Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimation of natural-convection heat-transfer characteristics from vertical fins mounted on a vertical plate

The inverse scheme of the finite difference method in conjunction with the least-squares scheme and experimental measured temperatures is proposed to solve a two-dimensional steady-state inverse heat conduction problem in order to estimate the natural-convection heat transfer coefficient under the isothermal situation h iso from three vertical fins mounted on a vertical plate and fin efficiency η f for various values of the fin spacing and fin height. The measured fin temperatures and ambient air temperature are measured from the present experimental apparatus conducted in a small wind tunnel. The heat transfer coefficient on the middle fin of three vertical fins is non-uniform for the present problem and its functional form can be difficult to be obtained. Thus the whole fin is divided into several sub-fin regions before performing the inverse calculation. In order to validate the reliability of the present estimates, the present estimates of h iso compare with those obtained from the correlations recommended by current textbooks and other previous results. The present estimates of h iso can be applied to obtain a modified correlation of the Nusselt number and Raleigh number.
Intermedin: A Novel Regulator for Vascular Remodeling and Tumor Vessel Normalization by Regulating Vascular Endothelial-Cadherin and Extracellular Signal–Regulated Kinase

Objective—Intermedin (IMD), a member of calcitonin family, was suggested to play a role in angiogenesis and cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of IMD in the angiogenic process and the underlying mechanism, and the possibility for it to be used as a target for angiogenesis-based anticancer therapies. Methods and Results—Using in vivo and in vitro 3-dimensional angiogenic models, we found that IMD induced a well-ordered vasculature with hierarchical structure and had a synergistic effect with vascular endothelial growth factor. Using RNA interference, real-time polymerase chain reaction, and Western blot analysis, we found that IMD alleviated the undesirable effects of vascular endothelial growth factor by restricting the excessive vessel sprouting and uneven lumen formation through the regulation of vascular endothelial-cadherin and identified its receptor on the endothelial cells. Both mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal–regulated kinase and phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt activation were involved in the effects. Furthermore, using experimental tumor models, we demonstrated that IMD was involved in tumor angiogenesis, and the blockade of IMD severely impaired blood supply and eventually inhibited tumor growth. Conclusion—We demonstrated that IMD played a critical role in the vascular remodeling process and tumor angiogenesis and may serve as a novel target for the development of angiogenesis-based anticancer therapies.
Identification of a protein fragment of interleukin 2 responsible for vasopermeability.

BACKGROUND The cytokine interleukin 2 (IL-2) is involved in the activation of T cells and has been shown to play a central role in cancer immunotherapy. The full therapeutic potential of IL-2, however, has not been realized because of its dose-limiting systemic toxicity. We sought to identify a region of IL-2 that is responsible for the induction of vasopermeability (leaky tumor endothelium), a property associated with the toxicity of the molecule. METHODS Intact IL-2 or overlapping synthetic peptides of IL-2 that were chemically conjugated to tumor-targeting monoclonal antibodies (TNT-1 or Lym-1) were injected into groups of mice (n = 4) that had previously been xenotransplanted with human tumor cells (ME-180 cervical carcinoma and Raji lymphoma). Two hours later, mice received intravenous injections of radiolabeled tracer antibody, and 3 days later they were subjected to biodistribution analysis to measure the ability of each immunoconjugate to enhance tumor uptake of the tracer antibody (i.e., vasopermeability activity). The cytokine activity of the immunoconjugates was determined by assaying their ability to promote the proliferation of a mouse IL-2-dependent cell line. RESULTS Pretreatment of mice with an antibody/IL-2 immunoconjugate resulted in an approximately fourfold increase in radiolabeled tracer antibody uptake in the xenograft tumor as compared with uptake in mice injected with antibody alone. One synthetic fragment consisting of amino acids 22-58 contained 100% of the vasopermeability activity of IL-2 and was designated permeability-enhancing peptide (PEP). PEP had vasopermeability activity only when conjugated to a tumor-targeting antibody, had maximal activity as a dimer, and was devoid of cytokine activity. CONCLUSIONS The identification of PEP should aid in the discovery of ways to decrease the toxicity of IL-2. Moreover, PEP is a promising candidate for the generation of agents that can enhance the delivery of antibodies and drugs to tumors.
Faults Get Colder Through Transient Granular Vortices

