Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
3. CORE-LOG-SEISMIC INTEGRATION IN HEMIPELAGIC MARINE SEDIMENTS ON THE EASTERN FLANK OF THE JUAN DE FUCA RIDGE 1

The elastic properties of a sedimentary layer overlying young oceanic crust are investigated using field measurements and theoretical modeling. Based on a previously established dynamical theory of porous media, we further develop a theoretical model of velocity-porosity relationships for marine sediments. This physical model is in principle valid for the full porosity range from 0% to 100% and has many advantages over other empirical or semiempirical models. A new, critical parameter is defined as the flexibility factor of a formation that characterizes the softness or “uncompactedness” of the formation. It is found to be closely related to the sediment thickness and age. Nine sites were studied along a transect extending more than 100 km eastward from the Juan de Fuca Ridge, drilled during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 168 in 1996. The values of this flexibility factor decrease from 15 to 7 as the age of the sediment/basement contact along this transect increases from 0.9 to 3.6 Ma. Integrating independent core, log, and seismic measurements using the proposed velocity-porosity model, we are able to provide high-resolution velocity-depth and porosity-depth profiles at all nine sites, although in situ logs were recorded at only one location. These derived velocity profiles help to obtain a more accurate time-depth model and to constrain a two-dimensional depth model of the sediment/basement contact, which is important for hydrological modeling and borehole observatory installations. The derived porosity-depth profiles are also useful to construct two-dimensional and three-dimensional models of other physical properties such as permeability and thermal conductivity. Synthetic seismograms generated with these data agree well with field seismic data at all the sites along this transect, including good matches in traveltime, amplitude, and waveform. Using the log data at one site to correct for elastic rebound effects, continuous and discrete laboratory measurements of bulk density provide more reliable information than laboratory velocity measurements to construct synthetics for shallow depths. This process is repeated for the continuous density records (GRAPE density) at the other eight sites. Using generalized nonlinear inversion of parameterized seismic waveforms and the physical velocity-porosity model, iterative comparisons of field and synthetic seismic data are performed to estimate the flexibility factor in the model and to obtain optimal velocity-depth profiles. The proposed physical model is found to be suitable for the marine sediments at these sites and may be valid in other similar sedimentary environments.
Middle-and High-School Students ’ Interest in Nanoscale Science and Engineering Topics and Phenomena

Research has shown that an increase in students’ interest in science and engineering can have a positive effect on their achievement (Baird, 1986; Eccles & Wigfield, 2002; French, Immekus & Oakes, 2005; Schiefele, Krapp, & Winteler, 1992; SchwartzBloom & Haplin, 2003; Weinburgh, 1995). Whereas many NSFfunded programs in materials science and nanotechnology have included efforts to develop curriculum materials for use in secondary or tertiary classrooms, relatively little work has been done to determine the topics that increase students’ interest in science, engineering, and technology. As part of the work done by the National Center for Learning and Teaching in Nanoscale Science and Engineering (NCLT, 2008), we examined middleschool and highschool students’ interest in topics and phenomena from the field of nanoscale science and engineering (NSE). Analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data suggested that students were most interested in topics and phenomena that related to their everyday lives, were novel, and involved manipulatives. Conversely, students were least interested in topics and phenomena they viewed as irrelevant to their lives, they believed they had learned previously, and in which they were not actively involved. These results were used to inform the development of curriculum materials for middle school and high school students aimed at enhancing the learning of NSE topics.
Holocene Geologic Development of the Cape Hatteras Region, Outer Banks, North Carolina, USA

ABSTRACT Peek, K.M. ; Mallinson, D.J.; Culver, S.J., and Mahan, S.A. , 2014. Holocene geologic development of the Cape Hatteras region, outer banks, North Carolina, USA. Micropaleontological, geophysical, and chronologic data indicate that normal salinity conditions occurred over currently estuarine back-barrier areas of the Outer Banks of eastern North Carolina during the peak of the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Sedimentary units several meters thick, containing foraminiferal assemblages usually found on the continental shelf of North Carolina, are present in 16 vibracores acquired from the shallow shoals of Pamlico Sound behind Cape Hatteras. Optically stimulated luminescence age estimates from these normal salinity units range from approximately 1360 to 980 calibrated years (cal yr) BP, corresponding with a previously documented collapse of a segment of the southern Outer Banks. It is vital to understand past scenarios of barrier island formation and segmentation to provide insight on how these islands may react to future change in climate and sea level.
The Implementation of Ict Towards Improving Service Quality in Public Sector

: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the implementation of ICT in the public sector and to what extent it has improved the public sector service in Malaysia. In realizing the importance to increase the capabilities and quality of e-service, public service nowadays has taken further steps to enhance their quality of service and increase the effectiveness of organizations. The paper infers e-service quality which can reflects the government activities to encourage robust and effective governance in sustaining developmental policies. Invariably, the idea of e-service transcends business networking it is all encompassing in the modern global arena. This makes the call for embracing ICT in human endeavors as imperative task for viable growth and development.
: Managerial Efﬁency in German Top League Soccer

