Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Background atmospheric sulfate deposition at a remote alpine site in the Southern Canadian Rocky Mountains

We report observations of stable isotope ratios and ion concentrations from seasonal snowpack and summer bulk precipitation from remote alpine sites in the Southern Canadian Rocky Mountains. Spatial deposition patterns for sulfur (S) and δ34S‐SO42− values indicate dominantly distant sources with little impact from local to regional pollution. Comparable S loads and total snowpack δ34S‐SO42− values for glacier snowpack indicates S emissions were well mixed prior to dry deposition or incorporation into snowfall. A uniform S load and similar δ34S‐SO42− values in a detailed study of summer bulk precipitation implies well‐mixed distant emissions. We interpret the deposited 0.9 kg S ha−1yr−1 as atmospheric background deposition in midlatitude Western Canada. This study will improve calculations for sites impacted by point source emissions and provide a baseline for attributing changes associated with climate change, industrialization, and urban growth. Field evidence from this study supports theoretical and laboratory research on the relative importance of oxidation pathways on atmospheric δ34S‐SO42− values for long‐range transported sulfate. δ34S‐SO42− of the dominant S source in summer bulk precipitation (~ +2‰) versus snowpack (≥ +9‰) cannot be explained by seasonal emission sources, temperature effects on fractionation, or Rayleigh distillation. The study supports a seasonal difference in the relative importance of the different SO2 to SO42− oxidation pathways with homogeneous oxidation by OH and heterogeneous oxidation by H2O2 most important in summer, and O2 catalyzed by transition metal ions in a radical chain reaction pathway more significant in winter.
Molecular weight estimation of esterase isoenzymes in closely related Drosophila Species (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

A method that allows the measure of molecular weight of two well-known and closely related esterases from Drosophila mojavensis and its sibling species, D. arizonae, is here described, using native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis at several concentrations, applying Fergunson´s principles. These enzymes, namely EST-4 and EST-5, presented molecular weight values between 81 and 91 kDa. In spite of their distinct expression pattern through the insect's life cycle, they showed properties of isoenzymes codified by distinct structural genes, supporting the hypothesis of a rather recent gene duplication event that generated both in D. mojavensis and D. arizonae, as well as in other species of repleta group. The method is simple and adequate to be applied to preliminary molecular weight determination of other enzymes without any previous purification procedure.
Genetic Ancestry Is Associated With Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease in African-Americans and Hispanics From the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Background— Differences in cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden exist among racial/ethnic groups in the United States, with African-Americans having the highest prevalence. Subclinical CVD measures have also been shown to differ by race or ethnicity. In the United States, there has been a significant intermixing among racial/ethnic groups creating admixed populations. Very little research exists on the relationship of genetic ancestry and subclinical CVD measures. Methods and Results— These associations were investigated in 712 black and 705 Hispanic participants from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis candidate gene substudy. Individual ancestry was estimated from 199 genetic markers using STRUCTURE. Associations of ancestry and coronary artery calcium (CAC) and common and internal carotid intima media thickness were evaluated using log-binomial and linear regression models. Splines indicated linear associations of ancestry with subclinical CVD measures in African-Americans but presence of threshold effects in Hispanics. Among African-Americans, each SD increase in European ancestry was associated with an 8% (95% CI, 1.02 to 1.15; P=0.01) higher CAC prevalence. Each SD increase in European ancestry was also associated with a 2% (95% CI −3.4% to −0.5%, P=0.008) lower common carotid intima media thickness in African-Americans. Among Hispanics, the highest tertile of European ancestry was associated with a 34% higher CAC prevalence (P=0.02) when compared with the lowest tertile. Conclusions— The linear association of ancestry and subclinical CVD suggests that genetic effects may be important in determining CAC and carotid intima media thickness among African-Americans. Our results also suggest that CAC and common carotid intima media thickness may be important phenotypes for further study with admixture mapping.
Performance Evaluation of Propagation Model on Rate Algorithms in Vehicular Networks