Fault temperatures govern their weakening and control the dynamics of earthquakes during slip. Despite predictions of significant temperature rise within fault gouges during earthquake events, observations of frictional melting zones along exhumed faults are relatively rare. Could there be a heat transfer mechanism, previously not considered, that results in ubiquitously colder faults during earthquakes? We demonstrate that the remarkable, previously neglected mechanism of heat transfer through transient granular vortices may be at the core of this. We present and analyze results from perpetual simple shear experiments on a system of granular disks with which we are able to quantify the sizes and lifetimes of granular vortices within fault gouges during earthquakes. We then develop a formula that captures the contribution these vortices have on heat transfer. Using this formula, we show that crustal faults such as those in the San Andreas system may experience a maximum temperature rise 5 to 10 times lower than previously thought.
#h00t: Censorship Resistant Microblogging

Microblogging services such as Twitter are an increasingly important way to communicate, both for individuals and for groups through the use of hashtags that denote topics of conversation. However, groups can be easily blocked from communicating through blocking of posts with the given hashtags. We propose #h00t, a system for censorship resistant microblogging. #h00t presents an interface that is much like Twitter, except that hashtags are replaced with very short hashes (e.g., 24 bits) of the group identifier. Naturally, with such short hashes, hashtags from different groups may collide and #h00t users will actually seek to create collisions. By encrypting all posts with keys derived from the group identifiers, #h00t client software can filter out other groups' posts while making such filtering difficult for the adversary. In essence, by leveraging collisions, groups can tunnel their posts in other groups' posts. A censor could not block a given group without also blocking the other groups with colliding hashtags. We evaluate the feasibility of #h00t through traces collected from Twitter, showing that a single modern computer has enough computational throughput to encrypt every tweet sent through Twitter in real time. We also use these traces to analyze the bandwidth and anonymity tradeoffs that would come with different variations on how group identifiers are encoded and hashtags are selected to purposefully collide with one another.
Evaluating Tropical Cyclogenesis Forecasts from Four Global Numerical Models

Forecasts of tropical cyclones (TCs) rely greatly on output from numerical models. Each member in the suite of models used by forecasters at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has its particular strengths and weaknesses. Some research has investigated the skill of the various models with respect to track and intensity, with the assumption that a TC already exists (e.g., Goerss 2000, Goerss et al. 2004, Sampson et al. 2008). However, little research has focused on the skill of model-derived forecasts of TC genesis (Cheung and Elsberry 2002). In some cases, a global numerical model will accurately predict tropical cyclogenesis. However, observations indicate that these models sometimes generate a TC that does not develop (Beven 1999). Conversely, a TC sometimes develops that has not been forecast. At other times, a model forecasts TC genesis for a storm that ultimately develops, but the timing of genesis is incorrect. The goal of this research is to quantify the accuracy of model-derived TC genesis forecasts. We compare results from four global models: Environment Canada Global Environmental Multiscale Model (CMC; Côté et al. 1998a, 1998b), the National Centers for Environment Prediction (NCEP) Global Forecast System (GFS; Kanamitsu 1989), the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS; Rosmond 1992), and the United Kingdom Meteorological Office global model (UKMET; Cullen 1993). We are currently working to add the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model (ECMWF) to our analysis. Climatologically, we know the necessary conditions for TC genesis (Gray 1968, Tory and Frank 2010). But, a complete physical explanation for the specific processes that cause TC genesis still is largely unknown. This is evident by the number of TC genesis theories that have been proposed, and the disagreement that exists among them. Several field experiments (e.g., PRE-Depression Investigation of Cloud-systems in the Tropics (PREDICT; Montgomery et al. 2012), Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP), Intensity Forecasting Experiment (IFEX; Rogers et al. 2006)) have been conducted recently to evaluate these theories.
Phosphoproteomics as a tool to unravel plant regulatory mechanisms

Reversible phosphorylation of proteins plays a key role in many regulatory processes that lie at the basis of life. With plants, much research has focused on protein kinases that are involved in the adaptation to different stress conditions, such as pathogen attack and cold. However, the substrates of these kinases are mostly unknown. With the recent advances in phosphoproteomic techniques, the large-scale identification of kinase substrates, including their phosphorylation sites, is finally possible. Studies in mainly non-plant systems have demonstrated the high potential of this method by uncovering numerous novel phosphorylation events. In this minireview, we focus on recent developments in the field of phosphoproteomics that are based on phosphopeptide isolation from complex mixtures by immobilized metal-affinity chromatography coupled to sequence identification by mass spectrometry. Combination of these methods with labelling techniques now allows quantitative analysis of phosphorylation between different samples. We discuss the potential of this technology to uncover entire phosphoproteomes and signalling pathways in plants in the future.
Discrete wavelet transform coupled with ANN for daily discharge forecasting into Três Marias reservoir