This study applies stochastic frontier analytic techniques in the estimation of sporting production functions. As ex ante input factors, we use pre-seasonal estimates of wage bills of players and coaches that are transformed during the production process of a season into ex post pecuniary revenues and sporting success. While in the case of athletic output we ﬁ nd a robust pattern of technical e ﬃ ciency over subsequent seasons, the estimates based on economic output highlight the instability of the German soccer industry.
Post-pandemic memory T-cell response to SARS-CoV-2 is durable, broadly targeted and cross-reactive to hypermutated BA.2.86

The COVID-19 post-pandemic period is characterised by infection waves of uncertain size (due to low rates of SARS-CoV-2 testing and notification), as well as limited uptake or global access to updated variant vaccines. Ongoing SARS-CoV-2 evolution has given rise to recombinant Omicron lineages that dominate globally (XBB.1), as well as the emergence of hypermutated variants (BA.2.86). In this context, durable and cross-reactive T-cell immune memory is critical for continued protection against severe COVID-19. We examined T-cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 approximately 1.5 years since Omicron first emerged. We describe sustained CD4+ and CD8+ spike-specific T-cell memory responses in healthcare workers in South Africa (n=39), most of whom had received 2 doses of Ad26.CoV2. S (Johnson & Johnson/Janssen) vaccine and experienced at least one SARS-CoV-2 infection. Spike-specific T cells were highly cross-reactive with all Omicron variants tested, including BA.2. 86. Abundant non-spike (nucleocapsid and membrane)-specific T cells were detectable in most participants, augmenting the total T-cell resources available for protection. The bulk of SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell responses had an early-differentiated phenotype, explaining their persistent nature. Thus, hybrid immunity leads to the accumulation of spike and non-spike T cells evident 3.5 years after the start of the pandemic, with preserved recognition of highly mutated SARS-CoV-2 variants. Long-term T-cell immune memory is likely to provide continued protection against severe outcomes of COVID-19.
Interactive comment on “Plateaus and jumps in the atmospheric radiocarbon record – Potential origin and value as global age markers for glacial-to-deglacial paleoceanography, a synthesis” by M. Sarnthein et al

Sarnthein et al. provide a review of the plateau tuning technique that hinges on an alignment of atmospheric and oceanic radiocarbon records. The method has not been extensively used outside the first author’s group, which might be associated with some sceptisism towards this method. This paper is therefore very welcoming as it presents new findings regarding the age scale of the target atmospheric (Suigetsu) 14C record, uncertainties of this age scale at plateau boundaries, and 14C reservoir age changes in the ocean. Assuming the robustness of the method, the authors suggest that it provides “precise” chronostratigraphic control for marine sediment cores (e.g., in the LGM
Extended VTS for Noise-Robust Speech Recognition

Model compensation is a standard way of improving the robustness of speech recognition systems to noise. A number of popular schemes are based on vector Taylor series (VTS) compensation, which uses a linear approximation to represent the influence of noise on the clean speech. To compensate the dynamic parameters, the continuous time approximation is often used. This approximation uses a point estimate of the gradient, which fails to take into account that dynamic coefficients are a function of a number of consecutive static coefficients. In this paper, the accuracy of dynamic parameter compensation is improved by representing the dynamic features as a linear transformation of a window of static features. A modified version of VTS compensation is applied to the distribution of the window of static features and, importantly, their correlations. These compensated distributions are then transformed to distributions over standard static and dynamic features. With this improved approximation, it is also possible to obtain full-covariance corrupted speech distributions. This addresses the correlation changes that occur in noise. The proposed scheme outperformed the standard VTS scheme by 10% to 20% relative on a range of tasks.
Characterization and Subcellular Localization of the Clostridium thermocellum Scaffoldin Dockerin Binding Protein SdbA

This article reports the characterization of the Clostridium thermocellum SdbA protein thought to anchor the cellulosome to the bacterial cell surface. The NH2-terminal region of SdbA consists of a cohesin domain which specifically binds the dockerin domain of the cellulosomal scaffolding protein CipA. The COOH-terminal region consists of a triplicated segment, termed SLH repeats, which is present in the sequence of many bacterial cell surface polypeptides. The binding parameters of the interaction between the dockerin domain of CipA and the cohesin domain of SdbA were studied by using, as a probe, the chimeric polypeptide CelCDSCipA, which carries the dockerin domain of CipA fused to endoglucanase CelC. In the presence of Ca, CelC-DSCipA bound to SdbA with an affinity constant of 1.26 z 10 M. Binding of CelC-DSCipA to SdbA as a function of Ca concentration was sigmoidal, corresponding to a Hill coefficient of 2 and an affinity constant for Ca of 4 z 10 M. This suggested the presence of two cooperatively bound Ca ions in the cohesindockerin complex. Immunoblotting of C. thermocellum subcellular fractions and electron microscopy of immunocytochemically labeled cells indicated that SdbA is located on the cell surface and is a component of the cellulosome. Together, the data confirm that SdbA could mediate anchoring of the cellulosome to the surface of C. thermocellum cells by interacting with the dockerin domain of CipA.
Atmospheric freshwater fluxes and their effect on the global thermohaline circulation