All mobile Communication systems are prone to both multiplicative and additive noise as a result of fading processes that contribute to noise in wireless channels. Losses occur due to the presence of tall buildings, trees, or linear addition of wide band or white noise with a constant spectral density respectively. It is also interested to study the impact of fading processes on vehicular communication that makes use of wireless principles and technology and investigate the performance of the network due to influence of propagation model. This paper evaluates the impact of fading processes on the throughput and energy efficiency of wireless systems in vehicular communication. In this paper we analyze the impact of multiplicative noise on rate algorithms and discussed the performances of various effects of this model on different rate algorithms.
Ghana continues to be a beacon for democracy in Africa

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo­Addo, the 72­year­old flagbearer of the opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was declared the winner of Ghana’s 2016 presidential elections by the Electoral Commission (EC) more than 48 hours after the elections took place. He defeated the incumbent, John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Party (NDC) by taking 53.85 per cent of the vote while Mahama had a 44.40 per cent share of the valid votes. These figures exclude the results of four constituencies, Afram Plains North, Upper West Akyem, Tuna­Sawla­ Kalba and Tamale Central, which were still being collated. The results of these four constituencies, totaling about 120,000 votes were considered insignificant in changing the overall outcome of the elections. The total turnout was 68.62 per cent even though the EC expected 80 per cent. The total number of rejected ballots was 1.4 per cent, which while lower than the 2.23 per cent recorded in 2012, is still of concern and emphasises the point of deepening voter education.
Assessing the Complexity of Dynamics in Enterprise Architecture Planning - Lessons from Chaos Theory

Enterprise Architecture (EA) models capture the fundamental elements of organizations and their relationships to servedocumentation, analysis and planning purposes. As the elements and their relationships change over time, EA planningbecomes increasingly complex. An analysis of existing methods shows that the complexity of dynamics is not sufficientlyaddressed. We argue that a sophisticated understanding of the complexity matter is prerequisite for EA planning methodconstruction. As Chaos Theory (CT) is deployed in natural and social sciences-as well as in different contexts of ISresearch-to describe and understand the behavior of complex systems over time, we use properties of CT to assess thecomplexity of dynamics in EA planning and to derive requirements for EA planning methods. Our findings emphasize theimportance of initial conditions of the architecture for EA planning and the need to harmonize planning granularities in orderto achieve predictable results.
Validation of Neurokinin A Assays in the United States and Europe

Objectives: International cooperative group trials require specific, sensitive biomarker assays that are validated between continents. Neurokinin A (NKA) has been shown to be a powerful independent predictor of a poor prognosis in well-differentiated midgut neuroendocrine tumors. We hypothesized that NKA concentrations of clinical specimens evaluated in NKA assays in the United States and the United Kingdom would be equivalent, even though assay techniques were significantly different. Methods: Frozen clinical specimen aliquots were shipped from the United States to the United Kingdom (n = 67), and from United Kingdom to the United States (n = 50). In addition, spiked plasma standards and medium-spiked standards were exchanged. Samples from the United States were directly assayed in a radioimmunoassay, whereas the UK specimens were extracted, and the reconstituted specimens assayed in the radioimmunoassay. Neurokinin A values from the 2 studies were analyzed by regression analysis. Results: The NKA values from the US and UK laboratories were essentially identical (United States to United Kingdom, r2 = 0.88, P < 0.0001; and United Kingdom to United States, r2 = 0.96, P < 0.0001). Conclusions: Validation of biomarker assays across continents will ensure that laboratory observations made by researchers are equivalent and that prediction of clinical outcomes based on these assays is also reliable.
Efficient coverage testing using global dominator graphs

Coverage testing techniques, such as statement and decision coverage, play a significant role in improving the quality of software systems. Constructing a thorough set of tests that yield high coverage, however, is often a very tedious, time consuming task. In this paper we present a technique to find a small subset of a program's statements and decisions with the property that covering the subset implies covering the rest. We introduce the notion of a mega block which is a set of basic blocks spanning multiple procedures with the property that one basic block in it is executed iff every basic block in it is executed. We also present an algorithm to construct a data structure called the global dominator graph showing dominator relationships among mega blocks. A tester only needs to create test cases that are aimed at executing one basic block from each of the leaf nodes in this directed acyclic graph. Every other basic block in the program will automatically be covered by the same test set.
Presence of interferon-gamma and IL-2 in supernatants of Salmonella enteritidis-immune lymphokines.

