Cl/Br ratios (∼20 to 80) in salts from Gusev and Meridiani rock rinds indicate that they presumably originate from concentrated subsurface Martian brines. The high Cl/Br ratio (∼270) in salts deposited by dilute solutions in Lafayette and Adirondack is similar to the chondritic Cl/Br ratio, which seems to characterize the dilute brines on Mars (prior to halite precipitation) including “Early Mars Waters” (Noachian or earlier). Our results seem to be consistent with the Burt-Knauth model involving density stratification during evaporation/freezing of brine solutions in Martian regolith.
Hydraulic conductivity estimation for soils with heterogeneous pore structure

The hydraulic conductivity function, which is required to solve the Richards equation, is difficult to measure. Therefore prediction methods are frequently used where the shape of the conductivity function is estimated from the more easily measured water retention characteristic. Errors in conductivity estimations can arise either from an invalidity of the prediction model for a given soil, or from an incorrect description of the retention data. This second error source is particularly important for soils with heterogeneous pore systems that cannot be adequately described by the usually used retention functions. To describe the retention characteristics of such soils, a flexible θ(ψ) function was formed by superimposing unimodal retention curves of the van Genuchten (1980) type. By combining this retention model with the conductivity prediction model of Mualem (1976), conductivity estimations for soils with heterogeneous pore systems are obtained. Estimated conductivities by this model and the classical van Genuchten-Mualem method can differ by orders of magnitude. Thus reported disagreements between measured and estimated conductivities may in some cases be due to an inadequate description of the retention data rather than due to a failure of the prediction model.