Atmospheric water vapor fluxes were derived from a 1-year data set of horizontal wind speed and specific humidity assimilated from meteorological observations by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF). Vertically integrated horizontal freshwater fluxes were compared to those of two data sets based on a climatology [Oort, 1983] and on simulations with an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM). Zonal transports agree fairly well at all latitudes outside the tropics, where fluxes are about double for the AGCM data set. Meridional fluxes of the AGCM and ECMWF data sets show close agreement, while the climatological fluxes are generally smaller with a considerable northward shift in the southern hemisphere. Atmosphere-to-ocean freshwater fluxes were derived from the three data sets. Not only is there substantial disagreement between the data sets, but their zonal averages over the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean basins show little resemblance to the respective restoring freshwater fluxes from a 2-dimensional ocean model. If the ocean model is forced with the observed and modeled atmospheric fluxes, we find that the mode of ocean circulation is determined mostly by the net flux to the high-latitude oceans and the amount of freshwater exported from the Atlantic basin. The latitudinal structure of the freshwater fluxes in low-latitudes and midlatitudes has little influence on the modeled thermohaline circulation. The fluxes derived from the climatology and ECMWF permit North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) formation, but a strong freshwater input to the Southern Ocean inhibits Antarctic Bottom Water formation. The AGCM transports so much moisture to the Arctic Ocean that NADW formation is shut down, resulting in a ocean circulation mode of southern sinking in all three ocean basins. If NADW is formed in the model, the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning is determined by the net freshwater export from the Atlantic basin. When this export is artificially increased in the model over a range from 0.2 to 1 Sv, the ratio of overturning to freshwater forcing decreases almost linearly.
Clinical investigations into antidepressive mechanisms

ABSTRACT– This prospective study investigates the possibility of a central noradrenergic‐cholinergic imbalance in subgroups of depressed inpatients using the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) as one peripheral indicator. The DST was performed in 43 depressed inpatients. Subsequently, a group (n= 20) of DST suppressors (DST‐) and a group (n= 23) of DST nonsuppressors (DST+) were treated under double blind conditions with either nomifensine (NOM) a nor‐adrenaline potentiating drug, or amitriptyline (AMI) a noradrenaline potentiating and strong anticholinergic compound. DST+ depressives responded favorably to AMI, but not to NOM. Conversely, DST‐ depressives responded favorably to NOM but less well to AMI. Together with other biochemical findings this data suggests: 1) a hypo‐function of the noradrenergic system in DST‐ patients who may, from a clinical point of view, usually show minor or ‘neurotic’ depressions; 2) a hypofunction of the noradrenergic and a hyperfunction of the cholinergic system in DST+ patients who may present a more severe or ‘endogenous’ depression. These data suggest a biochemical heterogeneity of depression and offer an aid for a more specific antidepressive drug therapy.
Collaborative Project LOD 2 – Creating Knowledge out of Interlinked Data Deliverable 2 . 3 Integration of MonetDB Technology in Virtuoso

This document describes the state and roadmap of the close collaboration of CWI and OGL in LOD2 to enhance RDF technology with advanced concepts from analytical relational database systems in Virtuoso. To this end, it first provides a primer in column storage technology. It identifies elements from the MonetDB system developed by CWI whose underlying ideas could be of use in RDF, which encompass columnar storage, column compression, vectorized execution, recycling intermediates, and run-time query optimization. The current state of this integration of ideas is summarized in a description of the new compressed column store features of Virtuoso7, including vectorized execution. We conclude with a roadmap of possible further enhancements to Virtuoso7 during the rest of the LOD2 project. This report defines the rules that will be enforced by LOD2 auditors before BSBM results can get certified and published on the official website. The information in this document reflects only the author‘s views and the European Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. The information in this document is provided ―as is‖ without guarantee or warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the fitness of the information for a particular purpose. The user thereof uses the information at his/ her sole risk and liability. Project Number: 257943 Start Date of Project: 01/09/2010 Duration: 48 months Integration Of MonetDB Technology in Virtuoso Page 2 Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme (2007 – 2013)
Purging of epithelial tumor cells from peripheral blood stem cells by means of the bispecific antibody BIS-1.

Peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) support in breast cancer patients allows high-dose chemotherapy, but tumor cell contamination of the PBSCs is a potential source of relapse. Specific carcinoma cell killing can be obtained by retargeting activated T cells with bispecific antibody BIS-1, directed against epithelial glycoprotein-2 and CD3. To purge epithelial tumor cells from the PBSCs of breast cancer patients, activation of T cells in PBSCs and T-cell retargeting by BIS-1 was studied. PBSCs, obtained by leukapheresis after chemotherapy and recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, were cultured in the presence of PBS, interleukin-2, OKT3, or interleukin-2/OKT3 for induction of T-cell activation. Subsequently, lysis of epithelial tumor cell lines by activated T cells of PBSCs in the presence or absence of BIS-1 was assessed with the 51Cr-release assay or immunocytochemical staining. The effect on PBSC hematopoietic colony formation (HCF) was evaluated by the granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating units assay. Prior to activation, PBSCs from breast cancer patients contained higher levels of CD8+ T cells than peripheral blood from healthy volunteers (P < 0.05). The potential of PBSCs to sustain tumor cell lysis was increased after all prior activations and was further enhanced by BIS-1. Maximal BIS-1 effect was observed after OKT3 activation of PBSCs for 72 h (P < 0.0005), inducing a >3 log depletion of tumor cells. HCF was not affected by prior OKT3 activation and/or BIS-1. In conclusion, specific tumor cell lysis by PBSCs can be obtained in vitro by OKT3 activation and BIS-1 retargeting of T cells, without affecting HCF. At present, studies are evaluating this format for future clinical application.
The Impact of Non-convective Cloud-to-Ground Lightning and the Primary Application of Convective Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Data on Hail Warning in a Strong Squall Line

The radar data and the cloud-to-ground lightning data in a strong squall line with disaster surface hail are collected. The convective regions of the squall line are partitioned based on the radar reflectivity. The cloud-to-ground lighting flashes occurring in every radar scanning time are also classified into the convective cloud-to-ground lightning flashes and the non-convective cloud-to-ground lightning flashes according to which region their return strokes are located in. Some reflectivity characteristics above different kinds of the cloud-to-ground lightning flashes are given respectively. Further analysis indicates that the convective cloud-to-ground lightning flashes have a good correlation with the non-convective cloud-to-ground lightning flashes within 30 km from the convective regions and they have the similar changing trend. On the contrary, the convective cloud-to-ground lightning flashes seem to have no relationship with the non-convective cloud-to-ground lightning flashes 30 far away from the convective regions. Additionally, the whole cloud-to-ground lightning data and the partitioned convective cloud-to-ground lightning data are respectively used in the 3σ lighting jump algorithm to warning the surface hail. The comparison shows that the application of the convective lighting data improves the efficiency of surface hail warning.
Osseointegration: a review of the fundamentals for assuring cementless skeletal fixation

: Direct skeletal fixation, termed osseointegration, has expanded in the last century and includes use in total joint replacements, the edentulous mandible and maxilla, and percutaneous osseointegrated prosthetics. Although it is well known that titanium and bone have the ability to form a durable bone–implant interface, new applications have emerged in the field of orthopedics, which requires a more thorough assessment of the literature. This review aims to introduce the basic biological principles for attaining osseointegration and discusses the major factors for assuring successful cementless fixation. peer-reviewed, focusing on the patho-physiology of the musculoskeletal system, trauma, surgery and other corrective interventions to restore mobil- ity and function. Advances in new technologies, materials, techniques and pharmacological agents are particularly welcome. The journal welcomes research, clinical studies, reviews & evaluations, expert opinion and commentary, case reports and extended reports. The manuscript management system completely includes fair
Global ocean current reconstruction from altimetric and microwave SST measurements

Ocean currents are a key component to understanding many oceanic and climatic phenomena and knowledge of them is crucial for both navigation and operational applications. Currently, they are derived from Sea Surface Height (SSH) measurements provided by altimeters. However, distances between tracks and the limited number of available altimeters lead to errors in the accurate location of oceanic currents. In this study, we investigate the capability of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) observations to reconstruct surface currents at a global scale. The methodology we use consists of estimating the stream function by taking the phase from SST and the spectrum of SSH and then comparing it with altimetric measurements. Results reveal that SST provided by microwave radiometers can be used to retrieve ocean currents during winter near the major extratropical current systems, which are characterized by an intense mesoscale activity and the presence of strong thermal gradients. We have also found that surface ocean current reconstruction based on Surface Quasi-Geostrophic approach can be improved if the information about the energy spectrum provided by altimeters is used. This points to the development of a new method of reconstructing ocean currents based on the combination of the phase of SST images with the energy spectrum derived from along-track altimetric measurements.