Investigations in our laboratories have indicated that an increased resistance to Salmonella enteritidis SE organ infectivity in chickens was conferred by the immunoprophylactic administration of SEimmune lymphokines (SE-ILK). Resistance has been associated with an enhanced heterophilic accumulation within 4 h of ILK injection. Further studies demonstrated that CxCLi2 is produced locally by the host in response to both the SE infection and the SE-ILK suggesting that IL-8 is a major chemotactic factor produced by the host, which aids in mediating the SE-ILK induced recruitment of heterophils to the site of SE invasion. In the present study, two bio-assays confirmed the presence of IFN and IL-2 functions in SE-ILK that may also participate in the establishment of the reported protection against Salmonella infections. The IL-2 and IFN effects detected in this work suggest that bird’s immune response develops similarly to that of mammals, with some features corresponding to the species.
How to avoid drastic software process change (using stochastic stability)

Before performing drastic changes to a project, it is worthwhile to thoroughly explore the available options within the current structure of a project. An alternative to drastic change are internal changes that adjust current options within a software project. In this paper, we show that the effects of numerous internal changes can out-weigh the effects of drastic changes. That is, the benefits of drastic change can often be achieved without disrupting a project.
The performance potential of data dependence speculation and collapsing

Two hardware methods for remedying the effects of true data dependences are studied. The first method dependence speculation, is used to eliminate address generation-load dependences. This is enabled by address prediction that permits load instructions to proceed speculatively without waiting for their address operands. The second technique, dependence collapsing, is used to eliminate data dependences by combining a dependence among multiple instructions into one instruction. The potential of these techniques for improving processor performance is demonstrated via trace-driven simulation. When both techniques are used with maximum issue widths of 4, 8, 16, and 32, the overall speedups in comparison to a base instruction level parallel machine are 1.20, 1.35, 1.51, and 1.66, respectively. In general, dependence collapsing contributes the majority of the improvement in performance. Under the dependence collapsing model, 298 to 478 of the total number of instructions in a trace may be collapsed. The distance separating the collapsed instructions is nearly always less than 8. Our experimentation also suggests that further performance improvements can be achieved by incorporating mechanisms that increase the address prediction rate.
Availability of Ad Hoc Wireless Networks of Unmanned Ground Vehicles with Group Mobility

Maintaining network availability is critical to teams of mobile unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) and requires a realistic mobility model for accurate calculation. Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET) have been extensively studied using the random waypoint mobility model. But to more exactly model teams of unmanned systems and their relative positions, we provide a model of communication states using the reference point group mobility (RPGM) model. We consider the unique requirements of unmanned systems as having two data rate thresholds. The analysis includes log-normal shadowing and determines the probability that each team member has received power above a threshold while moving. The analysis results allow computation of network availability in different topologies. We conclude with a discussion of various methods for overcoming shadowing and small-scale fading effects in order to maintain high network availability of MANETs.
Synthesis and Herbicidal Activity of 5-Heterocycloxy-3-methyl-1-substituted-1H-pyrazoles

With the objective of finding valuable herbicidal candidates, a series of new 5-heterocycloxy-3-methyl-1-substituted-1H-pyrazoles were synthesized and their herbicidal activities were evaluated. The bioassay results showed that some compounds exhibited excellent herbicidal activities at the concentration of 100 mg/L, and compound 5-chloro-2-((3-methyl-1-(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)-1H-pyrazol-5-yl)oxy)pyrimidine showed bleaching activity to green weeds. In greenhouse conditions, this compound also showed excellent post-emergence herbicidal effect against Digitaria sanguinalis L. at the dosage of 750 g a. i. ha−1.
Species-Level Deconvolution of Metagenome Assemblies with Hi-C–Based Contact Probability Maps