Abstract. This paper proposes the use of discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to remove the high-frequency components (details) of an original signal, because the noises generally present in time series (e.g. streamflow records) may influence the prediction quality. Cleaner signals could then be used as inputs to an artificial neural network (ANN) in order to improve the model performance of daily discharge forecasting. Wavelet analysis provides useful decompositions of original time series in high and low frequency components. The present application uses the Coiflet wavelets to decompose hydrological data, as there have been few reports in the literature. Finally, the proposed technique is tested using the inflow records to the Tres Marias reservoir in Sao Francisco River basin, Brazil. This transformed signal is used as input for an ANN model to forecast inflows seven days ahead, and the error RMSE decreased by more than 50% (i.e. from 454.2828 to 200.0483).
Visual snippets: summarizing web pages for search and revisitation

People regularly interact with different representations of Web pages. A person looking for new information may initially find a Web page represented as a short snippet rendered by a search engine. When he wants to return to the same page the next day, the page may instead be represented by a link in his browser history. Previous research has explored how to best represent Web pages in support of specific task types, but, as we find in this paper, consistency in representation across tasks is also important. We explore how different representations are used in a variety of contexts and present a compact representation that supports both the identification of new, relevant Web pages and the re-finding of previously viewed pages.
A Model for Diverse Learning Environments The Scholarship on Creating and Assessing Conditions for Student Success

One of the greatest contributions of higher education institutions has been in enhancing individual values, skills, and social mobility that result in a multitude of democratic and economic benefits for society (Bowen 1977; Bowen and Bok 1998). Institutions, and individuals within them, are part of the fabric of the larger social, historical, and political context. Scholars have been able to advance our thinking regarding this link between microlevel contexts, or the individual-, and macrolevel contexts that constitute larger sociohistorical forces (Alexander et al. 1987; Bronfenbrenner 1979), however, few higher education researchers have incorporated this perspective in the study of institutional-level contexts where diversity dynamics play out. This link is important, conceptually and in practice, for achieving higher education’s role in advancing both individual social mobility and greater social equity. In times when our institutions are not advancing social equity, our own students become critics invested in the transformation of our institutions to meet the needs of a changing society. That is, individuals within institutions of higher education are shaped by the broader social contexts and also have social agency to affect change (Bronfenbrenner Chapter 2 A Model for Diverse Learning Environments
Thermodynamically based DNA strand design

We describe a new algorithm for design of strand sets, for use in DNA computations or universal microarrays. Our algorithm can design sets that satisfy any of several thermodynamic and combinatorial constraints, which aim to maximize desired hybridizations between strands and their complements, while minimizing undesired cross-hybridizations. To heuristically search for good strand sets, our algorithm uses a conflict-driven stochastic local search approach, which is known to be effective in solving comparable search problems. The PairFold program of Andronescu et al. [M. Andronescu, Z. C. Zhang and A. Condon (2005) J. Mol. Biol., 345, 987–1001; M. Andronescu, R. Aguirre-Hernandez, A. Condon, and H. Hoos (2003) Nucleic Acids Res., 31, 3416–3422. ] is used to calculate the minimum free energy of hybridization between two mismatched strands. We describe new thermodynamic measures of the quality of strand sets. With respect to these measures of quality, our algorithm consistently finds, within reasonable time, sets that are significantly better than previously published sets in the literature.
Fast exact parallel 3D mesh intersection algorithm using only orientation predicates

We present an algorithm to compute the intersection of two 3D triangulated meshes. It has applications in GIS, CAD and Additive Manufacturing, and was developed to process big datasets quickly and correctly. The speed comes from simple regular data structures that parallelize very well. The correctness comes from using multiple-precision rational arithmetic to prevent roundoff errors and the resulting topological inconsistencies, and symbolic perturbation (simulation of simplicity) to handle special cases (geometric degeneracies). To simplify the symbolic perturbation, the algorithm employs only orientation predicates. This paper focuses on the challenges and solutions of the implementing symbolic perturbation. Our preliminary implementation has intersected two objects totalling 8M triangles in 11 elapsed seconds on a dual 8-core Xeon. The competing LibiGL took 248 seconds and CGAL took 2726 seconds. Our software is freely available for nonprofit research.
Automatic Classification of English Verbs Using Rich Syntactic Features

Previous research has shown that syntactic features are the most informative features in automatic verb classification. We experiment with a new, rich feature set, extracted from a large automatically acquired subcategorisation lexicon for English, which incorporates information about arguments as well as adjuncts. We evaluate this feature set using a set of supervised classifiers, most of which are new to the task. The best classifier (based on Maximum Entropy) yields the promising accuracy of 60.1% in classifying 204 verbs to 17 Levin (1993) classes. We discuss the impact of this result on the stateof-art, and propose avenues for future work.
Polar bears observed climbing steep slopes to graze on scurvy grass in Svalbard