Microbial communities consist of mixed populations of organisms, including unknown species in unknown abundances. These communities are often studied through metagenomic shotgun sequencing, but standard library construction methods remove long-range contiguity information; thus, shotgun sequencing and de novo assembly of a metagenome typically yield a collection of contigs that cannot readily be grouped by species. Methods for generating chromatin-level contact probability maps, e.g., as generated by the Hi-C method, provide a signal of contiguity that is completely intracellular and contains both intrachromosomal and interchromosomal information. Here, we demonstrate how this signal can be exploited to reconstruct the individual genomes of microbial species present within a mixed sample. We apply this approach to two synthetic metagenome samples, successfully clustering the genome content of fungal, bacterial, and archaeal species with more than 99% agreement with published reference genomes. We also show that the Hi-C signal can secondarily be used to create scaffolded genome assemblies of individual eukaryotic species present within the microbial community, with higher levels of contiguity than some of the species’ published reference genomes.
Original Paper

Introduction Urinary bladder diverticula (UBD) may be congenital or acquired. A congenital diverticulum involves all layers of the bladder wall, whereas acquired di-verticula form by the herniation of mucosa through the muscle layer of the bladder (= pseudodiverticula). Urinary bladder diverticula are mostly acquired and secondary to bladder outlet obstructions, mainly as Laparoscopic urinary bladder diverticulectomy combined with photoselective vaporisation of the prostate A b s t r a c t Introduction: Pseudodiverticulum of the urinary bladder is mostly a complication of subvesical obstruction (SO). The gold standard of treatment was open diverticulectomy with adenectomy. A more contemporary resolution is endoscop-ic, in two steps: the first transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), the second laparoscopic diverticulectomy (LD). Aim: To present a one-session procedure – photoselective vaporisation of the prostate (PVP) with LD. Material and methods: From 1/2011 to 6/2014, 14 LDs were performed: 1 LD only, 1 with laparoscopic radical pros-tatectomy, 12 combined with treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), 4 cases of TURP and LD in the second period. In 8 cases, PVP and LD in one session were combined. These 8 cases are presented. 3D CT cystography was used as a gold standard for assessment of diverticulum. Results: The mean age was 66.5 ±5.5 (57.3–75.1) years, the mean size of the diverticulum 61.8 ±22.1 (26–90) mm. The procedure starts in the lithotomy position. It includes PVP and stenting of the ureter(s). Changing of position and laparoscopy follows: four ports, transperitoneal extravesical approach. Photoselective vaporisation of the prostate was performed using the Green Light Laser HPS (1x) or XPS with cooled fibre MoXy (7x). The mean delivered energy in PVP was 205.1 ±106.4 (120–458) kJ. The mean time of operation was 165.0 ±48.5 (90–255) min. No postopera-tive complications were observed. One patient underwent TUR incision after 1 year for sclerosis of the bladder neck. Conclusions: Pseudodiverticulum of the urinary bladder (with or without SO) is a relatively rare disease. One session of PVP (Green Light Laser XPS, MoXy fibre) and laparoscopic (transperitoneal extravesical) diverticulectomy is the preferred method for treatment of subvesical obstruction due to BPH and bladder diverticulum at our institution.
Phase diagram of spiking neural networks

In computer simulations of spiking neural networks, often it is assumed that every two neurons of the network are connected by a probability of 2%, 20% of neurons are inhibitory and 80% are excitatory. These common values are based on experiments, observations, and trials and errors, but here, I take a different perspective, inspired by evolution, I systematically simulate many networks, each with a different set of parameters, and then I try to figure out what makes the common values desirable. I stimulate networks with pulses and then measure their: dynamic range, dominant frequency of population activities, total duration of activities, maximum rate of population and the occurrence time of maximum rate. The results are organized in phase diagram. This phase diagram gives an insight into the space of parameters – excitatory to inhibitory ratio, sparseness of connections and synaptic weights. This phase diagram can be used to decide the parameters of a model. The phase diagrams show that networks which are configured according to the common values, have a good dynamic range in response to an impulse and their dynamic range is robust in respect to synaptic weights, and for some synaptic weights they oscillates in α or β frequencies, independent of external stimuli.
Cyclotron resonance in a pure electron plasma column.

We demonstrate experimentally the effects of plasma rotation and particle thermal velocities on cyclotron resonance in a long cylindrical pure electron plasma column of low density (ωp2≪ωc2). A single m=1 mode (eimθ-iωt) is found whose frequency ω is down-shifted from ωc=eB/me by an amount equal to the low-frequency diocotron mode frequency (〈ωp2〉/2ωc). For m=2,3,4,. sets of modes are found which are Doppler shifted upward from ωc. We explain these as radially trapped and azimuthally propagating Bernstein modes.
Host–pathogen dynamics: it's complicated!

This set of three review articles on host-pathogen interactions begins with a discussion of emerging concepts on homeostasis of a specific microbiome, that of the gut, and how disruption of the microbial status quo can result in several syndromes (1). The following papers highlight research on host-pathogen interactions with two oral bacteria: the dynamics between Treponema denticola virulence factors and host proteins (2); and Porphyromonas gingivalis infection of a novel animal model that will ultimately shed light on pathogenesis and innate immune responses to the organism (3). (Published: 21 February 2012) Citation: Journal of Oral Microbiology 2012, 4 : 11482 - DOI: 10.3402/jom.v4i0. 11482
A Critical Role of Platelet Adhesion in the Initiation of Atherosclerotic Lesion Formation

The contribution of platelets to the process of atherosclerosis remains unclear. Here, we show in vivo that platelets adhere to the vascular endothelium of the carotid artery in ApoE − / − mice before the development of manifest atherosclerotic lesions. Platelet–endothelial cell interaction involved both platelet glycoprotein (GP)Ibα and GPIIb-IIIa. Platelet adhesion to the endothelium coincides with inflammatory gene expression and preceded atherosclerotic plaque invasion by leukocytes. Prolonged blockade of platelet adhesion in ApoE − / − mice profoundly reduced leukocyte accumulation in the arterial intima and attenuated atherosclerotic lesion formation in the carotid artery bifurcation, the aortic sinus, and the coronary arteries. These findings establish the platelet as a major player in initiation of the atherogenetic process.
A Fuzzy Graph Framework for Initializing k-Means

k-Means is among the most significant clustering algorithms for vectors chosen from an underlying space S. Its applications span a broad range of fields including machine learning, image and signal processing, and Web mining. Since the introduction of k-Means, two of its major design parameters remain open to research. The first is the number of clusters to be formed and the second is the initial vectors. The latter is also inherently related to selecting a density measure for S. This article presents a two-step framework for estimating both parameters. First, the underlying vector space is represented as a fuzzy graph. Afterwards, two algorithms for partitioning a fuzzy graph to non-overlapping communities, namely Fuzzy Walktrap and Fuzzy Newman-Girvan, are executed. The former is a low complexity evolving heuristic, whereas the latter is deterministic and combines a graph communication metric with an exhaustive search principle. Once communities are discovered, their number is taken as an estimate of the true number of clusters. The initial centroids or seeds are subsequently selected based on the density of S. The proposed framework is modular, allowing thus more initialization schemes to be derived. The secondary contributions of this article are HI, a similarity metric for vectors with numerical and categorical entries and the assessment of its stochastic behavior, and TD, a metric for assessing cluster confusion. The aforementioned framework has been implemented mainly in C# and partially in C++ and its performance in terms of efficiency, accuracy, and cluster confusion was experimentally assessed. Post-processing results conducted with MATLAB indicate that the evolving community discovery algorithm approaches the performance of its deterministic counterpart with considerably less complexity.