ABSTRACT It is well known that polar bears feed on vegetation. Here, I report novel observations of polar bears grazing on polar scurvy grass (Cochlearia groenlandica) at the foot of a large seabird colony on a cliff on Spitsbergen, Svalbard, in the summers of 2005, 2006, 2009, 2014 and 2015. Why they choose such energy-costly climbing to feed on plants is not clear. One possibility is that they may be suffering from vitamin C deficiency and are searching for this particular plant, which has a high level of this vitamin. Another, but not exclusive reason, is that vegetation containing scurvy grass is abundant enough to be efficiently grazed by such unspecialized plant-eaters as polar bears only on such relatively inaccessible, steep slopes below seabird colonies. Most of the lowland and gently sloping tundra areas in Svalbard are overgrazed by geese and reindeer, the populations of which have increased considerably as a consequence of climate amelioration. Large seabird colonies are known to attract animals from different trophic levels, but this is the first description of their attractiveness to polar bears as grazing areas.
Towards Unbiased End-to-End Network Diagnosis

Internet fault diagnosis is extremely important for end-users, overlay network service providers (like Akamai ), and even Internet service providers (ISPs). However, because link-level properties cannot be uniquely determined from end-to-end measurements, the accuracy of existing statistical diagnosis approaches is subject to uncertainty from statistical assumptions about the network. In this paper, we propose a novel least-biased end-to-end network diagnosis (in short, LEND) system for inferring link-level properties like loss rate. We define a minimal identifiable link sequence (MILS) as a link sequence of minimal length whose properties can be uniquely identified from end-to-end measurements. We also design efficient algorithms to find all the MILSs and infer their loss rates for diagnosis. Our LEND system works for any network topology and for both directed and undirected properties and incrementally adapts to network topology and property changes. It gives highly accurate estimates of the loss rates of MILSs, as indicated by both extensive simulations and Internet experiments. Furthermore, we demonstrate that such diagnosis can be achieved with fine granularity and in near real-time even for reasonably large overlay networks. Finally, LEND can supplement existing statistical inference approaches and provide smooth tradeoff between diagnosis accuracy and granularity.
TRICHOMONAS VAGINALIS INFESTATION IN WOMEN*

laboratory established in 1924 although it seemed to be the only way in which to raise the standard of testing in this country; it was then almost literally true that there were as many ways of conducting the Wassermann test as there were laboratories practising it, the attitude of the average pathologist being that his method was as good as any and better than most. To extend this control would require a great increase in staff but if the Society expressed the view that there should be a strong control, it might help his successor to continue the good work. Major Lane had mentioned the modification of tests. He agreed that serologists would modify a given technique ; of course they would and it would be wrong if thev were hidebound but he would ask above all that everyone should first learn a method which had stood up to strict examination, and then, if he wished to modify it, he should try the modification in parallel with the original test on at least a few hundred sera. It would be a good thing, as was suggested before the last war, to circulate problem sera. He was grateful to Lt.-Col. Bensted for reminding him about typhus. Another point that had been underlined was that by Lt.-Col. King and others that the positive reaction was simply an indication for further investigation.
Methionine-to-Cysteine Recycling inKlebsiella aerogenes

ABSTRACT In the enteric bacteria Escherichia coli andSalmonella enterica, sulfate is reduced to sulfide and assimilated into the amino acid cysteine; in turn, cysteine provides the sulfur atom for other sulfur-bearing molecules in the cell, including methionine. These organisms cannot use methionine as a sole source of sulfur. Here we report that this constraint is not shared by many other enteric bacteria, which can use either cysteine or methionine as the sole source of sulfur. The enteric bacteriumKlebsiella aerogenes appears to use at least two pathways to allow the reduced sulfur of methionine to be recycled into cysteine. In addition, the ability to recycle methionine on solid media, wherecys mutants cannot use methionine as a sulfur source, appears to be different from that in liquid media, where they can. One pathway likely uses a cystathionine intermediate to convert homocysteine to cysteine and is induced under conditions of sulfur starvation, which is likely sensed by low levels of the sulfate reduction intermediate adenosine-5′-phosphosulfate. The CysB regulatory proteins appear to control activation of this pathway. A second pathway may use a methanesulfonate intermediate to convert methionine-derived methanethiol to sulfite. While the transsulfurylation pathway may be directed to recovery of methionine, the methanethiol pathway likely represents a general salvage mechanism for recovery of alkane sulfide and alkane sulfonates. Therefore, the relatively distinct biosyntheses of cysteine and methionine in E. coli andSalmonella appear to be more intertwined inKlebsiella.